or to lay violent hands on the boatmen. On
this we set sail, resolved to quit all the dependencies
of Bengal. In spite of ourselves we had to halt
at Chupra, twenty-two miles higher up, because our
rowers refused to go further: prayers and threats
all seemed useless. I thought the English had
found some means to gain them over. The boats
did not belong to us, but we should have had little
scruple in seizing them had our Europeans known
how to manage them. Unfortunately, they knew
nothing about it. The boats in Bengal have no
keel, and consequently do not carry sail well.
So we lost two days in discussion with the boatmen,
but at last, by doubling their pay, terms were made,
and five days after, on the 25th of July, we arrived
at Ghazipur, the first place of importance in the
provinces of Suja-ud-daula, Viceroy of the Subahs
of Oudh, Lucknow, and Allahabad.”
Before Law left Rajmehal on his return to Patna, the Faujdar tried to stop him on pretence that Mir Jafar wished to reconcile him to the English. Law thought this unlikely, yet knowing the native proclivity for underhand intrigue, he wrote him a letter, but the answer which he received at Chupra was merely an order to surrender. Law says:—
“I had an idea that he might write to me in a quite different style, unknown to the English. I knew the new Nawab, whom I met at the time I was soliciting reinforcements to raise the siege of Chandernagore. He had not then taken up the idea of making himself Nawab. He appeared to me a very intelligent man, and much inclined to do us service, pitying us greatly for having to work with a man so cowardly and undecided as Siraj-ud-daula.”
Law thought his communication—
“was well calculated to excite in his mind sentiments favourable to us, but if it did, Mir Jafar let none of them appear. The Revolution was too recent and the influence of the English too great for him to risk the least correspondence with us.”
From Clive, on the other hand, he received a letter,—
“such as became a general who, though an enemy, interested himself in our fate out of humanity, knowing by his own experience into what perils and fatigues we were going to throw ourselves when we left the European Settlements.”
This letter, dated Murshidabad, July 9th, was as follows:—
“As the country people are now all become your enemies, and orders are gone everywhere to intercept your passage, and I myself have sent parties in quest of you, and orders are gone to Ramnarain, the Naib of Patna, to seize you if you pursue that road, you must be sensible if you fall into their hands you cannot expect to find them a generous enemy. If, therefore, you have any regard for the men under your command, I would recommend you to treat with us, from whom you may expect the most favourable terms in my power to grant."[104]
Law does not say much about the hardships of his flight;