Page 177 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

CHAPTER XII

English and Dutch Rivalry in the East
Tho fight for the spice trade—The Dutch predominance in the
Eastern Archipelago—Dutch hostility to the English—Jour-
dain’s expedition to tho Moluccas—Jan Pietersoon Coen,
the great Dutch administrator—His interview with Jourdain—
Jourdain driven from tho Moluccas—Deplorable condition of
the English at Bantam—The English occupy Poolo Ai—Further
English expedition tc the Moluccas—Its withdrawal—Dutch
re-occupy Poolo Ai'
T HERE arc many strange features about the establish­
ment of British power in Asia, but none quite so
remarkable as the circumstances which fixed the centre of
English authority in India in the earliest period. The East
India Company, when it embarked on its enterprise, as
has been narrated, concentrated its attention on the spice
trade. If it thought of India at all it was only as a possi­
ble secondary field which might be developed in some future
period. It was very much in this spirit of vague adventure
that the Company’s agents first went to Surat and they
were established there far more by the fortuitous associa­
tion of Sir Henry Middleton with the Indian traders in the
Red Sea, than by any arrangements definitely made with
that end. Roe’s Embassy, no doubt, was in the nature of
a carefully planned endeavour to obtain a permanent foot­
hold on the Continent of India. But when we turn to look
at the circumstances which attended and followed it we
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