A History of the Mahrattas v2.c40.36

v2.c40.36

but scarcely had he accomplished that object, when he was informed that Tippoo was marching to give him battle; and such was the vigilance of a corps of Beruds¹ in Tippoo’s service, consisting of both horse and foot, that the address and dexterity of Mahratta spies, famous only where their own language is spoken, could obtain no correct intelligence of his notions, and the first certain accounts which Hurry Punt received assured him that Tippoo was in full march to attack Adonee. That fortress was then held by Mohubbut Jung, son of the late Busalut Jung and nephew of Nizam Ally, who was totally unprepared for a siege. The families and seraglio of the late Busalut Jung, as well as those of his sons, were then in the fort, and Mohubbut Jung’s first application was to Nizam Ally, calling upon him to save the honour of his house. A pressing requisition was also sent to Hurry Punt, who immediately sent forward Tuhuwur Jung with the whole of the Moghul troops and twenty thousand Mahrattas under Krist Rao Bulwunt and Rugonath Rao Neelkunt. These troops were on the march towards Adonee, when they received intelligence of the advance towards Raichore of the whole of the disposable force from Hyderabad under Moghul Ally. A junction was formed at Bunnoor, when they moved towards Adonee with an army of nearly sixty thousand men. Tippoo endeavoured to carry the place before the arrival of the approaching succour; his desperate but premature attempts were most gallantly repulsed by Mohubbut Jung, and as the allies drew near, he was compelled to raise the siege and retire some miles to the southward. The confederates had forded the Toongbuddra with difficulty; and as the country to the southward of that river was entirely at Tippoo’s command, whilst they could place no dependence on the resources of the tract between the Kistna and Toongbuddra, much of which still remained to be reduced, they prudently resolved to withdraw the garrison from Adonee and recross the latter river. The retreat was judiciously executed; but the unpardonable oversight of leaving the fort, guns, ammunition, and stores, without an attempt to render them unserviceable to their enemy, cancelled any merit the commanders might otherwise have claimed.¹