I Told Them Of The Dutchman's
Distress; And As The Wind Was Fair, Made Sail For England.
In the
morning of the 9th, Beechy-head was three leagues from us N.N.E. and on
the 10th May, 1610, we anchored in the Downs about sunset, having spent
three years, one month, and nine days on this voyage.
* * * * *
SECTION V.
Narrative by William Hawkins, of Occurrences during his Residence in
the Dominions of the Great Mogul.[185]
INTRODUCTION.
This and the next following section may be considered as supplementary
to the one immediately preceding; as Captain Hawkins in the Dragon
accompanied Captain Keeling, in the third voyage fitted out by the
English Company; and Finch was in the same vessel with Hawkins, and
accompanied him into the country of the Mogul. The present narrative is
said, in its title in the Pilgrims, to have been written to the company,
and evidently appears to have been penned by Hawkins himself, without
any semblance of having been subjected to the rude pruning knife of
Purchas; except omitting so much of the journal as related to
occurrences before landing at Surat. Purchas gives the following account
of it in a side-note. - E.
[Footnote 185: Purch. Pilg. I. 206.]
"Captain Keeling and William Hawkins had kept company all the
outward-bound voyage, as already related, and therefore not necessary to
be here repeated, to the road of Delisa, in Socotora, whence, on the
24th June, 1603, Captain Keeling departed in the Dragon, as before
related. Captain Hawkins sailed from Delisa in the Hector, for Surat, on
the 4th August, having previously built a pinnace, and having received
from the general, Captain Keeling, a duplicate of the commission under
the great seal." - Purch.
Sec. 1. Barbarous Usage at Surat by Mucrob Khan; and the treacherous
Procedure of the Portuguese and Jesuits.
Arriving at the bar of Surat on the 24th August, 1608, I immediately
sent Francis Bucke, merchant, and two others, on shore, to make known
that I was sent by the King of England, as his ambassador to the king of
the country, together with a letter and present. In answer, I received a
message from the governor, by three of his servants accompanying those I
sent, saying, he and all that country could afford were at my command,
and that I should be made very welcome if I pleased to come on shore. I
accordingly landed, accompanied by our merchants and others, equipped in
the best manner I could, as befitting the honour of my king and country.
On landing, I was well received after their barbarous manner, and vast
multitudes of the natives followed after me, desirous of seeing a
new-come people whom they had often heard of, but who had never before
visited their country. When I drew near the governor's house, I was told
he was not well, but I rather think he was drunk with affion [or
opium,] being an aged man. I went therefore to the chief customer, being
the only officer to whom sea-faring causes belonged; as the government
of Surat pertained to two great noblemen, one of whom, Khan-Khana, was
viceroy of the Decan,[186] and the other, Mucrob-Khan, was viceroy of
Cambaya or Guzerat, who had no command in Surat except what regarded the
king's customs, and with him only I had to deal.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 186 of 424
Words from 96545 to 97108
of 221842
