Lives of the Lindsays, or, A memoir of the House of Crawford and Balcarres > Volume 4

124 HON. JAMES LINDSAY.
ginning of [July] he entered the Carnatie, and knowing
that the sea-port town of Porto Novo, situated 150
miles from the pass, was one of the richest places in the
country, he detached 2000 of his best horse, ( 3 ) under
his second son, Kurreem Saib, who with the utmost ce-
lerity penetrated through the country and plundered the
place, before the inhabitants could receive the smallest
warning of their approach. Information of this transac-
tion was sent to Madras, which the government, how r -
ever, paid no attention to. In the meantime, Hyder
(after reducing the forts of Changama and Polore,) ad-
vanced within fifteen miles of Arcot, the capital of the
Carnatie. His numerous cavalry had by this time over-
run the whole country almost to the walls of Madras,
while the wretched inhabitants, who had before this
been situated in plenty and ease, after being stripped of
every thing they possessed, were in vast numbers carried
into slavery, those that escaped arriving at Madras,
where they some time after experienced a worse fate by
dying of hunger.
The government of Madras was now fully roused
from its lethargy, and began seriously to think of col-
lecting an army to preserve their country ; they attri-
buted all their misfortunes to the conduct of the late
governor, who, some time before the invasion, had gone
home with an immense fortune, leaving behind him an
exhausted treasury — but declared in a minute of coun-
cil before his departure, that he had received the most
satisfactory assurances of Hyder Ali's friendship to the
English.