Page 173 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

A GROUP OF ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN INDIA 173

favourite drink, to which he had so long, perforce, been a
stranger.
" Sack! Sack! ” he exclaimed. “ Is there any such
thing as sack ? I pray you, give me more sack, >> <€ and
drinking it though moderately,” says Terry, “ it in­
creased his flux which he had then upon him, and this
caused his death in December, 1617.”
In a grave afterwards covered with a modest stone like
those in the old churchyards at home, Coryat’s remains were
laid to rest in the English God’s Acre at Surat. Time has
obliterated the evidence of the exact whereabouts of the
grave, but the memory of the strange creature’s irruption
into the India of the Great Moguls with its whimsical
features must always have a fascination for all who take
pleasure in noting the lights and shades of human character.
Roe was too deeply engaged with matters of importance
to give his quaint friend’s death more than a passing tribute
of regret. The old trouble about the delivery of the pres­
ents had come up in a new and rather menacing form. On
the arrival of the consignment at Surat, Prince Khurrum
caused his seals to be put upon the articles with the intent
that nothing should be opened without his cognizance.
Roe’s independent spirit chafed under this new assertion of
the prince’s power. He forwarded to the Emperor a
request that the ban should be removed, and, when after
a delay of twenty days no reply had been received, he pro­
ceeded to break the seals. His offence was an enormous
one in the light of Mogul tradition. It brought him for
the first time under the displeasure of Jehangir. When
Roe attended him the Emperor “ set on it an angrie counten­
ance : told mee I had broken my word: that hee would
trust me no more.” Roe in reply calmly maintained that

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