ciently stated in my correspondence with the Presidency of Bombay for me to pass that topic over here; as indeed I may such articles of public intelligence as enter into my letters to Mr. Manesty, which of course reach you by ricochet.

I have just received most interesting letters of about a month old from Sir William Hamilton and Lord Nelson, who, with the King of the two Sicilies (as he is become again) and Mr. Acton, were all together on board the Foudroyant in the Bay of Naples, settling the new government.

The Admiral arrived there most fortunately in time to annul a disgraceful treaty on foot between the enemy and Cardinal Ruffo, and to save the King's honour by rejecting with disdain any terms but unconditional submission within a very limited number of hours on the part of rebels. So that while the French in the castle of St. Elmo were enticed by a decent capitulation (which I forward to Bussora) the rebels in the castles Nuovo and dell' Uovo came out without any honours; the principals were seized, and conducted on board the ships of the squadron, and their accomplices confined in fourteen transports under our guns. And thus John Bull fights almost alone on one element for the common cause, and recovers kingdoms for sovereigns, who by following half measures have been kicked out of them by a set of thieves.

An express was just arrived (on 25th past) at Naples from Tuscany, Mr. Wyndham was returned to Florence, and that once happy country was again free from French tyranny, as well as Lucca. F. M. Sowvarof, after beating Messieurs Macdonald, Moreau, and Co., on the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th, was advancing to Genoa. Mantua surrendered on or about the 25th. The Arch Duke Charles was at Zurich, with his left communicating with the Field Marshal's right over the Alps, whose summit between Bernard and Gothard was occupied by a central army under General Bellegarde, aiming at turning Massena by the Valais, and Mont Blanc.

So much for terrafirma. In the Mediterranean, Lord St. Vincent, laying with a single ship of the line at Gibraltar, has had the mortification of seeing the combined fleets, 61 sail of the line, pass him to the westward on the 9th past, and only able to precede them by a privateer 24 hours to Portugal, and by another privateer who met Lord Keith with 35 sail off Ivica on the 14th, who immediately set out after them.

My brother, after the siege of Acre, and revictualling at Cyprus, returned to the coast of Egypt on the 18th of July, just in time to throw himself into the castle of Aboukir, which the Turks had stormed on the 16th, where he was preparing for a second edition (but rather more offensive) of his herculean labours in Syria.

The siege of Acre forms such an epocha in the annals of these times, that I regret my want of leisure to keep pace with events, and give that heroic achievement a more distinct place in my historical correspondence, far independent of my fraternal feelings upon that point. No one as a minister and a man can better judge of its salutary influence in the common cause. Had Acre fallen, Constantinople would have tottered; Vienna felt the shock, and Europe, as Buonaparte himself elegantly expresses it," prix par les reins.”

I have the honour to be,

My dear Lord,

your faithful Servant, SPENCER SMITH.

No. XXXI.

The Earl of Mornington to the Honourable Court of Directors.

HONOURABLE SIRS,

Fort St. George, Sept. 3d, 1799.

Since the date of my last separate letter to your Honourable Court of the 3d of August,* few occurrences have happened of sufficient importance to be communicated by the present despatch. But as a considerable part of the army still remains in Mysore, and as some detachments of it have been actively employed, notwithstanding the happy termination of the war, it may not be unacceptable to you that I should review the cause and nature of the operations in which the army has been engaged since the date of my last letter. It might have been expected that, in the complete settlement of Mysore, some difficulties would arise from the attempts of the various Poligars and others who had been

dispossessed by Hyder Ali Khan and Tippoo Sultaun. The early settlement of the country, however, has not been materially delayed by any resistance of this nature. It has, however, been somewhat impeded by the endeavours of a few of the commandants of the principal fortresses to obtain an unreasonable price for their submission, and of others to favour (by a demonstration of an intention to resist) their retreat with the plunder which they had found means to collect. It is to be imputed to one of these causes that the Fort of Gurrumcondah did not surrender to the British detachment by which it was surrounded on behalf of the Nizam, until it had been seriously threatened; and that Lieut.-Colonel Bowser was actually obliged to breach one of the lower walls of the fortress of Gooty before his Highness' garrison was admitted. The refusal of the Kelladar of Jemaulabad (the only place of considerable strength in Canara) to submit to the British Government is to be imputed to a similar cause; but that place will certainly be reduced as soon as the state of the season in Canara will admit of the march of a sufficient force against it; an event which may be expected to have taken place within the course of the month of August.

The only impediment of any importance to the speedy and quiet settlement of the whole of the country assigned to the Rajah of Mysore by the partition treaty, has proceeded from some disturbances which have arisen in the province of Bednore, but which are now happily quelled.

A partizan of the name of Dhoondia, originally in the service of the Patan State of Savanore (or Shanoor) having committed various depredations on the territories of Tippoo Sultaun, had incurred the resentment of that Prince. Tippoo Sultaun having contrived to secure the person of Dhoondia, compelled him to conform to the Mahommedan faith, and afterwards employed him in military service; but, either detecting him in some treacherous projects, or suspecting his fidelity, the Sultaun confined him in irons at Seringapatam some time previous to the commencement of the late war. From this situation he was released, together with several other prisoners, by the inconsiderate humanity of the British troops on the 4th of May. He immediately fled from Seringapatam, and being joined by a few of the Sillahdar cavalry of Tippoo Sultaun's disbanded army, took the direction of Bed

nore, in his way to which province his force received some augmentation, some of the principal Asophs and Killadars in Bednore betrayed their trusts to him; and in this manner many of the principal places of the district had fallen into his hands before it was in the power of Lieut.-General Harris to detach from the army a sufficient force to act against him. In the mean while Dhoondia, had laid the rich country of Bednore under severe contributions, which he exacted with the most unrelenting cruelty, perpetrating throughout the province the most atrocious acts of rapine and murder.

At length a light corps of cavalry and native infantry, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel James Dalrymple of the Madras establishment, moved against Dhoondia from Chitteldroog on the 21st of July, and overtook a party of his banditti, consisting of about 250 horse and 400 infantry. The shocking cruelties which these plunderers had recently committed rendered it necessary to make a severe example; it was, therefore, determined to refuse them quarter, for the purpose of deterring others from similar enormities.

Dhoondia having crossed the Tungbuddra, Hurryhur, a fort on the eastern bank of that river, was taken on the 30th of July by a division of Colonel Dalrymple's detachment.

While Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple attacked this banditti on one side, Colonel Stevenson was advancing into Bednore in another direction, at the head of a light force, composed also of native cavalry and infantry. On the 31st of July Colonel Stevenson crossed the Tungbuddra, and advancing against Simoga, took that place by assault on the 8th of August. On the same day the fort of Hoornelly, situated on the western bank of the Tungbuddra, was taken in the same manner by the detachment under the command of Lieut.Colonel Dalrymple.

Both detachments having now effected the passage of the Tungbuddra, it was determined to make a combined attack on the camp of Dhoondia, which occupied a strong position near the town and fort of Shikarpoor. Accordingly Lieut.Colonel Dalrymple, on the 17th of August, charged Dhoondia's cavalry, and drove them with considerable loss into a river situated in their rear. Our infantry at the same time. attacked the fort of Shikarpoor, and carried it by assault;

Dhoondia escaped by means of a boat prepared for the occasion.

Colonel Stevenson (the progress of whose detachment had been impeded by difficult roads) now arrived and assumed, as senior officer, the command of the united detachments, and immediately pursued Dhoondia so closely as to compel him to take refuge in the Mahratta territory, within the limits of which Colonel Stevenson, on the 20th of August, saw him encamp with the remnant of his banditti, which it would have been easy for Colonel Stevenson to have taken or destroyed had he been at liberty to pass beyond the boundary of the Mahratta dominion. But my particular orders having strictly prohibited any violation of the frontier of the Mahratta empire, Colonel Stevenson, with great judgment and discretion, halted his army on the line of the boundary, and signified to the Mahratta officer of the adjoining district that the respect of the British Government for the rights of the Mahratta State precluded the further progress of their

army.

As Dhoondia had, on several occasions, by acts of robbery and murder, rendered himself extremely obnoxious to the Mahrattas, there is no danger of their affording him an asylum in opposition to the remonstrances of the British Government; and I have received accounts from Colonel Stevenson that Dhoondia Punt Ghoklah, a chief commanding a division of the Peishwa's army, had plundered Dhoondia's camp within a few hours after it had been pitched within the territory of the Mahrattas, had carried away all his elephants, camels, bullocks, and guns, and entirely deprived him of the means of future depredation. The province of Bednore will be completely delivered from the banditti which had acted under Dhoondia's command, for, although they continued to retain some posts in the country at the period of his flight, those posts will certainly be evacuated on the approach of the British troops.

I think it my duty to request the particular attention of your Honourable Court to the judicious and spirited conduct displayed during the late operations against Dhoondia, as well by Colonel Stevenson as by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple; and I am persuaded it will be satisfactory to your Honourable