Mucrob Khan came to Surat accompanied by a Jesuit named Padre Peneiro, who had offered him 40,000 dollars to send me prisoner to Damaun, as I was afterwards certainly informed by Hassen Ally and Ally Pommory.  On his arrival I went to visit him, giving him presents, besides those formerly given to his brother; and for a time, as already mentioned, I had many outward shows of kindness from him, till such time as I demanded my money, when he told me flatly he would not give me 20 mahmudies the vara, as had been agreed, but would rather give me back my cloth.  I dissembled my sense of this unjust procedure as well as I could, entreating leave to proceed to Agra to wait upon the king; telling him I meant to leave William Finch as chief in my place, who would either receive the money or the goods, as he might please to conclude.  Upon this he gave me his licence and a letter to the king, promising me an escort of forty horsemen; which promise he did not perform.  After I got this licence, Father Peneiro put into his head that he ought not to allow me to go, as I would complain against him to the king; thus plotting to overthrow my intended journey.  Mucrob Khan could not prevent my going, because I was sent by a king; but endeavoured to prevail on my interpreter and coachman to poison or murder me by the way; which invention was devised by the Jesuit.  But God, of his mercy, discovered these plots, and the contrivances of the Jesuit took no effect.

Sec. 2. Journey of the Author to Agra, and his Entertainment at the Court of the Great Mogul.

William Finch being now in good health, I left all things belonging to our trade in his hands, giving him instructions how to conduct himself in my absence.  So I began to take up soldiers to conduct me in safety; being denied by Muerob Khan.  Besides some shot and bowmen whom I hired, I applied to a captain of the Khan-Khana, to let me have 40 or 50 horsemen to escort me to the Khan-Khana, who was then viceroy of Deccan, and resided in Bramport.[189] This captain did all in his power for me, giving me a party of Patan horsemen, who are much feared in these parts for their valour.  If I had not done this I had surely been overthrown, as the Portuguese of Damaun had induced an ancient friend of theirs, a Hajah, who was absolute lord of a province called Cruly, situated between Damaun, Guzerat, and the Deccan, to be ready with 200 horsemen to intercept me; but I went so well provided with a strong escort, that they durst not encounter me; and for that time also I escaped.  Then at Dayta,[190] another province or principality, my coachman having got drunk with some of his kinsmen, discovered that he was hired to murder me.  Being overheard by some of my soldiers, they came and told me that it was to have been done next morning at the commencement of our journey, as we usually set out two hours before day.  Upon this notice, I examined the coachman and his friends, in presence of the captain