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Ante 1640.] of the place where Madras now stands. In 1660, they took Negapatam from the Portuguese. In 1663, they took Cochin in like manner. Thus they became the great merchant princes of the East, possessing important settlements both on the coast of Coromandel and the coast of Malabar. The seventeenth century was indeed the golden period of Dutch commerce. Without any native produce to export, and without even a piece of timber fit for ship building, the foreign trade of Holland was at this period greater than that of all Europe besides.

Meantime the merchants of London had been equally yearning for a share in the riches of the Indian trade. Throughout the reign of the great Elizabeth, their longing for the gold of Ophir had been stimulated to the highest pitch by the successes of Spain and Portugal. They tried in vain to cut out new routes by the north-west and the north-east, and even attempted to open an overland trade; the successive circumnavigations of the world by Drake and Cavendish still giving additional stimulus to the spirit of enterprise. They next sent some ships round the Cape, but the experiment failed in consequence of disease and shipwreck. But soon all London was ringing with the successes of the Dutch, and the British merchant was almost mad with exasperation. At last in 1599 an association was formed under the title of "Merchant Adventurers." fund was subscribed, and the subscribers petitioned the Virgin Queen to allow them to fit out three ships, to export bullion, and to be exempted from payment of cus-