yock death had made amongst us, sent one of his jemmautdaars to enquire if the chief survived. They shewed me to him; told I had ap pearance of life remaining; and believed I might recover if the door was opened very soon. This answer being returned to the suba, an order came immediately for our release, it being then near six in the morning.

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, tho' it was the condition of life, was not performed without the utmost difficulty, and it was 20 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 blackhole alive, but in a condition which made it very doubful whether they would see the morning of the next day; among the living was Mrs. Carey, but 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."

poor

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 con queror, 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 to 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 trea. sure 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 Moratta battle-axe on his shoulder, which occasioned a report, first, that his head was 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

Omy.

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 de. fending 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 whomOmychund was known to have conceived a particular re

sentment.

Mr. Holwell, and his associates in captivity, were conveyed 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 no 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 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 13 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 4 o'clock on the 7th of July, they landed, and after march ing 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 from 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 Maxada. vad. He did not, however, order their immediate discharge when he arrived, which it is natural to sup pose he would have done, if they had been detained in custody con trary to his inclination.

On the 25th they were conducted to the palace, to have an au dience, and to know their fate; but they could have no audience that day, which, as it happened, was a favourable circumstance, for

at

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 order ing 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 atCorcemadad, where he afterwards embarked for England.

of the Doddington Indiaman, and of the adventures of those on board who survived the shipwreck; from the journal of one of the surviving officers.

THE Doddington, Captain

Samson, sailed from the Downs on the 23d of April 1755, in company with the Pelham, the Houghton, the Streatham, and the Edgecourt, all in the service of the East-India company, and in about seven days got clear of the channel.. During this time Captain Samson perceived that his ship sailed faster than any of the others, and he was unwilling to lose the advantage of this superiority by keeping them company he therefore stood on alone, and having very soon lost sight of them, he made Bonavista, one of the Cape de Verd islands, lat. 16 North, on the 20th of May, and on the 21st he got into Porto Prior bay. It now appeared either that he had been mistaken in supposing his ship to outsail the rest of the fleet, or that he had lost time by the course he had steered; for he found the Pelham and the Streatham had reached the bay two hours before him. The Houghton arrived soon afterwards, but the Edgecourt did not come in till the 26th.

On the 27th of May, the Dod dington, Pelham, Streatham, and Houghton, having taken in their water, proceeded on the voyage together, leaving the Edgecourt in the road; they continued in com. pany steering S. by E. E. till the 28th, when Capt. Samson thinking the course too far easterly, ordered the Doddington to be kept South,

which

which again separated her from the rest of the fleet, and after a fine voyage of seven weeks, she made the fand of the Cape of Good Hope. Having just doubled the Cape, a new departure was taken from de Agulhas on the 8th of July; and the vessel having steered eastward about twenty-four hours, between the latitude of 35 d. 30 m. and 36 d. the captain ordered her to be kept E. N. E.

In this course she continued till about a quarter before one in the morning of Thursday, July 17, when she struck: the officer from whose journal this account is taken, was then asleep in his cabin, but being suddenly awaked by the shock, he started up in the utmost consternation, and made all the haste he could to get upon deck; here all the terrors of his situation rushed upon him at once; he saw the men dashed to and fro by the violence of the sea that rolled over them, and the ship breaking to pieces at every stroke of the surge; he crawled over, with great difficulty, to the larboard side of the quarter-deck, which lay the highest out of water, and there he found the captain, who said very little more than they must all perish; in a few minutes a sea parted them, and he saw him no more. He made a shift to get back to the quarter-deck, but he was very much bruised, and the small bone of his left arm was broken; all the rest of the ship was under water, and shattered to pieces. In this dreadful situation, expecting every moment to be swallowed up, he heard somebody cry out, Land upon this he looked eagerly about him, but though he saw something which he supposed was taken for land, he believed it only the range of the sea on the other side of the

breakers; at the same moment the sea broke over him with great violence, and not only forced him from his hold, but stunned him by a violent blow upon his eye. Though from this time he lay insensible titt after day-light, yet he continued upon the wreck, and when he recovered, he found himself made fast to a plank by a nail that had been forced into his shoulder. Besides the pain that he felt from his wounds and bruises, he was now so benumb ed with cold, that he could scarce move either hand or foot; he called out as loud as he could, and was heard by the people on the rocks, but they could give no assistance, so that it was a considerable time before he could disengage himself, and crawl on shore.

This shore was a barren uninha. bited rock, in the lat. of 33 d. 44 m. south, and distance about 250 leagues east of the Cape of Good Hope. Here were now met Mr. Evan Jones, chief mate, Mr. John Collet zd, Mr. William Webb 3d, and Mr. S. Powell 5th mate; Richard Topping, carpenter; Neal Bothwell and Nathaniel Chisholm, quarter-masters; Daniel Ladova, the captain's steward; Henry Sharp, the surgeon's servant; Thomas Arnold, a black, and John Mackdowal, servants to the captain; Robert Beaseley, John King, Gilbert Chain, Terence Mole, Jonas Rosenbury, John Glass, Taylor, and Hendrick Scantz, seamen; John Yets, midshipman; and John Lister, Ralph Smith, and Edward Dysoy, matrosses. These persons, being 23 in number, were all that remained of 270 souls that were on board when the ship struck.

Their first care was to search among the things which had been

thrown