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 with the consequence that the irritating exactions of local officials were effectually suppressed.

Under the buoyant influence of his diplomatic success, Roe's spirits rose. No longer was he a humble suppliant for favours which were never forthcoming. As he wrote to the Company's officials at Surat, "Noor Mahal is my solicitor and her brother my broker,"

Asaf Khan was dissatisfied with the pearls—or professed to be so—when they arrived in the custody of Richard Steele early in November, by which time the Emperor was once more on the march. But he kept nobly to his bargain to the extent even of openly in durbar championing the English cause in opposition to the antagonistic views forcibly expressed by Prince Khurrum.

This strange incident, which may be said to have set the seal on the establishment of the English power at Surat, is described by Roe with evident relish in his diary. Roe had attended the durbar to present a letter from James I which had arrived with the latest fleet. In the course of the ceremony of presentation Klhurrum entered into an argument with his father as to the value of the English trade, complaining that he had no profit by it and would be well content to be rid of the Company's establishment. Asaf Khan, perceiving the drift of the discussion, "took a turn and roundly told the king that we brought both profit to the port and to the kingdom, and security; that we were used very rudely by the prince's servants, and that it was not possible for us to rest without amends; that it were more honourable to his Majesty to license us to depart than to intreat us so discourteously, for it would be the end." The prince made a passionate reply, asserting that he had never done the English any wrong. But he could make no