[2] In a letter, three years later, on the conduct of military officers,
it is stated that "Stanton was drunk the time he should have gone upon
action at Carwar."

[3] Bombay Consultations, 22nd January, 1718.



CHAPTER V

_THE COMPANY'S SERVANTS_

The Company's civil servants--Their comparison with English who went to
America--Their miserable salaries--The Company's military servants--
Regarded with distrust--Shaxton's mutiny--Captain Keigwin--Broken pledges
and ill-treatment--Directors' vacillating policy--Military grievances--
Keigwin seizes the administration of Bombay--His wise rule--Makes his
submission to the Crown--Low status of Company's military officers--Lord
Egmont's speech--Factors and writers as generals and colonels--Bad quality
of the common soldiers--Their bad treatment--Complaint against Midford--
Directors' parsimony.


It may be useful here to consider the difference in the men sent out, by
England, to the East and West Indies during the seventeenth and part of
the eighteenth centuries. To the West Indies went out representatives of
the landed gentry from every county in England. Charters were obtained
from the Crown, conferring estates, and sometimes whole islands, on men of
ancient families. Slaves were cheap, and sugar cultivation brought in