EXPANSION
We have seen that the Company were careful to develop both White Town
and Black Town. They were not content, however, with mere
developments, for they took pains also to extend their territorial
possessions.
The strip of land that was acquired by Mr. Francis Day was not large.
Roughly, it extended along the seashore from the mouth of the Cooum to
an undefined point beyond the present harbour, somewhere in the
neighbourhood of Cassimode, and inland as far as what was called the
North River, which is now represented by Cochrane's Canal--the canal
that runs between the Central Station and the People's Park. It will
be interesting to note how some of the various other parts of the
present city came into the Company's possession.
[Illustration: MADRAS (APPROXIMATELY)]
On several occasions the representatives of various dynasties that
were successively supreme over Madras made grants of additional land
to the Company. The village of Triplicane was the first
addition,----some twenty years after the acquisition of Madras. The
village was granted by the representative of the Mohammedan King of
Golconda, for an annual rent of Rs. 175, which ceased to be paid when
the Golconda dynasty shortly afterwards came to an end. Later, in
compliance with a petition by Governor Elihu Yale to the Emperor
Aurangzeb, the Company received a free grant of 'Tandore (Tondiarpet),
Persewacca (Pursewaukam), and Yegmore (Egmore).' Still later, in the
reign of Aurangzeb's son and successor, the village of Lungambacca
(Nungumbaukam), now the principal residential district of Europeans in
Madras, was granted to the Company, together with four adjoining
villages, for a total annual rent of 1,500 pagodas (say Rs. 5,250).
The Emperor's officers argued that the rent ought to have been larger,
but the Company, conforming to the spirit of corruption that was in
fashion, were wily enough to send by a Brahman and a Mohammedan
conjointly a sum of Rs. 700 'to be distributed amongst the King's
officers who keep the Records, in order to settle this matter.' The
village of Vepery--variously called in olden documents Ipere, Ypere,
Vipery, and Vapery--lay between Egmore and Pursewaukam; and the
Company, being naturally desirous of consolidating their territory,
proceeded at once to try to obtain a grant of the place; but
successive efforts on the part of Governor Elihu Yale came to naught;
and it was not till much later (1742) when the Nawab of Arcot was lord
of the soil, that Vepery was acquired from the Nawab. The manner of
its acquisition is interesting. The preceding Nawab had just been
murdered, and the Carnatic army disowning the ambitious rival who had
murdered him, proclaimed the dead Nawab's son as his successor. The
new Nawab was but a youth, and he was residing at the time in one of
the big houses in Black Town. The Company were politic enough to
celebrate the lad's accession with grand doings. They escorted him in
a splendid procession to the Company's Gardens, which were situated
along the bank of the river Cooum, where the General Hospital and the
Medical College now stand. In the Gardens there was a fine house,
containing a spacious hall, which the Company had specially designed
for great occasions; and there the lad's accession was formally
announced; and finally he was escorted in procession back to his
dwelling. The Company profited by their politic demonstration; for, in
return for their courtesies to the young Nawab, the lad gratified
their desires by making them a rent-free grant of the village of
Vepery, and also of Perambore and other lands. It may be added that
the boy-king was unfortunate; for he was murdered within two years of
his accession, at the instance of the man who had murdered his father.
San Thome was acquired in 1749; and the story of the acquisition is
not without interest. The names 'San Thome' and 'Mylapore' are often
used as alternative designations for one and the same locality; but in
bygone days the two names represented quite different places. Mylapore
was a very ancient Indian town, which seems to have been in existence
long before the birth of Christ. San Thome was a seventeenth century
Portuguese settlement close by. It is an old tradition that St. Thomas
the Apostle was martyred just outside Mylapore; and when the
Portuguese first came to India some of them visited Mylapore to look
for relics of the saint. They found some ruined Christian churches,
and also a tomb which they believed to be the tomb of St. Thomas; and
soon afterwards a Portuguese monastery was established on the spot. A
Portuguese town grew up around the monastery; and in course of time
the town became a commercial centre, and was surrounded with a
fortified wall, and was the Portuguese settlement of San Thome, over
against the Indian town of Mylapore. An Italian dealer in precious
stones who visited India in the sixteenth century wrote of San Thome
that it was 'as fair a city' as any that he had seen in the land; and
he described Mylapore as being an Indian city surrounded by its own
mud wall. Mylapore was thus in effect the Black Town of San Thome; but
in later days the two towns were combined. When the English came to
Fort St. George, the power of the Portuguese was already waning; and
the development of the influence of the English at Madras meant a
further lessening of the influence of the Portuguese at San Thome;
and it was a natural consequence that San Thome, including Mylapore,
became a prey to successive assailants. Its first captor was the lord
of the soil, the Mohammedan King of Golconda. Next, the French took it
from Golconda; and two years later Golconda, with the help of the
Dutch, recaptured it from the French. The Dutch were content with a
share of the plunder for their reward, and left Golconda in
possession. On the self-interested advice of the English at Fort St.
George, Golconda destroyed the fortifications. He then put the town up
for sale. The Company were prepared to buy it, and so were the
Portuguese; but a rich Mohammedan named Cassa Verona found favour with
Golconda's Moslem officials, and secured the town on a short lease.
Next it was leased to the Hindu Governor of Poonamallee; and then for
a big price it went back again to the Portuguese. Towards the end of
the seventeenth century the great Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb dethroned
the lord of the soil, the King of Golconda; and, although the
Portuguese were not turned out of San Thome, it was now a part of the
Moghul Empire, and was put in charge of a Moslem ruler. After
Aurangzeb's death, the Moghul Empire broke up, and the Nawab of Arcot
eventually became independent, and San Thome was part of his
dominions. In 1749, when Madras, after the French occupation, was
restored to the English by an order from Paris, in accordance with the
treaty of Aix la Chapelle, Dupleix at Pondicherry was bitterly
disappointed at the rendition, and he formed designs for the
acquisition of San Thome for France, as a set-off for the loss of
Madras. The English at Fort St. George had information of his schemes,
and, being in no way desirous of having aggressive Frenchmen for close
neighbours, they forestalled Dupleix by persuading the Nawab to make
the Company a grant of 'Mylapore, _alias_ St. Thome,' on condition
that the Company should undertake to help the Nawab with men and
money whenever he should call upon them to do so. It was thus that San
Thome became a British possession; and, although it was afterwards
ravaged successively by the French under Count Lally and by Haidar Ali
of Mysore, it has remained a British possession ever since.
We have said enough to show the manner in which the different parts of
the modern city of Madras came into the hands of the English. The
methods were not always wholly admirable; but we must remember that
the East India Company was a mercantile association, fighting for its
existence under diamond-cut-diamond conditions; and we must remember
also that, although its representatives at Madras were sent out to
India not to rule but to earn dividends for the shareholders, yet the
Company's rule over Madras was so upright that crowds of people were
continually flocking into Madras to enjoy its benefits.