men, which, however, with the exception of 20,000 cavalry and 750 French, were of a very inferior description; this enormous force was further increased by the contingent of the Nizam, amounting to 100,000 men.
The British were, at this period, masters of Bengal; they possessed the coasts of Orissa and Coromandel; the cities of Cambay and Surat; and the islands of Bombay and Salsette, on the Mahratta frontier; besides establishments on the island of Sumatra. Their forces in these several possessions amounted to 90,000 men; but they were of a very different description from those of Hyder, being composed of regularly disciplined Europeans and Sepoys. The troops of the allies of the English East India Company were not more than 20,000 men of an inferior description. At the head of the opposing armies were two chiefs, equally famous in their respective spheres. Hyder was full of that impetuosity which characterises Indian heroism; Colonel Smith had all the prudence and self-possession of an experienced commander: the former depended upon his personal courage for the victory; the latter upon the quality of his troops, and a profound knowledge of the resources of the military art.
After the opening of the campaign, in which Tippoo, then eighteen, made his débût, in command of a large body of horse sent to ravage the country about Madras, many affairs took place with alternate advantage, till the 26th of September, when the armies approached each other near the fort of Trinomaly, and the enemy commenced a distant cannonade on the left of the British line. Colonel Smith made a movement from his right round a hill which concealed the great body of the confederated army from his view, for the purpose of turning or coming in contact with their left. The enemy observing this movement, and concluding that it was made in retreat, put their troops in motion, for the purpose of crossing and intercepting the English column. The two armies were thus marching round the hill at the same
