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180 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

in which the Rojcal sloop of wur, ' Cudclalore,' and 'Fletcher,'
transport, also went down, and the ' Nancy,' transport, and
Essex, Indianian, were dismasted. The same writer says —
:
" A part of the mainmast of the ' Revenge,' which had been
carried away a little above the deck, was found and brought to
Bombay, and, by some particular mark, known by the
builder."
The Bombay cruisers were employed at the siege of Telli-
cherry, and remained there till about the middle of May. The
' Neptune and ' Royal Admiral,' two of the blockading squadron,
'
then sailed to the northward of the Equator, into the limits of
the south-east monsoon, and, after making their westing,
steered for Bombay with the south-west moonsoon.
In December, 1782, death removed from this scene of strife,
Hyder Ally,* the most formidable enemy the Company had yet
encountered in India, though he was not unworthily succeeded
b}' his son, Tippoo Sahib, who had already acquired laurels at
the expense of the English by the capture of Cuddalore. Tippoo
immediately marched from Paniani, where he was engaged in
operations against a small force under Colonel Humberstone,
the same brilliant officer who was mortally wounded on board
the 'Ranger,' on the 8th of April, 1783, to assume command of
the main army, Avhich he joined near Velore about the end of
December : here he received a large reinforcement of French
troops, with twenty-two guns, and was preparing to offer battle
to General Stuart's small army of three thousand Europeans,
and eleven thousand five hundred Natives, when he learned of
a formidable invasion on the western coast. In the latter part
of December, 1782, Colonel Humberstone, after Tippoo's retreat
from Paniani, despatched his Sepoys by land to Tellicherry,
and his Europeans by sea to Merjee, on the Malabar coast. In
the succeeding operations the ships of the Bombay Marine par-
ticipated, and here a young officer, Mr. (afterwards Sir) John
Hayes, destined to add lustre to the annals of the Service,
underwent his hapUme de feu. General Matthews proceeded
from Bombay with a strong military and naval force, the latter
consisting of ships of the Bombay Marine, under Commodore
Emptage, who flew his broad pennant on board the ' Bombay,'
twenty-eight guns, and, after capturing the hill fort of Rajamun-
* In the " History of Hydiir Naik," (as Hyder Ally was called) an original
Persian MS. written hj Meer Hussein Ally Khan Kinnani, translated by Colonel
W. Miles, of the Hon. East Indian Company's service, and published in 1842,
in describing the battle of Muhammed Bunder, soon after Sir Eyre Coote's
arrival at Madras from Bengal, in 1780, the writer sjjeaks of the great efl'ect of
: —
the fire of two ships-of-war. He says " Meer Ali Kuza Klian was galloping at
the head of his cavalry along the beach, intending by an attack on the troops and
followers of tlie English army to tlirow them into confusion, when, of a sudden,
A shot from a cannon of one of the ships struck him and broke the arm of his
valour, and threw him off his horse." The native historian then describes his
death, and the defeat and dispersion of Hyder Ally's army.