Page 270 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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270 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST
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English goods from customs dues for the period of a twelve-
month.
It was Oxdenen’s lot, like that of many of his country­
men who went to India at this time, to leave his bones in
'
the country. He died on July 14, 1669, at Surat, too early
to see the full fruits of his labours, but yet at a sufficiently
advanced period to be able to appreciate the momentous
character of the change which was coming over the Com­
pany’s operations. He sleeps with his well-beloved brother
Christopher, who was an official of the Company and died
at Surat in 1659, in the graveyard at Surat. Over the
remains of the two is a magnificent monument, part of
which was provided by George Oxenden on the death of
his brother and part by the Company, in gratitude for the 5
latter’s services. On the older part of the tomb is the
following epitaph penned by George Oxenden, which may
surely be ranked amongst the most felicitous of such
tributes to the dead :—
“ Here is laid Christopher Oxenden, in his life a pattern of fair deal­
ing, in his death a proof of the frailty of life.
He comes and he is gone. Here he ended his ventures and his life.
Days only, not years, could he enter in his accounts; for of a
sudden death called him to a reckoning.
Do you ask, my masters, what is your loss and what your gain ? -
You have lost a servant, we a companion, by his life ; but against
this he can write ‘ Death to me is gain. > >>

Bombay in its earliest years was happy in the possession
of a governor who carried forward the public-spirited tradi­
tions of Oxenden and laid broad and deep the foundations
of the city. Gerald Aungier, by name, he was a serious-
minded and practical patriot who brought to his charge !
those sound personal qualities which never fail to secure the
confidence and even regard of Oriental people amongst

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