Page 128 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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128 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

bitterness of Rogers’ denunciations of the old commander
the trouble might be assumed to be serious if we did not
know from other sources the reverend gentleman’s tem­ I
perament. In a letter home he stated that Downton
“ delights not to stir much in the mud of his hypocritical
f
courses,” and he (the writer) had intended “ in charity
to pass by many gross abuses he hath offered me,” yet i
“ since this by God’s Providence is timely come to light
of that old soaked humour of his, of inveterate hatred and
continuance where he once takes dislike ” he felt bound
to inform the Company that “ the general is not the man
you take him to be touching religion: he always illtreats
his ministers; he neglects prayer on the week days, and
very often on the Sabbath the exercises of religion, to the
great offence and discouragement of many. He is much
given to backbiting, and he has answered my fatherly
remonstrances by saying scornfully that he could tell his
duty better than I could advise him and such like demon­
strances of pride and hypocrisy.” i
We may probably with safety regard this as the mere i
venomous outpouring of an ill-balanced mind. Downton
doubtless had his faults, but that he was the hypocritical :
humbug that the irate chaplain would have us believe is i
contradicted by his whole career, the details of which are
laid bare in documents emanating from sources indepen­
dent of him. It seems likely that Downton had to exer­
cise his disciplinary powers very sharply during his sojourn
at Surat and that Rogers some time or other came
under his lash. The commander’s instructions to Aldworth
on leaving Surat, quoted in an earlier chapter, at all
events, are highly suggestive of friction.
That Rogers was not exactly a pattern of propriety is

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