ABSTRACT
A small sloop, the St. Anthony and St. Nicholas, the master and owner of which, Bartholomew Rodrigues, an Armenian, was a citizen of Madras, living under the jurisdiction of Fort St. George was forced through lack of wood and water, to put into the Burmese port of Martaban. Bartholomew Rodrigues had given out to the Burmese authorities that he was in the service of the East India Company’s Governor of Fort St. George. As some of the Company’s servants participated in this lucrative trade, they could not afford to let the matter of the seizure of Bartholomew Rodrigues drop. Nathaniel Higginson and his Council decided to send Edward Fleetwood and Captain James Lesly to the Burmese capital with large presents to the king and chief ministers, to negotiate the release of Bartholomew Rodrigues and his crew, and the restoration of all the goods seized by the Burmese authorities.
