434 EARLY E UR ORE AN SETTLEMENTS.
‘ Governor-General.’
The Com-pany em-barks onterritorialsway,1689.
valuable notes and commentaries, by the late Sir Henry Yule ,and presents a very remarkable picture of life and governmentin India at the close of the 17th century. 1 In 1684, Sir JohnChild was made ‘ Captain-General and Admiral of India ; ’ andSir John Wyborne, ‘Vice-Admiral and Deputy-Governor ofBombay .’ In 1687, the seat of the Presidency was finallytransferred from Surat to Bombay . In 1686, Kasimbazar, incommon with the other English factories in Bengal , had beencondemned to confiscation by the Nawdb Shaista Khan. TheHugh factory was much oppressed, and the Company’sbusiness throughout India suffered from the wars of theMughals and Marathas.
Sir John Child was appointed ‘ Governor-General,’ 2 with fullpower in India to make war or peace; and was ordered toproceed to inspect the Company’s possessions in Madras andBengal , and arrange for their safety. On the 20th of Decem-ber t686, the Company’s Agent and Council were forced bythe exactions of the Muhammadan Governor to quit theirfactory at Hugh'. They retired down the river to Sutanati(Calcutta ). Tegnapatam (Fort St. David) was founded in thisyear (1686), and definitively established in 1691-92.
In 1687-88, the Company’s servants, broken in spirit by theoppressions of the native Viceroy , determined to abandon theirfactories in Bengal . In 1688, Captain Heath of the Resolution ,in command of the Company’s forces, embarked all its servantsand goods, sailed down the Hugli, and anchored off Balasoron the Orissa coast. They were, however, soon invited toreturn by the Emperor , who granted them the site of thepresent city of Calcutta for a fortified factory. In 1689, ourfactories at Vizagapatam and Masulipatam on the Madrascoast were seized by the Muhammadans, and the factorswere massacred.
But in this same year the Company determined to consoli-date their position in India on the basis of territorial sovereignty,to enable them to resist the oppression of the Mughals andMarathas. With that view, they passed the resolution whichwas destined to turn their clerks and factors throughout India into conquerors and proconsuls : 1 The increase of our revenue
1 The Diary of William Hedges, Esq., during his Agency in Bengal , etc.(1681-87). By Colonel [Sir ] Henry Yule , C.B., K.C.S.I., 3 vols.,Hakluyt Society ’s Publications, 1887 to 1889.
2 Sir George Bird wood’s Report on the Old Records of the India Office,p. 85, quotes this title from the MSS. It is therefore, nominally, a centuryolder than is usually supposed; but Hastings was the first real Governor-General, 1774 -