Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/68

62 the rivulet; and as the guard of the redoubt was only 20 Europeans, 30 more, with two field-pieces, were sent from the fort to their assistance. Four thousand of the enemy's matchlocks, with four pieces of cannon, took possession of the thickets, and from three in the afternoon until night kept up a constant fire, the cannon against the redoubt, the matchlocks every where. It was returned by the redoubt and the field-pieces, which were placed in the rear of the bridge and opposite to the road, and the buxerries wherever they chose. At midnight nothing was moving in the thickets; for every man, after eating his meal, had, as usual, betook himself to sleep; which ensign Pischard, who had served on the coast of Coromandel, suspected from their 'silence, and crossing the rivulet at midnight with his party, seized and spiked the four pieces of cannon, beat up and drove all the troops out of the thickets, and returned without the loss of a man. The Jemautdar of Omichund's peons, wounded as he was, had caused himself to be transported to the enemy's camp; and by his advice they desisted from renewing the attack on the north, and the whole army moved to the eastward of the company's bounds, into which several parties entered through passages which there were no troops to defend. In the afternoon they set fire to the great bazar, or market, within half a mile north-east of the fort, and took possession of the quarter inhabited by the principal Indian merchants, which commenced half a mile to the north, and extended mostly along the bank of the river. A party was sent to drive them away, and returned with some prisoners, who reported that the enemy intended the next day to make a general attack upon the out-posts; on which the party was recalled from Perring's redoubt to the north of the bounds; and every one passed the night under arms. The fort of Calcutta, called Fort- William, was situated near the river, and nearly half way between the northern and southern extremities of the company's territory. Its sides to the east and west, extended 210 yards; the southern side 130, and the northern 100: it had four bastions, mounting each 10 guns: the curtains were only four feet thick, and, like the factory of Cossimbuzar, terrasses,