Page 172 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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172 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

Emperor that all men should take warning by his example,
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and should understand that “as he gave liberty to all
religions, that which they chose and professed they must
1 stick unto.”
The time came when Coryat, having exhausted the finan­
cial possibilities of the Mogul capital, prepared to return
home. Not, we may suppose, without a sigh of satisfac­
tion at the prospect of ridding himself of so equivocal a
I guest, Roe gave the wanderer a letter of introduction to the
English Consul at Aleppo, asking him to receive Coryat
with courtesy, “ for you shall find him a very honest poor
wretch,” and further requesting him to pay the bearer £10.
Terry says that the eccentric “ liked the gift well,” but
that he could not get over the terms in which he was com­
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mended : “ Honest, poor wretch ! ” “To say no more of
him was to say nothing.”
Coryat contrasted Roe’s grudging recommendation with
s a letter he had received from Sir Henry Wotton, the Eng­

lish minister at Venice, which was in these terms—
' $ “ My Lord, good wine needs no bush, neither a worthy
man letters commendatory, because whithersoever he
comes he is his own epistle.”
Poor Coryat seems to have missed the irony of this
l model letter. There was a vein of simplicity in him which
rendered him proof against the ordinary shafts of satire.
But that very quality laid him open to dangers which a
man of better balance might have avoided. After quitting
Ajmere he made for Surat, and on reaching that port j
was hospitably received by the members of the English
factory. In course of conversation mention was made of
some sack which had just been imported from England.
The poor wanderer’s eyes glistened at the mention of his
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