[Footnote 183: Purch. Pilgr. I. 535. Churchill's Collect. I. 617.]
The other edition of this journal is in the collection published by the Churchills, of which we quote from the third edition of 1744, reprinted by Lintot and Osburn, booksellers in London. Of this edition the editor of that collection gives the following account:--"Sir Thomas Roe has before appeared in print, in part at least, in the collection of Purchas, since translated into French, and published in the first volume of the collection by Thevenot. He now comes again abroad with considerable additions, not foisted in, but taken from his own original manuscript, of which it would appear that Purchas only had an imperfect copy. These additions, it is true, are not great in bulk, but they are valuable for the subject; and several matters, which in the other collection are brought in abruptly, are here continued in a more methodical manner."
After an attentive comparison of these two former editions, it obviously appears that the edition by Purchas, in 1625, is in general more circumstantial and more satisfactory than that of Churchill, in 1744, notwithstanding its superior pretensions, as above stated. Yet, on several occasions, the edition in Churchill gives a more intelligible account of particulars, and has enabled us, on these occasions, to restore what Purchas, by careless abbreviation, had left an obscure and almost unintelligible jumble of words. The present edition, therefore, is formed upon a careful collation of these two former, supplying from each what was defective in the other. On the present occasion, the nautical and other observations made by Sir Thomas Roe during the voyage from England to Surat, are omitted, having been already inserted into the account of that voyage by Captain Peyton.
It were much to be desired that this first account of the political intercourse between Britain and Hindoostan could have been given at full length, more especially as that extensive, rich, populous, and fertile country is now almost entirely reduced under the dominion of the British crown; and as Sir Thomas Roe, even in the garbled state in which we are forced to present his observations, clearly shews the inherent vices of the Mogul government, through which it so rapidly fell into anarchy, and was torn in pieces by its own cumbrous and ill-managed strength. Perhaps the archives of the East India Company are still able to supply this deficiency in the history of its original establishment; and it were surely worthy of the more than princely grandeur of that great commercial company, to patronise the publication of a collection of the voyages, travels, negotiations, and events which have conduced to raise it to a degree of splendour unexampled in the history of the world. The importance of this first embassy from Great Britain to the Great Mogul, and the vast consequences, both commercial and political, which have since arisen from that early intercourse, have induced us to give the following additional information respecting the mission of Sir Thomas Roe, from the Annals of the East India Company, vol. I. p. 174, et sequ., which will in some measure supply the defects in this journal, as published by Purchas and Churchill.--E.
"The information which the Court [of Committees or Directors of the East India Company] had received, in the preceding season, [1613-14] induced them to apply to the king to grant his royal authority that an ambassador should proceed in his name to the Great Mogul. King James, in compliance with the wishes of the Company, on the 14th January, 1614-15, granted his commission to the celebrated Sir Thomas Roe, "to be ambassador to the Great Mogul, or king of India," the company agreeing to defray the expence, in consideration, that, under their exclusive privileges, they were to acquire such benefits as might result from this mission.
"Sir Thomas Roe sailed from England in March 1615, on board the Lion, Captain Newport, and arrived at Surat, whence he proceeded to the Mogul's court at Agimere, which he reached in December, 1615; and on the 10th January, 1616, was presented to the Mogul as ambassador from the king of England, when he delivered the king's letter and presents. Of these, an English coach was the chief article, and with it the Mogul was pleased to express his satisfaction, and to give the ambassador a gracious reception. From the company's agents having already been too profuse in their presents to the ministers and favourites, Sir Thomas found that the articles which he carried out as presents were not so highly estimated as he expected; he therefore informed the court that nothing less than valuable jewels would be deemed worthy of acceptance; and at the same time he advised that 'four or five cases of red wine' should be sent as presents to the king and prince, as, in his own words, 'never were men more enamoured of that drinke as these two, and which they would more highly esteem than all the jewels in Chepeside.'
"In describing his own situation, he stated that the natives could not comprehend what was meant in Europe by the rank or quality of an ambassador, and that in future it would be preferable to employ an agent only, who could bear these affronts without dishonour, which an ambassador, from, his rank, could not encounter. He complains also, that, from want of an interpreter, he had experienced much difficulty in explaining to the Mogul, and to his ministers, the object of his mission; in particular, the grievances which the English had suffered from the governor of Ahmedabad, because the native brokers, whom he was obliged to employ, were afraid to interpret literally, lest they should either incur the king's displeasure, or be disgraced by his ministers. In his application for redress from the governor of Ahmedabad, he discovered that this officer was supported by sultan Churrum, the Mogul's eldest-son,[184] and Asaph Khan, the favourite. By perseverance and firmness, however, the ambassador at length obtained the relief he solicited.
[Footnote 184: Sultan Chesuro appears to have been the eldest son of Jehanguire, but held in confinement for having endeavoured to supplant his father in the succession, and Churrum seems only to have been the third son.--E.]
"On the 24th January, 1616, Sir Thomas had a second audience of the Mogul, at which he complained of the injuries the English had sustained from the arbitrary conduct of the governor of Surat, and so effectual were his remonstrances, that this officer was dismissed. The ambassador then proposed to renew the articles of the phirmaund, or treaty between the Mogul and the English nation, and solicited to have the treaty ratified by the signatures[185] of the Mogul and Sultan Churrum, which being procured, the treaty was concluded.[186]