196 FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE BOMBAY COAST

the Gulf of Cambay. This trade now passed to the English, and it became necessary to secure it by no mere grants of local Moghul governors, but by an in- A VIEW IN THE CITY OF AJMIR. strument from the Imperial Court. In January, 1615, while Downton was battering the Portuguese fleet off Surat, James I issued his commission to Sir Thomas Roe " to be ambassador to the Great Mogul,' ' the