The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul 1.8
The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe (Foster) 1.8
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1.8.1
Towards the close of October, 1617, Jahdngfr struck his camp at Mandu and bent his steps towards Ahmadabad, the capital of Gujarat. Roe, who, during the later stages of the march, had posted on in advance, reached that city on December 15. As before, the presents from England, which it had been his special object to secure, became a bone of contention between him and the Prince. They had been sealed at Surat with the latter's seal, in order to make sure that they should not be opened except with his cognisance. Roe waited twenty days for the necessary permission; and this not arriving, he boldly cut the seals and took possession of the goods. It was a great affront, as the courtiers told him; and Asaf Khan, though he seems to have assented beforehand, shrank from supporting the offender. The Prince complained vehemently, and Roe found himself virtually under arrest. For the first time the Mogul spoke roughly to his visitor, "set on it an angrie countenance: told mee I had broken my word: that he would trust me no more." The ambassador bore the storm unflinchingly, saying that he had done no wrong, and that if he had seemed to act offensively it had been done in ignorance. Before long, the Prince grew cool again, "offered his friendship and wee were all reconciled fully, and promises too large;" and the distribution of the presents sealed the reconciliation.
1.8.2
On the following day the Prince received the ambassador with all courtesy, gave him a handsome cloak, and "promised to be the Protector of our Nation in all things." In the middle of February, 1618, Roe made his yearly report to the Company (p. 466). By this time he had abandoned all hopes of securing the signature of a formal treaty; but he trusted to obtain all that was practically necessary. "You can neuer expect to trade here vpon Capitulations that shalbe permanent. Wee must serue the tyme. Some now I haue gotten, but by way of firmaens and Promise from the Kynge. All the Gouerment dependes vpon the present will, where appetite only gouerns the lordes of the kingdome. But their Justice is generallie good to strangers ; they are not rigorous, except in scearching for thinges to please, and what trouble wee haue is for hope of them, and by our owne disorders." "You shalbe sure," he added emphatically, "of as much priuiledge as any stranger, and right when the subiect dares not plead his" (p. 469). With the Prince, now all-powerful ("his father growes dull and suffers him to write all Commandes and to gouerne all his kingdomes") the ambassador was on much better terms. The policy of "aduenturing the feircnes of his wrath" had answered so well that Roe was resolved, if necessary, to push matters boldly to an issue. It was useless to attempt to win the friendship of the natives by kindly treatment; "they are weary of vs . . .
1.8.3
Wee haue empouerished the Fortes and wounded all their trades" (p. 468) ; the only dependence was upon "the same ground that wee began and by which wee subsist, feare" (p. 469). "Assure you," he wrote, "I knowe these People are best treated with the swoord in one hand and Caducean in the other" (p. 485) ; and if his demands were not complied with to his satisfaction, he intended to seize the native shipping "and make those conditions bee offered which now I seeke with despayre."
1.8.4
Fortunately, it was not in the end found necessary to push matters to extremity; but at the time the adoption of a vigorous policy seemed the more necessary, as Roe feared that the Dutch might "doe it first and then hee wilbe the braue man." The prospect of their competition at Surat, Roe viewed with indignation and apprehension; "They wrong you in all Parts," he said, "and grow to insuffrable insolencies. . . . You must speedelye looke to this Maggat; els wee talke of the Portugall, but these will eate a woorme in your sides ... If they keepe you out of the Molluccoes by force, I would beat them from Surat to requite it" (p. 481). As regards their other European rivals, there was not much to report. Father Corsi, the Jesuit at Court, had made some efforts to accommodate matters; and Roe, who knew that "want of a peace with them . . . makes all these trades of Indya and hopes of Persia heauy and dangerous to the vndertakers" (p. 497), was willing, and even anxious, to conclude an arrangement if it could be done without loss of dignity, and with any assurance of permanence. The deputation of a Portuguese officer to Ahmadabad "to congratulate in the Name of the King of Spayne," appeared to afford an opportunity; but the Mogul refused to receive the envoy, "Principally because his Presents were not of great valew," and the matter had perforce to be left in abeyance.
1.8.5
The diary having now come to an end, we are left dependent upon a few letters for information regarding the last year of Roe's stay in India. In February, 1618, the Mogul started for a short hunting tour, and this seems to have afforded the ambassador an opportunity for a flying visit to Burhanpur. He returned to Ahmadabad about the beginning of May, and in the same month an outbreak of plague in that city caused much alarm; with the exception of Roe himself, all the members of the English party took the infection, and seven died in little more than a week. In August, preparations commenced for the departure of the Mogul for Agra. Roe, "infinitely weary of this vnprofitable imployment," had no wish to accompany him; his continued presence at Court could do no good, and the ships which were to carry him home would shortly be arriving. He therefore took formal leave of the monarch to whom he had been accredited, receiving from him a letter to King James full of compliments and assurances of good usage of the English, and also a general farmán "for our reception and Continuation in his domynyons," the exact terms of which are unknown (p. 516). He then addressed himself to the Prince, in order to procure a special farmán for Surat. Fresh quarrels had occurred between the natives and the Portuguese. In the end these were amicably settled; but meanwhile Roe endeavoured to make use of the opportunity by offering to protect the Gujaráti shipping in return for the concessions desired.
1.8.6
These demands were kept strictly within the bounds of moderation; in Roe's own words (p. 508): "after almost three yeares experience of the pride and falshood of these people, that attended only aduantage and were gouerned by priuat interest and appetite, I was forced to relinquish many poynts often insisted vpon, when I could gett nothing, and to make offer of these few as the most necessarie to settle a trade and which might giue the least offence and might pass with ease, leauing the rest to the Generall order of the kyng." Even then he did not obtain all his demands; but at last, after a vigorous contest and the usual attempt to deceive him with an incomplete and ambiguously worded farmán, he procured a grant which was reasonably satisfactory. The Prince's amity towards the English was publicly acknowledged; in case of an attack by the Portuguese, the local authorities were ordered to assist them with boats or any other requisites: they were to be allowed to trade freely, and former abuses in the levying of customs were not to be repeated: jewels were to be admitted free of duty: no tolls were to be levied on goods passing to the port: the factors were to be permitted, under certain restrictions, to hire any house they pleased for a factory: liberty was given them to govern themselves according to their own religion and laws, and any refugee was to be surrendered, even if he had embraced Islám; and the ever-recurring difficulty about presents was provided against.
1.8.7
Liberty to buy or build a permanent dwelling was, however, obstinately refused; and a determined attempt was made to limit the number of Englishmen permitted to wear arms in the city. On the latter point Roe was determined not to yield; and partly by threats, and partly by giving a written undertaking "that during the abode of the English at Suratt they shall do no wrong or hurt to any," he at last obtained the withdrawal of the obnoxious clause.
1.8.8
This grant procured, towards the close of September, 1618, the ambassador took his departure for Surat, where four months were spent awaiting the completion of the lading of the ships. At length all was in readiness, and on February 17, 1619, the fleet put to sea, Roe himself being on board the Anne. At the Cape he learned that negotiations were proceeding in London for a settlement of the differences between the English and Dutch Companies; and he thereupon wrote to Bantam earnestly deprecating any further hostilities. Towards the end of August the Anne reached Plymouth, and a fortnight later she anchored in the Downs. The ambassador's journey to London, attended from Gravesend by the leading members of the East India Company, his audience of the King at Hampton Court to report the result of his mission and to deliver the presents sent by the Great Mogul, and his subsequent interviews with the Company, will be found fully described in the extracts with which our text concludes. His employers appear to have been fully satisfied with his proceedings; and if they were not so liberal in rewarding his exertions as he had hoped, they were not unduly sparing. He was presented with a gratuity of 1500l., besides a further sum of 100l. which had been lent to him to buy plate at his departure for India; and he was appointed for that year (and, it would seem, for the year following) an extra "committee" with an allowance of 200l. per annum.