- 3. To Have Liberty To Pass With
Their Goods To Any Part Of The Empire, Without Any Farther Exactions
Than Those Payable At The Port.
- 4.
To have the presents for the Mogul
and prince sealed without being opened, and sent to the ambassador. - 5.
To have the goods of those that might die freed from confiscation, and
delivered to the surviving English factors. - And finally, That no injury
should be offered to any of the English.
On the 8th, Asaph Khan sent me word in plain terms, that absolutely he
would procure nothing for me sealed, that in any respect concerned the
government belonging to the prince, and that I must rest satisfied with
a firmaun or order, signed by the prince, which was quite sufficient,
and I needed not to apply any more to him. This clearly revealed the
purpose he had so long intended, that we should be entirely dependent on
the prince; and I now had just cause to look out for new friends, Asaph
Khan having forsaken me. He that first took him for our solicitor
engaged us in all this misery, for he was the known protector of our
enemies, and a slave to their numerous bribes. I therefore determined to
try the prince, and to seem entirely dependent upon him. So I went to
the prince on the 10th, and desired he would grant his firmaun for the
four articles formerly sent to his secretary, which he threw down to his
secretary, so that I hoped to be at rest. I received it on the 11th, but
on reading it over, I found two of the four clauses much altered, and
one entirely left out; so I returned it, declaring roundly I could not
accept it, neither would I suffer any goods to be sent ashore. Never was
any man so distressed with such pride, covetousness, and falsehood.
At night, I rode to visit the prince's secretary, Mirza Socrolla, with
whom I expostulated the business, declaring my resolution to depart. But
I now found the firmaun quite different than I had been informed, and
containing all the clauses I had required, though in some phrases rather
ambiguous in my judgment, which the secretary interpreted favourably,
declaring it was the prince's intent to satisfy me entirely, and that
every thing was quite sufficient for our purpose. After urging the
obscurity of some points, and as he had declared the meaning of the
prince to me, I requested he would explain them in the same sense to the
governor of Surat, which he agreed to; and especially gave order that
the customer should pay for fifty pieces of cloth, which he had bought
many months before, and wished now to return upon the factors, to their
extreme loss. At the close of our conference, he expressed the prince's
desire that we would rely entirely on him, and not cross him in matters
belonging to his government, by applying to the king, declaring that we
should so find him a better friend than we expected.
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