The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul 1.5.5

1.5.5

August brought fresh matter for the exercise of Roe's diplomacy, for news came that a Dutch ship had arrived at Surat, and that her crew spoke of a further fleet expected from Holland. It was clearly to the interest of the English to get rid of these troublesome competitors, "who would both out-present, out-bribe, and out-buy vs in all things" (p. 228); yet Roe was unwilling, for many reasons, to show open hostility, more especially as the arguments he had used against the Portuguese monopoly would then be turned against himself. Ingeniously, if somewhat disingenuously, he endeavoured to compass his object by instilling into the minds of Asaf Khan and the Prince a suspicion that the real object of the Dutch was to plunder native shipping in revenge for injuries previously sustained at Surat and Burhánpur: that in any case they would be disorderly and unruly, "so that if his highnes could be quiettly ridd of them, it were a happines and ease to him" (p. 236). The intrigue was not entirely successful. The fear that, if repulsed, the Dutch would retaliate by capturing the ships then due from the Red Sea induced the native authorities to permit them to leave a few factors, with a stock of merchandise, at Surat "vntill the Princes answere and resolution were knowne;" and the footing thus obtained was made good in January, 1618, when a deputation waited upon Jahángír and the Prince at Ahmadábád, and obtained a grant of privileges "vpon as good tearmes almost as wee" (pp. 459, 469).