Page 284 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

284 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

entertaining Diary for the benefit of modern readers,
gives a vivid picture of one of these interloping parties he
met with in the course of one of his journeys. The leader
in making a ceremonial visit to the native court went richly
habited in a dress of scarlet and lace. “ The Englishmen
in blew capps and coats edged with red all round with
Blunderbusses went before his pallankeen; 80 peons
before them, and 4 musicians playing on the Weights with
2 flags before him.” “ A gawdy shew and great noise
add much to a public person’s credit in this country,”
sapiently remarks the diarist by way of commentary.
A conspicuous member of the fraternity was Thomas
Pitt, the progenitor of two of the greatest British states­
men, and himself a man who in later life won considerable
distinction. Pitt was a born free lance. He had gauged
to a nicety the foibles of the Oriental and he played upon
them with a master hand during a career of almost un­
broken prosperity extending from the year 1674 into the
new century. The Directors, when they got to hear of him,
as they soon did, sent out orders that he should be seized
and imprisoned pending the arrival of a ship in which he
could be dispatched to England. But Pitt was not the
man to put his neck in a noose. He gave a wide berth to
the Company’s stations and outside their limits always had
at his command a sufficient force for his personal defence.
After some years successful trading, mostly with Persia,
he seems to have landed at Madras, whether of set design or
otherwise is not clear. He was haled before the Council
there and is said on the occasion to have promised compli­
ance with the Company’s orders. But he was soon at his
old work again, building up by successful trade a handsome
fortune.

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