Chapter III: M. Law, Chief of Cossimbazar (3)

[Footnote 71: Uncle of Siraj-ud-daula, who died so shortly before the death of Aliverdi Khan, that it was supposed he was poisoned to ensure Siraj-ud-daula's accession.]

[Footnote 72: Fazl-Kuli-Khan. _Scrafton_.]

[Footnote 73: Law says; "The rumour ran that M. Drake replied to the messengers that, since the Nawab wished to fill up the Ditch, he agreed to it provided it was done with the heads of Moors. I do not believe he said so, but possibly some thoughtless young Englishman let slip those words, which, being heard by the messengers, were reported to the Nawab."]

[Footnote 74: Europeans. Properly, Franks or Frenchmen. This term was generally applied by Europeans to the half-caste descendants of the Portuguese.]

[Footnote 75: Captains or generals: a term of somewhat indefinite meaning.]

[Footnote 76: In alliance with Salabat Jang, Bussy temporarily acquired a large territory for the French.]

[Footnote 77: "After Mr. Law had given us a supply of clothes, linen, provisions, liquors, and cash, we left his Factory with grateful hearts and compliments." _Holwell_. Letter to Mr. Davis, February 28, 1757.]

[Footnote 78: Imperial Charter.]

[Footnote 79: For an explanation of the influence of the Seths, see pp. 84, 85, and note.]

[Footnote 80: Ramnarain is an interesting character. He appears to have been one of the most faithful of the adherents of the house of Aliverdi Khan and on its extinction of the English connection. His gallantry in battle is referred to by Colonel Ironside. _Asiatic Annual Register_, 1800.]

[Footnote 81: The official intimation reached Admiral Watson in January, 1757, but apparently not the formal orders from the Admiralty. See page 30.]

[Footnote 82: In a letter to the Secret Committee, London, dated October 11, 1756, Clive writes: "I hope we shall be able to dispossess the French of Chandernagore." So it is evident that he came with this intention to Bengal.]

[Footnote 83: Clive describes Hugli as "the second city in the kingdom." _Letter to Lord Hardwicke, Feb_. 23, 1757.]

[Footnote 84: Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa.]

[Footnote 85: Hearing that Seth Mahtab Rai was to marry a wonderfully beautiful woman, he forced the Seths to let him see the young lady. _Scrafton_.]

[Footnote 86: "If one is to believe certain English writers, the Seths were an apparently insurmountable obstacle to the project because of the money we owed them, as if in their perilous position these bankers would not be inclined to sacrifice something to save the greater part. Besides, we shall see by what follows that they sacrificed nothing." _Law_. The extraordinary influence of these people was due not so much to their dealings with the head of the State as to the fact that native princes generally make payments, not in cash, but in bonds. It therefore depends on the bankers what any man shall get for his bonds. In this way an official, even when paid by the State, may be ruined by the bankers, who are merely private persons.]

[Footnote 87: "In India it is thought disrespectful to tell a great man distinctly the evil which is said of him. If an inferior knows that designs are formed against the life of his superior, he must use circumlocutions, and suggest the subject in vague terms and speak in enigmas. It is for the great man to divine what is meant. If he has not the wit, so much the worse for him. As a foreigner, I was naturally more bold and said what I thought to Siraj-ud-daula. Coja Wajid did not hesitate to blame me, so that for a long time I did not know what to think of him. This man finally fell a victim to his diplomacies, perhaps also to his imprudences. One gets tired of continual diplomacy, and what is good in the beginning of a business becomes in the end imprudence." _Law_.]

[Footnote 88: "Witness the letter written to the English Admiral Watson, by which it is pretended the Nawab authorized him to undertake the siege of Chandernagore. The English memoir" (by _Luke Scrafton_) "confesses it was a surprise, and that the Secretary must have been bribed to write it in a way suitable to the views of Mr. Watts. The Nawab never read the letters which he ordered to be written; besides, the Moors never sign their names; the envelope being closed and well fastened, the Secretary asks the Nawab for his seal, and seals it in his presence. Often there is a counterfeit seal." _Law_. From this it may be seen that the Nawab could always assert that his Secretary had exceeded his instructions, whilst it was open to his correspondent to assert the contrary.]

[Footnote 89: The clerks.]

[Footnote 90: "This was the boaster Rai Durlabh Ram, who had already received much from me, but all the treasures of the Universe could not have freed him from the fear he felt at having to fight the English. He had with him as his second in command a good officer, Mir Madan, the only man I counted upon." _Law_.]

[Footnote 91: Referring to Clive's letter of the 7th of March, saying he wished to attack Chandernagore, but would await the Nawab's orders at that place.]

[Footnote 92: By "agent" Law must mean simply an agent in the plot.]

[Footnote 93: Scrafton, in his "Reflections" (_pp. 40 and 50_), says, Siraj-ud-daula indulged in all sorts of debauchery; but his grandfather, in his last illness, made him swear on the Koran to give up drinking. He kept his oath, but probably his mind was affected by his previous excesses.]

[Footnote 94: Arzbegi, i.e. the officer who receives petitions.]

[Footnote 95: A preparation of betel-nut (areca-nut) is used by the natives of Hindustan as a digestive. When offered to a guest, it is a sign of welcome or dismissal. When sent by a messenger, it is an assurance of friendship and safe conduct.]

[Footnote 96: The Governor of Patna was Raja Ramnarain, a Hindu, with the rank of Naib only. It was considered unsafe to entrust so important a post to a Muhammadan, or an officer with the rank of Nawab.]

[Footnote 97: Orme MSS. India XI., p. 2779, No. 120.]

[Footnote 98: Ibid., India IX., p. 2294.]

[Footnote 99: Letter from Renault to Dupleix. Dated Chandernagore, Sept. 4, 1757.]

[Footnote 100: Broome (p. 154) gives his name as Mir Daood.]

[Footnote 101: The Council signed the Treaty with Mir Jafar on the 19th of May, but Mr. Watts's first intimation of his readiness to join the English is, I believe, in a letter dated the 26th of April. Mir Jafar signed the Treaty early in June.]

[Footnote 102: So Suja-ud-daula, Nawab of Oudh, plundered the Nawab Mir Kasim, when the English drove him from Bengal in 1763.]

[Footnote 103: Broome (p. 154) says "a fakier, named Dana Shah, whose nose and ears he had ordered to be cut off thirteen months before, when on his march against the Nawaub of Purneah."]

[Footnote 104: Orme MSS., India Office, and Clive correspondence at Walcot, vol. iv.]

[Footnote 105: The celebrated traveller. He quickly quarrelled with and left them.]

[Footnote 106: Province.]

[Footnote 107: Nawab of Oudh and father of Suja-ud-daula.]

[Footnote 108: I.e. the receiver of the rent or revenue.]

[Footnote 109: The regular winds of the various seasons are called monsoons, and are named after the point of the compass from which they blow.]

[Footnote 110: Alamgir II.]

[Footnote 111: Imad-ul-mulk, Ghazi-ud-din Khan.]

[Footnote 112: Ali Gauhar, born 1728. On the death of his father, November 29, 1759, he assumed the name or title of Shah Alam.]

[Footnote 113: The old English Factory at Patna was re-opened by Mr. Pearkes, in July, 1757. See his letters to Council, dated 12th and 14th July, 1757.]

[Footnote 114: Kasim Ali had a much better army than any of his predecessors. Though it was not trained in the European manner, several of the chief officers were Armenians, who effected great reforms in discipline. Three years later it made a really good fight against the English.]

[Footnote 115: The battle is generally known as that of Gaya, but was fought at Suan. The site is marked in Rennell's map of South Bihar. It lies about six miles west of the town of Bihar, on the river Banowra.]

[Footnote 116: The Banowra River.]

[Footnote 117: The French capital on the Madras coast. Surrendered to Eyre Coote.]

[Footnote 118: Sepoys, so called from the Telingana district in Madras, where they were first recruited.]

[Footnote 119: Mrs. Law. _Bibi_ is the equivalent of mistress or lady. _Lass_ was the native version of Law. Mrs. Law's maiden name was Jeanne Carvalho.]

[Footnote 120: Bengal Select Com. Consultations, 28th January, 1761.]

[Footnote 121: "A part of these Memoirs was written at Paris in 1703, and part at sea in 1764, during my second voyage to India, but several of the notes were added later." _Law_.]