communications with the coast. The English force retreated to Ponáni (Panniáni), forty miles south of Calicut, where, throwing up redoubts, and protected by two British men-of-war, they awaited the assault of Tipú's army, which is said to have consisted of 8,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, besides irregulars, including 600 Europeans among the troops. The English commander is stated to have had 800 Europeans, 1,000 Sepoys, and a contingent of 1,200 Travancore soldiers. Tipú, after a distant cannonade of some days, made a vigorous attack in four columns. One of these was headed by M. Lally, but was compelled to retreat, and cross the Panniáni river. There Tipú remained inactive for some days, when his whole army suddenly marched to the eastward, on the receipt of disastrous information from his father's camp.
The monsoon, coming on a short time after the contest at Árni, had compelled all the combatants in Coromandel to cease hostilities for a time. The English force returned to Madras, while the French retired to Cuddalore, and Haidar encamped with his troops sixteen miles north of Arcot. He had for a long time suffered from a cancer in his back, and the disease was aggravated by the fatigue incurred in his numerous campaigns. The skill of his medical advisers proved of no avail, and he died in his camp at Narsingh Ráyanapét, near Chittúr, on Dec. 7, 1782, or Hijri 1195[1].
- ↑ By the process called abjad (that is, a, b, j, d), in which every
