The Moghul Part 14

I am told they weighed anchor at nightfall. Do English vessels customarily sail without their captain?"

"When they have reason to do so." Hawksworth fixed him squarely, wondering if he was really almost blind or if he merely wanted to appear so.

"And what, Captain . . . Hawksworth, brings you and your contentious warships to our port? It is not often our friends the Portuguese permit their fellow Christians to visit us."

"Our ships are traders of England's East India Company."

"Do not squander my time telling me what I already know." The Shahbandar suddenly seemed to erupt. "They have never before come to India. Why are you here now?"

Hawksworth sensed suddenly that the Shahbandar had been merely toying with him. That he knew full well why they had come and had already decided what to do. He recalled the words of Karim, declaring the Shahbandar had his own private system of spies.

"We are here for the same reason we have visited the islands. To trade the goods of Europe."

"But we already do trade with Europeans. The Portuguese. Who also protect our seas."

"Have you found profit in it?"

"Enough. But it is not your place to question me, Captain Hawksworth."

"Then you may wish to profit through English trade as well."

"And your merchants, I a.s.sume, also expect to profit here."

"That's the normal basis of trade." Hawksworth shifted, easing his leg.

The Shahbandar glanced downward, but without removing his lips from the tube of the hookah. "I notice you have a wound, Captain Hawksworth.

Yours would seem a perilous profession."

"It's sometimes even more perilous for our enemies."

"I presume you mean the Portuguese." The Shahbandar cursed the servant anew and called for a new taper to fire the hookah. "But their perils are over. Yours have only begun. Surely you do not expect they will allow you to trade here."

"Trade here is a matter between England and India. It does not involve the Portugals."

The Shahbandar smiled. "But we have a trade agreement with the Portuguese, a _firman_ signed by His Majesty, the Moghul of India, allowing them free access to our ports. We have no such agreement with England."

"Then we were mistaken. We believed the port of Surat belonged to India, not to the Portugals." Hawksworth felt his palms moisten at the growing game of nerves. "India, you would say, has no ports of her own.

No authority to trade with whom she will."

"You come to our door with warfare and insolence, Captain Hawksworth.

Perhaps I would have been surprised if you had done otherwise." The Shahbandar paused to draw thoughtfully on the smoking mouthpiece. "Why should I expect this? Although you would not ask, let me a.s.sume you have. The reputation of English sea dogs is not unknown in the Indies."

"And I can easily guess who brought you these libelous reports of England. Perhaps you should examine their motives."

"We have received guidance in our judgment from those we have trusted for many years." The Shahbandar waved aside the hookah and fixed Hawksworth with a hard gaze.

Hawksworth returned the unblinking stare for a moment while an idea formed in his mind. "I believe it once was written, 'There are those who purchase error at the price of guidance, so their commerce does not prosper. Neither are they guided.'"

A sudden hush enveloped the room as the Shahbandar examined Hawksworth with uncharacteristic surprise. For a moment his eyes seemed lost in concentration, then they quickly regained their focus. "The Holy Quran-- Surah II, if I have not lost the lessons of my youth." He stopped and smiled in disbelief. "It's impossible a _topiwallah_ should know the words of the Merciful Prophet, on whom be peace. You are a man of curious parts, English captain." Again he paused. "And you dissemble with all the guile of a _mullah_."

"I merely speak the truth."

"Then speak the truth to me now, Captain Hawksworth. Is it not true the English are a notorious nation of pirates? That your merchants live off the commerce of others, pillaging where they see fit. Should I not inquire, therefore, whether you intrude into our waters for the same purpose?"

"England has warred in years past on her rightful enemies. But our wars are over. The East India Company was founded for peaceful trade. And the Company is here for no purpose but to trade peacefully with merchants in Surat." Hawksworth dutifully pressed forward. "Our two merchantmen bring a rich store of English goods--woolens, ironwork, lead . . ."

"While you war with the Portuguese, in sight of our very sh.o.r.es. Will you next make war on our own merchants? I'm told it is your historic livelihood."

As he studied Hawksworth, the Shahbandar found himself reflecting on the previous evening. The sun had set and the Ramadan meal was already underway when Father Manoel Pinheiro, the second-ranked Portuguese Jesuit in India, had appeared at his gates demanding an audience.

For two tiresome hours he had endured the Jesuit's pained excuses for Portugal's latest humiliation at sea. And his boasts that the English would never survive a trip upriver. And for the first time Mirza Nuruddin could remember, he had smelled fear.

Mirza Nuruddin had sensed no fear in the Portuguese eight years before, when an English captain named Lancaster had attacked and pillaged a Portuguese galleon in the seas off Java. Then the Viceroy of Goa brayed he would know retribution, although nothing was ever done. And a mere five years ago the Viceroy himself led a fleet of twelve warships to Malacca boasting to burn the eleven Dutch merchantmen lading there. And the Dutch sank almost his entire fleet. Now the pirates of Malabar daily hara.s.sed Indian shipping the length of the western coast and the Portuguese patrols seemed powerless to control them. In one short decade, he told himself, the Portuguese have shown themselves unable to stop the growing Dutch spice trade in the islands, unable to rid India's coasts of pirates, and now . . . now unable to keep other Europeans from India's own doorstep.

He studied Hawksworth again and asked himself why the English had come.

And why the two small English vessels had challenged four armed galleons, instead of turning and making for open sea? To trade a cargo of wool? No cargo was worth the risk they had taken. There had to be another reason. And that reason, or whatever lay behind it, terrified the Portuguese. For the first time ever.

"We defend ourselves when attacked. That's all." Hawksworth found himself wanting to end the questions, to escape the smoky room and the Shahbandar's intense gaze. "That has no bearing on our request to trade in this port."

"I will take your request under advis.e.m.e.nt. In the meantime you and your men will be searched and your goods taxed, in keeping with our law."

"You may search the men if you wish. But I am here as representative of the king of England. And as his representative I will not allow my personal chest to be searched, no more than His Majesty, King James of England, would submit to such an indignity." Hawksworth decided to reach for all the authority his ragged appearance would allow.

"All _feringhi_, except amba.s.sadors, must be searched. Do you claim that immunity?"

"I am an amba.s.sador, and I will be traveling to Agra to represent my king."

"Permission for _feringhi _to travel in India must come from the Moghul himself." The Shahbandar's face remained impa.s.sive but his mind raced.

The stakes of the English game were not wool, he suddenly realized, but India. The English king was challenging Portugal for the trade of India. Their audacity as astonishing. "A request can be sent to Agra by the governor of this province."

"Then I must see him to ask that a message be sent to Agra. For now, I demand that my personal effects be released from the customs house. And that no duty be levied on our goods, which are samples and not for sale."

"If your goods are not taxed, they will remain in the customs house.

That is the law. Because you claim to represent your king, I will forgo my obligation to search your person. All of your men, however, will be searched down to their boots, and any goods or coin they bring through this port will be taxed according to the prevailing rate. Two and one- half percent of value."

"Our Chief Merchant wishes to display his samples to your traders."

"I have told you I will consider your request for trade.

There are many considerations." He signaled for the hookah to be lighted again. The interview seemed to be ended.

Hawksworth bowed with what formality he could muster and turned toward the counting-room door.

"Captain Hawksworth. You will not be returning to your men. I have made other arrangements for your lodging."

Hawksworth revolved to see four porters waiting by an open door at the Shahbandar's left.

I must be tired. I hadn't noticed the door until now.