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EUROPEAN TRADERS, 1872-81.

377

and Austrian Kaiser failed to grasp in the 18th century, has been gradually acquired by German merchants in our own day. An important part of the commerce of Calcutta and Bombay Revival of is now conducted by German firms; German mercantile agents are to be found in the rice districts, the jute districts, the cotton districts; and persons of German nationality have rapidly increased in the Indian Census returns.

German trade in

India.

England emerged the prize-winner from the long contest of Causes of England's the European nations for India. Her success was partly the success in good gift of fortune, but chiefly the result of four elements in India. the national character. There was-first, a marvellous patience and self-restraint in refusing to enter on territorial conquests or projects of Indian aggrandizement, until she had gathered strength enough to succeed. Second, an indomitable persistence in those projects once they were entered on ; and a total incapacity, on the part of her servants in India, of being stopped by defeat. Third, an admirable mutual confidence of the Company's servants in each other in times of trouble. Fourth, and chief of all, the resolute support of the English nation at home. England has never doubted that she must retrieve, at whatever strain to herself, every disaster which may befall Englishmen in India; and she has never sacrificed the work of her Indian servants to the exigencies of her diplomacy in Europe. She was the only European power Fixed which unconsciously but absolutely carried out these two policy of principles of policy. The result of that policy, pursued during in India. two and a half centuries, is the British India of to-day.

England

The extent to which the chief continental nations of Europe European now resort to British India, may be inferred from the following traders in 1872 and figures. These figures are exclusive of Europeans in French 1881. and Portuguese territory, and in the Native States. Germans numbered 655 in 1872, and 1170 in 1881; French, 631 in 1872, and 1013 in 1881; Portuguese, 426 in 1872, and 147 in 1881; Italians, 282 in 1872, and 788 in 1881; Greeks, 127 in 1872, and 195 in 1881; Swedes, 73 in 1872, and 337 in 1881; Russians, 45 in 1872, and 204 in 1881; Dutch, 70 in 1872, and 79 in 1881; Norwegians, 58 in 1872, and 358 in 1881; Danes, 45 in 1872, and 126 in 1881; Spaniards, 32 in 1872, and 87 in 1881; Belgians, 20 in 1872, and 180 in 1881; Swiss, 19 in 1872, and 87 in 1881; Turks, 18 in 1872, and 355 in 1881; Austrians, 53 in 1872, and 296 in 1881.

Our first

territorial

possession. Madras,

1639.

Southern

1707.

Local rulers.

CHAPTER XV.

HISTORY OF BRITISH RULE (1757 TO 1885 A.D.).

THE political history of the British in India begins in the 18th century with the French wars in the Karnátik. Fort St. George, the nucleus of Madras, founded by Francis Day in 1639, was our earliest possession. The French settlement of Pondicherri, about 100 miles lower down the Coromandel coast, was established in 1674; and for many years the English and French traded side by side without rivalry or territorial ambition. The English paid a rent of 1200 pagodas (£500) to the deputies of the Mughal Empire when Aurangzeb annexed the south, and on two occasions bought off a besieging army by a heavy bribe.

After the death of Aurangzeb in 1707, the whole of India after Southern India became practically independent of Delhi. In the Deccan Proper, the Nizám-ul-Mulk founded a hereditary dynasty, with Haidarábád for its capital, which exercised a nominal authority over the entire south. The Karnátik, or the lowland tract between the central plateau and the eastern sea, was ruled by a deputy of the Nizám, known as the Nawab of Arcot. Farther south, Trichinopoli was the capital of a Hindu Rájá; Tanjore formed another Hindu kingdom under a degenerate descendant of Sivaji. Inland, Mysore was gradually growing into a third Hindu State; while everywhere local chieftains, called pálegárs or naiks, were in semi-independent possession of citadels or hill-forts. These represented the fief-holders of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagar ; and many of them had maintained a practical independence since its fall in 1565.

French

Such was the condition of affairs in Southern India when war broke out between the English and the French in Europe in 1744. Dupleix was at that time Governor of Pondicherri, and Eng and Clive was a young writer at Madras. An English fleet Karnátik. first appeared on the Coromandel coast, but Dupleix, by a judicious present, induced the Nawab of Arcot to interpose and prevent hostilities. In 1746, a French squadron arrived,

lish in the

FRENCH WARS IN KARNATIK.

under the command of La Bourdonnais.

379

Madras surrendered First

French

almost without a blow; and the only settlement left to the war, English was Fort St. David, a few miles south of Pondicherri, 1746-48. where Clive and a few other fugitives sought shelter. The We lose Nawab, faithful to his impartial policy, marched with 10,000 Madras, 1746. men to drive the French out of Madras, but was defeated. In 1748, an English fleet arrived under Admiral Boscawen, and attempted the siege of Pondicherri, while a land force co-operated under Major Lawrence, whose name afterwards became associated with that of Clive. The French repulsed all attacks; but the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in the same year, restored Madras to the English.1

war,

The first war with the French was merely an incident in the Second French greater contest in Europe. The second war had its origin in Indian politics, while England and France were at peace. 1750-61. The easy success of the French arms had inspired Dupleix Dupleix. with the ambition of founding a French empire in India, under the shadow of the Muhammadan powers. Disputed successions at Haidarábád and at Arcot supplied his opportunity. On both thrones Dupleix placed his nominees, and posed as the arbiter of the entire south. The English of Madras, under the instinct of self-preservation, had supported another candidate to the throne of Arcot, in opposition to the nominee of Dupleix. Our candidate was Muhammad Ali, afterwards known in history as Wálá-jáh. The war which ensued between the French and English in exhaustively described by Orme. stands out conspicuously is the defence of Arcot by Clive in 1751. This heroic feat, even 1751. more than the battle of Plassey, spread the fame of English valour throughout India. Shortly afterwards, Clive returned to England in ill-health, but the war continued fitfully for many years. On the whole, English influence predominated in the Karnátik or Madras coast, and their candidate, Muhammad Alí, maintained his position at Arcot. But, inland, the French were supreme in the Deccan, and they were able to seize the maritime tract called 'the Northern Circars.'

Southern India has been The one incident that Clive's capture and subsequent

defence of Arcot,

The final struggle did not take place until 1760. In that Wandeyear Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote won the decisive wash,

1 The authorities for the French and English wars in Southern India are (1) Orme's Indostan, 2 vols., Madras reprint, 1861; (2) Mill's History of British India (ed. 1840); and (3) for the French views of those transactions, Colonel Malleson's admirable History of the French in India (London, 1868), and Final Struggles of the French in India (London, 1878).

1760.

Gingi sur rendered, 5th April 1761.

The
English

victory of Wandewash over the French General, Lally, and proceeded to invest Pondicherri, which was starved into capitulation in January 1761. A few months later the hillfortress of Ginjee (Gingi) also surrendered.1 In the words of Orme: 'That day terminated the long hostilities between the two rival European powers in Coromandel, and left not a single ensign of the French nation avowed by the authority of its Government in any part of India.' 2

Meanwhile, the narrative of British conquest shifts with Clive to Bengal. The first English settlement near the Gangetic in Bengal, 1634-96. estuary was Pippli in Orissa, at which the East India Company was permitted to trade in 1634, five years before the foundation of Madras. The river on which Pippli stood has since silted up, and the very site of the English settlement is now a matter of conjecture. In 1640, a factory was opened at Húglí; in 1642, at Balasor; and in 1681, Bengal was erected into a separate presidency, though still subordinate to Madras. The name of Calcutta is not heard of in the Company's records till 1686, when Job Charnock, the English chief, was forced to quit Húgli by the deputy of Aurangzeb, and settled lower down the river on the opposite bank. There he acquired a grant of the three petty villages of Sutanati, Gobindpur, and Kálíghát (Calcutta), and founded the original Fort William in 1696.

Native At the time of Aurangzeb's death, in 1707, the Nawab or rulers of Governor of Bengal was Murshid Kulí Khán, known also in Bengal, 1707-56. European history as Jafar Khán. By birth a Bráhman, and

brought up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative ability of a Hindu with the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the capital of Bengal had been at Dacca, on the eastern frontier of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the Portuguese and of the Arakanese or Maghs could be most easily checked. Murshid Kulí Khán transferred his residence to Murshidábád, in the immediate neighbourhood of Kásimbázár, which was then the chief emporium of the Gangetic trade. The English, the French, and the Dutch had each factories at Kásimbázár, as well as at Dacca, Patná, and Maldah.

1 A full account of GINGI is given, sub verbo, in The Imperial Gazetteer of India. In like manner, the local history of each Presidency, Province, or town is treated in the separate article upon it, and can therefore only be very briefly summarized here. Thus, with regard to Calcutta, the reader is referred to article CALCUTTA in The Imperial Gazetteer of India.

2 Orme's History of Military Transactions in Indostan (1803), Madras reprint, vol. ii. p. 733 (1861).

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA.

381

head

quarters,

Calcutta was the head-quarters of the English, Chandarnagar European of the French, and Chinsurah of the Dutch. These three settlements were situated not far from one another upon reaches of 1740. the Húglí, where the river was navigable for sea-going ships. Calcutta is about 80 miles from the sea; Chandarnagar, 24 miles by river above Calcutta ; and Chinsurah, 2 miles above Chandarnagar. Húglí town, to which reference has so often. been made, is almost conterminous with Chinsurah, but lies one mile above it.

Murshid Kulí Khán ruled over Bengal prosperously for twenty-one years, and left his power to a son-in-law and a grandson. The hereditary succession was broken in 1740 by Alí Vardi Alí Vardi Khán, Khán, a usurper, but the last of the great Nawabs of Bengal. 1740-56. In his days the Maráthá horsemen began to ravage the country, and the inhabitants of Calcutta obtained permission in 1742 to erect an earthwork, known to the present day as the Maráthá ditch. Alí Vardi Khán died in 1756, and was succeeded by his grandson, Siráj-ud-Daulá (Surajah Dowlah), Siráj-uda youth of only eighteen years, whose ungovernable temper Daulá, 1756. led to a rupture with the English within two months after his accession.

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Hole' of

Calcutta,

In pursuit of one of his own family who had escaped from his vengeance, he marched upon Calcutta with a large army. Many of the English fled down the river in their ships. The remainder surrendered after a brave resistance, and were thrust for the night into the 'Black Hole' or military jail Black of Fort William, a room about 18 feet square, with only two small windows barred with iron. It was our ordinary garrison 1756. prison in those times of cruel military discipline. But although the Nawab does not seem to have been aware of the consequences, it meant death to a crowd of 146 English men and women in the stifling heats of June. When the door of the prison was opened next morning, only 23 persons out of 146 remained alive.1

Watson.

The news of this disaster fortunately found Clive back again Clive and at Madras, where also was a squadron of the King's ships under Admiral Watson. Clive and Watson promptly sailed to

1 The contemporary record of that terrible night is Holwell's Narrative. The original materials have been carefully examined, and much misrepresentation has been cleared away by Dr. H. E. Busteed, in the Calcutta Englishman, several dates, 1880. The site of the Black Hole' has been lately identified, at the entrance to the lane behind the General PostOffice; and the spot has been paved with fine stone (1884).

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