ser on shore in the pinnace, early of the 16th, to purchase
such necessaries as I thought might easily have been got; but he
returned about ten o'clock a.m. without buying any thing for our
purpose, bringing with him Mr Aldword, the chief merchant of our factory
at Surat, along with whom was one Richard Steel, who had come over-land
to Surat from Aleppo.[124] Mr Aldworth endeavoured to persuade me that
Mucrob Khan was our friend, and that we had now an excellent opportunity
to obtain good trade and satisfactory privileges while the Moguls were
engaged in war with the Portuguese; and as both the Nabob and all the
natives were rejoiced at hearing of our arrival, they would assuredly
give us a most favourable reception. Pleased with these hopeful
circumstances, I yet still wished some other person here in command
instead of Mucrob Khan, of whom I remained doubtful, and that we should
have no free trade from him, but in his accustomed manner, which I
believed to have been, of his own accord to cross us, and not as so
constrained by direction of his king; and the event turned out
accordingly, though we were wise behind the band, as will appear in the
sequel. Even the name he bore ought to have opened our eyes as to his
influence with the Great Mogul: as _Mocrub_ signifies as much as _his
own bowels, Khan_ meaning _great lord_. Yet I was deluded to believe
that his favour with the king was tottering, and that he might easily be
brought into disgrace, by complaint of any thing done contrary to the
will or humour of the king; so that we were too bold, and injured our
business when we found him opposing us, as we thought unreasonably. On
enquiring into the state of our business, and the health of our factory,
Mr Aldworth informed me that Paul Canning and several others had died;
that Thomas Kerridge had long since been agent in his room at the court
of the Mogul, and that the factory at Surat now only contained himself
and William Bidulph.

[Footnote 124: Mr Richard Stell, or Steel, had gone to Aleppo, to
recover a debt from a merchant of that city, who had fled to India; and,
following him through Persia, Mr Steel had arrived at Surat. On his
report, the factors at Surat made an experiment to open a trade with
Persia, which will form the subject of a future section of this
chapter.--E.]

In the morning of the 17th, I called a council to advise upon the best
manner of conducting our affairs here, and to consider who might be th