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Geriah, which was the capital of his dominions. The port and harbour having been safely sounded by a ship belonging to the Company, Watson collected his squadron, and after receiving on board a detachment of troops, headed by Colonel Clive, set sail for Geriah, on the 7th of February. As he approached the place a Mahratta fleet, with a land force of 8000 men, put themselves under his authority, in the character of allies. Thus ably succoured, he reached his destination in safety, and immediately sent a flag to summon the fortress. By this time it was discovered that Angria had quitted the fort, but his wife and family still remained in it, and his brother-in-law, who commanded in his stead, boldly declared that he would fight to the last extremity.

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The overtures of amity having been thus peremptorily rejected, formidable arrangements were made for the attack. The English passed into the harbour in battle array, about noon, on the 12th instant, and were saluted as they entered with a heavy cannonade from the batteries on the land and armed vessels on the water. This first assault was hotly returned, and the contest raged on until four in the afternoon, when a shell descended upon one of the largest vessels among the Indian fleet she took fire, the flames circulated with fierce rapidity, and after an interval, the whole armament was consumed. Still the enemy were undaunted, and the fight was maintained until six in the evening, when another shell was thrown into the fort, and that took fire also. The bombardment then ceased on both sides, and the English indulged in anticipations of a surrender.

Aware that the Mahratta allies had been engaged in hostilities against Angria before the British interfered, and suspecting that if forced to cede the place, the enemy might prefer a native to a foreign victor, Watson advised Colonel Clive to avail himself of this temporary suspension of arms, and land his forces to watch the issue of the siege. But the followers of Angria were even yet indisposed to yield: they reduced the conflagration in the fort, and recommenced the cannonade with hearty spirit. The superiority of the British, however, was by this time evident, and the fate of the besieged became inevitable. Watson had warped his ships close to the walls, and his guns soon broke in a breach. This fresh advantage acquired, he dispatched a flag of truce to

the fort, and invited the governor to surrender: yet once again was the offer unequivocally refused.

The intervention of night occasioned a pause in the proceedings; but on the following morning, the English resumed the attack with vigour. The enemy remained resolute, until about one o'clock, when their principal magazine blew up, and the gradual enervation of their fire showed that their spirits were broken. At length a white flag was hoisted at about four o'clock, and a parley ensued. Even in this extremity the besieged disdained the terms proposed for their acceptance, and the battle continued until past five o'clock, when the brother of Angria finally struck his flag, and submitted at discretion.

The power of Angria was now upset, and his mother, wife, and children, became prisoners to the company. Two hundred pieces of cannon, six brass mortars, a large stock of ammunition, and specie, and effects, to the value of 13,000l., fell into the hands of the conquerors. Watson, garrisoning the fort with six hundred men, stationed four armed vessels to protect it by sea, and then returned with ease and safety to Bombay.

After refitting his vessels, he set sail for Madras, and there received intelligence of the capture of Calcutta, and the tragedy of the Black Hole, by the Nabob Rajah Dowla. No time was now to be lost;-Clive, Watson, and the government of the district hastily concerted measures, and on the 5th of October the army was embarked, and the fleet set sail for Calcutta. On the 5th of December, the squadron cast anchor in Balasore Road, on the coast of Bengal; and the 28th Watson proceeded up the river with the Kent, Tiger, Salisbury, and the Bridgewater ships of war, and the Kingfisher sloop. By the next day Clive had landed his men, invested the fortress of Budjio, and after an hour's contest, reduced it to submission. The ships now proceeded in their course up the river, and as fast as they advanced the enemy retired from their possessions along the shore, until Watson came to an anchor before Calcutta, on the 2d of January, 1757.

A sharp cannonade was instantly opened, but so superior was the conduct of the British, that after a struggle of two hours, the batteries were completely silenced, the enemy flew from their guns, and the various defences were successively

seized upon with unexpected ease and despatch. In this happy movement, which restored the British to their power on the banks of the Ganges, only nine seamen and three soldiers were killed, while the loss amongst the enemy was truly considerable. Ninety-one pieces of cannon, four mortars, and an abundant supply of ammunition, stores, and provisions, were seized upon, and it only remained to urge the tide of success into other quarters.

Accordingly, a fresh enterprise was determined on without delay, and the city of Hughly, situated higher up on the river, was besieged. At this place lay the Rajah's great storehouses of salt, the granaries for the support of his army, and the various depots from which alone he derived his means of carrying on the war. The importance of such a place was great, and no mean opposition to the besiegers was anticipated. Yet, fortunately for their cause, the attack was crowned with a success so speedy, that no detail of its progress can be desirable.

Endeavours were now made to bring the Rajah to a treaty, but he rejected every overture, whether from Clive or Watson, with passionate energy, and vowed to extirpate the British from the East. With these declarations he mustered an army amounting to 15,000 foot, and 20,000 horse, and on the 2d of February, 1757, established himself in a position distant only a mile from Calcutta. In the engagement which ensued, Watson had no share, though he contributed to the result by detaching from the fleet a body of sailors 600 strong. The Nabob was forced to retreat with great loss and precipitation; and ere long, overcome by the peremptory expostulations of the vice-admiral, he entered into a correspondence for peace, which was ratified without farther bloodshed.

But, though tranquillity was thus established in one way, the condition of our affairs in the very same quarter was still deemed precarious. Our ancient rivals, the French, held a strong position in the neighbourhood, and it was ascertained, upon evidence strongly presumptive, that they sought to tamper with the fidelity of our new ally, the Nabob. A determination to eject the French from the country was accordingly formed, and the reduction of their chief settlement at Chandernagore was entrusted to Vice-admiral Watson and Colonel Clive. The

army, amounting to 2,000 men, marched to the spot overland, and the naval squadron, consisting of three ships of war, in which Mr. Pocock,* of the Kent, held the second rank, reached

This officer subsequently became more distinguished as Admiral Sir George Pocock, K.B., who has a monument in the chapel of St. John the Evangelist, in Westminster Abbey. The design is not remarkable for fertility of mind, nor the execution for vigour of hand. A tasteless personification of Britannia grasps a thunderbolt in one hand, and extends the other over a medallion of the Admiral. The inscription mainly recapitulates the history of Pocock's life, and may, therefore, give place to a more particular notice, which here follows.

George, the son of the Reverend Thomas Pocock, Chaplain to Greenwich Hospital, was born on the 6th of March, 1706, and entered the navy as a midshipman, at the early age of twelve. For one of his great grandfathers he had Sir Thomas Turner, who was a Baron of the Exchequer during the reign of Charles the II., and for an uncle Sir George Byng, afterwards Lord Viscount Torrington. By this latter officer was young Pocock patronised, when, in 1718, he undertook his famous expedition into the Mediterranean for the purpose of enforcing, on the part of Spain, those enactments of the Quadruple Alliance, upon which the Peace of Utretcht was founded. A victory over the Spanish fleet having restored the balance of power in Europe, a tranquil interval of twenty years supervened, during which Pocock advanced himself in his profession with easy credit. He became first lieutenant of the Namur, in 1732, was gazetted a post-captain, in 1738, and was soon after appointed to the Aldborough, in which he was attached to the Mediterranean squadron. There he continued to serve, capturing a number of privateers, until 1741, when he returned home, and during the next year received the Woolwich, from which, in 1744, he passed into the Sutherland, and escorted some of the Company's ships to the East. Being next ordered to the West Indies, he succeeded Commodore Legge in the chief command of the Barbadoes station, on the 19th of September, 1747, and greatly distinguished himself by the judgment with which he disposed his cruisers, and the ability with which upwards of forty French vessels were thus captured.

Thrown out of active duty by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, he remained in a private capacity until the close of the year 1751, when he was sent to co-operate with Admiral Watson in the East. There he was raised to the flag of Rear-admiral of the White, in 1755, and to that of Rear-admiral of the Blue during the course of the following year. After aiding Watson in the several enterprises related above, he succeeded that officer in the chief command of the station, and was declared Rear-admiral of the Red on the 31st of January, 1758. On the 29th of April, having then under his orders seven ships of war, a frigate, and a store-ship, he came up with an equal French force, under the Count D'Aché, and commenced an action off Fort St. David. His own conduct on this occasion was perfectly correct and brave: he bore down in person on the opposing Admiral with

the same place on the 18th of March. Upon their first approach, they found their entrance blocked up by a boom, and several

heavy resolution, but was not, for some time, seconded, either from cowardice or incapacity, by his rear, and thus lost the chance of victory. For when the ships astern did join in action, his van was disabled from pursuit, and he was obliged to haul close on the wind, and content himself with a hope of resuming the engagement in the morning. That hope, however, he had not at all the means of realising. The French escaped during the night, and when day broke were no where to be seen or to be traced.

After meeting Aché twice in July, and vainly attempting encounters on both occasions, his ambition was in some degree gratified on the 5th of August. On that day he found the French squadron sailing compactly off Negapatam, and after considerable manœuvring, brought on a close and general engagement. For awhile the enemy resisted with steady gallantry, but their line was soon broken, and a victorious chace then began. No captures were made: the French, however, suffered numerously in killed and wounded, and were forced to fly to the Mauritius.

Of the events which happened under Pocock's command in 1759, one only is memorable, and that took place on the 9th of September, when, after a hot fight of three hours, he again put Aché to flight, off Pondicherry. This action was distinguished for its severity: the French had eleven sail of the line, and a frigate; the British were without any addition to their force, and though victors, suffered a loss of 500 in killed and wounded.

Returning to England in 1761, Pocock received the Order of the Garter, was publicly thanked for his services by Parliament, and the East India Company, and made Admiral of the Blue. In 1762 he hoisted his flag on board the Namur, and sailing to the West Indies, undertook the conduct of a mighty expedition against Cuba. That the expectations of the country were disappointed on this occasion, is a matter of historical record; but the blame of failure attached neither to the army or navy employed on the enterprise, but to the inefficacy of the ministry who directed the affair. Havannah, the capital of the island, was taken, after a series of masterly contentions, in which the fleet, under Pocock and Keppel, and the army, under the Earl of Albemarle, behaved with much gallantry. A booty, valued at three millions sterling, rewarded their labours; but no greater efforts were deemed prudent, and the expedition broke up without farther honours.

Revisiting London, upon the ratification of peace, in 1763, Pocock was once more honoured by a vote of thanks from the Parliament-a compliment which was also paid him by the Corporation of London, and several other public bodies. But at the moment he stood most elevated in public estimation, he withdrew altogether from the public service, by throwing up his rank, in 1766, provoked, as was supposed, by a preference given to Sir Charles Saunders, in the post of First Lord of the Admiralty. From this period he lived in the endearments of seclusion, where he was warmly re

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