r the third time a widow, Mrs. Cowse with four children, and
Mrs. Burton with two, were hastily put on board, and sailed at once for
Madras. No mention appears of Mrs. Gyfford having any children with her,
but she carried off the factory records and papers, and what money she
could lay her hands on. She was no longer the confiding girl, who had
given herself to Governor Harvey eleven years before. She had learned
something of the world she lived in, and intended to take care of herself
as well as she could. She even tried to carry off Peter Lapthorne with her,
but Sewell intervened and prevented it. So giving him hasty directions to
act as her agent, she passed through the dangerous Anjengo surf and got on
board. A letter to her from Lapthorne, written a few weeks later, relates
that the only property he could find belonging to her were 'two wiggs and
a bolster and some ophium' in the warehouse.

Having got rid of the white women, Sewell and his companions set to work
to hold the fort against the attack that was inevitable. From the old
records we get an idea of what the fort was like. As designed by Brabourne,
it covered a square of about sixty yards each way, but this did not
include the two Trankers, palisaded out-works, alluded to in Gyfford's
note. Ten years before, the attention of the Council at Bombay had been
drawn to the bad condition of the

"Fort house, being no more then timber covered with palm leaves
(cajanns) so very dangerous taking fire," and the chief of the factory
was ordered to build "a small compact house of brick with a Hall, and
conveniencys for half a dozen Company's servants. And being advised
that for want of a necessary house in the Fort, they keep the Fort
gate open all night for the guard going out and in, which irregularity
may prove of so pernicious consequence as the loss of that garrison,
especially in a country where they are surrounded with such
treacherous people as the Natives and the Dutch," it was ordered that
a "necessary house over the Fort walls" should be built, and the gates
kept locked after 8 o'clock at night.

How far these orders had been carried out does not appear; but the
Company's goods were still kept in a warehouse outside the walls: some of
the Company's servants also had houses outside, and the palm-leaf roofs
were still there. For garrison they only had about thirty-five boys and
pensioners, 'whereof not twenty fit to