The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c16.188

v4.c16.188

John Mildenhall was not an estimable character. In plain words he was a dishonest scoundrel. He cheated, or tried to cheat, Akbar with an assumption of ambassadorial dignity; he tried to cheat the Company with concessions that, in all probability, he had never received; he ended by cheating his own employers, the merchants in London. . . . But he was of some note—of a kind—even in his own day. He was a pioneer of Anglo-Indian enterprise, not less enterprising than his many enterprising successors. He was one of four Englishmen who spoke with Akbar face to face, and much the greatest of the four.¹