d broke out on every individual, and this was attended with an
insatiable thirst, which became the more intolerable as the body was
drained of its moisture. In vain those miserable objects stripped
themselves of their clothes, squatted down on their hams, and fanned
the air with their hats, to produce a refreshing undulation. Many were
unable to rise again from this posture, but falling down, were trod to
death or suffocated. The dreadful symptom of thirst was now accompanied
with a difficulty of respiration, and every individual gasped for
breath. Their despair became outrageous: again they attempted to force
the door, and provoke the guard to fire upon them by execration and
abuse. The cry of "Water! water!" issued from every mouth. Even the
jemmautdaar was moved to compassion at their distress. He ordered his
soldiers to bring some skins of water, which served only to enrage the
appetite, and increase the general agitation. There was no other way
of conveying it through the windows but by hats, and this was rendered
ineffectual by the eagerness and transports of the wretched prisoners,
who at sight of it struggled and raved even into fits of delirium.
In consequence of these contests, very little reached those who stood
nearest the windows, while the rest, at the farther end of the prison,
were totally excluded from all relief, and continued calling upon their
friends for assistance, and conjuring them by all the tender ties of
pity and affection. To those who were indulged it proved pernicious, for
instead of allaying their thirst, it enraged their impatience for more.
The confusion became general and horrid; all was clamour and contest;
those who were at a distance endeavoured to force their passage to
the window, and the weak were pressed down to the ground never to rise
again. The inhuman ruffians without derived entertainment from their
misery; they supplied the prisoners with more water, and held up lights
close to the bars that they might enjoy the inhuman pleasure of seeing
them fight for the baneful indulgence. Mr. Holwell seeing all his
particular friends lying dead around him, and trampled upon by the
living, finding himself wedged up so close as to be deprived of all
motion, begged, as the last instance of their regard, that they would
remove the pressure, and allow him to retire from the window, that he
might die in quiet. Even in those dreadful circumstances, which might be
supposed to have levelled all d