________________
A.UGUST, 1908.)
SOME ANGLO-INDIAN WORTHIES.
221
On the receipt of Salisbury's answer to their proposals, Messrs. Jearsey and Niclaes wrote again :
"Mr. Ambrose Salusbury, In your answer to our paper delivered you to day, you Acknowledged that wee Long since propounded your going to Tennasaree, but now declyne it under pretence of the Dutch warr and short warniug. As to the former, that was knowne long before wee had ever any thoughts of sending you, or indeed did imagine wee should have any Necessity for it, and for the latter, you have been often sponke to some monethes since, and about a moneth agoe you said you would consider of it and give your answer in two or three dayes, but did not minde it. Besides, the tywe is not soe short as you speake of, haveing neere a mopeth that you may provide your selfe. Conveighance of the Companys you know wee hare not, and therefore must make use of the Moores [ Muhammadans ), which was alsoe told you, to carry you over, of which you may take choyce of three or four. 'Twas never a Custome to give any man a Commission that [? when] there was noe Certainety of his proceedings upon the voyadge, the Conditions you were to gee upon [were] as the Companys Servant to secure what belonged to them and what you could more of Sir Edward's in; however, your Endeavours would be acceptable and you Blameless.
Your Indented time with the Company wee knowe to bee long since Expired, and that Sir Edward did, upon his owne humour, turne you out of Service, without the Consent of any body elee, and this Wee finde you have taken for & Law and discharge, and thereupon have taken your Owne time to follow your Owne occasions, which in all reason should have its Owne charge, for while you were here you never was debarred the Companys accomodation and you may very well Remember that with Mr. Backeridge Wee resolved, Notwithstanding what Sir Edward had done, not to Leave you out, which Sir Edward, after his departure, nuld againe, but noe Sooner that the Worshipfull Agent Foxcroft arrived [in 1665], but wee had you in Consideration againe; but hee, being betrayed into those villaines power before any thing was Effected, and haveing noe shipping here since the departure of Mr. Buckeridge, things have Remayned unsetled, soe that you cannot Justly blame any body but Sir Edward that you have not been in a Settled Imployment, the which could not have lasted longer than wee had had Buisness, and then you must, to save Charges have repaired hither. But all the while We have Observed you Unconstant and wavering as it were between two opinions, and as if You had slighted or Neglected soe farr as not to acknowledge your selfe to bee in the Number of one of the Companys servants, and that is the reason that Wee bave not at any time since nor now absolutely Commanded your observance, bot desire you to take the Imployment upon you wbich, if you doe refuae, you may chance meet with a worse, and repent you of missing this, which wee would not have you doe, and therefore doe not take your first paper for a positive answer but doe Expect it to this, and Remayne Your assured Friends, W. JERSEY ; JOHN NICLAES.60
Metchlepalam, the 6
August 1666."
The veiled threate contained in the above letter evidently frightened Salisbury, and be hurried away from Masulipatam in order to be out of the immediate reach of the overbearing
Salinbury's 'indented time' was probably for five years. This period olapsod in 1608.
* Nicholas Buokeridge was appointed by the Company in Deo. 1663, to inepoot their Factories on the Coromandel Coast.
Pactory Records, Mavulipatam, Vol. 5.
