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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 73 ;

proceeded to Bombay, where he arrived on the lOtli of
November, 1684. With great promptitude and resohition he
landed without any attendants, and demanded a conference with
Captain Keigwin, the result of which was that the latter agreed
to deliver up the fort to him, as a King's officer, (Sir Thomas
having also the King's commission), on condition of a free
pardon to himself and his adherents. Accordingly, on the 19th
of November, the surrender took place to Sir Thomas Grantham,
who immediately transferred the island to Dr. St. John, the
Judge-Advocate, also bearing the King's commission, by whom
it was again delivered to Mr. Zingan, as the Company's
Governor, till the arrival of the President. Sir Thomas Grantham
then returned to England in his ship, the ' Charles II.,' having
Captain Keigwin on board as his prisoner, together with twelve
other sail from Surat and Gombroon ; and thus terminated
an episode that appeared fraught with disaster to the Company,
but out of which they were extricated by the promptitude and
ability of one of their Marine officers, whose situation was, at
one time, no less trying to his courage, for, during the negotia-
tions, one of the soldiers was on the point of shooting him, and,
for a few days, the island was again in the possession of the
mutineers.*
In the year 1685 Mr. Child (now Sir John Child, Bart.) was
appointed, by the King's patent, Captain-General and Admiral
of the Company's sea and land forces between Cape Comorin
and the Gulf of Persia, Sir John Wyborne being created Vice-
Admiral and Deputy-Governor of Bombay ; and, in the following
Year, the seat of Government was transferred from Surat to
Bombay, the Company's stores being kept in the ' Castle,' and
the larger ships lying in the harbour. Surat was also reduced
to an agency, with a Council subordinate to the new Presidency,
which was clothed with unlimited power over the rest of the
Company's settlements. Sir John Child, having left Mr.
Harris as his agent at Surat, arrived at Bombay on the 2nd of
May, 1687, and his first measures appear of a doubtful character
for, acting under insti'uctions from the Court,* he ordered the
'Charles II.,' Captain Andrews, with the ' Modena,' Captain
Wildey, two of the Company's largest ships, to proceed to ]\locha
and Bussorah, with secret orders to seize all ]\Iognl and Siamese
vessels at those ports, and also sent two shiits to China with
similar instructions.
* Briiee's " Annals," vol. i., p. 541.
t The Company also entered on a course of active hostility in Bengal, which
was abandoned as a trading station, and so grea'ly exasperated the Emperor
Aurungzebe that he issued orders to expel the Englisli from his dominions, which
were only cancelled on their making a humble submission. In the course of these
transactions, Captain Heath, comniamling the Company's armed ship ' Defence,'
accompanied by another vessel, on tlie 2'.ith of Novendier, 16S9, landed some troops
and seamen at Ballasore and took a battery of thirty guns. In 1608 the Com-
pany obtained a grant of tlie towns of Chuttanuttee, Govindpore, and Calcutta,
and constructed Fort William, when the station was constituted a Presideucy.