to Colonel Baillie to join Sir Hector Munro's army at Conjeveram, fifty miles distant from the capital; but Baillie, in order to reach that place, was obliged to take an inland route, in which he was exposed to the hazard of being attacked by the whole force of the invader. He was detained ten days by the swelling of the river Cortelaur; and, after effecting his passage, was assailed by a detachment under Tippoo, consisting of thirty thousand cavalry, eight thousand foot, and twelve pieces of cannon. Notwithstanding the vast numerical superiority of this force over that of Colonel Baillie, weakened as it was by a mutiny in the first regiment of cavalry, which it had been found necessary to march prisoners to Madras, they were most decisively repulsed; but this victory, splendid though it was, by again diminishing the effective strength of this little army, considerably added to the dangers and difficulties of its situation.
At this juncture Colonel Baillie sent off a messenger to Sir Hector Munro, informing him of the precarious state in which he found himself. In consequence, a detachment was sent to Baillie's assistance, under the command of Colonel Fletcher, consisting of the flank companies of the 73rd, two of European Grenadiers, and eleven of Sepoys, making altogether about a thousand men. Dreading an attack. Colonel Fletcher avoided it by altering his line of march, and making a wide detour, which, though it added to their fatigue, insured their safety, and enabled them to join Colonel Baillie on the morning of the 9th of September, having, nevertheless, fallen in with Hyder's pickets, close to his position at Perambankum. Weary as they were, the troops of this detachment were permitted to halt only till the evening, when the whole force marched under the command of Colonel Baillie to join Sir Hector Munro.
But Hyder had again obtained the most correct intelligence of their movements, and, taking advantage of the necessary delay in the return of this gallant body of troops, enfiladed every part of the road by which they
