Page 263 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE ENGLISH SECURE A FOOTHOLD IN INDIA 263

of its factory at Surat and the establishment in its place of
a post at Rajapur on the Konkan coast to the South.
Nothing came of the idea, and two years later affairs took
such a prosperous turn that the factory regained all its
old prestige. Meanwhile, the Company on the Coroman­
del coast had effected at last that permanent acquisition of
territory without which all the clearest minds in the Com­
pany recognized no lasting progress could be made. In
1639, Francis Day, the chief factor at Armagon, one of the
Company’s establishments in Southern India, obtained
from the last representative of the old Vizayanagar dynasty,
whose territory it was, a grant of a site on the East Coast.
Upon this ground was subsequently built Fort St. George,
the citadel around which ultimately grew the great city of
Madras. It was the first land held in full sovereignty by
the English East of Suez, the germ from which the mighty
British dominion in the East finally developed.
The acquisition of the Coromandel coast territory was
a step which events were not slow to justify. For the first
time, the Company’s officers were able to maintain an atti­
tude of independence in their dealings with the native
authorities with whom they came in contact in prosecuting
their trade. What had been accomplished in the East
again suggested the desirability of securing a permanent
foothold on the West Coast. Additional experience con­
firmed the earlier impression that on the whole extent of
the Malabar coast there was no more eligible spot than
Bombay to locate a factory. In 1652, a strong recommen­
dation was sent home by the Surat council that negotia­ J
tions should be opened up for the purchase of the island.
As peace had been concluded with the Portuguese in 1634
and the relations between the two nations had become more