First Expedition of the English to India. 9

view, and embodying the results of the success effected by the Portuguese and the Dutch. The petition was favourably received by the queen, and in the year 1600 the company was finally embodied by charter under the title of The Governor and Company of the Merchants of London trading to the East Indies. Five ships belonging to the new company sailed from England in the following year; and though they never appear to have reached India, they succeeded in capturing a Portuguese ship of nine hundred tons, with a rich cargo of Indian produce and manufactures, and established a factory at Bantam in the Isle of Java, where they traded very profitably, and returned to England after an absence of three years, one only of the five vessels composing the expedition having been abandoned at sea.

A third expedition, consisting of three small vessels, whose size may make us wonder how they could have escaped the perils of the stormy deep, sailed from England, March 12th, 1607. The Hector, under the command of Captain Hawkins, was the only one which succeeded in its object, and thus had the honour of being the first English ship which reached India by sailing into the harbour of Surat, north of Bombay, where the Portuguese had before established a factory. Captain Hawkins' subsequent adventures at the court of the emperor were of a romantic character in those early days of English intercourse with India. After remaining at Surat for some time, and finding it impossible to attempt any mercantile transactions with the natives without the emperor's permission, he bethought himself of King Edward's letter to the "Great Mogul,"

dated upwards of fifty years before, a copy of which he happened to have in his possession. So he determined, in the absence of any other diplomatic credentials, to proceed to Agra, where the Emperor Jehángeer, the father of the renowned Shah Jehán, was then residing. He was received honourably by the emperor, promised a handsome salary, and soon became a great personal favourite. By the emperor's desire he married an Armenian lady, who proved under trial a most faithful wife. But in the object of his mission he was most unsuccessful; the intrigues of the Portuguese Jesuits frustrated all his efforts to obtain the imperial permission to trade; his salary remained unpaid; he was in continual dread of being poisoned; and failing to receive any support from the emperor, he and his wife escaped with some difficulty to Surat, and were received by Sir Henry Middleton, who commanded another expedition under the provisions of a new charter granted by James I. in 1610.

It soon became evident that small enterprises in weakly armed vessels could have no chance of establishing a trade with India in face of the superior strength possessed by the Portuguese, and that it would be necessary to repel force by force. Accordingly four ships, fully armed, sailed from England, February 1st, 1612, under the command of Captain Best, and made direct for Surat, where they anchored early in September. Permission was obtained to trade with the natives, which was about to commence, when a Portuguese fleet of four galleons, convoying a number of trading vessels, entered the harbour. Captain Best at once decided on attacking this hostile

First Expedition of the English to India. 11

as

squadron; all the Portuguese vessels were driven ashore, and the gallant Best remained victor in the fight. Hitherto the English had been regarded by the natives as mere traders, and looked down upon with a certain degree of contempt, which, artfully fomented by the Jesuit missionaries at Agra, had tended to Hawkins' discomfiture. But now the tables were turned; the Portuguese had been beaten on their own element; the English had established that reputation for valour, especially on the sea, which became proverbial in later years, finding expression in one of our most favourite national songs, "Britannia rules the waves," and its effect on the native mind was soon practically and beneficially apparent. The Emperor Jehángeer, as soon Best's victory over the Portuguese became known, concluded a treaty, in which he promised his imperial protection to the English traders and settlers at Surat. An ambassador from England was permitted to reside at the court of the Great Mogul, and the custom dues were paid at the moderate amount of no more than 33 per cent. This important treaty, which contained many other privileges in favour of the English, was received by Captain Best at Surat, February 6th, 1613, and may be regarded as the thin end of the wedge in respect to the progress of the British in India; for it was undoubtedly the first stone laid in that mighty superstructure, which has culminated in the overthrow of the Mogul dynasty, and our possession of the entire empire of Hindostan,

12

CHAPTER III.

FROM THE TREATY OF SURAT TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MADRAS PRESIDENCY.

ΤΗ

A.D. 1613-1657.

HE permission given to Captain Best for the English to trade with the natives at Surat was followed up by the embassy which James I. sent to the Emperor Jehángeer. Sir Thomas Roe, the first ambassador sent to India to represent the British nation, sailed from England, January 24th, 1615, and arrived the following September at Surat, where he landed in great pomp, with eighty men-at-arms in his train. As the Mogul Emperor was then residing at Ajmere, Sir Thomas proceeded thither through the country of the Rajpoots, and was admitted to an audience in the early part of 1616. The Emperor Jehángeer received him with unusual honour, the Mogul courtiers informing him that no other ambassador, not even from their co-religionists the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia, had ever obtained so flattering a reception. Many other interviews followed, which promised a successful termination to his mission, when the English ambassador found himself thwarted at every turn by the intrigues of the Portuguese Jesuits; until, after long perseverance and consummate address, he succeeded

T

Establishment of the Madras Presidency. 13

in procuring a confirmation of former grants of territory, as well as the privilege of having resident English agents at some of the principal towns in the empire.

The Portuguese, who had suffered a second defeat at the hands of Captain Best, shortly before the arrival of Sir Thomas Roe at Surat, were only prevented from continuing the war against the English settlement by the consciousness of their inferiority at sea. The Dutch, who were more equal to us in this respect, viewed with an equally jealous eye the success of the new company; and when the English attempted to obtain a share in the lucrative trade carried on by the Dutch with the Spice Islands, an event occurred, which, while it covered our fellowProtestants with everlasting infamy, proved eventually of great benefit to the English, as it led to the settlement in Bengal, which eventuated in the establishment of the British Empire in India.

At the Isle of Amboyna, the largest of the Molucca group, and the richest in the produce of all Eastern spices, the Dutch had erected a strong castle, with a garrison of 200, as a protection for their growing trade. The English occupied at the same time a defenceless house in the town, guarded by only eighteen men; secure, as they vainly supposed, in its possession, by agreements and treaties with the Dutch. Yet these Dutch, pretending to suspect that this handful of Englishmen intended to deprive them of their strong castle, invited them one day to pay a friendly visit to the governor. On their arrival they were treacherously seized, and tortured on the rack until some of the weakest of