the renter, and that the rest were inclined to mutiny, marched on the night of the 25th of January, with 500 Sepoys, and 50 Europeans, and an hour before day-break made an assault by escalade on a part of the wall, which was in a ruinous condition; but they were repulsed with the loss of 11 Sepoys killed, and 2 Europeans wounded. Slight as this was, no action of equal enterprize passed in the contending districts until the end of April, although the mutual incursions were as frequent as before; but being always levelled at defenceless villages, they carried the reproach of robbery, more than the reputation of war; and each side losing as much as it gained by these depredations, the French officer at Vandiwash proposed a conference to put an end to them, and Banatyne was permitted to treat with him.
The reports which the French government spread with much diligence, of their approaching superiority on the coast of Coromandel, encouraged even the most insignificant chiefs, which held under the Nabob, or the company, to question or insult their authority. In the vast plain which occupies the Carnatic, from the latitude of Puliacate to the river Coleroon, are many tracts of sandy ground spread amongst the richest districts of the country. These soils having always been neglected by the labourer, and left to nature, propogate abundance of useless vegetation. In some, which with care would rear the cocoanut, the eastern palms prevail, a few of which, rising to their full growth, spread their seeds with the wind, which in a succession of time cover the whole extent with plants, that strangling one another by their multitude, remain stunted, and create the stubbornest of thickets. Others of these tracts, instead of bearing the palm kinds, will only produce a strong and spreading shrub, which rises to the height of eight or nine feet, and forms one continued coppice. Many of these wilds are from 15 to 40 miles in circumference, and all of these extents are possessed by petty Polygars, with their clans of half-savage subjects, whose occupation is to rob the neighbouring villages in the night, and in the day to take all kinds of venison and game, in which they are so expert, that they rarely fail, on the shortest notice, to produce the quantity
