Patna. In this position he remained continuously for sixteen years. He married a native wife and adopted native modes of living. It was even whispered by his enemies that he had become a pervert to Paganism and sacrificed regularly at the Hindu shrines. The allegation was probably false, but unquestionably Chamock had by long residence in isolation at Patna become completely immersed in Indian customs. Such a man was not unqualified to conduct negotiations with native powers where an intimate knowledge of the vernacular and of the native habits of thought wm all important. There was nothing, however, in his previous history to warrant the supposition that he would make a successful man of action. It might even be imagined that his long life of comparative retirement in India had warped those qualities which are most put to the test in a physical struggle. But Charnock, as the sequel will show, was no decadent Englishman with fibres sapped by an enervating Orientalism. He played his part on the great Indian stage with the best and most energetic of his fellow pioneers.
When the crisis came in 1684 Chamock was at Hooghly, whither he had escaped with difficulty from Patna, out of the clutches of the Nabob who was intent on wringing from him an amount unjustly claimed to be due from the Company. The Agent, on entering into his own, at once set about making his dispositions to meet the coming storm. Before the year had expired three ships had come out, large vessels, one of seventy, another of sixty-five and the other of fifty guns, carrying some six hundred seamen. There was in addition a number of small craft including three frigates each equipped with twelve guns and manned by twenty seamen. With the fleet arrived a
