the hands of the Portuguese; but the high road being open to all, it was not to be supposed that they would retain this monopoly any longer than it might suit the convenience of other nations to yield them the privilege. Accordingly, we find that as the maritime power of Holland increased, the Dutch also turned their eyes to India – an example which was speedily followed by the English. The arrival of these Protestant powers proved the downfall of the Portuguese influence in India. Contests ensued between the new visitors and the old settlers; and the result was the expulsion of the latter from nearly all their positions, and the perfect annihilation of their commercial relations with the East.
The success of the English and Dutch naturally exciting the jealousy of France, an East India Company was formed by the French, who sent out ships, and soon obtained permission to establish agencies in Pondicherry and Chandernagon. These three nations, with the Danes and the Spaniards, who had also acquired small possessions, now constituted the European trading community in India; and through their enterprise and rivalry the whole of the Western world was supplied with everything that the rich soil of the East, and the ingenuity and industry of her inhabitants, could produce.
Meanwhile the court and empire of Shah Jehan were agitated by strange scenes and extraordinary events, which, as they ultimately exercised an influence on the proceedings of the European settlers, it will be necessary to notice in some detail.
This monarch had four sons, named Dara, Shooja, Aurungzebe, and Morad, whose mutual dissensions and contests for supremacy embittered the last days of their parent, and threw the whole empire into a state of distraction. An illness of the Emperor occasioned a demonstration of their respective designs for securing the musnud in the event of his death. Shooja advanced with an army towards Delhi, but was entirely defeated by the forces of Dara; while Aurungzebe, who was a man of
