97 
They are strengthened by four batteries, on each of which is 
mounted from five to ten pieces of heavy ordnance, But the 
whole are in very bad order. The buttresses, undermined 
by the surge, have yielded to the weight of the platform ; and 
the parapet is choked up on both sides by the shifting sand. 
“ The castle is a regular pentagon, consisting of five bas- 
tions, connected by curtains, and surrounded by à fausse bray 
and dry ditch. On these bastions there were originally 
mounted not fewer than seventy pieces of cannon. This 
formidable train are now dropping off their carriages, and 
the mouldering parapet resuming its ancient position in the 
ditch. On the outside of the castle ditch, and close to the 
landing place, stands Imhoff Battery, which has been 
thoroughly repaired, and mounts forty pieces of cannon, 
besides several heavy mortars. There are lodgings in the 
castle for the commander of the forces, and the commandant ; 
besides barracks for a regiment of infantry, and a variety of 
offices for the civil and military department. 
* 'The battery of Roggebay, four hundred yards from Im- 
hoff, is nearly on a level with the sea, and carries twenty 
pieces of cannon, of various calibre. As you advance along 
the shore, you arrive successively at the Amsterdam Battery, 
the Chiffone, and the Great Mouillié; and, on a small emi- 
nence at some distance from the shore, you see the battery 
called Keek in the Pot. All these batteries, with the excep- 
tion of the Amsterdam, are mere flèches, without any defence 
on the land side. The latter had originally a second tier of 
guns; but the casemates are now occupied by prisoners of 
war, and by the malefactors condemned to public labour. 
Though this battery is secured by a rampart in the rear, it 
could be easily taken by a coup de main, owing to a vice in 
its construction on that side, to which there is probably no 
parallel in the whole annals of fortification, The rampart 
consists of a revelment of five feet high; and a sloping turf 
parapet, of an equal height, leaves on the edge of it a berme, 
sufficiently broad to afford a firm footing to the assailants, 
There is, on the inside of the rampart, a wall which rises six 
feet above the éerrepleine, and, at the height of four feet, is 
