5'i 



INDIA (ENGLISH, DANISH, AND FRENCH.) 



Europe; for Philip 1 1. and his successors often left 

 their Asiatic settlements unprotected. Time and 

 experience gave the advantage of knowledge to the 

 Dutch, and tin ir wronger and better served navy 

 enabled them to take one place after another from 

 the Portuguese. In 1621, the latter were stripped, 

 by their victorious rivals, of the Moluccas; in 1683, 

 of Japan; in 1641, of Malacca; in 1658, of Ceylon; 

 in 1600, of Celebes, where the Portuguese had settled 

 after the loss of the Moluccas, to retain by smuggling 

 some part of the spice trade; and, after 1663, the 

 mu-t important places on the coast of Malabar, where 

 they had longest maintained themselves, fell into the 

 power of the Dutch. At the same time that the 

 Portuguese were contending with the Dutch, the 

 English also entered the lists. 



English India. In 1600, queen Elizabeth gave to 

 the merchants of London an exclusive right to the 

 commerce of India for fifteen years; and, soon after, 

 the four first merchant ships of the East India com- 

 pany sailed from Lancaster to the Moluccas. The 

 profits upon this first voyage induced the associated 

 merchants to use every exertion to overcome the 

 obstacles which the new settlements of the Dutch, 

 and those of the Portuguese, upon the Indian coast, 

 placed in their way; and they soon succeeded in 

 forming establishments and building forts in Java, 

 Amboyna, and Banda, and shared the spice trade 

 with Uie Dutch. This privilege, indeed, was soon 

 after lost, the Dutch having obtained sole possession 

 of the Moluccas; but the English were more success- 

 ful in their settlements on the coasts of Malabar and 

 ( 'oromimdel, and always repelled the attacks of the 

 Portuguese. They obtained yet more important ad- 

 vantages in 1623, when the Persians requested their 

 assistance to drive the Portuguese from Ormuz; for, 

 independently of their share of the rich booty of 

 merchandise which they gained, they formed a set- 

 tlement at the entrance of the Persian gulf (Gam- 

 broon) and obtained possession of the commerce in 

 silks, carpets, gold stuffs, and other Persian commo- 

 dities. Thus, in the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, the commercial power of the Dutch and British 

 rose upon the ruins of the Portuguese. But the 

 friendly reception which the natives had given to 

 the Dutch, when they freed them from the hated 

 power of the Portuguese, was soon followed by dis- 

 contents. They saw that they had exchanged a 

 hard yoke for one still harder; that avarice and a 

 commercial spirit produced, under their new masters, 

 the same effects, which, ever since the first arrival 

 of the Europeans, had disturbed their peace and 

 destroyed their freedom. The Dutch, as well as the 

 Portuguese, were almost continually at war with the 

 natives on the islands and on the continent, wherever 

 they formed settlements. After the expulsion of the 

 Portuguese from the Spice islands, the Dutch govern- 

 ment became so oppressive as to compel the destruc- 

 tion of the spice trees upon all the islands except 

 Amboyna. At Banda, the natives were massacred, 

 because they would not submit to become slaves, and 

 the whole island was divided among the whites, who 

 used slaves from the neighbouring islands to culti- 

 vate their lands. The magnificent city of Batavia, 

 upon the northern coast of Java, became, after 1619, 

 the seat of the Dutch government in India, and the 

 principal seat of the Asiatic trade of the East India 

 company. From this place the governor-general, 

 during the five years of his power, ruled with regal 

 sway over the princes of the interior. Until modern 

 times, when the whole European colonial system 

 VH-. -Imken, and almost all the commercial establish- 

 ments in Asia fell into the hands of the British, who 

 ruled the sea, the Dutch, notwithstanding the strug- 

 gles of the natives, remained in possession of their 



settlements, among the most important of which 

 were Surat, on the coast of Hindoostan; the govern- 

 ment of Malabar, with Cochin, its fortress; that of 

 Coromandel, with the fortified Negapatam; Chin- 

 sura, in Bengal; the government of Malacca, the 

 farthest Dutcli settlement at the southern point of 

 the peninsula beyond the Ganges; Celebes, the only 

 place where they formally ruled after disarming and 

 subduing the native princes; Java, the Moluccas; 

 and the southern coast of Borneo, their last settle- 

 ment. 



Danish India. Before we return to the English 

 colonies in India, we must cast a glance at the other 

 commercial establishments, those of the Danes and the 

 French, likewise formed in the seventeenth century. 

 A Dutch factor, Boschower, who had obtained from 

 the king of Ceylon, as a mark of high favour, the title 

 of prince, being coldly received when he returned 

 home, from resentment offered his services to king 

 Christian IV. for forming a colony in Ceylon. An 

 East India company was immediately established in 

 Copenhagen, and, in 1618, Boschower sailed for 

 India with six ships, of which half belonged to the 

 king, and the others to the company. He died on 

 the way. The Danish mariner who commanded the 

 ships was ill received at Ceylon, and immediately 

 turned to the coasts of Coromandel, the nearest part 

 of the Indian main. The native prince of Tanjore, 

 granted him, for a yearly rent, a fertile strip of land, 

 where were laid the foundations of the city of Tran- 

 quebar, and where, soon after, the fortress of Dans- 

 burg was built for the protection of the new settle- 

 ments. The other Europeans, who had established 

 themselves in India, at first placed no obstacles in 

 the way of the Danes, who thus were enabled to 

 carry on an extensive trade. But when the Dutch 

 became more powerful and more arrogant, they ex- 

 cluded their new rivals from all the markets. The 

 aHairs of the Danish company declined; it ceded its 

 possessions to the government, and, in 1634, was 

 dissolved. After 1643, the Danes ceased to navigate 

 the Indian seas. In 1670, Christian V. formed a new 

 society, which he so generously supplied with ships, 

 that nearly half of their capital came from his hand. 

 This company had the right of making peace and war. 

 It was soon involved in new quarrels with the Dutch 

 and the princes of Tanjore, whom the latter had 

 excited against it. It continued its feeble existence 

 until 1729, when it was given up, as it could no 

 longer maintain its small possessions. Two years 

 after, it was again restored by Christian VI. It 

 received a charter for forty years, with the right of 

 carrying on an exclusive trade from the cape of 

 Good Hope to China. It was so successful that, 

 after the charter had expired, it was renewed for 

 twenty years, but with a proviso taking the exclusive 

 right to trade from the company, and allowing access 

 to India to every Danish subject, on condition of the 

 payment of a tax to the company. In the mean 

 while, several settlements were made on the coasts 

 of Malabar and Coromandel, in Bengal, in Behar, 

 in Orissa, on the straits of Malacca, and they became 

 so important to the navy and the commerce of Den- 

 mark, that the king, in 1770, bought them from the 

 company, and took their officers into his service. 

 The commerce to India and to China has, since then, 

 been free to all Danish subjects. 



French India. The East India companies of 

 England and Holland were already rich, when the 

 French had made only a few unsuccessful attempts, 

 and had no immediate commerce with India. But 

 the French minister of commerce, Colbert, was so 

 loudly called upon to favour the enterprise of th 

 nation, that he resolved, in 1665, to form a company, 

 and to give to it, for sixty years, all the right? and 



