pedient was to clothe the brahmins in the sepoy uniform, and intermix them with the regulars of that corps, who were to embark the next day; thus arranged, the boats containing the sick, baggage, and garrison stores, dropped down to the bar, to remain at anchor until the whole embarkation was ready.

The next morning Mr. Cruso repaired to Mirza's durbar, to clear up the affair of the sick brahmin, and demand a positive answer to a request (which had been previously evaded) for a boat to carry off eleven valuable horses belonging to the commandant and other English gentlemen. When this request was first made, he promised compliance; but as often as it had been repeated, some evasion succeeded. Respecting the brahmin, Mirza behaved well; it was represented that being originally a man of low station in the brahminical tribe, he had been employed in the hospital to wait upon the invalids of his own caste; and at Mr. Cruso's earnest solicitation, on taking upon himself the responsibility of getting him away, Mirza agreed to make no further opposition. The paltry equivocations concerning a boat for conveying the horses, were now too notorious to admit a doubt of the sultaun having ordered them to be detained for his own use.

On this intimation, captain Torriano, ordering the guards from the sultaun's trenches, and the troops to be ready to embark, sent Mr. Cruso with an officer to Mirza's durbar, finally to demand the restitution of the officers and garrison treacherously captured at Fortified Island, to request a pilot to conduct the Company's gallivat over the bar, and to stipulate that a British guard should keep possession of the fort until all the rest were embarked. Further, that the sultaun's troops should not enter the

fort until the last man had struck the colours and entered the boat, when the keys would be delivered to the sultaun's officer appointed to receive them. To the demand for the prisoners taken at Fortified Island, Mirza declared it could not be complied with, without an express order from Tippoo Sultaun. A pilot to conduct the gallivat was furnished, and the proposed plan of evacuation acceded to. These arrangements being concluded, the troops marched to the beach; among them were the devoted brahmins, in full uniform and accoutrements: they had been previously admonished to shew no alarm, nor be under the smallest terror from the Sultaun's people; but, in full confidence of support, to bayonet the first man who should attempt to seize them.

While the commandant was giving orders for the delivery of a few horses belonging to Tippoo's cavalry, taken at Bednore, to the persons waiting to take charge of them, he received a message from Mirza replete with affected sorrow at the Sultaun's boats not being sufficiently strong and commodious for the gentlemen's horses, to accompany the present embarkation; but promising they should be sent after their departure, so as to meet them at Sedashagger. The obvious meaning and palpable falsehood of this message rendered its insolence intolerable. The troops were therefore ordered instantly to embark, and the officers, indignant at the infamous conduct of Mirza, saw their horses shot upon the spot!

The sacrifice of these noble animals, while it excited the commiseration of their owners, struck the Sultaun's people with astonishment. But neither did that astonishment, nor the confusion occasioned by the act itself, divert their attention for one moment

from their principal object, the seizure of the brahmins. Deeply versed in that cunning and artifice, the peculiar characteristic of Asiatics, they suspected a counter-plot, and turning all their attention to the embarkation of the troops, singled out, to a man, every brahmin recruit, and insisted on their being delivered up. Captain Torriano resolving steadily to adhere to those honourable and humane principles which had hitherto regulated his conduct, determined they should not be sullied by his last act on this ill-fated spot. Upon being threatened that if the brahmins were not instantly given up, the Onore garrison should be detained, he positively declared not a man should be touched while he had power to defend him; and resolutely commanding the troops and brahmins immediately to embark, his decided conduct silenced all further opposition.

The guard was now ordered to leave the fort: while they were embarking, the subahdar, Missauber, having locked the gates on the inside, at a signal made by captain Torriano, struck the British colours, and coming through a sally-port, resigned the keys to the Sultaun's officer ordered to take possession; whose detachment waited without the outworks until this ceremony had taken place. The whole being now safely embarked, captain Torriano followed with two chests of treasure belonging to the Company. Night coming on, they were obliged to anchor under the guns of the fort until day-break, when the Wolf gallivat and all the boats proceeded over the bar; the officers embarked on board the Hawke Indiaman, and the whole fleet sailed for Bombay.

During the voyage thither captain Torriano rewarded the services of the subahdar Missauber with a pair of gold bangles; pro

moted four of the sepoys, whose conduct had merited his approbation, and presented each of them with silver bangles. The majority of the European soldiers, for the same reason, were raised to the rank of non-commissioned officers. Their behaviour furnishes an additional proof to a remark of Marechal Saxe, that "the bravery of troops is a variable and uncertain quality of the mind," for most of these very men fled from Cundapore, and had scarcely breathed after their disgrace, when their conduct at Onore merited the highest commendation, which was never forfeited during the siege.

As public testimonies of an honourable discharge of confidential trust justly merit a degree of consideration, to which the commentaries of an individual have not an equal claim, the narrative cannot be more consistently, nor more honourably concluded than by inserting the sense the government of Bombay were pleased to express to the Court of Directors of the brave and gallant conduct of the commandant and garrison of Onore.

Bombay, 15th April 1784.

"WITH much pleasure we embrace this opportunity of acknowledging ourselves highly satisfied with the brave and gallant defence of the fortress of Onore, by captain Torriano, of your artillery, during the continuance of the siege; and his conduct since the cessation of hostilities took place, until he received the Commissioners' orders to surrender Onore to the nabob."

A TRUE COPY.

(Signed)

JAMES BECK,

Secretary.

General Orders, Bombay, 4th May, 1784.

"THE honourable the President and select committee, in testimony of the just sense they bear of the brave and spirited defence of the fortress of Onore, as well of the regular conduct of the troops, since the cessation of hostilities took place, until it was evacuated on the conclusion of the treaty of peace, return their thanks in particular to captain John Samuel Torriano, whose conduct on this command reflects on him the highest honour; and to all the officers, and men in general, who lately composed that garrison."

To these testimonies of approbation in India, the Court of Directors in England were pleased to confer a Major's brevetcommission on captain Torriano, and to express their approbation in the following paragraph of their general letter to the governor and council of Bombay..

"We have considered of your representation in favour of captain John Samuel Torriano, the senior officer of artillery upon your establishment; and from the peculiar circumstances of his case, and as a reward for his gallant services in the defence of Onore during the late siege, we hereby direct that you grant him a Major's brevet-commission, to bear date from the 14th of September, 1784."

I now take leave of the Onore manuscripts: in a military poin' of view, I cannot expatiate on their merit; nor whether I have, in particular instances, too much dilated or abridged Mr. Cruso's