Storia do Mogor 338.2.2

338.2.2

Be it known, then, in the first place (for it is a certainty), that the Abbé Francois de St. George, when he arrived at Madras, allowed it to be understood by his manner that his first and chief object (apart from his visitation) was the search for means of opening a negotiation for some places on the coast of Choromandal at which to establish a new company of certain Italian merchants. These men desired to navigate the Indian seas and trade within the territories of the Mogul. The first step to be taken for this design was to secure a capable person of good position, who could solicit this urgent business at the court and obtain a farmān from the king. Furnished with this document, the new Italian company would be able to trade and deal freely throughout that king's widely-spread and equally admirable empire. Above all was this help wanted in Gulkandah, in which place there are mines of precious diamonds, or to which the stones are easily brought by merchants, it being very near those mines.