Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/55

 ENGLISH AND PORTUGUESE IN COMBAT 29 estimates. Best lost only three, and the stout old Red Dragon, not a new ship when bought from the Earl of Cumberland in 1600, had still six years of good serv- ice before her. Her end came in 1619, when she and two other English vesels were taken off Sumatra by six Dutch ships after a desperate fight. The Hollanders offered to restore her, but the English declined, as her captors " had lamed her with misusage." The gallant Thomas Best rose to the height of his profession. He appears as late as 1637 as Master of Trinity House, and in 1638 on a commission to inquire into frauds in the supply of timber. The severest combat took place before the eyes of the Moghul troops, " all the camp standing by the sea- side looking on us." This running-fight of a single month broke the reputation which the Portuguese had won in India by the sea achievements of a hundred years. As a land-power they had sunk into insignifi- cance on the establishment of the Moghul Empire in Southern India during the second half of the preceding century. The coast governors of that empire now turned with the tide in favour of the English, and Best found it easy to obtain sanction for a factory at Surat and at three other places around the Gulf of Cambay. By a formal instrument all grievances arising out' of Sir Henry Middleton's reprisals were buried in oblivion; our merchandise was to be subject only to a moderate fixed duty of Sy 2 per cent.; and in event of the death of the English factors, the Company's property was to be kept safe by the Indian authorities for delivery