In The Morning Of The 25th, The Nabob Came Down With A Great Train, With
Six Other Elephants, And Was Two Hours At The Water Side Before I Knew
Of His Arrival.
When told, I was sorry for the neglect, and sent Mr
Aldworth, Mr Elkington, and Mr Dodsworth ashore to compliment him, and
to keep him in discourse till I could go on shore, which I did soon
after.
I proposed to have gone to him as a son to his father, in my
doublet and hose, without arms or any great train, according to custom,
to shew the trust and confidence I reposed in him; but my friends
persuaded me to the contrary, insisting that I should go well appointed,
and attended by a sufficient guard, to which I consented, though I
afterwards repented that I had not followed my own way. I went
accordingly ashore with about 140 men, part pikes, and part firelocks,
who gave me a volley of small arms as I entered the nabob's tent. The
nabob received me with much kindness, seeming much pleased at my coming
ashore to him. We sat for some time under a very fair tent, open on all
sides, and surrounded by many people, both his attendants and mine.
At length he brought me into a more private room, near adjoining, having
only along with him Ali Khan, a great Persian captain, with Henie the
Banian as his interpreter; while I was accompanied by Messrs. Aldworth,
Elkington, and Dodsworth. We there conferred about the state of his
country, and about our affairs. At last I invited him to go on board to
view our ship, to which he readily consented. He then presented me with
his own sword, with many complimentary speeches, saying it was the
custom of his country to honour with arms such captains as had deserved
well. This sword, as he said, was made in his own house, the hilt being
of massy gold. In return, I presented to him my own arms, being sword
and dagger, together with my girdle and hangers, by me much esteemed,
and making a much finer shew than his, though of less value. We came
forth together from the private tent, and I walked down to the shore to
wait for his coming, whither he sent me a present of ten cuttonee
quilts and twenty topseels.
Soon after the nabob came to the shore, and we took boat together, going
on board my ship. Having shewn our ordnance, and the manner of pointing
the guns, and explained all our other preparations for defence, I
presented him with a very handsome gilt cup and cover, some fair knives,
a rundlet of Muscadine wine, and some other toys. Desiring to see some
of our ordnance shot off, and how far they could carry their balls on
the water, I caused three guns to be fired. He would then have taken
leave, but I accompanied him ashore, and ordered him to be saluted at
his departure with eleven guns. When we parted at the water side, the
nabob gave me four baskets of grapes. He likewise gave among the gunners
and trumpeters 200 mahmoodies, and 500 among the ship's company,
together with 100 books of white bastas, worth two mahmoodies each.
Thus, after some compliments, we took leave of each other and parted.
While rowing up along shore for my better getting on board, as the tide
ran very swiftly, Lacandas came running towards the boat, bearing a
message from the nabob to ask if he should erect a tomb over the grave
of my son. I returned my hearty thanks for the kind offer, desiring
Lacandas to say that I had already begun to do so. The nabob then went
away to Surat, and not long after his tent was taken down and went after
him, with all the rest of his carriages.
The 26th, the nabob's son and son-in-law, a very ingenious young man,
came to visit me, upon whom I bestowed some knives and other things,
such as I had left, which could not be much, as I had every now and then
some great man or other to visit me, to all of whom I had to give
something. The 27th, the three sons of Ali Khan came to visit me, the
eldest of whom, named Guger Khan, presented me with two antilopes, a
male and a female, of which I was very glad, having endeavoured before
ineffectually to send some home to Sir Thomas Smith. After viewing all
our ship, with our ordnance and warlike preparations for defence, I gave
him four Spanish pikes, and some other things of my own, and saluted him
with eleven guns at his departure.
In the afternoon of the 3d March, upon the tide of ebb, and having a
light gale from the north, sufficient to give steerage-way to our ships,
we hastened to get up our anchors, meaning to set sail in the
prosecution of our voyage, though our friends, the Malabars, who had
desired to go with us, made no attempt to come out. At this time we saw
another fleet of Portuguese frigates standing in from the westwards, and
being willing to do my best to hinder them from going into the river of
Surat, were it only to shew our good-will to the country people, we shot
at the nearest of them, though without hope of doing them any hurt, as
there was room for them to pass on either side of us, beyond reach of
our shot. I was willing also to shew our friends on land, as also to
those who I made no doubt would go down the coast to give notice to the
galleons of our coming, that we shot at their frigates going into Surat,
that they might also expect that we cared little for their greater
strength.
In our passage this night we had various flaws of inconstant winds,
which obliged us to come to anchor for some time.
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