1759.

BOOK IV. Subahdar to march to the defence of his own territories; the French being occupants under his authority, and subject to his law, while the English intended to wrest the country wholly from his hands. The views of the courtiers of the Subahdar happened at the moment to coincide with his own wishes to preserve for himself the protection of the French, and he put his army in motion towards Masulipatam.

He attacks

This prevented not the English commander from hastening to attack the Masulipatam. place. He arrived on the 6th of March. The French treated his pretensions with ridicule. Masulipatam, for an Indian town, and against Indian means of attack, was of no inconsiderable strength: The defenders within were more numerous than the besiegers: A considerable army of observation was left in the field: The Subahdar, with the grand army of Deccan was on the march: And a reinforcement of Europeans was expected from Pondicherry. A sum of money for the English had arrived from Bengal; but the French army of observation rendered it dangerous, or rather impracticable, to send it to the camp. The English troops mutinied for want of pay; and it was with much difficulty, and by large promises, that they were induced to resume the discharge of their duty.

Three batteries continued a hot fire on three different parts of the town, without having effected any considerable damage, from the 25th of March to the 6th of April, when the situation of the English began to wear a very threatening aspect. Salabut Jung was approaching; the French army of observation had retaken Rajamundri, and might effect a junction with the Subahdar; it was impossible for the English now to retreat by the way which they had come, or even to embark at Masulipatam with their cannon and heavy stores; the monsoon had begun; the reinforcement from Pondicherry was expected; and, to crown all, the engineers reported that no more than two days' ammunition for the batteries remained unconsumed. In these circumstances, however apparently desperate, Colonel Forde resolved to try the chance of an assault. The batteries were directed to play with the utmost activity during the whole of the day; and the troops to be under arms at ten at night. The attack, in order to divide the attention of the enemy, and render uncertain the point of danger, was to be in three places at once; and the three divisions of the army were to be on their respective grounds exactly at midnight. The struggle was expected to be severe; from the superior numbers of the enemy, and the little damage which the works had sustained. A part of the army faultered considerably; nor did all the officers meet the danger with perfect composure. They got, however, within

the walls with comparative ease; where, being met by superior forces, they might CHAP: V. have paid dear for their temerity, had not surprise aided their arms, and had not M. Conflans, confounded by uncertainty, and by various and exaggerated reports, ́after a short resistance, surrendered the place.

1759.

favourable

treaty with the

Deccan.

Within one week two ships appeared with a reinforcement of 300 troops from Pondicherry. The Subahdar, whose arrival had been anticipated but a very few days by the fall of Masulipatam, found himself in circumstances but ill calculated to carry on by himself a war against the English. He was anxious on the other hand, being now deprived of the French, to cultivate a friendship with the Concludes a English, and to obtain from them a body of troops, to protect him against the dangerous ambition of his brother Nizam Ali, who since the departure of Bussy Subahdar of had returned at the head of a considerable body of troops, and filled him with serious alarm. Colonel Forde repaired to his camp, where he was received with great distinction, and concluded a treaty, by which a considerable territory about Masulipatam was ceded to the English, and the Subahdar engaged to allow no French settlement for the future to exist in his dominions. The French army of observation, which by the same treaty it was stipulated should cross the Kistna in fifteen days, joined the army of Bassalut Jung, the elder brother of the Subahdar, who had accompanied him on the expedition to the Northern Circars, and now marched away to the south. The two ships which had brought the reinforcement from Pondicherry, upon discovering the loss of Masulipatam, sailed away to the north, and landed the troops at Ganjam. They made several efforts tó render some useful service, but entirely fruitless; and after enduring a variety of privations, returned greatly reduced in numbers, to Pondicherry.*

Prince, and

lahabad confe

While the detachment from the army of Bengal was engaged in these opera- The Mogul tions, the solicitude of Clive was attracted by an enemy of high pretensions in a the Nabobs of different quarter. Toward the close of the history of the Mogul Emperors, it Oude and Alappeared that the eldest son of the Emperor Aulumgeer II., not daring to trust derate against Bengal. himself in the hands of the Vizir, the daring Umad al Mulk, by whom the Emperor was held in a state of wretched servitude, had withdrawn into the district of Nujeeb ad Dowla, the Rohilla, who was an opponent of the Vizir, and a partisan of the Imperial family. At this time, the revolution effected by the English in Bengal, the unpopularity and disorders of Jaffier's administration, and the presumed weakness of his government, excited hopes in the neighbouring chiefs that an invasion of his territories might be turned to advantage. The

1759.

Book IV. imagination of Mahummud Koollee Khan, the Subahdar of Allahabad, was the most highly elevated by the prospect of sharing in the spoils of the English Nabob. He was instigated by two powerful Zemindars, the Rajas, Sunder Sing, and Bulwant Sing. And the Nabob of Oude, his near kinsman, one of the most powerful chiefs in Hindustan, joined with apparent ardour in the design. The Nabob of Oude entertained a double purpose; that of obtaining, if any thing was to be seized, as great a share as possible of Bahar or Bengal ; and that of watching his opportunity, while his ally and kinsman was intent upon his expected acquisitions, to seize by force or stratagem the fort of Allahabad. The influence of the imperial name appeared to them of no small importance in the war with Jaffier; and as the prince, who had fled into Rohilcund, was soliciting them for protection, it was agreed to place him ostensibly at the head of the enterprise. Preparations were made; and the Prince, having obtained from the Emperor legal investiture as Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, crossed the Carumnassa, a river which bounds the province of Bahar, towards the conclusion of the year 1758. From the exhaustion of the treasury when Jaffier was raised to the government, from the great sums which he had paid to the English, the difficulty of extracting money from the people, his own negligent and wasteful administration, and the cruel and brutal character of his son Meeran, Jaffier was ill-prepared to meet a formidable invasion. From his own rabble of ill-paid and mutinous soldiers, he was obliged to turn, and place all his hopes of safety in the bravery and skill of the English, whom, before the news of this impending danger, he had been plotting to expel. The English appear to have had no foresight of such an event. By the absence of the troops in the Northern Circars, their force was so inconsiderable, and both they and Jaffier needed so much time to prepare, that had the invaders proceeded with tolerable expedition and skill, they might have gained, without difficulty, the whole province of Bahar. A blow like this at so critical a period would have shaken to such a degree the tottering government of Jaffier, that the incipient power of the English might have despaired of restoring it; and a momentary splendour might again have beamed from the throne of the Moguls.

The march of the Prince and his confederates towards Patna placed Ramnarain the Governor between two dreadful fires. To Jaffier, he neither felt, nor owed attachment. But joining the prince, he risked every thing, if Jaffier; adhering to Jaffier, he risked as much, if the prince should succeed. The situation was calculated to exercise Hindu duplicity and address. An application to Mr. Amyatt, the chief of the English factory, was the first of his steps; from

1759.

whom as he could receive no protection, he expected such latitude of advice, as CHAP. V. would afford a colour to any measures he might find it agreeable to pursue. It happened as he foresaw. Mr. Amyatt, informing him that the English would remain at Patna, if assistance should arrive; if not, would retire from the danger; frankly and sincerely instructed him, to amuse the Prince as long as possible; but if all hopes of succour should fail, to provide for himself as events might direct. Ramnarain studied to conduct himself in such a manner as to be able to join with the greatest advantage the party for which fortune should declare. He wrote to Bengal importuning for succour; and he at the same time privately sent a messenger to propitiate the Prince. He was even induced, when the English of the factory had retired down the river, to pay him a visit in his camp; and the troops of the Prince might have entered Patna along with him. The opportunity however was lost; and the observations which the Hindu made upon the Prince's camp and upon the counsels which guided him, induced him to shut the gates of the city when he returned, and to prepare for defence.

Clive.

The hardihood of Clive was seldom overcome by scruples. Yet the Emperor Conduct of Aulumgeer was legitimate sovereign of Bengal; and had undoubted right to appoint his eldest son to be his deputy in the government of that province: To oppose him, was undisguised rebellion.* The English forces, a slender band, marched to Moorshedabad, and, being joined by the best part of Jaffier's troops, commanded by Meeran, they advanced towards Patna; where Ramnarain had amused the prince by messages and overtures as long as possible, and afterwards opposed him. Though the attack was miserably conducted, a breach was made, and the courage and resources of Ramnarain would have been soon exhausted when intelligence reached the camp that the Subahdar of Oude, who was on his march with an army under pretence of joining the prince, had treacherously The confedeseized the fortress of Allahabad. Mahummud Koollee Khan, by whom the by the trea racy dissolved, prince's affairs were conducted, and whose forces were his entire support, Nabob of chery of the resolved to march immediately for the recovery or protection of his own domi- Oude. nions; and though he was joined at four miles' distance from the city by M. Law, who had hastened from Chutterpore with his handful of Frenchmen, and importuned him to return to Patna, of which he engaged to put him in possession in two days, the infatuated Nabob continued his march, and being per

* The Prince, Holwell assures us, (Memorial, p. 2) repeatedly offered to grant the English their own terms, if they would assist him in recovering his rights. On what side justice lay, is evident enough. On what side policy, whether on that which Clive rejected, or that which he chose, is a more subtle inquiry.

Book IV. suaded by the Subahdar of Oude to throw himself upon his generosity, was first made a prisoner, and afterwards put to death.

1759.

When Clive and Meeran approached, the enemy had already departed from Patna; and the unhappy prince, the descendant of so many illustrious sovereigns, the legal Subahdar of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, and the undoubted heir of a throne, once among the loftiest on the globe, was so bereft of friends and resources, that he was induced to write a letter to Clive, requesting a sum of money for his subsistence, and offering in requital to withdraw from the province. Upon these easy terms was Clive, by his good fortune, enabled to extricate himself from a situation of considerable difficulty. Ramnarain obtained, or it was convenient to grant him, credit for fidelity. The Zemindars who had joined the Prince hastened to make their peace; and Clive returned to Calcutta in the month of June.*

This was a fortunate expedition for Clive. So unbounded was the gratitude of Jaffier, that after obtaining for his defender the rank of an Omrah of the empire, he bestowed upon him, under the title of Jaghire, the whole of the revenue or rent, which the Company, in quality of Zemindar, were bound to pay, for the territory which they held round Calcutta. The grant amounted to the enormous sum of 30,000l. per annum. "Clive's Jaghire" is an expression of frequent recurrence, and of considerable weight, in the History of India. The Shazada (such was the title by which the eldest son of the Mogul was then distinguished in Bengal) was thus fortunately repulsed, and Colonel Forde with his troops was no less fortunately returned from the south, when the A large rein- English were alarmed by the news of a great armament, fitted out by the Dutch troops sent to at Batavia, and destined for Bengal. The Dutch were not then at war with the Dutch set- England, and being excited to cupidity by the lofty reports of the rich harvest

forcement of

tlement in

Bengal.

lately reaped by the English in Bengal, possibly aimed at no more than a share of the same advantages, or to balance before its irresistible ascendency the increasing power of their rivals. They had received encouragement from Jaffier; but that ruler, since the invasion of the Mogul Prince, felt so powerfully his. dependence on the English, that, when called upon by them for the use of his authority and power, he durst not decline. In the month of August a Dutch ship arrived in the river, filled with troops; and this was speedily followed by

* Scott's History of Bengal, p. 379-391; Seer Mutakhareen, vol. ii. part ii. p. 42-89; Francklin's Shah Aulum, p. 8-11; First Report of the Select Committee in 1772; Holwell's Memorial, p. 2.