4G 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



to instruct the Gentoos that should be the servants or slaves 

 of the Company, or of their Agents, in the Protestant reli- 

 gion. 



But the old Company was not dead yet. They determined 

 not only to avail themselves of the privileges which they still 

 enjoyed, but to trade (after Michaelmas, 1701) under the 

 privilege of private adventure allowed by the Charter of the 

 General Society, in whose stock they had with this object 

 invested the sum of £315,000. They also succeeded in 

 obtaining on the 11th April 1700 an Act of Parliament 

 (11th and 12th W. Ill, c. 4) " for continuing the Gover- 

 nors and Company of Merchants of London trading to the 

 East Indies a corporation until the redemption of the two 

 millions advanced by the English CompaDy." The Governor 

 and Committee with about one hundred proprietors of the 

 Company accompanied by the Lord Mayor, Sheriffs, and ten 

 of the Aldermen of London, had, agreeably to the custom of 

 the time in the case of bills of a private nature, obtained an 

 audience of the King at Kensington to request that His 

 Majesty would be graciously pleased to give the Act his 

 royal assent ; and on that occasion the King was pleased to 

 assure them of his favor and protection, and recommended a 

 union of the two Companies to their serious consideration, as 

 it was his opinion that it would be most for the interest for 

 the India trade. 32 



Overtures for a coalition had already been made by the 

 English Company, and were now renewed, with the result 

 that an Agreement was at last come to, and on the 22nd 

 July 1702 three deeds were executed for carrying it into 

 effect. The first was a preliminary deed executed by the 

 managers for both Companies, whereby it was arranged that 

 the equipments of the two Companies for the next season 



32 Bruce' s Annals, vol. Hi, p. 293. 



