gnantly against being taxed for the purpose,
and, as a matter of fact, the representatives of the Company in India
doubted whether they would be within their legal rights in compelling
them to pay; and the tax was never actually levied. What with the Wall
Tax Road on the west and the seashore on the east, the existing
remains on the north, and the Esplanade on the south, it is not
difficult to form a general idea of the direction of the four sides of
the wall within which the later Black Town was enclosed.

Such is the story of 'The Wall;' and the remains are an interesting
relic of lawless times when at any minute it was possible that crowds
of terror-stricken folk would suddenly be pouring through the
gateways of the city at the alarming news that strange horsemen were
dashing here and there in one or another of the suburbs, demanding
money and jewels from the people and slaughtering unhappy individuals
who tried to evade a response.

CHAPTER VI

EXPANSION

We have seen that the Company were careful to develop both White Town
and Black Town. They were not content, however, with mere
developments, for they took pains also to extend their territorial
possessions.

The strip of land that was acquired by Mr. Francis Day was not large.
Roughly, it extended along the seashore from the mouth of the Cooum to
an undefined point beyond the present harbour, somewhere in the
neighbourhood of Cassimode, and inland as far as what was called the
North River, which is now represented by Cochrane's Canal--the canal
that runs between the Central Station and the People's Park. It will
be interesting to note how some of the various other parts of the
present city came into the Company's possession.

[Illustration: MADRAS (APPROXIMATELY)]

On several occasions the representatives of various dynasties that
were successively supreme over Madras made grants of additional land
to the Company. The village of Triplicane was the first
addition,----some twenty years after the acquisition of Madras. The
village was granted by the representative of the Mohammedan King of
Golconda, for an annual rent of Rs. 175, which ceased to be paid when
the Golconda dynasty shortly afterwards came to an end. Later, in
compliance with a petition by Governor Elihu Yale to the Emperor
Aurangzeb, the Company received a free grant of 'Tandore (Tondiarpet),
Persewacca (Pursewaukam), and Yegmore (Egmore).' Still later, in the
reign of Aurangzeb's son