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<DATE>2009-07-12</DATE>
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<NAME>Scott Lepisto</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Checklist:
x Add TEMPHEAD, change DATE, validate
x Add DIV TYPEs, validate
x Review structure, use BODY or rarely GROUP
x Check PB placement and completeness, ensure sequence of N=""
x Proof title page(s)
x Check HEAD TRAILER ARGUMENT EPIGRAPH OPENER CLOSER SIGNED SALUTE BYLINE
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x Correct illegibles from proofsheet
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<VID>175206</VID>
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<PB N="1" REF="1" MS="y">
<HEAD>To the Right Honourable the Knights, Citizens and Bur|ge&s;&s;es A&s;&s;embled in Parliament.</HEAD>
<HEAD TYPE="sub">The An&s;wer of the <HI>Ea&s;t-India-Company,</HI> to Two Printed Papers of Mr. <HI>Samuel White,</HI> One Entitu|led <HI>His Ca&s;e;</HI> The other, <HI>A True Accompt of the Pa&s;&s;ages at</HI> Mergen.</HEAD>
<P>NOT to trouble the Honourable Hou&s;e with hard Reflections upon the Complainant, or Rhetorical flouri&s;hes which prove nothing but his pa&s;&s;ion and want of &s;olid grounds to &s;upport his Complaint, or ju&s;tifie him&s;elf. We &s;hall only exhibit to your Honours the plain proofs of Fact, we have received from <HI>India;</HI> which we pre&s;ume will evince the Com|plainant, not only to be a very ill man, but a great Interloper, and a great Ene|my to this Kingdom in general, and the premeditated contriver of the deaths of tho&s;e Engli&s;h Men, whom he and his Accomplices had fir&s;t inveigled into the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s &s;ervice, and afterwards de&s;troyed in a time of Truce, by wicked Arts, particularized in the annexed proofs; when he ob&s;erved they were re&s;olved to return to their duty to His Maje&s;ty, and the publick &s;ervice of their own Coun|trey.</P>
<P>By the annexed proofs, we think it will likewi&s;e appear how little di&s;tinction he made between the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s E&s;tate, and his own; and how often he plea&s;ed to call Ships and their whole Ladings &s;ometimes his own, and &s;ometimes the &s;ame Ships again the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s, as would be&s;t &s;erve his pre&s;ent de&s;igns; and therefore he might as well &s;ay he acquired three times the E&s;tate he claims, as half of that he pretends to have had.</P>
<P>The annexed proofs we think do likewi&s;e detect his forgeing Commi&s;&s;ions under the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s Mini&s;ters Seals, to ju&s;tifie his making War upon the Companies Allies, Subjects of the King of <HI>Gulcondah;</HI> by his own private Com|mi&s;&s;ion, not only without the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s con&s;ent, but expre&s;ly again&s;t his Order. In which War &s;o made by his private Commi&s;&s;ion, &s;everal Towns were burnt, many Men killed, Ships and Ve&s;&s;els rifled, taken, and de&s;troyed: and among&s;t them divers of the Companies Subjects under His Maje&s;ty, Inhabitants of their City of <HI>Madra&s;&s;e,</HI> &s;ome of whom he made Slaves, and all this not onely to the dammage of the Company above 30000 pounds, but to the great &s;candal and di&s;honour of the Engli&s;h Nation, Engli&s;h De&s;erters being employed by him in tho&s;e Lawle&s;s and Injurious attempts.</P>
<P>By the <HI>Dutch</HI> Laws in <HI>India</HI> who are a Nation as tenacious of their Liberty, as any people upon Earth, and by the Laws and practices of all other <HI>European</HI> Na|tions; there a De&s;erter or Interloper is not only to be confi&s;cated, but to &s;uffer death: although the Engli&s;h Judicatures in <HI>India</HI> have never proceeded in &s;uch Ca&s;es, further than according to their Charters to condemn &s;uch Interlopers Ships and Goods, one half for the u&s;e of His Maje&s;ty, and the other half to the Com|panies u&s;e. And if they &s;hould not have power &s;o to do, the whole Trade of <HI>India</HI> would unavoidably fall to the <HI>Dutch</HI> and <HI>French,</HI> as hath been made evident in many hearings at the Council-Table in the Two la&s;t Reigns, as well as in more antient times, and by &s;everal Treati&s;es in Print.</P>
<PB N="2" REF="2">
<P>As to the grounds of the War with the King of <HI>Syam,</HI> occa&s;ioned by his Grand Vi&s;ier or Chief Mini&s;ter <HI>Con&s;tantine Phaulkon,</HI> who was a poor Fellow, formerly Stewards Mate of a &s;mall &s;hip of the Companies. We humbly conceive there will be no doubt made by con&s;idering Gentlemen, but that the grounds of that War were not only ju&s;t but very cogent; con&s;idering His late Maje&s;ty King <HI>James</HI> mov'd by the nece&s;&s;ity of the Ca&s;e, gave Commi&s;&s;ions of War under the great Seal of <HI>England,</HI> again&s;t the King of <HI>Syam</HI> and His Subjects, notwith&s;tanding <HI>Phaulkon</HI> had made a &s;trong Confederacy between his Ma&s;ter and the <HI>French,</HI> turned Papi&s;t him&s;elf; and as the Company are informed &s;ent his Son to be Edu|cated a Papi&s;t in <HI>France,</HI> made curious Pre&s;ents of great value to the Pope, the late King <HI>James</HI> and His Queen, and al&s;o to the <HI>French</HI> King. But if your Ho|nours think it proper to require further &s;atisfaction, touching the rea&s;ons of that War, and the &s;ucce&s;s of it, the Company will be ready to pre&s;ent your Honours with a larger Narrative thereof.</P>
<P>That <HI>Phaulkon</HI> and his Creatures Mr. <HI>White, Burnebey,</HI> &amp;c. were kind to &s;ome of the Companies Servants at <HI>Madra&s;&s;e,</HI> and to the Captain of the <HI>Curtana,</HI> e&s;pe|cially, who was at la&s;t made his own intirely contrary to his duty, as appears evi|dently by the annexed proofs, and in many other in&s;tances to particular per&s;ons, the Company beleive may be true. And it is one of the particulars that they did ju&s;tly complain of to His late Maje&s;ty, That <HI>Phaulkon</HI> by great Rewards, as well, as by great wages, and kind inveigling Words, did endeavour to indulge many of the Companies Servants, Commanders and Seamen, but all with a de&s;ign of cor|rupting them from their Fidelity, Duty, and Service to the Company, that he might in time become &s;trong enough in <HI>European</HI> Seamen and Souldiers, with the Aid of the <HI>French</HI> King, <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Interlopers, and <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> and <HI>Dutch</HI> Fugitives; to oppre&s;s fir&s;t the Engli&s;h Company in <HI>India,</HI> and at la&s;t the Dutch. But on the other hand, &s;uch of the Engli&s;h as he found true to the Company, and their common Countrey, he u&s;ed with the greate&s;t contempt and barbarity imaginable; as parti|cularly Mr. <HI>Potts,</HI> he cau&s;ed to be beaten by <HI>Cofferies</HI> or <HI>Negroes,</HI> which is in <HI>India</HI> under&s;tood, accounted, and intended to be a publick affront to the Nation of which any per&s;on &s;o abu&s;ed is a Member. Mr. <HI>Strang,</HI> Mr. <HI>Crouch</HI> and others, which he could not draw to his Lure, he u&s;ed with the greate&s;t unkindne&s;s. Cap|tain <HI>Lake</HI> in a &s;trange manner he brought to his death, of which a more particu|lar account &s;hall be given if it be required.</P>
<P>As to what was formerly Printed in any News Papers (which is not pertinent to this Ca&s;e) the Company &s;ay in truth, They never gave out any Paper or any In|telligence to the Secretaries of &s;tate, but what were exactly according to their ad|vices from <HI>India.</HI> And if the fir&s;t advices from &s;uch remote places, prove not exactly corre&s;pondent to the Events, and all the Circum&s;tances of Fact, They do not con|ceive them&s;elves blameable for &s;uch mi&s;takes of their advi&s;ers. But they cannot by the later advices or the proofs annexed, &s;ee any con&s;iderable Error in the&s;e fir&s;t advices they received from <HI>India,</HI> more than that a very few of the Compa|nies Soldiers or Servants peri&s;hed in that Ma&s;&s;acre, with the re&s;t of their Coun|trey-men, that had been formerly Interlopers or De&s;erters.</P>
<P>On the whole matter, and in an&s;wer to all other Complaints of Interlopers; The Company &s;ay, they have done nothing but what they conceive they are warrant|ed to do by their Charter, and which they thought them&s;elves bound in Con&s;ci|ence to perform to the utmo&s;t of their power for the publick good of this King|dom and of Po&s;terity; which They have more zealou&s;ly pur&s;ued than any pro|per Intere&s;t of their own, or of the Adventurers; well knowing that the Navigation of this Kingdom, and indeed of all <HI>European</HI> Nations, depends mo&s;t upon the &s;upport of the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Trade, and that the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Trade cannot po&s;&s;ibly be &s;upported without Interlopers and De&s;erters be corrected and di&s;couraged, by inflicting the
<PB N="3" REF="2">&s;everal Penalties on all Tran&s;gre&s;&s;ors of that kind. And this agrees to the Wi&s;dom of all Nations that have &s;pent a &s;erious thought concerning the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Trade; which is the true rea&s;on that neither a <HI>French, Dutch, Dani&s;h</HI> or <HI>Portugal</HI> Interlo|per, without the Con&s;ent of their proper Companies, or the re&s;pective Sove|raign of tho&s;e Countreys, was ever heard of to the Companies knowledge, to &s;ail from <HI>Europe</HI> into tho&s;e Ea&s;tern &s;eas. The rea&s;on of which con&s;ent of Nations in this matter is as manife&s;t as the Sun at noon day. For that the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Company having now and nece&s;&s;arily &s;o many Towns, Forts, and Garri&s;ons, Ships of War and Tenders, cannot maintain them under the expence of 200000 <ABBR>l.</ABBR> <HI>per annum.</HI> Be&s;ides the infinite Charge of Pre&s;ents, Buildings, Guards, and Demorage of &s;hips that mu&s;t frequently at|tend and be releived, and recruited for it may be 6, 7, or 10 years together before &s;uch a Fortification or New &s;ettlement will be &s;trongly fixt, &s;o as to be able to defend it &s;elf without &s;hipping often in the Road, and in a condition to produce any revenue to|wards the publick Charge.</P>
<P>As to the Soveraign or De&s;potical Power exerci&s;ed by the Company in <HI>India,</HI> which the Complainant plays with in his Printed Papers. The Company &s;ay, and all wi&s;e men in the Affairs of <HI>India</HI> know, that the Company exerci&s;e no power, but what they had by their Charter, neither have any power by Their Charter other than &s;uch as the Dutch have by their Rocktroy or Charter. Or if the Company &s;hould have le&s;s, it would be impo&s;&s;ible for them, whenever the Dutch &s;hould be out of humour, to maintain the re|mainder of the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Intere&s;t in <HI>India,</HI> but all would be lo&s;t as ea&s;ily as the <HI>Spice</HI> I&s;lands were in the la&s;t age, and <HI>Maca&s;&s;ar</HI> or <HI>Bantam</HI> in This, it being as impo&s;&s;ible to defend the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> intere&s;t without equal powers from our Soveraigns, as the Dutch Company have from theirs, as it is to fight the <HI>French</HI> with a great Army not under the di&s;cipline of Martial Law.</P>
<P>The Company do not de&s;ire to boa&s;t of the &s;ucce&s;s God Almighty has given to their ju&s;t Arms, nor of their pre&s;ent condition. But &s;ince there are &s;o many Detracters who for private ends take the Liberty of di&s;cour&s;ing what they plea&s;e to Gentlemen, very knowing in other Affairs, though unable to di&s;prove them in this Foreign bu&s;ine&s;s (which they have not occa&s;ion by their acquaintance or conver&s;e in affairs of tho&s;e Remote parts to be experienced in) have thought fit to add to this a brief account of the pre&s;ent &s;tate of the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> intere&s;t in <HI>India,</HI> and of what hath been tran&s;acted for the publick good and honour of the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Nation the&s;e la&s;t 7 or 8 years, which they humbly hope will be found to be more than ever was performed by the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> in <HI>India</HI> in the whole time foregoing, &s;ince the fir&s;t In&s;titution of the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company in the beginning of Queen <HI>Elizabeth</HI>'s Reign, and that the E&s;tate and Power of the <HI>Ea&s;t-India</HI> Company is now double to what it was in any former age.</P>
<P>To the Accu&s;ation of Captain <HI>Andrews,</HI> The Company think it is enough to &s;ay at pre&s;ent, That he is a known ingenuous worthy man, and a great lover of his Coun|trey, and that he had His Maje&s;ties Commi&s;&s;ion under the great Seal of <HI>England,</HI> to make Warr again&s;t the King of <HI>Syam</HI> and his Subjects, and there is no doubt, but ac|cording to his duty he would fight, kill and &s;lay, all that made re&s;i&s;tance on board any <HI>Syam</HI> &s;hip, whether the Re&s;i&s;ters were natural <HI>Syammers,</HI> or <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> or other <HI>European</HI> De&s;erters in the King of <HI>Syam</HI>'s &s;ervice, again&s;t their Native King and Countrey. But the Company do not beleive Captain <HI>Andrews</HI> did any thing unworthily, or be|yond his Commi&s;&s;ion as is &s;ugge&s;ted.</P>
<P>The Ca&s;e of the Company is very hard (or rather the Condition of <HI>England</HI> would be very deplorable) if tho&s;e very men, the Interlopers, and their Adherents, that by an unparallel'd In&s;tance of Pre&s;umption, never heard of before, in this or any other Chri&s;tian Nation, by divers Ships made &s;uch a Combu&s;tion in <HI>India,</HI> as occa&s;ioned the lo&s;s of <HI>Bantam</HI> to the <HI>Dutch,</HI> the Rebellions of <HI>Bombay</HI> and St. <HI>Helena,</HI> the &s;ubduction of all the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Priviledges by the Native Kings of <HI>India,</HI> and con&s;equently great Wars and Blood&s;hed, to recover tho&s;e Rights to the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Nation, &s;hould now hope to be received, as the A&s;&s;erters of the Rights of the People of <HI>England,</HI> as if our un|valuable
<PB N="4" REF="3">Liberty &s;hould be Converted into Licentiou&s;ne&s;s, and the Ruin of our com|mon Countrey by a Toleration, to joyn with Heathens and Papi&s;ts in actual Ho&s;tility again&s;t this Kingdom, to de&s;troy the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Intere&s;t in <HI>India.</HI> It is not long &s;ince the Company faithfully defended the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Intere&s;t in the Ca&s;e of <HI>Bantam</HI> again&s;t eminent <HI>Dutch</HI> Civilians, and the Mercenary Ferocity of the late Lord Chancellor, of which Conte&s;ts the Arguments on both &s;ides are extant in print. That was no &s;ooner over, but they were forced by Armes to reduce the Rebels of <HI>Bombay</HI> and St. <HI>Helena;</HI> and after that was over, to engage in a dangerous War again&s;t two great Princes, the Great <HI>Mogul,</HI> and the King of <HI>Syam;</HI> The latter being &s;upported by an Alliance with <HI>France</HI> as afore&s;aid: In which Wars, God was plea&s;ed to give them extraordinary Succe&s;s beyond their own hopes and the Opinion of all men, <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> and <HI>Foreigners,</HI> that were acquainted with <HI>India,</HI> and the power of tho&s;e two Great Princes: And now af|ter the Company had at their great Expence, and with God's wonderful Ble&s;&s;ing, &s;ettled the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Intere&s;t in <HI>India</HI> upon a more regular, &s;trong, durable, and better Founda|tion, to the great Honour of the <HI>Engli&s;h</HI> Nation, than ever it was &s;ince Queen <HI>Elizabeths</HI> days. The very &s;ame &s;ort of men that occa&s;ioned all tho&s;e Di&s;orders, Rebellions, Con|fu&s;ion, War, and Blood&s;hed, have the Confidence to appear, to accu&s;e the Company for their &s;trenuous and lawful endeavours grounded upon the Kings Prerogative and Au|thority <HI>extra England, Wales</HI> and <HI>Berwick</HI> to vindicate the Honour and Intere&s;t of this Kingdom in tho&s;e remote parts of the World.</P>
<P>The Company hope all Gentlemen know that the Government of tho&s;e Ea&s;tern parts of the World are meerly De&s;potical, and that the never &s;ufficiently to be admired and beloved, Common and Statute Laws of this Kingdom are plants too precious to be un|der&s;tood or grow &s;o far Ea&s;tward, or in any other &s;oil, but that of our Ble&s;&s;ed Native Countrey; As al&s;o that the Company have no power to pre&s;s or compel any <HI>Engli&s;hman</HI> into their &s;ervice, all that go thither are Petitioners for their Imployments or Volun|teers, and mu&s;t be pre&s;umed to go upon the Companies own Terms, and the Companies Laws there e&s;tabli&s;h't by His Maje&s;ties Authority. Be&s;ides which, the Company never &s;end any &s;uch Volunteers abroad of any degree, but if when they come to <HI>India,</HI> or have &s;tayed any time there, although they be formally bound by Indentures for 5 years, if at any time they like not the Laws, U&s;ages, Rules or Cu&s;tomes of the Company or the Countrey; the Company gives them Liberty to return home at their own plea&s;ure, notwith&s;tanding their afore&s;aid Indentures, they paying the Companies Charge of their Tran&s;portation out; &s;o that no <HI>Engli&s;hman</HI> can pretend to be en&s;laved or oppre&s;t in <HI>India</HI> by the Company, as is untruly &s;ugge&s;ted, except even in his own &s;ence he be willing before he goes out and continues to be willing &s;o to be, after he comes there.</P>
<P>The annexed proofs do make it not onely &s;u&s;picious, but too manife&s;t that Captain <HI>Weltden</HI> Commander of the <HI>Curtana,</HI> though he was true to his Tru&s;t at his fir&s;t Arrival at <HI>Mergen</HI> was afterwards corrupted by Mr. <HI>White</HI>'s Arts, for which Captain <HI>Weltden</HI> was intended to be que&s;tioned by the Court of Admiralty at <HI>Madra&s;s.</HI></P>
<P>The Companies General of <HI>India, Sir John Child,</HI> who hath lived about 35 years in that Countrey without ever &s;eeing his own, is a Per&s;on of known Sobriety, Wi&s;dom, Truth and Courage, e&s;teemed and beloved by People of all Nations in <HI>India</HI> that have &s;o much Ingenuity as to acknowledge Vertue in an Enemy; &s;omething whereof will occur to every mans Ob&s;ervation, that knows he managed that hazardous War again&s;t the <HI>Mogul</HI> with &s;uch &s;ucce&s;s and moderation that he took almo&s;t all the <HI>Mogul</HI>'s and Subjects Ships &s;ailing in and out of <HI>Surrat,</HI> without &s;pilling a drop of their Blood, and di&s;mi&s;t the Pri&s;oners with Cloths and Money in their Pockets, which gained &s;uch a Reputation to our Nation, even among&s;t the <HI>Moors</HI> them&s;elves, that they became univer&s;ally Ad|vocates and Solicitors to the <HI>Mogul</HI> for the Pacification. Upon which uncon&s;trained, he delivered back all the <HI>Moors</HI> Ships, except <HI>Abdul Gophor</HI>'s, who was a great Incen|diary towards the War, and who is therefore left by the <HI>Mogul</HI> to the General's further Revenge, notwith&s;tanding the Peace made with his great Maje&s;ty, and all the re&s;t of his Subjects.</P>
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