"Were it not for that, I should deem your search a useless one.
Thousands of Englishmen have been massacred during the last ten years.
Hundreds have died of disease and suffering. Many have been poisoned.
Many officers have also been murdered, some of them here, but more in
the hill forts; for it was there they were generally sent, when their
deaths were determined upon.
"Still, he may live. There are men who have been here as many years,
and who yet survive."
"Then this is where the main body of the prisoners were kept?" Dick
asked.
"Yes. All were brought here, native and English. Tens of thousands of
boys and youths, swept up by Tippoo's armies from the Malabar coast
and the Carnatic, were brought up here and formed into battalions, and
these English prisoners were forced to drill them. It was but a poor
drill. I have seen them drilling their recruits at Conjeveram, and the
difference between the quick sharp order there, and the listless
command here, was great indeed. Consequently, the Englishmen were
punished by being heavily ironed, and kept at starvation point for the
slackness with which they obeyed the tyrant's orders. Sometimes they
were set to sweep the streets, sometimes they were beaten till they
well nigh expired under the lash.
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