"UNDERECON CHEETE, Great Zamorin, &c. to JAMES, King of Britain, &c. Whereas your servant and subject, William Keeling, arrived in my kingdom at the port of Cranganore, in March 1615, with three ships, and at my earnest solicitation came ashore to see me; there was concluded by me for my part, and by him for the English nation, as followeth.
"As I have ever been at enmity with the Portuguese, and propose always so to continue, I do hereby faithfully promise to be and to continue in friendship with the English, both for myself and my successors: And, if I succeed in taking the fort of Cranganore, I engage to give it to the English, to possess as their own, together with the island belonging to it, which is in length along the sea-coast nine miles, and three in breadth; and I propose to build therein a house for my own people, to the number of one hundred persons.
"I shall hereafter endeavour, with the aid of the English, to conquer the town and fort of Cochin, which formerly belonged, to my crown and kingdom, and shall then deliver it to the English as their own. Provided that the charges of its capture be equally borne by both parties, one half by me, and the other half by the English nation; and in that case, the benefit of the plunder thereof, of whatsoever kind, shall belong half to me, and half to the English. And thereafter, I shall claim no right, title, or interest in the said town, precincts, or appurtenances whatsoever."
"I also covenant for myself, my heirs and successors, that the whole trade of the English, in whatsoever commodities, brought in or carried out, shall be entirely free from all custom, imposition, tax, toll, or any other duty, of any quality or description."
"To these covenants, which the shortness of time did not permit to extend in more ample form, I, the Zamorin, have sworn to perform, by the great God whom I serve, and not only for myself but for my successors; and in witness thereof have laid my hand upon this writing.[180] And the said William Keeling promises to acquaint the king his master with the premises, and to endeavour to procure his majesty's consent thereto."
[Footnote 180: This probably alludes to a custom mentioned in one of our earlier volumes, of imprinting the form of the hand, smeared with ink, on the paper, instead of signature or seal.--E.]
This being agreed upon, a stock was made out for a factory, such as the shortness of time would permit, and three factors were appointed. These were, George Woolman, chief, Peter Needham, second, who was one of the general's servants, and I, Roger Hawes, third; together with a youth, named Edward Peake, as our attendant, who was to learn the language. John Stamford, a gunner, was likewise left to assist the Zamorin in his wars. On the 10th the ships departed, leaving us and our goods in a shrambe at the water side, together with a present for the Zamorin. We continued there till the 13th, at which time the last of our goods were carried to the Zamorin's castle; whose integrity we much suspected, after having thus got possession of our goods. On the 20th, he insisted to see Mr Woolman's trunk, supposing we had plenty of money. Needham had told him we had 500 rials; but finding little more than fifty, he demanded the loan of that sum, which we could not refuse. He offered us a pawn not worth half; which we refused to accept, hoping he would now allow us to proceed to Calicut, but he put us off with delays. He likewise urged us to give his brother a present.
On the 28th, the Zamorin came into the apartment where we were, and gave Mr Woolman two gold rings, and one to each of the rest; and next day he invited us to come to his tumbling sports. That same night, Stamford went out with his sword in his hand, telling the boy that he would return presently. The next news we had of him was, that he was in the hands of the Cochin nayres. He had lost His way while drunk, and meeting with some of them, they asked where he wished to go; he said to the Zamorin, to whom they undertook to conduct him, and he knew not that he was a prisoner, till he got to Cochin. This incident put us in great fear, but the Zamorin gave us good words, saying he was better pleased to find him a knave now, than after he had put trust in him.
We had leave in April to depart with our goods to Calicut, where we arrived on the 22d of that month, and were well received; but had to remain in the custom-house, till we could get a more convenient house, which was made ready for us on the 6th of May, with promise of a better after the rains. We were very desirous, according to our orders from the general, to have sent a messenger with his and our letters to Surat, to acquaint our countrymen that we were here; but the governor would not consent till we had sold all our goods. On the 18th of June, one was sent. On the 26th, part of our goods were sold to the merchants of Calicut, by the governor's procurement, with fair promises of part payment shortly. But it is not the custom of the best or the worst in this country to keep their words, being certain only in dissembling. Mr Woolman was desirous of going to Nassapore to make sales, but the governor put him off with divers shifts from time to time. The 3d July, our messenger for Surat returned, reporting that he had been set upon when well forwards on his way, and had his money and letters taken from him, after being well beaten. Among his letters was one from Captain Keeling to the next general, the loss of which gave us much concern; yet we strongly suspected that our messenger had been robbed by his own consent, and had lost nothing but his honesty. A broker of Nassapore told Mr Needham, that our dispatches had been sold to the Portuguese, and when the governor heard of this, he hung down his head, as guilty. We here sold some goods to merchants of Nassapore.
Mr Woolman died on the 17th of August. We could not procure payment of our promised money, and were told by our broker, that some one of our debtors would procure a respite from the governor, by means of a bribe, on which the rest would refuse till they all paid. On the 24th, the Zamorin's sister sent us word, that she would both cause our debtors to pay us, and to lend us any money we needed; but we found her as false as the rest The queen mother also made us fair promises, and several others made offers to get letters conveyed for us to Surat; but all their words were equally false. Thus wronged, Mr Needham farther wronged himself by his indiscretion, threatening, in presence of a nayre who attended us, and who revealed his threats, that he would go to the king of Cochin, making shew of violent revenge to put the governor in fear. He behaved outrageously likewise to a scrivano,[181] who is the same as a justice with us, taking him by the throat, and making as if he would have cut him down with his sword, for detaining some of our money which he had received. Our broker also told Mr Needham, that it was not becoming to go up and down the streets with a sword and buckler; and indeed his whole conduct and behaviour more resembled those we call roaring-boys,[182] than what became the character of a merchant. For my admonitions, he requited me with ill language, disgracing himself and injuring the affairs of the company.