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 322 IIISTOFIY or INIflA. fIV>OK II

A.D. 1609. were wrested from tli(ni, they continued to niaintain an unavailing Htruggle against the ascendency which tlie Dutch had established in the Indian Archi- pelago. The only consolation which the Company received wan, that tin- loss which they sustained by the Brerla treaty was not so serioas as they ajjpre- hended when first made acquainted with its tenns. During the asurfjation <»f' Sir Edward Winter at Fort St. George, information had been received that ht- was in communication with the Dutch governor of Ceylon, and conteini)lating the delivery of the fort. Had this act of treachery been completed, the rule of uti possidetis would have covered it, and thas one of the tlu-ee seats of the presidencies acquired by the Company would in all probability have been lost to them for ever.

Te I begins The Only other incident of this period which it Is necessary to notice is of a

to fonu an *•

investment strictly Commercial nature, and yet, when its consequences are traced, it will l.-e found to have had a far mightier influence, not merely on the fortunes of the Company, but on society at large, than any single event, military' or political, which occurred in the seventeenth century. In a letter dated 24th January, ] 668, and sent out with the Company's ships which made the voyage of that year, the agent at Bantam is desired "to send home by these sliips 100 lbs. waight of the best tey that you can gett." The language evidently implies that the article was already understood; and it is known that several yeai-s before, an order had been given to obtain small quantities of tea as a present to his majesty ; but this is the fu'st instance of a public order, and an order given, it is presumed, for the purpose not of making presents of it as a mere cm-iosity, but of ascertaining whether it mioht not become an article of lucrative invest- ment. Within a century of the date of this order, the quantity imported by the Company approached 3,000,000 lbs.; and in 1834:, the last year of the Company's monopoly, it exceeded 33,000,000 lbs., and paid duty to government to the amount of £3,589,361. Since then the import into the United Kingdom has more than doubled.

Bombay Qu the 27th of March, 1669, the grant of the port and island of Bomba'.

granted to ,

the Com- which government had been for some time contemplating, was completed by a regular charter, issued as usual in the form of letters-patent addi'essed by the king to all his subjects. After stating the nature and extent of the right acquired by the marriage treaty from the Portuguese, eulogizing the Company for having managed the trade to the East Indies " to the lionom- and profit of the nation," and expressing "an earnest desire that the said governor and Company may, by all good and lawful ways and means, be encom'aged in their difficult and hazardous trade and trafiick in those remote parts of the world, ' his majesty bestows the island and its appm^tenances upon them " in as large and ample a manner, to all intents, constructions, and pm-jDoses, as we ourselves now have and enjoy, or may or ought to enjoy the same, by ^■irtue and force of the said gi-ant of our said brother the King of Portugal," constituting them

pany.