In the Revenue Survey executed by command of the Emperor Akbar, in 1596, there is a brief entry referring to the rent-paying village of Kalikata. Nearly a century later (in 1686) Job Charnock, president of the English merchants at Hooghly, in consequence of difficulties with the Mogul authorities, removed the English factory to Sutánatí. The settlement soon extended to the adjacent hamlets of Kalikata and Govindpore, and these three mud-villages on the bank of the Hooghly gradually developed into the town of Calcutta. In 1689 the East India Company made it their head-quarters for Bengal, and soon afterwards built the original Fort William, and purchased the three villages from Prince Azim, the son of the Emperor Aurungzebe.

The principal event in the history of Calcutta is its capture in 1756 by Surajah Dowlah, the Nawab or Viceroy of Bengal. This prince, on the death of the old Viceroy, his father, had conceived the idea of driving the English from the country and plundering the fort, which he doubted not was rich with untold treasures. Upon a frivolous pretext he commenced hostilities, and with an army of 70,000 horse and foot and 400 elephants he marched against the city. After several repulses he captured it, and drove the English into the fortress. Here ammunition was short, and the greater number of the occupants took to the ships and sailed down the river. Mr. Holwell and about 250 effective men held the fort for a time; but the ammunition was soon exhausted, several of the defenders were killed, and at length, overpowered by vast numbers, the English yielded. The Nawab promised personal safety to the brave defenders, but in spite of this he shut up the 146 survivors of the defence in a strongly-barred room eighteen feet square, henceforth known in history as the "Black Hole of Calcutta." There were only two windows, both opening westward and shadowed by a projecting verandah, so that but little air could enter; other parts of the fort were at the time in flames, and the atmosphere was therefore unusually oppressive, so that the sufferings of the prisoners from thirst and from the foul and stifling air became terrible to the last degree, and in a few hours many died. In the morning it was found that only 23 out of the 146 survived. Of those who escaped from the terrors of that ghastly night, one was a lady, Mrs. Carey, eleven were gentlemen, and. the remainder English and native soldiers.

For seven months after this Calcutta was a Mohammedan city, officially styled Alínigar; and at the expiration of that time-namely, in January, 1757—came retribution. Five ships of war, carrying 2,400 English soldiers and sepoys, under the command of Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, sailed up the Hooghly, and after an attack of only two hours' duration Calcutta was re-taken. The town was found to be in a very ruinous condition; the old Church of St. John and most of the houses of English residents had been demolished, and everything of value taken away.

Twelve months later-in June, 1757-Clive routed the Indian forces at Plassy, Surajah Dowlah was deposed and killed, and Meer Jaffier, the nominee of the English, became Nawab, and indemnified the merchants of Calcutta for their losses to the amount of nearly £800,000. Commerce, which had flourished even while the Mogul Empire was in its death-struggles, now revived, and it is from this period that modern Calcutta dates. Henceforth its history is one of smooth prosperity, unmarked by civil war or any great disaster.

The site of Calcutta as the capital of British India is generally acknowledged to be bad.

It is a hundred miles from the sea; the south wind, which is the life of Calcutta, blows over salt-marshes on its way to the city; every ten years it is liable to the disastrous effects of a cyclone; the river is so dangerous that ships cannot go up or down without more care and viligance than is required in the Red Sea; large vessels have to stop at Diamond Harbour, a turn or reach in the river, to ascertain whether the tide at the bars will serve, and in passing "James and Mary," the most dangerous of the rapids, all hands have to be in readiness to let go the anchor, in case the vessel should ground. At Garden Reach many large vessels have to swing round and steam stern forward to the landing-stage.

These unfortunately are not the only drawbacks to Calcutta. The city grew up in an irregular fashion, with little regard to sanitary arrangements, some parts of it being below the level of the river, so that drainage became a difficult problem to reformers of later date. Till late in last century malarious jungles pressed close upon the European quarter, and the Maidan was a swamp for three months in the year. As the story goes, in one twelvemonth a fourth of the European inhabitants died, and for seventy years so great was the mortality that mariners dreaded the port, and looked upon Calcutta and Golgotha as different forms of the

same name.

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Of late years there have been vast sanitary improvements, and greatly they were needed. Only twenty years or so ago the president of a Sanitary Commission in Bengal wrote thus "In the filthiest quarters of the filthiest towns that I have seen in other parts of India or in other countries, I have never seen anything which can be for a moment compared with the filthiness of Calcutta." There was then a lamentable absence of drainage; the streets were saturated with sewage, the air was filled with poisons, and in consequence dysenteric diseases were as common as catarrhs are in England; terrible fevers swept away thousands of natives at periodical intervals; a pestilence worse than the plague in Russia was often prevalent, and Europeans were obliged to find change in the hills, or return home with broken health and ruined constitution.

Since then the sanitary state of the city has been improved from time to time, and measures taken to modify the glaring contrasts which existed during the early part of the present century between the native town and the English quarter.

At the present time the climate is to many Europeans the only drawback to Calcutta. It is impossible to drive down the Strand and not notice the hundreds of pale and delicatelooking people, especially the women and children. It is an old joke of residents who are complimented upon their " City of Palaces" to speak of it in return as the "City of Pale Faces." To many children the climate is unbearable, and they perish out of sight unless they are sent home. "Thus," as one says who knows the city well, "thus it is that the dark cloud of separation hangs over nearly every family; the familiar countenances are in the album on the table, but there are no children's voices in the house, and the pang of exile is embittered by the thought that the child grows up without the knowledge of the father's face."

The two great views which have so favourably impressed all travellers are-first, the grand sweep round the Maidan, which includes Chowringhee and the principal houses beyond, and which at night, when the lamps are lit, is as fine a prospect as any city can afford. The other view is the wonderfully picturesque appearance of the shipping in the river.

From early dawn, that is to say from four o'clock in the morning, till the sun is some distance above the horizon, crowds of the inhabitants of Calcutta, European and native, enjoy the cool morning air in the broad, noble park, esplanade, plain, or common, called the Maidan. On one side the Maidan is bounded by the river, with its forest of masts, and on the other by a crescent of about two miles of elegant white houses mingled with

rich foliage, and here and there the spire of a church. These houses of the rich merchants of Calcutta are elaborate in every form of luxuriousness and magnificence-ideal dwellings which English architects have not dreamt of in their wildest dreams. Within the park are numerous foot-paths, garden-plots, and broad level carriage-drives bordered with stone balustrades, where in the evening all the wealth and fashion of Calcutta assembles.

That portion of the Maidan known as the "Course" encloses a labyrinth of luxuriant walks called Eden Gardens, where strollers witness the grand display of equipages of all kinds, from European carriages and the four-in-hand to the humble one-horse chaise, all mingling freely with the native palanquins and hackeries.