25 1 HISTORY OF INDIA. [B(jok U.
A. IX 1012. preparing for a second. Suoli l)eiiig lier feelings, slie would doubtless have insisted that the Company should either carry on their operations on a grander scale, or resign tlieir exclusive privileges. Had they chosen the forrner alter- native, she would have backed them with all the power of her government, and they would have had no reason to complain of unredressed injuries by Dutch or Poituguese. Very different was the conduct of King James, whose j)usillanimity only encouraged aggression, and left the Company unaided to battle with their formidable opponents. To this cause, doubtless, is mainly to be ascribed the unsatisfactory progress which the Company had yet maxle. In almost every port which they visited, they found European rivals prepared to undermine them by intrigue, or crush them by open violence. Voyage of The course which the Company ouffht to have taken in such circumstances
Captain ...
Best. is very obvious, though it was long before they summoned courage to adopt it.
Instead of sending out a few straggling vessels, which were unprovided with the means of repelling insult and outrage, they should have fitted out a fleet, and armed it fully with all the munitions of war. Some such resolution appears to have been adopted in preparing for the eighth voyage, which consisted of the Dragon and Hoseander, or slander, afterwards joined by the Jaraes and Solomon, and was commanded by Captain Thomas Best. The two first vessels sailed from Gravesend on the 1st of February, 1612, and arrived in the Svjcdly or road of Surat in the beginning of September. Notwithstanding the dis- couraging account given by Captain Hawkins, little difficiilty was found in opening a communication with the town ; and Mr. Kerridge, who appears to have been a factor in the Osiander, was soon able to put Captain Best in possession of a sealed certificate giving the English authority to trade. As it wanted some of the requisite formalities, some doubts were entertained of its validity, and before these were solved the Portuguese again made their appear- ance. Besides an immense fleet of merchantmen, numbering 200 sail, and gi^'ing a striking idea of the extent of trade which the Portuguese must then have carried on with the north coast of India, there were four war galleons, which had come with the avowed determination of expelling the English. Captain
His spirited Bcst was Well prepared for them, and deeming it imnecessary to wait till he
proceedings.
was attacked, at once assumed the offensive. On the 29th of November, placing himself in the Dragon, about two cables' length from the Portuguese "s^ce- admiral, the depth of water not allowing him to go nearer, " I began," he says, " to play upon him with both great and small shot, that by an houre we had well peppered him. ' The following day the fight was renewed, and with still more success on the part of the English, who again defeated the Portuguese, and drove " three of their foure shippes on ground on the sands thwai-t of the Barre of Surat." These having again been got off", the Portuguese attempted repeatedly to repair their disgrace, but always with the same result.
The success which the English had thus gained over a superior force, proved
