A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan/Volume 2/Book 6
A
HISTORY
OF THE
MILITARY TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
BRITISH NATION
IN
INDOSTAN,
FROM THE YEAR MDCCXLV,
BOOK VI.
THE WAR OF BENGAL.
1756
THE scope of our narrative now calls us from the coast of Coromandel to relate the calamities which at this time befel the English settlements in Bengal; previous to which it is requisite to investigate the rise and progress of the English commerce in the province, and to give some portion of the history of the Mahomedan government.
Bengal is the easternmost of the provinces which compose the empire of the Great Mogul. It lies between the degrees 26. 30. and 21. 30. of north latitude, and extends from the 86th to the 97th degree of longitude, computing from the meridian of London. Its area is nearly 21 square degrees.
The Ganges, from its irruption through the mountains of the frontier, flows for 300 miles to the south-east, when it receives the Jumna at Allahabad. From hence its course continues 300 miles almost directly east, when having received seven large rivers, and more of inferior "note, it enters the province of Bengal, according to the the ancient definition, in the latitude of 25. 10. where its current on the right hand washes the foot of a mountain called Tacriagully, from whence it strikes to the S E, until it reacheth the sea. A hundred miles below Tacriagully it sends off an arm to the south, which is called the river of Cossimbuzar; and 50 miles lower, another, called the Felingeer, which, after flowing about 40 miles to the SW, unites with the other at a town called Nuddeah. The river formed by the junction of these two streams is sometimes called the little Ganges, but more commonly the river Hughley, which after flowing 120 miles of latitude in a course which does not verge more than one point to the westward of the south, gains the sea in the latitude of 21. 30. at the island of Sagore. The main body of the Ganges, which for distinction is called the great Ganges, continues from the commencement of the river of Cossimbuzar, receiving a multitude of streams from the left, until it reacheth the latitude of 22. 45. where its waters are met by those of another river even larger than itself, called the Baramputrah, which rises on the eastern side of the vast mountains that send forth the Ganges to the west. The conflux of these two mighty rivers is tumultuous, and has formed several large islands between their junction and the open sea, which their waters, through several extensive channels reach about 35 miles lower down, in the latitude of 22. 10. Tacriagully is the termination of a vast range of mountains, which accompanies the course of the Ganges from the west: and about 50 miles west of Tacriagully, where they begin to form the north boundary of Bengal on this side the river, another range strikes from them to the south, but in a curve swelling to the west ward, which terminates within sight of the sea, at the Nelligree hills, 30 miles inland from the town of Ballasore, in the latitude of 21. 30. Several districts belonging to Bengal lie interspersed within these mountains, but none beyond them; for to the westward they extend several degrees, and are in some parts impassable, as far as the province of Berar in the Decan; to the north they divide. Bengal from the southern division of BEHAR, and to the south, seem the natural separation of Bengal from ORIXA, which nevertheless has a tract of country within them extending 20 miles along the sea-coasts from Ballasore to the river of Pipley, which disembogues opposite to the Island of Sagore. On the eastern side of the Ganges, the territory of Bengal extends to the north as far as the latitude of 26. 30. where it is bounded by the foot of the first range of mountains approaching Thibet. By the acquisition of a country, called Purnea, the territory on this side the river extends 20 miles more to the west than Tacriagully on the other; and a line nearly north and south, from the northern mountains to the Ganges, marks the boundary between Purnea and the province of Behar. From this line the territory of Bengal extends 180 miles to the eastward as far as Rangamatty, a town belonging to the king pf Assam, situated in the latitude of 26. 10. on the river Baramputrah. The course of this river from Rangamatty to the sea seems the natural boundary of Bengal to the east; but considerable districts have been acquired on the other side of it, which will be described as occasion requires; and at the upper part of the sea-coast which bounds the bay of Bengal to the east, the province of Chittigan has been wrested from the kingdom of Aracan.
The sea-coast between the mouths of the river Hughley and the Great Ganges, extends 180 miles, and the whole tract is a dreary unhospitable shore, which sands and whirlpools render inaccessible from the sea to ships of burden; and for several miles inward, the land is intersected by numerous channels, which derive from both rivers, and disembogue by many mouths into the sea. The islands formed by these channels are covered with thickets, and occupied by deer and tygers.
The triangle included by the Cossimbuzar and Hughley rivers to the west, by the Great Ganges to the east, and by the sea-coast to the south, as well as a large tract on either hand and to the north of this Delta, is as level as the sandy deserts of Africa, or Arabia; and, like some of the countries on the banks of the river of Amazons, no where produces a single stone. The soil is a stratum of the richest mould lying on a deep sand, which being interspersed with shells, indicates the land to have been overflowed. Such parts of this immense plain as are not watered by the Ganges and its branches, are fertilized by many other streams from the mountains, and for the space of three months, from May to August, when the sun is mostly in the zenith, heavy rains fall every day.
Hence the luxuriance of the soil supplies the subsistance of the inhabitants with less labour than any other country in the world. Rice, which makes the greatest part of their food, is produced in such plenty in the lower parts of the province, that it is often sold on the spot at the rate of two pounds for a farthing: number of other arable grains, and a still greater variety of fruits and culinary vegetables, as well as the spices of their diet, are raised, as wanted, with equal ease: sugar, although requiring a more attentive cultivation, thrives every where: although their kine are of a mean race, and give little milk, yet the defect of exuberance is supplied by the multitude of the animals: the casts who eat fish, find them swarming in all the streams and ponds of the country, and salt is produced in abundance in the islands near the sea. Hence in spite of despotism the province is extremely populous: and the vacation from agriculture leaves a much greater number of the inhabitants, than can be spared in others, at leisure to apply themselves to the loom; so that more cotton and silk are manufactured in Bengal than in thrice the same extent of country throughout the empire, and consequently at much cheaper rates. The greatest part of these manufactures, and of the raw silk, is exported; and Europe receives the largest share; the rest goes by land and sea to different parts of the empire, and other countries; to which they likewise send rice, sugar, beetle-nut, ginger, long-pepper, turmerick, and a variety of other drugs and productions of the soil. Their real wants from abroad are only the metals; but since Europe has opened a trade to India, they have consumed large quantities of woollen manufactures, and require arms, and a variety of mechanical implements better than they can make themselves, some from fancy, but the greatest part for use. The abundance of advantages peculiar to this country have induced the eastern world to call it the paradise of India; and the western, without hyperbole, the rich kingdom of Bengal. But these advantages,through a long course of generations, have concurred with the languor peculiar to the unelastic atmosphere of the climate, to debase all the essential qualities of the human race, and notwithstanding the general effeminacy of character which is visible in all the Indians throughout the empire, the natives of Bengal are still of weaker frame and more enervated disposition than those of any other province: bodily strength, courage, and fortitude are unknown: even the labour of the common people is totally void of energy; and they are of a stupidity which neither wishes nor seems to be capable of extending its operations into any variety of mechanical dexterity. All those of the better casts, who are not fixed to the loom, are bred to the details of traffic and money, in which their patience and perseverance are as great as their detestation of danger, and aversion to bodily fatigue; and it is common to see the accounts of a huckster in his stall, who does not exchange the value of two rupees in the day, as voluminous as the books of a considerable merchant in Europe.
The natives of Bengal derive their religion from a code called the Shaster, which they assert to be the genuine scripture of Bramah, in preference to the Vidam, of which the followers assert the contrary, whilst neither understand the language of the original text, which is called the Shanscrit: the very disuse of this language is of the most remote antiquity; it is preserved only by the Bramins, and understood but by very few even of them. The two codes of the Shaster and Vidam divide almost equally the whole body of the Indian religion throughout Indostan. The followers of the Shaster are distinguished by the name of GENTOOS.
The language as well as the written character of Bengal are peculiar to the natives, and not used in any other province, and both seem to be base derivations from the Shanscrit.
It appears from the history of Feritsha that the sovereignty of the Mahomedans was established in Bengal about the year 1200 1200, during the reign of Scheabbedin, the Gauride. At this time the capital, was Lucknouti, an immense city, to which the natives attributed great antiquity: it was situated on the right side of the Ganges, about about 20 miles north of the island of Cossibuzar, and about the same distance to the south of Maulda. From the reign of Scheabbedin to the invasion of Tamerlane in 1399, the country during two centuries is always supposed annexed to the empire of Delhi, although its governors sometimes affected royalty; and the province, during this period, has more than once been conferred on princes of the royal blood who stood nearest the throne. The confusions in the empire, which followed the invasion of Tamerlane, gave the rulers of Bengal better opportunity to assert and maintain independence. In 1447 they appear assuming the stile and dignity of kings, and in 1494, Sultan Alla ul dien, as monarch of Bengal, makes peace on equal terms with Sultan Secunder emperor of Delhi. From this time the continual convulsions of the throne, until it was seized by the intrepid hand of Baber, left the Sultans of Bengal without the apprehension of controul from the transitory sovereigns who stiled themselves emperors, and even Baber, until his death, in 1530, had too much to do in confirming his authority in other parts of Indostan to look to Bengal: but in 1534 the reigning Sultan was expelled by the famous adventurer Shere Cawn, who himself in 1539 quitted the province on the approach of the emperor Homaion son of Baber. This is the first establishment made by the house of Tamerlane in the province, but it was of short duration; for Shere Cawn defeated Homaion on his return to Agra, immediately after which he recovered the dominion of Bengal, and armed by the means it afforded, drove Homaion out of Indostan into Persia, and assumed the throne of Delhi in 1542. He died in 1545; his son and successor Selim in 1552; and during their reigns no commotions appear in Bengal; but during the three abrupt successions after Selim, until Homaion recovered Delhi in 1555, Bengal was continually disputed, and by several competitions. Homaion died in 1556, the year after he was reinthroned, and strong rebellions in the intermediate countries kept Bengal independant of Delhi until the year 1575, when the generals of Acbar reduced the province, and a part of Orixa, after which Bengal remained in subjection until 1624, when it was wrested from the empire by Shaw Jehan in rebellion against his father the emperor Jehanguire; but it was recovered the next year. Shaw Jehan succeeded to the throne in 1627, and in 1638 sent his son Sujah to command in Bengal. Sujah continued lord of the province until 1661, when he was driven to take refuge in Arracan by Emir Jumla the vizir of his brother Aurunzebe, who had confined their father Shaw Jehan, and ascended his throne. From this time until a revolution which has happened in our days, Bengal continued in uninterrupted submission to the authority of the great Mogul.
The peculiar patience of the Gentoos in Bengal, their affection to business, and the cheapness of all productions either of commerce or necessity, had concurred to render the details of the revenue the most minute, voluminous, and complicated system of accounts which exist in the universe, insomuch that the emperor Jehanguire, although the Mahomedans had then been sovereigns of the country for three centuries, says in his note book, that the application of ten years was necessary to acquire a competent notion of them. The military pride of the Mahomedans, their indolence and sensuality, their ignorance of the language, and the inferiority of their numbers, rendered them inadequate to a task they detested and obliged them, however unwilling, to leave the collection of the revenues, as they found it, with the Gentoos, and the same insufficiencies reduced them to continue the Rajahs or princes, amongst whom the country was divided, in the superintendance of the municipal regulations of their respective districts, subject to regulated tributes, and the arbitrary fines and extortions of victorious authority. The greatest part of Bengal remains at this day under the intermediate jurisdiction of these Rajahs, several of whom are descended from ancestors who ruled the same districts before the Mahomedan conquest.
The Portugueze appear in Bengal before the present dynasty of Moguls; for an armament was sent by the viceroy of Goa in 1534 to assist the reigning Sultan against the invader Shere Cawn. This nation, however, never established regular governments or garrisons in the province, as in most other parts of India. But different bands at different times took up their residence on the sea-coasts of Balasore and Arracan, and in several habitable islands, which lye in the mouths of the great and lesser Ganges, where, living without law, and with much superstition, some hired themselves as soldiers to the governors of the neighbouring districts, whilst others equipt boats and armed vessels, and plundered in the rivers all who were not able to resist them. The Dutch settled in Bengal about the year 1625.
The trade of this country was opened to the English by means of a surgeon named Boughton, who in 1636 was sent from Surat to Agra to attend a daughter of the emperor Shaw Jehan, whom he cured, and the emperor, besides other favours, granted him a patent to trade free of customs throughout his dominions, with which Boughton proceeded to Bengal, intending to purchase goods in this province, and to carry them by sea to Surat. His patent would probably have been little regarded, if the Nabob of the province had not wanted his assistance to cure one of his favourite women, whom, he likewise recovered: on which the Nabob prevailed on him to remain in his service, giving him an ample stipend, and confirming the privilege of trade which he had obtained at Agra, with a promise to extend it to all others of the English nation who should come to Bengal. Boughton wrote an account of his influence to the English governor at Surat, by whose advice the company in 1640 sent two ships from England to Bengal, the agents of which being introduced to the Nabob by Boughton, were received with courtesy, and assisted in their mercantile transactions; and the advantages gained by this trial gave encouragement to prosecute the trade.
The profits accruing to Europeans by their trade to Indostan, arise much more from the commodities which they purchase in that country, than from those which they send thither, and the most valuable part of the cargoes returned to Europe consists of silk and cotton manufactures; the weaver of which, is an Indian, living and working with his wife and several children in a hut, which scarcely affords him shelter from the sun and rain: his natural indolence however however is satisfied in procuring by his daily labour, his daily bread; and the dread of extortion or violence from the officers of the district to which he belongs, makes it prudence in him to appear, and to be poor; so that the chapman who sets him to work, finds him destitute of every thing but his loom, and is therefore obliged to furnish him with money, generally half the value of the cloth he is to make, in order to purchase materials, and to subsist him until his work is finished; the merchant who employs a great number of weavers, is marked by the higher officers of the government, as a man who can afford to forfeit a part of his wealth, and is therefore obliged to pay for protection, the cost of which, and more, he lays upon the manufactures he has to sell, of which, by a combination with other merchants, he always regulates the price, according to the necessity of the purchaser to buy. Now the navigation to India is so very expensive, that nothing can be more detrimental to this trade than long protractions of the voyage; and loss, instead of profit, would ensue, if ships were sent on the expectation of buying cargoes on their arrival; for either they would not find these cargoes provided, and must wait for them at a great expence; or if ready, would be obliged to purchase them too dearly. Hence has arisen the necessity of establishing factories in the country, that the agents may have time and opportunity to provide, before the arrival of the ships, the cargoes intended to be returned in them.
The English company, either in the first voyage or soon after, built a factory at Hughley, the principal port of the province, lying about one hundred miles from the sea on the river to which it gives its name, and which is the western arm of the ganges; but the officers of the government superintended the buildings, and objected to every thing which resembled or might be converted into a station of defence; the Mogul empire, at that time, disdaining to allow in any part of its dominions, the appearance of any other sovereignty than its own: for whatsoever forts the Portugueze or other Europeans possessed on the sea-coasts of Indostan, the territory on which they stood, and many of the forts themselves, were either wrested or purchased from princes at that time not conquered by the Mogul, in whose whose territory no European power had hitherto been suffered to erect a single bastion.
Not permitted to have fortifications, the English were likewise prohibited from entertaining a military force sufficient to give umbrage to the government, but were allowed to maintain an ensign and 30 men to do honour to the principal agents; who, thus confined to commercial views, applied themselves with much industry to promote their own and the company's interests in trade. Englishmen were sent from Hughley to those parts of the province in which the most valuable commodities were produced: but as the number of factors employed by the company did not suffice to superintend in different places, the provision of such quantities of goods as were annually demanded, the greatest part of the purchases was managed at Hughley, where the principal agents contracted with merchants of the country, who, on receiving about one half of the value beforehand, obliged themselves under pecuniary penalties to deliver at fixed periods the goods for which they had contracted. The company being by these dispositions invested with a right in all the goods for which they had contracted, even before these goods were manufactured, gave the name of Investment to all their purchases in India.
These were the only methods of carrying on the trade with reasonable expectation of profit; but they rendered the English entirely dependant on the government of Bengal, who, either by seizing the goods which were provided, or by prohibiting them from being carried to the principal residence, from whence they were to be shipped, might at any time subject the company's estate to great detriment and loss: and of these risques the company were so apprehensive, that they kept their factories in Bengal dependant on the Presidency of Madrass; where they had a fort and garrison, to which, in cases of sudden emergency, the agents in Bengal were to apply for advice and assistance.
Their trade, however, was carried on for some time without interruption, and with much success; but in a few years, when they had erected costly buildings, had accumulated large quantities of English commodities, and had given large credits in the province, the government, deeming them as it were fettered to the shore, changed its conduct towards them. The patents granted to Boughton, as well as the other stipulations which had induced them to settle in the province, were either disavowed, or construed in contradiction to their meaning: the same customs were levied from them, as from other merchants: the Nabob affected to arbitrate between the company and such of the natives, who, in order to evade the payment of their debts, thought proper to purchase his protection; and even vagabond Englishmen, offending against the company's privileges, were encouraged to take refuge in his court, and to disavow the authority of their countrymen. In a word, every pretext which might bring the English affairs under his cognizance was practised, in order to subject them to fines and exactions. If the settlements hesitated, or refused to comply with the Nabob's demands, their trade, throughout the province, was immediately stopped.
For these evils there were but two remedies, war, or retreat: both worse than the mischief; for although the government annually Repeated its exactions, the advantages of the Bengal trade, whilst new, were such as rendered it more prudent to acquiesce, than by defiance to risque the whole of the company's stock and concerns in the province; and for forty years the English attempted no military resistance.
At length, finding these impositions extravagantly increased, because they had only been opposed by embassies and petitions; and having the same causes of complaint against the Mogul's government at Surat; the company, in the year 1685, determined to try 1685 what condescensions the effect of arms might produce; and with the approbation of King James the second, fitted out two fleets; one of which was ordered to cruize at the bar of Surat, on all vessels belonging to the Mogul's subjects: the other was designed not only to commit hostilities by sea at the mouths of the Ganges, but carried likewise 600 regular troops, in order to attack the Nabob of Bengal by land. The agents at Hughley received previous notice of these intentions, and were instructed to call in all their factors and concerns, that all the English subjects and property might be in readiness to repair on board the ships, as soon as they should arrive in the road of Ballasore, from whence it was intended that they should proceed and surprize the city of Chittigan, on the opposite shore, where they were immediately to fortify themselves.
The conduct of this war was entrusted to Job Chanock, the company's principal agent at Hughley, a man of courage, without military experience, but impatient to take revenge of a government from which he had personally received the most ignominious treatment, having not long before been imprisoned and scourged by the Nabob. One vessel of the fleet was lost; the largest ship, with another, were not able to make their passage, and the rest did not 1686 arrive before the month of October, 1686; by which time, a body of the Nabob's troops, probably from some suspicions of the intended hostilities, had surrounded the factory at Hughley. Chanock, therefore, on the arrival of the ships, ordered the troops, about 460 men to come up the river to his assistance, gave battle, and drove the enemy out of the town. A truce ensued, during which all the company's effects were shipped; by which time, the governor of'Hughley having received considerable reinforcements, both sides were equally willing and ready to renew hostilities. The Moors were again discomfited: but, nevertheless, prepared to blockade the factory again; to avoid which, Chanock, on the 15th of December, took the field, and marching down the western bank of the river, burned and destroyed all the magazines of salt, and granaries of rice, which he found in his way between Hughley and the island of Ingelee, which lies at the mouth of the river, near the western shore. On this spot, perhaps the most unhealthy in the province, he pitched his camp, in the month of April, whilst the ships anchored in the main stream. The Moors suffered them to remain here without molestation for three months, during which sickness swept away 300 Europeans, which was two-thirds of the whole force.
In the mean time, the fleet sent to Surat had been much more successful, having taken from the Mogul's subjects, cargoes, which were valued at a million of sterling money. These losses deterred the merchants at Surat from making preparations for future voyages; the manufacturers and mechanics, left without employment, complained loudly of famine; and the emperor's revenues were considerably diminished: upon which Aurengzebe sent one of his officers from Delhi, with orders to hear the English complaints, and to mitigate the oppressions they had suffered. Orders of the same purport were likewise sent to the 'Nabob of Bengal, and arrived very fortunately for the English troops at Ingelee, when, reduced to only 100 men capable of bearing arms, they were surrounded by 10,000 foot, and 3000 horse. Hostilities ceased, and by a treaty signed the 16th of August, 1687, it was stipulated, that the English should not only be permitted to return to all their factories in the province, but might likewise erect docks and magazines at Ulabarea, a village situated on the western bank, about 50 miles from the mouth of the river.
However Chanock had not faith enough in the treaty to return to Hughley without the ships, and the Moors distrusted the English too much to suffer them to appear there with such an advantage. He therefore remained three months at Ulabarea, during which the place was found to be so improper for the purposes which had induced him to ask it, that he desired and obtained leave to remove to Soota-nutty, a town about 40 miles higher up, and on the other side of the river, where the factors and soldiery lived in huts until they could provide proper habitations. Mean while the war at Surat broke out afresh, on hearing which the Nabob of Bengal paid no regard to the treaty made at Ingelee; but gave up the English trade to the rapine of his officers, and at the same time demanded a very large sum, as a recompence for the damage which his country had sustained by the late hostilities. Chanock being neither in a condition to oppose him by arms, nor to appease him with money, sent two members of the council to Dacca, to try if he might be softened by submissions, Soon after their departure, the power of the settlement was translated from Mr. Chanock to Heath, a commander of one of the company's ships, a man of courage, but of a variable disposition, not far removed from craziness; who, soon after his arrival at Soota-nutty, ordered all the English to repair on board the ships, and proceeded with them to the road of Ballasore, where the governor of the town offered to treat with him in behalf of the Nabob, and finding that this proposal was not received with cordiality, detained two of the company's agents residing in the factory of Ballasore, as hostages against any violence: notwithstanding which, and that the two English deputies were still at Dacca, as well as two other factors in other parts of the province, Heath landed with a crew of sailors, and attacked the town, which had no defences. This outrage was committed on the very day that the governor received a copy of the treaty which the Nabob had made with the two deputies at Dacca; by which it was stipulated, that the English ships should attack the king of Arracan. Heath pretended to acquiesce to these terms, hoping that his professions might facilitate his intentions of surprizing Chittigan, where the fleet arrived on the 17th of January, 1689; but finding the works, as well as the garrison, much stronger than ht expected, Heath, as if he had come with no other purpose, offered, as he had promised, to join the Nabob against the king of Arracan; but soon after changing his mind again, he sailed to the river which leads to the capital of that country, where he proffered his service to the king against the Nabob, insisting, however, that their first attempt should be against Chittigan. But, not being of a temper to bear the delays of an Indian administration, he as suddenly took disgust against this ally; and on the 13th of February, sailed away with the fleet and the company's agents across the bay of Bengal to Madrass, where they arrived on the 15th of March. Here he apologized for his conduct by saying, that nothing but lies had been told on all sides.
Nevertheless, this conduct, crazy and irregular as it was, produced better effects than could have been expected from measures dictated by the most prudent councils; for the Nabob imagined that that the contempt and disrespect with which Heath had treated him, proceeded from a resolution which the English had taken, to abandon the trade of Bengal; and fearing to be called to a severe account by the emperor Aurengzebe, for forcing them to quit the province, he immediately sent letters to Madrass requesting them to return, and promising all the immunities, the denial of which had been the cause of the late contentions. Such a condescension was thought a sufficient warrant of the sincerity of his intentions. Mr. Chanock, therefore, with his factors and thirty soldiers, sailed from Madrass, and arrived in the month of July at Soota-nutty; where, in consequence of the Nabob's orders, the government of Hughley received them with civility.
The next year they received a phirmaund or patent from Aurengzebe, allowing them to trade free of customs, on condition of paying annually the sum of 3000 rupees. The great advantages intended by this favour, depended however more on the temper of the Nabob than on the will of the emperor; for the English had more than once before received such mandates, and found them, of little use; and the remembrance of former evils continued to paise solicitude, even when no immediate causes of apprehension subsisted.
The right of jurisdiction over the Indian inhabitants, whom the residence and commerce of the English continually attracted to Soota-nutty, became every day more necessary, to prevent perpetual litigations with those, who although employed by the English, might at any time defy them in the courts of the government, in which the merchants of the settlement would be more cautious of seeking protection, if the company had power to stop their families and attach their effects: but this right of jurisdiction could not be purchased, even at Delhi, without the consent of the Nabob; it was equally necessary that the company should have a fort to protect their valuable effects against sudden violence; but even proffers of money, repeated for five years successively could not prevail on the Nabob, to allow these privileges; and they were despaired of, when some unexpected events enabled the company to obtain them.
In 1696, the Rajahs on the western side of the river Hughley, took up arms: they were headed by him of Burdawan, whose territory extends along the western side of the river, from Nuddeah to the island of Ingelee, and who likewise possessed a considerable district on the other shore, contiguous to Calcutta; so that the English, French, and Dutch companies, had each their principal settlement within his jurisdiction. The greatest part of the Nabob's army being near the court at Dacca, the rebels made great progress before a force sufficient to oppose them could assemble: and in the mean time they took Hughley, plundered Muxadavad, in the island of Cossimbuzar, and from thence proceeded to Rajahmahal. On the breaking out of this war, the three European settlements augmented their soldiery, and declared for the Nabob; of whom they at the same time requested permission to put their factories in a state of defence against an enemy, whose resentment they must incur by their attachment to his government. The Nabob ordered them in general terms to defend themselves; and they taking for granted, what was not positively forbidden, with great diligence raised walls with bastions round their factories: the Dutch about a mile to the south of Hughley; the French two miles lower down the river, at Chandernagore; and the English at Calcutta, a small town contiguous to Soota-nutty, where they had built their principal magazines. Such was the origin of the three European forts in the province of Bengal, and they were the first which the Mogul government suffered foreigners to build in any part of the empire. An English sloop prevented the Rajah from taking the fort of Tannah; and the garrison of Calcutta, consisting of fifty men, beat a body of his troops within sight of the town. The Dutch assisted the Nabob's troops to retake Hughley. The French did little, but appeared in arms, and fortified themselves, better than either of the other two.
The news of this rebellion alarmed Aurengzebe himself so much that he sent one of his grandsons, Azim-al-Shan, with an army, to superintend the three governments of Bengal, Behar, and Orixa. This prince was son of Mahomed Mauzm, who reigned after his father Aurengzebe, with the title of Behader Shah; and Azim-al-Shan himself seems likewise, even at this distant period, to have had an eye to the throne: for he came into Bengal with a resolution to amass money by every means. This avaricious disposition the English plied with presents, which in 1698 obtained his permission to purchase from the Zemindar, or Indian proprietor, the towns of Soota-nutty, Calcutta, and Govindpore, with their districts, extending about three miles along the eastern bank of the river Hughley, and about one mile inland: the prince, however, reserved the annual fine of 1195 rupees, which this ground used to pay to the Nabob of the province. But at this time, when the English settlements seemed on the point of emerging from continued difficulties to a state of prosperity, the erection of a new East India company, in opposition to the old, renewed all their former evils. The new company established their factory at Hughley, and the competition between the respective agents was carried on with the same animosity as exasperated their principals in England, which exposed the concerns of both to the impositions of the Nabob, and of the merchants of Bengal, who took every advantage of this rivality. However, the spirit of commerce, which knows no resentments that are prejudicial to its interest, soon reconciled the contending parties in England, and produced a coalition, of which the preliminaries were adjusted in 1698; but the final union did not take place till seven years after: this time being necessary to blend the different concerns of both companies into one common stock.
In the mean time, the settlement of Calcutta had attracted such a number of inhabitants, as excited the jealousy of the governor of Hughley, who, pretending that he should be punished for suffering so many of the Mogul's subjects to withdraw themselves from his jurisdiction, threatened to send a Cadi, or Mahomedan judge, and officers of the police, to administer justice amongst the natives living under the English flag. The measure would have renewed renewed the same inconveniencies, which had forced the English to quit Hughley: it was therefore counteracted by a bribe given to Azim-al-Shan, who forbad the governor of Hughley from proceeding in his intentions. By this constant attention to money, Azim-al-Shan in three years amassed three millions of pounds sterling, which he carried with him out of, the province: but he left behind him his son Furrukshir to get more; who, in 1713, gained the throne, after his father had perished in disputing it with his brothers.
The union of the two companies, by augmenting the stock, increased the trade, and enlarged the views of the direction: who, at the same time, warned by the late examination of the company's affairs in parliament, exerted themselves with zeal and intelligence, in order to confound the clamours of those who exclaimed against the institution of an East India company, as a monopoly detrimental to the mercantile interests of the nation. The commerce of Bengal more especially became the object of their attention: the subordinate factories of Cossimbuzar, Dacca, and Ballasore, which had been abandoned, were now resettled: the exports and imports were doubled in value and in quantity; and the garrison of Calcutta was augmented to 300 men: all which the government of Bengal, contrary to its usual maxims, beheld without repugnance, and even without demanding money as the price of its forbearance and favour. This was the longest term of repose from vexations, which the English had experienced since their first establishment in the province; and the increasing importance of the colony induced the company in 1707 to withdraw the settlements in it, from their former dependance on Madrass, and to declare Calcutta a presidency accountable only to the direction in England.
But the nabob Jaffier Khan, who at this time was appointed to rule Bengal, did not suffer the English to remain any longer in this state of ease and independence: and the respite which they had lately enjoyed served only to convince him, that, as being better able they ought the more readily to comply with his demands. Having removed the seat of government from Dacca to Muxadavad, in the center of the province, he was better enabled to take cognizance of their affairs; and to discover pretexts and means of distressing them, without openly violating the privileges which they had obtained from Aurengzebe and Azim-al-Shan. Every year of his administration was marked by extraordinary and increasing extortions, not only from the Europeans, but from all ranks of people in the province: at the same time he was as much dreaded for his abilities as detested for his iniquities: and the presidency of Calcutta, not seeing any better resource, proposed in the year 1713, to the company in England, that an embassy of complaint, supported by a valuable present, should be sent to the great Mogul at Delhi; to which the company readily acquiesced, directing the presidencies of Bombay and Madrass to join their grievances in the same petition with those of Bengal. The nomination of the embassadors was left to Mr. Hedges the governor of Calcutta, who chose John Surman and Edward Stephenson, two of the ablest factors in the service there: joining to them an Armenian, named Serhaud, who had for many years been the principal merchant in the settlement.
It does not appear, that the presidency had any other lights to direct their proceedings and expectations at Delhi, excepting such as they received from this Armenian, who had never been there; but who was very solicitous to be admitted into this honourable commission, in hopes of getting a great deal of money by the goods he should carry free of charges in the train of the embassy. The presents designed for the Mogul and his officers consisted of curious glass ware, clockwork, toys, brocades, and the finest manufactures of woollen cloths and silks, valued altogether at 30,000 pounds; which Serhaud, in his letters to Delhi, magnified to 100,000, and gave such a description of the rarities which were coming, that the mogul Furrukshir ordered the embassy to be escorted by the governors of the provinces through whose territories it might pass. The train proceeded on the Ganges from Calcutta to Patna, the capital of Behar, and from hence by land to Delhi, where they arrived on the 8th of July 1715, after a march of three months. The famous Hossan Ally, who afterwards deposed four, and created five emperors of Indostan, was at this time Vizir, dreaded by his sovereign, and mortally hated by Caundorah, who was in full possession of the emperor's favour. The English, by their previous correspondence to Delhi, had chosen Caundorah for the patron of their petitions, to which the rivality between these lords was likely to prove no little detriment; for the one only could persuade the emperor to grant, what the other alone had the power of carrying into execution. Jaffier, the Nabob of Bengal, had from the beginning regarded the embassy with detestation, as the strongest imputation against the integrity of his own conduct, and would probably have counteracted it, both by representations and money, if he had not wanted all his influence at Delhi to promote the success of greater views; for he had for some years been soliciting the annexion of the provinces of Behar and Orixa to the government of Bengal, and the succession to this vast viceroyalty, in his family. Nevertheless his emissaries privately spread their specious objections amongst his friends: which with the desire of Hossan Ally to thwart Caundorah, would probably have soon produced the dismission of the embassadors with civil and insignificant answers, if an accident, which on a less important occasion would have been too mean to merit historical notice, had not placed them at once in a high degree of favour with the emperor himself; whom not all the vigilance of a mogul's seraglio had been able to preserve from the contagion of a distemper, which its institutions seem so well calculated to prevent.
The Mogul, despairing of the skill of his own empiricks, was advised by Caundorah to employ the surgeon of the English embassy, named Hamilton, by whom he was in a few weeks perfectly cured; and, in gratitude for this service, promised to grant the embassadors any indulgences, which might be consistent with the dignity of his government. Soon after his recovery succeeded the festival of his marriage with the daughter of Jasseing, the principal Rajah of the Rajpoot nation; which interrupted all other business, and obliged the embassadors to wait six months before they could gain permission to present their petition.
It was delivered in the month of January of the next year 1716 and contained a variety of requests; "That the cargoes of English ships, which might be wrecked on the Mogul's coast, should not in future be plundered: that a stipulated sum, paid annually to the government of Surat, should exempt the English trade at that port from the Mogul's duties and from the visitations of his officers, who had continually extorted more than they were authorized to demand: that the rupees coined in the mints of Bombay and Madrass should pass in the receipt of the Mogul's revenue: that three villages, contiguous to Madrass, which had formerly been granted, and were afterwards taken back by the government of Arcot, might be restored to the company in perpetuity, subject to the payment of the former fine: that the island of Diu near the port of Masulipatnam might be given to the company, paying for it an annual rent of 7000 pagodas."
In behalf of the presidency of Calcutta, the petition represented all the impositions of the Nabob of Bengal, and proposed, "that they should be obviated by positive orders, that all persons, whether Europeans or natives, who might be indebted or accountable to the company, should be delivered up to the presidency at Calcutta on the first demand: that the officers of the mint at Muxadavad should at all times, when required, allow three days in the week for the coinage of the company's money: and that a passport, or dustuck signed by the president of Calcutta, should exempt the goods it specified from being visited or stopped by the officers of the Bengal government on any pretence whatsoever;" and in order to maintain these excellent privileges, if granted, even in defiance of the Nabob himself, it was requested, "that the English might purchase the lordship of thirty-seven towns, with the same immunities as Azim-al-Shan had permitted them to buy Calcutta, Soota-nutty, and Govindpore."
Caundorah, although he meant the embassy well, advised them to act as if they had no other reliance than on the Vizir; and the emperor, with the same caution, professed indeed a general approbation of the petition, but directed the several articles to be discussed by the different officers of the state, to the cognizance of which they were deemed to belong. This subjected the whole petition to the judgment of the Vizir; who, not without candour, disputed all the material articles, and readily allowed those of less consequence: a second petition was therefore presented to the emperor, in consequence of which some more points were given up by the Vizir; and then a third; which, being received with the same favour as the other two, induced him to give up the rest of his objections. But, to the great disappointment of the embassadors, the mandates were issued, not under the Mogul's but under the seal of the Vizir; which, although carrying great authority in the provinces near the capital, was likely to be little respected by the distant viceroys, to whom these mandates were addressed. To increase their difficulties, the Armenian Serhaud, having been checked by his colleagues in some irregular proceedings, perplexed all their operations; and, as they thought, betrayed their councils. Nevertheless Messrs. Stephenson and Surman with great steadiness and spirit returned the mandates, and determined to wait until they should obtain patents under the seal of the Mogul.
These procrastinations had already led the embassy to the month of April of 1716, when the emperor took the field, and marched towards Lahore against the Sykes, a nation of Indians lately reared to power, and bearing mortal enmity to the Mahomedans. The embassadors followed the camp. The campaign was tedious, though successful, and, amongst other events, produced a quarrel between the troops "of the Vizir and Caundorah, which rendered their dissension utterly irreconcileable. Their jealousies, after the return of the army to Delhi, continued to protract the admission of the claim made by the embassadors; who, having wasted fourteen months without the least progress, began to despair of success, when they were advised to bribe a favourite eunuch in the seraglio, who promised on this condition to procure the patents in the form they desired, and without delay. So much money had already been spent, that the embassadors thought it would be trivial not to risk this sum as the last experiment, although they much doubted the effect. But, to their surprize, as soon as the money was paid, the Vizir and all his dependents appeared as much inclined, as they had hitherto been averse, to promote their requests; and soon after thirty-four patents, including the different subjects of the petition, were issued in the Mogul's name, and signed with his seal. They were delivered to the embassadors before they had discovered the real cause of their unexpected success; which, however, was explained to them before they left Delhi, by one of Caundorah's officers. In the year 1686, a little while before the fleet sent from England began to take the ships belonging to the Moors, the English agents at Surat retired to Bombay: they returned after the peace; but a little before the present patents were issued, the presidency of Bombay had again withdrawn the factory of Surat, as a residence not worth maintaining, unless the trade could be freed from the impositions to which it had of late years been subject. The government of Surat, reasoning from former experience, took the alarm, and firmly believed that a fleet was on its way from England to commit hostilities, as in the year 1687, which would have been attended with the same success; for many ships of value belonging to the Mogul's subjects were at sea. The eunuch, to whom the embassadors had given the bribe, was the intimate correspondent and friend of the Nabob of Guzurat, who had desired him to represent to the Vizir, that it was better to satisfy the English by granting their petitions, than by a refusal to expose the trade of Surat to their reprisals. To this advice the Vizir immediately acquiesced, and from that hour changed his conduct towards the embassadors: the eunuch being early in the secret, and foreseeing the change that would shortly ensue, determined to reap some advantage from his intelligence, and imposed himself on the embassadors as the author of the benefits which it was not in his power to prevent. The embassadors having thus accomplished their commission, took leave of the emperor in the month of July 1717, two years after their arrival at Delhi. The patents addressed to the Soubah of the Decan, and the Nabob of Guzurat, took effect as soon as they were published, because they afforded no political pretext of opposition, as adding nothing to the military strength of the company's settlements in either of these subahships, although to their commercial advantages. But the thirty-seven towns which they were permitted to purchase in Bengal would give them a district extending ten miles south of Calcutta along the banks on each side the river Hughley, of which the passage in this extent might be easily commanded by the erection of batteries or redoubts; at the same time that the revenue of the tract would defray the expence: and it was supposed that a great number of weavers might be established in it, who would be immediately subject to the company's jurisdiction. The shrewdness of the Nabob Jaffier, exasperated by his grudge to the embassy in general, saw the consequences of this grant with indignation; but, not daring openly to dispute the Mogul's order, he deterred the holders of the land with secret threats of vengeance from parting with their ground'on any terms of compensation which might be proffered to them: and the English government confiding too much in the sanction of the Mogul's authority, neglected the more efficacious means of bribing the Nabob to their own views; and thus the most important concession which had been obtained by the embassy, was entirely frustrated. However, Jaffier admitted the privilege of the dustucks, which, being recognized throughout the province, greatly facilitated the circulation of the company's trade; which now no longer paid customs, nor was liable to be stopped by the officers of the government; and this immunity was still more beneficial, because the other European colonies were not entitled to it; nor indeed, any of the natives excepting two or three principal merchants, who purchased it at a high rate of the Nabob. The
The company, confining themselves entirely to the trade between India and Europe, had, not unwisely, relinquished to their agents that which is carried on from one part of India to another: but the impositions of the government had hitherto prevented their agents from reaping any considerable advantages from this indulgence: and to promote their profits, the company, soon after the embassy, allowed all those who served them under covenants, to make use of their dustucks for such commodities as belonged to themselves; but forbid, under severe penalties, the prostitution or extension of this privilege to any others. A question now arose, whether the company's agents were entitled to trade from one part of the province to another, in such commodities as were the produce of Bengal. The Mogul's patent implied no restrictions. But they could not be ignorant of the intentions of Delhi concerning this privilege; for when the embassadors proposed to Caundorah that it should extend to all kinds of commodities, he replied with emotion "The Sea!" And the Nabob Jaffier openly treated the pretension with the same indignation as he had secretly felt against the ceded lands, declaring that he would not suffer the dustucks to protect any goods, excepting such as were imported, or were purchased to be exported, by sea; alleging, that as the salt, beetle-nut, and tobacco, together with some other articles of general consumption, were either farmed out in monopolies, or taxed at excessive rates, the detriment to the revenues would be as great as the advantages to the company's agents, if they were permitted to trade in these articles, free of the customs and rents which were paid by the natives who dealt in them.
Convinced as much by the reasoning, as deterred by the power, of the Nabob, the agents receded from their pretension, and applied themselves to make the most advantage of those privileges which were not contested. Success produced new adventures; and the superior skill of our countrymen in navigation, induced the merchants of the province, Moors, Armenians and Indians, to freight most of the goods which they exported to foreign markets, on the shipping belonging to the colony, which, in ten years after the embassy, amounted to 10,000 tons; and many private fortunes were acquired, without injuring the company's trade, or subjecting their estate to disputes with the government. The presidency, nevertheless, found it their interest from time to time to sooth the Nabob with presents, in order to promote the increase of the company's investment, and to facilitate the course of their business at the subordinate factories: but the people of all denominations residing in Calcutta, enjoyed, after the return of the embassy, a degree of independence and freedom unknown to all the other inhabitants of Bengal: who, on the contrary, were oppressed every year with increasing vexations by the rapacity of the Nabob.
In 1718, the year after the embassy, Jaffier received from Delhi the patents he had long solicited, annexing the provinces of BEHAR and ORIXA to his government of Bengal and the reversion of the whole to his heir.
The Ganges, in a course which tends with little deviation from the west to the east point of the compass, flows through the whole province of Behar, and divides it into two regions. The southern extends about 220 miles, from the river Caramnassa to Tacriagully, and is skirted to the south by the chain of mountains which on this side accompanies the course of the Ganges; and several districts belonging to the province are included within the mountains themselves, but none recede more than 60 miles from the river. The river Dewah, which is likewise called the Gogra, joins the Ganges on its northern shore, 180 miles to the west of Tacriagully. That river for a long way before the junction tends to the W. N. w. and 40 miles of the lower part of its channel forms part of the western boundary of the northern division of Behar, which extends to the east 180 miles, to the line we have noted as the limit of Purniah, and recedes from the Ganges and Dewah 90 miles to the north; where forests at the foot of the range of mountains, which bound the country of Napal, continue with the mountains to the eastward far beyond Rangamati, and form the northern boundaries of Behar, Bengal, and Assam. The area of Behar compriseth 9 square degrees. The capital, Patna, stands on the southern bank of the Ganges, 130 miles to the west of Tacriagully. There are many manufactures in this province, although nothing near so many as in Bengal, to which it is likewise much inferior in fertility; but it produces a great quantity of saltpetre, and of the best opium in India.
ORIXA is the most northern country on the east side of the promontory of Indostan. The river Pipley coming from the N.W. disembogues, as we have said, in the latitude of 22. 25, opposite to the island of Sagore. The channel of this river, for 40 miles from its mouth, and an imaginary line 20 miles farther to the west, to the foot of the Nelligreen hills, before they curve to the east behind Ballasore, divide Orixa from Bengal. Southward it extends along the sea coast to the latitude of 20. 10. within six miles of Gangam which terminates the province of CHICACOLE in the Decan. To the westward Orixa is separated from the province of BEHAR by a vast tract of mountains hitherto unexplored. The interior of the province is the strongest and best soil in the empire; but from the want of good sea-ports, there are few manufactures, and very little circulation of gold and silver, in the country. Catteck, the capital, is situated in the latitude of 21. 23. and fifty miles from the sea.
Jaffier had no sons, but before his arrival in Bengal had given his only daughter in marriage to Sujah Khan, a lord of distinction, who accompanied him into the province. Of this marriage were born two sons, both of whom were arrived at man's estate, when the commission appointing their father Sujah to succeed Jaffier was sent from Delhi. Sujah, although humane, was indolent and voluptuous, and his father in law, being desirous to break him to business, sent him soon after the patents were received, to govern the province of Orixa.
A few months after his arrival at Catteck, two brothers, natives of Tartary, came to his court with strong recommendations from Delhi, in compliance with which Sujah received them into his service: appointing the elder, Hodgee Hamed, to attend his person as a domestic, and the other, Allaverdy, to command a troop of horse. They were both employed according to their talents. For the elder was calm, supple, wily, provident, but void of natural courage: the younger, stern, active, intrepid, sagacious, but too high-minded to submit to the compliances necessary in an Asiatic court. Conviction of the assistance which each might derive from the qualities of the other, cemented them as much as the relation of blood, in the most inviolable friendship. This powerful and uncommon union seemed to command fortune; for in a few years they raised themselves to the highest offices in Sujah's court and army; Hodgee Hamed becoming his prime minister, and Allaverdy the general of his troops. The Nabob Jaffier foresaw and dreaded the consequences of their influence: but the infirmities of old age had rendered him incapable of taking the vigorous resolutions necessary to extricate his successor from the toils into which he had been led; and in 1725 Jaffier died, to the great joy of the province; but of none more than the two brothers, to whose ambition his death opened more extensive prospects. They accompanied Sujah to Muxadavad, and partook of the increase of his power, administering the same employments in the general government of the Subehship, as they had held in the province of Orixa.
In 1729 Sujah appointed Allaverdy to govern Behar, in which station he had frequent opportunities of exerting his military talents, as well as his political abilities; being constantly in arms against the Indian chiefs on both sides the Ganges, who had never been reduced to a settled dependance on the Moorish government. However, after many fights, intrigues, and assassinations, all submitted, and afterwards continued in obedience to Allaverdy; who now feeling his strength, gave scope to his ambition, which, as usual, obliterated every sentiment of gratitude to the creator of his fortunes.
In the mean time Hodgee maintained his influence over the Nabob by an obsequiousness which prevented all suspicions, and remitted large sums to his brother, which were sent to Delhi, and in 1736 procured a commission from thence appointing Allaverdy, Nabob of Behar, free from any dependance on the government of Bengal: but as there was no immediate occasion to proclaim this title, of which he already already enjoyed most of the advantages, the brothers agreed that it should be kept secret, until there should be a necessity of asserting it publickly. However, such a transaction could not be entirely concealed; and the first informations leading to farther investigations, Sujah, although unwillingly, was at length convinced of the treacherous ingratitude of his favourites.
He was meditating revenge, when the approach of Nadir Shah struck all the provinces of the empire with consternation, and kept all their rulers in suspense how far the storm would reach: and in 1739, before the Persians left Delhi, Hujah died.
The succession devolved to his only surviving son Suffraze Khan, a man of mean abilities, and governed only by his vices. He, however, bore the strongest resentment against the two brothers; but the fear of Allaverdy restrained him from taking away the life of Hodgee, who was in his power: and Allaverdy, trembling for the safety of his brother, refrained from committing any hostilities, but improved his army.
The profligacy of Suffraze Khan increased with the means of indulgence and his debaucheries went to an excess that disordered his understanding. There was, amongst the officers of the court, an old Gentoo of distinction, named Allumchund, whom the late Nabob used to consult with confidence; relying on which, Allumchund ventured, in a private conference, to warn Suffraze Khan of the dangerous consequences of his intemperance; but Suffraze Khan answered him with ignominious abuse and invectives. No one after this ventured to shew any disapprobation of his inclinations; and, left to himself, he soon after committed a more extravagant outrage.
There was a family of Gentoo merchants at Muxadavad, whose head, Juggutseat, had raised himself from no considerable origin to be the wealthiest banker in the empire, in most parts of which he had agents supplied with money for remittances; from whom he constantly received good intelligence of what was transacting in the governments in which they were settled; and in Bengal his influence was equal to that of any officer in the administration; for by answering to the treasury, as security for most of the renters farming the lands of the province, he knew better than any one all the details of the revenues; and the great circulation of wealth, which he commanded, rendered his assistance necessary in every emergency of expence. His eldest son, soon after the disgrace of Allumchund, married a woman of exquisite beauty, the report of which alone inflamed the curiosity of the Nabob so much, that he insisted on seeing her, although he knew the disgrace which would be fixed on the family, by shewing a wife, unveiled, to a stranger. Neither the remonstrances of the father, nor his power to revenge the indignity, availed to divert the Nabob from this insolent and futile resolution. The young woman was sent to the palace in the evening; and, after staying there a short space, returned, unviolated indeed, but dishonoured, to her husband.
Hodgee, who had been lurking for some such occasions of conspiracy, now began to move; and made overtures to Juggetseat and Allumchund, who received them with eagerness. Secret meetings were concerted, in which it was agreed, that as soon as Hodgee could be placed out of the reach of danger, Allaverdy should invade Bengal, and, if successful, take the Nabobship. But the first difficulty seemed insurmountable, as nothing could be more contrary to the security of the Nabob than the release of such a pledge as Hodgee, and it was impossible that he could be removed out of the province without the Nabob's consent; which nevertheless was at length obtained, by the intercession, it is said, of some of the principal officers of the Durbar, whom Hodgee had gained over and admitted into the secret of his conspiracy. The Nabob, at the audience of taking leave, treated Hodgee with scoff and mockery. The conveyances for his departure having for some time been held in readiness, he proceeded immediately on his journey to Patna; and as soon as he arrived there, Allaverdy, giving out that he was dishonoured by the ignominious manner in which his brother had been turned out of the province, began his march towards Bengal.
His approach was so sudden, that he gained the pass of Tacriagully before Suffraze Khan had time to secure it by a proper reinforcement. forcement. On hearing which, the Nabob accused Juggutseat of treachery; who defended himself by producing letters from Aliaverdy, prepared for the purpose, in which he was upbraided for not having used his influence to prevent the banishment of Hodgee.
Suffraze Khan now assembled his troops, and ordered them to rendezvous on the plain of gheria, which lies on the west side of the river of Cossimbuzar, about five miles to the north of Muxadavad. Here he had scarcely formed his encampment, which consisted of 30,000 men, horse and foot, when Allaverdy appeared in sight, with an equal number, but of better troops; for amongst his cavalry were 3000 Pitans, the bravest of the Mahomedans in Indostan; and his infantry, levied in Behar, were much stouter than those in the army of Suffraze Khan, who were mostly natives of Bengal.
However, the unexpected firmness of the Nabob inspired some of his officers with courage; but more were either disaffected, or wavering; and all belonging to the Artillery had been engaged by Allumchund to discharge the cannon without ball, and to desert it boon after the onset. Troops after troops quitted the field, as soon as they saw the artillery abandoned. Nevertheless Suffraze Khan continued the fight, until he was left with only a few squadrons of horse, whom the enemy were moving to surround, when the driver of his elephant, warning him of the danger, offered, at the forfeit of his head, to convey him back safely to the capital; to which proposal the Nabob, with a resolution worthy of a better life, and of a better fate, replied, that he scorned to retreat before rebels and traitors; and ordered the driver to push into the thickest of the enemy's troops, toward the standard of Allaverdy; where, supported by the remains of his cavalry, he renewed the fight more desperately than ever, until he fell, shot through the heart by a musket ball.
Allaverdy, without meeting any farther opposition, marched to Muxadavad, where he was immediately proclaimed Nabob of Bengal, Behar, and Orixa; and used his victory with more lenity and moderation than is usually practised by eastern conquerors; and even spared the two sons of Suffraze Khan, whom, with their mother and other relations, he sent to take up their residence at Dacca, at the extremity of the province, where his officers were instructed to treat them with respect, whilst their conduct should give no umbrage. The whole province submitted as peaceably to his government, as if no revolution had happened, but Mussut Koali, who governed Orixa under SufFraze Khan, flying from the battle of Gheria, retreated to Catteck, and when summoned by Allaverdy refused to acknowledge his sovereignty. He therefore called his brother Hodgee from Patna to administer the government of Bengal during his absence, and then marched into Orixa, and in less than a month expelled Mussat Kouli, and reduced the province.
The excess and rapidity of his fortunes, together with the reputation of his military abilities, alarmed the throne; and Nizam-al-muluck, the Soubah of the southern provinces, in order to stop the farther progress of his arms, incited the Morattoes to invade his dominions almost as soon as he had taken possession of them. In consequence of which, an army of 80,000 Morattoes arrived within a few days journey of the mountains, which bound Bengal to the westward, before Allaverdy had quitted Catteck; who, not having given credit to the reports of their approach, had taken no precautions to prevent their irruption; and had even permitted the greatest part of the army he led into Bengal, to return to their homes; so that his whole force did not exceed 10,000 men, 5000 of whom were cavalry, and amongst them were the 3000 Pitans; his soul, however, nothing dismayed, reassumed its wonted activity, as soon as he found the danger to be really formidable; and he advanced by excessive marches towards his capital. But the Morattoes had already passed the defiles of the mountains, when he arrived near Burdawan, 100 miles from Muxadavad; where, finding himself surrounded, he encamped in a strong situation. Baschir Pondit, the general of the Morattoes, immediately sent deputies to his camp, who shewed the Emperor's mandates, authorizing them to demand demand the chout, or a fourth part of the revenues of the three provinces for the three last years. They likewise demanded that he should oblige himself to pay this tribute regularly in future, and that some officers deputed by the Morattoes should be employed in all the departments of the revenues, in order to ascertain and secure their proportion. They moreover required him to deliver up the treasures of the two last Nabobs, Soujah and Suffraze Khan, or to pay the equivalent.
Allaverdy, on hearing these imperious terms, ordered the deputies to quit his camp, with a defiance fraught with contempt to their general. The next day he renewed his march in open day, in full sight of the enemy, who soon broke and dispersed his infantry, but were not able to make impression on his cavalry. The Pitans were commanded by an officer named Mustapha Khan, whom they not only revered as their hereditary chief, but loved as the bravest soldier amongst them: Allaverdy himself, his nephew Zaindee Hamed, Meer Jaffier his brother-in-law, and all the other officers of distinction, continually presented themselves against the most dangerous onsets; and such examples could not fail to animate their followers. Before night they had advanced fifteen miles in their way, when they halted in a strong situation: the next day the march was renewed with the same courage and success: and on the evening of the third day they arrived at the town of Cutwah, situated about thirty miles south of Muxadavad, on the bank of the Cossimbuzar river, which in this part is fordable during the dry season of the year.
About 500 of the cavalry were killed during the retreat, but more horses perished; for only 3000 men mounted arrived at Cutwah, where they remained several days in order to recover their fatigue, having scarcely slept since they left their camp at Burdawan. The Morattoes, in the mean time, assembled round Cutwah, and persuaded themselves that Allaverdy would wait for reinforcements from Muxadavad before he attempted to pass the river. Great, therefore, was their surprize and admiration, when they saw him preparing to ford it with the same spirit of defiance as he had shewn in the rest of his march.
The success of this operation depended on preventing the enemy from following them into the ford through the avenues of the town; and eighty of the bravest Pitans, excellently mounted and in complete armour, were selected for this important service, under the command of their general Mustapha Khan, whom Zainfdee Hamed and Meer Jaffier joined as volunteers. This intrepid troop maintained their post until Allaverdy with the main body had crossed the river; when they likewise began to retreat; and cutting their way through the enemy, all but fifteen escaped, and passed the ford.
As soon as they arrived, Allaverdy continued his march to Muxadavad, which he reached the next day: his first attention, after this gallant retreat, was to reward those who had so bravely seconded his own perseverance and courage. Every soldier received a gratuity; all the officers promotion: Meer Jaffier, who had signalized himself at the passage of the river, additional pensions; and to Mustapha Khan he presented a million of rupees. To Zaindee Hamed he gave the first place in his affection, and from this time destined him for his successor; although he had given his only daughter in marriage to Nowagis Mahomed, the eldest of Hodgee's sons.
The Morattoes, as soon as they had gained sufficient intelligence, crossed over into the island of Cossimbuzar, and ravaged the open country; but did not venture to attack the capital; and the approach of the rainy season, during which the swelling of the rivers would have confined them in the island, deterred them from continuing on it more than three days. To preserve their horses, they encamped on the high lands of Berbohin, in the north-west part of the province. Here they were enabled to form proper resolution by the advice of one of the Soubah's officers, named Meer-abib, who had deserted to them; he was a man of scheme, method, and activity, had been deputy-governor of Dacca, and possessed much general knowledge of the province. Instructed by him, they collected the revenues of the countries lying to the west of the river Hughley. He likewise enabled them to form a bridge of boats at Cutwah, and having procured some pieces of artillery, and some European deserters to man them, he built two floating batteries to defend the bridge, stationing one on each side. Thus prepared, as soon as the rainy season was passed, they crossed again into the island, by which time Allaverdy had augmented his army by levies made in Behar to 50,000 men, of whom 20,000 were cavalry, and of these one half were Pitans. The enemy's detachments, nevertheless, trusting to the hardiness and activity of their horses, carried their ravages to the furthermost parts of the island, and eluded the troops sent by Allaverdy to intercept them, who at length took the better resolution of marching with his whole force towards their bridge at Cutwah; on which Baschir Pondit recalled all his parties; and the whole army re-crossed the river, but in such a hurry that they neglected to break the bridge. Their rear had scarcely passed before the van of Allaverdy 's army arrived, but the fire of the floating batteries obliged them to halt until their artillery came up, which soon silenced the enemy's; when the Nabob's troops crouding in greater numbers than the bridge could support, some of the boats sunk, and a thousand men perished: it however was soon repaired, and the whole army crossed; but the Morattoes still continued to avoid every encounter. At length Allaverdy, despairing of striking a decisive blow against such an enemy, offered to treat; but Baschir Pondit, elated with this condescension, repeated the same terms as he had proposed at Burdawan, and added to them that the son of Suffraze Khan should be placed in the Nabobship. Allaverdy, stung by this reproachful proposal, formed a design of circumventing" his enemies, in contempt of all respects divine or human.
Pretending to be very solicitous of peace, he proposed a personal conference with Baschir Pondit; who, suspecting the good faith of his professions, did not consent to the interview without taking several precautions against the treachery he feared, and even obliged Allaverdy to swear by the Koran, that he would use none. It was was agreed that the conference should be held in a tent pitched in an open plain, at an equal distance between the two camps; and that each of the chiefs should be accompanied by fifteen officers on horseback, and the same number of unarmed servants on foot, who were to take care of their horses; but the care of providing the tent was left to Allaverdy, who had seduced Beschir Pondit into this negligence, by offering to send his wife, during the conference, to visit the wife of the Morattoe. At the appointed hour the two chiefs advanced to the tent, each of them having selected for his retinue the principal and bravest officers in his army; and with Allaverdy were is favourites, Mustapha Khan and Meer Jaffier: at the same time was discovered moving to the right a long train of covered pallankeens, which were supposed to be the retinue of his wife going to the Morattoe camp. The two companies met, and entered the tent with much ceremony. What followed is variously told; the prevailing report was, that the conference lasted an hour, which seems impossible; for on a signal, 50 armed men rushed from behind the sides of the tent, which had been pitched with a double lining in order to conceal them; and, joining the officers who accompanied Allaverdy, began the work of assassination. Baschir Pondit with all his attendants, and three or four of Allaverdy's,were killed; but Allaverdy himself did not unsheath his sword. The annals of Indostan scarcely afford an example of such treacherous atrocity, and none in which persons of such distinction were the actors. As soon as the massacre was finished, a signal was thrown out, on which the army of Bengal advanced against the Morattoe camp, and were joined in the way by Allaverdy, and his officers from the tent, who led them to the attack. The Morattoes fled on every side in confusion; but reassembled again to the westward, and renewed the war with redoubled devastations and barbarity.
Practice and encouragement at length brought the Nabob's cavalry to fight the enemy in their own way, and every day produced a combat or skirmish in some part or other of the country. This irregular war continued three months, when the Morattoes, finding their their numbers much diminished, repassed the western mountains, and quitted the province.
The whole Morattoe nation in its two divisions of Poni and Berar, determined to avenge the death of Baschir Pondit, and the remains of his army were scarcely retreated before two others were in march to invade Bengal; each consisted of 60,000 men; but acted independently. The army of Poni was commanded by Ballerow Agerow, son of Ballerow, who, without dethroning the Sahah Rajah, or real sovereign of the Morattoes, had usurped the whole authority of the state, which he transmitted on his death to his son Balagerow. The other army was commanded by Ragojee Bonsola, who had some years before conquered, and had ever since governed the province of Behar. He is the same who, by the instigation of Nizamuluck, invaded the Carnatic in 1740, as now Bengal. The army with Ballerow entered the province of Behar, whilst the other, under Ragojee, marched through the mountains from Berar into Orixa. Allaverdy, on the news of their approach, broke the bridge at Cutwah, and encamped near his capital. Meanwhile, the two Morattoe armies, advancing without opposition, met at Burdawan; where the two generals agreed that the war should be carried on in conjunction, and the plunder be equally divided. At the same time they were joined by Meer-abib, who, as before, fixed another bridge at Cutwah, over which they passed into the island of Cossimbuzar; but Allaverdy, relying on the success of less hazardous measures, determined neither to offer or accept battle. Amongst the prisoners taken from the army of Baschir Pondit, was an officer of distinction, named Shaserow, whom Allaverdy had attached by several acts of generosity; in return for which Shaserow now employed his mediation with Ballerow in favour of Allaverdy, whose emissaries were at the same time sowing dissention between the two Morattoe generals, persuading each that much plunder had been secreted from the common stock of the army.
The explanations that ensued on this subject produced a coolness between them, which determined Ballerow to agree to the proposals of Allaverdy, who offered to pay two millions of rupees, on condition that both the Morattoe armies should be immediately withdrawn, and three millions more as soon as they should be arrived in their own country. Accordingly it was agreed that Ballerow and Allaverdy should meet and confer together on the 30th of March; but some motions made that day by the troops of Ragojee causing Allaverdy to suspect treachery, he returned to his camp when on the way to the place appointed. However, on the 3d of April they met. The conference lasted two hours, during which the treaty was ratified. Ragojee dissembled his disapprobation, until all the Morattoes had quitted the island of Cossimbuzar, when he openly refused to accept the treaty; and Ballerow, who had received the two millions of rupees, gave himself no trouble either to persuade or Compel him, but marched away with his own troops and the money.
Allaverdy, more satisfied with having removed one half of his enemies, than disappointed at the refusal of Ragojee, immediately marched against him. But the Morattoes, as usual, avoided all encounters of risque, and ravaged the defenceless parts of the country until the month of June, when they retired into Orixa, and in a few days reduced the whole province; of which Ragojee, with the consent of his officers, gave the government to Meer-abib. As soon as the rainy season was passed, some of their detachments again infested Bengal; and in March 1744, new parties, allured by the success of their countrymen, traversed, plundering as they went, all Behar and Bengal, in their way to the main body, which remained in Orixa. The three following months Allaverdy was employed in beating up the parties that remained in Bengal, and as soon as the rains ceased, he marched with his whole force into Orixa; where by continual stratagems he brought on several encounters, in which the Morattoes suffered considerably; and pursuing these advantages, he in less than three months obliged them to quit the province and retire to the westward. However, he was scarcely returned to Muxadavad, in February 1745, when they renewed their incursions; but their detachments were not formidable enough to require the same stress of opposition which had hitherto employed his whole force and attention. He therefore, in October, detached a large body of troops to Patna, under the command of his nephew Zaindee Hamed, and now began to have some prospect of tranquillity; which 'nevertheless, still fled before him.
The reputation of Mustapha Khan, and his influence amongst the soldiery, had for some time rendered him obnoxious to the suspicions of Hodgee, who concluded, that if he did not already entertain dangerous views, he might aspire at the sovereignty after the death of Allaverdy, to the prejudice of his own son Zaindee Hamed: but mere arguments could not induce Allaverdy, who feared nothing, to entertain this opinion, of a fellow soldier, by whom he had always been served with fidelity, and on all occasions generously rewarded. He demanded prooffs, which were supplied by letters that seemed to be written by Meer-abib to Mustapha Khan, implying a previous correspondence, exhorting the Pitan to assassinate Allaverdy, and promising him the assistance of the Morattoes to seize and maintain the government. Allaverdy, not suspecting that Hodgee would dare to use such an artifice in an affair of so great importance; believed the imposition, and determined to put Mustapha Khan to death at the next visit; whose friends advised him of the danger; on which he instantly marched away with the body of 3000 Pitans under his immediate command, and was the next day followed and joined by the same number, with their officer Sumsheer Khan; all took their way towards Behar.
Their departure confirming Allaverdy in his belief of Hodgee's representations, he ordered Zaindee Hamed to advance from Patna, in order to stop the retreat of the Pitans, whilst he himself followed them with his own army, which overtook them half way between Tacriagully and Patna, before Zaindee Hamed appeared in sight. Mustapha Khan therefore gave battle without delay; the conflict was sharp and obstinate, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers: and the success remained doubtful, until the two chiefs came within reach of one another, when a party of men, armed with matchlocks, who had been taught to shoot at a mark, and were appointed to guard the elephant on which Allaverdy rode, fired a volley directed against the person of Mustapha Khan, and killed him; on which Sumsheer Khan gave the signal of retreat, and, passing at a distance from Zaindee Hamed's march, retreated out of the province, and proceeded to his own country, to the east of the Jumna.
After the battle, Hodgee, who had accompanied his brother, went to Patna, in order to superintend the civil administration of Behar; and having brought with him the head of Mustapha Khan, caused it to be carried on a pole round the city, during which procession it was insulted by the multitude with, every indignity. Allaverdy hastened back to Bengal, which, during his absence, had been exposed to the return and depredations of the whole body of Morattoes, which he had driven out of Orixa. Thus ended the year 1746. Continual marches and a few indecisive skirmishes employed him until the end of 1747, when events of more dangerous consequence called forth the exertion of his utmost resolution.
Meer-abib, who, since his defection, had lost no opportunity of distressing Allaverdy, had entered into a correspondence with Sumsheer Khan, immediately after the death of Mustapha; in consequence of which the Pitan, with 8000 of his countrymen, appeared in December on the bank of the Ganges, opposite to the city of Patna; which intending to surprize, he tendered the service of his troops to Zaindee Hamed. Hodgee, it is said, had received some intelligence of the connexion existing between Sumsheer Khan and Meer-abib; and advised his son to project an interview, in which all the Pitan officers might be blown up by a mine of gunpowder; but Zaindee Hamed, suspecting his father's intelligence, rejected the proposal, and waited for the orders of Allaverdy; who instructed him to inlist the Pitans, and afterwards to take the first opportunity of destroying their chiefs. Accordingly, the terms of agreement were settled, and the principal officers, accompanied by 2000 of their soldiery, crossed the river: they were received by Zaindee Hamed in a tent pitched at a little distance from the city. Sumsheer Khan approached the first, made his obeisance, and having received from Zaindee a roll of beetel, as a pledge of friendship, took, his place, standing behind him as an officer now rated in his service. Eleven other officers went through the same ceremony; and when Zaindee Hamed was presenting the beetel to the thirteenth, the officer who had last received it plunged a dagger over his shoulder kito his heart. In the same instant the others fell on those of Zaindee's retinue who were standing nearest his person, whilst the Pitan soldiers attacked the rest and his guards. The astonishment on one side being as great as the impetuosity on the other, all the attendants of Zaindee Hamed were soon dispersed; and during the conflict a party of Pitans galloped to the gate of the city, of which they kept possession, until Sumsheer Khan arrived with the rest.
Here the consternation was so great, that no one thought of resistance; and the Pitans, cutting down all they met, proceeded and got possession of the citadel. Their first care now was to seek for Hodgee, in order to retaliate the death of their leader Mustapha Khan, and the ignominy with which Hodgee had treated his remains; he was taken, endeavouring to escape in a covered pallankeen, and immediately scourged in public, like a common criminal; after which he was led through the city on an ass, with his legs tied under the belly, and his face painted half black, half white; during which procession he was insulted with every scoff and mockery that detestation could suggest. Five millions of rupees were found in his house; and the scourge was again repeated, in order to extort a confession of the treasures he was supposed to have concealed; but whether he really had no more, or believed that no confession would exempt him from future torture, he bore that which was now inflicted on him until his life was in danger; when Sumsheer Khan, desirous of reserving him for more lingering and exquisite sufferings, ordered him to be taken care of: but the unfortunate and highminded wife of Zaindee found means to convey to him a dose of poison, which in a few hours released him from all his agonies. His fate excited no commiseration; for his avarice, perfidy, and cruelty, had rendered him execrable to every rank and condition.
The main body of Pitans, crossing the river, joined those in possession of the city, and during three days rioted in massacre and rapine: after the tumult subsided, Sumsheer Khan established officers to govern the city, raised contributions from the neighbouring districts, and levied troops.
The news of these disasters overpowered all the fortitude of Allaverdy, and rendered him for some days incapable of attending to the concerns of his government: his grief was mostly paid to the memory of Zaindee Hamed, who was the only one of his family worthy to succeed him. However, the desire of revenge recalled his wonted firmness, and he appeared again with new vigour, augmenting his army, and improving it by new discipline: he likewise solicitously attached to his person the 4000 Pitans, who had remained with him after the retreat of Mustapha Khan. Thus animated and prepared, he took the field in the month of March with 25,000 horse and 15,000 foot, and proceeded into Behar through the pass of Tacriagully.
In this interval, Sumsheer Khan had likewise levied 5000 horse and 10,000 foot, with which and his 8000 Pitans he took the field, and encamped about 20 miles to the east of Patna, having, concerted with the Morattoes that they should fall upon Allaverdy's rear, whilst the Pitans attacked him in front. In consequence of this agreement Meer-abib and Ragojee had entered the country of Burdawan, waiting the motions of Allaverdy to direct their own: and as soon as he had passed Tacriagully, they, by a shorter route, crossed the mountains, seventy miles to the west, through the passes of Berbohin, and arrived in the middle of Behar almost as soon as the army of Bengal. Allaverdy saw his danger; but nevertheless proceeded, and when near the encampment of Sumsheer Khan, left his own tents and baggage standing on the plain, with only a small force to guard them, and marched on to give the Pitans battle; who met him without hesitation. The Morattoes in the rear were within a march of the battle; but, as he had foreseen, stopped at the camp, and, during the conflict, employed themselves in plundering the spoil, instead of assisting their allies; the battle, nevertheless, was the the most fierce and obstinate that had for many years been fought in Indostan. Allaverdy had foreseen the fury of their onsets, and remained in the rear in order to rally his own troops. Nevertheless, the Pitans would in all probability have been victorious, had he not interspersed his cavalry with matchlock men; who, firing with aim, shot, one after another, most of their principal officers, and at last Sumsheer Khan himself, just as he had cut his way to the elephant on which Allaverdy superintended the battle. His death, as usual, decided the victory. The Pitans hastened back to Patna, where they remained gathering together their own effects, and plundering whatsoever they could find valuable belonging to the inhabitants, until the army of Bengal appeared in sight, when they quitted the city, and crossing the Ganges, marched away to their own country.
Allaverdy having settled the government of Behar, returned before the rainy season to Muxadavad. The Morattoes, after the defeat of Sumsheer Khan, divided into several detachments, of which some infested Behar, some Bengal, and others Orixa; but their operations were not formidable enough to call Allaverdy himself again into the field: and he committed the conduct of the war to his general Meer Jaffier, who was continually employed in interrupting or dislodging their parties.
The war, ever since the retreat of Ballerow in 1743, had been principally carried on by the Morattoes of Ragogee Bonsola from Behar, joined sometimes by partizans and adventurers from other countries. In 1749, Ragogee assisted Nazirjing in his expedition into the Carnatic with 10,000 horse, under the command of his son Jonagi, which, with other expeditions, disabled him from recruiting the losses sustained by his army in Bengal, which was continually diminishing by fight or fatigue. In the beginning of the next year Meer Jaffier pent up 5000 of their horse in the mountains of Behar, and put more than one half of them to the sword.
At this time much confusion reigned at Delhi. The army of the Emperor Hamed Schah, commanded by his vizir Seifdar Jung, had been routed in the preceding year by the Rohillas, a tribe of Pitans tributary to the province of Oude, who 20 years before were of little note or estimation; and to repair this disgrace, it was resolved to hire 40,000 Morattoes of Balagerow, who had succeeded his father Ballerow in the government of Poni. Its own distress therefore deprived the throne of farther means to excite more enemies against Allaverdy, in whom, on the other hand, the infirmities of age seemed to have quelled the ambitious spirit which had rendered him so formidable to the empire. The Court of Delhi, therefore, as the best compromise, consented to confirm him Subah of Bengal, Behar, and Orixa, on condition that he should annually remit the usual tribute of six millions of rupees.
The patents were published at Muxadavad soon after the body of 5000 Morattoes were defeated in Behar, and Allaverdy improving both circumstances, opened a negociation with their leaders, consenting to leave them in possession of the southern part of Orixa until a firm peace could be settled with the heads of the nation, provided all their parties were immediately withdrawn out of the provinces of Bengal and Behar. The terms were accepted, and he soon after sent an embassador to Poni; but a variety of references and discussions delayed the ratification of the treaty to the end of the year 1753, when it was agreed that Allaverdy should annually pay the sum of 120,000 rupees, and that all Orixa, south of Catteck, should be ceded to the Morattoe dominion in perpetuity, and that they should receive half the revenues of the northern part as far as the river of Pipli, with the permission of appointing officers, who, together with the Nabob's, were to superintend the collections.
Thus ended this war. All the countries lying to the east of the great and lesser Ganges, excepting the island of Cossimbuzar, were defended by these rivers from the calamities which afflicted Orixa, the western part of Bengal, and the southern region of Behar, where the pusillanimous inhabitants were continually taking flight, even on imaginary alarms, and wandering from their homes found no resources of charity in their countrymen; for the fear of contamination prevents all of the Indian religion from giving shelter, or administering to the wants of any, who are not known or recommended to them, and confining all their sentiments of humanity to persons of their own cast, they suffer the stranger to perish without compassion. Nor could the advantages of a climate, in which fuel and raiment are scarcely necessary, countervail the destructive effects of this general timidity and uncharitableness.
Examples of these distresses were frequently seen by the English at Calcutta, to which place the inhabitants of the opposite side of the river often came over in great numbers for refuge, and perished through want; communicating their, own terrors to those of whom they asked relief; insomuch, that in the year 1742 the Indian inhabitants of the colony requested and obtained permission to dig a ditch at their own expence, round the company's bounds, from the northern part of Soota-nutty to the southern part of Govindpore. This work would extend seven miles whilst the force to defend it did not exceed 300 Europeans and 500 peons. In six months three miles were finished when the inhabitants, seeing that no Morattoes had ever been on the western side of the river within sixty miles of Calcutta; and that Allaverdy exerted himself vigorously to prevent their incursions into the island of Cossimbuzar, discontinued the work; which from the occasion was called the Morattoe ditch.
Allaverdy made no objection to this work; and moreover permitted the English, in the same year, to raise a rampart with bastions of brickwork round their factory at Cossimbuzar. But the rest of his conduct shewed that these indulgences did not proceed from any desire of courting the Europeans in times of difficulty: for, notwithstanding the services which he might have received from their garrisons, he never asked their assistance. He forbid the English and French from committing any hostilities against each other in his dominions, during the war declared between the two nations in 1741; and, in the year 1748, he, on some contempt of his authority, attacked and drove the factors of the Ostend company out of the river of Hughley: and he several times exacted money of the English, French, and Dutch settlements: alledging, that they ought to contribute to the expence, as they participated of the protection, of his arms. The presidency of Calcutta, not complying with his demands on the first summons, he more than once stopped their trade; however, all they paid from his accession did not exceed 100,000 pounds sterling; which on an average was not two in a hundred on the amount of their investments to the end of the war.
The Morattoes during the war made only one considerable depredation on the English trade. This was in the year 1748, when they stopped a fleet of boats coming from Cossimbuzar to Calcutta, and plundered it of 300 bales of raw silk belonging to the company. But the advantages of the European commerce in general were much impaired by the distresses of the province, which enhanced the prices and debased the fabrics of all kinds of manufactures.
The difficulties which Allaverdy had encountered and surmounted since his accession, obliterated in the minds of his subjects whatsoever detestation they might have conceived against his usurpation of the sovereignty: his attention to protect them from the violences and iniquities of his officers, acting either with civil or military authority, had gained him the public reverence and esteem: and such was the openness and generosity of his character on all occasions in which his ambition was not thwarted, that his ingratitude to his benefactor Sujah Khan, the murder of Baschir Pondit, and his intentions to cut off Mustapha Khan, were imputed, although absurdly, to the influence which his brother Hodgee was supposed to have over all his resolutions: he remained, perhaps, the only prince in the east whom none of his subjects wished to assassinate. But he was no sooner arrived at this degree of reputation and fortune, than increasing infirmities warned him of his approaching end; and his injudicious choice of a successor, embittered his latter days with as many anxieties as he had suffered in the rest of his reign.
Having no male issue or descendants, the succession naturally devolved into the family of his brother Hodgee, who had three sons, Nowagis Mahomed, Zaindee Hamed, and Sid Hamed: Nowagis married the only daughter of Allaverdy, by whom he had no issue; Sid Hamed had a son; and Zaindee Hamed left two, of whom the elder, named Mirza Mahmud, was adopted by Allaverdy, and the other, named Moorad Dowlah, by Nowagis Mahomed. The superior qualities of Zaindee justified Allaverdy in preferring him to his elder brother Nowagis, a man of much less resolution and capacity; but after the death of Zaindee there remained no reason to exclude Nowagis again from the succession: for he was of a better character than his brother Sid Hamed; and of the two children left by Zaindee, the younger, Moorad Dowlah, was weak of intellect, and the elder, Mirza Mahmud, a youth of seventeen years, had discovered the most vicious propensities, at an age when only follies are expected from princes. But the great affection which Allaverdy had borne to the father was transferred to this son, whom he had for some years bred in his own palace; where, instead of correcting the evil dispositions of his nature, he suffered them to increase by overweening indulgence: born without compassion, it was one of the amusements of Mirza Mahmud's childhood to torture birds and animals; and, taught by his minions to regard himself as of a superior order of beings, his natural cruelty hardened by habit, rendered him as insensible to the sufferings of his own species as of the brute creation: in conception he was not slow, but absurd; obstinate, sullen, and impatient of contradiction; but, notwithstanding his insolent contempt of mankind, innate cowardice, and the confusion of his ideas, rendered him suspicious of all who approached him, excepting his favourites, who were buffoons and profligate men, raised from menial servants to be his companions: with these he lived in every kind of intemperance and debauchery, and more especially in drinking spirituous liquors to an excess, which inflamed his passions, and impaired the little understanding with which he was born. He had, however, cunning enough to carry himself with much demureness in the presence of Allaverdy, whom no one ventured to inform of his real character; for in despotic states the sovereign is always the last to hear what it concerns him most to know.
This youth in the year 1753 Allaverdy declared his successor, and from this time suffered him to act in the government of the provinces with great authority; whilst his subjects beheld with equal surprise arid consternation an instance of such dotage in a prince, whose judgment had never failed him until this, the most important option of his life. The doom was, however, irrevocable, and Mirza Mahmud on his appointment received the name of Chiragee-al-Dowla, signifying the lamp of riches, by which he was afterwards called; but by the Europeans, Surajah Dowlah. His uncles Nowagis and Sid Hamed, did not indeed break out into open rebellion, but shewed so much discontent, that Allaverdy was convinced they would dispute the succession after his death; and knowing that Nowagis Mahomed was governed by a man of abilities, named Hossein Cooley Khan, he determined to remove this minister. But Nowagis having for some years held the government of Dacca with its appurtenances, had acquired great wealth, which enabled him to maintain a large retinue of armed men in constant pay; and the city of Dacca was at this time governed by a nephew of Hossein Cooley Khan: Allaverdy therefore was apprehensive that Nowagis might retire to Dacca, and throw off his allegiance, if he should take the alarm, whilst that city remained under his authority; but Surajah Dowlah undertook to remove the nephew of Hossein Cooley Khan, and sent a party of assassins, who entering Dacca in disguise stabbed him in the dead of night. As soon as his death was known at MuxadaVad, Nowagis took up arms, but more from apprehensions of his own danger than with intention to revenge the injury: Allaverdy therefore easily quelled this insurrection, by assuring him that the murder had been committed without the participation either of himself, or Surajah Dowlah. Some days after the tumult was quieted, Surajah Dowlah caused Hossein Cooley Khan himself to be assassinated in open day, as he was passing through the streets of Muxadavad.
These murders increased the gloomy conjectures which the appointment of Surajah Dowlah to the succession had already raised in the minds of the people. His uncles Nowagis and Sid Hamed had hitherto acted independently of each other, but now united; and although their reverence to Allaverdy restrained them from revolt during his life, they augmented their forces and the number of their dependants. In this state of mutual suspicion the two parties remained, until the beginning of the year 1756, when both Nowagis and Sid Hamed died of fevers, without poison.
Their deaths dissolved indeed the union of their houses; but, nevertheless, did not leave Surajah Dowlah without powerful competitors: Nowagis left great treasures; and his widow, the daughter of Allaverdy, as the only means of preserving them, determined to dispute the succession. Her sex excluded her from the government, to which otherwise she was the natural heir, as the only child of Allaverdy. And the younger brother of Surajah Dowlah, who had been adopted by her husband, was dead; but although a stripling, had left a son, who was about two years old; and this infant she determined to hold out to the province as the competitor of Surajah Dowlah. At the same time, the son of Sid Hamed, who governed the country of Purneah, relying on the general detestation which was entertained against Surajah Dowlah, levied forces, and determined to oppose his accession.
A Gentoo, named Rajah-bullub, had succeeded Hossein Cooley Khan in the post of Duan or prime-minister to Nowagis; after whose death his influence continued with the widow, with whom he was supposed to be more intimate than became either her rank, or his religion; but, doubtful of the event of the impending contest, he determined to place is family and treasures out of the reach of danger; and not deeming them in safety at Dacca, where they had remained for some time, he ordered his son Kissendass to remove them from that city, under pretence of going a pilgrimage to the Pagoda of Jagernaut, on the coast of Orixa. Accordingly, Kissendass left Dacca with several loaded boats: but, instead of going through the channels at the bottom of the Delta, proceeded along the great Ganges to the Jelingeer river, through which he entered the river of Hughley; when his father at Muxadavad requested Mr. Watts, the English chief at Cossimbuzar, to obtain permission of the presidency of Calcutta, that Kissendass with his family might, if they found it necessary, rest for some days in the town, by which the boats must pass, in their way to Orixa. At the same time there remained no hopes of Allaverdy's recovery; upon which the widow of Nowagis had quitted Muxadavad, and encamped with 10,000 men at Moota Gill, a garden two miles south of the city, and many now began to think and to say that she would prevail in her opposition against Surajah Dowlah. Mr. Watts therefore was easily induced to oblige her minister, and advised the presidency to comply with his request. His letter to the presidency on this subject was scarcely arrived in Calcutta, before the boats of Kissendass appeared in sight: the president, Mr. Drake, was at this time at Ballasore for the recovery of his health; but the rest of the council, relying on the opinion of Mr. Watts, consented to admit Kissendass into the town.
Amongst the Gentoo merchants established at Calcutta, was one named Omichund, a man of great sagacity and understanding, which he had employed for forty years with unceasing diligence to increase his fortune. The presidency had long permitted him to provide much more of the company's investment than the share allowed to any other contractor; by which, and other indulgences, he was become the most opulent inhabitant in the colony. The extent of his habitation, divided into various departments; the number of his servants continually employed in various occupations, and a retinue of armed men in constant pay, resembled more the state of a prince than the condition of a merchant. His commerce extended to all parts of Bengal and Behar, and by presents and services he had acquired so much influence with the principal officers of the government of Muxadavad, that the presidency in times of difficulty used to employ his mediation with the Nabob. This pre-eminence, however, did not fail to render him the object of much envy: the manufactures provided for the company having every year since the first irruption of the Morattoes decreased in quality and increased in price, much of this detriment was imputed to the avarice and iniquity of Omichund; and the company determining, if possible, to restore their investment to the former condition of price and quality, relinquished in the year 1753 their usual method of contracting with merchants, and sent Gomastahs, or Gentoo factors in their own pay, to provide the investments at the different Aurungs, or cloth markets in the province. From this time Omichund was excluded from any participation in the company's affairs, which diminishing his commercial advantages, vexed his avarice, although possessed of four millions of rupees. However, he still continued the trade, which he used to carry on independent of the investment, and redoubled his attention to maintain his importance at Muxadavad; in consequence of which Rajah-bullub at this time requested his good offices to his son Kissendass, whom Omichund received on his arrival with much hospitality, and lodged the family in a convenient habitation.
The admission of Kissendass into Calcutta was soon known at Muxadavad. It wounded the pride of Surajah Dowlah, and exasperated his mind with such suspicions, that he immediately went to Allaverdy, and told him that he was well informed the English intended to support the widow of Nowagis Mahomed. Mr. Forth, the surgeon of the English factory at Cossimbuzar, who attended Allaverdy in his last illness, was present, and Allaverdy, instead of answering Surajah Dowlah, questioned Mr. Forth concerning the report, who replied, that it was raised by the enemies of the English, in order to hurt them in his favour, and that on examination it would appear groundless; adding, that the English had no other ambition than to be merchants in his country. Allaverdy then asked how many soldiers were in the factory at Cossimbuzar? Whether the French or the Dutch presidencies had lately sent up any to their factories in that town? Where the English ships of war were? Whether they would come to Bengal? Whether some had not been in the river of Hughley three months before? Why the squadron came into India? Whether there was war between England and France? To which questions Mr. Forth replied, without deviating from the truth: and Allaverdy, seeming to be convinced that the expectation of a war with France had brought the squadron to India, and that the English at Calcutta were in no condition to risk the displeasure of his government, told Surajah Dowlah, that he gave no credit to his information; who replied, that he could prove it. A few days after this conversation, news arrived in Bengal that the English had taken Gheria. The piracies which Angria had for so many years committed on the subjects of the Mogul had rendered his name famous throughout the empire; and there was scarce a province of which he had not taken some of the natives, who concurred in describing his fortress as impregnable: and various rumours now prevailed at Muxadavad. Some said that the English intended to send sixteen ships to make war in Bengal; others, that Surajah Dowlah was determined to sack Calcutta, and drive the English out of his dominions: and Mr. Watts received positive information that there were many spies employed by the government in Calcutta; and that the weakness of the garrison and fortifications, and the facility with which the place might be taken, were the public discourse of the city and the court. The presidency on this information ordered strict search to be made, and several who were suspected of being spies, were turned out of the company's bounds.
At length the long-expected event of Allaverdy's death happened on the 9th of April: his public character is sufficiently delineated by his actions: his private life was very different from the usual manners of a Mahomedan prince in Indostan; for he was extremely temperate, had no pleasures, kept no seraglio, and always lived the husband of one wife. Warned by the experience of his own ambition, the defection of Meer-abib, and the rebellion of Mustapha Cwn, he declined as much as possible to entrust any Mahomedan, excepting of his own lineage, with any power out of his sight, which might either tempt or enable him to revolt: but kept his army, which consisted chiefly of Mahomedans, continually under his own eye, or never suffered a large body of the same troops to remain long enough at a distance to be seduced from their obedience. At the same time he paid them well and regularly, and rewarded the officers of merit and distinction, either with ready money or with jaghires, which were always rents arising from lands over which they were not suffered to have any extensive jurisdiction. But he preferred the service of Gentoos in every office and dignity of the state, excepting in the ranks of the army, for which they neither wished nor were fit, and seemed to regard the increase of their wealth as his own. Roydulub was his duan, or treasurer, and his confidential minister; Ramramsing the Rajah of Midnapore, the master of the spies and messengers. The governments which he gave to his nephews, the sons and grandsons of Hodgee, as well as the interior establishment of their families, were regulated by Gentoos. He encouraged the immense opulence of the Seats, and admitted them to his most secret councils; he gave the government of Hughley and its district, in which all the European settlements on the river are situated, to Monikchund; and after the assassination of Zaindee Hamed, he would not trust the government of Behar, notwithstanding its importance as a province and a frontier, to Meer Jaffier, although his brother-in-law, and the first officer in his army; but gave it to the Gentoo Ramnairan, The Rajahs, both of Bengal and Behar, sought their protection and exemptions, from their fellow Gentoos, who were established in his confidence, and contributed not a little to increase their fortunes. Thus was the Gentoo connection become the most opulent influence in the government, of which it pervaded every department with such efficacy, that nothing of moment could move without their participation or knowledge; nor did they ever deceive their benefactor, but co-operated to strengthen his administration and relieve his wants; and it is said that the Seats alone gave him in one present the enormous sum of three millions of rupees, as a contribution to support the expences of the Morattoe war. Warranted by such experience, Allaverdy recommended the policy of his own preference to his successor, and instructed his wife to inculcate the same maxims after his decease; but he did not foresee that the great inferiority of abilities in Surajah Dowlah might turn to dangers the very means from which his own had derived security.
Surajah Dowlah immediately after the death of Allaverdy was proclaimed, and prepared to attack the widow of Nowagis Mahomed. Not more than one or two days after his accession he wrote a letter to the president of Calcutta, ordering him to deliver up Kissendass, with his treasures. The bearer of the letter was brother of Ramramsing, the head of the spies: he came in a small boat, and landed in the disguise of a common pedlar on the 14th of April, and immediately proceeded to Omichund's, who, as the governor was absent at his country house, introduced him to Mr. Holwell, a member of the council, who superintended the police of the town. The next day it was deliberated what resolution should be taken concerning this messenger.
The governor returning the next day summoned a council, of which the majority being prepossessed against Omichund, concluded that the messenger was an engine prepared by himself to alarm them, and restore his own importance; and as the last advices received from Cossimbuzar described the event between Surajah Dowlah and the widow of Nowagis to be dubious, the council resolved that both the messenger and his letter were too suspicious to be received: and the servants, who were ordered to bid him depart, turned him out of the factory and off the shore with insolence and derision: but letters were dispatched to Mr. Watts, instructing him to guard against any evil consequence from this proceeding.
It is probable that the report of the spy, supported by the representations of his brother, renewed the same ideas which had induced Surajah Dowlah to accuse the English some days before to Allaverdy. He, however, concealed his resentment; for when the vaqueel, or Gentoo agent employed by Mr. Watts represented at the Durbar, the suspicions which had induced the English government to treat the messenger as an impostor, Surajah Dowlah scarcely shewed any emotion or displeasure; and neither Mr. Watts nor the president received any farther injunctions from him concerning Kissendass.
In the beginning of April letters had been received from England, informing the presidency that war with France was inevitable, and ordering them to put the settlement in a state of defence; but to do this was impossible without building the fort anew. However, a great number of labourers were sent to repair a line of guns which which extended on the brink of the river in front of the western side of the fort.
In the mean time the widow of Allaverdy interposed between her daughter and Surajah Dowlah, and at length prevailed on her to acknowledge him; which she had no sooner done than Surajah Dowlah put her into close confinement, and seized her palaces and treasures, with the infant son of his own brother. As soon as lie had quelled this enemy, he proceeded with his whole army, consisting of 50,000 men, against the son of Sid Hamet in Purnea.
Notwithstanding the diligence which had been employed to expel the spies employed by the Nabob in Calcutta, several found means to remain undiscovered; and, instigated most probably by the head spy, represented in their letters to the Durbar, that the English were very busy in raising strong fortifications. The Nabob, whose cowardice easily led him to believe any thing that alarmed his fears, gave such entire credit to the report, that on the day in which he began his march towards Purneah, he dispatched a letter to Mr. Drake, signifying that he had been informed the English were building a wall, and digging a large ditch round the town of Calcutta; and ordering him immediately to desist, and to destroy all the works which had lately been added to the fortifications.
It was unfortunate, Mr. Watts had neglected to inform the presidency of the complaint which Surajah Dowlah had made to Allaverdy a little before his death, in the presence of Mr. Forth; and of the conversation which ensued on that occasion: for whatsoever informations were now communicated, were considered as the artifices of the court to frighten the presidency out of a sum of money; whereas the conversation implied that Surajah Dowlah bore rancour against the English; and that both he and Allaverdy had been attentive to their military proceedings. But, wanting this information, Mr. Drake thought that the truth would be his best defence, and simply wrote a letter, importing, "That the Nabob "had been, misinformed by those who had represented to him that "the English were building a wall round the town; that they had dug dug no ditch since the invasion of the Morattoes, at which time such a work was executed at the request of the Indian inhabitants, and with the knowledge and approbation of Allaverdy; that in the late war between England and France, the French had attacked and taken the town of Madrass, contrary to the neutrality which it was expected would have been preserved in the Mogul's dominions; and that there being at present great appearance of another war between the two nations, the English were under apprehensions that the French would act in the same manner in Bengal: to prevent which, they were repairing their line of guns on the bank of the river." Few in Mr. Drake's situation would have apologized in any other manner: nevertheless, considering the character of Surajah Dowlah, and the disposition of his mind towards the English at this juncture, the answer was improper; because it tended to make him believe that the impending war between the two nations would probably be brought into Bengal; and because it implied that he either wanted power or will to protect the English. Accordingly, when he received the letter on the 17th of May at Rajamahal, the perusal of it irritated him to a degree of rage which astonished all his officers, excepting one or two of his intimate favourites. He instantly changed his resolution of proceeding further, ordered his army to march back without delay to Muxadavad, and sent forward a detachment of 3000 men, to invest the fort of Cossimbuzar. On the 22d of May these troops arrived and surrounded it, but committed no hostilities; and on the 1st of June the Nabob himself came up with the main body of his army.
The fort was just strong enough to oblige an enemy to attack it with cannon: the bastions were small: the curtains were only three feet thick, and served as the outward wall of a range of chambers, which, with their terrasses, imitated ramparts, and were on all sides overlooked from without by buildings within 100 yards, and there was neither ditch, nor even a pallisade, to interrupt the approach to the very foot of the walls: perhaps the jealousy of the government would not suffer more; none of the cannon were above nine pounders, most were honey-combed, many of their carriages decayed, and the ammunition did not exceed 6OO charges. The garrison consisted of 22 Europeans, mostly Dutchmen, and 20 Topasses.
The Nabob, immediately on his arrival, sent a messenger, ordering Mr. Watts to come to him; who at the same time received a letter from the duan, Royttulub, assuring him of safety: he nevertheless delayed until Mr. Forth the surgeon went out and returned, accompanied by an officer, with the same assurances from Roydulub in person: on which he proceeded to the tent of Roydulub and was introduced by him to the Nabob, who received him with insolence and invectives: immediately after which he was conducted into another tent, where several secretaries and officers prepared a writing, importing, that the presidency of Calcutta should, within fifteen days, level whatsoever new works they had raised; that they should deliver up all tenants of the government who had taken protection in the settlement; and that if it should be proved that the company's dustucks, or passports for trade, had ever been given, to such as were not intitled to them, what the government had been dsfrauded of by such practices, should be refunded. Mr. Watfs, surrounded by menaces, signed the paper; immediately after which the same conclave ordered him to send for Mr. Collet and Mr. Batson, the two other members of the council, who came and signed likewise, and were detained with Mr. Watts in the camp. The next day they received an order to surrender the fort; but representing that this did not now depend on themselves, no umbrage was taken at the delay of their conferences with one another, and their messages to the garrison, who, deeming the fort, as it really was, untenable, the Nabob's officers, with a number of followers, were admitted on the 4th of June; who, instead of sealing up what effects they found, as the Nabob had ordered, stole the greatest part; and the soldiery, who took possession of the factory, insulted the garrison with every kind of contumely and reproach. This behaviour continued three days, and so much affected the mind of the commanding officer, Ensign Elliot, that lie shot himself through the head.
The cannon and ammunition were carried to the camp; the soldiers were sent to the common prison at Muxadavad; Mr. Batson, one of the council, and the younger men in the company's service, were permitted to retire to the French and Dutch factories; and Mess. Watts and Collet, instead of being employed as they expected, to represent the will of Surajah Dowlah to the presidency of Calcutta, were informed that they must accompany him thither. None of the Nabob's officers endeavoured to restrain him from this rash and violent resolution; they believed themselves marching to the plunder of one of the most opulent cities in the empire. But Seat Mootabray and Roopchund, the sons of the banker Juggutseat who had succeeded to the wealth and employments of their father and derived great advantages from the European trade in the province, ventured to represent the English as a colony of inoffensive and useful merchants, and earnestly entreated the Nabob to moderate his resentment against them; but their remonstrances were vain; and on the 9th of June the army began their march towards Calcutta.
During these proceedings, letters were daily dispatched from Calcutta, instructing Mr. Watts to assure the Nabob that the presidency was ready to obey his orders, to demolish whatsoever additions had been made to their fortifications, and what other buildings without the fort might have been represented to him as works intended for defence; but none of these letters reached Mr. Watts, and were probably carried to the Nabob, whose intentions they encouraged. Coja Wazeed, the principal merchant of the province, who resided at Hughley, was likewise desired to interpose his mediation; to whom the Nabob replied, that Mr. Drake had grievously offended him, and that he would not suffer the English to remain in his country on any other terms than were allowed them in the reign of the Nabob Jaffier. In the mean time, as the principal reason assigned for Surajah Dowlah's indignation was his belief that the English were erecting new fortifications, the dread of exasperating him him still more, unfortunately deterred the presidency from taking the necessary measures to oppose, until there remained no longer any hopes of appeasing him: and in this precarious suspense, twenty days, in which much might have been done, were suffered to elapse unemployed. But, on the 7th of June, when news was received of the surrender of cossimbuzar, they were convinced that they must owe their safety to resistance.
Letters were immediately dispatched to Madrass and Bombay requesting reinforcements, but without any probability that any could arrive from either in time; for the sea was shut by the south monsoon, and the messengers of the country could not arrive at either of their destinations in less than 30 days. As a relief nearer at hand, the French and Dutch presidencies at Chandernagore and Chinchura were solicited, as in a common cause, to enter into a defensive alliance against the Nabob; but the Dutch positively refused, and the French insolently advised the English to repair to Chandernagore, in which case they promised them their protection. No resource therefore remained but in their own force, which was indeed very inadequate to the contest; for, although the regular garrison consisted of 264 men, and the inhabitants serving as 'militia were 250; in all, 514 men; yet only 174 of this number were Europeans, and of these not ten had ever seen any other than the service of the parade; the rest were Topasses, Armenians, and Portugueze inhabitants, on whose faith or spirit no reliance could be placed. The number of Buxerries, or Indian matchlock men, were therefore augmented to 1500; provisions were laid in store, and works of defence, such as the time would admit, were erected.
Whilst the Nabob was advancing, it was determined to take possession of the fort of Tannah, which lay about 5 miles below Calcutta, on the opposite shore, and commanded the narrowest part of the river between Hughley and the sea with 13 pieces of cannon. Two ships of 300 tons, and two brigantines, anchored before it early in the morning of the 13th of June; and as soon as they began to fire, the Moorish garrison, which did not exceed fifty men, fled; on which some, Europeans and Lascars landed; and having disabled part of the cannon, flung the rest into the river. But the next day they were attacked by a detachment of 2000 men, sent from Hughley, who stormed the fort, drove them to their boats, and then began to fire, with their matchlocks and two small fieldpieces, on the vessels, which endeavoured in vain with their cannon and musketry to dislodge them. The next day a reinforcement of 30 soldiers were sent from Calcutta but the cannonade having made no impression, they and the vessels returned to the town.
On the 13th, likewise, a letter was intercepted, written to Omichund, by the Nabob's head spy, advising, him to send his effects out of the reach of danger as soon as possible: which confirming the suspicions that were already entertained of Omichund's conduct, he was immediately apprehended, and put under strict confinement in the fort; and a guard of twenty men was placed in his house, that his effects might not be clandestinely removed. His brother in law, Hazarimull, who had the chief management of his affairs, concealed himself in the apartments of the women, until the next day; when the guard, endeavouring to take him, were resisted by the whole body of Omichund's peons, and armed domestics, amounting to 300: several were wounded on both sides before the fray ended; during which, the head of the peons, who was an Indian of a high cast, set fire to the house, and, in order to save the women of the family from the dishonour of being exposed to strangers, entered their apartments, and killed, it is said, thirteen of them with his own hand; after which, he stabbed himself, but contrary to his intention, not mortally. At the same time, Kissendass was brought into the fort by another detachment.
Mean while the Nabob advanced with such uncommon diligence, that many of his troops died of fatigue, and many were killed by the sun, which at this season struck perpendicular on their heads: on the 15th day of June, the 7th of their march, they arrived at Hughley, from whence they crossed the river in a vast fleet of boats, many of which had accompanied the army from Muxadavad, and the rest had been assembled at Hughley. Surajah Dowlah had previously sent letters to the Dutch and French settlements at Chinchura and Chandernagore, ordering them to assist him with their garrisons against Calcutta; and when his army was in sight of their factories, he repeated his summons in more imperious terms; but they pleaded the treaties subsisting between their nations and the English in Europe: which denial he highly resented; but suppressed his indignation for the present, lest they should, as in a common cause, take up arms in conjunction with the English. But to this they were nothing inclined.
The news of the enemy's approach was brought to Calcutta early the next morning, the 16th of June; on which the militia and military repaired to their posts, and the English women quitted their houses, and retired into the fort. Most of the Indian inhabitants who had not already taken flight now deserted the town, and fled, they knew not whither, to avoid the storm; but the Portuguese, or black Christians, availing themselves of this title, flocked to the fort, into which more than 2000 of them, men, women, and children, were imprudently admitted. At noon, the van of the Nabob's army, marching from the northward, appeared in sight of the company's bounds, and having neither reconnoitred nor gained intelligence, they remained ignorant that the Morattoe-ditch did not continue round the limits, but left an opening without defences to the south. They therefore, without hesitation, advanced to attack the part which lay directly before them, where a deep rivulet, without any bank behind it, supplied the place of the Morattoe-ditch; and the redoubt, called Perring's, which was one of the objects of the Nabobs displeasure, stood on a point of land at the mouth of the rivulet; but being only intended to command the river, this work had but one embrasure towards the land. Contiguous to the redoubt stood a bridge, which was the only passage over the rivulet, on the other side of which, within 100 yards, were thickets and groves, through which lay the high road. A ship of 18 guns had been stationed to the north of the redoubt, in order to flank the thickets: the greatest part; of the company's buxerries were assembled here to defend the rivulet; and as the guard of the redoubt was only 20 Europeans, 30 more, with two field-pieces, were sent from the fort to their assistance. Four thousand of the enemy's matchlocks, with four pieces of cannon, took possession of the thickets, and from three in the afternoon until night kept up a constant fire, the cannon against the redoubt, the matchlocks every where. It was returned by the redoubt and the field-pieces, which were placed in the rear of the bridge and opposite to the road, and the buxerries wherever they chose. At midnight nothing was moving in the thickets; for every man, after eating his meal, had, as usual, betook himself to sleep; which ensign Pischard, who had served on the coast of Coromandel, suspected from their 'silence, and crossing the rivulet at midnight with his party, seized and spiked the four pieces of cannon, beat up and drove all the troops out of the thickets, and returned without the loss of a man.
The Jemautdar of Omichund's peons, wounded as he was, had caused himself to be transported to the enemy's camp; and by his advice they desisted from renewing the attack on the north, and the whole army moved to the eastward of the company's bounds, into which several parties entered through passages which there were no troops to defend. In the afternoon they set fire to the great bazar, or market, within half a mile north-east of the fort, and took possession of the quarter inhabited by the principal Indian merchants, which commenced half a mile to the north, and extended mostly along the bank of the river. A party was sent to drive them away, and returned with some prisoners, who reported that the enemy intended the next day to make a general attack upon the out-posts; on which the party was recalled from Perring's redoubt to the north of the bounds; and every one passed the night under arms.
The fort of Calcutta, called Fort- William, was situated near the river, and nearly half way between the northern and southern extremities of the company's territory. Its sides to the east and west, extended 210 yards; the southern side 130, and the northern 100: it had four bastions, mounting each 10 guns: the curtains were only four feet thick, and, like the factory of Cossimbuzar, terrasses, which were the roofs of chambers, formed the top of the ramparts; and windows belonging to these chambers were in several places opened in the curtains: the gateway on the eastern side projected, and mounted five guns, three in front and one on each flank towards the bastions; under the western face, and on the brink of the river, was a line of heavy cannon, mounted in embrasures of solid masonry; and this work was joined to the two western bastions by two slender walls, in each of which was a gate of pallisadoes. In the year 1747, warehouses had been built contiguous to the southern curtain, and projecting on the outside, between the two bastions, rendered them useless to one another; however, the terrasses of these warehouses were strong enough to bear the firing of three pounders which were mounted in barbett over a slight parapet.
The houses of the English inhabitants occupied the ground six hundred yards towards the east, and half a mile to the north and south of the fort; but lay scattered in spacious and separate incisures; and several of them overlooked the fort; as did the English church, which stood opposite to the N. E. bastion; under these disadvantages the fort was deemed so little capable of defence, that it was resolved to oppose the enemy in the principal streets and avenues.
Accordingly three batteries, each mounting two eigteen pounders, and two field-piecs, were erected: one opposite to the eastern gate of the fort, at the distance of 300 yards, in the principal avenue, which continued in a straight line to the eastward as far as the Morattoe ditch: this battery adjoined on the left to the gateway of an inclosure, in which, at the distance of a few feet, stood a very spacious house of one floor, in which the mayor's court and assizes used to be held. A cross-road passed from N. to E. along the eastern curtain of the fort; but 200 yards N. of it, this road lost sight of the fort, by a short turning towards the river, along the bank of which it continued straight to the N. in a street formed by houses on one side, and the walls of inclosures on the other nearest the river: at the upper end of this street, just beyond the turning, was another battery. The third was in the cross-road 300 yards to the south of the tort, but the ground between was clear. Breast-works with pallisadoes were erected in the smaller inlets at a distance, and trenches dug across the more open grounds. Between the north battery and the eastern, or that at the mayor's court house, there were only two inlets, both of which led into a spot lying on the eastern side of the cross-road between the church and a house belonging to Mr. Eyre. But the ground immediately to the south-east of the fort was much more open; and part of this space was occupied by a large inclosure, called The park; the north side of which skirted the principal avenue leading to the eastern battery, the western side extended 200 yards along the side of the cross-road towards the southern battery, and the eastern side skirted one side of a rope-walk about sixty yards broad. Along the other side of this rope-walk stood three English houses, all within effective musket-shot of the eastern battery; which, being erected at the north-east angle of the park, might, by turning a gun to the south, scour the whole length of this rope-walk, but could not so well command the entrance into a small lane, which led into the farther end of the rope-walk from the south-east. This pass was of consequence; for the enemy might from hence proceed to the south wall of the park, and then continue along it without interruption to several houses, which extended along the cross-road, almost from the south-west angle of the park to the backside of the southern battery, which stood 100 yards farther on in the cross road: about 200 yards east of this battery, and about the same distance to the south of the lane last mentioned, lay another passage which gave inlet into a large opening, south of the park; from whence the enemy might with even more facility penetrate to the same houses commanding the southern battery. Both these passes were therefore carefully secured. Immediately in front of the southern battery the road was arched over a deep and miry gully, which continued to the river; but, as this battery was thought less tenable than either of the other two, another was erected 200 yards behind it, across the same road, and within 100 of the fort, about the midway of the western side of the park-wall. The enemy, as it had been expected, attacked the out-posts on the 18th in the morning. At eight o'clock one of their divisions advanced to the southern battery, and, taking possession of several houses situated on each side of the road beyond it, fired from their matchlocks and from their wall-pieces, an engine of much greater efficacy, carrying a ball of three ounces; the two eighteen pounders, which were mounted on the battery, cannonaded the houses, in order to dislodge them, but without effect.
At break of day, two field-pieces with a platoon of Europeans had been detached from the eastern battery to a slight barricaded work at some distance in the avenue; and 40 buxerries under a good officer had likewise been sent to take post in the inclosure of the gaol, which lay about 100 yards beyond the battery, on the right hand of the avenue: the walls of this inclosure were high, and holes had been struck through to admit the firing of the two field-pieces, in case the enemy should gain their way, and oblige those at the barricade to retreat to the gaol. About nine o'clock, a multitude of some thousands, armed with match and firelocks, advanced from the Morattoe ditch, along the avenue. They were stopped by the quick firing of the two field-pieces, which soon after dispersed them; but they retreated into the thickets on either hand, and, secure under that shelter, kept up an incessant, although irregular, fire on the barricade; nevertheless, the party there maintained their post two hours, when several being killed, and more wounded, the rest retreated, with the field-pieces, to the gaol: at the same time the enemy, instead of advancing along the avenue, proceeded through by-ways, and got possession of the three English houses which stood along the rope-walk, and overlooked the back part of the gaol, on which they fired so warmly from the windows and terrasses, that in a few minutes they killed six buxerries, and wounded four or five Europeans; on which the rest quitted the inclosure, leaving the field-pieces behind, and returned to the battery at the Mayor's Court. The battery to the north was likewise attacked about nine o'clock, but here the enemy did not find the same advantages as at the other two; for the street was narrow, and the inclosures which skirted it
on the side next the river afforded no shelter that was not over-looked by the battery itself; and, on the other side, the only houses which commanded it were contiguous to one another, and did not extend more than sixty yards beyond; and in each of them were posted four or five Europeans. The first fire from the battery dispersed the division which was marching along the street to attack it, and deterred them from appearing again in a body: nevertheless they remained in the cross streets, from which two or three at a time frequently used to come out, fire at random, and then retreat. A platoon, with a field-piece, was detached to drive them out of the cross streets; which they easily effected, and then proceeded along the northern street, until they lost sight of the battery; when the enemy, taking advantage of their error, returned through the cross streets, to cut off their retreat, but yielded again to the field-piece and the fire of the platoon. Soon after, the whole body of the enemy, which had been appointed to this attack, went away, and joined those who were employed against the eastern battery.
At noon the attacks in all parts ceased at once, and every thing remained quiet until two, when the enemy recommenced their fire upon the eastern battery, not only from the three houses in the rope-walk, but also from two others on the left hand of the avenue; from which stations neither the two eighteen pounders on the battery, nor the cannon from the fort, were able to dislodge them. The enemy's fire was so incessant, that only the men necessary to serve the guns were suffered to remain in the battery, whilst the rest took shelter in the mayor's court-house, from whence the place of those who were either killed or wounded at the guns was occasionally supplied. About four o'clock in the afternoon, a multitude of the enemy forced the palisade at the farther end of the ropewalk, although defended by a serjeant and twenty men; and rushed down the walk with so much impetuosity towards the eastern battery, that the gunners had scarcely time to turn one of the eighteen pounders against them; however, the first discharge of grape-shot checked, and a few more drove them to seek shelter in the covers at hand; but many of them joined those who were in the houses, from which the fire increased so much, that at five o'clock Captain Clayton, the military officer who commanded in the battery, sent Mr. Holwell, who acted as a lieutenant under him, to represent to the governor the impossibility of maintaining this post any longer, unless it was immediately reinforced with cannon and men, sufficient to drive the enemy out of the houses: but before Mr. Holwell returned, Captain Clayton was preparing to retreat, having already spiked up two 18 pounders and one of the field-pieces; and the whole detachment soon after marched into the fort with the other. They were scarcely arrived before the enemy took possession of the battery, and expressed their joy by excessive shouts.
The two other batteries had remained unmolested since noon; but a party had been detached from the southern to defend the palisade to the east of it, which was overlooked by two large houses, one on each hand: a Serjeant and twelve men, belonging to the military, posted themselves in one of the houses; and a lieutenant with nine of the militia, all of whom were young men in the mercantile service of the company, took possession of the other: the fire from both defended the pass until the eastern battery was deserted, when, all the ground from hence to the two houses being open, numbers of the enemy gathered in the ground on the inside of the palisade, and began to attack the two houses, which animating those who were attacking the palisade on the other side, they at length tore it down, and joined those already within. The serjeant with the twelve military saw their danger before the enemy had made proper dispositions to prevent their escape, and quitting the house in which they had been stationed, proceeded by by-ways which they knew to the southern battery; but did not give notice of their retreat to those of the militia in the other house; who soon after seeing themselves surrounded, without hopes of succour or relief, came out in a compact body, determined to fight their way to the fort; but two, whose names were Smith and Wilkinson, separated from the rest, and were immediately intercepted: the enemy, however, offered them quarter, which Smith refused, and, it is said, slew five men before he fell; on which Wilkinson surrendered, rendered, and was immediately cut to pieces. The other eight, always presenting and rarely firing, got to the south west angle of the park, when the guns, as well of the fort, as of the battery which had been raised across the road leading to it, midway of the west side of the park-wall, deterred the enemy from accompanying them any farther. The detachments at all the three batteries, the two to the south, and that to the north of the fort, were now recalled; and boats were sent, which soon after brought away Ensign Pischard, and the guard of 20 men, which was remaining at Perring's redoubt to the north.
The batteries had been so much relied upon as the best defences of the settlement, that the desertion of them on the very first day they were attacked created general consternation; and the uproar of 1500 black Portuguese in the fort increased the confusion. Of the Lascars, who had been inlisted to serve the cannon, not more than twenty, and of the buxerries not one, remained. The Armenian and Portuguese militia were stupified with fear. However, the English still preserved their courage, and small parties were detached to the church, to Mr. Eyres, opposite the angle of the north-east bastion, to Mr. Cruttenden's on the north, and to the governor's house on the south, all which commanded the ramparts. In the mean time the enemy had drilled the three guns which had been spiked and left in the eastern battery, and turned them on the fort; whilst numbers of their troops, sheltering themselves in the trenches which had been dug in the park, and behind the walls of that inclosure, kept a constant fire of small arms on the ramparts.
A ship and seven smaller vessels, belonging to the settlement, lay before the fort; and boats, with the natives who plied them, had been carefully reserved. As night approached, it was resolved to send all the European women on board the ship; two of the council superintended their embarkation, and were accompanied by several of the militia. Before eight o'clock the party at the governor's house, having been much galled by the enemy from the next house to the south, were recalled; their retreat exposed the range of warehouses adjoining to the south curtain, which was the weakest part of the fort, because unflanked by any bastion; and at midnight the enemy were heard approaching to escalade the terrasses of these warehouses. On which the governor ordered the drums to beat the general alarm; but although this summons was thrice repeated, not a man appeared in obedience to it, excepting those who were on duty; but the enemy, supposing the garrison prepared, retreated.
At two in the morning, a general council of war was held, to which all the English, excepting the common soldiers, were admitted: and after debating two hours, whether they should immediately escape to the ships, or defer the retreat until the next night, the council broke up without any regular determination: but, as of the two proposals, the first was not carried into execution, it was by many believed that the other was adopted.
The enemy renewed their attacks as soon as the morning appeared, by which time they had mounted three guns near the south-west angle of the park, from whence, as well as from the eastern battery, they now cannonaded the fort, whilst their matchlock men from several houses, and behind the walls of inclosures, fired upon the several houses in which parties were remaining, as well as upon the bastions and ramparts. They had not, however, ventured to take possession of the governor's house to the south, notwithstanding it' had been evacuated so many hours; and another party, under the command of Ensign Pischard, was sent thither early in the morning. Ever and anon some one of the defenders was killed or wounded: but, although ten times the number of the enemy fell, their loss in so great a multitude was scarcely felt, and immediately supplied. Before nine, Ensign Pischard returned to the fort, wounded, and was followed by his party; on which the detachments in the church and the two other houses were likewise recalled, and the posts they quitted were immediately taken possession of by the enemy, whose courage and activity increased with their success, whilst terror and confusion prevailed more and more in the garrison.
Many of the boats had deserted in the night; and in the morning, when it was intended to ship off the Portuguese women and children the voice of order was lost amongst this affrighted multitude, of which every one pressing to be first embarked, the boats were filled with more than they could carry, and several were overset. Most of those who had crowded into them were drowned, and such as floated with the tide to the shore, were either made prisoners or massacred; for the enemy had taken possession of all the houses and inclosures along the banks of the river, from which stations they shot fire-arrows into the ship and vessels, in hopes of burning them. None of the garrison who had embarked with the English women had returned to the shore, and their fright being much increased by the fire-arrows, they, without orders from the governor, removed the ship 'from her station before the fort to Govindpore, three miles lower down the river; on which all the other vessels weighed their anchors likewise, and followed the ship; and to increase the evil effects of their retreat, it happened at the very time when the detachments from the fort were obliged to abandon the adjacent houses: in this hour of trepidation many of the English militia, seeing the vessels under sail, were terrified with the apprehension of losing this opportunity of escaping, and quitted the shore. The governor, utterly unexperienced in military affairs, had hitherto shewn no aversion to expose his person wherever his presence was necessary. He had early in the morning visited the ramparts; and after the retreat of the detachments from the houses, when an alarm was given that the enemy were endeavouring to force their way through the gate of palisadoes in the wall between the southern bastion and the line of guns, had repaired thither, and ordered two field-pieces to be pointed towards the gate; but found none willing to obey him. Soon after, a man came and whispered to him, that all the gun-powder remaining in the magazines was damp and unfit for service; although dismayed by this information, he refrained from divulging it, and endeavoured to reduce the confusion which prevailed every where till ten o'clock; when preceiving that only two boats remained at the wharf, in one of which several of his acquaintance were preparing to escape, the dread of being exposed to the resentment of Surajah Dowlah, who had often threatened to put him to death, prevailed over all other considerations, and, panick-struck, he hurried into the other boat without giving warning to the garrison: the military commanding officer, and several others who saw him embark, followed his example, and accompanied him to the ship.
The astonishment of those who remained in the fort was not greater than their indignation at this desertion; and nothing was heard for some time but execrations against the fugitives. However, the concourse soon proceeded to deliberation, when Mr.Pearkes, the eldest member of the council in the fort, resigned his right of command to Mr. Holwell. The whole number of militia and military now remaining amounted only to 190 men: and two or three boats being returned to the wharf, the new governor, in order to prevent any more desertions, locked the western gate leading to the river.
The ship which had been stationed at the northern redoubt, still remained there; and the garrison, having determined to defend themselves vigorously until they could repair on board of her, an officer was dispatched in a boat with orders to the captain to bring her down immediately to the fort. But the reliance upon this resource was of short duration; for the ship coming down, struck on a sand-bank, and was immediately abandoned by the crew. In the mean time the fort was warmly attacked, and bravely defended until the enemy ceased firing at noon: neither did they renew their efforts with much vigour during the rest of the day, or the succeeding night; but employed themselves in setting fire to all the adjacent houses, excepting those which commanded the ramparts. In this interval the garrison continually threw out signals, flags by day and fires by night, calling the vessels at Govindpore to return to the fort: but this their last expectation of relief was likewise disappointed, for not a single vessel came to their assistance.
The next morning the enemy recommenced their attacks with greater numbers than ever; and whilst some of the garrison were exposing themselves with much resolution, others were entreating Mr. Holwell to capitulate; who, to calm the minds of such as desponded, at sun-rise, threw a letter from the rampart, written by the prisoner Omichund, to Monickchund, the governor of Hughley, who commanded a considerable body of troops in the army before the fort, requesting him to intercede with the Nabob to cease hostilities, since the English were ready to obey his commands, and only persisted in defending the fort to preserve their lives and honour. The letter was taken up, but the enemy nevertheless continued their attacks until noon, when a large body attempted to escalade the northern curtain, under cover of a strong fire of their small arms from Mr. Cruttenden's house: but, after persevering half an hour they were repulsed, and the fire on all the other quarters of the fort ceased as soon, as this body retreated. In these few hours twenty-five of the garrison had been killed, or were lying desperately wounded, and seventy more had received slighter hurts; and the common soldiers having broke open the store-house of arrack, were intoxicated beyond all sense of duty.
At two the enemy appeared again, but acted faintly; and at four a man was discovered advancing, with a flag of truce in his hand, which Mr. Holwell, at the general request, answered with another on the south-east bastion, from whence he at the same time threw a letter which he had prepared, addressed to the duan, Roydulub, of the same purport as that which Omichund had written in the morning to Monickchund. A parley ensued, during which many of the enemy flocked to the eastern gate of the fort, and to the gate of palisadoes near the south-west bastion, both which they attempted to cut down; whilst greater numbers, with scaling ladders, endeavoured to mount the warehouses to the south: a shot was likewise fired, which wounded Mr. Bailley, as he was standing on the s. E. bastion with Mr. Holwell, who immediately ran down to bring men to the ramparts: but few obeyed, and those who would have been willing, had retired to various parts of the fort to get sleep; and whilst search was making for them, the drunken soldiers, intending to escape to the river, broke open the western gate of the fort, just as a body of the enemy, had forced the gate of palisades, and were rushing to attack this likewise, which they found found opening: others at the same time had escaladed the warehouses. In this confusion no resistance was made, and every one surrendering his arms, the Nabob's troops refrained from bloodshed; but about 20 of the garrison ran to the N. w. bastion, and dropped from the embrasures, where some escaped along the slime of the river, and others were surrounded and taken prisoners.
At five the Nabob entered the fort, accompanied by his general Meer Jaffier, and most of the principal officers of his army. He immediately ordered Omichund and Kissendass to be brought before him, and received them with civility; and having bid some officers go and take possession of the company's treasury, he proceeded to the principal apartment of the factory, where he sat in state and received the compliments of his court and attendants in magnificent expressions of his prowess and good fortune. Soon after he sent for Mr. Holwell, to whom he expressed much resentment at the presumption of the English in daring to defend the fort, and much dissatisfaction at the smallness of the sum found in the treasury, which did not exceed 50,000 rupees. Mr. Holwell had two other conferences with him on this subject before seven o'clock, when the Nabob dismissed him with repeated assurances, on the word of a soldier, that he should suffer no harm.
Mr. Holwell, returning to his unfortunate companions, found them assembled and surrounded by a strong guard. Several buildings on the north and south sides of the fort were already in flames, which approached with so thick a smoke on either hand, that the prisoners imagined their enemies had caused this conflagration, in order to suffocate them between the two fires. On each side of the eastern gate of the fort extended a range of chambers adjoining to the curtain; and before the chambers a varanda, or open gallery: it was of arched masonry, and intended to shelter the soldiers from the sun and rain, but being low, almost totally obstructed the chambers behind from the light and air; and whilst some of the guard were looking in other parts of the factory for proper places to confine the prisoners during the night, the rest ordered them to assemble in ranks under the varanda on the right hand of the gateway; where they remained for some time with so little suspicion of their impending fate, that they laughed among themselves at the seeming oddity of this disposition, and amused themselves with conjecturing what they should next be ordered to do. About eight o'clock, those who had been sent to examine the rooms reported that they had found none fit for the purpose. On which the principal officer commanded the prisoners to go into one of the rooms which stood behind them along the varanda. It was the common dungeon of the garrison, who used to call it The Black Hole. Many of the prisoners knowing the place, began to expostulate; upon which the officer ordered his men to cut down those who hesitated; on which the prisoners obeyed. But before all were within, the room was so thronged, that the last entered with difficulty. The guard immediately closed and locked the door; confining 146 persons in a room not 20 feet square, with only two small windows, and these obstructed by the varanda.
It was the hottest season of the year; and the night uncommonly sultry even at this season. The excessive pressure of their bodies against one another, and the intolerable heat which prevailed as soon as the door was shut, convinced the prisoners that it was impossible to live through the night in this horrible confinement; and violent attempts were immediately made to force the door; but without effect, for it opened inward, on which many began to give a loose to rage. Mr. Holwell, who had placed himself at one of the windows, exhorted them to remain composed both in body and mind, as the only means of surviving the night, and his remonstrances produced a short interval of quiet; during which he applied to an old Jemautdar, who bore some marks of humanity in his countenance, promising to give him a thousand rupees in the morning, if he would separate the prisoners into two chambers. The old man went to try, but returning in a few minutes, said it was impossible; when Mr. Holwell offered him a larger sum; on which he retired once more, and returned with the fatal sentence, that no relief could be expected, because the Nabob was asleep, and no one dared to wake him. In the mean time every minute had increased their sufferings. The first effect of their confinement was a profuse and continued sweat, which soon produced intolerable thirst, succeeded by excruciating pains in the breast, with difficulty of breathing little short of suffocation. Various means were tried to obtain more room and air. Every one stripped off his cloaths; every hat was put in motion; and these methods affording no relief, it was proposed that they should all sit down on their hams at the same time, and after remaining a little while in this posture, rise all together. This fatal expedient was thrice repeated before they had been confined an hour; and every time, several, unable to rear themselves again, fell, and were trampled to death by their companions. Attempts were again made to force the door, which, failing as before, redoubled their rage: but the thirst increasing, nothing but water! water! became soon after the general cry. The good Jemautdar immediately ordered some skins of water to be brought to the windows; but, instead of relief, his benevolence became a more dreadful cause of destruction; for the sight of the water threw every one into such excessive agitations and ravings, that, unable to resist this violent impulse of nature, none could wait to be regularly served, but each with the utmost ferocity battled against those who were likely to get it before him; and in these conflicts many were either pressed to death by the efforts of others, or suffocated by their own. This scene, instead of producing compassion in the guard without, only excited their mirth; and they held up lights to the bars, in order to have the diabolical satisfaction of viewing the deplorable contentions of the sufferers within; who, finding it impossible to get any water whilst it was thus furiously disputed, at length suffered those who were nearest to the windows, to convey it in their hats to those behind them. It proved no relief either to their thirst, or other sufferings; for the fever encreased every moment with the encreasing depravity of the air in the dungeon, which had been so often respired, and was saturated with the hot and deleterious effluvia of putrifying bodies; of which the stench was little less than mortal. Before midnight, all who were alive and had not partaken of the air at the windows, were either in a lethargic stupefaction, or raving with delirium. Every kind of invective and abuse was uttered, in hopes of provoking the guard to put an end to their miseries, by firing into the dungeon; and whilst some were blaspheming their creator with the frantic execrations of torment in despair, heaven was implored by others with wild and incoherent prayers; until the weaker, exhausted by these agitations, at length laid down quietly and expired on the bodies of their dead or agonizing friends. Those who still survived in the inward part of the dungeon, finding that the water had afforded them no relief, made efforts to obtain air, by endeavouring to scramble over the heads of those who stood between, them and the windows; where 'the utmost strength of every one was employed for two hours, either in maintaining his own ground, or in endeavouring to get that of which others were in possession. All regards of compassion and affection were lost, and no one would recede or give way for the relief of another. Faintness sometimes gave short pauses of quiet, but the first motion of any one renewed the struggle through all, under which ever and anon some one sunk to rise no more. At two o'clock not more than fifty remained alive. But even this number were too many to partake of the saving air, the contest for which and life, continued until the morn, long implored, began, to break; and, with the hope of relief, gave the few survivors a view of the dead. The survivors then at the window, finding that their intreaties could not prevail on the guard to open the door, it occurred to Mr. Cooke, the secretary of the council, that Mr. Holwell, if alive, might have more influence to obtain their relief; and two of the company undertaking the search, discovered him, having still some signs of life; but when they brought him towards the window, every one refused to quit his place, excepting captain Mills, who with rare generosity offered to resign his; on which the rest likewise agreed to make room. He had scarcely begun to recover his senses, before an officer, sent by the Nabob, came and enquired if the English chief survived; and soon after the same man returned with an order to open the prison. The dead were so thronged, and the survivors had so little strength remaining, that they were employed near half an hour in removing the bodies which lay against the door, before they could clear a passage to go out one at a time; when of one hundred and forty-six who went in, no more than twenty-three came out alive, the ghastliest forms that ever were seen alive. The Nabob's troops beheld them, and the havock of death from which they had escaped, with indifference; but did not prevent them from removing to a distance, and were immediately obliged, by the intolerable stench, to clear the dungeon, whilst others dug a ditch on the outside of the fort, into which all the dead bodies were promiscuously thrown.
Mr. Holwell, unable to stand, was soon after earned to the Nabob, who was so far from shewing any compassion for his condition, or remorse for the death of the other prisoners, that he only talked of the treasures which the English had buried; and threatening him with farther injuries, if he persisted in concealing them, ordered him to be kept a prisoner. The officers to whose charge he was delivered, put him into fetters, together with Messrs. Command Walcot, who were likewise supposed to know something of the treasures; the rest of the survivors, amongst whom were Messrs. Cooke and Mills, were told they might go where they pleased; but an English woman, the only one of her sex amongst the sufferers, was reserved for the seraglio of the general Meer Jaffier. The dread of remaining any longer within the reach of such barbarians determined most of them to remove immediately, as far as their strength enabled them, from the fort, and most tended towards the vessels which were still in sight; but when they reached Govindpore in the southern part of the company's bounds, they were informed that guards were stationed to prevent any persons from passing to the vessels, on which most of them took shelter in deserted huts, where some of the natives, who had served the English in different employments, came and administered to their immediate wants. Two or three however ventured, and got to the vessels before sun-set. Their appearance and the dreadful tale they had to tell were the severest of reproaches to those on board, who, intent only on their own preservation, had made no efforts to facilitate the escape of the rest of the garrison: never perhaps was such an opportunity of performing an heroic action so ignominiously neglected: for a single sloop, with fifteen brave men on board, might, in spite of all the efforts of the enemy, have come up, and, anchoring under the fort, have carried away all who suffered in the dungeon.
But the trepidation on board of all the vessels had been so great, that, having sailed in the morning in order to proceed lower down the river, the fire from the fort of Tannah, where the enemy had again mounted several pieces of cannon, drove a snow and a sloop ashore; on which the rest returned to the station they had quitted at Govindpore, where they remained until the 24th, when they were joined by two ships from Bombay, which came up the river, and had sustained the fire of Tannah without any hurt. Encouraged by this example and reinforcement, the fleet again weighed anchor, and proceeding with better conduct, passed the fort of Tannah with the loss of only two lascars; on the 25th they passed Buzbuzia, another fort, twenty miles lower down, where the enemy were only preparing to mount cannon: here another vessel was stranded by bad navigation: on the 26th they arrived at Fulta, a town with a market, which is the station of all the Dutch shipping. The southerly monsoon which prevailed at this time rendering it impossible to quit the river, it was determined to remain at Fulta, if not driven away by the Nabob, until the season changed.
Mean while the Nabob's army were employed in plundering Calcutta, where the booty, although sufficient to gratify the common soldiery, produced nothing that answered the expectations which had urged the Nabob to get possession of the settlement. Most of the inhabitants, excepting Omichund, had removed their valuable effects; but in his treasury were found 400,000 rupees, besides many valuable effects. Most of the merchandizes provided in the country had been shipped to different ports before the month of April, after which time vessels cannot go out of the river. None of the company's ships were arrived from England; and none of those belonging to private merchants were returned from their voyages; and the greatest part of the commodities imported in the preceding year were sold; neither had the goods providing at the an rungs for the ensuing season been brought to Calcutta; so that the whole amount of the merchandizes remaining in the settlement did not exceed in value the sum of two hundred thousand pounds; which was much diminished before they had passed through the rapine of the soldiery, and the embezzlement of the officers appointed to manage the plunder. The Nabob, irritated by the disappointment of his expectations of immense wealth, ordered Mr. Holwell and the two other prisoners to be sent to Muxadavad, in hopes that they would at last discover where the treasures of the settlement were buried. This order was executed by his officers with all the severity that the fear of causing the death of the prisoners would admit. They were put into an open boat, without shelter from the intense sun and heavy rain of the season, fed only with rice and water, and loaded with irons, notwithstanding their bodies were covered with painful boils; a crisis by which all who survived the dungeon recovered of their fever. In their passage up the river, they received some refreshments from the Dutch settlement at Chinchura; and both the French and Dutch at Cossimbuzar administered to them all the offices of humanity which their guard would permit, who, on their arrival at the capital, chose a cow-house for the place of their confinement.
It could scarcely be imagined that the Nabob, after such flagrant injuries, should suffer the remains of the colony to abide within his dominions, in expectation of reinforcements. But there always reigned so much confusion in his mind, that he rarely carried his ideas beyond the present appearance of things; and, soothed by the compliments of his courtiers into a belief that the reduction of Calcutta was the most glorious and heroic atchievement that had been performed in Indostan since the days of Tamerlane, he imagined that the English nation would never dare to appear again in arms in his country; and, having written letters full of these commendations of himself to Delhi, he neglected to pursue the fugitives and determined to avail himself of the terror of his arms against his rival and relation, the Phousdar of Purneah.
To perpetuate the memory of his victory he ordered the name of Calcutta to be changed to Alinagore, signifying The Port of God; and, leaving a garrison of 3000 men, and Monickchund to command in the place, he departed with the rest of his army on the second of July. Two or three days before his departure he published leave to such as had escaped the dungeon to return to their houses in the town, where they were supplied with provisions by Omichund, whose intercession had probably procured their return. But this indulgence was rendered of short duration by the intemperance of a Serjeant, who in a fit of drunkenness killed a Moorman. This happened on the last of June, on which the ban was published against every European who should be found in the territory. All fled immediately to the French, Dutch, and Prussian factories, from whence at different times most of them repaired to the fleet at Fulta.
As soon as the Nabob's army had crossed the river near Hughley, he sent a detachment to the French, and another to the Dutch settlement, threatening to extirpate them both, if they did not immediately pay him a large sum of money: but, after receiving many submissive assurances of their pacific dispositions, he consented to release the Dutch for the sum of 450,000 rupees, and the French for 100,000 less; which difference, it is said, he made because the French had supplied him with 200 chests of gunpowder, as he was marching to Calcutta. At the same time he released Mr. Watts and Mr. Collet, who had hitherto been led prisoners in his camp, and consigned them to the care of the Dutch governor at Chinchura, from whom he took an obligation to produce them whensoever they should be demanded. On the 11th he arrived at Muxadavad, from whence he issued orders, commanding the seizure and sequestration of all the effects and merchandizes belonging to the English, or their tenants, in all parts of his dominions. However, finding that no discoveries could be obtained concerning the treasures which he supposed to be buried in Calcutta, he, on the l6th, in Compliance with the frequent intercessions of the widow of Allaverdy, released Mr. Holwell and his two companions, signifying their deliverance in person, as he was passing by the shed of their confinement. They immediately repaired to the Dutch factory, where they were received with much hospitality, and from thence proceeded to Chinchura.
Meanwhile, the fleet remained at Fulta, where they were joined by several other vessels from the sea. The company's agents likewise from the subordinate factories at Pacca, Jugdea, and Ballasore, having on the first alarm escaped from these residencies, resorted to the fleet. For some time no provisions could be procured; but as soon as the Nabob's army left Calcutta, the country people venture to supply them.
The want of convenient shelter, as well as the dread of being surprised, obliged them all to sleep on board the vessels, which were so much crowded, that all lay promiscuously on the decks, without shelter from the rains of the season, and for some time without a change of raiment; for none had brought any store away: and these hardships, inconsiderable as they may seem, were grievous to persons, of whom the greatest part had lived many years in the gentle ease of India. But sufferings which the hardiest cannot resist ensued: for the lower part of Bengal, between the two arms of the Ganges, is the most unhealthy country in the world; and many died of a malignant fever, which infected all the vessels.
But, instead of alleviating their distresses by that spirit of mutual good-will, which is supposed to prevail amongst companions in misery, every one turned his mind to invidious discussions of the causes which had produced their misfortunes; although all seemed to expect a day when they should be restored to Calcutta. The younger men in the company's service, who had not held any part in the government, endeavoured to fix every kind of blame on their superiors, whom they wished to see removed from stations, to which they expected to succeed. At the same time, the members of the council accused one another, all concurring to lay the severest blame upon the governor; and these examples gave rise to the same spirit of malevolence amongst those who could derive no benefit from their invectives, beyond the vanity of their temporary importance.
The conduct of the military operations was void of method, subordination, discipline, and skill. All the out-posts were at too great a distance from the fort; only the three or four nearest buildings should have been occupied: all beyond them blown up, or the floors of their upper stories ruined. The walls of all the inclosures within the aim of musket-shot from the fort, should have been demolished, and the rubbish removed. A ditch and palisade should have been carried on, if time admitted no more, at least in the weakest parts, round the fort, especially along the warehouses to the south. Shells should have been thrown wherever the enemy assembled or took post, and resolute sallies should have been made in the night into their open quarters, which in such a multitude must have been many. By these means the defence might have been protracted ten days, during which, if the Nabob could not be appeased, the arrival of the ships of the season would have secured the retreat of the defenders and their families without danger. Although nothing of these operations was executed, the neglect of them was not imputed; but cowardice in general was reproached to those who first left the shore, and with little decency, by those who accompanied, or followed their flight, and all assembled at Fulta, excepting three or four, were in one or other of these predicaments.
The causes to which the resentment of the Nabob was imputed, were more vague, but cast, if possible, more blame. The paper, which was signed by Mr. Watts immediately after he was made prisoner at Cossimbuzar, was urged as a proof that the government of Bengal had been defrauded of vast sums by the abuse which the company's agents had made of the dustucks or passports for trade, which, it is said, had been commonly sold to the Indian merchants residing in the settlement, who were not entitled to that privilege: but, although this fraud was sometimes committed by the indigent and profligate, the greatest part of the English commerce was carried on by men, whose character and fortune placed them beyond the necessity or suspicion of such a meanness: so that this practice could not have been either so frequent or injurious to the revenues of Bengal, as the rapacious ministers of Surajah Dowlah might have made him believe; more especially since the Nabob Allaverdy never accused the English of such illicit practices. The other article signed by Mr. Watts, concerning the protection given to the subjects of the Nabob, was likewise insisted on; although for fifteen years before Kissendass, the government had never claimed any persons who took up their residence in Calcutta. However, these reflections carrying against no one in particular, it was boldly asserted, that the protection of Kissendass, which certainly did contribute to the Nabob's resentment, had been purchased by large bribes: but this accusation was absurd, because they must have come through his host Omichund, whom the presidency regarded as the first, though latent cause of all their calamities, and punished accordingly. It was likewise asserted, that the governor, Mr. Drake, had written an insolent letter to the Nabob, in answer to his order for demolishing the fortifications; and that he sent a message of defiance to him by the spy who brought the letter concerning Kissendass: reports, for which no evidence was produced.
There is sufficient testimony to believe that the sagacity of Allaverdy, reflecting on the fates of Nazirjing and Chundersaheb, the subsequent war in Coromandel, and the late reduction of Angria, and comparing these military exploits of the French and English with the former humility of their condition in the Mogul's dominions, should have advised his young successor, Surajah Dowlah, to watch the military measures of all the European settlements in Bengal, and to suffer no increase in their garrisons, nor addition in their fortifications, and to crush immediately whichsoever of them should manifest any symptom of defiance, or confidence in their own strength; but at the same time to give every encouragement to their commercial views, not only as an essential benefit to the province, but likewise as the best security of their dependance on his government. This admitted, the disorderly brain of Surajah Dowlah, his excessive cowardice, his tyrannical ideas, and the instigations of his minions, representing Calcutta as one of the richest cities in the world, sufficiently account for his incapacity to distinguish the necessary season of carrying the advice of his predecessor into execution, and for his inflexible perseverance in a resolution which flattered the pusillanimity and other vices of his own mind.
The English at Fulta, notwithstanding their wrangles, agreed to acknowledge the authority of the governor, and of such others as had been members of the council at Calcutta, who in the beginning of July deputed Mr. Maningham, one of the members, with a military officer, to represent their condition to the presidency of Madrass, and to solicit the expedition of an armament to their assistance. With them our narrative returns to the coast of Coromandel.
ALL was lost before the presidency of Madrass even received intelligence of the danger; for the letters, advising the surrender of Cossimbuzar, did not arrive until the 15th of July. The experience of former embroilments between the European settlements and the government of Bengal, suggested hopes that the Nabob would, as his predecessors, be appeased with a sum of money. But whether this or the worst should happen, it was deemed necessary, in either case, to send a reinforcement without delay; in the one, to render the settlement more respectable to the Nabob; in the other, to afford refuge to such as might have escaped the calamities of war.
The squadron under the command of Admiral Watson, and the Delaware, one of the company's ships lately arrived from England, chanced at this time to be in the road of Madrass: but, as it would have been highly imprudent to send away, or divide the squadron until the last extremity, a detachment of 230 men, mostly Europeans, were shipped on board the Delaware, under the command of Major Kilpatrick. They sailed on the 20th of July, and on the 5th of August arrived letters from the fugitives at Fulta, with details of the capture of Calcutta, which scarcely created more horror and resentment than consternation and perplexity.
We have said that the presidency was at this time preparing to send a detachment of 300 Europeans with deputies to Salabadjing, who had solicited this assistance to rid himself of the French army under the command of Mr. Bussy. The government of Pondicherry, as soon as they received intelligence that Mr. Bussy had taken possession of Charmaul, and that the maintenance of this post against their enemies was the only probability of a reconciliation with them, resolved to send the succours, which Mr. Bussy, foreseeing the event, had long before requested, when he separated from Salabadjing at Sanore. Accordingly, 500 Europeans and a train of field artillery were embarked on one of the French company's ships called the Favorite. The ship sailed on the 15th of July, the very day that the presidency of Madrass received the first intelligence of the distresses in Bengal; the troops were to be landed at Masulipatam, from whence they were to march to Golcondah.
Hitherto the French influence in the government of Salabadjing, had been regarded as the evil which threatened the most danger to the English concerns in India, and the removal of it had been the constant object of their attention; but it now became an immediate consideration, what respect ought to be paid to this view, compared with the necessity of reinstating the lost affairs in Bengal.
Letters from England dated in the month of August of the preceding year had informed the presidencies in India, that a war with France seemed inevitable, and that hostilities would in all probability commence very soon after the dispatch of those letters; which moreover gave intelligence that the French were preparing to send a fleet of 19 ships of war, with 3000 regular troops, from Brest to Pondicherry. On this it had been determined to make many improvements and additions to the fortifications of Madrass; but as no particular work was yet compleated, what was done had rather weakened than augmented the strength of the place.
The troops maintained by the English and French governments on the coast of Coromandel were at this time nearly equal, each consisting of about 2000 Europeans, and 10,000 Sepoys, who on both sides were separated in different garrisons and situations in an extent of 600 miles. The detachment of 500 men sent to Masulipatam had diminished the French force serving in the Carnatic, to be by this number, less than what the English had in the province, exclusive of their troops to the south of the Coleroon; nor had the French as yet any squadron in India to oppose that under the command of Mr.Watson; Watson; but it was imagined that their expected armament would give them as decisive a superiority at sea, as on shore.
On the other hand, a privation of the Bengal investments for three years would ruin the English company; and if the settlements there were not immediately recovered, the French upon the arrival of their armament would urge and assist Surajah Dowlah against any future attempts of the English to re-establish themselves in his dominions; in which case, an expedition to recover them would require a large and special armament from England; where, perhaps, the national exigencies in other parts of the world might not allow a force adequate to this service; and where, at all events, the equipment could not be made but at a much greater expence than would be incurred by employing the force at this time ready on the coast of Coromandel. At the same time the national honour required immediate reparation, and the horrors of the dungeon cried aloud for exemplary vengeance.
Nevertheless there prevailed in some of the members of the council a strong propensity, at all events, to assist Salabadjing. The partizans of this opinion insisted, "that, as a force sufficient to encounter the Nabob of Bengal with any probability of success, substracted from Madrass, would leave the English in Coromandel totally incapable of resisting the French after the arrival of their armament, it was more expedient to send the 50 gun ship of Mr. Watson's squadron, and deputies, with a power to treat with the Nabob. If the negociation should prove unsuccessful, the ship, with the force under Major Kilpatrick, were to make depredations and reprisals; and, if they could, were to retake and maintain Calcutta. By this expedient, Coromandel, it was said, would be preserved, Salabadjing might be properly supported against Mr. Bussy, and Mr. Watson avoiding the encounter of the French squadron until his own should be reinforced from England, might then meet them on equal terms." These arguments would have appeared specious any where but in India. They were opposed by one of the members of the council, who, having resided nine years in the company's service at Calcutta, knew the strength and insolence of the Moorish government in Bengal, believed that nothing but vigorous hostilities would induce the Nabob to make peace or reparation, and considered the force proposed as unequal even to the retaking of Calcutta: he therefore insisted "that it ought to be sufficient to attack the Nabob even in his capital of Muxadavad; at least, a battalion of 800 Europeans, with as many Sepoys as could be transported, not less than 1500: that as the squadron, if divided, would be of little service any where, the whole should proceed to Bengal; that such an armament would soon decide the contest; that after peace was made, the squadron, with a large part of the troops, might return to the coast, and arrive in the month of April; before which time, the nature of the Monsoons rendered it improbable that the French armament, since it had not yet appeared, would be able to make their passage to the coast. In the mean time the detachment sent to the relief of Mr. Bussy had deprived the government of Pondicherry of the means of making any attempts, in the Carnatic, which the force of Madrass could not easily frustrate." This opinion, after many and repeated objections, became at last the unanimous sense, of the council.
This resolution was communicated to Admiral Watson, who after consulting his council of war, consented to it. Some difficulties arose about the disposition of the captures which might be made by the squadron: but this was soon adjusted by an agreement, that whatsoever property should be taken which had belonged either to the company, or to English individuals, or even to natives, who were tenants of the company when the Nabob commenced hostilities, should be restored without diminution to the proprietors; but that whatsoever should be taken which had never belonged either to the company, or to such as were under their protection, should become without participation or reserve the property of the squadron.
But other points of equal moment to the success of the expedition still remained to be decided: and, indeed, by having been mingled without distinction with the more general questions, they had helped not a little to perplex and protract the deliberations of the council. These points were: Who should command the land forces? What should be the extent of his authority in military operations, and in negotiations with the Nabob? In what dependance or relation he ought to stand to the late governor and council of Calcutta? How far their authority as a presidency ought to be maintained or impaired?
Each of the remaining council of Bengal had written separate letters to the presidency of Madrass, in which such misdemeanours and misconduct were reciprocally imputed to all the others, that if no allowance had been made for the prejudices of exasperated adversity, it would have been absurd to intrust the re-establishment of the company's affairs to those, who, by their own accounts, had ruined them; and, indeed, enough of the causes and progress of the calamities in Bengal were not at this time sufficiently developed, to exempt the late presidency of Calcutta from much blame. The difficulty of deciding concerning their authority suggested to Mr.Pigot, the commander of Madrass, a desire to go himself to Bengal as commander of the army, and with full powers, as the company's representative in all other affairs: but he wanted military experience, nor had the council authority to give so extensive a commission to any individual. Colonel Adlercron then claimed the military command, offering to go with his whole regiment; but he wanted experience in the irregular warfare of India, and his powers were independent of the company's agents. The climate of Bengal was so adverse to an asthmatic disorder, with which Colonel Lawrence was afflicted, that it was thought he would be disabled, from that incessant activity requisite to the success of this expedition, of which the termination was limited to a certain time. Colonel Clive was therefore chosen to command the troops. To assure the exertion of the most vigorous hostilities until peace was made, and then the return of the troops in April, it was resolved to invest him with independent power in all military matters and operations; and in consequence to furnish him with money, and empower him to draw bills. It was, however, resolved to acknowledge Mr. Drake and the former members of the council, as a presidency, with full powers in commercial and civil affairs, and to remit them likewise a large sum of money. Mr. Manningham who had been sent from Fulta as their representative, objected strongly to the powers given to Clive, as derogating from the authority of that presidency, and contrary to the institutions of the company. Two months passed in debates, before these final resolutions were taken, and then the embarkation began. The sloop of war belonging to the squadron had bean dispatched, somp time before, to inform the English at Fulta of the intended armament, and to exhort them not to quit the river in despair of assistance.
The squadron consisted of the Kent of 64, Cumberland of 70, Tyger of 60, Salisbury of 50, Bridgwater of 20 guns, and a fireship; to which were added, as transports, three of the company's ships, and two smaller vessels. On board of this fleet were embarked 900 Europeans and 1500 Sepoys; 250 of the Europeans were of Adlereron's regiment; the rest, the best men of the company's troops. It was resolved to send more Sepoys as conveyances should offer. Admiral Watson hoisted his flag in the Kent; and Admiral Pocock in the Cumberland. Colonel Clive embarked in the Kent; he carried letters written by Salabadjing the Soubah of the Decan, and Mahomedally Nabob of Arcot, as well as from Mr. Pigot, exhorting Surajah Dowlah to make immediate reparation for the injuries and calamities which the English had suffered from his unprovoked resentment. The instructions to Clive recommended the attack of Muxadavad itself, if the Nabob continued obstinate; and the capture of the French settlement at Chandernagore, if the news of a war with France should arrive whilst the troops remained in Bengal. The fleet set sail on the 16th of October, and were out of sight the next day.
This effort to recover the settlements in Bengal left the forces of Madrass too much diminished to detach to such a distance as Golcondah a body of troops sufficient to assist Salabadjing effectually against the French army with Mr. Bussy; and as a few would be of no service, and might be lost, it was resolved to send none. In the mean time the French army were maintaining their ground in Charmaul On the same evening that they took possession of this post, detachments were stationed in two others; the one was a large habitation called Gauchmaul, standing in a spacious and walled enclosure, almost opposite to Charmaul, about 400 yards on the other side of the river Moussi; in this post were lodged 300 Sepoys. The other was an edifice called Daudmul, built on a rising ground very near the western side of Charmaul, which it overlooked. It was an ancient and very singular structure, consisting of two stories of arched masonry, each story disposed in several ranges of arches, and the upper covered by a terrass strong enough to endure the service of cannon. Four twelve-pounders were mounted on this terrass, and the adjoining streets and avenues were barricaded: the guard here besides the artillery men, was 500 Sepoys, with several European officers of experience.
On the 6th of July, the day after the army entered Charmaul, 1000 Sepoys, with all the European cavalry and six field pieces, went out in the evening with intention to beat up the Morratoes in their camp, which continued in its first situation, about seven miles to the west; but they had taken the alarm, and abandoned the camp before the detachment arrived. The next night another detachment with more success beat up one of their parties in a garden on the eastern side of the town. The French troops now took possession of all the magazines in the city which belonged to the government, and likewise carried away all the cannon which were mounted on the walls, not that they wanted artillery, but in order to withdraw them from the enemy. The interval between the ranges of building and the tank in Charmaul was planted with rows of palmira and cocoa-nut trees; which were now cut down; and with them and other materials, scaffolds were erected against various parts of the walls, to serve as stations for musketry.
On the 8th, another detachment with six field-pieces marched out in open day, and cannonaded the whole body of Morratoes, which hovered around for some time, until some of their horses were killed. In the evening, the Morratoes quitted their former ground, and encamped camped within three miles of the city under the rock and fortress of Golcondah, probably with an idea of protection from the guns of the fortress; but Candagla, one of their generals, who commanded 2000 horse, encamped with them at the bank of the river about half way between Golcondah and the city, where they were the next night beaten up by a detachment of 500 Sepoys with the hussars. They fled, leaving many of their horses picqueted in the camp, and even the military drums and cymbals of their commander: but the French detachment did not lose a man.
The rainy weather prevented any more sallies for several days; mean while the numbers of the enemy increased greatly. The Phousdars, or, as they are commonly called, the Nabobs of Kanoul and Condanore, came each with 3000 Pitans well mounted: other chiefs of the same rank, and others of inferior, as well Mahomedan as Indian, brought their troops: for every tributary and dependant in the vast viceroyalty of the Decan had been summoned. But several of these chiefs, especially Kanoul, privately assured Mr. Bussy they did not intend to act effectually against him.
On the 10th arrived Jaffier Ally Khan, much exasperated at the death of his nephew, with 3000 horse, 3000 foot, and the first division of artillery, consisting of 20 pieces of cannon. The main body of the army with which Salabadjing and Shanavaze Khan remained, moving only four miles a day, was still at a considerable distance. Jaffier Ally immediately held a council of war, in which it was resolved to straiten the blockade of Charmaul, and to begin by taking possession of the most advantageous posts in the city itself.
Mr. Bussy received immediate intelligence of this council; he had hitherto refrained from distressing the inhabitants; but now, in order to deter the enemy from establishing themselves in the city, he posted a detachment at an edifice standing in the high street, and called Charminarets, or the four towers; it was a square piazza of arches, having at each end a tower 60 feet high, with balconies at the top, from which the Mahomedan priest calls the people to prayers; some mischief might be done with musketry from these balconies, and the loop-holes, which gave light to the winding stairs; but there were no means of employing artillery in the tops, for they were vaulted; nor within, for there were neither floors or landing-places; nevertheless several small pieces of cannon were pointed out of the loop-holes, from a conviction that the enemy would not immediately discern their inutility. Mr. Bussy then informed Jaffier Ally, that if any of his troops entered the city, he would destroy the whole with fire; and this menace stopped his intention; he however stationed an advanced detachment where Candagla had encamped, which was beaten up and dispersed the next night by a party of 50 Europeans and 500 Sepoys. The rains, immediately after, falling again heavier, and lasting longer than before, hindered all enterprizes in the field for a fortnight.
Some months before Mr. Bussy had commissioned the French agents at Surat to levy a body either of Abyssinians or Arabs, whom, as being of more courage and endurance, he intended to discipline as the choicest of his Sepoys. Six hundred had been collected, and were on their march, when Mr. Bussy arrived at Hydrabad, and the enemy hearing of their approach detached Janogee Nimbulear with his 3000 Morratoes to intercept them. The Morratoes met them on the road some miles on this side of Aurungabad, and harrassed them continually for three days; during which they killed fifty one hundred and fifty dispersed, and the remaining four hundred, worn out with fatigue, surrendered; Janogee returned with his prisoners to the camp, and confined them in the fortress of Golcondah, but treated them well.
The weather having cleared on the 26th, a detachment with three field-pieces marched in the evening, and at midnight attacked that part of the enemy's camp where they kept their artillery; the multitude of bullocks in this quarter, scared by the firing, encreased the confusion of the troops: the fort of Golcondah took the alarm and fired all its cannon at random; but two of the French field-pieces breaking down, stopped the detachment from pursuing their success, and they returned, having spiked up only three of the guns in the enemy's camp.
The next day came up 4000 Sepoys under the command of Murzafa Khan. This man commanded the Sepoys of the detachment with which Mr. Bussy first marched into the Decan in 1751. The next year he left Mr. Bussy when at Beder, and, raising a body of Sepoys on his own account, took service with Balagerow, whom he left when before Seringapatam in 1755, and went over to the Mysoreans; from thence he went to the Nabob of Sanore, and was in this place when invested in the beginning of the present year by Salabadjing and Balagerow. Having during his command of the French Sepoys gained the attachment of most of their, officers by largesses and other compliances, he had ever since continued a correspondence amongst them, whenever they were in the field, in conjunction with, or near, the armies in which he was serving, as Mr. Bussy had experienced in the campaigns of Mysore and Sanore. This quality, and the military experience which he was supposed to have acquired whilst in the French service, induced Shanavaze Khan to hire him, as soon as it was known that Mr. Bussy had determined to make a stand at Hydrabad. Murzafabeg, as soon as engaged, made forced marches before the main body, and sent his emissaries forward: and on the very day of his arrival at Hydrabad, a whole company of French Sepoys, who went out into the plain under pretence of exercising, marched away, their firelocks shouldered, and joined him at Golcondah.
The next day the whole army moved from hence with twenty pieces of cannon under his direction, and at noon appeared to the westward within a mile of Charmaul. The infantry and artillery took possession of all the eminences; and the cavalry drew up in the intervals, where the ground was plain. Immediately 250 of the French Battalion and 1000 Sepoys, with six field-pieces, marched out to try, them, whilst the rest remained in their posts ready to act as occasion should require; and two pieces of cannon were mounted on the tower in the N. w. angle of Charmaul, which commanded a view of the field. The detachment despised the enemy so much, that they ventured to separate into three divisions, and each with two of the field-pieces advanced against different bodies of infantry, at a considerable distance from each other. The cavalry every where flung themselves between, and continually surrounded the three divisions, whose destruction to a stranger would have seemed inevitable; and indeed nothing but the firm reliance on the general discipline could have warranted the hazard, or have surmounted the danger; but with this advantage and the dexterity of the field-pieces, each division either sufficed to its own defence, or, when pressed, received assistance from one of the others. In the different evolutions the enemy's cavalry were often within reach of the two guns at Charmaul, of which even the random shot did execution, whilst the enemy's cannon were fired, although continually, with very little effect. Their infantry did nothing but shift from safe ground to safer, and fire with fear. In this variety of fights the engagement lasted five hours, and did not cease until the sun was set; the French troops fired 35,000 musket cartridges, and 900 from their field-pieces; 125 of the enemy's horses were counted dead on the plain; by which the total of their loss must have been considerable. That of the French was slight; six Sepoys killed, and thirty wounded: of the Europeans none killed, and only four wounded.
Two days after, on the 1st of August, came up Salabadjing himself, and the main body of the army. A council was immediately held, in which Murzafar Khan proposed a general assault on Charmaul. This deliberation was in a few hours communicated to Mr. Bussy, who immediately demolished several of the adjacent houses; but the attack was not made. The intrigues of Murzafar Khan had already pervaded the whole body of Sepoys, and the greatest part of them had promised him to desert with their arms, the first time they should be led into the field: their correspondence was discovered; and determined Mr. Bussy to make no more sallies.
By this time reinforcements were approaching. Mr. Moracin, the French chief of Masulipatam, on the first advices of the rupture at Sanore, had collected 160 Europeans and 700 Sepoys, which, with five field-pieces, marched in the middle of July, under the command of Mr. Law, the same officer who capitulated at Seringham in 1752; but when arrived at Bezoara, about 40 miles inland, excessive rains detained them here several days. In the interval the Favorite arrived at Masulipatam with the troops from Pondicherry, of which, all in condition, marched immediately; but were so much retarded by the rains, and the inundations of the Kristna, that they did not arrive at Bezoara until the 3d of August, when the whole, now 480 Europeans, 1100 Sepoys, and 11 field-pieces, proceeded, and arrived on the 10th within fifteen leagues of Hydrabad.
The ministry of Salabadjing determined to intercept this reinforcement: all the Morratoes, 12000, other smaller bodies amounting to 4000, in all 16000 cavalry, with infantry of various denominations and commands, to the number of 10000 were ordered on this service. Mr. Bussy, as usual, received information what troops were appointed; he was personally acquainted with all the commanders, had been of use to several of them, and had lately received some marks of good-will from Janogi and Ramchundur, who commanded 6000 of the Morattoes. He therefore proposed a conference, which was accepted by several of these chiefs, who repaired in the night to a tent pitched on the other side of the river near Gauchmaul, where he met them unattended and alone. Wanting positive knowledge of what passed in this interview, we conjecture that he wrought upon them by promises of greater advantages, if he should be restored to his former influence in the government of Salabadjing, than they could expect either from the gratitude of Shanavaze Khan, or the friendship of the English, who, it was believed, were to take the place of the French, in the army and councils of the Decan. They promised not to act against the reinforcement with any efficacy, and only as much as might be necessary to save appearances, confirmed these assurances by their oaths, and gave Mr. Bussy the distinctions and colours of their respective banners, of which he immediately despatched information to Mr. Law, as ensigns from which he would have nothing to fear.
The reinforcement continued their march on the 11th, and had now to pass a tract of mountainous country covered with rocks and thick woods, which they entered, marching in a file of four abreast. The advanced guard were 400 Sepoys, under the command of an officer named Mahmood Khan. After marching five hours, in which they had only advanced nine miles, some parties of the enemy were descried forward in the road; on which Mahmood Khan, as if impatient to attack them, quickened the pace of the Sepoys. The captain of the grenadiers, whose company followed next in the line, sent orders to him to halt, which he disregarded; and as soon as the Sepoys were out of sight, some irregular firing was heard: soon after came a messenger, requesting the grenadiers would advance to their assistance, who he said were surrounded by the enemy; but the captain having suspicions, sent forward scouts, who discovered the banners of the Sepoys mixing quietly with those of the enemy. This treachery was effected by the intrigues of Murzafar Khan, who was here in person, and immediately began to attack the French line with these very Sepoys, and the whole of the infantry of Salabadjing's army sent on this service, which was committed to his direction. Besides the usual and lighter arms a part of the infantry wielded 2000 caytocks, a fire-arm frequently made use of in Europe in the early times of gun-powder, and then called a wallpiece; but at present rarely used, excepting in Indostan and the easternmost parts of Asia: it is a gun eight or ten feet in the barrel, carrying a ball of one, two, or three ounces; and under the middle of the barrel is fixed by a swivel, either one iron spike, or two, which open crossways, and being stuck in the ground support the piece, and assure its aim: it carries far point blank, but the larger siezes are so unwieldy, that two men are required to move and manage them, and they can scarcely be fired quicker than a piece of cannon. Parties were continually detached to dislodge these caytocks, and whatsoever other troops were annoying the line from the rocks and thickets on either hand. At noon the line came to open ground, where they halted; and the fall of a heavy shower of rain damaged the enemy's powder, and put an end to their attacks. They retired to a hill half a league distant, and took possession of a village at the foot of it, called Gorampally, which the French troops marched before day-break to attack, and found all the enemy's cavalry in the field, by whom they were soon surrounded. Ramchunder and Janogee, according to their promises, acted only in shew, which Mr. Law admired, and could not account for, not having yet received the information concerning them from Mr. Bussy; but Candagla, who had rejected his proffers, acted more efficaciously, attacking the baggage in the rear, and dispersed the whole train of oxen on which it was laden. The troops in the village made little resistance, and the reinforcement rested there during the remainder of the day. Hitherto only one European and three or four Sepoys had been killed, and twelve of both wounded, but by the flight of the Coolies and the scaring of the oxen all their provisions were lost, and the troops were obliged for their meal to kill some of the draught-bullocks of the artillery.
At noon Mr. Law received the letter from Mr. Bussy, with information of such of the enemy's banners as did not intend to act vigorously, and at seven in the evening renewed his march. The next stage was Meliapore, 15 miles from Gorampally, and the whole way through difficult defiles. The enemy with unusual alertness, although it was night, sent forward all their infantry to line the thickets; and Mr. Law, as the use of the field-pieces greatly retarded the march, only opposed the enemy with platoons, which were detached to wheresoever the fire came from. At seven in the morning the line arrived at Meliapore, and took post in a ruined mud fort near the town. Only two men had been killed, and three wounded; but all were exhausted with fatigue, and every carriage wanted repair; and the next march was more difficult than any of the former. It was therefore resolved to remain at Meliapore until the men were entirely recovered; but this repose led them into reflections, always dangerous when troops are in dangerous circumstances: and very soon the whole body were persuaded that they had done all that was possible, and that it now behoved the army of Charmaul to act likewise, and march to their relief. The officers, instead of repressing, caught the despondency, and prevailed on Mr.Law to dispatch a letter to Mr. Bussy, expressing their doubts and anxiety concerning the farther progress of the reinforcement.
In the mean time the news of Mahmood Cawn's defection had been spread with exaggeration through the main camp at Golcondah, and encouraged the ministry to send more troops against the reinforcement. Mr. Bussy, to repress this intention, sent in the night of the 12th a strong party, consisting entirely of Europeans, to beat up the advanced guards of the camp, and the attack was made with much success; but on the same night he received the letter from Mr. Law, which encreased his perplexity; because he could not trust his Sepoys in the field where their seducer Murzafacawn acted, nor could he without equal imprudence send a number of Europeans sufficient to make their way to Meliapore. Judging, however, from his own experience in various conjunctures, he deemed the reinforcement strong enough to accomplish the remaining, as they had the preceding part of the march, provided the officers led them with intrepidity; and in this conviction he wrote to Mr. Law, commanding him, in the name of the King, to march immediately, and at all events, on the receipt of the letter. Not doubting, likewise, that the ministry of Salabadjing, if they should hear of the despondency of the reinforcement, would make an utmost effort in this time of decision, unless deterred by the strongest apprehensions, he the next day pitched his own tent, which was very conspicuous, and encamped with 150 Europeans and 300 Sepoys, on the strand above the bridge on the other side of the river Moussi. The numbers were studiously magnified, and, with the presence of Mr. Bussy in the field, inspired such a variety of apprehensions concerning his designs in the camp at Golcondah, that they even recalled the detachments they had sent the day before.
The peremptory order from Mr. Bussy at Meliapore arrived in the morning of the 14th, and Mr. Law immediately issued orders to march. The reinforcement, although they had remained four days and three nights at Meliapore, had not got the rest they wanted; for the fort was in several parts open, and the enemy had harrassed them continually with skirmishes, even by night as well as day. At nine at night they began their march, the preparations for which had been perceived, and gave the enemy time to make their own. The road for the first four miles winded through defiles in the rugged rock, over which carriages could not pass without attention to every turn of the wheel. The enemy in several places felled the wood across the road, and all their infantry were in possession of the most advantageous stations before the French troops entered the defiles; and their fire, especially from the caytocks, was much better directed than against the former marches. Men began to fall in the first discharges; no general rules of action could be observed; to get onward was the only principle; it was now become fortunate for the French line that they had no baggage, and nothing to defend but themselves and their artillery; which, although a great encumbrance in the defiles, was to be their best resource when out of them. A large body of the enemy's cavalry, led by Candagla the Morattoe, followed the line into the defile, and through the night endeavoured to retard the march by their din and clamours, but as soon as it was light, acted with more efficacy: for, as many as the road permitted charged the rear, although the guard consisted entirely of Europeans, and had two field-pieces: it was commanded by D'Arambure, an officer of proved gallantry, and next in rank to Mr. Law. Still repulsed, the cavalry still renewed their onsets. Europeans were cut down, and Morattoes shot at the very muzzles of the guns. At sun-rise the van of the line came to the issue of the defile, against which the enemy had planted all their cannon, 20 pieces; behind which appeared all the cavalry which had not followed in the rear; but they seemed to rely on the artillery more than on themselves, which was so ill-served, that it neither interrupted the troops in issuing out of the defile, nor afterwards from forming in the opening; when the field-pieces, as they came out were turned to scour the thickets behind, and soon drove away what parties of the enemy were still molesting the remaining part of the line. Whilst the troops were forming, the enemy's cavalry and cannon in the front hastened onward, to pass a small river called Cingoram, about a mile from the thickets, and drew up on the other side. The cavalry, with Candagla, followed the French troops as they marched towards the river, the approach to which on both sides was a descent. All the field-pieces were ordered to remain on the hither bank, until the rest of the troops had passed; and this service was likewise committed to D'Arambure, who judiciously divided their fire against the enemy on the other side, and those in his rear, which kept both at a distance, until the whole of rank and file had crossed and formed, and were able to defend themselves against the enemy on that side; when the cannon were sent over one by one, during which the remaining continued to awe the enemy on the side they stood, against whom every piece, as soon as it landed on the other side, was likewise pointed; and parties of the battalion likewise waded into the stream ready to rescue the last pieces. But the cavalry had already suffered too much at a distance, to venture this nearer risque, and all the loss which the French line sustained, after leaving the thickets until they had passed the river, was by the caytocks and other fire-arms of the enemy, sheltered whenever they found safe cover. The country forward from the river, although not plain, was open, and the French troops were animated with new alacrity by the view of the spires of Hyderabad, which now appeared in sight. The whole of the enemy's cavalry moved on as they, and surrounded them on all sides, but made no effectual attacks; for those who were willing, were dispirited by the backwardness of the great body of Morattoes commanded by Rumchundar and Janogee Nimbulcar, who acted faintly according to their engagements with Mr. Bussy. At length, at five in the afternoon, the reinforcement arrived at the town of Aydnagur, situated six miles from the river Cingoram, and the same distance from Hyderabad. They had been 18 hours without respite in march and action; during which 25 Europeans, of whom two were officers, were killed, and 65 wounded. The Sepoys suffered more. The enemy, it was said, lost 800 horses and more than 2000 men: the French fired 40,000 musket-cartridges, besides their field-pieces. At Aydnagur they found some scanty provisions, of which they were in much need: at nine in the evening, Mr. Bussy received intelligence of their arrival, and immediately detached 140 Europeans and 1000 Sepoys, with carriages, to bring the sick and wounded, and 20 mules, laden with provisions ready dressed. He at the same time detached another party, to give alarm to the camp at Golcondah, in order to prevent them from sending any troops to interrupt the march of those proceeding to Aydnagur, who arrived there at four in the morning without molestation. At six all were in march again from Aydnagur, and at ten arrived at the city of Hyderabad, having met with no interruption, nor even seen any of the enemy in the way; for they had all been recalled during the night to the camp at Golcondah. Mr. Bussy received the reinforcement with the acknowledgments due to their perseverence and valour; and they were scarcely arrived, before he received a messenger sent on a dromedary by Salabadjing with proposals of peace, and assurances that he had ordered all hostilities to cease. Mr. Bussy answered, that he was not averse to a reconciliation, but that his reinforcement was arrived, and he feared nothing the Soubah's army could do.
The negotiation nevertheless continued. Mr. Bussy demanded that Murzafar Khan and the late deserter Mahmood Khan should be delivered up to him. Salabadjing replied, that as a prince he could not, without losing the confidence of the whole world, surrender any persons whom he had received into his service and pay, but that he should not impede any means that might be employed to make them prisoners. The conjuncture did not admit of any stipulation for the removal of the minister Shanavaze Khan. Jaffier Ally Khan, the old Nabob of Rajahmundrum, came and made his submissions to Mr. Bussy, blaming himself much for having taken part with men, whose views and understandings, he said, he had now every reason to despise. Janogee Nimbulcar delivered the Arabs and Abyssins he had confined in the fortress of Golcondah, but kept their arms. Every thing being settled, Mahomed Hussein, the king's Duan, accompanied by the principal lords of the court, visited Mr. Bussy in his tent on the 20th, and the same day Mr. Bussy proceeded, with an escort of 300 Europeans and 1000 Sepoys, to pay his respects to Salabadjing, who received him with the distinctions of an officer in the Mogul government, second only to himself. The interview was courteous, and the protestations solemn. No hints were given of the late disagreements, and future measures were concerted with much seeming confidence. New patents were immediately prepared, and letters dispatched through all the governments of the Decan, to destroy the impressions which had been made by those written during the rupture.
Thus ended this distress; the greatest in which Mr. Bussy had been involved since his command in the Decan. Nor would his perseverance and resolution alone have sufficed, without the sagacity of his character, and the influence of his reputation.
Besides the provisions which were laid in store, the army at Charmaul was constantly supplied with cattle for the shambles, and forage for the horses, oxen, camels, and elephants, by bands of a people called Lamballis, peculiar to the Decan, who are continually moving up and down the country with their flocks, and contract to furnish the armies in the field. The union amongst all these bands renders each respectable even to the enemy of the army they are supplying; but they are not permitted to deal with places besieged; nevertheless Mr. Bussy surmounted this objection by bribing the Morattoes, who, for the sake of marauding, undertook the patroles of Salabadjing's army, to let the Lamballis pass in the night, and it was especially concerted, that the convoys should come in on the nights when the French troops made sallies on the enemy's quarters.
But money was equally necessary, and the want of it had well nigh reduced him to quit Charmaul; for he had exhausted the public, his own, and all he could borrow on his own credit, and had no means of raising more, excepting by giving rescripts on the revenues of the four ceded provinces; but most of the renters and Polygars of those countries were, in the present conjuncture, encouraged to withhold them by the letters which they received from the ministry of Salabadjing, and still more by the practices of Ibrahim Cawn, the governor of Chioacole, who, although raised by Mr.Bussy to this post, from the command of a company of Sepoys, disavowed the French authority, and declared himself only subject to Salabadjing, as soon as he heard that the French army had stopped at Hyderabad; on the news of which, the bankers, who had hitherto supplied Mr. Bussy, agreed that it was not safe to advance money on these rescripts, nor on any other security which he might offer: but Vizeramrauze, the Rajah of Vizianagur in Chicacole, judging with more sagacity than Ibrahim Ally, ordered his agents at Golcondah to assure Mr. Bussy of his fidelity and the regular payment of his tributes; and one night, when little expected, and most wanted, a man came to Charmaul, and, being permitted to speak in private with Mr. Bussy, delivered with the message of Vizeramrauze a sum of gold, as much as he could carry concealed under his garments. It was sufficient for the present want, and the same man afterwards furnished more as necessary.
On the day of the reconciliation, Murzafer Khan and the deserter Mahmood Khan moved, and encamping with their Sepoys in a strong situation at some distance from Golcondah, where they relied on the assurances of protection which they had received from the wife of Salabadjing, who held the first rank in his seraglio. Mr.Bussy nevertheless sent out parties on several nights to surprise them, and Mahmood Khan was taken; but from consideration of his former services, and the good-will borne to him by the French Sepoys in general, his life was spared. Murzafer Khan maintained his ground some weeks longer, until his Sepoys began to mutiny for want of pay, when some of them proffered Mr. Bussy to deliver him up, who sent a party to receive him; but a little while before the party arrived, he escaped with a few attendants, and went to Poni, where he entered again into the service of Balagerow, by whom he was some time after put to death for a conspiracy.
No other military operations happened during the rest of the year at Golcondah. Shanavaze Khan continued to manage the affairs of the government as duan; and Mr. Bussy interfered little in his purposes, having taken the resolution to proceed, with the greatest part of the troops under his immediate command, to repress the insurrections, and regulate the government, in the ceded provinces. On the 16th of November, he began his march, with 500 Europeans and 4000 Sepoys, leaving 100 Europeans and 1000 Sepoys with Salabadjing at Golcondah, who towards the end of the year prepared to proceed to Aurengabad.
The armament to Bengal had not only deprived the presidency of Madrass of the means of distressing the French affairs in the Decan, but left them without the power of making any military efforts in the province of Arcot. No pressing occasions had required the service of their forces in the field in this part of the dominions of their ally, the Nabob Mohamed Ally; but the confusions which had induced the presidency to send Mohamed Issoof into the MADURA and TINIVELLY countries had not subsided, when his mission itself produced new disturbances.
This officer with Maphuze Khan, and their respective troops, remained at Chevelpetore during the months of June and July, and all the adjoining Polygars had either made their submissions, or seemed willing to be quiet. He then requested Maphuze Khan to march out of the country, and proceed with his troops to Arcot, according to the injunctions of his brother the Nabob, who would be ready to settle accounts with him, and pay what arrears might be due to his soldiery. Maphuze Khan acquiesced without objection, and Mahomed Issoof sent with his camp the 18 pounder he had brought from Tritchinopoly, that it might be deposited in Madura, because it encumbered his march up and down the country; and a company of Sepoys went to take care of the 18 pounder on the road. He then allotted six companies to garrison Chevelpetore, and guard the adjacent country; and with the rest, about 2000, in which were included those levied by the Nabob, and sent to Maphuze Khan, he proceeded from Chevelpetore on the 1st of August, and on the 10th arrived at the town of Tinivelly.
By this time the presidency of Madrass had made arrangements for the management of these countries, and concluded an agreement with Moodilee the native of Tinivelly, who came to Madrass on this purpose in the month of April, The southern and more fertile districts, which in former times belonged to the kingdom of Madura, had by various alterations and appropriations been annexed to the government, and intermingled with the rent-rolls, of Tinivelly and the greater Moravar, during the confusions which prevailed since the year 1750, had made encroachments on the west; so that what remained at this time under the ancient denomination of Madura, and under the immediate jurisdiction of the city, did not extend in any direction above 40 miles, and, in most, much less: which, being commanded on the west and north by mountains and Polygars, and bounded on the east by the woods of Moravar, was in every part exposed to depredations from the wild inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The land of the territory is likewise in many parts incumbered with plots of rock, and, where free, the soil, except in a few districts to the south, is of laborious and expensive cultivation. From these detriments and defects, the annual revenue of the whole territory seldom exceeds 120,000 rupees; at the same time that the maintenance of the city, its garrison, and other military posts in the country, raise the expenses to triple this sum. On the other hand, the country now rated under Tinivelly is of much greater Extent and fertility, commonly yielding a revenue from 11 to 1,200,000 rupees a year; but should Madura and its districts be in the hands of an enemy, the country of Tinivelly would be constantly exposed to the most ruinous attacks, and could receive no support from Tritchinopoly; which renders it necessary to maintain the one at a certain loss, as the only means of securing the advantages which may be derived from the other. The family of Moodilee, having for 100 years been employed in farming districts in both countries, had, in this long course of time, rented every part, and knew the properties of each. He accordingly refused to undertake the districts of Madura, but offered to rent the country of Tinivelly for three years, at the annual rent of 1,100,000 rupees, clear of all expenses, to be paid at three periods in each year: for which purpose he was to be invested with the usual authorities of jurisdictions, civil and criminal: he obliged himself to maintain not less than 1000 of the company's Sepoys, under the command of such officers as the presidency should appoint; and engaged to produce, within three months from the contract, the security of substantial shroffs, or money-changers, for the regular payment of the stipulated sums. The agreement was concluded in the beginning of July; immediately on which Moodilee appointed agents, and sent orders to place flags with the company's colours, in the cultivated lands; and soon after proceeded himself to administer his office in person.
Mahomed Issoof, on his arrival at Tinivelly, found that the agents of Moodilee had, in the beginning of their occupations, been overruled and insulted by Meir Jaffier, who had hitherto managed the country for Maphuze Cawn. The dispute indeed had ceased, but the grudge still remained: and to prevent any farther effects, Mahomed Issoof ordered Meir Jaffier to depart immediately to Madura, but permitted him to take three field-pieces which belonged to him, and whatsoever retinue he chose: he at the same time detached five companies of Sepoys to reinforce the garrison of Madura, and ordered them to protect and watch Meir Jaffier and his people on the road. They had not proceeded two days, when unexpected intelligence stopped their march.
On the arrival of Maphuze Cawn from Chevelpetore, all the cavalry in his service were assembled in the city of Madura; their number was 2000, all of good quality, for he had disbanded the less effectual. The day after his arrival, the Jemautdars in a body surrounded his house, and declared that he should not move out of it, until their arrears were paid, which, by their own account, amounted to 700,000 rupees. They were headed by the governor Danishmend Cawn, who from this time was better known in the country by the name of Berkatoolah, although not the same officer who defended Trinomalee in 1753. The company's Sepoys in the garrison wondered at these proceedings, discoursed of them, and suspected that the tumult was concerted, as a pretence to keep possession of the city; for Maphuze Cawn might have been stopped any where else, as well as at Madura: their opinions being known, and their fidelity unshaken, the Jemautdars of the cavalry seized the commanders of the three companies, and having confined them, disarmed the common men, and turned them out of the town; but the next day released the officers, on recollection that no advantage could be derived from their detention, and that they might, by continuing in the city, learn what it was not wished they should know. As soon as they were gone, the brother of Myana came into the city from the woods of Nattam with 2000 Colleries, a considerable stock of provisions, and some money; in return for which service, the Jemautdars gave him the town of Tirambore and the pagoda of Coilguddy, in which they had some troops. The suddenness and facility with which these operations passed, sufficiently shewed that measures had been previously concerted for the success of the rebellion. The possession of Madura, the principal object of the conspiracy, being secured, it was not thought necessary to dissemble any longer. Invitations were sent to every Polygar in the country to join. A man mounted on an elephant was received in ceremony at Madura, bringing a patent as from the Nabob, appointing Maphuze Cawn to the government: and parties sent into the neighbouring districts, pulled and tore down with derision the Company's flags, which had been planted by the orders of Moodilee, according to the custom of the country, on the lands appropriated to cultivation.
The Sepoys which had been turned out of Madura, sent messengers with an account of what had happened to Mahomed Issoof, who had not entertained a surmise, when he received intelligence, of the revolt. He instantly dispatched orders to the detachment marching to Madura, to halt, which they had already done; and to seize Meir Jaffier and his effects. He appointed Jemaul Saheb to remain with 1000 Sepoys at Tinivelly, and proceeding himself with the rest, about 700, joined on the road the detachment he had sent forward, which the Sepoys coming from Madura had joined before. On the 10th of August he encamped at Secunder-maly, a strong post three miles to the south of Madura: his whole force consisted of 1500 Sepoys and six field-pieces; but, not having a piece of battering cannon since he had deprived himself of the 18 pounder, he wisely judged that it would be destruction to no purpose to have attempted an escalade against such superior numbers as were in the city; for even the Colleries fight well behind walls. The day after his arrival some cavalry advanced near his post, but were driven back by a few discharges from the field-pieces, with the loss of two men. Skirmishes of this kind passed every day after, and on some without any loss on either side. On the 13th of September the renter Moodilee arrived in the camp with two companies of Sepoys, which had escorted him from Tritchinopoly through the countries of the two Moravars, and the next day he continued his journey towards Tinivelly.
The Pulitaver, Catabominaigue, and the other Polygars of Tinivelly, took time to consider how they should act in consequence of the revolution at Madura, and the Jemautdars there, not finding them so ready to join as they had expected, began to think of preserving some openings to a reconciliation with the presidency. Accordingly they wrote letters apologizing for the revolt, and ascribed it intirely to their necessities for want of pay: and lowered their demands to 400,000 rupees. All the force which could be spared from the immediate 'service of the Carnatic being at this time required for the recovery of the Company's settlements in Bengal, the presidency empowered Captain Calliaud at Tritchinopoly either to treat with the Jemautdars, or to employ such other means as he should judge expedient to recover Madura. On this authority Captain Calliaud sent his interpreter from Tritchinopoly to Maphuze Cawn, who, in the very first conference, unable to keep his temper, avowed that he thought himself very ill used by the appointment of another renter, and that he would never give up Madura until the Tinivelly countries were granted to him upon the same terms as they had been let to Moodilee. The interpreter seeing no likelihood of accommodation with him, tried with the Jemautdars, offering to pay 50,000 rupees immediately, although he had brought no money, and 150,000 more after they should have evacuated the city. The Jemautdars agreed to these terms, and went to Mahomed Issoof's camp in order to obtain his confirmation, who not thinking himself sufficiently authorised, advised them to wait, without departing from the agreement, until it could be ratified by Captain Calliaud; to which they consented. Captain Calliaud approved of the terms, but added as an indispensible condition that Maphuze Cawn and Berkatoolah should be delivered up with the city. To this likewise the Jemautdars seemed to have no objection; on which orders were dispatched to Moodilee to send money and bills for the amount of the agreement without delay from Tinivelly. These various negotiations and correspondences employed 30 days, during which several events happened which contributed to change the state of affairs.
The family of Moodilee by their occupation of renting the countries, had formed connections with most of the Polygars dependant on Tinivelly, more especially with the Pulitaver and Catabominaigue; and on his invitations the Pulitaver and several others met him on the road. Catabominaigue and others sent their agents; all came, as usual, with considerable retinues, and in the midst of this multitude Moodilee entered the town of Tinivelly on the 27th of September, and proclaimed his commission. But the Colleries of the Polygars, whom no consideration can restrain from thieving, committed night robberies in the town and adjacent villages. Several of them were taken and punished by the Company's Sepoys; on which others stole the effects of the Sepoys themselves, who, irritated as much by the insult as the loss, transferred their resentment on Moodilee, because he suffered the Polygars to remain in the town, and continued to treat them with civility. At the same time the troops of Travancore renewed their incursions into the districts about Calacad; and Nabey Cawn Catteck, who had concealed himself ever since the defeat in which Moodemiah was killed, now appeared again, made overtures of reconciliation to Maphuze Cawn, which were accepted; and having enlisted 400 of the horse, which Maphuze Cawn had disbanded, kept traversing the country between Madura and Tinivelly. These disturbances, and the dissention between the renter Moodilee and the Company's Sepoys, had already deterred the bankers from furnishing him with the sums necessary for the commencement of his own business, and the time that he was called upon to supply the money for the payment of the Jemautdars at Madura, All he could dispatch immediately was 20,000 rupees, which stopped on the road from an apprehension of being intercepted by Nabey Cawn Catteck; and it was some days before he could obtain authentic bills of exchange for the amount required.
Mean while the Jemautdars having the power in themselves, had taken no pains to conceal their negotiation from Maphuze Cawn and Berkatoolah, who having no other means to overset it, employed intrigue. There was, among the Jemautdars, one named Seer Cawn, a man of art and spirit, attached to Berkatoolah; he had hitherto gone with the rest, with the view alone of leading them back, whensoever the opportunity should offer. No money coming on several days in which it was expected, Seer Cawn suggested to his comrades, that the interpreter had amused them with the negotiation in order to cover some other design, perhaps the surprise of the city, by Mahomed Issool's troops at Secunder Maly; and advised them to think of a reconciliation with their friends rather than trust any further to those whose views they did not know. Maphuze Cawn and Berkatoolah improved the effects of these suggestions by lavish promises, which prevailed, and immediately after the reconciliation 500 horse marched to join those with Nabey Cawn Catteck.
Notwithstanding this change, the interpreter still remained in the city with hopes of renewing the negotiation, on which Captain Calliaud resolved to go to Nattam himself, to be nearer at hand to give the necessary instructions; and, warned by the late disappointment, he took with him from Tritchinopoly an agent belonging to the house of Buckanjee, the principal shroff or banker in the Decan, whose word was every where esteemed as ready money. Arriving at Nattam on the 25th of October, he was met there by the interpreter, and an officer lately sent by the Nabob from Arcot to treat with the Jemautdars. The officer represented that neither Maphuze Cawn nor Berkatoolah were in reality averse to an accommodation, but insisted that the presidency should give their guarantee for the terms, since neither of them would trust the Nabob: that Berkatoolah, who was rich, required only protection for his person, family, and effects; but Maphuze Cawn, a provision adequate to his rank. On this information Calliaud ordered the interpreter to renew the proposal of paying the Jemautdars, and pledged his own word to Maphuze Cawn and Berkatoolah; but insisted that Maphuze Cawn should immediately accompany him to Tritchinopoly. Both seemed satisfied, and Maphuze Cawn made preparations as if he intended to proceed to Nattam the next day; but this day brought on the change of the monsoon, with such severe and tempestuous weather, that nothing could stir abroad. The fort of Nattam had no shelter against the sky, and the rains holding without intermission, Captain Calliaud apprehensive that the roads might become impassable, and keep him longer than he ought in prudence to remain out of his garrison, left Nattam the next day, and reached Tritchinopoly on the 30th, where a day or two after came the interpreter, the Nabob's officer, and a Jemautdar sent by Maphuze Cawn, to explain his own demands. He requested to be placed in the government of districts, any where in the Carnatic, from which he might appropriate 200,000 rupees a year for his own maintenance; and alleging that he had been obliged to sell every thing he had, to satisfy in part the demands of his troops, he asked, but without insisting, for 20,000 rupees to furnish himself again with necessaries. Captain Calliaud dismissed the Jemautdar with assurances, that these terms should be complied with, and set out himself for Madrass, in order to obtain the confirmation of the presidency, and to explain to them the general state of affairs in the southern countries.
At this time the expedition to Bengal had carried away one half of the English force in the Carnatic, and intelligence of the declaration of war with France increased the necessity of every caution: in consequence of which Captain Calliaud on the second day of his journey met letters from the presidency, with positive orders not to quit his garrison without their express permission; on which he immediately returned to Tritchinopoly.
Mean while, the dissention between the Company's Sepoys and their renter at Tinivelly had encreased, and had produced evil consequences. Moodilee by his contract was only obliged to furnish the of pay of the Sepoys employed by himself; but Mahomed Issoof, by a wrong interpretation, imagined that Moodilee was obliged to maintain the whole number wheresoever employed; and moreover to discharge the arrears of their pay, of which two months were due on his arrival in the country. In consequence of this mistake, Jemaulsahab, who commanded the Sepoys in Tinivelly, demanded the amount, and on Moodilee's refusing to pay it, confined him under a guard for several days; during which he ordered the Pulitaver and the other Polygars to quit the town, with threats of severe punishment if they remained any longer. They departed immediately; but instead of returning to their homes, the Pulitaver went to Nabey Cawn Catteck and offered him his assistance, both in men and money; and by their united representations, Catabominaigue was induced to join their league. At the same time the troops of Travancore kept their ground, and continued their depredations in the districts dependant on Calacad. The hopes of the advantages which might be derived from these confusions, were much more agreeable to the disposition of Berkatoolah, than the success of his negotiation with the English, by which he was to obtain nothing more than the pardon of his offences; and in the middle of November, as soon as the ground was sufficiently dry, to march, he went from the city, and put himself at the head of the 500 horse, which had gone out before, and were now joined to those of Nabey Cawn Catteck, and the troops of the Polygars. The whole force amounted to 10000 men, of which 1000 were horse. They were assembled about 40 miles to the south of Madura, and instead of proceeding directly to the south, in the open country, struck to the east into the districts of Catabominaigue, a part of whose woods extend within a few miles of the town of Tinivelly. Issuing from thence at night before their approach was known, they entered the town at day-break by several avenues, which were weakly guarded: for Moodilee a few days before had marched with the greatest part of the Sepoys and his other force, about twenty miles to the south-east, in order to protect the districts of Alwar Tinivelly, against which he had been led to believe the enemy designed to bend their attack. The enemy remained two days in Tinivelly, plundered much, but committed no cruelties; and during this delay, Moodilee regained the fort of Palamcolah, which stands on the other side of the river about three miles from the town. The fort is spacious, but the ramparts were in ruins, nevertheless capable of resisting an enemy, which had no battering cannon. Matchlocks and musketry were fired without any, mischief for two days, during which the cavalry ravaged the country round. Mahomed Issoof, who still continued at Secundermaly, before, Madura, received no certain intelligence of the enemy's design until four days after they were in motion; he immediately struck his camp and proceeded towards Tinivelly, and they hearing of his approach collected all their parties and advanced to give him battle. The two armies met on the 1st of December at Gangadoram, about twenty miles north of Tinivelly. The inferiority of numbers was much more than compensated by superior skill; the Company's Sepoys faced the enemy on every side with advantage of situation and discipline, and the field-pieces were fired with much execution against the cavalry, whose fortunes depending on the preservation of their horses, they quitted the contest and the field. The next day Mahomed Issoof proceeded to Tinivelly, and from thence marched into the desolated districts, in order to give heart to the inhabitants, and recall them to their occupations. The Polygars returned to their woods, and Berkatoolah with his cavalry to Madura; but Nabey Cawn Catteck went to Chevelpetore, and not having means to attack the fort, in which were some Sepoys, attempted to escalade the pagoda in the town; on which one of the Bramins went to the top of the high tower over the gateway, and after a short but loud prayer of execration, threw himself headlong to the pavement, which dashed out his brains; the enemy, although Mahomedans, were so much afraid of incurring the general detestation of the country, if their attempts against the pagoda should incite any more acts of such enthusiastic devotion, that they immediately retreated out of the town.
Whilst Captain Calliaud was in expectation of a conclusive answer from Maphuze Cawn's agent, he received intelligence of the new confederacy, and their operations, and of Berkatoolah's departure from Madura to partake in their hostilities: nevertheless, some hopes of reconciliation still remained; for some of the Jemautdars, although the lesser number, were averse to the turbulent proceedings of the others, and wished an accommodation on the terms which had once been so nearly concluded: he therefore determined to make another trial, and sent Mr. William Rumbold, a lieutenant of his garrison, who talked the languages of the country, together with the interpreter, to renew the negotiation. They were escorted by a company of Sepoys, and arrived at Madura on the third of December, and on the next day came into the town Berkatoolah, with his cavalry, which had been beaten by Mahomed Issoof.
Maphuze Cawn received Mr. Rumbold with much civility, and in a private conference acknowledged his errors, apologized for his conduct, and promised to accompany him to Tritchinopoly; but neither of them suspected that a person had been placed behind a curtain to listen to their conversation. About an hour after the visit, the Jemautdar Seer Cawn, with a body of horse, beset Maphuze Cawn's house, and made him a prisoner; and after a message which was not complied with, sent 30 horsemen to force Mr. Rumbold out of the city; who, having no means of resistance, obeyed, and rejoined his escort, which he had left at a choultry on the other side of the river. As soon as he was gone, Seer Cawn assembled all the Jemautdars, whom he persuaded that Maphuze Cawn intended to sell them and the city. When they were sufficiently inflamed, Berkatoolah came in, and war was determined: but, whilst they were deliberating on the manner of conducting it, came a letter, from Mr. Rumbold, threatening the utmost vengeance of the English nation for the indignity which had been offered to its representative in his person; and the immediate return of Mahomed Issoof with all the Company's Sepoys was held out as an earnest of this resolution. The Jemautdars, startled at the expressions of indignation in Mr. Rumbold's letter, agreed to invite him to return. He refused, without public reparation; of which they permitted him to dictate the mode; conformable to which, Maphuze Cawn, with all the Jemautdars came the next morning to the choultry, made many apologies, and conducted him back to the city: where, on entering the gate, he was saluted by the discharge of all the cannon on the ramparts, which were only 13 pieces. The negotiation was renewed on the same terms as before; and it was agreed to wait until the, guarantee of the presidency for the terms required by Maphuze Cawn and Berkatoolah, should arrive from Madrass. But three days after this preliminary was settled, Nabey Cawn Catteck, with his horse, came from Chevelpetore, and immediately on his arrival offered to furnish 40,000 rupees for the present subsistence of the cavalry of the Jemautdars, if they would relinquish all treaty with the English, and send Mr. Rumbold away. On the bustle occasioned by this proposal, Mr. Rumbold went to Maphuze Cawn, who wept, and in his anguish broke his seal, that he might not be obliged to affix it any more to acts he did not approve. From Maphuze Cawn's he went to Berkatoolah's, where he assembled and harangued the Jemautdars, who, after various discussions, consented that the articles to which they had before acceded, should be immediately drawn up in both languages and executed by all parties: it was now night, and to do this required some hours; for every Jemautdar was to sign. This while was employed with much assiduity by Nabey Cawn Catteck, who now offered to supply 3500 rupees a day, which, being fully sufficient for the maintenance of the whole body of cavalry, prevailed; and Mr. Rumbold was advised~to take care of himself, as all the roads would soon be stopped. He accordingly went out of the city the next morning, as if he had something to regulate concerning his escort of Sepoys; with whom he set off at midnight, and reached the fort of Nattam without interruption, when, being out of danger, he proceeded more leisurely to Tritchinopoly, where he arrived on the 15th of December. Thus ended the third unsuccessful attempt to get possession of Madura by negotiation, in all of which the contumelious conduct of the Jemautdars was not the effect of sudden exigencies, but the result of a plan formed by Berkatoolah to lead them to such extremities of affront, as should preclude all hopes of reconciliation with the English. That such was their situation he easily convinced them, as soon as Mr. Rumbold was gone, and then declared he 'intended not only to maintain the city, but likewise to recover the whole country for Maphuze Cawn. These resolutions were not unanimously approved, but the dissenters were by far the smaller number; and letters of invitation were immediately dispatched to all the Polygars, to Hyder Naig the Mysore general, and to the King of Travancore. A few days after, Berkatoolah and Nabey Cawn Catteck went with 500 horse to the Pulitaver's place. The commander Mahomed Issoof, on receiving the summons of Mr. Rumbold, had returned from the districts he was visiting to Tinivelly; where leaving as before 1000 Sepoys, he proceeded with the rest, about 1800, towards Madura. The renter Moodilee, naturally timorous, resolved to accompany the greater force, and, besides his usual retinue, was attended by 100 good horse, which he had lately levied. They arrived on the 16th of December at Gangadorum, where Mahomed Issoof hearing of Mr. Rumbold's departure from Madura, halted to observe the motions of the enemy, and remained there until he received information that Nabey Cawn Catteck and Berkatoolah had passed to the pulitaver's, on which he proceeded to Chevelpetore, and encamped there, in order to awe the Polygars in this part of the country from joining the enemy.
During the march Moodilee sent one of his relations, named Algapa, to negotiate a reconciliation with the Pulitaver, and offer some districts as the fee of his alliance. The Pulitaver, who never refused or kept his word on any occasion, sent an agent with Algapa to the camp at Chevelpetore, and at the same time sent his troops to join Berkatoolah and Nabey Cawn Catteck. The agent, under the usual pretext of doing honour to his embassy, was accompanied by two or three hundred Colleries. Mahomed Issoof entirely disapproved of the intercourse, as he knew the Pulitaver's character, and that some of his people were at this very time plundering to the westward of Tinivelly. Unfortunately, during this mood of indignation, five of the agentte Colleries were taken, stealing horses and oxen belonging to the camp, and being brought to Mahomed Issoof, he immediately put them to death, by blowing them off from the mouth of a cannon: a sanguinary execution, flot unfrequent in Indostan, and in this case atrocious. The agent, with all his retinue of Colleries, immediately ran away from the camp; and their injury determined the Pulitaver, perhaps for the first time in his life, to act with some good faith toward those with whom he was connected. But knowing the irresolution of Maphuze Cawn, he, with his usual cunning, was afraid of trusting him in Madura exposed to the overtures and negotiations of the English, and insisted that he should come from thence to Nelletangaville, and remain at all times under his own ward. In consequence, Berkatoolah, who was with the Pulitaver, sent for Maphuze Cawn, who, in the end of December, went from the city with 500 horse. Thus closed the year in the countries of Madura and Tinivelly.
Between Tanjore and Tondiman the quarrel had continued, notwithstanding the retreat of the Tanjorine army in the preceding year: but the letters of the presidency of Madrass, and the subtle delays of Monacjee, again prevented the renewal of hostilities until the end of June, when the forces of Tanjore were required to revenge another quarrel. The Danish settlement at Tranquebar had requested an enlargement of their bounds, which the king refused, and the Danes soon after, on the pretence of some outrages from his officers, attacked two pagodas in the neighbourhood. One they took, and whilst they were employed before the other, were attacked themselves at a disadvantage by a large detachment of horse and foot from Tanjore, who killed 40 of them, and wounded 100; on which the rest retreated to Tranquebar: a negotiation ensued, which, by the interposition of the presidency of Madrass, was concluded in the middle of August. In September began the great and long feast of the king and his gods, which consumed the month. In October, the approach of the rains gave Monacjee a pretence to keep the army in quarters; and after they set in, it was impossible to move until they were over. The king then insisted, and Monacjee proceeded against Killanelly Cottah, of which Tondiman had taken possession in consequence of the surreptitious cession made to him the year before by Monacjee, who had clandestinely affixed the king's seal to the grant. It stands 40 miles S. by w. of Tanjore, and was stronger than any place which Tondiman had taken before: and the Tanjorines had made Very little progress in the attack at the end of the year.
The French had not, during the year, meddled, excepting by private instigations, in the quarrels of the southern countries. The Rheddy whom they had restored at Terriore, failed, as before, in his tributes; on which they sent a party of 50 Europeans from Seringham, which were joined by another from Pondicherry, who removed him, and reinstated the other, who likewise had before been once appointed and once deposed. This expedition was finished in the beginning of February, but the party from Seringham remained at Terriore to watch the tributes in future. In July 100 Europeans were taken from Seringham, to complete the detachment sent with Mr. Law to the relief of Mr. Bussy at Charmaul. By these subtractions, which were not replaced, the garrison at Seringham, which before was superior, remained at the close of the year only equal in Europeans to that of Tritchinopoly, each having about 330; but 200 more were sent thither from Pondicherry on the 9th of December; and 500 Sepoys were raising at Terriore, in order to equal the number in Tritchinopoly, which were 1500. Thus ended the year 1756 in Coromandel.
End of the Sixth Book.