employees, untrained in war--namely that a weak-walled native town
lying right against the northern wall of Fort St. George was a
serious danger. The houses offered convenient cover for any enemies
that might attack the Fort; and, moreover, any disaffected or venal
townsman was in a position to give the assailants valuable help. The
French Governor set himself, therefore, to the deliberate destruction
of Black Town. He first destroyed the Town Wall, and then--for a
distance of 400 yards from the northern wall of White Town, or the
present Fort St. George--he demolished every house. The area that is
now represented by the Wireless Telegraph Station and the grounds of
the High Court thus became an open space. Meanwhile they constructed a
moat and glacis round the walls of White Town, which, with certain
alterations, are the moat and glacis of Fort St. George to-day.

The Records express the melancholy interest with which the Company's
employees, when they re-entered Madras, took note of the changes that the
enemy had made in the familiar settlement. The Councillors apparently
conceived that it was in a wanton spirit of destruction that the greater
part of Black Town had been wiped out; for they formally decided that the
streets that had been destroyed should be rebuilt. It may be supposed
however, that their military advisers counselled them otherwise; for, so
far from the old houses being rebuilt, those that had been left standing
were destroyed. The open space was allowed to remain; and 'New Black
Town'--the modern 'Georgetown'--began to be developed. It continued to be
called 'Black Town' until the visit of the Prince of Wales (afterwards King
George V) to Madras in 1906 when it was formally re-named
'Georgetown'--ostensibly in Prince George's honour, but in reality to meet
the wishes of a number of the residents who sought an opportunity of
getting rid of what they regarded--quite reasonably--as an objectionable
name for the locality in which their lot was cast. The disappearance of the
historic name is a matter for historic regret, but a concession had to be
made to the intelligible wishes of residents.

[Illustration: A MAGAZINE IN THE BLACK TOWN WALL]

The Company, bearing in mind that the French had been able to capture
Madras, realized that it was necessary to strengthen the defences of
Fort St. George and also to provide adequate protection for the new
native city that had grown up outside the Fort's protectiv