SEDUCTION OF CHANDERNAGORE.
Such were the terms obtained for the company, by the spirited and gallant conduct of the two English commanders. They had, however, too much discernment to rely on the promises of a barbarian, who had so prefidiously broken former engagements; but they prudently dissembled their sentiments, until they had thoroughly reinstated the affairs of the company, and reduced the French power in this province. In order to adjust the points that required discussion, the select committee for the company’s affairs appointed Mr. Watts, who had been released from his former imprisonment, as their commissary at the court of the suba, to whom he was personally known, as well as to his ministers, among whom he had acquired a considerable influence. Nothing less could have balanced the interest which the French, by their art of intriguing, had raised among the favourites of the viceroy. While Mr. Watts was employed at Muxadavad in counter-working those intrigues, and keeping the suba steady to his engagements, the admiral and Mr. Clive resolved to avail themselves of their armament in attacking the French settlements in Bengal. The chief object of their designs was the reduction of Chandernagore, situated higher up the river than Calcutta, of considerable strength, and the chief in importance of any possessed by that nation in the bay. Colonel Clive being reinforced by three hundred men from Bombay, began his march to Chandernagore, at the head of seven hundred Europeans and one thousand six hundred Indians, where, on his first arrival, he took possession of all the out-posts except one redoubt mounted with eight pieces of cannon, which he left to be silenced by the admiral. On the eighteenth day of March, the admirals Watson and Pocoke arrived within two miles of the French settlement, with the Kent, Tiger, and Salisbury men of war, and found their passage obstructed by booms laid across the river, and several vessels sunk in the channel. These difficulties being removed, they advanced early on the twenty-fourth, and drew up in a line before the fort, which they battered with great fury for three hours; while colonel Clive was making his approaches on the land side, and playing vigorously from the batteries he had raised. Their united efforts soon obliged the enemy to submission. A flag of truce was waved over the walls, and the place surrendered by capitulation. The keys were delivered to captain Latham of the Tiger; and in the afternoon colonel Clive, with the king’s troops, took possession. Thus the reduction of a strong fortress, garrisoned by five hundred Europeans, and one thousand two hundred Indians, defended by one hundred and twenty-three pieces of cannon, and three mortars, well provided with all kinds of stores and necessaries, and of very great importance to the enemy’s commerce in India, was accomplished with a loss not exceeding forty men on the side of the conquerors. By the treaty of capitulation the director; counsellors, and inferior servants of the settlement, were allowed to depart with their wearing apparel: the Jesuits were permitted to take away their church ornaments, and the natives to remain in the full exertion of their liberties; but the garrison were to continue prisoners of war. The goods and money found in the place were considerable; but the principal advantage arose from the ruin of the head settlement of the enemy on the Ganges, which could not but interfere with the English commerce in these parts.
COLONEL CLIVE DEFEATS THE SUBA AT PLAISSEY, &c.
Success had hitherto attended all the operations of the British commanders, because they were concerted with foresight and unanimity; and executed with that vigour and spirit which deservedly raised them high in the esteem of their country. They reduced the nabob to reasonable terms of accommodation before they alarmed the French; and now the power of the latter was destroyed, they entered upon measures to oblige the treacherous viceroy to a strict performance of the treaty he had so lately signed. However specious his promises were, they found him extremely dilatory in the execution of several articles of the treaty, which, in effect, was the same to the English commerce as if none had been concluded. The company’s goods were loaded with high duties, and several other infractions of the peace committed, upon such frivolous pretences, as evidently demonstrated that he sought to come to an open rupture as soon as his projects were ripe for execution. In a word, he discovered all along a manifest partiality to the French, whose emissaries cajoled him with promises that he should be joined by such a body of their European troops, under M. de Bussy, as would enable him to crush the power of the English, whom they had taught him to fear and to hate. As recommencing hostilities against so powerful a prince was in itself dangerous, and if possible to be avoided, the affair was laid before the council of Culcutta, and canvassed with all the circumspection and caution that a measure required, on which depended the fate of the whole trade of Bengal. Mr. Watts, from time to time, sent them intelligence of every transaction in the suba’s cabinet; and although that prince publicly declared he would cause him to be impaled as soon as the English troops should be put in motion within the kingdom of Bengal, he bravely sacrificed his own safety to the interest of the company, and exhorted them to proceed with vigour in their military operations. During these deliberations a most fortunate incident occurred, that soon determined the council to come to an open rupture. The leading persons in the viceroy’s court found themselves oppressed by his haughtiness and insolence. The same spirit of discontent appeared among the principal officers of his army; they were well acquainted with his prefidy, saw his preparations for war, and were sensible that the peace of the country could never be restored, unless either the English were expelled, or the nabob deposed. In consequence, a plan was concerted for divesting him of all his power; and the conspiracy was conducted by Jaffier Ali Khan, his prime minister and chief commander, a nobleman of great influence and authority in the province. The project was communicated by Ali Khan to Mr. Watts, and so improved by the address of that gentleman, as in a manner to ensure success. A treaty was actually concluded between this Meer Jaffier Ali Khan and the English company; and a plan concerted with this nobleman and the other malcontents for their defection from the viceroy. These previous measures being-taken, colonel Clive was ordered to take the field with his little army. Admiral Watson undertook the defence of Chandernagore, and the garrison was detached to reinforce the colonel, together with fifty seamen to be employed as gunners, and in directing the artillery. Then Mr. Watts, deceiving the suba’s spies by whom he was surrounded, withdrew himself from Muxadavad, and reached the English camp in safety. On the nineteenth of June a detachment was sent to attack Cutwa fort and town, situated on that branch of the river forming the island of Cassimbuzzar. This place surrendered at the first summons; and here the colonel halted with the army for three days, expecting advices from Ali Khan. Disappointed of the hoped for intelligence, he crossed the river, and marched to Plaissey, where he encamped. On the twenty-third, at day break, the suba advanced to attack him, at the head of fifteen thousand horse, and near thirty thousand infantry, with about forty pieces of heavy cannon, conducted and managed by French gunners, on whose courage and dexterity he placed great dependence. They began to cannonade the English camp about six in the morning; but a severe shower falling at noon they withdrew their artillery. Colonel Clive seized this opportunity to take possession of a tank and two other posts of consequence, which they in vain endeavored to retake. Then he stormed an angle of their camp, covered with a double breastwork, together with an eminence which they occupied. At the beginning of this attack, some of their chiefs being slain, the men were so dispirited, that they soon gave way; but still Meer Jaffier Ali Khan, who commanded their left wing, forbore declaring himself openly. After a short contest the enemy were put to flight, the nabob’s camp, baggage, and fifty pieces of cannon taken, and a most complete victory obtained. The colonel, pursuing his advantage, marched to Muxadavad, the capital of the province, and was there joined by Ali Khan and the malcontents. It was before concerted that this nobleman should be invested with the dignity of nabob; accordingly, the colonel proceeded solemnly to depose Surajah Dowlat, and, with the same ceremony, to substitute Ali Khan in his room, who was publicly acknowledged by the people as suba, or viceroy, of the provinces of Bengal, Banar, and Orixa. Soon after, the late viceroy was taken, and put to death by his successor, who readily complied with all the conditions of his elevation. He conferred on his allies very liberal rewards, and granted the company such extraordinary privileges, as fully demonstrated how justly he merited their assistance. By this alliance, and the reduction of Chandernagore, the French were entirely excluded the commerce of Bengal and its dependencies; the trade of the English company was restored, and increased beyond their most sanguine hopes; a new ally was acquired, whose interest obliged him to remain firm to his engagements: a vast sum was paid to the company and the sufferers at Calcutta, to indemnify them for their losses: the soldiers and seamen were gratified with six hundred thousand pounds, as a reward for the courage and intrepidity they exerted; and a variety of other advantages gained, which it would be unnecessary to enumerate. In a word, in the space of fourteen days a great revolution was effected, and the government of a vast country superior in wealth, fertility, extent, and number of inhabitants to most European kingdoms, transferred by a handful of troops, conducted by an officer untutored in the art of war, and a general rather by intuition, than instruction and experience. But the public joy at these signal successes was considerably diminished by the death of admiral Watson, and the loss of Vizagapatam, an English settlement on the Coromandel coast. The admiral fell a victim to the unwholesomeness of the climate, on the sixteenth of August, universally esteemed and regretted; and the factory and fort at Vizagapatam were surrendered to the French, a few days after colonel Clive had defeated the nabob.