Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/569

Rh ants of the Grand Mogul, then master of scores of such petty despots as the nabob Suraj-ud-Dowbut, to whose greatness these English lives were sacrificed, are glad to eat bread from the coffers of the English treasury.

The city of Calcutta stretches along the eastern bank of the Hooghly, or Bagirathy, as it is called by the natives, for a distance of six miles above the fort. Its population is not accurately known, but probably is not less than eight hundred thousand. It owes its greatness entirely to the supremacy and commerce of Great Britain. When granted as a trading-place to the English, in the year 1717, it was a petty village of mud-huts; and in 1756, it was taken from the English, who were driven from Bengal by its nabob. Now it is known as the "City of Palaces," and with reason; for few cities certainly in the East exceed it in extent and in the magnificence of its dwellings.

Fort William is deemed almost impregnable, and has quarters for a large number of troops. It faces the river, and, like Fort St. George at Madras, is surrounded by a wide, level, open esplanade. Just beyond the esplanade stands the government-house, a large and noble building erected by the Marquis Wellesly as a