He Complains Also,
That, From Want Of An Interpreter, He Had Experienced Much Difficulty In
Explaining To The Mogul, And
To his ministers, the object of his
mission; in particular, the grievances which the English had suffered
from the governor
Of Ahmedabad, because the native brokers, whom he was
obliged to employ, were afraid to interpret literally, lest they should
either incur the king's displeasure, or be disgraced by his ministers.
In his application for redress from the governor of Ahmedabad, he
discovered that this officer was supported by sultan Churrum, the
Mogul's eldest-son,[184] and Asaph Khan, the favourite. By perseverance
and firmness, however, the ambassador at length obtained the relief he
solicited.
[Footnote 184: Sultan Chesuro appears to have been the eldest son of
Jehanguire, but held in confinement for having endeavoured to supplant
his father in the succession, and Churrum seems only to have been the
third son. - E.]
"On the 24th January, 1616, Sir Thomas had a second audience of the
Mogul, at which he complained of the injuries the English had sustained
from the arbitrary conduct of the governor of Surat, and so effectual
were his remonstrances, that this officer was dismissed. The ambassador
then proposed to renew the articles of the phirmaund, or treaty
between the Mogul and the English nation, and solicited to have the
treaty ratified by the signatures[185] of the Mogul and Sultan Churrum,
which being procured, the treaty was concluded.[186]
[Footnote 185: This expression is rather ambiguous, as the ratifications
of such papers in India were by the seals of the princes, and not what
we understand by the term used in the text - E.]
[Footnote 186: It has not been thought necessary to insert the substance
of this treaty as contained in the Annals, as it is given in the
Journal. - E.] "The dispatches of Sir Thomas, of this year, concluded
with recommending to the company, as a commercial speculation, to send
out annually a large assortment of all kinds of toys, which would find a
ready sale at the great festival of Noroose, [the new year] in the
month of March.
"In 1616 we discover a jealousy in the factory at Surat, of Sir Thomas
Roe, notwithstanding his efforts and success in obtaining phirmaunds
from the Mogul favourable to the factories at Surat and Ahmedabad, and
in general for the encouragement of English trade in the Mogul
dominions; for the factors represented to the court that a merchant or
agent would be better qualified for a commercial negociator than a
king's ambassador; and, in support of this opinion, referred to the
practice of the king of Spain, who on no occasion would send an
ambassador, but always a commercial agent; and stated that Sir Thomas
Roe, besides, considered himself to be vested with the exercise of a
controlling power over the commercial speculations of the Surat factory,
and held himself to be better qualified to judge of the English
interests by combining the political relations which he wished to
introduce between the Mogul and the king of England, than by forwarding
any projects for trade which the factory might devise as applicable to
the Mogul dominions.
"In this year he reported that he had returned thanks to Sultan Churrum
for the protection which he had afforded to the English in relieving
them from the extortions of Zulfeccar Khan, the late governor of Surat,
and had remonstrated against the partiality which had been shown to the
Portuguese; representing to the Mogul that the king of Portugal had
assumed the title of king of India, and that the Portuguese trade could
never be so beneficial as that of England, as the English annually
exported from India calicoes and indigo to the amount of 50,000 rials.
To strengthen this remonstrance, Sir Thomas offered to pay to the sultan
12,000 rupees yearly, on condition that the English should be exempted
from the payment of customs at the port of Surat; and then gave it as
his opinion, that the plan of the agency at Surat, of keeping permanent
factories at Surat, and other parts of the Mogul dominions, ought to be
abandoned, as it would be preferable to make the purchases of goods
inland, by the natives, [particularly the indigo from Agra, and the
Bengal goods] who could obtain them at reasonable rates. But if the
court were of opinion that English factors ought to be stationed at
Agra, he recommended sending the goods in carts rather than on camels.
He concludes this part of his report by advising that agents should
reside at Cambay and Baroach, because the best cloths in India could be
procured at these towns.
"Though Sir Thomas Roe appears to have procured a phirmaund through the
means of Noor-Mahal, the favourite sultana or empress, for the general
good treatment of the English at Surat, and had desired that an
assortment of English goods, perfumes, &c. should be forwarded to him as
presents to her and to her brother, Asaph Khan, he yet describes, in
1618, the governor of Surat as reluctant to shew that favour to the
English which the phirmaund had enjoined. It therefore became a question
with him, as the governor of Surat would not allow the English to
strengthen or fortify their factory for the protection of their goods
and servants, whether it might not be expedient to remove to some other
station, where the means of self-defence might be more practicable. At
one time he thought of Goga, and subsequently of Scindy; but, after a
review of the whole, decided that it would be more expedient to remain
at Surat, though, from the character of the natives, and the instability
of the Mogul government, all grants of privileges must be considered as
temporary, and any agreement or capitulation which might be procured,
ought not to be depended on as permanent. He concludes, that, though a
general phirmaund for trade in the Mogul dominions had been obtained,
and of course a foundation laid for the English intercourse with the
rich provinces of Bengal, yet the attempt to enter on that trade would
be unwise, from being in the exclusive possession of the Portuguese.
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