Page 108 - INDIANNAVYV1

76 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
and supplied the wants of the j2;arrison b}' the capture of
provision ships belonging to the Mogul and his subjects.
Captain Hamilton who was serving in the Company's Marine
—
at this time, saj's : " We passed the months from April to
September very ill, for provisions grew scarce by the addition
of three thousand Sevagees that were employed as auxiliaries in
the military service of the Company. When the winter
months were over, at September we went to sea with our
small ships, to cruise on the Mogul's subjects, and had
pretty good success. I was employed in that service, and
had the command of a small privateer, with twenty fighting
men, and sixteen rowers. In three or four months I brought
nine prizes into Bombay, laden most with provisions and
clothes for the enemy's army, which was increased to forty
thousand ; but we were not allowed any plunder, but were
rather plundered ourselves, for when we brought our prizes in,
our chests were severely searched, and if we had saved any of
our pay, it was seized for the Company's use, as money we had
found in the prizes, which made us careless in pursuing the
enemy at sea."
The depth of humiliation to which Sir John Child had brought
the Company's affairs at Bombay by his mismanagement and by
the false economy which reduced the military and naval estab-
lishment to a state of inefficiency, may be imagined from the
—
following passage from Hamilton's work: "'And now, the
Seedee being master of the whole island, except the castle and
about half-a-mile to the southward of the castle, he raised
batteries on Dungeree Hill, which overlooked the fort wall, and
disturbed the garrison very much ; then he put four great guns
in the Custom House, commonly called the India House, and
raised at the Moody's House within two hundred paces of the
fort, and another in the lady's house that he had been so unkind
to, so that it was dangerous to go out or in at the castle gate till
we got up an ' half moon' battery before it."
In this critical condition of affairs, Sir John Child* died
at Bombay, on the 4th of February, 1690, when the office of
President devolved on Mr. Harris, at this time a prisoner
at Surat, Mr. Vaux succeeding to the Deputy-Governorship
* Sir John Cliild's admin istration of the affairs of Bombay was the most dis-
astrous of any in the history of the Western Presidency. He committed the
fatal mistake of undertaking nothing less tlian an arduous war with utterly in-
adequate means, with the result of bringing the Company's affairs to the verge of
ruin. And yet Sir John, who had a powerful relative at lieadquarters in England
in the person of his brother, Sir Josiah Child, commanded the confidence of his
masters, who pronounced his conduct " faithful and honourable," and, early in the
course of his arrogant proceedings, when success appeared to smile on him, voted
him a reward of a thousand guineas. The two most able and honourable of tlie
Company's Pro-coiisuls in Western India, were decidedly Sir Greorge Oxenden and
his successor Mr. Gerald Aungier, who by their courage, conduct, and high-
mindedness, were remarkable in an age when profligacy and peculation reigned
supreme from the Royal Court downward.