Arnold Wright

“ And on the mountains there are castles and watchhouses round about, with ordnance in them and a watch in all of them, though with few men, for they are situated in such a strong place that one may keep out twenty." "In this ruinated city," continues Jourdain, "there is no fresh water but some wells, which are as brackish as the sea, where the common people drink; and being so used unto it doeth them no hurt. It is an inconsiderable city, for within the walls there is not any green: only your delight must be in the cragged rocks and decayed houses. ”

“ The sky overhead, thick with sombre masses of cloud, is gashed with great streaks of lightning which, playing about the masts of the labouring ship, form from time to time balls of fire whose radiance suffuses the scene with an unearthly brilliancy. All the time the wind howls through the rigging with a shrieking noise which deafens the ear and adds another element of horror to impressions already fully charged with fateful significance. ”

“ Nature seems to have taken revenge for conferring upon Aden a dominating position by endowing her with perhaps the driest climate and the least productive soil of any habitable spot on the globe. The place is little better than a vast volcanic cinder heap, picturesque in a sombre fashion, but bearing on its gaunt, grim face an aspect of desolation which prohibits the idea of an extensive local commerce. The Arabian littoral of the Red Sea is a fitting complement of this "Gibraltar of the East." ”

“ Her spirited assertions of English independence of the famous decree of Pope Alexander VI dividing the world between the Spanish and the Portuguese were amongst the most potent of the causes which led to the despatch of the Spanish Armada in 1588. And the defeat of the Armada in its turn was another important link in the chain of circumstances which associates Drake's adventure with the establishment of British power in the East. For the victory not only freed England from a foreign religious despotism, but it threw open the seas of the world to her trade. ”

“ To the English mercantile community the mere assertion of a right to monopolize the trade of the East on the part of Portugal and Spain appeared as an affront to the dignity of the country which must be met by effectual steps to establish a distinctively English trade in the prohibited regions. Thus reasoning they brought to their practical deliberations a spirit of patriotic zeal which had its influence in shaping the enterprise and giving to it the national character it ultimately largely assumed. ”

“ It was not long before Roe discovered that the Emperor's favour, though of value as an incentive to him personally, was not to help him far along the road on which he desired to travel. There were pitfalls for him on every side which had to be discovered and negotiated before he could even begin to make progress. The most serious difficulty to be overcome was the anti-English spirit of Prince Khurrum, who was the more powerful as he was in intimate alliance with Asaf Khan, the prime minister and brother of Noor Mahal, Jehangir's favourite queen. ”

“ The old Founder's Hall, which was the cradle of the mighty British Indian Empire, went the way of many other famous buildings in the Great Fire of London, but the tradition remains, and this stuffy little alley will always be a hallowed spot to all Britons who find inspiration in the memories of the past. ”

“ No time was lost by Lancaster in putting his plans into execution. A few days later he was at sea, on the look-out for a big Portuguese galleon of whose likely advent he had news from friends in port. She duly appeared on the scene on about the day expected, October 3, making a gallant sight as, with all sails set, she came with a favouring wind down the Straits. The English fleet, immediately on sighting her, stood across to her and on getting into range commenced to fire. The fight was hot until a volley from the Red Dragon brought down the galleon's mainmast and put her out of action. ”

“ When the English merchant envoy with his escort of wild horsemen rode on that hot April day in 1609 along the dusty road leading into Agra from the West they must have excited more than ordinary attention; for Hawkins was not the man to hide his light under a bushel and in any event a European mission was a sufficient novelty to make a considerable stir in the imperial city. Jehangir, who had probably been kept informed of the progress of the mission after its departure from Surat, appears to have had the very earliest intimation of its arrival in his capital. ”

“ Addressing the Portuguese envoy, according to the narrator of Lancaster's voyage, he said: "Hath your master a daughter to give that he is so careful of the preservation of my country? He shall not need to be at so great a charge as the building of a fort, for I have a fit house about two leagues from the city which I will spare him for a factory where his people shall not need to fear enemies, for I will protect them." ”

“ The last glimpse of her is later on at Surat, where on her return to India, she, with one or two other ladies, gave the local representatives of the English Company an infinite amount of trouble by her demands on their resources. She must have been a woman of above the ordinary degree of ability and seems to have had over Hawkins a remarkable influence. Hawkins himself was an exceptionally clever man—tactful, resourceful and endowed to a marked degree with that masterfulness which, when combined with the afore-mentioned qualities, is so sure a passport to success with Orientals. ”

“ As a mental equipment for a leader in an enterprise such as that to which we have referred, the mere despatch of which gave a direct challenge to Portuguese supremacy in the East, it was not to be equalled in stimulative force. Only the burning memory of wrongs suffered could, perhaps, have carried forward to a successful issue the great movement for widening the bounds of England's commerce of which Lancaster may be said to have been the pioneer. ”

“ Bantam, like Acheen, was a small Malay principality, a fragment of the larger sovereignty which once wielded sway over a considerable part of Malaya. The ruling prince at the time of Lancaster's visit was a lad of ten or eleven years of age. He was, of course, a mere figurehead. The real power was vested in a council of officials, who were as grasping as most Orientals of their class were at that time, but who were sufficiently sensible of the advantages of expanded trade to place no direct obstacles in the visitors' way. ”

“ Then came the pith of the document—an application for a site for a factory and for protection for those who might be left to manage it. The note struck by the Queen's disdainful sentences about Portuguese and Spanish pretensions awakened a congenial echo in the heart of the Malay prince, who had only too good cause to appreciate their truth. But, though all graciousness about the desirability of an alliance with so high and mighty a potentate as Elizabeth, he was in no hurry to make the definite concession which was asked. ”

“ Few of those busy city men whose hurrying feet on week days re-echo through the dingy purlieus of Founder's Court in Lothbury, in the heart of the City of London, are aware that within a few yards of that spot was witnessed the birth of the organization which established the foundations of British power in the East. ”

“ All the time that Roe was thus basking in the sun of imperial favour the question of the treaty was progressing but slowly. Asaf Khan, while making a pretence of examining the questions at issue, took good care that nothing should be done to give the foreigner a foothold in the country. His attitude was not entirely the outcome of self interest or even of prejudice. The treaty for which Roe asked was an instrument at that time not only quite unfamiliar to the Mogul government, but in direct opposition to its traditions. ”

“ He was not only lacking in his predecessor's enthusiasm for the cause of trade expansion in the East, but his mind failed to grasp the essential conditions on which a policy of the kind could then be successfully prosecuted. On no other basis than as a monopolistic power—as the accredited commercial representative of England—could the East India Company hope to make good its footing and that of its country in the distant regions of the Orient. ”

“ Before the Mogul "went drums, ill trumpets and loud music and many canopies with strange ensignes of majesty of cloth of gold set in many places with great rubies."
Jehangir took his seat in the first of two coaches which were drawn up outside the entrance to the imperial apartments. The vehicle was the one which had been made by his order in imitation of the coach forwarded by the Company a year previously and upon the box was the English coachman, "clothed as rich as any player and more gaudy," sitting up in all the dignified majesty of his class. ”

“ None too soon did the vessels drop anchor in this veritable harbour of refuge. As the ships had progressed on the voyage the scurvy had tightened its terrible grip on the unfortunate crews. On the Hector, the Susan and the Ascension, the conditions were such that there were not enough men to do the routine duties of the ships, and Lancaster had to send his own men on board to furl the sails. The Red Dragon had enjoyed a practical immunity from sickness, for the simple reason that Lancaster had taken a supply of lemon water on board and had served it out regularly to his men. ”

“ IT is fair to surmise that when the plain London citizens who were the principal moving spirits in the formation of the East India Company sat down to draw up a scheme for their organization they had only a dim perception of the character of the enterprise upon which they were embarked. ”

“ Overwhelmed by the destruction of all his hopes, and enfeebled by his hardships, Middleton died at Bantam on May 24, 1613. He was a brave soul, who deserved better things than this obscure end in an unfriendly land. His voyage was an uninterrupted series of misfortunes and difficulties, and of personal hardships of an uncommon kind. ”

“ His narrative lifted the veil on the mysterious East, if less dramatically than Drake and Cavendish's voyages had done, with far greater effect. The best markets were indicated, the profits to be made there were set forth with the precision of an expert, and, above all, the truth was emphasized that to the bold and strong there were great possibilities in the regions in which the Portuguese and the Spaniards and, as regards Persia and the nearer East, the Venetians had previously exercised a practical monopoly. ”

“ Downton was a brave and capable commander and as a man possessed many estimable qualities, but he was what heavy witted and lacked the foresight desirable in one who had to conduct strategical operations. When, on January 14, the Portuguese fleet from Goa appeared off the port instead of adopting Best's plan of going out to engage it where he would have plenty of sea room and consequently scope for the exercise of his peculiar skill he remained at anchor at Swally in the confined roadstead which Sir Thomas Roe afterwards contemptuously but not inaptly described as "a fishpond." ”

“ Mandu itself was little more than a heap of ruins. Its highest recommendation was that it was a strong position, but its fortifications, however useful they might be for the purposes of a post of observation such as Jehangir contemplated, offered no suitable shelter for the great train of nobles and Court functionaries, to say nothing of the horde of camp followers who ministered to the multifarious needs of the imperial camp.
Roe was so fortunate as to be able to establish himself in a deserted mosque which he found on the outskirts of the ruined city. ”

“ The favour of a tyrant so capricious as Jehangir showed himself to be was a slender reed on which an isolated Englishman could lean at that juncture, and the day came when Hawkins discovered that the intrigues of Makarrab Khan and of his close associates, the Portuguese, were having effect on the imperial mind to his disadvantage. ”

“ Asaf Khan swallowed the bait tendered with avidity. He told Roe that he must on no account allow either Jehangir or the prince to have the jewel. The Emperor, if he were told about it, would not rest until he got it into his hand, and once it was in his possession Roe would have to sue for it. The prince was tyrannical and opposed to all nationalities. "Why not let him have the pearl? If it were put in his possession, he insinuated, he would reconcile Roe to the prince and do great things for the English. ”

“ They were, many of them, adventurers of a low type who cringed and fawned and flattered for a little gain. The whole atmosphere of the trading community must have been sordid to a degree if we may be guided by the conditions which obtain to-day at the capitals of the Indian states. In such circumstances the wonder is not that the English did not succeed, but that they accomplished anything. Probably the comparative friendliness of their reception was due to the personality of the earlier representatives of the Company combined with Jehangir's almost childish love of foreign novelties. ”

“ Concerning these drinking bouts of Jehangir Roe says that "though drunkenness is a common and glorious vice and an exercise of the King's, yet it is so strictly forbidden that no man can enter into the place where the King sits but the porters smell his breath and if he have but tasted wine is not suffered to come in, and if the reason be known of his absence he shall with difficulty escape the whip." ”

“ The Indian merchants, fearful of the consequences which they apprehended would involve their ships, waited upon Femell with a peace offering in the shape of "two sheep, one great basket of rice, another great basket of bread and some green ginger." Meanwhile, a lively exchange of compliments was proceeding between Rejib Aga and Middleton. The latter in reply to a defiant message declared that he would not forbear to burn the Indian ships which belonged to his friends rather than that he should lose the opportunity of revenge upon so vile a traitor. ”

“ Roe found the spectacle as picturesque as imagination could paint it. He saw the Emperor, glittering from head to foot with diamonds and other precious stones used to embellish his person, step into the golden scales, to be weighed six times, first against gold, next against silver and so on. When the last weighing was finished Jehangir ascended his throne and distributed silver almonds, nuts and spices, after the manner previously described. Once more the great men "scrambled prostrate upon their bellies" for the imperial largesse; once more Roe's dignity forbade him to follow their example. ”

“ For long years the nation writhed under them with only occasional opportunities for reprisals. Now that the opening of the seas had given the opportunity of hitting back effectively neither the Government nor the common people was disposed to look too critically upon exploits which, besides paying off old scores, brought a refreshing stream of wealth in their train. So the indignant protests which in due course came from the peninsula were drowned in a chorus of popular acclamation amid which Lancaster retired for a period to the background to enjoy a well earned respite from active command. ”