Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 3.4.6

3.4.6

My excellent friend Monsieur Adrican, chief of the Dutch factory, gave Murat, the Armenian, a letter of introduction to me, which he delivered into my hands at Dehli, without being aware that I had been his guest at Moka. It was an agreeable surprise to meet thus unexpectedly, after an absence of five or six years. I embraced my old friend with affection, and promised to render him all the service in my power. Yet, though my acquaintance among the courtiers was pretty extensive, I found it difficult to be useful to these empty-handed ambassadors. The mule's skin, and the ox's horn, wherein was kept arrack, or brandy extracted from raw sugar, of which they are excessively fond, constituted the whole of their presents; and the contempt which the absence of valuable presents would alone inspire was increased by their miserable appearance. They were seen about the streets without a paleky, clad in true Bedouin fashion, and followed by seven or eight bare-footed and bare-headed slaves, who had no raiment but a nasty strip of cloth passed between their buttocks, and the half of a ragged sheet over the left shoulder, which was carried under the right arm, in the manner of a summer cloak. Nor had the ambassadors any other carriage than a hired and broken-down cart; and they were without any horse except one belonging to our Missionary Father, and one of mine that they sometimes borrowed, and which they nearly killed.