In Jehangir's reign the splendour of the Court life must have emphasized the barrier which custom interposed between those who bought and those who sold. Agra swarmed with merchants from all countries of Asia and some parts of Europe. They were, many of them, adventurers of a low type who cringed and fawned and flattered for a little gain. The whole atmosphere of the trading community must have been sordid to a degree if we may be guided by the conditions which obtain to-day at the capitals of the Indian states. In such circumstances the wonder is not that the English did not succeed, but that they accomplished anything. Probably the comparative friendliness of their reception was due to the personality of the earlier representatives of the Company combined with Jehangir's almost childish love of foreign novelties.
Not many years elapsed before the astute directors of the East India Company grasped the truth that their servants were not fitted by their status and training for the delicate work of diplomacy which had to be done in India. They quickly came to see that if an impression was to be made on the stone wall of Oriental prejudice it could only be through the agency of a duly accredited ambassador who would go out with all the prestige that would attach to a representative of the King. On being approached on the subject James I readily gave his consent to the dispatch of a special envoy, and in due course Sir Thomas Roe was selected for the office. Roe came of that good old city stock from which so many of the great families of England have sprung. His grandfather was Sir Thomas Rowe, or Roe, who was an Alderman of the City and filled the office of Sheriff in 1560, and was Lord Mayor in 1568. Born in 1581 the Sir Thomas Roe of our story, after matricu-
