they were enlisted in the English service. Mr. Lally, on hearing that his detachment was retreating, and that Arcot was pressed, took a sudden resolution of marching with all the rest of the cavalry, in order, as he gave out, either to throw reinforcements into Arcot, or to retake Chittapett by surprize, and release the wounded prisoners there; but the cavalry, when drawn out, mutinied, refused to proceed with him, and all went out of the bounds, as if they intended to go over to the English garrisons; their officers however brought them back; but such was the general discontent for want of pay, that several of the common soldiers were overheard, in the night of the 11th, proposing among themselves to turn the guns in the ramparts against the government house, as the only means of bringing Mr. Lally to reason. He immediately represented the depositions of the witnesses to Mr. De Leyrit and the Council, who, having no money in the public treasury, proposed expedients, which Mr. Lally did not approve. All the country in the rear of Vandivash and Chittapett, quite up to Pondicherry, had been let for five years to two of the European inhabitants of the colony, at the rent of 1,450,000 rupees a year: they were applied to in this exigency, and answered, that they had no money, having been disappointed of much they expected by the loss of Vandivash and Chittapett; on which the Malabar, to whom Mr. Lally had rented the districts round Arcot, whilst they remained under his authority, offered to advance 50,000 rupees in ten days, and 80,000 in twenty more, if what remained of the districts let to the two Europeans were leased out to him, with the addition of all the country to the south of Pondicherry, as far as Chillambarum and the banks of the Coleroon. His proposal was accepted; but the present assistance he supplied could not serve long, and the future depended on the protection of the countries: they were farmed to him at 1,750,000 rupees a year.
This arrangement was not approved by the council, because they doubted of the credit and integrity of the Malabars; and, perhaps, because it was a supercession of their own authority in the administration of the revenues. Immediately after, arrived intelligence of
