till burning villages in the vicinity of St. Thomas' Mount, nine miles from Madras, betrayed his devastating course, that they began to prepare for defence. Haidar's scheme was to lay waste all the country from the Pulicat Lake down to Pondicherry for a considerable distance inland, thus isolating Fort St. George, and preventing any aid coming from the north and west, while he anticipated co-operation himself from the French on the coast-line.
Alarmed at the danger which threatened them, the Madras Government directed Colonel Harper, then in command of the Guntúr detachment, to proceed at once southward. Colonel Braithwaite was also ordered to move from Pondicherry on Madras by way of Chingalpat, and a force from Trichinopoli was instructed to intercept the communications of the enemy through the passes leading to the Báramaháls. As no confidence could be placed in Muhammad Alí, detachments were despatched to occupy the forts of Wodiarpáliam, Jinjí, Karnátikgarh, and Wándiwásh, then held by his troops. The first of these expeditions was for a time successful, and Lieutenant Flint with great address secured possession of the fortress of Wándiwásh, which he continued to hold for six months with skill and resolution. The other two enterprises proved abortive.
Haidar, having descended through the Báramaháls and the Changama Pass, detached a force under his son Kárim to attack Porto Novo, south of Pondicherry. He himself proceeded to invest Arcot, but
