 In December 1789 , after five years of diplomatic wrangling about the terms of the Treaty of Mangalore that had ended the Second Anglo @-@ Mysore War , the ruler of Mysore Tipu Sultan again declared war on the British East India Company and their allies in Southern India . For the next two years the war continued as British forces and their allies drove the Mysore armies back towards the capital of <unk> . Both sides were reliant on supply by sea to maintain their campaigns inland : the British forces were supported from their major ports at Bombay and Madras , later <unk> additional forces at the small port of Tellicherry inside Mysore territory . The Mysorean forces were supplied through Mangalore by French ships . France had been an ally of the Tipu Sultan 's father <unk> Ali during the Second Anglo @-@ Mysore War and although the political instability caused by the French Revolution in Europe prevented active involvement , they ensured that their ships kept up a supply of equipment to Mysore throughout the war . 
