Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/278

 226 FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE MADRAS COAST our returned factors reported that " the major part of weavers and washers are dead and the country al- most ruinated." " The living were eating up the dead, and men durst scarcely travel in the country for fear they should be killed and eaten.' ' As the final annexation of Gujarat to the Moghul Empire had put an end to anarchy on the northwestern coast of India and enabled the English to settle se- curely at Surat, so the gradual establishment of the Golkonda Mussulman dynasty on the east coast gave us an assured position at Masulipatam. In both cases we commenced with permits from subordinate coast authorities, and were eventually forced to seek a guar- antee from the inland sovereign power. What the prince imperial's grant to Sir Thomas Roe had been to our Surat factory, the " Golden Phir- maund " of the King of Golkonda in 1632 proved to the English settlement at Masulipatam. " Under the shadow of Me, the K^ing, they shall sit down at rest and in safety." In return, our factors engaged to import Persian horses for his Majesty of Golkonda. Next year they were strong enough to send out a trading party northwards to attempt a settlement in Bengal. The importance of the Masulipatam factory declined on the growth of the more southern settlement which it founded at Madras in 1639. But in spite of the con- fusions arising from the struggle of the coast rajas with the inland kingdom of Golkonda, and of the subse- quent collapse of Golkonda itself beneath the advancing power of the Moghul Empire, Masulipatam remained,