14 CONQUEST OF BENGAL. 



tioned,* and it continued to extend its importance, notwith- 

 standing the opposition experienced during the viceroyalty 

 of Jaffier Khan. Their situation became greatly improved 

 when the office of nabob was occupied by Sujah ; but on 

 the death of that prince, his son Suffraze Khan, a weak 

 and imprudent ruler, was dethroned, and his place usurped 

 by Aliverdi Khan, a chief of Patan or Afghan extraction, 

 possessed of great military talents. Notwithstanding tho 

 irregular elevation of the latter, he administered the gov- 

 ernment, not only in an able, but a mild and beneficent 

 manner. This he did under difficult circumstances ; for 

 the Mahrattas, invited it is said either by the Mogul court 

 or the subahdar, found their way in vast bodies into Bengal ; 

 and, though often repulsed, repeatedly renewed their in- 

 roads. The prudence and valour of Aliverdi preserved his 

 dominions from conquest, but not from ruinous depredation. 

 He secured the attachment of his Hindoo subjects, as well 

 by protecting their property, as by employing them in all 

 the civil departments of government. He was thus not 

 likely to oppress industrious strangers settled in his domin- 

 ions. The English had only to complain that amid the 

 severe exigencies of his situation, he made repeated de- 

 mands for remuneration in return for the protection granted 

 to their trade ; yet his entire exactions, during an adminis- 

 tration of twelve years, did not exceed 100,000/. He made 

 no objection, when there was an alarm of invasion, even to 

 their enclosing Calcutta with a ditch, meant to extend seven 

 miles in circuit ; though, as soon as the danger passed by, 

 they, discontinued the work, which was afterward known 

 by the name of the Mahratta ditch. 



Considerable uneasiness, indeed, is supposed to have 

 been felt by him at the accounts which he received relative 

 to the ascendency of the English and French in the Car- 

 natic, who created and deposed governors at their pleasure. 

 Finally, the downfall of Angria, of whose naval strength he 

 had been led to form an exaggerated idea, made him begin 

 to look on them as somewhat too formidable neighbours. 



When Aliverdi died, he was succeeded by his grandson 

 Surajah Dowlah, a dissolute and tyrannical prince, who 

 adopted these jealousies with much greater vehemence. 



* Vo].i.p.2ffr. 



