1708. the completion of the union. A loan of 1,200,000l., without interest, was ex- CHAP. V. acted of the two Companies for the use of government. The recollection of what had happened, when the body of private adventurers were formed into the English East India Company, made them dread the offers of a new body of adventurers, should any difficulty on their part be found to exist. It was necessary, therefore, that the two Companies should lay aside all separate views, and cordially join their endeavours to avert the common danger. on the award It was at last agreed, that all differences subsisting between them should be Union effected submitted to the arbitration of the Earl of Godolphin, then Lord High Trea- of Godolphin. surer of England; and that the union should be rendered complete and final upon the award which he should pronounce. On this foundation, the act, 6th Anne, ch. 17, was passed; enacting that a sum of 1,200,000l. without interest should be advanced by the United Company to government, which, being added to the former advance of 2,000,000l. at 8 per cent. interest, constituted a loan of 3,200,000l. yielding interest at the rate of 5 per cent. upon the whole; that to raise this sum of 1,200,000l. the Company should be empowered to borrow to the extent of 1,500,000/. on their common seal, or to call in moneys to that extent from the Proprietors; that this sum of 1,200,000l. should be added to their capital stock; that instead of terminating on three years' notice after the 29th of September, 1711, their privileges should be continued till three years notice after the 25th of March, 1726, and till repayment of their capital; that the stock of the separate adventurers of the General Society, amounting to 7,2007., which had never been incorporated into the joint-stock of the English Company, might be paid off, on three years' notice after the 29th of September, 1711, and merged in the joint-stock of the United Company; and that the award of the Earl of Godolphin, settling the terms of the Union, should be binding and conclusive on both parties.* The award of Godolphin was dated and published on the 29th of September, 1708. It referred solely to the winding up of the concerns of the two Companies; and the blending of their separate properties into one stock, on terms equitable to both. As the assets or effects of the London Company in India fell short of the debts of that concern, they were required to pay by instalments to the United Company the sum of 96,615l. 4s. 9d.: and as the effects of the English Company in India exceeded their debts, they were directed to receive from the United Company the sum of 66,005/. 4s. 2d.; the debt due by Sir 1708. BOOK I. Edward Littleton in Bengal, viz. 80,437 rupees and 8 anas, remaining to be discharged by the English Company on their own account. On these terms the whole of the property and debts of both Companies abroad became the property and debts of the United Company. With regard to the debts of both Companies in Britain, it was in general ordained that they should all be discharged before the 1st of March, 1709; and as those of the London Company amounted to the sum of 399,7951. 9s. 1d. they were empowered to call upon their Proprietors, by three several instalments, for the means of liquidation.* As the intercourse of the English nation with the people of India was destined now to become, by a very rapid progress, both extremely intimate, and extremely extensive, it will be necessary for the understanding of the subsequent proceedings that a full account should be rendered of the character and circumstances of the men whom these proceedings peculiarly regarded. The population of those great countries consisted chiefly of two races; one, which may be here called the Hindu race; another, which may be called the Mahomedan race. The first were the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. The latter were subsequent invaders; and insignificant, in point of number, compared with the first. The next two Books will be devoted to the purpose of laying before the reader all that appears to be useful in what is known concerning both these classes of the Indian people. To those who delight in tracing the phenomena of human nature, in all, particularly the more remarkable, combinations of circumstances; as well as to those who only desire to know completely the foundation upon which the actions of the British people have proceeded in India, this will not appear the least interesting department of the work. Bruce, iii. 667 to 679. Macpherson, iii. 1, 2. BOOK II. OF THE HINDUS. СНАР. І. Chronology and Ancient History of the Hindus. RUDE nations seem to derive a peculiar gratification from pretensions to a high CHAP. I. antiquity.* As a boastful and turgid vanity distinguishes remarkably the oriental nations, they have in most instances carried their claims to the most extravagant height. We are informed in a curious fragment of Chaldaic history, that there were written accounts preserved at Babylon with the greatest care, comprehending a term of fifteen myriads of years. † The pretended du * Mr. Gibbon remarks, (Hist. Decl. and Fall of the Roman Empire, i. 350,) that the wild Irishman, as well as the wild Tartar, can point out the individual son of Japhet from whose loins his ancestors were lineally descended.-According to Dr. Keating (History of Ireland, 13), the giant Partholanus, who was the son of Seara, the son of Esra, the son of Sru, the son of Framant, the son of Fathaclan, the son of Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah, landed on the coast of Munster, the 14th day of May, in the year of the world 1978.-The legends of England are no less instructive. A fourth or sixth son of Japhet, named Samothes, having first colonized Gaul, passed over into this island, which was thence named Samothia, about 200 years after the flood; but the Samothians being some generations afterwards subdued by Albion, a giant son of Neptune, he called the island after his own name, and ruled it forty-four years. See the story, with some judicious reflections, in Milton's History of England (Prose Works of Milton, iv. 3. Ed. 1806.) "The Athenians boasted that they were as ancient as the sun. The Arcadians pretended they were older than the moon. The Lacedemonians called themselves the sons of the earth, &c. such in general was the madness of the ancients on this subject! They loved to lose themselves in an abyss of ages which seemed to approach eternity." Goguet, Origin of Laws, v. i. b. 1. ch. 1, art. 5. See the authorities there quoted. + Eusebii Chronicon, p. 5. Syncelli Chronograph. p. 28. Bryant's Ancient Mythology, iv. 127, 8vo edit. Book II. ration of the Chinese monarchy is still more extraordinary. A single king of Egypt was believed to have reigned three myriads of years.* The Hindu yugs. The present age of the world, according to the system of the Hindus, is distinguished into four grand periods, denominated yugs. The first is the Satya yug, comprehending 1,728,000 years; the second the Treta yug, comprehending 1,296,000 years; the third the Dwapar yug, including 864,000 years; and the fourth the Cali yug, which will extend to 432,000 years. Of these periods the first three are expired, and in the year 1817 of the Christian era, 4911 years of the last. From the commencement, therefore, of the Satya yug, to the present time, is comprehended a space of 3,892,911 years, the antiquity to which this people lay claim.† • Syncelli Chronicon, p. 51. Herodotus informs us, (lib. ii. c. 2,) that the Egyptians considered themselves as the most ancient of mankind, till an experiment made by Psammetichus convinced them that the Phrygians alone preceded them. But the inhabitants of the further Peninsula of India make the boldest incursions into the regions of ancient time. The Burmans, we are informed by Dr. Buchanan, (As. Res. vi. 181,) believe that the lives of the first inhabitants of their country lasted one assenchii, a period of time of which they thus communicate an idea: "If for three years it should rain incessantly over the whole surface of this earth, which is, 1,203,400 juzana in diameter, the number of drops of rain falling in such a space and time, although far exceeding human conception, would only equal the number of years contained in one assenchii." † Sir William Jones's Discourse on the Chronology of the Hindus, (As Res. ii. 111, 8vo Ed;) also that on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, (Ibid i. 221.)—See too Mr. Bentley's Remarks on the principal Eras and Dates of the ancient Hindus, (Ibid v. 315); and the Discourse of Capt. F. Wilford on the Chronology of the Hindus, in the same volume, p. 24.-Consult also Mr. Marsden's Discourse on the chronology of the Hindus, (Phil. Trans. lxxx. 568.) These authors, having all drawn from the same sources, display an appearance of uniformity and certainty in this part of the Hindu system. It is amusing to contemplate the wavering results of their predecessors. Mr. Halhed, in the preface to his Translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, thus states the number of years, and thus spells the names of the epochs; 1. The Suttee Jogue, 3,200,000 years; 2. the Tirtah Jogue, 2,400,000 years; 3. the Dwapaar Jogue, 1, 600,000; 4. the Collee Jogue, 400,000.-Colonel Dow marks the Suttee Jogue at 14,000,000; the Tirtah Jogue at 1,080,000; the Dwapaar Jogue, 72,000; and the Collee Jogue, 36,000 years. (History of Hindostan, i. 2.)-M. Bernier, whose knowledge of India was so extensive and accurate, gives, on the information of the Brahmens of Benares, the Satya yug at 2,500,000 years, the Treta at 1,200,000, the Dwapar at 864,000, and assigns no period to the Cali yug. (Voyages, ii. 160.)—Messrs. Roger and le Gentil, who received their accounts from the Brahmens of the coast of Coromandel, coincide with Sir William Jones, except that they specify no duration for the Cali yug. (Porte Ouverte, p. 179; Mem. de l'Academ. des Sciences pour 1772, tom. ii. part 1. p. 17.)-The account of Anquetil Duperron agrees in every particular with that of Sir W. Jones; Recherches Historiques et Geographiques sur l'Inde, Lettre sur les Antiquitès de l'Inde.-The four ages of the Mexicans The contempt with which judicious historians now treat the historical fables of CHAP. I. early society must be indulged with caution when we explore the ancient condition of Hindustan; because the legendary tales of the Hindus have hitherto among European inquirers been regarded with particular respect; and because, without a knowledge of them, much of what has been written in Europe concerning the people of India cannot be understood.* It is necessary, therefore, to relate, that at the commencement of the Satya yug, or 3,892,911 years ago, lived Satyavrata, otherwise denominated Vaivaswata, and also the seventh Menu. He had escaped with his family from an universal deluge, which had destroyed "All bear a remarkable resemblance to those of the Hindus, and of so many other nations. * The reader will by and bye be prepared to determine for himself how far the tales of the Brahmens deserve exemption from the sentence which four great historians have, in the following passages, pronounced on the fanciful traditions of early nations. "The curiosity," says Mr. Hume," entertained by all civilized nations, of inquiring into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors, commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction. * * * The fables which are commonly employed to supply the place of true history ought entirely to be disregarded; or, if any exception be admitted to this general rule, it can only be in favour of the ancient Grecian fictions, which are so celebrated and so agreeable, that they will ever be the objects of the attention of mankind." (Hume's History of England, i. ch. 1.)-" Nations," says Robertson, "as well as men, arrive at maturity by degrees, and the events which happened during their infancy or early youth cannot be recollected, and deserve not to be remembered. * * * Every thing beyond that short period, to which well-attested annals reach, is obscure; an immense space is left for invention to occupy; each nation, with a vanity inseparable from human nature, hath filled that void with events calculated to display its own antiquity and lustre. And history, which ought to record truth, and teach wisdom, often sets out with retailing fictions and absurdities." (Robertson's History of Scotland, i. b. 1.)—Mr. Gibbon, speaking of a people (the Arabians) who in traditions and antiquity bear some resemblance to the Hindus, says, "I am ignorant, and I am careless, of the blind mythology of the Barbarians." (History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ix. 244, 8vo edit.) of a people still more remarkably resembling the Hindus, he says, "We may observe, that after an ancient period of fables, and a long interval of darkness, the modern histories of Persia begin to assume an air of truth with the dynasty of the Sassanides." (Ib. i. 341.)-Quæ ante conditam condendamve urbem, poeticis magis decora fabulis quam incorruptis rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur, ea nec affirmare nec refellere in animo est. Livii Prefat. |