СНАР. 5. from Surat to Bombay. Nor could the humble title BOOK I. and pretensions of a President and Council any longer satisfy the rising ambition of the Company. 1685-87. The Dutch had established a regency at Batavia and Columbo. It was not consistent with the grandeur of the English Company to remain contented with inferior distinction. In 1687, Bombay was elevated to the dignity of a Regency, with unlimited power over the rest of the Company's settlements.' Madras was formed into a corporation, governed by a mayor and aldermen.2 The English had met with less favour, and more oppression, from the native powers in Bengal, than in any other part of India.3 In 1685-86, the resolution was adopted of seeking redress and protection The seat of Government had been transferred from Surat to Bombay in the preceding year. Bruce, ii. 553. The policy of placing the British Indian authorities under one head, is too obvious to be ascribed merely to the rising ambition of the Company.-W. 2 Bruce, ii. 526, 540, 584, 591. It was debated in the Privy Council, whether the charter of incorporation should be under the King's or the Company's seal. The King asked the Chairman his opinion, who replied, "that no persons in India should be employed by immediate commission from his Majesty, because, if they were, they would be prejudicial to our service by their arrogancy, and prejudicial to themselves, because the wind of extraordinary honour in their heads would probably make them so haughty and overbearing, that we should be forced to remove them." Letter from the Court to the President of Fort St. George, (ib. 591). Hamilton, ut supra (189-192). Orme's Historical Fragments, 185, 188, 192, 198. 3 Mr. Orme is not unwilling to ascribe part of the hardships they experienced to the interlopers, who, seeking protection against the oppressions of the Company, were more sedulous and skilful in their endeavours to please the native governors. Hist. Frag. 185.-M. This was, no doubt, true to some extent, but the difficulties were, in a still greater degree, attributable to the administration of Shaistah Khan, as Subahdar of Bengal, whose insatiable desire of accumulating wealth, led him to a sytem of extortion, which descended through all his subordinates, and of which the English trade was the especial object.-W. CHAP. 5. BOOK I. by force of arms. The greatest military equipment the Company had ever provided was sent to India. 1685-87. Ten armed vessels, from twelve to seventy guns, under the command of Captain Nicholson, and six companies of infantry, without captains, whose places were to be supplied by the Members of Council in Bengal, were despatched, with instructions to seize and fortify Chittagong as a place of future security, and to retaliate in such a manner upon the Nabob and Mogul as to obtain reparation for the injuries and losses which had been already sustained. In addition to this force, the Directors, in the following year, made application to the King for an entire company of regular infantry with their officers; and power was granted to the Governor in India to select from the privates such men as should appear qualified to be commissioned officers in the Company's service. By some of those innumerable casualties, inseparable from distant expeditions, the whole of the force arrived not at one time in the Ganges; and an insignificant quarrel, between some of the English soldiers and the natives, was imprudently allowed to bring on hostilities, before the English were in a condition to maintain them with success. They were obliged to retire from Hoogly,' after they had cannonaded These circumstances are so summarily narrated as to be inexactly told. "Three English soldiers had quarrelled with the Peons of the Nawab, and had been wounded; a company of soldiers was called out in their defence, and finally the whole of the troops. The native forces collected to oppose them were routed, the town was cannonaded by the ships, and the Foujdar was compelled to solicit a cessation of arms, which was granted on condition of his furnishing means of conveying the Company's goods on board their vessels. Before the action took place orders had come from Shaistah Khan to compromise the differences with the English, but their claims had now become so considerable, amounting to above 66 lacs of rupees, or nearly СНАР. 5. it with the fleet, and took shelter at Chutanuttee, BOOK I. afterwards Calcutta, till an agreement with the Nabob, or additional forces, should enable them to 1685-87. resume their stations. The disappointment of their ambitious schemes was bitterly felt by the Court of Directors. They blamed their servants in Bengal in the severest terms, not only for timidity, but breach of trust, as having turned the resources of the Company, which ought to have been effectually employed in obtaining profitable and honourable terms from the Nabob and Mogul, to their own schemes of private avarice and emolument.' A hollow truce was agreed to by the Nabob, which he only employed for preparing the means of an effectual attack. The English, under the direction of Charnock, the Company's agent, made a gallant defence. They not only repulsed the Nabob's forces in repeated assaults, but stormed the fort of Tanna, seized the island of Injellee, in which they fortified themselves, and burnt the town of Balasore, with forty sail of the Mogul fleet; the factories, however, at Patna 700,0007., that it was not likely they expected the Nawab's acquiescence. They remained at Hoogly till the 20th of December, and then, "considering that Hoogly was an open town, retired to Chutanuttee, or Calcutta, from its being a safer situation during any negotiation with the Nabob or Mogul." Negotiations were accordingly opened and terms agreed upon, when, in February, the Nawab threw off the mask, and a large body of horse appeared before Hoogly. Bruce, ii. 581.--W. 1 As here represented, it does not appear why the Court was dissatisfied with the conduct of affairs in Bengal, an indistinctness arising from the extreme compression of the original account in Bruce; the chief object of the armament was the occupation of Chittagong; the Court considered that the truce granted to the Foujdar of Hoogly, and the negotiation entered into with the Nawab, had given to the latter time to strengthen his troops at Chittagong, and place it out of danger, their servants proposing, by their claims for compensation, to make good personal losses, rather than vindicate the rights of the Company. Bruce, ii. 594.—W. СНАР. 5. BOOK I. and Cossimbuzar were taken and plundered. In September, 1687, an accommodation was effected, 1685-87. and the English were allowed to return to Hoogly, with their ancient privileges. But this was a termination of the contest ill-relished by the Court of Directors. Repeating their accusations of Charnock and their other functionaries, they sent Sir John Child, the governor of Bombay, to Madras and Bengal, for the purpose of reforming abuses, and of re-establishing, if possible, the factories at Cossimbuzar and other places, from which they had been driven by the war. A large ship, the Defence, accompanied by a frigate, arrived from England under the command of a captain of the name of Heath, with instructions for war. The Company's servants had made considerable progress by negotiation in regaining their ancient ground; when Heath' precipitately commenced hostilities, plundered the town of Balasore, and proceeded to Chittagong, which he found himself unable to subdue. Having taken the Company's servants and effects on board, agreeably to his orders, he sailed to Madras; and Bengal was abandoned.2 The Defence arrived in India in October, 1688, and took the Company's servants and property on board at Calcutta in the following month. The attack on Balasore was made on the 29th of November, and in opposition to the advice of the agent and Council on board the fleet: after its failure, the ships proceeded to Chittagong, where it was determined to address the Nawab before commencing hostilities. Without waiting for a reply, or commencing military operations, Captain Heath sailed from Chittagong, and after a fruitless attempt to effect a settlement in Aracan, conveyed the Company's property and servants to Madras, where they arrived in March, 1689. Bruce, ii. 648.-W. 2 These events occurred under the government of the celebrated imperial deputy Shaista Khan; "to the character of whom (says Mr. Stewart, Hist. of Bengal, 300,) it is exceedingly difficult to do justice. By the CHAP. 5. 1687. These proceedings, with the rash and presump- BOOK I. tuous behaviour of Sir John Child on the western side of India, exasperated Aurengzebe, the most powerful of all the Mogul sovereigns, and exposed the Company's establishments to ruin in every part of India. The factory at Surat was seized; the island of Bombay was attacked by the fleet of the Siddees; the greater part of it was taken, and the governor besieged in the town and castle. Aurengzebe issued orders to expel the English from his dominions. The factory at Masulipatam was seized; as was also that at Vizagapatam, where the Company's agent and several of their servants were slain. The English stooped to the most abject submissions. With much difficulty they obtained an order for the restoration of the factory at Surat, and the removal of the enemy from Bombay. Negotiation was continued, with earnest endeavours, to effect a reconciliation. The trade of the strangers was felt in the Mogul treasuries; and rendered the Emperor, as well as his deputies, not averse to an accommodation. But the interruption and delay sustained by the Company made them pay dearly for their premature ambition, and for the unseasonable insolence, or the imprudence of their servants.' Mohammedan historians he is described as the pattern of excellence; but by the English he is vilified as the oppressor of the human race. Facts are strongly on the side of the Mohammedans." 1 Bruce, ii. 558, 569, 578, 594, 608, 620, 630, 639, 641. 646, 650. The lively and intelligent Captain Hamilton represents the conduct of Sir John Child at Surat as exceptionable in the highest degree. But the Captain was an interloper, and though his book is strongly stamped with the marks of veracity, his testimony is to be received with the same caution on the one side as that of the Company on the other. New Account of India, i. 199-228.-M. Bruce and Stewart give translations of the original |
