[Sidenote: 1781] Hyder Ali, a soldier of fortune, had risen to the chief command of the army of the Ruler of Mysore, and when the Rajah died, leaving his eldest son a minor, Hyder Ali assumed the guardianship of the youthful prince, whom he placed under restraint, and seized on 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. He soon evinced decided hostility to the British interests in India, and formed a league with the French. Hostilities had also commenced between Great Britain and Holland, and the British troops were employed in dispossessing the Dutch of their settlements in Bengal, and on the coast of Coromandel. Thus three powers were opposed to the British interests in India, and the _Second Battalion of the Forty-second Royal Highland_ regiment was ordered to proceed to that country. About the end of the previous year the battalion had arrived at Gravesend from North Britain, and on the 21st of January 1781, embarked at Portsmouth for India, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Norman Macleod. One division of the regiment landed at Madras on the 18th of May: but the other divisions, consisting of seven companies and a half, had a voyage of thirteen months and thirteen days; they ultimately landed at Bombay in February 1782. [Sidenote: 1782] These divisions, soon after landing, took the field, and the battalion was subsequently united under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Macleod, when it shared in the campaign against Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo Saib. The situation of Colonel Thomas Frederick Mackenzie Humberston (Lieut.-Colonel Commandant of the seventy-eighth, now seventy-second regiment) who had been despatched with troops to the Malabar coast, having become very perilous, the second battalion of the _Forty-second_ regiment, with other troops, proceeded to his relief at Mungarry Cottah. In the meantime Tippoo Saib, with his usual activity, suddenly collected a body of troops, and proceeded to cut off the force at that station. Notwithstanding the secrecy of the expedition, Colonel Humberston received some vague intelligence of its arrival on the northern banks of the Coleroon, and suspecting at once the design of the enemy, destroyed the fortifications at Mungarry Cottah, and retreated to Ramgaree; where receiving certain information that Tippoo was approaching with the utmost rapidity, he withdrew to _Paniané_, fighting every step of the march. Upon arriving at the river Paniané, a deep ford, after a search of two hours, was found, and the troops passed over, up to the chin in water, with the loss of only two camp followers. He gained the Fort of _Paniané_ on the 20th of November, much to the surprise of Tippoo, who had expected an easy conquest.