The officers protested against the scheme; they justly remarked that it would be folly to make such an attack before the arrival of the whole force.

The _Phram_ and the _Chandos_, with the platoons of Europeans, were still to come.

They represented that the garrison of the fort alone was a thousand strong, to say nothing of the small walled town which must be taken before the fort could be attacked.

Such a proposal was not likely to increase their confidence in Brown.

Sickness had already set in among the troops, and that evening Captain Jeremiah Easthope died of fever.