In September, 1611, Sir Henry Middleton arrived with his three ships at Surat. The local authorities however refused to allow him to trade, and Middleton, leaving the port, retaliated upon the Surat traders in the Red Sea. He captured " the great Pilgrim ship, the Rehemy, , of Surat." She was of 1,50o tons, had on board, it is said, 1,50o souls, and belonged to the Moghul's mother, whose devotion had built and maintained this ship for the accommodation of pilgrims to Mecca, most of whom, as in all the other ships, " carried adventures of traders." In September, 1612, that goodly seaman, Captain Best, reached the coast with his two ships, the Dragon and Hosander, and the local authorities, having the fear of God instilled into them by Middleton, concluded with him a trading agreement. On November 29, the Portuguese fleet, consisting of four galleons and more than twenty frigates, appeared off the bar of Surat to drive the two English ships away. Three stubborn fights ensued. Then Best determined to fight them in an opener sea, and, crossing the gulf, anchored at a bay where the Moghul troops were besieging a fort. On December 22 the four Portuguese galleons appeared, and at night anchored within shot. " Early in the morning Captain Best stood towards them, who weighed and put before the wind, cannonaded until out of reach, for they sailed better. The next morning, at sunrise, he stood to them again, and maintained the fight until noon, when both sides weary (such is the phrase) parted." 1 On the 27th Best's two ships, "no longer dogged by the Portuguese, anchored at Swally and resumed the intercourse with their factors at Surat, where the event of their fights raised the English reputation even in the opinion of ill-will." The trading agreement had been confirmed by an Imperial Firman or decree. The Governor sent it to Swally as a common letter of business, but Best refused to receive it unless delivered with the usual solemnities. " This spirit brought the Governor and his son-in-law, the custom-master, to Swally, who presented it in state and congratulated : but were very curious to know whether the English ships had not suffered more than was said, in the late engagement." From this Firman dates the foundation of our power in India. And " this spirit " has made it extend from Surat to Attock.
Two years later that stern and experienced seaman, Nicholas Downton, with a fleet of fine ships—the Merchant's Hope (zoo tons), Hector (30o tons), The New Year's Gift (600 tons), and Solomon (of 50o tons), came to anchor in South Swally—" God be thanked, in safety, having lost in the ship the Solomon, till then since our departure from England, only one man." Downton learnt the next day that the Great Moghul had debarred the Portuguese from trade in any of his dominions " by reason of a ship they took at the bar's foot of Surratt of very great value pertaining to his subjects, as also had besieged a town possessed by them some twelve leagues to the southward of Surratt called Damon [Daman] which siege as yet continueth, though with little hope of prevailing." The Governor pressed him that he should go and aid them in the siege of Daman, but Downton refused. However, having " somewhat (as we thought) mollified the Governor," they began to discharge their goods about the primes of November. In December Downton heard that the Viceroy of Goa was equipping a great force against him. On January i8 " came to the bar of Surrat the Viceroy of Portugal—with six galleons from 800 to I,000 tons, three smaller ships from 15o to 30o tons, two galleys and some 6o frigates." 1 Don Jeronimo de Azevedo, the Viceroy, hoisted his flag as Admiral on board the Todos Santos, of 800 tons. The Portuguese fleet carried two hundred and thirty-five guns. The European soldiers and sailors amounted to two thousand six hundred, the native sailors to six thousand. The four English ships carried only eighty guns of inferior calibre, and their soldiers and sailors amounted to four hundred men. But Downton was an excellent bold seaman. On the zoth three of the smaller Portuguese vessels with many of their frigates came within the sands at Swally. Downton weighed from " our usual road," and going near the entrance " the General sent the Hope a distance from us to give an edge to their courage whereby to have some rash attempt practised by them, which fell out accordingly." 1 The three smaller vessels and most of their frigates attacked the Hope " and with great resolution came aboard her and once or twice entered her." The other English ships went to her rescue and were attacked by the rest of the frigates. But they repulsed them and so galled the three ships with their fire that those on board had to forsake them " and enter their frigates for quicker speed to be gone." " But their haste
was to their ruin, and their speed their overthrow, for we let fly at them with our great ordnance and small shot, so that by them many of their frigates were sunk and their inhabitants lost their lives. Till sunset we continually bat tered one against the other." In the meantime the Hope cleared herself " and doubting what traitors might be left aboard the Portugal ships thought it the best course to fire them, which accordingly they did." The English loss was five men slain and divers wounded, " which number (thanks be to God) was far inferior to the enemy's loss." The Shah bandar, or Marine Superintendent of the Surat port, stated that the Portuguese carried to Daman to be buried 36o, " besides divers that we saw daily floating on the water and lying on the sand." The mainmast of the Hope had been burnt, and Downton was unable to break the blockade and attack the Portuguese outside the bar. But each morning and evening he fired across the strip of sand a volley at the enemy, aiming his best cannon at the Viceroy's prow " which I did to try his best temper." The Portuguese, having lost three ships, got within ten days three more from their settlements at Daman and Diu " after whose arrival, to weary our men and keep them in action, they made many shows and proffers to come in with their ships, but never effected it." In the hour of his trial and of his triumph there fell a blow on Nicholas Down ton, which broke his stout old heart. " On February 3," he writes, " it pleased God, this day, at night, where I had least leisure to mourn, to call to His mercy my only son." The volleys aforesaid, appointed to try the temper of the Vice roy, he adds, " served also to honour his burial." On February 9, at 10 o'clock, the enemy at night sent two fire boats chained and stuffed with powder, wildfire, and other combustible matters down on the English ships. " One whereof came aboard the Hope, but, God be thanked, cleared herself without hurt and so burning drave by her." The next night at the same time they exercisedt he like with two very dangerous fires. The first contained two boats and the next four, which were all chained together, fired and let drive amongst us ; but putting our ships under sail we cleared us of them, which drove ashore and there burnt out." The Viceroy, seeing that their force and stratagems took no better effect, "the next day, with his whole fleet, set sail and went and rode at the bar, from whence the day following they all departed, but whither not yet certainly known ; we daily expected their return hither again or encounter at sea, where it may be they lie in wait for us, wherein God's will be done." In August 1615 Sir Thomas Roe, sent by James I as Ambassador to the Court of the Moghul, arrived at Surat. It was a critical moment. He found his countrymen op pressed and treated with severity. As he relates in his diary : " Soe base are our Conditions in this Port and subject to soe many slaueryes, such as noe free hart can endure, that I doe resolue eyther to establish a trade on free Conditions or to doe my best to dissolue yt. For noe profitt can be a good Pennywoorth at soe much dishonor ; the person of euery man landing loccked vp and searched like a theefe ; sometymes two dayes before leaue can be had for any man to passe the riuer ; a poore bottle of wyne sent to the sick deteyned ; and euery trifle ransacked and taken away, with unsufferable insolencyes." Roe held a high estimate of the nature of his appoint ment. When the Surat authorities suggested that his company might be searched " according to the custome of the country," we find him protesting " that I was the Ambassador of a mightie and free Prince : that I would neuer dishonnor my Master so much, whose Per son I bare, as to subject myselfe to so much slauery." Roe's tact, dignity and energy won the day, and three years later he succeeded in obtaining certain further privileges for his countrymen. He also made a separate treaty with the Moghul Emperor's third son, Prince Kharram, afterwards the famous Shah Jehan, to whom had been assigned by his father the Government of Surat. By this treaty the English gained the rights of building a house, bearing arms, exercising their own religion freely, and settling their own disputes among themselves. The modest house at Surat was the first permanent connexion of the English with India, and the growth of the Surat Factory forms an im portant and interesting chapter in the history of our Indian Empire.