Note 3 — Chapter I
Reading edition
The following was copied from an inscription in charcoal, on the wall of a small mosque on the declivity of a hill, about a mile from Chunar, and the same distance from the Ganges, in October, 1780:—
“This is the place of confinement of Ann Wood, wife to Lieutenant John Wood, taken prisoner by Jaffir Beg, Commandant to Sir Roger Dowler, taken out of the house at Calcutta where so many unhappy gentlemen suffered; the said Jaffir Beg obtained promotion of Segour Dowler for his long service, Fouzdar of Chunar Gur.”
“I, Alexander Campbell, was taken, along with the unfortunate lady, at eleven years old, by the same persons who afterwards made me an eunuch; my only employment was to attend this lady, which I did in this place four years. 1762, May 3rd, the said Jaffir Beg sent to acquaint the lady that if she did not consent to live with him the 4th of the said month, she should be strangled, and by my hands. The 3rd, at midnight, we jumped out of this window and got to the river side, where I hired boat for fifty gold rupees, to carry us safe to Chinsurah, where we arrived on the 11th. The first news we heard was that Lieutenant Wood died for grief; soon as she heard this, she fell sick, and died the 27th of the month.”
“Mr. Drake behaved with the greatest imprudence, he did deserve to be shot! shot! shot!
“Alexander Campbell, I am now in Dowlah’s service.”
“N.B.—Mrs. Wood’s apartment, and which is all the house consists of, is 9 feet 5 inches by 8 feet 9 inches, and 7 feet 9 inches high; the window, 18 inches.”
“Mrs. Bowers was a young woman, and inhabitant of Calcutta when it was taken by the Moors in the year ——, where upwards of —— British subjects were confined in the dungeon; she concealed herself until night in one of the warehouses in the factory, from whence she made her escape on board a small vessel lying in the river opposite the old fort.”—Hickey’s Gazette, 1780.
Neither of these names is mentioned by Holwell.