As the stability
of the Company became assured, the conduct of its servants improved.
It is not intended in these pages to give an exhaustive account of all
the pirates who haunted the Indian seas, but to present some idea of the
perils that beset the Indian trade--perils that have so entirely passed
away that their existence is forgotten.
Scattered among the monotonous records of the Company's trade are many
touches of human interest. Along with the details relating to sugar,
pepper, and shipping, personal matters affecting the Company's servants
are set down; treating of their quarrels, their debts, and, too often, of
their misconduct, as ordinary incidents in the general course of
administration. At times a bright light is turned on some individual, who
relapses into obscurity and is heard of no more, while the names of
others emerge again and again, like a coloured thread woven in the canvas;
showing how much romance there was in the lives of the early traders. One
such thread I have followed in the account of Mrs. Gyfford, from her
first arrival in India till her final disappearance in the Court of
Chancery, showing the vicissitudes and dangers to which an Englishwoman
in India was exposed two hundred years ago.
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