Page 275 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE ENGLISH ON THE EAST COAST OF INDIA 275

whose exploitation offered openings of a promising kind to
a great commercial organization of the character of the
East India Company. To such a quarter it was inevitable
that the English should sooner or later turn their serious
attention.
Even before the title deeds of Fort St. George were
secured, an English expedition intent on finding new open­
ings for trade had penetrated to Bengal. It was an unas­
suming little venture, in which only eight Englishmen took
part, but it has its place in history as the first intrusion of
an organized body of representatives of the now ruling race
into the most important of the Indian provinces.
The story of the journey is set forth for the benefit of
posterity by a certain William Benton “ of the parish of
St. Saviour’s, Southwark,” quartermaster of the Company’s
ship Hopewell, who accompanied the party as navigating ;
adviser. Starting in the early part of 1633 the expedition
penetrated as far as Fort Barabati, the seat of the Court ol
Malcandy, or Mukund Deo, the last of the indigenous Kings
of Orissa. The ruling Mogul, Viceroy Agha Mahommed
Zaman, a Pcrsiau, received the visitors graciously, but he
was not disposed to forego the customary court etiquette
which consisted of a kissing of the viceroyal toe as a pre­
liminary to conversation. Cartwright, the leader of the
party, when the toe was insinuatingly uncovered, twice
declined the suggestion that he should salute it, but eventu­
ally, with a wry face, “ he was fain to do it.” Agha
Mahommed, however, was not at all a bad specimen of
i
the Mogul dignitary. He treated the Englishmen most
kindly and gave them permission to trade. Acting under
his grant Cartwright started factories at Hariharapur and
Balasor, and for some years these were centres of the Com-