they dismissed the messenger without an answer. Surajah Dowlah was not prepared, therefore, to give way to any request from Calcutta; and when the message was delivered to him respecting the cause of the active measures of defence adopted by the government of the presidency, he immediately abandoned an expedition in which he had engaged against a relative who had revolted from his authority, and marched to Cossimbazar, a large town in the province of Bengal, where the English had a factory. On his arrival before the place it immediately surrendered, without an effort being made to defend it; and the soubahdar prepared to invest Calcutta. No of their number (Mr. John Zephaniah Holwell, a native of London, who had resided at Calcutta since 1736) governor and commander-in-chief. It was little he could do to avert the calamity which threatened; but for two days, the few men who remained in the fortress made a gallant defence, at the same time throwing up signals, to attract the notice of their fugitive friends. During this period, "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 the remainder of the garrison and inhabitants." relief came, however; and in the evening of This city was quite unable to stand a pro- the 20th, the enemy forced their way into tracted siege, as the fortifications were in- the town, and Mr. Holwell and his comefficient, the stock of ammunition small, panions, 146 in number, surrendered to the the artillery insignificant; the number of victors. The captives were taken into the regular troops in the garrison only 284; presence of the soubahdar, who assured and though there was a militia corps, raised them, "on the word of a soldier, that no from the European and native inhabitants, harm should come to them;"§ and Mr. numbering 250 men, yet they had been so Holwell's hands being fettered, he immeinefficiently trained, that scarcely any of diately ordered them to be set free. Then them "knew the right from the wrong end arose the question, where they were to be of their muskets."* Under these circum- confined for the night? An officer was stances, assistance was sought for from the sent to see what security the fort afforded, Dutch at Chinsura, a town twenty-two who returned, and pointed out a room miles from Calcutta; and even from the which had been used for the confinement of French. The former positively refused to military offenders, as adequate for the purafford any aid; the latter would only ex- pose. The size of this room was eighteen tend it on condition that the garrison and feet long by fourteen wide: on one side effects should be removed to Chanderna- there were two small windows, secured by gore. Of course, this condition could not iron bars; on the other three there were be acceded to; and an attempt was then only the blank walls. Into this confined made to buy off the soubahdar by the space, the 146 captives (most of whom were offer of a sum of money, which was re- Europeans) were thrust; and the horrors jected. From that time all was confusion. which they endured from heat and thirst Nothing was to be seen within the fort are inconceivable. An offer of 1,000, and but disorder and riot; "everybody was then of 2,000, rupees was made, as the price officious in advising, but none was qualified of removal to a more genial room; but they to give advice;"t and flight appeared in- were refused-the reply to the last offer evitable. On the 18th of June, the sou-being, that "the prisoners could not be bahdar's army appeared before the city, drove in the pickets, and took possession of the outposts. In the night, the female inhabitants, and such effects as could be removed, were taken to a ship lying before the fort; many of the inhabitants, civil and military, decamped; and the next morning, Mr. Drake, the governor, and Captain Minchin, who commanded the troops, both took to flight, jumping into a boat, and pushing off to the ship. The members of the council who remained, then elected one removed without the leave of the soubahdar, who was asleep, and no one dared disturb him." There the miserable men remained; and the horrors of that night who can tell? When, in the morning, the doors were opened for their removal, it was found tha 131 were dead! The survivors were treated with little consideration; many of them also died of the fever contracted in the "Black Hole," as their place of confinement was called; and ultimately, the release of the remainder was obtained through the intercession of the soubahdar's grandmother, § Holwell's India Tracts. + Orme. the widow of Ali Verdi Khan, who had always been a friend to the English, and of the Hindoo merchant, Omichund. not suspend his operations, which were first directed against Budgebudge, a small town with a separate fortress, on the east side of The intelligence of the fall of Calcutta the Hooghly, ten miles below Calcutta. did not reach Madras till the 16th of The fleet anchored as near the fort as possiAugust; where, says Orme, the historian, ble; and the troops were disembarked, and who was at this time a member of the marched through the jungle to the town, council, it "scarcely excited more horror having to drag along with them two fieldand resentment than consternation and pieces, and a tumbril laden with ammuniperplexity." At first, the council were tion. They arrived before the fortress on averse to sending any part of the Madras the 29th of December; and the fort was to army to recover the lost territory in Bengal; be attacked at daybreak the next morning. and it was chiefly owing to the strong and After their march, the men stood greatly in energetic remonstrances of Orme that a dif- need of repose; and they bivouacked withferent resolution was adopted. On the 18th, out any sentinels being placed, or any other Clive was summoned from Fort St. David, precautions taken to guard against a surfor the purpose of being placed at the head prise. In the night, Monichund, the gov of a body of Europeans and sepoys, which ernor of Calcutta, dashed upon them at the the council determined to send to the sister- head of 3,000 men: Clive, in a short time, presidency, for the purpose of recapturing succeeded in rallying his troops; and, after Calcutta, and punishing Surajah Dowlah. a brief skirmish, the enemy was driven off— The co-operation of Admiral Watson was Monichund, who is described by Orme as secured; but the jealousies between the having "no courage, but much circumspecland and sea forces delayed the sailing of tion," being the first to turn his elephant the expedition for nearly two months. It and fly. Whilst this affair-in which the did not leave Madras till the 10th of Octo- British force, though completely surprised, ber; Clive being invested by the Madras presi- fought with great gallantry-was going on, dency with independent powers in all mili- some sailors appear to have landed, and tary matters, with the control of the military either before or after they got on shore, to chest, and authority to draw bills. Before have so far indulged with their grog, that the expedition arrived at Fulta (a large most of them were intoxicated. One of village on the east bank of the Hooghly, them, named Strahan, got to the fortress, twenty miles south-west of Calcutta), how- crossed the moat, scrambled up the ramever, letters had been received from the parts, and discharging a pistol, shouted that court of directors, appointing Mr. Drake, he had taken the place. Whether the garand three members of the Bengal council, rison were alarmed by the retreat of Monia select committee to conduct all civil and chund and his troops, or whether they supmilitary affairs. They had already asso-posed the sailor was followed by a number ciated Major Kilpatrick with them; and on the arrival of the fleet at Fulta on the 20th of December, Admiral Watson and Lieutenant-colonel Clive were added.* The fugitives from Calcutta were assembled at Fulta, under the orders of Major Kilpatrick, an excellent officer, who did not arrive in the Gauges till after the city had fallen. The united land and naval expedition consisted of five ships of the line, five transports, 900 European troops, and 1,500 sepoys. On the voyage, two ships were separated from the squadron by a gale of wind; and when the rest arrived at Fulta, 250 Europeans, 400 sepoys, the greater part of the guns, and most of the military stores, were missing. Clive, however, did • East India Military Calendar. + Some accounts say, that the sailors who landed were flogged for breach of discipline. Strahan was of his comrades, is not known; but they evacuated the fort, and it was taken possession of without any further trouble.† Monichund made the best of his way to Calcutta, where leaving a garrison of 500 men, he marched with the remainder to Hooghly, and having communicated the terrors he felt himself to the inhabitants, he proceeded to Moorshedabad, to impart them to the soubahdar himself. Surajah Dowlah had looked upon the capture of Calcutta as a most remarkable and glorious achievement. He had changed its name to Alinagore (the Port of God), and having exacted £45,000 from the Dutch, and £35,000 from the French (the smaller sum being levied on the latter, included; and this put him in such a rage, that he swore he would never take a fort again. + Orme. because they had supplied his army with had withdrawn his field-force from the 200 chests of gunpowder, when it was on town and suburbs, and encamped them in its march to attack the city), he retired to the neighbourhood, so as to be enabled to Moorshedabad, to indulge in those sensual give assistance to the garrison, were it enjoyments in which he delighted. He needed. Surajah Dowlah interposed his was surprised when told that an English army between the English camp and the force had landed, and was bent upon its town, pushing some of the troops into the recapture; and he gave orders for his whole streets, and really placing it in a state of army to be forthwith assembled at his siege. These movements were made while capital, that he might expel the daring negotiations were going on between the intruders. Those intruders, meanwhile, soubahdar and Mr. Drake; and when, on steadily proceeded in the accomplishment the 4th of February, Colonel Clive sent to of their object. After the fall of Budge- remonstrate with the former against the budge, the other posts on the Ganges were encroachments he was making, his messenabandoned on the approach of the English, gers were treated so roughly, that they who continued their march to Fort Wil- were glad to escape with their lives. Clive liam, and occupied all the approaches by then resolved to capture the soubahdar's land, whilst the fleet opened a cannonade battering train, which had been placed upon it from the river side. On the 2nd of in Omichund's garden; and having been January, 1757, the fort submitted, and Cal- reinforced by 300 seamen, at 3 A.M. on cutta was reoccupied. It was found that the 5th, he made the attempt with 650 the houses of the private inhabitants had European soldiers of the line, 100 artillerybeen plundered; but the merchandise be- men, 800 sepoys, and 600 seamen, who longing to the company was untouched- formed in a single column facing towards having been intended for the soubahdar, the south, Clive and all the officers marching who was thus disappointed of his booty.- on foot. It was still dark when they And now Lieutenant-colonel Clive, having reached the enemy's outposts, which, after regained the English settlement, deter- firing a few matchlocks and rockets, remined to make a demonstration against treated; and the English pressed on, both Hooghly, situated twenty-six miles above Calcutta, which, he was informed, was full of rich merchandise, and slenderly garrisoned. A force of 150 Europeans and 200 sepoys was sent against this town, under Major Kilpatrick and Captain Eyre Coote. The troops were embarked on board some armed vessels, which moved up the stream; but one of them ran aground; and so much time was lost, that Surajah Dowlah was enabled to reinforce the garrison. This extra aid was of no avail. As soon as the vessels got within gun-shot, they opened a brisk cannonade, by which a breach in the wall was effected; and at break of day, on the 11th of January, the troops were landed, and the assault took place. The resistance was very feeble; the British flag soon floated from the walls, the garrison having surrendered. A very slender booty (only about £15,000) was secured; and having destroyed a quantity of rice, stored in a village at a little distance for the soubahdar's army, the troops returned to Calcutta. These events appear to have enraged the soubahdar, and he marched upon Calcutta at the head of an army of 40,000 men. Colonel Clive, after the capture of Hooghly, armies being shortly after enveloped in a thick fog, that prevented any one from seeing above a yard in advance. As the troops got opposite Omichund's garden, which was bordered by a ditch, called the Mahratta ditch, and where the soubahdar had fixed his head-quarters, the fog opened for a brief period, and enabled the advancing column to see "a well-mounted line of horsemen within twenty yards of their flank. The column halted, gave its fire with terrible effect, and swept the enemy away, as dust is swept aside by the wind when it suddenly rises."* Again the fog enveloped them, and did not disperse till nine o'clock, when it was found the English had penetrated by a causeway across the Mahratta ditch, but were full a mile and a quarter out of the line of the intended attack. A body of the enemy's horse was near, which repeatedly endeavoured to charge, but was prevented by the steady and well-directed fire from the English ranks. As the attack upon Omichund's garden would now have been very dangerous, Clive resolved not to make it, but to avail himself of the communication he had opened with Calcutta, and march his • The Rev. G. L. Gleig. principle only;" and Surajah Dowlah— though the treaty was followed, on the 11th of February, upon his proposal, by an alliance, offensive and defensive, against all enemies*-never gave up his intrigues with the French, to whom he was always much more favourable than to the English. With that power England was again at war in Europe; and the conclusion of peace with the soubahdar was soon followed by hostilities between the English and French in the East. troops into the town. He lost in this affair to their promises and engagements from 120 Europeans, 100 sepoys, and two pieces of cannon, which could not be got over the marshy ground the troops traversed in the fog. The loss of the enemy was much greater, as twenty-two officers of distinction, and 600 men, were killed and wounded. The soubahdar was also so struck with the bold movement of Colonel Clive, that he withdrew his men from the part of the town he had seized, encamped at some distance on the open plain, and made overtures for peace, to which Clive assented, though Admiral Watson was opposed to the measure. On the 9th, a treaty was signed between them, by which Surajah Dowlah agreed to invest the English with all their former privileges; to restore the company's factories, with such of the effects and moneys as had been obtained when Calcutta was captured as were accounted for in the books of his government; to allow the town to be fortified; to exempt all merchandise passing through his dominions, under the company's passport, from tolls or duties; to permit the English to establish a mint at Calcutta, and to give them back a number of villages surrendered to them by a former Mogul, and which he had seized. As we have stated, Admiral Watson opposed the negotiations and the treaty, which Clive thus defended in a letter to his superiors:"If I had only consulted the interest and reputation of a soldier, the conclusion of this peace might easily have been suspended. I know, at the same time, there are many who think I have been too precipitate in the conclusion of it; but surely those who are of this opinion, never knew that the delay of a day or two might have ruined the company's affairs, by the junction of the French with the nabob, which was on the point of being carried into execution. They never considered the situation of affairs on the coast, and the positive orders sent me, by the gentlemen there, to return with the major part of the forces at all events. They never considered, that, with a war upon the coast and in the province of Bengal at the same time, a trading company could not exist without a great assistance from the government. And, last of all, they never considered, that a long war, attended through the whole course of it with success, and many great actions, ended at last with the expense of more than fifty lacs of rupees to the company." This all appears to be fair reasoning; but the fact is, that neither party considered the treaty in any other light than an armed truce. Člive, though urged to reduce the number of troops in Bengal, refused; because it could not be "expected that the princes of that country, whose fidelity was always to be suspected, would remain firm Clive had, some months previously, proposed to M. Renault, the French governor of Chandernagore, a treaty of neutrality, to which the latter appeared, at first, well disposed to accede. But M. Bussy, who was in the Deccan, having there succeeded in establishing his influence over chiefs and people, and the overtures of Surajah Dowlah being made about the same period, produced delay; and, eventually, when pressed by Colonel Clive, the reply of the representative of the French company was to this effect :-"That he was very willing to enter into an armistice in the province of Bengal ; but that he had no power to pledge himself to its observance by the governor of Pondicherry, or those acting under his orders."+ On the receipt of this reply, Clive resolved to capture Chandernagore; and he employed Mr. Watt (chief of the factory at Cossimbazar when it was seized by Surajah Dowlah, and who, since that seizure, had been retained in captivity at Moorshedabad) to endeavour to obtain the soubahdar's a sanction to an attack upon that place. The + Orme's Military Transactions. European and a native town, with a strong sulting Omichund, the other conspirators fort; and the land connected with it, com-selected Meer Jaffier, who, originally a solmencing at the southern boundary of the dier of fortune under Ali Verdi, had marDutch factory of Chinsura, extended about ried his sister; and had, by Surajah Dowtwo miles along the banks of the river, and lah, been made commander-in-chief. Ominearly as far inland. It formed, in the chund, though he at first professed great words of Clive, "a most magnificent and indignation, assented to this change, and rich colony; the garrison consisted of more became the medium of communication with than 500 Europeans and blacks, all carry- the English, who were solicited to join in ing arms;" and he considered it as of more the conspiracy against Surajah Dowlah, importance than Pondicherry itself. Ad- with whom they had so recently concluded miral Watson laid two of his ships (the not merely a treaty of peace, but one of Kent and Tiger) abreast of the fort, whilst alliance. Whether they would have deClive attacked it on the land side. An serted their ally, had he remained faithful, obstinate resistance was made; but the we cannot affirm: it is not unlikely; as inardour of the assailants overcame all diffi- terest was a much more powerful agent in culties; and, on the 23rd of March, the influencing the conduct of public men in place surrendered. Of the garrison, Colonel those days, than honest and honourable Clive said, "360 were made prisoners, and principle. But there is no doubt that the nearly a hundred were suffered to give their soubahdar (whilst he had violated the treaty parole, consisting of civil, military, and in- by refusing to surrender the villages, and habitants. Nearly sixty white ladies," he in other ways) was in treaty with the added, were "made miserable by the loss of French at that time, and was concerting the place." measures with them for the expulsion of the Various intrigues were now going on in English, whom he continued to regard with Bengal. The sensual, debased character of intense dislike. He had taken M. Law, Surajah Dowlah, his tyranny, and his and a force under him, into his pay, allowexactions, had made him extremely un- ing him 10,000 rupees per month; he popular with the Hindoos, especially with urged M. Bussy to come to Patna, to act in the rich bankers, whom he fleeced without concert with him; while he sent Meer mercy; whilst his haughty demeanour dis- Jaffier with 15,000 men to Plassy, to reingusted the proud Mohammedan nobles. force a division already there under another Under Ali Verdi Khan, Hindoos had filled officer; and attempted to impede the navimany high offices. Ramnarrain, the gov- gation of the Ganges by damming up the ernor of Patna; Raydullub, the minister of Cossimbazar river, which was considered its finance; and Monichund, the temporary "sacred branch." Letters which fell into governor of Calcutta, were Hindoos; and his hands,* convinced Colonel Clive that all were offended with the soubahdar; as these intrigues were going on, and deterwere Juggut Seit, the representative of the mined him to embrace the cause of Meer wealthiest banking firm in India, and Omi- Jaffier; and that, although the committee of chund, the merchant, whose name has government had ordered him, peremptorily, already been mentioned several times-a to withdraw into Calcutta with all his man as distinguished for his avarice as for forces, and Admiral Watson positively rehis ability, and who, subsequent to the fused to join in the responsibility of the peace, had removed from Calcutta to Moor- undertaking. He also still kept up a corshedabad, where he had managed to ingra- respondence with Surajah Dowlah, through tiate himself with the soubahdar, at the Mr. Watts; who told him, that "the letsame time that he kept up a good understanding with his co-religionists. With them he entered into a conspiracy, not to substitute a Hindoo for a Mohammedan government, but to place some other Mussulman in possession of that power which Surajah Dowlah had so greatly abused. They first fixed upon Khuda Yar Khan Latte, a man powerfully connected, and high in the service of the soubahdar. This first choice, however, was abandoned; and without con ters which he wrote were torn by the nabob (soubahdar) and trampled under foot;" whilst "the next post brought the nabob's answer to these very letters, couched in the most fulsome style of oriental rhetoric."+ Surajah Dowlah, we regret to say, met with his match in duplicity in Clive. In consequence of Admiral Watson's opposiWe have seen copies of these letters at the India House. + Life of Clive. |