Storia do Mogor 60.5.5

60.5.5

There was at the time in Surat a very skilful Englishman (they say that the English were the first European merchants to arrive in the said port). With the permission of the chief of the English he was sent to the king, who assigned to him as pay the sum of five hundred rupees a month. However, the English race, like other Europeans, being fond of drinking wine, a thing they cannot procure in Hindustan owing to its prohibition under the Mahomedan law, the gunner, in spite of all those rupees, was most unhappy. One day Akbar directed the Englishman to fire at the target, for which purpose a great sheet had been erected in front of the palace on the bank of the river. The gunner intentionally fired the ball into the air, so that it disappeared. On this account the king was much put out, thinking that the gunner had no skill in aiming. He asked the man the reason of such a great error in his aim, when he had such repute in the art of discharging cannon. The Englishman replied that the mistake arose from his not being able to see; if he had drunk wine he could aim straight at the target. The king commanded that they should bring him spirits (of which there was no want in the royal household, where it is made for giving to the elephants to increase their courage).