CHAPTER XIX
The Arch Interloper—Thomas Pitt
Interlopers in the Bay of Bengal—Thomas Pitt a leading member of the fraternity—Governor Hedge's description of an interloping party ashore— Pitt's trading ventures—He defies the Company—He returns to England and is arrested and fined—Reappears in India—The Company makes terms with him and appoints him President of Fort St. George (Madras)—His administration—The Pitt diamond and its history—Last years in England—Pitt's character
WINTER'S amazing usurpation described in the preceding chapter had its counterpart in the daring achievements of some of the adventurers of this period who went to India as interlopers—that "horrid trade" which to the sleek old gentlemen who directed the affairs of the East India Company seemed to touch the lowest depth of infamy. There were many such in the Bay of Bengal at that juncture. They were men who, enticed to the East by the profitable character of the trade, went out with their own ships in defiance of the charter of the Company which conferred upon it an absolute monopoly of the Indian trade. Bold and dashing adventurers all, they played their part on the great stage of Indian life with an audacity which was proof alike against the shafts of the privileged merchants in London and the impediments placed in their way by native potentates.
Hedges, a servant of the Company, who was sent to Bengal as Agent and Governor, and who has left behind an
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