# Early English adventurers in the East (1917)/Chapter 20

CHAPTER XX
Job Charnock founds Calcutta
Expedition to Bengal to exact redress for wrongs inflicted upon the English—Job Chamock assigned the post of honour—His career—Chamock sacks Hooghly—Evacuation of Hooghly and temporary occupation of Sutanuti the modern Calcutta—Subsequent removal to Hijili—Attack by Mogul troops—Gallant defence—Dire straits of garrison—Welcome reinforcements—Peace concluded—Return of the English to Sutanuti—Chamock in disgrace—New expedition under Heath—Its failure—English retire to Madras—Are invited back to Bengal—Calcutta founded—Chamock's last days—His character
IN following Thomas Pitt's career we have drifted somewhat from the main channel of the narrative which before he was introduced upon the scene was flowing irregularly through the plains of Bengal. When we return to the course it is to find that little real progress had been made by the Company in the way of the establishment of a permanent settlement in that quarter. For years the vain attempt had been made to conduct trade from factories which were mere glorified warehouses existing by the goodwill of the native authorities. In the absence of any proper status the Englishmen were treated with scant courtesy at almost all times and not infrequently with actual injustice. Protests made against oppressive exactions of local officials were either disregarded altogether or contemptuously dealt with. In fine, the Company were at the mercy of every capricious wind that blew in ​India at a time when the conditions of government were continually changing. They had also to suffer from the arrogance of the Dutch who with a superior force at their disposal were able to take up a high line and harass their rivals with impunity.
Gradually but surely the lesson was driven home to the reluctant minds of the Directors that if they were ever to succeed in creating a successful trade in Bengal they must have a fortified base. In 1686 they took exceptional measures to give effect to this policy. In that year they sent out to India a strong expedition which was charged with the duty of exacting satisfaction for wrongs inflicted by the Mogul Government. Failing redress from the Nabob of Dacca the force was to proceed to Chittagong and "seize and take the said town, fort and territory by force of arms." After capture the place was to be made as safe "as the art of invention of man can extend to." It was finally directed that Mr. Job Charnock was to be "Governor of our fort, town and territory of Chythegam."
Job Charnock, who was thus assigned the post of honour in this enterprise, was a man of very remarkable personality who fills a great place in the early history of British India. His parentage is obscure, but it may, perhaps, be surmised from his name that he came of the same Puritan stock which furnished so many of the earlier officials of the Company. He landed in India in either 1655 or 1656 and served his apprenticeship as a Junior Member of the Council of Cassimbazar, a much less important position than the high-sounding title would imply. Early in 1664 Charnock obtained his first important appointment as chief of the factory which the Company had established at ​Patna. In this position he remained continuously for sixteen years. He married a native wife and adopted native modes of living. It was even whispered by his enemies that he had become a pervert to Paganism and sacrificed regularly at the Hindu shrines. The allegation was probably false, but unquestionably Chamock had by long residence in isolation at Patna become completely immersed in Indian customs. Such a man was not unqualified to conduct negotiations with native powers where an intimate knowledge of the vernacular and of the native habits of thought wm all important. There was nothing, however, in his previous history to warrant the supposition that he would make a successful man of action. It might even be imagined that his long life of comparative retirement in India had warped those qualities which are most put to the test in a physical struggle. But Charnock, as the sequel will show, was no decadent Englishman with fibres sapped by an enervating Orientalism. He played his part on the great Indian stage with the best and most energetic of his fellow pioneers.
When the crisis came in 1684 Chamock was at Hooghly, whither he had escaped with difficulty from Patna, out of the clutches of the Nabob who was intent on wringing from him an amount unjustly claimed to be due from the Company. The Agent, on entering into his own, at once set about making his dispositions to meet the coming storm. Before the year had expired three ships had come out, large vessels, one of seventy, another of sixty-five and the other of fifty guns, carrying some six hundred seamen. There was in addition a number of small craft including three frigates each equipped with twelve guns and manned by twenty seamen. With the fleet arrived a ​military force of three or four hundred men formed into companies on the model of the King's troops. The strength of the forces at Chamock's disposal was completed by a number of Portuguese and Rajput soldiers, the former of little account as fighters and the latter lacking the necessary discipline to make them really serviceable.
These preparations aroused the native officials to action. Troops were hurried up from all quarters to overawe these audacious Englishmen who had shown a disposition to challenge the mighty Mogul authority. A battery of eleven guns was erected to command the anchorage, and the settlement was placed in a condition of blockade by the issue of an edict prohibiting the sale to its inhabitants of any supplies.
It only needed a little incident to bring about a condition of actual warfare. This was supplied one day towards the end of October when three English soldiers on proceeding to the market were beaten, bound and carried off prisoners. Chamock sent out a company of infantry to avenge the insult and bring back the prisoners. The sally was expected and as soon as the men emerged from the shelter of the settlement they were assailed on all sides by large bodies of horse and foot soldiers. They stood their ground for a time, but eventually had to retreat with a loss of seven of their number killed or wounded.
Encouraged by their success the natives set fire to the hovels surrounding the settlement and commenced a vigorous bombardment of the ships at anchor. Charnock ordered up a body of English troops stationed at Chandemagar to strengthen his force for an emergency which ​he perceived would require all his resources to deal with. Unfortunately before these arrived another reverse had been sustained in an attempt to capture the enemy's battery. The reinforcements, however, speedily changed the aspect of affairs. A fresh attack on the battery made by the new arrivals, under the command of Captain Arbuthnot, was completely successful. The enemy's guns were taken and disabled and sweeping onwards the victorious contingent penetrated as far as the house of the Governor who incontinently fled. Subsequently, the town was bombarded by the ships in the river and sacked by landing parties sent ashore for that purpose. Before the hand of the avenger was stayed some sixty of the enemy had been killed, including three men of note and a good part of the town had been laid in ruins.
The punishment inflicted brought the native officials to a reasonable state of mind. Through the Dutch, who had a settlement in the vicinity, the Governor sued for peace. His overtures were promptly accepted by Charnock, who was glad of the opportunity which the armistice offered of carrying out a long-formed intention to withdraw from Hooghly to some convenient and defensible spot. He at once proceeded to carry out his plans for the evacuation, but in the absence of proper transport facilities the operations dragged and it was not until the end of the year that the last consignment was dispatched and the Englishmen were able to congratulate themselves on having effected a peaceable and honourable retreat in circumstances which promised an accommodation of all differences.
Charnock and his associates relied a little too much upon the effect of their masterly turning of the tables upon the ​enemy at Hooghly. Though they had put a wholesome fear into the mind of the local Governor their action had had a totally different effect upon Shayista Khan, the Nabob of Dacca, the supreme Mogul authority in these parts. Shayista Khan was greatly incensed, as perhaps was only natural, when he heard of the doings of the insolent foreigners. He collected from all quarters troops with the determination of driving the English out of Bengal. To conceal his plans and gain time he affected to be desirous of concluding a permanent arrangement. He encouraged Charnock to formulate his demands. The Agent utilized the opportunity to elaborate a comprehensive list of claims. He asked for a site for a fort, for permission to establish a mint and to conduct trade free of customs. In addition the native Government was to rebuild at its own cost the Company's factory, restore all the money it had appropriated and assist to recover the Company's debts.
A suspiciously prompt assent was given locally to all these demands. Indeed, it seemed that the only thing wanting to complete the treaty was its formal ratification by the Nabob and the Emperor. But the time at last came for the native authorities to throw off the mask and then Charnock was left in no doubt as to how matters stood. He received back the treaty unsigned with an uncompromising declaration of war, phrased in language of indignation at the effrontery of the English in preferring such demands.
Accepting the challenge Charnock promptly took the initiative in the struggle by burning down the King's salt houses on the banks of the river and attacking and capturing the forts at what is now Garden Reach. After ​the evacuation of Hooghly the English headquarters had been temporarily established at Sutanuti, a spot which to-day constitutes the northern quarter of Calcutta. This position was now abandoned for one lower down the river on the island of Hijili which was thought to offer a better prospect of making a successful stand. Here Charnock concentrated his forces, using the fort which he had seized from the Mogul garrison as his new headquarters. When all possible protective measures had been taken there was a good deal of room left for anxiety. The fort was a flimsy structure standing amidst a grove of trees and situated some five hundred yards from the nearest landing-place, the defence of which had to be entrusted to a specially constructed battery. Altogether only 420 soldiers were available for garrison purposes, though the Beaufort, one of the largest ships of the fleet, with its frigate were at hand to render valuable aid in preventing communication between the island and the mainland, and two other ships of the fleet were at Balasor with a considerable additional contingent.
It was at the latter place that the first serious move in the new campaign was made. A force of one hundred and seventy men landed from the ships attacked and captured the Mogul fort which commanded the river, and the next day marched to the town of Balasor, which they sacked and fired. The English rounded off their operations by seizing two Mogul ships which, inopportunely for their owners, came into port. The only incident to cloud a brilliant piece of work was the surprise and capture of a boat's crew of seventeen who had incautiously gone too far up the river. Of the entire crew only one escaped. The heads of several of the less fortunate subsequently ​adorned poles in Hooghly, immensely to the gratification of the impoverished inhabitants of that mined town.
At Hijili the English garrison soon began to realize the truth that more soldiers die by disease than by the weapons of war. A low-lying pestilential spot, it was about the worst situation that could have been selected for an encampment of English soldiers, most of whom were fresh from home. Disease quickly appeared in their ranks, and as the hot months came on it worked such frightful havoc that the proportion of sick was never less than a third. Meanwhile, the Mogul forces had been steadily accumulating on the mainland opposite the island. They had erected there a battery which enabled them to dominate the river and even threaten the fort.
Action had to be taken if the island was not to be made altogether untenable. A series of raids were consequently organized with the object of harassing the enemy and giving the men a little wholesome excitement. Though they were uniformly successful the overwhelming numbers of the enemy enabled them to make good all damage that was done. When one battery was destroyed, another and heavier one was established.
In May the arrival of the Nabob's general with twelve thousand fresh troops was the signal for a more vigorous effort to overwhelm the English. New batteries were erected along the river and a constant fire from them was kept up. The range was good, and under the harassing effect of the bombardment, combined with the natural depression engendered by heat and disease, the spirits of the garrison fell to zero.
Becoming more audacious with the absence of any ​initiative on the side of the besieged the Moguls landed a force of several hundred cavalry and artillery on the island, captured an unfinished battery, killed one of the English officers who was sick and carried off his wife and child into captivity. They would assuredly have captured the fort if the English had not rallied and after a desperate fight driven the assailants off. But though victory was temporarily won, the general situation was blacker than ever. Charnock had buried half his men, and of the other half only one hundred were fit for duty. Of the forty officers who had originally been of the expedition actually only one remained at his post.
Charnock, surveying the situation with the eye of an intelligent though amateur strategist, came to the conclusion that a move must be made to protect the approach to the landing place if absolute disaster was to be avoided. A suitable position existed in a solidly constructed building about halfway to the landing stage which he had used as a battery. This post, together with the one at the landing place, was strengthened by the calling in of the small vessels which had been posted around the island. With the additional men obtained from the shipping Charnock maintained a gallant fight against the Mogul troops which were besieging the fort. He succeeded in keeping the enemy at a respectful distance, but whether unaided he could have maintained the unequal struggle for any lengthened period is doubtful, having regard to the steady depletion of his forces by disease.
Happily for him, happily for the cause of which he was the faithful champion, at the critical moment there appeared on the scene a welcome reinforcement of men in a ship which had arrived from Europe. This detachment ​numbered only seventy, but it brought with it all the vigour and dash of the West and a confidence in race which, had lost none of its pristine freshness.
The effect produced by the new arrivals on the garrison was marvellous. Their wan faces glowed with a new hope as they dragged their emaciated frames to the outside of the fort to see their comrades from home marching up from the boats in all the panoply of military state. If it had been a division which had arrived instead of a weak company a greater stir could not have been created.
Charnock, witnessing the scene like the rest with a feeling of intense gratification, was seized with a happy thought. Why should this enthusiasm be allowed to evaporate? Why not repeat the landing for the edification of the enemy, as well as for their own satisfaction? The idea was no sooner conceived than acted upon. By his orders the men who had disembarked quietly dropped by twos and threes back to the landing place, and when they had all re-assembled there marched again to the fort with flags flying and drums beating to the cheers of the garrison, which were as lustily raised as on the first occasion. This process again and again repeated kept the place for the greater part of the day in a feverish state of animation.
The trick worked admirably. The Mogul commander, deceived into the belief that the English garrison had been strongly reinforced, a day or two later sent a flag of truce to treat for peace. Chamock was naturally delighted to accept the olive branch, and by June 10, 1687, terms had been arranged which left the English free to march out with all the honours of war.
It had been a wonderful fight. For three months this ​handful of Englishmen had kept at bay an army and had done that while they held a position which had many and serious disadvantages. Outwardly little was accomplished as far as the main object of the expedition was concerned, but it does not admit of question that the courageous stand made on this occasion by Charnock infused into the mind of the native authorities a healthy respect for the prowess of the English which ultimately bore rich fruit.
From Hijili the English went to Ulubaria for three months, and at the expiration of that time once more established themselves at Sutanuti; Charnock selected the latter spot with the definite intention of making it the permanent seat of the Company's power. What were the reasons which animated him in his choice we do not know, but as Mr. C. R. Wilson points out in his admirable work The Early Annals of the English in Bengal, it possessed valuable strategic qualities. "It could only be approached on one side. To attack it the Mogul troops must cross the river higher up and march down upon it from the North. But if the river were crossed while the English ships still dominated it, the attacking force was exposed to swift and certain destruction. The English, sending their troops up the stream, could land and assail the enemy on his march to Calcutta, cut him off from his base, force him to form front parallel to his line of communication and so place him in the most dangerous predicament in which an army can find itself."
History has abundantly vindicated the choice of the site of what was for so long the capital of India and what is still to-day its most important commercial centre. But no credit for the choice rests with those who were in authority at home. Indeed, if the short-sighted directors who ​ruled the East India Company at this period could have had their way there would have been no Calcutta and very possibly no British domination in Bengal. They had for some reason or other formed a strong prejudice in favour of Chittagong, a place remote from the real seat of authority and of trade in Bengal, and when they heard of Chamock's proceedings they assailed him with a bitterness of invective more appropriate to a criminal than to an official who had risked his life and health in a gallant and not unsuccessful attempt to advance the Company's interests.
Charnock was not only abused: he was superseded. The Court sent out a fresh expedition with a new commander in the person of Captain Wm. Heath, an able navigator but a man utterly unversed in Indian ways and totally unfit by temperament for the delicate work of diplomacy which must accompany and follow any action that was to be taken.
Heath arrived at Sutanuti, or as we may now call it Calcutta, in September, 1688, and immediately proceeded to call a council to deliberate on the position. There were reasons and even authority in the Court's own communications for remaining at Calcutta; but the impetuous sailor, having made up his mind that the site was a bad one, over-ruled local opinion and by virtue of his instructions issued what were practically orders for the evacuation of the settlement. He subsequently changed his mind to some extent by opening up negotiations with Bahadur Khan, who had succeeded Shayista Khan as Nabob of the province. His overtures, made through two English representatives under Chamock's skilful advice and direction, were not unfavourably received, but ​before any definite result could be reached Heath had reverted to his old idea of seeking a new site for a settlement.
Early in November, the whole of the establishment having been embarked, the long prosecuted quest assumed a new phase. Heath, who was "everything by turns, and nothing long," had only a vague idea of what he really wanted to do. His first move, delayed until towards the end of November, was to make an attack on the Mogul camp at Balasor. The action was attended with the usual success, but the troops stained their victory by excesses committed in the town against Christian and non-Christian, friend and enemy alike. Nothing much came of the affair save that the lives of the English factors, who had been imprisoned and taken up country on the landing from the ships, were placed in jeopardy. A letter received at this juncture from the Company's representatives at Dacca announcing that the Nabob was favourable to their proposals brought the policy of negotiation once more into the ascendant. But by the end of the year Heath was again on the war path. His objective this time was Chittagong. There had been some question earlier of the English helping the Moguls in a war which they were waging against the King of Arakan, and on the arrival of his fleet off the port Heath sounded the local authorities on the point. Finding that there was no desire locally to enlist his aid the English commander turned his thoughts to an attack on the town. A cool survey of the situation, however, brought home to him the extreme risks which would attend such an enterprise. Next his restless mind swung round to the idea that the King of Arakan might be used as a stalking horse for his plans. But his Majesty, ​when approached, would have nothing to do with the English. This was the crowning stroke to the failure of Heath's ambitious plans, or at least he conceived it to be so. As he "could not persuade those foolish people from the present ruin and destruction which is just upon them," he gave orders for the watering of his ships preparatory to a voyage to Madras. In due course Fort St. George was reached, on the termination of one of the most singular cruises in the early history of the English in India.
Failure seemed to be written broadly across the position as it was left by this unfortunate adventure of Heath's. The foothold already obtained in Bengal had been lost, the Company's representatives everywhere in the province were in captivity, and the feud with the Mogul government had been aggravated until it menaced the Company's entire Indian trade. At the moment, however, when the sky seemed blackest it cleared in a surprising manner. The transformation was worked by the exercise of the will of Aurungzebe. The Emperor had never been greatly drawn to the English, and their recent policy had not tended to increase his regard for them. But he had been impressed by the strength that they had displayed at sea, and he reflected that if he continued at variance with them he would not only lose a lucrative source of trade but would find the route from India to the Holy Places in Arabia in the infidel's hands. He therefore issued instructions to the Nabob of Bengal that as it had been "the good fortune of the English to repent them of their irregular past proceedings and their not being in their former greatness," he was "not to create for them any further trouble, bat let them trade in Bengal as formerly."
​Prompt action was taken by Ibrahim Khan, the new Nabob, who had succeeded to the government of Bengal. He at once released the two English agents from their confinement and caused a message to be conveyed to Charnock informing him of the desire of the government to hve in amity with the Company. The change in the Mogul attitude was so startling as to arouse a not unnatural suspicion at Madras that it veiled some deep-laid scheme of treachery. It was decided, however, after mature consideration, to take advantage of the invitation to return to Bengal. The end of August found Charnock and his associates once more installed at Calcutta, endeavouring to pick up the broken threads of a sadly disorganized trade.
Meanwhile, the authorities at home had made many important changes in the arrangements for the control of their Indian interests. In 1687 the seat of the Western Presidency was transferred from Surat to Bombay, this following upon a measure carried through six years' previously separating Bengal from Madras. It was also in this period that Sir John Child was appointed "Governor-General," with full powers in India to make peace or war. But the most significant move of all was that which was undertaken by the Company in 1689, when they issued a formal declaration in favour of territorial sovereignty. This truly momentous resolution affirmed that "the increase of our revenue is the subject of our care as much as our trade." "'Tis that," proceeded the document, "must maintain our force when twenty accidents may interrupt our trade; 'tis that must make us a nation in India. Without that we are but a great number of interlopers, united by His Majesty's royal charter, fit only to trade where ​nobody of power thinks it their interest to prevent us."
Here spoke the voice of true statesmanship. The purely trading era had passed away! That of the administrator had dawned.
The English never had any reason to repent their trustful action in renewing their connexion with Bengal. The Mogul Nabob was a man of peaceful and benevolent disposition, more of a student and philosopher than an administrator. He genuinely desired that there should be a lasting accommodation and used all his influence to smooth matters for the Company. It was, however, not until February 10, 1691, that what may be termed the title deeds of Calcutta were obtained by the issue of an imperial order authorizing the English to trade on the payment of Rs. 3,000 yearly in lieu of all dues.
Now the feet of the English in Bengal were on firm ground. They had what they had been long striving for, a conveniently placed headquarter settlement from which they could prosecute their trade with some assurance of freedom from irritating interference. How upon this site finally arose the vast city which ranks amongst the world's greatest capitals is a story which is part of the history of British India and need not be related here. But as in the case of Bombay, and to a lesser degree as in the case of Madras, the comparison between what was and what is affords an inspiriting exercise to all patriotic Britons. A forlorn waste for the most part when first occupied, it has become by the energy and enterprise and policy of the paramount race a populous centre of abounding wealth and prosperity. Its merchants are amongst the world's leaders of commerce; its trade touches the ​four quarters of the globe; it is the home of philosophies and religions and the headquarters of a political movement which is profoundly influencing the course of events in India. If the British had done nothing else in India the creation of Calcutta on what was little better than a swamp would be a conclusive testimony to the genius of the race for the successful management of alien peoples.
Job Charnock did not live to see even the first glory of the city which he more than any other may be said to have founded. Full of years as they were reckoned for the Englishman at that time in India, and weighed down with the cares and responsibilities of his position, he died on January 10, 1693, in Calcutta. He was buried in St. John's Churchyard in the city in a grave which is said to contain also the remains of his much loved Indian wife, who predeceased him. Some four years after his death his son-in-law, Charles Eyre, erected over the tomb an elaborate mausoleum, which was the receptacle of the bodies of a number of his descendants who died in the latter part of the seventeenth and the first half of The eighteenth century. This striking structure still stands, an object of interest to the curious visitor to Calcutta and a silent reminder of one to whom the city owes so much.
Few men of note in the early annals of British India have been the subject of acuter controversy than Job Charnock. Even before his death there had gathered about him a wealth of picturesque legend which distinguished him from the ordinary type of English adventurer of that day. As Chanak, a master mind who had by his almost super-human powers defeated the Mogul forces at Hooghly, he ​had figured in Hindu tradition. The native imagination was impressed by his forceful qualities and also probably was not less influenced by the depth of his insight into Oriental ways. Amongst his fellow countrymen Charnock excited different feelings. He had many detractors, especially in his later days, when the advances of age and the effects of nearly forty years' continuous residence in the tropics appear to have developed in him an irritability of manner and an apathetic indifference which produced evil results in the government. Those who followed him, and knew little of his earlier services, were not slow to depreciate his abilities, representing him as a very commonplace type of man who had been installed in a position for which he was little fitted either by talents or temperament. There was this amount of truth in the picture that Charnock was ill educated and plain of appearance and speech. His natural defects had probably been accentuated by an almost entire separation from European society during the greater part of his career. But that he was the cross-grained incompetent that he was represented to be by his immediate successors is not at all in accordance with the known facts of his history. These show him to have been a man of strong integrity and of shrewd judgment, eminently courageous not merely in the physical but in the higher and rarer moral sense. He was loyal to his employers in a period when the most lax views obtained as to the dictates of duty, and with that loyalty was mingled a zeal for his country's honour which was a brand of the purest patriotism. Time has done much to clear his memory from the aspersions of jealous and evil-minded contemporaries. He is seen now in truer perspective, as a man whose little personal failings were ​overlaid by sterling qualities and whose administrative shortcomings paled beneath the grandeur of achievements which have left an indelible mark on the history of the nation's relations with the East.