Storia do Mogor 46.2
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 46.2
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46.2.1
The germ of this insane attempt to obtain money from Persia is probably to be traced to a letter in French (undated) from one Hogia Pedre (Khwajah Petrus), son of Sefer (Safar), a Persian Christian (Carte MSS., vol. cxxx., fol. 145). It was probably addressed to the Queen Mother, Henrietta, and is a proposal to intercept the Customs dues of Hormuz, half of which had been received since the Treaty of 1622 by the East India Company's agents, who are held up as rebels and embezzlers. Petrus offers to collect the dues on the King's behalf, and remit two-thirds of the proceeds to Amsterdam or Paris ; or, in the alternative, proposes that someone be sent to Persia with him to receive there two-thirds of the proceeds on His Majesty's behalf. We have no record of the reasons for abandoning the projected visits to Morocco and to Georgia, nor have we any trace of Bard's appointment as Ambassador to the Great Mogul. Originally, as it would appear, that employment was assigned to Sir Andrew Cogan (who died 1660), the founder of Madras. At the Louvre, on April 11, 1652, Charles II. appointed Sir Charles (sic; should be 'Andrew ') Cogan, Knight and Baronet, as 'Ambassador Extraordinary to China, the Mogul, Japan, the Kings of Golcondes, Pegu, and Siam, and the Princes and Potentates of the East Indies.' The authority quoted is Drake's ' Hundred of Blackheath,' p. 79, note 8 (a work I cannot find).
46.2.2
This entry was communicated by Sir George Musgrave, Baronet, of Edenhall, Cumberland (a descendant of A. Cogan), to Mr. J. Livingstone Jay, treasurer of Greenwich Hospital, by him to Mr. W. Duncombe Pink, of Lowton, Newton-le-Willows, and by Mr. Pink to me. The year 1654 in the ' Complete Baronetage' of Mr. G. E. Cokayne,vol. iii.,p. 304, which rests on the same authorities, should be 1652. In any case, Andrew Cogan never returned to the East ; he was at Venice on February 7, 1653 (Calender of Clarendon State Papers, vol. ii., p. 176, No. 979, (3); and Hyde, writing to Nicholls on April 11, 1653 (ibid., vol. ii., p. 192, No. 1068) says : ' Sir A. Cogan is not an excellent ambassador.' Presumably, this is an allusion to his selection as Ambassador to India and the Farther East, and probably led to the substitution of Henry Bard, Viscount Bellomont.
46.2.3
If Bellomont's Letters of Appointment were drawn up in June, 1651, how came it to pass that no start was made till late in 1653 ? I guess that the cause was want of funds. I have not met with any direct evidence of the date on which Bard sailed ; it can only be inferred approximately from other dates. Several statements are found that Charles II. was at Bruges when Bellomont was despatched. Now, as far as I can make out from C. J. Lyon, 'Personal History of King Charles the Second' (1851), and O. Airy's 'Charles II.' (1904), Charles landed in France on October 16, 1651 (Airy, p. 106), and did not leave it again until July 8, 1654 (ibid., p. 111). He did not settle at Bruges until April 22, 1656 (ibid., p. 130), and this is too late to allow of that place being his residence when he gave authority to Bellomont. It is noticeable that Manucci says Charles II. was 'in France' when Bellomont started from Venice.
46.2.4
We learn from the Aleppo letter quoted below that Bellomont carried with him recommendatory letters from the States General of Holland to their agents at Isfahan. The Commonwealth was then at war with Holland, hostilities beginning in April, 1652, and peace being made in May, 1654 (see S. R. Gardiner's 'History of Commonwealth,' vol. ii., pp. 116, 370). I have not been able to procure any confirmation from the Dutch archives that any such letters were issued ; but, assuming the fact, they must have been anterior to the peace of May, 1654. Professor C. H. Firth has been kind enough to furnish me with a copy of a letter written from Aleppo on March 19, 1654-55 (Mercurius Politicus, No. 265, July 5 to 12, 1655, pp. 5466, 5467). Nine days before its date the East India Company's agent at Aleppo had received letters from Persia in which it was stated that 'a pretended ambassador from the late King of Scots at Cullen is come to the Persian Court with purpose to desturb the Companies affairs there, and to obtain the rights of Ormus Customs from them, having recommendatory letters (which if true were doubtless obtained in the time of the warr) from the States of Holland to the Dutch in these parts to assist him therein, unto whom he hath written to Spahan (Isfahan) from Khazbien (Qazwīn) — where the Emperor then kept his Court — to that purpose. . . .'
46.2.5
Manucci's date in the text, 1651, is hopelessly wrong, and the same chronological error recurs in his 'Storia' for many years up to about 1680. But by calculating backwards from several unimpeachable dates, it is possible to arrive approximately at the period when the journey from Venice commenced, viz., late in 1653. In a general letter from Isfahan (India Office, O.C. 2420), dated October 14, 1654, we find that they had just heard there of Bellomont's arrival at Tabrīz. Manucci's text (i. 33) fixes September as the month of arrival at Qazwīn, and elsewhere (i. 23) he states that on the journey he saw an eclipse of the sun at Julfah in Armenia. Dr. Downing, of the Nautical Almanac Office, has been kind enough to verify this, and fixes it as an eclipse of August 12, 1654, which would have been visible at that place. Assuming that they reached Qazwīn on September 1, 1654, I calculate from Manucci's entries of halts and journeys that 206 days were occupied (say six months and twenty days) from their landing at Smyrna until their arrival at Qazwin. Deducting this number of days, we get February 11, 1654, as the date of arrival at Smyrna, and since the voyage to Smyrna had occupied four months, we obtain October 11, 1653, as the approximate date of setting sail from Venice. This corresponds fairly well, as to the month, with Manucci, who says it was November. I have not been able to secure any verification on this subject from the Venetian archives.
46.2.6
As to Bellomont's proceedings in Persia, Manucci's text must be referred to as the only full account which has come down to us. Some additional facts are disclosed in the East India Company's records, now at the India Office, and these sufficiently confirm Manucci's story. An extract from John Spiller's and Henry Young's letter from Isfahan of October 14, 1654, is as follows :
46.2.7
'. . . The premenconed were no sooner sealed, but by advises from Tabreeze &c we were informed that there was an English embassador arrived in those parts by way of Turkey, haveing 3 English men more in his compy and was recd by all the Kings Governos wth greate respect ; wch also a letter to ye cheife of ye Carmelite Order heere in this place confirmes and sayes the Embassador goes by the name of my Lord Belamont, and so much does some frenchmens Lres averr that were sent from Khazbien where this King still keeps his Court, but at those advises date he had not spoken wth the King, whoe for some reasons defered awhile to admitt him unto his presents, one we are told is to inquire out exactly the quallitie of the person, and import of his message, that he may receive respect accordingly; for when wee heard of him first, wch was from Aierwan (Erivan), we were informed that hee was one of the Palsgraves brothers, and so went for currant awhile, but afterwards to be as above menconed, but there are so many reports raised of him that we cannot now say what he is ; though we have wrytten and made muche inquirie to finde it out ; nor beleive shall not iustly, untill our Linguist wrytes us, whoe is gone to Court about our Customes and some other businesses, of which the embassador is none of the least, though in or petition to the Atamaam Dowlatt, we have not in ye least made mention of him.
46.2.8
' The 24th last month [September 1654] we recd by the Pashaw of Buszorahs servts advises from that place dated the 18 August and wth them letters from the Consull of Alleppo of the 12th June in wch we were given to understand that the beginning of Aprill last a peace was concluded betwixt us and the Hollanders ; so we cannot thinke lesse but that the Eagle or such Shipps as you intend forth for these parts, will bring out the Articles thereof, and that we shall have shipps in Bandr suddainely. Wherefore Mr. Young is now journying thither, wth what estate wee have of yors ready in cash ; and John Spiller intends to follow as soone as he receives some newes from Court, of the aforemenconed Embassadors proceedings.