Seringapatam & Bombay

The year 1792 begins with Lachlan Macquarie once more on campaign with the Bombay Army in southern India ascending the Western Ghats on a campaign against the forces of Tipu Sultan, Sultan of Mysore. By mid-February the Bombay Army had reached its junction with the Grand Army (from Madras) under the command of Marquis Cornwallis and was laying siege outside the walls of the capital and citadel of Seringatapatam (Srirangapatna).

After the initial hostilities, the size and scale of the forces arraigned against him forced Tipu to sue for peace. He was compelled to cede half of his dominions, much of his treasury, as well as the surrender of two of his young sons as hostages to guarantee the peace.

For Macquarie there was little opportunity to celebrate - for once again he had fallen seriously ill from the effects of the campaigning, and he was carried most of the way back to the Malabar Coast in a litter, and soon afterwards shipped home to Bombay in mid-April. Under the medical supervison of his friend and regimental surgeon, Dr. Colin Anderson, and later, Dr. Anthony Toomey, Surgeon General of the Bombay Presidency, Macquarie recuperated, and by June had regained his full health.

The remainder of the year is described in the briefest detail in his journal, though a significant turning point takes place on 7 November. On the evening of this day Macquarie was introduced to the wealthy Bombay merchant James Morley, his wife Dorothea – and her younger sister, Jane Jarvis. This marked the beginnings of Lachlan's courtship of Jane, the young heiress from Antigua.