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allowed themselves to be systematically plundered during six days — Sevajee, according to the account of one Smith, an Englishman, who was taken prisoner and carried before him, sitting outside the town in his tent ordering heads and hands to be choped off in cases where persons were supposed to be concealing their wealth. While the natives were thus pusillanimous, a better spirit was displayed by the inmates both of the Dutch and English factories. The English, in particular, greatly distinguished themselves. Having put their factory in as good a state of defence as the shortness of the time allowed, and called in the aid of their ships' crews, they met Sevajee's demands and threats with defiance; and when a number of Mahrattas, without venturing on an assault, forced their way into an adjoining house, a sally was made which dislodged them. By this valiant conduct the English saved not only their own property, but that of many natives whom they had taken under their protection, and rose high in the estimation of Aurungzebe himself, who granted them a firman exempting them for ever from a portion of the customs paid by other nations, and also from all transit charges. The visit of Sevajee, which at first threatened the Company with the loss of all their property at Surat,

estimated at £80,000 was thus eventually the indirect means of procuring for them important advantages.

In 1665, the politics of Europe again assumed a threatening appearance. A Dutch war was evidently impending. The Company, well aware that, in that event, the Dutch would sweep the Indian seas, scarcely ventured to prepare an outward voyage, and contented themselves with instructing their agents in India to make all possible haste in completing their investments, and despatching the homeward bound ships. Nor was a Dutch war the only source of their anxiety, as new competitors, who were afterwards to prove the most formidable of all, were about to enter the field. The French had long had an eve to the Indian traffic; and an exclusive company, sharing largely in royal patronage, and invested with important privileges, had been formed This company had