hold a firelock,' and, for want of
a sufficient garrison, it was necessary to withdraw from the Trankers,
which were thought to be so important for the safety of the place.
Desperate as was the outlook. Gunner Ince exerted himself like a man,
animating everybody by his example. By his exertions, seven hundred bags
of rice, with salt fish for a month, and the Company's treasure were got
in from the warehouse, and an urgent appeal was sent to Calicut. The
surgeon had been killed with Gyfford; they had no smith or carpenter or
tools, except a few hatchets, and the Attinga people swarming into Anjengo
burned and plundered the settlement, forcing a crowd of women and children
to take refuge in the small fort. Though no concerted attack was made at
first, the assailants tried with fire arrows to set fire to the palm-leaf
roofs, which had to be dismantled; and all through the siege, which lasted
six months, the sufferings of the garrison were increased by the burning
rays of a tropical sun or the torrential rains of the monsoon.

On the 25th April, they were cheered by the arrival of two small English
ships from Cochin, where the intelligence of the disaster had reached; and
received a small reinforcement of seven men with a consignment of
provisions. A message of condolence also had come from the Rajah of Quilon,
who offered to receive the women and children, so one hundred and fifty
native women and children, widows and orphans of the slain, were sent off.
On the 1st May, an ensign and fifty-one men, collected by Mr. Adams from
Calicut and Tellicherry, joined the garrison, and gave some relief from
the constant sentry duty that was necessary. The enemy, meanwhile, had
contented themselves with harassing the garrison by firing long shots at
them; but it was rumoured that the Rajah of Travancore was sending troops,
and then they would have to sustain a serious attack. Gunner Ince, on whom
the whole weight of the defence rested, let it be known that in the last
extremity he would blow up the magazine. It is cheering to find that there
was at least one man who was prepared to do his duty. Sewell and Lapthorne
got drunk, and joined with the warehouseman, a Portuguese named Rodriguez,
in plundering the Company's warehouse and sending goods away to Quilon;
the soldiers followed the example, and plundered the rooms inside the fort,
while the late interpreter's family were allowed to send away, to Quilon,
effects to the value of one h