Page 201 - Dilmun 21

Ater the Potruguese deeat Prince hurrum, younger son o Jehanir was
appointed as overnor o surat, His inister was 2ulikhar han. his time
the East lndia ompany sent Sir homas Roe (ord graduate 159) to
lndia. At the end o 1615 Roe arrived at Surat. n arirval he aced obstacles
rom 2ulikhar han. Howeve,r this was a minor issue to the (Ambassador)
and he managed an audience with Jehanir the Emperor on Jan 10 1616 at
Ajmere.

English and Dutch rivaiyr in the East.

here are many strange eatures about the establishment o Birtish power in
Asia but none quite so remarkable as the circumstances that ied the centre
o English authority in lndia in the earliest period. ١n act, the company s
agents irst went to Surat and were established there more by the close
association o Sir Henyr iddleton with the indian traders in the Red Sea.
Roe s Embassy was no doubt in the nature o a careully planned endeavour
to obtain a permanent oothold on the onitnent o lndia. But, when we turn
to look at the circumstances which attended and ollowed it we cannot ail to
be struck by the tendency, which apatr rom the direct initiative induced, we
might almost say compelled the English to regard lndia as their irst and
greatest hcarge. Prominent amongst htese inluences was the struggle or
ascendancy in the Eastern Seas which the English and Dutch waged in those
early years o the seventeenth centuyr. hat contest continued or more than
wto centuries. However, gradually, each ell into their appointed place in Asia,
with the English securing their position o commercial inluence and
ultimately political supremacy on the lndian continent and the Dutch a like
predominance in the Eastern Archipelago.

١n 1607 the English Ambassador in Spain wrote to his government in England
that the losses incurred in the East lndies by the allied naitons at the hands
o the Dutch were o such a character to have inlicted in those places a
wound almost incurable . From- 1607 to 1617 the Dutch and English leets
were at various conlicts and years passed without any material change in the
situation until 1619 when Sir homas Dale iwth a considerable English leet
won a victoyr over the Dutch. He was one o the most eperienced
commanders o the ompany at the time and was sent From lndia to Bantam