Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/725

Book XIII. was a pentagon with five bastions, but too small to endure bombardment; two of its bastions over-looked the east curtain, and added to the fire on the sea. The town was very commodiously laid out in straight streets which traversed it entirely in both directions.

The ricochet battery of four guns, which had opened on the 10th of November, had for some time been quitted, and the guns removed to the north redoubt beyond the bound-hedge; because their effect was not equal either to the expence of ammunition, or the fatigue and risque of the guards. The four batteries which were now opened were thus situated. One stood near the beach to the north, 200 yards in front of that which had been abandoned and about 1200 from the walls; it mounted four 18 pounders, and enfiladed the east front of the town. Another of two 24 and two 18 pounders, with three mortars of 13, 10, and 8 inches, was raised on the other side of the morass, which spreads to the west; it was 1400 yards from the walls, and bore, but a little to the left, upon the west flank of the bastion in the north-west angle, which mounted 10 guns, and had before it, within the ditch, a strong and extensive counter-guard, mounting 25 guns. The two other batteries were to the south. One on the edge of a large island, formed by the river of Ariancopang; this battery mounted only two guns, of which, one bore on the bastion next to that in the s. w. angle of the town, the other on St. Thomas redoubt, which stood on the opposite bank of the river lower down; the other battery was raised in a smaller island below the Coco-nut, from which it is separated on one hand, and on the other from the spit of sand, which forms the strand of the sea from the bar of the river. This is called the Sand Island; the battery bore upon St. Thomas redoubt, and on the curtain of the town between the two bastions on this side nearest the sea.

All the four batteries were only intended to harrass the garrison by a cross fire of ricochet shot along the streets or ramparts;