mmmm m CHAPTER VI FIRST ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE BOMBAY COAST 1607 - 1658 AMID the discomfitures and distresses of the Com- pany at home, resolute groups of Englishmen were making their presence felt in India. The sites of their settlements were at first determined by political rather than by commercial considerations. During centuries the natural meeting-marts of the Indo-European spice trade had been the ports of Malabar; but the monopoly of those marts was secured to Portugal by her fortress- capital at Goa, and the coast rajas were on too small a scale to afford protection to newcomers. If our cap- tains of the " Separate Voyages " were to find a foot- ing in India, it must be under the shelter of a strong native government. The march of the Moghul Empire southwards, at the end of the sixteenth century, gave them their chance. Leaving the direct route from Africa to Malabar, they struck northeast to the Gulf of Cambay, on whose coasts the Moghul Emperor Akbar had imposed his rule, between 1572 and 1592. 192
