British Ambassador of Sixteenth century in India
William Hawkins (1575 -1613) (also known as Brian Hawksworth a fiction novel character) He was the captain of merchant ship. He was not a former ambassador. He knew Turkish language, he was the first Englishman to reach the court of Jahangir. He delivered gifts from the new East India Company and the letter from King James proposing direct trade. He was tall and had short beard and unkempt hairs. These trading ships sailed around the cape of Good hope, up the eastern coast of Africa, and then through the Arabian sea to the northwest coast of India. William Hawkins's ship reached to the port of Surat, India. Port of Surat was not in control of Portuguese. English commodity was wool and Indian commodities were pepper and spice. Pepper was available also in Java and Sumatra but they did not want the English wool. And it was not profitable to buy pepper and spice for gold. In India, Mughals were buying wool from Portuguese...