________________
SOME ANGLO-INDIAN WORTHIES.
AUGUST, 1908.]
a Coppy of our Consultation about that business,55 whereunto we do refer you, by which also you will find that we appoint Mr Robert Fleetwood to be Chief in Petepole and Mr John Hopkins to be his Second and Assistant." 50
225
At this time Salisbury was occupied in getting in a supply of saltpetre for the Company. On the 17th August 1669, he wrote to Masulipatam that he should have 300 Candy ready by the end of the month. Knowing that the position of "Second" at Masulipatam was a post of less indépendence than that of "Chief" at Peddapalle, he was in no hurry to repair to his new appointment. On the 8th September, 1669, Agent Foxcroft, who seems to have heard of Salisbury's disinclination to succeed at Masulipatam, wrote to William Jearsey:--
"Wee doe concurr with them that it is convenient that Mr Salisbury and Mr Fleetwood doe respectively continue in the places were they are, untill they have effected and gathered in the investments they have entered upon for this yeare, before they settle themselves in the places whereunto they are designed, unless you finde some other necessity to appoint it sooner, and that the business may goe on currantly in their absence. Wee did understand and intend the charge [P change] of Mr. Salisbury from Petepolee to be second to be a raiseing of him, as well as we understand it to his desire, claymeing the same by right, in which we concurred." 67 Three days latter in another "Generall" to Masulipatam of the 11th September, 1669, Foxcroft remarked, "Mr. Salisbury advizes that 125 tons of saltpeter which he is ordered to provide wilbe at Metchlepatam by the end of August, onely he saith Oxen are hard to be had, there being a sickness among them of which many dye." 58
Meanwhile, the proposal to send Salisbury to "the Bay" met with great disfavour from the factors there. In a "Generall to Fort St George" of the 11th September 1669, they wrote, "Wee find likewise that your Worship &ca. have licenced Mr Ambrose Salusburys coming downe to be employed in our Masters affaires as wee shall find convenient. You very well know that we have already more Persons of large expectations than employments proportionable thereto, there being besides the Chiefs of the severall factoryes, eight of Councell who will all bee as unwilling to grant the precedence to him as he (haveing officiated as Cheife of Pettipolee for some yeers) to some of them, by which meanes wee must never expect a mitigation but rather encrease of differences, yet if your Worship &ca. shall think fitt to gratifye his request, wee desire you to appoint the Station he shall act in to prevent clamours against us." 50
The Factors in Bengal need not have troubled themselves about the coming of Salisbury, for that individual had long since abandoned his desire to remove thither. On the 14th October 1669, the Agent wrote from Fort St. George to Masulipatam:
"Mr Salisbury is very earnest to continue in his employment at Petepolee. We are not willing to appeare to the Company so inconstant to our orders of settlement, whereof we have advised them, without some good reason, therefor, before we conclude to gratify him therein, we appoint that he and Mr Fleetwood both meete at Metchlepatain and there consult with yourself &ca. about the same, and give us advise of your result, that if you find there is any good reason for it, and no detriment to our employers, we may then make some farther order in it, as the case shall require." 60
58 This Consultation does not exist.
61 Factory Records, Fort St. George, Vol. 13. 50 Factory Records, Fort St. George, Vol. 18.
se Factory Records, Fort St. George, Vol. 16. O. C. No. 3343. 50. C. No. 3345.
