Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/286

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252
HISTORY OF INDIA

252 illSTOHY OF INJJIA. [TiooK II.

A.iJ. 1011. finnan, and with that y'mw sailed directly for Mocha. lli.s rewiptioii wa-s encouraging; and, hy judicious management and the exercise of forbearance, pawt jealousies and fears might have been forgotten ; but there seems to have been little sincerity on either side, and Saris, on meeting with some obstructions, liastily quitted the port and returned to the Straits of Babelmandeb. Here he found Sir Henry Middleton engaged in pillaging, and instead of repudiating his pro- ceedings, •w&s tempted to become a sharer in them. Sir Henry's account of the Compact for unwortliy compact for "roraaging the Indian ships" is as follows: — "At last we

" romagiiig ,,.....

the Indian agreed and sealed it in writings interchangeable, that he should have one-third part of what should be taken, paying for the same as I did, for the service of his three ships in the action: leaving the disposing of the ships afterward tome, who had sustayned the wrongs."

When, by means of these violent proceedings, flimsily disguised under the name of barter, the depredators had possessed themselves of a sufficient quantity of Surat cloths and other Indian goods, for which a read}' market could be found in the Eastern Archipelago, they set sail in that direction. Sir Hemy Middleton was again unfortunate ; and after learning that the Trade's Incr&juse, which he had ordered to follow while he went forward with the Pepper-Corn, had been wrecked on a coral reef, died broken-hearted at the isle of Macliian, one of the Moluccas. Captain Saris, after spending some time in the same gi'oup, sailed

Voyage of for the islcs of Japan, where the Company had resolved to establish a factory.

Japan. On the nth of June, 1613, he ca.st anchor near Firando. Though he found the Dutch already installed, and disposed, not only to watch, but to thwart his proceedings, a letter from the King of England, and a valuable present to the emperor, procured him a favourable reception, and he had little difficulty in making arrangements for permanent trade. The voyage commanded by Sir Henry Middleton, notwithstanding the loss of the Trade's Increase, yielded 121 per cent. ; that by Captain Saris, 218 per cent. But it is e'ident, from the above account of their proceedings, that these returns have no title whatever to be classed, as they usually are, under the head of mercantile profits.

Voyage of About the Same time when Captain Saris set out on his voyage, a single

Hippon. vessel, the Globe, had been despatched from England, under the command of Captain Anthony Hippon. Her course, differing considerably from that which had hitherto been followed, deserves to be traced. After touching at the Point- de-Galle, on the island of Ceylon, the Globe, instead of proceeding directly to Bantam, turned northward into the Bay of Bengal, and followed the line of the Coromandel coast, which was thus visited by a Company ship for the first time, though it had long before been frequented by both the Portuguese and Dutch. On arriving at Pulicat, Captain Hippon, with the sanction of the native authorities, sent some of his people ashore, and was making aiTangements for trade when the president of the Dutch factory, producing a dociunent said to have been executed by the King of Golconda, and conferring the exclusive