safety, some of them driving camels, horses, or oxen. The gate was suddenly shut; but the masses behind continuing to press on those in front, two thousand human beings, it is said, perished, in common with a larger number of beasts of various kinds, the whole being forced together in an indiscriminate mass.
In Coimbatore the English were gradually dispossessed of their posts; Fuzzul Oola Khan, one of Hyder's ablest generals, having entered that province with seven thousand men and ten guns, proceeded vigorously but cautiously to effect the object of his advance. Near Cauveriporam he received a check from an insignificant force led by a man of very humble station. An English sergeant named Hoskin commanded an advanced post of two companies and one gun in a mud fort,[1] which he defended with a spirit that entitles him to remembrance. Reporting to his officer the success of his resistance to the attempts of the enemy, he added, "I expect them again to-morrow morning in two parties, with guns. I will take the guns from them, with the help of God." The success of the gallant sergeant was not equal to his noble confidence. In a subsequent attack the fort was carried; but not until it had become a heap of ruins, nor then without a sanguinary conflict. The fate of its brave defender is unknown; but he probably met a soldier's death on the spot where he had so eminently displayed a soldier's spirit.
In December, 1768, Hyder Ali entered Baramahal, and the English posts in that province fell with the same celerity as in Coimbatore. In marching for the reduction of Eroad, Hyder encountered an English party, consisting of fifty Europeans and two hundred Sepoys, commanded by Captain Nixon. Two deep columns of infantry, supported by twelve thousand horse, moved to their destruction. Captain Nixon and his little force remained firm
- ↑ "Mud fort," from the usually imperfect construction of the village defences, is a term of contempt in India, although the substance itself (kneaded clay) resists the effects of cannon-shot better than any other material. – Colonel Wilks.
