THE ENGLISH AT THE COURT OF ORISSA 237 ceived the three Englishmen in his Hall of Public Audi- ence amid Oriental splendour; affably inclined his head to Mr. Cartwright; then slipping off his sandal, offered " his foot to our merchant to kiss, which he twice re- fused to do, but at last he was fain to do it." Cart- wright presented his gifts. Before, however, he could finish his petition for trade, " the king's almoner " gave the signal for prayer, the glittering court knelt down with their faces to the setting sun, and business ended for the day. Meanwhile the palace had been lighted up with a blaze of countless tapers, and the English returned to the quarters assigned to them in the adjacent city of Cuttack. The picturesque negotiations which followed read like a tale out of the " Arabian Nights." Cartwright came with two distinct objects: redress for the Portu- guese attack within a Moghul harbour, and a license for trade. The Portuguese captain lodged a counter-com- plaint against our crew, and each of the litigants pur- chased the aid of powerful officials. Cartwright asserted his title to seize the frigate on the bold ground " that all such vessels as did trade on the coast and had not a pass either from the English, Danes, or Dutch, were lawful prize." The Portuguese captain could produce only a pass from his own nation, which availed noth- ing, as the Moghul government looked on the Portu- guese as pirates, and had in the preceding autumn, October, 1632, sacked their chief settlement in Bengal. Accordingly the governor " made short work with the matter, and put us all out of strife presently; for he
