"I beg to recommend him to your lordship. He speaks my language
perfectly, and having been brought up in his father's country,
naturally speaks English as well as Hindustani; and will understand,
far better than I can do, any orders that you may give. He has come
out, with his mother, in the hopes of finding his father, who has, if
alive, been a prisoner for several years in the hands of Tippoo.
"He is a fine young fellow. The other day, he made a most dangerous
reconnaissance into Mysore, in order to ascertain Tippoo's movements.
He had with him a young officer of mine, two or three years older than
himself; and when I tell you that the two young fellows held a ruined
hut, for hours, against the attack of some seventy of Tippoo's troops,
and beat them off with a loss of upwards of twenty killed, I need
hardly say that he has no lack of courage."
"You are right, indeed, Rajah. Let the lad ride beside you, with my
staff. Some day he will, perhaps, shorten a long day's march by giving
me details of this adventure of his."
On the 5th of February the army started on its march, and on the 11th
reached Vellore. Tippoo had, for two months, been wasting his time at
Pondicherry; but, upon hearing news that instead of, as he expected,
the English general having marched south from Vellout to meet him, he
had turned westward; and that Mysore, itself, was threatened with
invasion, he hastily broke up his camp, and marched at full speed for
the ghauts; and, reaching the table land, hurried to oppose the
British army, as it endeavoured to ascend the pass going from Vellore
through Amboor, by which he made sure he would come.
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