Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/349

 Chap. V.] ACQUISITION OF BOMBAY. 815

fleet of five men-of-war, under the conmiand of the Earl of AJarlboroimh. On ad. iooj.

o

boai'd the fleet were a viceroy from Portugal, authorized formally to complete the cession of the island, and Sir Abraham Shipman, with 500 soldiers, to take possession and thereafter remain as the first English governor. No opposition Difficulties

in obtaining

appears to have been anticipated ; but the Portuguese at Bombay, naturally ixjssossion unwilHng to be handed over to a foreign powei", took advantage of some ambiguities in the treaty by which the island was ceded, and refused to dtdiver it up. The English were themselves partly to blame for the unexpected oppo- sition, because instead of being satisfied with the "port and island Bombay," which was all that the treaty with Portugal expressly granted, they insisted that this grant conferred with it a right to all the Portuguese stations in that locality, and more especially to the i.sland of Salsette, only separated from Bombay by a naiTOw channel. The claim was certainly extravagant, as Salsette, thus represented as an accessory to Boml)ay, has an area of 150 square miles, and is consequently eight times larger than the principal.

The whole business was grossly mismanaged ; and ultimately the English, Temporary

occupation

prohibited from landing, and unwilling or unable to effect it by force, were of Aiyo- obliged to look out for some other station where they might obtain refreshments, and employ ])roper remedies to diminish the mortality which, in consequence of })rotracted confinement in the ships, was now making fearful ravages. In this emergency application was made to Sir George Oxinden, who had been sent out by the Company as president and chief director of all their aflTairs " at Sm'at, and all others their factories in the north parts of India from Zeilon to the Red Sea," for permission to land the troops at Surat, but even this could not be granted for fear of offending the Mogul; and Sir Abraham Shipman was reduced to the necessity of landing the troops on the island of Anjedivah, fifty miles south-east from Goa, where numbei's of them perished. The Earl of Marlborough had in the meantime left them to their fate, and sailed for England.

These untoward events seriously atFected the prospects of the Company. They had hoped much from the presence of the ships of war, which they thought would have the effect of procuring them more respect from the native ]iowers, and of intimidating the Dutch, who were now openly aspiring at an ascendency on the Indian coast as complete as that which they had established in the Eastern islands. It had even been expected that the king's ships might have been made iustrumenttd in opening up new mercantile channels to the Com- pany by receiving on freight Portuguese investments from Goa, and thus forming the commencement of a canying trade which might yield lucrative returns. The failure of the expedition to Bombay disappointed all these expec- tations, and for some time the Conij^anv appear to have done little more than, employ their servants in giving eff'eot to the new clauses in their charter for the hunting down of those whom they stigmatized as interlopers. Indirectly,