Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/408

358 chronic disquietude which began at this period has been the source of some hazardous military projects and premature diplomatic schemes, of two expeditions into Afghanistan, of a war with Persia, and of a policy that is constantly extending the British protectorate far beyond the natural limits of India.

From the opening of the nineteenth century, then, may be dated the establishment of England's undisputed ascendency within India. From the same period also may be reckoned the appearance of that susceptibility regarding the possible approach of European rivals by land, which led first to negotiations and treaties, and eventually to wars, between England and the foreign states adjoining or approaching her Indian dominion.

So long as the European conflict lasted, the Anglo-Indian government had continued to survey all Western Asia watchfully, and to stand on its guard against any movement by land that might seem to affect or endanger its position. In the meantime, England's naval superiority enabled her to sweep all enemies out of the Eastern waters and to occupy any point from which the coasts or commerce of India might be exposed to molestation. The Cape of Good Hope, that important naval station half-way to India, had been finally occupied in 1806; and in 1810 Lord Minto's expedition ejected the French from Java and Abercrombie captured Mauritius; so that the sea-routes, the ports of shelter and supply, and the harbours were all in British hands.