THE CAPTURE OF CALCUTTA. 
499 
fire from the fort, which made dreadful havock among their troops, 
while the English lost only five soldiers the first day. The attack, 
liowever, was continued till the afternoon of the 20th, when many of 
the garrison being killed and wounded, and their ammunition almost 
exhausted, a flag of truce was hung out. Mr. Holwell intended to 
have availed himself of this opportunity to make his escape on board 
the ships, but they had fallen several miles down from the fort, without 
leaving a single boat to facilitate the escape of those who remained. 
In the mean time, the back gate was betrayed by the Dutch guard, 
and the enemy, entering the fort, killed all they first met, and took 
the rest prisoners. The fort was taken before nine in the evening, 
and, in an hour after, Mr. Holwell had three audiences of the nabob, 
the last being in the durbar or council. In all of these the governor 
made the most positive assurances that no harm should happen to 
•any of their prisoners : but the nabob was surprised and enraged at 
finding only 50001. in the fort, instead of the immense treasures he 
expected ; and to this, as w'ell as perhaps to the resentment of the 
jemidaars or officers, of whom many were killed in the siege, we may 
impute the shocking catastrophe that followed. 
As soon as it was dark, the English prisoners, to the number of 
one hundred and forty-six, were directed, by the jemidaars who 
guarded them, to collect themselves into one body, and sit down 
quietly under the arched veranda, or piazza, to the westward of the 
Black Hole prison. Another guard was placed at the south end of 
this veranda, to prevent the escape of any of them. About five hun- 
dred gunmen with lighted matches were drawn up on the parade 
and soon after, the factory was in flames to the right and left of the 
prisoners, who had various conjectures on this appearance. The 
fire advanced with rapidity on both sides ; and the English began to 
suspect that they were to be suffocated between the two fires. On 
this, they soon came to a resolution of rushing upon the guard, seiz- 
ing their scimitars, and attacking the troops upon the parade, rather 
than be thus tamely roasted to death ; but Mr. Holwell advanced, 
and found the Moors w'ere only searching for a place to confine them 
in. At this time Mr. Holwell might have made his escape, by the 
assistance of Mr. Leech, the company’s smith, who had escaped when 
the Moors entered the fort, and returned as it was dark, to tell Mr. 
Holwell he had provided a boat, and would insure his escape, if he 
would follow him through a passage few were acquainted with, and by 
which he then entered. This might easily have been accomplished, as 
the guard took little notice of it ; but Mr. Holwell told Mr. Leech 
he was resolved to share the fate of the gentlemen of the garrison ; 
to which Mr. Leech gallantly replied, that “ then he was resolved to 
share Mr. Holw'ell’s fate, and would not leave him.” The guard on 
the parade advanced, and ordered them all to go into the barracks. 
Then, with their muskets presented, they ordered them to go into the 
Black Hole prison, while others, with clubs and scimitars, pressed 
on them so strongly, that they were obliged to give way and enter; 
the rest following like a torrent. 
Few among them, the soldiers excepted, had the least idea of the 
dimensions of the place, else they would at all events have rushed upon 
