Chap. II.] DIFFICULTIES OF THE COMPANY. 263
wliich all questions affecting the interests of the companies had been specially ^.d. luss. referred, was still in existence. Where was the danger of a delay which would have submitted the judgment to its revisal ? These are questions which the Dutch have found it impossible to answer; and the bloody deed of Amboyna, pei-petrated on the 27th of February, 1623, therefore remains to this day justly branded as a massacre.
When tidinors of the massacre reached England, the public indignation was iiKr.Kn.ition
C ° ^ ^ ill Kngland.
inflamed to such a pitqji that all idea of amicable arrangement was abandoned ; and even King Jame.s, forgetting his lethargic and mean-spirited policy, began to talk operdy of war. He had even issued letters of reprisal, authorizing the injured parties to seek redress at their own hands, and seemed bent on mea.sures still more decisive, when his in<xlorious career was brought to a close. The Dutch dexterously availed themselves of the opportunities afforded by a new reign to protract negotiations, and managed to spin out a series of years, making fair promises of giving redress, but always evading the performance of them. This crafty line of policy was only too successful, in consequence of the embar- ras.sments in wiiich Charles I. was soon involved. The seeds of a civil war liad been thickly sown in England even during his father's lifetime; and all other questions became comparatively insigniflcant when once public attention bejijan to be fixed on the great contest which was to decide the fate of the Engli.sh monarchy.
While this dispute was pending, the affairs of the Company were often at a Difficulties very low ebb. In the Indian Archipelago, station after station was abandoned comiiany. in order to escape from the oppression of the Dutch ; and in various other quarters so many untoward events occurred, that the Company, unable to pro- secute any regular system of trade, were obliged to rest satisfied with shifting expedients, sometimes successful, but oftener productive only of disappointment Their stock in consequence, instead of commanding a premium, could with difficulty be sold at a considerable discount. It cannot be denied that, amidst these discouragements, much perseverance was displayed. Every opening for trade was eagerly embraced. When that with Persia threatened to prove unproductive, the Red Sea was again resorted to ; and when misunderstandings with the Mogul endangered the factory at Sm-at, new stations were foimd on the opposite coast of the Indian peninsula. Here for some time the principal factory had its seat at Masulipatani ; but the extortions of the governor having become intolerable, a new locality was obtained, in 1628, at Armegon, situated on the Coromandel coa.st about seventy miles north of Madras. The factory established at Armegon was substituted for that of Ma.sulipatam, and is remark- able as the first station on the continent of India which the Company were permitted to fortify. The advantage which it thus pos.se.ssed promised at one time to make it a great emporium ; but the situation proved inconvenient, and the governor of Masulipatam, anxious to recover the revenue which he had lost
