1764. Book IV. temper of the troops, the hazard ought not to be incurred. At the beginning of April, when the enemy crossed the Ganges, and began to advance, the English, straitened for provisions, and afraid lest by a circuitous route a detachment of the hostile army should get between them and Patna, retreated to that city and encamped under the walls. Early in the morning of the 3d of May the enemy approached in order of battle, and began a cannonade, which before noon was converted into a general and vigorous attack. Sumroo, with the choice of the infantry, supported by a large body of cavalry, assailed the English in front; while the main body of the army made an onset in the rear. The English army, and particularly the Sepoys, who bore the principal weight of the attack, behaved with great steadiness and gallantry. It was sun-set before the enemy were completely repulsed. At that time the English were too much worn-out with fatigue to be able to pursue. Their loss, at least in Europeans, was inconsiderable: the slaughter of the assailants great. From this day till the 30th the enemy hovered about Patna, continually shifting their position, and keeping the English in perpetual expectation of a renewed attack, without allowing them an opportunity, such at least as Carnac thought it prudent to seize, of acting on the offensive. During this time Suja Dowla opened a correspondence with Meer Jaffier, the new Nabob: But as the English would listen to no proposal without the preliminary condition of surrendering Meer Causim, Sumroo, and the deserters; and as the pretensions of Suja Dowla extended to nothing less than the province of Bahar, it led to no agreement. The rains being now at hand, and the treasury of the Vizir severely feeling the burden of so great an army in the field, he marched away on the 30th with great expedition. At this time the Emperor, uneasy under the treatment which he received from the greedy and unprincipled Vizir, sent a private message, offering to form a separate connexion with the English; but Major Carnac refused to open a correspondence. Without venturing to pursue the enemy, he sent a strong detachment across the Ganges, to threaten Suja Dowla's frontier; which had the effect of making him hasten to his own dominions. continues. Mutinous dis- In the month of May, Major, afterwards Sir Hector Munro, arrived from position in the English army Bombay with a body of troops, partly King's and partly Company's; and hastened with them to Patna, to take the command of the army. He found the troops, Europeans as well as Sepoys, extremely mutinous, deserting to the enemy, threatening to carry off their officers, demanding higher pay, and a 1764. large donation, promised, as they affirmed, by the Nabob.* The Major resolved CHAP. V. to subdue this spirit by the severest measures. He had hardly arrived when a whole battalion of Sepoys, with their arms and accoutrements, went off to join the enemy. He immediately detached a body of troops on whom he thought he could depend, to pursue them and bring them back. They overtook them in the night, when asleep, and made them prisoners. The Major, ready to receive them with the troops under arms, ordered their officers to select fifty, whom they deemed the most depraved and mischievous, and of this fifty to select again twenty-four of the worst. He then ordered a field court-martial, composed of their own black officers, to be immediately held; and addressed the Court, impressing them with a sense of the destruction which impended over an army in which crimes like these were not effectually repressed. The prisoners were found guilty of mutiny and desertion, and sentenced to suffer death in any manner which the commander should direct. He ordered four of them to be immediately tied to the guns, and blown away; when four grenadiers presented themselves, and begged, as they had always had the post of honour, that they should first be allowed to suffer. After the death of these four men, the European officers of the battalions of Sepoys who were then in the field came to inform the Major that the Sepoys would not suffer the execution of any more. He ordered the artillery officers to load the field-pieces with grape; and drew up the Europeans with the guns in their intervals. He then desired the officers to Subdued. return to the heads of their battalions; after which he commanded the battalions to ground their arms, and assured them if a man attempted to move that he would give orders to fire. Sixteen more of the twenty-four men were then blown away; the remaining four were sent to another place of cantonment and executed in the same manner. Nothing is more singular, than that the same men, in whom it is endeavoured to raise to the highest pitch the contempt of death; and who may be depended upon for meeting it, without hesitation, at the hand of the enemy; should yet tremble, and be subdued, when threatened with it by their own officers. Buxar. The rains drawing to a close, Munro appointed the 15th of September as the Battle of day of rendezvous from the several places of cantonment. He then advanced towards the Soane, to which the enemy had forwarded several bodies of horse; and where they had thrown up some breast-works, to impede the passage of their *It appears by Munro's evidence (First Report, Committee, 1772) that such a promise was made to them, and through Major Adams. 1764. 2 Book IV. assailants. Having sent a detachment to cross the river at some distance below, for the purpose of attacking the enemy at a concerted moment, and covering the passage of the troops, he gained the opposite side without molestation; and advanced toward Buxar, where the hostile armies were encamped. For the last two or three days the line of march was harassed by the enemy's cavalry; and the Major encamped on the 22d of October within shot of the enemy's camp, entrenched with the Ganges on its left, and the village and fort of Buxar in the rear. An attack was intended the same night, but, the spies not coming in till towards morning, could not take place. About eight o'clock in the morning the enemy were seen advancing; and as the troops were encamped in order of battle, they were in a few minutes ready for action. The battle began about nine, and lasted till twelve; when the enemy gave way, and retired slowly, blowing up some tumbrils and magazines of powder as they withdrew. The Major ordered the line to break into columns and follow: but the enemy, by destroying a bridge of boats upon a stream of water two miles from the field of battle, effectually impeded the pursuit. This was one of the most critical and important victories in the history of the British wars in that part of the globe. It broke completely the force of Suja Dowla, the only Mogul chief who retained till this period any considerable strength; it placed the Emperor himself under the protection of the English; and left them without dispute the greatest power in India. Negotiations with the Em bob of Oude. The very day after the battle, the Emperor sent his application to the English peror and Na- commander; who immediately wrote to the Presidency for directions; and received authority to conclude an agreement. The Emperor complained that he had been the state prisoner of Suja Dowla; and before the answer from Calcutta arrived, marched along with the English, and encamped with his guards close to them every night. When the army arrived at Benares, Suja Dowla sent his minister with overtures of peace; promising twenty-five lacks of rupees to reimburse the Company for the expenses of the war; twenty-five lacks to the army; and eight lacks to the Commander himself. The preliminary surrender of Meer Causim and Sumroo was still however demanded. The perfidious Vizir had already violated the laws of hospitality and honour towards his wretched guest. A quarrel was picked, on account of the non-payment of the monthly subsidy which the ExNabob had promised for the troops employed in attempting his restoration; the unhappy fugitive was arrested in his tent; and his treasures were seized. Still the Nabob dreaded the infamy of delivering him up; but, if it would satisfy the English, he offered to let him escape. With regard to Sumroo, his proposal As this 1764. was, to invite him to an entertainment, and have him dispatched in presence CHAP. V. of any English gentleman who might be sent to witness the scene. mode of disposing of their enemies was not agreeable to English morality, the negotiation ceased: but Meer Causim, who dreaded the conclusion to which it might lead, contrived to escape with his family and a few friends into the Rohilla country, whither he had providently, before the plunder of his treasures, dispatched a dependant with some of his jewels. give the Emperor the do minions of the Nabob of The negotiation with the Emperor proceeded with less obstruction. It was Agreement to proposed, and, as far as mutual approbation extended, agreed and contracted; that the English, by virtue of the imperial grant, should obtain possession of Gauzeepore, and the rest of the territory of Bulwant Sing, the Zemindar of Oude. Benares; that on the other hand they should establish the Emperor in the possession of Allahabad, and the rest of the dominions of Suja Dowla; and the Emperor engaged to reimburse them afterwards, out of the royal revenues, for the whole of the expense which this service might oblige them to incur. between Jaffier In the mean time affairs of no trivial importance were transacting in the State of affairs Council. They had been extremely urgent with Meer Jaffier to leave the army, and the Counand come down to Calcutta, before Major Carnac quitted the command. The cil. treasury of the Company was in a most exhausted state; and every effort was to be used to make Jaffier yield it a more abundant supply. In addition to the sums for which he had contracted in the recent treaty, a promise was drawn from him to pay five lacks per month toward the expense of the war so long as it should last. But his former engagements to the Company were not yet discharged. The payments also to individuals, stipulated under the title of compensation for losses, were swelled to an oppressive amount. When this article was first inserted in the treaty, the Nabob was informed, that the demand at the utmost would extend to a sum about ten lacks. That demand, however, was soon after stated at twenty, then at thirty, afterwards at forty, and at last was fixed at fifty-three lacks of rupees. We are assured by a Director of the Company, "That all delicacy was laid aside in the manner in which payment was obtained for this sum, of which seven-eighths was for losses sustained, or said to be sustained, in an illicit monopoly of the necessaries of life, carried on against the orders of the Company, and to the utter ruin of many thousands of the India merchants; that of the whole one half was soon extorted from him, though part of the payments to the Company was still undischarged, and though the Company was sinking under the burden of the war, and obliged to borrow great sums of money of their servants at eight per cent. interest, and even with 1765. Book IV. that assistance unable to carry on the war and their investment, but obliged to send their ships half loaded to Europe."* By the revenues of the three ceded districts, added to the monthly payment for the war, "the Company," we are informed by Clive," became possessed of one half of the Nabob's revenues. He was allowed,” says that great informant, "to collect the other half for himself; but in fact he was no more than a banker for the Company's servants, who could draw upon him" (meaning for presents)" as often, and to as great an amount, as they pleased."† To all other causes of embarrassment in the finances of Jaffier were added the abuses perpetrated in conducting the private trade of the Company's servants, which not only disturbed the collection of the taxes, but impeded the industry of the whole country. In such circumstances it was to no purpose to harass the Nabob for larger payments. The importunities to which he was subjected § only conspired, with the infirmities of age and of a body worn out with pleasure, to hurry him to his grave. After languishing several weeks at Calcutta, he returned to Moorshedabad, loaded with disease, and died in January, 1765. Death of Choice of a new Nabob, The making of a new Nabob, the most distinguished of all occasions for presents, was never disagreeable to the Company's servants. The choice lay between the next surviving son of Jaffier, Nujeem ad Dowla, a youth of about Scrafton's Observations on Vansittart's Narrative, p. 48, 49. + Clive's Speech, March 30th, 1772, in Almon's Debates, x. 14. Mr. Gray, resident at Maulda, of date January, 1764, wrote to the President," Since my arrival here, I have had an opportunity of seeing the villainous practices used by the Calcutta gomastahs in carrying on their business. The government have certainly too much reason to complain of their want of influence in their country, which is torn to pieces by a set of rascals, who in Calcutta walk in rags, but when they are set out on gomastahships, lord it over the country, imprisoning the ryots and merchants, and writing and talking in the most insolent, domineering manner to the fouzdars and officers." In like manner, Mr. Senior, Chief at Cossimbuzar, wrote, in March, 1764, " It would amaze you, the number of complaints that daily come before me of the extravagances committed by our agents and gomastahs all over the country." See Verelst, p. 49. $ "Your Committee then examined Archibald Swinton, Esq. who was Captain in the army in Bengal in 1765, and also Persian interpreter and Aid-de-Camp to General Carnac: And he informed your Committee, That he had frequent conversations with Meer Jaffier about the five lacks of rupees per month, stipulated to be paid by Meer Jaffier in October, 1764, and the other demands made on him by the Board; of which he frequently heard Meer Jaffier complain bitterly; and of all the demands made upon him at that time, which had not been stipulated in the treaty with the Company on his restoration-particularly the increased demand for restitution of losses, and the donation to the navy." Third Report, Committee, 1772. |