Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/85

Book VI. part of the commodities imported in the preceding year were sold; neither had the goods providing at the an rungs for the ensuing season been brought to Calcutta; so that the whole amount of the merchandizes remaining in the settlement did not exceed in value the sum of two hundred thousand pounds; which was much diminished before they had passed through the rapine of the soldiery, and the embezzlement of the officers appointed to manage the plunder. The Nabob, irritated by the disappointment of his expectations of immense wealth, ordered Mr. Holwell and the two other prisoners to be sent to Muxadavad, in hopes that they would at last discover where the treasures of the settlement were buried. This order was executed by his officers with all the severity that the fear of causing the death of the prisoners would admit. They were put into an open boat, without shelter from the intense sun and heavy rain of the season, fed only with rice and water, and loaded with irons, notwithstanding their bodies were covered with painful boils; a crisis by which all who survived the dungeon recovered of their fever. In their passage up the river, they received some refreshments from the Dutch settlement at Chinchura; and both the French and Dutch at Cossimbuzar administered to them all the offices of humanity which their guard would permit, who, on their arrival at the capital, chose a cow-house for the place of their confinement. It could scarcely be imagined that the Nabob, after such flagrant injuries, should suffer the remains of the colony to abide within his dominions, in expectation of reinforcements. But there always reigned so much confusion in his mind, that he rarely carried his ideas beyond the present appearance of things; and, soothed by the compliments of his courtiers into a belief that the reduction of Calcutta was the most glorious and heroic atchievement that had been performed in Indostan since the days of Tamerlane, he imagined that the English nation would never dare to appear again in arms in his country; and, having written letters full of these commendations of himself to Delhi, he neglected to pursue the fugitives