Chap. IX. J SURAJAll DUWLAH. 533
whether Mr. Watts was duped by Rajbullub into the belief that nothing more a.d. i756. than a halt was intended, or whether he was aware that the real object was to secure permanent British protection. Be this as it may, Mr. Watts' application in behalf of Kissendass was successful, and he arrived in Calcutta, where he was hospitably received by Omichund, an extensive Hindoo merchant, who had large connections at Moorshedabad, and was naturally inclined to conciliate the good- will of so influential a person as Rajbullub.
The arrival of Kissendass, and the reception given to him at the British ^"rajah presidency, filled Surajah Dowlah with rage. Not only had large treasures, on rage at tue the confiscation of which he had confidently calculated, escaped, but the very KitsBn,iL! idea that a body of foreign merchants, whose settlement in the country existed only by sufferance, should protect any party whom he had marked out as a victim, was galling to his pride. He immediately proceeded to the palace, and gave utterance to his disappointment and indignation, exclaiming, that the suspicions which he had long entertained of the English were now confirmed, and that they were evidently in league with the faction which meant to contest his succession to the nabobship. Ali Verdy, now on his death-bed, turned to Mr. Forth, surgeon of the factory of Cossimbazar, who was attending him pro- fessionally, and put a variety of searching questions to him, asking, How many soldiers were in the factory at Cossimbazar? Where the English fleet was — whether it would come to Bengal — and with what object it had come to India? The answers satisfied him that the British, in the expectation of a war with France, iiad already sufficient work upon their hands, and were in no condition to pro- voke the hostility or even risk the displeasure of the Bengal government Surajah Dowlah was silenced, but not satisfied, and was so little careful to con- ceal his feelings, that his determination to sack Calcutta and expel the English was openly talked of
This ominous circxmistance and the previous conversation with Mr. Forth, Treatmentof is said not to have been communicated to the presidency; but sufficient warning ofuamram- was given them when a letter, dated two days after the death of Ali Verdy, ""^^ was received, demanding the delivery of Kissendass and his treasures. The letter purported to come from Surajah Dowlah, and seems to have borne sufficient evidence of its genuineness. The governor and council, however, learning that the bearer of it, a brother of Ramramsing, the head of the spies, had come in a small boat, landed in the disguise of a pedler, and proceeded in the first instance to the house of Omichund, chose to conclude that this was an invention of this crafty Hindoo, who, having by some recent changes in the mercantile arrange- ment of the Company, lost some of his importance, had devised this cui'ious method of endeavouring to regain it. This extraordinary conclusion once formed, it was gravel}' resolved that both the messenger and the letter were too suspicious to be received, and Ramramsing's brother M'as lim-ried back to his boat, and turned off" with insolence and derision.
