which he determined to stay the invasion of his territory.
There is a sacred shrine called Melukote about twenty miles north of Seringapatam. Haidar, after some ineffectual manœuvres near the stupendous rock-fortress of Sávandrúg, entered the eastern pass leading into the hills within which Melukote is situated, and drew up his troops in the form of a crescent facing the west, with his flanks resting on the most inaccessible sides of the hills. There happened however to be a detached hill on the eastern approach, from which the Maráthás during eight days kept up a galling cannonade. To this, Haidar, having no large guns, was unable to reply, and his position became at length so intolerable that he resolved to retire on Seringapatam by the southern pass of the hills. His troops marched at night, but Haidar, having drunk freely in the evening, was not in a fit state to superintend the movement, while his son Tipú was nowhere to be found[1], and the accidental firing off of a gun apprised the Maráthás that the Mysore army was in retreat. An immediate pursuit was ordered, and the Maratha cavalry, aided by some guns which were brought to bear upon the enemy with great effect from the banks of a reservoir called the Pearl Tank, hovered in swarms about Haidar's infantry, which with much difficulty reached the hills near Chirkúli, or Chinkuráli. Here the utmost confusion ensued,
- ↑ Haidar is said to have personally chastised Tipú for this breach of duty.
