Chronological Table. 157 



tuguese were spared, but their idols were destroyed. This is the first act of hostility 

 against Europeans recorded by the native historians. — Dow. 



A French Company again attempted, with a fruitless effort, to colonise Madagas- 

 car. — Gleig. 



1634. — On the 2nd February a Firmaun was obtained from the Mogul, for liberty 

 to trade in Bengal, without any other restriction, than that the English ships 

 were to resort ouly to the port of Pipley. This fixes the precise period in which the 

 English were first permitted to enter the Ganges. The President and Council at 

 Surat, in great disgrace with the Court, having been discovered, from quarrels 

 among themselves, to have been largely carrying on a private trade ; they threw 

 themselves on the mercy of the Court. — Bruce. 



Mr. Morris, a factor from Masulipatam, sent to Bengal to avail himself of the 

 Emperor Shaw Jehan's Firmaun : he reported from Pipley, that provisions for the 

 Company's factories on the coast, and abundance of fine white cloths, were procura- 

 ble on reasonable terms. — Bruce. 



1635. — A new English Company, or association, under Sir W. Courten*, chartered 

 by Charles, upon the unjust, grounds that the London Company had " neglected to 

 establish fortified factories, or seats of trade, &c." The latter petition against the 

 infringement, and send orders to their servants in India not to assist or encourage 

 the interlopers. — Bruce. Anderson. 



1636. — Courten's vessels seized and plundered two j^nks of Surat and Diu. The 

 Mogul authorities would not comprehend the distinction of Companies, and impri- 

 soned the president and council of Surat for this aggression of their countrymen. 

 Pirates also seized the opportunity of infesting the Indian seas. The President 

 released only on paying 1,70,000 rupees to the Mogul. English Trade depressed at 

 Surat, while the Dutch brought 22 large ships, with proportionate stock, to Ban- 

 tam. —Bruce. Mill. 



1637. — Captain Weddel, formerly a Company's servant, but now a leading instru- 

 ment of Courten, fixed an Agency at Goa, and at Batticolo ; he obtained a grant for 

 a factory at Acheen, and attacked and carried a fort at Canton, collecting many 

 bales of China goods, but being obliged to quit those seas, he fixed a factory at 

 Rajahpore, in the king of Vijiapore's dominions. — Bruce. 



1638. — Armagon found unsuited to commerce. — Bruce. Hamilton. 



1639. — Mr. Day, one of the council, sent, in consequence, to the vicinity of St. 

 Thome, who reported Madraspatam as favorable, and that the Naig of the district 

 offered land and every aid for building a fort. So important did the situation appear, 

 that, on their own responsibility, the council at once commenced the fortification, 

 and it soon became surrounded with the town. They named it Fort St. George. — ■ 

 Bruce. Hamilton. 



1640. — The distress of Charles I. made him oblige the Company to sell him 

 607,522 hogsheads of pepper, at 2s. Id. per hogshead, for which he gave bonds and 

 re-sold it for Is. 8d. ready money. The Company under great difficulty in these un- 

 settled times. Trade opened to Bussorah from Surat. — Bruce. Mill. 



1641. — Fort St. George made subordinate to Bantam. — Bruce, 



1642. — The first regular dispatch from Madras received at home is dated this year, 

 and it is curious that Mr. Day, who founded Fort St. George, immediately went to 

 Bengal, and that the first regular dispatch to the Court from the latter place also 

 bears his signature, and was received the same year : it is dated 3rd November, 1642, 

 from Balasore. — Bruce. 



1643. — Great competition between the Dutch and English for firmauns from the 

 Mogul, but the commerce of the Europeans must have been looked upon as inferior 

 by the Imperial Court, for the " profusion of presents," as appears from Surat, was 

 only 9,000 rupees altogether. — Bruce. 



1645. — The sum of £2,294 expended hitherto on the works of Fort St. George. 

 It required at this date £2,000 farther to complete it for a garrison of 100 men. 

 This year is memorable for the curious and unexpected extension of our incipient 

 power in Bengal. Mr. Gabriel Broughton, surgeon of the Hopewell, was sent for 

 from Suratto attend the Emperor Sha'h Jeha'n. His daughter was severely burned, 

 but Mr. Broughton cured the princess, and in reward for his services was granted, 

 at his disinterested request, additional and new privileges for his countrymen in 

 Bengal. In 1646 he rendered professional benefit to prince Shujao, then in the 

 Government of Bengal, and by his subsequent intercession, factories, on advantage- 

 ous grants, were established at Balasore and Hooghly. — Bruce. Hamilton. Mill. 



1645. — The rigid and austere manners of the republican party at home, injuring 

 the trade of the Company, the same was officially explained to the king of Persia as 

 the reason why silks, formerly a luxury, were now less iu demand. The civil wars 

 detrimental to all sales. — Bruce. 



* Sir W. Courten died immediately after this ; but the charter was continued to his son. 



M 



