6 oo

buchanan's journey through

cooled, and were difpofed, by their officers, in the manner moil proper to fecure theirnew conqueft ; many, however, left their ranks ; and the followers of the camp,under pretext of taking refrelhment to their matters, poured into the town* and anentire night was employed in plunder. In this, I believe, very little murder was com-mitted ; although there can be no doubt that many perfons were beaten, and threat-ened with death, in order to make them difcover their property. The women onthis occafion went out into the ttreets, and flood there all night in large groupes ; Ifuppofe, with a view of preventing any infult, by their expofed fituation ; few menbeing capable of committing brutality in public. This precaution was probably littlenecefiary. The foldiers had moftly been in the trenches two days ; they had beenengaged in a hard day’s work ; and their hopes and their rage having then ceafed,they were left in a ftate of languor, by which they were more inclined to feek repofe,or cordial refrefhments, than to indulge in fenfual gratification.

Next day the wounded and bruifed of the enemy were collected from the works,and neighbourhood, to which fome of them had crept ; and the mofque, which hadbeen the great fcene of bloodfhed, became now a place of refuge, in which thefe poorcreatures had every attention paid to them by the Britifli furgeons.

The town of Seringapatam is very poor. The ttreets are narrower, and moreconfufed, than in any place that I have feen fince leaving Bengal. The generality ofthe houfes are very mean, although many of the chiefs were well lodged after theirfafhion ; but for European inhabitants their houfes are hot and inconvenient. Withinthe fort, Tippoo allowed no perfon to poffefs property in houfes. He difpofed of thedwellings as he thought fit, and on the flighted: caprice changed the tenants. A greatmany of the chiefs fell at Siddhifwara, and at the ftorming of Seringapatam ; andthofe who furvived, and the families of thofe who fell (all of whom have beenpenfioned by the Company,) have moftly retired to the dominions of the Nabob ofArcot, which they confider as more fecure and pleafant than Myfore ; many of thefamilies having originally come from the Lower Carnatic, and fettled here on theeftablifhment of a Muffulman government. Numbers of the houfes which had beenthus deferted, are now occupied by the officers of the garrifon.

The old palace of the Myfore Rajas at Seringapatam is in a ruinous condition. Atthe time of the fiege the family was reduced to the loweft ebb. The old RajaChrifhna, who was firft confined by Hyder, died without iflue ; but left his wife incharge of a relation, whom he had adopted as his fon. This young man foon died,not without fufpicion of unfair means. His infant fon, the prefent Raja, was underthe charge of the old lady, and of Nundi Raja his mother’s father, a refpectable oldrelative, who now fuperintends his education. Shortly before the fiege the wholefamily had been ftripped by the mercilefs Meer Saduc of even the pooreft orna-ments ; and the child, from bad treatment, was fo fickly, that his death was expectedto happen very foon. This was a thing probably wiffied for by the Sultan, the familyhaving fallen into fuch contempt, that the fhadow of a Raja would no longer have beenneceflary. The family of the Raja, having been dofjely fhut up in the old palace,knew very little, during the fiege, of what was going forward ; and in the confufion<?f the aflault, having been left by their guards, they took refuge in the temple ofSri Ranga, either with a view of being protected by the god, or of being defendedby the furrounding walls from the attack of plunderers. On the reftoration of thePrince to the throne of his anceftors, a place for his refidence was very much wanted ;the neceffity of keeping the ifland of Seringapatam for a military ftation, havingrendered the palaces there very unfit for the purpofe. Tippoo , with his ufual policy