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 Chap. I.]

VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN IIIPPON.

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privilege of trade on those who had received Prince Maurice's permit, peremj)- torily ordered them to depart. Ca})tain Hijtpon, though httle disposed to yield obedience to this arrogant mandate, was not in a condition to dis])ute it, more

AD. 1612.

Point-de-Galle. — From ChurchiU's Collection of Voyages.

especially as he was anxious to take advantage of the approaching monsoon. He therefore proceeded north as far as Masulipatam, leaving some of his ])eopIe as the nucleus of a factory at Petapoli, situated on the coast at some di.stance south of that town, and then shaped his com-se for Bantam, which was reached on the 26th of April, 1612. From Bantam the Globe proceeded first to Patany, on the east coast of the peninsula of Malacca, and then to Siam, establishing factories at both. On the homeward voyage Masuli})atam and Pulicat were again visited. In this way, though in very humble beginnings, a foundation was laid for that intercourse with the Bay of Bengal which was afterwards to be so largely developed, and to yield such magnificent results.

The efforts of the Companj", which had hitherto been of an experimental and i-'m'ted

l)i'ogre.s»

very desultory character, had certainly done little to justify their title to a majei-) tia- chai'ter which invested them with the exclusive privilege of trading in nearh^ three (piarters of the globe. In the Eastern isles, to which they had at first resorted, they were completely overborne by the Dutch, and were Imrely able to maintain a precarious existence; in the Red Sea, in which, without any great temptation, they had rather invidiou.sly endeavoured to carry off a share of the traffic which properly belonged to the Turkey Comjiany, they had not only failed, but recklessly damaged their mercantile character by exhilnting them- selves as lawless depredators ; and on the whole continent of India there was not a single port at which they had obtained a permanent footing. Had Queen Elizabeth been spared to reign, the affairs of the Company would in all jiroba- bility have presented a very different a)i]>earance. She iiad expected, in gi'anting the charter, that the Company would at least rival, if not outstrip the Dutch ; and, before the result of the first voyage was known, liad, in a letter from which we have already quoted, u])braided the directoi"s with their sluggishness in not