In the year 1600 a charter was granted by Parliament to the East India Company, and within ten years factories had been established at Surat, to the north of Bombay, and Petapolam, to the north of Madras. We were not the first-comers in the field, for both Dutch and Portuguese had been for many years engaged in commerce with the East. In 1612 our first troubles arose with the Portuguese, whom we defeated at Surat, and since then no question of their supremacy has arisen. Fifty years later the French had firmly established themselves at Masulipatam and Pondicherry, on the south-east coast, as well as at Chandernagore, a few miles above Calcutta, and for the next 150 years the rivalry between France and England was the cause of much strife. The policy of the French was to stand well in with the native rulers, to organize their armies on a European model, and so, with their aid, to drive the English out of India. At the commencement of the eighteenth century Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were our chief centres, the former with factories stretching to Patna, in the northwest. The influence of the Governor of Bombay extended from the settlement at Ahmedabad, in the north, to Calicut, on the west or Malabar coast, whilst Madras had under its rule all factories on the eastern coast from Vizagapatam to Cuddalore. The British East India Company of those days boasted of but little Government support; the French company was fast becoming a military rather than a commercial force. In 1750 the French had driven us out of Madras, and were virtually rulers of Southern India, and the bulk of our forces were besieged in Trichinopoly. Fortunately for England, even in her darkest hour a man has arisen to cope with and surmount her difficulties. Amongst the writers or clerks in the employ of the factory at Madras was one Robert Clive. He, with rare prescience, argued that, as the bulk of the French forces, aided by their ally, the ruler of the Carnatic, were employed in the reduction of Trichinopoly, therefore Arcot, the capital of the Carnatic, in all probability lay unguarded. Mr. Saunders, the Governor of Madras, cordially supported the plan advocated by the young writer, which was to carry the war into the enemy's country, and to seize Arcot, the capital, by a _coup de main_. [Illustration: ROBERT, LORD CLIVE. To face page 50.] ARCOT, AUGUST 31, 1751.