Accordingly,
Mr Salbank And I Went Ashore, Accompanied By Two Linguists And An
Attendant, Carrying As A Present For The
Governor, six yards of stammel
broad cloth, six yards of green, a fowling-piece and a looking-glass.
Above a
Thousand people were on the shore expecting our arrival, and
several officers were in waiting to conduct us to the governor. His
house was large and handsome, built of brick and stone, having a fair
gate of entrance with a porter's lodge, and several servants in waiting.
From the gate, we went into a great court, whence a winding stair of
thirty steps led to a square terrace, from which we were conducted into
a large room, at one end of which was a great bow-window looking towards
the sea. The governor sat in this window, and there were others on the
sides of the room, which looked to the wharf or landing-place. The floor
of this room was all covered with fine mats, and towards where the
governor sat, with fine Turkey carpets and Persian felts. Where he sat,
there lay a party-coloured sattin quilt, with several rich cushions of
damask and others of velvet. He was dressed in a violet-coloured vest of
sattin, under which were garments of fine India muslin or calico, having
on his head a sattin cap, wreathed round by a white sash. He was
attended by the chief scrivano, the principal officers of the customs,
some Turks of importance, many Indian merchants, and about an hundred
servants. He seemed about fifty years of age, and his name was Mahomet
Aga.
On our approach, and doing reverence, he bowed to us, and desired us to
sit down, demanding who we were, and what was our business. We answered
that we were Englishmen and merchants from London, who, by command of
the ambassador of the king of England to the Great Mogul, with whom we
had a league of peace and amity, had come to this place to treat for
liberty of trade. That we were in friendship with the Grand Signior, and
had free trade at Constantinople, Aleppo, and other places in the
Turkish dominions, and hoped to enjoy the same here; for which purpose
we were come to desire his and the pacha's phirmauns, giving us such
privileges as we already had in other parts of the dominions of the
Grand Signior, both for the present time and in future, as we meant to
visit his port yearly with plenty of English and Indian commodities. We
said likewise that we were commanded to say by the lord ambassador, that
hearing there were sundry pirates, English, Dutch, French, Portuguese,
Malabars and others, who infested the trade of this port, and
principally that carried on by the Guzerats, who were our friends, we
had his orders to free the seas of all such incumbrances, protecting all
honest merchant ships and junks from injury. These, we said, were the
true causes of our coming here.
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