Sepoys, which had been despatched from Bombay to the same place. But the vacillation of the Madras Government, and want of enterprise on the part of the commanding officers themselves, prevented their co-operating with the Travancore troops in the defence.
The Mysore army, flushed with success, now began to lay waste the country with fire and sword, desecrating and despoiling temples, and burning towns and villages, whose wretched inhabitants fled to the hills, where many were seized and made prisoners. The ruins to be seen at the present day testify to the ferocity of the invaders, while all the records of antiquity and the archives of the Travancore State were consumed in the burning pagodas, public offices, and houses. These atrocities were perpetrated with the express sanction of Tipú Sultán, who himself marched with his main army southward to Alwái, a favourite watering-place of the Travancore Rájá. He contemplated the reduction of the whole province. The Diwán, Kasava Pillai, had, however, strengthened the garrisons at the principal posts, and constructed stockades along all the backwater-passages on the coast, so as to intercept the progress of the enemy. In the meanwhile the monsoon set in, and the whole country was soon under water, so that no communication could be maintained except by boats. Tipú, despairing of accomplishing his purpose under these adverse circumstances, and hearing that the English were assembling an army at Trichinopoli, was com-
