directed against "a set of European idolaters," as they were termed by the Governor of Bengal. To their extraordinary career of discovery and conquest it will now be proper to advert.
As early as the year 1418 the Portuguese had commenced exploring the western coast of Africa, and towards the latter end of the fifteenth century had pushed their discoveries as far as the Cape of Good Hope. At this period Venice supplied nearly all Europe with the products of the East, and had raised herself by her wealth to an eminence that excited the jealousy and hostility of surrounding nations. The King of Portugal, anxious to ascertain whence the riches of the Venetians were drawn, despatched Vasco de Gama with an expedition to India in 1497, to endeavour to open a trade with the same sources by the route available to the ships of Portugal. The mission was successful: the key to vast wealth was now obtained, and the Portuguese lost no time in improving their opportunities. Fleet after fleet was fitted out; every port in India was visited; possession was forcibly taken of Goa and several other places on the Malabar coast, the islands lying between Madagascar and the Moluccas, and the island of Ormus in the Persian Gulf. They established numerous factories and forts for the management and protection of their commerce, and waged destructive wars, sometimes in maintaining what they had acquired, and at others endeavouring to add to their power.
Amongst other places they established themselves at Hooghly, where their insolence and violence being complained of to the Emperor by the Nabob, or Governor of Bengal, he was ordered by Shah Jehan to expel them from the imperial dominions. Their factory was accordingly attacked by the Mogul troops, and taken after a brave resistance; but their lives were spared, and the conqueror contented himself with wreaking his vengeance on the numerous images of the "European idolaters."
For more than a century the India trade remained in
