Arrange the following foreign travelers in chronological order of their arrival in India : I. William Hawkins II. Ralph Fitch III. Sir Thomas Roe IV. Nicholas Dawnton Select the correct answer using the codes given below. Codes :

The correct order is II, I, IV, III, which is option A. Ralph Fitch came first, reaching Akbar's India around 1585 by the overland route through Aleppo and Hormuz. William Hawkins arrived in 1608 as the captain of the Company's ship Hector and went up to Jahangir's court at Agra. Nicholas Downton brought the English Company's fleet to Surat in 1614. Sir Thomas Roe came in 1615 as James I's ambassador and reached Jahangir's court in 1616, when he secured trading privileges for the Company.

The core concept is the sequence of English Company contacts with the Mughal court, which shows how trade through factories like Surat turned into political engagement. For Mains, this links to the growth of European commercial presence and the Mughal policy towards them under Akbar and Jahangir.

Trap: Aspirants often mix up Hawkins and Roe because both met Jahangir. Hawkins came about seven years before Roe, and Roe's embassy is the better-known event, so students tend to place him too early.