Page:Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan.djvu/129

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SURRENDER OF MANGALORE
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declined to act any longer against the English, notwithstanding every inducement to them on Tipú's part to continue the siege. They accordingly withdrew from the scene of operations; and Tipú, indignant at the repulses he had met with in his attacks on a place which was avowedly weak, converted the siege into a blockade. The garrison, being short of provisions, were reduced to the greatest distress, but still held out bravely. Tipú agreed to a temporary armistice, to the terms of which, however, he did not adhere, his object being to starve out the defenders. The instructions of the English admiral forbad the captain commanding the squadron to resort to any hostile measures during the period prescribed by the preliminary articles of peace between the two European nations. The result of this inaction was that the defenders of Mangalore were so insufficiently supplied with food, that disease broke out, and the hospitals were filled. On a council of war being held, it was resolved to surrender, the brave garrison being permitted to retire to Tellicherri, 80 miles to the south, according to the terms of a treaty which was executed in January, 1784. By this convention Tipú recovered possession of all the territory held by his father in Kánara and Malabar. Before returning to the upper country, he signalized his zeal for the faith of Islám by driving out of the coast region no fewer than 30,000 of its Christian inhabitants, who were forcibly deported into Mysore. His own account of this infamous transaction is that the Portuguese,