"I confess that the Company and its affairs is a mystery to me," burst in Jack, endeavouring to look at ease as he puffed smoke from his lips. "As soon as one lands in India—indeed, as soon as one embarks upon an Indiaman and gets free of the London docks, one hears of nothing but the Company. We know that it exists. But how and why? Half, and more than half, the fellows have not more than a vague notion."
There was no doubt that Jack Simpson was perfectly right. A great number of the young fellows who went out at this period to join the Company's service knew very little of its history and its origin. And to-day there are many who have heard little more than its name, while numbers who know of events which have passed in America, in Africa, in Spain and other countries, where British forces have fought, are somewhat hazy as to events which have passed in India[Pg 128] since England first sent her sons there. To them India is a British possession, teeming with millions of dark-skinned subjects, and for ever attracting some slight attention because of oft-recurring frontier wars. They know little of the early struggles, of the days when British, Dutch, and French strove for supremacy, and of the endless fighting and sacrifice by which our country finally gained the proud title of conqueror of India, and won for its ruler the title of Emperor of this huge country across the seas.
"Come, come," laughed the friendly Major. "You should have learned that at school. Every young fellow should know of it, and be proud to think that he is a descendant of the fine men who fought here before us. But if you really wish it I will outline the life of the old Company, though I must trust to my memory for dates. Still, you know, when an officer has been a servant of the Company for twenty years, as I have, he naturally knows a little about his employers. Let me see. We'll start at the beginning."
"The very beginning, Major, please," said Jack.
"Which would take us back to the days of Alexander, if you ask me to give a history of India. No! You must get a book and look that up. I am going to tell you of the Company, and in doing so I must naturally speak of India. Still, I'll say as much more as I can. To begin with, this India is even vaster than many of us imagine. Roughly, it extends for some nineteen hundred miles from north to south, that is from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and is inhabited by a good[Pg 129] many more than a hundred million souls, natives I mean, and exclusive of Europeans, who are a mere drop in that vast human ocean. Just think of that. Here are we, a mere handful, attempting to impose our will upon a vast people, and doing it successfully too. The audacity of such a venture is really astounding!"
"Then how is it that we succeed, Major?" Owen ventured to ask. "If we are so few, why don't they come down upon us and exterminate us?"
"Precisely! Why don't they? Why haven't they in the past? Because there is no combined movement amongst them. Because the country is for ever disturbed by jealousies and strife between the various races inhabiting it. That is one of the reasons, and the greatest. England, represented by the Company, has taken advantage of this condition of affairs, and while these struggles have gone on she has slowly and steadily increased her power and standing. Not that she was always prosperous. There have been times when the Company has been in very low water. But I will tell you how British pluck and determination, aided by jealousies of the natives, have succeeded, and how the Company which was formed in England on the 31st of December 1599 finally arrived at its present opulence.
"That Company was sanctioned by Queen Elizabeth, and it owed its origin to many facts which are of interest. We hear that India was but a word to the West; that few had ideas of the enormous wealth of the East, and still vaguer knowledge of the vast countries there, with their teeming workers. It was never even suspected[Pg 130] that in this India, of which tales had reached our country, there were riches beyond the dreams of westerners, that there were gorgeous courts and palaces beside which the palace of Queen Bess was little better than a hovel. And that ignorance might have persisted had it not been for the energy and enterprise of a few, and those not always of our blood.
"That brings me to deal with the men who first invaded this land, and my memory has to carry me back to my school days for that. Very many years before Alexander made his famous invasion the Greeks knew India, and travelled here in search of knowledge. Then came Alexander, with his hordes, marching through the passes in the north (Candahar Route), across the Punjaub as far as the Hydaspes, a tributary of the Indus. That was in B.C. 327. He retired to Persia, and doubtless after he had gone the peoples in the north enjoyed some tranquillity.
"That the East was not entirely severed from the West in the earlier years of the Christian era is evident, for spices were to be had even in England, while it is said that missionaries went out to the East. But this India was but a vague name till Vasco Da Gama made his wonderful voyage round the Cape in 1498, and found his way to India. After that trade developed to a huge degree, and the Portuguese enjoyed its full benefits during the sixteenth century. And now we come, I think, to that period when England can be said to have taken some interest in the East, an interest, I fear, which was supported more by the hope of gain than by any other[Pg 131] reason. In 1588 Cavendish discovered that the natives in the East would as willingly trade with us as with the Portuguese, while Sir Francis Drake, that fine old sea-wolf, captured five large Portuguese caravels, all laden with rich eastern stuffs. One had aboard also documents showing what immense trading possibilities there were in this country, and in addition the manner in which that trade could be carried on. Well, England is not always the first in an enterprise. She often waits till other nations have obtained a foothold, and then she stirs, and the history of her conquests and of her increasing possessions shows that she has done more than well. She waited till the Dutch, stirred by tales of wealth, despatched an expedition to India. Then certain gentlemen in England put their heads and their money together and created a Company. There, young fellows, you have the commencement of the Company."