irom was born on 21st May 1757 at Muiresk in Banffshire and 'acquired
some knowledge of Persian' after his arrival in India. Like
his fellow Scot, Alexander Beatson,
Dirom used the long sea-voyage home from India - 'the prospect
of leisure for several months' as he described it - to write
his account of the recent campaign against Tipu. Among his
letters and Journal for the period 12 February 1790 to 24
October 1791, we read of inclement weather; extreme fatigue;
wounds received; and the hardships of men dragging the battering
train and stores from Bangalore back
to Seringapatam. Draught cattle
in vast numbers would normally perform these tasks, but
during the third Mysore War, an epidemic killed and weakened
hundreds of the beasts. Dirom records that 'the scarcity
of grain was such that the lower class of followers were
reduced to the necessity of subsisting chiefly on the putrid
flesh of the dead (bullocks); and to add to this scene of
distress, the small pox unfortunately raged in the camp.'
In the face of such desperate adversity, it is remarkable
that the reduction of the hill forts of
Nandidrug and Kistnagerry was achieved, and duly noted
by Dirom. The contribution of another Scotsman, Thomas Cockburn,
is all the more impressive when read in this context. With
his enterprise and efficiency, he succeeded in assembling
10,000 draught and carriage bullocks to assist General Abercromby
ascending the Ghats in January 1792.
Dirom described Tipu as an 'able and intrepid general'. This card records
the key statistics and positions of officers and equipment, ranged
against Tipu in one of the actions which followed Tipu's invasion of
Travancore. Mortars, brass and iron guns are listed, including light
'galloper' guns and the battering train,
also the total number of troops: 17,410 men, both European and native.
The extent of the front, including cavalry, was 4,000 yards. The armies
of Haidar and Tipu were often vastly greater than those of the British,
and sometimes - dramatically at Pollilur
in 1780, for example - the power of Mysore was triumphantly proclaimed
with an Indian victory.
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