was restored to his sight and senses. The
suba, at last, being informed that the greater part of the prisoners
were suffocated, inquired if the chief was alive; and being answered in
the affirmative, sent an order for their immediate release, when no more
than twenty-three survived of an hundred and forty-six who had entered
alive.

ADDITIONAL CRUELTIES EXERCISED ON MR. HOLWELL.

Nor was the late deliverance, even of these few, owing to any sentiment
of compassion in the viceroy. He had received intimation that there was
a considerable treasure secreted in the fort, and that Mr. Holwell
knew the place where it was deposited. That gentleman, who, with his
surviving companions, had been seized with a putrid fever immediately
upon their release, was dragged in that condition before the inhuman
suba, who questioned him about the treasure, which existed nowhere but
in his own imagination; and would give no credit to his protestations,
when he solemnly declared he knew of no such deposit. Mr. Holwell and
three of his friends were loaded with fetters, and conveyed three miles
to the Indian camp, where they lay all night exposed to a severe rain;
next morning they were brought back to town still manacled, under
the scorching beams of a sun intensely hot, and must infallibly have
expired, had not nature expelled the fever in large painful boils,
that covered almost the whole body. In this piteous condition they were
embarked in an open boat for Muxadavad, the capital of Bengal, and
underwent such cruel treatment and misery in their passage, as would
shock the humane reader should he peruse the particulars. At Maxadavad
they were led through the city in chains, as a spectacle to the
inhabitants, lodged in an open stable, and treated for some days as
the worst of criminals. At length the suba's grandmother interposed her
mediation in their behalf, and as that prince was by this time convinced
that there was no treasure concealed at Calcutta, he ordered them to
be set at liberty. When some of his sycophants opposed this indulgence,
representing that Mr. Holwell had still enough left to pay a
considerable ransom, he replied, with some marks of compunction and
generosity, "If he has anything left, let him keep it: his sufferings
have been great: he shall have his liberty." Mr. Holwell and his friends
were no sooner unfettered, than they took water from the Dutch Tank-sail
or mint, in the neighbourhood of that city, where they