Fourth Anglo-Mysore War

The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict in South India between the Kingdom of Mysore against the British East India Company and the Hyderabad Deccan in 1798–99.

Quotes

• Thus ended the life and the power of Tippoo Sultaun. It will require an able pen to delineate a character apparently so inconsistent; but he who attempts it must not decide hastily. Those who have served this campaign, victorious and brilliant as it has proved, will however I believe agree that the infantry of the Sultaun were not inferior to our own sepoys; and that had he been joined three or four months ago by four or five thousand French troops, which he had every reason to expect, the event might have been very different. What infinite credit then is due to the man who planned and saw the fit moment to execute measures which, perhaps, have saved us from ruin!
  • Alexander Beatson, quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• When Tippoo was brought from under the gateway, his eyes were open, and the body was so warm, that for a few moments, Colonel Wellesley and myself were doubtful whether he was not alive; on feeling his pulse and heart, the doubt was removed. He had four wounds, three in the body, and one in the temple; the ball having entered a little above the right ear, and lodged in the cheek. His dress consisted of a jacket of fine white linen, loose drawers of flowered chintz, with a crimson cloth of silk and cotton, round his waist; a handsome pouch with a red and green silk belt, hung across his shoulder; his head was uncovered, his turban being lost in the confusion of his fall; he had an amulet on his arm, but no ornament whatsoever. Tippoo was of low stature, corpulent, with high shoulders, and a short, thick neck, but his feet were remarkably small; his complexion was rather dark, his eyes large and prominent, with small arched eyebrows, and his nose aquiline: he had an appearance of dignity, or perhaps sternness, in his countenance, which distinguished him above the common order people.
  • Major Allan, quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• Of course, this is a theme on which I am silent here and on which I shall speak and write with great caution and reserve elsewhere. I am possessed of much information on this curious and edifying event [fall of Tipu in 1799], which is still lodged in my mind and from whence I may never have the leisure to extract it before many of the most important traces are erased from the tablets of my memory. But I can never forget on how many slender hairs and threads the fortunes of this great event has been suspended, almost any one of which breaking would have dangerously retarded, if not entirely frustrated, the grand object of the measure.
  • William Petrie, quoted in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)