was menaced with the same fate, but was spared, and he afterwards made known the fate of the party. Another potamar, having nearly a company on board, under Lieutenant George Blanchard Gray and Adjutant Hayes, approached the coast a few miles from Coulan, and were, in consequence of the shattered state of the vessel, deciding on the propriety of landing, when a volley of musketry from the shore announced the hostile intentions of the natives. The vessel was bound together with some large tents, to prevent its splitting, and it arrived safely at Cochin, but went to pieces in the harbour. All the potamars being damaged, other vessels were procured to continue the voyage. The officers and men of the regiment, who arrived at Coulan on the 29th of December, joined the Sepoys encamped near the town. On the evening of the same day, the Travancoreans attacked the piquet under Captain Clapham of the Sepoys; the fire of musketry and artillery indicating a sharp conflict, Lieut.-Colonel Chalmers, commanding the troops at that station, detached Ensign James Keappock, and forty men of the TWELFTH, to support the Sepoys, and the enemy was forced to retire, leaving about eighty men dead on the scene of conflict. The Travancoreans were excited to rage and fury against the British, who had thus gained a footing in the heart of their country; they assembled in immense multitudes before the camp, kept up an incessant fire on the piquets, and heavy columns menaced the encampment; the soldiers were thus kept constantly ready for action, and they lay on their arms night and day. [Sidenote: 1809] On the 8th of January, 1809, the remainder of the regiment arrived at Coulan, excepting one company, commanded by Lieutenant Thomas Thompson, left with six hundred Sepoys and several guns for the defence of Cochin. The men of the TWELFTH, with the Sepoys and guns which had arrived, were landed as expeditiously as possible; but the force was obliged to remain encamped on a sandy plain near the sea, enclosed by an almost impenetrable forest of cocoa-nut trees, from the want of means for carrying on active operations. The Resident prohibited the felling of the trees to conciliate the natives; but this produced no advantage, and the wood afforded shelter to the Travancorean marksmen, who annoyed the camp with their fire, keeping the troops in a constant state of alarm; the outposts were also frequently attacked by parties of the enemy.