Indian Antiquary Vol 41

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 79

A SHORT NOTE ON THE HINDUIZATION
75
APRIL, 1912.]
Bombay, while Marlborough and the men-of-war returned to England. In his attempt to leave the men at Surat, Marlborough mentioned that they were daily dying for want of refreshment, and a number of the force had perished before they landed on Anjediva.
All through the years 1663, 1664, Shipman and his men remained cooped up on this wretched spot, gradually succumbing to want of provisions, bad water, exposure, disease, and their own intemperance. Towards the end of 1663, Shipman visited Goa to negotiate the surrender of Bombay, but without success. With equal ill-success he tried to induce the East India Company's officials at Surat to take over the King's rights to Bombay. On the 6th April 1664 he died.
Just before his death he received from England a commission from the King, dated 23rd November, 1668, notifying a settlement of the dispute with Portagal, and authorizing him to take possession of Bombay. In it he is styled Knight of the Golden Ensign, and Gentleman of our Privy Council.' His last act, the day before he died, was to sign a formal commission constituting his Secretary, Mr. Humphry Cooke, Vice-Governor, the other Captains of Companies being already dead.
On the 14th January 1665, the Portuguese Viceroy signed a treaty with Cooke for the surrender of the Island of Bombay, shorn of the dependencies mentioned in the marriage treaty, and on the 18th February, Bombay was handed over to Mr. Cooke. A muster of the troops taken on the 3rd March showed that one ensign, four sergeants, six corporals, four drummers, one surgeon, one surgeon's-mate, two gunners, one ganner's-mate, une gunsmith, and ninety-seven privates alone survived. The rest had left their bones in Anjediva.
Shipman's will, executed just before leaving England, was proved on 18th July 1665. In it he left to his two children, William and Elizabeth, the reversion of the charge of the Dungeness lighthouse. But William was apparently dead before this, as the will was proved by Elizabeth only. He had apparently taken some money with him to India, as, during his stay in Anjediva, he engaged in a trading venture. One of the first acts of Sir Gervase Lucas, who had been appointed by the King in place of Cooke, who was deposed for making an improper treaty with the Portuguese, was to force Mr. Cooke to surrender Shipman's estate that he had taken possession of, and to refund the sum of £663 which he had charged the executrix with, as commission. Nine years later (May 1674) we find Elizabeth Shipman petitioning the King, complaining that she was still kept out of the enjoyment of the lighthouse, in spite of the King's grant to her father and his assigns.
Principal Authorities.
Calendar of State Papers (Domestic); Thoroton's History of Nottinghamshire; Army Lists of the Roundheads and Cavaliers, 1642 (Chatto and Windus, 1874), Bruce's Annals of the East India Company; a description of the Port and Island of Bombay, 1724.
A SHORT NOTE ON THE HINDUIZATION OF THE ABORIGINES: THE SWELLING OF THE CHANDALA CASTE. BY PROF. VANAMA LI CHAKRAVARTTI, M.A., GAUHATI.
(1) The Popular erroneous view that Non-Hindus cannot become
Hindus by Conversion.
THE common folk in this country entertain the belief that the Hindu religion and society have always been a closed community, into which no non-Hindu might ever enter. A Hindu must be born, and not made by conversion.