The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.187

v4.c16.187

Three Englishmen, Newbery, Fitch and Leedes, had already visited Akbar’s court, in 1585, and in 1603 a fourth arrived. This was John Mildenhall, a merchant, who had been sent out in 1600 to try to acquire from Akbar for the newly founded East India Company trading privileges equal to those enjoyed by the Portuguese, and he bore a letter to this effect from Queen Elizabeth but was in no sense an ambassador or an accredited envoy. He presented to Akbar twenty-nine good horses, and received from him in return gifts worth £500. Salīm supported him, but the Portuguese Jesuits, who denounced the English as “thieves and spies”, bribed the ministers and were so successful that he obtained no concession so long as Akbar lived, and did not receive the *farmān* which he sought until 1608, when Jahāngīr had been for three years on the throne. He died in 1614 and, being a Roman Catholic, was buried in the old Jesuit cemetery at Āgra. He is thus described by one writer: