CHAPTER V. decked with flags and streamers; they fired a salute of forty-eight guns. A guard of honour was formed of captains, merchants, and eighty men under arms. The Moghul officials received Roe in an open tent. They soon disgusted him by their rudeness. They wanted to search his servants; they broke open his boxes. He told them the boxes contained presents for Jehangir; they cared not a whit. They gave him lodgings in the town of Surat. A whole month passed away before he could get carriage and escort for carrying the presents as far as Burhanpur.25 Journey from Surat to Burhanpur. Roe's interview with Parwiz. Jehangir was not at Agra; he had gone south to Ajmír; he made Ajmír his head-quarters. The road from Surat runs due east to Burhanpur; it then runs due north to Ajmír. Roe was fifteen days going from Surat to Burhanpur. The country was desolate. The towns and villages were built of mud; there was not a house fit to lodge in. At one place he was guarded with thirty horsemen and twenty musketeers because of the robbers on the mountains. At Burhanpur the Kotwál came out to meet him with sixteen horsemen carrying streamers. He was conducted to a house with a showy stone fronting; the rooms were like ovens ; he therefore slept in his tent.2 26 Burhanpur was the head-quarters of the Moghul army of the Dekban. Roe paid a visit to Parwíz. The prince affected the same state as his father. A body of horsemen were waiting outside the house Roe's Journal is published more or less abridged in the different collections of 25 Roe's Journal, 26th September to the 30th October, 1615. to salám him on his coming out. Roe entered the CHAPTER V. court. Parwíz was sitting in a gallery with a canopy over his head. Below the gallery was a platform railed in for his great men.27 Roe refused to prostrate before him; "he was an ambassador," he said, "not a servant." He went up three steps to the platform; the great men around him were standing with their hands before them like slaves. Roe made his bow to the prince; Parwíz bowed in return. Roe explained his embassy from the King of England. Parwíz asked questions. Roe would have stepped up to the gallery to answer them; he was stopped by a secretary. He was told that neither the Shah of Persia nor the Great Turk would be admitted to the gallery. All this was Moghul arrogance. Parwíz was otherwise good-natured; he granted every request. The English might establish a factory at Burhanpur. He would supply carriage and escort to enable Roe to get on to Agra. He accepted Roe's presents graciously; he was softened by the sight of a case of liquors; he talked of speaking to Roe in a private chamber; he left the gallery for the purpose. Roe waited in vain for a summons. At last he was told that he might leave the palace. got so drunk that he could see nobody.2 Roe was a month going from Burhanpur to Journey to Ajmír. He journeyed to Mandu, the great fortress of Malwa; thence to Chitór, the ancient capital of Rajpootana, the ruined stronghold of the Rana. He suffered from fever all the way. He reached 28 Parwíz had 27 This was known as the red rail. In the Durbar hall of Jehangir there was in outer rail, to separate the body of the nobles from the commonalty. At each scent there were three steps. Three steps led to the platform; three more to the gallery. 28 Roe's Journal, 14th November to the 27th, 1615. Ajmír. CHAPTER V. Ajmír on the twenty-third of December, 1615. On the tenth of January, 1616, he had his first audience with Jehangir.29 Roe attends the Roe's visit to the Durbar was a great event in Indian history. He saw Jehangir sitting upon a throne in a raised gallery at the back of the Durbar hall. He refused to prostrate himself, and the point was waived. He went up to the first rail which separated the commonalty from the nobility; there he made his first reverence. He was led through the nobility to the red rail; there he made a second reverence. He ascended three steps to the platform; there he made a third reverence. He found himself amongst princes and ministers. He likened the scene to a London theatre. The King was sitting in his gallery. The great men 29 Roe's Journal, 27th November, 1615, to 10th January, 1616. Near Chitór Sir Thomas Roe fell in with an eccentric personage named Thomas Coryat. This man had a mania for travelling and a passion for notoriety. He had wandered on foot over Turkey and Greece. He had walked from Jerusalem to Agra and Ajmír. Altogether he must have walked several thousands of miles. He was called the world's foot-post. He was poor, but honest and truthful. He says that he often lived on a penny a day. He only spent two pounds ten shillings between Jerusalem and Ajmír. His ordinary drink was water. He went to Surat, where the English gave him some sack. The sack killed him. He died at Surat in December, 1617. See Terry's Voyage to the East Indies. In 1615 Coryat sent letters from the court of Jehangír at Ajmír to different personages in England. His description of Jehangír is striking:-" Jehangír is fifty-three years of age. His complexion is neither white nor black; it is olive. His revenues are forty millions of crowns, of the value of six shillings each. It is said that he is uncircumcised. He speaketh very reverently of our Saviour, calling him the great prophet Jesus. He presenteth himself thrice every day without fail to his nobles; at the rising of the sun, which he adoreth by the elevation of his hands; at noon, and at five o'clock in the evening. Twice every week elephants fight before him." Coryat boasted that at Ajmír he had ridden upon an elephant. "I have determined," he says, " to have my picture expressed in my next book sitting upon an elephant." His wish was gratified. A barbarous wood-cut of Coryat sitting upon an elephant was duly published. His pamphlet was entitled,-" Thomas Coryat, traveller for the English wits: Greeting. From the Court of the Great Moghul at Asmere." London : 1616. were lifted on the stage as actors. The vulgar were CHAPTER V. the audience who looked on. Jehangir. Jehangir received the English ambassador with Audience with courtly condescension. He referred to the King of England as his royal brother. He looked curiously at the letter from King James; it was accompanied by a translation in Persian. He received the presents with much affability. They consisted of virginals, knives, an embroidered scarf, a rich sword, and an English coach. A musician in the ambassador's train was ordered to play upon the virginals. The coach remained in the outer court; Jehangir sent persons to look at it. He asked many questions. He was anxious about Roe's health. He offered to send his own physicians. He advised Roe to keep within the house until he was quite strong. He told the ambassador to ask freely for all he wanted. He then dismissed the Englishman. Roe went away charmed with his reception. He was told that no ambassador had been received with such favour before.3 30 30 Roe's Journal, 10th January, 1616. The entry of this date is worth extracting; many of the details correspond to those related by Captain Hawkins; they are repeated because the two accounts confirm each other. "January the 10th. I went," says Sir Thomas Roe, "to court at four in the afternoon to the Durbar, where the Moghul daily sits to entertain strangers, receive petitions and presents, give out orders, and to see and be seen. And here it will be proper to give some account of his court. None but eunuchs come within that king's private lodgings, and his [Tartar] women who guard him with warlike weapons. These punish one another for any offence committed. The Moghul every morning shows himself to the common people at a window [the Jharokha], that looks into a plain before his gate. At noon he is there again to see elephants and wild beasts fight, the men of rank being under him within a rail. Hence he retires to sleep among his women. After noon he comes to the Durbar. After supper at eight o'clock he comes down to the Ghusal-khana, a fair court, in the midst whereof is a throne of free stone, on which he sits, or sometimes below in a chair, where none are admitted but of the first quality, and few of them without leave. Here he discourses of indifferent things very affably. No business of state is done anywhere but at these two last places, where it is publicly discussed, and so registered; which register might be seen for two shillings, and the common people know as CHAPTER V. Jehangir. When the Durbar was over Jehangir ceased to Childishness of be a great sovereign; he became an inquisitive Moghul. He went out and examined the coach; he got into it and made his servants draw him about. He made Roe's English servant array him in the scarf and sword in English fashion. He strutted about; he drew his sword and brandished it. He complained to the Portuguese priests that the presents were very poor. He thought that the King of England ought to have sent him jewels.31 Difficulties in negotiating a treaty. For many months Roe thought that his negotiations were progressing. He was well received by Khurram, who promised to redress all grievances.32 He was well received by Jehangir, who issued firmáns abolishing all land transit duties. But the firmáns were only orders; they might be broken with impunity. Roe wanted a solemn treaty signed by the Padishah. He ignored the fact that a treaty would bind the Moghul nobles and officials to certain fixed conditions; that the English could offer no equivalent in return beyond a few presents and a promised increase of trade; that not a minister or governor in the empire would agree to a treaty which set aside his own authority.33 much as the council; so that every day the King's resolutions are public news, and exposed to the censure of every scoundrel. This method is never altered unless sickness or drink obstruct it; and this must be known, for if he be unseen one day without a reason assigned, the people would mutiny; and for two days no excuse would serve, but the doors must be opened, and some admitted to see him to satisfy others. On Tuesday he sits in judgment at the Jharokha, and hears the meanest person's complaints, examines both parties, and often sees execution done by his elephants.” 31 Roe's Letter to the East India Company, dated at Ajmír, 25th January, 1616. 32 Khurram was lord of Surat; that is, he drew the revenues of Surat whilst living at court. He was expecting the command of the army in the Dekhan. He was the rising man in the Moghul court. 33 Roe's Journal, passim. |