strongly built, and fortified by ramparts and towers. The communications with the fort are through three gates: one to the south with the inner fort, one to the north-west with the outer fort, and one to the north with the third wall. The ascent to the first is long and steep, practicable only for men; that to the second is by a road used for the common communication of the garrison with the countries to the southward; but the road passes round the west side of the fort, and is exposed for a great distance to its fire: it is so narrow as to make it impracticable to approach regularly by it; and the rock is scarped on each side. This road also leads no further than the gate. The communication with the northern gate is direct from the village of Labada, and here the ground is level with that of the fort; but the road to Labada leads through the mountains for about thirty miles from Ellichpore, and it was obvious that the difficulty and labour of moving ordnance and stores to Labada would be very great.
Notwithstanding the objections existing against the last-mentioned route, it was resolved to adopt it, on the ground that it was the least objectionable of the three, and the requisite measures were immediately taken. Two detachments were made – one to drive the enemy from the ground which they occupied to the southward of the fort, the other to seize the fortified village of Daniergaum, covering the entrance to the mountains which were to be passed in the way to Labada. These detachments succeeded in performing the services on which they were respectively despatched.
On the 7th of December, both divisions of the army marched from Ellichpore; Colonel Stevenson into the mountains by Damergaum, and General Wellesley towards the southern face of the fort of Gawilghur. From that day till the 12th, when Colonel Stevenson broke ground near Labada, the troops in his division went through a series of exhausting labours, not unprecedented in Indian warfare, but rarely paralleled elsewhere. The heavy
