Page 128 - INDIANNAVYV1

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90 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
time, seven thousand men engaged in this war, which expense
he began to get tired of, and the k:)ss of his ships and horses was
some mortification to him, besides the Sow Rajah* had made an
inroad into his northern borders, which made him incline very
much towards a peace, and accordingly he sent a Brahman on
board to the Commodore of the fleet, to negociate about a peace.
The Commodore heard him, and advised him to make his over-
tures to Mr. Taylor. By the mediation of a Seid, who was a
friend to both parties, ten days after the first overture was made,
peace was proclaimed on easy terms for both parties^"t''
We find that, in 1716, the cost of theJVIarine wis ^£51,700,
and it consisted of one ship of thirty-two guns, four grab-shi^TS,
mounting between twenty and twenty-eight guns, and twenty
grabs and galivats, carrying between five and twelve guns. It
was not long before this little force had an opportunity of proving
its metal by an encounter with a Maritime Power which had defied
the efforts alike of the Portuguese, Dutch, and Mahrattas. This
was Kanhojee Angria, who, from being a common seaman in
Sevajee's fleet, rose from one post to another, till he was made
Admiral of the Mahratta fleet by Rajah Ram. He took part
* The Mahratta Rajah was so denominated by the English.
t At Calicut the tide of English affairs had ebbed, and, in 1714, the Com-
pany's agent suffered much personal loss from the failure of an attempt to clieek
the encroachments of tlie Dutch, who liad commenced building a fort on laud,
wliich the Zamorin claimed as his own, but which they maintahied Iiad been
given them by the Eajah of Cochin. The consequence was, that the factors were
removed to TeUicherry, and only a Portuguese agent, styled " the linguist,
retained at Calicut. At TeUiclierry the Company had obtained, in 1708, the
grant of a mud fort which originally belonged to the French, and which, after a
few years, the English converted into a soUd structure. For twenty years the
agent was engaged in hostilities of trifling importance with the principal Nair of
the place, and lavished more money upon tlie fortifications than would have paid
for tlie whole of the investments, and kept up a considei-able force of European
and Goanese.
The factors of Anjengo, situated seventy-eight miles from Cape Comorin, were,
in 17^1, horror stricken by one of those calamities which so frequently chequered
the lives of Englishmen in India. This was the murder of the Chief and of his
council and a numerous suite, by the collectors of the Ranee of Attinga.
In the year 1715, the Emperor Ferokshir, — grandson of Shah Aulum, who
died in l7l2, after a reign of only five years,—impelled by a feeling of gratitude
to Dr. Hamilton, physician to an embassy sent by the Company to his Court,
who had cured him of a disgraceful disease, commanded his benefactor to name
his own reward ; upon which the high-minded and disinterested Hamilton soli-
cited privileges for the Company. This petition, which was delivered to the
Emperor in January, 1716, contained among other clauses, " that a fixed sum
should be paid at Surat in lieu of all duties," but it was not until January, 1717,
just two years after the arrival of the embassy at Delhi, that the concessions were
granted. Sir John Gayer had been released after a confinement of seven years,
but the Company's servants at Surat had been so greatly oppressed by the Mogul
Nawab of Guzerat and his officers, that the factory was actually closed between
the years 1712 and 1716, though it was reopened by the terms of this patent, the
concession of which was hastened by a well-placed bribe, and the expectation
of a possible visit of an English fleet. The history of the small factory at Cam-
bay, like those of Calicut and Anjengo, is also a record of oppression by the
Mogul Government, and of depredations by lawless Mahrattas on shore, and the
Cooly pirates at sea.