u^^ 
 

HISTORICAL AND 
 
 LITERARY STUDIES 
 
 VOLUME 6 
 
Oxford University Press 
 
 London Edinburgh Glasgow New Tork 
 
 Toronto Melbourne Bombay 
 Humphrey Milford M.A. Publisher to the University 
 
SIR JOSIA CHILD 
 
O X F O R D 
 
 Historical and Literary 
 
 STUDIES 
 
 Issued under the direction of C. H. FIRTH 
 
 and WALTER RALEIGH Professors of 
 
 Modern History and English Literature in 
 
 the University of Oxford 
 
 VOLUME 6 
 
 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 (1683-4) 
 
 AN EPISODE IN THE HISTORY 
 OF BOMBAY 
 
 By 'RAY & OLIFER STRACHEY 
 
 OXFORD 
 At the Clarendon 'Press 
 1916 
 
DS425" 
 
 VOLUME I. ELIZABETHAN ROGUES AND VAGA- 
 BONDS AND THEIR REPRESENTATION IN 
 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. BY FRANK 
 AYDELOTTE. 
 
 VOLUME II. ANGLO-ROMAN RELATIONS, 1 f 5 8-1 <>6 f . 
 BY C G. BAYNE, C.S.I. 
 
 VOLUME III. THE HOUSE OF LORDS IN THE REIGN 
 OF WILLIAM III. BY A. S. TURBERVILLE. 
 
 VOLUME IV. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. 
 BY W. P. COURTNEY. REVISED AND SEEN 
 THROUGH THE PRESS BY D. NICHOL SMITH. 
 
 VOLUME V. HENRY TUBBE. SELECTIONS EDITED 
 FROM THE MSS. BY G. C. MOORE SMITH. 
 
 VOLUME VI. KEIGWIN'S REBELLION (1683-4). AN 
 EPISODE IN THE HISTORY OF BOMBAY. 
 BY RAY AND OLIVER STRACHEY. 
 
 VOLUME VII. LORD SELKIRK'S WORK IN CANADA. 
 BY CHESTER MARTIN. 
 
 STEPHEN* 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE authorities for the events connected with Keigwin's 
 Rebellion fall naturally under three heads ; manuscript records, 
 contemporary travellers or writers, and later historians. 
 
 I. Manuscript Records. These, as might be expected in so 
 unexplored a field, are by far the most important sources of 
 information. The old East India Company kept most careful 
 records of the correspondence to and from India, and also of the 
 Consultations of the various Councils in the East, and of 
 the letters that passed between the different factories ; and 
 enough of these remain to give a very complete picture of 
 the affairs in Western India during the period we have to deal 
 with. They may be divided as below : 
 
 1 . Original Correspondence ', known as the O. Cs. These are 
 a series of MS. volumes containing the originals of a vast 
 number of letters received by the Court from its servants, 
 together with their enclosures, and are certainly the most 
 important material available for the period. 
 
 2. Factory Records of Surat and Bombay. The factory 
 records are arranged according to factories ; thus there is one 
 series of volumes for Surat, and another for Bombay. They 
 contain copies of letters both dispatched and received, and 
 minutes of the consultations held. 
 
 3. Letter Books containing copies of the letters sent from 
 England by the Company to their various factories, arranged 
 according to date. 
 
 4. Court Books, which contain the minutes of the Court 
 meetings in Leadenhall Street. 
 
 5. Miscellaneous Factory Records, among which is one 
 volume (No. 16) devoted entirely to the struggle between 
 John Child and the Interloping partners Pettit and Bowcher. 
 
 6. Manuscript Records at Bombay. We have unfortunately 
 not had the opportunity of consulting the original records, but 
 
 ^ f 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 the most important documents are available to the public in 
 Forrest's Selections from the Bombay State Papers^ a publica- 
 tion of the utmost value to the student, and one to which we 
 are much indebted. J 
 
 7. OrmJs MSS. 2 This is a collection in the India Office 
 comprising a large number of invaluable extracts in that 
 historian's holograph from old records of the Company, of 
 many of which we have been unable to find the originals; 
 they have probably perished in the interval, so that only 
 Orme's copies survive. 
 
 Outside the Company's records in the India Office the 
 material is not very great. In the Record Office the State 
 Papers for this period have not yet been calendared, so that it 
 is possible that we may have missed interesting documents ; 
 apart from duplicates of India Office records, we are chiefly 
 indebted to this Office for some interesting letters from 
 Dr. John St. John, the Bombay Admiralty Judge, and for 
 the logs of the Phoenix > sent out by the King to put down the 
 Rebellion, and of the Assistance, the ship in command of which 
 Keigwin met his death. 
 
 In the Bodleian Library, among the Rawlinson MSS., are 
 duplicates of several papers referring to the rebellion, and a 
 few notes written by Sir Josia Child. 
 
 The Heralds' Office and Somerset House have supplied us 
 with information about Josia and John Child that has been 
 most unaccountably overlooked by previous historians, seeing 
 how easily accessible it must always have been. The Heralds' 
 Office records, too, are the only authority for the previous life 
 of Sir Thomas Grantham, already brought to light by Yule in 
 his edition of Hedges' Diary, 
 
 II. Contemporary Writers. The most important of these 
 are Fryer, Hamilton, and Ovington. The last named came 
 to India as a chaplain in 1689, and his Voyage to Surat is 
 useful only as giving an excellent account of the conditions of 
 
 1 Our references to * Forrest ', in this work, are to vol. i. of the ' Home 
 Series ' of these Selections. 
 
 8 Robert Orme, 1728-1801, was Historiographer to the East India 
 Company from 1 769 till his death. 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 life among the English in Western India. John Fryer, whose 
 New Account of East India and Persia is even better in this 
 respect than Ovington's book, is in other ways most tantalizing. 
 He was one of the Company's doctors from 1672 to 1681, and 
 must have been intimately acquainted with nearly all the 
 characters of our story. He was in Bombay when Aungier 
 put down the abortive mutiny of 1674, in which John Child 
 and his father-in-law Captain Shaxton were involved; he 
 travelled down the coast with Henry Gary and was the guest 
 at Carwar of Henry Oxinden; in 1678 he was John Pettit's 
 travelling companion from Gombroon to Shiraz in Persia, and 
 was in Surat during the extraordinary trial and acquittal of 
 that much-suffering man by Rolt and his Council ; and he 
 finally sailed for England with Caesar Chambrelan by the same 
 shipping as the departing president, leaving John Child in 
 charge of Surat. Had he given us his views on the persecution 
 of John Child's rival they could hardly have failed to be at 
 least of great interest, yet the name of Pettit never so much 
 as occurs in his book ; and so great is his reserve on all con- 
 troversial topics of the time that we are able to glean very 
 little of historical value from him, beyond his account of 
 Henry Oxinden's mission to Sivaji, which does not bear on 
 our subject at all. 
 
 Far otherwise is it with Alexander Hamilton, against whom 
 the charge of excessive reserve is the last that could be brought 
 with justice. This blade, as John Child would have called 
 him, was one of the many Interlopers who defied the Com- 
 pany's Charter and traded on their own account in Indian 
 waters. He first came to India within a few years of Keigwin's 
 rebellion, and he served as a volunteer in the defence of 
 Bombay against the Mogul army in 1690. With many of 
 the actors in our story he was therefore personally acquainted, 
 including General Child and George Bowcher ; so that, although 
 not an eyewitness, he must have heard many first-hand accounts 
 of the rebellion from both sides. Hamilton was a violent 
 partisan and an enthusiastic gossip, and his sympathies, as 
 became his calling, were all against the monopolist company ; 
 with the result that his book, A New Account of the East 
 
Vlll 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 Indies^ is a perfect storehouse of scandalous libels against 
 John Child in particular, and the Company's officers in general. 
 Indeed, so carried away is the old Interloper by his feelings, 
 that he defeats his own purpose ; for in his zeal to blacken his 
 opponents' characters he continually scorns not only the truth 
 but the most elementary plausibility, so that it finally becomes 
 scarcely possible to believe a word that he says. 
 
 But although, where his prejudices are concerned, it is 
 necessary so largely to discount Hamilton's version of events, 
 his work is by far the most valuable authority on our period, 
 outside the official correspondence in the India Office. For if 
 his libels can in no case be accepted as proof of Child's villany, 
 yet, viewed en bloc, they are excellent evidence of the light in 
 which the President appeared to his opponents, and of the kind 
 of story about him that was going the rounds of the little 
 community in Western India; and however unreliable in 
 detail, his book certainly reflects accurately enough the general 
 atmosphere of opinion of at least a large section of his contem- 
 poraries. Moreover, the reader, however sceptical, can hardly 
 avoid conviction on many points ; the President's prodigious 
 unpopularity, for instance, and his blustering and domineering 
 character, remain as an insoluble sediment when the extra- 
 ordinary mixture of Alexander Hamilton has been allowed to 
 settle. 
 
 1 1 1. L ater Historians. No satisfactory account of Keigwin's 
 rebellion has been written; and indeed, strange as it may 
 appear, the world remains in almost total ignorance of the 
 administrations of Oxinden, Aungier, and Child, administra- 
 tions that cover a period in which the English Company in 
 India grew from a seed to a sapling, and in which are to be 
 found the origins of our Empire. At the beginning of this 
 period the President of Surat was the local manager of a 
 business concern, and at the end of it he was the head of an 
 executive government with municipalities, law courts, taxa- 
 tion and a standing army. The development of Bombay 
 which took place in the last half of the seventeenth century is 
 certainly one of the most interesting studies in our Imperial 
 history ; yet we have been unable to find a single writer nor 
 
PREFACE ix 
 
 even the Bombay Gazetteer who can name correctly its 
 Deputy Governors during this period. 
 
 Of the older historians, Bruce and Orme are the most 
 important. Bruce's Annals is a dry and disappointing work ; 
 it gives the Company's authorized version of such events as 
 they thought it creditable to record, and so cannot be neglected ; 
 but it is as prejudiced as Hamilton, without his racy charm, 
 and preserves a stony silence on almost all points of interest. 
 
 Orme's Fragments is excellent so far as it goes, and has all 
 that historian's painstaking accuracy ; but it is concerned only 
 with the doings of the Moguls, the Mahrattas, and the Siddees, 
 and touches but incidentally on English affairs. 
 
 Besides these two historians, later writers are chiefly in- 
 debted to Anderson's English in Western India, an anecdotal 
 work compiled partly from old Bombay records, partly from 
 Hamilton and Fryer, and partly from the reverend author's 
 own inner consciousness. Unfortunately, he did not take 
 sufficient care to distinguish between these different sources of 
 information, and his book, though entertaining and no doubt 
 good of its kind, being written at a period when the standard 
 of historical accuracy was far lower than at present, is not to 
 be recommended as an authority. It is in fact so full of mis- 
 conceptions and misstatements that Anderson can never be 
 accepted but when supported from more reliable sources. 
 
 Historians subsequent to Bruce have not proved of much 
 assistance to us ; they suffer almost without exception from a 
 fogginess due to insufficient acquaintance with the India Office 
 records. This is the case even with Sir William Hunter, whose 
 book, The History of British India, gives nevertheless an 
 admirable bird's-eye view, and suffers only from the defects 
 inevitable to a historian who attempts a general rhumd before 
 the ground has been sufficiently worked over. Others that 
 may be read with advantage are Campbell, 1 Edwardes, 2 Da 
 Cunha, 3 Douglas, 4 Mainwaring, 5 and Malabari 6 ; but none of 
 
 1 Bombay Gazetteer Materials, vol. xxvi. 2 The Rise of Bombay, and 
 a supplementary volume of the Bombay Gazetteer, 'Bombay City and Island.' 
 
 3 The Origin of Bombay, published in the Bombay Asiatic Society's 
 Journal. 4 Bombay and Western India. 
 
 5 Crown and Company. r> Bombay in the making. 
 
x PREFACE 
 
 them, though they have made ample use of the records at 
 Bombay, has adequately exploited the far richer mine in the 
 India Office. 
 
 A special word must be said of Sir Henry Yule : this writer's 
 edition of Hedges' Diary is the most valuable contribution 
 hitherto made to the history of the British in India in the late 
 seventeenth century. Alone of those dealing with this period, 
 he has thoroughly explored the Original Correspondence in 
 the India Office ; and although his work deals explicitly only 
 with Bengal, and although it is in form only a collection of 
 materials, yet nothing better is to be found about Keigwin's 
 Rebellion than in Hedges' Diary. 1 
 
 No preface to a work dealing with India would be complete 
 without a note on the spelling of Indian names. We shall 
 simply observe that we have followed the example of the 
 characters in our story, and spell exactly as we choose. Even 
 in the spelling of their own names they varied most refresh- 
 ingly > Pettit often appears as Petit or Petitt, and Bowcher 
 as Bourchier, and where no confusion can arise we claim an 
 equally free hand. 
 
 Regarding the dates, we have followed the usual practice 
 of the period, giving both styles. Thus 'January 1683/4' 
 means 1683 Old Style and 1684 New Style. 
 
 We cannot conclude without a grateful acknowledgement of 
 the obliging courtesy extended to us by the authorities at the 
 India Office ; and especially by Mr. W. Foster, who was kind 
 enough to give us the help of his great expert knowledge on 
 several points. 
 
 1 Under the heading ' Grantham ', in vol. ii. 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 COMMERCE, INTERLOPERS, AND PIRATES, 1684 . . . .118 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 JOHN CHILD AND THE INTERLOPERS IN INDIA, 1684 . . 131 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 SIR THOMAS GRANTHAM AND THE SURRENDER, NOVEMBER 1684 141 
 
 , CHAPTER XII 
 CONCLUSION 152 
 
 APPENDIXES 
 
 A. JOHN AND JOSIA CHILD 162 
 
 B. A LIST OF ENGLISH MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN IN 
 
 BOMBAY, 1682 164 
 
 C. A PROCLAMATION FOR THE LIBERTY, FELICITY, AND 
 
 TRANQUILLITY OF THE INHABITANTS AND INDWELLERS 
 
 OF BOMBAY 166 
 
 D. ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH 168 
 
 E. LETTER FROM DEPUTY-GOVERNOR JOHN PETTIT AND 
 
 COUNCIL TO THE COURT 170 
 
 INDEX .181 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 SfR JOSIA CHILD . . . . . . . . frontispiece 
 
 BOMBAY FORT FROM THE LAND (c. 1720) . . . to face p. 13 
 BOMBAY FORT FROM THE WATERSIDE (c. 1720) . . to face p. 85 
 
 MAPS 
 
 WEST COAST OF INDIA 2 
 
 BOMBAY HARBOUR 78 
 
PRINCIPAL BOOKS CONSULTED 
 
 Anderson. The English in Western India. [2nd Ed. 1856], 
 
 Birdwood. Report on the Old Records of the India Office. 1890. 
 
 Bruce. Annals. 1810. 
 
 Campbell. Materials. Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xvi. 
 
 Causton and Keene. The Early Chartered Companies. 1896. 
 
 Cobbe. Bombay Church. 1766. 
 
 Da Cunha. The Origin of Bombay. [Bombay Asiatic Soc. Journal. 
 Extra number.] 
 
 Danvers. The Portuguese in India. 1894. 
 
 Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 Douglas. Bombay and Western India. 
 
 Du Perron. Zend Avesta. 1771. 
 
 Edwardes. The Rise of Bombay. 
 
 Forrest. Selections from the Bombay State Papers, Home series. 1887. 
 
 Fryer. A New Account of East India and Persia. [Hakluyt 
 
 Series. 1909.] 
 
 Gazetteer of Bombay City and Island. 
 Grant Duff. History of the Mahrattas. [3rd Ed. 1873.] 
 Hamilton. A New Account of the East Indies. 1727. 
 Hunter. History of British India. 1900. 
 Kaye. Administration of the East India Company. 1853. 
 
 Mainwaring. Crown and Company . 1911. 
 Malabari. Bombay in the Making. 
 Malleson. The French in India. 
 
 Manucci. Storia do Mogor [Indian Texts Series. 1907], 
 Orme. Historical Fragments. 1782. 
 
 Ovington. A Voyage to Surat. 1696. 
 Papillon. Memoir of Thomas Papillon. 1887. 
 Pringle. Diary and Consultation Book of Fort St. George. 
 Raynal. Histoire des Deux Indes. 1 774. 
 Rennefort. Histoire des Indes Orient ales. 1688. 
 Yule. Diary of William Hedges. [Hakluyt Series.] 
 
PRINCIPAL DRAMATIS PERSONAE 
 
 Sir Josia Child 
 Thomas Papillon 
 
 IN ENGLAND 
 
 Governor of the E. I. Co. 
 Deputy Governor of the E. I. Co. 
 
 Gerald Aungier 
 Thomas Rolt 
 John Child 
 Capt. Shaxton 
 
 Henry Oxinden 
 Charles Ward 
 
 Henry Smith 
 Capt. Thos. Nicholls 
 Capt. Henry Gary 
 Dr. John St. John 
 
 Capt. Richard Keigwin 
 Henry Fletcher 
 John Thorburn 
 Stephen Adderton 
 Thos. Wilkins 
 
 John Pettit 
 
 George Bowcher 
 
 Sir Thomas Grantham 
 Capt. Minchin 
 Capt. Davies 
 Capt. Hilder 
 Capt. Consett 
 
 IN INDIA 
 
 President of Surat 
 
 President of Surat, Aungier' s successor 
 
 President of Surat, Rolt's successor 
 
 John Child's father-in-law, formerly Deputy 
 Governor of Bombay 
 
 Deputy Governor of Bombay 
 
 John Child's brother-in-law, and Deputy 
 Governor of Bombay 
 
 Ward's second at Bombay 
 Judge in Bombay, later dismissed 
 Judge in Bombay, his successor 
 Admiralty Judge 
 
 - Mutineers 
 
 Deputy Governor of Bombay, later Chief of the 
 Interlopers 
 
 His friend and partner 
 
 - Ships' Captains, servants of the Company 
 
PRINCIPAL DRAMATIS PERSONAE 
 
 xv 
 
 Charles Zinzan 
 Francis Day 
 George Gosfright 
 John Hornigold 
 William Vergis 
 William Newman 
 John Vaux 
 
 - Factors 
 
 Mr. Peachy Watson ) f 
 
 ' \ Chaplains of Bombay 
 
 Mr. John Church j 
 
 Madam Bowcher Wife of George Bowcher 
 
 Mrs. Minchin 
 
 Her friend, wife of Capt. Minchin 
 
 Factors, Mutineers, Interlopers, Pirates, Mahrattas, and Moormen 
 
GOVERNORS AND DEPUTY GOVERNORS 
 OF BOMBAY 
 
 Governors in Bombay for the King. 
 
 Humphrey Cook. Nov. 1664 Nov. 1666 
 Sir Gervase Lucas. Nov. 1666 May 1667 
 Capt. Henry Gary. May 1667 Sept. 1668 
 
 Governors in Surat 
 for the Company 
 
 Sir George Oxinden. (John Goodier. 
 
 Sept. 1668 July 1669 | Henry Young. 
 
 Deputy Governors 
 in Bombay 
 
 Sept. 1668 Jan. 1668/9 
 Jan. 1668/9 Nov. 1669 
 
 Gerald Aungier. 
 
 July 1669 June 1677 
 
 T\,r. ,* 
 
 1677- 
 
 John Child. 1682-1690 
 
 ) Nov. 1669 Feb. 
 j 1669/70 
 
 James Addams and five' 
 
 Commissioners 
 Matthew Gray. Feb. 1669/70 Sept. 1670 
 Philip Gyffard. Sept. 1670 Sept. 1672 
 John Shaxton. Sept. 1672 Aug. 
 Philip Gyffard. 1 June 1675 Nov. 
 John Pettit. Nov. 1676 Dec. 1677 
 
 (Henry Oxinden. Dec. 1677 Sept. 1679 
 
 < 
 Charles Ward. Feb. 1681/2 Dec. 1683 
 
 1 Between Shaxton's suspension and Gyffard's second appointment 
 there was no Deputy Governor; Aungier was on Bombay and was 
 personally in charge. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 IT has long been a commonplace that India must be governed 
 from India and not from England, and it is certainly a fortunate 
 thing that, in spite of the increasing tendency of Parliament to 
 interfere in Indian matters, a tendency that perhaps must 
 inevitably accompany the growing public interest in that 
 empire, and is therefore a healthy if a vexatious symptom, no 
 serious attempt has hitherto been made to transfer the real 
 executive power from India to England. Two centuries ago 
 the experiment was tried, and although our interests at that 
 time comprised only a few scattered factories, and although 
 the autocrat who made the attempt was one of the greatest 
 men who have ever held the control in England of our affairs 
 in India, yet the result was to the full as disastrous as might 
 be expected. Sir Josia Child, whose appearance as a city 
 merchant instead of as Emperor of China or the great Mogul 
 seems an error of Providence, ascended his inadequate throne 
 in Leadenhall Street and reigned despotically over the East 
 India Company for the last twenty years of the seventeenth 
 century. Before and after him , the Court of Directors contented 
 themselves with issuing general instructions and accepting or 
 rejecting the proposals of their chiefs in India ; Sir Josia saw 
 to it that his servants in the East contented themselves with 
 carrying out his orders. The experiment was given a thorough 
 trial ; for owing to a change in Sir Josia's views, his rule 
 exemplified both of the two opposite kinds of policy dear to 
 Little Englanders on the one hand, and to Imperialists on the 
 other. It is with the former of these policies and its results 
 that we are mainly concerned. 
 
 We shall see Josia Child, determined to have a creature of 
 his own in command in India, ruthlessly compassing the ruin 
 of John Pettit, the senior and best-qualified candidate for the 
 
s KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 Presidency of Surat, in favour of the unpopular but subservient 
 John Child ; we shall see him forcing on the reluctant Anglo- 
 Indian community a policy of retrenchment and disarmament 
 quite incompatible with what they knew to be necessary for the 
 prestige and even the security of the English in India. And 
 we shall see how the irritation caused by the former proceeding 
 combined with the anger and alarm caused by the latter to 
 drive the garrison of Bombay to revolt. Keigwin's rebellion 
 was due in part to the unpopularity of John Child, and in part 
 to the instinct of self-preservation which forbade the English in 
 Bombay to put themselves at the mercy of the Mogul and 
 Mahratta forces that were threatening to swamp them ; and on 
 both counts it is Josia Child, and his uninformed despotism, 
 that must bear the blame. 
 
 WEST COAST 
 
 or 
 INDIA 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE ENGLISH AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS IN 
 WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 
 
 WHEN King Charles II of England began his reign, the 
 Emperor Aurungzebe was at the height of his power in India. 
 The last great figure of the mighty line of Mogul emperors, his 
 energy, his treachery, and his craft had finally crushed and 
 destroyed his brothers, and left him firmly established on the 
 throne without a rival ; free to pursue for the next forty years 
 the policy dictated by his ambition and fanaticism. Before his 
 death, in 1707, he had greatly extended the boundaries of his 
 father's enormous empire, and nearly the whole of India 
 acknowledged his sovereignty and was administered by his 
 great officers of state; in extent of territory, in wealth, in 
 magnificence and in power, he was, if we except the Emperor 
 of China, the first monarch of the world. 
 
 On the west coast of India, with which this narrative is 
 concerned, Aurungzebe's chief city was Surat. This great 
 town was the principal seaport in the Empire and the foremost 
 trade emporium in the East ; in its harbour at the mouth of 
 the river Tapti were to be seen vessels from Europe and China, 
 from Persia and Arabia, from Bengal and Java ; and from here 
 sailed yearly the pilgrim vessels conveying the true believers 
 of Aurungzebe's empire on their voyage to Mecca. 
 
 Surat itself lay some twelve miles up stream from the 
 harbour, on the south bank of the river Tapti, which had 
 formerly been navigable right up to the city ; but mud had 
 gradually silted up until it was only at spring-tides that vessels 
 of any draught could come up, and the shipping had now to 
 unlade at the river's mouth, the cargo being transported 
 between harbour and town in shallow-draught country boats. 
 
 A few miles northwards up the coast was another harbour, 
 known to our ancestors as Swally Hole, or Swally Marine ; 
 
 B 2 
 
4 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 this was reserved for the use of the three European Companies, 
 whose flags, English, Dutch, and French, 1 flew over their 
 respective warehouses and quarters on the shore. Here would 
 land the traveller from England, if he came on one of the East 
 India Company's vessels, and would make his way to Surat by 
 land in one of the Company's coaches, or in a country cart 
 drawn by trotting bullocks, while the cargo went round in 
 boats by the river. Here too, in the shipping season, was 
 stationed a member of Council, in charge of ' the Marine ' ; 
 while the President himself, the Company's chief representative 
 in Western India, made frequent visits to receive incoming ships 
 or see the outgoing cargoes properly laden. The head-quarters 
 and principal warehouses of the Company were in Surat, but it 
 was no uncommon thing for the majority of the Council to be 
 staying at Swally, and it was from here that most of the 
 homeward letters were signed and dispatched. 
 
 Surat was some ten miles distant by road from Swally, and 
 lay on the other side of the river, which was unbridged and 
 crossed by ferry. The city was large, rich, and populous, and 
 was commanded by a strong fort, whose military Governor was 
 never allowed to go outside its walls. A separate Governor 
 had charge of the city, with a host of subordinate dignitaries 
 in control of the police, the military, the customs, and other 
 departments. 
 
 We may form an idea of the size of Surat from the fact that 
 a fortified wall, built round it in 1666 2 by the Emperor's orders, 
 enclosed four square-miles of ground ; yet the expansion of the 
 town was such that by the end of the century, according to 
 Alexander Hamilton, who knew it well at that time, extensive 
 suburbs had sprung up in all directions outside the wall. 3 Nor 
 was the wealth of its citizens less remarkable ; the same authority 
 tells us of one of them who alone drove a trade equal to that of 
 the whole English East India Company, and who fitted out 
 above twenty sail of ships in the year, of from 300 to 800 tons 
 burden. 4 The Governor of Surat city, as was natural in a place 
 of such importance, was generally one of the great nobles of 
 
 1 The French did not come till 1668. 
 
 2 Grant Duff, p. 89 note. 3 Hamilton, i. 147. 4 Id., i. 149. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 5 
 
 the Empire, and after the great Subahdars, or Governors of 
 Provinces, was among the most influential officers of the Mogul 
 government. Every morning he rode to his ' Seat ' attended by 
 a guard of elephants, cavalry, and three hundred foot, while 
 four-and-twenty banners of state, loud trumpets, and thundering 
 kettle-drums emphasized his grandeur. 1 
 
 Such was the city selected as the head-quarters in Western 
 India of the East India Company during the seventeenth 
 century, whence their President and Council controlled their 
 various factories, from Persia to Cape Comorin ; and this 
 brief account has been given to help the reader to form 
 a notion of the standing of the Company in Surat. Here 
 they occupied merely the position of one of the big trading 
 houses of the city ; of political power or even influence they 
 had none whatever ; their force was limited to the sergeant 
 and two files of soldiers which were allowed as a ceremonial 
 guard to the President, 2 although on an emergency, by calling 
 up ships' crews from Swally, they could make a stout enough 
 show of defending their own factory, as they proved on occa- 
 sion. Like any other merchant, the President was obliged to 
 court the favour and consult the caprices of the great 
 Governor, and even of that important functionary, the chief 
 Customer. 
 
 The Mogul rulers indeed had long recognized the value of 
 the European traders ; not only did they do much to promote 
 the commercial prosperity of India, and help considerably to 
 swell the Emperor's customs revenue, but their skill and 
 daring at sea gave him the advantage of an unpaid ocean- 
 police force which did a good deal to mitigate the unceasing 
 nuisance of the swarms of pirates that infested his coasts ; and 
 the English especially had proved of great assistance in 
 suppressing the Portuguese buccaneers that used to lurk on the 
 pilgrim sea-route to Mecca. It was the settled policy of the 
 Moguls to encourage these useful visitors, and the East 
 India Company, besides the lease on very easy terms of a fine 
 house in Surat, were granted a firmaund or charter, by which 
 the customs duties on exports and imports were fixed for 
 
 1 Fryer, i. 242. 2 Id. i. 218. 
 
6 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 them at 2, per cent, instead of 3^ per cent., which was the 
 normal charge. 
 
 Having thus shortly reviewed the position of the Company's 
 servants as citizens of Surat, we may glance more closely into 
 the manner of life of this little band of traders. The English 
 factory, which the Company held of ' our landlord Aurungzebe', 
 for the very moderate rent of 60 per annum, was a vast 
 affair of stone and carved timber, with rooms enough to 
 accommodate forty persons, though the President's ' family ', 
 including all the European servants of the Company at Surat, 
 merchants, factors, writers, and apprentices, did not exceed 
 some twenty or twenty-five members. Besides the living- 
 rooms, among which was a spacious suite for the President, 
 there was a fine room for the Council meetings, or consulta- 
 tions as they were called, noble rooms for entertainment, 
 a dining-hall, a museum, a room fitted up as a chapel, a tank 
 of water in the court, and a Turkish bath. 1 Below stairs was 
 a spacious cellarage and warehousing accommodation, where 
 in shipping time was ' a continual hurly-burly, the Banyans 
 presenting themselves from the hour of Ten till Noon ; and 
 then Afternoon at Four till Night, as if it were an Exchange 
 in every Row; the Packers and Warehouse-keepers, together 
 with Merchants bringing and receiving Musters 2 , make a meer 
 Billingsgate ; for if you make not a Noise, they hardly think 
 you intent on what you are doing/ 3 Meals were taken 
 together, all sitting down in the order of their seniority in the 
 service to a table that was kept in the finest style ; all the 
 dishes and plates were of solid silver, as also were the * Tosses 
 or Cups ', out of which were drunk Shiraz wine, Arrack punch, 
 and more rarely Europe wines and English beer ; to complete 
 the picture we find that Indian, Portuguese and English cooks 
 were all entertained ' to dress the Meat in different ways for 
 the gratification of the stomach '. 4 
 
 But if the factors lived in style, there was also a considerable 
 discipline to be observed ; the Company's ' Ten Command- 
 ments ' were posted up, which consisted of ' good and Pious 
 
 1 Fryer and Ovington. 2 ' Muster ' means ' sample '. 
 
 3 Fryer, i. 215. 4 Ovington. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 7 
 
 directions' against profaneness, debauchery , and the like ; and 
 in addition there were orders by the President with penalties 
 attached to the breach of them. Thus 'he that omitts 
 Prayer on a Weeke day pays 2,s. 6d., on a Sunday $s. If any 
 be Drunke or abuse the Natives they are to be sett at the 
 gate in Irons all the day time, and all the Night be tyed to 
 a post in the house ; If any lye out of the House, without 
 leave of the President, he pays 4os.\ l and so on ; more like 
 a college or monastery than anything else, as Streynsham 
 Master remarks. On Sundays, after sermon, and a ' more 
 large and splendid ' dinner, of c Deer and Antelopes, Peacocks, 
 Hares and Partridges ', to say nothing of * Persian fruits, 
 Pistachios, Plumbs, Apricocks and Cherries', the President- 
 would usually invite the whole factory to ' some pleasant 
 garden adjacent to the city, where they might sit shaded from 
 the Beams of the Sun, and refresh! by the neighbourhood of 
 Tanques and Water- Works '. Hither would come the 
 President and his Lady in Palanquins, with 'a noise of 
 Trumpets ' and preceded by Peons bearing * St. George his 
 colours Swallow-tailed in Silk', with others leading before 
 him 'curious Persian or Arabian Horses of State, Rich in 
 their trappings and gallantly equipt ' ; next to him would 
 come the members of Council in large coaches ' drawn by 
 a pair of stately Oxen ', while the factors would follow on 
 horseback, with saddles of velvet and headstalls, reins and 
 cruppers all covered with solid wrought silver. 2 Certainly 
 a * Pompous Procession ', and we must hope that such garden- 
 parties provided satisfactory recreation after a week of hurly- 
 burly. 
 
 For those who preferred a less stately amusement there was 
 plenty of shooting to be had ; and Anglo-Indian sportsmen 
 will be amused to learn the antiquity of one of their stock 
 jokes. ' Mr. Chime and Mr. Portman ', writes Gerald Aungier 
 in a letter to a friend, still preserved in the India Office, 3 * have 
 
 1 Letter from Streynsham Master, quoted by Yule in Hedges' Diary, 
 ii. 306. Master was on the Surat Council, and afterwards Governor of 
 Madras. 
 
 2 Ovington. 
 
 3 O.C. 3223, November I, 1667. This was before Aungier became 
 
8 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 kild a brave buck, 6 mile beyond Mundloo Mr. Master and 
 I were out two dayes, and killed een(?) Kootchny.' 
 
 On the whole we get a picture of an industrious and orderly 
 community, and Padre Ovington, who is so severe on the 
 morals of the English in Bombay, has nothing to say against 
 Surat ; but it is not surprising that we find in so small a circle, 
 and one so destitute of outside society, a good deal of that 
 petty jealousy and party spirit which is so apt to breed in 
 even larger and more enlightened bodies of officials. 
 
 Besides the English house, the Dutch and French Companies 
 had also their factories in Surat ; the former flourishing and 
 prosperous, the latter ' better stored with Monsieurs than with 
 Cash ', who nevertheless, ' not to defraud them of their just 
 Commendations, live well, borrow Money, and make a Shew '- 1 
 For we find the great President Aungier writing home for 
 a trumpeter c in regard the French have two and the Dutch 
 one ', and we must keep up the dignity of the nation ; at 
 present we * serve ourselves, for fashion's sake, of a young man 
 who hath little or no skill '. 2 
 
 The Portuguese, the first European nation to settle in 
 India, had no factory in Surat, 3 and their position on the 
 west coast was quite different from that of either English, 
 Dutch, or French. None of these nations owned a foot of 
 territory in Western India, until Bombay was given to 
 Charles II in 1661, and their factories were all, like that of 
 the English at Surat, mere warehouses and offices planted 
 under the native governments ; the Portuguese on the other 
 hand had extensive and fortified territorial possessions along 
 the coast, and had now no factories on land belonging to the 
 country powers. Their system indeed had been very different 
 from ours ; where the English would hire a house and apply 
 for a firmaund, the Portuguese would seize a town by force 
 
 President. His companion was the Streynsham Master referred to 
 above. 
 
 1 Fryer, i. 225. 2 Forrest, p. 45. 
 
 3 Both Campbell (Bombay Gazetteer), and Danvers speak of a Portu- 
 guese factory at Surat ; but there seems no reason to suppose that there 
 was at this time any such thing. Doubtless there were several Portuguese 
 traders living in Surat city, just as there were Armenians, Arabs, and 
 other foreigners. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 9 
 
 of arms and turn it into a self-supporting colony. Where the 
 English would spend a life of exile in the hope of eventually 
 returning to Europe with a competence, the Portuguese would 
 settle down, build a villa, and marry and die in the country. 
 The English were foreign traders, the Portuguese conquering 
 colonists. 
 
 Their chief possessions were Goa and Bassein with its 
 dependent islands of Salsette and Bombay ; here the descen- 
 dants of Albuquerque's warlike followers lived in a degenerate 
 but arrogant idleness, in luxurious villas and among their own 
 imported institutions ; here Jesuit colleges, monasteries, and 
 the Holy Inquisition were all to be found in full swing. But 
 European colonists in India sink rapidly in a few generations; 
 and by the latter half of the seventeenth century the Portuguese 
 Fidalgos had little left of their forefathers' qualities save over- 
 weening pride, and were already looked down upon by the 
 other Europeans as an inferior race, considerable only for 
 their possessions. 
 
 But though the rivalry of the other western nations was often 
 a sore trial, it was neither with Dutch, French, nor Portuguese, 
 that the English in Surat had mainly to reckon at that time ; it 
 was on their relations with the country powers that their pros- 
 perity and their very existence in India depended. Our notion 
 of these relations is apt to be derived from the better known 
 period of a hundred years later ; we conceive of the Native 
 power as an inflated bladder to be easily pricked by a handful 
 of British soldiers, or British-trained sepoys. But a hundred 
 years later the Mogul empire had broken up, and what it 
 was possible then to achieve among its distracted and broken 
 fragments, would have been out of the question while Aurung- 
 zebe's power and personality still held the Empire together. 
 And above all the concerns, large or small, of the European 
 Companies and their servants, loomed the great figure of the 
 Mogul Governor of Surat, sometimes friendly and patronizing, 
 sometimes fierce and arbitrary, but always as imposing as 
 a schoolmaster among children ; to be flattered, cajoled, 
 deceived, or even at times defied, but to be neglected never. 
 
 Such was the position of the East India Company in Western 
 
to KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 India when, in 1661, the Island of Bombay with its harbour 
 was made over to Charles II by the Portuguese, as a part 
 of his queen's dowry. The details of this transaction must be 
 sought elsewhere, and here we need only say that the King 
 put a Sir Gervase Lucas in charge as Governor, on whose 
 death it was decided that the island produced no adequate 
 return for the trouble and expense of its maintenance. His 
 Majesty was therefore pleased to make it over to the East 
 India Company, to whom it was more likely to be of value, 
 and who thenceforward held it of the Crown ' in free or 
 common Soccage as of the Manor of East Greenwich, on 
 payment of the annual rent of 10 in gold'. 1 The transfer 
 was made in 1668 to Sir George Oxinden, the Company's 
 President at Surat, by Captain Henry Gary, who, since Lucas's 
 death, had been acting as the King's Governor. 
 
 Gary was quite a character among the English in India 
 at that period ; in the Five Towns he would certainly have 
 been a ' Card.' Even to the stately Court of Committees 2 he 
 became at last { Old Gary \ 3 a sort of recognized institution 
 whose misdoings were not to be too seriously taken. Fryer 
 describes him as ' a Person of a Mercurial Brain, a better mer- 
 chant than soldier ', a polite reference to the lack of personal 
 courage which was one of his prominent characteristics. Born 
 a Venetian citizen, of English parents, 4 and speaking English, 
 Italian, Portuguese, Latin, and French with equal facility, this 
 polyglot personage 5 came out to India in 1645 as a factor ; 6 he 
 subsequently drifted to Acheen, where, being a 'perfect courtier', 
 he won favour and a peerage from the Queen. 7 In 1656 he was 
 discharged by the Company to reduce expenses, 8 but in 1664 we 
 find him third in Oxinden's Council at Surat, and senior to Gerald 
 Aungier ; at which date he is mentioned as having ' at times ' 
 
 1 Letters Patent dated March 27, 1668, printed in full in the India 
 Office Library Quarto of Charters, pp. 80-95. 
 
 2 The Governing Body of the East India Company, which met in 
 Leadenhall Street ; it became afterwards the Court of Directors. 
 
 [ Letter Book 8, March 26, 1686. 4 Fryer, ii. 30. 
 
 5 In the documents recording the transfer of Bombay, his name occurs 
 as Henri Gueri. (Bombay Gazetteer, xxvi, part I, 21., and the Portuguese 
 Viceroy at the same date calls him ' Henrique Guery.' (Danvers, ii. 356.)) 
 
 Hedges, Diary, ii. 323. 7 Fryer, ii. 30. 8 Hedges, ii. 323. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 Ir 
 
 served the Company for some twenty years. 1 He next turns 
 up in 1666 as Deputy Governor of Bombay under the King's 
 Governor Sir Gervase Lucas, on whose death he was in charge 
 until he made over the Island to Sir George Oxinden, the 
 Company's President. How he came by his title of Captain 
 we do not know, any more than we can understand how he 
 fell into so many responsible positions for which he was 
 manifestly unqualified; for officially he seems to have had 
 little in his favour beyond his linguistic talents, which indeed 
 had made him as good a master of Oriental as of European 
 languages. 2 His speech and letters were full of ' unadvised 
 vaine glorious boastings', as Sir George Oxinden puts it. 3 
 Yet we see men of all parties, and even the implacable John 
 Child himself, taking turns in hoisting Gary into offices, and 
 in easing his descent when he had got into trouble ; a fact that 
 argues, we take it, that personally at least he was well liked. 
 
 On laying down his charge, Gary retired for a time into 
 private life, living on in Bombay as a freeman, where we shall 
 meet him again. 
 
 Sir George Oxinden died the next year, 1669, and was 
 succeeded as President of Surat and Governor of Bombay by 
 Gerald Aungier, who has been truly described as the real 
 founder of Bombay, and who directed all his remarkable 
 energy and capacity to the development of the Company's 
 new possession. 
 
 To explain Aungier's devotion to an island that had only 
 been made over to his employers because it was a white 
 elephant, and that for a number of years continued a great 
 expense to them without any compensating trade advantages, 
 we must refer to certain events which had recently occurred 
 in India, historically important in themselves, and destined to 
 have far-reaching effects on the future both of that country 
 and of the East India Company, the rise, namely, of the 
 Mahratta power. 
 
 1 Forrest, p. 17. Surat Council to the Court, January 28, 1663/4. 
 
 2 He ( is skilled in most of the Languages of the Country, and is now 
 writing a Piece in Arabick, which he dedicates to the Viceroy 'of Goa. 
 Fryer. 
 
 3 Forrest, p. 222. 
 
is KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 The reign of Aurungzebe, which saw the culmination of the 
 power of the Moguls, saw also the beginning of its disruption ; 
 the very expansion of the empire weakened its foundations, 
 and the inevitable process of disintegration began while yet 
 Aurungzebe's conquests were incomplete. Sivaji, whose father 
 had been a petty chieftain of Poona, in the service of the King 
 of Bijapur, and who had been in arms against the Moguls 
 since Aurungzebe's accession to the throne, had met with 
 persistent success ; and had made such good use of his oppor- 
 tunities that by 1669, when Aungier assumed charge at Surat, 
 a new national power that of the Mahrattas had already 
 sprung into being and importance in Western India under his 
 leadership. The possessions of Sivaji at this time stretched 
 from Kallian, just north of Bombay, to Goa in the south, and 
 comprised a strip of coast about a hundred miles in width ; 
 and the enterprise and unexpectedness of his raids kept the 
 whole country in terror, from Surat to the Carnatic. 
 
 The former city he twice seized and looted ; in 1664, when 
 Oxinden was President, and again in 1670 in Aungier's first 
 year of office. On both occasions the English, by a courageous 
 and resolute display of their tiny force, saved their own factory ; 
 but it was evident they could not rely on such escapes for the 
 future. 
 
 The Company's policy at this time was the reverse of 
 aggressive ; they were, and were to continue, a mere body 
 of traders for whom anything in the way of hostilities was 
 quite out of the question. Such a policy, or rather such 
 a determination to keep out of Indian politics, was quite 
 unimpeachable, and doubtless had the Mogul's dominion 
 remained unimpaired, and strong enough to maintain internal 
 peace, and give protection to trade, there would have been 
 no departure from it ; for whatever may be argued about our 
 later territorial expansion in India, its beginning was forced 
 upon the Company in its endeavours to save itself from being 
 overwhelmed in the debris of the crumbling Mogul empire. 
 
 President Aungier was faced with the fact that the 
 Emperor's power was unable to protect the strangers within 
 his gates, and that the Company was quite without the 
 
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I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 13 
 
 necessary force to take care of itself. With the growth 
 of the evil there were only two alternatives ; our trade in 
 India must be abandoned or protected, and there was no 
 power to protect it but our own. 
 
 It was in these circumstances that President Aungier turned 
 his eyes to the Company's newly acquired fort in Bombay ; 
 as early as 1672 he urged the advisability of transferring the 
 Company's head-quarters thither from Surat, 1 and though his 
 views were too long to meet acceptance with the Court at 
 home, he continued to exert himself to the utmost in 
 strengthening and developing his fortified Island. 
 
 It is not within the scope of this book to give an account 
 of Aungier's government ; but it is necessary to our purpose 
 to review the general conditions of life on Bombay in the last 
 quarter of the century, conditions which had undergone a 
 considerable change since the time of the Portuguese, owing 
 partly to the development of its resources under Aungier's 
 guidance, and partly to the outside political events. 
 
 The importance of Bombay lay, as we have seen, more in 
 its unrivalled harbour, and its very defensible fort, than in its 
 possibilities for trade, in which point it was for long a source 
 of disappointment to the Company. 
 
 The fort, overlooking the harbour, stood at the south-east 
 corner of the Island ; in it there were mounted, at the time 
 of Dr. Fryer's account, 2 120 pieces of ordnance, besides 60 
 field pieces on carriages ready for use outside. A strong 
 enough place to scare off even a Dutch fleet, 3 though its 
 defences were not yet completed ; horn works and St. Thomas's 
 bastion being still in process of construction. North of the 
 fort lay the town, which was a full mile in length, and 
 inhabited 'confusedly 1 by English, Portuguese, Topazes, 4 
 Gentues, 5 Moors, and Cooly Christians, mostly fishermen. 
 The houses were low, and generally thatched with palm- 
 leaves, though the custom-house and some others built by 
 
 1 Forrest, p. 50. Letter from Aungier to the Court, February 3, 1671/2. 
 
 2 Fryer, i. 170. He was the Company's medical officer in Bombay 
 in 1673-5. 
 
 3 Orme's Fragments. This was in the Dutch war of 1672-4. 
 
 4 Half-castes. See p. 97 note I. G Hindus. 
 
i 4 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 the Company were tiled and plastered. Instead of glass, 
 there were ( Panes of Oister-shells for the Windows, which as 
 they are cut in Squares, and polished, look gracefully enough '- 1 
 
 To the south lay Old Woman's Island (now Colaba), used 
 as a kind of zoological gardens and stocked with ' the Com- 
 pany's Antelopes and other Beasts of Delight '. 2 
 
 Northward of the town was Mazagon, then a separate 
 village peopled chiefly with fishermen, and beyond it Parel 
 and Sion ; while on the north-west of the island lay Mahim, 
 where was a custom-house, and a fortified guard-house, 
 facing the Portuguese on Salsette. The latter island was 
 also claimed by the English under Charles's marriage settle- 
 ment, but the Portuguese on the spot persistently refused to 
 give it up, and lying as it did between Bombay and the 
 mainland, it gave them endless opportunities, in which they 
 freely indulged, of worrying the English by customs regulations 
 and so forth. 
 
 The government of the Island was conducted, under the 
 President of Surat, by the Deputy Governor and Bombay 
 Council, besides whom there were a few factors, a doctor, 
 and a chaplain ; the regular English servants of the Company 
 did not exceed some fifteen or twenty souls. For the rest, 
 besides the soldiers, of whom we shall speak later, there were 
 a few freemen, and a varying number of women and children. 
 
 The freemen of Bombay were an interesting body ; they 
 were mostly retired captains or other employes of the Com- 
 pany, and we find them continually being taken on again in 
 the most various functions, and as continually being discharged. 
 Gary we have seen as one of them ; and from their ranks was 
 chosen the first English judge 3 who sat in Bombay, Captain 
 Thomas Niccolls, selected for that post by Aungier when he 
 set up his new Courts of Justice. Indeed nothing came amiss 
 to these old sailors ; Niccolls himself we find laying aside his 
 
 1 Fryer, i. 172. 2 Id. i. 177. 
 
 3 Before his time cases were tried by a Mr. Wilcox in the building 
 which Aungier later turned into the hospital (Forrest). Wilcox had no 
 salary, beyond his pay as a factor, and was apparently a kind of honorary 
 magistrate. Niccolls was the first to have a judge's emoluments and 
 honours. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 I 5 
 
 judge's robes 1 only to put on the uniform of an infantry 
 captain, and spending the interval in the role of ambassador, 
 with a letter from Charles II to the Viceroy of Goa. 2 
 
 The freemen of Bombay contributed their full share to the 
 events we are about to describe ; for Keigwin himself began 
 his Indian career as a free planter on the Island, and the 
 rebels' admiral, Stephen Adderton, 3 came also from their 
 ranks. 
 
 The Company's rule did wonders as regards the population. 
 When it passed to the English crown the Island contained but 
 10,000 inhabitants ; but with the encouragement given by 
 Aungier to all classes of useful settlers, great numbers of 
 artificers, banians, brokers, and Armenians had immigrated, till 
 in 1674 it numbered as many as 6o,ooo. 4 Keigwin indeed, ten 
 years later, during his rebellion, estimated the population at 
 ioo,ooo, 5 but this was probably an exaggeration. One great 
 attraction was the full toleration of any kind of religion on 
 the Island, a contrast to the methods of the Portuguese, in 
 whose possessions the Inquisition was in full blast ; but though 
 religious persecution had been abolished, the bulk of the 
 Christians on Bombay were still Papist Portuguese or Portu- 
 guese half-castes, and theirs were the only churches on the 
 Island. A fine English church was indeed begun in Aungier's 
 time, but in spite of his exertions its walls rose only fifteen 
 feet from the ground, and so remained until 1715 for lack of 
 funds. 6 
 
 The resources of the Island were quite unequal to supplying 
 food for so many inhabitants, and consequently it had to be 
 brought in from the mainland. Aungier had established a 
 
 1 Aungier ordered his salary to be .120 per annum 'and that he be 
 allowed a horse or Pallankeen with a Sumbrera boy, as also a Gowne 
 yearly at the Company's charge'. Forrest, p. 73. Letter to Bombay 
 dated December 18, 1675. 
 
 2 O. C. 4301, December, 1677. 
 
 3 Adderton, like Niccolls, was one of the small band who were con- 
 stantly receiving casual employment from the Company ; we find him in 
 command of the Militia, and then out of work for a time, after which he 
 was given the Hunter frigate, one of the two vessels allotted to Bombay. 
 
 4 Fryer, i. 177. 
 
 6 O. C. 5071. Letter from Keigwin to Charles II, February 23, 1683/4. 
 6 Vide Appendix D. 
 
i6 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 market under the Company's supervision, and one of the 
 English officials was the Clerk of the Market, who, under the 
 Deputy Governor's directions, regulated the import of provi- 
 sions, and also the price at which they were to be sold on the 
 Island. This matter was one of the recurring difficulties of 
 Bombay, and became aggravated as, owing to the war between 
 the Mahrattas and the Emperor, provisions became scarcer 
 and more expensive on the mainland. 
 
 But the greatest source of trouble was the terrible mortality 
 among the English at Bombay ; two monsoons, was the 
 saying, is the span of a man's life there, and though Aungier 
 built a hospital, matters showed no signs of improvement. 
 Dr. Bird, then chirurgeon at Bombay, in his report to Aungier 
 on the subject in 1673, attributed it chiefly to the * Irregularity 
 and Intemperance ' of the inhabitants, 1 and there seems 
 a general consensus of opinion that excessive drinking and 
 other debaucheries, coupled with a complete disregard of the 
 commonest precautions in illness, were at the bottom of it. 
 The punch-houses of Bombay were notorious, and the letters 
 from the Court at home contain frequent, though apparently 
 ineffectual, instructions to put them down, or regulate them 
 better. The morals of Bombay continued to be scandalous, 
 and Bombay punch continued to get the blame for it. Besides 
 punch-houses for the soldiers, there was also a coffee-house 
 which we hear of as frequented by members of Council. 2 
 
 Captain Minchin, of one of the Company's vessels, fell out 
 one evening with Mr. Hornigold, a factor, and a duel resulted. 
 ' Wee observe what you write/ remarked President Aungier 
 to the Council of Bombay, 3 ' in your letter and Consultation, 
 touching the quarrell and duel fought between Captain 
 Minchin and Mr. Hornigold, which is the usuall effect of that 
 accursed Bombay Punch, to the shame, scandall, and ruine of 
 our nation and religion. Wee thought Mr. Hornigold and 
 Captain Minchin had been persons of a more sober and 
 regular conversation ; and that they had more regard to the 
 Company's authority, the observation of the lawes and 
 
 1 O.C., 3730. Bird's Report, January 1672/3. 2 Vide p. 74. 
 
 3 Forrest, p. 78. Aungier to Bombay, January 24, 1675/6. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 17 
 
 Government, and to their owne reputation, then to render 
 themselves soe scandalous as they have done, first in besotting 
 themselves with drunkenness, and afterwards in breaking the 
 lawes. Wee doe very well approve of what you have done in 
 suspending them from their offices, and doe discommend the 
 rediculous policy of that Gentleman who was of the contrary 
 opinion.' And he fines them each fifty zeraphins x towards 
 the cost of the new hospital. 
 
 Captain Minchin's ship was the Revenge which, with the 
 Hunter frigate, had been permanently stationed at Bombay to 
 protect the Company's shipping from the Malabar and 
 Sanganye pirates. These bloodthirsty ruffians were at this 
 time a perfect scourge ; living in countless villages and towns 
 along the coast, they would sally out in their 'grabs and 
 gallivats', sailing ships with two or three masts, and oared 
 galleys, and working in concert would lie in wait for their 
 prey. Their tactics were those of the vulture; they would 
 sail in small parties, each within sight of the next, and cover- 
 ing an enormous distance, so that it was very hard to avoid 
 them ; on the appearance of a vessel, the word would be 
 signalled along, and from both sides they would crowd in on 
 the wretched victim. Their main quarry were the native 
 coasting traders, who would bolt like rabbits from port to 
 port, but European ships, unless very well armed, had no 
 terrors for them. 2 
 
 In 1677 they captured a European in a coasting vessel, and 
 demanded ransom for him from Mr. George Bowcher, who 
 was then chief of the Company's factory at Calicut ; this 
 being refused, they set the unfortunate man against a tree and 
 lanced him to death. 3 
 
 Another and most serious vexation, that began in Aungier's 
 time, and grew progressively worse, was the annual visit of the 
 Siddi. This personage was a very different character from 
 the Sedee boy of our modern Indian steamboats, who inherits 
 
 1 A zeraphin was worth about twenty pence. 
 
 2 For accounts of the Malabar and Sanganye pirates see Hamilton, 
 Fryer, Thevenot, and contemporary authorities passim. 
 
 3 Forrest, p. 130. Bombay to Surat, April 3, 1677. 
 
 1526.6 C 
 
1 8 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 his name ; he was in reality a sort of naval condottiere, who 
 kept up a large fleet in Aurungzebe's service for use against 
 Sivaji. Nominally under the orders of the Governor of Surat, 
 from whose treasury his subsidy was paid, he was actually 
 a separate power to be dealt with. He early discovered the 
 advantages of Bombay harbour as a refuge during the mon- 
 soon, and accordingly every year from June to September 
 saw his ships wintering 1 there, and his men let loose on the 
 Island itself or the adjacent mainland. 
 
 Apart from the trouble such unruly visitors naturally gave 
 on Bombay, the position was particularly delicate, as the 
 strip of mainland across the harbour, to the east, known as 
 the Corlahs, was among Sivaji's most valued properties. 
 Moreover, it was of vital necessity to keep on good terms with 
 that chieftain, as the jealousy of the Portuguese had led them 
 not only to impose a ruinous tariff of 10 per cent, on every- 
 thing crossing to and from Salsette, but to prevent the import- 
 ation of provisions to Bombay through their territory ; 2 so 
 that the Island depended for its very supplies, as well as its 
 communications with the markets in the interior, on the good- 
 will of Sivaji. Yet the favourite recreation of the Siddi and 
 his men, in their months of idleness in harbour, was to harry 
 his lands and carry off his people into slavery. 
 
 It was impossible to keep the Siddi out, without the danger 
 of having to resort to open hostilities, a course that was out 
 of the question, considering the position of the Company at 
 Surat ; such an affront to the Mogul would have entailed the 
 immediate confiscation of their factory there, to say nothing of 
 the safety of its inmates. All that Aungier and his successors 
 could do was to make a show of neutrality, by admitting the 
 Siddi on the understanding that he would make no raids on 
 Sivaji's land while in the harbour ; terms which that admiral 
 willingly agreed to, but made little effort to stand by ; while 
 the outrages committed by his men on the Island, remaining 
 
 1 Although of course the height of summer, the phrase ' winter ' was 
 always used in this connexion. So also with troops, which went into 
 winter quarters during the rains. 
 
 2 Forrest, p. 120. Bombay to the Company, January 24, 1676/7. This 
 letter is given in full in Appendix E. 
 
I WESTERN INDIA, 1660-75 19 
 
 unredressed, enraged the garrison, and, as we shall see, were 
 one of the causes of Keigwin's rebellion. 
 
 The regular troops in the Bombay Fort generally consisted of 
 two companies of British Infantry; but the mortality was always 
 very heavy among the soldiers, and the drafts from home 
 were often not enough to supply the vacancies in their ranks. 
 Aungier had been obliged to reduce the two companies to one, 
 till in 1671 the Company sent out from England another full 
 company under a Captain Shaxton, who was to have command 
 of all the troops on the Island. The garrison was composed of 
 troops recruited by the Company in England, and we meet with 
 continual complaints, from successive Deputy Governors of 
 Bombay, that they came from the dregs of the populace, in 
 spite of assurances from the Court that they were 'stout men, 
 well disciplined, and of good report '- 1 On a suggestion from 
 Aungier, 2 in the attempt to improve their morals, and to 
 provide a rising Protestant population in Bombay, the Court 
 sent out drafts of women to be wives for the soldiers ; but the 
 remedy was not successful, for the women sent out were by 
 no means ' of good report ' as a rule, and the irregularities on 
 the Island became more gross and scandalous than ever. 
 
 In addition to the regular garrison, Aungier organized 
 a militia of the inhabitants, of a strength of some five or six 
 hundred men, chiefly Portuguese Eurasians. All landholders 
 were obliged to serve, with certain exceptions, such as the 
 Banians, who were allowed exemption on a money payment. 3 
 
 Captain Shaxton, who as we have seen was in command of 
 all these troops, was also given the rank of Deputy Governor 
 to strengthen his position. He brought his family with him, 
 and some time in the course of the following year, 1672, he 
 married his daughter Susannah to Mr. John Child, one of the 
 Company's factors then stationed on the Island, and a prot- 
 agonist in this story ; from whose introduction, having 
 sufficiently laid the scene, we may pass on to a more connected 
 account of the subsequent events. 
 
 1 Court Minutes, January 26, 1680/1. 
 
 2 Forrest, p. 55. Aungier to the Court. February 3, 1672/2 ; Fryer, i. 179. 
 
 3 Vide Appendix E. 
 
 C 2 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 JOHN CHILD AND JOHN PETTIT IN BOMBAY 
 
 1674-7 
 
 IN the universal obscurity which has hitherto shrouded 
 this period of Anglo-Indian history, one gleam of light only 
 has been visible, that of the twin constellation known as the 
 brothers Child. 
 
 Sir Josia Child, the supreme controller of the East India 
 Company's affairs during the last two decades of the seven- 
 teenth century, was one of the most remarkable figures of his 
 time. Rising from obscurity by a phenomenal combination 
 of business ability, driving force, and capacity for intrigue, 
 he acquired while comparatively young an immense fortune 
 and a commanding position in the City. The fish-ponds 
 which he laid out with characteristic prodigality on his 
 estate at Wanstead, and which are mentioned by both Pepys 
 and Evelyn, were the resource of what leisure moments he 
 could spare from the affairs of the East India Company ; to 
 whose guidance and aggrandisement, after his election as 
 one of the twenty-four ' Committees' in 1674, he devoted the 
 whole of his extraordinary energies. 
 
 While Josia was in authority in Leadenhall Street, John 
 Child occupied the chief position among the Company's 
 servants in India ; in 1682 he became President of Surat, 
 and in 1687 he was given supreme control, not of Western 
 India only, but of all the Company's factories in the East, 
 being thus the first to hold the position of Governor General. 1 
 
 The close association between these two conspicuous figures 
 and the resemblance, not only of their policies but of their 
 characters, could not have been more striking had they 
 indeed been brothers ; yet in spite of the unquestioned and 
 
 1 But not the title, which in his time was { General ' merely. 
 
BOMBAY, 1674-7. ai 
 
 unquestioning assertions of all the historians from Bruce to 
 Hunter, there is no room for doubt ; Josia and John Child 
 were certainly not brothers, and there is no reason to suppose 
 that they were even remotely related. 
 
 Josia was the son of a Mr. Richard Child of London ; 
 John of a Theophilus Child, one time Clerk of the Stock 
 Market in the same City. Josia's mother had been a Miss 
 Roycraft, John's a Miss Goodier. 1 
 
 An uncle of John Child's, Mr. John Goodier, had been for 
 long on the Council of Surat, and was the first Deputy 
 Governor of Bombay, having been specially selected by Sir 
 George Oxinden to take over the Island on behalf of the 
 Company, owing to his friendship with ' old Gary ', the King's 
 Governor. 2 It was in this uncle's house, in India, that John 
 Child and his two sisters were brought up, and it was to him 
 that the future ' General of India ' owed his admission to the 
 service. On the 25th of November, 1666, we find a private 
 letter from Goodier to a member of the Court, 3 thanking him 
 for a promise to promote some request concerning ' my Cozen 
 Child', which was presumably John's appointment; and on 
 October i6th of the next year we read in the Court Minutes 
 that ' the Court, being put in minde of what they had written 
 to Sir George Oxinden in answer to his desires concerning 
 one Henry Bromfield and John Childe, that have been a long 
 time imployed by him at Surratt, were pleased to direct that 
 they bee admitted to serve the Companie as Factors there/ 
 On his retirement John Goodier went home and was himself 
 elected as one of the Committees, 4 when he doubtless continued 
 to exert his influence in his nephew's behalf, for in 1684 we 
 find John Child, in a letter to the Court, referring to his 
 obligations to Sir Josia and his ' deare Unkle, Mr. John 
 Goodier '. 5 
 
 1 Vide records in the Herald's Office. For a further discussion of 
 their connexion see Appendix A. 
 
 2 Forrest, i. 225. Consultation at Surat, September 3, 1668. 
 
 3 O. C. 3203. To John Stanian. 4 Court Book 28, April 18, 1673. 
 
 5 O. C. 5060, January 14, 1683/4. We are now in a position to consider 
 the passage from Hamilton, i. 245, which has hitherto been the only 
 authority for John Child's early years. ' Rajapore, 1 he says, ' the Place 
 where General Child had his Education, from ten Years old to eighteen, 
 
zz KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 It was not John Goodier's influence, however, but the far 
 more powerful patronage of Sir Josia that pushed John Child 
 into his place in history. The bond between the two Childs, 
 if not one of blood or of friendship, for they can never have 
 met, was the no less strong tie of mutual interest. If we find 
 Josia hushing up his namesake's misdoings, crushing his rivals 
 as ruthlessly as though they were his own, and, after foisting 
 him into the Presidentship by a piece of gross jobbery, sup- 
 porting him unceasingly through good and evil, and showering 
 praises and rewards upon him on the slightest of grounds, it 
 was because it was vital to his own supremacy to have his own 
 creature at the head of affairs in India ; if we find John, over- 
 bearing himself by nature, submitting his will, sinking his 
 personality, and shaping every detail of his policy to Josia's 
 slightest wish, it was because his success depended entirely on 
 the support of that tyrant. Josia needed a tool in India, John 
 a patron at home ; and with John Goodier at Josia's elbow the 
 alliance was natural. 
 
 Of the Company's servants in India, only three men were by 
 their abilities and position in the service suitable to Josia's 
 purpose ; two of these, John Pettit and Henry Oxinden, were 
 not only too independent in character, but were in addition too 
 closely connected with prominent figures in Leadenhall Street 
 to serve his turn. The third, John Child, was a nobody, with- 
 out friends or relations of any importance at home ; and his 
 lack of any other patron was the very qualification most useful 
 to Josia, who could thus rely on his unhesitating support even 
 against other influences in the Court itself. It would seem 
 
 under his Uncle Mr. Goodshaw, who was Chief there, and having betrayed 
 some of his Uncle's Secrets, in making use of the Company's Cash in his 
 own private Trade, his Uncle was cashier'd, and, before the Nephew was 
 come to four and twenty, he had the Honour to fill his chair.' It is clear 
 that we should read Goodier for Goodshaw. A Mr. Joseph Goodshaw 
 makes frequent appearances in the Surat Records about 1700, and was 
 therefore probably personally known to Hamilton. It is not unlikely that 
 his name took possession of Hamilton's pen, and, by a trick that most 
 writers have experienced, supplanted the very similar name of Goodier. 
 We may, then, accept Hamilton's statement that John Child was brought 
 up in India by his uncle, but so far from believing the discreditable 
 account of his appointment, it is clear that Goodier obtained a factorship 
 for him, for which he retained a proper sense of gratitude. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 25 
 
 that Josia made his choice early, as is evidenced by the case 
 of John's father-in-law, Shaxton, which we have now to 
 describe ; for the conduct of the Court was then so much of 
 a piece with all its subsequent action wherever John Child was 
 concerned, that it is impossible not to recognize the hand of 
 Josia at work, already shielding his protdgd. 
 
 In the hot weather or rains of 1674, President Aungier, at 
 that time staying in Bombay, discovered, and nipped in the 
 bud, an incipient mutiny that might have had very serious 
 consequences. The principal grievance of the soldiers was 
 that most fruitful source of mutinies, irregularity in their pay, 
 and the trouble was due apparently to debased coinage. 1 
 
 The monetary system of Bombay was extraordinarily com- 
 plicated. The standard coin at this time on Bombay was the 
 xeraphine or zeraphine of Goa, worth about twenty pence, but 
 varying with the exchange ; few of these xeraphines were in 
 circulation on the Island, and the soldiers were paid in small 
 tin or copper coins, 2 of which the exchange value in terms of 
 xeraphines, also varied considerably. Their complaint was that 
 the fixed rate at which they were paid did not correspond with 
 the actual exchange value of their nominal salary, and that 
 they were in fact heavy losers. The pay of a private soldier, 
 or ' centinell ', was twenty-one shillings a month ; this had to 
 be turned into imaginary zeraphins, and these again into 
 current coin, both operations being calculated at a rate fixed 
 by the Company, so that it is easy to see there was every 
 chance of the soldiers being real sufferers. 
 
 Aungier consistently declined to listen to any argument on 
 this point ; so that matters remained in the same unsatisfactory 
 state, and provided in Keigwin's mutiny also the chief grievance 
 of the soldiers. For the present, Aungier's decisive measures 
 averted the outbreak, and one of the ringleaders afforded the 
 first example in Bombay of an execution under martial law 
 by the Company. What is more to our purpose is that the 
 Deputy Governor, Captain Shaxton, himself fell under suspicion 
 of fomenting the trouble, and that with him was involved his 
 son-in-law, John Child, at that time a factor in Bombay. 
 1 Fryer, i. 304. * Budgerooks and dugonys. 
 
 
24 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Aungier relates 1 how he had the opportunity of catching all 
 the conspirators red-handed at one of their councils, but forbore 
 through a somewhat natural fear of discovering more than it 
 would be convenient to deal with. Of Shaxton's guilt he was 
 at any rate firmly convinced, and after an inconclusive trial on 
 the Island, at which the prosecution 'with some borrowed 
 Rhetorick ' made the Captain a second Catiline, 2 Aungier 
 shipped him off to England to be dealt with by the Court. 
 
 Before they got news of this mutiny, the Court had written 
 to Aungier, calling for a report on Shaxton and Child ; we 
 extract the correspondence, which is interesting not only as 
 containing Aungier's opinion of John Child, but also as exhi- 
 biting a very early and characteristic instance of the methods 
 of the great Josia. 
 
 'We are informed', write the Court on March 5, 1 674/5,3 
 ' that we are very much wronged in the management of our 
 Mynt at Bombay to a great value yearly between Capt. 
 Shaxton and Mr. Child, his sonn-in-law ; we require you to 
 examine into the truth thereof, that the persons that have so 
 wronged us may make us satisfaction, and in regard we have 
 found it much to our prejudice that relations should be 
 imployed in one affair or place, we require you to put some 
 able person in Mr. Child's roome, and the whole of that 
 bussiness into such an order for the future as that we may not 
 suffer by the ill practises of our servants imployed therein ; and 
 informe us fully of the actings of Mr. Shaxton and Mr. Child 
 not only in this respect, but in other particulars, for that 
 -we have information as to the latter that he hath much mis- 
 behaved himselfe towards us both in language and action.' 
 
 Aungier's reply is dated January 17, 1675/6 : 4 
 
 * You desire to be fully informed touching the proceedings of 
 Capt. John Shaxton and his sonn-in-law Mr. John Child ; your 
 President would be excused from writing anything concerning 
 them, in regard those two Gentlemen have expressed a irrecon- 
 cillable antipathy against him, but seeing it is his and all our 
 dutys to owne the truth, and declare it, ... wee shall advise you 
 what wee know. First as to your mint, wee never heard 
 they wronged you, nor can imagine how they could ... Now 
 as to their deportment in other respects ; wee can noe wayes 
 
 1 O. C. 3987. Aungier to Surat Council. 2 Fryer, i. 30. 
 
 8 Letter Book 5. * O. C. 4163. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 25 
 
 commend their prudence or moderation ; for indeed they did 
 not behave themselves as they ought. Touching Capt Shaxton 
 wee gave you a large Account the last yeare . . . which wee 
 shall not now aggravate but leave him to your Justice. As to 
 Mr. Child having observed his humour not a little troublesome, 
 (though otherwise reasonably experienced and quallifyed to 
 serve you) wee thought good to appoint him Cheife of your 
 factory of Rajapore ; wee have heard formerly from Mr. Gibbon 
 and Mr. Willoughby that he did misbehave himselfe towards 
 you in Language, when he was in Persia ; touching which he 
 excused himselfe to us afterwards. His behaviour in B'bay in 
 respect to the troubles there was much questioned ; but he 
 acted very subtilly ; and laid all the blame on his father-in-law; 
 and therefore wee could not be soe unjust as to proceed severly 
 against him . . . but thought it best to remove him of the 
 Island to Rajapur, where we wish his demeanour may be such 
 as to cancell all his former imprudencys.' 
 
 This letter, even had it not Gerald Aungier's signature, 
 bears evident marks of the moderation and sound judge- 
 ment of its writer; and the subsequent career of John Child, 
 as these pages will show, gives the fullest confirmation to the 
 estimate of his character which it contains. 
 
 The Court at this time was very free with its dismissals, 
 and to judge from its somewhat truculent tone in calling for 
 the report, there was little reason to expect that Child would 
 escape the common fate of its refractory servants. But by the 
 time Aungier's reply reached England, Josia Child's 1 power- 
 ful will had begun to dominate the Court, and the next letter 
 to Surat (the first which bears Josia's signature) dismisses the 
 whole affair with a wave of the hand. One tiny paragraph is 
 devoted to it, which we give in full. 
 
 'Wee take Notice 2 how Contrary to Our expectation 
 Captain Shaxton did behave himselfe ; he arrived here sick 
 and is since dead, so that We had no conference with him. 
 We desire you to affoard his widdow the best advice you can 
 as to her stay there or coming home.' 
 
 The incident was closed with a snap ; and it is not surpris- 
 ing to hear that Aungier himself about this time began to be 
 
 1 He was first elected a Committee in 1674. 
 Letter Book 5. March 8, 1675/6. 
 
26 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 viewed with disfavour in Leadenhall Street. ' I perceive ', 
 writes a correspondent l to Streynsham Master, ' our Friend 
 Mr Gerard Aungier doth not now att last please the 
 Comittee and others ; they all say hee is making up his 
 Bundell.' 
 
 Meanwhile John Child, ' very subtile and not a little trouble- 
 some, though otherwise reasonably experienced ', retired with 
 his brother-in-law Charles Ward 2 for his ' second ', to open 
 a new factory at Rajapore ; where he showed himself at first 
 in the sulks. For a whole year he would write no letter to 
 Aungier, sending him only copies of his letters to Ward, 
 ' which as a Novelty and a Caprichio yet unpractised by any 
 Cheifes of Factorys to the President and Council, . . . wee pray 
 him to forbear hereafter.' 3 
 
 President Aungier returned to Surat in September, 1675, 
 leaving Philip Gyffard as Deputy Governor of Bombay ; 
 Gyffard was very sick, and the actual work fell almost entirely 
 on his second, John Pettit, a man who was at this time coming 
 to the front. 
 
 In March of the following year, 1676, a crisis of considerable 
 danger arose. A Malabar vessel, with an English pass, ran 
 into Bombay harbour for protection against a Portuguese ship 
 that was giving her chase. The Portuguese demanded that 
 she should be delivered up as their prize, and when this was 
 refused, Manoel de Saldanha, their Captain General of the 
 North, flying into a fury, 'summons all the Ffidalgoes and 
 force under his Jurisdiction, and having sent about 1,200 men 
 by land and about 300 men by sea, comes in person to 
 Bandora, 4 publikely declaring his Resolution to take Mahim, 
 and burne and destroy the rest of your Island Bombay.' 5 
 Gyffard, the Deputy Governor, was unable to leave his bed, so 
 John Pettit with Judge Niccolls and the rest of the Council, 
 
 1 Hedges, ii, p. ccxlvi. 
 
 2 Ward had married Child's sister Jane, who was probably also brought 
 up in Goodier's house. 
 
 8 Bombay Factory Records 7. Aungier to Rajapur, September 8, 1675. 
 Child went to Rajapur in September, 1674. 
 4 On Salsette, just opposite to Mahim. 
 6 Forrest, p. 92. Surat to the Court, April 7, 1676. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 27 
 
 taking with them one of the garrison companies and five or 
 six hundred militia, with five field-pieces, marched up to 
 Mahim in good order. But the day of the Portuguese had 
 already gone by, and the businesslike appearance of Pettit and 
 his militant judge acted as a cold douche on the hectoring 
 Captain General ; after a few ' haughty and bloody speeches ', 
 filled with ' rancor and contempt of your Honours and the 
 Nation V he and his Ffidalgoes melted away. 
 
 In September, Gyffard was taken to Swally in hopes that 
 the change of air might restore him, and Pettit was left to act 
 as Deputy Governor, in which office he was confirmed on 
 Gyffard 's death in November. 
 
 Hitherto, Pettit has been unduly neglected by the historians 
 of our forefathers in India ; his fame has eked out a precarious 
 sort of livelihood in foot-notes ; and while such characters as 
 Richard Keigwin, Henry Oxinden, and even old Gary, make 
 frequent, if somewhat vague, appearances as dramatis personae, 
 John Pettit has been scarcely allowed to walk on in the pro- 
 cession. The truth is that from this time till his death in 1684, 
 he shared the stage with John Child ; and the history of the 
 English in Western India during this decade revolves almost 
 entirely round these two champions and the struggle between 
 them. 
 
 Pettit was of good birth and powerful connexions, and he 
 makes his entry with a flourish. At a Court of Commitees 
 held 1 3th November, 1661, we read 2 : 
 
 ' Upon a request in a letter of the Lord George Berkeley, 
 the Court was pleased, through the respect they owe his Lord- 
 ship, although they had resolved by their late Order not to 
 ellect any more ffactors or Youngmen this yeare for India ; 
 Nevertheless upon his recommendation to entertaine John 
 Petite to goe a Youngman for India.' 
 
 As a junior he specially distinguished himself in Oxinden's 
 defence of the Surat factory in 1664, during Sivaji's first raid, 3 
 and was afterwards for many years chief of Calicut on the 
 Malabar coast, coming from thence to Bombay, where he was 
 made Deputy Governor in 1676. 
 
 1 Ibid. 2 Court Book 24. * Hedges, ii. 302. 
 
28 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 The post of Deputy Governor of Bombay was usually held 
 by the third in the Grand Council of the Presidency, the 
 second being as a rule Agent in Persia; and though Pettit 
 was not actually third in seniority, yet, with the exception of 
 Rolt in Persia, the others above him were old stagers l little 
 likely to be serious candidates for the Presidency. And now, 
 with Aungier making up his bundle, and Gyffard dead, the 
 prospect of promotion was opening out rapidly. 
 
 It was indeed high time for John Child to be moving ; 
 Pettit's new position gave him such a definitely senior status 
 as it would be hard to shake later on, and Child's chances 
 of the Presidency looked small ; for his rival was little, if at all, 
 older than himself, and not the man to fall a victim to Bombay 
 punch. Moreover, Pettit was not the only rival, for Henry 
 Oxinden's name stood also above Child's ; and whereas Child 
 had little to hope from Aungier's recommendations, Pettit 
 stood high in the President's favour, and was his personal 
 friend. 
 
 However, there was no need to despair while Josia and 
 Goodier were at the East India House, and accordingly, early 
 in 1677, John Child sent home a petition 2 claiming seniority 
 to both Pettit and Oxinden. The grounds of the claim were, 
 that though Pettit's appointment dated from 1661, and his own 
 only from 1667, yet he had been employed by Sir George 
 Oxinden for some years before that date, and had in fact been 
 made a factor before either Pettit or Henry Oxinden, who 
 were both appointed in the rank of writer. 3 
 
 The Court rejected the petition, and fixed the seniority of 
 Pettit, Oxinden, and Child in the order thus given. Child was 
 doubtless disappointed ; but in any case neither he nor Pettit 
 could expect to succeed Aungier, for Thomas Rolt, Agent in 
 Persia, was clearly certain to do so. And before Rolt's depart- 
 ure much might happen. 
 
 John Pettit's rule in Bombay lasted for little more than 
 a year, for Aungier died 3oth June 1677 ; and on Rolt's 
 
 1 Matthew Gray, Charles James, and Caesar Chambrelan. 
 3 O. C. 4264, January, 1676/7. 
 
 3 Or its equivalent ; for this title was not officially used at the time of 
 Pettit's appointment. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 29 
 
 succession to the Presidency, Pettit left Bombay in December, 
 to take charge of Persia in the usual course. The records 
 of his term as Deputy Governor are enough to give us an 
 idea of his capacities, and in their light he stands out as a head 
 and shoulders above any of his contemporaries, and as the only 
 man then in the service worthy to sit in Gerald Aungier's chair. 
 
 One of his first measures, the result of the recent incident 
 with the Portuguese, was the raising of a troop of forty horse, 
 an establishment that was to be of great assistance in the 
 troubles to follow. The command of this squadron was given, 
 on Pettit's advice, to Captain Richard Keigwin, a recent arrival 
 on Bombay. 
 
 Keigwin's life had already had its share of adventure ; l the 
 third son of Richard Keigwin of Penzance, he was appointed 
 a lieutenant on the Santa Maria in 1665, and took part in the 
 four days' fight, 1st to 4th June, 1666. In 1672 Prince Rupert 
 gave him the command of the Eagle^ whence he was transferred 
 to the Assistance ', under Commodore Munden. In May 1673, 
 when Munden recaptured St. Helena from the Dutch, Keigwin 
 was in command of the landing party ; and the cliff which he 
 scaled is still known as ' Keigwin's Rock'. 
 
 When Munden went home, he left Keigwin in charge as 
 Governor. St. Helena was at once made over by the King to 
 the East India Company, who had held it before its capture 
 by the Dutch, and they sent out a new Governor in December ; 
 but before his arrival Keigwin had fallen victim to a mutiny 2 
 on the island, in which he was not only deposed but imprisoned. 
 It is amusing to find that Keigwin and Child qualified for 
 their future relationship, the former as a deposed Governor, 
 the latter as an unsuccessful mutineer. On his return to 
 England, Keigwin apparently left the King's service, and, by 
 the favour of the East India Company, went out to settle on 
 Bombay as a * free planter ', where we hear of his arrival at the 
 end of 1 676.3 He must have found there was very little to 
 
 1 For the following particulars see Dictionary of National Biography. 
 
 a Of this mutiny we have been unable to find any records, beyond the 
 fact that it occurred. Letter Book 7, f. 341 c. Report to Charles II of 
 Secret Committee on Keigwin's Rebellion. August 15, 1684. 
 
 9 O.C. 4259. 
 
30 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 plant, and have welcomed the opportunity soon offered him 
 by the Deputy Governor of employment more suitable to his 
 character. 
 
 He was soon to show his mettle. 
 
 During 167 7 1 the usual troubles with the Siddee were 
 aggravated by the appearance of two of these unwelcome 
 guests in Bombay ; one of them, Siddee Sambole, had been 
 superseded in his command by his kinsman Siddee Cossim, 
 but made difficulties about giving up his fleet, with the result 
 that Pettit had to deal with the two of them, for both took up 
 their quarters on Bombay. Their behaviour gave him an 
 opportunity of displaying both firmness and tact, and gave 
 Keigwin and his troop of horse their first chance of distin- 
 guishing themselves. 
 
 Hearing that some of Sivaji's trusted adherents were stay- 
 ing on the mainland, Siddee Sambole hired a party of the 
 Company's slaves to steal across to the Corlahs and secretly 
 seize them, a project which was successfully accomplished, 
 and Pettit's first news of the outrage was a letter from Sivaji's 
 Governor, threatening a stoppage of provisions unless his 
 servants were restored. The Deputy Governor at once sent 
 word to Siddee Sambole, and with some difficulty induced him 
 to deliver up his prisoners ; of the slaves who actually made 
 the capture he executed three, and sent the remainder to 
 St. Helena. 
 
 Shortly afterwards a serious fracas occurred between the 
 two Siddees ; Cossim marched with three hundred men from 
 his quarters near the fort, and attacked Sambole's detachment 
 which was in Mazagon. On hearing the news, Pettit dispatched 
 Keigwin with his troop of horse, who fell indiscriminately on 
 both parties ; so small a detachment had great difficulty in 
 separating the combatants, and that they succeeded in doing 
 so with the loss of only four of their horses reflects great 
 credit on their leadership ; many fell in the ranks of the two 
 admirals, and Siddee Sambole had his horse shot under him. 
 No less creditable were Pettit's boldness and prudence after 
 
 1 For the following events at Bombay our authority is Orme's 
 Fragments. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 31 
 
 peace had been restored ; after first establishing his authority 
 by disarming the followers of both Siddees, he brought them 
 together, and, acting as mediator, succeeded in effecting an 
 agreement, and in persuading Siddee Sambole to make over 
 his fleet to Cossim and leave Bombay. 
 
 Such was Pettit's foreign policy, and no less striking was 
 his success in the domestic affairs of his term of office, to some 
 of which we must now briefly refer. 1 
 
 Pettit early had trouble with Judge Niccolls ; this worthy 
 had recently married ' Mr. Ball's widdow ', and became 
 involved with her late husband's executors. He declined to 
 pay the claim made upon him, and, relying on his 'gowne', 
 denied the authority of the Deputy Governor to deal with his 
 case ; a defiance that led to his retiring once more into the 
 ranks of freemen, while Captain Gary was appointed in his 
 place, this time with the more imposing title of Chief Justice. 2 
 
 Niccolls, after a brief interval, blossomed out into Captain 
 Lieutenant of the Eldest Company of the garrison. But he 
 was not of those who can hold any appointment for long, and 
 two years later he was again in trouble for a misdemeanour 
 which ' wee knowe not well how to put into such decent tearmes 
 as may fittly become us to your Honours'. 3 For the time 
 he escaped with temporary suspension and a fine of 400 Xr., 4 
 but he remained apparently in bad odour. 
 
 Whether old Gary's decidedly mercurial administration of 
 the law was an improvement on that of his predecessor we 
 may doubt ; for we hear that this strange figure ' condemned 
 a Man to be hanged on a Tuesday, and the Man suffered 
 according to Sentence ; but on Friday after, the poor dead 
 Fellow was ordered to be called before the Court, but he 
 would not comply with the Orders.' 5 
 
 The unfinished bastion, without which the Fort was not 
 considered secure, was pushed on by Pettit ; and to him also 
 was due the origin of what was later the fort at Mahim, where 
 
 1 See also Appendix E for an account of Bombay under Pettit. 
 
 2 O. C. 4327. January, 1678. 
 
 8 O. C. 4716. Surat to the Court, January 24, 1680/1. 
 4 Zerapheens or xerapheens. 5 Hamilton, i. 192. 
 
32 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 he threw up a breastwork ' of toddy trees and durt ' as a pro- 
 tection against the Portuguese. 1 As we see by his letters, the 
 question of provisions was continually in his mind, and the 
 scarcity, which later caused such complaints from the soldiers, 
 was not in his time existent. But the injustice of the exchange 
 was always with them, and Pettit's endeavours to have it 
 remedied speak highly for his intelligence. He seems, indeed, 
 to have been the only man, among the Company's civilian 
 servants, who saw either the injustice or the folly of thus 
 defrauding the soldiers. 
 
 It would appear that the value in terms of xeraphines, as 
 fixed by the Company, for the coins in which the troops were 
 actually paid, was as below : 
 
 380 budgerooks = i xeraphine 
 
 38 dugonys = i xeraphine ; 
 
 but that according to the existing exchange : 
 
 580 budgerooks = i xeraphine 
 
 46 dugonys =i xeraphine. 
 
 So that on every xeraphine the troops lost some 17 per cent, 
 if paid in dugonys, and over 30 per cent, if in budgerooks. 
 
 Pettit brought up the subject very early in his term of 
 office, but Aungier as usual would not hear a word about it. 
 
 ' Wee are not well pleased ', writes the President, 2 ' with 
 the Souldiers' request you present to us, to consider of the 
 great loss they receive by having their wages paid them in 
 Bujerooks and Dugonys, for wee have given noe orders for 
 altering the valew of said species, and presume you have not 
 raised them but that they pass still current for what they did 
 upon the Island ; and as to their passing abroad wee are not 
 to concerne ourselves, and if there be any abuse in the shroffs 3 
 by their raising the Vatao 4 , you must punish them. ... If 
 provisions are deare, you must use all just meanes to procure 
 them plenty and cheape as you can ; but ... to alter the 
 settled pay of the souldiers . . . who are a gaurrilous and 
 ungrateful people and never satisfied . . . wee do not 
 approve it.' 
 
 1 Forrest, p. 94. Surat to Bombay, April 7, 1676. 
 
 2 April 26, 1667. Forrest, p. 113. * Native money changers. 
 4 Discount in exchange ; a word taken from the Portuguese. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 33 
 
 Pettit's respect for Aungier kept him silent; but on the 
 arrival of Rolt at Surat he returned to the charge, and hardly 
 pretended to veil his contempt for the extraordinary financial 
 ideas set out by the late President, and now supported by his 
 successor. In December, 1677, he writes i 1 
 
 * The Clause of the President's Letter of the 26th Aprill 
 concerning the Souldiers pay wee did then throughly peruse, 
 but it being an absolute order to us wee would not presume 
 farther to discuss upon it. Our opinions have been often 
 plainly declared that the Souldiers are cut out of their pay 
 a considerable matter. It was ordered by the President when 
 here that 19 Phedeas should pass for a Zerapheen. 2 Wee 
 can indeed order a penny shall passe for two pence, but it is 
 not all the proclamations and commands wee can issue out, 
 shall be of force to effect it. It is certaine the Kings and 
 Potentates of Europe doe put what vallue they please on their 
 coines which passe currant in their own Territories, but while 
 Bombay is but 8 mile long wee doe not see any possibility of 
 ffollowing their rules. Here is nothing growing on the Island 
 but Coconutts, and all things wee want from abroad, and 
 though the President is pleased to say that we ought not to 
 be concerned how our mony passes abroad, yet how shall wee 
 gett provisions and goods on the Island without our mony goes 
 of to fetch them ? and what is intended by that Clause that 
 wee should use all just means to procure them plenty and 
 cheape, when the very ffountaine head is stopped, that is mony 
 prohibited to be carried off? The Sheroffs are markd out as 
 the cause of this distemper, but wee doe not see on what 
 ground, for they doe not raise the vattaw as is objected, but 
 rather Lower it, for the Zerapheen instead of 19 phedeas is 
 worth 29. Supose the King of England should issue out a 
 proclamation that 4 farthings should goe for a penny ; if any 
 person should give another 8 farthings for his penny wee 
 cannot Imagine this is punishable ; and this is just our case ; 
 and to order the Sheroff to give people silver for bujerooks, is 
 a disowning our own coine ; for if they are currant, what 
 occasion is there for Sheroffs to exchange them into silver? 
 and if they are not currant there is reason of a complaint, 
 people receiving but 19 Phadeas instead of 29. Our Dugonys 
 indeed goe currant off the Island that is at 23 Phadeas per X 3 
 
 1 Bombay Factory Records 8. Bombay to Surat, December 12, 1677. 
 
 2 A 'Phedea* was supposed to be twenty budgerooks or about two 
 dugonys. 
 
 3 X = xeraphine or zeraphine. It would seem from this that 
 
 1526.6 
 
34 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 or thereabouts, and not at 19 as wee pay them out, which is 
 20 per Cent. Losse ; neither doe wee argue the necessity of 
 allowing the Souldiers the utmost value of the Bazar, which 
 rises and ffalls every day. Wee beleive two Phedeas in a 
 Zerapheen advance would highly content them, and so low 
 [as] that it never ffalls. This is only our oppinion with a 
 submission to your Worship's letter.' 
 
 Nothing could be more convincing, and it is a pleasure to 
 find such a clear grasp of a subject that in those days was 
 a bog in which the best would flounder. The same month, 
 December 1677, while Pettit was in Surat on his way to his 
 new charge in Persia, his first care on joining the Grand 
 Council was to push home his argument ; for early the next 
 year we find in a letter from the President to Bombay, 1 to 
 which John Pettit 's name is appended as one of the Council, 
 ' Wee have been minded of the buisnesse of the Phadeas which 
 hath soe long dissatisfied the Garrison, and have concluded 
 that whereas the Zerapheen passed before but at 19, it 
 shall now goe at 21, which wee hope will have a Just 
 Influence.' 
 
 Of this precise form of the exchange trouble we hear no 
 more, though the question of the exchange from shillings to 
 Zerapheens remained untouched. 
 
 The Deputy Governor had had an anxious year, and he 
 had been suffering from ill health since Gyffard's departure. 
 ' M r John Pettit', wrote Aungier in January 1677, 'now 
 manageth the office of your D y Gov r of Bombay, much to our 
 Content ; on which score wee shall not remove him thence, 
 except necessity as to health or your order require it. He is 
 somewhat sickly, but being very temperate wee have great 
 hopes he will recover his strength/ 2 
 
 But Bombay was no sanatorium, and he grew steadily 
 worse, until in December he was glad to make over charge to 
 
 there must have been two coins called Phadea, one worth twenty budge- 
 rooks and the other about two dugonys, and that the Company intended 
 them to be of equal value, nineteen to the xeraphine ; but that in reality 
 twenty-nine of the one sort went to a xeraphine, and twenty-three of the 
 other. 
 
 1 O. C. 4340. 2 O. C. 4258. 
 
II BOMBAY, 1674-7 35 
 
 Henry Oxinden, and retire to Surat for a short rest before 
 going on to Persia to take up his duties as Agent. 
 
 There we catch a glimpse of him travelling up to * Spahaun ' 1 
 with his two great buck-hounds, in company with Dr. Fryer ; 
 still very sick, poor man, and already in the clutches of the 
 misfortunes which were destined to dog him to his tragic end. 
 
 1 Ispahan. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 BOMBAY UNDER HENRY OXINDEN AND JOHN 
 CHILD, 1678-81. 
 
 THE history of Bombay became in the next few years 
 involved, and at times almost submerged, in a backwater 
 of the great contest raging between Aurungzebe and the 
 rebellious Sivaji; for though the events we have to record 
 loomed so large to the English, threatening their very 
 existence in India, they formed so insignificant a part of the 
 great struggle then in action, that they are barely referred 
 to by the historian of the Mahrattas. 1 
 
 Henry Oxinden became Deputy Governor in December 1677, 
 and in April of the next year Siddee Cossim arrived as usual 
 in the harbour, hauled up his smaller boats at Mazagon, and 
 moored the larger as close in shore as they could lie. Sivaji, 
 determined to avenge the frequent insults he had experienced 
 from the Siddees, detailed two of his officers to attempt the 
 destruction of Cossim's fleet as it lay thus exposed ; but failing 
 to secure boats wherewith to attack them from the eastern 
 shore of the harbour, these commanders advanced in July with 
 4,000 men to Kalyan, whence they requested leave of the 
 Portuguese to pass through Salsette, intending to cross over 
 on to Bombay Island and make an attempt on the fleet by 
 land at Mazagon. The alarm in Bombay was great, and 
 Oxinden despatched as strong a force as he could muster to 
 oppose their landing at Mahim, while he stationed one of his 
 frigates in the channel to assist in disputing the passage. 
 Fortunately, the Portuguese were no less alarmed for the 
 safety of their own island, and made such a stout show of 
 force at Tannah that the Mahrattas for the moment abandoned 
 their intentions. Shortly afterwards Sivaji's Governor on the 
 mainland, partly in retaliation for the hostile attitude taken 
 up by the English, and partly, it is said, influenced by a dis- 
 1 Grant Duff, History of the Mahrattas. 
 
BOMBAY, 1678-81 37 
 
 pute he had had with Pettit on some matter of trade, seized 
 all the boats belonging to Bombay on which he could lay his 
 hands, of which there were some thirty at the time trading in 
 the rivers or ports in his jurisdiction. Oxinden sent out four 
 armed boats manned with sixty Europeans, who beat off the 
 Governor's guards and brought back most of the captured 
 boats ; on which that officer complained to Sivaji of the insult 
 done to his territory. 
 
 Sivaji, however, who was not prepared to break with the 
 English while they held Bombay, and were besides such good 
 customers, administered a rebuke to the angry Governor, and 
 the English, on the departure of Siddee Cossim at the end of 
 the rains, were left in peace till the next monsoon. 
 
 In 1679 affairs grew still more menacing. Sivaji had for 
 some seasons been making great efforts to collect a fleet strong 
 enough to deal with the Siddee, and by now had got together 
 a respectable force of twenty two-masted grabs, and forty 
 gallivats. On the high seas these vessels were too small to 
 cope with the great ships of Cossim's fleet ; but the Siddee was 
 more vulnerable in Bombay harbour, where he was obliged 
 to spend the rainy season every year. Here, then, Sivaji 
 decided to strike at him, and with that object cast his eyes on 
 Hendry and Kendry. These were two small islands lying 
 to the south of Bombay at the mouth of the harbour, of which 
 Hendry, the nearest to the shore, was only some twelve 
 hundred yards from the mainland, while Kendry, the larger 
 of the two, lay about two miles further out. 
 
 Both islands were claimed by the English, but had hitherto 
 not been considered of sufficient importance to demand a guard- 
 house or any other attention, so that when Sivaji's troops 
 slipped across from the mainland and took possession of Kendry 
 they encountered no opposition, and were able to throw up 
 breastworks at the landing-places before their advent was 
 observed. Bombay now took alarm, and the Revenge frigate, 
 with some shibars l manned by a part of the garrison, was sent 
 to prevent the landing of any more Mahrattas on Kendry, and 
 to summon the officer in charge of those already there to retire. 
 1 Country trading-vessels. 
 
38 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Unfortunately, a reckless * lieutenant, by name Thorpe, landed 
 his men on the island, and coming to blows with the occupants, 
 his whole party was killed and his shibar captured ; an event 
 which prevented all chance of a peaceful solution to the 
 dispute. 
 
 Sivaji's fleet was collected at Chaul, a little to the south of 
 Hendry, and began to assume a threatening attitude ; where- 
 upon the Revenge was reinforced by two grabs of two masts, 
 two munchuas 2 , and three shibars, while the crews were 
 strengthened by 300 European soldiers, or nearly all the 
 garrison; Captain Keigwin going on board the Revenge as 
 commander of the whole force. 3 
 
 At daybreak on the i8th October, ' Sevajee's Armada' bore 
 down on the small English squadron with sails and oars, firing 
 as they came. A grab in charge of a Mr. Gape 4 was the 
 nearest to the enemy, next to whom were Keigwin and 
 Minchin, in the Revenge, with the rest of the English vessels 
 beyond. ' What accident befell him ' (Mr. Gape) ' I know not,' 
 says Keigwin, 5 * but half a mile before the Enemy was up with 
 him, his Ensigne and Topsaile was struck ' ; on seeing which 
 piece of cowardice, the rest of the English squadron was 
 seized with panic and fled, leaving the Revenge alone. But 
 both Keigwin and Minchin were made of different stuff, and 
 odds of more than forty to one had before then been defied 
 by a Revenge, and against a more redoubtable foe. What 
 followed we will give in the terms of Keigwin's manly report, 
 written the same evening, after the fight. 
 
 ' Seeing ourselves alone, Captain Minchin and my selfe 
 encouraged our Souldiers and Seamen admonishing them 
 what disgrace it would be to Christians to be Prisoners to 
 heathens, but courageously to defend, and fight the enemy 
 bravely they unanimously said they would live and dye with 
 us, wee promised to show ourselves forward for their example, 
 we hal'd up our sailes the Enemy thinking we were as easily 
 swallow'd as the other, came up our sterne, with 24 Grobs 
 I know not how many Galwets, I order'd our men not to fire 
 
 1 ' In a fit of drunkenness,' says Orme. 
 
 2 * A stronger kind of trading vessel.' Orme. 
 
 3 The Hunter frigate was unfortunately not in the harbour at this crisis. 
 
 4 A factor, afterwards on the Bombay Council. 5 O. C. 4665. 
 
in BOMBAY, 1678-81 39 
 
 untill the word of Comand, Soe when they came within Pistoll 
 Shot, and they finding us mute, thrust themselves forward in 
 their boates to enter, but wee discharged our Sterne Chase 
 with Round Shot and Patridge, and presently our blunder- 
 buses and small shot so smartly ply'd, that checkt their drums 
 and Pipes, and in halfe an hour, wee beat them from their Guns 
 and Musquets and brought them by the Lee, some was seen 
 to goe downe to the bottom, they were a greate while before 
 they could goe about had our Shibbars Manchuas and Grob 
 stood by me, wee had secur'd the one halfe of them, but God 
 have given us the victory, that with this small vessell wee 
 should defeat 40 saile, wee presently tackt upon them and 
 chased them into Shallow water, and they are holed againe 
 in Nagaun, I sent for those officers on and declared them 
 Cowards nor can they make any defence for themselves.' 
 
 The quotation is exact, except for the final full stop which 
 we have interpolated, there being indeed no such thing within 
 ' pistoll shot ' either of the beginning or end of our extract. But 
 we may well excuse a somewhat breathless dispatch after such 
 a fine piece of work ; for Keigwin and Minchin had covered 
 themselves with glory, though the defection of their comrades 
 prevented their reaping the fruits of victory. Instead of securing 
 half the enemy, no fewer than five of the English vessels 
 ran ashore in their blind flight and were captured by the 
 Mahrattas ; so that although the Hunter soon after joined 
 Keigwin, he was unable to prevent ammunition and stores 
 passing to Kendry from the mainland. 
 
 But it was not only the English that were alarmed at this 
 new development of Sivaji's ambition, and the Siddee hastened 
 to the spot with as strong a squadron as he could get together. 
 Sivaji's fleet of shallow-draught vessels was no match for these 
 new opponents, and soon sailed off, leaving the Siddee and 
 Keigwin in possession ; but not before guns had been mounted 
 on Kendry "and the island put into a good state of defence. 
 
 Siddee Cossim now proposed to Keigwin a combined 
 assault on it ; but on its appearing that the Siddee's intention 
 was to keep the island for himself when taken, a change that 
 would have left matters still worse for the English, Keigwin 
 made an excuse and avoided giving any assistance in the 
 attempt. With only his own resources, the Siddy was unable 
 
40 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 to effect anything against Kendry, and after some futile efforts, 
 in the beginning of January 1680, without consulting the 
 English, he suddenly landed a force on the neighbouring 
 island of Hendry, which he proceeded to fortify. 1 
 
 Matters were now looking very serious for the English, 
 more especially as a force of 5,000 Mahrattas was once again 
 knocking at the doors of the Portuguese, demanding a passage 
 over Salsette on to Bombay. A position of neutrality was grow- 
 ing more and more difficult to maintain, yet without Sivaji's 
 goodwill the situation in Bombay would quickly become intoler- 
 able, while the factory at Surat would as inevitably perish at 
 the first breach with the Mogul. In this dilemma, negotiations 
 were entered into with Sivaji, to meet the immediate need, 
 and a treaty concluded with him in March by which Kendry 
 was to remain in the possesion of the Mahrattas, who in return 
 were to leave Bombay unmolested, on the strict understand- 
 ing that the English were not to permit the Siddee to ravage 
 Sivaji's Corlahs, as his lands on the opposite shore were called. 
 To follow Sivaji's apparent mildness in thus coming to terms 
 with a fort of whose store-cupboard he kept the key, we must 
 realize the strength as well as the weakness of the English 
 position ; for the neutrality of Bombay was as important 
 to both Siddee and Mahratta as to the Company. To throw 
 the English into the arms of the Siddee could profit Sivaji 
 very little, while removing the one check on the periodic raids 
 into his Corlahs ; on the other hand, to Cossim it was clear 
 that though as matters stood the English were inconsiderable, 
 yet if once they joined forces with Sivaji, Bombay harbour 
 would be closed to him. 
 
 To reap the advantages of this balance, it was of vital 
 importance to the English that they should be able to inspire 
 respect in both parties ; and now that both of them had 
 obtained a footing in the very mouth of Bombay harbour, 
 it was more than ever essential to the Company to strengthen 
 
 1 There has been a good deal of confusion about these two islands, 
 chiefly because they are indiscrimately referred to as 'Hendry-Kendry* 
 in the records of the period. Grant Duff wrongly states that Sivagee 
 occupied Hendry, and the Sidee Kendry ; Orme, who puts it right in one 
 place, inverts it in another. 
 
Ill BOMBAY, 1678-81 41 
 
 their position on Bombay, and to make the Fort at any rate 
 as impregnable as their means would allow. Yet it was this 
 very moment that the Court chose to embark on a new and 
 short-sighted policy of retrenchment. 1 
 
 John Child was Deputy Governor of Bombay when the 
 orders arrived ; he had taken over charge from Henry 
 Oxinden, who was retiring to England, in September of 1679, 
 just before Keigwin's sea-fight. 
 
 It was no doubt a misfortune for his chances of popularity ; 
 for the new policy was received in Bombay with universal 
 feelings of disappointment and alarm, and could hardly fail to 
 be attributed, however unfairly, to the new Deputy Governor. 
 In this hour of trouble, with Sivaji at the gates (for peace 
 with him had not yet been concluded), and the Siddee 
 flouting the Company's authority and seizing their territory, 
 the wretched inhabitants of Bombay saw their Deputy 
 Governor enter on a course that seemed either madness or 
 treachery. 
 
 All work on the unfinished bastion was summarily stopped, 
 and even necessary repairs to existing fortifications were cut 
 down. The powder supply was reduced by half, and sentries 
 kept their watch with empty flasks and useless muskets ; the 
 troop of horse was disbanded, and what was still worse, Keigwin, 
 the only man who had shown himself capable of meeting an 
 emergency with credit, was discharged the service. The Court 
 actually went so far as to order that the whole militia should 
 be also disbanded ; but even John Child, whose unquestioning 
 obedience to all instructions from home was a virtue that his 
 worst enemies never denied him, could not face the risk ; and 
 this part of the reduction was not carried out, the orders being 
 rescinded in the following year. On their factors' private 
 interests the Court's orders fell with a like severity, salaries 
 being reduced all round ; the President's position and pay were 
 to be left untouched during the office of Rolt, the present 
 incumbent ; but it was decided that on his departure or death 
 his successor should be designated only as Agent, with 
 a salary correspondingly reduced ; while John Child himself 
 1 Letter Book 6, February 28, 1678/9. To Surat. 
 
42 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 was one of the greatest sufferers, the pay of the Deputy 
 Governor being cut down to 120 per annum. 
 
 Certainly, John Child was not responsible ; yet we may 
 date from now the rising wave of feeling against him, which 
 made his subsequent administration perhaps more unpopular 
 than that of any other Englishman who has ever held the 
 supreme control in India. His close connexion with Josia, 
 whose predominant position in the Court was well known, no 
 less than his unhesitating acceptance of every change in that 
 autocrat's policy, led to his name being associated with each 
 stage of the growing monument of tyranny and folly which 
 the Company now proceeded to pile up ; a structure whose 
 increasing top-heaviness it is our task to follow, up to the 
 inevitable collapse of Keigwin's rebellion. 
 
 The cause of this inopportune retrenchment was to be found, 
 as Bruce observes, in a general revision, undertaken about this 
 time by the Court, of their whole policy for the last fifteen 
 years. Looking round for an explanation of a decrease in 
 their profits, they awoke with disgust to the fact that, ever 
 since the rule of Aungier, their Island of Bombay had been 
 costing them a considerable sum, and bringing them in very 
 little. Every year a good part of the money that was sent out 
 to India, and that should have gone to their investment in 
 pepper and silks, was spent on the fortifications and upkeep of 
 a place ' that produces no comodity of profit for Europe, and 
 is of little accommodation to us either in Peace or Warr '.* 
 
 The obvious course seemed to be to abolish this unprofitable 
 expense, and the Court plunged into it with enthusiasm ; not 
 seeing that they were in the position of a man who should seek 
 to prop up a failing business by cutting off the payment of 
 Insurance premiums. 
 
 Unavailing were the faint protests of President Rolt, an 
 estimable if somewhat dim figure ; they were brushed aside, and 
 the orders repeated. Vain, too, was the somewhat stronger 
 remonstrance that the Madras Council ventured on. Rashly 
 enough, they quoted the practice of the Court's bete noire , Gerald 
 Aungier, in support of some garrison charge that Josia 
 1 Letter Book 6, February 28, 1678/9. To Surat. 
 
in BOMBAY, 1678-81 43 
 
 had forbidden ; which called forth the following characteristic 
 example of that great man's passionate and picturesque style : l 
 
 'Your instancing the President of Bombay is as little 
 prevalent as the practice of the Dutch, the latter hath been in 
 a great measure distructive of their Affaires, as the profuseness 
 and mistake of Mr. Aungier deceased was of ours in that place, 
 neither can you imitate a more disadvantagious and looseing 
 methode or forme of proceedings that ever was in India then 
 was that of Mr. Aungier at Bombay. Wee have since reduced 
 above half the charge of that Island, and altered that vaine 
 pompous insignificant course that was established there ; and 
 'twas high time to doe it, unlesse wee should have sacrificed 
 the benefit of all the trade of the North of India for a feather 
 etc. to be gaized at by the Poor Indians, and Portugueez.' 
 
 It is interesting to compare this passage, which bears the 
 strongest evidences of Josia Child's dictation, with his later 
 letters, written after his conversion to the opposite view ; in 
 which with equal force he advocates Aungier's policy of a forti- 
 fied base, though without acknowledgements to its originator, 
 and continually cites the practice of the Dutch as an example 
 to be followed. 
 
 In Bombay the unpopular retrenchments went energetically 
 along, and Richard Keigwin found himself once more a free 
 planter. This phrase is the equivalent of 'freeman', and 
 means merely a colonist, with no real reference to ' planting ' ; 
 it is certain that nothing would grow on the Island except 
 coco-nut palms, though the enterprising Pettit had experi- 
 mented, while Deputy Governor, with sugar-cane. 2 Keigwin 
 at any rate found himself without employment, and decided to 
 go home and lay his case before the Court, sailing home at the 
 beginning of 1680. On his arrival he was called before the 
 Commitees, 3 and eventually reappointed * as captain in com- 
 mand of the whole garrison and militia of Bombay, and sent 
 out again in the spring of 1681. 
 
 1 Letter Book 6, December 3, 1679. To Fort St. George. 
 
 2 Ibid., March 19, 1679/80. To Surat. The Court write, ' Wee 
 understand on each side of the Companie's Garden is a considerable 
 quantity of Ground, which M r Petit whilst Dep* Gov r converted into 
 Sugar Cane Fields (and are still called his gardens) ', and order that this 
 land should be ' disposed for the benefit of the Company '. 
 
 3 Court Minutes, September 10, 1680. 4 Ibid., February 2, 1680/1. 
 
44 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Meanwhile, John Child spent the remainder of his term as 
 Deputy Governor in the vain endeavour to reduce the expenses 
 of his charge within the utterly inadequate limits imposed by 
 the Court. That he should have failed was inevitable, and we 
 have no doubt that his efforts deserved the praise showered on 
 him by his honourable masters. 
 
 Among other measures, we must notice one which caused 
 a great deal of dissatisfaction among the officers of the garrison, 
 and was afterwards specifically mentioned by the mutineers as 
 one of their grievances. It had been always the custom for 
 commissioned officers to draw pay for their servants, and they 
 claimed this indulgence as universally sanctioned in the king's 
 service ; the servants they actually employed were, of course, 
 natives of India, but for each servant allowed by the custom 
 the officers drew the full pay of an English ' sentinell ', dummy 
 names being entered on the musters to clear the accounts. 
 On these ' dead musters', as the soldiers called them, or ' false 
 musters ' in the phrase of the Court, Child now determined to 
 make a raid, but, not caring to invade such a privilege on his 
 own authority, he sent home a report on the matter. The 
 Court, in high indignation at this ' very ill practice ' sent out 
 orders 1 not only that it was to cease, but that all such money 
 paid out in the past must be repaid by those who had drawn 
 it. How far the latter part of the instructions was carried out 
 we cannot say, but an accumulation of such small economies 
 (for only eight officers were concerned) caused more irritation 
 than the saving can have been worth. 
 
 The loss of this and similar privileges was set aside for 
 a future day of reckoning; but one of the institutions of 
 Bombay could not be attacked without immediate remon- 
 strance. In commenting on Captain Gary's elevation to the 
 Bench, the Court remarked that they were informed he was 
 a Papist, ' although he sometimes goes to Church ', and that he 
 was in consequence to be dismissed. 2 Bombay rose as one 
 man, and a certificate with thirty-three signatures, headed by 
 the names of the Deputy Governor and all his Council, and 
 
 1 Letter Book 6, March 15, 1 68 1. To Surat. 
 
 2 Ibid., March 19, 1679/80. 
 
Ill BOMBAY, 1678-81 45 
 
 including those of three chaplains, remains on record to this 
 day in the India Office, to prove that the Judge was ' a Good 
 Protestant according to the Church of England, haveing given 
 such signall Testimonies thereof, Pr. his often Expressing his 
 abhorrency to, and detestation of the abominable Superstition 
 and Idolatry of the Church of Rome ; . . . and Especially Pr. 
 his communicating with most of us the Holy Eucharist.' * 
 
 In the course of 1680 two events of historical importance 
 took place, of which the first was the death of the Mahratta 
 chieftain Sivaji, which occurred in April. His son Sombaji, 
 who succeeded him, pursued the same policy as his father, so 
 that the change made little difference to the affairs of the 
 English. 
 
 Not so the other, which was the imposition of the well- 
 known poll-tax of Aurungzebe on all unbelievers ; the measure, 
 which was due to a combination of fanaticism with a depleted 
 treasury, occasioned serious outbreaks among his Hindu sub- 
 jects. As for the three European Companies, they flatly refused 
 to pay it, on which Aurungzebe, while exempting them from 
 the impost, obtained its equivalent by raising the duties on 
 Europe goods to 3^ per cent, instead of the 2 per cent, which 
 had hitherto been allowed them by special charter. 
 
 These events, with the increasing impotence of Bombay, 
 encouraged the Siddee's Mussulman followers to redouble their 
 insolence. They took almost open possession of Mazagon, 
 executing their own justice on the wretched inhabitants, and 
 made frequent raids on Sombaji's Corlahs. On one occasion, 
 in August 1680, having successfully repulsed a Mahratta attack 
 on Hendry, they brought eighty of their enemies' heads in 
 baskets to Mazagon and were for setting them up on poles 
 along the shore there. This insult John Child did manage to 
 prevent ; but matters went from bad to worse, until an affray 
 between the custom-house guards and the Siddee's sailors in 
 Mazagon, followed by an insult from Cossim himself, who 
 sailed in and anchored off the fort without the usual compli- 
 ment of dipping his flag, exhausted the Deputy Governor's 
 patience, and he opened fire with his guns. 
 
 1 O.C. 4713, dated January I, 1680/1. 
 
46 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 As usual, the Siddee drew back before a display of firmness, 
 and for the rest of that season there was more quiet ; but in 
 1 68 1 the same old story began again. We hear of fresh out- 
 rages on the Corlahs and in Mazagon ; of insolent captures 
 under the walls of the Fort ; of the burning of one of Sombaji's 
 towns ; and of the stoppage of Bombay vessels. 
 
 The English, unable to keep the peace in their own harbour, 
 applied in despair to the Governor of Surat. He, however, 
 could see in the business only an excellent opportunity of 
 looting the English, so trumping up some ridiculous counter- 
 charge, he seized all the Company's goods in the Surat custom- 
 house, beat and misused their servants in the streets, and finally 
 beset the factory ; the unhappy President Rolt took the only 
 course open to him, and by an enormous present, 1 which if 
 spent on the strengthening of Bombay would have gone far 
 towards putting the English in a position to defy such a bully, 
 induced the Governor to receive the Company once more into 
 his favour, and send orders to the Siddee to behave himself 
 properly ; while he also agreed to the reduction of the customs 
 to their old rate of a per cent. It does not appear, says Bruce, 
 that this last part of the bargain was carried out ; and as to the 
 Siddee, he went on exactly as he had before. 
 
 All this not unnaturally enraged Sombaji, whose troops now 
 began to pour into the country round Bombay ; the English 
 had not kept their share of the treaty, in stopping the Siddee's 
 depredations, and the Mahratta openly threatened to attack 
 the Company's island. 
 
 It was in these troubled circumstances that John Child's 
 Deputy Governorship was passed. 2 In December 1681 he was 
 called away to Surat, preparatory to entering on the still more 
 stormy period of his rule as President ; and we must return to 
 follow the misfortunes of John Pettit. 
 
 1 30,000 rupees. But apparently the French and Dutch contributed, to 
 have their customs duties restored to 2 per cent (Bruce, ii. 456). 
 
 2 For the dealings between the English, the Mahrattas and the Siddee, 
 Orme's Fragments is again the principal authority. His MSS., on which 
 the Fragments are founded, are preserved at the India Office) and have 
 been consulted with advantage. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 JOHN CHILD AND JOHN PETTIT IN SURAT 
 
 1681-3. 
 
 JOHN PETTIT'S appointment as Deputy Governor of 
 Bombay, and Child's unsuccessful appeal, established the 
 position of the former, as we have seen, as Rolt's successor to 
 the Presidency in the ordinary course of events ; and it is 
 from this time that we begin to see the toils closing round 
 him. Henry Oxinden's decision to retire had left Pettit the 
 only obstacle between John Child and his goal, and it was 
 perhaps natural that the chief gainer by his ruin should be 
 suspected of having a hand in bringing it about ; the sym- 
 pathies of his fellows in India were clearly with Pettit, and 
 Child's unpopularity and known disposition to intrigue must 
 have aided the suspicion. Yet it is but fair to say that there 
 is no evidence of John Child being any more than a pleased 
 spectator of his rival's downfall ; on the other hand, it must be 
 remembered that his elevation was a great point in his name- 
 sake's scheme of aggrandisement, and that Josia was not the 
 man to need any tutoring as to the means of removing any- 
 body that stood in his path. That Pettit' s fall was actually 
 preordained by the Court, the nature of the final proceedings 
 against him leaves us, we fear, little room to doubt. 
 
 The first assault was a weak one ; in December 1676, he 
 was accused of a shortage of pepper in one of the Company's 
 vessels in 1672, when he had been chief of the factory at 
 Calicut. Pettit found no difficulty in disposing of this ; to 
 begin with, after the lapse of so long a time it was unreason- 
 able to make a complaint ; at that distance it was impossible 
 to fix the responsibility, and ' it cannot be supposed that I, who 
 had been the Charge in chiefe of 2 factories, and soe many 
 ships to lade yearely, . . . could have Leizure to attend the 
 
48 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Scale, though I was often there to overlooke it V Finally, if 
 the Company were dissatisfied, he offered to make good the 
 shortage from his own pocket. Clearly this would not serve 
 Josia's turn, except perhaps for cumulative effect, and the 
 matter was dropped. 
 
 The next affair was more serious ; the accounts of Mansell 
 Smith, Pettit's successor at Calicut, were found in confusion, 
 and, in his defence, some of the errors and outstandings were 
 referred to the period of Pettit's charge there. Rolt, when 
 called upon by the Court to clear up the tangle, professed him- 
 self unable to do so ; and after bringing Pettit and Mansell 
 Smith together could only report that the question was 'soe 
 intricate and confused that we must ingeniously confess it 
 exceeds our Judgments ' ; 2 a confession of failure that leaves 
 our own opinions, in the absence of the evidence before Rolt, 
 without any standing ground ; though we must observe that 
 this charge too was dropped and not pressed further against 
 Pettit. 
 
 The Court had failed to find sufficient grounds for the 
 removal of John Child's rival, but time was now passing by 
 and President Rolt was talking of retiring ; and in January 
 1680 he wrote officially, asking for permission to return to 
 England. 
 
 Josia had now decided on more energetic measures, and in 
 March 1680 the Court sent out a long list of charges against 
 John Pettit for malversations committed while Deputy 
 Governor of Bombay, compiled by the Company's auditors 
 from the Bombay books sent home. Pettit they ordered to 
 be at once suspended ; if after inquiry he was found innocent, 
 he was to be restored to his former position ; if guilty, he was 
 to be sent home. 3 This was followed up, in their letter 
 granting Rolt permission to retire, by instructions that, as John 
 Pettit was under suspension on so serious a charge, John Child 
 was to succeed Rolt as Agent, 4 to which title the dignity of 
 President had been reduced by a previous order. 5 
 
 1 O. C. 4245. December 26, 1676. 2 O. C. 4691. January 20, 1679/80. 
 3 Letter Book 6, March 19, 1679/80. 4 Ibid., March 15, 1680/1. 
 8 Vide p. 41, ante. 
 
IV SURAT, 1681-3 49 
 
 The blow was decisive, and the very delay in its fall made 
 Pettit's case hopeless ; for timed as it was, whether he were 
 acquitted or condemned, his rival would still succeed to the 
 chief command. 
 
 Summoned from Persia to stand his trial, the wretched 
 Pettit sailed for Surat in one of his own ships, the George^ 
 where he arrived in April 1681 ; and the rest of the year was 
 spent in a lengthy inquiry into all the numerous details of the 
 Court's charges against him. 
 
 Into these details it would be unnecessary for us to enter 
 even if we were able to do so ; suffice it to say that a great 
 number of witnesses were heard both at Surat and Bombay, 
 where some of the evidence was taken on commission before 
 Child, and the final conclusion was arrived at by the end of 
 1681, just before Rolt's departure. 
 
 On 3rd January, 1682, the Grand Council recorded their 
 finding. 1 
 
 ' The President and Councell mett now to peruse the whole 
 proceedings over again, and after a serious re-examination 
 of the generall articles of said Charge, it appeared to us 
 to consist partly of Errors and partly of misinformations, 
 which Mr. Petit's answere to the papers relating to it wee 
 presume will make clear to the Hon ble Company's satisfaction ; 
 and therefore in pursuance of their orders, thought fitt to 
 readmitt him into Councell in his former station, and then 
 demanded of him whither he had now resolved to returne to 
 his Station in Persia . . . but upon second Consideration, he 
 now desired to continue here as Second, and had his request 
 graunted, taking his place immediately in Councell.' 
 
 This Consultation is signed by Rolt, Caesar Chambrelan, 
 John Child, and George Bowcher ; and three weeks later 2 
 Rolt and Chambrelan sailed for England, leaving Child as 
 Agent, with Pettit and Bowcher his second and third in 
 Council. 
 
 It must have been evident to Pettit that no remedy was to 
 be hoped for, and indeed his * petition ' to the Court is rather 
 a dignified protest than an appeal for redress. 
 
 1 O. C. 4730. 2 January 23, 1681/2. 
 
50 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 * I find ', he writes, 1 ' your Honours have appointed Mr. 
 Child absolutely to succeed, without so much as any provision 
 for me ; it is not here my intention to think that your Honours 
 should have appointed me to succeed, right or wrong, or that 
 I were worthy of the Place if found guilty ; but I had con- 
 fidence your Honours would not have receeded from the 
 promise of last year, that is, if I clear'd myself I should be 
 restated in my first station, and more I desired not. But 
 certainly my case is deplorable where innocence itself will not 
 clear me, and surely I am not restated if my inferiour be 
 plac'd above me. What shall I say ? can your Honours act 
 otherwise then with all justice ? No, I will rather think my 
 misfortune has caused some misapprehension of things, beside 
 what I can here see. (A passage crossed out.) I can safely 
 say that my four years sicknes and all my misfortunes put 
 together never went so near me as this, and I must confess 
 I never had so much necessity of the vertue of fortitude as 
 now ; but I will not complain, for happy is he that can make 
 a benefit of afflictions.' 
 
 Complaints indeed were useless ; and it is perhaps no stretch 
 of imagination to see in Pettit's last words a declaration of 
 war. 
 
 John Child had now achieved his ambition ; but one 
 shudders to think of the life he must have led with his Council, 
 and of the horrors of his Sunday garden-parties. 
 
 Pettit, bent on mischief, was by himself quite formidable 
 enough ; and his friend George Bowcher from the first took up 
 his cause, and soon showed himself no less dangerous. 
 
 The position was intolerable ; but Josia Child, who was now 
 Governor of the Company, was not the man to leave things 
 half done, or to allow such a state of affairs as afterwards 
 disgraced the Council of Warren Hastings. No one indeed was 
 better aware of this than Pettit, and he and Bowcher silently 
 made their preparations for what they knew must follow. 
 
 At a consultation on August lyth, when the dispatches from 
 home were opened, they were found to contain orders that 
 Pettit and Bowcher were to be dismissed and sent home 
 immediately, ' having wrote for Mr. Petit formerly, as now we 
 shall for Mr. George Bowcher, ... we having good proof of his 
 
 1 O.C. 4763. October, 1681. 
 
iv SURAT, 1681-3 5 1 
 
 unfaithfulnes to us, and particularly of his sending by Babb, 
 late Purser of the Lancaster, 500 Cuttanees in such clandestine 
 manner as might have defrauded us of our stated damages.' l 
 The two friends quietly rose and withdrew, leaving the 
 consultation to be concluded by Child and his fourth, Francis 
 Day, 2 the Barwell of this strange Council. 
 
 ' As soon as the Council broke up,' says Hamilton, 3 
 * Mr. Child sent Orders to confine them in their Factory 
 Rooms; but Word being brought that they were not in 
 the Factory, but their Doors were locked, he gave Orders 
 to break them open, and secure all that was found in them 
 for him, especially their Papers and Books ; but they found 
 nothing but a Bed furnished and some empty Trunks.' They 
 had, in fact, in anticipation of the blow, bought a house in the 
 town, where they would be out of the Company's jurisdiction, 
 under the protection of the Governor, and quietly removed 
 their belongings to it. * When Mr. Child understood ', continues 
 our authority, ' that their Effects and Papers were removed, 
 he raved like a mad Man, but to no Purpose.' And indeed 
 we can believe it ; for in the records of the following months 
 it is in that attitude that the President constantly appears. 
 Like Josia, to be thwarted was what he could not bear. 
 
 John Child was indeed a curious mean replica of his name- 
 sake. Both were violent, implacable, and utterly unscrupulous ; 
 they shared alike a passion for power, and a predilection for 
 intrigue ; and each achieved the success he desired, at the cost 
 of the almost universal execration of his contemporaries, and 
 nearly to the ruin of the Company he served. But whereas in 
 John we see never a spark of the divine fire, Josia was instinct 
 with passion and imagination ; these two supreme gifts make his 
 letters stand out like beacons in the wilderness of the Court 
 records, and by their magic raise even his knaveries and his 
 follies into the sphere of greatness. When he buys up a whole 
 Court, from the King downwards, we feel ashamed to talk 
 
 1 Letter Book 6, February 10, 1681/2. To Surat. 
 
 2 We have been unable to trace any connexion between this gentleman 
 and his namesake, the founder of Madras. 
 
 3 Hamilton, i. 196. 
 
 E 2, 
 
53 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 of bribery ; and when he sends out six companies of infantry 
 to conquer the Emperor Aurungzebe, we remember only the 
 magnificence of his intention, to establish ' a large, well 
 grounded, sure English Dominion in India for all time to 
 come '. 
 
 Without such a touch of genius, and handicapped, perhaps, 
 by his education in India, the same qualities merely disgust 
 us in John ; we see venom instead of passion, bluster and 
 obstinacy instead of force and an indomitable will. Where 
 Josia drives a rival giant not only from the East India House, 
 but across the Channel, with Judge Jeffries at his heels, John 
 vents his spleen on the widow of a miserable Scotch tailor ; 
 where Josia throws down his glove to the Mogul empire, 
 John serves a ' Protest ' on the captain of a tramp trader. 
 
 It is not to be supposed then that Pettit had fallen a victim 
 to a paltry piece of favouritism ; Josia Child was in fact in 
 the throes of a desperate struggle for supremacy at the India 
 House, and it was an essential part of his scheme to have 
 a creature of his own in authority in India. This is not the 
 place to tell the epic of his conflict with his rival Papillon, 
 a man of as powerful a will, and of wider views than himself; 
 but it is to our purpose to mention the grounds of contention 
 between them. Papillon was for making the East India trade 
 more accessible to the mercantile public, Child for the strictest 
 monopoly; and although Papillon was for the time beaten 
 from the field, the ideas he stood for continued to gain 
 ground, and one of their results was the reappearance in 
 India of that interesting character, the Interloper. 
 
 The Interlopers were Free Traders, who, determined to 
 have a share in the great profits of Eastern commerce, defied 
 the Company's charter and invaded its preserves ; for some 
 years after the Restoration we hear nothing of them, the wave 
 of loyalty that then spread over England being strong enough 
 to clothe with majesty even the monopolies granted under the 
 royal seal. But as this feeling wore off, the eternal English 
 craving for the open door broke out again, till in 1679 we read 
 of the Free Traders fitting out ships in Cadiz for the East 
 Indies; and thereafter the Interlopers and their doings are 
 
iv SURAT, 1681-3 53 
 
 never absent from the Court's letters or the factors* con- 
 sultations. 
 
 A fine aroma of romance hangs about the names of these 
 old poachers. There was Thomas Pitt, the grandfather of 
 the great Chatham, who brought home the celebrated Pitt 
 diamond ; and who later, in the unexpected post of Governor 
 of Madras, proved himself a man of mark ; * there, too, was 
 Captain Alley, a fine figure as we meet him on his progress 
 up the river Hooghly, 'in his Barge, rowed with English 
 Mariners in Coats with Badges, and four Musicians ' ; 2 or 
 defiantly dining on board one of the Company's ships, c with 
 great Mirth and Jollity, and salvos of guns all the afternoon \ 3 
 Even later, when their successors had degenerated into 
 buccaneers, the names of Avery and Captain Kidd stir our 
 blood. 
 
 Josia Child was doing wonders for his monopoly at home ; 
 but with these gentry abroad in India it was necessary to have 
 a staunch supporter on the spot, to keep them down and see 
 they got no assistance from the Company's servants. His 
 protdgd John was the very man for the work, and having 
 made his choice and put him in, Josia was determined he 
 should not fail for lack of support. 
 
 From Agent he was made President, 4 and from President 
 General, with control over all the Company's affairs in India. 
 Praises and congratulations were showered upon him, and 
 throughout his term of office, the Court Books are full 
 of the records of bonuses, gold chains, and other donations 
 heaped upon him. Josia even bought him a baronetcy ; and 
 the Court, in a transport of gratitude, paid all the fees and 
 expenses incidental to the acquisition of their President's 
 new title. 5 
 
 As for the wretched Pettit, Josia felt no touch of com- 
 punction ; caring nothing for public opinion, and despising the 
 law's delays, he urged the President to follow his example, 
 
 1 Hedges, vol. iii. 2 Ibid., i. 104. 
 
 3 Ibid., i. 137-8, quoted by Hunter, ii. 296. 
 
 4 In the letter ordering Pettit's dismissal. 
 
 5 Court Book 34, September 30, 1685. John Child received his 
 baronetcy in this year. 
 
54 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 and ' turn out in a summary way ' any one whom he should 
 find * in his judgment and conscience ' unfit for the service ; 
 * without the formality of tedious, impertinent, and chargeable 
 examinations, attestations, certificates, letters, etc., as was 
 used in the case of Mr. Pettit to no purpose.' 1 
 
 The old despot takes high ground as usual, and there is 
 of course much to be said for such decisions on a general 
 view of results, provided that ' the judgment and conscience ' 
 are both above suspicion. * Long experience ', he continues, 
 has ' convinced Us of this certain truth, that where Things go 
 generally ill, expenses great, despatches slow, accounts con- 
 fused, debt standing out, the Instruments are certainly naught, 
 though none better furnished with Volumes of attestations, 
 certificates, etc.' 2 
 
 Nor, we may add, are bonuses and gold chains any more 
 persuasive; for it is impossible to avoid the question of how 
 John Child would fare, if judged from such a standpoint. 
 The sad fact is, that if we survey the whole course of the 
 history of the British in India, we shall not find another 
 administration in which things went so ' generally ill '. 
 
 But we must pass a kinder verdict on him than Josia's 
 criterion would allow. The Instrument indeed was naught, 
 but chiefly so in the more modern meaning of the word ; 
 and it is his insignificance that saves him from bearing the 
 responsibility for the utter failure of his administration. 
 This conclusion may seem strange, in view of the extremes 
 of praise and blame to which his memory has been subjected ; 
 but the praise comes from the Company's annalist, and is but 
 the echo of Josia's loud voice, while the blame rests almost 
 entirely on the stories of that entertaining Interloper, Alexander 
 Hamilton, whose scandalous and delightful libels would hardly 
 deceive a child. 
 
 When we come to look for facts on which to base an 
 estimate of John Child as a Governor, we find plenty of 
 proof that he was of a harsh, domineering, and oppressive 
 disposition ; but of any kind of a policy of his own we have 
 not been able to discover a trace, on which to form any 
 
 1 Letter Book 7. To Bombay. September 25, 1-682. 2 Ibid. 
 
iv SURAT, 1681-3 55 
 
 judgement. He was in fact but a mask, unpleasant enough, 
 and violently grimacing, behind which the great Josia's 
 powerful will, and extraordinary ignorance of Indian affairs, 
 drove the unfortunate Company on into the mire. 
 
 Pettit and Bowcher proceeded to devote their undoubted 
 talents and all their energy to a systematic course of reprisals 
 against the Company that had treated them so scurvily. 
 
 Their first step was to announce to the Mogul Governor, 
 and to their friends in the Dutch and French factories, that 
 the English Company was at its last gasp ; and that a new 
 Company was being formed in London, of which they were 
 the agents, and which was to supersede and replace the old 
 one. 1 This story, as tending to discredit the Company in the 
 eyes of the native powers, was viewed with the greatest alarm 
 by John Child, and there was, moreover, enough truth in it to 
 make it extremely awkward. For Papillon and his party, 
 who had recently been thrown out of Leadenhall Street, were 
 indeed already talking of starting a rival Company, a proposal 
 which ultimately took shape as the New or English Company; 
 and we strongly suspect that Pettit and Bowcher were actually 
 connected with Papillon's friends, and that their dismissal was 
 a chapter in the general rout of that party. 2 
 
 However this may be, their action declared them the 
 professed friends of the Interlopers, against whom Josia's 
 word had gone forth, and likely to be of the greatest help 
 to them ; for the chief need of the Free Traders was expe- 
 rienced agents, resident in India, with a knowledge of the 
 markets and influence among the native merchants and rulers. 
 
 Pettit, indeed, in his correspondence with the President, 
 took the ground that whatever might be surmised as to his 
 intentions, he could not be set down as an Interloper without 
 
 1 0.0.4905. 
 
 2 Papillon was finally defeated on what we may call a Free Trade 
 motion in November, 1681, and ejected from the Court of Committees at 
 the next election in April, 1682 (Hunter, ii. 285). The letter dismissing 
 Pettit and Bowcher is dated February, 1682. Papillon's chief supporter 
 was Sir Samuel Barnardiston ; and, though we have not succeeded in 
 tracing John Pettit's pedigree, there was a family of Pettits connected 
 with the Barnardistons : vide H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in 
 England, p. 743. 
 
56 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 some proof of a definite breach of the Company's charter ; 
 but in the face of his undisguised hostility we must share 
 Child's view, that this was a mere quibble. 
 
 ' You stand still on your innocence in this,' he writes, 1 c but 
 . . . your fig leafe Coate of pretences will not be able to Cover 
 you, I thinck.' 
 
 Accordingly, a meeting was convened of all the factors, at 
 which the President proclaimed Pettit and Bowcher Interlopers 
 and outlaws ; directing all the Company's servants ' to take all 
 opportunitys to seize and secure whatever effects they can 
 meete with of theirs'. 2 By this means he laid hands on 
 a very considerable amount of his antagonists' property, 3 
 and made it into a fund for carrying on war against them. 
 His next step was to approach the Governor of Surat, for 
 permission to seize their persons and send them home ; but 
 here he found himself anticipated, for the Dutch Directore, 
 Jaquis Du Buequos, 4 exerted his influence in their favour, and 
 the Governor refused to deliver them up. ' For our loveing 
 ffriend Du Buequos/ says Child in reporting the affair, ' him 
 wee shall serve with a Protest.' 5 
 
 This serving of Protests seems to have been the unfailing 
 resource at this period of any one who found himself in 
 a difficulty; originally, we suppose that the object was to 
 supply a locus standi for a future law-suit, but by this time 
 it had apparently become a merely formal piece of etiquette, 
 without any ulterior object at all. Like the less genteel volley 
 of oaths, a Protest doubtless relieved the temper while defining 
 the attitude of mind, and in going through the records of this 
 time of strained relations, we have had to pick our way through 
 a regular forest of these curious documents. 
 
 The chief storm-centre was George Bowcher's house; 
 ' Madam Bowcher,' as she is called, seems to have started, 
 with the help of her crony Mrs. Minchin, the duellist captain's 
 wife, a sort of anti-Child salon ; whence would come periodical 
 
 Misc. Factory Records 16. December 12, 1682. 
 
 Surat Factory Records 4. December 16, 1682. 
 
 Child owns to Rs. 40,000, but it was much more according to Pettit. 
 
 So called by Child. His real name seems to have been Van der Beek. 
 
 O. C. 4895. 
 
iv SURAT, 1681-3 57 
 
 whispers of the most audacious and unprincipled conversations. 
 Where the Protests lie thickest around, there we may be pretty 
 certain to find the names of these two militant ladies ; and 
 they clearly succeeded in dividing the town, in spite of the 
 President's attempts to defeat them by the exercise of his 
 authority. 
 
 There is an amusing letter extant 1 from Bowcher to his 
 friend Michell, 2 then chief at Calicut, from which we may 
 quote : 
 
 ' Your Brother Child is the maddest President that ever was 
 in Surat ; . . . He seizes all Letters and other Concernes 
 of Mr. Petits and mine, uppon noe other account but because 
 Wee will not goe home, ... he has seized on all my consign- 
 ments out of England, being to the vallue of at least 30,000 
 rupees, . . . and more of Mr. Pettit's, has endeavoured by 
 bribes of at least 60,000 rupees to the Governor and other 
 officers to send us home by fierce, but could not effect it . . . 
 the whole towne is concerned at it and in gennerall doe all 
 take our part. ... I believe the Company had better have 
 given 50,000^" sterling than ever made him President. . . . 
 I shall say noe more but that hee is gott a horseback and is 
 riding to the Devill as fast as he can. . . . S r , mine and wife's 
 service to your Selfe and Lady concludes this from 
 
 Your affectionate firiend and servant 
 
 GEORGE BOWCHER. 
 Surat 9 th fieb. 1683. 
 
 ' He has seized on my wife's Slaves, and has prohibited 
 all English Banians coming neare us, and forbid all English 
 men and weomen to have any correspondence with us, ... 
 but some are refractory. Mrs. Minchin for not obeying is 
 threatened to be sent to Bombay, and Mrs. Benbow for 
 continueing with my wife was forbid the fiactory; and I 
 believe if it were possible those that are disobedient to his 
 orders, he would forbid their entrance into the Kingdom of 
 Heaven too Basta Idem. G. B.' 
 
 Child denies the charge of bribing the Governor ; ' wee gave 
 him but two water dogs,' he says, 3 ' and he seeing a pair of 
 
 1 0.0.4911. 
 
 2 Michell was another brother-in-law of John Child, though evidently 
 in the opposite camp. He had married Miss Dorcas Child. 
 
 3 O.C. 4935. April 23, 1683. 
 
58 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Pistolls of the Presidents, . . . which he seemed to like, . . . 
 the President presented him with them.' It is however certain 
 that the Governor was induced to change his views, and what 
 we know of the native Governors of the period does not help 
 us to believe that such a change could be obtained so cheaply. 
 However, toy spaniells were no doubt highly valued, and it is 
 amusing to find a fashion led by King Charles spreading so 
 far afield as to the court of Aurungzebe. In another letter I 
 Child writes home: 'To oblidge the Governor and other 
 publick Ministers wee humbly begg your Honours will please 
 to order us by the ships three or four Little water Spanniells, 
 and as many neate little Doggs, the Lesse the more accept- 
 able/ 
 
 By hook or by crook the Governor was gained over by 
 the President, and as the end of the cold weather drew near, 
 when the ships sailed for England, the situation of Pettit and 
 Bowcher became critical, and there was every reason to fear 
 they would be seized and sent home. 
 
 In this emergency they resorted to an artifice ; several 
 native merchants in Surat were put up to make claims for 
 debts alleged to be due to them by the two Englishmen, and 
 by a law which the Governor dared not disobey, no one 
 indebted to any of the Emperor's subjects might leave the 
 country. The Governor, on this, threw Pettit into prison, 
 allowing Bowcher to remain at large to ^attend to the affairs 
 of himself and his partner. 2 
 
 This must have been at the end of January 1683, and the 
 unfortunate Pettit seems to have remained a prisoner for some 
 six months. 3 He now resolved to lay his case before a higher 
 authority, and addressed an appeal to the Emperor himself, 
 a copy of which is still among the India Office records. 4 
 
 1 O.C. 4905. January 26, 1682/3, para. 131. 
 
 2 O. C. 4922. April 4, 1683. These negotiations are described at 
 great length in Misc. Factory Records 16. On one occasion the 
 Governor, summoning Child and Pettit before him, commanded them 
 to embrace one another in his presence ; an order they were obliged to 
 comply with on the spot, in open Durbar. 
 
 8 O. C. 5062. Keigwin to Charles II. March 25, 1684. 
 4 O.C. 4918 (no date). 
 
iv SURAT, 1681-3 59 
 
 He declares that his debts are in the ordinary course of 
 business and amply covered by the contents of his various 
 ships, then on their way to Surat, and asks to be released 
 from prison, where he now lies solely owing to Child's 
 machinations. 
 
 Meanwhile, the President hit upon the simple plan of giving 
 the forty thousand rupees, which he had seized from Pettit 
 and Bowcher, to the Governor, to pay their debts and obtain 
 their release ; a suggestion that admirably suited that officer, 
 who would doubtless have found some means of gaining by 
 the transaction. But to his disappointment word came in 
 the nick of time from Aurungzebe that no further action was 
 to be taken till he had completed his inquiries; since the 
 Emperor himself was dealing with the case, there was no 
 more to be said, and Child wrote to the Court to express 
 his regret ' that those two Blades goe not towards you on 
 these Shipps'. 1 He was also obliged to go to the expense 
 of paying an agent at the Mogul Court to counteract the 
 schemes of his opponents with Aurungzebe. 2 
 
 The hot weather of 1683 passed away in continuous agita- 
 tions ; with Madam Bowcher presiding at her tea-parties, her 
 husband ' divers times impudently abusing our Brokers in 
 the Custome House } , 3 Child seizing the consignments of the 
 partners as they arrived, and Pettit still in prison but con- 
 triving to serve Protests on the Captains who delivered 
 them up. 4 
 
 Child's action was indeed utterly illegal, and hard to justify 
 on any grounds whatever, except on the assumption that the 
 Company's interests stood above considerations either of law 
 or morals, a contention that in England at any rate could not 
 be advanced. His letters home betray a certain anxiety on 
 this head, but every move met with Josia's complete approval, 
 and the Court cheerfully paid heavy damages on demand to 
 the merchants in London whose dispatches on commission to 
 Pettit and Bowcher had been seized by the President. 
 
 1 O. C. 4905. January 26, 1682/3. 2 Ibid. 
 
 8 O. C. 4922. April 4, 1683. 
 
 4 O. C. 4928. April 9, 1683. Protest of John Pettitt to Captain Bowers. 
 
60 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Pettit put his case with his usual lucidity to Captain Hilder, 
 the master of the Prosperous, one of his own ships that 
 arrived in the river's mouth about this time, whom Child was 
 trying to intimidate into giving up the cargo. 
 
 If the President relied on the King's Proclamation against 
 Interlopers, he argued, 1 that proclamation had no concern 
 with the port-to-port trade ; moreover, no Interloper had 
 appeared in Surat since he was dismissed, so that there could 
 be no proof, beyond a presumption, that he even intended 
 to help the Free Traders ; and even if he were proved an 
 Interloper, only such of his goods and money as were actually 
 employed in interloping could be legally seized. Where, he 
 asks, is Child's authority for all this robbery, and for even 
 issuing orders to prevent ' my owne servants ffrom coming 
 neare mee'? Certainly not in the charter, for a breach of 
 which a man could only be taken before a magistrate ; and 
 the Company, except in Bombay, had no c magistratical' 
 powers. 
 
 Much of this is Pettit's 'fig leafe Coate ' again, but his 
 main contention cannot be denied ; Interloper or no, Child's 
 behaviour was indefensible on grounds either of reason or 
 justice. But neither reason nor justice was now in question. 
 The quarrel had passed beyond such considerations, and each 
 party was by this time intent on the ruin of the other at all 
 costs. 
 
 Hitherto the scoring had all been on the side of the 
 President ; but he was now to experience a series of reverses. 
 In August, Aurungzebe sent down orders for the release of 
 Pettit ; and not only so, but also signified his permission that 
 he and Bowcher should come to his Court to pay their respects 
 in person. The Governor became immediately all smiles ; 
 Pettit was released with apologies, and his cargo from the 
 Prosperous passed through the customs by a special order. 
 ' On which ', reports the discomfitted President, 2 ' the towne 
 was not big enough for them ; all us they Looked on as 
 a small morsell, to downe with us ; not sufficient, but the 
 
 1 O. C. 4934- 
 
 2 O.C. 5001. November 30, 1683. Child to the Court. 
 
iv SURAT, 1 681-3 6l 
 
 Governour must be swallowed too.' They were for getting 
 a firmaund, or charter, from Aurungzebe for themselves and 
 their Company, that would make the old Company look 
 small ; and their preparations for their journey to Court were 
 made in great style. ' All sorts of rich cloaths made, and 
 many of them after the manner of the Moors ; two pallan- 
 keens fitted up and that very richly ; two fflags made, and 
 a Tent bought.' 1 And so, after publicly showing to the 
 Governor their letter from the Emperor, and even submitting 
 a request that John Child himself should be sent with them, 
 they started off, with flags flying, a stately cavalcade of 
 horses, oxen, pallankeens, and camels, and pitched their camp 
 for the first night, just outside the walls of Surat. 
 
 Their triumph was premature ; for Child's agent had in the 
 nick of time obtained another order from the Emperor, can- 
 celling the invitation; and the next morning their progress 
 was stopped by the Governor of Surat. However, to the 
 President's annoyance, George Bowcher early in September 
 * privately stole out of the citty ' and went to Court, leaving 
 Pettit behind, who ' makes a great stirr ', and ' hath sent 
 Brokers all abroade'. 2 
 
 With the beginning of the cold weather the first of the 
 dreaded Interlopers made her appearance ; this was the 
 Society, Captain Beauchamp, whose purser, Mr. Capell, came 
 in advance overland to make arrangements for her visit to 
 Surat. Capell went direct to Pettit, by whose newly acquired 
 influence with the Governor all difficulties were quickly 
 smoothed over, and the Society sailed boldly into the river's 
 mouth, where, as the President bitterly reports, 3 'she lyes 
 Lording it with her ffiag at topmast head ; her stock, as wee 
 are informed, is about i,2OO;. Petit is very brisk, and as buisy 
 as a henn with One chick ; concludes now he hath overcome 
 all, but wee hope to afford him a pull back.' The nature of 
 the intended * pull back' we hear later. 4 
 
 ' The Gentleman at the River's Mouth I have a continuall 
 eye on. ... I have imployed some Englishmen, that I am 
 
 1 O. C. 5001. November 30, 1683. Child to the Court. 
 
 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 O. C. 5005. December, 1683. 
 
6s KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 sure wants not for courage, ... to make themselves gratious 
 with Petit etc. ; and have directed them that if [they] meet with 
 an Opportunity to gitt Petit, the Captain, and Capell together, 
 ... to secure them on board one of your Shipps. . . . With 
 Capell they have gained some confidence, and he opens his 
 heart. . . . The shipps company is discontented, I have 
 instruments that blowes that Cole.' 
 
 We next find orders from Child to Mr. Gladman, 1 who had 
 succeeded to the Council, to make the attempt ; ' but be sure 
 to avoid bloodshed. You may employ men to trepan them 
 and be at some charge of punch or any other bate to draw 
 them into your nett.' 
 
 Gladman's chance came when the three intended victims 
 went to Swally, to have a talk with 'old Smith', who 
 apparently held some pensioner's post there under the 
 Company. 2 The attempt was made, but all its principal 
 objects got away, and only a minor Interloper, called Johnson, 
 fell into Gladman's clutches. Poor old Smith was dismissed, 
 and Johnson sent home in custody to the Company ; and the 
 only other result was an angry letter from Capell to Gladman, 
 in which the fire-eating purser, while refusing to allow himself 
 to be taken by ' a troop of mechanicks ', declares that he ' will 
 not decline to meet you singly or with your second, when and 
 where, and in what manner you plea.se, and there try if you 
 can accomplish your designe ' ; adding, in reference to the 
 President, ' if it cost me a Thousand pound, I will cause him 
 to be sent for home, where we will handle his button-making 
 honour other wayes than here we do.' 3 Insulting gibes at 
 Child's origin, usually with a reference to buttons, are frequent 
 in the records ; and we suppose that his father must have been 
 at one time in the haberdashery business. 
 
 No greater success crowned Child's efforts in the matter of 
 Pettit's ship, the Prosperous ; he succeeded in gaining over 
 her captain, Hilder, but Pettit promptly discharged him and 
 
 1 O. C. 5010. 
 
 2 This was probably the Robert Smith who had been sent to Bombay 
 by the Court in 1681 as Mint Master ; he had been found useless in that 
 capacity, and was sent home soon after these events. 
 
 3 O. C. 5013 and 5015. 
 
IV SURAT, 1681-3 63 
 
 put a new man of his own in command, a Captain Howell ; 
 and when Francis Day attempted to board her, Howell made 
 a display of force and refused to let him approach. Hilder 
 was given command of one of the Company's ships, the Return^ 
 which was about to sail for Bombay with a supply of powder 
 and other stores, and there we shall meet him again shortly. 
 
 A still more serious shock awaited the President ; among 
 other articles on which duty had to be paid on leaving Surat 
 was money, but Child had been in the habit of smuggling 
 through the customs the various remittances that had period- 
 ically to be sent to the sub-agencies. This November, as 
 usual, the sloop Rainbow, which was to take the money, was 
 loaded up with * Chickeens ', and ' the business went on so 
 currently that it was counted effected \ l But they reckoned 
 without Pettit, who of course knew their secrets, and had 
 given them away to the Governor. ' Your sloop near arrived 
 Rancale, where it was to be landed, when a boat clapt her on 
 board full of men ', and to complete the misfortune, the shore 
 suddenly appeared ' all lined with Peons '. 2 For the future 
 the President not only had to pay duty, but found himself in 
 the Governor's black books. 
 
 With Bowcher at Court with the Emperor, Pettit defiant 
 and successful in Surat, Interlopers lording it at the river's 
 mouth, and the Governor furious over the chickeens, the close 
 of the year 1683 found John Child, in spite of the news of his 
 approaching baronetcy, in an uncomfortable position. But 
 he had yet to learn the worst of Pettit's vengeance, though 
 the blow had already fallen in Bombay. One hint of the 
 coming trouble he had had, if he could have read its indication 
 aright, from our old friend Judge Gary, who had recently been 
 pressing in the most insistent and mysterious way for permis- 
 sion to resign his appointment and leave Bombay at once. In 
 vain Child begged him to wait till he could find a successor, 
 pointing out that the healthy time of year in Bombay was 
 just beginning, and that there could be no object in going 
 away; the old judge knew better than the President that 
 
 1 Orme's MSS. Letter from Child to the Court, November 30, 1683. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
64 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 events in Bombay were likely to take a turn very unhealthy 
 for one of his constitution. 1 
 
 Not until January 5, 1684, were Child's eyes opened ; on 
 that day the Rainbow came unexpectedly back to Swally, 
 bringing the news of the loss of the Island. It seems that 
 'turning a Little into Bombay, her Commander went ashoare; 
 he walked from his Boate a great way, and was very neere the 
 ffort, but as God pleased to order it, stood still and sent a man 
 to call Mr. James Buttler.' 2 Buttler came from the Fort and 
 ( hasted him back to his Boate, telling him as he walked along 
 that your ffort was possessed by Captain Richard Keigwin 
 etc., the Deputie Governor etc. imprisoned, the ship Returne 
 seized on.' The Captain himself had a narrow escape, for he 
 had ' noe sooner gott into his Boate but a muskett was 
 discharged, Drummes beate', and a party of men sent to 
 seize him ; ' but the Almighty was pleased to devert it.' 3 
 
 Bombay had passed out of the hands of the Company. 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records. Child to Ward. October 29, 1683. 
 
 2 One of the Bombay Council. s O. C. 5060. January 14, 1683/4. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CHARLES WARD AND THE GARRISON 
 IN BOMBAY, 1682-3. 
 
 MANSELL SMITH, who acted as Deputy Governor on Child's 
 departure for Surat in December 1681, did not remain long in 
 Bombay ; for on Pettit's electing to stop in India, Mansell 
 Smith was ordered to Persia as Agent, and on February 9 he 
 made over charge to the new Deputy Governor, Charles Ward, 
 the brother-in-law of the President. 1 
 
 Ward was a man for whom nobody had a good word to say ; 
 personally, he seems to have been as tactless and almost as 
 unpopular as the President, and to have been unable to control 
 either his own temper or the men under his command. It 
 must be admitted, however, that his position was a difficult 
 one ; he disgusted Bombay by continuing the system of cheese- 
 paring begun by Child, and enraged his brother-in-law by 
 unceasingly protesting that it was not only impolitic but 
 dangerous, and by his repeated requests for more men, more 
 officers, more ships, and more powder. 2 He was, in fact, in 
 a false position, and in carrying out a policy that he disapproved 
 of, inevitably incurred universal odium ; his intentions were no 
 doubt good enough, but his character lacked either the decision 
 or the amenity necessary to save him in such a predicament. 
 
 The poor man's troubles began soon enough ; on his arrival 
 he found that a Mogul army was at Kalyan facing Sombaji's 
 forces in the Corlahs ; and that Bombay was becoming more 
 and more the centre of hostilities. 3 
 
 Sombaji threatened the immediate invasion of the Island if 
 the Siddee were again admitted, but when April came round 
 
 1 Orme's MSS., February 10, 1681/2. 
 
 2 Vide many letters in Orme's MSS. 
 
 3 For this, and the following events, vide Orme's Fragments and MSS. 
 
66 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 it was impossible to prevent the entry of his fleet, and as usual 
 the Siddee's men at once began their favourite pastime of 
 cutting off the noses of the people on the Corlahs. Sombaji 
 now began to act in earnest, and for a start shut off the supply 
 of provisions through his lands, with the result that famine 
 was added to the troubles of the unfortunate Bombay. 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor had been fitting out at Surat a fleet 
 of his own, to work with the Siddee and counteract the recent 
 naval activity of the Mahrattas ; this was ready in November 
 1 682, and in that month sailed into Bombay, without any 
 compliment to the Fort or even the common civility of giving 
 notice to the Deputy Governor of their coming. On their 
 arrival, 3,000 soldiers were landed at Mazagon, who practically 
 took possession of the Island, the wretched English standing 
 permanently on guard against them in the Fort, not knowing 
 when they might be forced to fight for this last shelter. 
 Sombaji, who had actually given orders for the invasion of 
 Bombay, now changed his mind ; l for it must have become 
 evident to him that if the English were to be turned out, the 
 Moguls would be first in the field ; and that so long as they 
 held the Fort they might still be useful to him against his 
 enemies. He therefore sent an ambassador to Bombay to 
 propose a defensive alliance with the English, and to offer 
 them his assistance if they would make a definite stand against 
 the yearly visits of the Mogul fleets. 
 
 Unable to face the Emperor's resentment, Child found it 
 yet very desirable to temporize with Sombaji, and it was 
 decided, on the return of his ambassador, to send him an envoy 
 from Bombay ; in his instructions to Ward on the subject, 2 the 
 President specially referred to a request he had recently 
 received from the Madras Presidency, who required a firmaund 
 from Sombaji for their trade in his southern possessions. It 
 was hoped that this might be obtained through the mission 
 from Bombay, in return for the very dubious promises which 
 were the best the English could offer. The envoy chosen was 
 
 1 Grant Duff, ch. x., attributes Sombaji's change of policy to intelligence 
 of great preparations on the part of Aurungzebe. 
 
 2 Orme's MSS., December 12, 1682. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1682-3 6? 
 
 Henry Smith, the second on the Bombay Council, a man who 
 seems to have suffered, as Orme says, from ' some intemperance, 
 if not disorder, of mind ' ; 1 and he set out in December with 
 Sombaji's ambassador in the Company's balloon, or state barge. 
 As they were landing, the balloon was boarded by the Siddee's 
 men, and their accompanying luggage-boat carried off; Henry 
 Smith was obliged to return to Bombay, while the ambassador, 
 who had managed to hide himself, was landed on the mud and 
 left to make his way home as best he could. 
 
 On this outrage, Judge Gary was sent to expostulate with 
 Ramnaut Khan, the Mogul general at Kalyan, by whose orders 
 both the Island and the Corlahs were left in comparative peace 
 for the rest of the season. 
 
 In the meantime, besides Pettit's guard-house at Mahim, 
 Ward erected five others, at Mazagon, Sion, Munchum, Merin, 
 and on Old Woman's Island ; 2 but the north-east bastion was 
 still unfinished, and his position was much weakened by the 
 loss of the Revenge, which was totally wrecked off Daman at 
 the beginning of 1682, leaving only the Hunter frigate for the 
 defence of the harbour. 3 
 
 Such were the events to which Keigwin returned from 
 England. He had arrived the previous cold weather (1681-2) 
 with the commission of chief command of the Bombay forces* 
 a seat on the Council there, and a salary of six shillings a day, 
 with an allowance for diet. 4 His small force was in a most 
 unsatisfactory state ; for in addition to their niggardly treat- 
 ment in the matter of stores and ammunition, they were 
 seriously undermanned in the officers' ranks. The two com- 
 panies were commanded, the Eldest by Captain Niccolls, and 
 the Youngest by Lieutenant Henry Fletcher ; the former we 
 know, and of Fletcher we may say here that he seems to have 
 
 1 Orme's Fragments. Smith, who had been, we believe, on the Council 
 at Bantam, had been already once discharged, and once reduced to 
 a private soldier ; but his skill at accounts made him indispensable to the 
 Company. 
 
 2 Bombay Factory Records 9. Ward to Child, June 8, 1682. 
 
 3 Captain Minchin seems to have gone to Bengal after the loss of his 
 ship, and we find him there in 1683. But Mrs. Minchin was in Surat in 
 1684, staying with Madam Bowcher. 
 
 4 Letter Book 6, March 15, 1680/1. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 been a good enough officer, though illiterate and perhaps rather 
 overwhelmed by his family; for he had five children on 
 the Island, and Child says that he was ' ruled by his wife, 
 a wicked woman'. 1 
 
 Each company commander was supported by one ensign, 
 and that was the sum-total of commissioned officers in the 
 garrison. NiccolPs ensign was one John Thorburn, who was 
 really the moving spirit in the rebellion ; he seems to have 
 had a cross-grained disposition, and was originally a Scotch 
 tailor, who came out as a private ' sentinel ' to Bombay, where 
 his quickness of wit led to his being taken up by Child when 
 Deputy Governor, and ultimately promoted to the rank of 
 ensign. 2 Fletcher's junior was a man called Gyles, who was 
 discharged about a year later for misconduct, and does not 
 further appear in our story ; on his discharge, Ward wanted to 
 promote in his place Thomas Wilkins, the senior sergeant of 
 the Eldest Company, but Child, still intent on retrenchment, 
 would not sanction it ; and even made Wilkins refund the 
 extra pay he had drawn in anticipation of his confirmation. 3 
 There were thus only a captain, a lieutenant, and two ensigns 
 for the two companies, in addition to which we hear of Ser- 
 geants Wilkins, Samuel Smith, Thomas Sugar, and Thomas 
 Browne, two in each company. The militia was even worse 
 off, for though they had to remain under arms all through 
 these troubled times, they had but one ensign, Daniel Hughes, 
 for the whole body of five hundred men ; while for non- 
 commissioned officers there were only three sergeants and two 
 corporals. Ward begged in vain for more officers for the 
 militia, but Child told him that Keigwin could look after it. 4 
 
 At the end of 1682 matters were made worse by the dis- 
 charge of Niccolls, who relapsed into a freeman, while the 
 Court ordered his place to be filled by Keigwin, without any 
 additional pay ; 5 so that this officer had now, in addition to 
 
 1 O. C. 5236. 
 
 2 Letter Book 7. Report to Charles II of Secret Committee on 
 Keigwin's Rebellion, August 15, 1684. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records 91. June 21, and October 2, 1683. 
 
 4 Orme's MSS. Ward to Child, May 16 and October 5, 1682 ; Child 
 to Ward, October 16, 1682. 
 
 6 Letter Book 6, January 31, 1681/2. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1682-3 69 
 
 his duties as commander of the garrison, the Eldest Company 
 and the militia both on his hands ; and at the same time he 
 was deprived of his position on the Council. 1 This led at once 
 to an attack on his pay ; for his diet-money had hitherto been 
 drawn at the rate laid down for Councillors, and as there was 
 no such allowance for ordinary factors, the President contended 
 that his diet-money went with his seat on the Council. 
 Keigwin protested, and referred Child to the terms laid down 
 on his reappointment, in which it was distinctly ruled that he 
 was to have his diet free of charge ; and the matter was referred 
 home, Keigwin continuing to draw his previous allowance of 
 Rs. 25 per month, on the understanding that he would refund 
 it if the Court decided against him. 2 
 
 The officers had every reason to be dissatisfied ; it was sheer 
 madness on the part of the President to pursue this policy of 
 petty economy, when literally at any moment an attack might 
 be made on the Fort by either Mogul or Mahratta ; but Child 
 continued to starve Bombay, and finally when the chief gunner 
 submitted an indent for what he considered absolutely necessary, 
 and when Charles Ward had sent it on after cutting it down as 
 low as he dared, the President told the Court not to supply 
 any of the stores asked for at all, as he thought them too 
 costly. 3 
 
 A personal grievance of the officers, the old story of the 
 dead musters, also claims notice here ; the orders of the Court 
 abolishing this privilege, and demanding the usual refund, 
 came out at the same time as Keigwin. The four officers 
 concerned, Niccolls, Fletcher, Thorburn, and Gyles, thereupon 
 composed an appeal to the Court, of which a copy survives, 4 
 in which they asked for a reconsideration of the orders, in 
 terms entirely unobjectionable and free from any trace of the 
 insubordination afterwards ascribed to them. Ward for some 
 reason objected to it, and quite inexcusably refused even to 
 forward it ; on which the four officers sent it direct to the 
 Court. Keigwin did not sign this document, as he was not 
 concerned, having made a special arrangement when at home, 
 
 1 Ibid. 2 O. C. 5001. November 30, 1683. 
 
 3 O. C. 4974 and 5001. O. C. 5062. 
 
70 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 that he was to be allowed to draw pay for one servant. The 
 Court's savage and stupid reply to this appeal was the last 
 straw to be laid on the backs of their long suffering garrison in 
 Bombay. 
 
 The year 1683 opened stormily for the Deputy Governor ; 
 where others were discontented, Henry Smith became out- 
 rageous, and there began a series of violent recriminations 
 between him and Ward, which culminated in a disgraceful 
 scene in Council, when Smith actually drew his sword on his 
 superior. Child clearly considered Ward equally to blame, 1 
 but authority had to be supported. 
 
 'Though the Deputy Governor let fall a passionate ex- 
 pression,' he says, 'there is no excuse for Smith'; and again, 
 ' though his threatening expressions to Mr. Smith had better 
 been waved, that could be no pretence for Mr. Smith soe 
 passionately to draw his sword, and afterwards to undervalue 
 the Deputy Governor and persist in his abuses. . . . Wherefore 
 to reconcile the difference in the best manner wee can, and doe 
 the Deputy Governor right, Wee doe order and require that 
 Mr. Hen. Smith asks the Deputy Governor's pardon before the 
 Councell and all the Commission officers in the long Gallery in 
 the Fort ; and that he shall not be permitted to weare a sword 
 for four Months after, without the Deputy Governor's leave 
 first had.' 2 
 
 The punishment seems light, but the President was by now 
 at war with his brother-in-law, as he was with nearly every one 
 else in India. Ward protested against Child's attitude towards 
 him, in a letter which the President hoped was 'only an 
 extempory passion ' ; but it was not, and later he wrote to the 
 Deputy Governor : 
 
 ( You tell us our letters are not pleasing, . . . but let them be 
 morose, rude, indecent, stuffed with impertinent inquiries, and 
 full of Ignorance, all this will not excuse you of performing 
 your Duty . . . and paying some respect to us.' 3 
 
 With Child bullying at Surat, and his subordinates on the 
 
 1 Child wishes that Ward and Smith would study the affairs of the 
 Island ' instead of heaving dirt on one another '. Surat Factory Records, 
 October 29, 1683. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 91. Child to Ward, March 16, 1683. 
 
 3 Ibid., October 2, 1683. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1682-3 71 
 
 verge of revolt at Bombay, Ward was between the devil and 
 the deep sea; and must have been relieved to send Henry 
 Smith off once more on his embassy to Sombaji. But that 
 ' crazy councillor ' was a bad selection for such a duty ; 
 negotiations went swimmingly along, and the treaty was 
 even written out ready for signature, when Henry Smith, 
 having apparently spent on himself the money entrusted 
 to him for the usual presents, found the affair come to 
 a dead stand in the absence of these civilities, and at last 
 returned to Bombay without taking leave of Sombaji's 
 officers. 1 
 
 From now onwards we find him in the thick of each 
 successive trouble ; far too irresponsible and scatter-brained 
 to be at the bottom of anything, except in the prejudiced 
 imagination of the Deputy Governor, he was yet always froth- 
 ing on the surface of whatever mischief might be brewing. 
 
 In May, two English soldiers, walking in the bazaar un- 
 armed, were set upon by some of the Siddee's men and 
 one of them killed, while the other was seriously wounded* 
 This event threw the whole garrison into a fever of 
 rage, and Ward was besieged with a clamour to demand 
 instant retribution. They declared that the Siddee's in- 
 creasing insolence had gone too long unchecked, and that 
 if this crowning outrage were not immediately avenged in the 
 most exemplary manner, the honour and even the safety 
 of the English was lost irretrievably. It was almost equally 
 dangerous to take a high tone, or to let the matter pass. 
 Ward demanded the culprits from the Siddee, but had not 
 the firmness to meet that admiral's evasions, who, while 
 promising to hand them over, shipped them off secretly to 
 Surat ; and a perfect storm of fury broke over the Deputy 
 Governor's head. Of the details of what happened we have 
 no record ; but we hear of the Youngest Company, with 
 Fletcher and Wilkins at their head, menacingly drawn up, 
 'over against the ffort under the Mango tree', 2 and Henry 
 Smith fluttering round, urging them to take vengeance into their 
 own hands, since the Deputy Governor was afraid to face the 
 1 Orme's Fragments. 2 O. C. 4992. 
 
73 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Siddee. We hear of their being finally induced to return 
 to their quarters by the good advice of old Gary ; 1 but they 
 remained in a half-mutinous state, and shortly afterwards, 
 on their being paid in what they declared to be debased 
 money, there was another outbreak, which was only suppressed 
 at the cost of shooting some and cashiering others of the 
 mutineers. 2 
 
 These events took place in May and June, and feeling 
 continued to run very high, in spite of Ward's unremitting 
 efforts to induce the Siddee to give up the murderers. Child, 
 while negotiating with the governor of Surat for the same 
 purpose, laid all the blame of the troubles on his wretched 
 brother-in-law. 
 
 On the 3Oth June, while Bombay was still in the height 
 of this exasperation, another event occurred which threatened 
 the most alarming consequences. 
 
 One of the Company's ships, the Berkeley Castle, had 
 arrived in the harbour, and her commander, Captain Consett, 
 gave a party on board. Between nine and ten in the morning 
 the guests came from the shore, comprising Henry Smith, 
 Keigwin, Fletcher, Niccolls, and Stephen Adderton. Consett, 
 according to Child, was c a man of ingenuity and understand- 
 ing, not at all given to drinck, nor in the Least Seemingly 
 passionate ; but what came to him the 3oth June God knows.' 3 
 The talk apparently, after dinner, dwelt on the all-absorbing 
 topics of the Siddee and Ward's incompetence ; in the course 
 of which mention was made of the Deputy Governor's having 
 forbidden the purchase of slaves from the Siddee, for fear of 
 giving offence to Sombaji, from whose Corlahs they were 
 taken, in spite of his having notoriously bought one himself. 
 Consett asked if the Siddee really sold slaves, and was told 
 that nothing but Ward's order prevented him from buying 
 as many as he liked at once. The Captain remarked that 
 he wanted 'a girle', and without more ado got into his 
 pinnace with his mate, and rowed across to the Siddi's own 
 flag-ship, which was lying close by; Niccolls followed them 
 up, and the three half-drunken Englishmen climbed up on 
 1 O. C. 4987. 2 O. C. 5062. 3 O. C. 5001. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1682-3 73 
 
 to the deck, and found themselves face to face with Cossim 
 himself. What passed precisely, we do not know ; but after 
 a brief exchange of compliments, the three Englishmen were 
 summarily thrown overboard, Consett with a wounded leg, 
 and with difficulty made their way back to the Berkeley 
 Castle. 
 
 On their return there was a chorus of indignation against 
 the Siddi, and Consett, not sobered by his swim, actually fired 
 1 nine pieces of Ordnance ' at the flag-ship. 1 
 
 Who was mainly responsible for this insane affair it is hard 
 to say ; Ward accused Henry Smith, and Child ' Niccolls, that 
 naughty, turbulent Man '. 2 But it seems clear that the whole 
 party, and indeed the whole of Bombay, was so wrought up 
 against the Siddee that an explosion was almost inevitable. 
 
 The Deputy Governor as usual was blamed by all parties ; 
 the garrison was furious with him for not taking their side in 
 what they pretended was a fresh insult from Cossim, while 
 Child wrote him a severe reprimand for allowing the inci- 
 dent to take place, and for not at least serving a Protest 
 on Captain Consett. 3 The President indeed flew into a panic, 
 when the news arrived in Surat ; remembering what Rolt had 
 suffered from the Governor on far less serious grounds, he fully 
 expected an attack on the factory as soon as Cossim's report 
 arrived. ' Your unwelcome letter more like a touling bell for 
 us all ', he writes to Ward, makes him fear for the lives of ' all 
 us here, and those Gentlemen in the Bay, 4 with the losse of 
 the Hon. Company's whole concernes ' ; and again, ' When wee 
 opened our doores this morning, did not know but what it 
 was our last day.' 5 
 
 Fortunately Consett's ordnance had done but little damage, 
 and the matter ended with a severe scolding from the Gover- 
 nor ; but of course all hope of reparation for the bazaar 
 murder had to be given up ; and the only other results were 
 a Protest served on Consett, and the suspension of Henry 
 Smith. 
 
 1 O. C. 5062 and 5117. 2 O. C. 5001. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records 91. September 6, 1683. 4 Bengal. 
 
 5 Surat Factory Records 91. Child to Ward, July 13, 1683. 
 
74 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 This maniac's proceedings had now passed all bounds; he 
 was openly raving against Ward and preaching sedition 
 among the garrison, and 'hardly anything was done in 
 Councill, but immediately it was at the Coffee House.' 1 
 Finally, his wife, who seems to have been a good match 
 for him, sent her servant with a message to the Deputy 
 Governor, which like President Rolt ' we know not well how 
 to put into such decent terms as may fitly become us.' Ward, 
 who was talking at the time to Peachy Wattson, the senior 
 chaplain, and Gape of his Council, ' proposed whether woemen 
 were not as liable to punishment as men, . . . and then said 
 there was ducking and carting/ 2 
 
 On his suspension, Smith and his wife got on board a boat 
 and went up to Swally, where they gave the Surat Council 
 almost as much trouble as they had caused in Bombay. 
 
 In this ferment passed the rainy season of 1683. We have 
 traced the causes of the rising discontent among the officers 
 and even on the Council at Bombay; and have seen the 
 soldiers, with their long-standing grievance about the rate 
 of exchange, rising in abortive mutiny at the distribution 
 of Ward's debased coins, which according to Keigwin's 
 account were 'patched up with peices, which by Phillopping 
 would drop out. They looked as if they had come from 
 an Hospitall, and seemed to want Justice as well as pittie.' 3 
 The sufferings of the rank and file were aggravated by the 
 increasing scarcity of provisions, for although Sombaji had 
 withdrawn his embargo on their importation, the neighbour- 
 hood of the Mogul army had cleared the country, while a war 
 recently begun between the Mahrattas and the Portuguese 
 made the transport of cattle and other comestibles almost 
 impossible. 
 
 Keigwin, in his long letter to Charles II detailing the 
 grievances of the garrison, 4 gives a very interesting table 
 comparing the prices of various articles at the end of 1683 
 with what had formerly obtained ; we give it in full : 
 
 1 O. C. 4992. 2 O. C. 4992. 
 
 3 O. C. 5062. 4 Ibid. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1683-3 75 
 
 Formerly Bought Now Sold 
 
 Batty * at 20 X. 2 and 23 X. (per mora) 40 X. 
 
 Hogs 2 and 3 X. 8 and loX. 
 
 Piggs i Larree 3 3 Larrees 
 
 Hens 3 and 4 Pice 4 10 Pice 
 
 Chickens i, , i Pice 3, 4, 6 Pice 
 
 Ducks 6 and 8 Pice 20 Pice 
 
 Beefe per Ib. i Pice ij Pice 
 
 Goat ij Pice aj Pice 
 
 Wood 8 Larrees 12 Larrees 
 
 Keigwin ascribes the difference in prices to Ward's oppres- 
 sive dealing. ' Neighbouring parts ', he says, ' abound with 
 plenty, the Deputy Governor, Mr. Ward, continues buying 
 Cheape and selling deare, and that the price may not fall nor 
 wee glutted with plenty, he exports all Corne to other parts, 
 and Orders the Clerke of the Markett at such a rate and noe 
 higher, nor will reduce it Lower.' ' Goa Arrack,' he goes on, 
 1 the Cheif Ingredient to make Punch, and the only cheife 
 Household drinke of the Island, and the most potable and 
 cheapest Liquor the Soldiers can drink for cheering their 
 Spirits in a drink water Country, is bought at Goa for 30 and 
 32 Xs per Butt at highest, sold here by the Deputy Governor 
 for 1 20 X. per Butt.' Ward, he says, would not ' suffer any to 
 send to Goa, or if any Almodeas or Goa Boates touched here, 
 hee supplied himselfe with what quantity and at what Price he 
 will, afterwards forcing them away with the rest, not suffering 
 A housekeeper to buy one hogshead for theire family ; . . . 
 hee and his Brother Child before him Monopolizing that and 
 all other Comodities. . . . This is is the Magna Charta, or 
 rather Scandalum Magnatum.' 5 
 
 As regards the Arrack, we may accept it that Ward and 
 Child were attempting a Temperance Tariff; their efforts to 
 keep down drinking in Bombay were undisguised. But for 
 the daily provisions no such reason could hold, and we must 
 believe that the fact of prices being fixed by the Clerk of the 
 
 1 Batty was the Bombay term for rice. 
 
 2 One X. or one xerapheen = twenty pence. 
 
 3 One larree = between six and seven pence. 
 
 4 One pice = about a halfpenny. 5 O. C. 5062. 
 
76 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Market, under Ward's supervision, was the only ground for 
 the accusation. The high prices were almost certainly forced 
 on him by the scarcity outside, as his still extant reports to 
 the President assert ; and we cannot believe that any one 
 in his senses would have been guilty of such a ' Scandalum 
 Magnatum ' as is suggested. 1 
 
 Such, however, was evidently the talk among the soldiers, 
 and it was only the influence of Keigwin and the other officers 
 that could keep them under control ; and in the cold weather 
 came the ferocious orders from the Court that turned that 
 influence also against them. 
 
 The Court, it appears, had received the officers' petition 
 about the dead musters, and ' resent it very ill '. ' We look 
 upon it as proceeding from a mutinous inclination as being 
 dissatisfyd with our establishment . . . and therefore do 
 hereby dismiss' all the four officers signing it. 2 
 
 Of the four, Niccolls and Gyles had already gone, but the 
 President immediately carried out the Court's orders on 
 the other two, and Fletcher and Thorburn were dismissed. 
 Keigwin, who was thus left absolutely the only commissioned 
 officer in the garrison, was told that he must manage to get 
 along for the present with the help of his four sergeants. 
 
 The cup was now full, and officers and men together 
 embarked unanimously on a plot to terminate the power on 
 Bombay of this monstrous Company, that knew neither how to 
 treat its own servants with common decency, nor to uphold the 
 honour of the nation among the heathen. We have no light 
 on the counsels of the mutineers before the outbreak, beyond 
 a glimpse of Thorburn deep in business, whose wife 'com- 
 playned severall times that her husband was so taken up with 
 
 1 Since writing the above, we have found the following in a letter 
 (O. C. 5510, July 28, 1686), written by John Jesop, one of Ward's Council, 
 to President Child : ' What I know of the Batty was before I went to 
 Surrat. Batty was Bought at X. 23 and 24 per morah, which might well 
 have been sold under the price of 40 X., but though Mr. Ward Did 
 Threaten to make the Inhabitants sell at Zerap. 32 per morah, yet they 
 sold at 40, not by Concent of the Councel, but for this privaledg it was 
 Reported that Each merchant Dd. to Mr. Ward 5 moras of Batty at 
 X. 24 per morah.' An unexpected corroboration of Keigwin's accusation. 
 
 2 Letter Book 7. September 25, 1682. To Bombay. 
 
v BOMBAY, 1682-3 77 
 
 writeing that she had none of his Company night nor day '.* 
 This 'little ffalse Scott 1 was evidently the heart and soul of 
 the conspiracy, and it was he who drafted and wrote out 
 the Proclamation and the Commissions that had to be ready 
 for the coup. 
 
 The connexion of Pettit and Bowcher with the rising is not 
 very clear. Their contemporaries in the opposite camp, and 
 the Company's historian, unhesitatingly set down the whole 
 rebellion to their malicious schemes, 2 a charge that overlooks 
 the exasperation of the garrison at its own grievances. More- 
 over, there is no proof remaining that they were parties to the 
 plot before its realization. No sooner, however, was the rebel- 
 lion an accomplished fact than we find them hand and glove 
 with the mutineers ; and the fact that Pettit was immediately 
 appointed their commercial representative, and that the treat- 
 ment of him and Bowcher was given a prominent place in the 
 list of the rebels' grievances, leads us to surmise that, if not 
 the chief instigators, they were at any rate privy to the 
 mutiny, even before it took place. And we may guess that 
 the auspicious moment for the outbreak was probably chosen 
 on their advice of the dispatch from Surat of Captain Hilder, 
 on the Rettirne, with a supply of 60,000 rupees and various 
 stores, destined for the smaller agencies on the Malabar Coast, 
 and instructions to call in at Bombay with some powder for 
 the Fort. It was, accordingly, on the arrival of the Returne, 
 that Keigwin gave the signal. 
 
 Keigwin himself had no personal grievance against the 
 Company; he was, in fact, almost the only individual in 
 Bombay of any consequence at all who had none. The 
 question of his diet-money was as yet unsettled, and though 
 of course it was finally decided against him, (a refund being 
 as usual demanded,) the news of this was not yet out ; on the 
 contrary, the same shipping that dismissed Fletcher and 
 Thorburn, restored to Keigwin his seat on the Council. He 
 threw in his lot with the rest of the garrison partly no doubt 
 from sympathy with their grievances, but chiefly because he 
 
 1 O. C. 5038. 8 Bruce, ii. 524. 
 
78 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 was disgusted at the misgovernment of the Island, and the 
 tyranny and injustice of the Company towards its own ser- 
 vants ; and was honestly of the opinion that he could himself 
 manage matters much better for the present, while ultimately 
 the Island ought to be governed by the Crown. 
 
 For this rebellion was a disloyalty neither to his King nor 
 his Country, but only to the East India Company. 
 
 BOMBAY HARBOUR 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 * 
 
 THE REBELLION 
 
 IN December 1683 there were two chaplains in Bombay, 
 Mr. Peachy Watson, who had come out in 1678, and Mr. John 
 Church, the junior chaplain, who had been there only a few 
 months. The latter has left us an excellent account of the 
 mutiny, 1 from which we shall take our narrative, supple- 
 menting it from the official report made to Child by the 
 the members of the Bombay Council. 2 
 
 ' On St. John's day Last, being the 27th of December/ he 
 begins, after the manner of his cloth, c according to the usuall 
 Coustome about 7 of the clock in the morning I went to the 
 Fort to Prayers, and being muster day, I waited some time 
 till the other Company marched in to relieve the guard.' . . . 
 c Captain Richard Keigwin led the Eldest Company in, as 
 accustomary, he being to take charge of the Guard for 
 a weake, and as they marched in, Henry Fletcher and John 
 Thorburn followed close in the Reare ; and as soone as they 
 were entred the Fort Gates John Thorburn turned about and 
 orderd the sentry with some others of the souldiers in his 
 Majesties name to assist him in shutting the Gates. Which 
 done, he came up to the head of both Companies who faced 
 one the other in order to be Mustered after Prayers ; but 
 immediately Captain Keigwin ordered them to rest theire 
 Armes and wheele in, closing one with the other, when the 
 said John Thorburn made a small speech to them, which as 
 neare as can be remembred was to this effect : Gentlemen and 
 ffellow Souldiers, it is now two months since we have had our 
 Commissions taken from us by order of the English East India 
 Company, for petitioning to them for what is our due ; and it 
 is. well knowne the Deputy Governor would have sould the 
 Island and us to Sombazee Rajah for 40,000 Pagodas, and 
 you see, Gentlemen, what a potent Enemy he is against the 
 Portugueze, having taken most of their Country ; and wee do 
 not know how soone he may attempt the Island, and there is 
 
 1 O.C. 5038. 2 O.C.5o6s. 
 
8o KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 no provision laid in for us. Wee are therefore resolved not to 
 suffer these abuses any longer, but revolt to his Majestic, 
 taking all into our possession for his use. Which said, waving 
 his hatt he bid the Souldiers shoute, who did as they were 
 Commanded.' 
 
 After this Keigwin ordered them to fall back in their places, 
 and three files of men to follow Henry Fletcher and John 
 Thorburn ; 
 
 * who came up through the Long Gallery, where I then was, 
 with theire swords drawne and Muskets cockt, some of the 
 Souldiers crying all the way : Damme, Letts fire ; till they 
 came to the Deputy Governor's chamber, where they surprised 
 him in his bed, or just out of it. ... Thorburn laying hould 
 on him asked him if he heard the news that the ffort and 
 Island was taken by them for the use of his Majestic, and 
 that he was their Prisoner, and must goe along with them ; 
 the Deputy Governor desired they would lett him and the 
 Council know their greivances, and they would if possable 
 give them satisfaction to their content, and desired that the 
 Commisson officers might be sent for up, to discourse the 
 business, and at the same instant looked out of his Chamber 
 Window and called to Captain Keigwin to come up. But he 
 would not take any notice of him, but sent his boy up to John 
 Thorburn to make haste and bring the Deputy Governor 
 downe. The said Thorburn tould the Deputy Governor that 
 they had waited with patience a long time to litle purpose ; 
 it was not now a time to dispute the matter, and Swore by 
 God if he did not goe along with them immediately he would 
 rune him through. Then the Deputy Governor desired he 
 might have one or two of the Councill with him, but they 
 would not consent to it, and soe forced him out of his Chamber 
 to a little roome under one of the bastians belonging to the 
 Store Keeper, not permitting him as he went by to speake to 
 the Souldiers, but keept him close Prisoner, and none to goe 
 neare him but some of his owne servants. . . . 
 
 ' Then fHetcher and Thorburn repaired to both Companies, 
 and Thorburn pulls out of his pocket severall papers ' which 
 he read, and then 'proposed to them the choice of another 
 governour, whereupon they all cryed out "A Keigwin, A 
 Keigwin" ' 
 
 The newly elected Governor then sat down to dinner, 
 surrounded by his adherents, and at the end of the meal 
 Captain Hilder, who had come ashore from the Returne, rose 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 81 
 
 in his place and ( Protested Publickly ' against Keigwin and 
 all his abettors. 
 
 While these events were happening in the Fort, a party 
 under Wilkins was sent on board the Returne and summoned 
 the mate to surrender her to the new Government ; asked for 
 his commission, Wilkins merely showed his musket, and when 
 the mate, on a search being threatened, threw the keys over- 
 board, the soldiers broke open the 'round house and study', 
 and carried off the Company's money, scrupulously leaving 
 Hilder's private cash untouched. 
 
 The afternoon was spent in securing Hilder and the 
 members of Council 'in the Secretary's Chamber', in swearing 
 in the soldiers, and in sealing up under lock and key, in 
 Keigwin's own room, the treasury chest of the Fort and 
 the money from the Returne, with Ward's personal effects. 
 Requiring to open the treasury chest to put in some more 
 money, they sent for Vergis and Stanley, two of Ward's 
 Council, to be present during the operation. Everything was 
 carried out with business-like regularity, and in perfect cool- 
 ness, Keigwin in particular displaying the greatest good 
 humour. 
 
 In the evening, when the two chaplains went to take their 
 leave of him, he called them aside, 
 
 1 Desireing our Judgements concerning what he had done, 
 saying 'twould be a great satisfaction to him to have it 
 justified under our hands. Mr. Watson answered in justifica- 
 tion of the rebellion, saying he should have his hand when he 
 Pleased; I desired him to excuse me as being a stranger to 
 affaires of that Nature, which he very readily did, saying he 
 would impose nothing upon me against my will.' 
 
 ' Next day,' continues Mr. Church, ' the Proclamation was 
 published with a great deale of solemnity after this manner. 
 First of all went the Trumpetters and Country Musick ; then 
 came Ensigne Thorburne, Capt. Adderton, and Mr. Cully on 
 Horseback ; after them a company of English souldiers with 
 Collors flying and drums beateing, then a company of the 
 Militia which waited for them at the Smith's Shop. These 
 were mett by two companys more of the Militia, who accom- 
 panyed them to the Bazar, where they read the Proclamation 
 in English and Portuguese, and immediately fired 3 vollyes in 
 
8s KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 token of Joy, which were seconded by 7 or 9 great gunns from 
 the Fort, and then returned in great tryumph to the Fort, 
 where they spent the remayning Part of that day, and the day 
 ffollowing, in swereing the Militia, signeing of Commissions. 
 Lieft. Fletcher was made Captain of the Youngest Company, 
 Ensigne Wilkins Lieftenant, and Sam 11 Smith Ensigne of the 
 same ; Ensigne Thorburne Captain Lieft. of the Eldest Com- 
 pany, Sergt. Sugar Ensigne of the same ; Ensigne Thorburne 
 Secretary of State, Ensigne Hues Lieft. of the Militia, Sergeant 
 Cully Store Keeper, Thomas Pettit 1 Purser of the Marine, 
 Captain Adderton captain of the Returne and Admirall, 
 Captain Russell 2 captain of the Hunter and Vice-Admirall.' 
 
 'Thus', he concludes, 'were the Hon. Company deprived of 
 all theire concernes in Bombaym by the Interest of Two or 
 Three discontented and Factious Persons, the most active of 
 which was that little ffalse Scott Thorburne.' 
 
 The prominence of Thorburn in the mutineers' councils can 
 be measured by the places he held under their government. 
 In a letter to a friend in England he writes, with pardonable 
 complacency, 
 
 1 1 am employed in all the chiefest offices of the Island, as 
 Attorney Generall for his Majesty, Treasurer, Chief Justice, 
 Accomptant, Secretary, Captn. Lieut, of the first company of 
 garrison souldiers. The Inhabitants are exceedingly well 
 pleased with my equitable decisions.' 3 
 
 We may suppose, indeed, that any relief from Judge Gary had 
 its bright side, but the doubling of the parts for instance, of 
 Attorney General and Chief Justice would not tend, we should 
 have thought, to inspire much confidence. 
 
 Keigwin's Proclamation, which is given in full in Appendix 
 C., announced briefly the end of the Company's rule, arid the 
 reversion of the Island to the King, with Keigwin as his 
 Governor ; and one clause in it, which perhaps marks the 
 influence of Pettit, declared that trade was free and open to 
 
 1 A brother (?) of John Pettit. He had been recently suspended from 
 Ward's Council. 
 
 2 Nathaniel Russell was a freeman ; when Adderton was promoted to 
 admiral and given the Retiirne^ his old ship, the Hunter, passed to 
 Russell. 
 
 3 O. C. 5068. 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 83 
 
 all his Majesty's subjects, and that no monopoly was hence- 
 forth to be permitted. 
 
 The entire population, English, Portuguese, and Native, 
 also signed an oath of allegiance to the new Governor, in 
 consideration for which their old privileges, including freedom 
 of religion, were confirmed. 1 
 
 The ease with which the revolution was accomplished 
 shows how unanimous was the opinion against the Company ; 
 Captain Hilder's speech after dinner was the only opposition 
 it had to meet, and, with the exception of him and the Council, 
 we hear of only four among the inhabitants who declined to 
 subscribe to the oath, although Keigwin was careful to avoid 
 applying any pressure. The four were Church, Niccolls, Gary, 
 and Dr. Bird, the chirurgeon ; and that they were influenced 
 more by caution than any strong feeling of repugnance is 
 shown by the fact that Church was the only one of them that 
 elected to leave the Island, when they had the opportunity ; 
 while Gary, at least, was not only in the mutineers' councils, 
 but accepted important employment in their service. 
 
 As regards Hilder and the Councillors, Keigwin put them 
 on board a country vessel and packed them off to Surat, 
 remarking that Child would need all the additional advice 
 he could get ; the Deputy Governor was kept in confinement 
 in Bombay till the end of the rebellion. 
 
 The mutineers then composed a long and curious letter, of 
 which one copy was sent to King Charles II, and the other to 
 the Court at home ; in which they recited at great length the 
 grievances they had to complain of, and the malpractices of 
 the Company, and in particular of John Child and Charles 
 Ward. This document 2 is extremely long and very badly 
 put together ; most of the matters complained of have already 
 been referred to in these pages, and the stories of the loss of 
 Hendry Kendry, of the unchastised insolences of the Siddee, 
 and of Captain Consett's adventure, are mixed up in the 
 greatest confusion with complaints of the rate of pay, of the 
 dead musters, of the officers' discharge, and of the lack of 
 powder, and with the most ridiculous accusations against ' that 
 1 O. C. 5027. 2 O. C. 5062. 
 
 G 2, 
 
84 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 known misantropos Mr. John Child, and his accessories Sir 
 Josia Child in England and Mr. Charles Ward in India '. 
 
 Of these it will suffice to mention two \ it appears there 
 was a design to sell the Fort, and John Child, they say, had 
 been heard to talk in this strain. Similar words ' are reported 
 to be spoke by the Company's Oracle Sir Josia Child, vizt. 
 That the Company did not care if Bombay were as far under 
 as above water.' 
 
 More curious is the other, this time against Ward, of having 
 ' left God and run and sacrificed to the Devill for money '. 
 The accusation is obscurely worded, and unfortunately no 
 details are given, but it is clear that the story went that the 
 Deputy Governor had been guilty of Witchcraft, in the search 
 for hidden treasure. In his covering letter to the Duke of 
 York, 1 Keigwin puts it more clearly and more horribly ; c their 
 Avarice hath been such as to encourage Sorcery to find out 
 hidden Treasure, for which humane blood was sacrificed.' 
 
 The charge was probably put in largely to add a lurid 
 touch to the crimes of the Company's servants; but it was 
 by no means intrinsically incredible. Even in Europe most 
 people still believed in witchcraft, and it was but three years 
 since the celebrated trial of the woman Voisin, who was burnt 
 for this crime in connexion with the Marquise de Brinvillier's 
 poisonings. In Bombay there was a conviction for witchcraft 
 as late as I724, 2 and in Keigwin's time there is ample evidence 
 of its being a universally accepted fact. 
 
 Having secured his position, Keigwin's first care was to put 
 the garrison and defences of Bombay on a more satisfactory 
 footing. The shortage of officers he made good, as we have 
 seen, by promotions from among the non-commissioned officers ; 
 and the rank and file were to receive pay at their old rate of 
 twenty-one shillings a month, but reckoned now at the current 
 bazaar rate of exchange, 3 and a month was to be twenty-eight 
 days, giving thirteen months to the year. 4 
 
 1 0.0.5073. 
 
 2 Kaye's Administration of the East India Company. The last trial 
 in England was in 1712. 
 
 8 About eighteen pence to the xeraphin, instead of twenty, which was 
 the rate fixed by the Company. 
 4 O. C. 5027. 
 
<j _ 
 
 H-l *~O 
 
 o5 
 ffi ^ 
 
 K 
 
 
 O r ^ 
 
 o 
 
 43 
 C/3 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 85 
 
 The defences of the Fort and Island were next thoroughly 
 overhauled ; work on the unfinished bastion, now untouched 
 for four years, was again started and carried on 'with the 
 greatest vigour imaginable, working thereon day and night ' ; l 
 and guards were placed on the most important of the small 
 islands in the harbour, 2 to prevent their following the unhappy 
 example of Hendry Kendry. Idleness was no part of the new 
 regime. 
 
 Meanwhile a letter had been written and sent to Surat for 
 distribution, 3 calling on the factors there to imitate the example 
 of Bombay, and seize and depose the President. 
 
 Great was the rejoicing at Madam Bowcher's. George 
 Bowcher was still at Aurungzebe's court, but both his wife 
 and John Pettit had special letters from the mutineers ; and 
 amid a perfect shower of Protests we read of the good lady 
 coming out * in a Transport of Joy from Mrs. Minchin's 
 chamber', to share her elation with Pettit, in the presence of 
 several witnesses who could be trusted to repeat to the 
 President, in solemn depositions, their expressions of delight 
 at his new troubles. 4 
 
 The unfortunate Child, who describes the news from Bombay 
 as ' a bitter pill that damages all our Joyes, hove us into 
 amazed thoughts, great trouble, and very seveere perplexities', 5 
 summoned his Council for a Consultation on the position. The 
 second at Surat was now Charles Zinzan, who had come out in 
 the last shipping to take Pettit's place, from a desk in Leaden- 
 hall Street, where he had served the Company for many years 
 in the Accountant's office ; 6 a worthy and kindhearted man, 
 foredoomed to shipwreck in the attempt to combine loyalty 
 to a chief he disliked with his own feelings of justice and 
 humanity. The rest on the Council were Francis Day, George 
 Gosfright, who had recently come from Bantam, Bartholomew 
 Harris, John Gladman, and John Hornigold. 7 Their first step 
 was to send a small vessel to cruise off Bombay, to warn off 
 
 1 O. C. 5038. Zinzan to Child, January 17, 1683/4. 2 O. C. 5196. 
 3 O. C. 5031. Keigwin to Council, merchants, and factors at Surat. 
 * O. C. 5053-5056. 8 O. C. 5060. 
 
 6 Court Book 33. September 8, 1682. 
 
 7 The same who fought with Captain Minchin. 
 
86 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 any ships of the Company that might approach ; and their 
 next to appoint a Commission, of Zinzan, Day, and Gosfright, 
 to go to the Island and see if they could prevail by threats, 
 promises, or appeals, in persuading the mutineers to return to 
 their duty. There were six of the Company's vessels in Swally 
 Hole at the time, of which three were taking in cargo for the 
 voyage home ; the other three, the Rainbow >, the Coast 
 Frigate, and the Laurel, were available, and with these the 
 Commissioners set out on January n, 1684, * 
 
 Their instructions gave them a wide discretion ; they were 
 to proceed with caution, sending a boat ashore to try to get 
 word with Dr. Bird or one of the chaplains, on whose informa- 
 tion they might form further plans. Conciliation was to be 
 tried in the first instance, and they carried with them a pro- 
 visional pardon, signed by the President, to all who would 
 return to their allegiance on the summons. Should this fail, 
 they were to attempt to work on the weaker mutineers 4 by 
 what encouragement you may think fitt, to gett Possession of 
 the Fort and Island, by cutting off one, two, or more of the 
 Principall Rebells ' ; however, the instructions conclude, they are 
 to try ' all faire meanes first ', and avoid bloodshed if possible. 
 
 On January 12 they picked up the boat with Captain Hilder 
 and the Bombay councillors on their way to Surat, and next 
 day arrived off Bassein, when they sent a boat to attempt 
 a secret landing on the Island. The mutineers, however, kept 
 too good a watch, and the boat came back without effecting 
 anything; and the next day they sent again with a flag of 
 truce, and letters calling on the rebels to surrender. Keigwin, 
 in his polite reply, expressed surprise at the flag of truce ; as 
 the King's Governor he was not at war with any one, least of 
 all with the King's subjects, and any one who liked was welcome 
 to come ashore unharmed, so long as no attempt was made to 
 subvert the King's government. As to surrendering Bombay, 
 that was quite out of the question ; the Island had now reverted 
 to the King, and the Company had no further claim on it. 
 
 1 The proceedings of the Commissioners, and of President Child 
 during his visit to Bombay, are taken from O. C. 5062-5107, unless 
 otherwise stated. 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 87 
 
 The Commissioners then sat down to write personal appeals ; 
 Zinzan to Keigwin, with whom he had struck up a friendship 
 on the Captain's last visit to England, and Day to Thorburn, 
 with whom he was connected by marriage. They were little 
 likely to succeed. Day's effort was particularly unpersuasive, 
 being the dreariest lecture about the distress of * Cossen 
 Thorburn's ' family at his sad proceedings ; ' Cossen/ he con- 
 cludes, ' pray consider seriously with yourselfe what Praemunire 
 you have fallen into.' 
 
 The replies were courteous but decided ; Keigwin, while 
 declining to argue on his revolution, expressed himself as quite 
 unaltered in his private feelings, and as a proof of friendli- 
 ness, concluded his letter with a warning : ' If you intend your 
 ships home this yeare, keep your men on board ; if they prof- 
 fer themselves to serve His Majesty, I am obliged to entertaine 
 them in these troublesome times.' 
 
 The hint was a timely one, and it was not long before the 
 Commissioners saw how strong was Keigwin's position ; while 
 these negotiations were proceeding, the boatswain of the 
 Rainbow, and the boatswain's mate of the Laurel, escaped at 
 midnight * in a small Canno ' and made their way to the Island, 
 where they joined the rebels. 
 
 A day or two later Keigwin, all courtesy, sent back the 
 latter when the Captain of the Laurel complained that he was 
 short of hands ; but from this time it was clear on which side 
 the common sympathies lay, even outside Bombay, among the 
 Company's men, and it soon became less a question of reducing 
 Bombay than of preventing the mischief from going further. 
 
 Meanwhile Zinzan, ' with great courage and freedome ', went 
 ashore in person, and being entertained with civility, his 
 example was followed by the other two Commissioners ; nego- 
 tiations were now carried on by conversation, quite fruitlessly, 
 but with perfect temper on the part of the mutineers, if we 
 except one unfortunate occasion when Day was dining at the 
 Fort, and Cossen Thorburn, 'before the Wine and Punch 
 evaporated ', bragged that he would go and burn Swally, and 
 seize the person of the President. 
 
 So the time passed by, until Child, receiving Zinzan's report, 
 
88 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 resolved to go himself to Bombay with the three remaining 
 ships, the Scipio Africanus, the Success , and the Charles. He 
 arrived on the 3oth January, and came, as Keigwin says, 
 * triumphing with St. George's flag to anchor '. 
 
 The President's first step was to follow the Commissioners' 
 example in writing an appeal to the mutineers. His letter 
 was a general one to all parties and must have caused con- 
 siderable amusement in the Fort. 
 
 ' Gentlemen,' he says, 1 ' you all know me, and I can appeale 
 to everyone of you whether ever I wronged any of you in 
 the least, or was the least unhandsome to you. Indeed for 
 Captain Keigwin, 2 Ensign Fletcher and Ensign Wilkins, I 
 have noe notice given me of their being abusive with their 
 tongues ; and for the expressions I am told fell from Capt. 
 Adderton and Ensigne Thorburne, my Particular obligations 
 to them (sic) might have perswaded them to use me with more 
 respect ; two that I have tenderly loved and taken some care 
 of. Oh, Johny Thorburne, thy Ingratitude is of deep dye. . . . 
 Come, one, two or three of you, and looke on your Governour; 
 I am the same that lived amongst you nott long agoe, and 
 then had warrs with Sevajee Rajah and great disturbances 
 from the Portugueze, yett protected you all with God's bless- 
 ing. ... I pray send off to me my sick Brother-in-Law, . . . 
 and my deare Sister and three neeces ; . . . I would likewise 
 desire of you Mr. Watson, Capt. Gary, Doctor Bird, the Portu- 
 gueze Secretary, and that you doe not hinder any others 
 comeing to me as they please. I pray lett me know if you 
 have any certeine news of Peace betweene Sombajee Rajah 
 and the Portugueze.' 
 
 Keigwin replied, 3 as usual, like a gentleman, ' As for your 
 Brother Ward, it's what you cannot expect, unless you desire 
 his Lady and Children, who shall bee sent you with any of the 
 other Persons you have mentioned, who all deny they either 
 desired it from you, or doe desire it from us ' ; but he would 
 detain no one who wished to go, a permission which Padre 
 Church alone took advantage of. 
 
 The lack of supplies was the weak point of Bombay, and 
 Child accordingly determined to try the effect of a blockade ; 
 
 1 O. C. 5062. 
 
 2 Written ' ffletcher ' by the copyist ; an evident error for ' Keigwin \ 
 
 3 Ibid. 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 89 
 
 two ships laden with provisions for the Island were therefore 
 stopped outside by the President's small fleet. Unfortunately, 
 he was so imprudent as still to allow his subordinates to go to 
 and from the Fort, which they now did freely, and naturally 
 enough Keigwin seized Zinzan and Day on one of these visits, 
 and refused to release them until the President sent in the two 
 provision ships. 
 
 Another attempt of Child's was no more successful. The 
 Society Interloper, which we last heard of in Surat, had come 
 into Bombay, by Pettit's directions, at the first news of the 
 rebellion, and was now lying at Mahim. The President got 
 word that Keigwin was sending home on her his letters to the 
 King, and determined to make an effort to capture her. The 
 Scipio and Charles accordingly bore down on her as she lay at 
 anchor, but the Interloper, seeing the danger, slipped her cable 
 and got into shoal water, where the Company's vessels, being 
 more heavily laden, could not follow. On the captain of 
 the Scipio rowing up in his pinnace, he ' perceived a man pre- 
 senting a blunderbuss ' at him, and had to retire ; on which 
 the President ordered a watch to be kept on her to prevent 
 her escape ; c but it fell out soe ', he says rather vaguely, 1 that 
 the Interloper in the night gott away, and deprived your Presi- 
 dent of doing that acceptable piece of Service he designed.' 
 
 That this failure was due to something more serious than 
 mere bungling was soon evident to Child ; and we now find his 
 letters full of complaints about the disloyalty of the Company's 
 captains and their crews. They made it perfectly clear to him, 
 the men by outspoken threats, and their commanders by excuses 
 and obstructions, that they would take no active part at all 
 either against the mutineers, or against the Interlopers that 
 sided with them. ' Wee are in a most miserable condicon', 
 he tells the Company, 2 ' to see your Honours and ourselves 
 robbed, and cannott take satisfaction ; and if wee were resolved 
 to doe it, none of your Commanders will obey us, nay in this 
 businesse of Bombay they make a scruple, and demand who 
 must pay for their Ships ; they alone are not to be blam'd, 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. February 2, 1683/4. Child to the Company. 
 
 2 Ibid., February 4, 1683/4. 
 
90 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 but the Ships' Company, who tells us plainly they will not 
 fight, nor adventure their limbs.' Thus, too, when at a Con- 
 sultation off Bombay it was proposed to make some attempt 
 on the Fort, the scheme had to be dropped, 'it being con- 
 sidered that wee have not sufficient strength to reduce them by 
 force, neither would any of the 3 shipps' Companys, should 
 any attempt be made, fight or stand by us ; but rather, on 
 the Contrary, side with those naughty people, they having 
 att severall times given sufficient cause of jealousie thereof 
 in their publick discourse.' l 
 
 It is indeed quite evident that, in Western India at any 
 rate, the feeling at this time against the Company and the 
 President was so strong as to be practically unanimous ; and 
 there was no hope whatever of putting down the mutiny with 
 the forces available on the spot. Bombay could only be 
 regained by the help of men who had not experienced the 
 exasperating effects of the government of the two Childs ; 
 and meanwhile there was no small danger of the trouble 
 spreading. 
 
 Interlopers were multiplying ; already, besides the Society, 
 there were two in Surat, the Diamond and Speedwell^ with 
 news of others on their way. And these pests were now 
 being used to disseminate Papillon's propaganda in India ; 
 'they fill men's heads with wind', complains John Child, 
 < by their discourses with some, and giving abundance of 
 printed papers and manuscripts ... it cannot be thought 
 but a giddy-headed multitude of sailors and souldiers delight 
 in novelties, and it must be more than ordinary diligence and 
 industry to keepe them in obedience at such a time as this is.' 2 
 
 Unable to do anything by open methods, Child's only hope 
 was to sow dissension among the mutineers themselves, and 
 he cast about for means towards this desirable end. The 
 rebels having proclaimed free trade, the President suggested 
 that one of his officials should be allowed to reside on the 
 Island to look after the Company's mercantile interests, his 
 somewhat transparent object being to have an agent in the 
 opposite camp to tamper with the weaker or more venal 
 1 O. C. 5076. 2 Surat Factory Records. January 25, 1683/4. 
 
vi BOMBAY, 1683 91 
 
 among the mutineers. The proposal was at once acceded to 
 by Keigwin, who, however, added the pregnant warning that 
 any one trying to subvert the King's Government would of 
 course be punished as a traitor ; a hint that made Child drop 
 the plan, as impracticable. Various other futile expedients 
 occurred to him, to make * dissension and division among 
 them by underhand practice ', and we catch a glimpse of some 
 attempted secret negotiation with Captain Gary, ' a private 
 designe on shoare, which lyes a secrett in our owne breasts, 
 therefore not think fitt to include here.' 1 
 
 One after another these plans fell through, and Child was 
 at last obliged to confess himself defeated. Even a blockade 
 was unsafe to attempt, for fear of the defection of the Com- 
 pany's ships, and he therefore sent the Charles, Scipio, and 
 Success to England, and with his other three vessels decided 
 to return to Surat. 
 
 Some steps were necessary to warn approaching vessels 
 that Bombay was not in the Company's hands, and it was 
 decided to station men in convenient positions on shore, 
 rather than leave a boat to cruise about, which might desert 
 or be captured by the rebels' vessels, the Hunter or Returne. 
 With this object, arrangements were made with the Siddee's 
 people on Hendry, that they would warn any vessel approaching 
 from the south ; while for ships from the northward Versovah 
 was selected, a Portuguese post on Salsette, just north of 
 Bombay, on which two of Ward's ex-councillors, William 
 Vergis and William Newman, were settled, with the permission 
 of the Portuguese authorities. 
 
 On the occasion of these negotiations, we find it recorded 
 that the Portuguese captain of Versovah was presented with 
 ' a Chest of Shiraz-wine, 2 and a good cheese ', and his ' scrivan ' 
 having also assisted, it was agreed ' to give him an ordinary 
 hatt, and soe send him on shoare '. 3 
 
 Having thus spent a month in vain endeavours, the President, 
 on March 3rd, 1684, set sail for Surat, leaving Bombay for 
 the present in the hands of ' those notorious naughty wicked 
 People, Keigwin, etc.' 
 
 1 O. C. 5076. 2 Wine from Shiraz in Persia. 3 O. C. 5076. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE REBELS IN SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684. 
 
 HENRY SMITH, on being suspended after Captain Consett's 
 unfortunate dinner-party, had gone off with his wife, as we 
 have seen, to Swally ; and had there proceeded to pour into 
 the President's too willing ear a long farrago of idiotic charges 
 against Ward. Child, always ready to listen to stories against 
 his enemies, and among such he considered his brother-in- 
 law, treated these accusations, absurd as they were, with the 
 utmost seriousness ; and the last few months of the Deputy 
 Governor's rule in Bombay, before the mutiny broke out, were 
 embittered by the necessity of answering in detail a series of 
 malicious and ridiculous libels. 
 
 For instance, Smith asserted that when some natives had 
 been fined 400 X. for using false dice, Ward had proposed 
 in full Council to share the amount among themselves, which 
 ' I and Keigwin denied, saying ... if once we found the 
 sweetnesse of fines comeing into our own pocketts, we should 
 quickly make the whole Island know how dextrous we were 
 at it.' Whereupon Ward decided to spend the money on 
 charity, but ' what charitable actions he has done since I am 
 to learn, except mending the great Organn.' 1 
 
 Child accepted all this as true, and, without even asking 
 Ward for his version of the affair, told him to refund the 
 amount of the fine into the Company's cash, ' for if you have a 
 mind to be charitable, it's properest to use your own money.' 2 
 
 The ill-used Deputy Governor was obliged to get attest- 
 ations from Keigwin and the other councillors, to the effect 
 that the whole story was an invention, before the President 
 could be induced to drop it ; and this kind of correspondence 
 
 1 O. C. 4987- 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 91. Child to Ward, October 29, 1683. 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 93 
 
 dragged on till the Rebellion, which found Henry Smith still 
 at Swally and not yet entirely discredited with John Child. 
 
 Very characteristically, the President determined to use 
 him as a means of getting information of the rebels' plans ; 
 and accordingly directed him to enter into a treacherous cor- 
 respondence with Keigwin, Pettit, and their friends, 'whereby 
 to gett under their hands testimonys of their Villainy'. 
 Henry Smith raised no objections to the proposal, and 
 
 * behaved himselfe to great Satisfaction for some time, and 
 mannaged the intrigue very notably, and with abundance of 
 Zeale as it was thought then ' ; it was not long, however, before 
 the suspicion arose that he ' plaid a counterplot ', l and that 
 he was in reality scheming to escape from Swally, where he 
 was being kept under supervision, and join the rebels in 
 Bombay. Ultimately he made a midnight dash for Surat, 
 and his escape was only just discovered in time for Hornigold 
 to pursue him on horseback and catch him before he had 
 crossed the river. 2 These events took place while the Presi- 
 dent was at Bombay, and on his return it was finally decided 
 that Henry Smith was 4 a most notorious, obstinate, haughty, 
 false, lying fellowe ', and he was sent home ; his wife, however, 
 who was to have been sent with him, made good her escape 
 to Surat, where she was taken in by Madam Bowcher, 'a 
 couple of fitt companions that it's great pitty two houses should 
 be troubled withall '. 3 
 
 In Bombay the question of supplies was still acute, and on 
 the departure of Child and his ships, Keigwin decided to risk 
 sending Adderton to Surat to bring back a cargo of provisions ; 
 the arrangements were undertaken by Pettit, who was entitled 
 
 * His Majesty's ffactor Gennerall on acco" Merchandize ', and 
 Adderton was instructed that he was 'left wholly to the Prudent 
 mannagement of that Loyall and honourable Gentleman', 
 after his arrival at Surat. 4 
 
 The Rettirne, appropriately renamed 'the Returne Royal\ 
 
 1 O.C. 5127. 2 O.C. 5126. 
 
 3 Surat Factory 
 * O. C. 5033. M 
 Stephen Adderton. 
 
 v_ ^. JM.~ t . V_y. ^. ^.l^U. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records 91. Child to the Court, May I, 1684. 
 
 4 O. C. 5033. March 6, 1683/4. Instructions from Keigwin to Captain 
 
94 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 arrived in Surat river's mouth about the 2oth March, and was 
 in early communication with Pettit. Child was at Swally at 
 the time, but as soon as he got the news, he sent orders to the 
 Council in Surat 1 to try to get the Governor to make her over 
 to the Company, or at any rate to allow them to make an 
 attempt on her themselves ; and meanwhile to get accurate 
 information of the rebels' strength on board. 
 
 Pettit's influence with the Governor was still effective, and 
 he would have nothing to say to the Council's request ; but 
 John Hornigold reported that there were not more than sixty 
 men on board, and of these only twenty-five English ; he 
 thought her capture quite feasible, ' for the ship is not stronger 
 than any of ours, considering the black Fellows, and force of 
 Guns no more then when they took her '. 
 
 The risk of this must have been weighed by Keigwin and 
 Pettit before they decided on the step of sending her to Surat ; 
 and as a matter of fact there was no danger of a capture. For 
 in the first place a fracas of the kind in the river's mouth 
 would have been an insult to the Mogul Governor, and Child 
 would probably not have dared to make the attempt ; and for 
 the rest we have the President's own word that none of his 
 ships would act against the mutineers. What Keigwin and 
 Pettit had not reckoned with, was the weakness of Adderton ; 
 had he put a bold face on it there was no reason to fear failure, 
 but the rebel admiral was not worth his salt and was 
 overborne by the mingled threats and cajoleries of the 
 President. 
 
 Several letters passed between the two; on 24th March 
 Adderton gave in, and in exchange for a free pardon sur- 
 rendered the Returne to Child. The President was triumphant, 
 and in a letter written a few days later to Hedges, the Agent 
 in Bengal, he expresses his delight. 
 
 'Petit's Comb is pretty well cut/ he says, 'his Creditt 
 quite gone; we are now endeavouring to have him delivered 
 us or secured by the Governour. Bowcher is at Court and 
 cannott get thence till he can procure 5,000 Rupees to clear e 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. March 23, 1683/4. 
 2 O.C. 5114. 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 95 
 
 his engagements ; they have expended abundance of money at 
 Court, but to no purpose.' 1 
 
 Pettit's comb, however, was not yet cut, and Child's 
 information about Bowcher was incorrect ; no doubt the 
 negotiation of a firmaund required both time and money at 
 Aurungzebe's Court, but the business was nevertheless pro- 
 gressing satisfactorily, as Child was soon to discover to his 
 disgust. From Alexander Hamilton 2 we have an account 
 of Bowcher's doings at Court ; the old scandal-monger first 
 gives us a circumstantial account of how Child attempted to 
 remove his opponent, by bribing Bowcher's cook to poison 
 him ; the cook, it would appear, pocketed the bribe and then 
 told his master all about it. The libel may be of course dis- 
 missed at once as ridiculous ; but there is nothing incredible 
 in Hamilton's account of Bowcher's final success. The affair 
 had been dragging on for months, and was apparently no nearer 
 its conclusion, when Bowcher's interpreter, a man called Swan 
 { who often took a large Dose of Arrack ', seizing the oppor- 
 tunity of the Emperor's riding out on horseback, broke 
 through the guards, and waving his petition over his head 
 and shouting out aloud in Persian, rushed up to the side of 
 Aurungzebe himself. There was no knowing what such crazy 
 conduct might not have resulted in, but by good luck the 
 Emperor was in the right humour, and gave orders on the 
 spot for a firmaund to be made out ; and Bowcher returned 
 in triumph to Surat, with trading rights that put him and his 
 partner in a better position than the Company. He had 
 achieved his object, and no one, we think, will now grudge 
 him his success ; thirty years later, when every one of the 
 other characters in our story was either long dead or gone 
 George Bowcher was still living and prospering at Surat. 3 
 It is pleasant to know that the old outlaw had other interests 
 besides making money and Child-baiting; for his name is 
 among the benefactors of the Bodleian, and a manuscript copy 
 of the Vendidad, which was his gift, is still one of the treasures 
 of that great library ; it was a perusal of this manuscript that 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. March 28, 1684. 
 
 2 I. pp. 198-200. 3 Vide Appendix D. 
 
96 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 fired Anquetil dti Perron with the determination to go to 
 India, 1 so that we may claim Bowcher as at least the god- 
 father of Zoroastrian research. 
 
 When Pettit heard of Adderton's defection, he immediately 
 set to work to lade his own ship, the Prosperous^ with the 
 provisions needed in Bombay ; on 3oth March he sailed in her 
 himself to join Keigwin, and was received by 'his villanous 
 Consorts ', says Child, 2 with ' great demonstrations of rejoicing 
 at his coming there '; tempered, we must suppose, with annoy- 
 ance at his news of the loss of the Returne RoyaL 
 
 To make an example against such treachery, Keigwin seized 
 on all Adderton's belongings and transferred them to his 
 treasury, afterwards burning the admiral's house ; the only 
 occasion during the mutiny in which any private property was 
 laid hands on by the rebels. 
 
 We have seen the mutineers, reorganized and with a full 
 complement of officers, setting to work with industry in pre- 
 paration for a firmer policy than that of the Company, and we 
 must now follow Keigwin in his efforts to meet the troubles 
 that had so long weighed on Bombay, and see how far his 
 own achievements substantiate the charges of weakness and 
 incompetence that he laid against his predecessors. 
 
 The most pressing danger, at the moment of Ward's depo- 
 sition, was from Sombajee ; this prince was now prosecuting 
 a war against the Portuguese with the greatest vigour. In the 
 neighbourhood of Goa he was pressing them hard, and the 
 Portuguese capital itself was in considerable danger, till the 
 approach of Aurungzebe's troops relieved it. In the neigh- 
 bourhood of Bombay, Sombajee was no less active, and his 
 successes made the English afraid that he might at any 
 moment turn upon them also, as he had so often threatened. 
 He had seized and occupied Caranjah, an island belonging to 
 the Portuguese at the mouth of Bombay harbour, and meditated 
 an even closer approach to the English Fort. In a second letter 
 to the King, Keigwin gives a summary of the position : 
 
 1 Zend A vesta, Anquetil du Perron, Discours prtliminaire. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 91. Child to William Gyfford at ffort St. 
 George, April 26, 1684. 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 97 
 
 ' The enemy are 30,000 men bordering upon us, and to our 
 sorrow we are but 150 English and 200 Topasses 1 or blacks . . . 
 [they] intend to take Possession of Patatta, 2 a Small Island 3 
 miles of us ... wee keep Cattle there with two ffamilies too 
 looke after them, but now have setled Souldiers to impead the 
 Enemyes landing if we can. The Vice Roy writes from Goa 
 he has Concluded a Peace, but these infidells never keep their 
 words. . . . Provitions are soe Extreame scarce at Goa, the 
 Moguls Army, commanded by Sultan Shaw Allum, Orang- 
 zeebe's eldest son, whose Army Consists of 40,000 Horse and 
 80 Ellephants, marcht from thence about 3 weekes since this 
 waye; whersoever they goe they make a ffamine. I hope 
 your Majesty will Pardon my Presumption', concludes the 
 Captain, 'for Approaching your Majesty with soe mean 
 Language, but it is heartily and Loyally meant.' 3 
 
 The first necessity was to show Sombajee that the new 
 government was resolved to enforce neutrality in Bombay 
 harbour in a more real way than the Company's officers had 
 hitherto done ; for Sombajee's grievance against the English 
 was simply that their territory was used as a base for the 
 Siddee to make raids into the Corlahs; and the opportunity 
 soon presented itself. 
 
 At the beginning of April 4 Siddee Cossim sailed in, and 
 was passing the Fort as usual without compliment, when to his 
 surprise he was pulled up and obliged to go through the 
 customary forms of civility before being allowed to pass. 
 Arriving at Mazagon, a still further shock awaited him ; for he 
 found all the landing-places fortified and manned, and was 
 politely informed that for that season none of his men were to 
 be permitted to take up their quarters on the Island. They 
 would be allowed to land for water, but for no other purpose. 
 Since the days of Pettit's Deputy Governorship Cossim had 
 experienced no such treatment ; and puzzled and annoyed he 
 withdrew to his own island of Hendry. Even here he was 
 not left his own master, for Keigwin insisted on his sending 
 
 1 From ' topi ', a hat ; the word means all wearers of hats, other 
 than Europeans, and includes Eurasians and natives sufficiently Christ- 
 ianized to wear European clothes. 
 
 2 This is Butcher's Island. * O. C. 5071. 
 4 Vide Orme's MSS. for the following account. 
 
 1526-6 H 
 
98 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 away the men left there by Child, and as there was no water 
 on Hendry, and Cossim was dependent on Mazagon, he was 
 obliged to comply. A rendezvous at this barren and miserable 
 rock was very different from the pleasant quarters at Mazagon, 
 and before very long Cossim took himself off altogether and 
 joined the Mogul's fleet at Surat. 
 
 The relief to Bombay was very great ; for the first time for 
 many years the Island was free, throughout the whole season, 
 from these insolent and bloodthirsty ruffians, and the in- 
 habitants, both English and native, could go peaceably about 
 their business without the constant fear of outrages and riots. 
 Nothing had been needed to bring about this desirable reform 
 except the presentation of a determined front, and the adoption 
 of a policy of firmness instead of timidity. Nor did any of 
 the evil results follow, which Child anticipated from a rebuff 
 to the Siddee ; no terrible retribution fell on the English in 
 Surat or elsewhere. The bogey was laid at once and for ever, 
 for from this moment we hear no more of Bombay as the 
 head-quarters of the Siddee's winter sports. But if the actual 
 absence of these visitors was a merciful relief, the indirect 
 advantages were no less great. Seeing that the English had 
 so suddenly and effectively dealt with the Siddee, Sombaji's 
 thoughts of attacking the Island, or of taking more effective 
 measures to obtain control of the harbour, were at once 
 dissipated. 
 
 To clinch the matter, Keigwin resolved to take the oppor- 
 tunity of making a treaty with the Mahratta chief; and 
 Henry Gary and Thomas Wilkins were deputed as ambassadors 
 to him. Sombaji received them with the greatest attention 
 and warmth, and an alliance was quickly concluded between 
 the two rebellious commanders. In this negotiation Keigwin, 
 as he afterwards boasted, did more for the Company than they 
 had ever been able to do for themselves ; for in addition to 
 the general terms of friendship Sombajee was induced to 
 grant the firmaund required by the Madras Presidency, to 
 enable them to trade on reasonable terms in his southern 
 dominions, and at the same time to pay to the Company 
 damages, which they had for long ineffectually claimed, for 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 99 
 
 the destruction of their property in the factories at Hubely 
 and Rajapore, when these places had been raided by the 
 Mahrattas. 1 
 
 Gary's embassy to Sombajee was at the end of April, 1684, 
 so that within four months Keigwin had set the foreign affairs 
 of Bombay on a satisfactory footing ; and under his rule the 
 Island certainly enjoyed more prosperity than had been its lot 
 since the days of Aungier. 
 
 There is little doubt that personally the new Governor 
 inspired universal confidence and esteem, and even at this 
 distance of time the scanty records of his doings that we 
 possess mark him out as eminently fitted to rule a small com- 
 munity. Courageous yet modest, firm yet reasonable, his 
 absence of heroics no less than his decision in emergencies 
 form a pleasant contrast with the fuss and incompetence of the 
 Company's representatives at this period ; and the success with 
 which he met and overcame all the difficulties in which Bombay 
 was struggling is in itself a sufficient answer to the eulogists of 
 John Child, whose failure might otherwise have been thought 
 inevitable. 
 
 About the same time as Keigwin's second letter to Charles II, 
 the mutineers also addressed the Company again 2 in a letter 
 from which we extract the following : 
 
 ' Children that have Crept under your Table now appear 
 above board, and have outreckoned you all in Arithmetick 
 from Numeration to Multiplication only the Rule of Proportion 
 is wanting to make them Compleat Artists. They have out- 
 growne the Stature of men, though they Retain a Childish 
 name, and overtop you all that you seeme but Pigmies, unless 
 you borrow some additionall height from them, that you may 
 appeare to be theire Creatures. . . . Your honours' Concernes 
 and Affaires, as allso your Servants, shall be more securely and 
 safely protected by his Majesties than ever they could be by 
 your honours' government, though wee Cannott be so exact 
 to keepe a Mercantile account, yett your honours shall have a 
 faithfull and true accompt for which we hope to be Continued 
 as formerly in your favour and Service, if it is his Majesty's 
 pleasure to Reinstate your honours in the government.' 
 
 1 A copy of this treaty is among Orme's MSS. 2 O.C. 5074. 
 
 H a 
 
ioo KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 The question of accounts was indeed a crucial one. Bastions 
 cannot be built for nothing ; even the fortification of landing- 
 places costs money ; and John Child, when he heard of 
 Keigwin's first measures, had at once prophesied that early 
 bankruptcy awaited the new government. The 60,000 rupees 
 from the Returne, which the rebels had in reserve, would not 
 last them long, according to the President, who professed to 
 be afraid that they would then sell the Island to Sombaji 
 or the Siddee. 1 
 
 As it turned out, however, Keigwin's finances must be held 
 to have been almost as successful as his foreign policy ; for at 
 the end of his year of power he was able to hand over to the 
 Company the whole of the 60,000 rupees that he had seized, 
 untouched ; having thus proved that the revenues of Bombay 
 by themselves could be made to cover all the expenses 
 necessary to the more generous and forward policy which he 
 pursued. 
 
 In his letter to the King 2 , Keigwin says that the revenues 
 of the Island were at that time 95,800 Xs., while the President's 
 desperate struggle for economy had succeeded in reducing the 
 charges to 68,514 Xs. ; so that Bombay was now repaying at 
 the rate of some 27,000 Xs. a year the money that had pre- 
 viously been spent on it by the Company. It was, of course, 
 no part of Keigwin's policy to provide a surplus at the 
 expense of the security of the Island, and he doubtless spent 
 the entire revenue. We hear also of an additional tax put 
 on by the rebel government, a so-called Militia Tax, which 
 was apparently considered reasonable by the inhabitants, to 
 whom the blessings of the new regime were worth a great 
 deal ; it brought in 3,000 Xs., and was kept on after the mutiny 
 by the Company. 3 
 
 Keigwin then by leaving his reserve of 60,000 Rs. untouched, 
 proved that a satisfactory government could be carried on, 
 prestige adequately maintained, the troops properly paid, and 
 the Island kept in a state of security from outside threats, out 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records, 91. Child to the Court, February 4, 1683/4. 
 
 2 O. C. 5071. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records, 92. Surat to Bombay, March 14, 1684/5. 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 101 
 
 of the actual revenues of Bombay, without the Island being 
 a charge upon the Company. 
 
 The arrival of John Petti t in Bombay had strengthened 
 Keigwin where he was most in need, that is on his Council. 
 How much of the credit for the mutineers' successful negotia- 
 tions with Siddee Cossim and Sombajee may be due to Pettit, 
 it is now impossible to say ; but it is to be remarked that he 
 was in Bombay throughout these dealings, and though he 
 avoided any official connexion with the mutiny, he certainly 
 took a leading place in Keigwin's inner Council ; and the 
 presence and advice of an ex-Deputy Governor of his ex- 
 perience and ability must have been invaluable, when we 
 consider that the new government was almost entirely composed 
 of non-commissioned officers. 
 
 One minor result of Pettit's arrival was felt by Captain 
 Niccolls; the ex-judge had taken no official part in the re- 
 bellion, but was apparently on good terms with its promoters 
 until Pettit came. Pettit, who had a very low opinion of 
 Niccolls, and had been the cause of his removal from the 
 bench, now apparently exerted his influence again, and Niccolls 
 found himself treated coldly and with disrespect by the 
 mutineers. In disgust he decided to make approaches to the 
 two councillors, Newman and Vergis, who had been stationed 
 at Versova to warn off approaching ships, and wrote letters to 
 them to arrange a meeting. 
 
 John Child, in his reply to the councillor's report, advised 
 caution : 
 
 'Wee would not have you forward to give creditt to any 
 that may invite you to meet them, but allways be secure in 
 the Portuguese dominions, and trust not to neare the Seaside 
 least any that may pretend to be ffriends deceive you. Capt a 
 Niccolls wee think hath more witt than to put any such thing 
 on you, or to side with the Rebells, which he knows will be 
 his ruine in the end, and the undoing his wife and Children ; 
 wee dare trust him that he will doe no harme, but would have 
 you be cautious of all ; ... poor Mr. Petit had better continued 
 an Interloper, although he could not by that expect to goe 
 one degree beyond a beggar; he is indebted at Surat 100,000 
 Rupees as report speakes, and now may have forfeited his life ; 
 
KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 but wee reckon he fancies to be very cunning, by getting 
 Niccolls banished the Island, who might have hindered him in 
 his designes, having witt enough to deal with him ; and now 
 the Scott may not have the leading by the nose that very 
 fooll and rebellious villian Keigwin, but Petit will strike in 
 and try if he can gett some of the Hon ble Comp a ' 8 money with 
 them, and not unlikely put the fooll Keigwin upon doing 
 more mischiefe. . . . Capt. Aderton hath had mercy from us, 
 but it seems the rebells are resolved he shall not goe wholly 
 unpunished ... his wife wee heare is turned off the Island ; 
 we would have you accomodate her . . . and use her with 
 kindnesse, because not only that her husband appeares A true 
 convert, but shee was all along loyall and very much against 
 the Rebells/ 1 
 
 About the end of April, Vergis died and was replaced at 
 Versova by John Vaux, who had recently arrived from home. 
 This^ was the same Vaux who was afterwards so notorious as 
 Deputy Governor of Bombay, and whose tomb was for long 
 a landmark at the river's mouth at Surat ; he had been 
 Josia Child's book-keeper in England, and owed his advance- 
 ment to that autocrat's patronage. 2 
 
 Vaux and Newman, besides warning ships, were expected 
 to disseminate literature and spread rumours on Bombay, and 
 in a characteristic letter the President sent them his suggestions: 3 
 
 ' Wee like of your having sent soe many of the Declarations 
 to the Island, but wee suppose they were all in Portuguese 
 because of the persons you mention you sent them to ; pray 
 endeavour to send the English ones to the Island, dispersed to 
 severall, as Capt. Gary, Mr. Jn Pettit, Mr. Thos. Pettit, Lieut, 
 ffletcher, Ensign Willkins, etc. What of Souldiers leaves the 
 Island, use kindly and persuade to returne, laying to them 
 how it may be the losse of the Island if they leave it now, and 
 that it would become them better to redeeme their credits and be 
 revenged on those that have deceived them and brought them 
 into rebellion, by agreeing together and seize on Keigwin, etc. 
 that they may come to just punishment. . . . Wee would have 
 you send over papers to be dispersed all over the Island un- 
 signed, and in as strainge writing as you can, counterfeiting 
 that your hands may not be knowne in them ; write as you 
 may have rumors that may take some impression on the Soul- 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records, 91. April 28, 1684. 2 Hamilton, p. 234. 
 8 Snrat Factory Records, 91. May 22, 1684. 
 
vii SURAT AND BOMBAY, 1684 103 
 
 diers, and make them Jealous and watchfull that Keigwin etc. 
 escape not. the forme of a paper is enclosed that is wrote 
 from A rumour that wee have that Petit's Ship Prosperous is 
 to be lengthened 1 2 foot ; these papers may be sent over in A 
 Cannow in the night, and scatter'd up and downe ; and if 
 there be any other way that you may think of to make the 
 Souldiers disaffected to Keigwin, etc. and watchfull over them, 
 put in execution. In another paper write that Keigwin is a 
 Roman Catholick and designs to run away with them, or 
 what else you may think will take effect.' 
 
 Later on we find : l 
 
 'Wee have news the Rebells have consented that 5000 of 
 Sombagee's men should be on the Island . . . and its likewise 
 reported that Petit designes to gett into the Government by 
 poisoning Keigwin and some others, and hath promised the 
 Siddee that he shall have it/ 
 
 The President's feelings had evidently got the better of his 
 intellect; his sober reason could never have accepted these 
 extraordinary stories, nor hoped that the publication of such 
 transparent nonsense could ever do any good to his cause. 
 He was in fact helpless until next cold weather should bring 
 out more Europe shipping, and must have realized it very well. 
 
 In the middle of July came the East India Merchant^ one of 
 the Company's vessels; she came from the Maldives, where 
 her commander, Captain Roger Davies, had taken on board 
 some troops sent out by the Company to fill vacancies in the 
 Bombay garrison. When she came to anchor in the harbour, 
 Vaux rowed off to her under cover of darkness and warned 
 the captain of his danger, recommending him to get out of 
 gunshot from the Fort as quickly as possible. But Davies did 
 no such thing; on the contrary, in the morning he went 
 ashore and paid his respects to the rebels, after which he 
 delivered to Keigwin the packets he had on board for the 
 Deputy Governor of Bombay ; and to complete the enormity, 
 all the fifty soldiers, with their officer Lieut. Pitts at their 
 head, went ashore and took the oath of allegiance to Keigwin. 
 More curious still perhaps is the fact that Vaux himself joined 
 this general fraternization ; he was * invited ashoare ', where he 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records, 91. Child to Vaux and Newman, July 19. 
 
io 4 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP, vn 
 
 remained ' a prisoner at large ' according to his own account 1 , 
 1 with friendly entertainment ' according to Keigwin's. 2 Why 
 he did not clear off in his boat before daylight remains a 
 mystery ; but we may suspect that the quarters at Versova 
 were by no means luxurious, and that Vaux was not displeased 
 to accept the mutineers' hospitality without having to commit 
 himself to their party. 
 
 Captain Davies's behaviour was a shock to the President ; 
 for, apart from the reinforcement of the garrison, there was a 
 considerable sum of money on the East India Merchant^ 
 which it was very desirable to save from the rebels. He 
 therefore sent two of his council, Gladman and Hornigold, to 
 Versova to make special efforts to induce Davies to bring his 
 ship away; and these two gentlemen, after arriving on 
 9th August, began a correspondence with this object. Davies's 
 behaviour continued to be most unaccountable ; for though he 
 professed to be still loyal to the Company, he could not be 
 induced to leave Bombay. Persuasion gave place to Protests, 
 but still met with nothing but excuses and evasions ; and the 
 President came to the conclusion that Davies must have sold 
 1 liquors, &c.' on the Island, and ' till he could gett his money 
 in, deferred his coming away '. 3 
 
 Finally on I9th August he came out, after five weeks' stay 
 on shore; he brought with him John Vaux, and his four 
 chests of treasure intact, with a note from Keigwin saying he 
 had taken only the letters and troops intended for Bombay, 
 and sent on the Surat letters with all the Company's property 
 on board, including the money. 
 
 Gladman and Hornigold now got on board the East India 
 Merchant and lay off Bombay, out of gunshot, deciding to 
 keep Davies's vessel on sentry duty, instead of remaining at 
 Versova ; and here for the present we will leave them. 
 
 1 O.C. 5026. 2 O.C. 5196. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records, 91. September 3, 1684. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 JOSIA CHILD AND THE INTERLOPERS IN 
 ENGLAND, 1682-4 
 
 THE defeat of Papillon at the end of 1681, and the exter- 
 mination of his party in the India House, placed Josia Child 
 in a position to direct the affairs of the Company exactly as 
 though it were his private business, a position which he held 
 until his death in 1699. But the Free Trade party, or Inter- 
 lopers as they were now called, though driven from Leadenhall 
 Street, were still active and dangerous outside ; and for the 
 next few years Josia was occupied in following up his advan- 
 tage, and in converting Papillon's defeat into a rout. 
 
 In 1682 the Interloping interest captured the Levant 
 Company, 1 a monopoly that was of earlier date than the East 
 India Company, and its rival in importance in the eyes of the 
 nation ; the Levant Company now petitioned the King, claim- 
 ing the right under its old charters to the trade in the Persian 
 Gulf and Arabia, and demanding permission to send its ships 
 to these places round the Cape of Good Hope. This would 
 have been, as it was intended to be, a serious blow to the East 
 India Company's monopoly, and Josia accordingly bestirred 
 himself; he was not likely to be defeated on his own ground, 
 at Court, and had no difficulty in inducing the King to dis- 
 miss the petition. 2 The Interlopers, seeing they had no 
 chance at St. James's against a rival who ' scattered the 
 guineas ' to such good purpose, now turned their attention to 
 arousing the public feeling against the Company ; and there 
 began a war of pamphlets and propaganda, which, as we have 
 seen, 3 reached as far as India itself. 
 
 1 Bruce, i. 475-6. There were cases of Interlopers flying the flag of 
 the Levant Company (Causton and Keane, The Early Chartered 
 Companies, p. 82). 
 
 2 Bruce, ibid. 3 Supra Ch. VI, p. 90. 
 
io6 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 It must not be supposed that the question at issue between 
 Child and Papillon was Free Trade in the modern sense of the 
 word. Indeed in that matter the two rivals were entirely at 
 one, and, though the doctrines of Adam Smith were as yet 
 undreamed of, they had both for many years been champions 
 of freedom of exchange. The chief charges against the East 
 India Company had for long been their exporting of bullion, 
 and their importing of silks and calicoes which competed with 
 English manufactures; and the Protectionists of the day 
 wanted to prohibit the trade with India altogether as damaging 
 to English production. In his pamphlets against these views 
 Josia made important contributions 1 to the then poorly 
 exploited science of economics, and it is entertaining to find 
 this staunch old monopolist even claimed as a pioneer of the 
 eighteenth-century Free Trade movement. 2 
 
 Nor did Papillon differ from him on the necessity of having 
 a monopolist company to deal with the East India trade ; no 
 one was a stouter defender of the principle by which the 
 chartered companies were given complete control, each of its 
 own field ; 3 and he was as far from wanting to allow indis- 
 criminate separate trade as was Josia. Papillon, however, was 
 of opinion that the India trade should nevertheless be open to 
 the nation, and his view was that the purchase of the Company's 
 stock should be practically unrestricted ; so that any merchant, 
 desiring to share in the profits of the trade with India, could 
 do so by investing in the Company's Joint Stock, without 
 giving rise to any of the inconveniences and dangers connected 
 with the independent ventures of separate Interlopers. 4 Josia, 
 on the contrary, was for the strictest monopoly in the old 
 sense of the word, that is, for keeping the whole trade in the 
 hands of himself and a few of his colleagues and friends. 
 
 Finding it impossible to break the tie between Josia and the 
 
 1 Vide his pamphlets The New Discourse of Trade and Brief Observa- 
 tions concerning Trade and the Interest of Money, and also a well-known 
 pamphlet under the pseudonym ' Philopatris '. 
 
 2 Enc. Britt. under heading ' Sir Josiah Child '. 
 
 3 Vide Papillon's pamphlet The East India Trade the most profitable 
 Trade for the Nation, 1680. 
 
 4 Memoir of Thomas Papillon of London, Merchant, by A. F. W. 
 Papillon, p. 83. 
 
vin ENGLAND, 1682-4 107 
 
 King, Papillon's party were now driven to take an anti- 
 Royalist line, and deny that the King's prerogative could be 
 stretched so far as to claim a monopoly of foreign trade ; he 
 might indeed create an East India Company, but he could not 
 restrain the rest of his subjects from trading wherever they 
 pleased ; so that the Company's monopoly, being founded 
 solely on Royal Charters, and unsupported by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, was not legally effective. 
 
 Papillon's strategy, in thus appealing to the people and to 
 Parliament against an exercise of the Royal prerogative, was 
 undoubtedly that most likely to end in the long run, as in fact 
 it did, in the discomfiture of the Company ; but for the present 
 it was extremely dangerous. Josia redoubled his efforts ; the 
 gold flew ; but there was little need to scatter more guineas, 
 for the wheels at Court revolved of their own accord to meet 
 an attack on prerogative. Since the legality of the monopoly 
 was disputed, it should be tried before the new Lord Chief 
 Justice ; and that dreadful engine Judge Jeffreys was brought 
 out and set in motion. 
 
 As a test case, one Thomas Sandys, an Interloper, was 
 prosecuted ; the case came on in the Trinity term of 1 683 1 and 
 for nearly two years was argued at length by a galaxy of all 
 the most brilliant lawyers of the day. ' A case of great 
 great weight and consequence,' remarked Lord Jeffreys, 2 and 
 Sandys' counsel, he knew, would not object to the protracted 
 arguments and continued adjournments ; ' but whether your 
 client will or no,' he went on with his usual humour, ' I cannot 
 well tell, nor do not much care.' 
 
 But though it was not till 1685 that the Chief Justice finally 
 proclaimed that ' the Interlopers against the King's preroga- 
 tive in this particular ' were to be classed with * the horrid 
 conspirators against the King's life in this last hellish con- 
 spiracy ', 3 the delay was but a part of the advertisement of the 
 case; the longer and more important the trial, the more 
 
 1 State Trials, vol. vii, p. 555. Hunter says Michaelmas Term, but 
 vide note on p. viii of The Diary and Consultation Book of Fort St. George, 
 1683, edited by Arthur T. Pringle. Madras Government Press, 1894. 
 
 2 Quoted by Hunter, ii. 292. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 293. The reference is to the Rye House Plot. 
 
io8 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 effective would be the judgement in propping up the preroga- 
 tive. The action against the leaders of the obnoxious party 
 was more prompt; one of them, Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 1 
 was found by Jeffreys to be of a 'factious, seditious and 
 disaffected temper '; and was thrown into prison accordingly. 
 This was in February 1684, and next November Papillon 
 himself was the victim ; he was condemned in damages for 
 10,000, and was obliged to mortgage his estates and fly to 
 Utrecht. 2 
 
 Josia's triumph was complete, and it remained only to crush 
 out of existence the individual Interlopers who might still 
 venture to sail to the East ; and the better to accomplish this, 
 the King was persuaded to authorize the Company to set up 
 Admiralty Courts in India, to enable them to seize and 
 condemn Free Traders' vessels on the spot. In April 1684, 
 a Dr. John St. John was appointed Judge, with instructions 
 that his Court was to sit in Bombay, 3 and it was hoped that 
 with this additional authority and prestige, the President 
 would be able to put a complete stop to interloping in that 
 part of India. 
 
 It was while he was dealing thus with his opponents in 
 England that a decision took shape in Josia's mind, which was 
 destined to mark the beginning of a new epoch in the history 
 of the British in India ; this was no less than a conversion to the 
 policy of Gerald Aungier, the growth of a conviction that, in 
 the unsettled state of affairs in India and the South Seas, it 
 was impossible to carry on trade in security, unless we were 
 in a position to protect ourselves from robbery or attack. 
 
 From its earliest days the Company had modelled its policy 
 on the advice of Sir Thomas Roe, which was to assume the 
 posture of simple unarmed merchants, avoiding alike all 
 
 1 Sir Samuel Barnardiston, son of the famous patriot Sir Nathaniel 
 Barnardiston, is said to have been the origin of the term Roundhead. 
 His handsome appearance, with his hair worn short in the new fashion, 
 attracted the Queen's attention, and she remarked upon his fine round 
 head. (Vide an article on the Barnardiston family in the Proceedings of 
 the Suffolk Archaeological Society, vol. iv.) 
 
 2 Memoirs of Thomas Papillon and Howell's State Trials. For a good 
 account of these events vide Hunter, ii. 285-94. 
 
 3 Letter Book 7, April 7, 1684. The charter was granted August 9, 1683. 
 
vin ENGLAND, 1682-4 109 
 
 dreams of conquest and all interposition in the politics of the 
 native powers ; ' without controversy ', said Sir Thomas, ' it is 
 an error to affect garrisons and land wars in India.' l 
 
 The advice was excellent for such places as were under the 
 full control of the Mogul power ; ideas of conquest would have 
 been of course ridiculous, and garrisons and defences were 
 purposeless if the Emperor's peace were firmly kept. The 
 whole question in fact was one of police ; where there was no 
 disorder there was no occasion for a peaceful trader to go 
 armed. Unfortunately not the whole of India was thus 
 secure ; the Carnatic, for example, was never brought within 
 the limits of Mogul control, and as time went on and the rise 
 of Sivaji heralded the break-up of that great empire, the pale 
 of the Mogul peace became more and more contracted. Thus 
 it was that Andrew Cogan and Francis Day in 1639 had 
 found it necessary to build Fort St. George at Madras, and 
 thus too, when thirty years later the Mahrattas threatened to 
 cut off the west coast from Aurungzebe's rule, we have seen 
 Aungier turning to Bombay and devoting his best energies 
 to strengthening and developing the fortified island. 
 
 All this was very well recognized by those on the spot ; 
 but at home, among the Court of Committees, the Roe 
 doctrine continued to be held, and to be applied without 
 discrimination to all the Company's factories. For some 
 time indeed the Court allowed its hand to be occasionally 
 forced by the more enterprising of its servants in India ; thus 
 while recording its disapproval of Francis Day, it yet decided 
 to retain Fort St. George since it was actually built ; and 
 again Aungier's doings at Bombay were not absolutely con- 
 demned in his lifetime, though they raised much grumbling 
 in Leadenhall Street. With Josia Child's appearance all this 
 was changed, and we find the Company's concerns in the 
 East being governed direct from England ; instead of 
 a Court following with some doubt and misgiving the lead 
 of their President in India, which we may say has always 
 been the Company's normal method of conducting its affairs, 
 
 1 Vide Foster's Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe. 
 
no KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 we see a dummy President, whose every movement can be 
 traced directly to the autocrat in Leadenhall Street. 
 
 The rule of Josia presents the earliest and most signal 
 example of the evil results that are always to be feared when 
 the affairs of our countrymen in India, and particularly their 
 relations with the natives of the country, are guided too 
 autocratically from England ; and the lack of intimate local 
 knowledge, which has ever been the main cause of danger, was 
 never more conspicuous among the directors of the Company's 
 affairs than at this time. 
 
 The first result when, after Aungier's death, Josia became 
 the sole inspiration of the Company's policy, was, as we have 
 seen, the rigorous reversion to the Roe doctrine, and the 
 practical disarmament of Bombay at the moment when its 
 defences were most necessary. 
 
 But abruptly Josia's views turned in the opposite direction. 
 The occasion of his conversion seems to have been the loss 
 of Bantam, 1 where the English were expelled from their 
 factory in 1682, as the result of a Dutch intrigue with the 
 native powers ; 2 but doubtless the' troubles in Bengal and 
 Persia, as well as a tardy realization of the menacing position 
 on the West Coast, contributed to the change. 
 
 Taken as a modification of the Roe doctrine, the new view 
 was excellent ; the sane policy was clearly to avoid wars 
 either of conquest or retribution, but to provide fortified 
 settlements where the Company could shelter its servants and 
 property during the periodical storms that must be expected 
 to burst in those times of growing anarchy. 
 
 Moderation, however, was never a part of Josia's equip- 
 ment ; and now, with more than a convert's zeal, he utterly 
 discarded his old principles, and in the course of a year or two 
 plunged into his notorious war with Aurungzebe. Josia 
 Child, if over enthusiastic, was a very shrewd man of business, 
 and far above the average in intelligence and competence ; 
 but it is safe to say that if the Company's policy had been 
 
 1 In Java. 
 
 2 There are several documents bearing on this among the State Papers 
 in the Record Office. 
 
vni ENGLAND, 1682-4 m 
 
 guided from Surat instead of London, not even the stupidest 
 and most incompetent President would have embarked either 
 on the course of crazy economy that gave Bombay to 
 Keigwin, or on the still madder acts that nearly gave it to 
 Aurungzebe. 
 
 The new policy was taken up in 1683 with Josia's usual 
 enthusiasm and thoroughness, and an extraordinary alteration 
 appears in the drift of the Court's orders and letters to their 
 servants in India. They are now not only ' resolved to recover 
 Bantam ' l and fortify it strongly, but they are for building 
 a fort at Acheen, 2 and establishing a fortified settlement 
 ' somewhere within the Straits of Sunda J . 3 Now too for the 
 first time we find the Court suddenly in favour of acquiring or 
 building a fort in Bengal, somewhere on the Hooghly, 4 a scheme 
 that ultimately resulted in the foundation of Calcutta, although 
 Josia's actual proposal was to seize Chittagong. 
 
 In his instructions to the President of Surat, the volte-face 
 is particularly striking. ' We are imbarquing ', runs a letter 
 dated August 15, 1683, 'into a far greater charge not only 
 for the security but for the grandeur ' of Bombay ; and again, 
 ' We are now much sett upon the improvement of that our 
 Island of Bombay, and do esteem it a place of more con- 
 sequence then we have formerly done. 1 5 It is accordingly to 
 be put and kept ' in a strong Posture of defence ', and Josia 
 goes into the details of the new measures with as much gusto 
 as he had previously shown in his orders for retrenching the 
 very same items. 
 
 Work was to be started once more on the l6ng-neglected 
 bastion and trench ; the fortifications were to be put in order, 
 and more guns mounted. The militia was to be properly 
 drilled, at least ' one day in every two months ', and taught to 
 f handle their Arms, their faceings, wheeling, marching, and 
 counter-marching, the first ranks to present, draw Their trickers 
 together at the beat of the Drum, and fall off into the Reer 
 
 1 Letter Book 7, September 5, 1683. To Surat. 
 
 2 Ibid., October 19, 1683. To Madras. 
 
 3 Ibid., November 1 6, 1683. 
 
 4 Ibid., December 21, 1683. To Bengal. 
 
 B Ibid., November 16, 1683. To Bombay. 
 
KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 for the second Ranks to advance, as is often used with 
 Learners in our Artillary Ground ' ; particular orders too were 
 given to be more generous with the powder, especially in 
 drilling, ' least in time of Action they should start at the 
 noise or the recoile of their Arms '. Best of all it was decided 
 to increase the regular English garrison from two to three 
 companies, and a company of foot was sent out for the 
 purpose ; 1 while at the same time John Child was directed 
 to raise two companies of sepoys, or Rashpoots, as they were 
 called. 2 
 
 An effort was to be made to meet these new expenses from 
 the Bombay revenues, and the point was continually insisted 
 on, as being one in which the Dutch showed great wisdom, 
 that that nation made it their business to raise a revenue from 
 all their possessions, large enough to meet the requirements of 
 defence. The Court advised that even greater encouragement 
 should be given to settlers, to increase the population and 
 revenues of the Island ; and suggested certain fresh taxes, 
 such as a duty on shops, which might be imposed. 3 
 
 The importance of cultivating a revenue, to meet the 
 expenses of fortification, was continually kept before its 
 servants by the Court, as will be seen from the two following 
 extracts from letters dated August 1685 and December 1687 
 respectively. The extracts serve also to show the progressive 
 stages of Josia's Imperialism, as we may perhaps term it. 
 
 * It is our Ambition for the honor of Our King and Country 
 and the good of Posterity, as wel as of this Company, to make 
 the English Nation as formidable as the Dutch, or any other 
 Europe Nation, are or ever were in India ; but that cannot be 
 done, only by the form and with the methode of trading 
 Merchants, without the politicall Skill of making all fortifyed 
 places repay their full charge and expenses.' 4 
 
 1 Letter Book 7, August 15, 1683. To Bombay. 
 
 2 Bruce, ii. 498. These sepoys were not employed, as John Child 
 explained that they would have to be recruited from men who were under 
 the influence either of the Mogul or of Sombaji ; and so might prove 
 a danger to Bombay. Surat Factory Records, September 26, 1684 
 (wrongly dated November 29). 
 
 3 Letter Book 7, August 15, 1683. To Bombay. 
 * Ibid., August 26, 1685. To Madras. 
 
vin ENGLAND, 1682-4 
 
 And later : 
 
 ' That which We promise ourselves in a most especial! 
 manner from our now President and Council is, That they 
 will establish Such a Politic of civill and military power, and 
 create and secure Such a large Revenue to maintaine both at 
 that place, as may be the foundation of a large, well-grounded, 
 sure English Dominion in India for all time to come.' 1 
 
 It was a fatal stroke of irony that the letters carrying the 
 first set of orders based on the new policy, which are dated 
 August 1683, should have arrived in India within a few days 
 after the outbreak of the rebellion, just too late to save Bombay 
 from the results of the Company's previous misjudgement ; 
 but in reality there was every cause for gratitude that the 
 Island had fallen into the hands of Keigwin, instead of into 
 those of the Siddee or the Mahrattas, a fate to which it was 
 rapidly drifting ; and it is even possible that had not Keigwin 
 anticipated the Company, and forcibly introduced their new 
 policy without waiting for orders, Josia's conversion might 
 have come too late and found Bombay lost, not only to the 
 Company but to the nation. As it was, John Child, who 
 swallowed these orders for the ' security and grandeur ' of the 
 Island with the same unquestioning zeal as he had shown in 
 carrying out the previous contrary instructions, could only 
 regret the impossibility of doing anything but postpone the 
 reforms until Bombay should be recovered. 
 
 In pursuance of this policy, the Court also decided to send 
 out a force to retake Bantam, and it was determined to use 
 the occasion for making a demonstration against Persia. 
 
 The Company had obtained in 162,2, the right to a half of 
 the customs of the port of Gombroon, 2 in return for their 
 assistance to Shah Abbas in the capture of Ormuz from the 
 Portuguese ; 3 but for a long time had not only experienced 
 the greatest difficulty in getting the payment of these dues, 
 but had met with repeated and growing obstructions in their 
 trade from the Persian government officials. It was now 
 determined to adopt the advice of its successive agents in 
 
 1 Letter Book 8, December 12, 1687. 
 
 2 Bunder Abbas. 3 Bruce, i. 237. 
 
ii 4 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Persia, and make a show of force in the hopes of improving 
 the situation. 
 
 For these purposes Sir Thomas Grantham was sent out, and 
 on board his ship, the Charles //, was embarked the company 
 of foot-soldiers to be left in Bombay after the rest of his work 
 was finished. He was commissioned to go first to Java, after 
 which he was to sail to Persia, and finally to Bombay ; 1 and 
 his instructions were completed by orders to capture any of 
 the Interlopers' ships and cargoes that he could lay hands on, 
 and make them over to Dr. St. John's new Admiralty Court 
 for legal confiscation. 2 
 
 Grantham's personality was so large a factor in the conclu- 
 sion of Keigwin's rebellion that, before meeting him in the 
 East, the reader should know something of his past record, to 
 be able to form some idea of the kind of man who was now to 
 make his entry on the stage of Western India. 
 
 The son 3 of a Royalist squire killed in the siege of Oxford, 
 we first hear of Thomas Grantham in 1673 as commissioned 
 by Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, to convoy 
 home a fleet of twenty-three merchantmen during the war 
 with Holland. Returning in 1676 to Virginia, he found the 
 colony in open rebellion, and the Governor and Council deposed 
 and fled. Grantham, we hear, stepped in, and ' by means of 
 a Personal Acquaintance formerly between him and some of 
 the Principall officers among the Rebells ' he ' so successfully 
 transacted matters as partly by Persuasion and partly by 
 Compulsion and Stratagem to reduce that Colony to their just 
 Allegiance '. For this service he received ' a Noble Donative ' 
 from Charles II. 
 
 Two years later, in October 1678, he was sailing in his ship 
 the Concord once more to Virginia, when he was attacked by 
 * Canary, a Spanish Renegado and Admirall of the King of 
 Argiers, in a New Frigot of 48 guns, called the Rose, carrying 
 upwards of 600 men'. The Concord^ which only carried 
 
 1 Bruce, ii. 500-1. 2 Ibid., p. 506. 
 
 3 The following particulars are from a grant of arms made to Sir 
 Thomas and quoted by Yule (Hedges, ii. 140). They are unfortunately 
 not quite to be relied on, as that historian points out. 
 
viii ENGLAND, 1682-4 "5 
 
 22 guns and 80 men, defended herself with great courage 
 for 'Two or Three Hours Sharp Dispute', during which 
 Grantham was 
 
 * thrice boarded by the Barbarians who, Enraged because they 
 could not get the Mastery, Forced him on the Quarter, and 
 the Mizenyard being Shot down, fired the Sail, which burnt 
 very vehemently, and immediately set all the after part of the 
 ship on Fire ; yet he still continued the Fight, keeping the 
 Round house and Cuddy till obliged by the Heat to Retire (all 
 that accompanied him being either Killed or Wounded) ; and 
 then getting down into the Great Cabbin and Steerage, sallied 
 out with those who were there, resolving rather to perish in 
 the flames than yield. But in the Interim the Turks' Foresail, 
 hanging in the Brails over the Concord's Pope, and taking 
 Fire, he would fain have got off, which the said Sir Thomas 
 Grantham endeavour'd to prevent by feching down with small 
 shot as many as ran up to cut him clear ; until his sails, masts, 
 shrouds and yards were all in a Blaze, when cutting the Enemy 
 loose, presently their Mast to the Deck went by the board, with 
 many men on its Top and his Bloody Flag. ' 
 
 Both sides now set to work and extinguished their fires, 
 when the Renegado, having had his stomach full of fighting, 
 stood away and left Sir Thomas to pursue his course. 
 
 Grantham's behaviour, we hear, 'gained him the highest 
 Reputation and Applause ', besides a ' Gold Chain and Medal 
 of great Value ' from the King. He was at this time building 
 a ship of his own, ' which Ship being built accordingly, Burthen 
 816 Tun, carrying 64 guns and 300 men, the Said King and 
 his Royall Highness the Duke of York, Lord High Admirall, 
 attended by divers of the Nobility, did him the Honor to be 
 present at the Launching thereof, when his Majesty named her 
 the Charles the Second ; and as a further acknowledgment of the 
 Said Sir Thomas Grantham's eminent deserts Knighted him 
 (on board the said Ship) at Deptford, 8th Feby. 1682/3.' 
 
 Such was the ship and her captain, who was now com- 
 missioned by the Company, and sailed at the end of 1683 
 from England. Seven months later, in August 1684, the 
 Court received news of the loss of Bombay, Keigwin's letter 
 to the King arriving at about the same time. 
 
 His Majesty was graciously pleased to signify to the Court 
 
 I 2 
 
n6 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 his readiness to comply with whatever steps they should think 
 necessary to take, and a Committee of Secrecy was accordingly 
 formed, consisting of Sir Benjamin Bathurst, Sir Josia Child, 
 and Sir Jeremy Sambrooke, to draw up a report for present- 
 ation to the King. 1 
 
 From these gentlemen we learn that the rebellion was 
 premeditated and inexcusable ; that the soldiers had no just 
 cause for complaint, but on the contrary ' lived at great ease 
 and in too much voluptuousness ' ; and that the true cause of 
 the mutiny was 'the suggestion of Interlopers to the Con- 
 spirators, and particularly correspondence with John Pettit and 
 George Bowcher, our late servants, that have made themselves 
 Chiefs of all Interlopers '. 
 
 They also inform the King that in their opinion John 
 Thorburn, 'a scotch Tayler, that went out a Common 
 Soldier,' was the ' Principal Engineer and Contriver ', and 
 that next in guilt come Keigwin, Fletcher, and Adderton. 
 They point out that in several recent affairs of a similar nature 
 no effective punishment had been inflicted on the mutineers, 
 by which treason had got to be no longer regarded so 
 seriously as was necessary; and finally humbly advise his 
 Majesty that the four ringleaders mentioned should be 
 excepted from pardon, that the Interlopers should be finally 
 put down, and that their chief agents should be ordered home 
 by privy seal, to be dealt with in England as might then seem 
 proper. 
 
 It was on these lines that steps were taken for the recovery 
 of Bombay. John Child received the Royal Commission to 
 use what force was necessary, and was addressed as ' Captain 
 Generall of all our forces by sea and land in the North 
 of India ' ; and he was henceforth always addressed and 
 referred to by the title of ' General '. 
 
 At the same time Charles sent orders under his sign-manual 
 to Keigwin to deliver up the Island, and declared that, if this 
 were complied with within twenty-four hours, the whole 
 
 1 Court Book 34, August 6, 1684. Their report and the following 
 proceedings are all to be found in Letter Book 7, August 1684. 
 

 vm ENGLAND, 1682-4 117 
 
 garrison should be pardoned except the four ringleaders. 
 For these, dead or alive, rewards were offered of 4,000 rupees 
 each for Keigwin and Thorburn, and 2,000 Rs. for Fletcher 
 and Adderton ; and it was provided that if the soldiers in 
 Bombay seized their ringleaders and delivered them up, with 
 the Fort, an additional sum of 8,000 rupees should be distri- 
 buted among them, as well as the pardon. 
 
 To support these orders, His Majesty ordered H.M.S. 
 Phoenix , Captain John Tyrell, to proceed to Bombay, whose 
 force was to be afterwards used in 'surprising ' Interlopers. The 
 King's commission ordered Tyrell to seize all such ships and 
 take them to Bombay for trial by the new Court of Admiralty ; 
 but specially impressed on him that he must use the utmost 
 circumspection to avoid violence in doing so. 
 
 Finally, writs were issued under the privy seal summoning 
 Pettit and Bowcher to return to England at once. 
 
 In addition to these royal commands, the Court sent 
 supplementary instructions to General Child, in which they 
 dwelt strongly on the importance of bringing the four ring- 
 leaders to trial, and executing them under martial law in 
 Bombay. If, on the arrival of the King's orders, the mutineers 
 should offer to surrender on a general pardon, but threaten 
 desperate courses if their four leaders were not included, the 
 General was to use his discretion ; but the Court urged that 
 at least one of them should suffer the extreme punishment, 
 if it could be insisted on without * extraordinary hazard '. If, 
 on the other hand, Bombay had been already surrendered on 
 promise of a general pardon, before the arrival of the King*s 
 orders, the compact would have to be allowed to stand. 
 
 With these orders went instructions to John Child that he 
 was henceforth to reside in Bombay, which was now to be 
 considered the head-quarters of the English in Western India 
 instead of Surat. 
 
 Such were the measures taken by the Company to recover 
 their lost Island ; and we must now return to follow the course 
 of events in India, where much water had to flow under the 
 bridges before the arrival of Captain Tyrell. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 COMMERCE, INTERLOPERS, AND PIRATES, 1684 
 
 WHILE Bombay was in the hands of the rebels, the ordinary 
 routine of work went on as usual at Surat and the subordinate 
 factories ; and we may occupy the interval, till the arrival of 
 Sir Thomas Grantham, in giving some disconnected extracts 
 from the correspondence of this period which, even if they 
 have no bearing on the Bombay rebellion, may yet be welcome 
 as throwing light on the conditions of our predecessors' work, 
 and helping to fill out a little the rather bare outline that serves 
 us at present for a picture of their times. 
 
 To this year may be traced what we believe to be the first 
 use of a screw-press for packing cotton in India ; in April, 1684, 
 the President writes home i 1 
 
 ' What (cotton) goes by these Ships was put into the new 
 presse, that brings two bales clear into the bulk of one, which 
 wee humbly advise your Honours of; ... wee meene the 
 presse up to Surat, 2 and there shall sett it up in a convenient 
 place, and take our opportunities to buy up Cotton at the 
 cheapest and best time, and be continually a-packing it up/ 
 
 On the same day 3 we find a letter from Child to St. Helena, 
 accompanying a packet of cotton seed, and containing 
 'Direccons' when and how to sow it, with this pleasant 
 conclusion : ' then rake the ground that the Seed may be well 
 covered, and afterwards trust to God's blessing on your 
 endeavours.' 
 
 loth April, 1684. To the Court. 4 
 
 * One or two large English horses would be very acceptable 
 here, those from Persia being not soe large as in England, and 
 it is in great measure the largenesse of a horse that makes 
 him acceptable in these parts.' 
 
 1 O. C. 5143. 2 It was then at Swally. 
 
 3 Surat Factory Records 91. April 26, 1684. 
 
 4 Ibid., April 10, 1684. 
 
INDIA, 1684 119 
 
 Anderson tells us l that several attempts were made about 
 this time to breed English horses in Western India, but that 
 they were unsuccessful ; and that most of those imported died 
 on the voyage. 
 
 There are frequent references to curious birds and beasts 
 being sent home, chiefly for the King. In the British Museum 
 there is still a description of the 'strange and wonderful 
 Elephant* sent home in 1675, but in the time of which we 
 are now writing wild fowl seem to have been most in demand, 
 and many different kinds of these were sent home to the 
 King, probably to add to the attractions of St. James's Park, 
 which was one of Charles's hobbies. It was for another, and 
 less blameless, hobby of the King, the Duchess of Portsmouth, 
 that three black dwarfs were sent home ; these came from 
 Carwarr, and it was from here too that the Company 
 got the slaves with which it recruited the plantations of 
 St. Helena. 
 
 c Wee must now desire you ', writes Child 2 to Robert Harbin, 
 chief at Carwarr, c not to be only mindfull of the dwarfes wee 
 formerly desired, but to buy up 60 blacks of lusty bodies fitt 
 for work, none less than 16 yeares of age, and not to exceed so, 
 most if not all males ; wee hope the famine and troubles will 
 make it easie for you to effect, and that you may procure 
 them cheap, which wee recommend to you.' 
 
 In the same letter to Carwarr the President tells Harbin to 
 * make sale of all Europe goods with you, convert all into 
 money altho the Proffitt be little, for wee shall be able to 
 furnish you with more such goods in September next wee 
 hope ; and its an old Proverb, but very true, quick returnes 
 and light gaines makes heavy purses, whereas goods lying on 
 hand is uncomfortable, dull, Melancholy, without life ; there- 
 fore pray use all ways to put off your Broad Cloth etc. to the 
 most advantage.' 
 
 Broad cloth was the chief export from England. 
 Harbin seems to have had some trouble with his Broker, 
 and wanted to get rid of him ; on which Child replied : 3 
 
 1 English in Western India, p. 152. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 91. April 16, 1684. 
 
 3 Ibid., August 22, 1684. 
 
120 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 ' Wee have indeed had in your letters that Mr. Goring l 
 was poisoned by the latter (Shamdas), but not soe cleared to 
 us, as to condemne him : altho wee may have put a value on 
 what you write, yett in things of such a nature and the striking 
 at the reputation of men, wee must be cautious as becomes us, 
 and hasty Judgment is not good . . . only thus much wee 
 know, you are not very skill'd in the Country languages, and 
 without a Broker the businesse cannott goe well, and for those 
 of that Country they are deceitfull needy shuffling fellows, not 
 to be trusted ... we could wish Shamdas had been better 
 looked after.' 
 
 This letter ends with a rebuke to Harbin, who had excused 
 himself for not having kept his accounts in order on the 
 grounds that he was short of stationery : 
 
 ' If you had not book paper, your bookes are not soe large, 
 but the paper you write your letters on would have served 
 turne ; and wee should have been better satisfied to have had 
 them on that than to have wanted them. Wee have sent you 
 by these peons 3 quires large paper, and pray lett us not faile 
 of your Bookes, but have them as soon as possible.' 
 
 All the stationery used by the Company's servants in India 
 was sent out from home, and the following extract from one 
 of John Child's letters to the Court will remind us of the 
 small beginnings of our Indian Empire. 
 
 * The paper your Honours sent us this yeare proves very 
 bad, appearing old decayed stuffe that will not beare Inke ; 
 wee humbly desire your Honours will give order wee have 
 better paper for the future, and please to direct that wee 
 have noe more Inke sent us, nor Compasses, and at the most 
 but six penknives a yeare, and a dozen of black lead pencills, 
 with 6 Inke-glasses.' 2 
 
 The consignment from England of a dozen black-lead pencils 
 and six penknives for the Bombay Presidency strikes the 
 imagination more than many pages of fine writing. 
 
 From several passages we can gather what our countrymen 
 thought of the other Europeans in India at this time. The 
 Portuguese, the first comers, are always spoken of as a 
 
 1 Mr. Goring, ' a son of my Lord Goring in England, 5 had come out 
 to India 'incognito', as Hamilton tells us, with a Mr. Lembourg 'of 
 the House of Lembourg in Germany ' on a shooting expedition. 
 
 2 O. C. 5270, November 29, 1684. 
 
ix INDIA, 1684 121 
 
 declining power, wanting in courage, initiative, and sense, but 
 still buoyed up by the old arrogance and pride of their 
 ancestors. At the moment they were in grave danger of 
 being ' swallowed up ' by the Mahrattas, a situation into 
 which their ' insolencies, pride, and rashness ' had led them, 
 and from which they lacked the qualities to save themselves. 
 Of the French we hear very little, and it is clear that as 
 yet they were of little account in the East. Our real rivals 
 were the Dutch ; not only were they our rivals, indeed, but 
 they bade fair to turn us out of the trade altogether, as they 
 had actually done in the Spice Islands. 
 
 ' Wee wrote your Hon rs last yeare ', says President Child, 1 
 ' what great trouble the Dutch gave in getting of your pepper 
 on the Mallabar Coast . . . and doubtlesse now that they injoy 
 a quiet possession of Bantam they will be very brisk ; in all 
 appearance, wee too Justly fear, will soon ingross all the 
 pepper on this coast to them selves, ... as they themselves 
 give out to be greater than the King of England and ffrance, 
 and that in four or five years there shall be no Englishman nor 
 ^frenchman In India, but what are in their service ; but we 
 hope never to see that, for all their huffing and talking bigg.' 
 
 But though the Dutch were dangerous rivals, it is still the 
 Interlopers and their doings that fill the pages of the letters 
 from Surat. Nor was it only as trade competitors that these 
 gentry caused uneasiness and alarm among the Company's 
 servants. We have already referred to the Buccaneers in the 
 East Indies as a development of Interloping ; ten years later, 
 Avery's piratical doings resulted in the arrest of the English 
 in Surat, 2 the Mogul Governor being unable or unwilling to 
 distinguish between English merchants and English pirates, 
 and holding the President and Council responsible for all the 
 acts of their countrymen in the East. This was one of the 
 most objectionable features of these independent cruisers, that 
 their misdoings were very apt to bring trouble on the Com- 
 pany's servants ; and already in this year we see very evident 
 signs of the narrow margin between interloping and piracy. 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. September 26, 1684 (wrongly dated 
 November 29). 
 
 2 Hedges, ii. 138 ; Hamilton, i. 236. 
 
122 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 The British sailor of the period was certainly no lamb, even 
 on the most respectable of ships. Fryer compares his habits 
 with the gravity and piety of the Mussulman : 
 
 " Our Sailors can hardly ever work without horrid Oaths and 
 hideous Cursing and Imprecations ; and these Moormen, on 
 the contrary, never let their hands do any Labour, but that 
 they sing a Psalm or Prayer and conclude at every joint 
 Application of it, Allah, Allah, invoking the Name of God.' 
 
 We hear indeed of doings by the crews of the Company's 
 own ships, that filled with anxiety the wretched President and 
 factors, who knew that it was on them that the blame would 
 fall. Here is a complaint from Robert Harbin of Carwarr. 1 
 
 ' Nor is this the only unhappiness we are to Graple with, 
 for partiall fortune (as if wee had not sufficient anxiety to 
 Live quiett with this ticklish and raskally Government) 2 has 
 hitt us home with the 2 greatest blowes of hazzard that was 
 possible for her to bestow ; to witt, in plaine English, some of 
 the Mexico Merchants men entred a house and took out 
 a Cow perforce and killed it, albeit they had faire warning 
 from us, Sumbajee (when at Phunda against the Portugueez) 
 having executed a Mooreman (Commander of one of his 
 Grabbs and a ffavorite Living in this towne) for being onely 
 partner in killing a Cow fairly, and privately bought, which 
 was a small Crime to ours ; which notwithstanding, with 
 Piscashes 3 presently applyed, we had in a manner Cured the 
 Rupture, and noe sooner soe but one of the China Merchants 
 men killed with a Muskett 2 Moore boyes of great Parentage 
 . . ., wee feare of more a designe than accident. . . . God onely 
 knows what the issue of it will be ; wee endeavour by all the 
 demonstrations imaginable of sorrow to prove it an accident. 
 ... If 2 first-rate ffrigattes had indeavoured to runn us into 
 danger, and inconveniences, they could not have contrived 
 it in 2 patter acts than these litle fooles of shipps have done.' 
 
 The wanton murder of Mohammedan boys and Hindu 
 cows was a very serious affair for the isolated little band of 
 Englishmen at Carwarr ; John Child thought it might break 
 up the factory there. * We hope ', he writes, ' you have 
 protested against the two Commanders', and recommends 
 ' making up this unhappy rupture ... by presents, but if you 
 
 1 O.C. 5198, dated September 15, 1684. 
 
 2 Carwarr was at this time in Sombajee's possession. 3 Bribes. 
 
ix INDIA, 1684 123 
 
 finde that cannot be, but that you may remaine in danger of 
 your lives, and the Hon. Company's estate in apparent Hazard 
 of being lost, in such case and uppon noe other account, we 
 give you liberty to remove to the next Port most fitt for your 
 settlement.' 1 The trouble fortunately seems to have yielded 
 to the present application of piscashes. 
 
 If the Company's own servants were guilty of such ruffianism, 
 it was to be supposed that the conduct of the Interlopers, or 
 at least of some of them, would create an even worse impression 
 on the natives of India ; and this year's records bear out the 
 expectation. 
 
 Of the new crop of Interlopers, the first to come East was 
 a man called Say, who established himself at Muscat, intending 
 to make this his head-quarters for a regular trade. In 1684, 
 four of his men, joining forces with two Dutchmen, determined 
 to set up on their own account, and took passage to the 
 Malabar Coast in the vessel of a native merchant of Cong. 
 The vessel was richly laden, and proved too strong a bait 
 for the six miscreants, who seized the ship on the voyage, 
 murdering the owner and two of his women who were travel- 
 ling with him, as also no less than twenty-six of the crew, 
 keeping only six Lascars to help navigate the ship. On 
 approaching the coast of India, they decided to remove also 
 these witnesses against them, and threw the six Lascars 
 overboard. However, * it pleased the Almighty to floate them 
 alive ashoare to discover them ', so that on landing at Onore, 
 to the north of Carwarr, the pirates were seized and taken 
 before the queen of the country. Harbin, on hearing of it, 
 reported the affair to Child. ' Report speakes them English,' 
 he says ; ' if soe, they would doe us a kindnesse to disown 
 their Countrey.' 2 
 
 The President replied 3 that he had already heard of the 
 * wicked and most detestable ' business ' to our noe mean 
 trouble and great shame ', and told Harbin to 'utterly disown' 
 them, in case they applied to him for protection. With a 
 disgust that we cordially share, the chief of Carwarr heard 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. October 22, 1684. 
 
 2 O. C. 5118. 3 Surat Factory Records 91. August 22, 1684. 
 
124 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 that these scoundrels had escaped the fate they deserved. 
 
 * The Queen of Canara ', he tells Child, * has sett att Liberty 
 those 4 English and 2 Dutch villaines that were concerned 
 in the Cong shipp, and not only soe but employed them in 
 her service ; a badd example of Justice.' 1 
 
 One more instance we must give of the Interloper who was 
 little* better than a pirate, in the person of Captain Hand of 
 the Bristol. Hand was ' a mighty passionate man ', and on 
 one occasion when his mate remonstrated with him for some 
 act that was too obviously not that of a peaceful trader, Hand 
 
 * kicked him off the quarter-deck, and several others for the 
 same reason*. For natives, whom he wanted to compel to 
 act as pilots, he found a convenient argument in a block and 
 a carpenter's axe. This worthy, we hear, after he ' had done 
 great mischiefe at Maldivas, went for Sillabar, where being 
 denyed pepper (by the Dutches contrivance) went ashoare with 
 about thirty of his men, well armed, to force a trade, and 
 like a desperate fellow marched up to the Towne, where was 
 about 4,000 men to oppose him ; but it pleased God that 
 a Pistoll stuck in his wast went of, which wounded him in the 
 Thigh, of which he dyed in about 12 days' ; 2 an accident for 
 which his thirty men, if not his four thousand opponents, must 
 have been deeply grateful. After this we are not surprised to 
 hear that the natives were ' resolved never to have any trade 
 againe with Hattmen '. 3 
 
 After Hand's death, the Bristol, now under the command 
 of her mate Andrewes, seems to have been in no anxiety to 
 improve her reputation; in September 1684 she sailed into 
 Bombay, disregarding the warning of Gladman and Hornigold, 
 whom we left keeping watch on the East India Merchant. 
 Keigwin, however, was not the man to have any dealings with 
 gentry of this kind, and she soon came out again, signalizing 
 her departure by a gratuitous broadside at the East India 
 Merchant, and sailed on to Surat river's mouth, where we 
 shall meet this pirate again. 
 
 Hand must not be taken as a typical Interloper ; for though 
 
 1 0.0.5198. 2 O.C. 5128. 
 
 3 O. C. 5205. See note on p. 97 ante. 
 
IX INDIA, 1684 135 
 
 the examples we have given serve to show that there was 
 a tendency towards violence among these as among all 
 poachers, yet the bulk of them were doubtless perfectly 
 respectable and decent adventurers. We hear of no such 
 misdeeds among any of the ships for which the partners 
 Pettit and Bowcher acted. Against these two the President 
 continued as virulent as ever ; we have seen him spreading 
 a rumour that Pettit was a poisoner, and Bowcher afterwards 
 complained that Child had made the same charge against him. 
 He now started another piece of scandal against the two 
 friends. * Wee too much fear, and it 's generally talked,' he 
 wrote to the Court, 1 ' that both Petit and Bowcher will turne 
 Mahomitans at last ; they are indeed very naughty men, God 
 grant of his mercy towards their poor Souls that they add not 
 to their many wickednesses that horrid sin.' Madam Bowcher, 
 now the only member of the firm left in Surat, was not back- 
 ward in meeting these attacks with counter rumours ; we 
 hear of her repeatedly as ' giving out ' the most alarming 
 and discouraging stories, with circumstantial accounts of the 
 sinking of Company's vessels, the sad drowning of Mr. John 
 Hornigold, and so on, to each of which the President rose in 
 a way that must have been most gratifying to her. 
 
 For Padre Watson, Child seems also to have had a special 
 dislike. 'Your Chaplain Mr. Watson continues at Bombay 
 whose behaviour hath been too great a Scandle to his Coate', 
 he says. 2 
 
 This year 1684 was a very sickly one, and many of our 
 little band of friends fell victims to the climate ; the few 
 weeks between the rains and the cold weather, always so 
 dangerous, were this season particularly fatal. 
 
 At Versova, Vergis was already gone, and now John Newman 
 followed him, and to the indignation of the English was 
 refused Christian burial by the Portuguese Jesuits as being 
 a heretic. 3 
 
 In Surat, George Gosfright died ' of a feaver and ague ', 
 and on the East India Merchant Captain Davies succumbed ; 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. April 10, 1684. 
 
 2 Ibid., April 26, 1684. 3 O. C. 5291. 
 
126 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 'a naughty man', says Child, 'wholy of the Rebells side'. 1 
 A little latter John Hornigold fell sick and was sent to Surat, 
 where he, too, died. 
 
 In Bombay, though the mortality among the soldiers was 
 very heavy, there were no casualties among the leaders, except 
 Keigwin's latest recruit, Lieutenant Pitts, who fell a victim 
 to Bombay punch, and died, ' knowne best ', says John Child, 
 1 by the title of the drunken Lieutenant'. But the rebels 
 were to suffer a loss more serious and tragic than any that 
 befel the President's party. 
 
 Sir Thomas Grantham, after visiting Java and Persia, set 
 sail for India in the middle of September from Gombroon, 
 and his approach was doubtless expected with anxiety in 
 Bombay. It was no part of John Pettit's plan to be captured 
 there with the mutineers, and he decided to return to Surat 
 before Sir Thomas's arrival ; he therefore left his big ship the 
 Prosperous with Keigwin, and embarked himself on his small 
 vessel the George, in which he had come from Persia. On 
 2oth October, taking advantage of a dark night, the George 
 slipped past the East India Merchant and stood for Surat. 
 
 It was on the morning of the s8th that the Sanganye pirates 
 appeared in two vessels, the one a ship and the other a very 
 large grab ; these ruffians came up with the George and 
 ' clapt her on board ', as many as four or five hundred men 
 swarming to the attack. Pettit and his party defended 
 themselves valiantly, and the fight raged from eleven till 
 three in the afternoon, when the pirates, at last 'finding 
 us to be too hott for them', put off and fell astern, leav- 
 ing between forty and [fifty of their number dead on the 
 decks of the George. 
 
 But at the very moment of victory Pettit's ill fortune came 
 upon him, for a man firing a musket at the retreating 
 Sanganyes from the 'great Cabin windowes', which were 
 just over the open scuttle of the powder room, the powder 
 took fire and blew up the quarter-deck. The explosion 
 killed outright some twenty-five men, including the captain 
 and a son of Lieutenant Pitts who was of the party; and 
 
 1 O. C. 5270. 
 
ix INDIA, 1684 137 
 
 a mass of falling wreckage 'broake Mr. Pettit's head and 
 Brused his Right shoulder very much, and had undowbtedly 
 prest him to death, But the Timber was supported by a great 
 Gunn by which Mr. Pettitt stood ; as also he was most 
 Lamentably Burnt with the Powder on the left side of his 
 face and neck and left Legg and foott, which was a great 
 Torment to him.' 1 When he managed to extricate himself 
 he found that there were seven other English survivors ; of 
 these, Samuel Harris, the mate, with three others and fifteen 
 Lascars, got into the pinnace and made off as fast as they 
 could ; and the other four Englishmen, with some Lascars and 
 two Banians, finding it hopeless to quench the fire on the 
 George, were obliged to put off in the long boat, which had 
 neither sail nor oars. The pinnace got clear away, but 
 the long boat fell a helpless prey to the pirates, and the 
 last that was seen of the party by those in the pinnace was 
 the unhappy John Pettit going up the side of the Sanganye ship. 
 
 Such was the story brought back to Surat by Samuel 
 Harris, 2 and a man sent hastily off by Madam Bowcher 
 into the pirates' country returned with the bare news that 
 Pettit was dead. The President scarcely restrained his 
 satisfaction in his official letters ; and in private he openly 
 exulted, if we may trust Alexander Hamilton. ' Dead, and 
 gone to the Devil', 3 was his comment according to that 
 worthy, and indeed we feel inclined to accept the old Inter- 
 loper's statement on this occasion without reserve, seeing that 
 in his still extant reports the President went as near expres- 
 sing this opinion as his dignity could allow. * Wee hope the 
 Almighty hath received him to Mercy,' he writes ; ' hee was 
 indeed a naughty Man, and if living heartily wish hee may 
 repent of all his naughtinesse, and become a new man.' 4 
 
 Later, when a rumour arose that Pettit was after all alive, 
 and on his way to Surat, Child wrote, hoping 'that the 
 Almighty will afford him time ; and give him grace to amend 
 his Life after such an afliction ; that he may goe out of this 
 World a true Penitent, and good Christian.' 5 
 
 1 O. C. 5304. 2 O. C. 5233 and 5270. 
 
 3 Hamilton, i. 204. 4 O. C. 5270. 6 O. C. 5274. 
 
i8 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 It was three months later, in January 1685, that Ben 
 Oxborough, the sole survivor of Pettit's party, made his way 
 into Surat, and supplied the details of the story. His narra- 
 tive 1 is simple and poignant, and we will quote from it, as 
 the reader may like to see the last of the ex-Deputy Gover- 
 nor, and at the same time make a better acquaintance with 
 the Sanganyes. 
 
 The pirates, to begin with, 
 
 ' stript Mr. Pettit of his uper Garment onely, which was a 
 great ffavour ; none else experienced the same. After which 
 hee was put a Sterne of their Grabb in our Boate, where wee 
 continued about Three houres, at the end of which time they 
 tooke Mr. Pettitt and and myselfe aboard, Leaving the other 
 two in the Boate, towing a Sterne all night, with nothing for 
 their Covering but their shirts, and those almost Burnt of their 
 Backs ; by means of which, it being very Could in the night 
 and their burnes almost intolerable, the one Dyed the next 
 Day, the other Two Dayes after. For Mr. Pettitts entertain- 
 ment it was as followeth ; as soone as wee Entered wee were 
 put downe into their Cooke roome, where wee were forst to sett 
 almost one upon another, there being seaven of the Lasccarrs 
 with us, and could take no Rest. In the Morning wee under- 
 stood the Pyrates held a consultation what to doe with us, and 
 at Length it was Determined that Mr. Pettitt, myselfe, and 
 two Christian Lasscarrs should be put into the Pro and their 
 to have our Throates cut, and so heaved overboard. Accord- 
 ingly wee were put there, every third sea which came washing 
 us, which was much Troublesome to Mr. Pettitt ; Lying where, 
 we continued about Three Houres.' 
 
 Pettit then offered one of the officers five rupees for a better 
 place, and as soon as they heard there was a talk of money, 
 they brought them back on deck and made inquiries from the 
 Lascars and the two Banians as to who their captive was. 
 While this was going on, the pirate c souldiers ' began an 
 attack on the prisoners from which the officers only just saved 
 them in time from being * cut in pieces '. 
 
 Pettit then, for another five rupees, was taken to the quarter- 
 deck, ' where wee had a Top gallant Sayle Allowed us for our 
 Bed and Covering. But the next Morning the Pylate of the 
 
 1 O.C. 5340. 
 
IX INDIA, 1684 129 
 
 Shipp would not suffer us to continue their any Longer, upon 
 which Mr. Petitt promised him fifty Rupees more for a good 
 Lodging where hee might be settled.' They were put, how- 
 ever, in the hold ' upon the Rock Stones which was all their 
 Ballis ', and there had to remain for ten days till they reached 
 land. 
 
 The wretched Pettit, whose wounds and burns were terrible, 
 fell into a fever and suffered much for lack of a doctor, there 
 being none on board ' but a poore silly Barber, who Brought 
 a little white Oyntment, which I cannot tell whether it did 
 him good or hurt '. On reaching land, Pettit was unable to 
 move, and had to be carried ashore ' in the Topp gallant saile 
 by forse of Men ' ; and they were then taken to the pirate 
 town in a cart. There they were brought before the ' Roger 
 or king ', who treated them very civilly and told Pettit to have 
 no fear ; however, all he could get to eat e was a little Rise 
 and Butter, save a great deall of Cow Milke and Butter Milke, 
 the which I believe did him harme, But hee would not be 
 dissuaded from it.' 
 
 The wretched man, although he grew weaker and weaker, 
 ' had noe feare or appryhension of any Danger, But seemed 
 to be very Chearly, I endeavouring to promote it what I could.' 
 The ' Roger ' at first demanded a Lakh of rupees as ransom, 
 but eventually came down to 10,000 ; but no sooner was this 
 agreed to than another 5,000 was demanded, which Pettit 
 hesitated over, not knowing where the demands would stop ; 
 and meanwhile he continued to sink. After seven days 
 Oxborough heard him ' talke idly ', and asked him if he 
 had any messages, and if he had made his will ; on which 
 Pettit told him to c Trouble him noe more, at that time, he 
 being inclinable to Sleep '. 
 
 Oxborough now sent word to the Roger that he was likely 
 to lose his ransom, on which ' came a great many of the Chiefe 
 Men and felt of his puls, some saying that he was not soe ill, 
 others shaking their heads att him'. But in spite of this 
 consultation, the poor man ' fell into a very Could Sweat and 
 in an houre's time departed ' ; and was buried by c myselfe and 
 Three of the Blacks'. 
 
 1526-C K 
 
130 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 Thus died one of the old Deputy Governors, not the least 
 -deserving of the long line of Bombay worthies, though the 
 posthumous malevolence of the two Childs has hitherto 
 triumphed over his memory. George Bowcher congratulated 
 himself that the President had no power to forbid his enemies 
 an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven ; but for Deputy 
 Governors of Bombay there is, or should be, another kind 
 of after-life in the records and histories of our great Empire. 
 From that kingdom John Pettit has hitherto been excluded, 
 and his name is known only as that of a dismissed servant. 
 From Bruce to Hunter, historians of India speak of Henry 
 Oxinden as Gyffard's successor, and it is evident that most of 
 them were not even aware that John Pettit ever held the 
 office. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 JOHN CHILD AND THE INTERLOPERS 
 IN INDIA, 1684 
 
 JOHN ST. JOHN, ' Doctor of Lawes,' who had been ap- 
 pointed to the new Indian Court of Admiralty, arrived at 
 Swally on September i5th, and finding Bombay closed to 
 him, decided to set up his Court without further delay at 
 Swally Marine. * This nauseating person ', as Yule very aptly 
 describes him, was at first received with the greatest respect 
 and attention by John Child, who hoped that the Judge's 
 Royal commission would strike terror into the hearts of both 
 Interlopers and rebels. At the opening of his Court, 
 
 ' Your President and Mr. Chas. Zinzan satt with the Doctor , 
 he made a handsome speech to all, your President likewise 
 discoursed to all and gave them in Charge to pay all due 
 respect to the Doctor as His Majesty's Judge. Wee forebore 
 publishing your Honours' Commission to him, because wee 
 think it for your Service that he should be looked on as 
 immediately from his Majesty, which may create the greater 
 aw towards him in all, and Clapp some terror into the heads 
 of your mutineers on bornbay.' l 
 
 On September 2oth, five days after his first landing in 
 India, the Doctor sent home to the King what Bruce calls 
 ' a very able report ' 2 on the situation ; this precious document 
 is still among the State Papers in the Record Office, 3 and as 
 the Company's annalist has made much of it as evidence of 
 John Child's merits, we will quote from it, which Bruce 
 wisely enough forbore to do. 
 
 He first says that ' on a full information ' he is ' satisfied and 
 convinced that this Rebellion and Conspiracy at Bombay was 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. September 26, 1684. (Wrongly dated 
 November 29, in the copy at the India Office.) 
 
 2 Bruce, ii. 538. 3 St. John to the King, dated September 20, 1684. 
 
 K 2 
 
133 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 carried on and promoted by Interlopers and their Agent here'; 
 after which mature judgement he passes on to 
 
 'your Majesty's truly loyall and honest subject, our Hon ble 
 John Child, President of India. . . . His Experience here, His 
 ability, judgment, conduct, true Loyalty, and zealous disposi- 
 tion for your Majesties and the English Nation's concernes are 
 to the admiration and Content of all your Majesties Loyall 
 Subjects in India, and at this time to my certaine knowledge 
 nothing in this world woundeth his heart more than to see and 
 heare how undutifully, falsely, and maliciously the Interlopers 
 asperse, represent, and vilifie your most Sacred Majestic here 
 . . . that your Majesties Proclamation was of no force nor 
 binding without an Act of Parliament; that your Majestie 
 could do nothing without the same etc. as appeared effectually 
 by Capt. Keigwin, the now Oliver of the Rebells and Protector 
 of Bombay, ... In all my lifetime I never mett with a more 
 zealous subject of your Majesties than this Hon ble John Child; 
 he often declares that he would Sacrifice unto your Majestie 
 and in your Service the last drop of his blood. He is uneasy 
 and impatient to see your Majestie dishonoured and vilified 
 by all the Rebells. . . . He hath been in India upwards of 
 25 yeares, and by the Judgment and Confession of every one, 
 wee never yett had and must not expect a man of his ability, 
 judgment, and conduct. . . all the rest of the Hon ble President's 
 family are as truly Loyall and as well deserving of your 
 Majestie, for theire greate integritie and loyalty, as any 
 Knott of your Majesties Subjects in India or England ; which 
 addeth in this Juncture very much to my Satisfaction etc. 
 
 c I thought it my duty to enlarge thus . . . because I am an 
 impartiall man. . . . He is the onely man wee have in India 
 fitt and qualified to regulate all with creditt and advan- 
 tage ' 
 
 and so on, for longer than we have patience for. 
 
 Such is this 'very able report', made after an Indian 
 experience consisting of five days at Swally Marine; we 
 are amused but scarcely surprised to find in a letter six 
 months later 1 from the same authority, after his inevitable 
 quarrel with Child had come on, that this paragon of Presi- 
 dents has become ' one John Child '. 
 
 All this may appear too nonsensical to deserve notice, but 
 
 1 St. John to Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State, May 10, 1685. 
 Among the State Papers in the Record Office. 
 
x THE BRISTOL, 1684 133 
 
 we fear it is true that it is just on such evidence that John 
 Child's reputation stands ; and in fact, that this particular 
 letter, and the prominence and weight given by Bruce to 
 the opinions expressed in it, are almost all it has to rest 
 upon, outside the choruses of the Court of Committees. 
 
 In this rose-coloured atmosphere the new Admiralty Judge 
 began his campaign against the Interlopers ; he plunged with 
 enthusiasm into the task of recording * affirmations ' and 
 'depositions' from every one, from Zinzan and Day down- 
 wards, detailing the evil doings and sayings at Bombay and 
 in the Bowcher salon. So great was the press of work that 
 the poor Doctor ' had not one moment of leisure ' ; he ' went 
 to bed at 12 a'Clock, and at two in the morning was called 
 up ' again. 1 
 
 The arrival of the Bristol at the river's mouth on October 
 1 2th, and the news of her behaviour at Bombay, following 
 the reports of her past misdeeds, gave St. John his first 
 opportunity to deal with Interlopers on the spot. On 
 8th October, the Council wrote telling him of * the insigni- 
 ficant dispute that happened betwixt the Hon. Company's 
 Ships and the Interloping Ship Bristoll\ and asking his 
 advice 
 
 ' how wee ought to act in soe nice a point, as whether wee may 
 give the Commanders of our Ships order to fire on her and 
 take her by force of Arms, if she will stand it out and not 
 surrender upon any termes; whether the law will bear us 
 out in it should they . . . shed the King of England's Subjects' 
 blond, and your opinion whether our Commanders will adven- 
 ture on it.' 2 
 
 St. John's reply next day was that 
 
 ' if wee neglect any endeavours in seizeing and securing the 
 Interloper Bristoll, wee shall be adjudged betrayers of our 
 King, Country, and Company's interest, but to attempt it 
 and not effecting the requisitt intent will be a disparagm* 
 to the whole English nation; yett lett the event be what 
 it will, your Hon rs cannott safely avoid all speedy and hearty 
 endeavours therein.' 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. October 15, 1684. St. John to Child. 
 
 2 Ibid., October 8, 1684. 
 
KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 He added a long postscript expressly authorizing bloodshed 
 if it were unavoidable in securing the capture. 1 
 
 We propose to give a brief account of the ensuing dealings 
 of John Child with the Bristol t in order to let the reader have 
 a notion of how matters stood between the Company and 
 Interlopers in India ; more especially is it necessary to correct 
 an impression that has unfortunately been given the great 
 weight of Sir William Hunter's authority. 
 
 This historian says, 2 on the authority of Alexander 
 Hamilton, that John Child, by way of making the English 
 in India know that they had a master, marched private 
 traders or Interlopers through the streets with irons on their 
 necks ; and in another passage 3 he gives a vivid picture of 
 the President's masterful rule. ' Sir Josia Child/ he says, 
 * having thus stricken down his opponents at home, while his 
 brother marched Interlopers in chains through the Indian 
 bazaars, now applied the policy of Thorough, etc.' 
 
 As a matter of fact, a reference to the passage in Hamilton 
 quoted by Hunter will show that he has misread it ; the 
 people who were marched through the streets with irons on 
 their necks were all the English living in Surat, mostly servants 
 of the Company ; and the person who did it was the Mogul 
 Governor of Surat on the occasion of John Child's embarking 
 on hostilities against Aurungzebe. Moreover, Hamilton says 
 that the only exception was made in the case of that arch- 
 Interloper, George Bowcher and his servants ; had Child been 
 in Surat at the time, we fear he would himself have graced 
 the procession. 4 
 
 Such a mistake is of trifling importance in itself, but un- 
 fortunately it seems to have been the foundation of Hunter's 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. October 9, 1684. 2 Hunter, ii. 230. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 287. 
 
 4 The passage in Hamilton, i. 224, runs as follows : * When the 
 General left Surat, there were several Gentlemen in it, some in the 
 Company's service, and some private Persons, who were all imprisoned, 
 and put in Irons, except Mr. Bowcher and his Dependents, who were 
 protected by his Phirmaund. Those imprisoned were scurvily used, 
 being obliged to pass thro' the Streets with Irons about their Necks, for 
 Spectacles to please the Mob. Captain Johnson and Captain Yeaman, 
 tho' particular Merchants, were obliged to act their Parts in the Tragi- 
 comedy, and continue Prisoners, where Captain Johnson died, but 
 Captain Yeaman got his Liberty at the End of the War.' 
 
x THE BRISTOL, 1684 135 
 
 conception of John Child's government ; and it is chiefly by 
 these two passages that he skilfully gives us the picture of a 
 man of iron strength, and despotic power, in place of the 
 utterly ineffectual figure whose career as President was nothing 
 but a series of ignominious failures. So far was John Child 
 from showing himself the master of the English in India, that 
 he was successfully defied by the whole population of Bombay, 
 by a large section of the English in Surat, by all the Interlopers, 
 and by any of his own Captains who felt so inclined ; and 
 remained a doubtful master only of his own Council and a 
 handful of factors. More erroneous still is the notion that 
 any English President at all in the seventeenth century could 
 have been in a position to march his enemies in chains through 
 the streets of Surat ; such an idea is utterly contrary to what 
 was really the ruling factor in the history of the English in 
 Western India at this time, their completely subordinate 
 position in Surat under the shadow of the Mogul Governor. 
 Our readers, we hope, have had enough evidence of this in 
 these pages, and we need instance only the security under 
 Child's very nose of Bowcher and Pettit, and the affair of the 
 latter's ship the Prosperous. But we will quote the President 
 himself about the Bristol, not only an Interloper but a pirate. 
 
 ' It's a very weighty business wee are going about/ he wrote 
 to Charles Zinzan, after receiving St. John's opinion, ' and 
 requires very due and mature consideration, that instead of 
 doing an act that wee intend for the satisfaction of his Majestic 
 and the Hon. Company may prove quite contrary through 
 our want of consideration, not only from the blood that may 
 be shed, but likewise disturbing our whole affaires ; for the 
 new Governor 1 I know not, and cannott tell how I may be 
 able to influence on him, and should she (the Bristoll) be 
 taken or sunk, and the Governor force us to restore her againe 
 or make satisfaction because taken in his Master's Port, we 
 shall be in a fine condition/ 2 
 
 However, it was decided to go on with the business, and 
 Captain Ledger, of the Company's ship Samson, was ordered 
 to undertake it. Ledger at first tried to get out of it, on 
 
 1 A new Governor of Surat, recently arrived. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 91. October 17, 1684. 
 
136 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 the ground that he was short of men, but the arrival, on 
 October i6th, of Sir Thomas Grantham at Swally, who lent him 
 twenty men, deprived him of this excuse, and he went round 
 to the river's mouth and anchored close to the Bristol. On 
 October soth he sent a boat to the Interloper with a summons 
 from the President to surrender, but Andrews would not 
 allow the envoy on board and refused to accept the summons. 
 There was now another small Interloper anchored close to 
 the Bristol, and Ledger would not undertake to use any force 
 until Grantham came round from Swally to support him, 
 Andrews having announced his intention of resisting to the 
 last, saying that he 
 
 * purposed to blow up or fire his Ship before hee'l be taken, 
 and severall other discourses ' . . . ' soe that I must beware ', 
 says Ledger, ' (for the security of my own ship) and keep at a 
 distance, for he does not look for a ship ready to fight, having 
 a great deale of lumber . . . but waits an opportunity till I 
 board him, and then setts his Ship afire, and mine being 
 entangled with his Ship may both burne together, while the 
 other little Ship ready for saile takes them up ; but I will doe 
 my endeavour to keep him here till such time as Sir Thomas 
 comes down, to whom I believe he will surrender.' * 
 
 He adds that three of his men have deserted, and that he 
 dares not send his boat ashore for water for fear of others 
 following their example. 
 
 Altogether, it is evident that neither Captain Ledger nor 
 his men were in the least disposed to come to blows with 
 the Bristol. 
 
 Child now called a Council meeting, at which St. John and 
 Grantham attended, and it was decided that St. John, Zinzan, 
 and Day should go with * a letter and advantageous proposalls ' 
 to the Bristol 
 
 ' The three said Commissioners departed according to orders 
 on board the sloope appointed by the Presd* to carry them. . . . 
 When they three came up with the said ship, they desired 
 amicably and civilly to be permitted to come on board 
 unarmed, to deliver the President's letter and proposalls. . . . 
 The master of the ship in great heat and reviling language 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 91. October 20 and 22, 1684. 
 
x THE BRISTOL, 1684 137 
 
 bid them keep of, asking if they did not come with Pamphletts, 
 and in a swearing manner, said he scorned them, and still bid 
 them keep of att their perill, asking how the Button-maker 
 did, running up and down in a furious manner, and some in 
 the Fore-Castle swearing they would burn and blow up the 
 ship rather than surrender, the Chief among them saying he 
 did not feare his Majesties laws, nor his Judge. Upon which, 
 without any provocation, in a very civill manner they departed, 
 the Judge showing them his Tipstaffs, and the Commander of 
 the said ship Bristoll giving them saucy, irrevent (sic), provok- 
 ing language, telling them withall in a sneering manner, that 
 he knew what they were, and that he would not suffer them to 
 come any nearer.' 1 
 
 It was really very awkward, and the worst of it was that 
 Sir Thomas himself showed no inclination to exert his greatly 
 superior force ; however, there were 200 tons of pepper on 
 the Bristol that Child had { a longing minde ' for, and with 
 St. John tired of taking down depositions and longing for a 
 real Interloper to condemn, the President resolved to make 
 one more appeal to Andrews, though he can have had small 
 hopes of success. ' Your naughtinesse and obstinacy hath been 
 such ', he wrote on October 24th, 2 ' that . . . you may very 
 well admire to see these ' ; but if the Bristol is surrendered he 
 promises to pay every man of her crew his full pay till their 
 arrival in England, where they will be sent on the Company's 
 ships. Andrews of course paid no more attention to this 
 than he had to the President's previous efforts, and Child now 
 tried his utmost to induce Grantham to resort to force. 
 
 Sir Thomas would only consent to use threats, and took his 
 own ship round to the river's mouth, where he anchored 
 close to the refractory Interloper and sent a boat off to her. 
 Andrews so far gave in as to allow her to board, but still 
 refused to surrender, saying that he would answer in England 
 for anything that he had done amiss ; and as he was clearly 
 determined to oppose force to force Grantham reluctantly 
 told the President that he was not prepared to go so far as to 
 shed English blood. The matter was finally ended by a 
 message sent down by the new Mogul Governor, who had 
 
 1 O. C. 5226. 2 O. C. 5223. 
 
138 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 heard of these doings, forbidding any attempt on the Bristol 
 in his port, and threatening to visit any disobedience with the 
 ruin of the Company's factory in Surat. 1 
 
 Surprise has been expressed at the constant unwillingness 
 of the Company's commanders, and especially of Sir Thomas 
 Grantham, to resort to extreme measures against the Inter- 
 lopers. 2 Grantham, it is true, was especially commissioned to 
 seize such ships, but it is easy to understand his hesitation in 
 this case. 
 
 The Interloping party in England was a powerful one, 
 and when Sir Thomas left home the decision in the great 
 Sandys case was not out ; moreover, it was extremely doubt- 
 ful whether his commission, even if it authorized him to seize 
 property, would protect him in case of actual bloodshed ; and 
 it was natural to suppose that it was the instrument of the 
 Company's violence that would be the first to suffer from any 
 explosion of public feeling in England. As for the rank and 
 file of the Company's captains, in addition to these reasons 
 there is the fact that they probably were on terms of personal 
 friendship with most of the interloping commanders, and that 
 in the not unlikely case of their being discharged at any time 
 from the Company's employment, the interloping business 
 was the natural field for their future activities. 
 
 The Bristol escaped for the moment ; but next year she 
 met the Phoenix on her way out to India. Captain Tyrell 
 seized the Interloper and took her with him on his voyage. 
 The Bristol sank before reaching Bombay, 3 but the crew 
 were taken on and brought before the Admiralty Court. On 
 this occasion Dr. St. John seems to have distinguished himself, 
 for the Bristol's supercargo, a man called Mews, was con- 
 demned, according to Hamilton, 4 * to lose all that he had in 
 the World, and 1,000 Pounds beside ', and in case he should 
 find a difficulty in complying with the sentence, he was ' to lie 
 in Prison, at his own Charges, till the Fine was paid '. Even 
 Judge Gary might have been proud of this ; but the unfortunate 
 
 1 O. C. 5270. 2 Hunter, ii. 296 and note. 
 
 3 Log of the Phoenix, among the State Papers in the Record Office. 
 
 4 Hamilton, i. 194, 195. 
 
x THE BRISTOL, 1684 139 
 
 Mr. Mews found some way out of the impasse, for fifteen years 
 later he appears under Sir Nicholas Waite, as a member of 
 the rival New Company's first Council. 1 
 
 Sir Thomas Grantham had not been very successful with 
 the Bristol, but he was anxious to go and see what he could 
 do at Bombay, and the President being also in favour of his 
 making the attempt, the details of his commission and instruc- 
 tions were soon settled. It was agreed that Sir Thomas was 
 to decide, as might seem best to him, whether to use force or 
 offer terms ; and in the latter case it was left more or less to 
 his discretion to make what terms he pleased provided he re- 
 covered Bombay for the Company. The wishes of John 
 Child, however, were set out in full in Grantham's commission. 2 
 Of the mutineers, three in particular he would have brought 
 to justice: 
 
 ' Richard Keigwin, an ungrateful, base, wicked Rascall, who 
 enjoyed from the Hon. Company 6 s per day, 25 Rups. per 
 month for Diett, a man mustered in the Rolls ; this monthly 
 paid him . . . besides what he might make by his employment 
 being Captain of the Militia of the whole Island, and Lieu* of 
 the eldest Company of Garrison Soliders. The next we 
 account most concernd is one John Thorbourn, a fals Scott. 
 These two, from the wickedness and naughtiness of their own 
 hearts, together with the advice and encouragment of John 
 Petit, were the whole cause of the revolution of Bombay ; and 
 therefore would have neither of them three pardoned, but 
 secured if possible to satisfye Justice. These three we note, 
 as accounting them with great reason the basest of all, although 
 there be many others who undoubtedly the law will condemne, 
 as Henry ffletcher, Thos. Wilkines, Daniell Hughes, Tho. Sugar, 
 Tho. Browne, Sam 11 Smith, John Turner, Nath 11 Russell, . . . 
 and so far as we can see Mr. Hen. Garey is too much con- 
 cerned. . . . You will see by what we have writt that we have 
 no inclination that Keigwin, Thorburn, or Petite should escape 
 the hands of Justice. But because our main business is to 
 gett possession of the Island ... we do give you free liberty 
 to pardon them, although sore against our will; but of two 
 evells it is prudence to choose the least, and we conclude we 
 do it in this, but would not have you do it without absolute 
 necessity require it, for the getting of the possession of the 
 
 1 O. C. 6840 and 6939. 2 O. C. 5236. 
 
140 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION 
 
 Island and forte, and the saveing of blood-shed, of which we 
 desire all due regard may be had.' 
 
 The President's natural inclination to intrigue, and the 
 latest piece of scandal about the rebels, combined to make 
 him press on Sir Thomas what he thought the likeliest 
 plan. 
 
 ' For Henry ffletcher and Tho. Wilkins/ he says, 1 ' they 
 appear to us meerly drawn in and deceaved ; the former 
 Keigwin hath had a falling out with lately ; being in drink 
 comeing down to the main guard, gave him bad language etc. 
 on which he drew and wounded Keigwin; now we would 
 willingly have you try if, by ffletcher and Wilkins their means, 
 Keigwin and Thorbourn and Petit might be delivered up to 
 you, with the ffort. . . . We should be glad that these two 
 men adheard to your worship, being really men we think 
 deserve pitty. But if they should promise to undertake and 
 perform what we have laid down, yet both of them being very 
 illiterate men, and the former ruled by his wife, a wicked 
 woman, we would have you not over confident of them.' 
 
 Sir Thomas was advised to consult Gladman, on the East 
 India Merchant^ and asked to send that vessel back to Surat, 
 as 'her men that have had so constant and frequent corre- 
 spondence with the Rebels' were probably 'poisoned with 
 rebellion, and may corrupt some of your men '. 2 
 
 Finally, in case force were found necessary, it was im- 
 portant to provide against any attempt on the part of Keigwin 
 to make over the Island to Sombajee. 
 
 Armed with these instructions, Sir Thomas Grantham sailed 
 from Surat on 3oth October, 1684, and after a quick passage 
 arrived off Bombay on 3rd November. 
 
 1 Ibid. 2 Ibid. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SIR THOMAS GRANTHAM AND THE 
 SURRENDER. NOVEMBER 1684 
 
 THE methods of Grantham were different from those advo- 
 cated by John Child. Sir Thomas dropped anchor in the 
 harbour, and went ashore next morning in his boat at the 
 common landing-place near the Fort, where he inquired for 
 Keigwin of some soldiers he met there. 'They told me his 
 Honour was in the Fort/ says Grantham, 1 ' and asked me my 
 name, which I told them, they desired me to walke into the 
 Fort, which I did, they conducted me up Staires where Captain 
 Keigwin met me at the Staires head.' 
 
 The next few days were spent in negotiations. Sir Thomas 
 made certain proposals, of which we do not know the details, 
 which after discussion the mutineers were unable to accept. 
 But Keigwin and the more level-headed among his followers 
 must have been anxious to come to terms ; they had now held 
 the Island for eleven months, and the time was coming to an 
 end when they might expect to be left in peace. It was quite 
 certain that an overwhelming force would before long be 
 brought against them, and the prospect of closing their careers 
 on the gibbet must have been growing daily more present to 
 them. The arrival of Grantham, which had been for some 
 time expected, gave them an opening to retire with safety and 
 credit, which they could not afford to let slip. On Saturday, 
 November 8th, the mutineers wrote to Sir Thomas, asking him 
 to come ashore on Monday to receive their propositions, ' that 
 shall be so resoneable that you Cannot in Honour deny ' ; this 
 letter is indorsed by Grantham c This is an answer to my 
 letter ... to Captain Kigwen and the rest of the officers 
 after our first debate, and not Agreeing.' 2 
 1 0.0.5282. 2 0.0.5246. 
 
143 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 On Monday, loth November, Grantham accordingly went 
 ashore, and after some discussion the following terms were 
 agreed to : l 
 
 'The present Governor's Propositions to Sir Thomas 
 Grantham Knight, as followeth : 
 
 ' That all Acts relateing to the late Revolution, be forever 
 forgiven, and buried in Oblivion, and that this be Secured to 
 him after such manner as shall be judged most bindeing under 
 the hands of all persons in the Companies Service, and shall be 
 bound for them Selves and Successors. 
 
 ' That he shall peaceably possesse, and enjoy, a\\ his Estate 
 he now hath, and that all the pay he has received as Governor, 
 being noe more than Captain Garey received when he was 
 Governor for his Majestic, that it be accounted part of his 
 owne Estate, that it be conferred upon him, and that he 
 quietly possess it, and enjoy it, as any other part of his Estate. 
 
 ' That Mr. John Petit is endebted unto him Six thousand 
 and Two hundred Xerapheens, which he was to invest for 
 England, his Ship 2 being now left in my power, and hands, I 
 will deliver up the said Ship which is worth Twenty Six 
 thousand Rupees, soe that I take my debt out of the Treasury, 
 which debt is acknowledged under Mr. Petit's hand. 
 
 ' That after these differences be composed, that he may have 
 his Liberty to stay in India, if he please, or goe home to 
 Europe, as he shall fmde most convenient, if upon the East 
 India Company's Ship, to be at the Company's charge as 
 when he came from England at the Like convenience. 
 
 * This shall oblige me Sir Thomas Grantham Knight Com- 
 mander of the ship Charles the Second, to performe unto 
 Captain Richard Keigwin all the above mentioned proposalls, 
 provided he, the said Captain Richard Keigwin deliver me the 
 possession of the Island, and fYort of Bombay, and immediately 
 suffer me to send on board Ship Charles the Second all the 
 Silver, and gold taken out of the ship Returne, formerly by 
 him, or his order, and what money was left in the Trasury 
 upon the day of his taking possession, with all the Company's 
 Plate, Account of their Debts, with all Books relateing there- 
 unto, with what mony received in his Treasury since his tyme, 
 with an account of his disbursements, his Majesties Charter, 
 with all other Rights belonging to the Honourable East India 
 Company, and command all his inferiour Officers, and Souldiers 
 at his Resignation of the Island and ffort to me for his Majesty 
 the King of England, and the Honourable East India Com- 
 
 1 O. C. 5249. 2 The Prosperous. 
 
xi BOMBAY, 1684 143 
 
 pany's use, to give due obedience to me as their present 
 Governour ; if this be performed by the above mentioned 
 Captain Richard Keigwin, then this Obligation is to be in full 
 force, power, and Vertue, or else to be voyd, and of none 
 effect/ 
 
 These terms were signed by Grantham, and the following 
 day fixed for the surrender ; and the same evening twelve bags 
 of gold, originally taken from the Return, were handed over by 
 Keigwin and conveyed on board the Charles II. Next day 
 Sir Thomas went ashore, and received Keigwin's submission ; 
 the affair seemed to be ended, and he wrote a letter to the 
 President reporting his success. ' I am at present his Majesties 
 Governour/ this letter concludes, 1 ' and must soe continue till 
 I see your Honour, which I beg may be with all possible 
 speed.' 
 
 But there was more trouble to come. It seems to have got 
 about among the soldiers that their leaders had negotiated only 
 for their own pardon, and that the rank and file were being 
 left to the tender mercies of President Child. The terms of 
 the agreement given above undoubtedly seem to refer prin- 
 cipally to Keigwin himself; and though it is certain that 
 a general pardon was intended, and in fact assured in the first 
 clause, yet it is not unlikely that a sight of the instrument may 
 have alarmed the garrison. There is reason to suppose that 
 one or two of the officers themselves, and among them prin- 
 cipally John Thorburn, were at work inflaming the minds of 
 the troops. 
 
 The explosion took place on November isth, and we will 
 transcribe Grantham's account of it. 2 
 
 ' The morrow following, the Souldiers and Officers were all 
 called together within the ffort, and drew up with their Armes, 
 being about 300, besides what was at Mahim, and the other 
 Out guards, in all about 500. Captain Keigwin and my Selfe 
 made some Proposalls to them, but instead of complying they 
 shut the gates on me, hiss'd and broke out with Shouting, 
 " noe Governor but Keigwin ", and if he would not hold, they 
 would Confirme another, and had not the providence of God 
 Almighty prevented it, I had been basely, and cowardly 
 
 1 O. C. 5250. 2 O. C. 5282. 
 
144 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 murder'd, for one Harwood, a Souldier, with a Pistol laden 
 with a brace of Bullets, in the Crowd just by me, presented it 
 to my backe ; but one Henry Fletcher, a Captain of theirs, 
 being next to me, seeing the same in the moment, caught hold 
 of it, and prevented the rogue of his designe.' 
 
 The tumult was a dangerous one, and Fletcher did not 
 content himself with saving Grantham's life, but was active 
 in restoring order. Gladman, in his account of the scene, 1 
 remarks that the ( disorder had gone a greate way, and much 
 hurt done, had it not been hindred by the Courage of Captain 
 fHetcher, who drew his sword and Cutt severall of them, force- 
 ing severall that he knew most disaffected to theire quarters ; 
 there were about three hundred souldiers of English and 
 topasses in the ffort at this disturbance.' It is remarkable 
 that the only blood spilt during the whole course of the 
 rebellion, on this occasion and when Keigwin himself was 
 wounded at the main guard, should have been shed by the 
 sword of this hen-pecked officer. Outside his domestic circle 
 at least, he seems to have been well able to hold his own. 
 
 Fletcher's promptitude and resource undoubtedly saved 
 many lives besides that of Sir Thomas ; for such a murder 
 would certainly have cost the rebels dear. As it was, Grantham 
 slipped away and remained in concealment in the Fort 
 till nightfall, when { as soon as it was darke, and the mad 
 humor somewhat over ', he got off to his ship. 2 
 
 But the old sailor did not go without an effort to bind at 
 least Keigwin to him. 
 
 1 Being forced to acquitt the fort againe,' he says, 3 c I per- 
 swaded Captain Kigwen to deliver mee what mony he had of 
 his owne, youseing many arguments to him he was not safe, 
 seing the unrulines of the soulders, and giveing him my faith 
 I would deliver it him againe upon demand, at last consented 
 and delivered mee % baggs of Gould as he said was about 640^" 
 protesting to me that was all his stock. I gladly put it into 
 my pockett, it being sealed, and then thought I had him fast/ 
 
 There was nothing to be done for the present except to 
 await developments, hoping that time would bring the soldiers 
 
 1 O. C. 5283. 2 O. C. 5282. 3 O. C. 5259. 
 
xi BOMBAY, 1684 145 
 
 to their senses; but meanwhile Grantham determined to 
 establish a blockade as far as he was able. The Samson had 
 followed Grantham to Bombay, carrying as a passenger Dr. 
 St. John, anxious to make as early an entry as possible into 
 his duties on the Island ; and the China Merchant, another of 
 the Company's vessels, had also come in during the interval. 
 The Samson was stationed off Mahim to block the passage 
 there, and the China Merchant lay under Carinjah, ' soe that 
 noe boat could pass us/ as Glad man reports, 1 'suffering noe 
 provisions or anything to goe on Bombay . . . not letting 
 them cary soe much as a little wood . . . which was very much 
 wanted on the Island. On the other hand the portugese had 
 stop't up all passage on Sallset, letting nothing goe off thence 
 (which was not done in obedience to his Majesty or respect to 
 your honours, but to requite them for an affront they had 
 received from those heire) Soe that all Sustainance was Cut off 
 from Supplying them.' 
 
 For some days the garrison remained intractable ; * the 
 Souldiers', Gladman tells us, 2 'were ffedd with Licquers by 
 some diseffected persons that they might thee more easely be 
 perswaded to Continue in Rebellion . . : threatning to kill all 
 those that should offer to surrender ; all which time Keigwin, 
 fflecher, Willkins, Smith, and Sugar did use all endeavors 
 possible to perswade them to a peacable surrender.' This list 
 of the moderate party helps us to guess at the ringleaders of 
 the extremists. The only officers not mentioned are Thorburn, 
 Hughes, Brown, and Russell ; and Gladman's silence about their 
 conduct is significant. 
 
 Grantham kept up communication by night with his party 
 on the Island and, as he puts it, ' kept the stone Rowleing till 
 it fell into its right Center ' ; 3 the correspondence seems to 
 have been carried on through the medium of Niccolls, who was 
 specially suitable for this work as not being himself committed 
 to the rebels' cause. Some of these letters survive, among 
 them one from old Gary, who evidently thought it time to try 
 to dissociate himself from the mutineers. 
 
 1 O. C. 5283. 2 Ibid. 3 O. C. 5282. 
 
 1526.6 L 
 
146 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 1 By my observations,' he writes, 1 ' since you left the Shore, 
 the operation of the strong brandy is almost at its period, the 
 Ring leaders of the Giddyheaded Rable begining to under- 
 stand theyr case better than they did, and are now about 
 sending Captain Niccholls off to you with theyr Propositions, 
 some more discreet person having undeceived them ; for by 
 what I have learned, they thought they had not bin included 
 in the Pardon, with those who willingly accepted of it, so that 
 there is still hope of a generall obedient accommodation, which 
 God of his infinit goodnes and mercy graunt, for otherwise the 
 poore innocent Inhabitants will be in a most miserable con- 
 dition. Your Prudence in the manadgement of this grand 
 Affaire is not in the least doubted by all the good People of 
 this Island, knoweing that your inclination is to prefer Clemency 
 before Anger. Be pleased Sir to give my service to Dr. St. 
 John . . . and Mr. Gladman, to whom would have writt a few 
 lines did not the severity of the times disanimat mee. I have 
 bin so extreamly menaced of late, that have not dared aproach 
 the Forts gate since thursday last, for they were resolved to 
 keepe me a prisoner if I had appeared there.' And he adds 
 a postscript, ' Niccholls is in the same predicament as I am, 
 and dares not stirr out neither as yett.' 
 
 Here is a letter from Keigwin of the same date : 2 
 
 'SiR THOMAS GRANTHAM, 
 
 * This too dayes past, I have been in expectation of 
 being putt in Irons; or haveing my throat cutt. 
 
 'They begin to grow colder, and I will putt the stratagem 
 in execution when we last parted; or from the Mobile send 
 you propositions, 3 forbear any Hostile action as yett, butt 
 what the bearer solicits I comend in (? to) you. Your Coxon 
 has betraid our charge. And others your councell and con- 
 dition on board. 
 
 'All the officers are in great trouble butt are constant to 
 promise ; and all ruin'd if not accomplisht. 
 
 1 From my owne brest 
 
 9*er I5 th I( 53 4 your Claret friend.' 4 
 
 1 O. C. 5256. Dated November 15/25, 1684. 2 O. C. 5257. 
 
 3 So in the original ; but Keigwin's punctuation was erratic, as we have 
 seen, and the semi-colon should have been placed after 'propositions', 
 instead of after ' parted .' ' Mobile ' is the word we now call ' mob ' ; it 
 is possible that our word * omnibus ' may cause difficulty to our 
 descendants. 
 
 4 Yule supposes ' Claret ' is a disguised indication of the rebel captain's 
 name, ' Keg-Wine '. 
 
xi BOMBAY, 1684 J47 
 
 This letter is endorsed in Grantham's hand : 
 
 1 Capt. Kigwen's letter to T. G. 
 
 4 Att our parting I avised him to draw a righting of 
 resignement and to gett those soulders hands to it as was will- 
 ing to the same, which would mollifie the rest. 
 
 ' What my Coxon did was by my order and it tooke effect. 
 15 Nov r 1684.' 
 
 Next day Keigwin wrote -again : x 
 
 'In a little tyme I hope to compose this unhappy 
 difference. Two of the principle I have convinc'd and are 
 wonderfull penitent for opposing me ; and are now my instru- 
 ments to worke upon the rest; they have drawen a paper, 
 which touches my selfe and officers, which I consented to ... 
 thirty have allready submited, in a day or two more I hope to 
 accomplish itt. 
 
 ' I desire you would under write our propositions and send 
 them by the bearer ; itt will satisfye the unbelieving, and putt 
 a speedier period to this trouble. My selfe and officer have 
 been in danger of our lives and substanse, chiefly occasioned 
 by the Coxon : Capt. Nichols shall give you a suden visitt and 
 a more particuler account, and invitation to the Government. 
 I dare not send you my plan (?) nor be knowen to write now ; 
 pray Sir think itt not an excuse for in all reallity I am 
 
 Your obedient serv* 
 
 RICH. KEIGWIN. 
 
 4 From Bombay ffort 
 
 This letter is also endorsed by Sir Thomas, whence we learn 
 that ' what my coxon did was by my order to tell the soulders 
 privatly I had gott all the returne mony on board, in hope to 
 make the difference wider between them and their ofecers, 
 whereby I might have some advantage, which I believe 
 acationed a speedier complyance than would have binn, for 
 they began to be afraid of one another.' 
 
 Accompanying Keigwin's letter, came a long list of revised 
 proposals, on which he asked for Grantham's signature. The 
 new terms were clearly drawn up to emphasize the claims of 
 the rank and file, and in spite of the absurd language in which 
 they are couched, strike us as being more advantageous and 
 
 1 O.C. 5259. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 fairer to the common soldier than the previous proposals. 
 The quasi-legal rigmarole in which they are written points to 
 the rebels' Chief Justice and Attorney General, John Thorburn, 
 as their author. We give below a brief summary of this paper. 
 
 1. That all the garrison be absolved and indemnified for all 
 
 their acts on and since 27th December 1683, even if 
 such acts be deemed treasonable. 
 
 2. That they shall all peaceably enjoy their estates and the 
 
 pay they have received since the mutiny. 
 
 3. That neither Charles Ward nor any one else shall ' pretend 
 
 false imprisonment ', or bring a suit on such grounds. 
 
 4. That any officer may stay in India or go home, if he 
 
 please, on any of the Company's shipping, passage free. 
 
 5. That all officers or soldiers who stay shall receive their 
 
 full pay, ' that is every Private Centinell one and Twenty 
 shillings every twenty-eight daies, or nine pence each 
 day, which in Xeraphins of Goa as the vattao is now, 
 amounts to fourteen Xeraphins every 38 daies.' 
 
 6. That the mutineers be acquitted of paying any balance 
 
 in the accounts. 
 
 7. That Mr. John Pettit or his heirs have liberty to finish 
 
 building his ship now on the stocks l at Bombay, and 
 to sail in it wherever he likes, provided he pay all the 
 ship's debts due to Keigwin or others. 
 
 8. No suit to be brought against any mutineer for having 
 
 seized the Return. 
 
 9. No suit to be brought ' by one Stephen Adderton by 
 
 reason of breaking up his house and plundering it ... 
 the produce of the outcry sould being brought into 
 Treasury, as appeares by the Bookes.' 
 
 10. No impediment to be placed against letters to or from 
 
 the mutineers. 
 
 11. No officer or soldier to be kept in Bombay beyond his 
 
 contract. 
 13. All debts due on public account by the garrison to be 
 
 paid by the Company. 
 
 13. These articles to be a bar to any future suit. 
 1 The Prosperous was being lengthened. 
 
XI BOMBAY, 1684 149 
 
 These proposals were calculated not only to indemnify the 
 soldiers for their rebellion, but also to put them on a far better 
 footing than they had ever been before ; the fifth article, 
 especially, contained a remedy for the chief cause of their 
 discontent for years past, and provided for their payment at 
 the existing rate of exchange, viz. 18 pence to the xeraphin, 
 instead of at the Company's arbitrary rate of 20 or sof pence. 
 The difference in each soldier's monthly pay between fourteen 
 xeraphins and rather over twelve and a half, amounted in the 
 whole garrison to a large sum, and whatever Grantham may 
 have thought of the rights of the case, he probably did not 
 consider himself authorized to commit the Company to any 
 such concession. There is, at any rate, no evidence that he 
 did so; but still he kept the stone 'rowleing', and at last 
 Keigwin was able to report his difficulties overcome. 
 
 ' I thank God,' he writes, 1 ' I have our Souldiers and 
 Peoples consent to desire you to come on shore, and settle 
 the Government. Captain Nichols we have desired once 
 more to wait on you. Ther is not now a dissenting person ; 
 therefore you are as safe as my Selfe, haveing referd all the 
 compleatment of itt to my management, fayle not of being 
 on shore to-night, that we may have the more tyme to draw 
 up such writings as may be most needfull for our purpose 
 on hand.' 
 
 Keigwin had got his men under control again, and on 
 1 9th November, Sir Thomas Grantham took over Bombay 
 once more, and the rebellion came at last to an end as orderly 
 and unanimous as had been its beginning. The transfer was 
 made without more difficulty than when one Deputy Governor 
 succeeded another; 'the Plate, Bookes, bills, bonds, and 
 accounts I immediately delivered to Mr. John Gladman,' says 
 Grantham, 2 ' one of the Councell of Surat, an honest diligent 
 Gentleman, who hath taken a great deale of paines and 
 trouble in your Affaires here, and the next day I paid all the 
 Officers and Souldiers their moneths pay, and he keeps the 
 accounts of all moneys received in and payes all accordingly. 
 I am in possession of the ffort as Governor for his most 
 
 1 O. C. 5262. Undated, but probably written November 18, 1684. 
 2 O. C. 5282. 
 
150 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 Sacred Majesty, but for your Honours' use, which I shall faith- 
 fully performe till I see the President and then give up my 
 Government. Your Honours are not much imbezerd. I am 
 taking an account of the same.' 
 
 The conditions on which the surrender was made appear 
 to be contained in O.C.526i, which is simply a very wide 
 and general pardon l and does not commit the Company to 
 any future policy, such as altering the rate of exchange or 
 keeping on in the service such of the mutineers as desired to 
 remain. But from what happened in the sequel it is probable 
 that Grantham gave some kind of a general promise that he 
 would comply with the proposals sent him before the final 
 surrender. Gladman, for instance, in his report, quoted above, 2 
 
 1 ' Whereas on the seaven and twentieth of December last there was 
 a Revolution made on the Island Bombay by Richard Keigwine etc. 
 And now a dutifull and subsequent complyance and Present surrender 
 for his Majesty, expressed and offered by the said Richard Keigwine and 
 all his Abettors etc. Know yee all men by these presents that I Thomas 
 Grantham, Knight, by virtue of my respective Commission from his 
 Majesty of greate Brittaine, and the Hon ble English East India Company, 
 and the Hon ble John Child President of India etc. doe by these Presents 
 fully, absolutely promise give and grant unto the said Richard Keigwine 
 and all his Abettors etc., as alsoe to all the Inhabitance of the said Island, 
 full absolute and Ample pardon, with his and their Respective Lives 
 Estates Immunities and Preveldges for all and every Act or Acts, Crime 
 or Crimes, Transgression or transgressions, by him or any authorized 
 under him, Committed or permitted since and from the twenty-sixth day 
 of December last one thousand six hundred eighty and three ; and I the 
 said Thomas Grantham doe by these presents firmely oblidge myselfe my 
 Heirs Executors Administrators and Assignes to make good and entirely 
 performe all and singular the premises unto the above mentioned Richard 
 Keigwine etc., firmly obliging myselfe to see this Generall pardon confirmed 
 and ratified by his most Sacred Majesty of great Brittaine, by the Hon ble 
 English East India Company in England, and by the Hon ble John Child 
 President etc. here at and upon his arrival neare Bombay ffort ; and 
 further I the said Thomas Grantham doe Agree and binde myself my 
 heires Executors Administrators And Assignes to procure then and their 
 an effectuall Generall Pardon from the said John Child etc. signed by 
 him in as large and ample a manner and forme, as usual in Law for the 
 use and behoofe of the above said Richard Keigwine and all his Abettors, 
 yielding and surrendering my Selfe by these presents as prerits (sic. Yule 
 suggests for " president's " hostage) Hostage untill the said John Child doe 
 Ratifie Signe and Confirme and declare ratified and confirmed and all 
 and everything herein by me ratified and confirmed : Witness my hand 
 and Scale this Eighteenth day of December, One thousand Six hundred 
 Eighty four in Bombay ffort.' (The date, December 18, must be 
 a mistake of the copyist for November 18.) 
 
 3 O.C. 5283. 
 
xi BOMBAY, 1684 151 
 
 when speaking of the money recovered from the rebels, refers 
 to ' fourteen thousand Xeraphins in Cash . . . out of which 
 there is some debts to be paid according to agreement. . . . 
 
 '. . . With submission I shall recommend to your honours 
 Capt. Thomas Niccols his dillegence and Care in securing 
 your honours in this affair, and has been a greate Instrument 
 to bring the people to Complyance.' 
 
 On the 2oth November, the day following the surrender, 
 Dr. St. John made his state entry, and the proceedings 
 terminated in general festivities. Here is Grantham's account, 
 taken from his report last quoted. 1 
 
 * I summoned all the Officers and inhabitants to come to 
 the Court house, and from the ffort my Selfe with many 
 other Gentlemen attended him to the Court all the way 
 walking with a good Guard, and my Trumpets sounding 
 before me ; where I ordered one of the Officers to reade his 
 Commission, which done I made some short speech to the 
 people, and ordered the Commission to be held up to the sight 
 of them all, and then I asked them if they did believe it to be 
 his Majesties broad Scale, and Commission, assureing them it 
 was soe ; many answered they did believe it, upon which I 
 risse out of the Chaire, and told them in honour to his most 
 Sacred Majesties Commission and that worthy person the 
 Judge, I delivered him the Chaire of Justice, and seated him 
 in it, which God grant he may performe, then the Judge made 
 a short speech to them, and I dismissed them for the present, 
 inviteing all the Chiefe, both English and Portuguese, to a 
 publicke dinner, which I had ordered at the Marshall's house, 
 neare to the ffort ; where at dinner I began his Majesties 
 health with 21 Guns from the ffort, the Queen's with 19, the 
 Duke of Yorke's with 17, Prince George's with 15, and the 
 Hon. Companie's with 15. They all being well satisfied, and 
 in Peace, which God grant may continue.' 
 
 Thus with general rejoicing, a public dinner, and salvoes of 
 artillery, ended this strange episode in the history of Bombay: 
 a revolution achieved without violence, and a rebel government 
 that added lustre to the British name, came to an appropriate 
 conclusion without bloodshed or severity ; and the good sense 
 and moderation of our countrymen has seldom been better 
 shown than by the two gallant sailors, Keigwin and Grantham. 
 
 1 0.0.5282. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 CHARLES WARD, the late Deputy Governor, after an 
 imprisonment of nearly a year, now found himself once more 
 at large ; but to his bitter disappointment he discovered that 
 there was no intention of restoring him to his former position. 
 President Child, on hearing of the tumult that had undone 
 Grantham's first success, had sent off a Mr. English, one of 
 the late council of Bantam, 1 to help Sir Thomas with his 
 advice. We hear little of this gentleman except his quarrel 
 with Ward ; each claimed precedence over the other, and the 
 latter complained that he was so studiously neglected that even 
 the daily pass-word was withheld from him. 2 The recrimi- 
 nations which followed led to both himself and English being 
 recalled to Surat, whence Ward was ordered to Persia to the 
 chief command there. In two letters from the Court in 1687 
 we see the last of this unfortunate man. 
 
 On June 6, Josia writes : 
 
 ' Mr Wards Shufling from place to place as if he were bound 
 to obey noebody wee doe soe greatly dislike that we doe hereby 
 suspend him from any imployment in our Service . . . and 
 from any Salary, dyet at our Table, or any perquisites whatso- 
 ever by our service.' 
 
 And on August 3, 
 
 ' We have put yo r Brother Ward out of our service, as well 
 for his negligence therein as for his ingratitude refractoryness 
 and surlyness to you, but after you think he is sufficiently 
 mortifyed, if you Judge he may be of any use to us we give 
 you leave to put him into some Imployment where he may do 
 us no harme. But let him not know you do it with our 
 particular Licence, neither do it at all if you think he will 
 never do us any good, to which opinion we do strongly incline.' 
 
 For the Deputy Governorship, Charles Zinzan was selected, 
 and he arrived in Bombay on December i6th. The 
 President himself would naturally have come in person to 
 
 1 Orme says he thinks English was agent of Persia, but vide Bruce, 
 ii. 548. The agent of Persia at this time was Samuel Darnelly. 
 
 2 O. C. 5293. 
 
CONCLUSION 153 
 
 Bombay to settle matters at this crisis, and intended to do 
 so ; but from day to day he found himself unable to start, 
 owing to difficulties with the new Governor, and the alarm 
 of a rumoured intention on the part of Sombajee to follow his 
 father's example in a descent upon Surat. Zinzan, therefore, 
 sailed by himself, and on reaching Bombay he formally took 
 charge of the Island from Grantham, on behalf of Child and 
 the Company. 
 
 It was at this point that Zinzan committed an indiscretion 
 that got him into a disgrace from which he never recovered, 
 for it appears that, relying on the plenary power given him as 
 the President's representative, he signed and agreed to the 
 mutineers' ' proposals ' referred to above. 1 It is probable that 
 he believed that if he refused to do so the surrender would 
 not be made, and also that he thought the articles fair enough 
 in themselves ; but the President afterwards repudiated a part 
 of the bargain, and tried to repudiate more, claiming that 
 Zinzan had exceeded his powers. 
 
 The mutineers had stipulated for a passage home if they 
 wished to leave India, but the only one who took immediate 
 advantage of it was their leader. Keigwin followed his bags 
 of gold on board the Charles the Second, which sailed back to 
 England, so soon as Zinzan had relieved Grantham of the 
 charge of Bombay. 
 
 Child was furious to see the rebel captain escape from his 
 clutches. 
 
 ' Keigwin that notorious naughty Rascall ', he says, 2 ' is on 
 board of Charles the 2nd, as Impudent as hell gloring in his 
 Rougery, being secured under Sir Thomases protection, with 
 whome he designes for England. We cannott see but hee 
 will get out of our hands, but Indeed its ten thousand pittys 
 he should escape the Halter, being the verry false Rascall 
 without whome the Revolt on Bombay would not have bine.' 
 
 A more honourable end awaited Richard Keigwin. In 
 those days India was more remote from England than we 
 now find it easy to imagine, and events in Bombay made but 
 the faintest impression on men's minds at home ; so that by 
 May, 1689, the notorious naughty Rascall's misdemeanours 
 
 1 Vide p. 148, ante. 2 O. C. 5295. 
 
154 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 were sufficiently forgotten for him to obtain once more com- 
 mand of his old ship, the Assistance, in which he sailed to the 
 West Indies early in 1690. 
 
 In the attack on St. Christopher's on 2ist June of that 
 year, Keigwin was in command of the ' marine regiment ' or 
 (as it would now be called) the naval brigade, and fell at the 
 head of his men as he was leading them to the assault of 
 Basseterre ; l a close to his adventurous career far better suited 
 to his deserts than the halter John Child designed for him. 
 
 The rest of the rebel officers, who were mostly bound to 
 Bombay by business or family ties, elected to remain on the 
 Island, and by Articles 4 and 5 of the ( Proposals ' claimed to 
 be retained in their commands in the Bombay garrison. This 
 was an indulgence which John Child, already enraged at 
 having obtained no victim to hang, was determined not to 
 permit, and he accordingly ordered Zinzan to dismiss every 
 mutineer from all employment under the Company. Zinzan 
 replied that he was unable to do so, having agreed to the 
 mutineers' terms, and held that the Company was bound in 
 honour to fulfil the engagements made by him in its behalf. 
 An acrimonious correspondence ensued, in which, while the 
 President insisted on Zinzan's carrying out his orders to 
 dismiss the rebel officers, the Deputy Governor as persistently 
 raised objections and finally flatly refused to go back on his 
 word. 
 
 John Child presents at this period an unpleasant picture ; 
 raving and impotent, thirsting for blood yet unable to procure 
 the smallest particle of vengeance, his letters become more and 
 more intemperate and unreasonable. A few extracts will 
 serve to show his state of mind : 
 
 4 Of the Commanders of your owne Ships,' he writes to the 
 Court, 2 ' to our Sorrowes we speake itt, there is but very few of 
 them but what are really against your honours, and many 
 others as well as they that unjustly and ungratefully curse 
 your Honours, when the sweete morsells that they have from 
 you, that Nourisheth them, is goeing downe their throates. 
 Oh Monstrous Ingratitude, and the highest of Basenesse.' 
 
 1 Log of H.M.S. Assistance, in the Record Office. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 92. January 31, 1684/5. 
 
xii CONCLUSION 155 
 
 Again, in a letter to Zinzan, * Indeed its Ten thousand 
 pittys that some suffered not, nay its in a manner a piece of 
 Cruellty to lett such Villians escape death, and may be the 
 cause of another rebellion/ and he repeats his orders to 
 dismiss the officers, and that ' Thorburne, ffletcher, Sugar, and 
 Wilkins, upon some penallty as may be seen fitt, not suffered 
 to ever come into the ffort, or any ffortification on the Island, 
 or nearer any than Pistoll Shott '. l 
 
 In another letter to the Deputy Governor he says, 
 
 ' We are now come to an unpleasant clause, the considerable 
 reasons that you say defers putting in execution our orders 
 is soe farre from reason with us that it appeares greate folly 
 and weaknesse without any respect to the Orders from 
 England . . . the maine point being for the Casheering of 
 ffletcher Wilkins and Sugar. The first excuse is out of 
 tender of Conscience, because you have signed the Pardon 
 and proposall. But pray lett us know where your Conscience 
 is concerned. We cannot see it. ... If it be soe that all 
 those Officers that were in the Rebell's time must be kepp in, 
 pray where is the Island reduced.' 2 
 
 He seems to have suffered from a persistent and ridiculous 
 fear of a second rebellion, and he tells his masters 3 that 
 
 'there is too many of the Old officers Intrusted in the 
 Garrison, and your honours may see by the proposalls made 
 by Keigwin etc. how Impudently naught they are . . . theire 
 consciences are Seered and they ready for another mutiny, and 
 have come of soe well with this last that they are Incouraged 
 to it.' 
 
 And again, 4 
 
 ' Itts with noe small regret that we are Constrained to Signe 
 to the Pardon Sir Thomas Grantham gave the Bombay 
 Rebells. . . . There is many Articles in theire proposalls 
 that demonstrate theire Villainous Principles, and since there 
 is soe many of the heads of them still Officers in the Garrison 
 (contrary to our wills and desires as per our Instructions 
 given with Mr. Chas. Zinzan) ... we have good reason to 
 believe they will breake out to a 2nd revolt. . . . One of 
 the most unreasonable demands of these villianes is the 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 92. June 22, 1685. 2 Ibid., July 16, 1685. 
 3 Ibid., January 31, 1684/5. * Ibid. 
 
156 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 augementation of their Pay, by Putting theire owne value 
 upon the money they receive, which evill shall be the first 
 thing we will take care to remove.' 
 
 So long as Zinzan was at Bombay, however, Child could 
 not remove this evil, for the Deputy Governor refused to give 
 in ; only when Sir John Wyborne succeeded to the command 
 of the Island could the President get his way, and even then 
 only in the face of the strongest protests from Wyborne, who 
 declared that if they reverted to the arbitrary exchange value 
 of the xeraphin, the soldiers would starve. Child insisted, 
 and in March 1687 we hear that the garrison was once more 
 paid at zo^d. per xeraphin, on which ' a great many of our 
 Europe people . . . have layd down their armes and are gon 
 off from the Island. The Topasses in generall say they shall 
 be starved . . .V and the President could congratulate himself 
 on reintroducing with full effect the soldiers' principal griev- 
 ance, and the main cause of the late rebellion. 
 
 With Zinzan so intractable, there was only one of the rebel 
 leaders on whom Child could lay hands ; when the mutiny 
 broke out there was a case of debt pending against John 
 Thorburn, and at its conclusion the ex- Attorney General was 
 arrested and thrown into prison on the old count. 
 
 Hamilton 2 gives a long story of the barbarous treatment 
 accorded him by the President's orders, and of the cruelty 
 shown to his widow after his death ; and from the records we 
 find that Thorburn did actually die in prison, 3 though we 
 doubt if there is much reason to believe the rest of the story. 
 
 The vengeance from which Zinzan protected the other 
 officers fell, as was natural, on the Deputy Governor's own 
 head. No opposition to the President's will met with the 
 slightest mercy in Leadenhall Street, and in the Company's 
 Black Book on January 6th, 1687/8 we find that poor Zinzan 
 was ' quite turned out '. The last entries in the index to this 
 volume contain a dreadful epitome of the results of thwarting 
 Josia's favourite ; there we read : 4 
 
 1 Forrest, i. 156. Wyborne to Child. March 23, 1686/7. 
 
 2 i. 192 and 193. 8 Forrest, p. 158. 
 
 4 Offending and Defaulting Servants of the Company. Quoted in 
 Birdwood's Report on the Old Records of the India Office. 
 
xii CONCLUSION 157 
 
 ' Zinzan, Mr. ; blamed. 
 Zinzan, Mr. ; totally dismissed. 
 Zinzan, Mr. ; deceased.' 
 
 So much for poor Zinzan ; but the once congenial Doctor 
 St. John was now also giving a lot of trouble. Child decided 
 that the Doctor was not fit for the post of Chief Justice of 
 Bombay, and gave it instead to John Vaux, with instructions 
 that St. John was to remain in charge of a separate Admiralty 
 Court. 1 The Doctor was infuriated, and another bitter quarrel 
 was on the President's shoulders. 
 
 St. John's letter 2 to Sir Leoline Jenkins, Secretary of State, 
 in which he incidentally throws quite a new light on the 
 reduction of Bombay, shows how much altered was his opinion 
 of the President. 
 
 * I am to acquainte you ', he says, ' that I arrived here the 
 3 d of 7 ber 184, in good health, and finding the Fort and Island 
 Bombay in a revolution, Sir Thomas Grantham and my Selfe 
 successfully reduced the same and reinstated the Companys 
 Servants after nine monthes banishment. After all thus 
 settled att my owne proper expences four months, Sir Thomas 
 was no sooner gon then the President, one John Child, con- 
 trary to my contract in England and repeated assurances 
 from him selfe, disposed of the Judicature at Bombay, and 
 gave his Commission to another altogether incapable, having 
 never studied any law or learning. ... I am sure the Govern- 
 ment here and my barbarous usage will be highly displeasing 
 to his Majestic.' 
 
 At this time it would seem that Child was quite unable 
 to keep on good terms with any one ; his fear of a second 
 mutiny, which rose to a positive monomania, filled his mind 
 with the most hysterical nonsense and made him suspicious 
 of the most harmless of people. Even the timid and cautious 
 Captain Gary, who had preferred to lose his seat on the bench 
 rather than be mixed up with Keigwin's mutiny, came in for 
 a share of the President's mistrust. Recognizing that this 
 hero 'hath but a meane poore Spiritt that may be easily 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 92. March 17, 1684/5. 
 
 2 Dated May 10, 1685. This letter is among the State papers at the 
 Record Office. 
 
158 KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 ffreittend into anything ' l the Court wrote out : ' Old Gary we 
 look upon as pardoned for what he did in the tyme of the 
 Rebellion.' 2 But to John Child's excited mind the poor old 
 man now appeared as a dangerous conspirator, hatching a plot, 
 with such incompatible accomplices as St. John and George 
 Bowcher, to raise another rebellion. Such a conspiracy could 
 not possibly have occurred except in Opera-bouffe ; but John 
 Child had worked himself up to believe anything, and when 
 a messenger fell into his hands carrying two letters to Gary 
 one from George Bowcher and the other from an Interloper 
 called Goodlad who was staying in Surat, he seized the letters 
 and tore them open. 
 
 Nothing could throw a stranger light on the President's 
 state of mind than the fact that he found confirmation of 
 his fears in these two letters, and actually sent them home 
 as evidence. Bowcher's letter was purely private in nature, 
 and we are grateful to Child for preserving for us a proof 
 that he and old Gary and Mrs. Minchin were among the 
 friends of Mannucci, and were busy helping him to prepa're 
 his great book that is still so fascinating. ' I have provided 
 severall curiosities ', he writes, 3 ' for our ffriend Nicolao 
 Manucho, and waite Madam Minchin's leisure, soe soon as 
 I receive the particulars from her shall dispatch the Cohors ; 4 
 as to the Shreens or pictures you mention shall indeavour 
 to furnish him with such as may be acceptable if procurable.' 
 Of this letter the President admits that the contents do not 
 
 * plainely . . . attend to mutiny ', but he hints darkly that 
 it at least proves that Gary is in correspondence with 
 dangerous characters. 5 
 
 In Goodlad's letter he found even clearer proof of a plot. 
 
 * I am sorry ', says the Interloper, 6 that you meet with such 
 ill treatment from people here now in your old age, but 
 it verifies the english Proverb, Sett beggars on horseback 
 and they will ride to the Divell ' ; on which the President 
 comments : * you will find ' in ' that . . . Letter from Goodlad 
 
 1 O. C. 5563. 2 Letter Book 8. March 26, 1686. To Surat. 
 
 3 O. C. 5359. 4 Cohor = Kahar, a porter. 
 
 5 Surat Factory Records 92. April 18, 1685. 6 O. C. 5363. 
 
xii CONCLUSION 159 
 
 writt in unhansome raling stile against the Right Honourable 
 Company etc. that its an indeavouring to subvert the present 
 Government.' 
 
 The President now threw all self-control to the winds and 
 sent orders to Zinzan that guards were to be stationed at 
 Mahim to intercept all letters coming to the Island, and send 
 them to the Deputy Governor in whose presence they were to 
 be opened. 1 
 
 Whether that officer carried out these instructions or not 
 we have no information ; but it is an odd piece of irony that 
 the immediate cause of poor Zinzan's total dismissal was his 
 opening of some letters from the Court to Child, addressed 
 to Bombay under the impression that the President had 
 moved there. 
 
 Once it became known what John Child was looking for, 
 the Bowchers and their friends made haste to supply him ; 
 and the President was soon inundated with a perfect torrent 
 of attestations, depositions, and ' Scurrilous Sausy papers ' 2 
 of all kinds. 
 
 George Bowcher's position was now quite impregnable, 
 though Child chose to speak of him as ' in a sinking condition ' ; 3 
 he had come back at last from Aurungzebe's Court not only 
 with his coveted firmaund, which gave him the same trade 
 privileges as the Company, but with a special letter of recom- 
 mendation addressed to the Governor of Surat by Prince 
 Mu'azzim, who later succeeded Aurungzebe as Emperor. 4 
 Henceforward no malice of the President's could touch 
 Pettit's partner, and he continued to live and prosper in 
 Surat for many years after Child and all our other characters 
 had disappeared or died. One last effort was made by John 
 Child to bring him to book, when the orders under Charles II's 
 privy seal came out, for him to return home. 
 
 The King's writ reached Surat in June 1685, and there then 
 began a game of hide-and-seek that must have delighted all 
 the English in the place. The difficulty was to serve the writ 
 
 1 Surat Factory Records 92. April 18, 1685. 
 
 2 Ibid, August 15, 1685. 3 Ibid., July 23, 1685. To Bengal. 
 4 O. C. 5270. 
 
i<5o KEIGWIN'S REBELLION CHAP. 
 
 on Bowcher at all ; at the first attempt the papers were 
 returned unopened, 'Mrs. Bowcher flying into her usual 
 Scurilous Language'. 1 But the President would not readily 
 admit himself defeated, and for days the summons went to 
 and fro, leaving trails of Protests in its wake, till at last 
 in despair Child announced that it was now 'sufficiently' 
 served, though not exactly according to the 'rule Lade 
 downe by Doctor John S* John'. 2 Whether sufficiently 
 served or no, the King of England's writ did not for many 
 years to come run in Surat City, and we leave George 
 Bowcher carrying on, in perfect security, his interloping 
 business and his scholarly pursuits; though it is possible 
 that this affair did affect his position in the future. Fifteen 
 years later, when the efforts of Papillon and his friends 
 were at last rewarded, and the New or English Company 
 was formed, its preliminary affairs in Surat were largely 
 committed to the hands of Bowcher ; 3 and if we do not find 
 his name among the members of Sir Nicholas Waite's 
 Council, the New Company's first chief in Western India, 
 it is probably because it was impossible to employ officially 
 a man against whom the King's writ was still out. 
 
 And so, leaving of our protagonists only George Bowcher 
 and John Child to carry on their enmity through the further 
 developments of Josia's policy, we may bring our story to 
 a close. We have led the reader through the agitations and 
 alarms of the first part of John Child's rule in India ; we have 
 introduced to him all the principal characters that composed 
 the little society of our countrymen in Western India, with 
 their private trade and their quarrels, their punch-houses 
 and their garden-parties, and their unpleasant neighbours 
 the Mahrattas, the Siddees, and the Sanganye pirates, and 
 have given him, we trust, some notion of the conditions in 
 which they lived. He has been shown something of the 
 struggles and convictions of the passionate and powerful 
 Josia Child ; and has seen how in India the first result of his 
 
 1 O. C. 5390. 
 
 2 Surat Factory Records 92. August 15, 1685. To Bombay. 
 
 3 O.C. 6639, 6646, 6649, &c. April 1699. 
 
xii CONCLUSION 161 
 
 ignorance and tyranny was a unanimous and bloodless 
 revolution on Bombay, by which the island was lost to the 
 Company for nearly a year. He has followed the course 
 of the mutiny to its close, and seen Grantham and Keigwin, 
 Pettit and Thorburn, disappear from the scene ; and now 
 we may leave the last word to the President, still a little 
 bitter to have found no use for his halter. 
 
 ' Thorburne deceased in prison for debt ', he writes, 1 ' and 
 the Almighty hath Swept away neere all the rest of your late 
 rebells of Bombay ; 2 many dead, and Others gone ; but their 
 all escapeing the hand of Justice was an unhappy thing.' 
 
 1 O. C. 5563. February 10, 1686/7. 
 
 2 Adderton had died of wounds received in an action against the 
 Sanganyes, and Wilkins had gone home. In February 1686 the only 
 mutineers whose names we still find in the garrison are Fletcher and 
 Sugar. Old Gary died in 1688 at Surat, where his tomb is still to be 
 seen. 
 
 152G-* M 
 
APPENDIX A 
 JOHN AND JOSIA CHILD 
 
 There can be no further question of these two being 
 brothers, 1 but it may still be maintained that they must 
 nevertheless have been related ; and we may consider the 
 arguments that might be raised on either side. 
 
 We have first their close official association; the support 
 invariably given by Josia to John, and the reciprocal attitude 
 of unswerving loyalty of John to Josia. And indeed it must 
 be admitted that if, as we think, the connexion between the 
 two had its origin simply in their official dealings, it did 
 eventually lead to a warmer feeling than usual in such cases, 
 considering that they never met. When the time came for 
 John's eldest son, Caesar, to be educated, his father ' after 
 some trouble to separate an Indulgent tender Mother from 
 a beloved child ', sent him home * recommended to the Care 
 of the Honourable Sir Josia Child '. 2 That his patron accepted 
 the charge, and received the young Caesar into his family 
 circle, we may guess from the fact that the name of Caesar 
 Child appears as one of the witnesses to Sir Josia's will ; 3 but 
 this unusually close tie would not be impossible between 
 
 Personal strangers, and here as elsewhere the absence, in 
 ohn's recommendation, of any claim to kinship, is in itself 
 a strong presumptive argument against their being related. 
 While on the subject of Josia's will, we may mention that at 
 the beginning of it appears ; ' Imprimis, I give and bequeath 
 unto my sister Child, the widow of my brother John Child, 
 deceased, ;ioo', which shows that Josia had a brother of the 
 same name as the President, and may have been the original 
 cause of the error. 
 
 Another argument in favour of the kinship of the two 
 Childs may perhaps be taken from John's will, 4 in which Sir 
 
 1 Bruce was apparently the father of this mistake ; we have not found 
 it m Orme. The Abbe Raynal, however, whose Histoire des Deux Indes 
 came out as early as 1774, speaks of the Childs as brothers. 
 
 2 O. C. 5536. December I, 1686. 
 
 3 In Somerset House. Proved July 6, 1699. 
 
 4 Also in Somerset House. Proved February 25, 1700/1. 
 
APPENDIX A 163 
 
 Josia was appointed c supervisor ' of John's affairs in England, 
 and received as a bequest * my Ruby ring that I usually wear '. 
 But here, too, no mention of kinship is made. 
 
 Other interesting bequests in John's will are ' to my Aged 
 ffather Theophilus Child ' 150, * to my poore brother 
 Theophilus Child ' l 100, and ' to my Uncle John Goodere ' 
 10. Also to his eldest son Caesar ' my large gold bowle and 
 cover, and my gold-headed cane, and my two-edged sword 
 the hilt is hatched with silver, it was his grandfather 
 Shaxton's'; while his younger son John received 'the smallest 
 gold cupp, the gold Tobacco box, and the gold head and 
 fferrell of a cane, and all my gold buttons and my gold 
 buckles for my shoes '. 
 
 The evidence against there being any kinship, though chiefly 
 negative, is really overwhelming ; for although John owed his 
 success entirely to Josia's machinations, and although a mass 
 of contemporary documents survives to prove his unpopularity, 
 yet in none of them is there any reference to Josia as his 
 relative, nor is there any trace of a charge of nepotism. 
 
 We may quote a passage from Hamilton which seems to us 
 to be conclusive, in which he speaks of the President as 
 * trampling on the established Laws of England by Advice of 
 his Namesake who governed the Company in Europe ' ; 2 
 a phrase that could not possibly have been used by that 
 inveterate gossip had the two been kinsmen. Finally, there is 
 a passage from a letter written by John to Josia, 3 thanking 
 him for his baronetcy, in which he says : ' I humbly thank 
 your Worship for the title you are pleased to give me, and 
 esteeme myselfe truly honoured above my birth and deserts ' ; 
 an expression of gratitude which would have been, to say the 
 least, tactless, if addressed to a rich relation. 
 
 In the Heralds' Office there is a note to the effect that no 
 connexion has been traced between the families of the two 
 Childs, neither of whom, it would seem, was related to their 
 contemporary Francis Child, the founder of the great banking 
 house. 
 
 1 Cockayne's Baronetage says that Theophilus pere was living at 
 a great age in January 1689/90 ; and we have found in Somerset House 
 that he was granted, so late as 1691, letters of administration for the 
 estate of his son Theophilus, John's ' poore brother ', who died unmarried 
 and intestate in that year. 
 
 2 Hamilton, i. 190. s O. C. 5005. November 30, 1683. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 A LIST OF ALL THE ENGLI(SH MEN) WOMEN 
 AND CHILDREN ON THE ISLAND BOMBAY, 
 TOGETHER WITH A LIST OF SUCH AS ARE 
 DECEASED, AND THE TIME; TAKEN FOR 
 THE YEARE PASSED ; TAKEN tfm DECEM- 
 BER, 168s 1 
 
 The Worp 11 Charles Ward Dep*? Govern* 
 
 Councill 
 
 Judge 
 Minister 
 
 Factors & 
 Writers 
 
 M r Henry Smith 
 M r Thomas Pettit 
 M r John Gape 
 Cap* Henry Gary 
 Thomas Peachy Watson 
 M r John Jessop 
 M r John Shepperd 
 M r James Butler 
 M r Edw d Cornewall 
 
 M r Robert Smith 
 
 Mint 
 
 Master 
 
 Chirurgeon ' M r John Bird 
 Mate M r Robert Bywater 
 
 Gunner M r John Cooper 
 
 (6 English gunner's mates) 
 Marshall Thomas Bigott 
 Smith John Green 
 
 Clerke of) 
 
 the Mar- \ Henry Walton 
 
 kett 
 
 Organist John Potter 
 
 Orphans 2 
 
 /John Paternott 
 
 Gilb* Eaton 
 J Rich d Yarworth 
 ] Andrew Temple 
 I Henrietta Hawkins 
 
 -Elizabeth Spooner 
 
 Maurice Edwards at the Bunder 
 
 Officers & Souldiers in the Eldest 
 Comp a in the Garrison 
 
 The Hon ble John Child Cap* 3 
 
 Richard Keigwin Cap* L* 
 
 John Thorneburne Ensigne 
 
 Thomas Wiltons') 
 
 Thomas Perry I 
 
 Sam" Smith 
 
 Thomas Cully ' 
 
 W m (?) Clerke 
 
 4 English Corporalls 
 
 2 Drummers 
 
 55 Soldiers 
 
 Officers & Souldiers in the Youngest 
 Comp a in the Garrison viz. 
 
 Henry Fletcher Cap* Lieu* 
 William Gyles Ensigne 
 Thomas Sugar \ 
 John Arnold 
 
 Thomas Browne Ser -> eants 
 Thomas Simons ) 
 Richard Hocknell Clerke 
 
 4 English Corporalls 
 
 I Drummer 
 57 Soldiers 
 
 1 O. C. 4906 (a). 
 
 2 By 1685 there seem to have been only two of these orphans left. On 
 August 15 of that year, Child writes to Zinzan at Bombay: 'The two 
 Orphans we finde pretty well growne up. We would have you Contrive 
 to ease the R* Hon ble Comp a of the Charge of them, and that for the 
 Childrens good, lett the boy be put to Sea, that he may improve himselfe 
 and be fitt for somew* and the girl imployed to waite on some of your 
 Gentlemen's Ladys that she may learne somew*: nay, knitting of stockings 
 is better than Sitting Still.' 
 
 ' The President was honorary Captain of the Eldest Company. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 165 
 
 Militia Officers 
 
 James Osburne] 
 
 Tho 8 Hopkins - 
 
 John Norcutt j 
 
 John Bennett Corporall 
 
 James Stephens at Verolee 
 
 Freemen 
 
 Cap* Thomas Niccols 
 Capt. W m Norgrave 1 
 M r Nath 11 Russell 
 M r Charles Rochester 
 M 1 ' George Finder 
 M r Tobias Brock 
 M r Thomas Waltham 
 Charles Foxeman 
 
 In the Hunter Frigatt 
 
 Cap 1 Stephen Adderton Comander 
 Peter Blackbury Chiefe Mate 
 5 other names 
 
 In the Returne 
 
 C a pt \ym Smith Comander 
 M r W m Child Chiefe Mate 
 James Howell Second Mate 
 Abrah: Evanson Chirurgeon 
 7 other names 
 
 Women on Bombay 
 
 Madam Jane Ward 
 
 M rs Susanna Smith 
 
 Mary Gape 
 
 Elizabeth Jessop 
 
 Alice Adderton 
 
 Katherine Baines 
 
 Sarah Thorneburne 
 
 Isabella Norgrave 
 
 ,, Susanna Russell 
 
 Elizabeth Hughes 
 
 Dorothy Walton 
 
 Dorothy Sugar 
 
 Mary Rose 
 
 Mary Brock 
 
 Elizabeth Bigott 
 
 Anne Cooper 
 
 Anne Butler 
 
 Katherine Fletcher 
 
 Frances Fleming 
 
 ., Anne Hilder 
 
 M rs Jane Meadows 
 Mary Perry 
 
 Joane Cully 
 
 Anne Waller 
 
 Elizabeth Rust 
 
 Mar: Keweck 
 
 Ann Biston 
 
 Ann Young 
 Martha Robinson 
 
 Young Women 
 M ra Carolina Wilcox 
 M rs Eliz: Smith 
 Eliz: Kitson 
 Henrietta Hawkins 
 
 Children 
 
 M" Kath: Ward 
 M r * Fra: Ward 
 M rs Jane Ward 
 M r W m Smith 
 Eliz: Fletcher 
 Kath: 
 Hannah 
 Mary 
 Charles 
 Thomasin Bigott 
 Mary Niccolls 
 Mansell 
 W m Headland 
 Isabella Oglevy 
 Kath: Norgrave 
 John Jessop 
 Eliz: 
 
 John Thorneburne 
 Sarah 
 Alexander Robinson 
 Isabella Browne 
 Thos: Walton 
 Ann 
 Pen 6 Hancock 
 Thomas Pettit 
 Marg 1 Young 
 Robert Kerby 
 Thomas Cully 
 Stephen Robinson 
 John Richards 
 Henry Baines 
 
 Deceased (in the year from Jan I st 
 
 to Dec. 28 th 1682) 
 12 men 
 
 3 women 
 
 3 children 
 
 1 Capt. 
 Hunter. 
 
 Norgrave was Adderton's predecessor in command of the 
 
1 66 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 A PROCLAMATION FOR THE LIBERTY FELICITY 
 AND TRANQUILLITY OF THE INHABITANTS 
 AND INDWELLERS OF BOMBAY. 1 
 
 CHARLES by the Grace of God King of England 
 Scotland France and Ireland defender of the faith &c a doth 
 by his hon ble Gov r Richard Keigwin Esq r signifie to all the 
 Inhabitants and indwellers his Majesties Subjects on this 
 Island that the intolerable Extortions oppressions and injust 
 impositions that hath been for these five Years passed most 
 rigorously exacted and continually more and more increased 
 by the English East India Comp a and their Servants here 
 with many other Sordid Actions as not maintaining the 
 Honours due to his Majesties Crowne and dignity and their 
 despicable contemning and malitiously ruining his Majesties 
 subjects obstructing and rejecting all Complaints, making his 
 Majesties laws mercinary and subject to there owne depraved 
 Wills all which hath occasioned Gods Just Judgments to 
 overtake them in the full Career of their Pride and Malice 
 Avarice and injustice, and all the Inhabitants and Souldiers 
 Justly to revolt from their unjust Government and fly to the 
 refuge and Protection of a most Gracious Soveraigne for that 
 they have not conserved observed nor performed the injunc- 
 tions and Articles of his Majesties most Royall Charter or 
 Patent. You are therefore strictly charged and ordered in 
 his Majesties name as folio weth : 
 
 That henceforth no Inhabitants or indwellers shall owne the 
 said English East India Comp a or their Gov r M r John Child, 
 or their Debuty Gov r M r Charles Ward or any of their 
 Servants as rulers or Governours of this Island and Garrison 
 thereon, nor any clandestinly to Connive, contrive, or conspire 
 with them or any others, the subversion of his Majesties 
 Government as 'tis now Established upon paine of loosing 
 your lives and forfeiting your Estates as Traytors to his 
 Majestic. That all Inhabitants and indwellers his Majesties 
 Subjects that have had whatever injustice done them during 
 the time of the English East India Comp as Government, 
 
 1 O.C. 5026. 
 
APPENDIX C 167 
 
 either by them or their Gov r M r John Child or their Debuty 
 M r Charles Ward or their Cheife Justice M r Henry Gary, or 
 others their Servants lett them repaire to the ffort on Wednes- 
 days and ffridays when their just Complaints shall be heard and 
 ace 4 taken of them to be sent to his most Gratious Majestie 
 who never shutts his eare to the Complaints of his distressed 
 and oppressed Subjects. That all Subsides, Rents, Revenues, 
 Customes, Horts, Lands, Houses, and all debts due for the 
 same, be from this day paid into the Treasury for his Majesties 
 use at their appointed times and terms and that all writings 
 thereoff or others be renewed and transferred from the said 
 English East India Comp a and drawne in his Majesties name. 
 That no Ships or Vessells of what burden soever, shall goe out 
 of this or any other Port where the English have factories with- 
 out his Majesties Pass from his hon ble Gov r upon paine of 
 forfeiting the Goods Ships or Vessells. 
 
 That all English or other his Majesties Subjects howsoever 
 distressed or wheresoever dispersed shall have his Majesties 
 Port and Island theire Sanctuary; and all the English East 
 India Comp a or their Servants in generall or perticular not 
 excepted ; during their due obedience to his Majesties 
 Government shall have free Egress and ingress, and shall have 
 peacible and free Liberty of Commerce and friendly Converse 
 with his Majesties most Loyall Subjects in this his Majesties 
 Port and Island of Bombay. The like to all Nations who 
 owne themselves his Majesties friend and well Wishers shall 
 be protected and defended from all Enemies whatever Dated 
 the a8th December 1683 @ and in the ffive and Thirtieth 
 Yeare of the reigne of our said Soveraigne Lord Charles the 
 Second by the Grace of God King of England &c a 
 
 GOD SAVE THE KING. 
 
1 68 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 ST. THOMAS'S CHURCH 
 
 We have not found much that is very pleasant to say of 
 John Child in these pages, and it is therefore with the greater 
 satisfaction that we undertake to defend him from a charge 
 that has been hanging over him for the last two centuries. 
 
 The accusation originates as usual from Hamilton, who 
 says : l 
 
 ' Sir George Oxendon began to build (a church) and 
 charitable Collections were gathered for that Use ; but when 
 Sir George died, Piety grew sick, and the building of Churches 
 was grown unfasionable. . . . There were reckoned above 5,000^" 
 had been gathered towards building the Church, but Sir John 
 Child, when he came to reign in Bombay, converted the Money 
 to his own Use, and never more was heard of it. The Walls 
 were built by his Predecessors to five Yards high, and so it 
 continued till the Year 1715, that Mr. Boone came to the 
 Chair, who set about building it, and in five Years Time 
 finished it by his own Benevolence, and other Gentlemen, 
 who, by his Persuasions, were brought in to contribute. The 
 Company also contributed something towards that pious End.' 
 
 The passage contains several inaccuracies, which have as 
 usual been followed first by Anderson, and then by subsequent 
 historians ; some attempt at a more careful account may prove 
 of interest. 
 
 The Church was not begun by Oxinden, but by his suc- 
 cessor Aungier, to whom Bombay owes so much of her 
 development. This is proved by O.C. 4905, a letter in which 
 John Child definitely states that the foundations were laid by 
 Aungier's directions. The building was planned, as is well 
 known, on a large scale, and enough money was raised by 
 the liberal subscriptions of the English community to set the 
 work in hand ; the Company contributed 4,000 rupees, 2 and 
 Aungier himself, besides his donation, left in his will a legacy 
 of 5,000 rupees towards completing his favourite scheme. 
 
 On the soth January, 1680, his successor, President Rolt, 
 wrote 3 that the Company's contribution had been paid and 
 had brought in other subscriptions, and that the building was 
 progressing ; but that there was a difficulty about Aungier's 
 legacy. The late President had left estate both in India and 
 
 1 Hamilton, i. 188. 2 Letter Book 5. March 7, 1676/7. 
 
 * 0.0.4691. 
 
APPENDIX D 169 
 
 at home, and his executor in England and principal legatee 
 was his brother the Earl of Longford. Rolt early asked the 
 Court 1 to allow him to take the 5,000 rupees out of the 
 Company's cash * least by the sending home soe much of 
 his estate before hee dyed there should not bee sufficient 
 here when all his accountts are cleared ' ; but the Court would 
 not agree to this, and it remained to recover the legacy from 
 the estate in England. This task proved a hopeless one. 
 Again and again Rolt, and after him John Child, begged the 
 Court to get the money ; the Court, with the best intentions, 
 was unable to do so. 
 
 'As for our late President Angier's legacy,' they write, 2 
 1 we wish it may be had from my Lord Longford, and shall 
 endeavour it with him when we have the opportunity (he 
 being at present in Ireland) but ... we doubt it wilbe diffi- 
 cult to get it here.' And again : 3 * As to the 5,000 Rupees 
 left by President Aungier in his will towards building the 
 said Church, you must not expect to receive anything thereof 
 from hence.' 
 
 The correspondence dragged on, but Lord Longford could 
 never be induced to disgorge. 
 
 It seems reasonable to suppose that the non-appearance of 
 this sum, though doubtless reckoned in the estimates for the 
 Church, was at the bottom of the rumours of embezzlement 
 which are hinted at by Chaplain Cobbe 4 and formulated by 
 Alexander Hamilton ; and if Piety grew Sick after Aungier's 
 death, it was Lord Longford and not John Child who was the 
 culprit. 
 
 Meanwhile, the building went on until the funds gave out, 
 and even afterwards ; for we find that the unfortunate John 
 Hornigold, who was in charge of the work, was debited with 
 2,323 xer. for which, according to his account, 'the church 
 has run indebted'. 5 The fact seems to be that no proper 
 estimate was ever made, and that the plans were drawn out 
 on a far larger scale than was warranted by the money in 
 hand. 6 With the interruption of Keigwin's rebellion the 
 
 1 O.C. 4370. March 18, 1677/8. 
 
 2 Letter Book 6. February 10, 1681/2. To Surat, par. 71. 
 
 3 Ibid. February 28, 1678/9. Par. 72. 
 
 4 Bombay Church, by Richard Cobbe, 1766. 
 
 5 O.C. 5001. 
 
 6 A peculiar levy was ordered by the Court. ' Resolved : that such 
 gentlemen as shalbe permitted to go for India be obliged to pay ^10 
 apeece on the day of their respective marriages towards the finishing of 
 the Church now building at Bombay.' Court Book 34. January 28, 1684/5. 
 
170 APPENDIX D 
 
 building came to a final stand, and the roofless edifice, fifteen 
 feet high, remained a standing reproach for thirty years. 
 
 During this time service was held in a room in the Fort, 
 and in 1686 Sir John Wyborne, then Deputy Governor, 
 knocked two rooms together for the purpose. 1 An organ 
 had been built before this, for we have heard from Henry 
 Smith that it was repaired in Ward's time ; 2 and we find an 
 * organist ' among the regular officials of Bombay in i68a. 3 
 
 It is well known how in 1715, Richard Cobbe, the chaplain, 
 preached his great sermon, and how thereafter the money 
 came pouring in, till in 1718 the Church was finished and 
 opened by Charles Boone. 
 
 On the list of Cobbe's contributors we find the names of 
 Alexander Hamilton, the Interloper historian, and of our old 
 friend George Bowcher of Surat, sole survivor of the sub- 
 scribers of Aungier's time. 
 
 APPENDIX E 
 
 LETTER FROM DEPUTY GOVERNOR JOHN 
 PETTIT AND COUNCIL TO THE COURT 4 
 Hono ble & ca 
 
 Though wee are sensible the President and Councells 
 elaborate pen will not passe over any material 1 affaire relating 
 to this places concerne, yet wee cannot but suppose it a part 
 of that duty incumbent on us to render our sence of the Island 
 Estate, with whatever wee shall deem may meritt your Hon ra 
 knowledge, which wee humbly offer to your favourable con- 
 struction, and hope the Divine powers will so far enable us 
 that neither in the narrative or active part of our duties wee 
 shall be omisive of the least perticular that may give your 
 Honours due satisfaction, begging a candid interpretation of 
 our weak though fervent endeavours, it being most certaine 
 that a successfull event does not alwayes crown the most 
 prudent propositions, but among wise men ever applause or at 
 least excuse, which alone consideration fills us with alacrity 
 and zeale. 
 
 Our Militia is now perfected, wee having increased them to 
 a compleat body of neare 600 men who are all possessours of 
 
 1 Forrest, p. 149. 2 Vide p. 92, ante. 3 Vide Appendix B. 
 4 O.C. 4263. 
 
APPENDIX E 171 
 
 land on the Island. Wee shall see them well trained up and 
 disciplined that they may be serviceable, and to be relied on 
 upon the most emergent occasions, and hope time will bring 
 them to so good a martiall order that the security and defence 
 of the Island may much depend upon their strength. There 
 is above 100 more owners of lands that are Braminys and 
 Bannians, who, being never accustomed to beare armes, are 
 willing to contribute in money, which will help towards 
 payment of the Militia officers. Wee are not yet come to an 
 agreement how much they shall pay, but in a month or 2 more 
 shall conclude on it. The charge of the officers is as much 
 abbreviated as possible, the whole body having but one 
 Captain who has but Lieutenant's pay, and the Lieutenant 
 Ensignes pay, and the Ensignes Sergeants pay, some of the 
 Sergeants but Corporals pay, and Corporals but very few, 
 some of which wee shall pick out of the Militia that shall serve 
 without pay. 
 
 The President and Councell has ordered us to raise a small 
 Troop of 40 horse, than which nothing can be of greater safe- 
 guard to the Island, for besides the extraordinary fame of 
 horse in these countreys, one horse being esteemed equivalent 
 to 50 foot, they are such an ubiquitary force, that in halfe an 
 houres time by taking up 40 Souldiers behind them, wee can 
 have 80 men in any part of the Island compleatly armed, ready 
 to impeed an enimies landing, or to quiet any sudden insurec- 
 tion. And the charge of all this but very small : the Captain 
 only will receive pay ; as for a Lieutenant & Cornet wee shall 
 oblige some of your Honours own servants to officiate those 
 places, Quarter Masters wee want none, & the 3 Corporalls 
 will have but ... X s p. month each more than private Gentries. 
 Troopers we shall choose out of the Garrison souldiers, and 
 though the Garrison Companies are the weaker by it, it matters 
 not, instead of which there shall allwayes be a division of the 
 horse keep a guard over against the ffort gate. The most 
 part of the Horse shall be of the count rey breed, which will 
 but cost 60, 80, or 100 Rupees p. horse, who will not need that 
 high feeding of jagree and butter commonly given to all horses 
 in these parts ; and whereas it is the custome for every horse 
 to have a horsekeeper, wee will endeavour to make one horse- 
 keeper serve two horses, & for grasse & hay wee will make the 
 Island supply us for nothing, as it has hitherto done for those 
 horses wee now have, which are at present 31 in number, which 
 were ever a great charge & yet of no defence for want of 
 modelling into a Troop and disciplining ; & wee think our- 
 selves very happy in the choice of so expert and discreet 
 
172 APPENDIX E 
 
 a Commander as is over them, the President & Councell have- 
 ing conferred that employment upon Captain Rich d Keigwin. 
 
 Our souldiers, thanks be to God, continue very healthfull, 
 for whereas last yeare from October to Feb ry there died above 
 100 men, this yeare wee have not lost 15, most of which of 
 imposthumation in the liver, much of which benefit wee must 
 attribute to our new hospitall, wee having taken the old Court 
 of Judicature for that use, it being a thing so highly necessary, 
 for the souldiers doe not die by any such fatality concomitant 
 to the clime as some vainly imagine, but by there irregularitty 
 and want of due attendance when sick. For to persons in 
 a flux & ... which is the country diseases, strong drink and 
 flesh is mortall, which to make an English souldier leave of is 
 almost as difficult as to make him divest his nature, nay though 
 present death be laid down before him as the reward of the ill 
 gratifying his palate. This is the true cause our Bombay bills 
 of mortallity have swelled so high, whereas in the Hospitall 
 nothing can come in or out without passing the Doctours eyes, 
 that wee have great confidence this Hospitall will save your 
 Honours some hundred pounds yearely which the transport of 
 souldiers exacts. 
 
 The Court of Judicature wee have built in the Bazar, being 
 a far more convenient place and of greater ease for all sorts ot 
 people to repaire thither, and more fitting for persons where 
 prisoners may beg reliefe of passengers. 
 
 Our rents were not much increased last year, though some- 
 thing they were our chiefe rent. The Custome is farmed for 
 37,000 Xs., but wee must speake it to our great griefe, that 
 whilst wee are so incompassed with the Portugueze and Sevagy 
 on all sides, wee cannot expect our trade greatly to increase ; 
 for the reason of the flourishing trade of Surat and other Sea 
 Ports is this, that Merchants who bring their goods from other 
 countreys in shipping land them and transport them up the 
 country from thence for sale, or sell them to other Merchants 
 who doe the same, & againe Merchants buy in-land goods, 
 bring them freely down to port without molestation, nay 
 Customes or much charges, where is alwayes shipping ready, 
 whereon they lade them for all parts of India. Now the 
 egresse and regres for Merchants up the countrey from hence 
 is totally obstructed, the Portugueze having the Islands of 
 Caranjah and Salset, which almost surrounds us, and they 
 are ever exquisite seekers of all wayes imaginable to doe us 
 mischiefe, envying as wee suppose the sudden prosperity this 
 place is rose to. The chiefest, nearest, and best passe up the 
 countrey is by Tanna, where formerly they tooke of all goods 
 
APPENDIX E 173 
 
 which passed by 3 p. cent., but now for the sake of only 
 Bombay they have raised it to 10 p. cent., which is equivalent 
 to a totall forbidding all goods to passe. Likewise all timber 
 for shipping & houses of durance, which wee may call the 
 oak of India, growes up at Cullean, Bimurly, and must neces- 
 sarily passe by Tanna, where they take 33 p. cent, custome. 
 They have this yeare forbid all rice to be transported to 
 Bombay, and doe often put excessive excises upon even 
 hearbs, and fruit, and hens, which poor people bring over at 
 Bandora, but in this & most other things their malice shoots 
 much short of their intention, for, thanks be to God, wee 
 have alwayes provisions in aboundance, our Island being 
 commonly rather a granary of corne than otherwise, from 
 whence it is transported to Raj pore, Goa, and other places, 
 and it shall be our care never to see the Island unprovided 
 for provisions. But wee could find other wayes to passe up 
 the countrey with little trouble were there peace between the 
 Moguls and Sevagy, or that the Mogul would take all this 
 countrey about us ; for about 3 dayes journey up the Hill 
 between the Moguls & Sevagys dominions lies a perpetuall 
 seat of war, so that no Merchants can passe without apparent 
 hazzard of being plundered, so that wee cannot expect Mer- 
 chants should land their goods here without knowing where 
 or how to dispose of them, that wee often wondred how so 
 considerable a custome could be annually raised, and wee can 
 attribute it to nothing but the justice, freedome, & security 
 people injoy here above other places, many families of 
 Braminys dayly leaving the Portuguezes territories & repaire 
 hither frighted by the Padrees, who upon the death of any 
 person forces all his children to be Christians ; and even some 
 of the chiefest who still live at Bassin & others build them 
 houses here, therein placing their wives and children against 
 a time of danger. Wee have hopes time will settle these 
 parts in peace that Merchants may be induced to bring down 
 their rich goods from up the countrey, the custome of one of 
 which ships would amount to what [is] received here in halfe 
 a year, this Port having in respect of situation & convenience 
 the advantage of Surat, Goa, & all the Ports on the whole 
 Coast. Goa lying so far down below the great places of 
 Guzzarat, Ditty, Branpore, Ourungabaud, &c a where the 
 great glut of goods which supplies Europe and all India is 
 made, India growing there narrow from one sea to the other 
 that it is very chargeable bringing down goods thither ; then 
 Surat is one of the worst roads in India & extream dangerous 
 in the freshes, and the transport of goods up by the distance 
 
174 APPENDIX E 
 
 very chargeable, whereas Bombay lies in an excellent latitude 
 for the whole trade of India, & is a most excellent harbour, 
 winter & summer, which is a great inviter of Merchants, & 
 for a small charge wee will run up a stone causeway from the 
 Fort allmost to the Mint without, in which ships may at any 
 time ly ashoar, carine, & mend, or ly there the whole yeare 
 with as much safety as in a Dock ; & upon the countreys being 
 in peace, & our landing our Europe goods here Merchants 
 would easier be perswaded to transport them from hence 
 then from Surat, and though the same Custome was taken at 
 landing them on the Maine as at Surat, yet all that was 
 transported in shipping to forreign parts would be so much 
 custome gained to your Honours &c a , but these are happi- 
 nesses in posse, to be prayed for. 
 
 Wee have this yeare sent up to Surat above 2,000 pieces of 
 Baftas, all made by the weavours of the Island that have been 
 induced to come and inhabit here, the Broker having formerly 
 for his credits sake deceived us with Cambaya cloth instead 
 of Bombay, which does but hinder the Surat investment, 
 though wee believe it not very cheap, yet suppose it not ex- 
 traordinary dear, the weavours charges of 5 p. cent, enhancing 
 the price, which cannot yet be removed, they at first wanting 
 incouragement to their repair hither ; but besides that, wee 
 have hopes to make cloth cheaper then hitherto effected, there 
 having not been any Factours who have had judgement to 
 oversee such a work, and dayly to superintend the weavours, 
 but have been forced to confide in the Broker, who perhaps 
 may be as honest as others, yet few or none of that profession, 
 if business be wholly intrusted to them, but will pay them- 
 selves extraordinarily for their paines. Whereas wee doe 
 now intend when wee can procure fitting persons (the Island 
 being at present in great want of able Factours) to set them 
 over the weavours, who shall deliver out the cotton by weight, 
 learning how many threads go into every peece, receiving it 
 againe by weight and tale of threads, & allowing so much 
 per piece for weaving according to its finesse, which is but a 
 small matter & easily learnt, and there can be no deceit or 
 over-reaching, and this wee esteem a very necessary work, 
 for wee have great hopes to give your Hon rs much satisfaction 
 in the increase of the cloth investment on the Island, though 
 we find it difficult to induce weavours to leave their anncient 
 habitations, it being inbred in all people to esteem no place like 
 home. Yet if wee doe not fall out with Sevagy wee dare 
 promise 3 times the quantities as this yeare sent ; wee are 
 induced to say if no quarrell happen between us & Sevagy, 
 
APPENDIX E 175 
 
 because wee shall be forced to make the greatest part on the 
 other side of the Bay, about 20 miles of, up the river of Salset, 
 where wee have got together a good parcell of weavours whom 
 wee cannot yet perswade to come over, though have hopes 
 in time to effect it. However, the 5 p. cent, which wee now 
 put upon the cloth for weavours will be taken away, instead 
 of which wee must pay 2 p. cent, to Sevagy, and perhaps 2 or 
 3 p. cent, more for charges, yet if we paid 15 p. cent, it will 
 bear lesse than the expences of any factory, but then it will 
 be objected the cloth is bought by that expence cheaper then 
 the Island cloth, to which wee answer that wee have yet 
 probable hopes to equallize the cheapnesse of other factorys 
 cloth, for besides the reason above given wee have hopes to 
 have our cotton yarne come cheaper to us then yet hitherto 
 it has done, so that at leastwise to make it stand in competi- 
 tion or surpass any of the Guzzarat cloth, if not come very 
 neare the prizes of Rajapore and Carvvar. 
 
 Wee have lately disposed of pretty good quantities of 
 Europe goods, 2,000 m dsl of Iron, 1,000 m^ of Lead and 
 150 pieces of Broadcloth, 200 pieces of Boudy, & 50 pieces 
 of red Perpetuanas, besides are dayly selling of the old 
 remains of Perpetuanas, of which wee have almost 300 pieces 
 by us, but most of them sadly dammaged by wormes, and 
 carelessnesse ; if possible wee will put them off though at low 
 rates before the next ships arrive. Our Norwich stuffs goe 
 off pretty well, partly to the Portugueze, but most upon the 
 Island, the vent of which wee doe much incourage by wearing 
 it for the most part ourselves. The greatest part will in a 
 short time be disposed off, & doe believe may be able to sell 
 100 pieces yearly, this being no commodity for the natives, 
 nor coloured cloth, of which a small quantity will be sufficient. 
 Wee will likewise induce all the officers and souldiers to appeare 
 every muster day in a red coat, & doe intend to make all 
 people who receive pay of the Company take a coat or two 
 yearely, which will incensibly carry off a good quantity. Our 
 iron wee are forced to sell at neare prime cost, by which wee 
 shall be able to dispose of great quantities, for then it will spoile 
 the vent of countrey iron, becoming almost as cheap, & is far 
 more beneficiall then for your Hon" to send over so much 
 ready mony. Our lead wee sold at the Surat price, but then 
 wee save the custome and charge, & bring trade & credit to 
 the port. Our cloth which was the coursest bales at 3^ per 
 yard, Body at 2f re d per y d , & red Perpetuanas at i n d same 
 
 1 Maunds weight. 
 
176 APPENDIX E 
 
 time to receive it by the tillet. Wee expecting the ship 
 Formosa from China with Japan copper, shall dispose of all 
 our plates which is 329, that copper which is in bars being 
 only propper to make pice, being lesse losse & the plates 
 selling here for more. 
 
 We are getting up our fourth and last Bastion, and indeed 
 the best, but it is very difficult work, being so far in the sea 
 that wee can only work on the foundation at new moon 
 springs, and then but 2 or 3 houres in a day for 4 or 5 dayes. 
 Wee have got both sides pretty well up to high water mark, 
 and next spring hope to finish the foundation of all, after 
 which wee shall quickly run it up, & then wee want only 
 finishing the Ditch and a Ravelin with the 2 home works 
 if they shall be found necessary, which will make the Ffort 
 one of the strongest in India. 
 
 Wee have this yeare received some large guns of 60 w* each 
 but they are not so proper for our ffort, wanting length, for 
 therein lies the advantage a ffort has of shipping by being able 
 to sinck a ship with her long Guns ere she can approach to 
 batter which no ships deck is able to receive, or endure, the 
 reverse whereof, wee suppose it very necessary for defence of 
 the Island fort for your Honours to send out 20 or 25 Guns 
 of 1 8 & 22 foot long each which would likewise be a terrour 
 to all people. 
 
 Herewith goes a Petition of the Widdow of your late Judge 
 M r George Willcox, he having received no sallary here for 
 the time that he was Judge here. She therefore begs your 
 Honours to consider her condition & order her the payment 
 of what convenient sallary your Honours shall deem her 
 husband may have merited. 
 
 Wee likewise herewith send our Consultation Book & Coppy 
 Bookes of Letters with a roll of all the English on the Island, 
 and a list of all your Honours' houses with their dimensions, 
 and the materialls they are made of, with the prime cost of the 
 Court of Judicature, Hospitall, & Mint. Our books of Accounts 
 are unfinished, and indeed there hath been no body here to 
 doe them, your late Deputy Governor M r Gyffard dying of a 
 lingring distemper which incapacitated him to all buisines 
 for many monthes, so that John Petit, who was likewise under 
 a violent distemper, was forced to dedicate the most part 
 of that time sickness would permit him to use, to officiate in 
 his stead, notwithstanding which they should have been finished 
 were the accounts but rightly stated & in good method, but 
 the bookes are full of nothing but errours & false accounts ; 
 there has been no accounts given in of the warehouse these 
 
APPENDIX E 177 
 
 4 yeares ; several accounts remayning upon ballance time out 
 of mind, & in the whole a generall confusion, so that there 
 will want a great deal of care, assiduity, and time to bring the 
 books into due order & method. 
 
 Wee have before took occasion to speak of the bad neigh- 
 bourhood wee enjoy from the Portugueze. In the month 
 of Aprill last, from a small begining there had like to have 
 succeeded a quarrell between us and them of no meane con- 
 sequence. It happened that one of their ffrigats gave chace 
 to a merchants ship of Callecut, who making his escape came 
 for shelter under our ffort. The Captain of the ffrigat 
 demanded the delivery of the ship up to him, who upon our 
 refusall makes his complaint to the Captain Generall of Bassin, 
 Manoel de Saldanha, who, being of a fiery nature, apprehended 
 so great an affront in it, that he immediately came hurrying 
 to Bandora with about 1,000 men: wee may say so many in 
 number but for service just only fitting to run away upon 
 looking an enemy in the face, being taken up from the Plow 
 & the Palmars ; & so aggravated & resolved he seemed to be 
 that he made publique protestations never to returne without 
 surrendry of the vessell or an equivalent satisfaction. There 
 happened to be some Englishmen at Bandora who went over 
 to buy some necessaries, whom one of his Captains fell foul 
 of, beat them cruelly & killed Serjeant Southerland. The 
 Captain Generall indeed disowned the action ; however, being 
 performed by his ministers wee could doe no lesse than 
 demand satisfaction for the murder and affront. The then 
 Deputy Governor lay desperately sick of a flux & hestick 
 feavour, so that John Petit went up to Mahim taking with 
 him a Division of the Garrison Companies, the Militia of 
 Bombay with a 100 Bandareens 1 , and about 100 Moores of 
 the Island with the Militia of Mahim amounted to about 
 500 men. The Captain Generall finding our readiness to 
 receive him, and that his menaces had not operated to that 
 height as he imagined, became something calmer. His de- 
 mands were first for the delivery of the ship to him, pretending 
 she was his lawfull prize, having almost taken her, and 
 that wee ought not to protect the enemies to the Crown of 
 Portugall. 
 
 Wee in answer laid before him by many arguments how 
 contrary it was both to reason, justice, and the custome of all 
 Europe to deny protection to the vessells or subjects of any 
 
 1 The Bandareens were a caste employed in looking after the palm 
 trees ; they were good fighters and were early formed into a sort of militia, 
 armed with clubs and such weapons. 
 
 1526.6 N 
 
178 APPENDIX E 
 
 Prince in amity with our King, of the Zamorine that was. 
 He long persevered in his first demands, offering many weake 
 reasons for his justification, but finding us resolute in our first 
 determination, and that small effects were to be expected 
 either from his threats or force, descended to desire of us to 
 keep the ship in our custody till he could write to the Viceroy, 
 and wee likewise advise our President, which wee likewise 
 told him wee could not consent to, for by what pretence or 
 reason could wee make prisoners of our Allies or how could 
 wee justifie ourselves to the Zamorine for such an action and 
 that wee had alwayes the President's order to doe no injustice, 
 so that it was desiring us to break one order to wait for another. 
 Finding nothing would prevaile with us he was at length 
 contented as a poor salve to his credit to desire only of us 
 that wee would not send any Frigats out in her convoy, and 
 that he would send to the Viceroy for his order herein, and in 
 the meane their Frigat should ride without to await her motion ; 
 but all this could not hinder him from being derided of all 
 strangers for his bravados and effectles threats & protestations, 
 and even condemned of folly & rashness by the Portugal 1 Fidal- 
 gos, and all the Padrees. In the meane time wee forgot not to 
 demand satisfaction for the death of Serjeant Southerland and 
 beating our men, for the which and for what other dammages 
 might accrue by these his unjust proceeding wee drew up 
 a protest against him. For your Honours more perticular 
 satisfaction wee herewith send coppy of said ptest with all the 
 papers which past between us. According to order, M r West 
 & M r Selater are sent home, who goe on the Society. 
 
 Among the severall stores sent out wee find not any for 
 shipping, which are not only absolutely necessary but not here 
 to be procured, as com asses, lantornes, pilots' instruments, 
 log lines, saile-needles, and the like, the overplus of which 
 wee can at any time sell to advantage. There is more great 
 cordage sent out yearly than is serviceable to us, our expence 
 being for the most part of the small coir cables and hassers 
 being as strong & as serviceable as English, but for small 
 r igg m g it is very gouty & unhandy & requires more hands 
 in a ship than when English rigg'd, and the most necessary 
 cordage is small lines, \ inch & f inch rope for ratlings & top 
 gallant rigging for our small vessels, and small cordage is 
 likewise most propper for sale. 
 
 M r West goes home a prisoner for debt due to M r Bonithon 
 deceased, who would not be induced to make any end thereof 
 or leave any atturney to it. M r Gore in England is wee 
 suppose the deceased's overseer, whom his Assignes here have 
 
APPENDIX E 179 
 
 advised of it, & wee thought fitting to give your Honours this 
 notice thereof. 
 
 Herewith goes a Petition of the widow of Capt n Shaxton 
 deceased, he having farmed the i p. cent, custome for your 
 notifications in which he pretended to have received a con- 
 siderable loss, in the which she begs your Honours 3 favourable 
 charity and to weigh her present necessities and charge. 
 
 Wee find your Honours to be at a very great and unneces- 
 sary charge yearly in unprofitable medicines sent out, many 
 of which and those of great price lye here and rot, and many 
 wee can here procure at a sixth part of the price. The 
 Physition & Chyrurgeon have therefore herewith sent lists 
 of what simple medicines and plaisters cannot here be procured 
 or made, which will amount to a very small matter, and yet 
 be better furnished then ever wee were yet. 
 
 Wee call not to mind ought else but the presentation of our 
 reall services, assuring your Honours wee shall in all things 
 endeavour to approve ourselves 
 
 Hon ble S r & S rs , 
 
 It pleased God Yo r Hon rs most faithfull 
 
 to take Colonell Bake & most obedient Servants, 
 
 out of this world the JOHN PETIT. 
 
 13 th present, dying CHARLES WARD. 
 
 of an acute feavour. FRANCIS DAY. 
 
 JOHN HORNIGOLD. 
 Bombay, the 24 th Jan ry 1676/7. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adderton, Stephen, 15, 82, 93, 94, 
 96, 161 ;/. 
 
 Andrewes, 124, 136-8. 
 
 Aungier, Gerald, President of Surat 
 and Governor of Bombay, xvi ; 
 sportsman, 7, 8 ; junior to Geary 
 (1664), 10; his devotion to Bom- 
 bay, n, 13; encourages settlers, 
 15 ; establishes market, 16; deal- 
 ings with Siddee, 18 ; organizes 
 militia, 19; puts down Shaxton's 
 mutiny, 23; opinion of John Child, 
 24 ; unpopularity with the Court, 
 26 ; death (1677), 28 ; policy criti- 
 cized by Josia Child, 43; but finally 
 adopted, 108 ; founds St. Thomas's 
 church, 1 68 ; legacy, 169. 
 
 Aurangzebe, 3, 6, 12, 45. 
 
 Bandora, 26 and n. 
 
 Bantam, 67 n, no, in, 113. 
 
 Barnardiston, Sir Samuel, 55 n, 108. 
 
 Bassein, 9, 86, 173. 
 
 Bird, Dr., 16, 83. 
 
 Bombay, acquired by Charles II 
 (1661), 10 ; transferred to E. I. Co. 
 (1668), 10 ; proposed as head- 
 quarters of E. I. Co. in Western 
 India (1672), 13; described, 13- 
 16; Pettit's account of (1676), 
 170 ; policy of retrenchment in 
 (1679), 4 1 5 centre of hostilities 
 between Mogul and Mahrattas 
 (1682), 65 ; threatened with fam- 
 ine by Sombaji, 66 ; E. I. Co's 
 new forward policy (1683), ni; 
 becomes headquarters for West- 
 ern India, 117; Keigwin's rebel- 
 lion, 79ff; Keigwin's government, 
 96 ff; abortive rendition, 143; 
 final surrender (1684), 149. 
 
 Bombay Admiralty Court, 108 and 
 n, 117, 131, 133, 138, 
 
 151, 157- 
 
 Church, 15, 168-70. 
 Coffee House, 16, 74. 
 Council, diet money for 
 
 members of, 69. 
 
 Bombay Currency, 23, 32, 34, 72, 
 
 .74- 
 Finances under Keigwin, 
 
 100. 
 
 Freemen, 14, 43, 165. 
 Garrison (see under Garri- 
 son and Militia). 
 Governors and Deputy 
 
 Governors, xvi. 
 Inhabitants (1682), 164. 
 Long Gallery, 70, 80. 
 Market, 16, 75, 76. 
 Mint, 24, 62 n. 
 Organ, 92, 164, 170. 
 Population, 14, 15. 
 Prices (1683), 75, 76 . 
 Smith's shop, 81. 
 ,, Stationery, 120. 
 Zoological Gardens, 14. 
 Bowcher, George, chief of Calicut 
 factory, 1 7 ; third on Grand 
 Council, 49 ; is dismissed, 50 ; 
 partnership with Pettit, 55 ; pro- 
 claimed Interloper, 56; goes to 
 Court, 6 1 ; connexion with rebel- 
 lion, 77; success with Aurang- 
 zebe, 95 ; benefactor of the Bod- 
 leian, 95 ; summoned home under 
 Privy Seal, 117 ; friendship with 
 Mannucci, 158; prosperity, 159 ; 
 attempt to serve writ on him, 160 ; 
 subscribes to Bombay church, 
 170. 
 Bowcher, Madam, 56, 59, 85, 125, 
 
 133, 160. 
 Bristol, the, 124, 133-8. 
 
 Calicut, 17, 27, 47, 48, 57. 
 
 Caranjah, 96, 172. 
 
 Carwar, 119, 122, 175. 
 
 Child, Sir John, President of Surat 
 and Governor of Bombay, xvi ; 
 marries Miss Shaxton, 19 ; his 
 important position, 20; parentage 
 and early years, 21 and ; ap- 
 pointment as factor (1667), 21 ; 
 taken up by Sir Josia Child, 22 ; 
 implicated in Shaxton's mutiny, 
 
1 82 
 
 INDEX 
 
 23 ; suspected by the Court, 24 ; 
 Aungier's opinion of his character, 
 25 ; sent to Rajapore, 26 ; appeal 
 for seniority refused, 28 ; becomes 
 Dy. Governor of Bombay (1679), 
 41; unpopularity, 42 ; trouble with 
 the Siddee, 45 ; succeeds Rolt as 
 agent, 48 ; his character compared 
 with Sir Josia's, 51, 52 ; becomes 
 President, 53 ; and baronet, 53 ; 
 estimate of his administration, 54; 
 activities against Pettit, 56-64; 
 * Button maker', 62, 137 ; action 
 against rebels, 85 ; goes to Bom- 
 bay, 88 ; returns to Surat, 91 ; 
 intrigues, 102, 103 ; receives title 
 of General, 116; Hunter's view 
 of his rule criticized, 134, 135 ; 
 dealings with the Bristol, 136, 137 ; 
 sends Grantham to Bombay, 139 ; 
 unable to follow, 152 ; rage against 
 rebels, 154; relationship to Sir 
 Josia Child, 21, 162, 163; de- 
 fended from charge of embezzle- 
 ment of church funds, 168, 169. 
 
 Child, Sir Josia, his 'policy respon- 
 sible for the rebellion, i, 2 ; con- 
 trols affairs of E. I. Co., 20, 105 ; 
 parentage, 21 ; takes up John 
 Child, 22 ; shields him in Shax- 
 ton's mutiny, 25 ; policy of re- 
 trenchment (1679), 4 1 5 criticism 
 of Aungier's policy, 43 ; attacks 
 Pettit, 48 ; compared with Sir 
 John Child, 51 ; conflict with 
 Papillon, 52 ; favours to John 
 Child, 53; advocates summary 
 judgments, 53, 54 ; defeats Papil- 
 lon (1681), 55 and n\ approves 
 confiscations from interlopers, 59 ; 
 accused by rebels, 84, 99 ; action 
 against interlopers, 105-8 ; views 
 on Free Trade and Monopolist 
 Companies, 106 ; change of policy 
 (1683), 108-13 ; his autocracy and 
 its results, 109, no; orders a 
 forward policy, 1 1 1 ; suggestions 
 for raising revenue, 112; promises 
 ' English dominion in India for 
 all time to come', 113; Committee 
 of Secrecy on rebellion, 116; re- 
 lationship to Sir John Child, 21, 
 162, 163. 
 
 Church, John, 79-83. 
 Colton presses, 118. 
 
 Consett, Captain, 72, 73. 
 Corlahs,; the, iS, 1 30, 40, 45', 46, 65, 
 66, 72. 
 
 Davis, Captain Roger, 103, 104, 
 
 125. 
 
 Day, Francis, 51 and n, 63, 85-7. 
 Dutch E. I. Co.,^, 8, 43, 55, 56, 
 
 112, 121. 
 
 East India Company (see also under 
 Sir Josia Child), MSS. Records, 
 v; position in Surat, 5-9; acquires 
 Bombay, 10; policy (1670), 12; 
 instructions to stop drinking, 16 ; 
 treatment of Shaxton's mutiny, 
 24, 25 ; orders retrenchment, 41, 
 42 ; ' dead musters ', 44, 69, 76 ; 
 attacks Gary, 44 ; attacks Pettit, 
 47, 48 ; reduces officers of Bom- 
 bay garrison, 68 ; dismisses offi- 
 cers, 76 ; defeats Levant Company, 
 105; Committee of Secrecy, 1 16; 
 measures against rebels, 117. 
 
 Fletcher, Henry, 67, 71, 76, 79-82, 
 
 117, 140, 144, 161 n. 
 French E. I. Co., 4, 8, 55, 121. 
 
 Garrison of Bombay, composition 
 of, 19, 164 ; wives sent out from 
 England, 19; Shaxton's mutiny, 
 23-5 ; soldier's pay, 23, 32-4, 148, 
 149, 150, 156; troop of horse 
 raised, 29, 171; disbanded, 41; 
 ' dead musters,' 44, 69, 76 ; offi- 
 cers, 67, 68, 69 ; mutinous attitude, 
 71, 72 ; rebellion, 76 ; Keigwin's 
 re-arrangement, 82, 84; additional 
 company sent out, 112; sepoys 
 to be raised, 112; riot against 
 terms of surrender, 143, 144; 
 Child's orders against rebel offi- 
 cers, 154, 155. 
 
 Gary, Henry, Governor of Bombay, 
 xvi ; character and previous 
 career, 10, n ; makes over Bom- 
 bay to E. I. Co., 10 ; freeman of 
 Bombay, 1 1 ; Chief Justice, 3 1 ; 
 charged with papistry, 44 ; offers 
 to resign, 63 ; envoy to Moguls, 
 67 ; interposes in mutiny, 72 ; 
 refuses to join rebellion, 83 ; 
 ambassador to Sombaji, 98 ; cor- 
 responds with Grantham, 145 ; 
 pardoned by Court, 157; still 
 
INDEX 
 
 183 
 
 suspected by John Child, 158 ; 
 death, 161 n. 
 
 Gladman, John, 62, 85, 104, 140, 
 144, 149. 
 
 Goa, 9, 173. 
 
 Goodier, John, xvi, 21, 22 and 11, 
 28, 163. 
 
 Gosfright, George, 85-7, 125. 
 
 Grantham, Sir Thomas, commis- 
 sioned by the Company, 114; 
 previous record, 114, 115 ; arrives 
 at Swally, 136; dealings with the 
 Bristol, 136, 137 ; commissioned 
 to regain Bombay, 139; arrives 
 at Bombay, 141 ; abortive sur- 
 render, 143 ; is nearly murdered, 
 144 ; further negotiations, 144-8 ; 
 final surrender, 149. 
 
 Gyffard, Philip, xvi, 26, 27. 
 
 Hand, 124. 
 
 Harbin, Robert, 119-23. 
 Hendry, 37, 40, 45, 91, 97. 
 Hilder, Captain, 63, 77, 80, 81, 86. 
 Hornigold, John, 16, 85, 104, 126, 
 
 169. 
 Hunter, Sir William, ix, 134, 135. 
 
 Interlopers, 52, 53, 55, 60, 63, 89, 
 90, 105-8, 116, 117, 121, 123-5, 
 133-8, 158- 
 
 Keigwin, Captain Richard, freeman 
 of Bombay, 15 ; parentage and 
 early career, 29 ; arrival in Bom- 
 bay (1676), 29 ; action of his troop 
 of horse against the Siddees, 
 30 ; his victory against Sivaji's 
 Armada, 38 ; discharged by the 
 Company, 41 ; goes home and is 
 re-appointed to command of Bom- 
 bay garrison, 43 ; takes charge, 
 67 ; diet money cut, 69 ; decides 
 to rebel, 76; not influenced by 
 personal grievances, 77 ; the re- 
 bellion, 70^-82 ; writes to Charles 
 II, 83; his proclamation, 166; 
 first measures, 84, 85 ; dealings 
 with commissioners, 86, 87 ; and 
 with John Child, 88, 89 ; second 
 letter to Charles II, 97; dealings 
 with Siddee, 97 ; treaty with Som- 
 baji, 98; foreign policy, 99; 
 finances, 100; price set on his 
 head, 117; affray with Fletcher, 
 140 ; abortive surrender to Grant- 
 ham, 143 ; further negotiations, 
 
 144-8; final surrender, 149; re- 
 turns to England, 153; subsequent 
 career and death, 1 54. 
 Kendry, 37, 39, 40 andn. 
 
 Lucas, Sir Gervase, xvi, 10. 
 
 Mahim, 26, 27, 31, 36, 67, 177. 
 Mahrattas, 12, 36-40, 45, 46, 65, 66, 
 
 69, 71,96,98, 173, 175- 
 Mannucci, Nicolao, 158. 
 Mansell Smith, xvi, 48, 65. 
 Master, Streynsham, 7, 8. 
 Mazagon, 14, 30, 36, 45, 46, 66, 67, 
 
 97- 
 
 Michell, 57. 
 Militia of Bombay, 19, 41, 68, 81, 
 
 82, ill, 170, 171. 
 Minchin, Captain, 16, 38. 
 
 New Company, 55, 139, 160. 
 Newman, William, 91, 125. 
 Niccolls, Captain Thomas, 14, 31, 
 67, 68, 83, 101, 145, 149, 151. 
 
 Old Woman's Island, 14, 67. 
 Oxinden, Sir George, xvi, 10, n. 
 Oxinden, Henry, xvi, 36, 37, 41. 
 
 Papillon, Thomas, 52, 55, 105, 106, 
 108. 
 
 Patatta (Butcher's Island), 97. 
 
 Pettit, John, Deputy Governor of 
 Bombay, xvi, 27 ; second at 
 Bombay, 26 ; deals with the 
 Portuguese, 26; early service 
 and importance, 27 ; chief of 
 Calicut, 27, 47 ; seniority to John 
 Child, 28 ; his Deputy Governor- 
 ship of Bombay, 29-35 ; raises 
 a troop of horse, 29 ; dealings 
 with the Siddee, 30; founds 
 Mahim fort, 3 1 ; remedies abuses 
 in soldiers' pay, 32 ; becomes 
 agent of Persia, 35 ; attacked by 
 Sir Josia Child, 47 ; suspended 
 on charge of malversation, 48; 
 tried and acquitted, 49; his 
 petition, 50 ; is dismissed, 50 ; 
 partnership with Bpwcher, 55 ; 
 connexion with Papillon's party, 
 55 andn\ proclaimed an inter- 
 loper, 56 ; thrown into prison, he 
 appeals to Aurangzebe, 58; re- 
 leased, 60 ; connexion with Keig- 
 win's rebellion, 77 ; Keigwin's 
 agent in Surat, 93 ; joins Keig- 
 
1 84 
 
 INDEX 
 
 win in Bombay, 96 ; his influence 
 there, 101 ; summoned home 
 under privy seal, 117 ; sails from 
 Bombay, 126; captured by pirates, 
 126-9; his death, 130; his account 
 of Bombay, 176-9. 
 
 Pirates, 5, 17, 126-9, 161 n. 
 
 Pitts, Lieut., 103, 104, 126. 
 
 Portuguese, 5, 8, 9, 15, 26, 27, 91, 
 96, 120, 121, 125, 172, 173, 177, 
 178. 
 
 Rajapore, 21 n, 25, 26, 99, 175. 
 Rebellion, account by John Church 
 
 of, 79-82. 
 Return, the, 63, 64, 77, 80, 8 1, 82, 
 
 91, 93, 94, 96, ioo. 
 Roe, Sir Thomas, 108-10. 
 Rolt, Thomas, xvi, 28, 29, 33, 42, 
 
 46, 48, 49, 168. 
 Russell, Captain, 82 andn. 
 
 St. Helena, 29, 118, 119. 
 
 St. John, Doctor John, 108, 131, 132, 
 
 133, 136, 138, 151, 157. 
 Salsette, 9, 14, 18, 36, 40, 91, I45> 
 
 172. 
 
 Sandys, 107. 
 
 Sanganyes (see under Pirates). 
 Sepoys, 112 andn. 
 Shaxton, Captain John, xvi, 19, 23, 
 
 24, 25, 163, 179. 
 Siddees, 17, 18, 30, 36, 39, 40, 45, 
 
 46,66,71-3,83,97,98. 
 Sivaji, 12, 36, 37, 38, 40, 45. 
 Slaves, 30, 57, 72, 119. 
 Smith, Henry, 67, 70, 71, 73, 74, 92, 
 
 93- 
 
 | Smith, Robert, 62 and n. 
 
 | Sombaji, 45, 46, 65, 66, 96, 98. 
 
 I Surat, account of, 3-5 ; customs duties 
 at, 4, 45, 46 ; English factory at, 
 6, 7 ; looted by Sivaji, 12 ; native 
 Governor of, 4, 5, 9, 18, 46, 55, 
 56, 57, 58, 59, 61, 73, 134, 137, 
 159. 
 
 Surat Presidency, Grand Council of, 
 
 28, 49, 85 ; reduced to an agency, 
 
 41, 48 ; restored, 53 ; becomes 
 
 Bombay Presidency, 1 1 7. 
 
 Swally Hole, 3,4, 62, 92, 94, 131, 
 
 136. 
 
 Swally Marine (see under Swally 
 Hole). 
 
 Thorburn, John, 68, 76, 77, 79-82, 
 87, 88, 116, 117, 139, 143, 155, 
 156, 161. 
 
 Tyrell, Captain John, 117, 138. 
 
 Vaux, John, 102-4, 157. 
 Vergis, William, 81, 91, 102. 
 Versovah, 91, 101, 102, 104, 125. 
 
 Ward, Charles, xvi, 26 , 65, 67, 
 70, 75, 76 and n, 80, 84, 152. 
 
 Watson, Peachy, 79, 81, 125. 
 
 Wilkins, Thomas, 68, 71, 81, 82, 98, 
 140, 145, 161 n. 
 
 Witchcraft, 84. 
 
 Wyborne, Sir John, 1 56, 1 70. 
 
 Zinzan, Charles, 85, 86, 87, 152, 
 153-6, I57-9- 
 
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