Having effected this massacre, he next ordered all the pictures that he had caused to be painted on the walls of his palace and other buildings, holding up the English to the contempt and hatred of his subjects, to be obliterated; and he also ordered the bridge over the northern loop of the Cauvery to be destroyed.

He then set out with his army to bar the passage of the British to Seringapatam.
The weather was extremely bad when the British started.

Rain storms had deluged the country, and rendered the roads well nigh impassable, and the movement was, in consequence, very slow.

Tippoo had taken up a strong position on the direct road and, in order to avoid him, Lord Cornwallis took a more circuitous route, and Tippoo was obliged to fall back.
The whole country through which the English passed had been wasted.
The villages were deserted, and not an inhabitant was to be met with.
Suffering much from wet, and the immense difficulties of bringing on the transport, the army, on the 13th of May, arrived on the Cauvery, nine miles east of Seringapatam.

Here it had been intended to cross the river, but the rains had so swollen the stream that it was found impossible to ford it.