“My intention was to march by land with my troops and guns.  They objected to this, as I was wet to the skin and had a cold on the chest, which hardly allowed me to speak; so I went back to the boats, though with much regret, and resolved to manage so as not to lose sight of my detachment.  I was in constant anxiety about the latter till 8 o’clock the next day, when we all came together, except one soldier topass, who, by his own fault, had remained on a big boat which we had abandoned, and a manjhi,[152] who was drowned in one of the two little ones which had sunk.

“Finding myself in the territory of the Raja of Dinajpur, I imagined I had nothing to do with any one except him, and that Sheikh Faiz Ulla and his army would not think of following me through a country which, though tributary to the Nawab of Bengal, still in no way belonged to Faiz Ulla’s master.  The hostage who remained with me, and to whom I spoke about the matter,[153] did not altogether dissuade me from this idea, but counselled me to continue my march and to get farther away, which I did till 6 o’clock in the evening.  What was my surprise when, at 9 o’clock, my scouts reported that the enemy were pursuing me, and were not more than a league away at the most.  I could not advance during the night for fear of running on the banks or shallows with which the river was filled, and which might cause the loss of my boats and of my people.  Accordingly, I did not set out till the morning, and always remained myself in the rear (of the fleet).  I had stopped to wait for my land detachment and the guns, and was at some distance from the rest of my little fleet, when, about half-past nine, I heard several musket shots fired.  In an instant I was surrounded by the enemy.  M. Chevalier, who conducted the land detachment, fortunately perceived my situation, and, seeing my danger, brought up the two guns and fired about 20 shots, which disengaged me, and gave me time to regain my boats by swift rowing.  I had with me only Pedro and the Moorish hostage mentioned before.  Then I landed with MM.  Brayer, Gourlade, and in general every one who was strong enough to defend himself.  At the same time I ordered the boats to go on.  In this skirmish our loss was only one man slightly wounded in the ear by a musket-ball.

“My little fleet en route, we marched by land on the bank opposite to that on which was, the main body of the enemy, who had only cavalry, which we did not trouble ourselves about It was not the same, however, with the boats.  At the end of an hour the boatmen abandoned them in a sudden panic, and hurried tumultuously to join me.  When my people were collected, I would have tried to go and recapture my boats, which the enemy had not delayed to seize; but not only would this have been a rash undertaking with so small a force against 3000 men, but also there was a little river which formed an island between my boats and me, and so