Echoes from old Calcutta : being chiefly reminiscences of the days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey / by H.E. Busteed.

  • Henry Elmsley Busteed
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Echoes from old Calcutta : being chiefly reminiscences of the days of Warren Hastings, Francis and Impey / by H.E. Busteed. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    sixth of the whole) Avere taken out alive when the door was opened at dawn on the 21st of June. Holwell s personal remembrance of tlie night ceased at 2 a.m., as he then (for the second time) gave up the struggle of life, and sunk into what he believed and hoped was the shadow of death. AVonderfully touching it is, to read of the obedience and affection Avhich this man inspired, and which the sufferers preserved for him in that den of horrors, while reason lasted, or until all distinctions wmre lost in the common agony. A few brief extracts may fittingly exemplify this, as well as the nobility Avhich our poor countrymen manifested in the hour of extreme trial. When the struggle for Avater at the wdndoAv had been going on loug, and Holwell’s immediate companions Avere dead at his feet, he thought it useless to prolong his pain and misery Avhile being sloAvly and surely pressed to death. “Determined now to giA^e up e\erytliing, I called to them and begged, as the last instance of their regard, they would remoA-e the })ressure upon me and permit me to retire out of the window to die in quiet. They gaA^e way, and with much difficulty I forced a passage into the centre where the throng w^as less by the many dead. I traAmlled OAmr the dead to the further end of the platform. Death I exi)ected as unaAmidable, and only lamented its slow approach, though the moment I quitted the window my breathing grew short and pain- ful, Here my poor friend, Mr. Edward Eyre (Member of Council), came staggering OA^er the dead to me, and, Avith his usual coolness and good nature, asked me hoAv I did ; but fell and expired before I had time to make him a reply.” Soon, hoAvever, the deprivation of air caused torturing pains in the chest, and the instinct to seek it Avas so overpoAvering, that in a very feAV minutes he Avas pushing his AAmy to the opposite (further) Avindow, and, by “an effort of double the strength I ever before possessed,” gained the second rank and grasped a bar. “ In a few moments my pain, palpitation, and difficulty of breathing ceased, but my thirst continued intolerable. I called aloud for water for God’s sake. I had been concluded dead, but as soon as they heard me amongst them, they had still the respect and tenderness for me to cry out, ‘give him AA^ater, gAe him water;’ nor Avould one of them at the windoAA attempt to touch it until I had drunk.” A vivid idea of Avhat the throng and pressure Avere, even Avhen the floor Avas streAvn Avith dead, Avill be got from his statement that Avhile at his second post he Avas thus burdened, viz., a heavy man
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