War Narrative of David Anderson during the 2nd Mysore War

A narrative (incomplete) of Mr David Anderson's embassy in connection with Colonel Pearse's expedition, in 1781, with appendices.

David Anderson (1750-1828) was a political diplomat and interpreter. Anderson entered the service of the East India Company, along with his younger brother James (1758-1833), a Persian interpreter. Whilst in Company service the brothers became secretaries and close friends of Warren Hastings.

Thomas Deane Pearse (1741/2-1789) was an army officer in the East India Company and in 1781 was made colonel of the Bengal artillery. Under his command from 1775, the Bengal artillery was reformed and enlarged. In 1781, at the height of the Second Anglo-Mysore War, Hastings sent a detachment of sepoys and artillery under the command of Pearse, to relieve the Madras presidency at Fort St George. The detachment marched south from Bengal, through Orissa and the Northern Circars, to join the Madras field army in July 1781. This Bengal corps, under Pearse, attained a lasting reputation for its actions in the battles of Polillur and Sholinghur against Haidar Ali in 1781.

Source: B.H. Soulsby, 'Pearse, Thomas Deane (1741/2-1789)', rev. G. J. Bryant, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. By permission of Oxford University Press - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/21705.

Phillipps manuscript no. 17213.