Page 283 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

CHAPTER XIX

The Arch Interloper—Thomas Pitt
Interlopers in the Bay of Bengal—Thomas Pitt a leading member
of the fraternity—Governor Hedge’s description of an interlop­
ing party ashore—Pitt’s trading ventures—He defies the Com­
pany—He returns to England and is arrested and fined—Re­
appears in India—The Company makes terms with him and
appoints him President of Fort St. George (Madras)—His
administration—The Pitt diamond and its history—Last years,
in England—Pitt’s character
w INTER’S amazing usurpation described in the

preceding chapter had its counterpart in the dar­
ing achievements of some of the adventurers of this period
who went to India as interlopers—that “ horrid trade ”
which to the sleek old gentlemen who directed the affairs-
of the East India Company seemed to touch the lowest
depth of infamy. There were many such in the Bay of
Bengal at that juncture. They were men who, enticed to
the East by the profitable character of the trade, went out
with their own ships in defiance of the charter of the Com­
pany which conferred upon it an absolute monopoly of
the Indian trade. Bold and dashing adventurers all, they
played their part on the great stage of Indian life with
I an audacity which was proof alike against the shafts of the
privileged merchants in London and the impediments
:
placed in their way by native potentates.
Hedges, a servant of the Company, who was sent to>
Bengal as Agent and Governor, and who has left behind an.
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