P u r s e r a*m
B h o w .
their leader Purferam Show, kept themfelves in exercife, and
diverted 'our military with their fieges. Mr. Dirom defcribes,
p. 10, i i , their artillery in a moft laughable manner; yet they
■came back in triumph, afiifted perhaps by the Bombay brigade,
and the hero Captain L ittle*. They marched northward to
Sera, taken in the early days of Ayder, who was formally inverted
Soubab of the place. They thence proceeded to Cbitteldroog, a
fort of vaft ftrength, feated on a ftupendous rock, to which Mr.
Faden's map .gives the height of two thoufand iix hundred
and' forty yards! ! ! This alfo was one o f the early acquifitions
of Ayder. Here was confined the crew of the Hannibal, taken
by the gallant Suffrein, and delivered, in Augtyjl 1782, to the
favage Ayder, contrary to every , law of war and humanity.
Purferam Bbow proceeded under the tuition o f our Captain
Little, and was taught to take Hooly-Onore, and Bankapaur, and
Simoga, on the banks of the Lungebadra, and lire wed him haw
to gain a complete vidtory over a large body of Tipppo's forces
near Simoga +, commanded by his fon Reza Saib. Purferam,
elate with his plumes, forgot he was to join Abercrombie s
army, and affifi: in the reduftion of Sermgapatam. He
marched toward Biddenore: was followed by Kummir ul
jyien, and by letters of recal from, Lordi.Cornwallis, he hastened
to co-operate in the original intent of the difeordant alliance.
Purferam Bbow loft fight of the battle of February ,7,
which decided the fate o f the tyrant. General Abercrombie, by
» Dirom, p. 103. Sec more in Lieutenant Moor's Narrative of the Operations of Captain
Little's detachment, p. 169. T h e readerwiU find, in p. 129, an accurate view of Chitteldroog.
+ Dirom, p. 103. various
Various inevitable impediments, could not effedt his junition
with the victor till the 16th; and it is not probable that Purferam
Bbow ever quitted his fide : happy was it that he did not.
He faved the horrors with which his colleague Hurry Punt,
and the Nizam's generals were feized, when Lord Cornwallis
cruelly left them alone all night to force his way into the
centre of an enemy’s fortified camp in the dark! like a common
foldier! with part only of his forces ! without cannon !! without
fear * !
T h e little fort of Hoolea-droog was honored by having its
neighboring valley made the rendezvous o f the combined armies
diredled to give peace to Hindoojlan, by the fubduing the
ambition o f an ufurping tyrant. All the vanity of the camp o f
cloth of gold\ appeared in the empty ftate o f the eaftern princes,
the Cboudered elephants ftiff in gold and filver, the Chubdars
proclaiming the fwelling titles of the riders, or attempting to
filence the noify multitudes of their military mob. The long
array of the Britifh army marched in aweful filence, and with
the gravity o f men fitted-for great exploits; deep feitfe, long
experience, and determined perfeveranee marked chara'dlerirtic,
the face'of every veteran ! their a ¿lions were correfpondent. I
fhall emerge with them out of the foreft, and crofs with them
the Madoor ; again fee the fatal heights of Mailcotta, and, in
bloody vifion, the two days fight of otlr great commander,
* D i r d n y p i 1 4 1 .
t The famous interview between Henry VIII. and Francis I. between Guiñes and Andres,
as fplendid and filly as the parade at Holeadroog.
victorious