s. It is constructed entirely of granite, without any woodwork
whatsoever; but its abounding interest lies not in its structure but
in the fact that it was in this palace that the British Empire in
India may be said to have been begotten.

There is no little interest in the thought that it was the Raja of
Chandragiri that delivered the deed of possession to Mr. Francis Day.
The Raja was an obscure representative of a magnificent Indian Empire
of the past; Mr. Francis Day was an obscure representative of a
magnificent Indian Empire that was yet to be; and the document that
the Raja handed to Mr. Francis Day was in reality a patent of Empire,
transferred from Vijianagar to Great Britain. It was at Chandragiri
that the British Empire in India was begotten; it was at Madras that
the British Empire was born.

Mr. Francis Day had fulfilled his mission. He had secured territory
where the conditions seemed to give promise of success; and his work
was approved. His superior officer, Mr. Andrew Cogan, Agent at
Masulipatam, came away from Masulipatam to take charge of Madras, and
with the co-operation of Mr. Francis Day he set about the development
of the Company's new possession.

Of Mr. Francis Day's personal history we know little or nothing except
that he was one of the Company's employees, and that he founded first
an unsuccessful settlement at Armagaum--represented to-day by no more
than a lighthouse--and afterwards a successful settlement at Madras.
Later he was put in charge of the second settlement that he had
founded, but he was relieved of, or resigned, the office at the end of
a year. He then went to the Company's head-quarters at Bantam, in
Java, and afterwards to England. What finally became of him is
apparently unknown.

It would probably be difficult to say whether Mr. Francis Day was a
great man with great ideals, or was merely a shrewd man of business,
reliable for an important commercial mission. Remembering that the
Company was strictly a commercial concern, we may think it likely
that, in fixing upon Madras as a site for the Company's business, he
was guided almost entirely by the question of trade-profits, and that
in his mind's eye there were no prophetic visions of imperial glory.
And it has been asked indeed whether or not he really chose well in
choosing Madraspatnam by the Triplicane river as the site of the
proposed new settlement; for there are those who have argued that the
prosperity of Madras h