Notes on Sirdjuddaulah and the town of Murshiddbdd. [No. 2 



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" Col. Clive, taking this as a permission to attack the French, 

 moved his land- army to Chandernagore, while Admiral Watson 

 sailed with his ships to the same place. Col. Clive shewed great energy. 

 But as the French Governor saw that the complete subjugation of 

 the place would depend upon the operations of the navy, he caused 

 a number of ships to be sunk in the river, with the view of impeding 

 the progress of the Admiral, leaving a small passage only unobstructed. 

 With the exception of a few French officers, no one knew that 

 such a passage existed. But as the star of the English was in 

 the ascendant, and the unavailing fortunes of the French were 

 beginning to set, the complicated knot unravelled itself in the hands 

 of the English. But if Fortune had not favoured the English, not 

 even exertions such as had never been witnessed as yet in India, 

 would have enabled Col. Clive to take possession of Chander 

 nagore. A French officer, of the name of Terraneau, who knew th 

 secret of the passage left in the river, was for some reasons dissatisfie 

 with M. Renault, the then Governor of Chandernagore. Forgettin 

 the obligations under which he lay to his own nation, he went to 

 Col. Clive and informed him of the existence of the passage 

 Col. Clive and Admiral Watson were thus* enabled to bring the 

 ships safely before Chandernagore, and took it after a bombardment 

 of nine days. 



* This would materially alter the eulogium of the following passage taken 

 from Sir John Malcolm's Life of Clive, Vol. I, p. 192, " Few naval engagements 

 have excited more admiration, and even at the present time, when the rive* is 

 so much better known, the success with which the largest vessels of this fleet 

 were navigated to Chandernagore, and laid alongside the batteries of that 

 settlement, is a subject of wonder." 



