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 194 FIEST SETTLEMENTS ON THE BOMBAY COAST years of the seventeenth century; but the long arm of the empire at length prevailed, and just as the an- archy ended the English came upon the scene. In 1607, Captain William Hawkins, of the third 11 Separate Voyage,' ' landed at Surat with a letter from James I to the Moghul Emperor Jahangir, and pro- ceeded to the court at Agra. But the magnificent mon- arch of India did not take seriously the proffers of an unknown island-king brought by a ship's captain. Such European influence as then existed at the Moghul cap- ital was entirely Portuguese; and, after four years, Hawkins returned to Surat with a native wife, but with- out any grant for trade. Meanwhile the local governor of Surat had allowed some of Hawkins's followers to remain there, apparently as a set-off to the Portuguese, who formed an unruly element at the roadstead. In 1609 a shipwrecked crew of our fourth " Separate Voy- age " also claimed shelter. This the Moghul governor, whether " bribed by the Portugals " or merely afraid lest he should have too many of the European infidels on his hands, discreetly refused. The poor sailors had to make their way home, part of them by way of Lis- bon, by the clemency of the Portuguese, who were only too glad to get rid of them. The accounts which thus reached England from Surat, of its settled government under the cegis of the Great Moghul, and of its opportunities for trade, deter- mined the Company to effect a settlement at its port. In 1611 Sir Henry Middleton, of the sixth " Separate Voyage," landed at Suwali in spite of the Portuguese,