Page 274 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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CHAPTER XVIII

The English on the East Coast of India
The first expedition to Bengal—Gabriel Boughton, a friend at Court,
obtains trading facilities for the Company—Factories estab­
lished at Balasor, Cassimbazar and Patna in subordination to
Kooghly—Sir Edward Winter’s coup d'etat at Madras—George
Foxcroft the President imprisoned—Expedition to restore the
'Status quo—Winter surrenders—Sir William Langhome’s
mission
N previous chapters we have seen how the English
adventurers after toil and stress, many wanderings
and the expenditure of much blood and treasure, found a
foothold for their weary feet in India—on the Coromandel
•Coast at Fort St. George, and on the Western Coast at
.Bombay. But there remained another fateful step to be
taken before the shadowy outline was traced of the vast
-edifice of British dominion in India which is in existence
to-day in full splendour. Then as now the commerce of
India flowed in the fullest force along the course of the
sacred Ganges and its tributaries. Over its classic surface
passed, as they had done from the remotest ages, the pro­
ductions of half a continent. From the great centres of
population of Upper India went to and from the coast an
unceasing stream of traffic, creating at a hundred points
along the river’s course important marts to which merchants
from near and far resorted. In Bengal itself was the seat of
many industries and the home of a numerous population