Beatson, Alexander: A view of the origin and conducts of the war with Tippoo Sultaun: comprising a narrative of the operations of the army under the command of Lieutenant George Harris, and of the Siege of Seringapatam (London, 1800)

OF THE-WAR WITH TIPPOO SULTAUN. idy
regiment, who recognized, I was told, the body of a soldier of his
Majesty's ggd regiment, at the place pointed out by the Peon,
" Dewai Row, an accountant belonging to the fort, told me,
that thirteen European prisoners, taken during the siege, were sent
into the fort by the Sultaun's order, from his camp, when upon
the glacis : that he understood some of them were taken prisoners
in consequence of losing their way in one of the night attacks;
and that he heard others were taken when they had strolled from
the trenches into the river. He declared that the thirteen were
put to death, by three and four at a time, for three or four suc-
cessive nights; and he supposed, from recollection, that the last
party had suffered about six day's before the storm: from which
it would appear, that they were murdered between the 25th and
28th of April.* This man, Dewai Row, kept the accounts of the
prisoners in the fort. I have been told by him, that each party of
Europeans condemned to suffer, was removed at night from the
prison, and led to a square building, behind Nunda Raije's house,
called the Hackery stables. Here, the savage mode of destroying
them, was by breaking their necks in twisting the head, while the
body was held fast. The executioners were the Jetties, a cast of
Hindoos who perform feats of strength. The bodies of these
unfortunate prisoners were rolled up in mats, and carried out of
the fort to be buried.
" From many accounts 1 have heard from inhabitants of Serin-
* It is probable, that the attacks of the entrenchments, on the evening of the
26th of Aprii, (when the furious random-firing from every gun in the fort, dis-
played the disposition of the Sultaun's mind) first determined him to commit the^e
horrid acts of cruelty.