Page 301 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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JOB CHARNOCK FOUNDS CALCUTTA 301

ruled the East India Company at this period could have
had their way there would have been no Calcutta and very
possibly no British domination in Bengal. They had for
some reason or other formed a strong prejudice in favour
of Chittagong, a place remote from the real scat of authority
and of trade in Bengal, and when they heard of Charnock’s
proceedings they assailed him with a bitterness of invec­
tive more appropriate to a criminal than to an official
who had risked his life and health in a gallant and
not unsuccessful attempt to advance the Company’s
interests.
Charnock was not only abused: he was superseded.
The Court sent out a fresh expedition with a new com­
mander in the person of Captain Wm. Heath, an able navi­
gator but a man utterly unversed in Indian ways and
totally unfit by temperament for the delicate work of
diplomacy which must accompany and follow any action
that was to be taken.
Heath arrived at Sutanuti, or as we may now call it
Calcutta, in September, 1688, and immediately proceeded
to call a council to deliberate on the position. There were
reasons and even authority in the Court’s own communi­
cations for remaining at Calcutta; but the impetuous
sailor, having made up his mind that the site was a bad
one, over-ruled local opinion and by virtue of his instruc­
tions issued what were practically orders for the evacua­
tion of the settlement. He subsequently changed his
mind to some extent by opening up negotiations with
Bahadur Khan, who had succeeded Shayista Khan as i
Nabob of the province. His overtures, made through
:
two English representatives under Charnock’s skilful
advice and direction, were not unfavourably received, but