Page 133 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

ENGLISH MISSION TO THE GREAT MOGUL 133

In Jehangir’s reign the splendour of the Court life must
have emphasized the barrier which custom interposed
between those who bought and those who sold. Agra
swarmed with merchants from all countries of Asia and
some parts of Europe. They were, many of them, adven­
turers of a low type who cringed and fawned and flattered
for a little gain. The whole atmosphere of the trading
community must have been sordid to a degree if we may
be guided by the conditions which obtain to-day at the
capitals of the Indian states. In such circumstances the
wonder is not that the English did not succeed, but that
they accomplished anything. Probably the comparative
friendliness of their reception was due to the personality
of the earlier representatives of the Company combined
with Jehangir’s almost childish love of foreign novelties.
Not many years elapsed before the astute directors of
the East India Company grasped the truth that their ser­
vants were not fitted by their status and training for the
delicate work of diplomacy which had to be done in India.
They quickly came to see that if an impression was to be
made on the stone wall of Oriental prejudice it could only
be through the agency of a duly accredited ambassador
who would go out with all the prestige that would attach
to a representative of the King. On being approached
on the subject James I readily gave his consent to the.
dispatch of a special envoy, and in due course Sir Thomas
Roe was selected for the office. Roe came of that good
old city stock from which so many of the great families
of England have sprung. His grandfather was Sir Thomas
Rowe, or Roe, who was an Alderman of the City and filled
the office of Sheriff in 1560, and was Lord Mayor in 1568.
Born in 1581 the Sir Thomas Roe of our story, after matricu-

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