Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/286

tion of the already tangled skein of events. After wasting some eighteen months in fruitless inquiries it relegated the whole question home. Not until 1672, when both George Foxcroft and Winter embarked for England may the episode be said to have terminated.

The whole occurrence is so extraordinary as to seem almost to pass belief, but it must be remembered that in days when India was a six month's journey from England, and when the directing hand from home was still for the most part a nerveless display of incompetent authority, there were possibilities for the bold adventurer which cannot be fully realized in the present prosaic age.