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interview, and after some delay, was permitted to visit the humbled potentate in his camp, and after a friendly understanding had been formed, they returned together to Patna.

arrears, which he said he and his father had never obtained, threw him into prison, while his house was broken open and ruthlessly plundered; his relations and servants were cruelly tortured by the most devilish devices to compel confession of where his supposed hidden treasures lay; yet the baffled tyrant found but very little to reward the

Englishmen as Coote and Carnac, he did not murder the man he had ruined; but two years later, when he came to blows with the Company, he deliberately slew in cold blood Ramnarrain and several other Hindoo and Mussulman chiefs.

This was but the beginning of those fresh complications which Clive had to unravel on his third return to India, for now Meer Cossim not unnaturally betrayed great jealousy of this new and remark-risk he ran. Fearing the just indignation of such able connection which the Company had formed; yet, in return for the investiture he had received, he was induced to acknowledge Shah Alum as emperor. The latter then took his departure for the west, with the intention of gaining possession of his capital, and Major Carnac, after escorting him to the frontiers of Behar, received a new offer of the dewannee for the Company-namely, the receivership of all Bengal, Behar, and Orissa-if they would send an army into Central India, to secure him the possession of Delhi, and of a throne that was tottering to its fall,—a project fully entertained by the Council at Calcutta, though, for pecuniary reasons, it was temporarily abandoned.

Meer Cossim now found himself pressed again and again for money, though he had paid to eight of the members of Council, personally, for his elevation, upwards of £200,000, of which Mr. Vansittart alone pocketed 500,000 rupees, or £58,333 sterling; while in ceding to the Company the provinces of Midnapore, Chittagong, and Burdwan, he had given away the third of his revenues. Accordingly, finding that he was being continually applied to for money, he in turn looked about him for some one to plunder, and his eye soon fell upon Ramnarrain, the Hindoo governor of Patna, whose coffers had long been an object of greedy solicitude to the dethroned Meer Jaffier, but had always been preserved by the influence of Clive.

On being warned of Meer Cossim's designs upon one who had been to us a faithful ally, Mr. Vansittart at first ordered Major Carnac to afford every protection to the doomed Ramnarrain; but being a man of a wavering mind, while he listened to the peaceful promises of the nabob on one hand, he took offence at some high-spirited remarks of the major, to supersede whom he now sent Colonel Coote to command in Patna; but, like Carnac, that officer, seeing the part he was expected to play in the coming tragedy, bluntly declined either to be an active agent in, or a passive spectator of, the destruction of the unfortunate Hindoo. Consequently he was recalled, and Ramnarrain was shamefully left to the mercy of Meer Cossim.

The latter now pretending that he simply meant to call him to a reckoning on account of some

The outrage at Patna caused the native nobles to lose all confidence in the Council and entire government at Calcutta; and all sects thinking it wiser to conciliate the new nabob than trust to foreigners who were equally faithless, offered alike their money and their swords to Meer Cossim, who thus began to flatter himself that he would soon be in a position to defy British intrusion; so thus the evil grew apace, and quarrels with Meer Cossim readily began.

A Mr. Ellis, a man of haughty and hot spirit, had been appointed head-factor at Patna, where, from the first day he entered on his official work, he acted as if his object had been, not to conciliate, but to exasperate the native government; and this system of folly soon produced its bitter fruit, for Meer Cossim, stung by petty insults which degraded him in the eyes of his people, began to scheme out vengeance.

"He began by complaining and protesting against the abuses made of the dustuks, or permits, by which he was deprived of his revenues, and, soon proceeding from words to deeds, he stopped goods protected by the dustuks, and he even stopped and searched boats going up the Ganges, not merely with the dustuks, but with the Company's flag flying. In nearly every instance he found salt, betel, tobacco, or some other of the articles prohibited or reserved to the nabob in the treaty; and in many instances he ascertained that the servants of the Company had sold the dustuks to natives-to his own subjects, who had no right to them. Frequent acts of violence accompanied these measures, for the British, and the natives in their service, would not easily submit to any search, and it was not in the nature of men like the officers and troops of the nabob to exercise the right of search with gentleness and moderation. To remedy these evils, Mr. Vansittart negociated a new treaty, which, while leaving some advantages to the servants of the Company, made a surrender of others. But this inept governor had

1763-1

THE SCHEMES OF MEER COSSIM.

not the faculty of enforcing obedience on the wilful and rapacious crew at Calcutta and the other British factories, and Meer Cossim had neither the power nor the will to make the treaty be observed on his side."

Thus, finding that in every way his revenue suffered, Meer Cossim resolved, after the insults of Mr. Ellis, to tolerate this state of affairs no longer, and doubtless, tyrannical and rapacious though he was, he had justice on his side in this instance; and in writing to Vansittart in March, 1762, he said: "From the factory in Calcutta to Cossimbazar, Patna, and Dacca, all the English chiefs, with their gomastaks, officers, and agents, in every district of the government, act as collectors, renters, and magistrates, and, setting up the Company's colours, allow no power to my officers. And besides this, the gomastaks and other servants in every district, in every market and village, carry on a trade in oil, fish, straw, bamboos, rice, paddy, betel-nut, and other things; and every man with a Company's dustuk regards himself as not less than the Company."

In the end, finding that the grievances of which he complained were not likely to be remedied, and

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that the Company, backed by their Council, ultimately insisted on trading free, he declared the whole inland trade to be free.

This dictum caused the greatest consternation at Calcutta, for it cut up by the roots that system of private trade monopoly by which so many princely fortunes were made; so the quarrel progressed, till it became too evident that cold steel alone could decide it. Though two deputies of the Company, Messrs. Amyatt and Hay, were in his territory, vainly seeking to bring about an accommodation, Meer Cossim resolved to write no more, and calling the boldest of his soubahdars around him, he deliberately seized two of the Company's boats that were proceeding on the river with arms to Patna, while he made preparations for getting that place into his possession, and destroying all our troops that were there.

According to a quarto volume published by a member of the Mayor's Court, Calcutta, the then revenues of the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, collected by the Company, were worth £3,600,000 sterling yearly, and might, he adds, with management have been by this time (1762) increased to £6,000,000.*

CHAPTER XIX.

MEER COSSIM DEPOSED.-DEFEATED BY MAJOR ADAMS.-MASSACRE OF THE EUROPEANS AT PATNA.-. BATTLES OF BUXAR AND KORAH.

BEING Secretly apprised of the nabob's intentions, a majority of the Council sent orders to Mr. Ellis, their chief at Patna, to anticipate his design by taking possession of the citadel, if he had reason for believing that the secret information was true. Aware of the bad feeling existing between Meer Cossim and Mr. Ellis, Mr. Vansittart and Warren Hastings voted against giving Ellis so much discretionary power; but he acted upon it the instant he received it, and accordingly, on the night of the 24th June, 1763, took by surprise the citadel of Patna.

Prior to Mr. Ellis thus bearding the lion in his den, blood had been shed in the vicinity of Patna. He had perceived that discontent and desertion were becoming dangerously prevalent among our sepoys there, and probably was correct in attributing this to the influence of Meer Cossim, whose people sometimes defended the deserters by having recourse

to arms. Some of these fugitives took refuge in the fort of Monghir, and Ellis, as resolute as he was violent, sent a party of troops with orders to search the place. The killedar in command refused them admission, on the plea that Monghir was both a fortress and royal residence of the nabob, and could not be searched. Shots were exchanged, and Ellis, in hot anger, ordered the officer to hold his ground within a mile and a half of the place.t

On receiving news that his personal enemy had captured the citadel of Patna, the nabob was transported with a fury that knew no bounds. As soon as the citadel, which is small, was taken, an indiscriminate plunder of the city followed, and so great was the disorder that reigned everywhere, that a small party of the soubahdars entered the city at *“Consideration of Indian Affairs," by Alderman Balt. + Gleig's "Life of Warren Hastings."

noon next day and retook it, putting the pillagers to the sword. The clerks and other gentlemen of the factory, with the slender remains of the troops, fled across the Ganges to Chuprah, but were all destroyed or captured-those who had the latter fate were sent prisoners to Monghir, where they found, as companions in their misery, their countrymen from the factory at Cossimbazar, which had been attacked and plundered at the same time. When Ellis attacked Patna, Mr. Amyatt had begun his homeward journey, but a party sent after him by order of the nabob seized him, and in the scuffle he was murdered, as were also two Hindoo bankers, who were supposed to be attached to British interests; and now, while plunging thus into war, we had but four line regiments in all India, the 39th, 79th, 84th, and 89th, or old Gordon Highlanders, of which the first alone is now in existence.

Four days after these events, a letter was written by the Nabob Cossim to Mr. Vansittart, which displays the sarcastic bitterness of his heart, and in which he alleges the rout of a band of robbers who managed British affairs in Patna, a ground for demanding the restitution of all the lands of the soubahdaree surrendered by him on his accession to power.

"To the Governor, &c., June 28th, 1763.

"In my heart I believed Mr. Ellis to be my inveterate foe, but from his actions I now find he was inwardly my friend, as appears by this step which he has added to the others. Like a nightrobber, he assaulted the Petta of Patna, robbed and plundered the bazaar and all the merchants of the city, ravaging and slaying from the morning to the third pahr (afternoon).

"When I requested of you 200 or 300 muskets laden in boats, you would not consent to it. This unhappy man, in consequence of his inward friendship, favoured me, in this fray and slaughter, with all the cannon and muskets of his army, and is himself relieved and eased from his burden. Since it was never my desire to injure the affairs of the Company, whatever loss may have been occasioned by this unhappy man to myself, in this tumult, I pass over; but you, gentlemen, must answer for any injury which the Company's affairs have suffered; and since you have unjustly and cruelly ravaged the city, destroyed the people, and plundered effects to the value of many lacs of rupees, it becomes the justice of the Company to make restitution to the poor, as was formerly done for Calcutta.

"You, gentlemen, are wonderful friends; having made a treaty to which you pledged the name of

Jesus Christ, you took from me a country to pay the expenses of your army, with the conditions that your troops should always attend me, and promote my affairs. In effect, you keep up a force for my destruction, since from their hands such events have proceeded. I am entirely of opinion that the Company should favour me, in causing to be delivered to me the rents for three years of my country.

"Besides this, for the violence and oppression exercised for several years past in the territories of the Nizamat, and the large sums extorted, and the losses occasioned by them, it is proper and just that the Company should make restitution at this time. This is all the trouble you need take; in the same manner as you took Burdwan and other lands, you must favour me in resigning them."

Mr. Warren Hastings, of whom we shall have much more to record at a future time, had become so disgusted with the selfishness, trickery, and gross injustice of the Council, that he had resolved to resign his place among them; but his patriotism, as a Briton, became inflamed by what he called "the unparalleled acts of barbarity and treachery" with which the new war was opened on the part of the nabob.

The Council at Calcutta now entered into new arrangements with the very man they had deposed, old Meer Jaffier; and, as the best mode of curbing the new career of his son-in-law, Meer Cossim, resolved to replace him on his throne. Completely passive in their hands, this Indian Baliol granted an exemption to the Company's servants from all duties save upon salt; he engaged to pay the Company thirty lacs of rupees, and to maintain, at his own charge, an army of 24,000 horse and foot.

To the cities of his three great provinces, Bengal, Orissa, and Behar, he issued his mandates as their lawful and indisputable nabob, and joined the British, who had taken the field, and were now marching on Moorshedabad. The forces were under the command of Major Thomas Adams, of the 84th Regiment, who had with him only 750 Europeans, with some native cavalry and infantry. Starting from the vicinity of Chandernagore on the 24th July, he came to blows with Meer Cossim, who had taken up an entrenched position in front of Moorshedabad.

Cossim's army was formidable, not only from its numbers, but from having with it a great body of sepoys, who had been well trained in the European manner by a Swiss adventurer named Sumroo, who had been a sergeant in the French service. His troops, however, gave way, and after a brief

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opposition, the entrenchments were stormed, and the British entered Moorshedabad, while Cossim retreated, leaving behind him all his guns. Adams, after a short halt, continued his march up the Hooghly, and reaching Sooty on the 2nd of August, found the enemy encamped on the Gheriah. Two days before this, Major Adams had been joined, from Burdwan, by Major Carnac, with 100 Europeans, a battalion of sepoys, a rissala of black horse, and two pieces of cannon.

Major Adams reports in his despatch to Charles, Earl of Egremont, that he came in sight of the enemy between seven and eight in the morning, drawn up in order of battle, and much more numerous than he expected. There were 8,000 sepoys, 20,000 horse, twenty pieces of cannon, besides matchlockmen and rocketmen, armed with that terrible species of missile termed by the French the fougette à feu, in the use of which the Indians excelled. "The artillery were all mounted in the English manner, and served by 200 Europeans taken at Patna, of which one company were artillerymen, and their sepoys were armed, clothed, and accoutred like our own. The whole was divided into brigades, and posted in a very advantageous manner."

The troops formed line to the front without receiving a shot till they began the attack, after which the conflict was maintained with great resolution for about four hours, when the enemy gave way, abandoning sixteen pieces of cannon, two of which were four-pounders. Their cavalry charged the 84th Regiment, when partially separated from the rest of the line, with great spirit, in front and rear three different times, coming within a few yards of the bayonets. Of the enemy 2,000 lay dead on the field, and eighty Europeans, all foreigners, deserted to Major Adams, with 150 boats laden with military stores. The Britons captured at Patna refused to join the service of the nabob, so he kept them prisoners at Monghir.*

During the battle, Meer Cossim kept safely within the fort at Monghir, where he vented his fury by committing several atrocious murders, and among others who perished was the unfortunate Ramnarrain, whom he had kept in captivity ever since he had been so shamefully abandoned by Mr. Vansittart. As if he gathered courage from the blood he had shed, he now joined his army, which had taken up a strong position near Oudanullah, a fort on the right bank of the Ganges, eight miles south of Rajahmahal. There he is said to have had 60,000 men in trenches armed by 100 pieces of cannon.

* Despatches.

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Our strength was barely 3,000 men, who for some days made regular approaches under cover, by the shovel, till three in the morning of the 4th September, when the vast works of the enemy, including a ditch fifty-four feet wide, were attacked bravely by two companies of British grenadiers and one of French volunteers, together with five companies of sepoy grenadiers, the whole led by Captain Irwin, of H.M. 84th Regiment; 1,000 sepoys with two guns formed the supports. The whole line of works was carried; "the number of slain," reported Adams, "is incredible, and the number drowned exceeded the slain."

Cossim fled back to Monghir, for the rout was complete; of his cavalry 1,500 were taken prisoners, but were dismounted, disarmed, and dismissed, "the first instance of the kind ever known in this country." The whole district was strewed with dead bodies, and on our troops approaching the Pass of Tillia Gheriah, which had been armed with cannon, the fort was instantly abandoned, and on this we took, including swivels and cannon of all kinds, 265 pieces.

Major Adams now attacked and took Monghir, but Cossim had escaped to Patna, where he meditated a horrid massacre, for while before the fort, Major Adams received from him a letter, which after containing an ominous allusion to his prisoners, concludes thus:

"Exult not upon the success which you have gained, merely by treachery and night assaults, in two or three places over a few jemidars sent by me. By the will of God, you shall see in what manner this shall be revenged and retaliated."

Rendered desperate by the fall of Monghir, he now ordered the butchery of all his prisoners, and to the very letter this was executed by Sumroo, whom Major Adams calls "a German and an infamous villain," while Malcolm asserts that he was a Frenchman, whose nom de guerre had been "Sombre" in the French service. By this wretch, every British prisoner in Patna, to the number of nearly 200, was murdered, except Dr. Fullarton, at a banquet to which he, singularly enough, invited them. Previously to the slaughter beginning, the knives and forks were all removed, and the unhappy men defended themselves as well as they could with plates, bottles, and furniture, till the last of them was shot or cut down. "These barbarous soldiers," says Cormick, "revolted at the savage order: they refused at first to obey, desiring that arms might be given to the British, and that they would then engage them. Sumroo, fixed in his purpose, compelled them by threats and blows to the accomplishment of that odious service."

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