In 1784 the officers belonging to the late second battalion who were regimentally senior to those serving with the first were given the option of joining that battalion in the East Indies at their own expense, of which some availed themselves. [Sidenote: 1st bat.] We shall now return to the first battalion which we left in quarters at Poonamallee in February, 1780. At the commencement of 1780 a new war had broken out in India, the causes of which it is not easy to unravel, owing to the depth to which the several Presidencies of the East India Company had entered into the intrigues and quarrels of the Native rulers. On the 5th April, the Mahratta Chiefs, Holkar and Scindia, were defeated in their camp whilst advancing on Surat, and this victory was followed by numerous less important successes. In Bengal, military movements were taking place under the direction of Sir Eyre Coote, who had now succeeded to the chief command in India, and the strong fortress of Gwalior, hitherto regarded as impregnable, was taken by escalade on the 3rd August. On the side of Madras the forces on the establishment did not exceed 30,000 men, dispersed in very distant quarters, and the Presidency had unfortunately been engrossed in internal disputes rather than in active measures of preparation to oppose the enemy. Such was the state of affairs at Madras when on the 10th of June information was received that a large army was assembling at Bangalore under Hyder Ali, the son of a petty chief in Mysore, who had risen to the chief command of the army of that State. On the death of the Rajah, Hyder Ali assumed the guardianship of his eldest son, who was left a minor, placing him under restraint, and seizing upon the reins of government. Having a considerable territory under his control, he maintained a formidable military establishment, which he endeavoured to bring into a high state of discipline and efficiency. Standing now in the position of Sultan of Mysore, he formed a league with the French, and entered into a confederacy with the Nizam of the Deccan, the Mahrattas, and other native powers, for the purpose of expelling the British from India. In July, 1780, Hyder Ali, having passed the Ghauts, burst like a torrent into the Carnatic, whilst his son, Tippoo Saïb, advanced with a large body of cavalry against the Northern Circars, and even the villages near Madras were attacked by parties of the enemy’s horse. In consequence of these events the first battalion Seventy-third Regiment was ordered to join the army being assembled at St. Thomas’s Mount under the command of Major-General Sir Hector Munro, K.B. This army amounted to upwards of 4,000 men, consisting entirely of the Honourable East India Company’s troops, with the exception of the Seventy-third Highlanders, then about 800 strong. It was composed as follows:— { Infantry 1,000 European { Artillery 300 { Dragoons 30