< Page:Shivaji and His Times.djvu
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108

SHIVAJI.

[CH. IV.

their desolated homes. But the imperial army reached Surat on the 17th and then the cowardly governor ventured to return from the fort. The people hooted at him and flung dirt on him, for which his son in anger shot a poor innocent Hindu trader dead. Sir George Oxenden, the English President, won the people's praise and admiration for having made a gallant stand and saved not only the Company's property, but also the quarter of the town situated round the English factory.*[1]

The Emperor showed his sympathy with the afflicted citizens by excusing the custom duties for one year in the case of all the merchants of Surat, and he rewarded the valour of the English and the Dutch traders by granting them a reduction of one per cent, from the normal import duties on their merchandise in future.

  1. ↑
    • As he wrote to the Company, 28th January, 1664, (F.R. Surat 86): "The townspeople cry out in thousands for a reward from the King to the English that had by their courage preserved them. We were with the noblemen of the army that came to our relief, from whom we received great thanks for the good service we did the King and the country, whereupon your President, having a pistol in his hand, laid it before the chief, saying... he now laid down his arms, leaving the
    future care and protection of the city to them; which was exceedingly well taken, [the general] telling the President [that] he accepted it, and he must give him a vest, a horse and girt a sword about him. But your President told him they were things becoming a soldier, but we were merchants and expected favour from the King in our trade."
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