CALCUTTA: PAST AND PRESENT
considerable suffering in Bengal, broke down: his mind gave way, and, retaining as he did his position and authority in the settlement, he brought its affairs into a state of confusion and disorder which might have proved fatal but that he died on the 10th of January, 1692, and was buried in the burial-ground of the settlement, adjoining the Creek. This burial-ground now forms St. John's Churchyard, where the mausoleum erected over Charnock's remains by his son-in-law Eyre stands to this day in excellent preservation, the lettering of its inscription almost as sharp and clear as when first raised.
Charnock's domestic history has long been the romance of the early days of Calcutta. The story runs that he saw one day a youthful Hindu widow, a girl of fifteen, about to commit sati, to be burnt on her husband's funeral pyre. Moved by her youth and beauty, Charnock with his bodyguard of soldiers dispersed the attendant priests and relatives, and carried away the girl, to be for twenty-five years his faithful companion through all his trials. The old records show that many of the English factors in Bengal were married to native women, many of whom became converts to the Roman Catholic faith. It is quite probable that Charnock was married to the Hindu lady, who was the mother of his daughters, three of
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