INDIA ITS PARAMOUNT INFLUENCE AND IMPORTANCE
from
India, and India Missions
from a rabid evangelist
For the last three thousand years has India, unexhausted and inexhaustible, been pouring an
uninterrupted stream of opulence upon the Western World.
During that long period, measuring half the duration of the globe, the intermediate points of communication between the East and the West,
from
India, and India Missions
from a rabid evangelist
For the last three thousand years has India, unexhausted and inexhaustible, been pouring an
uninterrupted stream of opulence upon the Western World.
During that long period, measuring half the duration of the globe, the intermediate points of communication between the East and the West,
have changed with the rise and fall of mighty cities and empires.( This guy also thinks that the earth ia about 4000 years old !/did not learn anything after reading
the vast Indian literature)
Connected, however,
with all such changes, there is one fact that stands out in
singular prominence, challenging the attention of the pa-
' triot, the statesman, and the Christian philanthropist. It
is a fact, too, so uniform and characteristic, that it may
well be entitled to rank as an historic law. The fact is
this:—that whatever city or nation has, in the lapse of
past ages, held in its hands the keys of Indian commerce
and Indian influence, that city or nation has, for the time
being, stood forth in the van of the civilized world as the
richest and most flourishing.
Announcement of the grand historic fact or law of the para
mount influence of India on the Western Nations—Proofs and il
lustrations of this fact— The Peninsula of Arabia—Palmyra—
Tyre—Alexandria—Bagdad— Ghizni— The Crusades open up
Eastern Asia to Western Europe— Venice—Attempts to discover
a new passage to India—Henry of Portugal—Columbus— Vasco
de Gatna doubles the Cape—Effect of this discovery—Lisbon—
Amsterdam—Splendid series of English voyages, with the view of
reaching India— The final supremacy of Britain—Three distinct
eras or epochs ofpeculiar interest in behalf of India—The era of
romantic imaginative interest— The era of romantic literary in
terest—The era of vivid religious interest—Designs of Providence
in subjecting India to Britain—Glance at the remarkable series
ofevents which have thrown all India open as afieldfor Missionary
enterprise—Analogy between the condition of the Roman empire
at the commencement of the Christian era, and the present position
of India—Argument and appeal founded on this, in behalf of the
spread of the Gospel.
For the last three thousand years has India, unexhausted
and inexhaustible, been pouring an uninterrupted stream
of opulence upon the Western World.
A
2
During that long period, measuring half the duration of
the globe, the intermediate points of communication be
tween the East and the West, have changed with the rise
and fall of mighty cities and empires. Connected, however,
with all such changes, there is one fact that stands out in
singular prominence, challenging the attention of the pa-
' triot, the statesman, and the Christian philanthropist. It
is a fact, too, so uniform and characteristic, that it may
well be entitled to rank as an historic law. The fact is
this:—that whatever city or nation has, in the lapse of
past ages, held in its hands the keys of Indian commerce
and Indian influence, that city or nation has, for the time
being, stood forth in the van of the civilized world as the
richest and most flourishing. Indeed, the temporary mono
poly of Indian trade has rescued even petty states from
obscurity ; and raised them to a height of greatness, and
wealth, and power, vastly incommensurate with their na
tural resources. Some of the most famous cities of anti
quity it may be said to have literally created. With the
first possession of it, they suddenly sprang to their meridian
of glory ; and with its departure, they as rapidly sunk into
the dark night of oblivion.
The southern peninsula of Arabia, projecting as it does
like an isthmus between the East and the West, seems, from
the earliest times, to have enjoyed, on a great scale, the full
benefit of Indian commerce. And is it not matter of his
toric record, that the most important advantages were
thereby conferred on the inhabitants ? Did it not stimulate
their industry at home,—multiplying the necessaries, en
hancing the comforts, and superadding the most coveted
luxuries of life ? Engaging the services of art as the ally of
nature, did it not lead to such improvements of an origin
ally happy soil, as doubly to justify the poetic designation
of " Araby the blest ? " Did it not arouse the great mass
of the people to correspondent activities abroad—earning for
them a distinguished reputation for nautical enterprise, and
enabling them to plant and maintain flourishing colonies on
the most distant African shores ?
3
Or, casting our eyes northward, over the sandy skirts of
ancient Syria, do we not find the barren waste doing hom
age to the prolific bounty of the East ? Do we not find
the mere transit depot of Indian produce suddenly rise
into surpassing grandeur? Indian commerce found Pal
myra composed, as it were, of brick,—-but left it more pre
cious than marble. And, to this day, those ruins that
fill the traveller with amazement, if animated and vocal,
would cease not to proclaim,—Behold, these are but the
time-worn fragments of that wealth and magnificence which
dropped in the desert from the wings of Orient riches, on
their passage to the West !
Or, if we look westward, along the shores of the Mediter
ranean, do we not find the various tribes of Phenicia, though
only the seoondary conveyers of the merchandise of the East,
thereby raised into temporary prosperity and renown ? And
with the disappearance of that aggrandizing traffic, do we not
find all their glory vanish like a dream ? What enabled
Tyre, single-handed and unaided, to resist so successfully,
and so long, the mightiest assaults of the Macedonian con
queror? Chiefly the resources which it had accumulated
from its monopoly of the Indian trade. This could not
escape the eagle-eye of Alexander. Accordingly, on having
achieved the conquest of Egypt, he at once resolved,
through that country, to open a direct communication
with India ; and replace Tyre by a nobler emporium for
Eastern trade. Hence the origin and design of that
celebrated city, which still retains the name of its royal
founder. And when the conqueror, in his swift career,
reached the Indus with its tributaries, and had concluded,
in those days of geographical ignorance, that these were
none other than the feeding streams of the Nile, his
biographer, Arrian, expressly assures us, that the vast fleet
placed under the command of Nearchus, " was equipped for
the specific purpose of opening the direct intercourse be
tween India and Alexandria." So bent was the hero on
this favourite project, and such importance did he attach
to its success, that when, after weeks of intense anxiety, he
4
was at length suddenly relieved from all fear as to the
safety of his fleet, he hurst into tears, and exclaimed,—
" By the Lybian Ammon and the Grecian Jove, I swear
to thee, that I am made happier by this intelligence than
in being conqueror of Asia ; for I should have considered the
loss of my fleet, and the failure of the enterprise it has under
taken, as almost outweighing, in my mind, all the glory I have
acquired." The execution of his magnificent design he lived not
to witness. But under his immediate successors, Alexandria
soon became the channel of communication between Europe
and Eastern Asia. And recent though it was, and but of
yesterday, compared with the "hundred-gated Thebes,"
and other ancient cities, direct trade with India and the
East speedily raised it into such pre-eminence, that it
appeared to eclipse all else besides, even in a land so pro
digal of architectural wonders. Yea, when it ceased to
exercise sovereign power, and became politically dependent
on all-conquering Rome, it still maintained its proud posi
tion as the commercial capital of the Empire ;—while, in
opulence, splendour, and population, it bade fair to rival,
if not outrival, the Eternal City itself.
After the proud mistress of the world sunk into decrepi
tude and inanition, Arabia once more sprung up into more
than its original greatness. Its tribes, headed by a warriorprophet,
and inflamed with fanatical fury, speedily over
ran many of the fairest provinces of Europe, Asia, and
Africa,—gathering up the spoils and fragments of the
shattered Empire of the Cesars,—planting the Mahammadan
crescent in distant realms, which the Roman eagle
never knew. With the extension of their conquests were
re-developed those mercantile energies which distinguished
their forefathers. On almost every shore from the Straits
of Gibraltar to the extremity of the ultra-Gangetic Peninsula
were strongholds established, as posts for military aggres
sion, or depots for commercial enterprise.
The Moslem conquerors having usurped the dominion of
the Eastern and Western seas, and for several centuries
maintained an uncontrolled supremacy over them, the trade
5
of India, in all its boundless variety, became exclusively theirs.
Bagdad, their capital, started up at once, the Rome and the
Alexandria and the Athens of the East. Resistless in arms,
unrivalled in commerce, matchless in learning, it absorbed,
while it nourished, all power, all wealth, all wisdom. And
when its day began to decline, its commerce with India
and the East fringed the lengthening shadows of evening
with a halo of glory. That commerce had caused the sun
of its prosperity to shine with sevenfold greater splendour ;
and when it would have suddenly sunk in darkness, its
setting was protracted into a long and glowing twilight.
Year after year, did the balmy plains and aromatic groves
and pearly shores of India pour in their redundant stores,
to replenish the exhausted treasury of the Caliphate.
Year after year, did the Ganges, as it were, roll in another
and another wave to retard the final drying up of the
EuphratesWhen, .at length, the Mahammadan Empire was broken
up into divers independent principalities, Indian commerce,
instead of flowing in one all-comprehending channel, came
to be distributed among several lesser ones,—each deriving
therefrom the most important advantages. The vigorous
revival of the old branch of the trade by the Red Sea re
novated the decaying city of Alexandria. The new branch,
stretching along the great desert of Syria, restored to some
thing like primitive grandeur, some of its dilapidated cities.
The northern branch, by the Caspian and Black Sea, en
riched every country along the route ; and added fresh
lustre to the imperial city of Constantine.
Here we cannot but pause to notice in passing, that if
the regular commerce of India proved so uniformly advan
tageous to the nation that succeeded in engrossing it, the
occasional plunder of that fertile region proved not less so
to a succession of fierce and rapacious invaders. To single
one instance out of many that crowd into India's eventful
history, let us fix our eyes on Ghizni, a city of Afghanis
tan. Situate on the crest of a bleak mountain range,
the rigour of its climate, and the sterility of its soil, had
6
passed into a proverb. About the end of the tenth cen
tury it was still little more than " an encampment of migra
tory shepherds." But Fame brought to Mahmoud, its
ambitious ohieftain, the most extravagant reports of the
riches of India. In his fervent imagination it presented
itself as a land glittering all over with gems and gold.
In twelve successive expeditions he levelled its proudest
cities, and plundered its most venerated shrines,—return
ing in triumph to his mountain fastness, laden with spoil—spoils of pillage and sacrilege—spoils, vast beyond alsl
calculation—spoils, the accumulated treasures of ages !
What was the effect on Ghizni ? Its shepherd citizens in
stantly became nobles ; its leading warriors, princes. Its
miserable hamlets were turned into palaces; its humble
oratories into stately temples ;—and towering above them
all, in majesty and grandeur, the marble edifice, so richly
bedecked with the jewels and gold of India, that throughout
all the East it was long renowned as " The Celestial Bride."
Altogether, though perched aloft amid almost perpetual
frosts and barrenness, the naked fastness of Ghizni soon
outstripped in pomp and magnificence every other city of
Asia. The spoils of India at once transported to it the
arts and letters—the power and glory—of the Caliphate.
The spoils of India converted it into the seat of the most
brilliant court, and most powerful empire then in the world.
It seemed like the ancient Canouge, and Matura, and Tanasser,
and Samnat of the Indian heroic ages, blazing in con
centrated beauty and splendour, amid the snows of the In
dian Caucasus.
Hitherto the nations of Western Europe seem to have
had no share in the direct management of Indian com
merce ; and little or no participation in any of its fruits.
Too rude to be sensible of the wants so heavily felt in a
refined society, they were too ignorant to comprehend the
advantages of an international exchange of the products of
different climes.
7
From this torpor they were at length awakened by the
trumpet peal of fanaticism. In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, the crusading armies, bent on the famous pro
ject of recovering the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of
the Infidel hosts, scoured the eastern shores of the Mediter
ranean. These representatives of trans-Alpine barbarism
were thus brought into immediate contact with the com
parative civilization of the Saracenic empire. And while
the balmy climate of Asia mellowed their rough and hardy
temperament, they insensibly acquired a taste for luxuries
and enjoyments previously unknown. The jewels, the silks,
and the spiceries of India and the East, soon became objects
of the most intense attraction. Accordingly, when driven
from their short-lived conquests, they returned in scattered
and straggling bands, to their native land, they carried along
with them their newly acquired tastes, as well as the means
of partial gratification. The exhibition, on their return, of
sundry articles of Indian and other Oriental produce, at once
aroused the curiosity and inflamed the covetous desires of
their fellow-countrymen at home. But, how could foreign
commodities be obtained without having something equiva
lent to barter in exchange ? To create such an exchangeable
equivalent, labour must be expended beyond what is required
merely to secure the bare necessaries of life. To this addition
al labour, the people of the West were now greatly stimu
lated. The growing ambition to possess some share of the
envied riches and luxuries of the East, infused the spirit
of improvement into the varied operations of agriculture
and manufactures. And thus, to use the words of a modern
historian, " nations hitherto sunk in listless indolence, or
only roused from it when hunger urged them to the chase,
or their chiefs led them to the battle, acquired industry,
the only efficient and legitimate source of all other acquisi
tions, and of national prosperity.11
Singular subject for reflection ! That distant India, un
der the overruling providence of God, should thus have
proved one of the most direct and leading instruments in
communicating the first decided impulse to modern civiliza
s
tion in Western Europe ! But stranger still !—that distant
India should ever since have continued to prove one of the
most potent causes in accelerating the march of Western
civilization, till that civilization immensely outstripped its
own !—and thus helped in raising Europe to undisputed pre
eminence over all other quarters of the globe !
That this is no exaggeration, may be made to appear
from the briefest summary of the progress of events.
The steady advancement of general society in the West
created an extending demand for the varied products of the
East. But such increasing demand could no longer be
supplied by the precarious importations of disabled warriors,
or wandering pilgrims from the Holy Land. There must
now be some regular European channel of communication
with the East. And where could such channel, with a view
to the best local and maritime advantages, be more appro
priately opened than in the central peninsula of Italy?
Hence the rise of Genoa, Venice, and other cities which
strove for the trident that might command an exclusive
monopoly of Eastern trade. At length Venice out-peered
all her rivals. And was not the historic law, expressive of
the aggrandising influence of Indian commerce, true to it
self? How was it that Venice, poor and mean, feeble and
obscure, came to sit in state, " Throned on her hundred isles,
a ruler of the waters and their powers ? " How came she,
with her proud tiara of proud battlements, to have so many
a subject land looking to her " winged lion's marble piles ? "
How came she to be robed in purple, and so luxuriously
magnificent, that of
" Her feasMonarchs partook, and deemed their dignitytincreased ? "J
It was, to draw still from the same poetic but unhappy
genius,—it was, because the exhaustless East had
" Pour'd into her lap all gems in sparkling showers."
When the monopoly of Indian and other Eastern commerce
had made Venice thus to start, as by the wand of enchant
.0
ment, in beauty and brightness, from the bosom of the Ad
riatic,—challenging the admiration of Europe,—how could
her unbounded prosperity fail to excite general envy too?
Naturally and necessarily, were other communities incited to
sue for some share in her all-enriching trade. But how could
this be secured ? Hitherto, the great routes for the trans
ference of Indian produce lay along the Red Sea, the Eu
phrates, or the Caspian. The principal intermediate marts
were Alexandria, St Jean de Acre, or Constantinople. Over
these emporia Venice had acquired an almost unlimited
command. What, then, was to be done ? Why, there
seemed no alternative but to attempt to establish some new
line of communication with India. To compass this end, a
hundred schemes were now propounded, entertained, and
forsaken in swift and bewildering succession. Traveller
after traveller issued forth to reconnoitre and survey the
avenues to the Eastern World. And the marvellous reports
carried back, and circulated by some of them on their return,
tended still more to inflame the rage for discovery by sea
and land.
This new spirit of discovery,—affecting alike prince and
peasant, merchant and mariner,—found, about the beginning
of the fifteenth century, its most chivalrous head and cham
pion in Henry of Portugal. Deeply imbued with the char
acteristic zealotism of his age, and eminently distinguished
for those attainments in general science which enabled him
at once to project and superintend the most daring enter
prises, he summoned around him all the most skilful and
adventurous spirits in Christendom. The grand object of
his ambition was to find out some new passage to India,
that might supersede all the old routes already preoccupied.
To the prosecution of this object, he unweariedly devoted
the labour of his life ; and on it prodigally lavished the re
sources of his kingdom. And though he lived not to witness
its accomplishment, the valuable discoveries made by his
commanders along the coast of Africa encouraged his suc
cessors to follow, with unabated ardour, in his romantic
career.
10
It was to the furtherance of the same design that the
celebrated Columbus dedicated his life. The desire of dis
covering a new passage to India supplied the ruling motive :
an implicit belief in a geographical error chalked out his
course. By studying, as we are credibly informed, " Aris
totle's description of the world, and the tables of Ptolemy,
who extends the eastern parts of the Continent of Asia so
enormously as to bring it almost round to the western parts
of Europe and Africa, he very properly concluded (suppos
ing their descriptions to be correct, and they were then
universally received as such) that, instead of a long and
tedious voyage round the extremity of Africa, a much shorter
passage to India might be made by sailing directly west
from Europe." In undoubting confidence, as to the prac
ticability of this scheme, he eventually did set sail to the
West ; and stumbled unexpectedly on those islands, which
he fondly concluded to be the long-wished for land of
promise ; and which, from that erroneous impression, were
designated, and still bear the name of, " West Indies."
At length, the perseverance of the Portuguese monarchs
overcame all difficulties. In 1486, Diaz reached the most
southern extremity of Africa, giving it the significant appel
lation of " The Cape of Storms —a name which his sove
reign, overjoyed at the good hope which it held out of ulti
mate success, changed into the more auspicious one of " The
Cape of Good Hope."
In 1498, Vasco De Gama doubled the Cape, and made
good his landing at Calicut, the principal city on the Mala
bar, or western shore of the Indian Peninsula.
Next to the voyage which terminated in the discovery of
the American Continent,—if second even to that in its influ
ence over the destinies of man,—this was, beyond all debate,
the most important one that had ever been accomplished
since the world began. Of its successful issue, it has, with
out the slightest exaggeration, been remarked, that it " ef
fected a complete revolution in the commerce and policy of
all civilized nations." The doom of Venice, and other flour
ishing cities was at once sealed. The trade of India being
11
now diverted into a new channel, all their power and glory
evanished along with it ; and as these fell, the new mono
polist cities and nations must rise.
Gama's safe return to Lisbon, was hailed as the harbinger
of a new and glorious era. The city rung with transports
of joy. The inhabitants, concluding that the rich commerce
of India and the East was now secured to them, " proposed
nothing less than to become immediately, the first commercial
and maritime power in the world? And to crown all with
the inviolable sanction and ratification of heaven itself, a
bull from " God's vicegerent," conferred on the Portuguese
monarch the proud title of " Lord of the Navigation, Con
quests, and Trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India."
So long as Lisbon enjoyed the exclusive monopoly of In
dian commerce, she sat as queen among the cities of the
nations. But her days of glory were numbered too. One
century had scarcely run its course, when the emporium of
Eastern trade was transferred from Lisbon to Amsterdam.
Forthwith, the law of co-existent prosperity came into full
operation. The former sank in proportion as the latter
rose. When Portugal might almost be blotted out from
the map of independent sovereignties, Holland was enabled
to assume the rank of a first-rate power in the balance of
Europe.
Meanwhile, that nation, which was destined one day to
reap the largest harvest of fruit from India, and destined
also, we trust, to confer the largest amount of benefit in
return, was no unconcerned spectator. The spirit of indus
try and improvement, already partially awakened, received,
from the long and peaceful reign of Elizabeth, an accelerative
impetus, which opened for itself outlets—from Spitzbergen
to the Canary Isles in the Old World,—and from
Newfoundland to Brazil, in the New. In the case of
a nation thus predisposed for maritime discovery and bold
enterprise, the early brilliant successes of the Portuguese were
enough to set all into ferment and combustion,—inflaming
at once the cupidity and the fancy of a mercantile and ima
ginative people. Over the trade of India, all history and
11'
tradition had united in throwing the glare of a strange
and undefined magnificence. And all, from the monarch
on the throne down to the humblest citizen, were now
suddenly seized with a new and unwonted ardour,—a
restless, boundless, insatiable ambition to share in the gor
geous commerce of diamonds and pearls, embroideries and
perfume.
But how could this be obtained ? From priority of dis
covery and settlement, the Portuguese claimed an exclusive
right to the passage of the Cape ; and were determined, by
an appeal to arms, to vindicate and enforce their pretended
claim. What then was to be done ! Proclaim war against
Portugal ! No. England was not then prepared to pro
voke and defy so formidable a foe. What then ? Abandon
the pursuit of the golden prize ? No. The spirit that had
been raised was not partial, local, or isolated : it was not
the moving pulse of an individual or of a company : it was
not the animating breath of one particular rank or class.
It pervaded all classes, all ranks, and all districts of the
land. It had been so cherished and fed that no obstruc
tions could arrest its flow, and no blighting disappoint
ments extinguish its vitality. Pent up for a season, it only
gathered fresh materials for ignition and explosion. Im
patient of control, it at last broke forth. Is it asked, in
what direction? Let the narration of the wondrous series of
voyages that figure so conspicuously in the annals of the six
teenth century, furnish the reply ;—voyages, which all must
have read with the thrilling interest of romance,—voyages,
which added more to our knowledge of the surface of the
globe, than all that have since been undertaken,—voyages,
which threw fresh lustre round the name of Britain ; and
helped to train and discipline her sons for afterwards wield
ing the sceptre of the ocean ! For, what was the leading
and most prominent object of them all ? Is it not memor
able?—Is it not worthy of everlasting remembrance, that
they all had for their grand, and almost exclusive object, the
discovery of some new passage to India ?—some new channel
through which the stream of wealth from that never-failing
1:3
fountain, might, without let or hindrance from the Crown
of Portugal, flow in direct upon the British Isles.
Why, in the time of Henry VIII. (1527,) were two at
tempts made to double, by the north-west, the American
continent? It was to open up, if possible, a pathway of
communication with India, that might be undisputed by the
jealousy of the Portuguese, and wholly independent of their
exclusive pretensions to the passage of the Cape. When
these first attempts failed, what was it, in the reign of Ed
ward VI., that led an adventurous squadron along the coasts
of Norway, and Russian Lapland, as far as the harbour of
Archangel ? It was the anticipation of realizing, by the
north-east, those dazzling prospects which the north-weshInaddiare!fusNeodtwtoityhisetldandiIntg wtahse tchaelaemaigteorusdeissisruee ooff raenacehxipnetg
dition in which almost all who had embarked, perished
miserably amid cold and famine, what led to renewed efforts
in the same direction, in the face of perils and of deaths ? It
was the ardent hope of being able to effect a north-east
passage to India ! And when the frozen barriers of the
Northern seas could not be forced, what led to the bold pro
ject of preparing a highway of three or four thousand
miles across Russia by the Caspian ? It was still the in
extinguishable ambition to grasp the riches of India !
The whole of these north-eastern schemes having failed,
what turned the attention of private adventurers, and of
government itself, a second time, to the north-west ? What
prompted Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and other intrepid
commanders, to make those discoveries which have enstamped
their names on all the creeks, and straits, and gulphs, and
bays of Greenland and Labrador ? It was the unconquerable
wish to effect a landing on the wealthy shores of India !
All these persevering efforts, so far as the main object was
concerned, having been signally crowned with disaster and
defeat, were the ardours of the national mind cooled, its
energies crushed, its hopes annihilated I No : the original
taste and desire had grown into an insatiable craving—a
universal passion—which nought but the actual possession
14
of the coveted prize could gratify or assuage. Baffled in
all these enterprises, the longing of the national mind is still
unquenched. Where can it find for itself another outlet ?
Let the new and splendid series of voyages to the south
western hemisphere furnish the reply. Hemmed in by the
impassable barrier of the Northern Ocean ; scared away by
the trackless deserts of Central Asia ; debarred, by a threat
ened appeal to arms, from attempting a south-east passage
by the Cape ;—they next conceived the bold idea of endea
vouring to compass the grand design by the south-west,
around the extremity of the American continent. For,
what mainly led to the celebrated voyages of Drake and
Cavendish, who circumnavigated the globe,—discovering new
regions, " the stateliness and riches of which they feared to
make report of, lest they should not be credited,'1—and caus
ing the whole kingdom, on their return, to ring with songs
of applause ? It was to obtain for their country a share of
that aggrandizing traffic with India and the East, the
Portuguese monopoly of which so long continued to be the
envy of all Europe.
Without pursuing the subject any farther, we may conclude
with some corroborative remarks by the historian of British
India. " The tide of maritime adventure," says he, " which
these splendid voyages were so calculated to swell, flowed
naturally towards India, by reason of its fancied opulence,
and the prevailing passion for the commodities of the East.
The impatience of our countrymen had already engaged
them in a circuitous traffic with that part of the globe.
They sailed to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea,
where they found cargoes of Indian goods conveyed over
land ; and a mercantile company, denominated the Levant
Company, was instituted, according to the policy of the age,
to secure to the nation the advantages of so important a
commerce.11 Accidental causes, we are told, also " contribut
ed to enliven the admiration excited by the Indian trade."
Amongst these was the capture of some of the largest of the
Portuguese merchant vessels, laden with " spices, calicoes,
silks, gold, pearls, porcelain, ebony," &c. ;—the value of
15
which " inflamed the imagination of the merchants, and sti
mulated the impatience of the English generally to be en
gaged in so opulent a commerce."
While " the general current of enterprise now ran so ve
hemently toward India," and the English, for fear of the
Portuguese, still " fluctuated between desire and execution,
the Dutch, in 1595, boldly sent out four ships to trade with
India, by the Cape of Good Hope. This exploit added fuel
at once to the jealousy and the ambition of the English.'1
In 1599, accordingly, an association was formed—funds
were subscribed to a considerable amount—the Queen was
petitioned for a warrant to fit out three ships, and also for a
royal charter of privileges. After some delay, towards the
end of 1 600, the first charter was obtained ; and in May,
the following year, the first fleet of the East India Company
set sail for India, direct by the Cape of Good Hope. As
the result of a series of vicissitudes unexampled in the
history of the world, not only did the commerce but the ter
ritory of India fall into the hands of British merchants.
And has not the historic law, by which prosperity has been
ever found coincident with the exclusive possession of the re
sources of India, been eminently verified and realized in the
case of Britain ? Oh that British rulers and British subjects
felt the responsibility which the briefest retrospect of the past
must attach to our uncontrolled supremacy over Indian ter
ritory and Indian commerce ! From a view of that grand
historic law, which has hitherto proved uniform and uni
versal in its operation for the last three thousand years,
may we not, as patriots, well contemplate with solemn awe,
the day that shall sever India from Britain, and transfer
the stewardship thereof into other hands ? For if, weighed
in the balance on that day, we shall have been found wanting
in our national management of so sublime a trust, what can
we expect from the analogy of the past, but to see the sun
of Britain set,—to rise no more for ever ?
Thus great and paramount has been the influence which
16
India has successively exerted on the prosperity of different
nations of the West :—and proportionally great, sustained,
and long continued, has been the mercenary interest excited
in its behalf, on account of the prodigious worldly advan
tages which, for ages, have been reaped from it. But India
has, at different times, awakened towards itself a peculiarly
vivid interest, on grounds wholly, or in great part, uncon
nected with mercenary ends,—an interest varied and dis
tinguished in its character, according to the nature of the
objects that called it forth.
In glancing over the past, we may thus mark three dis
tinctive eras or epochs, of peculiar interest in India. There
is first what may be termed, The era of romantic imagina
tive interest. Secondly, The era of romantic literary inte
rest. Thirdly, Tho era of vivid religious interest. These
have been successive ; and in the arrangements of an allwise
Providence, manifestly preparatory one for the other.
The era of romantic interest commenced long before the
successful voyage of Vasco De Gama. The truth is, that it
must be traced to the times of the Crusades ; and will be
found, amid various ebbings and Sowings, to extend itself
through many centuries. The spirit of the Crusades had
never died. Having been deprived of its primary object, it
soon fabricated or formed to itself another ;—and then mani
fested itself, as a new apparition, under the form and garb
of the spirit of chivalry. Deprived a second time of its lead
ing object, by the breaking down of the system of feudalism,
it might seem that the spirit of chivalry, which was essen
tially the spirit of the Crusades, must be extinguished. But
it was not so. The spirit still fraught with vitality only
lapsed into a state of dormancy. Its smouldering embers
were ready to blaze forth the instant that new fuel was sup
plied by the presence of a proper object or exciting cause.
That object at length presented itself. India, bursting upon
the view in all its novelty and splendour, was enough to feed
and fan into a flame the slumbering fires of a less romantic
and sentimental age. To discover a new inlet to that fair
est of the regions of the East, became a raging passion
17
with the leading nations of Europe. In this pursuit, the
spirit of the Crusades—the spirit of chivalry—the spirit of
romance—found a new and appropriate object. It then
immediately reappeared, though now metamorphosed into
the restless and daring spirit of foreign adventure and
maritime discovery.
The Portuguese,—saturated with the spirit of the age,
and inflamed with the swelling reports of tradition and
of distant fame,—sallied forth, prepared not for novelties
merely :—they really expected, and were resolved to meet
with wonders. And, in the absence of real wonders, such
was the fervour of their enthusiasm, that it would have
thrown the most brilliant colouring over the tamest scenes,
—magnifying the most ordinary and commonplace into
the marvellous,—converting every field into a garden of
delights, every rock into a mountain of gold, and every
valley into Elysian bowers. What, then, must have been
the effect on such ardent, chivalrous, and romantic spirits,
when they found, or imagined they found, the ideal pictures
actually eclipsed by the tangible and the visible !—When,
even on their glowing fancies, the reality burst in a blaze
of unexpected splendour ? Around them were strewn the
most stupendous monuments of art—tombs and templespalaces and towers—that seemed tq bespeak an age whe—n
genii and demigods were denizens of earth, and compeers
of mortal man. Before them, too, and on every side, nature
flung forth her stores with a prolific bounty, utterly un
known in northern climes. To say that they were filled
with amazement and surprise, is to say little. The impres
sion was altogether overpowering. From that time the very
name of India became throughout Europe the symbol and
representative of all that is great, glorious, and magnificent,
in the products of nature and of art,—unsealing to the ro
mancer and the poet, a never-failing fount of imagery, which,
blending with the flowers of Parnassus and the gentle
ripplings of Helicon, has been woven into the richest dra
pery of modern song.
Actuated by such feelings, and entranced hy such pro-
B
18
spects, need we wonder that the Court of Portugal and its
emissaries in the East were at first heartily disposed to treat
even Indian commerce as comparatively of secondary moment.
In the acquisition and retention of that monopoly, on ac
count of its manifold advantages, they indeed gloried. But
it was not enough. In itself cold and dry, artificial and
systematic, tame and prosaic, it could not satisfy the warm
and generous, but bold and flighty spirits of a poetical age.
For these, more appropriate objects must be found. Nor
were such objects long wanting. Soon did the presiding
genius of the heroes of the tournament, and the enchanted
castle, and the holy sepulchre, break forth on the shores of
India, in a passion for adventure, and conquest, and mili
tary glory. Burning with enthusiastic ardour, they rushed
on from victory to victory. In feats of daring and prodi
gies of valour, they seemed resolved to outrival the knights
errant of bygone times. City after city, and kingdom after
kingdom, lay prostrate at their feet. Princes were de
throned, and subjects raised to royal dominion, at their
good pleasure. The pomp and pageantry of triumphs, like
those of ancient Rome, were revived,—triumphs in which
were strangely blended the ferocity and tenderness, the ge
nerosity and savage pride, that so peculiarly characterized
the age of chivalry,—triumphs which gave rise to the splen
did eulogium of their own historian,—" The trophies of our
victories are not bruised helmets and warlike engines hung
on the trees of the mountains ; but cities, islands, and king
doms, first humbled under our feet, and then joyfully wor
shipping our government."
The glow of romantic interest which the reports and
earlier achievements of the Portuguese threw over India,
was, if possible, heightened by the vivid representations of
the first French and English adventurers. These, it is true,
went forth, chiefly for the promotion of mercenary ends ;
but not without being imbued with a portion of the excited
spirit of the age. All previous accounts they were enabled to
confirm ; and, in some cases, vastly to exceed. The bright
est visions that ever floated before the fancy of poetic
19
dreamers in the West, seemed more than verified in the real
magnificence of the court of the Great Mogul—the most
splendid by far that ever dazzled the eyes of man.
From a multitude of details, let us select a few, merely
as specimens.
Here is the portraiture given by Sir T. Roe, the English
ambassador, of the personal appearance of the emperor.
He represents him, on his birth-day, as " sitting crosslegged,
on a little throne, all covered with diamonds, pearls,
and rubies ; before him, a table of burnished gold, and on
it about fifty pieces of gold plate, all set with jewels, some
very large, and extremely rich ; his sword and buckler en
tirely covered with diamonds and rubies, and his belt of
gold, suitably adorned ; his rich turban decorated with
lofty heron's feathers ; on one side, pendant, a ruby unset,
as big as a walnut ; on the other side, a diamond as large ;
in the middle, an emerald, still larger, in the form of a
heart ; his staff, wound about with a chain of great pearls,
rubies, and diamonds, drilled ; round his neck, a chain of
three strings, of most excellent pearl, suspended ; his arms
and wrists glittering with diamond bracelets ; and on each
finger, a ring of inestimable value."
To this account of the personal ornaments of the sovereign,
may well be subjoined Tavernier1s minute description of his
imperial thrones. " The Great Mogul," says he, " has seven
thrones, some set all over with diamonds ; others, with rubies
emeralds, and pearls. But the largest or peacock throne is
set up in the hall of the first court of the palace. It is, in
form, like one of our field beds, six feet long, and four broad.
I counted about a hundred and eight pale rubies in callets
about that throne, the least whereof weighed a hundred
carats ; but there are some that weigh two hundred. Em
eralds I counted about a hundred and forty, that weighed,
some three score, some thirty, carats. The under part of
the canopy is all embroidered with pearls and diamonds,
with a fringe of pearls round about. Upon the top of the
canopy, which is made like an arch, with four panes, stands
a peacock, with his tail spread, consisting entirely of sap
so
phires and other proper coloured stones ; the body is of
beaten gold, enchased with several jewels ; and a great
ruby adorns his breast, to which hangs a pearl that weighs
fifty carats. On each side of the peacock stand two nose
gays as high as the bird, consisting of various sorts of flowers,
all of beaten gold enamelled. When the king seats himself
upon the throne, there is a transparent jewel, with a diamond
appendant, of eighty or ninety carats weight, encompassed
with rubies and emeralds, so hung that it is always in his
eye. The twelve pillars also that uphold the canopy, are
set with rows of fair pearls, round and of an excellent water,
that weigh from six to ten carats a piece. At the distance
of four feet upon each side of the throne, are placed um
brellas, the handles of which are about eight feet high, co
vered with diamonds ; the umbrellas themselves being of
crimson velvet, embroidered and fringed with pearl. This
is the famous throne which Timur began, and Shah Jehan
finished ; and is really reported to have cost a hundred and
sixty millions, and five hundred thousand livres of our
money. Besides this stately and magnificent throne, there
is another of an oval form, seven feet long, and five broad.
The outside of it shines all over with diamonds and pearls ;
but there is no canopy over it. The five other thrones are
erected in a magnificent hall, in a different court, entirely
covered with diamonds, without any coloured stone."
Here is a single throne, estimated at a sum of money
so large, that,—if all the chapels, and churches, and cathe
drals in Scotland were swallowed up by an earthquake,—a
mere fraction of its value, after being reduced to the lowest
reasonable amount, would more than suffice to rebuild them
all, and replenish them with all needful furniture ! Who,
after this, can charge Milton's language with hyperbole,
when he so happily pourtrays " the gorgeous East" as
having
" Shower'd o'er her kings, barbaric pearl and gold ? "
Rather, who will not be ready to admit that the hyper
bole of the great poet, however graphic, scarcely conveys
21
an adequate picture of the reality, as minutely described
in prose ?
Having seen the Mogul in his palace, let us catch a pass
ing glimpse of him in his outward movements. When he
rode forth to take the field, it was amid a thousand ele
phants, not only richly caparisoned in gilded trappings, but
having their heads splendidly adorned with precious jewels.
When his encampment was spread over the plains, the royal
tents, and those of the great omrahs or nobles, assuming
every conceivable form of elegance and beauty, shone re
splendent with the most varied and brilliant colours. " It
was," says Sir T. Roe, " one of the greatest rarities and
magnificences I ever beheld." The whole appeared to re
semble a vast city of surpassing beauty and splendour sud
denly summoned into being by the spell of a Magician ; and
realizing the wonders of Aladdin's lamp, and the other talis
man ic powers of the Arabian Nights.
Need we wonder that accounts like these, and others
equally authentic and astonishing, were calculated to
heighten and perpetuate the romantic interest in India?
Need we wonder that, at the same time, they tended to in
flame the cupidity and avarice of the European world ?
Need we wonder that the commercial and mercenary spirit
began to develope itself with mightier and more wide-spread
energy than ever ? Or need we wonder at the long pro
tracted struggle that ensued, for ascendency in power, and
monopoly in commerce, among the leading nations of the
West?
The history of this struggle is itself a species of romance.
Who can peruse the exciting narrative of embassies, and
stratagems, and sieges, and battles, which terminated in
what has been justly styled the most extraordinary of all
historical phenomena,—" the subjection of the millions of In
dia, and the expulsion of other Europeans from its shores,
by a mere handful of British,"—without being filled with as
tonishment and surprise ? Of a series of events so vast and
complicated, it is not possible to furnish even a sketch. But
we may glance at the result. A region of Asia, equal in est
22
tent to the whole of Europe, (exclusive of Russia,) with a po
pulation of more than one hundred and thirty millions,—all of
them being " aliens in blood, language, and religion ; v and
many consisting of warlike tribes, so gallant and so brave,
as to have again and again successfully repelled the com
bined hosts of the Moslem conquerors, with a heroism not
unworthy of the best sons of Greece :—this vast region, with
its myriads of inhabitants, situate, by the ordinary route,
at a distance exceeding half the globe's circumference, has,
to its uttermost borders, been subjected to the uncontrolled
dominion of British sway ! And how many British-born
subjects are dispersed over so immense a territory,—
exercising government,—preserving peace,—administering
justice,—and regulating the multiplied relationships, internal
and external, of almost as many " peoples, and nations, and
languages" as composed the Babylonian empire in the zenith
of its glory ? Are there as many as may be congregated
within a few square miles, in a single city, such as London ?
No ; including all governors, and judges, and magistrates—
all military officers and common soldiers—all merchants and
other uncovenanted residents whatsoever—there are not, in
all India, so wide in extent and so densely peopled, above
forty thousand British !—not as many British, as there are
inhabitants in any one of the third or fourth rate towns or
counties of the United Kingdom !—not as many British as
there are inhabitants in the single town of Dundee, or the
single county of Banff ! And yet, so absolute and undisputed
is the supremacy of the British sceptre—so regular and per
fect the organization of the British power ;—that one Bri
tish-born subject, under the designation of Governor-Genera—who may never have trodden on the Indian soil—mayl
embark on board a vessel in the Thames,—traverse fifteen
thousand miles of ocean,—land at the mouth of the Ganges,
—proceed along that mighty stream as far as Dover is
from Gibraltar,—perch himself on one of the peaks of the
Himalaya in Central Asia ;—and there, by a single word of
his mouth, or a single stroke of his pen, as by the waving
of the wand of an omnipotent Enchanter, set all the teeming
23
millions of India in motion ! Can the whole annals of time
furnish any thing parallel to this ? If not ; ought we not
at once to conclude that Divine Providence has had some
grand design in view, which it becomes us humbly to scan,
and devoutly to prosecute i
It was not, as has been remarked, " till the British power
had been settled on a basis that promised to be lasting, that
the original conception of that distant land, as an Eldorado,
and a country of enchantment, was completely broken. The
regular intercourse with Europe which then ensued, and the
formal routine of a European government on the soil of In
dia, seemed to break the spell for ever."
But no sooner had the era of romantic imaginative in
terest closed, than a new era—even that of romantic literary
interest—began to dawn. More strictly perhaps it may be
said, that a total change of circumstances led, not to an ex
tinguishment of the spirit of romance, but to a total change
in the objects towards which it was directed. It would
seem as if the spirit of the Crusades—the spirit of chivalry
—the spirit of strange adventure—the spirit that incited
to conquest and military glory—the spirit that regaled
itself amid airy halls and golden palaces ; it would seem
as if the same romantic spirit had been transferred to the
discovery of new worlds, and the conquest of new realms,
and the excavation of new treasures from the unexplored
mines of Oriental literature.
This new direction of the romantic interest, which Europe
had so long felt in India, has been thus happily described
by the North American Review:—"When the British power
was substantially established, there was a call for other accom
plishments than those of the factory and the counting-house.
The creation of civil offices, brought from England men of
parts and education ; who, though far superior to the explod
ed errors, were full of curiosity and sanguine expectation
with regard to the antiquities of Hindustan, its language,
history, and scientific culture. Sanskrit learning was a vir-
4
24
gin mine ; and it would have been a prodigy, if those who
first explored it had escaped intoxication from its vapours.
The real magnificence of that venerable tongue, was enough
to disturb the equilibrium of the judgment ; its obvious affi
nity with the Western languages, seemed to enhance its
value ; the thirst for strange acquirements, and the ardour
of discovery, made wise men credulous ; Greek and Roman
learning was disparaged in comparison with the lore of
India. A taste was formed for the gigantic beauties of
Sanskrit archaeology. Cycles of hundreds of thousands of
years, instead of exciting laughter, commanded admiration.
The Mosaic chronology looked very small beside such colos
sal epochs : Men began to imagine that a flood of light was
to be shed upon the world from the marshes of Bengal.
Their exaggerated statements were greedily seized upon by
European infidels : What delusion began in India, impos
ture promoted in France ; and as the ' new philosophy '
was predominant in Europe, it was soon a law of fashion to
believe that the world was a million years of age ; and the
passion for Hindu history and science became an epidemic.
The chronological imposture soon met with its quietus ; but
the literary phrenzy lived a little longer. The only correc
tive was increase of knowledge. Sir William Jones began
his career in India with strong prepossessions in favour of
Sanskrit learning ; but his previous acquirements were so
various and extensive as to save him from infection. His
own progress in Indian literature was wonderfully rapid ;
and the Asiatic Society, of which he was the founder,
brought the whole field, in a short time, under actual culti
vation. Before this process the delusion could not stand.
The religion of the Brahmans was divested of its finery, and
exposed in filthy ugliness ; while Sanskrit literature took its
proper place as the growth of an ignorant and imaginative
age, with the usual faults and merits which accompany such
a pedigree. Half a century ago, men were mad with the
idea, that the Sanskrit reservoir was to water all the world,—
sweeping away the Scriptures and the Church of Christ,—
putting back the origin of time by millions of years,—and
swallowing up the poetry and science of the West in its own
stupendous vortex of sublimity and wisdom ! Where is this
notion now ? Buried so deep, that few believe it could ever
have existed ! And thus has its final death-blow been given
to the romance of Hindustan—and the illusory charm which
once invested it seems gone for ever."
As far back as thirty years ago, the Edinburgh Re
view distinctly sounded the necessity for a retreat from
the regions of Oriental literary romance. Half in jest, we
presume, and half in earnest, it thus announced its oracular
deliverance :—" Situated as things are, we really consider a
judicious limitation of an impertinent inquisitiveness about
Hindu antiquities and similar topics, extremely salutary
and reasonable. For, to bring the matter at once to a
practical issue, would an accurate translation of the Puranas
in the least curb the ambition of Buonaparte ? What
effect would the most profound commentary on the Veda
have, in procuring for the nation a wise, a strong, and an
energetic ministry ? Would the price of candles be sensibly
reduced by the most luminous disquisition on the Hindu
Triad ? If the French intercept our teas and muslins, and
carry them into the Mauritius, will the ladies thank us
for importing an old-fashioned assortment of antediluvian
metaphysics ? ™
But, as the era of romantic literary interest began to
wane, the era of vivid religious interest began to emerge, in
splendour from the shadowy twilight of a long protracted
dawn. And was it not for the manifestation of this brighter
era and the realization of its promised blessings, that all
else which preceded it was overruled by Divine Providence
as subservient and preparatory? Can it be that a power
so tremendous over an empire so vast and a people so count
less, has been placed in the hands of a few Britons for no
higher end than that of enabling them to gratify their am
bition, their avarice, their vain-glorious tastes, and lawless
appetites? No. Reason, philosophy, sound theism, Reve
26
lation ;—all must unite in repelling the insinuation, as
not lees dishonourable than false. Whatever man may
think, He who guides the course of providence, with whom
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day, has respect to the everlasting covenant,—the mercies of
which are sure; and the privileges of which shall one day be
extended to all the kindreds of the nations. The march of
His dispensations may appear slow, and their developement
obscure, to a creature like man whose term of being is so
swiftly run out, and whose power of vision is so feeble and so
faint ;—nevertheless there is a progress that is stedfast,
a developement that is clearly denned ;—and there shall be a
glorious consummation. The decree hath gone forth—and
who can stay its execution ?—that India shall be the Lord1s ;
—that Asia shall be the Lord's ;—yea, that all the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and
the vast Indian literature)
Connected, however,
with all such changes, there is one fact that stands out in
singular prominence, challenging the attention of the pa-
' triot, the statesman, and the Christian philanthropist. It
is a fact, too, so uniform and characteristic, that it may
well be entitled to rank as an historic law. The fact is
this:—that whatever city or nation has, in the lapse of
past ages, held in its hands the keys of Indian commerce
and Indian influence, that city or nation has, for the time
being, stood forth in the van of the civilized world as the
richest and most flourishing.
Announcement of the grand historic fact or law of the para
mount influence of India on the Western Nations—Proofs and il
lustrations of this fact— The Peninsula of Arabia—Palmyra—
Tyre—Alexandria—Bagdad— Ghizni— The Crusades open up
Eastern Asia to Western Europe— Venice—Attempts to discover
a new passage to India—Henry of Portugal—Columbus— Vasco
de Gatna doubles the Cape—Effect of this discovery—Lisbon—
Amsterdam—Splendid series of English voyages, with the view of
reaching India— The final supremacy of Britain—Three distinct
eras or epochs ofpeculiar interest in behalf of India—The era of
romantic imaginative interest— The era of romantic literary in
terest—The era of vivid religious interest—Designs of Providence
in subjecting India to Britain—Glance at the remarkable series
ofevents which have thrown all India open as afieldfor Missionary
enterprise—Analogy between the condition of the Roman empire
at the commencement of the Christian era, and the present position
of India—Argument and appeal founded on this, in behalf of the
spread of the Gospel.
For the last three thousand years has India, unexhausted
and inexhaustible, been pouring an uninterrupted stream
of opulence upon the Western World.
A
2
During that long period, measuring half the duration of
the globe, the intermediate points of communication be
tween the East and the West, have changed with the rise
and fall of mighty cities and empires. Connected, however,
with all such changes, there is one fact that stands out in
singular prominence, challenging the attention of the pa-
' triot, the statesman, and the Christian philanthropist. It
is a fact, too, so uniform and characteristic, that it may
well be entitled to rank as an historic law. The fact is
this:—that whatever city or nation has, in the lapse of
past ages, held in its hands the keys of Indian commerce
and Indian influence, that city or nation has, for the time
being, stood forth in the van of the civilized world as the
richest and most flourishing. Indeed, the temporary mono
poly of Indian trade has rescued even petty states from
obscurity ; and raised them to a height of greatness, and
wealth, and power, vastly incommensurate with their na
tural resources. Some of the most famous cities of anti
quity it may be said to have literally created. With the
first possession of it, they suddenly sprang to their meridian
of glory ; and with its departure, they as rapidly sunk into
the dark night of oblivion.
The southern peninsula of Arabia, projecting as it does
like an isthmus between the East and the West, seems, from
the earliest times, to have enjoyed, on a great scale, the full
benefit of Indian commerce. And is it not matter of his
toric record, that the most important advantages were
thereby conferred on the inhabitants ? Did it not stimulate
their industry at home,—multiplying the necessaries, en
hancing the comforts, and superadding the most coveted
luxuries of life ? Engaging the services of art as the ally of
nature, did it not lead to such improvements of an origin
ally happy soil, as doubly to justify the poetic designation
of " Araby the blest ? " Did it not arouse the great mass
of the people to correspondent activities abroad—earning for
them a distinguished reputation for nautical enterprise, and
enabling them to plant and maintain flourishing colonies on
the most distant African shores ?
3
Or, casting our eyes northward, over the sandy skirts of
ancient Syria, do we not find the barren waste doing hom
age to the prolific bounty of the East ? Do we not find
the mere transit depot of Indian produce suddenly rise
into surpassing grandeur? Indian commerce found Pal
myra composed, as it were, of brick,—-but left it more pre
cious than marble. And, to this day, those ruins that
fill the traveller with amazement, if animated and vocal,
would cease not to proclaim,—Behold, these are but the
time-worn fragments of that wealth and magnificence which
dropped in the desert from the wings of Orient riches, on
their passage to the West !
Or, if we look westward, along the shores of the Mediter
ranean, do we not find the various tribes of Phenicia, though
only the seoondary conveyers of the merchandise of the East,
thereby raised into temporary prosperity and renown ? And
with the disappearance of that aggrandizing traffic, do we not
find all their glory vanish like a dream ? What enabled
Tyre, single-handed and unaided, to resist so successfully,
and so long, the mightiest assaults of the Macedonian con
queror? Chiefly the resources which it had accumulated
from its monopoly of the Indian trade. This could not
escape the eagle-eye of Alexander. Accordingly, on having
achieved the conquest of Egypt, he at once resolved,
through that country, to open a direct communication
with India ; and replace Tyre by a nobler emporium for
Eastern trade. Hence the origin and design of that
celebrated city, which still retains the name of its royal
founder. And when the conqueror, in his swift career,
reached the Indus with its tributaries, and had concluded,
in those days of geographical ignorance, that these were
none other than the feeding streams of the Nile, his
biographer, Arrian, expressly assures us, that the vast fleet
placed under the command of Nearchus, " was equipped for
the specific purpose of opening the direct intercourse be
tween India and Alexandria." So bent was the hero on
this favourite project, and such importance did he attach
to its success, that when, after weeks of intense anxiety, he
4
was at length suddenly relieved from all fear as to the
safety of his fleet, he hurst into tears, and exclaimed,—
" By the Lybian Ammon and the Grecian Jove, I swear
to thee, that I am made happier by this intelligence than
in being conqueror of Asia ; for I should have considered the
loss of my fleet, and the failure of the enterprise it has under
taken, as almost outweighing, in my mind, all the glory I have
acquired." The execution of his magnificent design he lived not
to witness. But under his immediate successors, Alexandria
soon became the channel of communication between Europe
and Eastern Asia. And recent though it was, and but of
yesterday, compared with the "hundred-gated Thebes,"
and other ancient cities, direct trade with India and the
East speedily raised it into such pre-eminence, that it
appeared to eclipse all else besides, even in a land so pro
digal of architectural wonders. Yea, when it ceased to
exercise sovereign power, and became politically dependent
on all-conquering Rome, it still maintained its proud posi
tion as the commercial capital of the Empire ;—while, in
opulence, splendour, and population, it bade fair to rival,
if not outrival, the Eternal City itself.
After the proud mistress of the world sunk into decrepi
tude and inanition, Arabia once more sprung up into more
than its original greatness. Its tribes, headed by a warriorprophet,
and inflamed with fanatical fury, speedily over
ran many of the fairest provinces of Europe, Asia, and
Africa,—gathering up the spoils and fragments of the
shattered Empire of the Cesars,—planting the Mahammadan
crescent in distant realms, which the Roman eagle
never knew. With the extension of their conquests were
re-developed those mercantile energies which distinguished
their forefathers. On almost every shore from the Straits
of Gibraltar to the extremity of the ultra-Gangetic Peninsula
were strongholds established, as posts for military aggres
sion, or depots for commercial enterprise.
The Moslem conquerors having usurped the dominion of
the Eastern and Western seas, and for several centuries
maintained an uncontrolled supremacy over them, the trade
5
of India, in all its boundless variety, became exclusively theirs.
Bagdad, their capital, started up at once, the Rome and the
Alexandria and the Athens of the East. Resistless in arms,
unrivalled in commerce, matchless in learning, it absorbed,
while it nourished, all power, all wealth, all wisdom. And
when its day began to decline, its commerce with India
and the East fringed the lengthening shadows of evening
with a halo of glory. That commerce had caused the sun
of its prosperity to shine with sevenfold greater splendour ;
and when it would have suddenly sunk in darkness, its
setting was protracted into a long and glowing twilight.
Year after year, did the balmy plains and aromatic groves
and pearly shores of India pour in their redundant stores,
to replenish the exhausted treasury of the Caliphate.
Year after year, did the Ganges, as it were, roll in another
and another wave to retard the final drying up of the
EuphratesWhen, .at length, the Mahammadan Empire was broken
up into divers independent principalities, Indian commerce,
instead of flowing in one all-comprehending channel, came
to be distributed among several lesser ones,—each deriving
therefrom the most important advantages. The vigorous
revival of the old branch of the trade by the Red Sea re
novated the decaying city of Alexandria. The new branch,
stretching along the great desert of Syria, restored to some
thing like primitive grandeur, some of its dilapidated cities.
The northern branch, by the Caspian and Black Sea, en
riched every country along the route ; and added fresh
lustre to the imperial city of Constantine.
Here we cannot but pause to notice in passing, that if
the regular commerce of India proved so uniformly advan
tageous to the nation that succeeded in engrossing it, the
occasional plunder of that fertile region proved not less so
to a succession of fierce and rapacious invaders. To single
one instance out of many that crowd into India's eventful
history, let us fix our eyes on Ghizni, a city of Afghanis
tan. Situate on the crest of a bleak mountain range,
the rigour of its climate, and the sterility of its soil, had
6
passed into a proverb. About the end of the tenth cen
tury it was still little more than " an encampment of migra
tory shepherds." But Fame brought to Mahmoud, its
ambitious ohieftain, the most extravagant reports of the
riches of India. In his fervent imagination it presented
itself as a land glittering all over with gems and gold.
In twelve successive expeditions he levelled its proudest
cities, and plundered its most venerated shrines,—return
ing in triumph to his mountain fastness, laden with spoil—spoils of pillage and sacrilege—spoils, vast beyond alsl
calculation—spoils, the accumulated treasures of ages !
What was the effect on Ghizni ? Its shepherd citizens in
stantly became nobles ; its leading warriors, princes. Its
miserable hamlets were turned into palaces; its humble
oratories into stately temples ;—and towering above them
all, in majesty and grandeur, the marble edifice, so richly
bedecked with the jewels and gold of India, that throughout
all the East it was long renowned as " The Celestial Bride."
Altogether, though perched aloft amid almost perpetual
frosts and barrenness, the naked fastness of Ghizni soon
outstripped in pomp and magnificence every other city of
Asia. The spoils of India at once transported to it the
arts and letters—the power and glory—of the Caliphate.
The spoils of India converted it into the seat of the most
brilliant court, and most powerful empire then in the world.
It seemed like the ancient Canouge, and Matura, and Tanasser,
and Samnat of the Indian heroic ages, blazing in con
centrated beauty and splendour, amid the snows of the In
dian Caucasus.
Hitherto the nations of Western Europe seem to have
had no share in the direct management of Indian com
merce ; and little or no participation in any of its fruits.
Too rude to be sensible of the wants so heavily felt in a
refined society, they were too ignorant to comprehend the
advantages of an international exchange of the products of
different climes.
7
From this torpor they were at length awakened by the
trumpet peal of fanaticism. In the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, the crusading armies, bent on the famous pro
ject of recovering the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of
the Infidel hosts, scoured the eastern shores of the Mediter
ranean. These representatives of trans-Alpine barbarism
were thus brought into immediate contact with the com
parative civilization of the Saracenic empire. And while
the balmy climate of Asia mellowed their rough and hardy
temperament, they insensibly acquired a taste for luxuries
and enjoyments previously unknown. The jewels, the silks,
and the spiceries of India and the East, soon became objects
of the most intense attraction. Accordingly, when driven
from their short-lived conquests, they returned in scattered
and straggling bands, to their native land, they carried along
with them their newly acquired tastes, as well as the means
of partial gratification. The exhibition, on their return, of
sundry articles of Indian and other Oriental produce, at once
aroused the curiosity and inflamed the covetous desires of
their fellow-countrymen at home. But, how could foreign
commodities be obtained without having something equiva
lent to barter in exchange ? To create such an exchangeable
equivalent, labour must be expended beyond what is required
merely to secure the bare necessaries of life. To this addition
al labour, the people of the West were now greatly stimu
lated. The growing ambition to possess some share of the
envied riches and luxuries of the East, infused the spirit
of improvement into the varied operations of agriculture
and manufactures. And thus, to use the words of a modern
historian, " nations hitherto sunk in listless indolence, or
only roused from it when hunger urged them to the chase,
or their chiefs led them to the battle, acquired industry,
the only efficient and legitimate source of all other acquisi
tions, and of national prosperity.11
Singular subject for reflection ! That distant India, un
der the overruling providence of God, should thus have
proved one of the most direct and leading instruments in
communicating the first decided impulse to modern civiliza
s
tion in Western Europe ! But stranger still !—that distant
India should ever since have continued to prove one of the
most potent causes in accelerating the march of Western
civilization, till that civilization immensely outstripped its
own !—and thus helped in raising Europe to undisputed pre
eminence over all other quarters of the globe !
That this is no exaggeration, may be made to appear
from the briefest summary of the progress of events.
The steady advancement of general society in the West
created an extending demand for the varied products of the
East. But such increasing demand could no longer be
supplied by the precarious importations of disabled warriors,
or wandering pilgrims from the Holy Land. There must
now be some regular European channel of communication
with the East. And where could such channel, with a view
to the best local and maritime advantages, be more appro
priately opened than in the central peninsula of Italy?
Hence the rise of Genoa, Venice, and other cities which
strove for the trident that might command an exclusive
monopoly of Eastern trade. At length Venice out-peered
all her rivals. And was not the historic law, expressive of
the aggrandising influence of Indian commerce, true to it
self? How was it that Venice, poor and mean, feeble and
obscure, came to sit in state, " Throned on her hundred isles,
a ruler of the waters and their powers ? " How came she,
with her proud tiara of proud battlements, to have so many
a subject land looking to her " winged lion's marble piles ? "
How came she to be robed in purple, and so luxuriously
magnificent, that of
" Her feasMonarchs partook, and deemed their dignitytincreased ? "J
It was, to draw still from the same poetic but unhappy
genius,—it was, because the exhaustless East had
" Pour'd into her lap all gems in sparkling showers."
When the monopoly of Indian and other Eastern commerce
had made Venice thus to start, as by the wand of enchant
.0
ment, in beauty and brightness, from the bosom of the Ad
riatic,—challenging the admiration of Europe,—how could
her unbounded prosperity fail to excite general envy too?
Naturally and necessarily, were other communities incited to
sue for some share in her all-enriching trade. But how could
this be secured ? Hitherto, the great routes for the trans
ference of Indian produce lay along the Red Sea, the Eu
phrates, or the Caspian. The principal intermediate marts
were Alexandria, St Jean de Acre, or Constantinople. Over
these emporia Venice had acquired an almost unlimited
command. What, then, was to be done ? Why, there
seemed no alternative but to attempt to establish some new
line of communication with India. To compass this end, a
hundred schemes were now propounded, entertained, and
forsaken in swift and bewildering succession. Traveller
after traveller issued forth to reconnoitre and survey the
avenues to the Eastern World. And the marvellous reports
carried back, and circulated by some of them on their return,
tended still more to inflame the rage for discovery by sea
and land.
This new spirit of discovery,—affecting alike prince and
peasant, merchant and mariner,—found, about the beginning
of the fifteenth century, its most chivalrous head and cham
pion in Henry of Portugal. Deeply imbued with the char
acteristic zealotism of his age, and eminently distinguished
for those attainments in general science which enabled him
at once to project and superintend the most daring enter
prises, he summoned around him all the most skilful and
adventurous spirits in Christendom. The grand object of
his ambition was to find out some new passage to India,
that might supersede all the old routes already preoccupied.
To the prosecution of this object, he unweariedly devoted
the labour of his life ; and on it prodigally lavished the re
sources of his kingdom. And though he lived not to witness
its accomplishment, the valuable discoveries made by his
commanders along the coast of Africa encouraged his suc
cessors to follow, with unabated ardour, in his romantic
career.
10
It was to the furtherance of the same design that the
celebrated Columbus dedicated his life. The desire of dis
covering a new passage to India supplied the ruling motive :
an implicit belief in a geographical error chalked out his
course. By studying, as we are credibly informed, " Aris
totle's description of the world, and the tables of Ptolemy,
who extends the eastern parts of the Continent of Asia so
enormously as to bring it almost round to the western parts
of Europe and Africa, he very properly concluded (suppos
ing their descriptions to be correct, and they were then
universally received as such) that, instead of a long and
tedious voyage round the extremity of Africa, a much shorter
passage to India might be made by sailing directly west
from Europe." In undoubting confidence, as to the prac
ticability of this scheme, he eventually did set sail to the
West ; and stumbled unexpectedly on those islands, which
he fondly concluded to be the long-wished for land of
promise ; and which, from that erroneous impression, were
designated, and still bear the name of, " West Indies."
At length, the perseverance of the Portuguese monarchs
overcame all difficulties. In 1486, Diaz reached the most
southern extremity of Africa, giving it the significant appel
lation of " The Cape of Storms —a name which his sove
reign, overjoyed at the good hope which it held out of ulti
mate success, changed into the more auspicious one of " The
Cape of Good Hope."
In 1498, Vasco De Gama doubled the Cape, and made
good his landing at Calicut, the principal city on the Mala
bar, or western shore of the Indian Peninsula.
Next to the voyage which terminated in the discovery of
the American Continent,—if second even to that in its influ
ence over the destinies of man,—this was, beyond all debate,
the most important one that had ever been accomplished
since the world began. Of its successful issue, it has, with
out the slightest exaggeration, been remarked, that it " ef
fected a complete revolution in the commerce and policy of
all civilized nations." The doom of Venice, and other flour
ishing cities was at once sealed. The trade of India being
11
now diverted into a new channel, all their power and glory
evanished along with it ; and as these fell, the new mono
polist cities and nations must rise.
Gama's safe return to Lisbon, was hailed as the harbinger
of a new and glorious era. The city rung with transports
of joy. The inhabitants, concluding that the rich commerce
of India and the East was now secured to them, " proposed
nothing less than to become immediately, the first commercial
and maritime power in the world? And to crown all with
the inviolable sanction and ratification of heaven itself, a
bull from " God's vicegerent," conferred on the Portuguese
monarch the proud title of " Lord of the Navigation, Con
quests, and Trade of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India."
So long as Lisbon enjoyed the exclusive monopoly of In
dian commerce, she sat as queen among the cities of the
nations. But her days of glory were numbered too. One
century had scarcely run its course, when the emporium of
Eastern trade was transferred from Lisbon to Amsterdam.
Forthwith, the law of co-existent prosperity came into full
operation. The former sank in proportion as the latter
rose. When Portugal might almost be blotted out from
the map of independent sovereignties, Holland was enabled
to assume the rank of a first-rate power in the balance of
Europe.
Meanwhile, that nation, which was destined one day to
reap the largest harvest of fruit from India, and destined
also, we trust, to confer the largest amount of benefit in
return, was no unconcerned spectator. The spirit of indus
try and improvement, already partially awakened, received,
from the long and peaceful reign of Elizabeth, an accelerative
impetus, which opened for itself outlets—from Spitzbergen
to the Canary Isles in the Old World,—and from
Newfoundland to Brazil, in the New. In the case of
a nation thus predisposed for maritime discovery and bold
enterprise, the early brilliant successes of the Portuguese were
enough to set all into ferment and combustion,—inflaming
at once the cupidity and the fancy of a mercantile and ima
ginative people. Over the trade of India, all history and
11'
tradition had united in throwing the glare of a strange
and undefined magnificence. And all, from the monarch
on the throne down to the humblest citizen, were now
suddenly seized with a new and unwonted ardour,—a
restless, boundless, insatiable ambition to share in the gor
geous commerce of diamonds and pearls, embroideries and
perfume.
But how could this be obtained ? From priority of dis
covery and settlement, the Portuguese claimed an exclusive
right to the passage of the Cape ; and were determined, by
an appeal to arms, to vindicate and enforce their pretended
claim. What then was to be done ! Proclaim war against
Portugal ! No. England was not then prepared to pro
voke and defy so formidable a foe. What then ? Abandon
the pursuit of the golden prize ? No. The spirit that had
been raised was not partial, local, or isolated : it was not
the moving pulse of an individual or of a company : it was
not the animating breath of one particular rank or class.
It pervaded all classes, all ranks, and all districts of the
land. It had been so cherished and fed that no obstruc
tions could arrest its flow, and no blighting disappoint
ments extinguish its vitality. Pent up for a season, it only
gathered fresh materials for ignition and explosion. Im
patient of control, it at last broke forth. Is it asked, in
what direction? Let the narration of the wondrous series of
voyages that figure so conspicuously in the annals of the six
teenth century, furnish the reply ;—voyages, which all must
have read with the thrilling interest of romance,—voyages,
which added more to our knowledge of the surface of the
globe, than all that have since been undertaken,—voyages,
which threw fresh lustre round the name of Britain ; and
helped to train and discipline her sons for afterwards wield
ing the sceptre of the ocean ! For, what was the leading
and most prominent object of them all ? Is it not memor
able?—Is it not worthy of everlasting remembrance, that
they all had for their grand, and almost exclusive object, the
discovery of some new passage to India ?—some new channel
through which the stream of wealth from that never-failing
1:3
fountain, might, without let or hindrance from the Crown
of Portugal, flow in direct upon the British Isles.
Why, in the time of Henry VIII. (1527,) were two at
tempts made to double, by the north-west, the American
continent? It was to open up, if possible, a pathway of
communication with India, that might be undisputed by the
jealousy of the Portuguese, and wholly independent of their
exclusive pretensions to the passage of the Cape. When
these first attempts failed, what was it, in the reign of Ed
ward VI., that led an adventurous squadron along the coasts
of Norway, and Russian Lapland, as far as the harbour of
Archangel ? It was the anticipation of realizing, by the
north-east, those dazzling prospects which the north-weshInaddiare!fusNeodtwtoityhisetldandiIntg wtahse tchaelaemaigteorusdeissisruee ooff raenacehxipnetg
dition in which almost all who had embarked, perished
miserably amid cold and famine, what led to renewed efforts
in the same direction, in the face of perils and of deaths ? It
was the ardent hope of being able to effect a north-east
passage to India ! And when the frozen barriers of the
Northern seas could not be forced, what led to the bold pro
ject of preparing a highway of three or four thousand
miles across Russia by the Caspian ? It was still the in
extinguishable ambition to grasp the riches of India !
The whole of these north-eastern schemes having failed,
what turned the attention of private adventurers, and of
government itself, a second time, to the north-west ? What
prompted Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and other intrepid
commanders, to make those discoveries which have enstamped
their names on all the creeks, and straits, and gulphs, and
bays of Greenland and Labrador ? It was the unconquerable
wish to effect a landing on the wealthy shores of India !
All these persevering efforts, so far as the main object was
concerned, having been signally crowned with disaster and
defeat, were the ardours of the national mind cooled, its
energies crushed, its hopes annihilated I No : the original
taste and desire had grown into an insatiable craving—a
universal passion—which nought but the actual possession
14
of the coveted prize could gratify or assuage. Baffled in
all these enterprises, the longing of the national mind is still
unquenched. Where can it find for itself another outlet ?
Let the new and splendid series of voyages to the south
western hemisphere furnish the reply. Hemmed in by the
impassable barrier of the Northern Ocean ; scared away by
the trackless deserts of Central Asia ; debarred, by a threat
ened appeal to arms, from attempting a south-east passage
by the Cape ;—they next conceived the bold idea of endea
vouring to compass the grand design by the south-west,
around the extremity of the American continent. For,
what mainly led to the celebrated voyages of Drake and
Cavendish, who circumnavigated the globe,—discovering new
regions, " the stateliness and riches of which they feared to
make report of, lest they should not be credited,'1—and caus
ing the whole kingdom, on their return, to ring with songs
of applause ? It was to obtain for their country a share of
that aggrandizing traffic with India and the East, the
Portuguese monopoly of which so long continued to be the
envy of all Europe.
Without pursuing the subject any farther, we may conclude
with some corroborative remarks by the historian of British
India. " The tide of maritime adventure," says he, " which
these splendid voyages were so calculated to swell, flowed
naturally towards India, by reason of its fancied opulence,
and the prevailing passion for the commodities of the East.
The impatience of our countrymen had already engaged
them in a circuitous traffic with that part of the globe.
They sailed to the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea,
where they found cargoes of Indian goods conveyed over
land ; and a mercantile company, denominated the Levant
Company, was instituted, according to the policy of the age,
to secure to the nation the advantages of so important a
commerce.11 Accidental causes, we are told, also " contribut
ed to enliven the admiration excited by the Indian trade."
Amongst these was the capture of some of the largest of the
Portuguese merchant vessels, laden with " spices, calicoes,
silks, gold, pearls, porcelain, ebony," &c. ;—the value of
15
which " inflamed the imagination of the merchants, and sti
mulated the impatience of the English generally to be en
gaged in so opulent a commerce."
While " the general current of enterprise now ran so ve
hemently toward India," and the English, for fear of the
Portuguese, still " fluctuated between desire and execution,
the Dutch, in 1595, boldly sent out four ships to trade with
India, by the Cape of Good Hope. This exploit added fuel
at once to the jealousy and the ambition of the English.'1
In 1599, accordingly, an association was formed—funds
were subscribed to a considerable amount—the Queen was
petitioned for a warrant to fit out three ships, and also for a
royal charter of privileges. After some delay, towards the
end of 1 600, the first charter was obtained ; and in May,
the following year, the first fleet of the East India Company
set sail for India, direct by the Cape of Good Hope. As
the result of a series of vicissitudes unexampled in the
history of the world, not only did the commerce but the ter
ritory of India fall into the hands of British merchants.
And has not the historic law, by which prosperity has been
ever found coincident with the exclusive possession of the re
sources of India, been eminently verified and realized in the
case of Britain ? Oh that British rulers and British subjects
felt the responsibility which the briefest retrospect of the past
must attach to our uncontrolled supremacy over Indian ter
ritory and Indian commerce ! From a view of that grand
historic law, which has hitherto proved uniform and uni
versal in its operation for the last three thousand years,
may we not, as patriots, well contemplate with solemn awe,
the day that shall sever India from Britain, and transfer
the stewardship thereof into other hands ? For if, weighed
in the balance on that day, we shall have been found wanting
in our national management of so sublime a trust, what can
we expect from the analogy of the past, but to see the sun
of Britain set,—to rise no more for ever ?
Thus great and paramount has been the influence which
16
India has successively exerted on the prosperity of different
nations of the West :—and proportionally great, sustained,
and long continued, has been the mercenary interest excited
in its behalf, on account of the prodigious worldly advan
tages which, for ages, have been reaped from it. But India
has, at different times, awakened towards itself a peculiarly
vivid interest, on grounds wholly, or in great part, uncon
nected with mercenary ends,—an interest varied and dis
tinguished in its character, according to the nature of the
objects that called it forth.
In glancing over the past, we may thus mark three dis
tinctive eras or epochs, of peculiar interest in India. There
is first what may be termed, The era of romantic imagina
tive interest. Secondly, The era of romantic literary inte
rest. Thirdly, Tho era of vivid religious interest. These
have been successive ; and in the arrangements of an allwise
Providence, manifestly preparatory one for the other.
The era of romantic interest commenced long before the
successful voyage of Vasco De Gama. The truth is, that it
must be traced to the times of the Crusades ; and will be
found, amid various ebbings and Sowings, to extend itself
through many centuries. The spirit of the Crusades had
never died. Having been deprived of its primary object, it
soon fabricated or formed to itself another ;—and then mani
fested itself, as a new apparition, under the form and garb
of the spirit of chivalry. Deprived a second time of its lead
ing object, by the breaking down of the system of feudalism,
it might seem that the spirit of chivalry, which was essen
tially the spirit of the Crusades, must be extinguished. But
it was not so. The spirit still fraught with vitality only
lapsed into a state of dormancy. Its smouldering embers
were ready to blaze forth the instant that new fuel was sup
plied by the presence of a proper object or exciting cause.
That object at length presented itself. India, bursting upon
the view in all its novelty and splendour, was enough to feed
and fan into a flame the slumbering fires of a less romantic
and sentimental age. To discover a new inlet to that fair
est of the regions of the East, became a raging passion
17
with the leading nations of Europe. In this pursuit, the
spirit of the Crusades—the spirit of chivalry—the spirit of
romance—found a new and appropriate object. It then
immediately reappeared, though now metamorphosed into
the restless and daring spirit of foreign adventure and
maritime discovery.
The Portuguese,—saturated with the spirit of the age,
and inflamed with the swelling reports of tradition and
of distant fame,—sallied forth, prepared not for novelties
merely :—they really expected, and were resolved to meet
with wonders. And, in the absence of real wonders, such
was the fervour of their enthusiasm, that it would have
thrown the most brilliant colouring over the tamest scenes,
—magnifying the most ordinary and commonplace into
the marvellous,—converting every field into a garden of
delights, every rock into a mountain of gold, and every
valley into Elysian bowers. What, then, must have been
the effect on such ardent, chivalrous, and romantic spirits,
when they found, or imagined they found, the ideal pictures
actually eclipsed by the tangible and the visible !—When,
even on their glowing fancies, the reality burst in a blaze
of unexpected splendour ? Around them were strewn the
most stupendous monuments of art—tombs and templespalaces and towers—that seemed tq bespeak an age whe—n
genii and demigods were denizens of earth, and compeers
of mortal man. Before them, too, and on every side, nature
flung forth her stores with a prolific bounty, utterly un
known in northern climes. To say that they were filled
with amazement and surprise, is to say little. The impres
sion was altogether overpowering. From that time the very
name of India became throughout Europe the symbol and
representative of all that is great, glorious, and magnificent,
in the products of nature and of art,—unsealing to the ro
mancer and the poet, a never-failing fount of imagery, which,
blending with the flowers of Parnassus and the gentle
ripplings of Helicon, has been woven into the richest dra
pery of modern song.
Actuated by such feelings, and entranced hy such pro-
B
18
spects, need we wonder that the Court of Portugal and its
emissaries in the East were at first heartily disposed to treat
even Indian commerce as comparatively of secondary moment.
In the acquisition and retention of that monopoly, on ac
count of its manifold advantages, they indeed gloried. But
it was not enough. In itself cold and dry, artificial and
systematic, tame and prosaic, it could not satisfy the warm
and generous, but bold and flighty spirits of a poetical age.
For these, more appropriate objects must be found. Nor
were such objects long wanting. Soon did the presiding
genius of the heroes of the tournament, and the enchanted
castle, and the holy sepulchre, break forth on the shores of
India, in a passion for adventure, and conquest, and mili
tary glory. Burning with enthusiastic ardour, they rushed
on from victory to victory. In feats of daring and prodi
gies of valour, they seemed resolved to outrival the knights
errant of bygone times. City after city, and kingdom after
kingdom, lay prostrate at their feet. Princes were de
throned, and subjects raised to royal dominion, at their
good pleasure. The pomp and pageantry of triumphs, like
those of ancient Rome, were revived,—triumphs in which
were strangely blended the ferocity and tenderness, the ge
nerosity and savage pride, that so peculiarly characterized
the age of chivalry,—triumphs which gave rise to the splen
did eulogium of their own historian,—" The trophies of our
victories are not bruised helmets and warlike engines hung
on the trees of the mountains ; but cities, islands, and king
doms, first humbled under our feet, and then joyfully wor
shipping our government."
The glow of romantic interest which the reports and
earlier achievements of the Portuguese threw over India,
was, if possible, heightened by the vivid representations of
the first French and English adventurers. These, it is true,
went forth, chiefly for the promotion of mercenary ends ;
but not without being imbued with a portion of the excited
spirit of the age. All previous accounts they were enabled to
confirm ; and, in some cases, vastly to exceed. The bright
est visions that ever floated before the fancy of poetic
19
dreamers in the West, seemed more than verified in the real
magnificence of the court of the Great Mogul—the most
splendid by far that ever dazzled the eyes of man.
From a multitude of details, let us select a few, merely
as specimens.
Here is the portraiture given by Sir T. Roe, the English
ambassador, of the personal appearance of the emperor.
He represents him, on his birth-day, as " sitting crosslegged,
on a little throne, all covered with diamonds, pearls,
and rubies ; before him, a table of burnished gold, and on
it about fifty pieces of gold plate, all set with jewels, some
very large, and extremely rich ; his sword and buckler en
tirely covered with diamonds and rubies, and his belt of
gold, suitably adorned ; his rich turban decorated with
lofty heron's feathers ; on one side, pendant, a ruby unset,
as big as a walnut ; on the other side, a diamond as large ;
in the middle, an emerald, still larger, in the form of a
heart ; his staff, wound about with a chain of great pearls,
rubies, and diamonds, drilled ; round his neck, a chain of
three strings, of most excellent pearl, suspended ; his arms
and wrists glittering with diamond bracelets ; and on each
finger, a ring of inestimable value."
To this account of the personal ornaments of the sovereign,
may well be subjoined Tavernier1s minute description of his
imperial thrones. " The Great Mogul," says he, " has seven
thrones, some set all over with diamonds ; others, with rubies
emeralds, and pearls. But the largest or peacock throne is
set up in the hall of the first court of the palace. It is, in
form, like one of our field beds, six feet long, and four broad.
I counted about a hundred and eight pale rubies in callets
about that throne, the least whereof weighed a hundred
carats ; but there are some that weigh two hundred. Em
eralds I counted about a hundred and forty, that weighed,
some three score, some thirty, carats. The under part of
the canopy is all embroidered with pearls and diamonds,
with a fringe of pearls round about. Upon the top of the
canopy, which is made like an arch, with four panes, stands
a peacock, with his tail spread, consisting entirely of sap
so
phires and other proper coloured stones ; the body is of
beaten gold, enchased with several jewels ; and a great
ruby adorns his breast, to which hangs a pearl that weighs
fifty carats. On each side of the peacock stand two nose
gays as high as the bird, consisting of various sorts of flowers,
all of beaten gold enamelled. When the king seats himself
upon the throne, there is a transparent jewel, with a diamond
appendant, of eighty or ninety carats weight, encompassed
with rubies and emeralds, so hung that it is always in his
eye. The twelve pillars also that uphold the canopy, are
set with rows of fair pearls, round and of an excellent water,
that weigh from six to ten carats a piece. At the distance
of four feet upon each side of the throne, are placed um
brellas, the handles of which are about eight feet high, co
vered with diamonds ; the umbrellas themselves being of
crimson velvet, embroidered and fringed with pearl. This
is the famous throne which Timur began, and Shah Jehan
finished ; and is really reported to have cost a hundred and
sixty millions, and five hundred thousand livres of our
money. Besides this stately and magnificent throne, there
is another of an oval form, seven feet long, and five broad.
The outside of it shines all over with diamonds and pearls ;
but there is no canopy over it. The five other thrones are
erected in a magnificent hall, in a different court, entirely
covered with diamonds, without any coloured stone."
Here is a single throne, estimated at a sum of money
so large, that,—if all the chapels, and churches, and cathe
drals in Scotland were swallowed up by an earthquake,—a
mere fraction of its value, after being reduced to the lowest
reasonable amount, would more than suffice to rebuild them
all, and replenish them with all needful furniture ! Who,
after this, can charge Milton's language with hyperbole,
when he so happily pourtrays " the gorgeous East" as
having
" Shower'd o'er her kings, barbaric pearl and gold ? "
Rather, who will not be ready to admit that the hyper
bole of the great poet, however graphic, scarcely conveys
21
an adequate picture of the reality, as minutely described
in prose ?
Having seen the Mogul in his palace, let us catch a pass
ing glimpse of him in his outward movements. When he
rode forth to take the field, it was amid a thousand ele
phants, not only richly caparisoned in gilded trappings, but
having their heads splendidly adorned with precious jewels.
When his encampment was spread over the plains, the royal
tents, and those of the great omrahs or nobles, assuming
every conceivable form of elegance and beauty, shone re
splendent with the most varied and brilliant colours. " It
was," says Sir T. Roe, " one of the greatest rarities and
magnificences I ever beheld." The whole appeared to re
semble a vast city of surpassing beauty and splendour sud
denly summoned into being by the spell of a Magician ; and
realizing the wonders of Aladdin's lamp, and the other talis
man ic powers of the Arabian Nights.
Need we wonder that accounts like these, and others
equally authentic and astonishing, were calculated to
heighten and perpetuate the romantic interest in India?
Need we wonder that, at the same time, they tended to in
flame the cupidity and avarice of the European world ?
Need we wonder that the commercial and mercenary spirit
began to develope itself with mightier and more wide-spread
energy than ever ? Or need we wonder at the long pro
tracted struggle that ensued, for ascendency in power, and
monopoly in commerce, among the leading nations of the
West?
The history of this struggle is itself a species of romance.
Who can peruse the exciting narrative of embassies, and
stratagems, and sieges, and battles, which terminated in
what has been justly styled the most extraordinary of all
historical phenomena,—" the subjection of the millions of In
dia, and the expulsion of other Europeans from its shores,
by a mere handful of British,"—without being filled with as
tonishment and surprise ? Of a series of events so vast and
complicated, it is not possible to furnish even a sketch. But
we may glance at the result. A region of Asia, equal in est
22
tent to the whole of Europe, (exclusive of Russia,) with a po
pulation of more than one hundred and thirty millions,—all of
them being " aliens in blood, language, and religion ; v and
many consisting of warlike tribes, so gallant and so brave,
as to have again and again successfully repelled the com
bined hosts of the Moslem conquerors, with a heroism not
unworthy of the best sons of Greece :—this vast region, with
its myriads of inhabitants, situate, by the ordinary route,
at a distance exceeding half the globe's circumference, has,
to its uttermost borders, been subjected to the uncontrolled
dominion of British sway ! And how many British-born
subjects are dispersed over so immense a territory,—
exercising government,—preserving peace,—administering
justice,—and regulating the multiplied relationships, internal
and external, of almost as many " peoples, and nations, and
languages" as composed the Babylonian empire in the zenith
of its glory ? Are there as many as may be congregated
within a few square miles, in a single city, such as London ?
No ; including all governors, and judges, and magistrates—
all military officers and common soldiers—all merchants and
other uncovenanted residents whatsoever—there are not, in
all India, so wide in extent and so densely peopled, above
forty thousand British !—not as many British, as there are
inhabitants in any one of the third or fourth rate towns or
counties of the United Kingdom !—not as many British as
there are inhabitants in the single town of Dundee, or the
single county of Banff ! And yet, so absolute and undisputed
is the supremacy of the British sceptre—so regular and per
fect the organization of the British power ;—that one Bri
tish-born subject, under the designation of Governor-Genera—who may never have trodden on the Indian soil—mayl
embark on board a vessel in the Thames,—traverse fifteen
thousand miles of ocean,—land at the mouth of the Ganges,
—proceed along that mighty stream as far as Dover is
from Gibraltar,—perch himself on one of the peaks of the
Himalaya in Central Asia ;—and there, by a single word of
his mouth, or a single stroke of his pen, as by the waving
of the wand of an omnipotent Enchanter, set all the teeming
23
millions of India in motion ! Can the whole annals of time
furnish any thing parallel to this ? If not ; ought we not
at once to conclude that Divine Providence has had some
grand design in view, which it becomes us humbly to scan,
and devoutly to prosecute i
It was not, as has been remarked, " till the British power
had been settled on a basis that promised to be lasting, that
the original conception of that distant land, as an Eldorado,
and a country of enchantment, was completely broken. The
regular intercourse with Europe which then ensued, and the
formal routine of a European government on the soil of In
dia, seemed to break the spell for ever."
But no sooner had the era of romantic imaginative in
terest closed, than a new era—even that of romantic literary
interest—began to dawn. More strictly perhaps it may be
said, that a total change of circumstances led, not to an ex
tinguishment of the spirit of romance, but to a total change
in the objects towards which it was directed. It would
seem as if the spirit of the Crusades—the spirit of chivalry
—the spirit of strange adventure—the spirit that incited
to conquest and military glory—the spirit that regaled
itself amid airy halls and golden palaces ; it would seem
as if the same romantic spirit had been transferred to the
discovery of new worlds, and the conquest of new realms,
and the excavation of new treasures from the unexplored
mines of Oriental literature.
This new direction of the romantic interest, which Europe
had so long felt in India, has been thus happily described
by the North American Review:—"When the British power
was substantially established, there was a call for other accom
plishments than those of the factory and the counting-house.
The creation of civil offices, brought from England men of
parts and education ; who, though far superior to the explod
ed errors, were full of curiosity and sanguine expectation
with regard to the antiquities of Hindustan, its language,
history, and scientific culture. Sanskrit learning was a vir-
4
24
gin mine ; and it would have been a prodigy, if those who
first explored it had escaped intoxication from its vapours.
The real magnificence of that venerable tongue, was enough
to disturb the equilibrium of the judgment ; its obvious affi
nity with the Western languages, seemed to enhance its
value ; the thirst for strange acquirements, and the ardour
of discovery, made wise men credulous ; Greek and Roman
learning was disparaged in comparison with the lore of
India. A taste was formed for the gigantic beauties of
Sanskrit archaeology. Cycles of hundreds of thousands of
years, instead of exciting laughter, commanded admiration.
The Mosaic chronology looked very small beside such colos
sal epochs : Men began to imagine that a flood of light was
to be shed upon the world from the marshes of Bengal.
Their exaggerated statements were greedily seized upon by
European infidels : What delusion began in India, impos
ture promoted in France ; and as the ' new philosophy '
was predominant in Europe, it was soon a law of fashion to
believe that the world was a million years of age ; and the
passion for Hindu history and science became an epidemic.
The chronological imposture soon met with its quietus ; but
the literary phrenzy lived a little longer. The only correc
tive was increase of knowledge. Sir William Jones began
his career in India with strong prepossessions in favour of
Sanskrit learning ; but his previous acquirements were so
various and extensive as to save him from infection. His
own progress in Indian literature was wonderfully rapid ;
and the Asiatic Society, of which he was the founder,
brought the whole field, in a short time, under actual culti
vation. Before this process the delusion could not stand.
The religion of the Brahmans was divested of its finery, and
exposed in filthy ugliness ; while Sanskrit literature took its
proper place as the growth of an ignorant and imaginative
age, with the usual faults and merits which accompany such
a pedigree. Half a century ago, men were mad with the
idea, that the Sanskrit reservoir was to water all the world,—
sweeping away the Scriptures and the Church of Christ,—
putting back the origin of time by millions of years,—and
swallowing up the poetry and science of the West in its own
stupendous vortex of sublimity and wisdom ! Where is this
notion now ? Buried so deep, that few believe it could ever
have existed ! And thus has its final death-blow been given
to the romance of Hindustan—and the illusory charm which
once invested it seems gone for ever."
As far back as thirty years ago, the Edinburgh Re
view distinctly sounded the necessity for a retreat from
the regions of Oriental literary romance. Half in jest, we
presume, and half in earnest, it thus announced its oracular
deliverance :—" Situated as things are, we really consider a
judicious limitation of an impertinent inquisitiveness about
Hindu antiquities and similar topics, extremely salutary
and reasonable. For, to bring the matter at once to a
practical issue, would an accurate translation of the Puranas
in the least curb the ambition of Buonaparte ? What
effect would the most profound commentary on the Veda
have, in procuring for the nation a wise, a strong, and an
energetic ministry ? Would the price of candles be sensibly
reduced by the most luminous disquisition on the Hindu
Triad ? If the French intercept our teas and muslins, and
carry them into the Mauritius, will the ladies thank us
for importing an old-fashioned assortment of antediluvian
metaphysics ? ™
But, as the era of romantic literary interest began to
wane, the era of vivid religious interest began to emerge, in
splendour from the shadowy twilight of a long protracted
dawn. And was it not for the manifestation of this brighter
era and the realization of its promised blessings, that all
else which preceded it was overruled by Divine Providence
as subservient and preparatory? Can it be that a power
so tremendous over an empire so vast and a people so count
less, has been placed in the hands of a few Britons for no
higher end than that of enabling them to gratify their am
bition, their avarice, their vain-glorious tastes, and lawless
appetites? No. Reason, philosophy, sound theism, Reve
26
lation ;—all must unite in repelling the insinuation, as
not lees dishonourable than false. Whatever man may
think, He who guides the course of providence, with whom
one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day, has respect to the everlasting covenant,—the mercies of
which are sure; and the privileges of which shall one day be
extended to all the kindreds of the nations. The march of
His dispensations may appear slow, and their developement
obscure, to a creature like man whose term of being is so
swiftly run out, and whose power of vision is so feeble and so
faint ;—nevertheless there is a progress that is stedfast,
a developement that is clearly denned ;—and there shall be a
glorious consummation. The decree hath gone forth—and
who can stay its execution ?—that India shall be the Lord1s ;
—that Asia shall be the Lord's ;—yea, that all the kingdoms
of this world shall become the kingdoms of our God and
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