of an old Kentish family, who in his youth had seen some service in India. Oxenden after receiving from the King the honour of knighthood at Whitehall proceeded to India in March, 1662, charged with the principal direction of the Company's affairs in the East.
It was well that at this juncture the chief control of affairs in India was in capable hands. A position of extraordinary difficulty had been created which only a man of sound judgment, wide experience, and abounding courage could cope with successfully. Apart from the weakness incidental to a decayed factory and a lowered prestige at Surat, the new President had to meet a formidable hostile combination which had been brought about by the cession of Bombay. The Dutch bitterly opposed the measure on the general principle that England must not be allowed to secure a permanent lodgment in the East. They had as allies the French, who, having entered into the Indian trade, were not disposed to see a rival obtain an important advantage in the principal sphere of operations. The Mogul authorities, too, were none too friendly to an arrangement which promised to enhance the naval power of the English while at the same time it made it possible for them to withdraw from the control of the native government on land.
Here was material enough to make the transfer of Bombay a source of great anxiety without any complication associated with the change. But it was speedily made apparent that the island was not to be given over with the readiness which the English had ventured to anticipate on the strength of the specific grant which had been made under the Royal marriage settlement. When James Ley, the Earl of Marlborough, who was entrusted with the King's Commission to take over the assigned territory, pre-
