id but little attention at the time, though I
was soon to learn that they were not idle fears. Mr. Holwell, after
having ascertained that I was acquainted with the Gentoo language,
offered to procure me employment under the Company in one of their
counting-houses, as interpreter, which offer I gladly accepted for the
time. I was to receive a salary of 200 rupees by the month, in
addition to which Mr. Holwell undertook to procure me a dustuck from
the Governor, enabling any merchandise I chose to trade in to pass
through the province of Bengal free of taxes or duties to the Nabob's
government.

I soon found out that this privilege of trading on their own account
proved, together with the presents they received from native merchants
who did business with the Company, the most valuable part of the
livelihood of the Company's servants. Their salaries were so
wretchedly small as to be insufficient for the necessities of life in
this climate, where the poorest European is obliged to keep half a
dozen black servants in his pay. For my part, I did not embark in
trade myself, having no capital, but I accepted the offer of a Gentoo
merchant to lend him the use of my dustuck to cover his goods, for
which he paid me handsomely.

These Gentoos, as they are called in that part of India, are the
original natives of the country, who follow the idolatrous religion
taught by their Bramins, practising human sacrifices and other rites
too vile for description. Over them the Moors have established their
empire by force, but being a military race, incapable of business,
they commit the details of their government to certain of the Gentoos,
who collect their revenues, and amass great fortunes. They are very
dishonest scoundrels, as I discovered, and at first, finding me new to
the Company's business, I have no doubt they overreached me. At the
same time I received many handsome gratifications from them, so that I
came to consider myself ill-used when I did not pocket a hundred or
two rupees over a transaction involving some thousands. But in the
course of a few weeks, as I began to understand the trade better, and
to cut down their exorbitant demands, these men marvellously abated
their complaisance. Some of them, even, who had professed to know no
English, suddenly showed themselves to be conversant with it, and
chose to conduct their negotiations with some other servant of the
Company.

During this time I was lodged, upon Mr. Holwell's