[1] For a description of this system, see Malcolm's Central India, vol.
i. p. 66.
[2] Of these the most celebrated were, Vasco de Gama, Albuquerque,
Nunez, and John de Castro.
[3] A settlement at Hooghly was first made in 1640, by agents from
Surat, who obtained permission to establish themselves, through the
intercession of Mr. Boughton, a surgeon then in great favour with the
Emperor of Delhi. This settlement was afterwards moved to Calcutta in
1686.
[4] "It is not," Sir Thomas Roe observes, "a number of forts,
residences, and factories that will profit you: they will increase
charge, but not recompense it. The conveniency of one with respect to
your sales and the commodity of investments, and the wise employing of
your servants, is all you need."
[5] Mill, vol. i. p. 30.
[6] The name Deckan, or Deckhan, which means South, a very ancient
name, continued to be given, when the power of the Moghul sovereigns of
Delhi was in its zenith, to that part of the empire which lay to the
southward of the Nerbuddah. This division which was called a Soubah,
was governed by a Soubahdar, or Viceroy, whose authority was for a long
period acknowledged by all the petty states within his circle, though
many of these yielded neither tribute nor obedience unless compelled.
When the house of Delhi declined, Nizam-ul-Mûlk succeeded in rendering
the possession he held as a delegate of the emperor hereditary in his
family; but the example of usurpation spread rapidly, and the other
states, as they attained strength, threw off their dependence upon
him and his descendants, till their sovereignty became limited to
their present territories of Hyderabad. They still retain the title of
Soubhadar of the Deckan; but, their power having been contracted by
political events, their influence in that capacity is now confined to
those territories over which their rule is established, which may be
described as bounded by the river Taptee to the north, the Kishna to
the south, the province of Bider to the west, and the northern Circars
of Masulipatam and Guntoor to the east.
[7] The following note, communicated by a friend eminently acquainted
with the history of India, will be perused with interest:--
"The country mentioned in the text by the name of Paeen-Ghât-Carnatic,
was annexed, after its reduction, by the generals of Aurungzebe,
to the Souba, or imperial province of Hyderabad, and in all the
financial records it is mentioned as only a division of it. The grants
of Jaghires, made at that time by the imperial government, were so
numerous and considerable, as to leave very little of the revenues
arising from it to be received into the treasury. Those who were most
favoured by these grants of Jaghires were of a tribe known by the name
of Noayets, or newcomers, from their late arrival in the Carnatic.
Saadet Ali, the first nabob, as mentioned in Orme's history, was of
that tribe; as were Mortiz-Ali, and many others, who were found in
the possession of extensive Jaghires, when Nizam-ul-Mûlk came into
the Carnatic, in 1743. That prince, in order to restore the Mogul
authority, appointed a deputy of his own at Arcot, Anwer-u-deen Câwn,
who was nowise related to, or connected with, the tribe of Noayets, and
who was one of the officers who had came with him to the Carnatic.
"The person who afterwards made himself so conspicuous by his
connection with the French, viz., Chunda Sahib, was also a Noayet. His
real name was Hussein Dost Câwn. Duff Grant, in his late history of the
Mahrattas, says, that this man was known by no other name when he was
a prisoner at Sattarah.
"The appellation of Chunda Sahib was only given to him in his
family when a boy. Yet it has continued to be used in history in
distinguishing him; although, besides his name above-mentioned, the
title of Shems-ul-Dowla was conferred on him by the Nizams in the
French interest. It is not unlikely, that his being known to the
English only by the name of Chunda Sahib was, in some measure, owing to
his rival Mahomed Ali, supported by them, constantly designating him
by that appellation, and rather contemptuously, Chunda being a vulgar
appellation, often that of menial servants."--D. H.
[8] This army is stated to have consisted of 200,000 foot, and 80,000
horse.--Orme, vol. i. p. 51.
[9] Orme, vol. i. p. 52.
[10] "This settlement," according to Orme, vol. i. p. 65., "had been,
about 100 years, the principal establishment of the English nation on
the coast of Coromandel. It was built on a territory granted by the
Great Mogul to the East India Company, which extended about five miles
along the sea shore, and about one mile inland. The town consisted
of three divisions; that to the south, extended about 400 yards in
length from north to south, and about 100 yards in breadth. None but
the English, or other Europeans under their protection, resided in
this division, which contained about 50 good houses, an English and a
Roman Catholic church, together with a residence for the factory, and
other buildings belonging to the Company. It was surrounded with a
slender wall, defended with four bastions, and as many batteries; but
these were very slight and defective in their construction, nor had
they any outworks to defend them. This quarter has long been known in
Europe by the name of Fort St. George, and was in India called, for
distinction, the White Town. On the north of this, and contiguous, was
another division, much larger and worse fortified, in which were many
very good habitations, belonging to the Armenian and to the richest
of the Indian merchants, who resided in the Company's territory;
this quarter was called the Black Town. Beyond this division, and to
the north of it, was a suburb, where the Indian natives of all ranks
had their habitations promiscuously. Besides these three divisions,
which composed the town of Madras, there were two large and populous
villages, about a mile to the southward of it, within the Company's
territory; and these were likewise inhabited by Indian natives."
[11] The representations of Dupleix received more attention in France
than those of La Bourdonnais; and that great man, instead of the high
rewards to which he was entitled, was imprisoned four years in the
Bastille. The injustice done him was too tardily acknowledged; and he
died before another opportunity was afforded of elevating still more
his own name, and of exposing the ingratitude of his country.
[12] "M. Dupleix was greatly assisted in all his transactions with
the natives of India by his wife, a Creole, born and educated in
Bengal, where he had married her, while he was there in the service
of the French East India Company. Her knowledge of the Hindostanee
language had been the means of introducing her to the family of Chunda
Sahib, when they took refuge at Pondicherry, during his confinement
at Sattarah with the Mahrattas: and this laid the foundation of the
French intrigues with him. In all these, M. Dupleix's lady made herself
conspicuous, by corresponding, in the name of her husband, with those
who could be brought into action for favouring the French views of
interference, and supporting the cause of Chunda Sahib. She then became
known all over that country by the name of Jân Begum, which she assumed
in the seal to all her letters. Her own Christian name was Jeanne,
which gave some colour to her converting it into the Persian word on
her seal, as familiar to Mahomedans.
"It must be acknowledged that the French at this time, viz., during
M. Dupleix's government, had greatly the advantage of the English, by
their superior knowledge of the languages and usages of the nations
of India. Their Catholic missionaries, especially the Jesuits, who
had travelled inland, had been very instrumental in their acquiring
that knowledge; while the English confined themselves to their trade,
and remained in total ignorance of any thing else. The French gave
certain proofs of the superior information they had acquired, when
they produced, at the conference with the English commissioners at
Sadras, in 1754, the sunnuds or grants for the lands they had acquired
in the Carnatic, which were all procured under the authority of the
Mogul Emperor or his viziers; while those of the English were only from
inferior agents of that government. It is true, that the sunnuds there
produced by the French were objected to by the English as under the
forged seals of emperors; yet it shows that they did not rest their
claims on grants of inferiors, as the English did. It is, indeed, very
remarkable, that the latter never, till a late period, possessed any
others but those of the nabob Mahomed Ali in the Carnatic, excepting
for the ground of their original factories. It was not till Lord Clive
obtained regular grants from the Emperor Shah Aulum, in 1765, when he
obtained the dewanee of the provinces of Bengal, that the English could
produce any other grants but those obtained from the nabob whom they
themselves had set up."--D. H.
[13] Orme (vol. i. p. 78.), speaking of this settlement, observes:--
"The East India Company was here in possession of a territory larger
than that of Madras; it had been purchased about 100 years before from
the Indian prince of the country, and their title to it was confirmed
by the Mogul's viceroy, when the Moors conquered the Carnatic. The fort
was situated near the sea, twelve miles to the south of Pondicherry:
it was small, but better fortified than any of its size in India, and
served as a citadel to the Company's territory. About a mile to the
south of it, was situated the town of Cuddalore, in which the principal
Indian merchants, and many of the natives dependent on the Company,
resided. This town extended 1200 yards from north to south, and 900
from east to west: three of its sides were defended by walls flanked
with bastions; that towards the sea was for the greatest part open; but
a river passing from the westward, between Fort St. David and the town,
flowed, just before it gains the sea, along the eastern side of the
town, of which, whilst it washed the skirts on one hand, it was, on the
other, separated from the sea by a mound of sand, which the surf throws
upon the shore in most parts of the coast. To the westward of the
fort, and within the Company's territory, were two or three populous
villages, inhabited by the natives.
"The government of Fort St. David depended on that of Madras, to which
it was immediately the next in rank; but, on the breach of the treaty
of ransom, the Company's agents at Fort St. David regarding those of
Madras as prisoners to the French, took upon themselves the general
administration on the coast of Coromandel."
[14] Orme, vol. i. p. 7.
MEMOIRS
OF
LORD CLIVE.