A. D. 1673. 571 



' inclination ;' wherefor he concluded with the elder Gate's words, ' de- 

 ' lenda e/l Carthago,'' i. e. the Dutch mud be extirpated. 



During this (hort but hot war the Englifli Eaft-lndia company was 

 obUged to raife no fewer than fix thoufand men for the fecurity of Bom- 

 bay againft the attempts of the Dutch. 



At this time the manufadured commodities of India annually im- 

 ported into Europe, and more particularly into England, were become 

 {o confiderable, as to occafion loud complaints againft our Englifli Eaft- 

 lndia company, as deftroyers, or at leaft great lefleners, of the confump- 

 tion of our own Englifli manufadtures ; whereby alfo, it was obferved, 

 our annual exportation of bullion to India, which formerly did not of- 

 ten exceed L40,coo, was greatly increafed. Thefe complaints conti- 

 nued without intermifllon, or rather increafed, until long after, that the 

 legiflature found it neceflary to enad: a total and abfolute prohibition 

 of the wear of all fuch in England, muflins only excepted. 



This year a fleet of French fhips of war failed to attack the Dutch 

 forts on the coaft of Ceylon, with a view to poflefs the cinnamon trade; 

 and they actually took the important fort of Trincomalee. But a fleet 

 of fixteen large fliips froni Batavia with land forces arriving, the French 

 fleet retired to Surat, and the Dutch foon recovered it. The French 

 failed from Surat, and took the fortrefs of St. Thomas, which the 

 Dutch had taken from the Portuguefe a few years before ; which was 

 alfo foon loft again to the Dutch ; and in the end not a Angle fliip ever 

 returned home to France. This then was the laft attempt during the 

 17th century for difturbing the commerce of the Dutch Eaft-lndia com- 

 pany. 



1674. — The French, after being driven from St. Thomas, retired in 

 the year id']^ to Fondicherry, which, by permiflion of the viceroy of 

 the king of Vifapour, they fortified, the fituation being very proper for 

 the trade of piece-goods, then in great demand in Europe. This place 

 the French have fo much improved, that it was to our days their capi- 

 tal refidence for all their Eaft-lndia trade. It was, however, taken by 

 the Dutch in the year 1693, but reftored to France by the peace of 

 Ryfwick in 1697 ' '^^^^^'^ which it was ftill farther ftrengthened and im- 

 proved, fo as to be deemed at length one of the moft confiderable of the 

 European fcttlements in India, having a large town, with many thou- 

 fands of Indians in it, befides the French company's people and traders; 

 and being lately farther enlarged, and the fuburbs walled in,, it is by 

 fome faid to be four leagues in circumference, and to contain 120,000 

 inhabitants, chriftians. Moors, and Gentoos. 



The univerilil clamour of the people of England on account of the 

 increafing power of France, fo dangerous to us and to all Europe, obli- 

 ged King Charles, in the beginning of the year 1674, to come into 

 terms of peace, by the mediation of Spain, with the ftates of Holland, 



4C 2. 



