Page 77 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

HOW THE ENGLISH WENT TO INDIA 77

India port. Her departure had led the Portuguese to
redouble their exertions to secure the expulsion of their
hated rivals. Makarrab Khan might have listened to
their hostile suggestions if he had not found it more profit­
able to pluck the pigeon rather than drive it away. What
would have happened if Hawkins had not cut the Gordian
knot by deciding to leave for the Great Mogul’s Court at
Agra it is difficult to say. But Makarrab Khan was under
a certain fear of the Portuguese, and if the furtherance of
their designs had not stood in the way of his interests it
is probable that he would have lent his sanction to their
schemes.
As befitted his exalted and largely self-imposed rank
Hawkins set out on his long journey into the interior with
a large retinue. In his cavalcade, besides a number of
personal attendants, were fifty horsemen—Pathans—“ a
people very much feared in these parts,” as no doubt they
were with cause, for they are amongst the fiercest of the
wild races of the Indian frontier.
A strong guard was a necessity of the journey in the
then state of India. Hawkins’ route in part lay through
a wild country which was the home of intractable tribes
who subsist largely on plunder. Moreover, a veiled state
of war existed in some districts in which the sovereignty
of the Mogul power was not fully accepted. But Hawkins
appears to have been concerned not so much about these
ordinary perils of the road as with the enmity of the Por­
tuguese. Rightly or wrongly he supposed that emissaries
of the Goa government were awaiting the opportunity
of his journey to assassinate him. An actual plot was
laid to overwhelm his party with a force of three hundred
native horsemen under a chief who had been employed for