CHAPTER VII
THE CHURCHES
WHEN the British recovered Calcutta from Suraj-ud-Dowlah's forces, in 1757, they found the English portion of the town in a deplorable state of ruin, none of the buildings within and around the Fort having escaped the destructive hands of the Mussulman soldiery. The church, which had stood for over forty years nearly opposite the main gate of the Fort, was a heap of ruins. It had been utilized by the besieged and besiegers in turn, during the attack on Calcutta, and had suffered considerably, and at the last it had been fired with other buildings, and was so absolutely destroyed that there could be no thought of building a new church on the desecrated site. During the first decade after the return of the British to the town, all their resources and energies, as regards building, were
