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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1918
Consultation at Bombay Castle, 3 December 1777.30 A Packet addressed to Mr Bolts on their Imperial Majesty's Service having been intercepted by Mr Lewis (British East India Company's agent) at Poonah and sent by him to the President, it is debated whether the same shall be opened and inspected, when :Letter is read from the Commander of the Sloop Leopold, purchaesd from the Portugueze by Mr Bolts and now in the Road, wherein he terms himself an Agent for their Imperial Majesties, and demands that the said Packet should be restored. On Consideration of which It is agreed to give it up. But Mr Carnac31 desires it may be minuted that als Mr Bolts is engaged in a Scheme so destructive to the Interests of the Company, he
thinks every means should be made use of to defeat it, and it is therefore his Opinion that the Packet should be opened and the Contents inspected, as it may probably, from the anxiety of Mr Bolts' Agent to recover it, contain intelligence of Importance.
Consultation at Bombay Castle, 24 December 1777.32 As Mr Bolts has already been here a sufficient time to answer every purpose of getting Refreshment for the Imperial Sloop now here, the Secretary must signify the same to him, and require him to depart from this place without any further delay.
As We have reason to believe that there are a number of British subjects on board the Imperial Ship Joseph and Theresa and as we believe the Squadron is in want of Men, the same must be noticed to the Commodore and the Propriety of his taking them out of the Ship suggested to him. Letter and Protest from Mr Bolts to the President and Council at
Bombay, dated 24 December 1777.33 Honble. Sir and Gentlemen
I did not receive Mr Secretary Ravenscroft's answer, dated the 19th of November, to the Letter which I did myself the Honor of writing to you under Date of the 31st October, untill the 13th Inst., owing to the very extraordinary interceptions of my Letters, which Your Honor &ca. Gentlemen are well acquainted with, and which make the subject of the latter part of this address. I do not imitate your mode (unusual as I conceive it in the case before us) of answering by my Secretary, as I would not wish by any example of punctilio, much less of personal disrespect, to give cause of prejudice to the affair of my Sovereigns, who, I am sorry to say, Honble. Sir and Gentlemen, from Your answers, will not be able to collect much information of a satisfactory nature on the subjects of my last letter.
You are pleased to inform me in one Paragraph that "You cannot consider mere strangers in India as entitled to the same Privileges and attention in Your Ports as the Nations who have had Establishments and traded in the Country for upwards of a Century and a half by Virtue of Royal Grants and Phirmaunds."
To this I must remark that all European Nations are strangers in India, and in their own respective Ports, while Peace subsists between them, are mutually entitled to that attention and freedom of intercourse which are founded on the general Laws of Society,
80 Bombay Public Conmltations (1777), XLIV, 626. S1 The celebrated General John Carnac ( 1760-1800 ), then Second of Council at Bombay. 32 Bombay Public Consultations ( 1777), XLIV, 551-562. 33 Bombay Public Consultations (1777), XLIV, 668-573.
