DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2373#0085
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A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
;l
CHAPTER officers, in the manner most proper to secure their new conquest;
many, however, left their ranks; and the followers of the camp,
May 20, &c. under pretext of taking refreshment to their masters, poured into
the town, and an entire night was employed in plunder. In this,
I believe, very little murder was committed; although there can
be no doubt that many persons were beaten, and threatened with
death, in order to make them discover their property. The women
on this occasion went out into the streets, and stood there all night
in large groups; I suppose, with a view of preventing any insult,
by their exposed situation; few men being capable of committing
brutality in public. This precaution was probably little necessary.
The soldiers had mostly been in the trenches two days; they had
been engaged in a hard day's work ; and their hopes and their rage
having then ceased, they were left in a state of languor, by which
they were more inclined to seek repose, or cordial refreshments,
than to indulge in sensual gratification.
Next day the wounded and bruised of the enemy were collected
from the works, and neighbourhood, to which some of them had
crept; and the mosque, Avhich had been the great scene of blood-
shed, became now a place of refuge, in which these poor creatures
had every attention paid to them by the British surgeons.
Buildings. The town of Seringapatam is very poor. The streets are narrower,
and more confused, than in any place that I have seen since leav-
ing Bengal. The generality of the houses are very mean, although
many of the chiefs were well lodged after their fashion; but for
European inhabitants their houses are hot and inconvenient.
Within the fort, Tippoo allowed no person to possess property in
houses. He disposed of the dwellings as he thought fit, and on the
slightest caprice changed the tenants. A great many of the chiefs
fell at Siddhiswara, and at the storming of Seringapatam ; and those
who survived, and the families of those who fell (all of whom have
been pensioned by the Company), have mostly retired to the do-
minions of the Nabob of Arcot, which they consider as more secure
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH
;l
CHAPTER officers, in the manner most proper to secure their new conquest;
many, however, left their ranks; and the followers of the camp,
May 20, &c. under pretext of taking refreshment to their masters, poured into
the town, and an entire night was employed in plunder. In this,
I believe, very little murder was committed; although there can
be no doubt that many persons were beaten, and threatened with
death, in order to make them discover their property. The women
on this occasion went out into the streets, and stood there all night
in large groups; I suppose, with a view of preventing any insult,
by their exposed situation; few men being capable of committing
brutality in public. This precaution was probably little necessary.
The soldiers had mostly been in the trenches two days; they had
been engaged in a hard day's work ; and their hopes and their rage
having then ceased, they were left in a state of languor, by which
they were more inclined to seek repose, or cordial refreshments,
than to indulge in sensual gratification.
Next day the wounded and bruised of the enemy were collected
from the works, and neighbourhood, to which some of them had
crept; and the mosque, Avhich had been the great scene of blood-
shed, became now a place of refuge, in which these poor creatures
had every attention paid to them by the British surgeons.
Buildings. The town of Seringapatam is very poor. The streets are narrower,
and more confused, than in any place that I have seen since leav-
ing Bengal. The generality of the houses are very mean, although
many of the chiefs were well lodged after their fashion; but for
European inhabitants their houses are hot and inconvenient.
Within the fort, Tippoo allowed no person to possess property in
houses. He disposed of the dwellings as he thought fit, and on the
slightest caprice changed the tenants. A great many of the chiefs
fell at Siddhiswara, and at the storming of Seringapatam ; and those
who survived, and the families of those who fell (all of whom have
been pensioned by the Company), have mostly retired to the do-
minions of the Nabob of Arcot, which they consider as more secure