a detention of thirteen days at Coimbatore, the prisoners were marched to Seringapatam, where they were subjected to the cruelties and indignities which were the ordinary lot of those who fell into the hands of the barbarian Tippoo Sultan; but their period of imprisonment was brought to a happy termination in the following campaign, when the tyrant himself was only saved from the captivity he so well merited by a timely submission to the prowess of our Anglo-Indian Army.
While the events we have just related were in progress, the attention of Lord Cornwallis had been constantly directed to the establishment of such means for the transmission of supplies as might prevent the necessity of abandoning the meditated attack upon Seringapatam, from the cause that led to the relinquishment of the former. One of the most serious impediments to success was the possession by the enemy of the fortress of Savindroog, in the strength of which place Tippoo reposed the most implicit confidence, and considered his throne perfectly safe so long as it remained in his power.
The stupendous fortress of Savindroog, situated nineteen miles west by south from Bangalore, is a vast mountain of rock, supposed to rise above half a mile in perpendicular height, from a base of eight or ten miles in circumference. Completely encircled by walls of enormous strength, and defended by cross-walls, bastions, and barriers wherever it was deemed accessible, it had the further advantage of being separated by a vast chasm, towards the summit, into two hills, each of which having its own defences, two distinct citadels are formed, capable of being maintained independent of each other, and of the lower works of the Droog.
To render this fortress still more impregnable, Nature has surrounded it with an extensive and gloomy forest, whose dense and lofty vegetation is still further thickened with clumps of planted bamboos, which constitute no easily-surmountable barrier, and interspersed with numerous rocky hills and deep ravines, the retreat of
