-Caveat Lector-
an excerpt from:
The East India Company
Brian Gardner�1971
Barnes & Noble Books[1997]
ISBN 0-88029-530-9
pps. 319 - Out-of-print
--[1a]--
--it seemed the Sumatrans did not require the skilfully wrought iron, the
East Anglian woollen vests, the hardwearing Devon trousers, and the other
items in the cargo; and the price they asked for pepper (in Spanish currency)
was far higher than had been expected. Lancaster arrived at a solution
typical of the English mariner of those times. He outwitted the local
Portuguese envoy, lay in wait for a great Portuguese galleon that was
expected, defeated her, and looted her cargo. She was a rich prize � one of
the largest ships of the time -full of merchandise, jewels, and plate. With
three of his little ships crammed full of loot, he left for Java, confident
that he now had a better chance of successful trading. The fourth ship
returned to London, which it reached on 8 May 1603 ('God be praised for it,
and send the rest home in safety'). The Dutch were well established at Bantam,
in Java; nevertheless, Lancaster made a good impression. An exchange of
cargoes was made.--
--During the absence of the fleet, 'Good Queen Bess' had died after her long
reign. She had been succeeded by James I, who was also King of Scotland. He
was a very different man to the last of the hearty and ebullient Tudors. He
was inclined to be cautious. He had been crowned only seven weeks before the
return home of the East India Company fleet, but he soon showed that he was
inclined to side with the critics of the Company's monopoly.�
Quite the intrigues.
Om
k
-----
NOTE
A government which, through might of arms, was the most powerful in Asia; a
government, the revenue of which was greater than that of Britain; a
government which ruled over more people than the present government of the
United States; a government owned by businessmen, the shares in which were
daily bought and sold.
As Macaulay said, 'It is strange, very strange.' The days of the East India
Company seem remote, prodigiously remote, and so they are in every way except
in the real passage of time. Even in my own lifetime there were former
servants of the Company still alive. Although it receives little attention
now, this remarkable institution was a matter for constant comment and
controversy not so long ago. It is nearly seventy years since the last
history of it was published in its own country.
What was so special about this Company? Well, at the end of its powers it was
responsible, directly or indirectly, for nearly onefifth of the world's
population. Dr C. Northcote Parkinson made it seem straightforward enough, in
his admirable definition:
How was the East India Company controlled? By the Government. What was its
object? To collect taxes. How was this object attained? By means of a large
standing army. What were its employees? Soldiers, mostly, the rest, civil
servants. Where did it trade to? China. What did it export from England?
Courage. And what did it import? Tea!
That is fair enough. But lurking behind the shelves upon shelves of
correspondence in the India Office Library, London, with their intricate
records of the public company which ruled over territories from St Helena to
Singapore and beyond, there is an ambiance less easy to define and peculiar
to the Company. R. H. Mottram, expressed it eloquently:
There was always something magic, queer, unaccountable about it. Clive knew
perhaps what it was. But he died mysteriously and never said what he knew.
The facts can always be collected. The ledgers and Minute books are all
extant and can be read. Great modern cities, Calcutta, Bombay, even Delhi can
be visited. The evidences of the Company lie scattered about Europe and Asia.
Yet one has an odd feeling that the Company was not exactly that, and that
the attempt to make the East mercantile on the European model ended by
altering Europe and leaving the East, under the surface, untouched.
It is a story of fantastic endeavour, and the Company does have a special
attraction of its own. This book has no pretensions of important original
research, although, where it seemed useful, published sources have been
garnished here and there with documents and material from primary sources in
the India Office Library. Neither does it attempt to present any mystique.
The story is set largely where most of it happened, i.e. in India, although
not forgetting elsewhere, and, from Warren Hastings, mostly in the framework
of the men whose task it was to activate or control what happened, i.e. the
Governors-General. This latter method is no more perfect than any other, but
it seemed more convenient than others both for reader and writer. Despite the
efforts of its- directors, from the time of Clive the East India Company was
more a military power than it was a commercial concern, and it is in this
setting that I have presented a subject too varied and vast for full
treatment in one volume.
The place-names are those in common use under the British raj. I have used
'royal' rather than 'King's' or 'Queen's' to differentiate between those
forces and the Company's own troops. To prevent a plethora of footnotes in
what is intended as a popular, not an academic, history, I have documented
quotations only where it seemed specially necessary.
The bibliography of British India before 1857 is not inconsiderable, and an
exhaustive list can be found in the Cambridge History of India, Vol. V. Many
of the Company's documents, particularly of the early period, have been
published in various series, among them the Fort William-India House
Correspondence (National Archives of India), the Oxford English Factories in
India and Court Minutes of the East India Company, and Letters Received by
the East India Company (London, 1896- ). The Company's servants were a
literate band themselves, producing many of the greatest histories and
memoirs of Anglo-Indian literature, in particular perhaps the works and
reports of Elphinstone, Edwardes, Outram, and Malcolm. Other long-established
classics are History of the Sikhs, J. D. Cunningham, Sir W. H. Sleeman's Repor
t on the Thugs (Calcutta, 1840), J. Z. Holwell's Narrative of the Black Hole
of Calcutta (London, 1758), and the Memoirs of William Hickey (London,
1913-25). There have been three modern histories: Ledger and Sword, Beckles
Willson (London, 19o3), Trader's Dream, R. H. Mottram (New York, 1939), The
East India Company and the British Empire in the Far East, M. E. Wilbur (New
York, 1945)More specialised works are headed by The East India Company 1784-18
34, C. H. Philips (Manchester, 2nd edn 1961), the indispensable source book
for the Company's activities in London during its hey-day. The other great
work in this field is The East India Company in 18th Century Politics by Lucy
Sutherland (Oxford, 1952). The most essential work on the Company in India is
The Central Administration of the East India Company 1773-1834, B. B. Misra
(Manchester, 1959). There are numerous other specialised books on the
Company, of which The English East India Company 1600-40, K. N. Chaudhuri
(London, 1965), John Company at Work, H. Furber (Harvard, 1948), The
Government of India, Sir C. Ilbert (London, 1916), The Nabobs of Madras, H.
H. Dodwell (London, 1926), and his Dupleix and Clive (London, 1926), Haileybur
y Since Roman Times, C. M. Matthews (Haileybury, 1959), Sirajuddaulab and the
East India Company, B. K. Gupta (Leiden, 1966), The British in West Sumatra 10
5-1& 5, J. Bastin (Kuala Lumpur, 1965), The Old East Indiamen, E. K.
Chatterton (London, 1914), The Administration of the East India Company, J.
W. Kaye (London, 1853), and Sir John Foster's articles should be mentioned. Th
e Founders, Philip Woodruff, is an impressive tribute to East India Company
personalities in India, famous and forgotten. The other most moving and
unreserved tribute of recent times to these men is Lord Radcliffe's Reith
Lectures, 1951, The Problem of Power. Less uncritical is another modern
historian of India, Percival Spear, among whose works is A History of India (P
enguin, 1965), a useful and fresh analysis from the earliest to the present
times, remarkably concise; his The Nabobs (Oxford, 1963) is also valuable. An
Indian view is to be found in Britain in India, R. P. Masani (Bombay, 1960).
Another modern writer on British India, Michael Edwardes, has made his best
contribution on the hitherto somewhat neglected social side of the British
raj, apart from his useful military histories. Correspondence of some of the
Governors-General has been published, and some have been exceedingly
well-served by biographers, not least Dalhousie (by Sir W. Lee-Warner, 1904),
Canning (by Michael Maclagan, 1961), and Warren Hastings (Keith Feiling,
1954). The Afghan question prior to the Mutiny has been well served by P.
Macrory and J. A. Norris. Much unpublished material regarding the Mutiny was
used for Eighteen Fifty-Seven, Surendra Nath Sen (Delhi, 1957), The Ranee of
Jhansi, D. V. Tahmankar (London, 1958), Nana Sahib and the Rising at
Cawnpore, P. C. Gupta (Oxford, 1963), and Way to Glory: Lift of Havelock, J.
C. Pollock (London, 1957). Sen has also written two important accounts of the
Marathas. Aspects of the Company's activities outside India have received
attention recently in the meticulously researched Sultans of Aden, G. Waterfie
ld (London. 1968), and in Raffles, M. Collis (London, 1966). This list of
useful books could be continued for many pages, but I hope I have named
enough to indicate that I am aware of my debt to the many writers who have
passed this way, or parts of it, before me. I also wish to express my
gratitude to the staffs of the British Museum, the India Office Library, the
London Library, to Miss Doris E. Gregory for her careful and constructive
typing, and to Chatto and Windus Ltd. and Mrs A. Cooke for permission to
quote from Memoirs of a Bengal Civilian by J. Beanies, MacGibbon & Kee Ltd.
for permission to quote from The Ranee of Jhansi by D. V. Tahmankar, and
Macmillan & Co Ltd. for permission to quote from 'Clemency' Canning by
Michael Maclagan.
=====
Part One
ACQUISITION OF INDIA
1
THE SPICE LANDS
Elizabeth I, Queen of England, had been on the throne for more than forty
years, the most English monarch in blood since her distant ancestor, Harold,
more than five centuries before. She read the document which had been placed
before her. It was New Year's Eve 1600. The last hours of the sixteenth
century were passing away. Elizabeth was by no means unused to giving her
decision, and she was certainly not afraid to do so. She was a woman not only
decisive but also shrewd. As she read that charter, could she have foreseen
all that it foreshadowed? On the face of it, it did not seem a particularly
remarkable document. It had been carefully prepared: had been preceded by a
petition with which she was familiar:
Whereas our dear and most loving cousin, George Earl of Cumberland and other
of our well-beloved subjects ... have of our certain knowledge been
petitioners unto us for our Royal assent and license to be granted unto them,
that they, of their own Adventures, costs and charges, as well as for the
honour of this our realm of England as for the increase of our navigation and
advancement of trade of merchandise ... might adventure and set forth one or
more voyage, with convenient number of Ships and Pinnances, by way of traffic
and merchandise to the East Indies.
'Honour of our realm'...'Advenrure'...They were revealing terms. Never before
had Englishmen been so patriotic and so proud. The founding of the great East
India Company, which was to become the most powerful company the world has
ever known, was a typical expression of its time.
Various forces, coming together, had brought it into being. By decree from
the Church in Rome, the extra-European world had been divided between Spain
and Portugal. But Europe was in a ferment of rising capitalism. 'Companies'
of merchants had been formed to develop trade. The Dutch were particularly
active and had rounded the Cape; they had made contact with the archipelago
of South-East Asia. The whole area around the Indian Ocean had been
considered the preserve of Portugal � and Portugal was now a satellite of
Spain. In the West, fifteen years before, an Englishman had actually
attempted to found a colony in North America, to which the Spanish laid claim
� but Spain had been defeated at the Armada in 1588. Perhaps most important
of all, Philip II, king of both Spain and Portugal, the most powerful ruler
in the world, had died in 1598. With Philip's death, the bonds which had been
half restraining the urge of Europeans to expand round the world finally
broke.
The east was important because from there came the supply of pepper and
spices; spices, such as doves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and also ginger, were of
value and great importance as partial preservatives of food, and additives to
a European population accustomed to fresh meat for only a few months in the
year. Meat eaten at that time would have been largely unacceptable to modern
palates, but without spices much of it would have been virtually inedible.
Spices had a considerable place in life; men were prepared to die in search
of them, and many did; no gift was more acceptable, and to be well supplied
was a mark of status; wealth could be measured in spices. They were also the
basis of many medicines. But the east was also widely believed to contain
fabulous wealth and riches apart from spices, and it was this also which
tempted the more adventurous and ambitious merchants in Lisbon, Amsterdam,
Antwerp, and London. The more down-to-earth merchants were concerned also.
London merchants had formed the Levant Company as a source of supply from the
east. They had bought supplies of spices, silks, and luxuries from the
middlemen of the eastern Mediterranean. They had even tried to open up a
land-route from the Middle East across Russia. But now the Dutch, allies of
the English in the war against Philip, were importing direct from the east,
round the Cape.* The Levant Company could not compete and was in mortal
danger. For this reason, many members of the company began to agitate for a
new company which would trade direct with the east, as the Portuguese had
long done and the Dutch were now doing; it would have, among the subjects of
the Queen, an exclusive right to do so; it was a time when Elizabeth was
granting monopolies almost every time she raised her pen.
[* Anglo-Spanish War, 1587-1604]
It was not the first time such a plan had been mooted. It had been suggested
to Henry VIII. Englishmen had ignored the Portuguese and had visited India,
as they had flaunted Spain in visiting the New World. Four merchants had left
for India in 1583, travelling via Persia. But such expeditions were not
invariably popular in England. The Queen's advisers, the Privy Council, were
not anxious to rile Spain unduly � indeed, attempts were being made to
conclude a peace treaty; not all Englishmen were as adventurous as Raleigh.
Moreover, there was controversy about the very companies themselves. Was
monopoly a good thing? Those excluded thought not. Those who risked life and
fortune, and who clung together for safety almost as much as anything else,
thought it was. London was the home of the increasingly popular 'joint stock'
type of company, and the London merchants were not without power. Their
moving spirits at this time were Richard Staper and Sir Thomas Smyth, first
Governor of the East India Company to be, ex-Ambassador to Russia, and
closely concerned with the Muscovy trade and the settlement of Virginia. Many
of the merchants interested in investing in the east were the same as those
who were interested in investing in New England.
The Queen had already met some of the London merchants concerning their plan
to establish a direct trade with the east � at Hampton Court, on 16 October
1599 � and she was enthusiastic about the idea. The Company had, in fact,
begun its formation in the previous month of that year. It had continued its
arrangements with quiet confidence. Already preparations had been made for
the first voyage. The merchants knew that the Queen's assent was something of
a formality; they knew well that her enthusiasm was partly due to the vast
customs dues she would receive if the stories of the riches from direct
eastern trade were only half true. The exact nature of their charter had been
worked out with the Privy Council. Now all was ready for the signature of the
Queen.
In 1580 the English people had been astounded by the return of Sir Francis
Drake after a voyage around the world -regardless of the fact that the feat
had been achieved by the Portuguese more than half a century previously.
Eight years later, Philip's debacle in his attempt to invade England �
defeated by the weather � gave further confidence to the English. They were a
remarkable people. Among other Europeans, they had an exceedingly poor
reputation. Unaffected and unreserved, they were considered to be unmannered
and rough; the Queen's court was seen as crude compared to that of Philip. In
appearance the English were said to be uncouth and in dress inelegant, as
compared to the aristocracy of continental Europe. In commerce they were not
considered a match for the Dutch. The Channel kept them at a distance from
the rest of Europe, and the rest of Europe was not sorry. It had to be
admitted that they were good sailors and navigators, but only in a piratical
and ruffianly sort of way. The hearty Tudor English were the rough diamonds
of Europe. And they were about to burst out into the world in a most
uncompromising way. In three hundred years they would rule over the greatest
empire the world has ever known, or is ever likely to know. They would be
famed for their reticence in style, their reserve, and their polish. It was a
fate none could have foreseen.
But did Queen Elizabeth not have some inkling of the current she was about to
release? Not the great cities that she could hardly have imagined, Calcutta,
Aden, Bombay, Singapore ... Not the details, of course. Not even the Bengal
Lancers, and Rudyard Kipling, and the Campbells are Coming, and Clive and
Hastings, and the pukka sahib, and Mahatma Gandhi product of the Inner
Temple, and Jawaharlal Nehru product of Harrow, and the polo-players of
Poona, and the Viceroy with his 700 servants, and the world's largest railway
system, and her descendant George V accepting the homage of the Indian
princes at the Durbar of 1911, and the cavalry jingling through the Khyber
Pass, their lances glittering in the sun, and Lord Louis Mountbatten driving
through the crowds, and the memsahibs with the silver muffin dishes, the lace
napkins and honey of afternoon tea in the gabled, latticewindowed houses of
Simla ... Not these; but it would be satisfying to think that she knew she
was starting something important, and that it would be something which would
bring more fame to her country than anything else in its history.
The Queen signed the charter 'Elizabeth', assigning a monopoly to the
Honourable East India Company. It was marked with the royal stamp of England.
It was valid for fifteen years.
***
India � vast, sprawling with humanity, superstition, religion, fear, and
dangers to men of all kinds � was unaware of the activity in Europe which was
to determine its fate. The Emperor was Akbar, third in line of the so-called
'Mughals' (who had no more than tenuous links with the Mongols). He was a
foreigner, a Turk, spoke Persian, and was a Muslim, whereas Hinduism was mostl
y the religion of the ordinary people. He ruled over all northern and central
India south from Afghanistan, and from the island of Bombay across to Bengal.
It was not a neat and tidy empire, in the way of the Romans, that could be
well understood by Europeans; it was, in the way of India, complicated,
involved, beset with numerous differences and exceptions, and in some of its
aspects beyond the understanding of Europeans of the time. But one thing was
certain: it was all held together by the military might and power of Akbar,
and to some extent by his understanding in ruling his polyglot and varied
subjects. There were three main religions, with numerous sects: Hindu
overall, Muslim in the towns, and
Sikh in the Punjab (a sect which was in the process of breaking away from
Hinduism). As elsewhere in the world, it was a time of religion: culture,
education, and intellectual activity were centred on religion. Akbar,
although of Muslim background, managed to make himself acceptable to all
sections, although perhaps somewhat more through force than through the
diplomatic skill which historians claim for him. India had had its firm and
ruthless rulers before, but few had been as firm and ruthless as Akbar. He
was something of a legend in his own time, and the legend persists: felling
potential assassins with his own hand, jumping about on fighting elephants,
as wise as he was tough. He was certainly deeply interested in religion, and
studied every one he came across without becoming devout in any. Two Jesuit
priests who had visited him in 1580 had come as near to converting him as
most. His son wrote of him: 'His whole air and appearance had little of the
worldly being, but exhibited rather divine majesty.' By 1600 he had completed
most of his conquests, and he lived at his court at Agra in great splendour.
His court was, indeed, the most magnificent in the world.
Anyone who had visited Akbar's court, and several Europeans had, would have
been impressed with the show of wealth and grandeur. It was partly this
display which had led Europeans to associate the east with riches. It was
misleading. India was a poor country, heavily taxed, and always on or over
the brink of famine. Society was dominated by the hideous and sometimes
terrifying system of caste, with the Emperor at the top and the
'untouchables' at the bottom. The typical community was the village, with
land held in common; tax or rent was collected from it by Akbar's agent, who
taxed certain areas for himself as salary. The whole system of administration
was based on the collection of revenue and, where it was most easily
operable, the system was harsh. Military chiefs were also administrators. It
has been claimed that the lot of the Indian peasant was no worse than that of
his counterpart in Europe, but famine and disease and lawlessness were all on
a larger scale, year by year, than was customary in Europe.
The Empire was split between areas ruled directly by the Emperor and the
associated states which recognised his supremacy. In the latter, there were
princes and rulers who also lived in considerable grandeur. Little of the
vast amount of wealth collected in India was put back into the country.
Internal trade was limited by transport difficulties. External trade, of
cotton, indigo, saltpetre, spices, was largely organised by the Portuguese
who lived uneasily on the coast; gold, silver, ivory, and opium arrived on
camels over the passes of the north or into Bengal and up-river from the
east. The rich were fabulously rich: the rest were all poor. In 1605 Akbar
died and was succeeded by his son Jahangir.
Everywhere there was fear and insecurity, dramatically illustrated by the
hill-top citadels with mighty and colossal fortifications that made the
castles of Europe seem puny. The most trouble to the Empire of the great
Jahangir was being caused by the Afghans in the north, the Marathas in the
central-west, and the stubborn kingdoms of the south which remained
independent of the Mughals.
The merchants of London had no intention of sending out their own ships to
Asia; it was too risky and too expensive. Each man paid in what he was
willing to risk, and the total sum was used for buying four ships and filling
them with cargo to sell in the east. At the end of the voyage, after the
return cargo was sold, the profits, if any, would be shared out to each in
proportion to the amount he had contributed, in addition to the original
contribution, which was returned; it was known as 'joint stock' and was the
forerunner of the modern company. The system was later changed in that the
capital was not returned after each voyage. They were not princely gentlemen;
they were ordinary city tradesmen and merchants prepared to take a gamble:
Nicholas Barnsley, Grocer, �150
Henry Bridgman, Leatherseller, �200
James Deane, Draper,�300
Thomas Farrington, Vintner, �200
Leonard Halliday, Alderman, �1,000
Ralph Hamer, Merchant Tailor,�200
Edmond Nicholson, Grocer, �200
Sir Stephen Seame, Lord Mayor of London, �200
Thomas Smithe, Haberdasher, �200
Sir Richard Saltonstall and his Children, �200
Richard Wiseman, Goldsmith, �200...
and nearly two hundred others.
The projected voyage was prepared in a business-like manner. Committees were
selected from the subscribers to select and buy the vessels and to equip
them. The largest ship, twice the size of the next biggest, was the Red Dragon
, 600 tons, and with a crew of zoo, which cost � 3,700; the three other ships
were the Hector, the Susan, and the Ascension; there was also a supply ship,
to accompany the fleet, the Guest. During preparations, the workmen on the
Red Dragon were allowed a barrel of beer a day to keep them out of the
ale-houses. The sailors received two months' wages in advance (a mate's wage
was fifty-six shillings a month). The inventories included '1 pease pot, '40
muskets', '18 swords', 'a paire of bellowes', �a standinge bed with pillers
vallens and curtaynes', '6 small baskets for bread', '8 barrells of powder',
�3 old brasse ladles', '1 sheepskin', '26 sponges'...
The commander was the veteran mariner James Lancaster. He had already sailed
in the East Indies and was one of the most experienced English sailors. He
was given special powers by the Queen herself to regulate and punish the 400
crew and officers, even with the right to establish martial law. 'We
graciously approve and allow of the Company's choice of yee with all fitt
power to rule and govern all and every subject employed.' On board each ship
was a merchant, representative of the rest of the Company, to look after
commercial affairs at the destination�for these city merchants were not
afraid to risk life as well as capital in their patriotic and competitive
quest for profits (the beds 'with pillers and curtaynes' were for them).
On a cold, murky day in January 1601 the small fleet of five vessels pulled
away from Woolwich and, gathering wind in their sails, proceeded slowly down
the Thames to the open sea. On each, overhead, flew the red-and-white flag of
St George and England.
England was still at war with Spain and Portugal, and no landing was to be
made on the Indian coast. The object of the company was to reach the islands
of the East Indies, with which the Dutch had been trading on a comparatively
large scale since 1595. Roughly speaking, the East Indies, or the Spice
Islands, consisted of five main groups of islands between the Indian Ocean
and the Philippines (which belonged to Spain): Sumatra and a few islands
around it; Java and its string of islands to the east; Borneo and off-shore
islands like Labuan; the Celebes Islands; and, farthest east, the Molucca
Islands. The Portuguese, and now the Dutch, were interested in all these
islands, and in the Malayan peninsula of the Asian continent which pointed
down to meet them, the narrow waterway between the peninsula and Sumatra, the
Malacca Straits (not to be confused with the Molucca Islands, fifteen hundred
miles away), was the best passage from the Indian Ocean to China.
Lancaster, a bluff, hearty type of Englishman, had with him six letters from
Queen Elizabeth for presentation to oriental kings; each was exactly the
same, with a blank space for the name of the king to be filled in. He also
carried � as well as his cargoes of iron, lead, and Norwich and Devon
garments � items which it was hoped were suitable for presentation to eastern
potentates.
It was 9 September before Table Bay was reached, in considerable misery. The
crews were stricken with the dread disease of scurvy, brought about through
the lack of fresh vegetables, a constant scourge of mariners for centuries;
it induced haemorrhages from the nose, gums, and under the skin, and the
teeth to drop out; the only cure was a diet of the missing foods, and this
was impossible. Already The Guest, her crew decimated, had been abandoned.
Only on the Red Dragon had the disease been kept away, Lancaster
administering lemon juice to the crew of his flagship as a preventative.
(There were at this time incidences of 'ghost' ships being found drifting in
the oceans, all the crew gaving[sic] died from scurvy.) But by Madagascar
even the crew of the Red Dragon were dying; 'the master's mate, the preacher
and the surgeon with some ten other common men', were taken ashore for
burial, and two men going ashore for the funeral were accidentally killed by
the ceremonial salute.
Eighteen months after leaving London, the little fleet arrived at the
principality of Achin in northern Sumatra, with which the Portuguese, and
latterly the Dutch, had already traded. Two Dutchmen were among the first to
welcome the unexpected arrival of English competitors. The local ruler was
delighted. He had heard, much to the Englishmen's astonishment, of the defeat
of the Armada, and was anxious to meet these representatives of a power that
had defeated the allies of Portugal, the Portuguese being unpopular
throughout the east. Two huge elephants were sent to the shore. On one of
them was 'a small castle like a coach upon its back covered with crimson
velvet. In the middle thereof was a great basin of gold and piece of silk
exceedingly richly wrought to cover it'. Into this receptacle was put one of
Elizabeth's letters. Lancaster mounted the other elephant. On arrival at the
palace, the Company's presents, supposedly from Elizabeth, were presented to
the ruler: a silver cup, a looking-glass, a sword belt, a feather fan, and
other items. The chief seemed tolerably pleased. He heard Elizabeth's letter
in translation (presumably via Portuguese); it explained that the English
were better friends than the Portuguese, who were 'pretending themselves to
be monarchs and absolute lords of all these kingdoms and provinces as their
own conquest and inheritance, as appeareth by their lofty title in their
writings'. The letter then asked for permission to start a warehouse and for
protection for anyone left to manage it. The chief said the request would be
considered; meanwhile, he granted a freedom to trade.
The King asked our Generall if our Queene were married, and how long she had
raigned, which when the Generall had answered by his interpretor, the King
wondred. The King likewise told the Generall, if the words in her Majesties
letter came from the hart, he had cause to think well thereof. Dinner being
ended, the King caused his Damsels to dance, and his women to play Musicke
unto them, who were richly adorned with Bracelets and jewels, and this was a
great favour: for he dooth not usually let them be seene to any.
Lancaster received lavish presents from the ruler, and much-needed supplies.
It was noted that envoys from other European nations in Achin were not
receiving such attention. Trading, however, was another matter; it seemed the
Sumatrans did not require the skilfully wrought iron, the East Anglian
woollen vests, the hardwearing Devon trousers, and the other items in the
cargo; and the price they asked for pepper (in Spanish currency) was far
higher than had been expected. Lancaster arrived at a solution typical of the
English mariner of those times. He outwitted the local Portuguese envoy, lay
in wait for a great Portuguese galleon that was expected, defeated her, and
looted her cargo. She was a rich prize � one of the largest ships of the time
-full of merchandise, jewels, and plate. With three of his little ships
crammed full of loot, he left for Java, confident that he now had a better
chance of successful trading. The fourth ship returned to London, which it
reached on 8 May 1603 ('God be praised for it, and send the rest home in
safety'). The Dutch were well established at Bantam, in Java; nevertheless,
Lancaster made a good impression. An exchange of cargoes was made. But here
Lancaster lost, through disease, his second-in-command, John Middleton,
member of a family that was to play, a worthy part in the early days of East
India Company adventure. A certain William Starkey was left to look after the
Company's interests, and the fleet set sail for home.
On the return journey, at St Helena, they met with French and Dutch vessels.
We delivered unto the Frenchmen and unto the Hollanders such victualles to
relieve them as we could spare, which was six hogsheades of Porke, two
hundred of Stockfish, one hogshead of Beanes, and five hundred of bread,
whereof the Hollanders were in great want.
The Red Dragon lost a rudder in a tremendous storm. Lancaster ordered the
remainder of the fleet to continue without him, taking a message to the
Company's shareholders: 'And thus fare you well, he wrote, 'desiring God to
send us a merry meeting in this world if it be His good will and pleasure.
The passage to East Indies lieth in 62.5 degrees by the N.W. on the American
side.' Fortunately, the storm died down, a new rudder was fixed, and the
fleet arrived in the Thames on 11 September 1603, more than two and a half
years after it had left on its mission. Of the 460 men who had left London,
182 had not returned.
In commercial circles in London there was some excitement. First news of the
return had come from Plymouth, a horse-rider from the city being awarded �5
for bringing the message. Warehouses suitable for the cargo were quickly
prepared. Six pounds were paid for pilotage, and �917 to the sovereign for
customs. After these and other expenses had been accounted for, it was clear
that the venture had been a success. No one had been certain that this could
be, and the financial risks had been considerable for the larger investors.
The fleet had brought with it 1,030,000 pounds of pepper, which was sold at a
good profit.
Lancaster was a hero and was knighted. The merchants of the Company were
delighted at the additions to their purses. Valuable experience of the
eastern trade had been gained. The best route had been discovered, the
leading market contacted and tested, and knowledge gained of the local
princes and customs. Lancaster became a proprietor of the Company, and
organised the next voyages. He never went overseas again, and died in 1618.
During the absence of the fleet, 'Good Queen Bess' had died after her long
reign. She had been succeeded by James I, who was also King of Scotland. He
was a very different man to the last of the hearty and ebullient Tudors. He
was inclined to be cautious. He had been crowned only seven weeks before the
return home of the East India Company fleet, but he soon showed that he was
inclined to side with the critics of the Company's monopoly. He lacked
Elizabeth's enthusiasm for probing the distant parts of the world. In 1604
the war with Spain ended.
The next voyage of the East India Company round the Cape was made under the
command of Henry Middleton, who had been one of Lancaster's officers. With
the same ships he returned to Bantam, and also visited the Molucca Islands,
returning home with the loss of one ship. Once again a huge profit was made,
bringing in just under 100 per cent to those who had raised the capital of
�60,000 The East India Company and its adventurous voyages was the talk of
the City of London. The third expedition left in Mardi 1607, under a Captain
Keeling. Of the � 53,000 raised from the company members, �7,280 was spent on
goods to take east, for selling and bartering, a far higher proportion than
hitherto. Those incredible little ships, the Red Dragon and the Hector, which
had already rounded the Cape of Good Hope four times, made up the fleet,
together with the Consent, 105 tons. The Consent left a few days before the
two hardy old vessels, and reached the Moluccas separately. Keeling was
unable to obtain a cargo at first, owing to the competition of the Dutch,
with whom Henry Middleton had also had difficulties. However, he bought a
cargo of cloves, being carried in a junk for �2,948. Keeling sailed for home,
and his cargo of cloves sold for �36,287. Meanwhile, the Red Dragon had been
visiting Sumatra and Bantam, and the Hector had been exploring a new market
for the Company. Profits from the third voyage were 234 Per cent.
The East India Company had quickly established for itself an important
position in English commerce. Its charter, granting an English monopoly, had
been for fifteen years. But by 1609 the Company was seeking a new charter,
with greater powers, although the original charter still had six years to
run. In order to compete successfully with the Portuguese and Dutch, more
ships were required, and more shareholders with capital were needed; the
latter were increased from 218 to 276. The Crown was given the power to
repeal the charter after three years' notice. By the time of the sixth
voyage, the Company was able to fit out three completely new ships, at a cost
of �82,000. This voyage was also under the command of Henry Middleton, now
Sir Henry. His flagship was a magnificent new vessel, aptly named the Trades'
Increase.
The Trades' Increase was the largest ship to be made in England up till that
time, and the largest yet used for the East India run by any nation. It was
1,293 tons. The King, other members of the royal family, and many noblemen,
as well as the members of the Company., attended the launching; it was a
great social event. After the ship was afloat, the King and other guests were
entertained to a great feast on board, at the Company's expense, served on
the wonderful dishes and plate which the Company had brought back from the
east, which had hardly ever been seen before in England. But the English were
not inspired shipbuilders of large craft, and the Trades' Increase, clumsy
and unwieldy, was not a success. It was eventually set ablaze at Bantam.
The East India Company had a great influence on English shipping. Before the
Company, nearly all English vessels were built for coastal or fishing work.
The Portuguese, the Spanish, the Venetians, and the Genoese, had been the
builders of ocean-going ships: Some of the few ocean-going ships owned in
England had been bought by the Dutch, since the start of the Spice Islands
boom. All this meant that ship prices were very high. The Company, needing
more ships but un[a]ble to afford the high prices, decided to build its own.
In 1607 a shipbuilding yard was leased at Deptford. The first two ships built
there, the Trades' Increase and the Peppercorn went out to the east with Sir
Henry Middleton in 1610. This enabled the Company to build its ships at �10 a
ton instead Of �45 a ton. About 500 men were soon employed in the Deptford
yard, among them carpenters, painters, riggers, coopers, joiners, and the
carvers who decorated the ships' hulls with their fantastic designs. During
the period the Company had its own timber yards at Reading. The yard was very
useful to the Company, as it also saved money on refitting and repairing
ships between the gruelling voyages. At the same time, the upkeep of the yard
itself was becoming increasingly demanding of the Company's financial
resources. So after only twenty years it was decided to abandon it, and to
hire ships, often built to the Company's specifications. During that short
period of twenty years, however, some of the most impressive merchant ships
in Europe had been produced at Deptford. By 1621 the East India Company still
employed 2,500 seamen, although it had given up direct ownership of its
10,000 tons of shipping. Some idea of the importance of the new company can
be appreciated from the fact that about one in every 2,000 of the population
of England was in the Company's service at this time. The Company was often
looking for marines, who had to be 'able men unmarryed and approved saylors'.
By November 1621 the East India Company had exported woollen goods, iron,
lead, tin, etc., to the value of �319,211 � It had spent �375,288 on its
cargoes in the east. These cargoes had in turn been sold in England for
�2,044,600. The first twelve voyages had brought in an average profit of 138
per cent. There was, however, a very long wait for returns, as the round
voyage had never been completed in a year, and sometimes took three or even
four years. Shipping expenses also had to be deducted. But there was no doubt
that the Company was a profitable one, although some of the members protested
its profitability was exaggerated. In 1609 the Company ended the policy of
financing each voyage separately; from then on the shareholders' funds were
used for the general operation of the Company and profits were distributed in
proportion to the capital invested.
Trade with the East Indies was not easy for apart from the distance involved,
there was the bitter and intransigent competition of the Dutch. The Dutch East
India Company had been founded in 1602, through an amalgamation of several
smaller interests in Holland. It had begun with a capital Of �540,000,
compared to the �30,000 of the English Company. Up to 1610, the English
company had sent 17 ships to the East Indies: the Dutch had sent out 60. The
Dutch Company was a mighty military and naval Organisation, and it looked
upon the English company as an impertinent but potentially dangerous intruder
into a trade which it considered was a monopoly belonging to itself. The
Dutch established forts at all the best trading places, and attempted to
dominate the local rulers in a more determined way than the Portuguese had
done. Bearing in mind the importance of the two Companies in their respective
home countries, the situation was potentially explosive. As the directors of
the English Company said:
If the present misunderstandings between the two nations should ferment to an
open war, it would be thought by the vulgar but a war for pepper which they
think to be [a] slight thing, because each family spends but a little [on]
it. But at the Bottom it will prove a war for the Dominion of the British as
well as the Indian seas, because if ever they come to be sole masters of that
Commodity, as they already are of nutmegs, mace, cloves, and cinamon, the
sole profitt of that one commodity pepper being of general use, will be more
to them, than all the rest and in probability sufficient to defray the
constant charge of a great navy in Europe.
The fight to break the Dutch hold in the pepper trade was fierce, and in the
end it was the Dutch who more or less won. But the East India Company's
reading of the situation was unnecessarily pessimistic. The Dutch Company
never had a secure monopoly of any product from the East Indies for any
length of time. An Anglo-Dutch agreement of 1609 was meant to provide a
Settlement, but it decided nothing, for the Englishmen would not give up
their journeyings to the Spice Islands and the two nations could not agree as
to what were the Dutch spheres of interest and what were not. The Dutch
Company eventually distinguished between three territorial categories: first,
areas over which the Dutch Company had unchallenged control due to cession or
outright conquest � i.e. fortified trading posts; second, areas where the
Dutch Company had acquired exclusive trading rights from local rulers; three,
free trade areas where the Dutch Company had no special privileges. Even in
the second half of the seventeenth century this only provided a monopoly for
the spices of the Moluccas; in other commodities � pepper, silk, coffee, tea
� the Dutch Company had to face severe competition in purchase, and in sale
to Europe. The Dutch Company, while instructing its servants not to use force
in 'the neutral places belonging to free nations', was ready to maintain its
control of the Moluccas trade by force. Its servants on the spot were even
more aggressive. The founder of Batavia, Jan P. Coen, wrote in 1614: 'Your
Honours should know by experience that trade in Asia must be driven and
maintained under the protection and favour of Your Honours' own weapons ...
we cannot carry on trade without war nor war without trade.' A later
governor, Antonio van Diemen, wrote, 'We are taught by daily experience that
the Company's trade in Asia cannot subsist without territorial conquests.'
The Company in Holland was not always backward in stating similar views, and
exhorting its servants to 'ride the natives with a sharp spur'.
The London East India Company kept up its pressure in the Far East. It even
associated itself with an abortive attempt to reach China by way of the
North-West Passage, a route which would avoid the Dutch altogether, and which
had intrigued and lured English navigators for more than a century. With the
Dutch in such strength in the East Indies, the Company had begun,
reluctantly, to look elsewhere. Ships had called at Persia, at Arabia, with
which the Dutch were too fully occupied to develop trade, and at India.
It is not too much to claim that the East India Company harnessed and
organised that spirit of adventure and that firmness of purpose on which the
British Empire was slowly constructed. A man like William Hawkins would have
achieved little outside the framework of the Company, and Thomas Pitt, who
came later, was no more than a rogue till he joined the Company.
It was in August 1608 that the first East India Company ship arrived off
India, after a voyage of seventeen months. She was the Company's Hector. On
board was the hardy, beer-swilling, jocular William Hawkins, bearer of a
letter from James I to the Mughal asking for trade with India. Hawkins was no
stranger to the east. He was an extraordinary character, determined,
conceited, and ambitious. The Portuguese at Surat (the chief port linking
Europe and India at the time) did everything they could to keep him from
coming ashore, and took some of the British crew prisoner. When Hawkins
protested, the Portuguese commander 'most vilely abused his Majesty, terming
him king of fishermen and of an island of no importance'. Hawkins, getting
ashore, tried to trade his cargo, but the local ruler accepted most of it as
presents. The Mughal's viceroys, of course, were used to taking what they
wished in form of payment, and enjoyed considerable autonomy. The Portuguese
continued to threaten Hawkins. 'I could not peep out of doors,' he wrote,
'for fear of the Portugals, who in troops lay lurking in the by-ways to give
me assault to murther me.' Leaving two men behind at Surat to attempt to
improve trade, Hawkins set off with a large hired retinue for Agra, the
Mughal capital.
It was two and a half months before he reached the city. Jahangir was
managing to hold together the precarious links of his dominions, but by all
accounts he was a cruel and unattractive ruler. The discipline and authority
of his magnificent court was maintained by the lash. He was an alcoholic and
a slave to opium. Hawkins, however, pleased him � although the Englishman had
few presents to offer. Hawkins was able to converse directly with the Emperor
in Turkish, and he rapidly became a favourite at court. The Emperor was
impressed with the hard drinking of the Englishman and his robust humour. The
Portuguese were alarmed. 'The Portugals were like madde dogges,' Hawkins
wrote, 'labouring to work my passage out of the world.' Jahangir was so
pleased with him that � according to Hawkins � he insisted on him joining his
staff in a senior position (rank under the Mughals was regulated by the
command of cavalry, and Hawkins was offered the command Of 400 horse).
Hawkins was not the man to turn this down, particularly as an enormous salary
went with the position. As he explained to the Company, with commendable
frankness: 'I should feather my nest and doe you service.'
Jahangir � again according to Hawkins � insisted that his new officer should
take a wife; he offered him 'a white maiden out of his palace'. Hawkins,
believing it would be impossible to find a Christian woman in Agra, said he
could only marry a Christian. The Great Mughal promptly produced a Christian
girl from Armenia. Hawkins was 'married' by his English servant Nicholas (the
marriage was later legalised by a chaplain at Surat).
Jahangir proved to be fickle. Hawkins had the greatest difficulty in
persuading him to come to a firm agreement with the Company. The Company, and
perhaps Hawkins also, did not understand that a Mughal emperor had no time
for agreements; he believed himself above such common matters, for if he
should want to break such an agreement there was no reason why he should not
do so; such a thing was therefore almost meaningless to him. The Emperor, for
his part, had no idea of the importance that the English attached to such
things. At length, Jahangir tired of Hawkins; the Englishman returned to
Surat. He left on a Company ship for Bantam, but died on the journey home. He
had achieved something in opening a direct dialogue between the East India
Company and the Emperor
Mrs Hawkins arrived in London, made a considerable nuisance of herself to the
Company and married Gabriel Towerson, a senior servant of the Company.
After a slack period, the East India Company was apparently thriving; but it
was deceptive. It employed permanent staff at Bantam and elsewhere in Sumatra
and Java, and at Surat. Contact was also being made with the Celebes, the
Moluccas, Siam, Persia, Japan, and soon to China. But for over fifty years
the main depots, called 'factories', were still at Bantam and Surat. Between
1612 and 1616 �429,000 was raised for the Company; profits on individual
cargoes were at times still exceeding 100 per cent. At candle auctions, in
which bids could only be made while one wick of candle burned, lots of spices
were sold at �100,000. But over longer periods the profits could be seen in a
truer light; in the ten years of one stock, ending in 1642, for instance, the
annual yield was only 31 per cent; for several years in that period there
were no dividends at all. Between 1621 and 1632 12-1 per cent was the highest
dividend paid. Considerable quantities of spices were still being imported
via Holland; only in cloves and pepper was the Company having conspicuous
success; for a time the Company was granted a monopoly in the sale of pepper.
The least favourable market still seemed to be India. Everywhere else the
Dutch were the main difficulty; on the Indian coast, the Company had to
contend with the Portuguese as well, who were desperately anxious to cling on
to that part of their distintegrating empire and interests in the east. In
1612 two of the Company's ships defeated a Portuguese fleet of four galleons,
the Company's commander appealing to his men as 'Englishmen famous over the
world for trew valour, to put their trust in God and not fear death'.
Jahangir was impressed with the victory. Command of the Arabian Sea was vital
to many Indians, being the pilgrims' route to Mecca, and Indians � some
through inclination, some through religion � had not the means to protect
this route themselves. For long � too long, as they thought � they had relied
on the whims of the Portuguese. They had already been impressed by English
voyages; now the English seemed to have real sea-power. A firman, or edict,
came to Surat from Agra. At last the Company had the piece of paper which it
had sought so long. The Emperor, delighted with the rebuff to the Portuguese
and impressed by the English display, had hurriedly decided to grant to the
English the thing which they evidently considered most important. It was
difficult for him, in Agra, to weigh the relative power and importance of
European nations hovering around his coasts. In point of fact the edict gave
away very little except the right to trade, which the English were already
doing anyway.
Shortly afterwards, the Emperor declared war on the Portuguese. But his new
allies were in no position to help him. The Company's fleet had departed for
England, with the edict; only a few employees of the Company remained at
Surat. At last four vessels (including the Hector, which had been on the
Company's first voyage) arrived off Surat, under the command of Nicholas
Downton. To oppose them, the Portuguese assembled a fleet of six large
galleons, two smaller ships, and about fifty sundry craft. On the galleons
were some of the flower of the Portuguese nobility. One of the English ships
was boarded, but the enemy were repulsed and lost many of their smaller
craft. The Portuguese fleet withdrew. It was a significant engagement in the
history of India. Portuguese power in the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean never
fully recovered.
Jahangir, however, was as fickle as ever. Another Company emissary to his
court had brought with him an English mastiff as a gift. This mastiff had
been pitted against a leopard, had savaged it and killed it. This had
impressed the Emperor almost as much as the victories at sea. But the English
were unpopular at court among the influential advisers; to them one foreigner
was as suspicious as another; the English, with their incessant harping on
trade, were no better than the Portuguese. Jahangir sent a son to govern
Surat, where it was feared the English were becoming dominant, and he caused
many difficulties.
The East India Company's directors in London now realised that their affairs
in India had reached a critical state. The situation in the East Indies was
deteriorating; the Dutch company there was proving too strong for them. They
urged the court, with some wisdom, to send out to Agra a far superior
Ambassador to the adventurers the Company had had to rely on hitherto. The
man chosen was Sir Thomas Roe, himself a merchant and traveller � a grandson
of a former Lord Mayor of London. He was a big man, with immaculate moustache
and goatee beard. His mission was 'to reside at Agra, to prevent any plottes
that may be wrought by the Jesuits'. He was to receive �700 a year, a
considerable sum, together with his own chaplain and surgeon. He was
empowered by James to conduct full negotiations, and was to stress with the
Mughal the strength of English naval power. He was to carry a message from
James seeking 'quiet Trade and Commerce without any kind of hinderance or
molestation'.
Roe arrived at Surat, in great style, to a salute of forty-eight guns (from
the Company's ships). Roe began as he intended to continue: with haughty
pride, the representative of a nation that was the equal of the Mughal
Empire. He refused to be searched on landing, and returned to his ship until
the order was revoked. This caused something of a sensation among the small
European community, who had suffered many indignities for years.
Roe had been carefully selected for his role. He was tall, had a commanding
presence, and a loud voice; he had a strong personality and was shrewd and
intelligent; he had courtliness of manner equal to that of the Portuguese
nobles. When he was brought before Jahangir he was told that he must touch
the ground with his head. This he declined to do, saying he had not come as a
servant.
So I passed on until I came to a place railed in right under him with an
ascent of three steps where I made him reverence and he bowed his body; and
so went within it. I demanded a chair, but was answered no man ever sat in
that place, but I was desired as a courtesy to ease myself against a pillar
covered with silver that held up his canopy. Then I moved for his favour for
an English factory to be resident in the town [i.e. Agra], which he willingly
granted and gave orders for the drawing up of the firman.
Roe's presents were the most magnificent that had yet been sent out by the
Company. King James's message to the Emperor concluded, 'for confirmation of
our good inclination and well-wishing toward You, We pray You to accept in
good part the Present, which our said Ambassadour will deliver unto You. And
so doe commit You to the mercifull protection of Almightie God.' The main
present was a coach and four, complete with a coachman. Jahangir took great
pleasure, in the succeeding months, in trying to out-countenance Roe. Roe had
presented him with an original painting, claiming that such a masterpiece
could only have been painted in Europe by someone trained in the European
tradition. Not long afterwards the Emperor showed him six pictures on a
table, all of them identical to Roe's gift. The Englishman was asked to pick
the original, and was only able to do so with some difficulty. The Mughal was
delighted at his indecision: 'he was very merry and joyful'. He gleefully
presented Roe with one of the copies, wrapping it up in paper himself, and
remarking: 'You see, we are not so unskilfull as you esteem us.'
The Emperor's fascination with Roe � he was for ever asking him how much he
drank, and about his way of life � did not extend to his court. Roe's
apparent arrogance, his distaste for the atrocities at Agra, and his constant
harping on commerce, did not endear him to the Great Mughal's entourage. That
Roe survived was a tribute to the growing reputation of England as a power as
much as to his own skill. He continued to argue for a written trade treaty
granting the Company virtual monopoly rights in Euro-Indian trade. Jahangir
was as bored by the subject as ever. Roe became increasingly frustrated. He
wrote to the Company advising against a permanent representative in Agra. 'I
would sooner die than be subject to the slavery the Persian [Ambassador] is
content with ... A meaner agent would better effect your business.' He
suggested an Indian should be appointed the Company's agent at Agra, with a
subordinate at Surat.
Jahangir began to tire of the Englishman. Roe irritated him. He confiscated a
fresh batch of presents without waiting for them to be presented (as, of
course, he felt quite entitled to do). Roe, meanwhile, became involved in
court politics in order to further the Company's cause. A musician � a cornet
player � was sent out from England to amuse the Emperor, but was not entirely
successful. Other employees of the Company at the Indian capital were Richard
Steele, who tried to establish trade, Edward Terry, Roe's chaplain, a doctor,
and William Hensell, the coachman. The Company asked Roe to extend his
service by one more year, but this he refused to do, pleading ill health.
Before departure, Roe at last gained a new edict. It was more substantial
than the firman granted after the naval defeat of the Portuguese. Its main
provisions were for improving the lot of the Company's staff at the depots at
Surat and Agra; for instance, they could not carry arms, build a
headquarters, or settle their own disputes. Its importance was that it gave
the East India Company a basis of self-government in India. Roe had
established in India that the British trading ambition there was not a
temporary adventure; the British were there to stay.
Roe was received at Hampton Court in private audience. The Company gave him
�1,500.. He lived comfortably for another quarter of a century, but never
returned to the east. He was the first of a long line of Englishmen in India
who combated the difficulties of the east with courage, confidence, and
aplomb. But, unlike those who came much later, his interests were solely to
serve the East India Company and, through it, his country; in that he was
typical of the coming regime of the East India Company; the notion of service
to India and the Indians was to come much later.
Although many were to follow him, few were to bring such understanding to
India as Sir Thomas Roe. He told the Company:
A war and traffique are incompatible. By my consent you shall no way engage
yourselves but at sea, where you are like to gayne as often as to lose. It is
the beggering of the Portugall, notwithstanding his many rich residences and
territoryes that hee keeps souldiers that spendes it: yet his garrisons are
meane. Hee never profited by the Indyes since he defended them. Observe this
well. It hath also been the errour of the Dutch, who seek plantation here by
the sword ... Lett this be received as a rule that if you will profitt seek
it at sea and in quiett trade for ... it is an errour to affect garrisons and
land warts in India.
--[cont]--
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
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