In addition to Masulipatam, eight districts, as well as jurisdiction over the district of Nizampatam, with the districts of Codover and Wacalcannar, were granted to the Company, without the reserve fine or military service. The whole of the territory thus ceded extended to eighty miles along the coast, and twenty inland, with a revenue of 400,000 rupees yearly. Thus rapidly and surely, by dividing, conquering, and availing ourselves of the quarrels, jealousies, and wretched ambitions of the native rulers, were we gaining the vast empire, district by district, and province after province. "The large ships were of no use. The Bombay, grab of twenty guns, and four bomb-ketches, being the only ships that had water enough to go into the river, and it was with difficulty that those got up to the town. The place was first attempted by the Seven days after the Union Jack had been troops, but they were twice repulsed with considerhoisted on the ramparts of Masulipatam, two able loss, which with desertion greatly reduced French ships with 300 soldiers on board, appeared them. As the last game we had to play, it was in the offing, but understanding the fate of the determined to break the chain and attack the place place, bore away for Ganjam ; and Colonel Forde with our shipping. Accordingly, upon the 1st of was received with all honours, in the camp of our March, the Bombay, grab, and Success, ketch, of new friend and ally, Salabut Jung, who offered him twelve six-pounders and an eight-inch mortar, for his own private property, a large district, if he commanded by Captains John Cleugh and James would march against his rebellious brother, the | Lindsay, ran against the chain together and broke Nizam Ali; but the colonel declined, and urged it. The town was defended by four batteries and the nabob to join him in driving the French out 5,000 men, who made a gallant defence. The disof Rajahmundry, a movement which the latter pute lasted four hours, in which time we fired 500 anticipated by crossing the Kistnah and marching shot and forty-two shells, the distance from their westward, to join Bassaulet Jung, who took them batteries being only forty yards. Next day the into his pay, while Colonel Forde remained on the castle surrendered. Our ships lost a fourth of their coast to re-establish our factories, which had been complement in killed and wounded.” destroyed by Bussy. We took possession of the fortress in the name of the Emperor of Delhi, from whom the Company shortly after obtained the commissions of Governor of Surat, and Admiral of the Mogul fleet, with an assignment of £25,000 yearly, out of the customs, to support the marine and citadel, but our success against the Mahrattas in 1803 compelled that people to relinquish finally and for ever, all claim on Surat, the commerce of which, at the time we conquered it, included diamonds, pearls, gold, musk, ambergris, spices, indigo, silk, and cotton; but since the rise of Bombay, the value of its traffic has declined. Our merchants at Surat, finding themselves much oppressed, and exposed to many perils by the Sidee, who commanded the castle on the one hand, by the governor of the city, and by the Mahrattas who claimed a share in the revenue of that place on the other, applied to the presidency of Bombay, begging the equipment of an expedition to capture the fortress, and settle the government of the city upon a per- | sonage named Pharass Khan, who had been Naib, or deputy governor, under Meah Atchund, and as such had regulated all to the satisfaction of the inhabitants. The proposal was at once embraced, and Admiral Pococke sent two of his ships on this service, while 850 infantry and gunners, under Captain Richard Maitland, of the Royal Artillery (a regiment raised only nine years before), were embarked on board the Company's armed vessels, Colonel Forde-an officer then little known, but commanded by Captain Watson, on the 9th in whom Clive detected military talents of a very February, 1759; the whole under a civil servant high order with his slender force remained in named Mr. Spencer. Masulipatam, awaiting further orders from the presiA landing was effected at a place called Dentil-dency of Bengal, or from Colonel Clive, who had sorie, about nine miles from Surat, on the 15th, taken upon himself the responsibility of every great and there a camp for refreshment was formed on measure, and for months had acted as if he were the pleasant shore of the Gulf of Cambay. In Governor-General of all Hindostan, though his real two days Captain Maitland advanced against the Edini. Chron., 1759. We were fairly established as legal possessors of the fortress. The conquest cost us only 200 men, after which Captain Watson came to anchor off Bombay, on the 9th of April. post was merely Governor of Fort St. David, on the coast of Coromandel. The directors in London, after the catastrophe at Calcutta, and the cowardice of Mr. Drake there, had unwisely appointed a government by rotation; but the members of this government themselves made Clive their president, and after hearing the particulars of Plassy, the Court of Directors named him Governor of Bengal. CHAPTER XV. THE DUTCH IN BENGAL.-BATTLE OF WANDIWASH.-THE COUNTRY RAVAGED.-CHITAPETT REDUCED. THE French were not the only European enemies with whom we had to cope at this time in Hindostan. The envy and avarice of the Dutch had become excited by the extent of our trade there, and more particularly in Bengal, and as they possessed a strong fort at Chinsurah, on the western bank of the Hooghly, about twenty miles from Calcutta, where permission had been given them to erect it in 1656, by the Sultan Mohammed Choudjah, they resolved at least to engross the whole trade in saltpetre; and with this view are supposed to have tampered with the new nabob, or subah, and secured his connivance, notwithstanding that he lay under such obligations to the Company. Their plans met with the complete approval of the Governor of Batavia, who chose the time to enforce it when the British squadron had gone to the coast of Malabar. On the pretext of strengthening the Dutch garrisons in Bengal, he equipped a squadron of seven vessels, having on board 500 Dutch troops and 600 Malays, under the command of a colonel who bore the very English name of Russell. After touching at Negapatam, these forces entered the river of Bengal early in October. Clive, who was then at Calcutta, on hearing of their designs, which he was determined to defeat, complained to the nabob, "who, upon such application, could not decently refuse an order to the Director and Court at Hooghly, implying that this armament should not proceed up the river." Colonel Clive, at the same time, wrote to the Dutch commodore, intimating "that, as he had received information of their design, he could not allow them to land forces and march to Chinsurah." The commodore replied that he had no intention of sending troops to Chinsurah, but begged that he might land some for refreshment, a request which was granted, on condition that they should not proceed inland. In defiance of this arrangement, and the order of the nabob, as soon as all the ships were in, the commodore sailed up the river to Tannah Fort, only two miles below Calcutta-a stronghold which we had taken in 1756-and there disembarked the whole of the Dutch troops, who at once began their march, with drums beating, for Chinsurah. In the meantime, by way of retaliation for the affront he had sustained in being refused access to the Dutch factory, he seized several vessels belonging to the East India Company, and on the Calcutta, Indiaman, commanded by Captain Wilson, dropping down the river homeward bound, he gave that officer to understand, that if he dared to pass, he should be sunk without delay. As if to leave no doubt of this, he triced up his ports, and ran out his shotted guns. On this the captain put about, and stood back to Calcutta, where two other Indiamen lay, and made his report to Colonel Clive, who forthwith ordered the three ships to clear away for action, and attack the seven Dutchmen. Their weight was thus : The Calcutta (twenty-six guns), Captain Wilson; Duke of Dorset (twenty-six guns), Captain Forrester; Hardwicke (twenty-six guns), Captain Sampson. The Dutch armament was armed with 302 guns, so the contest seemed most unequal. The decks of our ships were "lined with saltpetre bags to screen the men from shot, and each took on board two additional twelve-pounders."* On dropping down the river, the three Indiamen found the enemy in order of battle, and ready to give them a hot reception. The Duke of Dorset being the first within range, began the conflict by a broadside of thirteen guns, which was promptly returned; and as a dead calm unluckily intervened, this single ship was, for a time, exposed to the whole fire of the enemy's squadron. On a little breeze springing up, the Calcutta and Hardwicke came down to her assistance, and a heavy fire was Royal Mag., 1760. 1760.] DEFEAT OF THE DUTCH. now maintained on both sides, till two of the Dutch ships cut their cables and bore away, and a third was driven on shore. Finding his force thus reduced to four, the commodore, after a few more broadsides, struck his colours to Captain Wilson, and the other two captains followed his example. Singularly enough, this victory was won without the loss of even one British seaman, while the decks of the Dutch presented a dreadful scene of carnage. Out of one ship no less than thirty corpses were flung to the alligators in the river. The prisoners were sent to Calcutta. The seventh ship attempting to make her escape, was captured by the Orford and Royal George, which had just come from Europe. The 1,100 troops were not more fortunate in their progress. Clive no sooner learned that they were actually in full march to Chinsurah, than he dispatched Forde after them, with only 500 men from Calcutta, with orders to stop them at the French Gardens. Proceeding northward, that officer entered the town of Chandernagore, where he was fired upon by a party of Dutch sent out from Chinsurah to meet the coming reinforcement, but were routed and dispersed. Colonel Forde pushing on, in the morning of the 25th November found the enemy prepared to face him on a plain near Chinsurah, where, after a brief but bitter contest, he totally defeated them, and slew many. All who survived were taken prisoners. During this contest, the nabob's son, Meeran, at the head of a strong army, maintained a suspicious neutrality, and there is little doubt that he would have declared for the Dutch had they been victorious. As the event proved, he now offered to reduce Chinsurah; but the affair was soon after adjusted. The Dutch on the payment of £100,000 for damages, received back their ships and all the prisoners, save 300 who took service under the Company. The articles of agreement between them and the Dutch were ratified on the 5th day of December, 1759, and “the affixing of his signature to that deed was the last act of authority which Clive performed, for his health having again given way to the ravages of the climate, he set sail early in February for England."* There he remained five years, and in December, 1761, as a reward for his many brilliant services in India, was raised to the peerage as Lord Clive of Plassy, K.B., a title now merged in the Earldom of Powis. He left behind him in India many brave and experienced officers, inspired by his own genius, and trained to war under his own eye; and among * Gleig. 81 these the most conspicuous was Colonel (afterwards Sir Eyre) Coote, of the old Irish family of Castle Cuffe in Queen's County. While the French forces were cantoned in the vicinity of Wandiwash, and Lally and Bussy were engaged as usual in bitter quarrels, Coote on the 21st November, 1759, proceeded with some reinforcements against Wandiwash, which, with a rapidity like Clive's, he carried by storm on the 29th, at the head of his own regiment, the 84th, which he had under his orders with other Europeans, 1,700 in all, with 3,000 sepoys, and fourteen pieces of cannon. At Wandiwash he took prisoners 900 men, with forty-nine guns. From thence he marched to Carougoly, and took that place also, on the 10th of December, though defended by the Irish Colonel O'Kennely with 600 men. On the other hand Lally, having obtained the assistance of some Mahratta horse, by some skilful movements, surprised Conjeveram, where, to his disappointment, his starving troops found the magazines empty. As the breaches made by our artillery at Wandiwash were still open, Lally hoped to recover that place. Assembling all his forces at Arcot, on the 1oth of February, 1760, he began his march and came in sight of the battered fortress; but while he and his engineers were considering the mode of assault, Coote suddenly came upon them from the neighbourhood of Conjeveram, and compelled them to fall back. The military pride of Lally forbade him to retreat, for he drew up in order of battle near the walls of Wandiwash, which was a rectangular fort with fourteen redoubts, and, nothing loth, Coote prepared to meet him. Our troops on this day consisted of 1,900 Europeans, including eighty troopers, 1,250 sowars, or native cavalry, and 2,100 sepoys, formed in three lines. In the first, the old 84th Regiment was on the right flank, the old 79th on the left, with two battalions of the Company in the centre-all without their grenadier companies. On the wings of this line were 1,800 sepoys. In the second line were all the grenadiers, 300 strong, with 100 sepoys on each flank. The third line was formed by the black horse, with eighty Europeans in their centre. A little in advance, and on the left of this line, were two field-guns, covered by two companies of sepoys. Coote had twenty-six pieces of cannon in all. The enemy's force consisted of 2,250 Europeans, of whom 300 were hussars, and 1,300 were sepoys -450 French and natives being left at the batteries against the fort. The Mahratta horse numbered 3,000 sabres; but instead of taking any part in the contest, they contented themselves with guarding their own camp, and waiting to loot the fallen, and mingled with the 84th in a wild, dreadful mêlée with the bayonet; but, unable to withstand that resolute regiment, it gave way in utter disorder. At that moment a French tumbril exploded in the front tank, killing and wounding eighty men, and all in its neighbourhood abandoned the place. baggage of whoever might be defeated. On the right | and fro for a moment; it then pushed on over the were posted the European horse, on the left was Lally's Irish Regiment, now reduced to 400 men, protected by a tank. The centre was formed by the Regiment of Lorraine, 400 strong, and the Bataillon d'Inde, 730 strong. In the tank, to strengthen the left, were 300 men, chiefly marines from the ships of Count d'Aché. In rear was another tank held by 400 sepoys, whom Bussy had brought from Kurpa; and the rest, 900 in number, were posted in rear of a ridge that lay along the front of the camp. Each flank of this ridge was held by fifty Europeans. Lally had in the field sixteen fieldpieces; four were placed in the front tank, and the rest by threes, between the different bodies of troops forming the general line. Of this disorder Coote took instant advantage, and ordered Major Brereton to advance with the whole of the 79th Regiment and seize the tank. Bravely he executed the order, and had just carried the point, when a bullet slew him. He was a gallant and accomplished officer, whose fall was a loss to the army and his country. The capture of the tank uncovered the left of the Regiment de Lally, which, as soon as the field-guns there were brought to play upon it, began to waver, and then the day was lost to France, while Bussy, making a gallant effort to retrieve its fortune by a bayonet charge, was taken prisoner. Lally began the battle in person. While the British were advancing in the order we have given, before they had halted, or were even within cannon-shot, the fiery Irishman, at the head of his European horse, by sweeping round the plain made a dash at Coote's third line; but the moment his intentions were perceived, the two companies of sepoys, posted apart with the two field-guns, were ordered to form en potence, that is, at an acute angle from the line, to enfilade the approaching cavalry. At the same time the black horse went threes-about to the rear, as if to face the enemy, but purposely threw themselves into confusion, that they might have a pretext for flight, and thus left the eighty Europeans alone to receive the coming charge, before which they must inevit-protected flanks: yet still they fought until the ably have given way. The two sepoy companies with the two guns, which were well handled by Captain Barker, poured in such a flanking fire, that the French cavalry fled, and left Lally no choice but to follow them with a heart swollen by rage. By this time we had halted, the cannonade had opened on both sides, and the superiority was decidedly with the guns of Coote, while Lally, on returning, found his infantry full of bitter impatience under the loss they were sustaining by not being brought to closer quarters. This he fully seconded by his own hot impetuosity, for he ordered the whole line to advance, and then the roar of musketry and clouds of smoke became general from flank to flank. The Regiment of Lorraine formed in a column of twelve files frontage, advanced at a rush against our 84th, thinking to burst through it by sheer weight; but Coote ordered the battalion to "reserve its fire until their assailants were within fifty yards," and then it went crashing into their front ranks, nearly every bullet killing double deep. The oblong column staggered, reeled, and swayed to The centre and other flank of the enemy's line made little or no resistance, while the sepoys, posted in rear of the covering ridge, when ordered to advance, flatly refused to obey; and, convinced now that further fighting was useless, Lally abandoned his camp to the British, who instantly entered it. In this battle, a writer says truly: "The handful of heroes of Lally's own corps was left to do battle with the whole British army. The infantry, cavalry, and artillery fell upon their un field was soaked with their blood, and the tired remnant were swept before the repeated charges of overwhelming numbers as the monsoon rolls over the surges of the sea. The Irish suffered dreadfully, and were left alone to combat and to die, winning for themselves an honour scarcely inferior to that of Fontenoy, even in defeat.” But for the manner, moreover, in which these brave exiles covered the retreat, the French army must have been utterly annihilated. The French loss was Soo men killed and wounded, and fifty taken prisoners, among whom were BrigadierGeneral de Bussy, Quartermaster-General the Chevalier de Godeville, Colonel Murphy, and several other officers. There were also taken twenty-four pieces of cannon, eleven tumbrils, the tents, and all the baggage. The British losses were 262 killed and wounded. Coote's native cavalry did no more for him than Lally's Mahrattas did for France; they kept safely out of reach of shot and shell, and would not follow up the enemy even when routed. On being joined by the detachment which he had |