to the public.

There was another feature in the negotiations CHAPTER V. which annoyed the English ambassador. Every- All records open thing that occurred at court, every act and word of the Padishah, was written down by the writers and kept as records of the reign. No secrecy was preserved. Any one by paying a rupee might read the record of the most private and delicate transaction. When the sovereign died the chronicles of the reign were drawn up from these records.34

Nau-roz.

In March the Nau-roz, or feast of the New Feast of the Year, was celebrated at the Moghul court. It was not a Mussulman feast; it had been kept in Persia for ages before Muhammad was born. Jehangir appeared at the Durbar in all his glory. His throne was of mother-of-pearl. He sat upon cushions which were beset with pearls and precious stones. Over his head was a canopy of cloth and gold; it was fringed with pearls; it was hung with apples, pears, and pomegranates of gold.35 In the court behind the Durbar hall there was a large pavilion railed in, nearly square, covering an area of fifty-six paces in length, and forty-three paces in breadth. It was covered with Persian carpets. Overhead were canopies of silk, velvet, and cloth of gold, supported by bamboos covered with like material. Within the square were a number of little houses; one of them was made of silver; there were also other curiosities.

34 The appointment of Wakiahnawis, or court writers, has already been noticed. The passion for writing chronicles of everything that took place has been a characteristic of Moghuls from the remotest antiquity. It finds expression in the book of Esther; the chronicles of the empire were read to King Ahasuerus. The same practice is noticed by Sir John Mandeville and Marco Polo. Similar chronicles are preserved to this day in the palace of the King of Burma.

35 The throne and the canopy over it seems to have been shaped like a fourpost bedstead of the old-fashioned kind.

CHAPTER V. Round about the court were the pavilions of the nobles, stored with the rarities that were to be presented to the Padishah.36

Incongruous display.

Roe snubbed.

Opposition to the treaty.

The next day Roe saw the display of wealth in the great pavilion. It was more patched than glorious. The things were incongruous. It was like a show of plate and embroidered slippers in the same cupboard. At one end were some pictures that the ambassador had brought from England; portraits of James the First, Queen Anne, the Lady Elizabeth, the Countess of Somerset and Salisbury, and Sir Thomas Smith, first governor of the East India Company.37

The English ambassador soon began to weary of the Moghul court. The novelty wore off; the officials snubbed him. One day the red rail was closed against him; he complained to Jehangir; he was never shut out afterwards. Possibly the occasion was exceptional. The son of the Rana of Udaipur paid his homage that day; three times the Rajpoot prince prostrated himself before the Padishah. Jehangir then received him in his own gallery and embraced his head. Roe was soured by the ceremonial. A curt entry appears in his journal :"Elephants were paraded; courtesans sang and danced; sic transit gloria mundi." 38

About this time Roe asked Jehangir for a treaty. The request created some confusion. The grandees at court were resolved that the English ambassador

36 Roe's Journal, 11th March, 1616. Hawkins also describes the feast of the Nau-roz. He says that the great pavilion covered two acres; that other pavilions were set up with lattice-work for the queens to look through. He adds that the entire area covered six acres.

37 Roe's Journal, 12th March.

38 Roe's Journal, 12th March to 23rd.

should not have a treaty; they were afraid lest CHAPTER V. Jehangir should agree to a treaty. Khurram and Asof Khan tried to hustle away the interpreter. Asof Khan winked and nodded at the interpreter. Roe, however, would be heard. Jehangír said that his firmans were sufficient. Roe pressed him for a treaty. Jehangír asked if the English would give him jewels. Roe replied that jewels came from India, where Jehangir was King; how then could the English bring back his own jewels? Jehangir was silent but not convinced. One grandee stuck up for the Portuguese. "The English," he said, "bring nothing but swords, knives, and cloth; the Portuguese bring rubies, emeralds, and diamonds."

treaty.

The English ambassador worried Jehangír; he Roe's draft also worried Khurram and Asof Khan. Khurram was afraid that his father would turn against him. At last Roe was told to draft a treaty. This was work after the Englishman's heart. The treaty was drafted with all speed; it was creditable to Roe's diplomatic genius. There was to be perpetual peace between the King of Great Britain and the Emperor of Hindustan. The English were to trade wherever they pleased; their presents to the Padishah were to pass unopened; their goods were not to be seized under pretence of the Padishah's use; they were to pay no transit duties except an ad valorem duty of three-and-a-half per cent. at the port where the goods were shipped, or landed; the Padishah was not to inherit the goods of deceased Englishmen; 40 governors or officers break

39 Roe's Journal, 26th March.

40 The Padishah inherited the property of all those who died in his service. He also inherited the goods of all foreigners who died within his dominions.

CHAPTER V. ing the treaty were to be punished. In return the English were to furnish the Padishah with everything he wanted at reasonable rates; they were to help him against all his enemies. Such a treaty appeared unexceptional to Roe; he expected to get it sealed at once; he failed to see that its conditions were obnoxious to every viceroy and governor throughout the empire. Jehangír might seal the treaty for the sake of the presents. Khurram and Asof Khan were resolved to prevent him at all hazards.41

Factions at court.

Jehangir's love of gossip.

At this period the Moghul court was divided into factions. No ideas were involved; no principles were at stake. Khurram was only striving to get the better of his brother Parwíz. Jehangir had been persuaded to recall Parwíz, and to give Khurram the command of the army of the Dekhan. In June, 1616, the Brahmans were consulted; an early day was fixed for the departure of Khurram. Things, however, drifted on till November before he began his journey.42

Throughout this interval Roe effected nothing. He frequently attended the Durbar and the Ghusalkhana. Jehangir was always ready for a gossip. He was eager to see Roe's pictures, to have copies made, to brag about his own artists. He wanted a horse from England; if six were put on board a ship, one might survive the passage; if it was lean, it might be fattened after it landed. He asked how often Roe drank in the day, how much he drank, what he drank in India, what he drank in England,

41 Roe's Journal, 26th March to 31st.

42 Roe's Journal, June to November. Had Jehangir been a Mussulman he never would have consulted Brahmans.

what beer was, how it was made, could Roe CHAPTER V. make it ? 43

The news at the Moghul court was of the oriental

type. Two eunuchs quarrelled about one of Nur Harem atrocity. Mahal's ladies; one killed the other. The survivor was put to death by the elephants. The lady was tied to a stake and buried alive up to the arm-pits. She was to be exposed to the Indian sun for three days without sustenance; she died after twenty-four hours. Her cash and jewels were valued at a hundred and sixty thousand pounds sterling.

44

thieves.

A hundred thieves were brought before Jehangir; Execution of they were condemned to death without further parley. The head thief was torn to pieces by dogs in front of Roe's house. Thirteen others had their throats cut; they were left naked and bleeding at the same place. The remainder were divided into companies; they were butchered and exposed in different streets of the city of Ajmír.45

ministration.

One event took place which gave Roe some in- Provincial adsight into the administration of the provinces. Jamál-ud-din Husain, the viceroy of Bihár, paid a visit to the court of Ajmír. He was an old man of seventy; he had served under Humayun and Akber. He struck up a friendship with the English am bassador; probably he was eager to propitiate any one who had the ear of Jehangir. To use Roe's words, "he praised the good prophet Jesus and his laws, and was full of very delightful and fruitful discourse." 46 He talked about the slavery of the

43 Roe's Journal, ib.

44 Roe's Journal, ib.

45 Roe's Journal, ib. 46 Mr Terry, who went out to India as chaplain to the embassy, makes the following significant remark :-" There is not a man amongst the Mussulmans, but those of the baser sort, that mentions the name of our Saviour, whom they call the Lord Christ, without reverence and respect. They say he was a good