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JUNE, 1906.) THE TRAVELS OF RICHARD BELL (AND JOHN CAMPBELL).
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The Ld tooke noe notis of it, but comeing in, red a while in theire pfets booke & said to me send for M Roch66; wee wiibe inerry. Merry we weere & had singing & Danceinge wenches sent for, Notwthstanding he had of his owne in his howse. About 12 Ciock at night, The Ld went out to stoole. It hapt in yo place he went to, one of his saryta had got a weoman, and as ye Ld caime into ye place, his sarpts yt had lights retireinge, The fellow wth his hand Jarr [khanjar] stabd him and left his hand Jarr in his boddy, by wch it was knowne who kild him. The sarv! taken, told all, saue ye weoman, & hir he would not discover for all his torture. He was put to death by ye Ollyphants, weh playd wth him as long as his keeper pleased & puts yo Criminall to great torture & at last treads out his bowells. This was in Saiahans [Shāh Jahāni] tyme, Emper".
A relation of what hapned at my beinge in the fort of Gindecote [Gandikot 167 in the Contrey of Carnatt, a place belonginge to ye Kinge of Golcondogh. A man, a buckall [6aqqal], or as we terme them in England, a Satler, who had pîist a somme of money to Joggernat (Jagannāth], web is an Image of ye Gentues, not pforminge his põnisse was taken laime and blinde. After which he pformed his pmisse trible. Beinge bliride, he caime to ye Immage or pegodah, woh spooke to him & tould him he could not recover him, but gave him a hanchucher wih two knotts, & bid him goe to yo Gouerner of Gindecote, who is a Magullan or Moore, I then psent wtb ye Gouerner. Att first
60 This man, who has already been mentioned as a companion of John Campbell (ante, pp. 138-140), is several times referred to in the records of the E.I. Co. In May 1567, in a letter from the President and Council at Surat to the Court of Directors (Factory Records, Miscell, Vol. 2), there is a note as follows: "We have lately Received
lotter from one MThomas Roach an Englishman Chiefe Gunner to this Kinge [Aurangzēb], who it seemes hath lent some Moneys to My Wm Jesson and Mr Thomas Andrews when they lived att Agra, which he now demands from us in your name, alledging it was lent them in the Honble. Companyes name and for their occasions. he threatens uppon our Rofusell to make him Satisfaccon to take out an Order from the Kinge uppon this Governour to force payment; we have with what Civillity possible answered his letter, wherein we endeavour to Convince him of the unreasonableness of his Demande uppon you, and dosire him to desist from giving us further Trouble, you being in noe wise obliged to make good such unjust pret
se obliged to make good such unjust pretences. We wish we had your positive Order how to proceed when euch troubles shall come uppon us, which we are in dayly feare of, for this Thomas Roach &c. may give us great Trouble, being personally present, and having the Kings earo." Further correspondence on the subject must have been received at Surat from Roach, for, on the 8th May 1971, he writes to the President from Agra (Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 105), "I have not intruded on you againe, in regard in this time I expected your Favourable respost to my letters wherewith I formerly solicitated you, ooncerning my debt from M: Jesson, Bills of exchange by M! Andrews, and my freedom from this undesired service, of which Sir George Oxinden promised me that he had informed the Honble. Co., but nows thereof none as yet arrived with we notwithstanding it is now two yeares since and upwards, wherefore I am constrained to write to you againe hoping your worship will be pleased to afford me some speedy answere that may give some satisiaction to my troubled desires." The remainder of the letter deales with the state of the Company's house at Agra which, Roach says, had been deserted for twenty yeata and would have been forfeited had he not oooupied it.
On the 20th Nov. 1672, at & Consultation at Surat (Factory Records, Misc. Vol. 2), there is the following entry-"Mi Roach the Kings gunner at Dilly delivered the Presidente Letter to his Master about the affront Patt upon them Pr the Gov and endeavours to get him turned out but the Councell order him further prosecuting that business." The "affront" referred to was the refusal of the Goys of Surat to let the English President go to Bombay, the seizure of the Company's house eto. After this, Thomas Rouch disappears from the Records, but he appears never to havo regained his " freedom from this undesired servior." In the Surat Consaltations, on the 25th Sept. 1704 (Factory Records, Surat, Vol. 13), there is a reference to Thomas Roach's son: "Resolved that Mr Edmond Orowe out of the Prayer Mony formerly payd him by order of Councell discharge and pay Twenty Seven rupeos fourty eight pice for Cloths Shirting and other necessary's furnisht Thomas Roaoh the son of an Englishman, Master Gunner to the Mogalls Father, as the said man has bin severall yearea to the present Emperour whose Service he's left and having retaind the Protestant religion and poor have his Lodging and Dyett in the Factory till oan otherwise provide for him, now Sixty years of age."
6T Gandikõt in the Cuddapa distriot was a famous stronghold of the Vijayanagar kings. It was built in 1580, oaptured by Goloonds and held by Mir Jumla, See Madras Manual of Administration, Vol. III., 8. u. Gundy ; Algo Tavernier, edited by Ball, Vol. I. p.284.
