426 EARL y E UROPEAN SETTLEMENTS.
Their
short-
sighted
policy.
The
North-east
passage,
1553 -
The
North-west
passage,
1576-1616.
upon a monopoly of the trade in spices, and remained fromfirst to last destitute of sound economical principles. Like thePhoenicians of old, the Dutch stopped short of no acts ofcruelty towards their rivals in commerce ; but, unlike thePhoenicians , they failed to introduce their civilisation amongthe natives with whom they came in contact. The knell ofDutch supremacy was sounded by Clive, when in 1759 heattacked the Dutch at Chinsurah both by land and water, andforced them to an ignominious capitulation. During the greatFrench wars between 1795 and 1811, England wrested fromHolland every one of her colonies ; although Java was restoredin 1816, and Sumatra exchanged for Malacca in 1824.
At present, the Dutch flag flies nowhere on the mainlandof India . But quaint houses, Dutch tiles and carvings, atChinsurah, Negapatam , Jaffnapatam, and at petty ports onthe Coromandel and Malabar coasts, with the formal canals insome of these old Settlements, remind the traveller of scenesin the Netherlands . The passage between Ceylon and themainland still bears the name of the Dutch governor, Palk.In the Census of 1872, only 70 Dutchmen were enumeratedthroughout all British India , 78 in 1881, and 119 in 1891. 1
The earliest English attempts to reach India were made bythe North-west passage. In 1496, Henry vn. granted letterspatent to John Cabot and his three sons (one of whomwas the famous Sebastian) to fit out two ships for the ex-ploration of this route. They failed, but discovered the islandof Newfoundland , and sailed along the coast of America from Labrador to Virginia. In 1553, the ill-fated Sir Hugh Willoughby attempted to force a passage along the north ofEurope and Asia , the successful accomplishment of whichhas been reserved for a Swedish savant of our own day.Sir Hugh perished miserably; but his second in command,Chancellor, reached a harbour on the White Sea , nowArchangel. Thence he penetrated by land to the court ofthe Grand Duke of Moscow , and laid the foundation of ‘ theRussia Company for carrying on the overland trade betweenIndia , Persia , Bokhara , and Moscow .’
Many English attempts were made to find a North-westpassage to the East Indies, from 1576 to 1616. They haveleft on our modern maps the imperishable names of Frobisher ,
1 For local notices of the Dutch in India , see articles Sadras, Pala-kollu, Chinsurah, Negapatam , Pack’s Passage, etc., in theirrespective volumes of my Imperial Gazetted- of India .