POLITICAL HISTORY.
the Company's mango garden somewhere near by, which was a favourite place for strangers to camp in. It was apparently near the present Dábá Gardens.
In 1741 the Chief (Mr. John Stratton) earnestly invited the attention of the Madras authorities to the necessity of strengthen- ing the Vizagapatam defences. He said —
'The Buildings and Fortifications at this Place are in so ruinous a Condition that in case any Disturbances should happen here we are but ill provided to resist only a small Body of Men. It's true we have 61 pieces of Ordnance mounted in this Garrison, but the carriages are so farr fallen to decay that they will not bear 2ce firing before they must fall to pieces. We are also in great want of fire Arms for the Military, for those now in use have been here so long that they are not to be depended on.'
The next year a threatened inroad of Maráthas led him to entertain 100 extra peons and a like number of lascars and to ask for 75 barrels of powder and more men and arms. The whole coast was in a panic, the Dutch at Masulipatam, Cocanada and Bimlipatam and the French at Yanam having embarked all their property ready for instant flight, the small factories at Injaram and Uppáda making similar preparations, and the people of the country ' retiring to the hills with all expedition possible.' Madras sent up 21 Europeans, fifteen barrels of powder and five candies of lead, and the Chief set to work to make 'a Palisado of Timbers from Flag Staff Hill to the sea-side, which is 216 yards.' This flagstaff hill, on which there was then a battery, is apparently the low outcrop of dark rock which stands in the quarter of Vizagapatam still known as Buruzupéta, or 'Bastion hamlet,' and which was afterwards called 'the Black Rock.' It was then (see the map facing p. 44) quite outside the town. Mr. Stratton, who was clearly a Chief of determination, was confident of being able to beat off the enemy, and the local Rájas all sent their families to Vizagapatam for protection.
The trouble, however, blew over temporarily and the only real work done on the defences seems to have been the construction of 'Benyon's battery and Middle Point, with a very small addition to Martin's Point.' The disappearance of all the plans of this period from the Madras records renders it impossible to identify these posts with certainty, but the map seems to show that Benyon's battery was the work on the Black Rock already referred to, the Mettah gate the opening on the low ground west of it, Middle Point the small bastion next west again and Martin's Point the outwork adjoining on the edge of the backwater just north of the town. They were shortly afterwards declared to be
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