r from Surat,
written by Nicholas Bangham, formerly a joiner in the Hector. He
informed me that we had no factory in Surat, to which place he had been
sent by Captain Hawkins to recover some debts owing there, and had
likewise letters for me from Captain Hawkins, but durst not send them
aboard for fear of the Portuguese. He said nothing as to what had become
of our factory and goods; wherefore I wrote to him to send me Captain
Hawkins' letters, and information of all other particulars of our
affairs in that country.

The third October, Khojah Nassan, governor of Surat, and the governor's
brother of Cambaya, sent me a Mogul messenger with a present of
refreshments, offering to do me all the service in their power; saying,
they wished to trade with us, but could see no way of doing so while the
Portuguese armada rode there, and therefore advised me to go for
Gogo,[340] a far better place, where our ships could ride nearer the
shore, and where the Portuguese armada could not hinder our landing.
That place likewise was nearer Cambay, where there were more merchants
and greater store of merchandise for our purpose than at Surat. I told
this messenger, that till I knew what was become of our countrymen and
goods formerly left in the country, I could not determine how to
proceed, and desired him therefore to be a means that some one of our
people might come aboard to confer with me, and that I might have a
pilot to conduct me to Gogo, and then I would quickly resolve them what
I was to do. I dismissed this messenger and his interpreter with small
presents. The 5th, the interpreter, who was a bramin, or priest of the
Banians, came off with a letter from Bangham, and the letter from
Captain Hawkins, dated from Agra in April last, giving an account of the
fickleness of the Mogul, who had given a firman to the Portuguese, by
which our trade, formerly granted, was disallowed.

[Footnote 340: Gogo is a sea-port of Guzerat, on the west coast of the
Gulf of Cambay, in lat. 22 deg. 43' N.]

There were likewise two letters of a later date from Thomas Fitch, at
Lahore, giving the same account of the inconstancy of the Great Mogul,
and advising me on no account to land any goods, or to hope for trade.

On reading these letters, I grew hopeless of any trade here, yet
resolved to try all I possibly could before I would depart. I understood
by Bangham's letter, that Captain Sharpey, John Jordayne, and others,
were coming from Cambaya to