Albu

tribute. When he came to Cochin and showed his commission, Almeida, supported by his principal officers, refused obedience to it, at least till he should have avenged the death of his son. querque urged, but in vain, that the royal orders were imperative. Almeida sailed with a fleet of nineteen ships to attack the fleets of Egypt and Gûzerât. On his way he made an unprovoked assault on the city of Dabul in the Côncan, plundered and burned the town, and massacred the inhabitants without distinction. He found the confederates lying at the isle of Diu, on the southern coast of Gûzerât. Âiâz proposed to await the attack in the harbour; but the Egyptian admiral would not consent, and in the action which ensued victory remained with the Portuguese. Âiâz then sent proposals of peace, but Almeida insisted on the Egyptian admiral being delivered up to him. To this demand, Âiâz refused to yield, but offered to restore his Christian captives; and Almeida was obliged to be content with these terms. He then departed, and when he came to Cananor, with the ferocity then characteristic of the Portuguese in India, he massacred all his prisoners. It was with great difficulty that he was induced to resign his office. He finally sailed for Europe, and he fell in a scuffle with the natives in Saldanha bay, on the coast of Africa.

Hitherto the Portuguese had made no attempt to acquire territory in India, being content with being masters of the sea and having factories in the cities of the coast. But Albuquerque, a man of lofty and aspiring views, resolved to be the founder of a Portuguese empire in the East. His first attempt was on Calicut (1510); but, after performing prodigies of valour, the Portuguese were beaten off with great loss, and Albuquerque himself was carried to his ships stunned with blows, and left for dead. When he had recovered, acting under the advice of Timoza, one of those pirates with which that coast was so long infested, he proceeded to attack Goa, a town in an island of the coast belonging to the kingdom of Bêjapûr. The town surrendered on terms of security to commerce and private property, which were faithfully adhered to by Albuquerque, who now assumed the state of a sovereign prince. But the king of Bêjapûr, having collected a large army, was preparing to recover Goa, and as he succeeded in passing his troops over into the island by night, Albuquerque found it necessary to evacuate the town, and get on board his ships. He retired to Cananor, but soon after, when the king of Bêjapûr was engaged in a war with the rajah of Bejâyanugur, he made another attack and obtained possession of the town, which he strongly fortified, and made the chief seat of the Portuguese power in the East.

The aspiring mind of Albuquerque was now directed to a far more distant conquest. The city of Malacca, situated in the peninsula of that name, was the great emporium of the trade between India and China and the eastern isles; and Albuquerque, using as a pretext some ill-treatment which an officer sent on discovery by Almeida was said to have received there, sailed thither with a force of 800 Portuguese and 600 native troops, and he succeeded in taking the town, where the booty acquired is said to have been immense; but it was all lost in a storm which the fleet encountered off the coast

of Sumatra. The Portuguese retained possession

of Malacca, which became one of their principal settlements (1511).

The port of Aden in Arabia, which would give him the command of the Red Sea, next drew the attention of Albuquerque ; but two attempts which he made on that town proved failures. He then resumed his plans on Ormuz, and sailing thither with a force of 1500 European, and 600 native troops, he reduced its sovereign to submission, and Ormuz also became a Portuguese possession.

Albuquerque had thus founded an empire for his sovereign; but neglect and ingratitude were the only rewards the monarchs of Portugal in those days bestowed on their distinguished subjects. As Albuquerque was returning to Goa, broken in health, he learned that his enemy Soarez was come out as his successor, that officers hostile to him were appointed to the command of the ships and forts; and all this had been done without sending him even a letter. He was at first inclined to give ear to those who counselled him to maintain his power by force; but he immediately repelled the thought. He refused to take nourishment, dictated a brief but manly and pathetic letter to his worthless sovereign, and breathed his last within sight of Goa (1515).

Albuquerque was doubtless a man of considerable talent and energy, and is, perhaps, not altogether without claim to the title of Great bestowed on him

by his countrymen. It was certainly a splendid conception to make a small nation of the West like Portugal mistress of the seas and of the commerce of the eastern regions; and this conception was in fact realised, for, in all their conflicts with the native powers, the Portuguese invariably came off victorious, and their empire continued to exist for an entire century. It was neither the arms of the monarchs of the East, nor the inferior abilities of Albuquerque's successors, that caused its downfal, but the decline of Portugal itself, and the appearance in the eastern seas of the other nations of

Europe, whose side was almost always taken by the native powers, who abhorred the Portuguese for their religious fanaticism and their barbarous cruelty, in both of which detestable qualities they fully equalled their kinsmen of Spain.

The Portuguese dominion, according to the magnificent language of their historians, extended from the Cape of Good Hope to the frontiers of China, along a coast 12,000 miles in extent. But this only means that they had forts and factories at various points of this range of coast; for they prudently refrained from the acquisition of territory. They had various settlements on the east coast of Africa, Ormuz in the Persian Gulf, Goa and other places in India; they were also on the Ganges in Bengal ; they had factories in Ceylon, they possessed Malacca, and their forts commanded Ternate, Tidore, and the other Spice Islands, which, by the way, were the scenes of their greatest atrocities; and finally, emperor of China, for their services against a pirate, allowed them to settle on the peninsular of Macao, opened a trade with the islands of Japan, from near the city of Canton. They also discovered and which, however, their religious bigotry at length caused their expulsion, and a massacre of their native converts. Of this extensive empire all that they retain, and only by sufferance, at the present day is Mozambique, Goa, and Macao!

the

The most remarkable events in Portuguese history in the East, after the time of Albuquerque,

A. D. 1536-1699.

are the defence of Diu and of Goa against the native powers, each of which we will briefly nar

rate.

Bahadur Shâh, king of Gûzerât, when forced to seek refuge in Diu2, had allowed the Portuguese to build a factory there, on condition of their aiding him with 500 men in the recovery of his kingdom. When he had succeeded and came to Diu (1536), he found that they were surrounding their factory with a wall, and apparently converting it into a fortification. He remonstrated with Nuno da Cunha, the viceroy, who was there with a fleet, and matters seemed likely to be amicably arranged, when Cunha, having feigned sickness when invited to visit the king, the latter, to remove all suspicion, went on board the viceroy's ship with a few attendants. Observing while there some whisperings and signs passing between the viceroy and his people, he took alarm and quitted the ship in haste. As he was going on shore, an affray, accidental or designed, took place, and he threw himself out of his boat into the sea, where he was stunned by the blow of an oar, and then run through with a halbert. Each side charged the other with treachery, and each probably without

reason.

Bahadur's successor resolved to take vengeance on the Portuguese, and a large fleet and army from Egypt, now in the hands of the Ottomans, came to his aid (1538). Silveira, the commandant of the fort, had only 600 men, and many of them sickly; yet he repelled all the attacks of the enemy. After the loss of a prodigious number of men, they made one final assault at midnight, and forced their way into a part of the fort, but were repelled by almost incredible efforts of valour, after which the Turkish admiral gave over the siege and went home. He doubtless was not aware, that there were at the time only forty men fit for service in the garrison. The heroism of the Portuguese women in this siege is celebrated by their historians, particularly that of Anna Fernandez, the wife of a physician.

In 1545, the king of Gûzerât made another attack on the fort, which was defended by John Mascarenhas with only 200 men. A reinforcement of 400 men having come, they insisted on being led out against the enemy, but they were driven back with great loss. At length the viceroy, the celebrated John de Castro, arrived with a large force, and he attacked the enemy in their entrenchments, routed them with great loss, and, entering the city of Diu pell-mell with them, filled it with bloodshed and massacre. On his return to Goa, he entered the city in triumph, crowned with laurel, and dragging after him the royal standard of Gûzerât, music sounding all the while, and the streets ringing with acclamations.

In 1570, the Adil Shâh of Bêjapûr, and the Nîzâm Shah of Ahmednugur, formed an alliance for the purpose of driving the Christians from India. The former led his forces, estimated at 100,000 men, against Goa; the latter invested Chaul near Bombay. Goa was defended by the viceroy Luis de Ataide, who had only 700 soldiers and 1300 monks and armed slaves; yet he would not detain the homeward-bound ships, by which he might have added 400 men to his force. All the

2 See above, p. 19.

53

attempts of the enemy to pass over into the island failed, and the Portuguese often made attacks on their quarters, in which they displayed their usual courage, and their usual barbarity. When the siege had lasted two months, a reinforcement of 1500 men came from the Moluccas, and the Moslems, after one more vigorous attempt, in which they forced their way into the island, but were driven out of it with great slaughter, ceased to act on the offensive. Âdil Shah, however, remained in his position some months longer, and then retired, having lost 12,000 men.

Chaul was defended against the army of Nîzâm Shâh by an officer named Luis d'Andreda, and a garrison of 2000 men. But, as it was not seated in an island like Goa, the defence of it was far more difficult. During a month the enemy battered it with seventy pieces of cannon, and then made a general assault, and penetrated into the town at different points, but they were every where driven back. When the siege had lasted about six months, an unavailing attempt was made at accommodation, and Nîzâm Shâh, having tried one more furious assault, and being repulsed, drew off his troops. He shortly after formed an alliance with the Portuguese.

The Portuguese dominion in the East was thus maintained throughout the sixteenth century. But, meantime, Portugal itself had fallen under the dominion of Philip II. of Spain (1580), and the Dutch, who were also subjects of this monarch, and who used hitherto to purchase the products of the East at Lisbon, and distribute them over the north of Europe, having been driven into rebellion by Philip's tyranny, were in consequence excluded from all the ports in his dominions. They resolved therefore to try to make their way to the East direct, but they feared the naval power of Spain in the Atlantic and the eastern seas. It was at that time a prevalent notion, that the northern extremities of both continents were circumnavigable, and the Dutch were therefore induced to attempt the passage by the north of Europe and Asia; but, after three successive failures, they saw themselves obliged to abandon this project, and became convinced that, if India was to be reached, it could only be by the south.

In the year 1596, a company of Dutch merchants sent out a squadron of four well-armed vessels, under the command of Cornelius Houtman, who, during a long residence at Lisbon, had collected the necessary information; and after a somewhat tedious navigation, they reached the port of Bantam in the island of Java. On the return of this fleet, as the practicability of establishing a trade with the East was now established, the original company was increased; and, in 1599, a fleet of eight vessels was sent out, under the joint command of Houtman and Van Neck. They visited the coasts of Java and Sumatra, and Van Neck then returned to Amsterdam with four of the vessels richly laden with spices. The trade proved so lucrative, that new companies were formed every year, and new squadrons sent out. Even so early as the year 1600, forty Dutch vessels went round the Cape. The profits on their trade to the East is said to have averaged about thirty-seven per cent.

The Dutch at first avoided, as far as possible, all contact with the Portuguese, and carefully abstained from visiting the places where they had

settlements. But gradually, as they became confident of their own strength and learned how their rivals were detested by the natives, they began to abandon this pacific policy. They commenced with aiding the natives to surprise the Portuguese fort at Acheen in Sumatra, and then seized some of their settlements in the Moluccas. In 1605, having reinforced their fleet in the East with nineteen vessels, carrying 2000 veteran soldiers, they attacked and reduced all the remaining Portuguese settlements in the Moluccas, and thus made themselves masters of the entire trade of the eastern seas. They then made an attempt on Malacca, but met with a repulse, and afterwards aided the natives of Ceylon against the Portuguese; but it was not until the year 1656, and after a siege of şeven months, that they succeeded in reducing their chief settlement, Columbo, and expelling them totally from that island. They had already (1640) reduced Malacca, after an obstinate resistance. Having thus established their empire over the isles of the eastern seas, they built, as a capital, at Jacatra, on the north-western coast of the isle of Java, a town which they named Batavia. Unlike the Portuguese, they were not anxious to form establishments on the continent of India, contenting themselves with the lucrative commerce of the isles, to which they added that of Japan, from which the Portuguese had been driven by the native government.

The French also, in the commencement of the seventeenth century, made some feeble attempts to obtain a share in the lucrative trade to the East, and they established an East Indian company; but their merchants were wanting in the requisite spirit of enterprise, and it was long before they were able to effect a settlement in India.

CHAPTER II.

Early Voyages of the English-Land-trade--Travels of Fitch-First Company Established-Voyage of Lancaster -Of Middleton-Of Sharpey-Second Voyage of Middleton-Of Hippon and Floris-Nature of the English Trade -Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe-Rivalry between the Dutch and English-Depression of the Portuguese-Massacre of Amboyna.

It is not to be supposed that so enterprising a people as the English should have remained inactive spectators of the attempts of the Dutch to obtain a share in the commerce of the East. On the contrary, they were the very first people in Europe who had resolved to follow the Portuguese thither. So early as the reign of Henry VIII., on the representations of Robert Thorne, a merchant settled at Seville, of the advantages to be derived from the trade to the East, it was resolved to make an attempt to share in it. Owing to the respect then entertained for the papal bulls, and to the rights supposed to be conferred by discovery, Thorne advised to try the north-west passage; and accordingly two voyages were undertaken in that direction, of course without success, in the reign of Henry. The first of these was as early as the year 1527.

In the reign of Edward VI. a squadron, under Sir Hugh Willoughby, was sent out to try to discover a north-east passage. But it met with nothing but disasters. Willoughby's ship being driven on the coast of Lapland, he and his crew perished by the climate. Chancellor, the second in command, was more fortunate; for he reached the port of Archangel in Russia, and he became the means of opening a trade with that country to the English merchants. Some further attempts were made to discover a north-east passage; and, on their proving failures, the north-west course was again resumed. Six efforts were made in the course of a few years, three of the expeditions being commanded by Martin Frobisher, and the others by John Davis, who gave his name to the strait which he discovered.

There being now little hope of making a way to India by the north, the English resolved no longer to respect the pretensions of the Portuguese, but to go thither by the Cape of Good Hope. Already (1577) Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated the globe, and when in the Eastern ocean, he had visited the isles of Ternate and Tidore and other of the Spice Islands, and also Java, in all of which he had met with the most friendly reception from the natives and the greatest encouragement to trade. Drake's success inflamed the spirit of adventure then so strong; and in 1586, Thomas Cavendish, a gentleman of a good family and estate in Suffolk, fitted out a squadron of three ships at his own expense, in order to perform a voyage similar to that of Drake, and to collect all the information requisite for a trade to the East. Like Drake, he passed through the Straits of Magellan, and committed devastation on the coast of Spanish America. He visited the Philippine and Ladrone Islands, then the Moluccas, and finally Java; and he every where found the Spanish and Portuguese detested, and the people willing to trade with the English. The capture of some of the Portuguese Indiamen about this time, and the information obtained from the papers found on board of them, and a narrative published by one Stevens who had sailed with the Portuguese to India, made the English nation more fully aware of the value of the Indian trade and more anxious to share in it.

A

Attempts had even been made to obtain the products of the East by a land-trade. A company, named the Levant Company, had been formed to purchase them on the coast of Asia Minor, whither they had been brought by native caravans. Russia company had also been established after the discovery of Archangel, and in 1558, Antony Jenkinson, one of their agents, went from Moscow down the Volga into the Caspian Sea, and visited Persia and Bokhara. He repeated this journey seven times, and the trade thus established was such that, we are told, there were three English agents resident at Casveen in Persia, in the year 1563.

The Levant Company also thought that they might import directly from India through the Persian Gulf, and then overland to Aleppo and the coast. Accordingly John Newbury and Ralph Fitch, two of the partners, in that company, and some others, departed in 1583, furnished with letters from Queen Elizabeth to the emperor Akber and the emperor of China. They took the suitable goods with them, and proceeded by Bagdad and

A. D. 1585-1609.

Thence

Bussora to Ormuz. Here they were thrown into prison by the Portuguese, and then transmitted to Goa, where they were still confined; and, though at length released, they were so plundered and otherwise ill-used, that they fled from the town (1585). They went first to Bêlgâm, thence to Bêjapûr and Golconda, and then through Candêsh and Mâlwa to Agra, where one of them, Leader, a jeweller, remained in the service of the emperor, they, or at least Fitch, the narrator, proceeded to Allahabad and Benâres, and went even to the confines of Bootân, north of Bengal. They visited the Portuguese settlement on the Hooghly, Orissa, and other places, Pegu, and Malacca, and thence proceeded to Cochin, Goa, and Ormuz, whence Fitch returned to England, in 1591, and published an account of his travels.

From Fitch's account it was quite clear that no steady trade could be carried on with India by this route; and, moreover, none of these circuitous modes of trading with the East would content the ardent spirit of British commerce. Accordingly, in 1589, divers merchants had presented a memorial to the Lords of Council, praying permission to send three ships and three pinnaces to India, in order to open a trade with those places in which the Portuguese had no settlements. The fate of this memorial is not known; but in 1591, three ships, under Captain Raymond, sailed for India. Ere, however, they reached the Cape, they had to send home one with the sick, Raymond's own vessel was lost in a tempest, and James Lancaster, in the third, having privateered for some time in the Indian seas against the Portuguese, and taken a good many ships, was wrecked, on his return, in the West Indies, and came home in a French privateer.

The boldness and success of the Dutch in 1595 excited the emulation of the English merchants. In 1599, a company was formed, with a stock of about 30,000l., in 101 shares, of from 100%. to 30007., with a committee of fifteen to manage its affairs. The adventurers, as the shareholders were named, applied to the queen for a warrant, engaging to abstain from all places possessed by Spain or Portugal. But the court, afraid of embroiling itself with Spain, hesitated, and the charter was not obtained till the following year. The court proposed that the chief command should be given to Sir Edward Michelbourne; the committee replied, that they were resolved not to employ any gentleman in any place of charge, as the very suspicion of such a thing would drive away a great number of the adventurers. The court gave way, and the chief command was given to Captain Lancaster.

The charter now granted constituted the adventurers a body politic, under the title of "The Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading to the East Indies." Their plan of management was by a chairman, and a committee of twenty-four, to be annually chosen. They were to trade to all places beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan not already possessed by states in amity with her Majesty. The charter, like all at the time, was exclusive, but the company had the power of granting licenses to trade to other British subjects. The charter was granted for fifteen years, but might be revoked at any time, if not found advantageous to the country, on giving a notice of two years.

55

As many of the shareholders had not paid up, those who had were invited to be at the whole expense, and to share the whole profits of the voyage. A sum of 68,000l. was thus raised, and on the 2nd of May, 1601, Lancaster sailed from Torbay with four ships and a pinnace, the largest being of 600 tons, with a crew of 200 men. He was furnished with letters from the queen to the sovereigns of the different places to which he might come. The first port he came to in the East was Acheen, in Sumatra, where he formed a treaty of amity and commerce, and obtained permission to build a factory. Taking in there a cargo of pepper, he sailed for the Moluccas, but having captured a large Portuguese vessel in the straits of Malacca, and thus got all the goods he required, he sailed to Bantam, and having delivered his letters to the king, and left there some agents, he made sail for England, where he arrived in September, 1603.

In the following year the company sent out four ships, under Captain (afterwards Sir Henry) Middleton. They sailed to Bantam, where, while two remained to take in cargoes and one went to the Banda isles, Middleton himself sailed to the Moluccas. He there found a furious war raging between the kings of Ternate and Tidore, the former aided by the Dutch, the latter by the Portuguese. He also found that the Dutch were likely to prove determined enemies of the English in these regions, as they represented them to the king of Ternate as being nothing better than pirates. This voyage proved very profitable to the adventurers, but they were now threatened with a formidable rivalry; for the crown granted a license at this very time (1604) to Sir Edward Michelbourne and others, to trade to Cathaya, China, Japan, &c. This, however, proved to be more a piratical than a trading voyage; for Michelbourne took and plundered Japanese and Chinese, as well as Portuguese vessels, without making any attempts to trade.

In 1607, the company sent out three ships under Captains Keeling, Hawkins, and D. Middleton. They found the Dutch now busily engaged in reducing the native princes in the Moluccas, whence they had expelled the Portuguese, and they were refused by them permission to trade at Banda.

Hitherto the English Company had confined their commerce to the islands exclusively; but now, on being informed by their factors at Bantam and elsewhere that an advantageous trade might be carried on by conveying thither the calicoes and other cloths of India, they resolved to try to open a trade with the port of Surat in Cambay. In 1607, two large ships under Captain Sharpey were sent out for this purpose, but they separated in a storm off the Cape, and never rejoined, and Sharpey's own ship was wrecked and lost in the Gulf of Cambay. The other reached Sumatra, where she laid in a cargo; but she also was lost, on her return, on the coast of France, and only about 200 tons of pepper were saved.

In 1609, Sir Henry Middleton sailed with three ships, one named the "Trade's Increase," of 1000 tons. His destination was the Red Sea and Surat. On entering the former, he proceeded to the port of Mocha, but while matters seemed to be going on favourably he was treacherously made a prisoner, and conveyed to Sana in the interior. Having contrived to effect his escape, he rejoined his ships and sailed for Surat. On coming to the

mouth of the Tapti, on which that city stands, he found there a Portuguese squadron, whose commander informed him, that unless he had a letter of license from the king of Spain or the viceroy of India, he could not permit him to enter the port. Sir Henry replied that he came with letters and presents from his own sovereign to the great Mogul, who was no vassal to the Portuguese, and that he considered that he had as good a right as they to enter the port. The Portuguese then began to prevent the supply of provisions to them from the town; and as this caused much distress to the English, who had been so long at sea, and the authorities of the town had secretly signified to Sir Henry that they were perfectly willing to trade with him if it were not for fear of the Portuguese, he resolved to enter the harbour in spite of them. Leaving, then, his large ship out at sea, he advanced with the smaller ones to the mouth of the river. The Portuguese made a great deal of noise and bravado, but did not venture to attack. At length two of their barks rowed out to attack a boat which was taking soundings, but they were driven off and one of them was captured. The English vessels then anchored in the river, and all the future attempts of the Portuguese were repelled with loss.

A trade was now opened with the town; but the English agent, Downton, complains bitterly of the native merchants, who, he says, required a profit of fifty per cent. on what they sold, and would hardly allow the value of the freight on what they bought. But the English seem at this time to have had strange notions of commerce. Instead of allowing the native merchants to select such articles as were suited to their trade, they insisted on their taking all the articles which they had on board, especially a great quantity of lead for which the native merchants could hardly get any sale. At length the principal merchant agreed to take the lead; but as, by the custom of the country, he could annul the bargain by giving twenty-four hours' notice, Sir Henry, to prevent this, put the governor and some others who happened to be on board under arrest till the Indian goods should have been delivered. He thus succeeded in getting rid of his lead and laying in a cargo; but it was soon after signified to him that the English should have no factory at Surat, and they were obliged to retire from it without even having had time to collect their debts. Sir Henry then proceeded to Dabul, but he found he could effect nothing there. He then returned to Mocha, and exacted some further satisfaction for his seizure. He stopped every vessel he met, and made her agree to an exchange of goods, himself dictating the terms. Having thus gotten all he wanted, he stood for Bantam, whence he sent Downton home in one of the ships, intending to follow himself in the Trade's Increase, but he shortly after fell sick and died.

The Company also resolved to make trial of the Coromandel coast, and in 1611, Captain Hippon, accompanied by a Dutchman named Floris, as factor, sailed thither in a single vessel. Having reached Pulicat on that coast, where they hoped to establish a traffic, they were waited on by the president of the Dutch settlements there, who informed them that the Dutch had obtained a Kaul from the king of Narsinga 3, prohibiting all 3 So they called the rajah of Bejâyanugur.

other Europeans from trading there without their permission. Hippon replied in high terms; but he deemed it prudent to leave that port, and proceeded to Masulipatam, where they were near coming to the use of foul means, as they term it, with the governor. They thence went to Bantam and Patany, where the captain died, and thence to Siam. They then came back to Masulipatam, where matters went on more smoothly than the time before. Floris makes a remark which proves the tendency of traders to glut every market that opens to them. He says, that when he was in Siam four years before the demand for goods was such, that it seemed to him as if all the world could not supply it, while now it was difficult to effect sales at all.

A fleet of three ships sent out also in 1611, under Captain Jolin Saris, visited the Moluccas, and thence proceeded to the port of Finando in Japan. They were well received, and the captain and others were taken to court; but their prospects of establishing a factory were not realized.

In January, 1613, the English obtained their first settlement on the continent of India, and what human wisdom could ever have foreseen the consequences! The emperor Jehangir gave them permission to establish factories at Surat, Gogeh, Cambâi, and Ahmedabâd in Gûzerât. They were to pay a duty of three and a half per cent., and in return were assured of protection.

The average profits on the capital invested in the eight voyages made in those ten years (omitting Sharpey's) had been 171 per cent. But we must not look upon these as the legitimate returns of trade. Most of these voyages were piratic as much as commercial, ships when met were plundered, or the goods were taken out of them at the captors' price, and merchants were forced to buy what they did not want, and pay what the sellers demanded. In the succeeding four years, when the trade became more regular, the profits fell to 873 per cent., which we may observe still far exceeded those of the Dutch.

In the former of these periods, as we may have observed, the trade to the East was carried on rather by a regulated than a joint-stock company. Each voyage was a separate adventure, and those engaged in it managed it as they pleased, and on their own account, subject to the control of the company. As this left but little power in the hands of the directors, or perhaps as they really deemed it not the best mode, they exerted themselves to have it changed; and in 1612 it was resolved that the trade should be carried on only by a joint-stock, that is, that the shareholders were to place their money in the hands of the governor and directors, to be managed by them for the general interest, and the profits to be divided according to the shares. The fall in profits under the new arrangement certainly seems to speak in favour of the former system, but we have, we think, accounted for the difference.

For some years the agent of the company at the court of the Mogul had been Captain Hawkins *, who had gone thither from Surat, and been received with great favour, but owing to the inconstancy of Jehângîr, and the manoeuvres of those who were under the influence of the Portuguese, his exertions were fruitless, and he left it toward the 4 One of those who sailed in 1607.