The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe to the Court of the Great Mogul 23.1.1

23.1.1

{AddLMS, 6115, f. 130.) Adsmere, October 30, 1616. May it please your Grace, The fraylty of Passadge betweene this Place and England, especially of my last lettre, that wandered ouer land and rather went vpon discouery then busines, aduiseth mee to send your Grace transcripts of them. Not that ther is conteyned any matter woorthy your honors leysure, but seeing you Commanded me to write, the relation of one to another will somwhat cleare the whole discourse. For broken and vndependant Peices and fragments haue little light in them, lesse Pleasure, and no proffitt; So that hee that would doe any thing in this matter should write a historic, and take it somwhat high, to show the beginninges and groweth of this Empire; what fortunes and what impedimentes it hath overcame; what frendshipes it hath needed and affected; the ambitions and diuisions in the Present state, that like impostumes lye now hidd, but threaten to breake out into the rending and ruine of the whole by bloody war; the Practises, subtiltyes, and carriages of factions and Court-secretts, falsly called wisdome, wherein I assure your Grace they are pregnant, and excell in all that art which the Diuell can teach them, and are behynd none in wicked craft, some Passadges wherof were not vnwoorthy nor vnpleasant to relate; their religions suffered by the King, and Practised without envy or Contention on any part; how the Portugalls haue Crept into this Kingdome, and by what Corners they gott in;