bushes, were laid the hopes of the two families, and a common sorrow bound them in a still closer bond of friendship.
But though Mrs. Nicks might grieve, hers was not a spirit to be broken by sorrow. She still had her girls to think of. There were nine of them by the year 1696, and six lived to grow to womanhood. They had to be provided for, or portioned if they married ; and the brave-hearted, ambitious mother set herself to work for them.
With ships of her own and a gang of warehouse slaves she launched upon a course of free trade which astonished her neighbours by its boldness and its irregularity. Her efforts were not confined to Madras ; they extended south along the Coromandel Coast. She acted as the middle-man, and bought calicoes from the country weavers which she sold to the Company, a course that would have been perfectly legitimate had her husband been a free trader and held the necessary licence. As he was in the service of the Company the proceeding was illegal, as the directors refused to recognise the wife apart from her husband.
At that time the President in Council was endeavouring to establish a factory on the coast of Arcot. The calicoes made in and around Cuddalore were found to be of a superior quality. They were painted, as it was called, dyed we should say now, and the patterns had caught the public taste in Europe, where the stuffs were in great demand for curtains. The unsettled state of the country, from the presence of the Mahratta horsemen bent on marauding, made the transit of merchandise by road impossible. The only way of procuring the calicoes was by persuading the weavers to bring their wares to some centre on the coast and to ship them to Madras. Cuddalore was a convenient centre, and here, after some vicissitudes, the Company managed to establish a small factory (1682).
