ABSTRACT
My situation from this instant became truly deplorable; robbed of liberty, I found myself in the clutches of barbarians, who treated me with cruelty and scorn, and kept me in suspense with respect to my life. I was not, however, indulged with much time to contemplate the horrors of my situation; for having bound my arms behind me, they hurried me almost naked before Hyder, on the 6th of February, about two o’clock in the afternoon: he was then encamped on the right flank of our army, at about five or six miles distance, between us and Cuddelore, to the northward of the road. Hyder’s tent exhibited nothing very extraordinary and magnificent, except a rich Persian carpet spread on the ground, and held down by four massy silver weights at the corners, something in form resembling sugar loaves. Several French officers were present; I was interrogated through one of them, who spoke English, with respect to the strength and destination of our army; but having replied, that our troops amounted to 35,000 men, 5000 of whom were Europeans, and that we had seventy pieces of ordance in the field, the interpreter briskly told me, “I lied,” we had no such thing! and that all our Europeans in India collected together would not amount to that number. Hyder was so much exasperated at my attempt to deceive him, that he kept me three days without any food, tied down on the ground in the rear of his tent, which was the station I constantly occupied during the seven days I remained in his camp. In this miserable situation, lying bound on the bare sand when halting, and lashed to Rickman, the serjeant-major, when marching, exposed to the weather, day and night, without any nourishment, I must inevitably have perished, if the humanity of my guards had not relieved me with some food now and then by stealth. On the fourth day, Hyder having encamped near Cuddelore, where the English army was entrenched, I received a visit from Mahomed Beg, a dubash, who spoke English; he ordered me one seer of rice and two pice per day, which I received for four days, after which Mahomed Beg paid me a second visit, and proposed to me to enter into Hyder’s service: in order to prevail on me, he promised that I should be well treated, and receive good pay; but finding me obstinate in refusing, he went away apparently much dissatisfied, and it was not long before I felt the ill effects of my non-compliance, for half my daily allowance in money, together with some provisions I had received from Hyder’s kitchen the last four days, were immediately curtailed, and I was lashed to the serjeant-major, and removed to Gingee, a small fort on a rock, which had been surrendered to Hyder in a cowardly manner the preceding December, by a party of the nabob’s troops which chiefly composed the garrison, and where part of his army at this time was encamped to guard his women, provisions, stores, and camp equipage. Before I was removed from Hyder’s camp, I had the mortification to see our whole army drawn up in order of battle, three days successively. Fortunately some of my own cloaths and a blanket had been restored to me the day before I was desired to enter into Hyder’s service. On my arrival at Gingee I was hand-cuffed, and from thence, the succeeding day, removed to Arcot, where my hand-cuffs were exchanged for heavy leg-irons. I remained near three weeks in the prison of Arcot, and might, I am pretty certain, have escaped, had it only once during that period proved a very dark or rainy night; but the moon and stars shone so bright, (a circumstance which I at that time thought a serious misfortune) and it appeared so impracticable to elude our guards and the soldiers of Hyder, who infested the streets and place during these clear nights, that the circumstance of having contrived, by means of perseverance and a piece of broken china, to file down the head of the nail which rivetted my irons, so as to be able to throw them off at pleasure, availed me nothing. One night’s rain, or even one heavy shower, would have driven guards, sentries, and the whole garrison, according to the practice of the Asiatic soldiers, under cover, and consequently left the coast clear – but I was reserved for severer trials.
