and desired Asaph Khan to put them into form and procure them to be sealed, or else to allow me to apply to the king, that if he denied me I might leave the country.  The substance of these new articles was as follows:—­1.  That all the subjects of the Great Mogul should receive the English in a friendly manner, suffering them to land their goods peaceably, and to procure provisions for their money without paying customs for them.—­2.  To have liberty, after paying customs for their goods, to sell them to any one they pleased, and none to force them to sell at an under rate.—­3.  To have liberty to pass with their goods to any part of the empire, without any farther exactions than those payable at the port.—­4.  To have the presents for the Mogul and prince sealed without being opened, and sent to the ambassador.—­5.  To have the goods of those that might die freed from confiscation, and delivered to the surviving English factors.—­And finally, That no injury should be offered to any of the English.

On the 8th, Asaph Khan sent me word in plain terms, that absolutely he would procure nothing for me sealed, that in any respect concerned the government belonging to the prince, and that I must rest satisfied with a firmaun or order, signed by the prince, which was quite sufficient, and I needed not to apply any more to him.  This clearly revealed the purpose he had so long intended, that we should be entirely dependent on the prince; and I now had just cause to look out for new friends, Asaph Khan having forsaken me.  He that first took him for our solicitor engaged us in all this misery, for he was the known protector of our enemies, and a slave to their numerous bribes.  I therefore determined to try the prince, and to seem entirely dependent upon him.  So I went to the prince on the 10th, and desired he would grant his firmaun for the four articles formerly sent to his secretary, which he threw down to his secretary, so that I hoped to be at rest.  I received it on the 11th, but on reading it over, I found two of the four clauses much altered, and one entirely left out; so I returned it, declaring roundly I could not accept it, neither would I suffer any goods to be sent ashore.  Never was any man so distressed with such pride, covetousness, and falsehood.

At night, I rode to visit the prince’s secretary, Mirza Socrolla, with whom I expostulated the business, declaring my resolution to depart.  But I now found the firmaun quite different than I had been informed, and containing all the clauses I had required, though in some phrases rather ambiguous in my judgment, which the secretary interpreted favourably, declaring it was the prince’s intent to satisfy me entirely, and that every thing was quite sufficient for our purpose.  After urging the obscurity of some points, and as he had declared the meaning of the prince to me, I requested he would explain them in the same sense to the governor of Surat, which he agreed to; and especially gave order that the customer