[47]. The following conversation took place between the deputy adjutant-general and Major Montague as the latter passed headquarters on his march: “Lord C. has it in contemplation to give Colonel Smith the command of the artillery to be employed against Severn-droog, and he wishes to know if that circumstance will be any impediment to your exertions.” The major replied, “that he did not expect to take the command; that his only wish was to be employed, and that his lordship might rely on his utmost exertions for the public service under Smith.” The deputy adjutant-general did not think that answer sufficiently explicit; and said, “Lord C. wished to know whether Major M. could act with more effect when independent of Colonel Smith, than when under his command?” The major answered, “that he could certainly carry a plan of his own into execution in the same time that it would require to suggest and explain it to another.” The deputy adjutant-general therefore concluded that Major M.’s real opinion was that he should prefer to conduct the business by himself, and informed him that his lordship was disposed to give Colonel Smith an opportunity of knocking down the walls of the place where he had been so long confined in a former war; but as it might be attended with some risk to the service, he was at length determined to appoint Major M. to command and conduct the artillery against that important place, as the capture of it was absolutely necessary to the further progress of the campaign.
[48]. He married a Miss Fleetwood at Masulipatam in 1792, when on his return to Bengal from the first campaign against Tippoo.
[49]. The note in a former page may serve to explain this neglect, as the commanding officer of artillery was the same Colonel Smith to whom he had been preferred at Severn-droog.
[50]. Minute by Governor-General, January 19, 1800.—“The conduct of the artillery and lascars attached to the regiment during the time of its absence from these provinces is equally entitled to commendation.”
[51]. Captain Humphreys at the time of the massacre was seized by a junior assistant surgeon who rolled with him down the steep where the dead were flung; they remained concealed three or four days, but being discovered were taken before the king and separately confined.
[52]. On the march from Rosetta to Alexandria the axletree of one of the limbers broke, and for want of a forge-cart the detachment was detained eighteen hours on the desert without water or provisions; had a forge-cart been there, two hours would have sufficed.—Captain Brown to Colonel Green, 2nd April, 1803.
[53]. Returned to India on sick certificate September, 1801.—Letter from Military Board to Military Secretary, 26th September, 1801.
[54]. The uniform at this time consisted of the bearskin cap, long coat, with scarlet facings and embroidered button-holes, and grey trowsers with a red cord down the seam.
[55]. English 516, Irish 484, Scotch 74, Welsh 19, Foreigners 211, no description 32.
[56]. Letter of John Duncan, 10th November, 1802, to Supreme Government.