the Rajah. That the prince had demanded the extradition of the murderer, and that the demand being refused, was repeated more vehemently. Discussion with the Madras Government followed; and the Rajah having seized a British subject, refused to surrender him unless his brother-in-law was first given up. To this request the British Government would not listen, and from it the Rajah would not recede. Without pretending to decide between such contradictory statements, it is sufficient for us to say that, on the 1st of April, 1834, a proclamation was issued from Calcutta deposing the Rajah, and announcing that a force was about to enter and take possession of his territory.
This country, as to its capacity for coping with the British power, might, from the small amount of its population, have been considered as utterly contemptible. The extreme difficulty of the ground, however, composed altogether of lofty mountains, covered with the thickest and most entangled jungle, and defended by a race of determined valour, gave it a somewhat serious character. The force destined for the invasion of Coorg, consisting of 6,000 men, was divided into four different bodies of unequal strength, which advanced from different points, and whose common centre of operations was Mudakerry, the enemy's capital.
Colonel Foulis, in command of one division, marched from Cannanore on the western coast, and on the 2nd of April approached the entrance of the Hugul Ghaut, the principal opening from this side. The enemy had fortified it with three successive stockades, as well as with breastworks and an abattis of large trees at every hundred yards. Their posts were driven in; and on the 3rd, at six in the morning, the attack began. The first stockade was carried with trifling loss; but from that time till four in the afternoon a series of very hard conflicts was maintained in carrying the successive barriers, which the enemy defended with vigour, carrying on at the same time a continued skirmishing from the wood. The last
