islands on the 15th February, taking away every man he brought with him, and having accomplished nothing. The English force at once obtained supplies from Madras.[1]
Haidar, thus left to himself, fought Coote on the 1st July at Chilambram, and, after a desperate contest, was beaten. On the 27th August following he again engaged Coote at Parambákam, and this time not unequally. Haidar, however, left the field to the enemy. On the 18th February following (1782) Colonel Braithwaite's detachment, after combating for three days, succumbed to the superior numbers of Tippú Sáhib. It was about the period of this last encounter that France appeared once again upon the scene, better though not perfectly represented; for while she entrusted her fleet to the greatest of all her admirals, she committed the
- ↑ The Viscomte de Souillac, at that time Governor of the Isle of France, has thus recorded his opinion of d'Orves, in a memoir in the Archives of the French Navy: "By this astonishing obstinacy of M. d'Orves, which I reported to the ministry at the time, we lost an opportunity such as will never recur, of becoming absolute masters of the Coromandel coast. This army of Kadalúr (Sir Eyre Coote's) 14,000 strong, of which 3000 to 4000 were English, comprised all the troops the English had in this part of India. Madras could not have held out, and the junction of our forces with those of Haidar Ali would have enabled us to conquer Tanjore and Masulipatam with all their dependencies."
An English writer, the author of Memoirs of the late War in Asia, published in 1788, and who himself took part in the campaign, writes as follows — "Had the French admiral left only two frigates to block up the road of Cuddalore, consequences might have happened as fatal to the interests of Great Britain in the East Indies, as flowed in North America from the convention of Saratoga."
