Chap. V.] SEVAJEE DEFIED AT SURAT. .'^17
allowed themselves to be systematically plundered during six days — Sevajee, a.d. leos. according to the account of one Smith, an Englishman, who was taken prisoner and carried before him, sitting outside the town in his tent ordering heads and hands to be chop})ed off in cases where persons were supposed to be con- cealing their wealth. While tlie natives were thus pusillanimous, a better spirit was displayed by the inmates l)()th of the Dutch and English factories. The English, in particuhir, greatly distinguished themselves. Having put their factory in as good a state of defence as the shortness of the time allowed, and called in the aid of their ships' crews, tliey met Sevajee's demands and threats with defiance ; and when a number of Mahrattas, witliout venturing on The iiaii
rattoa re- al! assault, forced their way into an adjoining house, a sally was made which puuedby
dislodged them. By this valiant conduct the English saved not only their own "" "^ ** ' property, but that of many natives whom they had taken under their protec- tion, and rose higli in the estimation of Aurungzebe himself, who granted them a firman exempting them for ever from a portion of the customs paid by other nations, and also from all transit charges. The visit of Sevajee, which at fii'st threatened the Company with the loss of all their property at Surat,
General View of Surat.— Fnmi Churchill's Collection of Voyages.
estimated at LSO.OOO, was thus eventually the indirect means of procuring for them important advantages.
In 1665, the politics of Europe again assumed a threatening ap])earance. A Alarm fmm Dutch war was evidently nn]>ending. The Company, well aware that, in that «ar, an.i .i event, the Dutch would sweep the Indian seas, scarcely ventured to prepare an in.iiaiom. outward voyage, and contented themselves with instructing their agents in '"" India to make all possible haste in com])leting their investments, and desjiatch- ing the homeward bound ships. Nor was a Dutch war the only source of their anxiety, as new com]ietitors, who were afterwards to ])rove the most formidable of all, were about to enter the field. The French had lono- had an eve to the Indian traffic; and an exclusive company, sharing largely in royal patronage, and invested with imjwrtant privileges, had been formed Tliis company had
