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 CHAPTER XVIII

The English on the East Coast of India

N previous chapters we have seen how the English adventurers after toil and stress, many wanderings and the expenditure of much blood and treasure, found a foothold for their weary feet in India—on the Coromandel Coast at Fort St. George, and on the Western Coast at Bombay. But there remained another fateful step to be taken before the shadowy outline was traced of the vast edifice of British dominion in India which is in existence to-day in full splendour. Then as now the commerce of India flowed in the fullest force along the course of the sacred Ganges and its tributaries. Over its classic surface passed, as they had done from the remotest ages, the productions of half a continent. From the great centres of population of Upper India went to and from the coast an unceasing stream of traffic, creating at a hundred points along the river's course important marts to which merchants from near and far resorted. In Bengal itself was the seat of many industries and the home of a numerous population 274