Page 74 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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74 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST
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on behalf of the Company for liberty to trade in India..
:: Hawkins, though probably not to be identified with
5 the man of the same name whom we have already met
with as Fenton’s associate in his unfortunate voyage,
was a true adventurer of the type which had been
fashioned out of the events of the Elizabethan period. He
was no stranger to the East. During some years spent in
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the Levant he had mastered the native languages current
in the places in which he traded, and with them had.
acquired a knowledge of Oriental manners and customs,
and, what was, perhaps, more important, had gained an
piiii insight into Eastern character such as few Englishmen of
his day could lay claim to. His outlook was, perhaps
not unnaturally, coloured by a strong personal ambition.
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Those were times in which men of European race rose
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to great positions at the Oriental courts. All over Asia
the subtle influence of the West was carrying with it
a force which was more and more revealing itself in the
capricious tastes of the despotic rulers who held sway in
those regions. To every stranger from Ijurope there
was a chance of distinction. To vary a familiar simile the
traveller carried in his knapsack a minister’s wand of office.
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Hawkins was perfectly aware of this, and from the first
'•j. obviously endeavoured to turn his position of envoy to the
fullest account. He made his debut at Surat not as a
simple seaman or a humble trader intent on getting on to
the market under favourable conditions a cargo of goods,
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but as an ambassador of a great power, which has a right
to demand and exact respectful treatment.
At the very earliest period of the Hector's stay off Surat
Hawkins found that his mission was to be one of no ordin­
ary difficulty. He came into collision at once almost with

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