History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c83.s8.42

v5.c83.s8.42

The English merchants of Surat could not escape any longer. The wise and upright collector of the port, Itimad Khan, had died in Feb. 1697 and had been succeeded (6 May) by Amanat Khan, an unscrupulous and rapacious tyrant. "It was useless to assert that the English were not to be identified with the pirates, when...many English seamen of the piratical craft were actually recognised by reliable native sailors as former servants of the E. I. Co.; it was equally purposeless to maintain that the marauders were merely outlaws...when the pirate commander [Kidd] sailed under the English colours and possessed authentic credentials" [from the Home Government.] (Wright, 209.)