the purpose, but the Englishman "went so strong and well provided" that the hired assailants called off their bargain. Subsequently Hawkins discovered another conspiracy in which Makarrab Khan was concerned. In this instance his own coachman was employed either to kill him while he slept or put poison in his food, and probably would have accomplished his purpose had not the man, when intoxicated, spoken too openly of his intentions. Despite the dangers which beset him Hawkins arrived in good health at Agra on April 16, 1609, two and a half months after his departure from Surat.
Agra at this juncture was the capital of the Mogul Empire. It was not until a later period, during the reign of Shah Jehan, that Delhi was made the regular seat of government. Even Agra, at the time of Hawkins' visit, was devoid of some of the features which have made it famous. The matchless Taj Mahal had still to be built on the banks of the swift flowing Jumna. The beautiful tomb of Itmud Dowlah, Shah Jehan's famous minister, was also a thing of the future. The extensive fort, with its high red sandstone walls, to become prominent in after years as the scene of some of the most stirring episodes of the great Sepoy Mutiny, was, however, in existence, and within its walls the exquisite Pearl Mosque, that gem of Saracenic art, opened its portals to the faithful, while in the adjacent apartments of the Palace the ladies of Jehangir's harem lived their uneventful lives behind the white marble walls whose intricate tracery excites to-day the wonder and admiration of the personally conducted tourist from Europe.
The city itself was a far larger and more imposing place than the rather squalid and sleepy mofussil town which
