Brahmans, and forbid the slaughter of cows, but they have so few other things in common with the Hindus that they have their own national character. Every man is pledged to become a soldier, and it is said that every Sikh to this day wears a piece of steel as a sign thereof. Theirs was the last Hindu power to succumb to the English. There were two British-Sikh wars; but in 1849 the whole of the Punjab became a British province by conquest and cessions. The Punjab was laid out with roads and canals, and grew so prosperous that in the Mutiny of 1857 the Sikhs were loyal to the English.

The Moguls after Aurungzebe. -The history of the Hindu forces responsible for the breaking up of the Mogul Empire has been carried through to the time. when they were merged into the Indian Empire. The account of the line of the Moguls will now be resumed. As has been said, the dissolution of the great Mogul Empire began while Aurungzebe was on the throne. Internal enemies might have completed the downfall in time, but it was not left to them alone. Persians and Afghans made raids into northern and western India, mutilating, burning, and killing as they went. The Moguls that followed Aurungzebe were weak and much harassed. In 1743 the Mogul ceded Malwa, and in 1751 Orissa to the Mahrattas, and promised an imperial grant from Bengal to the same Hindu power. The

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Nizam, or Governor, of Deccan separated the Deccan from the Delhi Empire; and the Vizier, or Prime Minister, of Oude set up a separate dynasty and took for himself the title of Nabob Vizier of Oude.

In 1764 the Nabob Vizier of Oude and the Great Mogul, Shah Alam II., combined against the English. They were defeated at the battle of Baxar. The Mogul became a pensioner of the English, and from that time the Moguls were only titular. In exchange for her protection, the Mogul ceded Great Britain the provinces of Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar, and the following year the northern Circars. The English allotted Corah and Allahabad to the Mogul, and he held his court at Allahabad.

In 1771 Shah Alam determined to try to regain the throne at Delhi. The Mahrattas were the only strong power aside from the English, so he attached himself to them. They seated him at Delhi, but then immediately compelled him and his army to assist them in a marauding raid on the Rohillas. He became disgusted with the faithlessness of the Mahrattas and tried to withdraw from them, but they would not allow him to, and compelled him to be an instrument in their hands. One of his acts at this time was to cede Allahabad and Corah to the Mahrattas; but the English took possession of them. The English debated their responsibility toward the unhappy Mogul in his

captivity, but decided it would not be politic to interfere. In the second war of the Mahrattas and English in 1803 Delhi was taken, and the poor, blind, old Emperor Shah Alam passed once more under English protection.

The last of the Great Moguls, Mohammed Bahadur Shah, was living in Delhi on English bounty when the Great Mutiny of 1857 broke out. The mutineers proclaimed him the Great Emperor. When the English recovered the city, he was captured and was imprisoned for life. The princes were shot.

THE BRITISH IN INDIA

In the fifteenth century the powers of Europe were trying to find a new route to India. Columbus sailed west carrying a letter to the Khan of Tartary, and discovered America instead of the new route; but Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1498 and landed on the west coast of India. Thus Portugal was the first Christian country to get a foothold in India. The Portuguese established tradingposts at Surat and Goa on the west coast. They were followed by the Dutch, who established their posts on the islands along the east coast. Both nations had secured a good trade with India before the English ventures began. The Dutch traders were growing rich from the pepper and other products of India. This incited the English merchants, now that the way was open, to form a company to trade in the East Indies.

An association was formed with 125 shareholders, merchants of London, and a capital stock of £70,000. This was the organization of the famous English East India Company, and it received the royal charter from Queen Elizabeth on the last day of the year 1600.

For years there were sea fights for the right to trade with the islands and along the coast of India. In the first years of the seventeenth century the Portuguese

were driven from all the west coast, except Goa, and the English East India Company established factories. The Dutch drove the English from the islands on the east coast, but this resulted in English settlements on the peninsula itself. The early traders seem to have stood in awe of the Great Mogul, believing the native population to be one people united under one emperor; but when the English were driven from the Archipelago, they gradually procured licenses from the Great Mogul to establish factories on the mainland. In 1639 the site of the present city of Madras was purchased by the East India Company from the Rajah of Chandrigiri, and Fort St. George was built. This was the first territory owned by the Company. The island of Bombay was ceded by Portugal to the British Crown, and in 1668 King Charles II. sold his rights over Bombay to the East India Company. The Company had more difficulty in getting a settlement in the province of Bengal. It was not until 1700 that they were able to purchase three Indian villages there, that were on the site of the present city of Calcutta. In this way the three great presidencies, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, had their beginnings.

Until the end of the seventeenth century the English had thought of trading only. But uprisings of the Mahrattas against the Moguls taught the English that the Great Mogul was not the undisputed ruler of India.