EARLY YEARS
and state of the Kings of Hindustan. We were very well received, and on our arrival at our house we were entertained by Sallabut Khan, with dinner sufficient both for us and our people."
In spite of this favourable reception, the emperor refused to receive the Company's petition or to transact any business till such time as his marriage with a Jodhpore princess, for which arrangements were proceeding, should have been celebrated. The envoys, thus detained, were soon plunged into the intrigues of an Indian court, and involved in counter intrigues. They were obliged to remain attending on the emperor's pleasure, and doling out such of their presents as they had reserved. They spent money lavishly, too, in winning over various nobles and others to support their petition, but after weary months of waiting they seemed no nearer the attainment of their object, and might have had to return to Calcutta disappointed but that the emperor fell ill on the eve of his marriage, and the ceremony had to be postponed.
Attached to the English embassy was Surgeon William Hamilton of the Honourable East India Company's service, whose name deserves to stand high in the records of Calcutta as second only to that of Charnock the founder. When,
