Omychund resented as an act of wilful injustice, and Mr. Holwell is of opinion, that if it had not been for Omychund's insinuations, he should have been discharged with the rest, notwithstanding the offence he had given to the viceroy by defending the fort; and the notion that prevailed of his being privy to the concealment of money; and in this opinion he says he is confirmed by the confinement of the three gentlemen who were detained with him, who were all of them persons against whom Omychund was known to have conceived a particular resentment.
Mr. Holwell and his associates in captivity, were conveyed in a kind of coach, drawn by oxen, called a hackery, to the camp, where they were loaded with fetters, and lodged in the tent of a Moorish soldier, which being no more than 4 feet by 3 feet, they were obliged to lie, sick as they were, half in and half out the whole night, which happened to be very rainy; yet the next day their fever happily came to a crisis, and boils broke on every part of their bodies, which, though they were extremely painful, were the certain presages of their recovery. The next day they were removed to the coast, and, by order of General Mhir Muddon, were soon after sent by sea to Maxadavad, the metropolis of Bengal, to wait the viceroy's return, and be disposed of as he should farther determine.
At Maxadavad they arrived, after a voyage of 13 days, in a large boat, in which they had no better provision than rice and water, and no softer beds than some bamboos laid on the bottom timber of the vessel; they were, besides, exposed alternately to excessive heat and violent rains, without any covering but a bit of old mat and some scraps of sacking. The boils that covered them were become running sores, and the irons on their legs had consumed the flesh almost to the bone.
When they arrived at Maxadavad, Mr. Holwell sent a letter to Mr. Law, the chief of the French factory, with an account of their distress, and Mr. Law, with great politeness and humanity, sent them not only cloaths, linen, provision and liquors, in great plenty, but money.
About 4 o'clock on the 7th of July, they landed, and after marching a considerable way as a spectacle to the multitude that thronged round them, they were depositied under an open shed, not far from the palace.
In this place they received every possible relief, not only from the great kindness of the French and Dutch chiefs, but from the Arabian merchants.
On the 18th of July, the viceroy arrived, and the prisoners then learned that he had enquired for them, in order to set them at libery before he left Calcutta, and was offended with Mhir Muddon for having so hastily removed them to Maxadavad. He did not, however, order their immediate discharge when he arrived, which it is natural to suppose he would have done, if they had been detained in custody contrary to his inclination.
On the 25th they were conducted to the palace, to have an audience, and to know their fate; but they could have no audience that day, which as it happened, was a favourable circumstance, for at
