In war, the smallest things can end your battle. For the Dutch soldiers at the Battle of Kolachel in 1741, it was a tiny spark from their own gunpowder that ignited and set fire to their reserves of rice.
As is well known, armies march on their stomachs. The foodless Dutch forces, led by their captain, Eustachius De Lannoy, were forced to surrender to the Travancore army. This defeat, considered a landmark one for an Indian kingdom fighting a colonial power, did not end the war. But it was a hard pill to swallow for a European power accustomed to winning against larger forces through the use of guile, strategy and superior weaponry.
Hungry, and doubtless afraid of what was going to happen to them, they were imprisoned in Udayagiri fort – today a part of the Thiruvananthapuram-Nagercoil highway. But Captain Eustachius won the favour of king Marthanda Varma and his prime minister, and along with his men, was permitted to serve the Travancore state.
The military legacy Eustachius built for Travancore was grand, enough that this is the inscription that marks his grave – at the same Udayagiri fort he was first imprisoned in.
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