Three Frenchmen in Bengal Part 4

[Footnote 24: The Nawab, in July, 1756, extorted three lakhs from the French and even more from the Dutch.]

[Footnote 25: British Museum. Additional MS. 20,914.]

[Footnote 26: A kind of fibre used in making bags and other coa.r.s.e materials.]

[Footnote 27: Surgeon Ives's Journal.]

[Footnote 28: Letter to De Montorcin.]

[Footnote 29: Both English and French use this word "inhabitant" to signify any resident who was not official, military, or in the seafaring way.]

[Footnote 30: This he did through the Armenian Coja Wajid, a wealthy merchant of Hugli, who advised the Nawab on European affairs.

_Letter from Coja Wajid to Clive, January 17, 1757_.]

[Footnote 31: A French doctor, who has left an account of the Revolutions in Bengal, says there were eight outposts, and that the loss of one would have involved the loss of all the others, as they could be immediately cut off from the Fort, from which they were too distant to be easily reinforced. The doctor does not sign his name, but he was probably one of the six I mentioned above. Their names were Haillet (doctor), La Haye (surgeon-major), Du Cap (second), Du Pre (third), Droguet (fourth), and St. Didier (a.s.sistant).]

[Footnote 32: M. Vernet, the Dutch Chief at Cossimbazar, wrote to the Dutch Director at Chinsurah that he could obtain a copy of this treaty from the Nawab's secretaries, if he wished for it.]

[Footnote 33: See page 79 (and note).]

[Footnote 34: See note, p. 89.]

[Footnote 35: Governor.]

[Footnote 36: A doc.u.ment authorising the free transit of certain goods, and their exemption from custom dues, in favour of English traders.--_Wilson_.]

[Footnote 37: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2744, No. 71.]

[Footnote 38: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2750, No. 83.]

[Footnote 39: Still visible, I believe, in parts. The gateway certainly exists.]

[Footnote 40: Mr. Tooke was a Company's servant. He had distinguished himself in the defence of Calcutta in 1756, when he was wounded, and, being taken on board the ships, escaped the dreadful ordeal of the Black Hole.]

[Footnote 41: Neither of these accounts agree with the Capitulation Returns.]

[Footnote 42: British Museum. Addl. MS. 20,914.]

[Footnote 43: Remarks on board His Majesty's ship _Tyger_, March 15th.]

[Footnote 44: His maternal grandfather was a cousin of Aliverdi Khan.]

[Footnote 45: Malleson explains this by saying that De Terraneau was employed in the blocking up of the pa.s.sage, but the story hardly needs contradiction.]

[Footnote 46: This announcement seems superfluous after fighting had been going on for several days, but it simply shows the friction between the naval and military services.]

[Footnote 47: Clive's journal for March 16th. Fort St. George, Sel.

Com. Cons., 28th April, 1757.]

[Footnote 48: Eyre Coote's journal.]

[Footnote 49: The pa.s.sages interpolated are on the authority of a MS. in the Orme Papers, ent.i.tled "News from Bengal."]

[Footnote 50: Accounts of this detail differ. One says it was stormed on the 21st, but if so the French would have been more on their guard, and would surely have strengthened the second battery in front of the Fort.]

[Footnote 51: Lime plaster made extremely hard.]

[Footnote 52: The Emperor at Delhi, who was supposed to be about to invade Bengal.]

[Footnote 53: Orme MSS. O.V. 32, p. 11.]

[Footnote 54: Orme MSS. O.V. 32, p. 10.]

[Footnote 55: Sergeant Nover was pardoned in consideration of previous good conduct. _Letter from Clive to Colonel Adlercron, March_ 29, 1757.]

[Footnote 56: Captain Speke was seriously and his son mortally wounded in the attack on Chandernagore.]

[Footnote 57: I cannot identify this name in the Capitulation Returns. Possibly he was killed.]

[Footnote 58: Surgeon Ives says the booty taken was valued at 130,000.]

[Footnote 59: Orme MSS. India X., p. 2390. Letter of 30th March, 1757.]

[Footnote 60: _Firman_, or Imperial Charter.]

[Footnote 61: The Mogul, Emperor, or King of Delhi, to whom the Bengal Nawabs were nominally tributary.]

[Footnote 62: Orme MSS. India XI. pp. 2766-7, No. 111.]

[Footnote 63: Ibid., p. 2768, No. 112.]

[Footnote 64: Memoirs of Lally. London, 1766.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MUXADABAD, OR MURSHIDABAD. (_After Rennell_.)]

CHAPTER III

M. LAW, CHIEF OF COSSIMBAZAR

A few miles out of Murshidabad, capital of the Nawabs of Bengal since 1704, when Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence from Dacca to the ancient town of Muxadabad and renamed it after himself, lay a group of European Factories in the village or suburb of Cossimbazar.[65] Of these, one only, the English, was fortified; the others, i.e. the French and Dutch, were merely large houses lying in enclosures, the walls of which might keep out cattle and wild animals and even thieves, but were useless as fortifications. In 1756 the Chief of the English Factory, as we have already seen, was the Worshipful Mr. William Watts; the Dutch factory was under M.

Vernet,[66] and the French under M. Jean Law. The last mentioned was the elder son of William Law, brother of John Law the financier, who settled in France, and placed his sons in the French service.

French writers[67] on genealogy have hopelessly mixed up the two brothers, Jean and Jacques Francois. Both came to India, both distinguished themselves, both rose to the rank of colonel, one by his services to the French East India Company, and one by the usual promotion of an officer in the King's army. The only proof that the elder was the Chief of Cossimbazar is to be found in a few letters, mostly copies, in which his name is given as Jean or John. As a usual rule he signed himself in the French manner by his surname only, or as Law of Lauriston.

His experiences during the four years following the accession of Siraj-ud-daula were painful and exciting, and he has recorded them in a journal or memoir[68] which has never yet been published, but which is of great interest to the student of Indian history. For us it has the added charm of containing a picture of ourselves painted by one who, though a foreigner by education, was enabled by his birth to understand our national peculiarities. In the present chapter I shall limit myself almost entirely to quotations from this memoir.