Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/28

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LORD CORNWALLIS

that it was really converted into a vote of approbation.

Towards the close of 1791 warlike operations were resumed with some vigour. The fortress of Sevendroog or Savandrúg, described by Colonel Yule as 'a remarkable double-hill fort in Mysore, standing on a two-topped, bare, rock of granite,' and long thought impregnable either by battery or escalade, was taken in the end of September. The capture of three other forts followed. The British Army had been reinforced. The native merchants collected ample stores of grain, and with the aid of a considerable army under the son of the Nizám and a small contingent of Maráthás, Cornwallis carried the fortified camp of the enemy in a night attack in which he himself was wounded, forced Tipú to evacuate all his posts to the north of the river Cauvery, and was at last in a position to lay siege to the town. The final overthrow of the Muhammadan usurper was reserved for a statesman who, gifted with remarkable energy and foresight, found India in a better state of preparation, and was aided by officers and diplomatists of the very first rank. But the termination of the two campaigns of Cornwallis is entitled to be termed a real success.

The native allies who, it was afterwards ascertained, had been in secret communication with Tipú, were content to leave protracted negotiations for peace in the hands of the English soldier and states-