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SEPTEMBER, 1911.) G. BOUGHTON AND TRADING PRIVILEGES
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this point, however, the story runs right off the rails--how far may be seen by comparing the following extract from a letter addressed to the East India Company by their President and Council At Surat under date of January 3, 1645 (Inulia Ofice Records: 0.c. 1905), which gives the true story of Boughton's deputation to Agra. In excusing themselves for making a larger demand than usual for medical stores, the President and bis colleagues explain that an unexpected call bas been made upon their resources in this line:
“Assalant Ckaune, a very great Umbra (umarl], gratious with the King and our very good
freind, haveing long importaned us to supply him with [a] chirurgeon, wee consideringe how advantageous itt may be unto you, and haveinge a fitt oportunity, one Gabriel Boughten, late chirurgeon of the Hopewell, being thereunto very well qualifyed and being willinge to stay, wee have thought fittinge to designe him to that service ; wherewith Assal Eaut] Ckaune is soe well pleased that lately, when Mr. Turner was to leave Agra, he accompanyed Mr. Tash and Mr. Turner to the King, who honord them more then ordinary in a long conference be held with them, dismissing them with vests, and sending unto the President a firman and dagger; which not being yett received, wee know not what the former may import or the latters Falew, but shall heresiter
advise." As will be seen, nothing is here said about the accident to the Princess Jahânârâ, which, according to our narrative, was the immediate cause of Bonghton's journey to Agra ; om the contrary, we find that Asalat Khân (not Asad Khân, who was quite a different person) had long been importunate for an English doctor-doubtless to attend to his own infirmities--and that only the difficulty of finding one who could be spared, and who was willing to accept the employment, had prevented an earlier compliance with his desires. Moreover, apart from this evidence, it has been pointed out by Yule and others that the fire-accident occurred early in 1644-nearly a year before Boughton was despatched; while in any case, as the Court was then at Delhi, it would have been impossible to procare a European surgeon from Surat in time to be of any real service. We must conclude, therefore, that this part of the story is incorrect; and it is noteworthy that Bowrey's slightly earlier version (quoted below) says not a word about Boughton having had anything to do with the care of the Princess. Further, in neither of them is it asserted that any farmán was granted to Boughton by the Emperor.
We next find the English surgeon at the court of Shah Shujâ, who was then in charge of the province of Bengal. Asalat Khan is said to have died in 1647; and this may have been the cause of Boughton's seeking a new patron. The account given in the narrative of his having cured a member of the Prince's haram may be accepted as probably correct, especially as it is corroborated to some extent by a further traditional account which Sir Henry Yule found in a MS. discourse by a Captain who traded in India about 1669-79.7 This account, as printed by Yule (Hedges' Diury, Vol. III, p. 183), may here be quoted. After noting that the English were custom-free throughout Bengal, Bebar, and Orissa, it proceeds :
"All which was procured by the ingenuitie of Mr. Gabriel Bowden, one of our owne nation.
and a very eminent doctor of phisick, sometime doctor in ordinary to the great warriour
• No reference is made to the farmin in lator letters, but it appears to have been one for which the factors haul applied, laying down the rates at which their export goods were to be valued at Surat.
* The MS. has since been published by the Hakluyt Society under the title of A Geographical Account of the Countries round the Bay of Bengal, 1689 to 1379, by Thomas Borcrey. Sir Richard Temple, who edited the work. considered that the passage quoted above was Stewart's authority for his story of Boughton's mission : but. apart from the notable discrepancies between the two accounts, there is no evidence that Stewart was aware of the existence of Bowroy's manuscript, while on the other hand he expressly acknowledges bis indebtedness to the East India House records,
