Some boats with Sepoys having at this period been wrecked near Cannanore, upon the Malabar coast, about two hundred of them were seized and detained by Ali Rajah Biby, the Queen of that country; repeated applications were made for their release, but without success, and Brigadier-General Norman Macleod determined to take satisfaction for these injuries, immediately after the relief of Mangalore. Tippoo Saib desired him to desist, and claimed the ruler of the Cannanore country as his ally.
The Thirty-sixth regiment proceeded under the command of Major the Honourable John Knox to Cannanore, which was captured by the troops under Brigadier-General Macleod in December 1783.
1784.
On the 11th of March 1784 peace was concluded with Tippoo Saib, the Sultan of Mysore; one of the articles of the treaty stipulated, that the fort and district of Cannanore should be evacuated and restored to Ali Rajah Biby, the Queen of that country.
1785 to 1788.
During the years 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, the Thirty-sixth regiment occupied cantonments at Poonamallee, Arcot, Vellore, and Wallahabad.
1789.
The insatiable ambition of Tippoo Saib, the Sultan of the Mysore territory, soon involved the British Government of India in another war; he appeared near the confines of the country of Travancore, at the head of a powerful army, made unreasonable demands on the Rajah, a British ally, and commenced hostilities towards the end of December 1789.
1790.
A force was consequently directed to be assembled, in March 1790, at Wallahabad, under the orders of Colonel Thomas Musgrave of the Seventy-sixth regiment; it was put in movement on the 29th of that month, and proceeded towards Trichinopoly, at which place the troops arrived on the 29th of April, where the following corps had been collected under the command of Colonel Bridges:—Two King’s regiments, the Thirty-sixth and Seventy-second; the Second and Fifth Native cavalry; the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Sixteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-third Coast sepoys. At the same time Colonel Deare, with three companies of Bengal artillery, joined, the whole being under the orders of Major-General Musgrave, to which rank he had been promoted on the 28th of April 1790.