would send an ambassador, but always a commercial agent; and stated that Sir Thomas Roe, besides, considered himself to be vested with the exercise of a controlling power over the commercial speculations of the Surat factory, and held himself to be better qualified to judge of the English interests by combining the political relations which he wished to introduce between the Mogul and the king of England, than by forwarding any projects for trade which the factory might devise as applicable to the Mogul dominions.

“In this year he reported that he had returned thanks to Sultan Churrum for the protection which he had afforded to the English in relieving them from the extortions of Zulfeccar Khan, the late governor of Surat, and had remonstrated against the partiality which had been shown to the Portuguese; representing to the Mogul that the king of Portugal had assumed the title of king of India, and that the Portuguese trade could never be so beneficial as that of England, as the English annually exported from India calicoes and indigo to the amount of 50,000 rials.  To strengthen this remonstrance, Sir Thomas offered to pay to the sultan 12,000 rupees yearly, on condition that the English should be exempted from the payment of customs at the port of Surat; and then gave it as his opinion, that the plan of the agency at Surat, of keeping permanent factories at Surat, and other parts of the Mogul dominions, ought to be abandoned, as it would be preferable to make the purchases of goods inland, by the natives, [particularly the indigo from Agra, and the Bengal goods] who could obtain them at reasonable rates.  But if the court were of opinion that English factors ought to be stationed at Agra, he recommended sending the goods in carts rather than on camels.  He concludes this part of his report by advising that agents should reside at Cambay and Baroach, because the best cloths in India could be procured at these towns.

“Though Sir Thomas Roe appears to have procured a phirmaund through the means of Noor-Mahal, the favourite sultana or empress, for the general good treatment of the English at Surat, and had desired that an assortment of English goods, perfumes, &c. should be forwarded to him as presents to her and to her brother, Asaph Khan, he yet describes, in 1618, the governor of Surat as reluctant to shew that favour to the English which the phirmaund had enjoined.  It therefore became a question with him, as the governor of Surat would not allow the English to strengthen or fortify their factory for the protection of their goods and servants, whether it might not be expedient to remove to some other station, where the means of self-defence might be more practicable.  At one time he thought of Goga, and subsequently of Scindy; but, after a review of the whole, decided that it would be more expedient to remain at Surat, though, from the character of the natives, and the instability of the Mogul government, all grants of privileges must be considered as temporary, and any agreement or capitulation which might be procured, ought not to be depended on as permanent.  He concludes, that, though a general phirmaund for trade in the Mogul dominions had been obtained, and of course a foundation laid for the English intercourse with the rich provinces of Bengal, yet the attempt to enter on that trade would be unwise, from being in the exclusive possession of the Portuguese.