depends on interested motives, or animal excitements, or depression: but, like his principal, was incapable of command, venal, rapacious, and unfaithful to his trust."
Lord Cornwallis, though he had been so completely disappointed in his allies, and though all his departments, especially those of conveyance, were in the most imperfect state, was yet anxiously desirous to bring the war to a termination, which could be effected only by advancing upon Seringapatam. To make the best use of the limited means of transport possessed by the British army, all superfluous equipage was to be left in Bangalore. The officers were requested to reduce their claims for accommodation to the lowest practicable degree, as well as to assist the public service by any means which they could command; and they cheerfully sacrificed their own convenience to the demands of the state: hiring accommodations from the natives which the latter would not willingly have placed under the control of a public department. Cannon-balls were carried even by women and children; and thus almost without any regular equipment, the Anglo-Indian Army was enabled to march upon the enemy's capital.
On the 4th of May, 1791, the troops were put in motion, and advanced from Bangalore by a circuitous route, interrupted by jungles, rivers, and ravines. From these causes the inadequate supply of cattle for transport became still further reduced. Numbers died from exhaustion,[1] and large quantities of stores were destroyed, because they could not be carried forward. With the usual policy of Hyder Ali and his son, the country traversed
- ↑ "It is really distressing to witness the severe struggles which the poor men often have from the oppression of the weather, and the numerous diseases to which they are hourly subject. Some, from a redundancy of bile, drop down in a fit of insensibility, and are seized with a violent cholera-morbus. Others fall suddenly down in contortions with the cramp. It runs acutely through every limb, and at last centres in the stomach, which kills the person afflicted upon the spot. But the coup de soleil is of all others the most fatal attack. It is in the crown of the head that this deadly blow is most commonly felt. The victim first finds his brain begins to boil, and a convulsive fit is the immediate consequence, of which he dies in a very few minutes; and so very violent is the effect of this disorder that the body becomes quite putrid before a hole can be dug into which it may be thrown." – Munro's "Operations in India."
