Malabar Days

It is only very rarely that we can get a glimpse into the lives of an ordinary soldier in India, let alone come across their individual names.

Here is the story of one such man, Private Lappe, who was extraordinarily lucky to survive a ferocious ambush at the outbreak of the war between the Pazhassi Rajah and the East India Company at Tellicherry.

The date that the actual battle took place is unclear, possibly before the 4th of November 1796, but certainly by the 18th of January 1797. The following account however only appeared in the Sussex Advertiser many years later on Monday the 1st of September 1800.[1]

Had Private Lappe by that time been invalided home?

Perhaps he told his story to the local Sussex reporter.

We will probably never know.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE

A soldier, of the name of Lappe, who belonged to an European battalion, and who made his escape from the Jungle, after the action between a detachment of Europeans and Sepoys belonging to the Bombay Army, and the insurgents in the Cotiote country, has related the following" miraculous “ account of his gaining the British Military post, after the defeat of the detachment, given at Bombay, the 4th of November:—"I was shot, says Lappe) about noon, with a musket ball, in my right breast; and, to resist or escape being utterly impossible, as the only means left me to save my life, I threw myself down among the mortally wounded and the dead, without moving hand or foot. Here, in the evening, the Chief Surveying his conquest, ordered a Jamedar to begin instantly to dispatch those who were likely to survive. This fellow, having already killed Captain Bowman, and several other Europeans, left the remainder to die of themselves, or to fall a prey to the voraciousness of the wild creatures with which the Jungle abounds; for in places it is almost impenetrable. They then filed off to the right, towards the hills, carrying along with them five or six prisoners alive; I believe they were all Sepoys but one, with their hands tied behind their backs, of whom I never since have heard. When I apprehended these sanguinary rebels had entirely left the scene of action, it being very quiet, and rather dark, I found means, on my hands and feet, to creep out from among the carnage, for many men were killed that day by the Rajah's troops, owing to our force having been weakened by sending it in small detachments into the Jungle, where they had never before been, and the enemy firing at them in ambush, where it was impossible to trace them: I got at length at some distance from the place where I lay, and met another of our party, who was less wounded than myself, with whom, after some days wandering in torment and despair, not knowing which way to proceed for fear of being intercepted, we at last fortunately arrived at the military post, worn out with fatigue and the loss of blood, where, we understood, the account of the defeat had been received four days before.

The news slowly spread out from London to the regional towns of England and Scotland. Many families with relations in India must have anxiously wondered what had been happening in the passing months, it took news to travel around the globe.

On Saturday 5th July 1797, readers in Norfolk came across the following report in their newspaper.

We learn from the Coast of Coromandel, that on the 18th of January [1797] the Rajah of the Cotiote had commenced hostilities against us, and that Captain Bowman and Lieutenant Bond, who had been sent to take possession of One of his strong holds, had, the perfidy of their guide, been led into defile, where they were both killed with most the Sepoys of their party. Captain Lawrence, who went to relief, was like wise led into a defile, from whence he fought his way to a pagoda, where passed the night and following day, till permitted to proceed with his party to Tillicherry. Captain Troy, on his return from a muster of the native troops, had been killed, and Captain Shean desperately wounded. Twenty-four Sepoys were killed, and 50 wounded and missing. General Stuart immediately appointed Major Anderson to march against the Rajah with 250 of the Bombay regiment, a detachment of light artillery, 1,000 Sepoys, and Mopals.

Over the following weeks, more details came out from Leadenhall Street. Readers of the Oxford Journal on Saturday the 29th of July 1797, were given more details about the outbreak started by the Pychy Rajah.

From the Madras Gazette, January 28. By letters from the Malabar coast of the 15th instant, we have been advertised of the revolt of the Cotiote Rajah on that coast, who is said to have commenced his refractory conduct on the 28th instant, by firing on a detachment of Sepoys under the command of Capt. Lawrence, in the neighbourhood of Cootiungarry. On the same day, Capt. Bowman and Lieut. Bond were sent with a detachment to take possession of a strong hold, near the last mentioned place, and were decoyed by an Hircarrah, employed on the occasion, into a narrow defile, where, a strong party of Nairs, in ambuscade, availing them selves of the disadvantageous situation of the detachment, and their mode of attack, beset the party with a ferocity peculiarly their own, when Captain Bowman and Lieutenant Bond were almost immediately overpowered and killed. Several Sepoys, it is also added, were killed and wounded on the spot. Captain Lawrence, on hearing the report of the musquetry, proceeded with all possible expedition, at the head of a body of grenadiers, towards the succour and support of Captain Bowman's detachment; but having experienced a similar breach of faith in his guide, was also attacked in the same defile, but after a warm and fortunate resistance effected his retreat, and took post in a Pagoda the whole night, and part of the next day, hemmed in by upwards of a thousand of the Rajah's troops. On the 9th, however, he was permitted to retire with his men to Tellicherry. In addition to the above melancholy relation, Captain Troy, who had been employed in mustering the native troops, and Captain Shean on his return from a visit, fell in with a party of these sanguinary savages, who having surrounded them, coolly and unprovokedly put the first to death, and wounded the latter in a shocking and barbarous manner. General Stuart, to whom the intelligence was sent to Cannanore, recommended to Major Anderson immediately to take the field to punish so daring an outrage. The force to be assembled for this purpose, will consist of 250 men of the Bombay regiment under the command of Captain Grammant. A detachment of artillery, with light guns, about one thousand Sepoys, together with a Corps of Mopals, consisting of about 200, raised expressly for the purpose of hunting and counteracting the Nairs in the woods and fortresses. The unhappy fate of so many officers, in being cut off from their friends' and relations, in this cruel and insidious manner, cannot be too much lamented; and provides a melancholy example of the inherent ferocity which has ever been the characteristic of the cast of Nairs.


[1] The Old Soldier's Story - Edward Bird (1772–1819), ca 1808.
[2] These reports and many more from British regional newspapers going back to 1700 are now available at http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

Like many insurgencies the war against the Pazhassi Raja was a brutal one, with both sides on occasion taking heavy losses.

Later accounts published in the 19th Century tend to picture the British winning battles over the various Indian forces with comparative ease.

This was often not in fact the case, and as the following news paper account makes clear the insurgents were often able to inflict heavy casualties onto the East India Company forces.

From the Whitehall Evening Post
Saturday, July 20, to Tuesday, July 23, 1799.

Authentic Particulars respecting the primary Rupture with the COTIOTE RAJAH, recently received from India. Captain Bowman and Lieutenant Bond were sent with a detachment to take possession of a stronghold near Cootungarry, and were decoyed by a Hircarrah,[1] employed on the occasion, into a narrow defile, where a strong party of Nairs in ambuscade, availing themselves of the disadvantageous situation of the detachment, and their mode of attack, beset the party with a ferocity peculiarly their own, when Captain Bowman and Lieutenant Bond were almost immediately over powered and killed. Several Sepoys were also killed and wounded on the spot. Captain Lawrence, on hearing the report of the musquetry, proceeded, with all possible expedition, at the head of a body of grenadiers, towards the succour and support of Captain Bowman’s detachment: but having experienced a similar breach of faith in his guide, was also attacked in the same defile: but, after a warm and fortunate resistance, effected his retreat, and took post in a pagoda the whole night and part of the next day, hemmed in by upwards of a thousand of the Rajah’s troops.

Captain Troy, who had been employed in mustering the Native troops, and Captain Shean, on his return from a visit, fell in with a party of these sanguinary savages, who, having surrounded them, coolly and unprovokedly put the first to death, and wounded the latter in a shocking and barbarous manner. It would appear, from the foregoing circumstances that the inhuman wretches chiefly aimed at the destruction of the Officers: but particularly from their subsequent barbarity, the bodies of Capt. Troy and Lieutenant Bond having been since found decapitated; their heads, as it is supposed, having been sent to the Rajah – the copse of Captain Bowman was snatched from a similar fate of so many Officers, in being cut off from their relations and friends in this cruel and insidious manner, cannot be too much lamented, and furnishes a melancholy example of the inherent ferocity which has ever been characteristic of the cast of Nairs.

I cannot locate any other sources for this action, or indeed details of these officers. It is almost as if they have been edited out of the record.

I would be very grateful if you are able to recognise any of the people in the account, or can tell me anything about their lives or units before this defeat cut short their lives.

Where is "Cootungarry?"

I would like to thank Dr Oliver Noone for bringing this newspaper account to my notice.

[1] Hircarrah, variant of HURCARRA, HIRCARA , &c., s. Hind. harkārā, 'a messenger, a courier; an emissary, a spy' (Wilson). The etymology, according to the same authority, is har, 'every,' kār, 'business.' The word became very familiar in the Gilchristian spelling Hurkaru, from the existence of a Calcutta newspaper bearing that title (Bengal Hurkaru, generally enunciated by non Indians as Hurkĕroó), for the first 60 years of last century, or thereabouts. Courtesy of Hobson Jobson. See http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/hobsonjobson/

Not all of the British Officers approved of the way the East India Company had conducted wars in India.

Many of them must have suffered badly from the constant strain of fighting these wars, and many of them must have returned home to Britain seriously ill and with a very uncertain future.

In 1805, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder had not even been considered, and yet it must have existed.

Here is a very different account of what it had been like to fight the Pazhassi Raja, from those generally presented in publications from this period.

The following account written by George Strachan in 1817 paints a grim picture of the reality behind the war with the Raja. —

The details with which I have promised to finish you on the subject of my ten year-servitude in the northern peninsula of India, I hereby commence.

In 1790, at the age of 17, I was appointed a Cadet on the Bombay establishment with about seventy Cadets of the same Season. Of these there are not above twenty of the establishment, who have survived the effects of a noxious climate, and the fatigues of that hateful service of which I was engaged. In 1800, I was appointed senior Ensign of the Bombay European regiment, then engaged in the Cotiote war, where in less than ten years that regiment lost not less than twenty-five Officers out of thirty, and eight hundred men out of the full complement of one thousand. In 1801, I was promoted to be Lieutenant, and transferred to the 4d battalion, 3d native regiment engaged on the same service. The mortality was not less than in the former corps. Here I shall beg leave to describe the nature of the Cotiote war.—A more cruel and vindictive system of proscription was never practised by the most barbarous nation towards its foe, than that which was employed by the Bombay Government towards the Rajah of the Cotiote, hitherto the staunch ally, friend, and tributary, of the Company. Those facts, with which I became acquainted, have never been presented in any shape to the public eye. Indeed the bye-laws of the company would have made it almost treason in any of their servants to have exposed the secrets of the cruel system of extirpation, pursued towards this inoffending people, who from time immemorial had led a life of primitive and pastoral simplicity, attached to their sovereign by every motive of moral and religious obligation, to a degree of enthusiasm surpassing that of any other race of men, under a monarchical government, since the world began.

The Cotiote is that part of the Malabar coast which is between the sea-shore, and the Bella Ghaut mountain inland from Calicut, Tillichery, and Cairaone. It is for the most part covered with jungles or forests, interspersed with fruitful vallies, and in many places with impenetrable thickets, in which the ferocious tiger and other wild beasts entrench themselves in safety from the pursuit of man. It is about forty miles in breadth and sixty in length. Its produce — pepper, rice, and vegetables. Its population, now extinct, did not originally exceed 6000 men of the cast or tribe, called Nairs. This warlike people, determined to perish in the cause of their oppressed sovereign. And such was the dear bought victory obtained over them, that we lost in a contest which lasted ten years nearly as many men as our victims; till hunted down like beasts of prey, this race of brave men (who had been proclaimed rebels) were at length extirpated by fire and sword from the face of the earth. Nothing now remains of this people save the country which they inhabited, and that is become a barren and uncultivated desert The Bullum Rajah is the sovereign of another nation, bordering upon the Cotiote, which was at nearly the same time devoted to proscription and hunted down in like manner under the late General Stevenson, of the Madras cavalry.

The Cotiote war was terminated by the late Colonel Montresore, of the 80th regiment, in 1804, when, as if to throw a veil over these transactions; the Malabar coast was transferred to the Madras Government, who now occupy it.

The Cotiote Rajah had previously assisted the Company in their war with Hyder Ally, and furnished 1000 armed men, who distinguished themselves under our banners, in expelling Hyder from the possession of Саnnanore. ' Ungrateful as the treatment this high-minded prince and people -afterwards experienced from their European neighbours, to whom they supplied the whole produce of their cultivation, the 'task of recording their sufferings- in the heart rending scenes of cold-blooded slaughter, which this picturesque country every were presented to our view, is nevertheless painful to me. It fell to my lot, with a detachment of Sepoys, to command at Pyche, the Rajah's capital, whence he had been expelled; not one of his subjects had remained behind, but they had taken up arms, and followed his desperate fortunes in the field. Thus was I enabled to detail those atrocities, at the relation of which Englishmen here at home must be horror -struck, and to which they can scarcely give credit: but the facts related defy contradiction, and can be attested by respectable persons, lately arrived in England, who were also engaged in that campaign.

This brave but fugitive Indian Prince was alternatively attacking or retreating from the detachments in pursuit of him through the forests. Sometimes in one of these rencontres we have lost 800 men. His force being dispersed, he had taken refuge in one lone house, with not above 10 or 12 armed followers. These chose rather to be cut to pieces than surrender, and thus favoured his escape, fighting sword in hand till they fell to a man in defence of his person. This was at a time when a large reward and pardon were offered to his subjects if they would discover his retreat, in order to lead to his decapitation ; otherwise no quarter was given. Their towns, houses, and fields of standing corn, were burnt down. On every rising ground and road-side, 20 or 30 bodies were seen hanging to a gibbet, and some promiscuously upon trees. The prisoners taken were either immediately so disposed of, or shot and bayoneted upon the spot ; and such was the spirit of desperate resistance and despair manifested on the part of this unhappy people, that, unnatural as it may appear, they actually cut the throats of their own wives and children, ¡n order to prevent their falling into our bands.

The Canute Nambier, and 'others of his nobles, having been taken prisoners, were ordered for execution. Captain J--, a brother officer and valuable friend of mine, now in England, was commanded to see that order enforced. That Gentleman, in a letter I received from him on the occasion, which does honour to the liberal sentiments of his mind, described this reluctant duty with horror and pity, though mixed with admiration at the heroic firmness of those noble Indians. They faithfully adhered to their Sovereign down to the awful moment of yielding up their lives in his cause. The offer held out to them by the British Government was, a free pardon and an ample reward, provided they would discover the Rajah's retreat!

These terms were, even in their last moments, rejected with indignation. They voluntarily stretched out their hands to receive the rope, and putting it round their necks, were launched into another World, which to them afforded a nobler reward, and a brighter hope."[1]

It is not easy to find much about the life and career of George Strachan. In 1817 he was described as "Mr George Strachan - formerly a lieutenant Bombay Establishment in consideration of his extreme poverty and distress."

He was granted a political pension of £50 per year. This amount was very small. Retiring Major's could expect about £400 a year.

It is probable that Strachan had chosen quite deliberately to get his piece published by the Examiner, in order to embarrass the East India Company.

This paper had a Radical viewpoint and had been established in 1808 by John Hunt. Both John and his brother Leigh were to serve time in Surrey County Gaol for an attack on the Prince Regent in 1813. The Hunts were visited by Byron, John Moore, Lord Brougham and Charles Lamb. [2]

Three years later the EIC would prepare a copy minute on the request of George Strachan, late Lt 3rd Bombay NI, to be restored to the service. [3]



[1] Published in the Examiner Volume 9, for the year 1818. Page 594 and 595.
[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hunt
[3] Military Department Special Collections: Collection 14a IOR/L/MIL/5/377, Coll 14a 1820

The following is a description of a visit made by Abraham Parsons to Tellicherry, who had left Bombay on 7^th December 1775 and sailed south along the coast to Malabar, contains one of the best descriptions of the forts at Tellicherry in the late 18th Century that I have found so far.

This has enabled me to provisionally locate two more of the outlying forts surrounding Tellicherry.

"About three or four leagues to the south of Cananore is Tellicherry, the only settlement belonging to the English East India Company on this coast, where there is an English garrison; the other places being only comptoirs by permission of Hyder Ally, the sovereign.

The English are lords of Tellicherry and the district dependant on it, which reaches but a very little way, either within land, or to the north or south on the sea-coast; yet is quite sufficient for the intended purpose of trade. Here is a good fort, with strong walls, well garrisoned, with convenient houses for the chief, and the gentlemen of the factory, within the walls. That of the chief in particular is not only large, but a superb building ; it is situated on the same mount with the adjoining castle, and overlooks and commands the adjacent country and sea shore.

On a summit, about a mile to the south of the fort, is a small castle, called Mile End, where a sufficient guard is kept, and where the little dominion of Tellicherry terminates. It is so near the northern limit of the French settlement called Mahee, that the centinels hear each other give the parole."

The proximity of Mile End Fort to the French forts in Mahé can easily be seen from the following panorama drawn from the mast of a ship, anchored off the coast of Tellicherry in about 1775.




This image and the following one were drawn from ships sailing along the coast and were intended to enable ships arriving on the coast to identify where they had arrived at. The views from the masts of ships, fore shorten the distances, and have the effect of bring the Ghats closer to the shore than they appear from the shore itself. The ships officers who made these drawings used compasses and other instruments to set out their elevations, and as a result the pictures are very accurate.




Abraham Parson's attention then turns to the area to the north of the main fort, that survives in the middle of Thalassery today.

"A little way to the north of Tellicherry is a block-house with cannon mounted, surrounded by a stone wall; between the wall and block-house there is a deep foss. The block-house stands very high; there is but one entrance into it, which is by a very long and narrow wooden ladder, wide enough to permit one man to pass at a time. On the whole, Tellicherry is so well fortified, that Hyder Ally, during the last war with the English, did not think proper to attack this settlement. We staid here four days."





I have not been able to locate the exact location of this northern blockhouse, but it was located where Edward Brennan's house came down to the shore. This must be very close to Overbury's Folly.

The following aerial image shows a tree covered rectangular site on the shore above rocks which may be the ones shown in the following picture. If you are in Thalassery and you read this blog, I would be fascinated to learn if my hunch is correct.




Parson's left the town shortly afterwards on his journey south.

"December the 2d. We departed and proceeded to the southward, and kept at such a distance from the shore as not to distinguish any town, except the French settlement called Mahee, which is so near that it may be almost said to join."[2]




On January 18th in the following year Parsons returned north by ship calling in at Tellicherry once again. He left the following detailed description of the town.

"The town of Tellicherry is well peopled, and they carry on an extensive inland and foreign trade. Most ships from China and Bengal, (which, are bound to Goa, Bombay or Surat) touch here, and dispose of part of their cargoes, which is mostly resold to the inhabitants of the towns within land, who make a return in the produce of the country, such as ginger, pepper, areka nuts, cocoa nuts, and their oil kyah ropes and yarn, and cotton cloth, which is very good and cheap : they have here a particular kind of towels, esteemed the best in India. Here are many Portuguese merchants, who who seem to engross most of the trade, and resell or export on their own account with great advantage, as many of them are rich; some few of the natives are also wealthy. There are here two towns, one bordering on the sea coast, and the other in the wood : the principal inhabitants of the former are Portuguese, those of the latter natives. Between the town and the fort is an extensive and airy open place, which affords an agreeable walk in the cool of the evening. On one side is a pleasant garden belonging to the chief, where the gentlemen of the factory sometimes pass a little time in walking in the evening. The chief has likewise a small garden adjoining his house, well kept, and amply stocked with flowers. There is a charming shady ride through the wood, where the chief and other gentlemen of the factory often take an airing in the evening on horseback, or in an open chaise, riding round the limits of their little territory from the fort to the southern boundary, the fort at Mile End, near which is an agreeable spot, where they usually meet to alight and converse : the whole extent of this agreeable ride does not exceed five miles.

Some few friends having a desire to visit the French settlement called Mahie, I was invited to be of the party. We left Tellicherry fort at four in the afternoon, and arrived at the French governor's (Monsieur Pico's) house, in the fort at Mahie, at seven. He had no intimation of our coming: however, as one of the company was acquainted with him, he introduced the rest, and we were kindly received. We had not day-light sufficient to-examine the place, as we wished for, though we made good use of our time; we were only able to walk about the which is pleasantly and strongly situated on an eminence. I am told that there are near two hundred cannon mounted in the fort and the adjacent works. The town we had not time to go to. This is the only French settlement on this side India, that at Surat, where the French have a consul, being only a comptoir, by permission of the English. We supped with the governor, and several of the principal gentlemen of the settlement, and at eleven set out for Tellichery, where we arrived at two in the morning. We were carried to and from Mahie in what they call here a doodle, which is like a hanging cot, used for sleeping on board of ships; they are stretched at length, and each end fastened to a long and large bamboo cane, which is carried on the shoulders of two men, who travel at the rate of four miles an hour, or more. Provisions of all kinds are good and reasonable at Tellicherry, the sea furnishing them with plenty of fish of many sorts. The oysters here are the largest and best of any on the coast of Malabar. Here our little convoy increased greatly, with whom we departed in the morning of the 24th of January."







The outlying fortifications around Tellicherry seem to have been demolished during the 19th Century, but it is quite likely that at the site of the former fort at Mile End at least some of the footings or demolition rubble may still be present on this small hill around the water tower.

Has anybody ever visited the site?

[1]From photos in the Basel Mission Collection, preserved at the University of Southern California. This photo was taken by Christian Richter at some point between 1855 and 1860. See http://bmpix.org/bmpix/controller/view/impa-m34478.html
"An interesting part of the coast near the open space, which fives a good impression of the character of the coast. The overgrown platform belongs to the property of the deceased Mr. Brenner, Master Attendant of Tellicherry [reading of the last part of this sentence uncertain]. If you use your imagination you can see, in the tree hanging over the edge of the platform the sharp profile of an American Indian." (C.G. Richter's 3. Quarterly report 06.10.1860: 5)
[2] Travels in Asia and Africa; A Journey from Scanderoon to Aleppo, and over the Desert to Baghdad and Basra, by Abraham Parsons. Published 1808. Pages 226 & 227
[3] A general collection of voyages and travel, digested by J. Pinkerton.Pages 233 & 234.

Sepoys in the Uniforms Worn By Madras Presidency Troops During the Pazhassi Raj Insurgency. [1]

With the defeat of Tipu's army in 1792, the local Rajah's had expected that the British would return to their settlement at Tellicherry, and to resume trading as they had previously done following the wars that had occurred over the previous century.

What they had not appreciated, was that the East India Company was no longer just a trading company, as it had formerly been.

Since changes carried out under Lord North's administration, the East India company had become effectively an extension of the British Government; in effect a state controlled company.

It had changed from a company whose main activity was trading, into one that acted more like a government organisation that increasing paid for itself by revenue or tax gathering, rather than from profits made it had formerly made from trade alone.

It's new directors included men increasingly drawn not from senior returned East India Company officials, but from senior members of the political elite and the ruling classes in Great Britain who were less familiar with India and trade than their predecessors. Their expertise was in with taxing populations and ruling either their own landed estates back in Britain, which were populated by largely compliant tenant farmers, or on behalf of an established and widely accepted government.

The companies new directors also wished to apply the lessons and company procedures that had from their point of view been successfully developed in Bengal between 1760 and 1800 to exploit the taxation of farming and other revenues, and to apply them to the newly acquired territories in Malabar.

The following Political Letter written by Mr. Duncan, describes events in 1792, and the Pyche or Pazhassi Rajah's growing role within the region.

“"That during the war, the People of the [Pyche] Raja seized on the Wynaad as part of their ancient Territory and were at the Peace in possession” and the lasted quoted address to Bombay of June 1792 continues to state “That on the 6th of May 1792 a message arrived from Tellicherry from the Raja of Cotiote, stating that an officer from Tippoo had sent to the person in charge of Wynaad to deliver it up as the right of Tippoo and that similar letters had been sent by the same person to the Raja making the same demand.” Mr. Farmer not having then left Tellicherry, the Chief and Factor requested his ideas and directions on the subject, when he advised that the Raja should instantly send word, that the country being yielded to the English, he the Raja, could give no answer till he had informed the Chief of Tellicherry, but that, as Wynaad was certainly not including in the Grants of Tippoo, it could not consistently be retained, and that therefore the Raja must order the People to withdraw to the Boundaries of Wynaad, there taking a stand, and advising the Chief; if Tippoo’s people presumed to encroach beyond that boundary which the Bombay Commissioners then believed we had no claim to the Eastwards of, in so much that on the 9th of August they wrote to Tippoo’s Subahdar Hurry Purwae apprizing him “that as at the time mentioned by the Treaty we do not find Wynaad to have been under Calicut, we do not mean therefore to detain what was granted to the Company;" [2]

The situation was not made any easier for the local East India Company administrators, by the power struggle that was going on inside the local Rajah's family. There were several local ruling families each controlling small semi-independent and competing areas or Taluks.

The Pazhassi Raja was not the paramount ruler in any of these areas, but was a subsidiary and junior aspirant to one of these territories. The senior Rajah was his uncle, and as events were to show, the younger man was impatient for power, and was seen by more senior members of his family as a threat to their positions.

Over the coming years the Pazhassi Raja was to prove himself to be the most effective war leader amongst the local ruling families.

When the war with Tipu Sultan broke out in October 1789, the other more senior Rajah's had either fled into the Tellicherry settlement or travelled down to Travancore.

They had abandoned their subject peoples to their fate. This had lost cost them much of their former moral authority.

The Pazhassi Rajah had acted with more courage and had taken to the jungles on the slopes of Ghats with the younger men, and allied to the East India Company he had waged a war of ambush and raids on the Mysore troops and supply chain travelling along the Gun Roads Tipu had built to subjugate the Wayanad and Malabar.



A Nair photographed shortly before 1909. The Nairs were the main source of warriors in the early years of the uprising. These fierce warriors were in many ways similar to Gurkhas in the way they fought, having their own characteristic curved bladed knives.[3]

These senior Rajah's and especially his uncle were to play a double game over the coming years, as they sort to restrict the Pazhassi Rajah's influence and power which was beginning to challenge their own positions.

Duncan recognised the existence of this growing power when writing on 2nd March 1797 about events in Malabar. In this letter Duncan describes the man we now know as the Pazhassi Rajah,as the Cottiote Rajah.

“the late untoward Events in one of the Northern Districts in the Malabar Province which it grieves me sorely, to have to relate, howsoever much they may appear to have primarily and in a great degree unavoidably flown, from the Rivalry and Dissentions between two Cousin Germane called the Raja’s of Coorimnad and Cottiote, the former progress and fortunate issue of which stand already narrated in the Revenue letter from this Presidency of the 18th of December last, as does their unexpected Renewal in my late address to the Secret Committee of the 12th of January of which a Duplicate is herewith sent—“

“2 You will Gentlemen already know from the first report of the Commissioners that all the Malabar Rajas feel and have indeed all along felt rather uneasy under the degree of Restraint and Submission that we have since the Peace with Tippoo Sultaun endeavoured to subject them to, among these none has been so turbulently impatient all along as the Raja of Cottiote, otherwise called for distinctions sake, and as being indeed his more proper designation the Pyche Raja, one of the members of the family of the Raja’s of that District who having during the late War with Tippoo remained in the Jungles when his other & Senior Relations fled for refuge to Travancore acquired thereby such a footing in the affections of the people, that even after his services returned at the Peace he maintained his influence, so as to have been considered by the first Joint Commissioners from Bengal and Bombay & Treated as the effective or at least the acting Raja, at the same time that, on his behalf & with his consent they settled most or all of what related to his District with the Raja of Coorimnad the son of his Mothers sister (all heirship amongst these Chieftains going in the female line) and who whom as his senior, he professed at all times the greatest deference so as to consider himself to be only the manager under his orders; but yet his conduct was on the whole so turbulent & refractory that in the year 1794 Mr. Stevens then the Supravisor concluded the five years settlement of the Coltiote District not with him but directly with the Coorimnad Raja his relation as being at the head of the house of Cottiote whereas there are several between him and the Pyche (By misnomer called by us the Cottiote Raja) in order of succession not withstanding which the Pyche Chieftain has ever since the conclusion of this quinquenial lease proved extremely restless and jealous that it became soon after my entering on my present charge a serious and pressing consideration how to proceed in regard to him, in as much as he forcibly prevented the Coorimnad’s making the Collections under the quinquennial lease, to such a degree that the latter declared he could not pretend to go on with them without a force of 5 or 600 men of our Troops, in view to all which and also to enable us in pursuance of a Recommendation to that effect, from the Bengal Government to bring him (the Pyche) to account for his conduct in having put some Mapillas of his own Authority to Death, the commanding officer on the coast (General Bowles) was not only instructed to afford the Coorimand Raja the necessary support – but it was left to the last mentioned commanding officer and to the acting Supravisor Mr Handley (comprising the Civil and Military Superior Authority on the spot) to consider whether it might not be advisable in view to saving effusion of Blood if the Pyche Raja’s person be secured so as to prevent his protracting an insurgency by betaking himself an insurgent to the Jungle. [4]

To add to the Pyche Rajah's difficulties, was that fact that he was not just opposed by the equivocal and often hostile attitudes of his older relatives, but also by the private money making activities and interests of messr's Wilkinson, Handley, Stevens, Rivett, Torin and Brown, the local officials of the East India Company based in Tellicherry, that were diametrically opposed to his.

The land the Pazhassi Rajah controlled around his village was one of the best possible areas for the production of pepper. Most of the routes to the other pepper producing areas crossed his domain. They had to get rid of the Rajah if they were to capture his profits for their own personal gain.

The salaries paid to all East India Company officials except the most senior ones, were barely sufficient to cover their expenses.

Custom and practice throughout the 17th and 18th centuries had allowed EIC officials to engage in private trade (known as the Country Trade)in order to make up the difference, as long as it did not involve voyages back to Britain. By the late 18th Century many civilian officials were making fortunes. If they survived to retire as Nabobs, they were able to remit large sums of money back to Britain. Such was the size of some of these sums returned to Britain, that the returning East India Company officials were believed to have bought as many as 84 seats in Parliament that first brought Pitt the Younger to power.

Pitt was the grandson of a former East India Company Official from Madras.

This growing "Indian" influence was too much for the established authorities back in Britain, who were in danger of losing their political power and patronage to the "Indian" lobby.

They sort to prevent such high profits being made, or at least to control who had access to them, by appointing politically acceptable officials directly to the most senior posts, thereby cutting away routes to these posts for most career East India Company officials.

By 1797 it was becoming much harder for men like Wilkinson, Handley, Rivett, Torin and Brown to make money in places like Bombay. A World War was being fought against France, trade was depressed.



Pepper Growing on Vines in the Wayanad. The ultimate cause of all the conflict.

Torin, Wilkinson and Rivett lobbied to move to Tellicherry where they hoped to engross the pepper trade for their own personal gain. They had had their attention drawn to the area by Murdoch Brown and by the profits they had been making by selling English guns to Tipu Sultan via the French port of Mahé. [5]

The Board of East India Company also desperately needed to try to recoup the cost of the war with Tipu Sultan, if it were not to reduce dividends further. It therefore decided that it had to tax the newly conquered territory in Northern Malabar.

For this it was necessary to take over the lands, or more importantly a significant share of the revenues that had formerly been paid to the local Rajahs, by the farmers and villagers occupying these districts.

Before Tipu's invasion of the Malabar, the East India Companies territory at Tellicherry had only extended about four or five miles inland, and along a narrow strip of land stretching from the outskirts of Cannanore to the southern edge of Mahé.

After previous local wars, although the British had often fought as allies with local Rajah's against other Rajah's and or against the French and the Dutch, they had not taken over significant stretches of the territory that they had been able to secure with their local allies during the course of these wars.

The local Rajah's appear to have expected that once Tipu was beaten back out of their lands, they could resume their former rule as before, and without any loss of revenues.

This time however it was different. The East India Company had expended massive sums of money, all of which had to go onto the overhead, and which would wipe out dividends for years to come. Having fought the war ostensibly on behalf of the local rulers, they believed that the local rulers and their communities ought to be made to pay back the cost of the war.

The EIC sort to ascertain the likely revenues that Malabar could provide in order to repay the cost of both the provinces administration, as well as of the war, by setting up a Commission.

Walter Ewer described the commission in the following terms.

This country is under the Government of a Commission, who execute the Office of Supervisor.(Messrs Wilkinson, Rickards and Col. Dow)

Without a comment on the abilities of these gentlemen, I shall give a short account of their proceedings. I must however mention, that the Chief is Mr. Rickard’s. A gentleman of only 7 years standing in the service, whose greatest merit seems to be, that he has found out the weak side in Mr. Duncan whose Confidence in him appears to be unbounded.

In my opinion the Commission itself is a Disgrace to a Civilised Government, it is a Commission of Enquiry, parading the Country, petitioning for, and encouraging accusations; a country whose natives are ignorant or regardless of an oath; what must be the astonishment of the Impartial Traveller, when he finds that a Junior is employed to invite Charges against his Superior, & that the Judge expects to succeed to the Station of the Criminal, on his Conviction! I shall take no notice of the loss the Company has sustained, of the services of some very able young men, as an investigation is likely to take place.

But this, and; the loss of Revenue both of which are the Consequences of the Conduct of the Commissioners, are Trifles in Comparison with the Miseries of War. How far they are concerned in these calamities the following Extracts from the Diary will shew.[6]

Whilst it must be recognised that Walter Ewer was a stern critic of the administration of Governor Duncan, and that it is possible to find other accounts of the Commission that speak just as highly of its activities, I believe that subsequent events will show that Ewer correct was correct in his assessment.

This situation was made worse by the corruption being undertaken by several of the commissioners, including Messrs. Stevens and Handley.

"Towards the middle of December 1795 Mr. Stevens, Senior, resigned the Supravisorship and was succeeded by Mr. Handley, and at the same time charges of corruption and bibery were brought before the Governor, Mr. Ducan, by the Zamorin against Messrs. Stevens, Senior, J. Agnew, and Dewan Ayan Aya, a Palghat Brahman for extorting a lakh of Rupees."[7]


The level of mismanagement and corruption is clear from the following report by Ewer.

"This province will be ruined by the Commission of Supravision if continued; as the salary is good, & the station honourable, everyone who has interest at the Presidency will exert to get down here, without considering whether he is qualified for the Station. Not to mention that the Expense is double that of the Supervisor. Gentlemen who have spent most of their Time at Bombay Contract a Habit of Contempt for the Natives, as they converse with none there, except Persee, or Hindoo Merchant’s & when they come down here, they don’t know how to make a Difference, between the Sneaking Persee, who money is his God, & who would sell his soul; & suffer every indignity for Profit, & the Independent nair, who never quits his arms, who seeks no Happiness beyond the Chace, his Liquor & his Woman. The Commissioners began their career of Tyranny, by seizing the Zamorin, whose ancestor’s were the most Powerful Princes on this Coast, a poor helpless old man; & they escaped the Punishment such an act deserved, through the astonishment of his attendants at the audacity of it. Encouraged by impunity they attempted to treat the Cotiote Rajah in the same manner, they attacked and plunder’d his palace, but could not seize his person; about 60,000 Rp’s were carried off by the Troops, besides Jewels & other things. Only 18,000 Rp’s have been restored. This has been followed by an engagement, if it may be so called in which we lost more men, than Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Seringapatam. And our losses would have been still more considerable, had it not been for the generous forebearance of the Enemy who suffer’d several different Parties to retire un-molested. Besides the sacrifice of lives, the Revenue of the disputed District for 20 years to come, will not pay the Expenses of the War. The correspondence of the late Commissioners will shew how unfit they were for their stations. Nor does the President, now returned to the Board, to take his seat as a member of Council at Bombay, (Mr. Rivett) Shew more sense than his predecessors: While the Governor is endeavouring to settle the Dispute by Negotiations, while Mr. Peile the Superintendant, whom I have accompanied on the Expedition to the Cherical Rajah (who as a friend of both Parties, is trying to persuade the rebel Cotiote to visit the Govn General) is waiting the return of a messenger from Cotiote, we receive from Governm’t publick minute of the Commissioner complimenting the Gentlemen of the Service for their activity, & calling the Rajah a despicable or contemptible Chieftain. Such language is not much calculated to forward a negotiation with a man who at this moment is hesitating whether he shall trust himself in our hands."[8]

That this contempt for the local rulers and corruption was not the settled policy of the East India Company Directors or Governor Duncan is clear. The most experienced and one of the longest serving officials on the Malabar Coast, Mr. Peile the Northern Superintendant on the coast was working hard to reach agreement with the Pazhassi Rajah, and on several occasions they were thwarted by the active opposition of the corrupting influence of Messrs, Torin, Wilkinson, Brown, Handley and Stevens, often aided and abetted by the Rajah's uncle.

This is clearly demonstrated in the following letter.


Dear Sir
near Barrygurry Malabar April 24 1796

I have much to say to you about the affairs of this Province, but I have not time at present, as I am on a Journey, the Albion for England is expected in a day or so at Tellicherry, trusting you will keep my information secret, I give you my opinion without scruple, & have as little Hesitation in mentioning Names for the same Reason. I am now with Mr Peile the Northern Superintendant, in the Territory of the Cartenand Rajah, one of the most powerful on the Coast & am going with him in the course of the Day to his House 15 to 16 Miles off. The fatal error in all the Proceedings here, is that the Rajah’s have never been treated as gentlemen by the Com’rs enquire of Sir Robert Abercrombie, who is adored in this Country, how he behaved to them. I am afraid there is some underhand Work in this Business, & that we are in a Scrape; There is something very mysterious in Colonel Dow’s Transactions, he & the other Commissioners have quarrelled; in Short, there is nothing but confusion in the Civil Service.
I was in Hopes when I left Tillicherry, that something might be done by negotiation, & that I should have accompanied Mr. Peile the North’n Superint’t to a conference with the Cotiote Rajah. Mr. P is the only man in the Service, who dare trust himself with him, having always treated him with Civility & Respect. But, I have just heard from Tillich’y that it is determined that Sword shall decide the Contest. We must make Haste, for we have not above a fortnight, before the season closes. I shall only observe to you, we have so few officers, that the loss of a Dozen would be equal to a Defeat & any Accident to Gen’l Stewart would ruin the Army.
Orders have been sent to the Cherical Raja to furnish Troops, which he will do, with this observation, that there is hardly a man among them who has not Relations in the Cotiote Country, like orders have been sent to the Cootaly Nair, Who’s Sister is the principle Wife of the Cotiote Rajah. Time will show how much such Allies can be depended upon. You must pay but little attention to the accounts you get out of the Revenues of this Country, they may be of Consequence in Time, but, independent of the present Disturbances, such Tricks have been play’d with the Coin, as will bring heavy loss on the Company, which must now come out, besides this, little Dependence can be placed on arrears due above a year & a half, though they stand on Paper as Cash. The Spot where I now am, is all a garden, & produces everything, besides the advantage of being on the Sea Shore. Yet, though the Rajah & Superintendent, exert them selves to the utmost, the People are above a year in arrears. They are however telling them, that money we must have, or we cannot appear before the Governor, you must excuse my writing as, I am in the Midst of the noise of gunning.
I am Sir
Your most ob’t Servant
W Ewer
Rt. Hon’r Henry Dundas.
[9]

A few days later Ewer wrote yet another letter setting out the case very clearly.


Dear Sir, Tellicherry 25 Apr 1797.
Since I wrote the inclosed an Express arrived from the Governor to order Mr. P’s immediate Return to Tellicherry, to set out on some business to the North, in which I shall accompany him. The Result you will hear in Course. Allow me Sirs, to recommend this Gentleman to your notice, as whether successful or not, in the negotiation he has undertaken, he deserves attention for his Readiness in attempting it. Altho’ he is in a very good Situation at present, the want of Favor & Connections subject him to many Mortifications from his Juniors in the line & Service; & this fatal Commission, which if continued, will ruin the Country altho’ it has not driven him from the Province, as it has some other Valuable men, has often been a Clog to him, & frustrated his best endeavours, by interfering in his Duty, & thereby Lepering his Consequence in the Opinion of the Natives.
Mr. P. Is one of the oldest Revenue Servants on this side of India, but has been constantly superceded by people from every Department some of them his Juniors in the Service, He came out to India at the age of 30, & of course had more knowledge & experience of the World in General, than most Gentlemen who have been in the service that number of years, living retired, & not belonging to any set, he has formed no connections, & has nothing to depend upon, but his attention to his Duty. At the whim of the Commissioners, this Gentleman has been driven about the Province in all seasons, well or ill, & if he made any complaints it was resented by them, as a presumptuous Remonstrance, But now, in Time of Danger & Difficultly, he is the only Person we can look up to, the only man with whom the Refractory Rajah will treat, the only one who dares to go to him. Where are the haughty Commissioners?
Mr. Wilkinson, after residing a year & a half in the Province, a Time however long enough to set it up in flames, runs away to England. Then comes Mr. Rivett his partner in Trade, a merchant, Said to be a man of some abilities; but his stay here has not been sufficiently long for the Display of them. & Now Mr Torin, junior Partner in the same House succeeds to the Commission. So we see the merchant House of Rivett, Wilkinson & Torin of Bombay Governors of Malabar, every one of them totally ignorant of the Character & Persons of the Malabar Rajah’s & What is worse of the Respect due to men descended from a long Race of Princes. As to Col. Dow, I shall say nothing, his acts speak for him. I must however mention to you that all which happen’d to the Army, was foretold to me; some Time previous to the Accident, by a Gentleman at Bombay, while shewing me the maps. Mr. Spencer, Just appointed Senior Comm’r is a good natured indolent man thought by the Court unfit for Council, & now appointed to a station of tenfold consequence.
My private opinion is that these gentlemen who cannot be expected to know anything of the affairs of the Province (Mr. Torin having been commercial he resident only a few weeks, & Mr. Spencer but just arrv’d) are appointed solely that Mr. Rickards may have the whole management, he, in fact is the Supravisor, how far he is qualified, his Conduct will demonstrate. Some of the Comm’rs were so ignorant, that one asked if Paulghaut, a principle Fortress on Tippoo’s Frontier, was on the West Coast of Sumartra, & I myself saw a letter signed by two of them yesterday, about an attack & some houses burnt on the Island of Rhandaterra, a District about 7 miles from the seat of Government, with a River on one side. I beg your Pardon for troubling you with this long letter, but I think it right you shou’d be acquainted with the characters of the People employ’d in the Publick Service. I shall stay here till the Business is settled, or the Rains begin.
I am Dear Sir,
Your most obedient Servant.
W Ewer
2 Enclosures. [10]

The following paragraphs from the previous two letters are particularly significant..

"you must excuse my writing as, I am in the Midst of the noise of gunning."

"I myself saw a letter signed by two of them yesterday, about an attack & some houses burnt on the Island of Rhandaterra, a District about 7 miles from the seat of Government, with a River on one side."

As these show the start of the counter attack by the Rajah. It is highly significant that this attack falls on Rhandaterra, or Randattara as it is more normally spelt.

Randattara was the site of the new pepper plantation being started at Anjarakandi by Murdoch Brown.

This plantation was intended to grow pepper directly for the trade on lands mortgaged by the EIC and then when the payments could not be maintain, it was forfeited to the EIC who foreclosed on the local rulers a couple of decades before.

The Rajah knew full well that if this plantation succeeded, he would lose his pepper trade and therefore income. It had to be attacked.

In the next installment of this article I will explore the Rajah's response to these events, and set out the texts of some of the letters that passed between the Rajah, Governor Duncan, and how a faction of the local East India Company set about destroying any attempt at reconciliation with the Rajah for their own personal gain, and in clear contravention of the official East India Company policy.


[1] Plate C by Gerry Embleton, from Armies of the East India Company 1750 - 1850, Men-at-Arms Series 453, published by Osprey Publishing. See http://www.ospreypublishing.com/store/Armies-of-the-East-India-Company-1750%E2%80%931850_9781846034602
[2] British Library, OIOC IOR F/4/32/894. From Extract Political Letter from Bombay.
[3] From http://www.payer.de/quellenkunde/quellen1606.htm
[3] British Library, OIOC IOR F/4/32/894. From Extract Political Letter from Bombay.
[4] http://malabardays.blogspot.com/2007/12/murdoch-brown-1750-1828-early-days.html
[5] British Library, OIOC IOR H/438. Papers Walter Ewer 1796 – 1799. Folio89.
[6] Malabar Manual By William Logan, Vol. 1, Page 511.
[7] British Library, OIOC IOR H/438 Folios 111. Papers of Walter Ewer 1796 – 1799.
[8] British Library, OIOC IOR H/438 Folios 6-7 Papers of Walter Ewer 1796 – 1799.
[9] British Library, OIOC IOR H/438. Papers Walter Ewer 1796 – 1799.

Battle of the Periah Pass. 18th of March 1797.

The following account by Captn. David Price of the 7th Bombay Native Infantry of the expedition from Calicut up the ghats and into the Wayanad, gives a particular livid account of what fighting against the insurgents under the Pazhassi Rajah was like to take part in.

This operation led by Lieut. Col. Dow, was intended to bring the force back down into the coastal plain behind the forces that the Rajah had drawn up in his territory. The Rajah's forces had been successfully withstanding previous attempts to force him back out of his ancestral lands, immediately inland of Tellicherry.

Price had travelled to Tellicherry in order to recuperate after having lost a leg at the siege of Dharwar. Tellicherry was seen at that time as being a particularly healthy place. He arrived to find the rebellion by the Pyche Rajah had flaired up, and that Lt. Col. Dow needed a staff office, so despite stilling needing to use crutches Price joined the column.

As the following extract explains, he was soon in fear of his life, and fleeing down the ghats.

About the period at which we are now arrived, I think it must have been late in the month of December, of the year 1797, I had received an invitation from Gen. Bowles, to pass a short time with him in Malabar; in which province he held the military command. As the voyage at that season of the year was equally pleasant and short, I did not hesitate to avail myself of this invitation; and I was received by my respected old friend at Tillicherry with his usual kindness and hospitality. He resided at the time in the same cadjan bunglah, on the fort side of Cuddowly-hill, where we had formerly so often partaken of the elegant and splendid hospitalities of Capt. (afterwards Gen.) Gore's table.
It happened at the time, that we were in the very crisis of the jungle war, with our refractory tributary Kerula Verma, the Pyché Rajah; who in the bosom of his forest retreats, seemed to bid defiance to all the efforts of regular warfare. His house or palace at Pycheh had some time since been stormed and pillaged; but his submission appeared as distant as ever; and a division of native troops was stationed for the present at Cotapoorambah; 6 or 8 miles within land, or to the eastward of Tillicherry.

Unfortunately, although I was personally unknown to him Col. Dow ,who was the military commissioner joined to those entrusted with the general superintendance of the province of Malabar, proposed to me to act as his secretary, with a detachment then in preparation, at his suggestion, to operate as a separate column in the rear of the Cotiote district. Although the scheme of a jungle campaign presented nothing very captivating to a man who in case of extremity, must trust to his crutches, I did not think myself at liberty to decline the risk; and I acceded to the proposal.
My first confidential conference furnished me, however, with an instance of mental abstraction, of which I could have formed but a very imperfect conception; and I experienced a pretty strong foretaste of what I had undertaken. I found that, with very imperfect information on the subject, I was expected to draw up a plan for the execution of the design in agitation; and it was only by vexatious questioning, that I gradually elicited from the Colonel, such hints as enabled me to commit to paper sundry paragraphs, recommending that an attack should be made on a post established immediately in the rear of the Cotiote; by marching a detachment into Wynaud; and further acting as circumstances should arise. And this, in the shape of a letter, was communicated to his brother commissioners at Mahé.

A native battalion, recently embodied and imperfectly disciplined, under Maj. Cameron, a gallant and distinguished soldier, together with some draughts from other corps ,was destined for this service, and there was attached to it a grasshopper mountain gun, of about 2 pound calibre. The corps might have amounted altogether to about 800 or 900 strong. In furtherance of the design the detachment marched to Calicut; while Col. Dow and myself proceeded by sea from Tillicherry, to join it. The prevailing difficulty was to procure, in as short a time as possible, a supply of rice for the consumption of ten days or a fortnight, and bullocks for its conveyance. The civil servant appointed to the charge, for some private reasons, declined to accompany our commissariat.

In 2 or 3 days, however, slenderly provided, the detachment marched towards the foot of the Tammercherry gauht; and in the second day's march, we ascended the pass without obstruction. The road up this gauht was sufficiently wide, and more than ordinarily well formed; but it was uniformly steep, the whole of the way.
We encamped in a confined and irregular glen, surrounded by hills, about half a mile to the eastward of the head of the gauht; and here we remained some days to complete the final arrangement for our proceedings; but more particularly, to obtain some further supply of provisions, as the district furnished nothing whatever: and here also it was, truth compels me to remark ,that Maj. Cameron exhibited the first symptoms of discontent; because instead of receiving one from the commanding officer, he was not allowed to frame an order of march of his own.

Having secured a further small supply of grain, and established a miniature mud post, near the head of the gauht for a guard of sepoys under Lieut. Waddington, our detachment was put in motion in advance; without having yet discovered any thing hostile; excepting a few apparently unarmed and naked stragglers, about the edge of the jungle, which covered the hills to the N.W. Our column pushed on for a short distance to the southward, to get round the foot of the hill, when turning to the left, or northward, we passed through some of the most pleasing woodland scenery I ever beheld. To guard against surprise, where we were in momentary expectation of attack, a section of every division was ordered to keep loaded. In the afternoon, still without having perceived a single human being, our own people excepted, although many houses occasionally along the skirts of the jungle, overlooking the cultivated openings, we finally encamped in one of those openings in two lines with our baggage in the center.

On the day following, we continued our march unmolested; but I have reason to think not quite unobserved; as the simply armed natives must have accompanied our movements under cover of the jungle on our flanks: more particularly of the impermeable hill forest to our left ,where they were unassailable to troops unwieldily armed like ours. On reaching a solitary bazaar, or angadi, of which I have forgotten the name, early in the afternoon, we again encamped. This was at the gorge of a spacious open valley, intermediate between the Cotiary gauht, and the Periacherrum, another smaller one at the very bottom of the valley.

On the third day we resumed our march, amidst the same description of scenery as had hitherto accompanied us; and which generally prevails, indeed, among the eastern recesses of the southern gauhts; until we came to another considerable opening, or cultivated flat, between the hill ranges; our entrance to which was rather inconveniently interrupted by a narrow, but deep and muddy water-course; which it occupied some time to cross. Here we encamped.

Our position at this moment was about 3 miles to the eastward of the Eliacherrum gauht, immediately at the back of the Cotiote district below. I am compelled to observe that, through Col. Dow's extraordinary abstraction of mind, we were frequently, during the march, by running perpetually at some distance ahead of the column, exposed to the utmost danger of being cut off, by any stragglers, that might find it convenient to make a dash at us.

Nevertheless, it might not be very difficult to account for this apparent disregard of personal danger, when it is understood that the Colonel entertained a secret notion, that the little Rajah, with whom he had been long personally acquainted, would somewhere or other on the march, have met him in a friendly way; and an accommodation thus peacefully effected, to which force had hitherto proved unavailable. Having, however, been disappointed in this benevolent expectation, it became next our object to establish a strong party, under a steady and devoted officer, at the head of the Cherrum. For this purpose Lieut. Burke of Cameron's battalion, was selected.

Next day, accordingly, the whole of the detachment marched to the head of the Cherrum, which I still think to have been the Eliacherrum. We reached the head of the pass without the least obstacle of any kind; and still without the least sight or vestige of an enemy. Our march lay through a continued jungle, of perhaps three miles; emerging from which, we entered another opening of considerable extent, skirted all round by the woods: the actual head of the pass being immediately on the opposite, or western, side of the opening. We chose for our party the edge of the jungle to the eastward; as offering the fairest chance of a successful retreat through the woods in the rear.

Having crossed the open ground to the head of the pass (which was completely covered in, by over-hanging forest trees) and made such arrangements as had been thought necessary, with regard to our devoted party, the detachment was then counter-marched on its return. But the rear files were scarcely disengaged from the opening of the pass, when we were not a little astonished by a sudden discharge of small arms, from among the trees which over-hung us; directed, however at the retreating column. Some of the shot struck the sepoy's cartridge-boxes without further mischief. The column faced about; and instantly all was as silent as the grave.

At the very moment the volley was given, Col. Dow and myself, with two or three orderlies, had remained, without the smallest suspicion of danger, at the opening of the pass; and resting on the top part of the miaunah palanquin, I was myself deeply engaged in writing a report of our proceedings to the commissioners at Mahé.

Providentially the enemy had not perceived us; otherwise this tale would never have been told. The spot from which the volley was fired, could not have been more than 30 or 40 feet above our heads; and if they had discovered us, there was not a possibility of our escape, as they could have taken aim and fired unseen. The note written here, was despatched from the spot by a confidential native; and was principally intended, after announcing the establishment of the post, under Lieut. Burke, to request that any further supplies might be forwarded up the river of Mahé, towards the recess in the gauhts, at the source of that river.
Although parties were instantly sent to scour the edge of the jungle all round, not a vestige of the enemy could be seen; and we soon afterwards marched back to our encampment, leaving Lieut. Burke with his company, to secure the post, as well as he could, by a stockade and abbatis.

The night passed in undisturbed and singular tranquillity, and morning came; when circumstances presented themselves to our notice, which certainly awakened some very startling speculations. On the summit of the hill-range, which flanked the valley in which we were encamped, on the south side, we observed numbers of people; many of whom appeared with the jacket uniforms of our faithful sepoys suspended from their shoulders. This unlooked-for spectacle naturally produced an apprehension, that something sinister must have occurred in our rear, to some of the parties, which were known to be coming to our support. One of these, under Capt. (now Gen.) Disney, had already joined us. A group of officers, including Col. Dow and myself,drew together towards the foot of the hill, in order, if possible, to ascertain the cause of this inauspicious display. Lieut. Nugent, the Adjutant of Cameron's corps, one of the party, inadvertently, and for which he was immediately reproved by Col. Dow waved his handkerchief ;and some of the strangers, considering this as a signal to approach, without hesitation descended the hill, three or four in number, and joined us.
One of these very differently attired from the Chermers, announced himself as the bearer of a communication from the officer in command of one of Tippoo Sultaun's posts, on the out-skirts of Wynaud towards Mysore; and forthwith presented a sealed note. We now adjourned to the Colonel's tent, for the purpose of perusing the unexpected despatch. The purport of the note, which was in Persian, went to express some surprise, on the part of the writer, at our entrance into Wynaud, as an unwarrantable invasion of a district dependant on the authority of his master, and demanding to be informed of the nature of our designs. To this a reply was immediately prepared under my instructions, as dictated by Col. Dow; disavowing any intention of encroaching on any part of the Sultaun's territory, with whom our government was desirous of cultivating the most amicable relations; and that our appearance in Wynaud had no other object in view than the reduction to his allegiance, of a refractory tributary.

The bearer of the note did not appear to be a person above the ordinary class; and his demeanor was singularly mild, and respectable; the word Boohddy, equivalent to Swaumy in the Carnatic, accompanying every sentence which he uttered. But one of those who accompanied him bore an aspect so ferocious, with whiskers up to his eyes, and a look of such malignity, that I could not avoid observing him with considerable suspicion particularly when he appeared to clutch the weapon in his belt, as if ready for any mischief. The weapon was rather an uncommon one, being formed of the pointed ends of antelope's horns, turned in opposite directions, and held by a joining in the middle, so as to strike right and left. There was something so menacing in the ruffian's demeanor, that I could not avoid casting my eyes upon our pistols which lay on the table before us. Whether he observed me or not, I cannot say; but I think it may have had some effect upon him. They received a trifle in money, and were dismissed.

A far more serious consideration was, however, now to claim our attention for on examining into the state of our provision-stores, we made the alarming discovery, that through some contingent losses during the march, our supply had diminished two days more than we had been led to calculate upon. To avoid, therefore, the alternative of perishing by famine, some decisive step became immediately necessary: and it was determined, to return without delay to the head of the pass; which afforded the nearest communication with the river of Mahé. It was, however, indispensible in the first place, to provide for the security of Lieut. Burke, and his party; whom, to abandon in a situation so exposed, at a distance from all support, would have been as unsoldier-like as it would be inhuman. It so happened, that the night before, in conformity with his instructions, Lieut. Burke, with a part of his small force, had descended to the very foot of the Cherrum in his front (the Eliacherrum) and came unexpectedly upon a party of the enemy; who instantly fled, and very probably, gave an alarm to the Rajah's troops, that the whole detachment was about to attack them in the rear. Burke thought that he would, therefore be permitted to retreat without molestation. At this moment we were, however, not apprized that the troops under Col. Anderson were either marching, or about to march, from Cotapoorambah for the Cotiary gauht.

In these circumstances a note was immediately dispatched to Lieut. Burke in which he was directed, on a concerted signal, which was the firing of our gun that night, instantly to withdraw from the post, and join the main body of the detachments. In the mean time, every arrangement was made preparatory to our retreat, Capt. Disney being appointed to command the rear-guard. In the course of the night--which was rather a sleepless one to most of us Capt. Budden, of Cameron's battalion, and myself, took occasion to visit an officer's piquet, advanced towards the foot of the hill on which the enemy had shewn themselves in such ominous guise in the morning. And to our equal surprise and dismay, when most others were awake, we found the officer, a young subaltern, fast asleep. It cannot be supposed that we greeted him very kindly, and I will venture to say that he slept no more that night.

About 3 in the morning, we fired our little gun, not only as a signal for Lieut. Burke's retreat but also as one of defiance to the enemy, whom we justly suspected to be lurking round us. Then immediately dismounting our grasshopper, we placed it in readiness to be conveyed across the deep and muddy water-course in our rear. Not many minutes were permitted to elapse, when a scattered fire of musketry was heard from the direction of Lieut. Burke's post, and our sensations at the moment may be easily conceived. The detachment was now under arms, and every thing disposed in readiness, for our retrograde movement, as soon as Burke's party should have joined us.

Under circumstances which were sufficiently appalling, our second in command, whose bravery was never called in question so far forgot himself ,as to repeat aloud more than once, in the presence and hearing of the officers, and men under arms—“ this will be a night of discomfiture and disgrace!” and more in sorrow than in anger, I addressed him in terms of strong expostulation, on the strange impropriety of employing such language, at a crisis when every thing was required to animate and to encourage the people. He seemed to take my remonstrance, as it was intended, in good part; for he made me no reply.

The firing continued at intervals during the whole three miles of Lieut. Burke's retreat; but in something less than an hour, the party effected their junction with us; rather, it is not to be denied, in a state of some consternation; some, I regret to say, having lost their turbans, and some even their muskets. They were evidently panic stricken, and it was therefore considered prudent to place them at the head of the column of retreat.

As further delay was inexpedient, the detachment moved in silence across the water-course, Capt. Disney covering the retreat; and the column had gained considerably on the march before day-light.

About an hour after sun-rise, I happened to be in the rear of the column; when, at an angle, where the road turned short to the right, or southward, several of the enemy suddenly made their appearance ,on a narrow spur which we had just crossed, and which was thrown out from the woody hill-range on our right. I desired some of the sepoys that were near me to fire at them; but although they were within 40 yards of us, by throwing themselves flat upon the earth the moment they saw the flash of the firing, they must have escaped unhurt. At all events they disappeared into the thick jungle, which covered the hill-range on the right of our line of march.

Our march was continued with little other molestation than that by which we were assailed from the same jungle covered hill, whence the enemy kept plying us with their bows and arrows from among the trees, where they were perfectly secure from dislodgement; and yelling at us the whole of the way, like so many hungry jackals. Many an arrow which had missed its aim was picked up and deposited in my miaunah, by poor Lieut. Nugent, the Adjutant of Cameron's battalion; a very gallant and promising young officer, whose untimely fate we had so shortly afterwards occasion to deplore. But it was rather surprising that we should have here experienced no other casualty than two or three sepoys slightly wounded. The retreat throughout was conducted in perfect order; and early in the afternoon near the solitary Angady, which we noticed in our advance ,and which had been since burnt down, we turned to the westward, down the broad valley looking in that direction from the Angady, and finally encamped where it terminates; immediately at the head of the Periacherrum pass.

We had, however, scarcely halted on our ground, when the enemy, who had probably moved on our right flank during the march, made their appearance many in number, at the edge of the jungle, high up the hill to the northward of us. We pushed our little gun up the acclivity, in order to keep them at a respectable distance; but after two or three discharges, we found the elevation too great; and the firing was discontinued, lest we might injure or dismount our only piece of artillery. The enemy did not then, however, offer us any further molestation.

It was now, that Col. Dow communicated to me his intention of quitting the detachment, and proceeding to the coast next morning. This, at the time, did certainly appear to me an extraordinary resolution; and I did not hesitate to tell him honestly that it would be so considered. His reply was –“that he deemed it indispensibly necessary, before he could enter upon any further proceeding, to consult his brother commissioners at Mahé; and that he must stand or fall by his correspondence.” I was myself not sorry to be relieved from a situation into which I had been inadvertently drawn; and yet I felt a jealous repugnance to leave the detachment at such a crisis. But I found that my commander's resolution was unalterable; and to urge any thing further on my part might have been considered disrespectful. At the same time, I never doubted the ability of Maj. Cameron, to conduct the detachment in its retreat.

The night again passed in perfect quiet; and the ensuing morning, about 8 o’clock, and after breakfast, accompanied by a Jummadaur's escort of about 30 men, and leaving the command to Maj. Cameron, we proceeded to descend the gauht. On this occasion ordering my bearers with the miaunah to follow, I commenced the descent on my crutches; but had not long continued my progress ,when I found tha,t with his habitual abstraction of mind, the Colonel had marched on with the escort, far out of sight or hearing; thus leaving me at a distance in the rear, with no other protection than that which would be derived from two sepoy orderlies. It was God's providence that even this slender protection remained with me; for, a very little, while afterwards, they called my attention to the forest acclivity, about a musket-shot to our left, where I immediately perceived several of the enemy stealing hastily along, as if to take possession of some spot from whence they might securely assail us.
I sent, therefore, one of the sepoys on, to request that the Colonel would halt the escort until I could come up, as I believed we were about to be attacked.

Fortunately, the sepoy overtook the Colonel some distance in front, and the party stood fast until I joined them. We had proceeded not more, perhaps than 200 or 300 yards on our march, when we came to a shallow rivulet, which made an opening both to the right and left. Our first red coat had scarcely appeared in the opening, when a sharp fire of musketry, from among the rocks and trees on our right, and a discharge of arrows from the forest range on our left, commenced upon us. The fire of musketry was certainly within the distance of 30 or 40 yards.

In crossing the rivulet, it was necessary that I should plant my crutches with the most deliberate caution, among the slippery pebbles, which covered the bottom; and many a shot, and many an arrow, dashed the water up between my crutches; and it was certainly almost a miracle, that I should have gained the opposite side unscathed. And here, in justice to the memory of a brave man, long since departed to his eternal rest, I must acknowledge the surprise which I felt at the energy, activity, and ardour, which seemed, in a moment, to animate the entire frame of Col. Dow. The unfaltering coolness with which he gave his orders, and arranged our little party for defence, brought conviction home to me, that it only required a crisis of actual danger ,to awaken in him faculties that would have rendered him a bright example to the service.

The scattered fire of our party, separately dispersed among the trees, although we could only aim at the smoke of the enemy's pieces, succeeded, nevertheless, in a short time, in beating them off; for they now retired, either in consequence of some alarm from the rear (for a party had been ordered to our support, by Maj. Cameron, the moment he heard the firing in the gauht) or that they had suffered some loss from our musketry. At all events, this was the last we either saw or heard of them .
We then prosecuted our march, or, as the Colonel good humouredly expressed it, “kept moving,” until the forenoon was considerably advanced, when we came to another rivulet ,broader and deeper than that on which we had experienced our perilous escape. By this time my strength had completely failed me, and a painful cramp having seized the calf of my leg, I sunk down exhausted, and almost fainting, in the middle of the stream. In this situation the sepoys by my direction, poured water over my head and shoulders; and in an instant I felt myself surprisingly refreshed. In a few minutes I was assisted to the top of the opposite bank; which being more elevated than that which we had just quitted, offered a position from which we might oppose any further attempt on the part of the enemy, with greater advantage. The surrounding scenery was also become more open, than exactly suited their system of warfare.

Seated on this bank, I found my strength, notwithstanding, so entirely exhausted by a walk on crutches of 6 or 8, miles that I was compelled to the necessity of declaring that I could proceed no further; and I already considered that I was about to terminate my career under the Nair knife; for it was notorious that they gave no quarter. The Colonel happened to have with him a Mozambique slave, of athletic proportions, and great muscular strength; and by desire of his master, this man consented to take me on his back: but he had scarcely borne me 100 yards, when he complained that my weight was so great, that he could carry me no further, and he accordingly let me down. My clothes had, indeed become so saturated with moisture, by my drenching in the river, and every muscle in my frame so entirely relaxed by fatigue, that my weight must have been nearly doubled, and I could not be much surprised at what he did. Again the goodness of Providence interposed in my behalf; for the sepoys now volunteered to bear me out of danger. Having procured a pole from the adjoining jungle, they fastened together two of their kamlies, or hair-rugs, and, tying them at both ends to the pole, they formed a sort of hammock, in which being placed, I was thus carried on without further detention. It was however not very long before we emerged from the jungle into the open country, a little above the small station, on the north bank of the river of Mahé; called, as far as I can recollect, Parkarote. Hence, turning a short distance to the northward, perhaps an 100 or 200 yards, we were conducted to a very substantial Mopla house. We were taken to the upper part of the building, into an open gallery balustraded all round; the roof projecting to a considerable distance beyond the body of the building. Here we were in sufficient security against attack; the gallery sloping outwards above the parts below, so as to admit of our firing on the heads of any assailants. Here, after partaking of a simple curry, it being now late in the afternoon, we laid ourselves down on some floor mats, and slept without either awaking, or thinking of an enemy, until breakfast time the next morning.

While we were at breakfast a report was brought us that a number of sepoys were at that moment issuing from the opening in the jungle, from which we had made our egress the preceding day. This proved to be the advanced guard ,commanded by Capt. Disney, of the main body of the detachment, under Maj. Cameron; now also on its retreat down the Cherrum. Capt. Disney, although attacked on his march, effected his passage without loss; which was certainly surprising, when we considered that the enemy fired in perfect security from behind the trees and inaccessible rocks. Capt .Disney gave a written report of the circumstances of his passage; which was as graphic as it was interesting. Having directed him to post his people, together with the 30 men which had composed our escort, near the opening of the jungle, in such order as to flank the detachment, under Maj. Cameron, if hard pressed in his retreat, which we did not expect, Col. Dow accompanied by myself, proceeded on board a large canoe with out-rigger, in which we dropped down the placid river to the once French settlement of Mahé; where, without further incident, we arrived in the course of the day.
We were hospitably received by Mr Law, one of the gentlemen of the Bombay civil service attached to the province of Malabar ;at whose house I was immediately put to bed, under violent feverish irritation, occasioned by so much fatigue and excitement. This was, however soon allayed, and in a few days we quitted Mahé, after Col. Dow had held his conference with the commissioners ;and I returned to my old friend Gen. Bowles quarters, at Caddouly hill, in Tillicherry.

While at Mahé, the details reached us of the disastrous circumstances of Maj. Cameron's retreat. He fell in the disorderly conflict; as did his Adjutant, Lieut. Nugent, whom I have already mentioned, as a very gallant and promising young soldier. On this fatal occasion, he proved himself worthy of the highest encomium; for when the native officer who carried one of the colours of the battalion, was killed he immediately disengaged the colour from the staff, and wrapping it round his waist, soon after fell, mortally wounded. The circumstances of Maj. Cameron's death were never reported. The total loss sustained by the detachment was never correctly ascertained. At first it was supposed to have been most serious independently of the death of two gallant officers; but many supposed to have been killed, contrived to escape among the jungles, and subsequently joined their corps.

It was thought by many that, in part at least, this disaster might have been avoided; and that was by abandoning the baggage, instead of suffering it, with the crowd of bullocks, to choke the narrow passage of the gauht; so as to much impede the movements of the men. This was, however, an alternative, to which Maj. Cameron, who was one of our bravest officers, could not submit, any more than to leave the little grasshopper, which was lost in the confusion. My bearers contrived to escape by throwing down my palanquin; but my poor Mussulman, Hookah-burdaur, was killed on the spot. The palanquin being observed overturned by the side of the narrow road, and my cloak hanging over the side, the report was circulated that I had shared his fate; because, at the time ,I happened to wear a green undress frock-coat, and the green lining of the boat cloak seemed to account for the report.

In his report of the circumstances attending his march, Capt. Disney stated that at the commencement of every attack, he heard the small shrill note, of what he considered a slender reed pipe. During our descent, I had heard a similar note, which I conceived to have been either that of a forest bird, or the sound occasioned, perhaps, by the collision of some clusters of bamboo, agitated by the passing breezes.

While at Tillicherry, a report was drawn up by me, in detail, of our proceedings; from the period of our departure from Calicut, up to that of our return to Mahé. It was addressed to Gen. Stuart, the Com.-in-Ch. of the Bombay army; who, as I was subsequently informed by his secretary, Maj. Walker, declared it to have been the only intelligible account which he had yet received of the transactions in Malabar. It devolved to me also, and curiously enough in competition with Capt.(since Maj. Gen.)Lewis to draw up a memorial to the commissioners at Mahé. Col. Dow, from a partiality ,perhaps, of which he might not have been aware adopted that of his officiating secretary; for I certainly could not have become better informed in the affairs of Malabar than Capt Lewis, who had for many years resided in that province.
I must not omit to state, that at the expiration of two or three days after our return to Tillicherry, I accompanied Col Dow to visit the division Col Anderson; which was on its return from a march to the foot of the Cotiary gauht, towards its fixed station at Cotapoorambah; and this right across the line of our retreat from the Periacherrum. As the immediate district was at this moment in the power of the insurgents, we halted for the night at Cudroor, a Nair fortified house, about midway between Tillicherry and Cotapoorambah. The access to the interior of this mansion was by a ladder, to an upper door about 20 feet from the ground; which, rendered it pretty secure against attack without artillery. The ladder of ascent was nothing but the stem of a tree, with notches cut into it for steps; and I experienced some difficulty in getting to the top. In the course of the afternoon, we heard several discharges of musketry; which we were next day informed had been occasioned by some vexatious and desultory attempts on the part of the enemy, to harrass the detachment on its march to Cotapoorambah.

Next morning we quitted our snug retreat, at Cudroor house, with our small escort of sepoys; and pushing at quick time along the open track of rice grounds, flanked on either side by a suspicious looking jungle, we reached the station at Cotapoorambah, without either attack or accident early in the forenoon.

We found the troops under Col. Anderson disposed round the large tank, and in the dilapidated buildings along the sides. At present there appeared to be a dead stop to our operations against the Cotiote insurgents: any attack on the interior of that forest-covered-district, with our then existing force, being considered worse than useless; and a wanton sacrifice of human life, to no purpose whatever.

While we remained at Cotapoorambah, Col. (since Lieut.- Gen.) Nicholson, of the Bombay engineers, had occasion to visit the station; and on his way from Tillicherry, with an escort of provisions, had personal experience of what the troops were exposed to on these indispensible duties; for his approach to the post was early announced, by a sharp fire of musketry, kept up between the escort and the enemy, in the jungle on their flanks, while they were proceeding along the centre of the open rice grounds, between Cudroor house and Cotapoorambah. There was, however no mischief done; and the Colonel, who had not for years, been within the range of an angry musket-shot, seemed not a little rejoiced to find himself among his friends. He had lost a leg, it might be noted, in a campaign of his early service.

Col Anderson, who had most justly the character of an excellent officer, as was eminently proved by the skill of his arrangements, in maintaining and providing for the subsistence of the station at Cotapoorambah, was nevertheless, of a disposition not the most accommodating in the world; and with whom official communication, therefore, presented nothing very agreeable, or inviting. I accordingly, soon discovered that he and I were not likely to coalesce. I had indeed already given offence by openly expressing an opinion averse to the fire-and-sword system, hitherto pursued; and he had, I thought ,very significantly remarked, that the service had never prospered, since subalterns had presumed to give their opinions. At all events, and all things considered, I took an early opportunity of signifying to Col. Dow, that it was my intention of returning to my duties at the Presidency by the first conveyance from Malabar. [1]

[1] Memoirs of the early life & service of a Field Officer of the Retired List of the Indian Army, published London 1839. by David Price. page 333 to 351.