day closed the year. Mr. Lally intended to open the next with his first fire against the fort; but the preparations to equip a large detachment intended to attack the troops with Preston and Mahomed Issoof, deferred the battery to the 2d of January.
The French, whilst in possession of Fort St. George, after taken by Labourdonnais, had made several improvements and additions to the slight works they found, which nevertheless, rendered the fort little capable of long resistance against the regular approaches of an European enemy; nor had they given any extention to the internal area, which did not exceed 15 acres of ground. Nevertheless, the English let the place remain in the state they received it from the French in 1751, until the beginning of the year 1756; when the expectation of another war with that nation, and the reports of the great preparations making in France against India, dictated the necessity of rendering it completely defensible. Accordingly all the Coolies, labourers, and tank diggers, which the adjacent country could supply, were from this time constantly employed on the fortifications: their daily number generally amounted to 4000 men, women, and children, who had continued on the works until lately driven away by the approach of the French army from Conjeveram.
An addition had been projected in the year 1743 by the engineer Mr. Smith, father of Captain Joseph Smith, which included as much ground as the former area of the fort: the ditch which marked its limits was then dug and faced with brick, and was supplied with water by a communication with the northern river, which at that time ran along the foot of the ancient wall to the west; but on account of the expence, nothing was then raised above the surface, and the naked ditch remained when De Labourdonnais came before the town, neither an obstruction nor an advantage to his attack. It was in the same condition in 1756, when the new works were resolved on; and the plan of Mr. Smith having been approved by Mr. Robins, the fortifications on this side were raised in conformity to that projection. To join the new rampart with the old bastion to the s. w. and to gain the ground in the new area which was occupied by the river, its bed was filled up, beginning from the s. w. bastion, with earth dug from the edge of the rising ground of the
