Rulers of India: Lord Clive Part 5

to escort Mir Jafar to his camp. The time had arrived when one at least of the spoils of Pla.s.sey was to be distributed.

[Footnote 1: Omar Beg was a confidential agent of Mir Jafar, attached to Clive's person.]

Long previous to the battle Clive had received various proposals from the three general officers who had commanded the three princ.i.p.al army corps at Pla.s.sey. First, Yar Lutf Khan had made him a bid, his main condition being that he should be proclaimed Subahdar.[2] Then Mir Jafar outbad him, bringing with him Raja Dulab Ram, who would be content with the office of Finance Minister under the Mir. It had been arranged that whilst Mir Jafar should be proclaimed Subahdar of the three provinces, he should confirm to the English all the advantages ceded by Siraj-ud-daula in the preceding February; should grant to the Company all the lands lying to the south of Calcutta, together with a slip of ground, {108}600 yards wide, all round the outside of the Maratha Ditch;[3] should cede all the French factories and establishments in the province; should pledge himself that neither he nor his successors in the office of Subahdar should erect fortifications below the town of Hugli; whilst he and they should give to, and require from, the English, support in case of hostilities from any quarter. Mir Jafar covenanted likewise to make very large payments to the Company and others under the name of rest.i.tution for the damages they had suffered since the first attack on Calcutta; others also under the t.i.tle of gratification for services to be rendered in placing him on the _masnad_.[4] In the former category were reckoned one karor, or ten millions, of rupees to be paid to the Company; ten lakhs to the native inhabitants of Calcutta, seven lakhs to the Armenians. Under the second head payments were to be made to the army, the squadron, and the members of the Special Committee of Calcutta, to the extent noted below.[5]

[Footnote 2: Subahdar was the correct official t.i.tle of the governor, or, as he is popularly styled, the Nawab, of Bengal.]

[Footnote 3: It must be recollected that in those days the Marathas were regarded as serious and formidable enemies. It was against their depredations that the ditch round Calcutta, known as the 'Maratha Ditch,' had been dug.]

[Footnote 4: _Masnad_, a cus.h.i.+on, signifying the seat of supreme authority.]

[Footnote 5: The Squadron was to receive 2,500,000 rupees; the Army, the same; Mr. Drake, Governor of Calcutta (the same who had quitted Calcutta and his companions to take shelter on board s.h.i.+p at the time of Siraj-ud-daula's attack), 280,000; Colonel Clive, as second in the Select Committee (appointed before the war to negotiate with Mir Jafar), 280,000; Major Kilpatrick, Mr. Watts, and Mr. Becher, as members of the said Committee, 240,000 each. I may here state in antic.i.p.ation that, in addition to these sums, the following private donations were subsequently given, viz.: to Clive, 1,600,000 rupees; to Watts, 300,000; to the six members of Council, 100,000 each; to Walsh, Clive's secretary and paymaster to the Madras troops, 500,000; to Scrafton, 200,000; to Lus.h.i.+ngton, 50,000; to Major A. Grant, commanding the detachment of H.M.'s 39th regiment, 100,000.]

{109}The first of these contracts, now become binding, was to be carried out on the morning of the 24th of June, at the interview between the two princ.i.p.al parties, Clive and Mir Jafar. It has occurred to me that the reader may possibly care to know something more, little though it be, of the antecedents of this general, who, to his own subsequent unhappiness, betrayed his master for his own gain.

Mir Muhammad Jafar was a n.o.bleman whose family had settled in Bihar.

He had taken service under, had become a trusted officer of, Ali Vardi Khan, the father of Siraj-ud-daula, and had married his sister.

On his death, he had been made Bakhs.h.i.+, or Commander-in-chief, of the army, and, in that capacity, had commanded it when it took Calcutta in June, 1756.[6] Between himself and his wife's nephew, Siraj-ud-daula, there had never been any cordiality. The latter, with the insolence of untamed and uneducated youth, had kicked against the authority of his uncle; had frequently insulted him; and had even removed him from his office. Mir Jafar had felt these slights bitterly. {110}Living, as he was, in an age of revolution, dynasties falling about him, the very throne of Delhi the appanage of the strongest, he felt no compunction in allying himself with the foreigner to remove from the throne--for it was virtually a throne--of Murs.h.i.+dabad the man who alternately insulted and fawned upon him. Little did he know, little even did he reck, the price he would have to pay. Fortunately for his peace of mind at the moment the future was mercifully hidden from him. But those who are familiar with the history of Bengal after the first departure thence of Clive for England will admit that never did treason so surely find its own punishment as did the treason of Mir Jafar.

[Footnote 6: There can be no doubt about this. 'About five o'clock the Nawab entered the fort, carried in an open litter, attended by Mir Jafar Khan, his Bakhs.h.i.+ or General-in-chief, and the rest of his princ.i.p.al officers.' He was present when the English were brought before the Nawab: vide Broome, p. 66. Orme, vol. ii. p. 73, makes a similar statement.]

But he is approaching now, with doubt and anxiety as to his reception, the camp in which he is to receive from his confederate the reward of treason, or reproaches for his want of efficient co-operation on the day preceding. On reaching the camp, writes the contemporaneous historian of the period,[7] 'he alighted from his elephant, and the guard drew out and rested their arms, to receive him with the highest honours. Not knowing the meaning of this compliment, he drew back, as if he thought it a preparation to his destruction; but Colonel Clive, advancing hastily, embraced him, and saluted him Subahdar of Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa, which removed his fears.' They discoursed then for about an hour. Clive pressed upon him the great necessity of proceeding at once to {111}Murs.h.i.+dabad to look after Siraj-ud-daula, and to prevent the plunder of the treasury. The new Subahdar a.s.sented, and, returning to his army, set out and arrived at the capital the same evening. Clive, having sent friendly letters to the other chief conspirators, made a short march of six miles to the village of Bapta, and encamped there for the evening. At noon the day following he proceeded to Madhupur, whence he despatched Messrs. Watts and Walsh, with an escort of 100 sipahis, to arrange for the payments noted in a preceding page. These soon found that the treasury was not at the moment equal to the demand.

They arranged accordingly that one moiety should be paid down: of this moiety two-thirds in hard coin, one-third in jewels and plate; that the second moiety should be discharged by three equal payments, extending over three years.

[Footnote 7: Orme, vol. ii. p. 178.]

Whilst these negotiations were progressing, Clive, having ascertained that the other chief conspirators had accepted the terms offered to them, entered the city of Murs.h.i.+dabad (July 29), attended by 200 Europeans and 300 sipahis, and took up his quarters in the palace of Muradbagh, his followers encamping in the garden attached to it. Here he was waited upon by Miran, the eldest son of Mir Jafar, and with him he proceeded to the Subahdar's palace, where Mir Jafar and his princ.i.p.al officers were waiting to receive him. Clive, after saluting Mir Jafar, led him to the _masnad_, and, despite some affected unwillingness on the part of the Mir, seated him upon it, hailed him with the usual {112}forms as Subahdar, offering at the same time a nazar of 100 _ashrafis_.[8] He then, through an interpreter, addressed the a.s.sembled n.o.bles, congratulated them on the change of masters, and urged them to be faithful to Mir Jafar. The usual ceremonies followed, and the new ruler was publicly proclaimed throughout the city.

[Footnote 8: The value of an _ashrafia_, at a later period called by the English 'Gold Muhr,' was about 1_l_. 11_s_. 8_d_. A 'nazar' is a gift offered and received when people of rank pay their respects to a prince. It is more properly called 'Nazrana.']

It is impossible to quit this subject without recording, as briefly as possible, the fate of the relative Mir Jafar had betrayed and supplanted. Siraj-ud-daula, fleeing, as we have seen, from the field of Pla.s.sey, had reached Murs.h.i.+dabad the same night. The next morning the news of the total rout of his army reached him. He remained in his palace till dusk, then, accompanied by his favourite wife, he embarked on a boat, hoping to find refuge in the camp of M. Law, who was advancing from Bhagalpur. But at Rajmahal the strength of the rowers gave out, and the young prince rested for the night in the buildings of a deserted garden. There he was discovered, and, taken back, was made over to Mir Jafar. The interview which followed will recall to the English historical student the scene between James II and the Duke of Monmouth. There was the same vain imploring for life on the one side, the same inexorable refusal on the other. That same night Siraj-ud-daula was stabbed to death in his cell.

{113}Another scene, scarcely less revolting in its details, had occurred the preceding day. I have mentioned the two treaties made by the conspirators, the one the real treaty, the other a counterpart, drawn up to deceive Aminchand. In the distribution of the plunder it had become necessary to disclose the truth to the wily Bengal speculator. For him there need be but little pity. Entrusted with the secrets of the conspirators, he had threatened to betray them unless twenty lakhs of rupees should be secured to him in the general agreement. He was, in a word--to use an expression much in use at the present day--a 'blackmailer.' Clive and the officers with whom he was acting thought it justifiable to deceive such a man. The hour of his awakening had now arrived. The two treaties were produced, and Aminchand was somewhat brutally informed by Mr. Scrafton that the treaty in which his name appeared was a sham; that he was to have nothing. The sudden shock is said to have alienated his reason. But if so, the alienation was only temporary. He proceeded on a pilgrimage to Malda, and for a time abstained from business. But the old records of Calcutta show that he soon returned to his trade, for his name appears in many of the transactions in which the English were interested after the departure of Clive.

Nor was the dealing with Aminchand the only matter connected with the distribution of the spoil which caused ill-feeling. There had been much bitterness stirred up in the army by the fact that the {114}sailors who had fought at Pla.s.sey should receive their share of the amount promised to the navy in addition to that which would accrue to them as fighting men. A mixed Committee, composed of representatives of each branch of the military service, had decided against the claims of the sailors to draw from both sources, and Clive was appealed to to confirm it. But Clive, who, in matters of discipline, was unbending, overruled the decision of the Committee, placed its leader, Captain Armstrong, under arrest, and dissolved the Committee. In a dignified letter Clive pointed out to the Committee their error, and drew from them an apology. But the feeling rankled.

It displayed itself a little later in the acquittal of Captain Armstrong by a court-martial. In other respects the distribution of the money was harmful, for it led to excesses among officers and men, and, consequently, to a large increase of mortality.

Meanwhile the new Subahdar began to find that the State-cus.h.i.+on was not altogether a bed of roses. The enormous sums demanded by his English allies, and by other adherents, had forced him, as soon as Clive had left for Calcutta, to apply the screw to the wealthier of his new subjects. Even his fellow-conspirators felt the burden. Raja Dulab Ram, whom he had made Finance Minister, with the right to appropriate to himself five per cent. on all payments made by the Treasury, retired in dudgeon to his own palace, summoned his friends, and refused all intercourse with Mir Jafar. The Raja of Purniah and the Governor of {115}Bihar went into rebellion. The disaffection reached even the distant city of Dhaka, where the son of Sarfaraz, the representative of the ancient family ruling in Bengal, lived in retirement and hope. Under these circ.u.mstances Mir Jafar, though he well knew what it would cost him, made an application for a.s.sistance to Clive.

The English leader had expected the application. He had recognized long before that, in the East, power depends mainly on the length of the purse, and that, from having exhausted his treasury, Mir Jafar would be forced to sue to him _in forma pauperis_. Clive had studied the situation in all its aspects. The blow he had given to native rule by the striking down of the late Subahdar had rendered absolute government, such as that exercised by Siraj-ud-daula, impossible.

Thenceforth it had become indispensable that the English should supervise the native rule, leaving to the Subahdar the initiative and the semblance. Clive had reason to believe that whilst Mir Jafar would be unwilling to play such a role, he would yet, under pressure, play it. He had seen that the new ruler was so enamoured of the paraphernalia of power that, rather than renounce it, he would agree to whatever terms he might impose which would secure for him nominal authority. There was but one point regarding which he had doubts, and that was whether the proud Muhammadan n.o.bles to whom, in the days of the glories of the Mughal empire, great estates had been granted in Bengal, would tamely submit to a system {116}which would give to the Western invaders all the actual power, and to the chief of their own cla.s.s and religion only the outer show.

The application from Mir Jafar, then, found Clive in the mood to test this question. Mir Jafar had thrown himself into his hands; he would use the chance to make it clear that he himself intended to be the real master, whilst prepared to render to the Subahdar the respect and homage due to his position. Accordingly he started at once (November 17) for Murs.h.i.+dabad with all his available troops, now reduced at Calcutta to 400 English and 1300 sipahis, and reached that place on the 25th, bringing with him the disaffected Raja of Purniah.

His peace he made with the Mir Jafar; then, joined by the 250 Europeans he had left at Kasimbazar, he proceeded to Rajmahal, and encamped there close to the army of the Subahdar, who had marched it thither with the object of coercing Bihar.

This was Clive's opportunity. Bihar was very restive, and the Subahdar could not coerce its n.o.bles without the aid of the English.

Clive declined to render that aid unless the Subahdar should, before one of his soldiers marched, pay up all the arrears due to the English, and should execute every article of the treaty he had recently signed. For Mir Jafar the dilemma was terrible. He had not the money; he had made enemies by his endeavours to raise it. In this trouble he bethought him of Raja Dulab Ram, recently his Finance Minister, but whom {117}he had subsequently alienated. Through Clive's mediation a reconciliation was patched up with the Raja. Then the matter was arranged in the manner Clive had intended it should be, by giving the English a further hold on the territories of the Subahdar.

It was agreed that Clive should receive orders on the treasury of Murs.h.i.+dabad for twelve and a half lakhs of rupees; a.s.signments on the revenues of Bardwan, Kishangarh, and Hugli for ten and a half: for the payments becoming due in the following April, a.s.signments on the same districts for nineteen lakhs: then the cession of the lands south of Calcutta, so long deferred, was actually made--the annual rental being the sum of 222,958 rupees. These arrangements having been completed, Clive accompanied the Subahdar to the capital of Bihar, the famous city of Patna. There they both remained, the Subahdar awaiting the receipt of the imperial patents confirming him in his office; Clive resolved, whatever were the personal inconvenience to himself, not to quit Patna so long as the Subahdar should remain there. They stayed there three months, a period which Clive utilized to the best advantage, as it seemed to him at the moment, of his countrymen. The province of Bihar was the seat of the saltpetre manufacture. It was a monopoly[9] farmed to agents, who re-sold the saltpetre on terms bringing very large profits. Clive proposed to the {118}Subahdar that the East India Company should become the farmers, and offered a higher sum than any at which the monopoly had been previously rated. Mir Jafar was too shrewd a man not to recognize the enormous advantages which must accrue to his foreign protectors by his acquiescence in a scheme which would place in their hands the most important trade in the country. But he felt the impossibility of resistance. He was a bird in the hands of the fowler, and he agreed.

[Footnote 9: The possession of this monopoly became the cause of the troubles which followed the departure of Clive, and led to the life-and-death struggle with Mir Kasim.]

At length (April 14) the looked-for patents arrived. Accompanying that which gave to the usurpation of Mir Jafar the imperial sanction was a patent for Clive, creating him a n.o.ble of the Mughal empire, with the rank and t.i.tle of a Mansabdar[10] of 6000 horse. The invest.i.ture took place the day following. Then, after marching to Barh, the two armies separated, the Subahdar proceeding to Murs.h.i.+dabad; Clive, after a short stay at that place, to Calcutta.

[Footnote 10: For the nature of Mansab, and the functions of the holder of a Mansab (or Mansabdar) the reader is referred to Blochmann's _Ain-i-Akbari_. By the original regulations of Akbar, who founded the order, the Mansabdars ranked from the Dahbas.h.i.+, often Commander-in-Chief, to the Doh Hazari, Commander of 10,000 horse, to the Mansabdars of 6000 downwards. Vide _Ain-i-Akbari_ (Blochmann's), p. 237 and onwards.]

Clive had returned to Calcutta, May 24, absolute master of the situation. He had probed to the bottom the character of the Subahdar, and had realized that so long as he himself should remain in India, and Mir Jafar on the _masnad_, the English need fear no attack. But, in the East, one man's life, especially {119}life of a usurper, is never secure. In those days the risks he incurred were infinitely greater than they are now. Clive had noted the ill-disguised impatience of several of the powerful n.o.bles, more especially that of Miran, the son, and of Mir Kasim, the son-in-law, of the Subahdar. He had left, then, the greater part of his English soldiers at Kasimbazar, close to the native capital, to watch events, whilst he returned to Calcutta to trace there the plan of a fortress which would secure the English against attack. The fort so traced, received the name of its predecessor, built by Job Charnock in the reign of King William III, and called after him, Fort William.

Nearly one month later, June 20, there arrived from England despatches, penned after learning the recapture of Calcutta, but before any knowledge of the events which had followed that recapture, ordering a new const.i.tution for the administering of the Company's possessions in Bengal. The text of the const.i.tution, ridiculous under any circ.u.mstances, was utterly unadapted to the turn events had taken. It nominated ten men, not one of whom was competent for the task, to administer the affairs of Bengal. The name of Clive was not included amongst the ten names. It was not even mentioned.

Fortunately for the Company, the ten men nominated had a clearer idea of their own fitness than had their honourable masters. With one consent, they represented the true situation to the Court of Directors, and then, with the same unanimity, requested Clive {120}to accept the office of President, and to exercise its functions, until the pleasure of the Court should be known. Clive could not but accede to their request.

For, indeed, it was no time for weak administration and divided counsels. Again had the French attempted to recover the position in Southern India which Clive had wrested from them. Count Lally, one of the brilliant victors of Fontenoy, had been sent to Pondicherry with a considerable force, and the news had just arrived that he was marching on Tanjore, having recalled Bussy and his troops from the court of the Subahdar of the Deccan. With the news there had come also a request that the Government of Bengal would return to the sister Presidency the troops lent to her by the latter in the hour of the former's need to recover Calcutta.

Clive felt all the urgency of the request; the possible danger of refusing to comply with it; the full gravity of the situation at Madras. He also was one of those who had been lent. If the troops were to return, it was he who should lead them back. But he felt strongly that his place, and their place also, was in Bengal.

Especially was it so in the presence of the rumours, already circulating, of great successes achieved by Lally, and by the French fleet. Such rumours, followed by his departure, would certainly incite the n.o.bles of Bengal and Bihar, with or without Mir Jafar, to strike for the independence which they felt, one and all, he had wrested from them.

Matters, indeed, in the provinces of Bengal and {121}Bihar had come to bear a very threatening aspect. The treasury of Mir Jafar was exhausted by his payments; his n.o.bles were disaffected; the moneyed cla.s.ses bitterly hostile. Threatened on his northern frontier by a rebellious son of the King of Delhi and by the Nawab-Wazir of Oudh, Mir Jafar was in the state of mind which compels men of his stamp to have recourse to desperate remedies. For a moment he thought seriously of calling the Marathas to his a.s.sistance. Then the conviction forced itself upon him that the remedy would be worse than the disease, and he renounced the idea. At last, when the army of the rebel prince had penetrated within Bihar, and was approaching Patna, he resigned himself to the inevitable, and besought abjectly the a.s.sistance of Clive.

Clive had resolved to help him when affairs in Southern India reached a point which required his immediate attention. A letter from the Raja of Vizianagram reached him, informing him that the effect of the recall by Lally from Aurangabad of the troops under Bussy had been to leave the Northern Sirkars[11] without sufficient protection; that he and other Rajas had risen in revolt, and urgently demanded the despatch thither of some English troops, by whose aid they could expel the few Frenchmen left there. It was characteristic of Clive to seize the points of a difficult situation. Few men who had to meet on their front a dangerous invasion, would have dared to despatch, to a distant point, the troops he {122}had raised to repel that invasion, remaining himself to meet it from resources he would improvise. But, without a moment's hesitation or a solitary misgiving, Clive recognized that the opportunity had come to him to complete the work he had begun, six years before, in Southern India; that a chance presented itself to transfer the great influence exercised by Bussy at the court of the Subahdar of the Deccan to his own nation. Leaving to himself then the care of Bengal and Bihar he directed a trusted officer, Colonel Forde, to proceed (October 12) with 500 Europeans, 2000 sipahis, and some guns to Vizagapatam, to unite there with the Raja's troops, to take command; and to expel the French from the Northern Sirkars: then, if it were possible, to a.s.sume at the court of the Subahdar the influence which the French had till then exercised. It is only necessary here to say that Forde, who was one of the great Indian soldiers of the century, carried both points with skill and discretion. He beat the French in detail, and compelled them to yield their fortresses; and, when the Subahdar marched to their aid, he succeeded, with rare tact, in inducing him to cede to the English the whole of the territories he had conquered, and to transfer the paramount influence at his court to the English. The victories of Forde laid the foundation of a predominance which, placed some forty years later on a definite basis by the great Marquess Wellesley, exists to the present day. It is not too much to a.s.sert that this splendid result was due to {123}the unerring sagacity, the daring under difficult circ.u.mstances, of Robert Clive.

[Footnote 11: The districts of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, G.o.davari, and Krishna.]

Meanwhile the solicitations of Mir Jafar increased in importunity.

Even the Great Mughal called upon Clive, as a Mansabdar, to a.s.sist him to repress the rebellion of his son. Clive did not refuse. As soon as his preparation had been completed, he set out, February, 1759, for Murs.h.i.+dabad with 450 Europeans and 2500 sipahis, leaving the care of Calcutta to a few sick and invalids. He reached Murs.h.i.+dabad the 8th of March, and, accompanied by the Mir Jafar's army, entered Patna on the 8th of April. But the rumour of his march had been sufficient. Four days before the date mentioned the rebellious prince evacuated his positions before the city, and, eventually, sought refuge in Bundelkhand. Clive entered Patna in triumph; put down with a strong hand the disturbances in its vicinity; and then returned to Calcutta, in time enough to hear of the victorious course of Forde, although not of its more solid result.

Before he had quitted Patna, Mir Jafar had conferred upon him, as a personal jagir,[12] the Zamindari {124}of the entire districts south of Calcutta then rented by the East India Company.

[Footnote 12: A jagir is, literally, land given by a government as a reward for services rendered. A Zamindari, under the Mughal government, meant a tract, or tracts of land held immediately of the government on condition of paying the rent of it. By the deed given to Clive, the East India Company, which had agreed to pay the rents of those lands to the Subahdar, would pay them to Clive to whom the Subahdar had, by this deed, transferred his rights. It may here be added that the Company denied the right of Clive to the rents which amounted to 30,000 pounds per annum, and great bitterness ensued. The matter was ultimately compromised.]

Clive had scarcely returned to Calcutta when there ensued complications with the Dutch.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Holland had posed in the East as a rival, often a successful rival, of the three nations which had attempted to found settlements in those regions. She had established a monopoly of trade with the Moluccas, had possessed herself of several islands in the vicinity of the Straits, had expelled Portugal from Malacca (1641), from Ceylon (1658), from the Celebes (1663), and from the most important of her conquests on the coasts of Southern India (1665). In the beginning of the eighteenth century the Dutch-Indian Company possessed in the east seven administrations; four directorial posts; four military commands; and four factories. The Company was rich, and had but few debts.

Amongst the minor settlements it had made was the town of Chinsurah, on the Hugli, twenty miles above Calcutta. Chinsurah was a subordinate station, but, until the contests between the Nawab and the English, it had been a profitable possession. We have seen how, under the pressure of Clive, Mir Jafar had made to the English some important trade-concessions. It was certain that sooner or later, these would affect the trade, the profits, and the self-respect, of the European rivals of Great Britain. Prominent as traders amongst these were the Dutch. Amongst {125}the changes which they felt most bitterly were (1) the monopoly, granted to the English, of the saltpetre trade; (2) the right to search all vessels coming up the Hugli; (3) the employment of no other than English pilots. These injuries, as they considered them, rankled in their b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and they resolved to put a stop to them. To effect that purpose they entered into secret negotiations with Mir Jafar. These, after a time, ended in the entering into an agreement in virtue of which, whilst the Dutch covenanted to despatch to the Hugli a fleet and army sufficiently strong to expel the English from Bengal, the Subahdar pledged himself to prepare with the greatest secrecy an army to co-operate with them. This agreement was signed in November, 1758, just after Clive had despatched Forde, with all the troops then available, to the Northern Sirkars, but before his march to Patna, recorded, with its consequences, in the preceding pages. The secret had been well kept, for Clive had no suspicion of the plot. He knew he had the Subahdar in the hollow of his hand, so far as related to the princes of the soil; he knew the French were powerless to aid the Subahdar: and he never thought of the little settlement of Chinsurah.

In the month of June, 1759, just following the return of Clive to Calcutta, the Mir Jafar received from the Dutch a secret intimation that their plans were approaching maturity. He stayed then but a short time at the English seat of government, but returned {126}thither in October, to be at hand when the expected crisis should occur. Meanwhile rumours had got about that a considerable Dutch fleet was approaching the Hugli, and, in fact, a large Dutch vessel, with Malayan soldiers, did arrive at Diamond Harbour. Clive had at once demanded from the Dutch authorities an explanation, at the same time that he innocently apprised Mir Jafar of the circ.u.mstance, and of the rumour. The Dutch authorities explained that the s.h.i.+p had been bound for Nagapatnam, but had been forced by stress of weather to seek refuge in the Hugli.

In October, whilst Mir Jafar was actually in Calcutta, the Dutch made their spring. It was a very serious attack, for the Dutch had four s.h.i.+ps, carrying each thirty-six guns; two, each carrying twenty-six; one, carrying sixteen, and had on board these 700 European soldiers and 800 Malays: at Chinsurah they had 150 Europeans, and a fair number of native levies: behind them they had the Subahdar. To meet them Clive had but three Indiamen, each carrying thirty guns, and a small despatch-boat. Of soldiers, he had, actually in Calcutta and the vicinity, 330 Europeans, and 1200 sipahis. The nearest of the detachments in the country was too distant to reach the scene of action in time to take part in the impending struggle. There was aid, however, approaching, that he knew not of.

Clive revelled in danger. In its presence his splendid qualities shone forth with a brilliancy which {127}has never been surpa.s.sed.

His was the soul that animated the material figures around him. His the daring with which he could inspire his subordinates; imbue them with his own high courage; and make them, likewise, 'conquer the impossible.'

His conduct on the occasion I am describing is pre-eminently worthy of study. A short interview with Mir Jafar filled his mind with grave suspicions. He did not show them. He even permitted Mir Jafar to proceed to Hugli to have an interview with the Dutch authorities. But when the Subahdar despatched to him from that place a letter in which he stated that he had simply granted to the Dutch some indulgences with respect to their trade, he drew the correct conclusion, and prepared to meet the double danger.

In his summary of the several courses he would have to adopt he dismissed altogether the Subahdar from his mind. Him he feared not.

With the Dutch he would deal and deal summarily. He had already despatched special messengers to summon every available man from the outposts. He now called out the militia, 300 men, five-sixths of whom were Europeans, to defend the town and fort; he formed half a troop of volunteer hors.e.m.e.n, and enlisted as volunteer infantry all the men who could not ride; he ordered the despatch-boat to sail with all speed to the Arakan coast, where she would find a squadron under Admiral Cornish ready to send him aid; he ordered up, to lie just below the fort, the three Indiamen of {128}which I have spoken: he strengthened the two batteries commanding the most important pa.s.sages of the river near Calcutta, and mounted guns on the nascent Fort William. Then, when he had completed all that 'Prudentia' could suggest, the rival G.o.ddess, 'Fortuna'[13] smiled upon him. Just as he was completing his preparations, Colonel Forde and Captain Knox, fresh from the conquest of the Northern Sirkars, arrived to strengthen his hand. To the former Clive a.s.signed the command of the whole of his available force in the field: to the latter, the charge of the two batteries.

[Footnote 13: 'Nullum numen abest si sit Prudentia; nos te, Nos facimus Fortuna, deam.' _Juvenal_.]