Storia do Mogor 291.7

291.7

At length, in the month of October, 1701, Monsieur Francois Martin, governor of the fortress of Pondicherry, received a report that these insolent fellows meant to attack him. To this intent they had allied themselves with other robbers who hid in the woods and had constructed a small earthen fort in a village called Bamiapalam, distant from Pondicherry about a league or more, and on the shore of the sea. At this place these wretches gave great trouble to travellers, and forced them to pay whatever they chose, and observed no limits of demand. One night Monsieur Martin, to put an end to these excesses, sent out one hundred French soldiers and two hundred natives with orders to attack this fort. They carried out this order in the morning of the next day, cut down the thorny scrub and the stakes planted round it, and scrambled through the ditches. At once the blacks within the fort rose and fired several times, but harmed no one. On their part the French in good order fired on them, and threw several grenades into the fort. Others made for the gate, and having broken it in by beams and hatchets, entered most valiantly, cut several of the enemy into pieces, and made prisoners of the rest. Their captain, a black man, was seized while trying to escape, and was carried off as quickly as possible to Pondicherry, together with several wounded men. In this encounter there were some three hundred horsemen of Singy (? JinjI, the fort), who wanted to come to their aid.