he always anticipated, even against all probability, that he should again see his native country, and this one hope, by God's blessing, supported him through incalculable sufferings both of mind and body, under which almost any other man would have sunk. CHAPTER V. DEATH OF HYDER-DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE HOPES ENTERTAINED OF TIPPOO'S LENIENCY-HIS RELIGIOUS ZEAL IN FORCING THE EUROPEANS TO EMBRACE MAHOMMEDANISM-COLONEL BRAITH ONE WAITE-CAPTAIN LEECH-ALARMING REPORT-ACCOUNT OF It was on the 2nd of November, that Tippoo and Lally proceeded to the coast, and on the 15th of December intelligence was received in the prison, by means of the washerman, that Hyder was dead. Anticipating as they did from the general character of Tippoo, as well as their own experience of his conduct, a favourable change in their circumstances from this event, the prisoners hesitated to believe it implicitly, although they observed an unusual bustle about the fort and amongst the guards, which seemed to corroborate the report. Shortly, however, new keeladars arrived, and new officers took charge of the prisons, which again excited hopes not only of the truth of the rumour, but of the justice of their hopes of an amelioration of their position; on the 27th of December these hopes were in a very considerable degree increased by the fact that the news of Hyder's death was made public at the Cutcheree, and orders were given that the naggars (great drums beaten every day at twelve o'clock in the great square) were not to be sounded for three days in consequence. The intelligence thus authenticated, they anxiously waited for the realization of their hopes in its results; but they were disappointed. So far from any change for the better taking place in consequence of the accession of Tippoo to the sovereignty, it turned out, that besides proving himself as great a political tyrant as his father, he added to his sanguinary disposition for conquest the fiercest bigotry, and believing, (perhaps sincerely,) that the surest mode of rendering himself acceptable in the sight of the prophet, was making proselytes to his religion by any means, all his efforts, from the moment he ascended the throne, were directed to that one great end. He commanded that all the handsomest and youngest of the European soldiers should undergo the hateful ceremonies of Mahommedanism; a compliance with which odious mandate was only secured by giving them a quantity of deleterious stuff called majum, which deprived them of their senses while the barbarians effected the horrid object of their misdirected zeal. Of Captain Baird's company, eighteen men were selected for these ceremonies, and in a state of stupefaction delivered over to the priests and their myrmidons; and after their recovery from the maltreatment to which they had been subjected, they were compelled to act as drill sergeants to Tippoo's slave battalion of Carnatic boys, who had been driven out of their country like flocks of sheep. The first day that Captain Baird saw, from the window of his prison, these Highlanders on the parade, in the square, in their capacity of serjeants, his distress and horror at beholding men of his own company voluntarily, as he thought, doing duty in Tippoo's service, are not to be told. He was observed by some of the poor fellows peeping through the grating of his dungeon, and overcome by the sight of their much-loved officer, they rushed from the ranks and called out to him, Captain Baird, rely upon us, this is not our fault," and wept bitterly. Captain Baird's feelings may be more easily conceived than described, when his guards forced him from the grating, in order to prevent his committing the inexpiable crime of replying to his gallant countrymen and comrades. Tippoo was in the Calicut country when his father died, and immediately on hearing of his death, having, with the natural, or at least usual love of change so conspicuous in regal successors, appointed a new keeladar at Seringapatam, pro ceeded with Colonel Lally to take the command of the army in the Carnatic. On the 25th of January, 1783, Colonel Braithwaite and Ensign Holmes arrived at Seringapatam, not in irons; and the same day Captain Leech was brought in, but placed in a different prison. On the 6th of February Lieutenants Lindsay and Massy were put in irons. On the 26th of the same month Captain Rumley and Lieutenants Fraser and Sampson were removed to Mysore, the last almost dying when he left Seringapatam. On the 22nd of March the body of Hyder Aly Cawn was interred in the Loll Baug garden, one mile from the fort. On the 4th of June the prisoners, for the third time since their dismal captivity, celebrated the king's birthday. On the 26th of June a letter was received by the prisoners from General Matthews, who, it appeared, had been a prisoner in the fort ever since the 27th of May. On the 8th of August it was reported to the prisoners that they were all to be burned as a retaliation for some loss experienced by Tippoo on the Malabar coast. At this period, one of the sons of Tippoo, who afterwards became an object of interest, by being one of the hostages to Lord Cornwallis, was in the habit of taking the air in Seringapatam daily, and we copy from the journal, to which we have before alluded, the account given by one of the |