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A.D. 1621.
The trade of the English in India.
In a return presented to Parliament on the 29th of
November, 1621, there will be found an account of
the trade carried on by the Company with the East
Indies during the previous twenty years, and of the
difficulties they had then to encounter. Out of eighty-six
ships which they had in that time despatched,
eleven were surprised and seized by the Dutch, nine
were lost, five were worn out by long service, going
from port to port in India, and only thirty-six had returned
home with cargoes, the remaining twenty-five
being then in India, or on their way home. Indeed
it is surprising that they were able to maintain any
position whatever in India in opposition to the Dutch,
whose settlements at that time prove that they
