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244 FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE BENGAL COAST town, had lately silted up, and the Moghul Government, after destroying the Portuguese settlement in 1632, made Hugli the imperial court for the Ganges prov- inces. Hugli remained the chief seat of the maritime trade of Bengal until the founding of Calcutta, half a century later. The arrival of the English at Hugli in 1650 prom- ised an accession of trade to the new imperial port, and an increased customs-revenue to the Moghul governor. They came as four peaceable merchants who had left their ship the Lyoness far off in the Balasor roadstead, and only asked leave to sell the goods brought up the river in small native boats. The letter of instructions drawn up for their guidance mingled religious admoni- tion with shrewd commercial advice. " Principally and above all things/ ' runs its opening paragraph, " you are to endeavour with the best of your might and power the advancement of the glory of God, which you will best do by walking holily, righteously, pru- dently, and Christianly in this present world/' that so, " you may enjoy the quiet and peace of a good con- science toward God and man." In the next place they were to buy in the cheapest markets a cargo of Bengal sugars, silks, and " Peter " (saltpetre); to " enquire secretly " into the business methods of the Dutch; and above all to procure a license for trade which " may outstrip the Dutch in point of privilege and freedom." They carried with them an able Hindu, Narayan (or " Narrand ") by name, who had been the " Company's broker " since our first settlement in Orissa in 1632,