The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul 1.3.2

1.3.2

indeed, the latest, Edwards, had "suffered blowes of the porters, base Peons, and beene thrust out by them with much scorne by head and shoulders without seeking satisfaction, and .... carried himselfe with such Complacency that hath bredd a low reputation of our Nation" (Roe to Smythe, January 24, 1616). Small wonder was it that upon the announcement of the arrival of yet another "ambassador," making high claim to respect, the natives "laughd one vpon another" (p. 45), or that the Governor of Surat felt himself at liberty to flout the new-comer and rifle the merchants' goods at his pleasure, regardless of protests and threats. Finding that no offer was made to bribe him into civility, he threw manifold obstacles in the way of the ambassador, and employed every artifice to humiliate and embarrass him. The story of the contest between the two furnishes most amusing reading. The victory rested with the Englishman, whose cool and resolute fence proved more than a match for the Oriental cunning of his adversary; and when Roe set out on his journey to the Court, the Governor humbly desired his friendship, and offered him "anything he would demand." The situation of the English had, in fact, been changed by Roe's arrival in a way that completely justified the despatch of the embassy. Never, perhaps, were his countrymen so near expulsion from this, their only foothold in the Mogul's dominions—and expulsion would have meant reprisals which might well have made an irreparable breach.