Page 73 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

CHAPTER V
How the English went to India
William Hawkins is landed at Surat—Makarrab Khan, the local
Governor—A typical Mogul official—His attitude towards the
English—Hawkins proceeds to Agra—Description of the city
of that day—Jehangir on the throne of the Great Mogul—He
gives Hawkins a friendly reception—Takes him into his service
—Hawkins’s advance to power—His marriage—Effect of
Jehangir’s patronage of Hawkins on the officials at Surat—
Jehangir’s character—His debauchery and cruelty—Downfall
of Hawkins.
T must have been with somewhat of a thrill that on an
August day in 1608 those on board the East India
Company’s good ship Hector saw above the Eastern horizon
the low-lying coastline of Guzerat with its fringing of
palm groves and its pleasant background of cultivated
land clad in the rich verdure of the season of monsoon rains,
now approaching its close. For the first time from the
deck of an English ship Englishmen gazed on this fair
and spreading scene in which the fabled wealth of India
seemed to be so happily typified. None of course could
appreciate to the full the deep historic significance under­
lying this earliest connexion established between the shores
of England and India. But there was on board at all
events one who of a certainty realized that the occasion
was no common one of a trading ship entering an un­
familiar port. This individual was William Hawkins,
bearer of a letter from James I to the Great Mogul asking
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