Page:History of the French in India.djvu/239

 THE DEFENCES OF PONDICHERY. 217 bastions. The entire works were surrounded by a chap ditch and an imperfect glacis.* The side opposite to _ the sea, facing the interior, was also defended by several 174s. low batteries, capable of mounting upwards of a hun- dred pieces of cannon, and commanding the approaches from that side. Besides these artificial defences was a formidable natural protection, consisting of a hedge of prickly pear, which, beginning on the north side at the sea, a mile from the town, continued a semicircle all round it, until it joined the river Ariakupum, close to the fort of the same name ; from that point the river continued the line of defence to the sea. Within this enclosure were cocoa-nut and palm trees so thickly studded as to render the ground very difficult for the advance of an enemy. Of these fortifications, Paradis, after the completion of the defences of Ariakupum, was constituted chief engineer, and charged with the defence. It will be recollected that, on the occasion of the attack upon the French at St. Thome by the Dutch, in 1674, that enterprise owed its success principally to the fact that the Dutch admiral had succeeded in inducing the King of Golkonda to operate by a land attack at the same time ; and that similarly, during the siege of Pondichery, in 1693, the Dutch had enlisted in their service a large body of native troops. Dupleix was now warned by the French Minister that these tactics would again be pursued, that immense efforts would be made to gain over the native princes to English interests, and that the English commandant was well provided with presents for that especial purpose. Leaving, for a moment, the French governor devoting himself to the defence of the territories which he held of Pondichery, and of the siege reprinted in the Asiatic Annual generally, so far as relates to the Register for 1802, and which Mr. operations of the English, has been Orme copied almost verbatim. taken from the journal of an Eng-
 * The account of the fortifications lish officer present at the siege,