EARLY YEARS
For my own part, with the bones of the famous pioneer's hand accidentally discovered before me, and the strange and solemn statement of his epitaph just above them, that he had laid his mortal remains there himself ut in spe beatæ resurrectionis ad Christi Judicis adventum obdormirent, I felt strongly restrained from examining them further."
This opening of Charnock's grave and the uncovering of his bones proves nothing either for or against the tradition that he was laid in his wife's grave: nor does it affect the theory, held by some writers, that the ground now forming St. John's Churchyard was the first plot of land owned by the English in Calcutta, having been used by them as a burial-ground for those of their number who died while journeying up or down the river between Hughly and Balasore from 1640 onwards.
After Charnock's death Calcutta, or Chuttanutty, by which name the settlement continued to be known, grew rapidly, and within the first ten years of its existence was favoured by two fortunate circumstances which materially helped to strengthen the English position. The first was a Hindu rebellion against the Mohammedan rule, which broke out in Burdwan and Hughly and surrounding districts, and continued for two
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