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THE SOUL BE WITHOU

II. SECTION 1.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMPANY UP TO THE YEAR 1624. THE history of the East India Company, during a considerable period after its first establishment, is occupied quite as much with its contests with rival nations of Europe in this lucrative trade as with the detail of its mercantile proceedings. The Portuguese claimed, as discoverers of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, an exclusive right to trade in that direction. They had, by various means, obtained possession of Goa, Bombay, and other places on the Malabar coast; they were masters of Aden, at the entrance of the Red Sea; of Ormus, in the Persian Gulf; of part of the Malay coast, in the Straits of Malacca; of the Molucca Islands, and of the coasts of Ceylon,-the most valuable of all the Eastern islands: they had established factories in Bengal and in Siam; and they had founded a new city at Macao, on the coast of China.

So long as the Dutch were subject to the crown of Spain they procured the productions of the East from Lisbon, and from thence distributed them to other nations of Europe; but when that industrious people had succeeded in throwing off the tyranny under which they had so long groaned, one of the means adopted by Philip to distress them was, to deprive them of their commerce with his dominions. From VOL. XXV.

this narrow and short-sighted policy it resulted, as a natural consequence, that the Dutch became rivals with their former masters in the trade with India itself.

"At the time when the Dutch commenced their voyages to the East, the crown of Spain was engaged in enterprises of so much importance in other quarters, and so much engrossed with the contemplation of its splendid empire in the New World, that the acquisitions in the East Indies of the Portuguese, now become its subjects, were treated with comparative neglect. The Dutch, accordingly, who entered upon the trade to India with considerable resources and the utmost ardour, were enabled to supplant the Portuguese in the spice trade, and, after a struggle, to expel them from the Molucca Islands. That celebrated people, now freed from the oppression of a bad government, were advancing in the career of prosperity with great and rapid strides. The augmentation of capital was rapid in Holland,-beyond what has often been witnessed in any other part of the globe. A proportional share of this capital naturally found its way into the channel of the India trade, and gave both extent and vigour to the enterprises of the nation in the East; while the English, whose country, oppressed by misgovernment, or scourged with civil war, afforded little capital to extend its trade, or means to afford it protection, found themselves unequal competitors with a people so favourably situated as the Dutch,

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"During that age, the principles of public wealth were very imperfectly understood, and hardly any trade was regarded as profitable but that which was exclusive. The different nations which traded to India, all traded by way of monopoly; and the several exclusive companies treated every proposal for a participation in their traffic as a proposal for their ruin. In the same spirit, every nation which obtained admittance into any newly-explored channel of commerce endeavoured to exclude from it all participators, and considered its own profits as depending upon the absence of all competition.

"The Dutch, who were governed by the same prejudices as their contemporaries, and actuated, at least in that age, with rather more than the usual intensity of appetite for gain, beheld with great impatience the attempts of the English to share with them in the spice trade. While contending for their independence against the power of Spain, and looking to England for support, they were constrained to practice moderation and forbearance; and during this time the English were enabled to form a connection with Sumatra, to establish themselves at Bantam, and obtain a share in the traffic of pepper, which being a commodity so generally produced in the East, could not easily become the subject of monopoly. But before the English made efforts, on any considerable scale, to interfere with the trade of the further India, where the finer spices were produced, the power and confidence of the Dutch had greatly increased. "That people were more effectual opponents than the Portuguese, between whom and the English the interference was not so direct. The chief settlements of the Portuguese on the continent of India, were on the Malabar coast, at a great distance from Surat, which was the principal seat of the English: it was in the Persian trade alone that much incompatibility of interest existed: and feeble, in India, as the English at that time were, it is remarkable that they were an over-match at sea for the Portuguese; and hardly ever encountered them without a brilliant victory, or at least decided advantages. The case was different in regard to the Dutch: the pretensions of the English to the spice trade interfered with the very vitals of the Dutch commerce in the East; and the fleets which the prosperous enterprise of the new republic enabled it to maintain were so far superior to those which the restricted means of the English company allowed them to send, that contention became altogether hopeless and vain."

The commencement of hostilities between the English and the Dutch seems to have been connected with the following circumstances. On the 10th of July, 1617, a Dutch ship being wrecked near Surat, and the goods saved from the wreck being allowed to be disposed of in that city, the Dutch at once perceived the great value of the trade at that port, and determined, if possible, to acquire a portion of it. Accordingly, having profitably disposed of their goods, they left ten merchants with sufficient funds to commence trade, promising to send out new stock and shipping from Europe in the following season. The remainder of the officers and crew of the wrecked ship then proceeded overland to the Dutch factory at Masulipatam.

This conduct on the part of the Dutch seems to have been reciprocated by the English in the occupation of two small islands, called Polaroon and Rosengin, which, though not actually occupied by the Dutch, were intimately connected with some of their possessions. The Dutch, therefore, attacked Polaroon with three ships, but finding the defences to be secure they retired, and on the voyage seized one of the Company's ships, on her passage to Rosengin, and having corrupted the crew of another ship, obtained possession of it also, and carried both ships to a Dutch settlement. The factory at Bantam protested against these proceedings, and demanded the restitution of the ships, which was refused unless the English would consent to surrender all their rights and claims on Polaroon and the other Spice Islands.

"In all cases of national aggression," says Bruce," the party committing the injury, is, generally, the first who complains" Accordingly, as soon as these proceedings were known in Europe the Dutch Company presented a memorial to King James, stating that, being in possession of a trade at Bantam, the English factory had endeavoured to instigate the Emperor against them, and had repeatedly assisted the natives, both of the Bandas and the Moluccas, particularly at Amboyna, in violating those treaties which they had concluded with the Dutch Company, for the exclusive trade and control of those islands, and, therefore prayed for the King's interference with the Directors of the

London Company, to prevent any further encroachments on possessions which had been ceded to them by the natives, or of which they had made a conquest from the Spaniards. The London East India Company in reply enumerated the grievances and oppressions which their ships and factors had received from the Dutch during the last three years in which they had only been endeavouring to retain their rights at Bantam, and to introduce their trade in such islands as had not hitherto been pre-occupied by the Dutch, and that they had made agreements with the natives at ports in the Spice Islands of this description, from which by the superior force military and naval of that people they been driven with great loss both of men and property; and as instances, they referred to the violence and opposition experienced from the Dutch at Bantam, Polaroon, Rosengin, Amboyna, and Tidore.

In the East the rival parties resorted to intrigue as well as violence to injure each other's commerce. The Dutch offered double prices for pepper that they might engross the whole trade in that article; and the English took part with the natives in their quarrels with the Dutch, assisting them with artillery and gunpowder.

Meanwhile commissioners to settle these disputes had been appointed by King James and the Dutch States-General, and after much tedious negotiation a treaty was concluded at London on the 7th of July, 1619, whereby it was stipu lated that there should be a mutual amnesty and a mutual restitution of ships and property; that the trade of the two nations in the East should be free to the extent of the respective funds or capital which might be employed; that the pepper trade at Java should be equally divided; that the English should have a free trade at Pullicate on the Coromandel coast on paying half the expenses of the garrison; that at the Moluccas and Bandas the English should enjoy one-third of the trade, the Dutch two-thirds, the charges of the garrisons to be paid in the same proportion. In addition to these items which referred to the opposing interests of the two nations, arrangements were made for mutual profit and defence. Both Companies were to endeavour to reduce the duties and exactions of the native officers at the different ports, and each Company was to furnish ten ships of war for common defence, which were not to be employed in conveying cargoes to Europe, but only in the carrying trade from one port of the East Indies to another. The whole of the proceedings thus agreed upon were to be placed under the regulation of a "Council of Defence" in the Indies, to be composed of four members from each Company. This treaty was to be binding for twenty years.

In compliance with the terms of this treaty the English Company in 1620 fitted out the largest fleet which they had hitherto sent to the East. One of the ships was of one thousand tons burden, and several were of seven hundred tons each the investment for this voyage was estimated at 62,4901. in money, and 28,5087. in goods. Of the ships thus sent out, nine were detained in the East Indies, and one only returned with an investment, the sale of which produced 108,8871.

Before the Council of Defence had time to establish itself in the East, the English had suffered repeated acts of violence and oppression on the part of the Dutch; and when the Council began to operate, the Dutch agreed to some of the least important conditions of the treaty, and endeavoured to evade the rest. They agreed to the restitution of ships taken from the English, but refused to inquire respecting goods and stores taken by individuals, on the ground that the Company could be responsible only for its own acts, and not for those of individuals. (It appears, however, that when the same position was assumed by the English, the Dutch refused to acknowledge it.) They refused to allow the English their share of the pepper trade until indemnified for certain fortifications and expenses incurred at the siege of Bantam They asserted that at Jacatra and all other places where they had erected fortifications they possessed the rights of sovereignty; and that the English could claim no permission to reside there except under the Dutch laws. They stated the large expenses they had incurred in erecting fortifications on the Spice Islands, the maintenance of which they estimated at 60,0007. per annum, and they required the English to contribute a proportion of this before they could be admitted to the stipulated share of the trade. The English objected that many of the forts were built by the Dutch as defences against the Spaniards and Portuguese, with whom the English were not at war, and in places at which no produce

or spices could be found or expected. "On the whole it may be remarked," says Mr. Mill, "that if there were fortifications at places where none were required, the English had a right to decline paying for the blunders of the Dutch; but as they claimed a share of the trade upon the foundation of the Dutch conquests, and would not have been admitted to it, without a war, had not those conquests taken place, it was a less valid plea, to say that they were not at war with the Spaniards and Portuguese. In framing the treaty no distinction was made between past and future expenses. The English intended to bind themselves only for a share of the future; the Dutch availed themselves of the ambiguity to demand a share of the past; and in all these pretensions they acted with so high a hand that the English commissioners of the Council of Defence reported the impracticability of continuing the English trade, unless measures were taken in Europe to check the overbearing and oppressive proceedings of the Dutch." The ten ships which had been sent out by the English Company in compliance with the terms of the treaty had so far diminished their resources, that in the following year they were not in a condition to send out more than four ships, the cargoes of which were estimated at 12,900/. in money, and 6,2537. in goods. Of this small fleet one ship only returned to England, the others having been detained in India for the protection of the English settlements and trade. The great loss sustained by the Company from this interruption to their commerce may be estimated from the value of the cargo which was brought home by this single ship, consisting of spices, which at. the sale produced 94,4641.

The intercourse between the two rival Companies at Surat, in Persia, and on the Western coast of India, had hitherto been very limited; the scene of their rivalry was chiefly confined to Java and the Spice Islands. In the circle of operations of which Surat was the centre, the English were better prepared to cope with the Dutch, and, indeed, had less to fear. Notwithstanding the continued opposition of the Portuguese they had greatly improved and extended their trade with Persia, and were prepared to defend it by force of arms.

In November, 1620, two of the Company's ships had sailed from Surat to Persia, and on attempting to enter the port of Jasques, found it blockaded by a Portuguese fleet, consisting of five large, and sixteen smaller vessels. Not being able to cope with so superior a force, the two ships returned to Surat, to obtain, if possible, reinforcements. There they were joined by two other ships, and returning to Jasques, an indecisive action was fought; the Portuguese gave way, and the English ships entered the port. The Portuguese retired to Ormus and refitted, and again appeared in the Jasques roads to renew the action. The conflict was obstinate, but terminated in favour of the English. This action impressed the Persians favourably towards the English, and led to a proposal for a union of their forces in order to expel the Portuguese from the island of Ormus, which that nation, in the time of their prosperity, had seized and fortified. The English at first hesitated, but the Persians refusing to allow them to take in their cargoes, consent was given. The naval force was furnished by the English, the military by the Persians; the attack was chiefly conducted by the former; and on the 22nd of April, 1622, the city and castle were taken. The English received for this service a proportion of the plunder of Ormus, and a grant of half the customs at the port of Gombroon, which afterwards became their principal station in the Persian Gulf. The Company's agents at Bantam (who since the treaty of 1619 had taken the title of President and Council, and with a sort of control over the other factories) condemned this enterprise, because from the absence of the ships the pepper investment had been lost and the trade in general much injured.

This exploit was not without its consequences at home. Under the idea that prize-money, to an enormous amount, had been gained by the Company and their officers at Ormus and other places, the King, and the Duke of Buckingham, as Lord High Admiral, claimed shares; the one as droits of the Crown, the other as droits of the Admiralty. The Company seem to have made it a point of prudence to admit the claim of the King, "not feeling it to be their duty to dispute any point with his Majesty," but they resisted the Lord Admiral's claim, on the plea that they had not acted under letters of marque from him, but under their own charter. The question was referred to the Judge of the Admiralty Court; the witnesses examined were the com

manders and officers of several of the Company's ships which had made prizes; and, according to their statements, the amount of prize-money was calculated at 100,000l. and 240,000 rials of eight. Against these sums the Company were desirous of setting of their charges and losses in equipments, and the injury their trade had suffered by withdrawing their ships from commerce to war. Various other solicitations were made without effect; but nothing less than the payment of the claims would satisfy; and the money not being produced, the Lord Admiral arrested a fleet which was just on the point of sailing, and the Company, fearing to lose the season for sailing, offered a compromise. The Lord Admiral received 10,0007. in discharge of his claim, and an order was sent to the Company, from Sir Edward Conway, Secretary of State, to pay also 10,000l. to the King. Mr. Bruce refers to an attested copy of this order, now in the State Paper Office, but Mr. Mill says there is no direct evidence that the money was ever paid.

Although the English Company still continued to suffer much from the determined opposition of the Dutch, yet, in the season 1623-24, the factors were enabled to send home five ships with spice which at the sales produced 485,5931., exclusive of the sale of Persian raw silk, which amounted to 97,000l. and to these sums were added 80,000l. received from the Dutch, in compensation for the losses and injuries which the Company had sustained previously to the Treaty of 1619.

SECTION 2.

THE MASSACRE AT AMBOΥΝΑ.

Although the season 1623-24 was a prosperous one to the domestic exchequer, yet the affairs of the Company in the Spice Islands were becoming more desperate. The English section of the Council of Defence represented to the court, that the Dutch governor, Carpentier, continued to exercise his power with positive tyranny, and had reduced the English to that defenceless situation, in which they neither could resist ill treatment from the natives, nor resent wrongs and injuries; that the English factory had been charged with every item of expense without either having a voice in the disposal of the money, or any share in the management of the trade; that the council, instead of employing the fleet of defence for the mutual protection of the trade and settlements of the two Companies, had directed it to consolidate the sovereignty of the Dutch, and to projects for ruining the English; that the English were almost entirely deprived of their trade in the Spice Islands, and that under the pretext of a conspiracy the Dutch had executed great numbers of the natives and reduced Polaroon to a desert.

Under these circumstances, the English section of the Council of Defence ordered the agent and factors at Amboyna to quit that station, and to return to Batavia. But before this could be done, an event occurred which made a deep and lasting impression on the minds of Englishmen, and excited general attention throughout Europe.

In February, 1623, the Dutch Governor seized on ten Japanese, and subjecting them to slow torture, extorted from them a confession that they had engaged in a conspiracy with Captain Towerson, the English agent, to seize on the castle of Amboyna, and to expel the Dutch from the island. "The unfortunate Japanese, who could not comprehend the sources of the animosity between the Europeans, sunk under their agonies, and allowed their tormentors to give any colour they chose to that fabrication, upon which they intended to inflict similar misery on Captain Towerson and the English factors; these unhappy men were therefore individually exposed to the torture, and as their probity and national firmness of character induced them to refuse, amid their sufferings, the confession of a project, which existed only in the commercial jealousies and avarice of their enemies, this firmness and this probity was held to be evidence of guilt, which instead of mitigating the ferocity of their oppressors, increased it, till human nature, worn out with pain, sought a momentary relief in confessing crimes which never existed: but even this extremity could not satisfy the merciless Dutch, who availed themselves of the presumed confession, which the torture alone could have forced from them, and on the 27th February, 1623, they executed Captain Towerson, nine English factors, nine Japanese, and one Portuguese sailor."

Such is Mr. Bruce's account of this transaction, and it is one of the most moderate; other accounts appearing to be grossly exaggerated. "But the facts of an event, which roused extreme indignation in England, have never," says Mr. Mill, "been exactly ascertained. The nation, whose

passions were kindled, was more disposed to paint to itself a scene of atrocity, and to believe whatever could inflame its resentment, than to enter upon a rigid investigation of the case. If it be improbable, however, on the one hand, that the English, whose numbers were small, and by whom, ultimately, so little advantage could be gained, were really guilty of any such design as the Dutch imputed to them; it is, on the other hand, equally improbable that the Dutch, without believing them to be guilty, would have proceeded against them by the evidence of a judicial trial. Had simple extermination been their object, a more quiet and safe expedient presented itself; they had it in their power at any time to make the English disappear, and to lay the blame upon the natives. The probability is, that from certain circumstances, which roused their suspicion and jealousy, the Dutch really believed in the conspiracy, and were hurried on by their resentments and interests to bring the helpless objects of their fury to a trial; that the judges before whom the trial was conducted, were in too heated a state of mind to see the innocence, or believe in anything but the guilt of the accused; and that in this manner the sufferers perished. Enough, assuredly, of what is hateful may be found in this transaction, without supposing the spirit of demons in beings of the same nature with ourselves,-men reared in a similar state of society, under a similar system of education, and a similar religion. To bring men rashly to a trial, whom a violent opposition of interests has led us to detest, rashly to believe them criminal, to decide against them with minds too much blinded by passion to discern the truth, and put them to death without remorse, are acts which our own nation, or any other, was then, and would still be, too ready to be guilty. Happy would it be, how trite soever the reflection, if nations, from the scenes which excite their indignation against others, would learn temper and forbearance in cases where they become the actors themselves!"

When the news of this event reached the English President and Council at Java, they remonstrated, but in vain, in the strongest terms with the Dutch General, and desired permission to withdraw from the island. In their statements to the Court of Directors at that time, they insisted on the impossibility of continuing the trade, unless the English interests were totally separated from those of the Dutch; and that negotiation being useless, nothing but a force equal to that of their rivals could enable them to continue the trade.

The effect of the news of the massacre at Amboyna throughout England was a feeling of the utmost exasperation against the Dutch, who had long been regarded with the hatred which is commonly bestowed upon successful rivals. The Court of Directors saw their interest in ministering to the popular fury. They caused a hideous picture to be prepared, in which their countrymen were represented expiring upon the rack, while the most frightful instruments of torture were being applied to their bodies. The horrors of Amboyna were detailed in numerous publications which the press poured out upon the credulous public; and it was perhaps not without reason that the Dutch merchants in London, becoming alarmed for their own safety, applied to the Privy Council for protection. They complained that the populace had been stimulated by inflammatory publications, and more particularly by the picture. When the Directors appeared before the Council they denied that they had any concern with the publications, but admitted that the picture had been painted by their order, to be preserved in their house as a perpetual memorial of Dutch cruelty and treachery. "The Directors were aware that the popular tide had reached the table of the council room, and that they had nothing to apprehend from confessing how far they had been instrumental in raising the waters."

But the Directors did not rest satisfied with merely stimulating the indignation of their countrymen against the Dutch as soon as they were in possession of authentic information respecting the massacre of their servants at Amboyna they petitioned the King to interpose his authority with the States that redress might be obtained, and that the persons who had been the guilty instruments in this disgraceful transaction might be punished.

A commission of inquiry was therefore formed of the King's principal servants, who reported in terms sanctioning the complaints of the Directors and recommended an order, which was immediately issued, for sending out a fleet to seize the Dutch outward and homeward-bound East India ships, and to detain them in England till reparation should be made,

The remonstrances which were made to the Dutch States on this subject did not elicit any very satisfactory results. That government gravely replied that they would send orders to their Governor-General in the Indies to permit the English Company's servants to retire with their property and shipping from any of the Dutch settlements without exacting any duties from them;-that in all disputes an appeal should be made to the Council of Defence, and if the parties should be dissatisfied with its decision, the case should be referred to the States and to the King, but reserving to the Dutch "the administration of politic government, and particular jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, in all such places as owe acknowledgement to the Dutch;"-that the English might build forts, for the protection of their trade, provided they were at the distance of thirty miles from any of the Dutch forts;-and that to the Dutch belonged the exclusive right to the Moluccas, Bandas and Amboyna.

This was, as Mr. Mill remarks, an undisguised assumption of all the rights for which their subjects were contending in India. The King and council and the Company were equally dissatisfied with the answer; but the Company agreed to the first article, namely, that their servants might retire from the Dutch settlements: they stated that the second and third articles were so ambiguous in their reservations, that they left the Dutch General at liberty to repeat outrages similar to those now complained of;-they therefore held that, remitting the case to the Council of Defence, was, in fact, empowering the Dutch to review and vindicate their own unjust proceedings, and was equivalent to denying redress of any kind;- and that the case required to be tried in Europe by Commissions authorised by the two nations.

"These measures of King James, during the last months of his reign (for he died on the 27th of March, 1625), failed in their effects. It is true," says Mr. Bruce, "he wished to give protection to his subjects, and, on this occasion, manifested an energy, which could not have been expected from the pacific system which he had observed from his accession; but his varying policy with the European powers had taught each of them to consider England as of less weight in that balance of power which Queen Elizabeth had established, and the States-General, in a particular manner, to throw off their dependence on the Crown of England, of which the Queen had been the source.

"On this occasion, the spirit of the English nation would have seconded a war against the Dutch, but that cold people knew that by evasions, they could blunt the momentary rage of the English court, and shun fulfilling not only the terms of the treaty of 1619, but evade granting of redress, or giving any compensation for injuries, which they neither would have dared to commit, nor ventured to excuse, in the preceding reign."

In 1624 the Company petitioned the King for authority to punish their servants by common and martial law. "It appears not," says Mr. Mill, "that any difficulty was experienced in obtaining their request; or that any parlia mentary proceeding, for transferring unlimited power over the lives and fortunes of the citizens, was deemed even a necessary ceremony." This ought to be regarded as an era in the history of the Company.

SECTION 3.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMPANY UP TO THE YEAR 1630. The Company's Persian trade was not prosperous. The opposition of native merchants, the extortions of the magistrates, and the very inconsiderable demand for English produce, disposed the Company to abandon the trade altogether. But before this was done, application was made to the King of Persia to interpose his authority with his merchants to prohibit their extortions. This request, at first refused, met with attention as soon as the English took measures for retiring from the trade, and the privileges granted by the king were so extensive that it was decided to

continue the trade.

It is in connection with this trade that we gain some information respecting the state of the Company's affairs about this time. In the seasons 1624-5, 1625-6, and 1626-7, ships were sent out to India, but the amount of capital invested in each voyage was carefully concealed by the Company. In 1627, Sir Robert Shirley, who had been ambassador at the Court of Persia, applied to the King and council to order the East India Company to pay him 20007. as a compensation for his exertions in endeavouring-to