INDIA. 



43 



Sir Job* 



ChJd-i po- 

 licy. 



Htory. ctn ; but in the years 166.5 and 1672, their settlements. 

 *~~f~** particularly on the Malabar coast, suffered much from 

 the hostilities of the Dutch. 



The settlement of Madras was also exposed to forest 

 difficulties and danger. About the year 1 656, the terri- 

 tory on which it stood, and which belonged to the king 

 of B-snau'ir, was conquered by Nicer Jumla, the gene- 

 ral of the Icing of Golconda, who afterwards distin- 

 guished himself, as we have already noticed, as the 

 ablest officer in the service of Aurengaebe. This event, 

 however, in the end proved fortunate to Madras ; for 

 in the year* 1'iTt and H576. the king of Golcnnda per- 

 mit!. .'Iras government to build ships in any 

 part id forbade his officers to molest 

 the British commerce. 



The settlements of Bengal also flourished ; but in the 

 mean time, the war between the emperor and the 

 Mahrattas weighed heavitv on the factories of Surat 

 and Bombay. Child was at this period, what 



would now be itiled governor general of the British 

 settlements in India, while his brother Sir Jonah was 

 leading member of the Court of Committee.! ; their 

 v was, first the enlargement of the .-.uthortty of the 

 such Untt'-h subjects' as were within the 

 'tarter ; and secondly, retaliation by force 

 of arms on the Indian princes who had oppressed 

 tli- rnts, and the atUintnem of political strength 



and dominion in the Eat. II.;".- it is evident that 

 they laid the foundation <( em of aggrand 



raent, on which the British have acted in 



India. In Bengal : wa* to gain po**e*Mon of 



the city and territory ol >g; bat hostilities were 



prematurely commenced, and the attempt failed. On 

 the tide of Surat considerable advantage was at fir-t 

 gained by the capture of a number of Moorish vessels, 



t thest- enttrpnzes, which ha i 

 umlertA. \urengielx- an.! the M ah rat t a 



nearly equally puJM-d i> and saccra, in the 



hopes that the latter wo. . ith :he British, 



were brought to a by the over- 



whelming victories of ' e. Sir John Onld 



therefore applied t<> . I fur peace, which was 



A.n. l*o. ^ranted in Febnnr> 



Pin St Ua> Almost iinn.. fin of the Mo- 



.TidoMaia- gul w r. a new tettlemei ' e was acquired 



** on the coast of Command*) ; that of T.gt ipatain, which 



Wa> at first ceded by the I.' ] --Iff, MXl 



ward*, when his territory waa conqu'-reU by Aureng- 



_ rant was confirmed by that monarch 

 'i furtified tht station, and it has ince been known 



About the same time, a more important acquisition 

 was made in i rig the late hnatilit 



that province, tlie agert and iiMinril had retire ' 

 town a (V :.>wer down the river, called ( liut- 



tanuttee, immedutety contiguous ' is that of 



Calcutta ; M soon as peace wa* made with the court of 

 Delhi, the agency wa* transferred to this Utter place. 

 At f they could ti'.t gain p*-rmi<suin to 



fortify it ; but some of the rebelled 



against the Mogul monarch, the ,drr pretence 



of being afraid that Calcutta would be attacked, ob- 

 tained leave t<. raise walU round it In IfiQS. Prince 

 . on* of the grandson* ol' Aaretigsthe. who com 

 rnandid the Mogul arniy in Bengal, was t the 



British to confer on them .1 the tlirw'ron- 



nected villages of ( huttart , , J. 



ta, together with the justiciary p.. he inha- 



Sbortly afterward*, the fortiflcations of the 



new possessions being completed, received, in compli- Hiitory. 

 ment to the kind of England, the name of Fort Wil- ^ "Y^*^ 

 Ham ; and about the same period, the agency of Ben- .f " wa ' 

 gal was elevated to the rank of a presidency. For ^^ u ro 

 some years tin- position, and relative constitution of the 

 British presidencies, had fluctuated very much ; but 

 Bombay at la* superseded Surat completely; and from 

 the date of the 'wilding of Fort William, the established 

 presidencies were those of Madras, Bombay, and Bengal. 

 Soon after the death of Aurengrebe. the settlement 

 of Bengal was mnch exposed to the depredations and 

 extortions of Jnffier, who had become nabob of that 

 province. Wean-, at length, of the insults and the in- 

 juries which they sustained, the Presidency of Calcutta, 

 in the year 171.S, sent an embassy of complaint, accom- Kmbaoy t* 

 panied by presents, to the court "of I)i-lhi. It would, Delhi, 

 however, have tailed altogether, but for the concurrence *- D. 17 IS. 

 of two pronitious circumstances. The one was, a cure 

 effected on the emperor by Mr Hamilton, the surgeon 

 of the embassy. This gentleman being offered any re- 

 ward he chose, besought the grant of the Company's 

 request', which were instantly complied with ; and the 

 emperor, besides other valuable presents, gave him mo- 

 dels of all his surgical instruments in pure gold. The 

 other circumstance was, the retirement of the EnglMi 

 from Surat, from which place the emperor had been 

 long anxious to induce or force them to depart. Of the 

 privileges granted to the Company, those relating to 

 Bengal were the most important; and. indeed, they 

 'ered as cot.stituting the great charter 

 of the I n India. They were, that, in Bengal, 



all persons indebted to the Company should he deliver- 

 ed up; that I-.iiplih goods might l>e conveyed duty 

 free through the Kengal provinces ; and that the Eng- 

 lish should b* at liberty to purchase the lordships of 

 een towns contiguous to Calcutta. This last 

 in fact grunted, and even 



ime of the others were render, d m. ti; . -tu.il ; as, how- 

 _-e of exemption from duty, and a free 

 passage for their good* was actually given, the English 

 soon became tin principal carriers from the ports of the 

 Ganger, and the shipping possessed by private Euro- 

 peans in Calritta, in ten years after the embassy, 

 amounted to 10,000 ton*. 



From this time till the breaking out, in the year A n. IT t .. 

 >f the war between France and England, the Kngluhud 

 h settlements in India present nothing deserving Ijrendiiet. 

 of particular notice or record. At the breaking mil of Uctncnu> 

 this war, the English possessed the following settle- 

 ment*: Bom' ay; Dabul, about 4O leagues farther to 

 the south, in ihe province of Cancan ; Carwar, in the 

 province ot North Canara ; Tclhchrrry, on the <ea 

 coast of the Malabar province; Anjengo, their most 

 southerly ett!ement on the western nin- 



ula, on the sea coast of Tntvancore ; Fort St D.ivid ; 

 Madras ; Visigapatam and Balasore. on the Coromandel 

 coast; and Calcutta. The princip.il French settlement* 

 were Pondicherry and C handemagore ; the latter alx>ut 

 2(> mile* above Calcutta, the tornier on the sea coast of 

 the Carnal c. 



In the ye.ir 17 Mi. Madras was besieged by a French A, D. 1746. 

 armament, and compelled to capitulate ; but it was <. 

 t..r. ! to the English by the |. : < ot" Aix la Chapelle. 

 About the same time, the nabob of the Climatic, within 

 whose jurisdiction both Madras and Pondicherry were 

 situated, and who successively took part with the com- Nabob nf 

 batant- on Itoth sides, sustained a total defeat from a the Carnitie 

 very infer ioi number of French. The event is memo- defeated by 

 rable chiefly, as being the first which decidedly proved * *'""* 



