History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v5.c83.s8.49

v5.c83.s8.49

Sir William Norris was sent out from England as the English king's ambassador to the Mughal Court in the interests of the new Company, in the hope of his repeating the success of Sir Thomas Roe's celebrated visit to Jahangir in 1615. Norris visited Aurangzib in the siege camp before Panhala (April 1701); there was an exchange of presents between the two Governments, but nothing was secured by the ambassador in return for his very expensive mission* and waste of sixteen months (27 Jan. 1701—18 April 1702). Aurangzib had demanded, as the price of a farman for the new Company's factories, that the English should give an undertaking to clear the pirates from the seas, while Norris knew it to be an impossible task.