supplant others, and with the same success. A heavy mari, who had found means to seize on the bars over his head, pressed him almost with his whole weight; a Dutch serjeant having climbed over several others, supported himself on one of his shoulders, and a black soldier bore very hard on the other. Self-defence is always lawful, and Mr. Holwell finding it impossible to sustain this load and live, often disengaged himself from the poor serjeant and soldier by shifting his hold on the bars, and thrusting his knuckles into their ribs; but the man that hung over him by the bar, he found it utterly impossible to dislodge. Having suffered this pressure from half an hour after 11 till near 2 in the morning, his spirits sunk, and his reason began to forsake him; he found it impossible to keep his station, and he could not bear the thought of retiring again to the inner part of the prison. In this dilemma he drew a clasp knife from his pocket, intending to put an end to his misery at once; but his resolution failing, or his reason once more gaining the ascendant over his passion, he put it up, and being determined to quit the window, at all events, his burthen being absolutely insupportable, he told Mr. Carey, who with his wife was in the rank behind him, his intention, and advised him to make an attempt to get into his place. Poor Carey expressed great thankfulness for the offer of what Mr. Holwell could not keep, but though he made the attempt to succeed him, he was supplanted by the Dutch serjeant, who has been just mentioned.

the

Mr. Holwell, whom Mr. Carey assisted in getting through press that was about the window, went forward among the inner ranks towards the south wall of the prison, where he laid himself down with Carey, and once more resigned himself to death. Carey died in a very few minutes, and he felt a stupor come on very fast, though he was sensible of no pain, and but little uneasiness of any kind. Before he quite lost his recollection he reflected, that if he died where he lay, he should be trampled upon as he had trampled upon others. This thought, however whimsical or superstitious, gave him some pain; he therefore got up once more, and, with some difficulty reached the platform a second time, where he soon after lost all sensibility; the last thing to which he was conscious was an uneasy sensation about his waist, supposed to be caused by his sash, which therefore he untied and threw from him.

There is no particular account of what happened from this time till day break; but it may reasonably be supposed that it was only a continuation of the same scene of strife and

distress. When the morning dawned, which was about five o'clock, no entreaty having yet prevailed to get the door open, one of the company thought of seeking for Mr. Holwell, hoping that now the night was past his influence might procure their enlargement. Two of the company undertook the search, and after some time found him by his shirt, under the bodies of several that had died and fallen upon him after he became insensible. As he appeared to have some signs of life, they carried him to the window next the door, where there was now no longer so formidable a press, only 23 of 146 being alive, and many of them unable to stand. The window itself, however, was still full, and the stench of the dead bodies being grown intolerable, nobody would resign his station in favour of another; he was therefore carried back again, and once more deposited upon the platform. But soon after, a gentleman, whose name is Mills, and who is now captain of the company's yacht, having a seat in the window, generously offered to give it up for the common good, and Mr. Holwell was again brought forward, and placed in the seat which Mr. Mills had resigned.

About this time the viceroy had received an account of the havoc that death had made among the prisoners; but instead of sending instantly to preserve the few that remained, he coldly ordered an inquiry to be made whether the chief was among the living or the dead. This inquiry was made at the window where Mr. Holwell had been seated, for the messenger had yet no orders to open the door, and the person he inquired after being shewn him, and it being probable that if the door was soon opened he would recover, the messenger hastened back, and soon returned with an order to release them all.

As the door opened inwards, and as the dead were piled up against it, and covered all the rest of the floor, it was impossible to open it by any efforts from without; it was therefore necessary that the dead should be removed by the few that were within, who were become so feeble, that the task, though it was the condition of life, was not performed without the utmost difficulty, and it was twenty minutes after the order came, before the door could be opened.

About a quarter after six in the morning, the poor remains of 146 souls, being no more than three and twenty, came out of the Black Hole alive, but in a condition which made it very doubtful whether they would see the morning of the next day. Among the living was Mrs. Carey, but poor Leech

was among the dead. The bodies were dragged out of the hole by the soldiers, and thrown promiscuously into the ditch of an unfinished ravelin, which was afterwards filled with earth.

Mr. Holwell, Mr.Court, Mr. Walcot, and Mr. Burdet, were ordered into the custody of an officer, and the rest were immediately set at liberty, except poor Mrs. Carey, whose youth and beauty caused her to be detained for the conqueror, or some officer of state.

Mr. Holwell, when he came out of the prison, was in a high fever, and not able to stand; he was, however, sent for, to be examined by the viceroy, and was in this condition carried into his presence. It was some time before he could speak, but as soon as he was able, he began to relate the sufferings and death of his unhappy companions. The viceroy, without taking any notice of this tale of distress, stopt him short by telling him, that he had been informed there was treasure to a very considerable value secreted in the fort, and that if he did not discover it, he must expect no mercy. Mr. Holwell replied, that he knew of no such treasure; and then began to remind him of his assurance the day before, that no hurt should come either to himself or his friends. To this remonstrance he paid no more regard than he had done to the complaint, but proceeded in his inquiry concerning the treasure; and when he found no intelligence could be got, he ordered the general of his household troops, whose name was Mhir Muddon, to take charge of Mr. Holwell as his prisoner.

Among the guard that marched before Mr. Holwell, when he went out from the presence of the viceroy, there was a man who carried a large Mahratta battle-axe on his shoulder, which occasioned a report, first, that his head was ordered to be struck off, and afterwards that the sentence was executed.

It happened unfortunately, that Mr. Holwell, in the hurry and confusion of the siege, after the fort had been deserted by Drake, forgot to set Omychund, the black merchant, whom Drake had injuriously imprisoned, at liberty. This neglect Omychund resented as an act of wilful injustice, and Mr. Holwell is of opinion, that if it had not been for Omychund's insinuations, he should have been discharged with the rest, notwithstanding the offence he had given to the viceroy by defending the fort, and the notion that prevailed of his being privy to the concealment of money; and in this opinion he says he is confirmed by the confinement

of the three gentlemen who were detained with him, who were all of them persons against whom Omychund was known to have conceived a particular resentment.

Mr. Holwell and his associates in captivity were con veyed in a kind of coach, drawn by oxen, called a hackery, to the camp, where they were loaded with fetters, and lodged in the tent of a Moorish soldier, which being not more than 4 feet by 3 feet, they were obliged to lie, sick as they were, half in and half out the whole night, which happened to be very rainy; yet the next day their fever happily came to a crisis, and boils broke out on every part of their bodies, which, though they were extremely painful, were the certain presages of their perfect recovery. The next day they were removed to the coast, and by order of General Mhir Muddon, were soon after sent by sea to Maxadavad, the metropolis of Bengal, to wait the viceroy's return, and be disposed of as he should farther determine.

At Maxadavad they arrived after a voyage of thirteen days in a large boat, in which they had no better provision than rice and water, and no softer bed than some bamboos laid on the bottom timber of the vessel; they were, besides, exposed alternately to excessive heat and violent rains, without any covering but a bit of old mat and some scraps of sacking. The boils that covered them were become running sores, and the irons on their legs had consumed the flesh almost to the bone.

When they arrived at Maxadavad, Mr. Holwell sent a letter to Mr. Law, the chief of the French factory, with an account of their distress, and Mr. Law, with great politeness and humanity, sent them not only clothes, linen, provision, and liquors, in great plenty, but money.

About four o'clock on the 7th of July they landed, and after marching a considerable way as a spectacle to the multitude that thronged round them, they were deposited under an open shed, not far from the palace.

In this place they received every possible relief, not only from the great kindness of the French and Dutch chiefs, but the Arabian merchants.

On the 18th of July the viceroy arrived, and the prisoners then learned that he had inquired for them, in order to set them at liberty before he left Calcutta, and was offended with Mhir Muddon for having so hastily removed them to Maxadavad. He did not, however, order their immediate discharge when he arrived, which it is natural to suppose he would have done, if they had been detained in custody contrary to his inclinations.

On the 15th they were conducted to the palace, to have an audience, and to know their fate, but they could have no audience that day, which, as it happened, was a favourable circumstance, for at night the viceroy's grandmother solicited their liberty, at a feast, to which she was invited on his safe return, and the viceroy promised that he would release them on the morrow.

On the morrow, about five in the morning, they were waked, and told that the viceroy would in a few minutes pass by to his palace of Mooteejeel. Upon this intelligence they got up, and when the viceroy came in sight, they paid him the usual homage, and uttered their benediction aloud. He looked at them with strong marks of compassion in his countenance, and ordering his litter to stop, he called them to him, and having heard a short extemporary petition, which was spoken by Mr. Holwell, he made no reply, but ordered two of his officers to see their irons instantly struck off, and conduct them safely wherever they chose to go, giving them a strict charge to see that they suffered no injury or insult by the way.

This act of mercy, however late, or from whatever motive, was the more meritorious, as great pains were taken by some time-serving sycophants to prevent it. They told the viceroy, that Mr. Holwell, notwithstanding his losses, was still possessed of enough to pay a considerable sum for his freedom, to which the viceroy nobly replied, "If he has any thing left, let him keep it; his sufferings have been great, and he shall have his liberty."

Mr. Holwell and his friends being thus dismissed, immediately took boat, and soon after arrived safe at the Dutch settlement at Corcemabad, where he afterwards embarked for England.

1758, Feb.

XXVII. Account of a threatening Letter sent to the Duke of Marlborough, and a Prosecution which his Grace carried on against William Barnard, supposing him to have written it.

ON the 29th of November, his Grace the Duke of Marlborough received the following letter from an unknown

hand.