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AN IMPERIAL DESPOT IN DRESS AND UNDRESS 163

with, the consequence that the irritating exactions of local
officials were effectually suppressed.
Under the buoyant influence of his diplomatic success,
Roe’s spirits rose. No longer was he a humble suppliant
for favours which were never forthcoming. As he wrote
to the Company’s officials at Surat, “ Noor Mahal is ray
solicitor and her brother my broker.”
Asaf Khan was dissatisfied with the pearls—or professed
to be so—-when they arrived in the custody of Richard
Steele early in November, by which time the Emperor was
once more on the march. But he kept nobly to his bargain
to the extent even of openly in durbar championing the
English cause in opposition to the antagonistic views
forcibly expressed by Prince Khurrum.
This strange incident, which may be said to have set the
seal on the establishment of the English power at Surat, is
described by Roe with evident relish in his diary. Roe
had attended the durbar to present a letter from James I
which had arrived with the latest fleet. In the course of
the ceremony of presentation Khurrum entered into an
argument with his father as to the value of the English
trade, complaining that he had no profit by it and would
be well content to be rid of the Company’s establishment.
Asaf Khan, perceiving the drift of the discussion, “ took a
turn and roundly told the king that we brought both profit
to the port and to the kingdom, and security; that we
were used very rudely by the prince’s servants, and that it
was not possible for us to rest without amends ; that it were
more honourable to his Majesty to license us to depart than
to intreat us so discourteously, for it would be the end.”
The prince made a passionate reply, asserting that he had
never done the English any wrong. But he could make no

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