Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/84

78 had made no efforts to facilitate the escape of the rest of the garrison: never perhaps was such an opportunity of performing an heroic action so ignominiously neglected: for a single sloop, with fifteen brave men on board, might, in spite of all the efforts of the enemy, have come up, and, anchoring under the fort, have carried away all who suffered in the dungeon.

But the trepidation on board of all the vessels had been so great, that, having sailed in the morning in order to proceed lower down the river, the fire from the fort of Tannah, where the enemy had again mounted several pieces of cannon, drove a snow and a sloop ashore; on which the rest returned to the station they had quitted at Govindpore, where they remained until the 24th, when they were joined by two ships from Bombay, which came up the river, and had sustained the fire of Tannah without any hurt. Encouraged by this example and reinforcement, the fleet again weighed anchor, and proceeding with better conduct, passed the fort of Tannah with the loss of only two lascars; on the 25th they passed Buzbuzia, another fort, twenty miles lower down, where the enemy were only preparing to mount cannon: here another vessel was stranded by bad navigation: on the 26th they arrived at Fulta, a town with a market, which is the station of all the Dutch shipping. The southerly monsoon which prevailed at this time rendering it impossible to quit the river, it was determined to remain at Fulta, if not driven away by the Nabob, until the season changed.

Mean while the Nabob's army were employed in plundering Calcutta, where the booty, although sufficient to gratify the common soldiery, produced nothing that answered the expectations which had urged the Nabob to get possession of the settlement. Most of the inhabitants, excepting Omichund, had removed their valuable effects; but in his treasury were found 400,000 rupees, besides many valuable effects. Most of the merchandizes provided in the country had been shipped to different ports before the month of April, after which time vessels cannot go out of the river. None of the company's ships were arrived from England; and none of those belonging to private merchants were returned from their voyages; and the greatest