474 THE iNDIAN EMPIRE [CHAP.
After its third capture by Lord Cornwallis in 1793 it was
nominally relinquished in I802 at the Peace of Amiens, but
Lord Wellesley in the exercise of his discretion refused to
make it over to the French, and it was not finally given back
till i8I6.
Native Meanwhile, the narrative of British conquest shifts with
rulers of Clive to Bengal. At the time of Aurangzeb's death, in 1707,
Bengal,
17o7-56. the NawAb or Governor of Bengal was Murshid Kuli Khan,
known also as Jafar Khan. By birth a Brkhman, and brought
up as a slave in Persia, he united the administrative ability
of a Hindu to the fanaticism of a renegade. Hitherto the
capital of Bengal had been at Dacca, on the eastern frontier
of the empire, whence the piratical attacks of the Portuguese
and of the Arakanese or Maghs could be most easily checked.
Murshid Kuli Khan transferred his residence to MurshidAbd;,
in the immediate neighbourhood of Cossimbazar. There, as
well as at Dacca, Patna, and Malda, the English, French, and
European Dutch had their factories. The head-quarters of the English
head- ; was at Calcutta, of the French at Chandernagore, and of the
quarters in
Bengal. Dutch at Chinsura. These three settlements were situated
not far from one another upon the lower reaches of the
Hooghly, where the river was at that time navigable by sea-
going ships.
Murshid Kuli Khan ruled over Bengal prosperously for
twenty-one years, and left his power to a son-in-law and a
grandson. The hereditary succession was broken in I740 by
Ali Vardi Khan, a usurper, and the last of the great Nawabs
of Bengal. He died in I756, and was succeeded by his
grandson, Siraj-ud-daula, whose ungovernable temper led to a
rupture with the English within two months of his accession.
He ordered them to surrender a refugee from his tyranny who
had fled to Calcutta, and to desist from work on the fortifica-
tions they were building in apprehension of an attack from
the French. On their refusal, he marched upon Calcutta
with a large army. After a short resistance many of the
English, including the Governor, Drake, took to their ships and
The Black fled down the river. The remainder surrendered, and were
Hole ofa thrust for the night into the Black Hole or military jail of
1756. Fort William, a room about eighteen feet square, with only
two small windows barred with iron. It was our ordinary
garrison prison in those days of cruel military discipline.
But although the Nawab does not seem to have been aware
of the consequences, it meant death to a huddled mass of
English prisoners in the stifling heats of June. When the
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