Storia do Mogor 46.2.1

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).