Behaviour of Tippoo towards his Prisoners—Conduct, Defeat, Treatment, and Death of General Matthews—Fate of the Malabar Christians—Execution of English Prisoners—Exhibitions at Seringapatam—Offenders devoured by Wild Beasts—Modes of Punishment—Despotic Cruelty—Human Ears and Noses exhibited in the Public Market—Author and Companions compelled to take Wives—Mode of Procedure—Marriage Ceremony—Visits Hyder Ali’s Tomb—Situation described.

In a narrative of the sufferings of the English who survived that fatal day, published by an officer of Colonel Bailey’s detachment, we find it related, that Hyder Ali, seated on a throne or chair in his tent, enjoyed the sight of the heads of the slain, as well as of the prisoners. Colonel Bailey, who was himself dangerously wounded, was brought into his camp on a cannon, and with several of his officers, in the same situation, laid at the tyrant’s feet, on the ground, in the open air. In this condition, they saw many of the heads of their countrymen presented to the conqueror;—some of them by English officers, who were compelled to perform that horrid task! In a little time, however, Hyder ordered no more heads to be brought to him while the English officers were present.

A tent was then fixed up for the unfortunate gentlemen, but without straw or any thing to lie on, though many of them were dangerously wounded; and as the tent would contain no more than ten, the remainder were obliged to lie in the open air. When the prisoners were removed from place to place, they were wantonly insulted, and even beaten, by those who had the care of them. I have heard a long catalogue of sufferings, which I could easily believe to be but too true. There were numbers of strange cures related by this gentleman, from whom I received the account, which the reader may see recorded, if so disposed, by a reference to the “EncyclopÆdia.” I was conversant with several while at Patam, who were first circumcised, and, finally, put to death in Bednore. In the narrations of this officer, what I particularly noticed, was, an account of the brave Colonel Fletcher,—the tenderness and humanity of the elephants,—and the almost unprecedented valour of a battalion of cook-boys, who acted as such to the Europeans. The brave Colonel Fletcher slew several with his own hand before he fell.

As the elephants would not, with all the exertions of their keepers, tread upon the wounded and slain, these, after the carnage was over, were thrown into a hole in one promiscuous heap. From this heap, a corporal, whose name was Sinclair, of the 73d regiment, who was dreadfully wounded, contrived to crawl: he afterwards recovered, was Mohammedanized, and was with us at Seringapatam. The battalion of cook-boys above mentioned, fell, with few exceptions, three deep, as was their position when standing. These brave fellows ought to have been noticed, as well as the European prisoners, for they suffered much more; I have often been an eye-witness to the cruelties with which they were treated at Seringapatam; but they still continued true and loyal to the English.

Colonel Bailey’s detachment consisted of about 4700 men, of whom about 700 survived, and many of those severely wounded. None of them were released; some of them died, and others were put to death; and only one, whose name was Mackenzie, made his escape from Chitteldroog after I did. Thus much for the brave but unfortunate Colonel Bailey.

The next whose fate I shall endeavour to describe, is General Matthews, who, with many of his officers and men, arrived prisoners at Seringapatam (about the time of Colonel Bailey’s exit) from Bednore, or Hyder Niger. They had surrendered by capitulation, but it was first violated on the part of the general, relative to the treasures; this, together with another circumstance which I shall presently state, was the cause of his miserable end, together with that of many of his officers.

Onore, or Ananpour, a fort about two days’ march from Bednore, had been stormed by part of his army, and all the inhabitants wantonly and inhumanly put to death, and their bodies thrown into several tanks in the fort: this was fresh in Tippoo’s memory. The cause of this cruelty was, that two flags of truce had been sent, and both detained. How far such conduct for such a crime could be justifiable, on the part of the English, I leave to those of superior judgment. This was told me by several, to whom I had, at times, opportunity of speaking; and had he taken Hyat Saib’s advice, (the killadare of Hyder Niger,) and who gave him no great trouble in the conquest of the place, he would have done well; but it appears, from many circumstances, that it was to be so. It was intended that he should die by poison,^[7] administered in milk; but as it did not operate, in their view, sufficiently expeditious, his guards closed his existence with the buts of their firelocks. Perhaps Tippoo, as a Mohammedan, considered this as a just retaliation for the butchery at the before mentioned place. Several of his fife and drum boys were Mohammedanized, and placed in the seraglio for the purpose of castration; but this operation never took place: and many of his principal officers left him for Bombay, prior to his being captured. Such was the end of this ambitious and ill-fated general. But before I close, it may be necessary to state the following circumstance, which I conceive will corroborate what I have before observed relative to the cause of his melancholy end.

George Bush, of the Yarmouth, country ship, which was captured by La Fin, French frigate of 40 guns, and James Forsythe, who were separated from us some years after, but who finally made their escape, and joined us in the Mahratta camp, were, with many more, sent direct to Hyder Niger. In the course of their journey thither, they halted at Ananpour; and being excessively thirsty, they were instantly led to one of the wells, which, I am sorry to observe, the English had filled up some years before with their slain. One James Duffee was then with the above, and had been one of the storming party in this inhuman business; and such was the indignation of the residents on this spot, that, had they not been prevented by the guards, they would have sacrificed those innocent men to their fury, from a remembrance of what had taken place. I mention this circumstance, because I have seen an attempt to justify this branch of the general’s conduct.

Now followed the fate of the poor Malabar Christians, of which I shall ever consider myself the innocent cause, in reading what was written by General Matthews, as stated in the preceding note. Their country was invested by Tippoo’s army, and they were driven, men, women, and children, to the number of 30,000, to Seringapatam, where all who were fit to carry arms were circumcised, and formed into four battalions. The sufferings of these poor creatures were most excruciating: one circumstance, which came under my immediate notice, I will attempt to describe. When recovered, they were armed and drilled, and ordered to Mysore, nine miles from the capital, but for what purpose we never could learn. Their daughters were many of them beautiful girls, and Tippoo was determined to have them for his seraglio; but this they refused; and Mysore was invested by his orders, and the four battalions were disarmed and brought prisoners to Seringapatam. This being done, the officers tied their hands behind them. The chumbars, or sandal-makers, were then sent for, and their noses, ears, and upper lips, were cut off; they were then mounted on asses, their faces towards the tail, and led through Patam, with a wretch before them proclaiming their crime. One fell from his beast, and expired on the spot through loss of blood. Such a mangled and bloody scene excited the compassion of numbers, and our hearts were ready to burst at the inhuman sight. It was reported that Tippoo relented in this case, and I rather think it true, as he never gave any further orders respecting their women. The twenty-six that survived were sent to his different arsenals, where, after the lapse of a few years, I saw several of them lingering out a most miserable existence.^[8] Some time after our initiation, (about nine months,) many of the mechanics were brought from their different prisons to Patam, and sent to his arsenal, to their different employments; about eighty was their number; they had a tolerable allowance, but were all circumcised. One, whose name was William Williams, effected his escape, but was taken, and treated as the above, with the exception of losing only one ear, with his nose; which was executed before us, as a terror, no doubt, to prevent our attempting any thing in the same manner. Most of those unfortunate men were put to death; nine of them, including two carpenter’s mates, belonging to the Hannibal, Archy Douglas, and another whose name I have forgotten, were hung on one tree, because one of the party, named Flood, a serjeant-major in the Company’s service, to pass away a tedious hour, had been taking a sketch of the surrounding scenery; this was the crime for which they all suffered death!

The deserters had no lenity shewn them; most of them suffered also, and among them was Dempster, whom I have named before, who was piked to death in his hut; which we were very happy to hear, as this wretch had been the cause of much cruelty towards us. Randal Cadman, who survived those evils, (through illness,) although in the midst of them, escaped on the night our troops, under Lord Cornwallis, defeated and followed Tippoo’s army over the river into Sarragangam; we were then at some distance from the capital, but saw him when we afterwards joined his lordship. He was then all but dead; he survived, however, and from him we had this information. He also informed us, that prior to his lordship’s arrival, the principal street in Seringapatam, on each side, was ornamented with paintings, such as, elephants whirling Europeans in the air,—tigers seizing whole battalions of English Sepoys,—five or six English officers supplicating for mercy at the feet of one of his troopers,—and companies flying frightened at the charge of ten or twenty of his horse: with a variety of other worse than silly representations. But when his lordship had taken Bangalore, and was on his way to the capital, Tippoo thought it prudent to order these daubings to be cancelled.—But to return to the years 1783 and 1784.

Shortly after the arrival of General Matthews, Tippoo, thinking his mode of punishment towards those poor creatures who happened to fall under his displeasure not severe or terrific enough, ordered nine large tiger cages to be made, and placed opposite his kerconah, or treasury. They were arranged there according to his order, and soon tenanted, each with a large tiger. After the death of Colonel Bailey, we were paraded before these ferocious animals, and had an opportunity of seeing them fed once or twice a day; one of the nine was as black as a coal, the only one I ever saw of that colour. They were all taken in the Curakee jungles, which abound with elephants, tigers, wild boars, panthers, tiger-cats, leopards, &c. and lie about twenty miles from Patam, and about ten from Mysore. Those tigers, above stated, were designed for the punishment of high crimes and misdemeanours: three of his principal officers, namely, his head inchewalla, or general postmaster, his buxey, or paymaster general, and another, were severally thrown to the tigers, and devoured in an instant, all but their heads; for which purpose the tigers were always kept hungry! These all suffered within the short space of four months.

Confinement, however, soon proved destructive to the animals themselves, as scarcely one of them survived above eleven months. At this period, there was a regular import of wild beasts at least twice a week, taken from the jungles by himself, on his hunting excursions; to which exercise, at one time, he appeared very partial. 1000 horse, 500 pulligars, or pikemen, with some foot, formed his hunting party. His tiger-cats, or leopards, would always accompany him, and with these he used to course, as our gentlemen do with hounds. The elephants were caught in pits; and the tigers and other wild beasts in cages, by fastening, at the other end of the cage, a young pig, a lamb, &c. The wild elephants, though he had numbers that were domesticated, and tigers, were designed for his games, which I shall presently attempt to describe; but I will first mention the manner in which he punished criminals. Amongst numerous other instruments, he had a wooden horse, of a full size, resembling those adopted for his cavalry, curiously and infernally contrived, on the saddle of which were nine rows of sharp spikes, about three quarters of an inch long. The machine was moved by springs; and as soon as the culprit mounted, the horse, by some mechanism, would rear on his hind legs, and then, falling with a jerk on his fore feet, the spikes would enter the posteriors of the rider. The time of riding was proportioned to the crime; though it was said, that one of his horsemen rode this machine with such dexterity as to avoid the spikes,—in consequence of which he was pardoned. I have oft-times seen the horse, with its furniture, &c. but never saw a culprit on his back, though I was at Seringapatam at the time that several were punished that way. It was removed when Lord Cornwallis took possession of Bangalore.

But his most common mode of punishment was, that of drawing to death by the elephant’s feet; the manner of which was as follows: the poor wretches (for several were drawn at one time) first had their arms tied behind them, above the elbows, and then a rope put about the small of their legs, which was fastened to the elephant’s foot. This being done, the criminals stood with their backs towards the elephant’s posteriors, waiting sometimes an hour for an order for their execution. The distance they stood from the beast was about six yards, and the first step the elephant took would throw the poor unfortunates on their faces; thus they would be dragged over rough and smooth ground till dead, and with no faces left. There was a singular circumstance respecting one of his elephants, called Immaumbucies, which, when young, and about the size of a buffalo, came into Seringapatam with a herd of those animals. It was the largest he had, and measured fifteen feet in height. He was much caressed, and appeared sensible of every kind action; in fact, he was more sagacious than any of his fellows, and wonderfully docile. This incident transpired about fifty or sixty years prior to Hyder Ali’s usurpation, when Seringapatam was in the possession of the Mysorean chief, as sole monarch of the whole country.

Some error, of no great import, was discovered in the accounts of fifteen fine young Bramins, who were in one of his offices as clerks; for which they lost the fore-finger and thumb of their right hands, all except one, who was left-handed, and he had his left finger and thumb cut off: but the sufferings of the Bramins in general were indescribably cruel. Poor inoffensive men! Were they accused of being rich, it was enough; and no small pains were taken to procure their accusation, Tippoo’s emissaries and spies being in every corner of his kingdom. Once informed against, all pleas were useless, and they were instantly dragged to Seringapatam. On their arrival, they were sent for by the paymaster-general, who would address them mildly, stating, that he had received information they were worth a certain sum of money, which he named, and that he wanted so much for his master’s services. If the proposal was acceded to, all was well, and perhaps the Bramin would be put in a more lucrative situation; but a denial, or a supposed prevarication, was sure to be accompanied with the most exquisite tortures. In this process, the first mode was, piqueting for a given number of hours; then, if this was found of no avail, the addition of scourging; if this also proved ineffectual, needles, fixed in corks, were incessantly applied to their bodies, while still under the scourge. This mode of punishment continued several days; and if all this could not make them confess where their supposed riches were, they would be then led to the large pagoda yard, and there put into cages of iron, on half a pound of rice, and a certain quantity of salt, per day, but not a drop of water, or any thing but those two articles. In this situation I have seen them, with their souls looking through their eyes, and God knows my feelings at the time; but a look of pity at them from us would have been construed into guilt. They would thus linger a few days, and expire in agonies.

The situation of the oppressors and the oppressed, in pecuniary matters, is, I believe, widely different now. It is generally believed in India, that the Bramins are very tenacious of their money; which may be the case, and I give it credit; but I am strongly of opinion, that numbers of these inoffensive people suffered as above described, having no property whatever; a strong information against them being a just ground with Tippoo for all these cruelties.

About this period, in the year 1785, he seemed more bent on barbarities, than at any other time that I was in his country. It was not unfrequently that two or three hundred noses and ears would be exhibited in the public market, but to whom they belonged we could not learn. We must, however, leave these tragic scenes awhile, and turn to something less horrible.

We were one day strangely informed, that each of us, who was of proper age, was to have a wife; for this piece of news we were extremely sorry, but there was no possibility of our preventing their designs. There were, at this time, a number of young girls, who had been driven with their relations out of the Carnatic, when Hyder infested that country, which he almost over-ran, as already stated. Some of these poor creatures were allotted for us; and one morning, we were ordered to fall into rank and file, when those girls were placed one behind each of us, while we stood gazing at one another, wondering what they were about to do. At last, the durga gave the word, “To the right about face;” with the addition (in the Moorish language) of “take what is before you.” This, when understood, some did, and some did not; but the refractory were soon obliged to comply. Thus they fed their vanity, by making our first interview as ludicrous as possible, each being by this means supplied with a piece of furniture, for which, however valuable in general, we had neither want nor inclination. When this ceremony was completed, we were ordered back to our square, and on our return with our young black doxies, we had the bazaar, or public market, to pass, where the crowd was so difficult to penetrate, as to separate us. This laid the foundation for some serious disputes afterwards, many insisting that the women they had, when they arrived at the square, were not the same they had at first. This scene was truly comic, for the girls, when we understood them, which was many months afterwards, had the same views that we had; and were frequently engaged with their tongues, on this score, long before we could understand the cause of their disputes. Our enemies seemed to enjoy this in a manner that would have done honour to a British theatre. Two months passed on, when the priest came to consummate our nuptials; and the conclusion of the ceremony was as curious as the beginning. The bride and her consort were led to an eminence, with flowers round their necks, and seated; after which, their thumbs were tied together, when the priest muttered something which we could not comprehend, and we were married. They, however, gave us to understand, that we were subject to pay eighty rupees to the cadi, in case we divorced our wives, very few of whom exceeded eleven years of age.^[9] The one who fell to my lot was a native of Arcot, and had been driven with thousands more when Hyder and Tippoo spread destruction almost throughout the Company’s territories. She was an affectionate creature, by whom I had two children; one died, and the other I left in the arms of its distracted mother. But I shall wave this subject for the present, and resume it again, if possible, towards the close.

About four months prior to the ratification of peace with the Company and Tippoo, our circumstances were bettered, and we had liberty to walk where we thought proper in the fort, and sometimes permission to go to Sanagangam, about two miles from the fort, where Hyder Ali lies buried, in a garden called Col-bog, or the Red Garden. We were taken to this spot, with many more good mussulmen, to pray for the soul of the deceased, when we had an opportunity of viewing his mosque. It is situate in the centre of the garden, and in the centre of the mosque is the tomb of this hero. It is a magnificent square building, with four doors, east, west, north, and south; and is ascended by steps, on the top of which, you immediately see, through the doors, his tomb, which, when I saw it, was covered with black velvet, and a steel ball was suspended over it, larger than a 42 lb. shot, of an amazing brightness. Here are always a number of faquirs (priests) of the highest order, to perform religious ceremonies, and keep the place inviolate.

There is another garden worth notice, called Derea, Dowlah-bog, or, the Rich Garden of the Sea; this is a most charming spot, nearly surrounded by a lofty wall, at the foot of which runs the river. Here was a great variety of fruits of the most exquisite flavour, lofty trees of a sublime appearance, together with a representation of the defeat of the brave but unfortunate Colonel Bailey: peace to his manes! Outside of this delectable spot, and near the walls, is a vast tank, in which numbers of large fish were kept (consecrated, I suppose, for they were never disturbed) by the highest order of the faquirs, who had their dwellings on the margin of the tank. But when the English took possession, no doubt these fine fish were appropriated to some other use. The Bramins had a spot also, directly under the fort walls, containing a great number of very fine fish, which were daily fed by them; but doubtless they also have long since been destroyed by some of John Bull’s sons.