CHAPTER VIII
English and Portuguese Rivalry
Unfavourable English prospects in India—Thomas Best conducts a fleet to India—Is attacked by the Portuguese— Defeat of the Portuguese with great loss—Mogul authorities grant a firman to trade at Surat—Mogul Government declares war on the Portuguese—Downton arrives off Surat with a fleet—Is attacked in Swally roads by the Portuguese—He beats off his assailants—The Rev. Peter Rogers attacks Downton—Death of Downton—His patriotic virtues
THOUGH the servants of the East India Company were for a time disposed to dissipate their energies in a vain endeavour to break down the barrier of Mohammedan fanaticism and obstructiveness in the Red Sea, they at the same time displayed a splendid prescience in holding on to their project for opening a trade with India through Surat. Neither Mogul intrigues nor Portuguese hostility served to turn them from their purpose. With possibly a vague consciousness of the mighty issues which depended on their successful action they returned again and again to the charge with increased determination to effect a permanent lodgment on Indian soil. The fates 80 far had not been propitious. There was, indeed, at the point at which we have arrived, substantial reason for abandoning as hopeless the purpose in view. Hawkins had left the country on Middleton's ship, discredited and humiliated; the Emperor, if not hostile to the English, was little disposed to favour them; the Surat authorities
