The entire number now inside the Residency, including those holding the fort of the Muchee Bawun, near by, was as follows:
| Men: | European soldiers | 629 |
| European“ civilians | 298 | |
| Native soldiers | 765 | |
| Total bearing arms | 1,692 | |
| Women | 240 | |
| Children | 310 | |
| Total inside the Residency | 2,242 | |
This includes the sick and wounded after the disastrous defeat at Chinhut.
Outside, their enemies swarmed around their position in such numbers that they have been variously computed at from 30,000 to 100,000 strong at different periods during the siege, with about one hundred guns bearing on the devoted Residency and its defenders.
But mere numbers do not give a sufficient idea of this dreadful contest. Many of those now within the Residency had fled there in such panic as to leave behind in their homes their provisions, money, and furniture, and were literally without a change of clothing, or a bed to lie down upon, or a knife and spoon with which to eat their scanty food. The hottest time of the year was upon them, with not the first of the appliances by which they had been accustomed to mitigate its rigor. Crowded into the narrowest space, most of them had to lie down on the ground, the heat, mosquitoes and effluvia being almost intolerable: the shot of the enemy, too, often came crashing through the walls, sprinkling them with the dust and mortar as it passed over them, while sometimes a fearful shell would explode in their midst, and kill or wound two or three or more of them. Alas! one hundred and forty-three days of such suffering lay before them now, during which time two fifths of their number were to die, and more than a thousand brave men would have to perish in order to save the remnant that was left!
The Residency itself, and a few houses around it—the homes of
