Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/195

Book VII. not exercise any authority in them, until all the lands had been surveyed, and every man's possession ascertained.

All the prosperities which had been imagined on the news of the battle of Plassy were now realized in Calcutta. A committee of the most respectable inhabitants were appointed to distribute the money received for the restitution of the losses of individuals, and executed the office with much discretion and equity. Commerce revived throughout the settlement, and affluence began to spread in every house; but as it is the nature of man to err with great changes of fortune, many, not content with the undisputed advantages accruing from the revolution, immediately began to trade in salt and other articles, which had hitherto been prohibited to all Europeans; and Meer Jaffier complained of these encroachments within a month after his accession, which, although checked for the present, were afterwards renewed, and at last produced much more mischief than even disinterested sagacity could have foreseen.

Admiral Watson barely lived to see the effects of those successes, to which his conduct had so much contributed: he died on the 16th of August, after five days illness, of the malignant fever peculiar at this season of the year to the lower climate of Bengal. The frankness and integrity of his nature, and his zeal for the honour of his nation, had endeared him to all ranks of his countrymen, wheresoever he appeared in India.

In this interval continual advices had been received from Major Coote of the progress of his detachment, which had met with even more interruptions than might have been expected from the insufficiencies of the outset. The boats, for want of rowers, could not be towed as fast as the troops marched on shore, which obliged him, before they arrived at the head of the island of Cossimbuzar, to press 87 men out of three large trading boats which were coming down the river. On the 10th of July, which was the 4th day after their departure from Muxadavad, the troops, and on the 11th the boats, arrived at Rajahmahal, 40 miles beyond Muxadavad, where a brother of Meer Jaffier commanded; he had sent 120 horse to meet the detachment on the road, and promised every other kind of assistance,