The early history of the Company's trade and settlements in the Bay of Bengal cannot, so far as I have been able to discover, be traced with satisfactory precision. It belongs to the decades between 1630 and 1650, during which the surviving correspondence from India is more imperfect even than in the latter half of the century, whilst the regular series of the Company's Letter-books, containing the communications of the Court to their agents in India, and to their ship-captains, as preserved in the India Office, does not commence till April 1653, and among these the first letter that I have found addressed direct to Bengal is dated no earlier than:27th February 1657(–8). The first from Bengal direct to the Company appears to be that from Francis Day, dated “Ballasara, Novr. 3d. 1642”, which is quoted on p. clxxxi; and the next that I have found is one dated 12th December 1650, from Wm. Netlam, at the same place, defending himself against certain charges.