Page 306 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

306 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

four quarters of the globe; it is the home of philosophies
and religions and the headquarters of a political move-
ment which is profoundly influencing the course of events
in India. If the British had done nothing else in India
-
the creation of Calcutta on what was little better than
a swamp would be a conclusive testimony to the genius
of the race for the successful management of alien
peoples.
Job Charnock did not live to see even the first glory of
the city which he more than any other may be said to
have founded. Full of years as they were reckoned for
the Englishman at that time in India, and weighed down
with the cares and responsibilities of his position, he died on
January 10, 1693, in Calcutta. He was buried in St.
John’s Churchyard in the city in a grave which is said to
contain also the remains of his much loved Indian wife,
who predeceased him. Some four years after his death
his son-in-law, Charles Eyre, erected over the tomb an
elaborate mausoleum, which was the receptacle of the
bodies of a number of his descendants who died in the
latter part of the seventeenth and the first half of
the eighteenth century. This striking structure still
stands, an object of interest to the curious visitor to
Calcutta and a silent reminder of one to whom the city
owes so much.
Few men of note in the early annals of British India have
been the subject of acuter controversy than Job Charnock.
Even before his death there had gathered about him a
wealth of picturesque legend which distinguished him
from the ordinary type of English adventurer of that day.
As Chanak, a master mind who had by his almost super­
human powers defeated the Mogul forces at Hooghly, he

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