£°
S a d r a s -
wall's, towers, and fofs. In this Rate it was attacked by the
young hero Clive, in if§H when it was garrifoned by eleven
hundred fokliers. d iv e marched againft it with only three
hundred Seapeys and two hundred Europeans, and eight officers,
fix of whom had never feen fervice. He halted ten miles
from the place. The enemy’s fpies reported that they were
marching through a dreadful tempeft of thunder, lightning,
and of rain. The garrifon thought them more than men, and
evacuated the fort with all fpeed. Clive marched coolly through
a hundred thoufand fpeaato'rs, gazing on them with admiration
and refpeft, and took pofleffion of the fort »1 He did not
confine liimfelf within its walls; he made frequent fallies, and
beat the foes in every hERtm. At length they poffeffed them-
felves of the town. A clofe fiege commenced. He defended
the place from September 6th to November 1 5 * ; when, tired
of confinement, he took the field, and left the future defence to
Captain Kilpatrick, an officer of approved gallantry.
To return to the coaft. Sadras ftands near the fea, a little
to the north of the river Paliar. It is a Dutch fettlement, originally
made for the purchafing the manufaaories of the
country. It is feated in a very fertile c o u n t r y , which enables
the induftrrous inhabitants to fupply their neighbors at Madras
with the various produaions of their gardens, which the ftenl
foil of that country denies to the capital of Coromandel. In
I754, it was the place in which the conference was held between
the Englijh and the French for fettling a peace; but by
the arts and the demands of M. Duplet x , it ended with the
ftrongeft exafperation on both fides t- A little to the north of
* Orme, i . 183. t Same, p. p. 339* 34s1, P N '
Sadras ftands the feven pagodas, a moil wonderful affemblage S e v e n P a g o d a s .
o f temples, and other places o f Hindoo worihip, fecond only
in antiquity to thofe o f Elephanta and at Ellora, which are
fubterraneous, cut out of the folid rock. Thefe are elevated
high above the furface, excavated out o f folid rocks riling to
different heights, and by the wondrous ikill o f the antient ar-
tifts hollowed into various forms ; the natural roof is often
felf-fupported, fometimes it is as i f held up by pillars left in fit
places, poffibly more for ornament than neceffity, cut out of the
fame rock. Where the fizes o f the rocks will admit, there are
inftances o f two pagodas, one cut out of the fame rock above the
other, with the communication of a ftaircafe formed out o f the
live ftone. Staircafes frequently occur, as if once leading to
edifices now deftroyed. Excavations fuppofed to have been deigned
for Choultries, or the fame charitable purpofes as the
Mahometan caravanferas, are not infrequent.
T h a t this was a place o f commerce I little doubt, and pro- R oman C oins.
bably frequented by the Romans. The grounds o f my conjecture
is, tliat a pot o f gold and filver coins * has been found
here by a Ryot, or huibandman, with charaaers which neither
Hindoos nor Mahometans could explain ; they probably muft be
Roman. We know that their trade- extended even farther than
the Coromandel coaft, and I have alfo been informed that Roman
coins have been feen in the pofleffion o f Brahmins, the only
people o f curiofity in all thefe extenfive regions, and fuch coins
muft have been found within their neighborhood.
* Aiiatic Researches, i. 158,
H 2 T h e