Storia do Mogor 44.3

44.3

It happened at the time when I was in Surat that Shahjahan, King of the Great Mogul, sent a severe reprimand to the governor because he had not acquired a lovely pearl of great value and forwarded it to the court. The reader should know that the governors sent by the king to Surat are persons of rank, men highly thought of and favoured by the king. These men have orders to buy all things that are most beautiful, precious, and rare, and send them to the king. Yet this pearl passed through without the knowledge of the governor, and reached the king, who bought it at a fair price. Then he issued the aforesaid reprimand once more, enjoining on the governor to take special care to buy all the best things that came to that port, more especially pearls and horses, which come from Arabia and Persia. For all these things are used by the king as gifts to the princes and the court officials. Therefore he searches with great exactness through all merchandise to find out if there is anything rare or valuable. We remained for seventy-five days in that port — i.e., Surat — the revenues of which had been given by Shah Jahan to his daughter, Begom Saeb (Begam Sahib), to meet her expenditure on betel. During this time we were making our preparations for going on to the court of the Great Mogul.