Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/642

618 the whole without the appearance of any opposition intended by the garrison. As soon as all were on shore, they advanced to the village opposite to which the two small vessels were at anchor, and received by catamarans two four-pounders, which belonged to the sloop, and were mounted on ship-carriages; for the reliance on the field-pieces expected with Joseph Smith had prevented any from being embarked at Madrass. They passed the night in the village without alarm; and early in the morning moved on to take possession of the pettah of Karical, which lay on the north side of the fort. It was a spacious town, separated from the fort by an esplanade of 100 yards; regular works had been traced round the other three sides, which on the west had been raised to four feet above the ground, but the bastion in the north-west angle was completed, and converted into a closed redoubt, which mounted nine guns, and had a good ditch all round, and a draw-bridge; it was called Fort Dauphin: the rest of the north line was open, as was the side to the east. The troops advancing from the north, without a guide or intelligence, fell under fire of Fort Dauphin, by which two men were killed, and two wounded, before the whole line got under shelter of the buildings in the pettah; which they entered without meeting any interruption in the streets. They took post in the church -yard, which lay about 200 yards from the east side of the pettah, and about the same distance from the line of houses fronting the fort. They found about them plenty of provisions, as well in the houses of the natives, as of the French inhabitants. The fort of Karical stands 300 yards from the sea-shore: a river coming from the west strikes when opposite to the west side of the fort in a curve to the south, which continues until opposite to the east side at the distance of 500 yards, when the channel turning again directly to the east, in 100 yards more disembogues into the sea. The fort was an oblong square, completely fortified, but had the greatest of defects, the want of space: for its internal area, exclusive of the four bastions, was no more than 100 yards from w. to E. and only 50 from N. to s. The bastions admitted only three