A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
"Captain Keeling and William Hawkins had kept company all the
outward-bound voyage, as already related, and therefore not necessary to
be here repeated, to the road of Delisa, in Socotora, whence, on the
24th June, 1603, Captain Keeling departed in the Dragon, as before
related. Captain Hawkins sailed from Delisa in the Hector, for Surat, on
the 4th August, having previously built a pinnace, and having received
from the general, Captain Keeling, a duplicate of the commission under
the great seal."--_Purch_.
§ 1. _Barbarous Usage at Surat by Mucrob Khan; and the treacherous
Procedure of the Portuguese and Jesuits._
Arriving at the bar of Surat on the 24th August, 1608, I immediately
sent Francis Bucke, merchant, and two others, on shore, to make known
that I was sent by the King of England, as his ambassador to the king of
the country, together with a letter and present. In answer, I received a
message from the governor, by three of his servants accompanying those I
sent, saying, he and all that country could afford were at my command,
and that I should be made very welcome if I pleased to come on shore. I
accordingly landed, accompanied by our merchants and others, equipped in
the best manner I could, as befitting the honour of my king and country.
On landing, I was well received after their barbarous manner, and vast
multitudes of the natives followed after me, desirous of seeing a
new-come people whom they had often heard of, but who had never before
visited their country. When I drew near the governor's house, I was told
he was not well, but I rather think he was drunk with _affion_ [or
opium,] being an aged man. I went therefore to the chief customer, being
the only officer to whom sea-faring causes belonged; as the government
of Surat pertained to two great noblemen, one of whom, _Khan-Khana_, was
viceroy of the Decan,[186] and the other, _Mucrob-Khan_, was viceroy of
Cambaya or Guzerat, who had no command in Surat except what regarded the
king's customs, and with him only I had to deal.
[Footnote 186: He was only viceroy of the projected conquest of the
Decan.--E.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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