Further correspondence between Macleod, Bombay, and Tipu[1]

Macleod did not go to Srirangapatna. By October the situation had changed and reached alarming proportions.

October 22, 1783: Macleod to Bombay

He had left Mangalore due to a very serious development: Tipu was determined to capture the fort by force or treachery, and had resolved to starve the garrison. While allowing in fresh provisions, salt meat, bread, and arrack in reasonable quantities, he was placing every obstacle and hindrance in the purchase of rice, the staple food of the sepoys without which the garrison would be forced to surrender. He prevented supplies from Tellicherry being delivered to the fort. Macleod wrote: “I wrote to him, I went to him, I reasoned, I entreated, I threatened- all to no purpose.” The French Envoy was unable to help.

The fort’s rice supplies were now sufficient for less than 20 days at full allowance. The situation had been worsened by Brig General Mathews having sold a quantity, sufficient to feed the garrison for two years, from the public stores to Arab traders.

He pleaded with Bombay to send sepoy reinforcements immediately, and urged them to persuade the French to send ships so that he could force his way into the fort with provisions.

He would remain on the coast between Mangalore and Tellichery. If Tipu took Mangalore, he wrote, it would encourage him to dictate the peace or prolong the war. Retaining Mangalore would enable the English to make a good peace, or to renew the war with advantage. Enclosing a plan of Mangalore, Macleod assured Bombay that, with support, he could relieve Mangalore.

Tipu had resorted to starving the garrison at Honavar as well.

January 9, 1784: Macleod to Bombay; letter dated December 28, 1783, Mangalore Road

He explained why and how he had captured Cannanore.

Considering it necessary to attack Tipu at Mangalore, he had, at the end of October, ordered 300 men from Karwar to join him at Tellicherry. The boats in which they sailed, however, were wrecked in a storm, and some of the men were taken prisoner by Tipu. A similar situation had occurred at Cannanore, where the queen (Bibi), Tipu’s ally, ruled. All demands for the prisoners’s release had been rejected by both Tipu and the Bibi.

He, therefore, attacked Cannanore on December 8. The main fort commanding the town was taken by December 14, and all the other forts on the following day. The Bibi surrendered with her family.

The release of two Indian officers and 100 sepoys was secured.

January 9, 1784. Tipu to Macleod

He condemned Macleod’s attack on Cannanore, and demanded the English withdrawal and return the captured territories to the Bibi of Ali Raja, his ally. He threatened to capture Mangalore fort in the manner he chose to.

December 21, 1783, Cannanore: Macleod to Tipu

He did not know the Bibi was Tipu’s ally. She had seized 100 of his sepoys, stripped and confined them, and refused many times to return them. Tipu was guilty of breaking the treaty by capturing English officers and sepoys, and obstructing delivery of provisions into Honavar fort. The Madras army had taken Palghat and Coimbatore, and he would keep what he had taken. Tipu had mistreated Malabar rajas allied with the English, and the Coorg raja. 

Moharum, 17th day of Moon: Tipu to Macleod[2]

Tipu had information that Macleod was at Cannanore with the intention of attacking the Bibi. She, being his ally, an attack would be seen as an assault on him. This was a violation of the treaty. Therefore, Tipu told Macleod, he should not attack the Bibi’s country.

December 16, 1783, Cannanore: Macleod to Tipu

He had taken Cannanore before Tipu’s letter reached him. He had written earlier why he had attacked the Bibi. By seizing and imprisoning 100 sepoys, she had broken the peace. He continued: “You may attack Mangalore, if you please, but I will there come to relieve it. The moment you fire a shot against it, my army, the Madras army, and the Marathas will enter your country…You threaten me. That will do no good. Make war, if you think that best, but it will end in your ruin…If you fire a shot at Mangalore, you are undone. I will soon come to that place in my ships…”

[1] Forrest, George W. 1887. Letters, Despatches, and other State Papers preserved in the Bombay Secretariat, Home Series, Vol II. Bombay: 286, 295-299.

[2] This letter was clearly written before Macleod’s attack on Cannanore