opened them himself; he helped himself to every- CHAPTER V. thing he liked, including many things not intended for him. Roe went to the Ghusal-khana to complain. Jehangir said that everything should be made good; he would make it all right with the King of England. Roe got no redress. Jehangir became very drunk. He kept on saying that he was the protector of Christians, Mussulmans, and Jews. Then he wept and fell into various passions. He kept them up in the Ghusal-khana, until midnight." intrigues ram. In March the imperial camp reached the famous Núr Mahal fortress of Mandu. Another intrigue came to light. against KhurNúr Mahal had a daughter by her first husband. She was ambitious for this daughter; she ceased to care for her niece, Mumtaz Mahal; who had married Khurram. A suggestive event filled her with wrath. Khurram had become reconciled to the Khan Khanán; he had married a granddaughter of the Khan Khanán. Núr Mahal was furious at the marriage. She plotted the downfall of Khurram; she reconciled Jehangir to Khuzru; she resolved to marry her daughter to Khuzru.78 Khurram. Khurram was still the favourite of fortune. He Triumph of was triumphant in the Dekhan. His success was due to intrigues rather than to fighting. The Sultans of Bíjápur and Golconda grew jealous of Malik Amber; they were Shíahs and he was a Sunní; they naturally deserted his cause. Khurram defeated Malik Amber and captured Ahmadnagar. He went back to Mandu flushed with victory; he was warmly welcomed by Jehangir. He received the title of 77 Roe's Journal, 11th March, 1617. 78 Roe's Journal, passim. CHAPTER V. Shah; henceforth he is known as Shah Khurram or Shah Jehan. Meanwhile Núr Mahal's intrigue proved a failure; Khuzru refused to marry her daughter.79 Mystery and romance. Roe hated as an informer. There is mystery and romance about Khuzru. There is a mystery as to the part he played in the history of the time. To all appearance he had been the pet of Akber, the idol of the Rajpoots. His attachment to Christianity and Christians is very remarkable. His marriage is a romance. He was married to one wife. She was the daughter of a Mussulman of high standing, a foster-brother of Akber; he was named Khan-i-Azam. This man was a type of a class. He had been so strict a Mussulman that he went to Mecca to escape from the innovations of Akber. Mecca shook his faith in Islam, just as Rome has sometimes shaken the faith of a Catholic. He returned to India and became a member of the Divine Faith.80 It may be inferred that his daughter inherited his nature. Nothing is known beyond the fact that Khuzru was devoted to her; for her sake he refused to marry the daughter of Núr Mahal. By doing so he might have saved his life and gained the throne. It is said that his wife entreated him to marry Núr Mahal's daughter; but he was firm in his devotion to her 81 About this period Roe was losing ground. He could get no treaty. He was growing unpopular. His complaints against provincial governors raised 79 Roe's Journal, ib. 80 Khan-i-Azam was one of Akber's Amírs. He is No. 21 on the list of Abul Fazl. Mr Blockmann has furnished full particulars respecting him. See Aín-iAkbari, page 325, et seq. 81 See Catrou's history of the Moghul Dynasty. Other grounds for Khuzru's refusal are stated; they were of less weight; they involve contradictions which cannot easily be reconciled. up enemies. Roe was conscious of this; he explains CHAPTER V. the causes. The viceroys and governors dreaded lest Jehangir should discover their oppressions and exactions. They farmed out the revenues of the empire. They were tyrannical towards the Hindús. They hanged men up by the heels until they paid fine or ransom.82 Accordingly they regarded Roe as an informer. 83 ened by the Strange to say, the English at this early period Moghuls frightwere alarming the Moghuls. They displayed that English. contempt for Asiatics which is an instinct of the race. Some sailor musketeers were landed near Surat. The jolly mariners declared that they were going to take the fortress. The threat was absurd; but the Moghuls were terribly frightened.84 It was reported to court; the fortress was strengthened. Flying rumours went abroad that the English had taken Goa; that a great fleet was coming out from England. Jehangir was afraid that Roe 82 The statements of Roe are confirmed by every succeeding traveller. They show the character of Moghul rule. Above all, they show the vast difference between Europeans and Hindús. If an Englishman is oppressed, a hundred of his fellow-countrymen will step out to protect him. If a Hindú is oppressed, other Hindús look listlessly on; not a man will move. 83 Roe's Journal, ib. 84 Differences of race are important elements in the history of India. The fact cannot be denied that the European is far stronger than the Asiatic in mind and body. It was obvious to the Moghuls from the day that Englishmen first landed in India. No statesmanship can imbue the natives of India with the instincts of Englishmen ; no statesmanship can imbue the Bengalee with the instincts of Rajpoots. In time the Hindús may become stronger; but the climate is against them. The Europeans are strong so long as they are recruited from Europe, and are in frequent intercourse with Europe. If they remain too long in India, they become effeminate and Hinduised. The natives of India can only become strong by frequent intercourse with Europe. One fact, however, cannot be repeated too often. So long as the natives of India are married as children to girls who are shut up from their childhood, their descendants will be little better than children. They would be worn out by the political life which is as necessary to Europeans as the air they breathe. No education will prepare them for the exercise of political power; it may enable Hindús to talk like men; it will not prevent them from thinking and acting like children. CHAPTER V. Wanted to steal away. Gradually the alarm died out; matters returned to their old footing.85 English restored to favour, Roe bribes Asof Moghul administration. Suddenly the English were in great favour. The queen mother was returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca; her ship was captured by English pirates; she was rescued by the East India Company's fleet. The grandees at court complimented Roe; they also wondered that the King of England should permit his subjects to turn pirates.8 About the same time Roe managed to bribe Asof Khan with a large pearl. It worked like magic. Asof Khan stirred himself to befriend the English. All debts due to the English were paid up without difficulty. All the nobles were eager to buy English goods. The whole investment was sold at once; treble the stock might have been sold. In time the zeal of Asof Khan cooled down; still the Moghuls and English were better friends. Things were thus drifting on when the career of Roe drew to a close. In 1618 Roe left India for Persia; henceforth he disappears from the history of India.87 It is possible to get some glimpses of the state of Hindustan during the reign of Jehangir. Roe denounced the Moghul administration in strong 85 This ancedote is omitted by Kerr and Pinkerton. It is preserved by Purchas. See chapter viii., Calcutta reprint. 86 Roe's Journal, 5th October, 1617. 87 Roe's Journal, ib. Roe became famous a few years later as ambassador to the Sultan of Turkey. It is curious to note from Roe's Journal that even at this early period the East India Company was harassed by projectors. One set wanted to promote the sale of English lead by laying down water-works at Agra. Another set wanted to divert the trade between India and Persia from the land route viâ Kábul to the sea route via the Indus and Indian Ocean to the Persian Gulf. Roe observes that such schemes were likely to prove more profitable to the projectors than to the East India Company. language; he was so bitter that some may consider CHAPTER V. he was prejudiced. The evidence of Jehangir as regards his own administration may be accepted as undeniable. After Roe left India Jehangir went to Guzerat; subsequently he visited Ujain and Agra; he then returned to Delhi. His observations on the country and people may be summed up in a few words: Jehangir. "Guzerat," says Jehangir, says Jehangir, "is infested with Confessions of thieves and vagabonds. I have occasionally executed two or three hundred in one day; I could not suppress the brigandage. The province is hemmed round with forests. Twenty thousand pioneers cut a way through with saws and hatchets. On my return from Guzerat I visited Ujain. A Moghul at Ujain had been convicted of inviting females to his gardens, making them drunk, strangling them, and stripping them of their jewels. His house was searched; seven hundred sets of female ornaments were discovered there; I ordered him to be torn piece-meal with hot pincers. From Ujain I went to Agra. Here I became reconciled to Khuzru through the intervention of my son Parwíz. I left Agra for Delhi. At Delhi I heard of a rebellion in Kanouj. I sent a force to put it down. Thirty thousand rebels were slain; ten thousand heads were sent to Delhi; ten thousand bodies were hung on trees with their heads downwards along the several highways. Notwithstanding frequent massacres there are almost constant rebellions in Hindustan. There is not a province in the empire in which half a million of people have not been slaughtered during my own reign and that of my father. Ever and anon some accursed miscreant springs up to unfurl the standard |