At the beginning of the seventeenth century, India may be said to have been, to the people of Europe, an unknown land. Save to the learned who had read of its ancient fame, or to such as listened to the wonder-weaving legends that now and then made their way from the shores of the Ievant, its name was a sound that woke no echo of indi vidual hope or national solicitude. It was out of reach; it was out of sight; from the cupidity of the Occident it was safe. But distance, which had hitherto left fair Hindustan secure from European lust, seemed to lessen year by year after the Portuguese and Dutch mariners had proved that the Cape of Storms could be safely passed in ships of heavy burthen.