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Rh East India Company, which fitted out a squadron for the East Indies in the following year. In 1672, when England and France were allied against Holland, a French armament under De la Haye sailed for India, occupied the excellent harbour of Trincomali in Ceylon, and took possession of St. Thomé, close to Madras. The English could not decently oppose the emissaries of a friendly nation, although this first appearance of the French on the Coromandel Coast – where in the next century our contest with them was fought out – could not but excite considerable uneasiness. Nor was the situation much improved in our favour when both places were subsequently captured from the French by the Dutch.

BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF TRINCOMALI.

The foreign relations of England at this period were unsettled and curiously complicated. In 1665 Holland and England were at war; in 1666 France joined Holland against us; but in 1668 England, Holland, and