Page 83 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

HOW THE ENGLISH WENT TO INDIA 83

inducement that she should turn Christian. Hawkins
declined to accept the proposal as far as it concerned his
marriage to a “ Moor,” but he allowed his imperial patron
to understand that if a Christian could be found he would
be willing to espouse her. He represents that he made this
concession because he wanted to be free and he imagined
that the condition was an impossible one. But he had
literally reckoned without his host. Jehangir discovered
for him an Armenian girl, the daughter of a captain who
was in great favour with Akbar and who had some time
previously died, leaving his offspring in rather poor circum­
stances. As the Emperor had set his heart on the marriage
Hawkins had no alternative but to yield a reluctant con­
sent. As no Christian minister was available to sanctify
the union Hawkins got his personal servant Nicholas to
act the part of priest, a procedure which, he says naively,
“ I thought had been lawful till I met with a preacher that
came out with Sir Henry Middleton and he, showing me
the error I was in, marryed (me) again.” Mrs. Hawkins,
as we shall discover, was a very enterprising lady who
quite justified Jehangir’s selection of her as a suitable
mate for his English favourite.
Not long after the curious episode just related Jehangir
gave Hawkins his commission “ under his great seal with
golden letters.” This he promptly sent on to Surat, where
he had left two of the Company’s representatives, William
Finch and Thomas Aldworth, to keep the place warm
pending brighter days for trade. Before the document
reached its destination news of the remarkable favour
shown to Hawkins at Court had reached the Western port
and had led to the circulation of a curious rumour as to
the means by which he had captured the vagrant imperial

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