Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/80

 Originally a Court physician, he had successfully treated the Emperor for some disease from which he was suffering. Out of gratitude for the relief afforded Jehangir had nominated the fortunate practitioner to the lucrative oversight of government business at Surat under the title of Makarrab Khan, which, roughly translated, means Lord of my Health. The newly appointed governor, after the manner of his time, used his position for his personal aggrandizement. A scarcely veiled form of blackmail was imposed upon all who came within the area of his government for purposes of trade. His exactions were only circumscribed by the limitations imposed by the poverty of his victims or their capacity for resisting his rapacious demands.

To such a man as Makarrab Khan the visit of the English ship was a welcome addition to the customary sources of plunder, which had become restricted by the operation of his oppressive system. He prepared without unnecessary delay to turn the opportunity to account. Goods which the Englishmen contrived to smuggle ashore in spite of the Portuguese were overhauled by the governor, and all articles that took his fancy were appropriated on the illusory understanding that they would be paid for in some remote and ill-defined future. The process was repeated until a period was reached when, as Hawkins put it, his temporary place of residence was "swept clean" of all articles of value. As soon as this had been done, and it had been made clear that there would be no further supplies to annex, the governor, "little by little" (says Hawkins), "degraded me of his good looks." Meantime, the Hector had resumed her voyage to Bantam in view of the uselessness of prolonging her stay at the Western