Plan 'No. i 
* 
JANUARY, FEBRUARY 1767. 
The 1st. of Jan. 1767 I was appointed Surveyor Gen 1 2 . 1 & the Gov r . (Mr. Verelst) 
appointed the several Surveyors that were to be employed under me (V 1 .) 
Capt. Uewis DuGloss Eieut. Carter. 
Capt. John Adams Ensign W m . Richards. 
The three first had each a particular part of the Countrey allotedhim to survey, & 
myself (with Mr. Richards as an Assistant) had another part. Mine was to be : first, 
the Roads from Calcutta to Hadgigunge ; next, the Cosa or Cosee River from its Con- 
flux with y e Ganges to the Northern Frontier of Bengali. 
The bth. P'eby. sent y e Baggage off to Dumdum/ the same Evening I joined it, 
in order to begin the Survey next Day from Gowreepour Bridge ; 3 * * Capt. Cameron 
having surveyed as far as that Place. 
The 7th. began the Survey, and at Night came to Barrasett/ which is 7m 3.5^ 
from Dumdum. This Countrey is a part of the Kistnagur Province. 
After leaving Barrasett we seldom found the Roads good, they being excessive 
narrow, rough, & crooked, & very frequently running across Padda Fields, so that 
when the ground is ploughed up there are no Traces of a Road to be found. 6 
At the end of the Journal I have added a Table of the Roads with the distances 
1 See Introduction, p. i. Concerning this appointment Malcolm says: — -‘‘Among other eminent men whom 
he (Lord Clive) patronised, he found Rennell, then a lieutenant of engineers, employed in various surveys, 
encouraged him to complete the general survey and map of Bengal, communicated to him all such previous surveys 
as were to be found in the public offices, furnished him with a proper establishment (though before this he seems to 
have had only two assistants, Ensign Richards and the Armenian who was killed by the Sunyasis at Deenhotta) , 
gave him every assistance in his power, and finally, young as he was (he was just turned 24) bestowed on him the 
office of Surveyor-General, which seems to have been created for him. Clive’s mode of trusting officers in whom 
he could repose confidence, and his means of securing the speedy and effectual execution of the orders he gave, are 
illustrated by one of his letters to Rennell (4th October, 1765, see ante, p. 51). He had ordered a general map 
oE the provinces to be completed. ‘ If you have occasion for any assistants, name them, and I will order them to 
attend you’” (Life of Clive, Vol. Ill, p. 162). Sir C. Markham quotes a letter of Rennell, referring to Ensign 
Richards :• — “ I have now company at all times; and luckily for me, the gentleman proves a very agreeable and 
cheerful companion ” (Life of James Rennell, p. 46). To the other three assistants the only reference I can find is an 
order of Mr. Verelst’s dated April 14th 1766, directing Mr. Plaisted (see ante , p. 38) “ the Surveyor of the Burdwan pro- 
vince to procure and transmit to him a particular account of the Bunds, and further to join Mr. DeGloss who is upon 
the same Service at the Bunds of Mandergatchee and Bulrampore ” (Wilson, Old Fort William , Vol. II, p. 177); 
and Mr. Firmiuger informs me that in a letter to the Board of Revenue, dated April 1771, the Supervisor of Birbhum 
asks for a reinforcement for the escort of Capt. Carter, “ who was engaged in the survey of the bordering lands of Beer- 
bhum and Bhagulpur, inhabited by chooars, who prevented him from proceeding further.” Mr. Plaisted had been 
transferred from Chittagong to Burdwan in August 1765 (Ibid.,]). 174). The Bunds were embankments on the Rup- 
narain R. 
2 Dum-Dum, a military cantonment 4|- miles N.E. from Calcutta, the headquarters of the Bengal Artillery from 
1783 to 1853. Lord Clive had a country house here, built on the remains of an older house and a mound, from which 
the place takes its name damdama, a raised mound or battery. The original house was a shooting box of Siraj- 
ud-daula. The house is still in existence and occupied as a private residence (Hobson Jobson. p. 330; Bishop Heber, 
Journals, Vol. 1, p. 35 ; List of Ancient Mon. Beng., p. 58). 
s Three miles N.E. of Dum-Dum. 
* Barasat, a resort of the Calcutta ‘ bucks ’ at this period, and closely connected with the names of Sir Philip 
brands, Machrabie, etc. (see Busteed, Echoes from Old Calcutta, p. 135 ; Bengal, Past and Present, Vol. II, p. 509). 
6 The present Bengal Central Railway follows this road very closely as far as Jessore. 
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