Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/12

Rh correspondent signed "B" wrote to the Indian Mirror on the 29th April 1879, immediately after his death, that Babu Degumber having given up the head clerkship at Rajshaye, came back to Moorshidabad, and "was appointed a Tehsildar of the Government Khas Mahal Hudaramdashpur, under the then Collector, Mr. Robert Torrens. While he held this post, he fell into a scrape. One of his subordinates, an amin, made some alterations, or (Biruper) in the description of lands in a measurement Chita, i. e. some bastu or (habitable) lands were described as garas (unculturable holes)." He was prosecuted for this offence of his subordinate, but was honorably acquitted. He therefore gave up the appointment in disgust. The correspondent says that at this time "he was in great distress and lived with the late Babu Ganga Churn Sen, who was then head clerk of the Moorshidabad Collectorate. In 1838, he served as a clerk for a short time in the Native Infantry stationed at Berhampore."

But though his great intellectual powers, his attainments as an English scholar, his unflinching devotion to work and his perseverance—failed to be duly appreciated by the English officials of Rajshaye and Moorshidabad, it was by virtue of these qualities he became tutor of Raja Kishennath, and afterwards Manager of his vast estates. The princely gift of a lac of rupees to him by his pupil formed the nucleus of his future fortune.

It is said by Babu Amrita Lai Banerjee, his old companion, that Babu Degumber held the office of tutor on two different occasions. It is now impossible in the absence of authentic records, to ascertain the exact dates of these momentous events in the life of Babu Degumber. But an approximate idea of the time may be formed from the fact that Raja Kishen Nath Roy Bahadur committed suicide on the 31st October 1844, and calculating from this year the