um, for
their kind and valuable assistance.

S.C. HILL.

_September_ 6, 1903.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. THE QUARREL WITH THE ENGLISH

II. M. RENAULT, CHIEF OF CHANDERNAGORE

III. M. LAW, CHIEF OF COSSIMBAZAR

IV. M. COURTIN, CHIEF OF DACCA

INDEX

MAPS AND PLANS

THE GANGES VALLEY AND THE EUROPEAN SETTLEMENTS IN BENGAL, 1756.
(_After Rennell_) _Frontispiece_

MAP OF THE RIVER HUGLI FROM BANDEL TO FULTA. (_After Rennell_) _To
face page_

FORT D'ORLEANS, CHANDERNAGORE, 1749. (_Mouchet_)

MUXADABAD, OR MURSHIDABAD. (_After Rennell_)

DACCA, OR JEHANGIR-NAGAR. (_After Rennell_)

[Illustration: MAP OF THE RIVER HUGLI FROM BANDEL TO FULTA. (_After
Rennell_.)]

THREE FRENCHMEN IN BENGAL

CHAPTER I

THE QUARREL WITH THE ENGLISH

Writing in 1725, the French naval commander, the Chevalier d'Albert,
tells us that the three most handsome towns on the Ganges were
Calcutta, Chandernagore, and Chinsurah, the chief Factories of the
English, French, and Dutch. These towns were all situated within
thirty miles of each other. Calcutta, the latest founded, was the
greatest and the richest, owing partly to its situation, which
permitted the largest ships of the time to anchor at its quays, and
partly to the privilege enjoyed by the English merchants of trading
freely as individuals through the length and breadth of the land.
Native merchants and native artisans crowded to Calcutta, and the
French and Dutch, less advantageously situated and hampered by
restrictions of trade, had no chance of competing with the English
on equal terms. The same was of course true of their minor
establishments in the interior. All three nations had important
Factories at Cossimbazar (in the neighbourhood of Murshidabad, the
Capital of Bengal) and at Dacca, and minor Factories at Jugdea or
Luckipore, and at Balasore. The French and Dutch had also Factories
at Patna. Besides Calcutta, Chandernagore, and Chinsurah, the only
Factory which was fortified was the English Factory at Cossimbazar.

During the long reign of the usurper, Aliverdi Khan,[1] that strong
and politic ruler enforced peace among his European guests, and
forbade any fortification of the Factories, except such as was
necessary to protect them against possible incursions of the
Marathas, who at that time made periodical attacks on Muhammadans
and Hindus alike to enforce the payment of the _chauth_,[2] or
blackmail, which they levi