The 18th, Maugie, the banian captain formerly mentioned, accompanied by another great man, who was son to Clych Khan, came to the water side to speak with me, to whom I went ashore.  Not long after, word was brought from on board, that they had descried a fleet of ships far off, which looked very big, but which we could not see from the shore, owing to its being very low.  Taking leave of my visitors, I returned aboard, and made every thing be put in readiness, which was done immediately.  Towards night, we made them out to be six galleons, with three smaller ships, besides the sixty frigates which were here before.  Two gallies belonging to this armament were not yet come up.  The tide being spent, they came to anchor till next day.  The 19th, they plied up to the entrance of our new channel, where they came to anchor, and where they were joined by the two gallies.  One of their great ships, being too forward, came too near the sands and grounded, but was soon got off again.

On this occasion, Mucrob Khan, the nabob of Surat, sent the sabandar and several others of the principal men of Surat, with a great present of provisions to the Portuguese, and to endeavour to enter into terms of peace; but though great policy was used on both sides, they broke off without coming to any terms.  This was done by the nabob to my great mortification, for he and all the country despaired of my being able to resist such disproportionate force, and he was therefore willing before hand to conciliate the viceroy by presents; considering, if I were once overthrown, his own turn would come next, either to endure a severe assault, or to make such a peace as the enemy chose to dictate.  Peace was certainly most desirable for the viceroy, that he might restore trade with the Moguls.  Yet, seeing the tractableness of the nabob, and his apparent earnestness for peace, the viceroy made light of it for the present, expecting to bring it to bear with great advantage after he had overthrown us, which he made no doubt easily to accomplish.  When this was performed, he expected to receive great presents, and great submission from the Moguls to the dictates of the conqueror.  But it pleased God, who beheld the injustice of his attempt, to turn the event contrary to the expectations both of the viceroy and the nabob.  After failing in all his attempts against me, and finding he could not even gain a boats thole from me in all the time he spent here, with loss and disgrace, the viceroy was fain to revive the former despised proffer of peace with the nabob:  While the nabob on the other hand, confirmed by the experience of a month, and seeing that the viceroy, after all his boastful threatenings, and with so vast an armament, was unable to prevail against our four merchant ships, or even to remove our small force one foot from their place, gave for answer, that he would not make peace with the viceroy.  Thus was the viceroy frustrated in both his hopes, of an easy victory over us, and an advantageous peace with the Moguls.  After this digression, I now return to our proceedings.