ts wanted not
only native employees in their office--'dubashes' and 'shroffs' and
clerks and interpreters and porters and peons, but they also wanted
wholesale buyers of the cloth and other articles that they imported
from England for sale, and also merchants who could supply them with
large quantities of the Indian wares that the Company exported to
England; and they were able to get the men that they wanted.

A crowd attracts a crowd; and when once a town has begun to grow, it
goes on growing of its own accord; and ten years after the acquisition
of Madras, the population of the town was estimated at as many as
15,000 souls. The Fort itself, moreover, had to be enlarged; for the
growth of the Company's business meant that more and more factors and
writers had to be brought out from England, and more and more
warehouses had to be provided for the multiplied wares; and, moreover,
the increasing lawlessness of the times necessitated a larger
garrison. Outside the Fort, Indian and other immigrants flocked from
near and far to settle down within the Company's domains, looking for
profit under the white men's protection; and, with their enterprising
spirit, they played no small part in the development of Madras.

The town that grew up outside the little fort was divided into two
sections--'the White Town' and 'the Black Town.' The boundaries of
White Town corresponded roughly with what are now the boundaries of
Fort St. George itself. The original Black Town--'Old Black
Town'--covered what is now the vacant ground that lies between the
Fort and the Law College, and included what are now the sites of the
Law College and the High Court (_vide_ Map, p. 10). The inhabitants of
White Town included any British settlers not in the Company's service
whose presence the Company approved, also all approved Portuguese and
Eurasian immigrants from Mylapore, and a certain number of approved
Indian Christians. White Town indeed was sometimes called the
'Christian Town.' Black Town was the Asiatic settlement. The great
majority of the original Indian settlers were not Tamilians but
Telugus--written down as 'Gentoos' in the Company's Records.

The Company's agents encouraged people of various races to reside in
Madras; and the names of some of the streets and districts of the town
are interesting testimonies as to the variety of the people who came.

Armenian Street--which began as an Armenian burial-ground (_vide_ Map,
p. 10)--is an ex