Governor Drake Deserts his Post.

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was as unfitted to deal with such a foc as Dowlah, as the fortifications, which had been partially repaired by Col. Scott the year before, were insufficient to resist him. The servants of the East India Company at Madras had been forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers; while those at Calcutta were mere traders, and were now completely bewildered at the approaching danger. Mr. Drake, the governor, who had heard much of Dowlah's cruelty, was so frightened that he hastily took refuge in the nearest ship; while Captain Murchin, the military commandant of the factory, thought that he could not do better than follow so bad an example. Happily all the English women, save one, who were in Calcutta, with their children, were safely embarked on board the vessels lying opposite Fort William, when the ships' commanders, alarmed by a sudden discharge of fire arrows from Dowlah's army, weighed anchor, and dropped two miles down the river.

Mr. Holwell, the second member of council, was not dismayed by the desertion of the governor and the commander of the garrison, and made the best preparations he could for the defence. It must ever remain the source of deepest regret to know, in reference to the awful occurrence which subsequently took place, that if the English ships which were so close at hand, or even a portion of the crews, had returned, the fort could have been successfully defended; for there were many on board the fleet who would cheerfully have borne a part in the defence; and it reflects no little disgrace on the commander of the fleet, that to the last the signals

of distress from the fort, though perfectly visible in the ships, were left unanswered, when the enemy, on the 21st of June, seeing the defenceless nature of the place, made their assault with much vigour. Mr. Holwell, finding further resistance hopeless, admitted a flag of truce sent by the Nabob. Taking advantage of the momentary suspension, a rush was made by the enemy; the officers, with their men, many of whom were intoxicated, were disarmed, and great numbers of the English fell into the hands of the victors. Suráj-ood-Dowlah visited the fort in state, seated himself with regal pomp in the large hall of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell to be brought before him. He talked about the insolence of the English, and grumbled at not finding more than £50,000 in the treasury; but promised to spare the lives of his prisoners, and retired to rest.

Then was committed that great crime, ever memorable for its singular atrocity, and no less memorable for the tremendous retribution which overtook the guilty tyrant. The English captives were left to the mercy of the guards, who determined to secure them for the night in the common prison of the garrison, known then and ever after, from the horrible celebrity of that night, by the ominous name of THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA. Even for a single European, that dungeon would have been distressingly close. The space was only twenty feet square; the air holes were small; and it was the summer solstice. The number of the prisoners was 146. When they were ordered to enter the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were joking, and being in high spirits at the Nabob having promised to spare their lives, they

The Black Hole of Calcutta.

67

laughed at the absurdity of the notion. But they were quickly undeceived. The guards threatened to cut down all who refused to move. The captives were driven into the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was instantly shut and locked upon them.

Nothing in history or in fiction approaches the horrors which were recounted by the few survivors of that terrible night. It will be best to draw a veil over its terrors. Suffice it to say when day broke, and the Nabob gave permission for the door to be opened, it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane for the survivors by piling on each side the numerous corpses, on which the burning climate had already begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures staggered out one by one from that hideous grave. A pit was instantly dug; the dead bodies, one hundred and twenty-three in number, were flung promiscuously in, and covered up.

But these things, which cannot be told or read after a lapse of more than a hundred and twenty years without feelings of indignation and horror, awakened not an atom of remorse in the breast of the savage Dowlah. He inflicted no punishment on the murderers, nor displayed any feeling for the survivors. Mr. Holwell,* unable to walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached him, threatened him, and sent him to Moorshedabad, confined in irons, together with some of his companions, who were thought to know more than they chose to tell about the treasures of the Company.

Mr. Holwell survived the horrors of that night upwards of forty years, dying at the advanced age of eighty-seven, in the year 1798.

Suráj-ood-Dowlah in the meantime sent letters to the Great Mogul at Delhi, describing in glowing terms his conquests over the English at Calcutta. He placed a garrison in Fort William, forbade any Englishman to dwell within the neighbourhood, and commanded that the city should henceforth bear the high-sounding name of ALINAGORE, ie., "The Gate of God." Before the end of June the British had not a single possession in Bengal which they could call their own. The ships dropped down to Fuldah, a town near the mouth of the river Hooghly; while the commander, sending news of the terrible catastrophe to Madras, patiently awaited the result.

CHAPTER X.

FROM THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA TO THE BATTLE OF PLASSEY.

IT

A.D. 1756-1757

T took nearly a month before the news of the fall of Calcutta reached Madras, upwards of four hundred miles distant, the time which it takes for a traveller from India to reach London in the present day. The cry of the whole settlement was for instant vengeance. Within two days after the arrival of the intelligence, it was determined that an expedition should be sent to the Hooghly, and that Clive, who had recently arrived from England, should command it. Of the two thousand English soldiers then at Madras, nine hundred, with fifteen hundred Sepoys, were considered sufficient to punish Surájood-Dowlah, who ruled over a larger number of subjects than the king of France. Some time was lost by unseemly discussions in the Council, but at length five ships of the Royal Navy, under the command of Admiral Watson, with five of the Company's fleet, sailed from Madras on October 16th, and after a long passage reached the mouth of the Hooghly in the middle of December. As the ships, carrying

nearly four hundred guns, ascended the river with something like a triumphant procession, it excited