Surat

A large but declining city of British India, 150 miles north of the city of Bombay, on the south shore of the Tapti, and 8 miles from its mouth in the Gulf of Cambay. Surat was sacked in 1512 by the Portuguese soon after their arrival in India. In 1612 an English force arrived here in two ve els, under the command of Capt. Best, who defeated the Portuguese, and obtained a firman from the Mogul emperor, authorizing the residence of a British minister, and established a factory. An attack of the Mahratta chief Sivajee on the British factory was defeated by Sir George Oxenden, 1664. The English were again attacked in 1670 and 1702, and often subsequently. The East India Company, in 1759, fitted out an armament which dispo e ed the admiral of the castle (the Great Mogul had here an officer who was styled his admiral); and, soon after, the po e ion of this castle was confirmed to them by the court of Delhi. Surat was vested in the British by treaty in 1800 and 1803.