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HOLWELL, J[ohn] Z[ephaniah].
A Genuine Narrative of the Deplorable Deaths of the English Gentlemen, and others, who were suffocated in the Black-Hole in Fort-William, at Calcutta, in the Kingdom of Bengal;
in the Night succeeding the 20th Day of June, 1756. In a Letter to a Friend …
First edition, a variant from the issue usually encountered, paginating, [ii] vi, 40pp., but complete, concluding with the two-page "List of the Smothered in the Black Hole Prison." Holwell, later Governor of Bengal, gives here the first eye-witness account of events in the Black Hole. Suspecting the intentions of the East India Company, who were massing troops in the garrison of Fort William, the Nawab of Bengal attacked the European settlement at Calcutta. The then Governor and many of the senior officers made their escape, leaving the rest of the population to their fate. Holwell organized a spirited defence which collapsed only when their ammunition failed. Despite assurances that they would be protected, the survivors were herded into the Black Hole, a cell in the form of "a cube of about 18 feet." By the following morning most were dead, Holwell probably owing his survival to the unselfish services of his fellow captives who sustained him at a window. This account has subsequently stirred considerable controversy, being seen as a blatantly propagandistic exaggeration, demonizing the Nawab who was acting in a purely defensive manner. However, Holwell did come to be widely recognised as an efficient and honest administrator, and was the first European to undertake a systematic and sympathetic study of Indian antiquities in his "Interesting Historical Events, relating to the Provinces of Bengal and the Empire of Indostan …"(1767), and being described by Voltaire as a man " …qui n'a voyagé que pour nous instruire."
Duodecimo (173 × 108 mm), bound to style in quarter sprinkled calf on marbled boards, red morocco label. Cover-title present. Light browning, else very good.
