Never had Bombay been so well governed as it was during the eleven months of Keigwin’s rule.  The Seedee sent a friendly deputation to him.  From the Rajah of Satara he obtained confirmation of the articles agreed on by Sivajee, a grant for the establishment of factories at Cuddalore and Thevenapatam, an exemption from duties in the Carnatic, and the payment of twelve thousand pagodas in compensation for losses sustained at different places formerly plundered by the Mahrattas.  There was no disorder or bloodshed; the only thing of the kind that has been recorded being a wound received by Keigwin himself in a quarrel at table.  So great was the enthusiasm for Keigwin, that when, first commissioners, and then Sir John Child himself, came from Surat to try and re-establish the Company’s authority, it was with difficulty that the crews of their vessels could be prevented from joining Keigwin and his adherents.[5] It was well for the Company that he was a man of solid character and not an adventurer.  On the arrival of Sir Thomas Grantham from England in November, 1684, Keigwin surrendered the island to him, as a King’s officer, on condition of a free pardon for himself and his associates, and proceeded to England.[6] The Company’s treasure was intact, and, except for the dangerous spirit against the Company that had been aroused, Bombay was in a better state than it had been at the time of the revolt.

After this the Company decided to have nothing more to do with professional soldiers.  It was the time when the great feeling of hostility to a standing army was growing up in England, under the mischievous preaching of agitators, which reached its height thirteen years later.  They took into their service men of low origin, devoid of military training, who would have no influence over their men, and who would submit to any treatment.  Boone, writing to the Directors in 1720, says—­

“It is well known the Company’s servants, in all the settlements I have been in, seldom keep company with the military, especially the Council.  Now and then they may invite one to take a dinner, which is a favour; but the men which he distinguishes are not company for your second.”

The social status of the Company’s officers appears later, when an Act was passed to extend the Mutiny Act to the East Indies and St. Helena, in consequence of the Company’s right to exercise martial law having been questioned.  In opposing the bill, the Earl of Egmont said—­

“If I am rightly informed, there are some of the Company’s officers of a very low character.  One of them was formerly a trumpeter at a raree show in this country, and when he was discharged that honourable service he listed himself in the Company’s service as a common soldier, and I suppose was made an officer by one of those governors for trumpeting to him better than any other man could do it in the country.  Another, I am told, was a low sort of barber—­one