The peace concluded between France and England (A. D. 1748) was expected to terminate hostilities in India; but the trading companies of each nation, having received great reinforcements of men, which they were afraid to disband while their rivals retained theirs, both parties appear to have resolved on employing them in the contests of the native princes. "The English," according to a contemporary historian[14], "in the line they pursued on this occasion, acted with great indiscretion; the French, with the utmost ambition."
Such are the only incidents to which it seems necessary to advert in this place. Any others requisite for understanding the transactions of Clive, will be mentioned in the course of the general narrative.
[1] For a description of this system, see Malcolm's Central India, vol. i. p. 66.
[2] Of these the most celebrated were, Vasco de Gama, Albuquerque, Nunez, and John de Castro.
[3] A settlement at Hooghly was first made in 1640, by agents from Surat, who obtained permission to establish themselves, through the intercession of Mr. Boughton, a surgeon then in great favour with the Emperor of Delhi. This settlement was afterwards moved to Calcutta in 1686.
[4] "It is not," Sir Thomas Roe observes, "a number of forts, residences, and factories that will profit you: they will increase charge, but not recompense it. The conveniency of one with respect to your sales and the commodity of investments, and the wise employing of your servants, is all you need."
[6] The name Deckan, or Deckhan, which means South, a very ancient name, continued to be given, when the power of the Moghul sovereigns of Delhi was in its zenith, to that part of the empire which lay to the southward of the Nerbuddah. This division which was called a Soubah, was governed by a Soubahdar, or Viceroy, whose authority was for a long period acknowledged by all the petty states within his circle, though many of these yielded neither tribute nor obedience unless compelled. When the house of Delhi declined, Nizam-ul-Mûlk succeeded in rendering the possession he held as a delegate of the emperor hereditary in his family; but the example of usurpation spread rapidly, and the other states, as they attained strength, threw off their dependence upon him and his descendants, till their sovereignty became limited to their present territories of Hyderabad. They still retain the title of Soubhadar of the Deckan; but, their power having been contracted by political events, their influence in that capacity is now confined to those territories over which their rule is established, which may be described as bounded by the river Taptee to the north, the Kishna to the south, the province of Bider to the west, and the northern Circars of Masulipatam and Guntoor to the east.