HINDOOSTAN. 59 



-ible, and before morning no more than twenty-three were found alive, 

 the rest dying of suffocation, which was generally attended with a 

 horrible phrensy. Among those saved was Mr. Holwel himself, who 

 has written a most affecting account of the catastrophe. The insen- 

 sible nabob returned to his capital, after plundering the place, ima- 

 gining he had routed the English out of his dominions; but the sea- 

 sonable arrival of admiral Watson and colonel (afterwards lord) Clive, 

 put them once more, with some difficulty, in possession of Calcutta; 

 and the war was concluded by the battle of Piassey, gained by the co- 

 lonel and the death of the tyrant Surajah Dowla, in whose place 

 Mhir Jaffeir, one of his generals, who had previously signed a secret 

 treaty with Clive to desert his master, and amply reward the English, 

 was advanced of course to the soubahship. 



Moorshedabad, or Muxadabad, is a modern city of vast extent, and 

 was the capital of Bengal before the establishment of the English 

 power. 



Chandernagore was formerly the principal place possessed by the 

 French in Bengal ; it lies higher up the river than Calcutta. But 

 though strongly fortified, furnished with a garrison of 500 Europeans, 

 and 1200 Indians, and defended by 123 pieces of cannon and three 

 mortars, it was taken by the English admirals Watson and Pococke, 

 and colonel Clive ; and also was taken in the following war, but was 

 restored by the peace of 1783. It was again taken in 1793, and re- 

 mains in the hands of the English. Hoogley, which lies fifty miles 

 to the north of Calcutta, upon the Ganges, is a place of prodigious 

 trade for the richest of all Indian commodities. The Dutch had here 

 a well fortified factory. The search for diamonds is carried on by 

 about ten thousand people, from Sumbulpour, which lies thirty leagues 

 to the north of Hoogley, for about fifty miles farther. Dacca is said 

 to be the largest city in Bengal, of which it was the capital, before 

 Moorshedabad. The tide comes up to its walls, and it formerly con- 

 tained a Dutch factory. The weaving business, the great trade of 

 India, is carried here to a perfection unknown in other parts, and the 

 muslins made here are of most exquisite fineness. The other chief 

 towns are Cosimbuzar, Chinsura, formerly a Dutch settlement, Ra- 

 jahmahel, and Mauldah ; besides a number of other places of less 

 note, but all of them rich in the Indian manufactures. 



The province of Bahar lies to the west of Bengal; it carries on a 

 considerable trade, most of the saltpetre exported to England being 

 made in it. The capital is Patna, supposed by major Rennel to 

 be the Palibothra of the ancients, with which opinion Sir William 

 Jones appears to have coincided, though D'Anviile and Dr. Robert- 

 son thought Allahabad, the capital of the soubah of the same name, 

 to have been this celebrated ancient city. Patna is situate on the 

 south bank of the Ganges, along which river the city and suburbs 

 extend five miles. It is fortified in the Indian manner, with a wall 

 and citadel. 



Benares is a rich and populous city, on the northern bank of the 

 Ganges, about four hundred and fifty miles from Calcutta. It is more 

 celebrated as the ancient seat of Brahminical learning, for which it is 

 a kind of university, than on any other account. It contains the re- 

 mains of many Hindoo temples or pagodas, and in the middle of the 

 city is a large mosque, built by Aurungzebe, who destroyed a mag- 

 nificent pagoda to erect it on its site. The zemindary, or district of 

 Benares, was a part of the province or soubahship of Oude till 1774, 



