Later Mughals v1.c6.s29.1

v1.c6.s29.1

From 1616 the Dutch East India Company had been established as traders at Surat in the province of Gujarat, with stations subordinate thereto at Ahmadabad, Baroda and Agra, and in 1710 it was decided to send an embassy from that place to obtain certain concessions from Bahadur Shah.* Cornelis Bezuyen, the first person designted as envoy, died at Surat on the 18th October, 1710, and it was not till the following year that he was replaced as head of the proposed embassy by Johan Josua Ketelaar,† the Company's director of trade at Surat. He arrived at Sarai Khan Khanan a few miles from Lahor, the Court being then at that city, on the 10th December, 1711. That day Donna Juliana Dias da Costa, a Portuguese lady holding a position of trust in the harem, sent them some presents and the Emperor's French physician, M. Martin, with thirty Christians of various nationalities came out to greet them. On the 13th a noble, Khadim Beg Khan, at the head of 500 cavalry and 500 infantry, arrived as escort. He had an elephant with him, and also displayed four large and many small flags of white and green silk and four green silk standards, embroidered with gold. A deputation was sent out to meet him, in order to bring him to the envoy, and then to escort him to his tent outside the sarai. An Armenian bishop and some Jesuit fathers, who were in the imperial camp, were also among the visitors.