70 
1]S"D0-DANISH COINS. 
Alsatia of Calcutta,' ^ as it afforded refuge to insolvent 
debtors, and others whose affairs rendered it prudent for 
them to disappear from the Anglo-Indian metropolis. The 
loss of its immuaities however soon changed this state of 
affairs. 
The Danes also had a factory at Porto Novo, the town 
famed in South Indian history for the complete victory 
gained there by Sir Eyre Coote. 
As early as the year 1667, when Bengal enjoyed rest 
and quiet under the peaceful reign of Sujah Khan and 
Sahista Khan, the Danes had entered the Hoogly^ side by 
side with the English, the French, and the Dutch, and had 
embarked in trade with the natives of the country,* though 
they took no prominent part in the struggles that ensued for 
political supremacy. While M. Dupleix was carrying on 
his wars in the south, and endeavouring to become the virtual 
ruler of the Dakhan and Karnatic, or afterwards, while 
Robert Clive was crippling the power of Suraja Dowla on 
the field of Plassey, and thus laying the foundation of the 
British Empire in the east, the Danish Missionaries were 
going on foot from village to village, teaching the truths of 
Christianity wherever they went, with piety as simple as it 
was pure. 
For a period of more than two hundred years the Danish 
power enjoyed undistui'bed possession of its settlements in the 
east, except for a short time at the commencement of the 
present century. In 1808' Tranquebai' was taken by the 
British with the other Indo-Danish possessions owing to the 
war that was then raging between the two countries. A 
treaty of peace was however concluded in January 181-1, and 
under its operation the Danish possessions were restored. In 
1845 Tranquebar, Serampore and Porto Novo were pur- 
chased by the British from Denmark. 
' Thornton's Gazetteer of India. 
Marshman's Histoi-y of India. 
• Fengev's History of the Tianqiichav ilission. page 303. 
