Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/58

52 he gave no credit to his information; who replied, that he could prove it. A few days after this conversation, news arrived in Bengal that the English had taken Gheria. The piracies which Angria had for so many years committed on the subjects of the Mogul had rendered his name famous throughout the empire; and there was scarce a province of which he had not taken some of the natives, who concurred in describing his fortress as impregnable: and various rumours now prevailed at Muxadavad. Some said that the English intended to send sixteen ships to make war in Bengal; others, that Surajah Dowlah was determined to sack Calcutta, and drive the English out of his dominions: and Mr. Watts received positive information that there were many spies employed by the government in Calcutta; and that the weakness of the garrison and fortifications, and the facility with which the place might be taken, were the public discourse of the city and the court. The presidency on this information ordered strict search to be made, and several who were suspected of being spies, were turned out of the company's bounds.

At length the long-expected event of Allaverdy's death happened on the 9th of April: his public character is sufficiently delineated by his actions: his private life was very different from the usual manners of a Mahomedan prince in Indostan; for he was extremely temperate, had no pleasures, kept no seraglio, and always lived the husband of one wife. Warned by the experience of his own ambition, the defection of Meer-abib, and the rebellion of Mustapha Cwn, he declined as much as possible to entrust any Mahomedan, excepting of his own lineage, with any power out of his sight, which might either tempt or enable him to revolt: but kept his army, which consisted chiefly of Mahomedans, continually under his own eye, or never suffered a large body of the same troops to remain long enough at a distance to be seduced from their obedience. At the same time he paid them well and regularly, and rewarded the officers of merit and distinction, either with ready money or with jaghires, which were always rents arising from lands over which they were not suffered to have any extensive jurisdiction. But