Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/314

 of a settled order for the execution of its decrees on lines which were fairly fixed. Romantic as their lives were in many respects they were a class apart from the merchant adventurers whose careers are traced in the preceding pages.

Not the least interesting feature of the century of which we have treated was the gradual growth of these English communities in the East which in some cases formed the germs of the great ports and cities of our own time. Established in the first instance by a mere handful of the Company's servants—occasionally by not more than a half dozen—the factories, if well placed, grew in importance until the staff was a complete organization, including the various grades of functionaries into which the covenanted body was divided, the whole representing a fairly large colony. They lived together in the factory, which was usually a roomy building with sleeping apartments grouped about a common room. The latter served the double purpose of a dining hall and a council chamber, and it was also made to do duty as a chapel until the time arrived when the community became large enough to justify the provision of a special room or building for devotional purposes. An appendage of some of the factories and notably of that at Surat, was a beautiful garden in a pleasant situation where in the cool of the evening the exiles might pass a congenial hour or two amid the fruit and the flowers, before partaking of the evening meal.

Religious observances were strictly enjoined upon their servants by the directors, who made special provision for the due execution of their orders in this respect by sending out chaplains to the principal establishments and in arranging for the service of lay readers in cases where