Blair Collection > Celtic magazine > Volume 12

^he Celtic Maga
Queensferry, to join an expedition then fitting out at Portsmouth
bound for the Cape of Good Hope, under the command of
Major-General WilHam Meadows and Commodore Johnstone.
They left Portsmouth on the I2th of March, 178 1, arriving at
Bombay on the 5th of March, 1782, having taken within a week
of twelve months on the voyage out, and suffering severely from
scurvy and fever, no fewer than 5 officers and 1 16 non-commis-
sioned officers and privates having died during the passage. The
transport " Myrtle," with Lieutenant-Colonel Macleod and other
officers on board, separated in a gale from the rest of the fleet off
the Cape of Good Hope. The vessel had neither chart nor map ;
the master was an ignorant seaman, and it was only through the
assistance of Captain Dalziel, who was on board, that, after a long
time, they arrived at Madagascar, the appointed rendezvous.
There was no trace of the rest of the fleet ; Colonel Macleod and
his companions made their way back to St. Helena, procured
charts, and at length reached Madras on the 23rd of May, 1782.
In the absence of Macleod, the command of the troops in-
tended for actual service devolved on Lieutenant-Colonel Mac-
kenzie Humberston of Seaforth of the looth Regiment, and he
started with an expedition to attack Palacatcherry, took several
forts on his way, but, on his arrival, finding the place much
stronger than he expected, and that Hyder Ali had sent his son
Tipoo Sahib for its relief, Colonel Humberston withdrew to
Mangaracotah, one of the small forts he had taken on his forward
march, and, learning that Tipoo was advancing, he continued his
retreat, closely pressed by the enemy in great force, to Paniane,
where he arrived on the morning of the 20th of November, 1782.
Colonel Macleod arrived there from Madras on the previous
night, the 19th, and at once assumed command of the army as
the senior officer. Here he found himself surrounded by 10,000
cavalry and 14,000 infantry, including two corps of Europeans
under the French General Lally, while his own force had been re-
duced by sickness to 380 Europeans and 2200 Sepoys fit for
duty. Macleod, writing to the Select Committee at Bombay,
under date of 29th November, 1782, describes the position at
length, and says — "This being the situation, it was a most hazard-
ous attempt to force us. Just before the dawn of the 28th, I was