SURAT TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH.

The merchants residing at Surat, finding themselves exposed to numberless dangers, and every species of oppression, by the sidee who commanded the castle on one hand, by the governor of the city on the other, and by the Mahrattas, who had a claim to a certain share of the revenue, made application to the English presidency at Bombay, desiring they would equip an expedition for taking possession of the castle and tanka, and settle the government of the city upon Pharass Cawn, who had been naib or deputy-governor under Meah Atchund, and regulated the police to the satisfaction of the inhabitants. The presidency embraced the proposal: admiral Pococke spared two of his ships for this service. Eight hundred and fifty men, artillery and infantry, with fifteen hundred sepoys, under the command of captain Richard Maitland, of the royal regiment of artillery, were embarked on board the company’s armed vessels commanded by captain Watson, who sailed on the ninth of February. On the fifteenth they were landed at a place called Dentiloury, about nine miles from Surat; and here they were encamped for refreshment: in two days he advanced against the French garden, in which a considerable number of the sidee’s men were posted, and drove them from thence after a very obstinate dispute. Then he erected a battery, from which he battered the wall in breach: but this method appearing tedious, he called a council of war, composed of the land and sea-officers, and laid before them the plan of a general attack, which was accordingly executed next morning. The company’s grab, and the bomb-ketches, being warped up the river in the night, were ranged in a line of battle opposite to the Bundar, which was the strongest fortification that the enemy possessed; and under the fire of these the troops being landed, took the Bundar by assault. The outward town being thus gained, he forthwith began to bombard the inner town and castle with such fury, that next morning they both surrendered, on condition of being allowed to inarch out with their effects; and captain Maitland took possession without further dispute. Meah Atchund was continued governor of Surat, and Pharass Cawn was appointed naib. The artillery and ammunition found in the castle were secured for the company, until the mogul’s pleasure was known; and in a little time a phirmaund, or grant, arrived from Delhi, appointing the English company admiral to the mogul; so that the ships and stores belonged to them of course, as part of the tanka; and they were now declared legal possessors of the castle. This conquest, which cost about two hundred men, including a few officers, was achieved with such expedition, that captain Watson returned to Bombay by the ninth day of April.

The main body of the English forces, which had been centered at Madras, for the preservation of that important settlement, took the field after the siege was raised, and possessed themselves of Conjeveram, a place of great consequence; which, with the fort of Schengelpel, commanded all the adjacent country, and secured the British possessions to the northward. M. Lally, sensible of the importance of the post, took the same route in order to dislodge them; but finding all his attempts ineffectual, he retired towards Wandewash, where his troops were put into quarters of cantonment. No other operations ensued till the month of September; when major Brere-ton, who commanded the English forces, being joined by major Gordon with three hundred men of colonel Coote’s battalion, resolved to attack the enemy in his turn. On the fourteenth day of the month he began his march from Conjeveram for Wandewash, at the head of four hundred Europeans, seven thousand sepoys, seventy European and three hundred black horse, with fourteen pieces of artillery. In his march he invested and took the fort of Trivitar; from whence he proceeded to the village of Wandewash, where the French, to the number of one thousand, were strongly encamped under the guns of a fort, commanded by a rajah, mounting twenty cannon, under the direction of a French gunner. On the thirteenth day of September, at two in the morning, the English attacked the village in three different places, and drove them from it after a very obstinate dispute; but this advantage they were not able to maintain. The black pioneers ran away during the attack, so that proper traverses could not be made in the streets; and at day-break the fort poured in upon them a prodigious discharge of grape-shot with considerable effect. The enemy had retired to a dry ditch, which served as an intrenchment, from whence they made furious sallies; and a body of three hundred European horse were already in motion, to fall upon and complete their confusion. In this emergency, they retired in disorder; and might have been entirely ruined, had not the body of reserve effectually covered their retreat: yet this could not be effected without the loss of several officers, and above three hundred men killed and wounded. After this mortifying check, they encamped a few days in sight of the fort, and, the rainy season setting in, returned to Conjeveram. The fort of Wandewash was afterwards garrisoned by French and sepoys; and the other forces of the enemy were assembled by brigadier-general de Bussy, at Arcot.