During our long stay at Bersiah, we frequently went out on parties of pleasure; and, as I had at this place nothing to do in my official situation, I generally accompanied these little excursions. About Bersiah the country was more fertile and beautiful than any part we had passed through, and we had excellent shooting, from the royal tiger to the royal snipe, without going a mile from camp. Thus we passed our time, living pleasantly enough. At length we found that the Pindarees had ascended another range of ghauts, and concentrated their forces at a place called Beechy Taull. Towards this place we bent our course, the extent of our daily marches being entirely regulated by the information brought in by our spies. Our wild enemy were, for a time, stationary; our marches were more regular; and they actually permitted us to approach them, without moving their quarters; taking care, however, to keep a wide and deep river between them and us, and an almost inaccessible ghaut, from whence they could see such a distance round, that our approach could be observed ten or fifteen miles off. When we were within forty miles of this place, we made a forced march in the morning, some twenty-two miles, through a thick woody country. Having completed this distance, we halted for our cattle and followers; but we started again when the moon rose, intending to surprise them by the following morning's dawn. Our road, however, lay through a dense thick wood, with a deep ditch or ravine every hundred paces, which we had so much difficulty in getting our guns over, that, when the morning dawned, we had not proceeded more than one-half of the distance, though we were in sight of the ghaut, which was about eight miles ahead. In an hour and a half after this, we reached and crossed the river Scend, about two miles from the top of the ghaut.
Our spies, who had just left the camp of the enemy, informed us that they were not encamped on the top of the ghaut, there being no water there, but that they were lying near a large lake of water, about two miles from the ghaut, apparently unconscious of our approach. The general immediately dispatched the 4th regiment of Native Cavalry, under Brigadier-General Newberry, who commanded the whole of the cavalry, with this division, also Cunningham's corps of Local Horse, under the command of Lieutenant W.W. Turner, with two six-pounders, called gallopers, as they would proceed as fast as the regiment could charge. I asked the general's permission to go, and I obtained his consent to act on the staff with Brigadier-General Newberry. The ghaut was high and difficult, being nothing more than a mass of loose stones, by which many of the poor horses broke their knees in getting up. As soon as we were up, we formed an extended line, and moved on slowly, as our horses had then been ten hours saddled, and without food. At the camp described we found a large body drawn up, and we gave them several long shots, and brought some of their spirited steeds and men a pitch lower. We then went off at a good smart gallop; but our long-jaded and hungry horses had but little chance. We soon emerged from the thick wood which surrounded their enormous encampment, and came up with some of them, and cut them up. About a mile to our left, and in our front, we could see tremendous volumes of dust; and, about a mile further on, we began to fall in with the enemy in considerable numbers. Some of them fought well and bravely: indeed, the greatest coward, when his life is at stake, will fight desperately, and this was the case with these marauders; but their struggle was ineffectual. We could see women riding across the country at speed, with one child on their backs, and one before them. Their horses flew along the plain with extraordinary rapidity.