he was the first to do so
permanently.

The inferior quality of the Company's officers through the first half of
the century is reflected in the fact that among the many who distinguished
themselves in the hard fighting that went on from 1751 to 1764, we find
only two who had not graduated in the King's service. These were Clive,
who entered the Company's service as a writer, and Preston, who was sent
to India as a civil engineer. Of the Company's purely military officers we
hear little or nothing.

The men were worse than the officers. Instead of the sturdy agricultural
labourers and farmers' sons that filled the ranks of the King's regiments,
they were 'the refuse of the vilest employments in London,' as Orme
described them fifty years later; 'the worst of their kind,' according to
Clive. Of all nationalities, ages, and colours, badly armed, badly fed,
and badly paid, they were almost without discipline. The native chiefs
vied with each other in getting Europeans into their service, so that none
but the most wretched would stay to serve the Company. At the best they
were only factory guards, and maintained for purposes of escort and
display; and it was always the Company's practice to retain officers and
men in their service up to any age. On one occasion we find Boone writing
to the Directors that 'it would not do to disgust the men too much.'
Miserable as was their pay of sixteen laris[9] a month, we find them
complaining to the Council that Midford had kept back two laris a month
from each man. To which Midford replied that he never received nor took
any more profit from the soldiers than what other officers did, all
through the island of Bombay; with which answer the Council was apparently
satisfied. The real grievance of the men appears to have been that Midford,
not being a military officer, was not entitled to make the deduction. The
Directors were careful in enjoining that powder was not to be wasted at
exercise; "but sometimes the men must be used to firing, lest in time of
action they should start at the noise or the recoil of their arms." To
bring such officers and men into the field was to invite disaster.
Soldiers are not made by dressing men in uniform and putting muskets into
their hands.

[Illustration: Map]

[1] According to the Company's instructions in 1675, writers were to
receive no salary at all for the first five years, and after that L10
a year. In 1699 the Court of Directors set