EARLY YEARS
on the caprice of the reigning nawab, to an assured status as landholders paying a yearly rental of eleven hundred and ninety-five rupees to the emperor at Delhi, and receiving in return authority to collect rents and to administer justice under the Mohammedan laws within the boundaries of the three villages. Having obtained the nawab's consent, the East India Company at once proceeded to exercise their rights without waiting to receive the emperor's confirmation of their authority, which they had great difficulty in obtaining, owing to the opposition of interested officials of the nawab's Government, who influenced the court at Delhi against them. This opposition was continued for no less than sixteen years, during which time the Company continued to exercise their rights, but were constantly thwarted and hampered by oppressive orders and various exactions, growing more intolerable every year. It was at last decided that the Company should appeal direct to the emperor in person, and it was accordingly arranged that an embassy should proceed to Delhi to try and obtain the required firman from the emperor, which would make the Company's position secure and relieve them of most of their grievances.
Early in 1715 the embassy proceeded to Delhi. The members were Messrs. John Surman and
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