Introduction
With the Seven Years’ War brewing in Europe, no one was more pleased than Louis XV of France when in June 1756 the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, grew frustrated with the British in Calcutta and seized Fort William and all its wealth. The horrific sequel has been told in many ways: what mattered then was how it was told the following December to Admiral Watson, the man whose job it was to respond.
AT Balasore Admiral Watson got fresh news about what had been happening in Bengal.* He now heard, for the first time, details of the taking of Fort William and of the grim tragedy of the Black Hole.
Two English pilots who boarded the flagship told the story. The attack, said the men, opened on June 15th, Tuesday, and after a vain attempt to hold the gaol and Court House and a small redoubt* in front of the city, the garrison had been driven into the fort. There it was found they had only ammunition for three days’ fighting. The women and children were thereupon sent on board the ships in the river, lying off the Maidan,* and in the confusion that followed their departure, Governor Drake and most of the leading civilians — according to the pilots — deserted their posts,* and stole off on board ship to join the women, after which they induced the skippers to weigh anchor and drop down the river, leaving the garrison cut off and without means of escape.
* Vice-Admiral Charles Watson (1714-1757), Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, was in India because the British anticipated that in the war with Louis XV’s France that was now imminent, India would be one of the primary theatres. In December 1756, his ship was at Balasore (Baleshwar) Roads, Odisha, a safe anchorage in the Bay of Bengal and some 94 miles southwest of Calcutta. See The Seven Years’ War.
* A defensive fortification, often only temporary, sometimes of masonry but frequently of earthworks.
* A maidan is a large open field, for public use or military parades — or in the case of Bombay, for cricket matches.
* Roger Drake was President of Fort William in Bengal from 1752. He was subsequently reprimanded, and relieved of his post on November 13th, 1757. His place was taken by Robert Clive.
Précis
In 1756, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, laid siege to Fort William in Calcutta. Several months later, Admiral Watson heard how some in the British garrison there had resisted, and how the Governor and others had fled with the women and children to a waiting ship before abandoning the remainder to their fate. (54 / 60 words)
In 1756, the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, laid siege to Fort William in Calcutta. Several months later, Admiral Watson heard how some in the British garrison there had resisted, and how the Governor and others had fled with the women and children to a waiting ship before abandoning the remainder to their fate.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, just, must, not, ought, unless, until, who.
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