For this reason it was seldom that any one went into it, though now and again a party with torches might go exploring.
"The river washes along the front of the old fort, and so protects it, but on the sides and behind there are many doors, and these had to be guarded, of course, in the old quarter as well as in that which was actually held by our troops.

We were short-handed, with hardly men enough to man the angles of the building and to serve the guns.

It was impossible for us, therefore, to station a strong guard at every one of the innumerable gates.

What we did was to organize a central guard-house in the middle of the fort, and to leave each gate under the charge of one white man and two or three natives.

I was selected to take charge during certain hours of the night of a small isolated door upon the southwest side of the building.