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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 85

charges—and both this gentleman and Sir Nicholas Waite
bribed the Governor of Surat and his agent to injure the trade
of the rival association.* Under orders from the Mogul, Sir
John Gayer, who had arrived from Bombay in December, 1700,
President Colt, the members of the Surat Court, and others, in
all one hundred and nine persons, were, in the February follow-
ing, kept in duresse in their factory, where, in spite of all re-
monstrances, they remained for nearly three years, and were
only freed on the entreaties of the Surat merchants, who could
not send their ships to sea unless they were furnished with re-
commendatory letters by the President of the London Com-
pany. An end was. put to this state of hostility between the
rival Boards, on the receipt, in December, 1702, of the intelli-
gence of the union of the two Companies.
In a letter written to the Court, in 1702, Sir John Gayer,
who, though in confinement within the walls of the factoiy,
continued to be the Company's chief representative, adverted to
the weakness of the garrison of Bombay ,t and tht; insolence of
the Arabs, who, grown confident by their successes, were only
deterred from making attacks on the Company's ships by an
impression that they were too strong to become easy prizes
and returned to Surat on the 5th of November, 1701. He embarked on tlie 5th
of May following, but died on the passage home on the lUth of October, and thus
the second mission to the court of the ilogul ended abortively—that of Sir Tlio-
mas Roe, for tlie establishment of commercial relations, bemg more fortunate.
* It was in 1698 that this rival association made a proposal to Parliament for
advancing the sum of £2,000,000 to Government on condition of the subscribers
being formed into a new company with exclusive privileges. Tlie original, or
London, Company, endeavoured to prevent the appearance of such a formidable
rival, by otfering Grovernraent £700,000, nearly the whole amount of their capi-
tal ; but such was, at that time, the exigencies of the State, that the larger sum,
though at eight per cent, interest, was preferred to the smaller at four. Thus
were two Companies formed, the interests of each necessai-ily clashing with the
other. After mucli rivalry, the two Companies were united by an agreement
approved by both Courts on the 27th of April, 1702. But it was not until six
years later that a final and cordial adjustment of diircreiices was effected, and
they were, by Act of Parliament, perfectly consolidated into one Company, by
the title of "The United Company of Merchants, trading to the East Indies."
By the sanae Act, in consequence of a new loan to Government, without interest,
their capital was augmented from £2,000,000 to £3,200,000, yiehling five per
cent, interest, and in 17J;3 another million was advanced to Government, though
the stock of the Com]5any claiming a dividend was not increased to that amount.
t The accounts of the condition of Bombay during the time of Sir John
Gayer's administration, show an almost incredible condition of weakness and cor-
ruption, due to circumstances mostly beyond his control. Iji 1097, three years
after his succession, we find that ownig to the climate, whicli has since strangely
altered for the better, and tlio licentious mode of living adopted by most Euro-
peans, of seven hundred or eight hundred Europeans residing in the island before
Sir John Child's ill-judged " war," not more than sixty were left. Anderson
says :— "There were' but three civilians left to carry on the Comiiany's business,
and it became necessary to close the Courts of Admiralty and Conuiu)n Law.
Not one child in twenty survived the days of iniancy." Owing to the lack of
fluids, the revenue having largely lallen oil', Sir John Gayer was compelled to
di:<band tliree hundred and forty Gentoos and sixty Christians, so that the native
troops were reduced to seven soubahdars and four hundred men, wlule there were
only twenty-seven European soldiers!