was at this time that the East India Company 

 purchased from the great grandson of Shah 

 Jahan (builder of the Taj Mahal) the group 

 of Bengal villages which grew into the city of 

 Calcutta. 



Now an unimportant fishers' town, Enchysen 

 (Enkhuizen) once well deserved the right to 

 have a flag of its own (1177). Long ago it 

 harbored the fleets of Charles V and Philip II 

 of Spain, when their word was law in all the 

 low countries. Its banner preserved the yellow 

 and red of Aragon. 



The flag of Legorne (Leghorn) (1178) con- 

 tains the five red roundels (little circles) pe- 

 culiar to the arms of the Great Duke of Tus- 

 cany, who derived a large share of his reve- 

 nues from this seaport. 



The winged lion of St. Mark (1179) is as 

 familiar to students of flags as the eagles of 

 the Roman Empire and the dragon of St. 

 George in British heraldry. It is placed on the 

 Venetian red flag (1141) in honor of the 

 patron saint of the republic. St. Mark, while 

 on a missionary journey to Italy, according to 

 a very ancient legend, was stranded on the 

 Rialto when it was still an uninhabited island. 

 Here the future greatness of Venice was re- 

 vealed to him in a vision. The lion was the 

 commonly accepted symbol of the saint in all 

 early Christian art. 



The Pope's colours (1180) include the red 

 field (red being the color of the livery of the 

 Holy Father also) with the white cross of Cal- 

 vary and the white lamb, the significance of 

 which are apparent. 



THE BANNER OF SAVOY 



The white cross on the red field, device of 

 the House of Savoy (1181), has played an im- 

 portant role in the history of Europe. Beau- 

 mont gives this account of its adoption by the 

 dukes of Savoy: "This coat was given to 

 Amadeus the Great by the Knights of Rhodes 

 in 1315, with these letters in lieu of a motto, 

 'F. E. R. T.' — that is, 'Fortitude Ejus Rhodum 

 Tenuit' (His valor has saved Rhodes). The 

 occasion was that Amadeus V, surnamed the 

 Great, forced Mahomet II, Emperor of the 

 Turks, to raise his siege at that time from 

 before the city of Rhodes. The said cross is 

 the cross of St. John of Jerusalem, whose 

 knights at that time were owners of Rhodes." 



The Portugal man-of-war (1182) and mer- 

 chant flags (1183 and 1184) bore the same dis- 

 tinguishing features — five shields with the five 

 circles representing the five wounds of Christ, 

 the castles surrounding the inner shields and 

 the armillary sphere, reminiscent of that na- 

 tion's maritime prowess in the sixteenth cen- 

 tury, 200 years ago, as they do now (see mod- 

 ern flags 791, 792, and 793). 



The broad, deeply notched border, differing 

 in color from the field of the flag, is one of 

 the peculiar characteristics of many Chinese 

 banners (see 1185 and 1186). Tunquin (Tong- 

 king or Tonqum) was a place of great interest 



to geographers 200 years ago. It was de- 

 scribed as containing 20,000 cities and towns, 

 "and many more there would be, but that many 

 of the people choose to live on the water than 

 on the land; so that the greatest part of their 

 rivers are covered with boats which serve them 

 instead of houses." Silks, according to the 

 eighteenth century report, were worn in Ton- 

 quin by rich and poor alike. 



Anchonia's (Ancona) red and white stripes 

 (1187) indicate its reliance upon the Pope. 

 The province, with its capital of the same 

 name boasting the finest harbor on the south- 

 west coast of the Adriatic, was a semi-inde- 

 pendent republic during the Middle Ages. 



Camphen (Kampen) was one of the impor- 

 tant members of the Hanseatic League. Its 

 ensign (1188) was the simple red field seen in 

 the Hamburg, Luneburg, and Dantzic flags, 

 but without any coat-of-arms or symbol such 

 as distinguished the devices of its sister cities. 

 Today Kampen is a thriving little town in Hol- 

 land, with a population of about 20,000. Its 

 days of glory were in the fifteenth century. 



Its red field charged with a golden crescent, 

 the flag of Tunis (1189) was for centuries one 

 of the most important banners of the Moham- 

 medan world. Tunis rose in importance as 

 Carthage declined. It is still the largest city 

 in North Africa, outside of Egypt. It began 

 to blossom following the Arab conquest, and 

 became the chief port for pilgrims from Spain 

 on their way to the sacred city of Kairowan. 



Between 1350 and 1705 the flag of Tripoly 

 (Tripoli) underwent a complete change. At 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century its 

 banner of white and green bands (1190) was 

 floating over the marine nest of the notorious 

 Tripolitan pirates, the scourge and terror of 

 the Mediterranean. A century later America 

 was to fight its first foreign war against these 

 sea robbers. 



Algier (Algiers) (1191 and 1192) was also 

 a haunt of Barbary pirates during the six- 

 teenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. 

 . The outlaws of this port were not suppressed 

 completely until 1830, when on the 4th of July 

 of that year a French army under General de 

 Bourmont effected the city's capture. 



In the very year that Columbus discovered 

 America a band of Andalusian Moors built the 

 walls of the town of Tituan (Tetuan) (1193), 

 the only open port of Morocco on the Medi- 

 terranean Sea. Sallee (Salli), whose red flag 

 (1194) is almost identical with that of Tetuan, 

 was once the haunt of the Salli Rovers. It 

 also had another flag of unique design (1195). 



The flag of Moco Araba (Mocha, Arabia) 

 (1196) was of great importance two centuries 

 ago, for at that time Mocha was one of the 

 greatest coffee ports of the world. 



The Christian crosses which adorned Con- 

 stantinople's flags (1107 and 1108) at the time 

 of the visit of the Franciscan friar in 1350 

 were long since replaced by the crescent of the 

 Mohammedan Turk, as shown in the flag of 

 1705 (ii97)- 



403 



