rry, not many marches from
Seringapatam, when Tippoo arrived in that country. As Tippoo had an army
of more than 20,000 men, Mackenzie was constrained to retreat towards
the coast; but he halted at Paniany, a sea-port town about thirty-five
miles from Calicut, where he resolved to make a stand against the enemy,
who were pressing on his rear. Tippoo attacked him, but after a severe
struggle he was compelled to withdraw, leaving behind him a great number
dead and wounded. Whether Tippoo would have ventured another battle
is very doubtful; but at this juncture he received intelligence of his
father's death, and as he had brothers and cousins, it was his interest
to look after the throne and the treasures of Mysore. Accordingly Tippoo
left the Malabar coast, and hastened to the camp of Plyder Ali, when,
after the usual distribution of pay and donatives, he was recognised as
commander of the army and sovereign of Mysore. It seems probable that
had Hyder lived a few months longer, he would have made peace with the
English; for he had long had his suspicions of the fidelity and the just
designs of the French. Tippoo, however, scorned all overtures of peace
with the English, and on the 4th of January, 1783, General Stuart, who
succeeded Sir Eyre Coote in command, took the field against him. Tippoo
was surrounded by dangers; for after his retirement from the Malabar
coast, Colonel Mackenzie marched his sepoys by land, and sent his
Highlanders and other British by sea, northward to the coast of Canara,
to co-operate with a part of the army from Bombay in reducing some
of the richest provinces of Mysore. The junction of these forces was
effected in January, when General Mathews, who had arrived at Bombay
with some royal troops, took the command of the whole. Mathews took the
fort of Onore by storm, and having scaled the range of rocks which runs
between the coast and Bednore, and cleared the passes at the point of
the bayonet, he came upon the rich capital of Bednore, which surrendered
to him without firing a gun. Other forts also surrendered at or before a
summons, and Ananpore and Mangalore were carried by storm. Thus assailed
before and behind, Tippoo recalled his garrison from Arcot and other
places, and evacuated the Carnatic in order to defend Mysore. On his
arrival in his own dominions he found that Mathews had scattered his
army all over the country, in contemptible mud forts and open towns,
and had fixed his head-quarters