Cornish Characters and Strange EventsBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
Cornish Characters and Strange Events
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Cornwall (England : County) -- Biography; Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
But Captain Keigwin had no idea of resistance. It had been further
ordered that if Keigwin and his followers should attempt opposition,
all should be denounced as rebels, and a reward of 4000 rupees should
be paid to any one who should deliver up Keigwin, and 2000 for
Alderton, and 200 for Fletcher.
Sir Thomas Graham arrived in the Bay of Bombay on the 10th November,
1684, and with great promptitude landed without attendants, and had a
conference with Keigwin, who protested that he had only revolted
against the misgovernment of the Company, and to save Bombay from
being seized by one or other of the Indian princes who were aiming to
secure it. He at once accepted the offer made to him of pardon, and
surrendered Bombay. He went on board the vessel of Sir Thomas Graham
and arrived in England in July, 1685.
During his enjoyment of power Captain Keigwin had acted with integrity
and wisely and judiciously. He had relations with the native princes,
and he showed an amount of prudence and clear judgment that eventually
greatly benefited the East India Company. He induced Sambhajee, the
Mahratta rajah, to permit the establishment of factories in the
Carnatic and allow them 12,000 pagodas as compensation for losses
sustained at places plundered by the Mahrattas. Keigwin repressed the
insolence of the Mogul admiral, Siddee, with decision, and would
neither suffer him to keep his fleet at Mazapore, nor even to go
there, except for water. In fact, had the Company known it, they had
in Keigwin an admirable servant, a Clive before the time of that hero.
But the directors were a number of commercial speculators who saw no
further than a few years before them, and were eager at once to be
rich. They cast this man aside, who, had they employed him, would have
made India theirs; and, a disappointed man, he entered the Royal Navy
and died at the taking of S. Kitts, in the West Indies, in command of
H.M.S. _Assistance_, 22nd June, 1689.
It is one of the great mysteries of life and death that men who might
have revolutionized the world are swept aside and hardly anything is
recorded concerning them. Richard Keigwin was one such, full of
self-confidence, vigour of character, restraint, and judgment. But he
lived at a time and under a reign in which there was no appreciation
of merit, and corruption and self-interest bore him down.
FOOTNOTE:
[30] The Company levied a duty of half a dollar upon all ships anchoring
in the harbour, one rupee a year on each fishing-boat, and the same on
every ship. Lastly, with what seems unparalleled meanness, they ordered
that only half of the native labourers' wages should be paid in coin,
the other half in rice valued "at the Company's price," which would give
ten per cent clear profit after all expenses had been defrayed.
THE LOSS OF THE "KENT"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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