A Dutch ship, which had been trading in the Red Sea, arrived here on the 23d of September, with the intention of settling a factory, and they were referred by the governor to the Zamorin, promising to carry a letter for us, but went without it; so that our delays continued. Mr Needham went himself to the Zamorin on the 4th November, and returned on the 25th, having got a present of a gold chain, a jewel, and a gold armlet, with orders also from the king to further our purposes; but the performance was as slow as before. The 20th December, a Malabar captain brought in a prize he had taken from the Portuguese, and would have traded with us; but we could not get in any of our money, due long before. We also heard that day of four English ships being at Surat. The governor and people continued their wonted perfidiousness; the former being more careful in taking, and the latter in giving bribes, than in paying our debts. We used a strange contrivance of policy to get in some of these; for, when we went to their houses, demanding payment, and could get none, we threatened not to leave their house till they paid us. We had heard it reported, that, according to their customs, they could neither eat nor wash while we were in their houses; and by this device we sometimes got fifty _fanos_ from one, and an hundred from another. They would on no account permit us to sleep in their houses, except one person, with whom we remained three days and nights, with three or four nayres. They were paid for watching him, but we got nothing. The nayre, who had been appointed by the king to gather in our debts, came to demand a gratuity from us, though he had not recovered any of our money. He would go to the debtor's houses, taking three or four _fanos_, and then depart without any of our money. On the 9th of January, 1616, Mr Needham went to demand payment of a debt, and being refused permission to pass by a nayre who struck him, as he says, he gave the nayre a dangerous wound in the head with his sword, of which it is thought he cannot recover, and others of the natives were hurt in the fray. Word was presently brought to us to shut up our doors, lest the nayres should assemble to do us some mischief, as feuds or kindred-quarrels and murders are common among them, having no other law or means of vengeance. Our nayre with his kindred, to the number of thirty or more, with pikes, swords, and bucklers, guarded Mr Needham home, on which occasion we had to give a gratuity. Our house had to be guarded for three or four days and nights, none of us daring to go out into the streets for money or other business for a week, though before we used to go about in safety. After that, our broker advised us never to go out, unless attended by a nayre, as they had sworn to put one of us to death, in revenge for him who was slain.