Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/128

Calcutta. All the men of Adlercron's regiment who were arrived, being 120, remained on board the ships of war. The rest of the battalion, 500, with all the Sepoys, and two field-pieces, landed, and at sun-set marched from Mayapore, under the command of Colonel Clive, and under the conduct of Indian guides. The field-pieces, with a tumbril of ammunition, were drawn by the troops: for the council at Fulta, through dread of the Nabob's resentment, had not ventured to provide any bullocks either of draught or burthen. The guides, in order to prevent discovery, led the troops at a distance from the river, through a part of the country, which was uninhabited indeed, but full of swamps, and continually intersected by deep rivulets, which rendered the draught and transportation of the three carriages so tedious and laborious, that the troops did not arrive until an hour after sun-rise at the place of ambuscade. This was a large hollow, which in the rains might be a lake, sinking about ten feet below the level of the plain: it lay about a mile from the river, a mile and a half north-east of Buz-buzia, and half a mile to the east of a high road leading from this place to Calcutta. The eastern, and part of the southern bank of the hollow, were skirted by the huts and enclosures of a village, which seemed to have been abandoned' some days before. The grenadiers and 300 Sepoys were detached from the hollow, to take possession of another village on the bank of the river adjoining to the northern wall of the fort of Buzbuzia; where, it was supposed, that their appearance would induce the garrison to mistake them for the whole of the English troops on shore; and that in consequence of this notion they would retreat along the high road, instead of the bank of the river. The company of volunteers were detached, and posted themselves in some thickets near the high road, but on the farther side from the hollow, towards which it was intended that their fire should drive the fugitive garrison. The rest of the troops remained with Colonel Clive, and concealed themselves, some in the hollow, and others in the adjoining village, and the two field-pieces were placed on the north side of the village. The troops being excessively fatigued, were permitted