Surat

“ The son fled into India, and finally settled at [Pg 72] Surat, a city or considerable commercial importance, about twelve coss from the sea. Being of an enterprising turn of mind, he assumed the business of a merchant, and, in the course of a few years of successful traffic, became a man of great wealth.
Although he found few Mahomedans at Surat, there were a number of old Parsee families, who had fixed their abode in a certain quarter of the city. ”

“ To this moment sometimes the Sunda mountaineers scratch a bit of fresh green bambu with a sharp pointed knife and in Arabic characters when better writing materials fail them. The word Surat, altered to Suratra, also exist in the Malagasi of Madagascar, and means not only writing, but also painting. This Crawfurd, in his Dissertation, page 157, considers as of Arabic origin. The word Surat, when it assumes the verbal form becomes in Sunda Nyurat, Nyuratan, when the intitial Sa is dropped. ”

“ The directors at Bengal and Surat know perfectly well how to deal with him, and, by making shewy presents, procure valuable diamonds and other precious stones in return. Surat is a town of no great antiquity, yet very large and immensely rich. It is in compass about five miles within the walls, and is computed to contain about 200,000 inhabitants. The Moorish and even the Indian merchants here are many of them prodigiously rich. The former chiefly addict themselves to the diamond trade, which is very precarious ”

“ What is there that renders your services at Surat so valuable that they would be missed should you accept of my offer?”
“My lord,” says I, “the meanest Englishman hath three things to consider—viz., his honour, his soul, and his body—whereof the last is precious to his friends, the second to God, and the first to himself. Under your lordship’s leave, I believe that I should put in jeopardy all three of these, did I accept of your most obliging offer, and I must therefore ask humbly to be allowed to decline it.” ”

“ When I drew near the governor's house, I was told he was not well, but I rather think he was drunk with affion [or opium,] being an aged man. I went therefore to the chief customer, being the only officer to whom sea-faring causes belonged; as the government of Surat pertained to two great noblemen, one of whom, Khan-Khana, was viceroy of the Decan, [186] and the other, Mucrob-Khan, was viceroy of Cambaya or Guzerat, who had no command in Surat except what regarded the king's customs, and with him only I had to deal. ”

“ Almost at the mouth of the Taptee stands a lovely little island; opposite to this is a little town called Domus, a quaint, homelike-looking place, where Europeans spend the hot months. The river flows for miles through a richly-cultivated suburb of gardens, plantations, and beautiful houses, till it reaches the city, which is walled with bastions at certain points, but the walls and towers are fast crumbling away. At one extremity stands the famous old castle of Surat, about three hundred years old, looking older and more stained with time and age than even the fortress of Damaun. ”

“ Its cities were the wonder of European travellers. Surat, which only since the transfer of Gujarát to the Mughal empire had risen to hold a place among its chief centres of trade, was, in a.d. 1664, when taken by Shiváji, rich enough to supply him with plunder in treasure and precious stones worth a million sterling35; and at that time Cambay is said to have been beyond comparison greater than Surat, and Áhmedábád much richer and more populous than either.36
From the beginning of the eighteenth century disorder increased. ”

“ To destroy life, even unintentionally, is the inexpiable sin, and a Jain will not drink any water until he has strained it, nor will he take any meal or drink of any kind after sunset, lest he should happen to devour some living thing. The Jains have some fine temples in this city.
Surat was long in the possession of the Mohgul emperors. In 1842 the last nawab died, and it passed into the hands of the East India Company. It is still a great trading city; the surtee rassum, or manufactured silk of Surat, is very beautiful ”

“ The 14th we had sight of Diu, and the 16th of Damaun, both inhabited by the Portuguese, and strongly fortified. On the 18th we passed the bar of Surat, and came to anchor in the road of Swally. Next day we sent a messenger on shore, and our boat returned the same night, bringing off Mr William Bidulph, who told us of all the affairs of the country, and that Zulphecar Khan [168] was now governor of Surat. At this place we bought sheep for half a dollar each, and got twenty hens for a dollar. ”

“ This day likewise, sixty bales of indigo, and eleven packs of cotton-yarn, came aboard from Surat, being goods that belonged to the twelfth voyage. It was my desire to have been ashore among our merchants, that I might assist in arranging our business at Surat; and this the rather because of the turbulent, head-strong, and haughty spirit of----, [126] who was ever striving to sway every thing his own way, thwarting others who aimed at the common good, and whose better discretion led them to more humility. ”

“ The present Pīr or head of the community is Sayyid Jāfir Shāh, who is nineteenth in descent from Yūsufuddīn and lives partly in Bombay and partly in Mundra of South Cutch. “At an uncertain date,” Mr. Farīdi continues, “the Lohāna or Cutchi Memans passed from Cutch south through Kāthiāwār to Gujarāt. They are said to have been strong and wealthy in Surat during the period of its prosperity (1580–1680) . As Surat sank the Cutchi Memans moved to Bombay. ”

“ The Sanskrit Suráshtra and Gurjjara survive in the modern names Surat and Guzerat, and however the territories embraced by the old terms have varied, it is hard to conceive that Surat was not in Suráshtra nor Guzerat in Gurjjara. All evidence goes to prove that the old and modern names applied to the same places. ”

“ At Surat, although Sir Henry Middleton had taken their ships in the Red Sea, they promised to deal fairly with us, considering that otherwise they might burn their ships and give over all trade by sea, as Mill Jaffed, one of the chief merchants of Surat, acknowledged to us. While at Surat, every one of us that remained any time ashore was afflicted with the flux, of which Mr Aldworth was ill for forty days. The custom here is, that all strangers make presents on visiting any persons of condition, and they give other presents in return. ”

“ Having returned to Surat with his jewels, and advantageously disposed of a part of them in that city, he departed with the remainder for the capital. At Baroche, in Guzerat, he witnessed the astonishing performances of those jugglers whose achievements have been the wonder of travellers from the days of Megasthenes down to the present moment, and in a barbarous age might well justify the faith of mankind in the powers of magic. ”

“ The next English settlement to Surat, on the coast of the peninsula, is Bombay, in the kingdom of Decan, a small island, with a very convenient harbour, above five-and-forty leagues to the south of Surat. The town is very populous; but the soil is barren, and the climate unhealthy; and the commerce was rendered very precarious by the neighbourhood of the famous corsair Angria, until his port of Geria was taken, and his fortifications demolished. The English company likewise carry on some traffic at Dabul, about forty leagues further to the south, in the province of Cuncan. ”

“ The English factory, which had been settled at Surat for a century and a half, suffered considerably during this distracted state of affairs, and the Government of Bombay, consequently, listened with approbation to an overture made by the principal officers and merchants of Surat, inviting them to take the castle, to expel the Seedee, and on receiving an assignment of two lacs of rupees, to become the future protectors of the commerce of the port. ”

“ Surat during the siege, but seeing the strength of the imperial army, represented themselves as ambassadors and besought the honour of an interview.4 Akbar captures Broach and Surat, and advances to Áhmedábád, 1573.While at Surat the emperor received from Bihár or Vihárji the Rája of Baglána, Sharfuddín Husain Mírza whom the Rája had captured.5 After the capture of Surat, the emperor ordered the great Sulaimáni cannon which had been brought by the Turks with the view of destroying the Portuguese forts and left by them in Surat, to be taken to Ágra. ”

“ And ’tis thus the matter stands at this present. Mr Secretary and his cousin Mr Spender are prodigious bitter against you, and have moved his honour the President and the Council to their acts of harshness; but Mr Martin is confident in your honesty, and will by no means suffer it to be impugned in his presence.”
“Then my course now,” says I, “must be to return to Surat and declare all my ill fortune.”
“Not so fast,” says he, “for we are but just sailed from Surat, and I must take the Boscobel to the Factory at Bengall before she can drop anchor again in Swally. ”

“ But it wan’t for me to linger at Maderas when my place was elsewhere, and because no ship touched at the place convenient for me to embark therein, I did embrace with joy the occasion offered me by the setting out of a caphalay bound for Bombaim, and headed by my friend the old Portugal trader, to return to Surat, he inviting me to bear him company. ”

“ In Surat there are many fair houses built of stone and brick, having flat roofs, and goodly gardens, abounding in pomegranates, pomecitrons, lemons, melons, and figs, which are to be had at all times of the year, the gardens being continually refreshed with curious springs and fountains of fresh water. ”

“ A favorite plan of raising money in Surat is for the members of the trade to keep a certain day as a holiday, and to shut up all their shops except one. The right to keep open this one shop is put up to auction, and the amount bid is expended on a feast. The trade-guild or caste allows none of its members to starve. It thus acts as a mutual assurance society and takes the place of a poor-law in India. The severest social penalty which can be inflicted upon a Hindu is to be put out of his caste. ”

“ The 13th October, 1613, the ship returned, and our messenger made prisoner at the bar of Surat by the Portuguese armed frigates, [grabs] worth an hundred thousand pounds, and seven hundred persons going to Goa. [97] This is likely to be of great injury here, for no Portuguese is now permitted to pass either in or out without a surety; and the Surat merchants are so impoverished, that our goods are left on our hands, so that we had to send them to Ahmedabad. ”

“ The Guardian will pray for the success of the Summer School to be held in Surat. He is delighted that the Indian friends are so well organised and are, year by year, strengthening the administrative institutions of their Faith. ”

“ That the governor of Surat should lend ships to the English, to be employed in the defence of that port. The English, however, to be only allowed to land ten armed men at one time; but the resident merchants to be allowed to wear arms. That the English should be allowed to build a house in the city, but distant from the castle. [187] That the governor of Surat should receive the ambassador and his suite with marks of honour. That the English should enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and be governed by their own laws. That in any dispute between the English and the natives ”

“ Surat (109) , a city of India, Bombay Presidency, on the Tapti, 14 m. from its entrance into the Gulf of Bombay; stretches along the S. bank of the river, presenting no architectural features of interest save some Mohammedan, Parsee, and Hindu temples, and an old castle or fortress; chief exports are cotton and grain; the English erected here their first factory on the Indian continent in 1612, and with Portuguese and Dutch traders added, it became one of the principal commercial centres of India ”

“ In a.d. 1724, he came to Áhmedábád with Áli Muhammad Khán father of the author of the Mirát-i-Áhmedi, as his private minister.
Nizám-ul-Mulk and Sarbuland Khán.Rustam Áli, governor of Surat, having succeeded twice or thrice in defeating the Maráthás under Píláji Gáikwár, now offered, in conjunction with his brother Shujáât Khán, that if 20,000 men were placed under their orders, they would march against the Nizám. The emperor accepted this offer, allowing Rustam Áli to draw on the Surat treasury to the extent of £20,000 (Rs. 2 lákhs) . ”

“ For although the Company hath made, and doth still make, many rules and advices for the better governing of the younger among its servants, yet rules are not always kept, and more than once hath Mr Martin brought me out of some trouble into which I was fallen, either through the natural heat of youth, or through the ill offices of Mr Spender.
For our life at Surat, there was in it always an admirable good order. We all ate in company, saving only the snack taken on rising for to comfort the stomach. ”

“ You will also, from the letter of the Lady’s father, found eight or ten years after it was written among my father’s papers, see the impropriety and hazard of committing your thoughts incautiously to paper. I have known it frequently, as in this instance, end in mortification and regret.
Before quitting entirely the Malabar coast, I took a trip to Surat, which amply repaid me for my trouble. It surpasses any part of India for extent and variety of commerce, for populous streets and suburbs, and for a continually moving scene of opulence. ”