115 
1S83.] portions of Old JToi't 'William. 
in width ; the room itself I have shewn 20 feet. The barracks behind it I 
shew as 40 feet. I nest shew a chamber 17 feet wide; this, as will be seen, 
brings us up to the face of the square bastion, the first built portion of the 
Fort. So that we have only to shorten by one foot the barracks, or the room 
of the guard, or the space inside the gate, to make up this dimension to 
18 feet. In any case here undoubtedly was the Military Prison, the Black 
Hole, so called by soldiers themselves, not so called, as many suppose, because 
of the events that occurred here. 
I have drawn your attention to a shed which I have called the Car¬ 
penters’ shop. I will now quote a few lines from Holwell’s account of the 
closing events of the 20th June. 
“ As soon as it was dark, we were all, without distinction directed by 
the guard over us, to collect ourselves into one body, and sit down quietly 
under the arched verandah or piazza to the west of the Black Hole 
prison, and the barracks to the left of the court of guard ; and just over 
against the windows of the Governor’s easterly apartments. Besides the 
guard over us, another was placed at the foot of the stairs at the south end 
of this verandah, leading up to the south-east bastion, to prevent any of us 
escaping that way. On the parade (where you will remember the two 
twenty-four pounders stood) were also drawn up about four or five hundred 
gun-men with lighted matches. 
“ At this time the factory was in flames to the right and left of us ; to 
the right the Armory and Laboratory ; to the left the Carpenters’ yard : 
though at this time we imagined it was the Cotta-warehouses.* Various 
were our conjectures on this appearance ; the fire advanced with rapidity 
on both sides ; and it was the prevailing opinion, that they intended 
suffocating us between the two fires : and this notion was confirmed by the 
appearance, about half an hour past seven, of some officers and people with 
lighted torches in their hands, who went into all the apartments under the 
easterly curtain to the right of us; to which we apprehended they were 
setting fire, to expedite their scheme of burning us. On this we presently 
came to a resolution, of rushing on the guard, seizing their scymitars and 
attacking the troops upon the parade, rather than be thus tamely roasted 
to death. But to be satisfied of their intentions, I advanced, at the 
request of Messrs. Baillie, Jenks and Revely, to see if they were really 
setting fire to the apartments, and found the contrary; for in fact, as it 
appeared afterwards, they were only searching for a place to confine us in : 
the last they examined being the barracks of the court of guard behind us. 
“ They ordered us all to rise and go into the barracks to the left of 
the court of guard. The barracks, you may remember, have a large 
* The Company’s cloth warehouses. 
