"Innes Munro, an eyewitness and a captain in the late 73rd or Lord Macleod’s Regiment of Highlanders, records the horrors that this invasion of the Carnatic by Haidar brought in its wake: All the villages blazing on every quarter within view of this garrison, and as many of the inhabitants as could escape with their lives flying towards us in immense droves from all parts of the country, whose cries and lamentations were distinctly heard a full mile off, being closely pursued by those inhuman barbarians, who brandished their bloody swords in triumph as they galloped along . . . aged parents borne . . . upon the bleeding shoulders of their offspring, who were wantonly mutilated; mothers bewailing the loss of their helpless infants that had fallen a sacrifice to the fury of the enemy on the first surprise; and innocent virgins clinging for protection to the arms of their lacerated brothers. This was indeed a melancholy spectacle, which made the deepest impression upon our sympathizing minds, as yet unaccustomed to such scenes of brutality and horror; but which a poor soldier must not only learn to behold, but participate in, with calmness and indifference. Such was the extreme terror of those inoffensive and unhappy people, that they never once slackened their pace until they found themselves immersed in the ditch of Pondmalee."