Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III: A Century of Advance. Book 2, South Asia

By Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley

This monumental series, acclaimed as a "masterpiece of comprehensive scholarship" in the New York Times Book Review, reveals the impact of Asia's high civilizations on the development of modern Western society. The authors examine the ways in which European encounters with Asia have altered the development of Western society, art, literature, science, and religion since the Renaissance.

In Volume III: A Century of Advance, the authors have researched seventeenth-century European writings on Asia in an effort to understand how contemporaries saw Asian societies and peoples.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Release date: Mar 12, 2015
• ISBN: 9780226466972

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THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

© 1993 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 1993

Paperback edition 1998

Printed in the United States of America

98      5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (Revised for volume 3)

Lach, Donald F. (Donald Frederick), 1917–

Asia in the making of Europe.

Vol. 3 –by Donald F. Lach and Edwin J. Van Kley.

Includes bibliographies and indexes.

Contents: v. 1. The century of discovery. 2. v.— v. 2. A century of wonder. Book 1. The visual arts. Book 2. The literary arts. Book 3. The scholarly disciplines. 3. v.—v. 3. A century of advance. Book 1. Trade, missions, literature. Book 2. South Asia. Book 3. Southeast Asia. Book 4. East Asia. 4 v.

1. Europe—Civilization—Oriental influences.   2. Asia—History.   3. Asia—Discovery and exploration.   I. Van Kley, Edwin J.   II. Title.

CB203.L32      303.48'2405'0903      64-19848

ISBN 0-226-46765-1 (v. 3. bk. 1)

ISBN 0-226-46767-8 (v. 3. bk. 2)

ISBN 0-226-46768-6 (v. 3. bk. 3)

ISBN 0-226-46769-4 (v. 3. bk. 4)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-46767-2 (v. 3, bk 2, paper)

ISBN: 978-0-226-46697-2 (e-book)

This publication has been supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48—1992.

ASIA

IN THE MAKING OF EUROPE

DONALD F. LACH and EDWIN J. VAN KLEY

VOLUME III

A Century of Advance

BOOK TWO: SOUTH ASIA

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS

CHICAGO AND LONDON

Contents

BOOK TWO

List of Abbreviations

Note to Illustrations

List of Illustrations

List of Maps

PART III. The European Images of Asia

Introduction

Chapter IX: THE MUGHUL EMPIRE BEFORE AURANGZIB

1. The English and Dutch Profile: First Generation

2. The Mughul Court to 1618

3. Gujarat Unveiled

4. Shah Jahan (r. 1627–58) and His Empire

5. Shah Jahan and His Sons

Chapter X: THE EMPIRE OF AURANGZIB

1. The Court, the Nobility, and the Army

2. The Provinces

3. Surat

4. Bombay and the Portuguese Ports

5. The Deccan Wars, Rajputs, and Sivaji

6. Religious Beliefs and Practices

7. Economy and Society

Chapter XI: FROM GOA TO CAPE COMORIN

1. Goa, the Metropole

2. Bijapur

3. Kanara

4. Malabar and the Portuguese

5. Malabar and the Dutch

Chapter XII: INSULAR SOUTH ASIA

1. The Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes

2. Ceylon

A. Sources

B. The Land and Its Products

C. Government and Society

Chapter XIII: COROMANDEL

1. The Jesuit Enterprises

2. The Advent of the Dutch and English

3. Hinduism at Pulicat (Tamilnadu)

4. The Downfall of Two Empires: Vijayanagar and Golconda

Appendix: The Castes of South Asia in the Seventeenth Century (According to European Authors)

Notes

Index

(Contents of other books in Volume III)

BOOK ONE

PART I. The Continuing Expansion in the East

Introduction

Chapter I: EMPIRE AND TRADE

1. The Iberian Maritime Empire of the East

2. Iberia’s Shrinking Trade

3. The Dutch Empire

4. Jan Company’s Trade

5. The English East India Company

6. The Lesser Companies

7. European-Asian Economic Relations at Century’s End

Appendix: Spice Prices and Quantities in the Seventeenth Century

Chapter II: THE CHRISTIAN MISSION

1. The Friars of the Padroado

2. The Padroado Jesuits in South Asia

3. The Padroado Jesuits in East Asia

4. The Spanish Patronato of the East

5. Propaganda Fide (1622), Missions Etrangères (1664), and the Jesuits

6. The Protestant Missions

Appendix: The Archbishops of Goa in the Seventeenth Century

PART II. The Printed Word

Introduction

Chapter III: THE IBERIAN LITERATURE

1. Exploration, Conquest, and Mission Stations

2. A Nervous Era of Peace, 1609–21

3. Imperial Breakdown in Europe and Asia, 1621–41

4. The Restoration Era, 1641–1700

Chapter IV: THE ITALIAN LITERATURE

1. The Jesuit Letters to Mid-Century

2. New Horizons and Old Polemics

Chapter V: THE FRENCH LITERATURE

1. The Jesuit Letters and the Pre-Company Voyages

2. The Paris Society of Foreign Missions and the French East India Company

3. Siam and China

Chapter VI: THE NETHERLANDISH LITERATURE

1. Early Voyages to the East Indies, 1597–1625

2. Penetrations beyond the East Indies to 1645

3. Isaac Commelin’s Begin ende Voortgangh (1645)

4. New Horizons and Dimensions, 1646–71

5. Fin de siècle: Decline

Chapter VII: THE GERMAN AND DANISH LITERATURE

1. Jesuit Letterbooks and Relations to Mid-Century

2. Travel Collections to Mid-Century

3. A Limited Revival, 1650–1700

Chapter VIII: THE ENGLISH LITERATURE

1. The First Generation, 1600–1626

2. The Turbulent Middle Years, 1630–80

3. A Late Harvest, 1680–1700

BOOK THREE

(PART III CONTINUED)

Chapter XIV: CONTINENTAL SOUTHEAST ASIA: MALAYA, PEGU, ARAKAN, CAMBODIA, AND LAOSI

1. Malaya

2. Pegu and Arakan

3. Cambodia and Laos

Chapter XV: SIAM

1. Iberian and Dutch Accounts

2. Narai (r. 1656–88) and the French

3. The Physical Environment

4. State Service and Administration

5. Society, Culture, and Buddhism

Chapter XVI: VIETNAM

1. First Notices

2. The Nguyên and the Christians

3. Tongking under the Trịnh

Chapter XVII: INSULINDIA: THE WESTERN ARCHIPELAGO

1. Java

A. Development of the Literature

B. Geography and the Landscape

C. Batavia, the Metropole and Its Hinterland

D. Character, Customs, Society, and Culture

E. Political Life

F. Economics and Trade

2. Bali

3. Sumatra

A. Placement, Climate, and Products

B. Acheh and Other Towns

C. Populace, Customs, and Beliefs

D. Economy and Polity

4. Borneo

Chapter XVIII: INSULINDIA: THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO AND THE AUSTRAL LANDS

1. The Moluccas

2. Amboina (Ambon)

3. The Bandas

4. Celebes

5. The Lesser Sundas

6. Insular Southeast Asia’s Eastern and Southern Periphery: New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, and Australia

A. New Guinea and Neighboring Islands

B. Australia and New Zealand

Chapter XIX: THE PHILIPPINES AND THE MARIANAS (LADRONES)

1. Indios (Filipinos) and Spaniards

2. Deeper Penetrations

3. Mindanao and Jolo

4. Guam and the Marianas (Ladrones)

BOOK FOUR

(PART III CONTINUED)

Chapter XX: CHINA: THE LATE MING DYNASTY

1. Jesuit Letterbooks, Ethnohistories, and Travelogues

2. Geography, Climate, and Names

3. Government and Administration

4. Economic Life

5. Society and Customs

6. Intellectual Life

7. Religion and Philosophy

Chapter XXI: CHINA: THE EARLY CH’ING DYNASTY

1. The Manchu Conquest

2. The Post-Conquest Literature

3. The Land and Its People

4. Government and Administration

5. Intellectual Life

6. Religion and Philosophy

Chapter XXII: CHINA’S PERIPHERY

1. Inner Asia

A. Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Eastern Siberia

B. Mongolia and Central Asia

2. Tibet

3. Korea

4. Formosa (Taiwan)

Chapter XXIII: JAPAN

1. Missionary Reports to 1650

2. English and Dutch Descriptions before 1650

3. Post-1650 Reports

Chapter XXIV: EPILOGUE: A COMPOSITE PICTURE

General Bibliography

Reference Materials

Source Materials

Jesuit Letterbooks

Chapter Bibliographies

Cumulative Index

Abbreviations

A Note to the Illustrations

Study of the illustrations of Asia published in seventeenth-century Europe shows that the artists and illustrators tried in most cases to depict reality when they had the sources, such as sketches from the men in the field or the portable objects brought to Europe—plants, animals, costumes, paintings, porcelains, and so on. Many of the engravings based on sketches and paintings are convincing in their reality, such as the depiction of the Potala palace in Lhasa (pl. 384), the portrait of the Old Viceroy of Kwangtung (pl. 323), and the drawings of Siamese and Chinese boats. A number of Asian objects—Chinese scroll paintings, a Buddhist prayer wheel, and small animals—appeared in European engravings and paintings for the first time. Asians, like the Siamese emissaries to France, were sketched from life in Europe and their portraits engraved.

When sources were lacking, the illustrators and artists filled in the gaps in their knowledge by following literary texts, or by producing imaginary depictions, including maps. The illustrations of Japan, for example, are far more fantastic than those depicting other places, perhaps because Japan so stringently limited intercourse over much of the century. Printing-house engravers frequently borrowed illustrations from earlier editions and often improved upon them by adding their own touches which had the effect of Europeanizing them.

Illustrations were translated along with texts in various ways. If the publisher of a translation had close relations with the original publisher or printer he might borrow the original copperplate engravings or have the original publisher pull prints from the original plates to be bound with the translated pages. Engraved captions could be rubbed out of the plate and redone in the new language, although many printers did not bother to do so. Lacking the cooperation of the original printers, new engravings could still be made from a print. The simplest method was to place the print face down on the varnished and waxed copper plate to be engraved and then to rub the back of the print causing the ink from the print to adhere to the waxed surface of the plate. The resulting image was then used to engrave, or etch with nitric acid, the new plate, and being reversed it would print exactly as the original version printed. If the engraver wanted to avoid damaging the print, however, which he might well need to finish the engraving, he would use a thin sheet of paper dusted with black lead or black chalk to transfer the image from the print to the new copper plate. He might further protect the print by putting oiled paper on top of it while he traced the picture. This procedure worked whether the print was face down or face up against the plate. In fact it was easier to trace the picture if the print were face up, in which case the new plate would be etched in reverse of the original plate. For a seventeenth-century description of the ways in which new plates could be etched from prints see William Faithorne, The Art of Graveing and Etching (New York, 1970), pp. 41–44 (first edition, London, 1662). See also Coolie Verner, Copperplate Printing, in David Woodward (ed.), Five Centuries of Map Printing (Chicago, 1975), p. 53. We have included a number of illustrations that were borrowed by one printer from another: see, for example, plates 113 and 114; 117, 118, 121; 174; 312 and 313; 412 and 413; 419–21.

Most of the following illustrations were taken from seventeenth-century books held in the Department of Special Collections in the Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago. Others have been obtained from libraries and archives in Europe and the United States, which have kindly granted us permission to reproduce them. Wherever possible, efforts are made in the captions to analyze the illustrations and to provide relevant collateral information whenever such was available.

Almost all of the four hundred or so illustrations were reproduced from the photographs taken (or retaken) by Alma Lach, an inveterate photographer and cookbook author. We were also aided and abetted by the personnel of the Special Collections department—especially the late Robert Rosenthal, Daniel Meyer, and Kim Coventry—in locating the illustrations and in preparing them for photography. Father Harrie A. Vanderstappen, professor emeritus of Far Eastern art at the University of Chicago and a man endowed with marvelous sight and insight, helped us to analyze the illustrations relating to East Asia. C. M. Naim of the Department of South Asian Languages at the University of Chicago likewise contributed generously of his skills, particularly with reference to the Mughul seals (pls. 117, 118, and 121) here depicted. The China illustrations have benefited from the contributions of Ma Tai-loi and Tai Wen-pai of the East Asian Collection of the Regenstein Library and of Zhijia Shen who generously gave freely of her time and knowledge. The captions for the Japan illustrations have been improved by the gracious efforts of Yoko Kuki of the East Asian Collection of the Regenstein Library. Tetsuo Najita of Chicago’s History Department lent a hand in the preparation of the caption for pl. 432. Ann Adams and Francis Dowley of Chicago’s Art Department helped us to analyze some of the engravings, especially those prepared by Dutch illustrators.

To all of these generous scholars we express our sincere gratitude for their contributions to the illustration program.

Illustrations

BOOK ONE

FOLLOWING PAGE 338

1. Mid-seventeenth-century map of Asia

2. Willem Blaeu’s map of Asia

3. Map of the Mughul Empire, from Dapper’s Asia, 1681

4. South and Southeast Asia, from Johan Blaeu’s Atlas major, 1662

5. Ceylon and the Maldives, from Sanson d’Abbeville’s L’Asie, 1652

6. Continental Southeast Asia, from Morden’s Geography Rectified, 1688

7. Course of the Menam, from La Loubère’s Du royaume de Siam, 1691

8. Malacca and its environs, from Dampier’s Voyages, 1700

9. The Moluccas, from Blaeu’s Atlas major

10. Asia from Bay of Bengal to the Marianas, from Thévenot’s Relations, 1666

11. Japan and Korea, from Blaeu’s Atlas major

12. Harbor of Surat

13. Dutch factory at Surat

14. Market at Goa

15. English fort at Bombay

16. Harbor and wharf of Arakan

17. Batavia, ca. 1655

18. Amboina and its inhabitants

19. Dutch factory at Banda

20. Tidore and its fort

21. Dutch envoys in Cambodia

22. Fort Zeelandia in Taiwan

23. Dutch ambassadors in Peking, 1656

24. Macao

25. Canton

26. Dutch factory at Hirado

27. Dutch factory on Deshima

28. Palanquins

29. Merchants of Bantam

30. Man and woman of Goa

31. Chinese merchant couple

32. Dutch fleet before Bantam in 1596

33. Thee (tea), or cha, bush

34. King of Ternate’s banquet for the Dutch, 1601

35. Coins of Siam

36. 1601 Malay-Latin vocabulary

37. 1672 Oriental-Italian vocabulary

38. Warehouse and shipyard of Dutch East India Company in Amsterdam

39. Old East India House in London

40. East India House in Amsterdam

41. East Indian birds

42. Japanese converts suspended head down

43. Execution of three Japanese converts

44. A Japanese crucifixion

45. Preparation for an execution by suspension

46. Persecution of Christians in Japan

47. Christians being burned alive

48. Suspension of a Christian

49. Torture of Christians at Arima

50. Portrait of Johann Adam Schall as court mandarin

51. Miraculous cross of Thomas the Apostle at Mylapore

52. Portrait of Matteo Ricci and his convert Paul

53. Portrait of Nicolas Trigault

54. Frontispiece, Gian Filippo de Marini, Delle missioni, 1663

55. Title page, Trigault, Christiana expeditione, 1615

56. Title page, Trigault, Christianis triumphis, 1623

57. Title page, Luis de Guzman, Historia de las missiones, 1601

58. Title page, Declaration Given by the Chinese Emperour Kam Hi in the Year 1700

59. Title page, Nicolas Pimenta, Epistola, 1601

60. Title page, Johann Adam Schall, Historica relatio, 1672

61. Title page, Trigault, Vita Gasparis Barzaei, 1610

62. Title page and another page from Antonio de Gouvea, Innocentia victrix, 1671

63. Portrait of Philippus Baldaeus

64. Portrait of Wouter Schouten

65. Portrait of Johann Nieuhof

66. Portrait of Alvarez Semedo

67. Portrait of Jean de Thévenot

68. Frontispiece, Olfert Dapper, Asia, 1681

69. Frontispiece, Johann Nieuhof, Gesandtschafft, 1666

70. Frontispiece, J. T. and J. I. De Bry, India orientalis, 1601

71. Frontispiece, Johann von der Behr, Diarium, 1669

72. Title page of Regni Chinensis descriptio, with Chinese landscape painting, 1639

73. Title page, Edward Terry, Voyage to East India, 1655

74. Title page, Johan van Twist, Generale beschrijvinge van Indien, 1648

75. Title page, Johan Albrecht von Mandelslo, Ein Schreiben, 1645

76. Title page, Philippe de Sainte-Trinité, Orientalische Reisebeschreibung, 1671

77. Frontispiece, ibid.

78. Title page, Giuseppe di Santa Maria Sebastiani, Seconde speditione, 1672

79. Title page, Giovanni Filippo Marini, Historia, 1665

80. Title page, Louis Le Compte, Memoirs and Observations, 1697

81. Title page, Robert Knox, Historical Relation of the Island ceylon, 1681

82. Title page, Adam Olearius, Offt begehrte Beschreibung der cewen orientalischen Reise, 1647

83. Title page, Bernhard Varen, Descriptio Regni Japoniae et Siam, 1673

84. Title page, Simon de La Loubère, Du royaume de Siam, 1691

85. Title page, Gabriel Dellon, History of the Inquisition at Goa, 1688

86. Title page, Athanasius Kircher, China illustrata, 1667

87. Portrait of Athanasius Kircher

88. Title page, Johann Jacob Saar, Ost-Indianische funfzehen-jährige Kriegs-Dienste, 1672

89. Title page, Abbé Carré, Voyage des Indes Orientales, 1699

90. Title page, Pietro Della Valle, Travels, 1665

91. Title page, Johann von der Behr, Diarium, oder Tage-Buch, 1668

92. Title page, Gotthard Arthus, Historia Indiae Orientalis, 1668

93. Title page, David Haex, Dictionarium Malaico-Latinum et Latino-Malaicum, 1631

94. Title page, Nicolaas Witsen, Noord en Oost Tartarye, 1692

95. Title page, Thomas Herbert, Some Yeares Travels, 1638

96. Title page, A. and J. Churchill, Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1744

97. Frontispiece, Arnoldus Montanus, Die Gesantschaften an die Keiser van Japan, 1669

98. Title page, Willem Lodewyckszoon, Premier livre, 1609

99. Malay-Latin phrases from Haex’s Dictionarium

100. Malay-Latin wordlist (ibid.)

101. German-Malay wordlist from Dapper’s Beschreibung, 1681

102. Portrait of Edward Terry

103. Portrait of Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri

104. Portrait of Sir Thomas Roe

105. Portrait of Joris van Spilbergen

106. Portrait of Ove Gjedde

BOOK TWO

FOLLOWING PAGE 756

Introduction: The Mughul Empire on European Printed Maps

107. Map of the Mughul Empire, from Terry’s Voyage, 1655

108. Map of the Mughul Empire, from Sanson d’Abbeville’s L’Asie, 1652

109. Map of the Mughul Empire, from Blaeu’s Asia major, 1662

110. Map of the Mughul Empire, from Melchisédech Thévenot’s Relations, 1663

111. Map of Kashmir, from Bernier’s Voyages, 1723

112. Portrait of Akbar

113. Indian paintings of Jahangir, Khurram, and slave

114. The same Mughul miniatures in a French translation

115. Prince Salim, or Jahangir

116. Nur Mahal, Jahangir’s empress

117. Seal of Jahangir, from Purchas

118. Seal of Jahangir, by a French engraver

119, 120, 121. Portrait, standard, and seal of Jahangir

122. Aurangzib in camp

123. Mughul court at Agra

124. Woman and man of Surat

125. Court and throne of Great Mogul at Lahore

126. Wrestlers of Surat

127. Fakirs under a banyan tree

128. Means of transport in Sind

129. Elements of Sanskrit

130. Hook-swinging

131. Yogi austerities

132. Festival of Hassan and Hossein

133. Brahma, the Creator

Introduction to seventeenth-century printed maps of South India

134. Map of South India

135. Map of places in India

136. South India and its periphery

137. Frontispiece, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede, Hortus indicus malabaricus, 1678

138. Frontispiece, Willem Piso, De Indiae utriusque re naturali et medica, 1658

139. Malabar (Tamil) alphabet

140. Malabar vowels

141. Malabar cyphers

142. Letter from Brahmans of Malabar in the Malayalam language

143. Letter of Emanuel Carneiro in Malayalam

144. Letter of Itti Achudem in Malayalam

145. Portrait of John Fryer

146. Title page, Fryer, A New Account, 1698

147. Specimen of Malabar script

148. The Zamorin’s palace at Calicut

149. The Zamorin and his palace

150. Ixora (Siva)

151. Ganesha, son of Siva

152. Ten avatars of Vishnu

153. Nareen, first avatar according to Kircher

154. Ramchandra, the Embodiment of Righteousness

155. Narseng, the Man-Lion avatar

156. The goddess Bhavani, the ninth avatar

157. The horse avatar

158. Vishnu: the fish incarnation, from Baldaeus

159. The tortoise incarnation

160. Boar incarnation

161. Man-Lion incarnation

162. The Dwarf, or fifth avatar

163. Rama-with-the-Ax

164. Ravana in Lanka: Ramachandra, the Embodiment of Righteousness

165. Eighth avatar: Krishna

166. Buddha as ninth avatar

167. Kalki, or tenth avatar

168. Frontispiece, Baldaeus, Afgoderye der Oost-Indische heydenen, 1672

169. Portrait of Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakestein

170. The Indian tamarind and papaya

171. Arabian jasmine

172. Snake-charmer of Malabar

173. Learning to write the alphabet in the sand

174. Map of Ceylon, ca. 1602

175. Map of Jaffna and adjacent islands

176. Map of Kandy on Ceylon

177. Map of the Maldives and Ceylon

178. Spilbergen and the king of Kandy

179. City of Kandy in 1602

180. Arms and seal of the king of Ceylon

181. The god of the king of Matecalo on Ceylon

182. Raja Sinha (Lion-King) of Kandy

183. Noble of Kandy

184. Cinnamon harvesting in Ceylon

185. Butter making in Ceylon

186. Sinhalese preparing for rice planting

187. On smoothing their fields

188. Treading out the rice

189. Treading out the rice indoors

190. Execution by elephant

191. Cremation in Ceylon

192. Drinking custom in Ceylon

193. Sinhalese pond fishing

194. Wild man of Ceylon

195. Talipot parasol of Ceylon

196. Title page, Abraham Roger, De open-deure tot het verborgen heydendom, 1651

197. Frontispiece, Roger, French translation, 1670

198. Title page, Daniel Havart, Op en Ondergangh van Cormandel, 1693

199. Hook-hanging

200. Brahman austerities

201. Sepulchre of the kings and princes of Golconda

202. Portrait of Sultan Muhammed Qutb

203. Portrait of Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah

204. Portrait of Sultan Abu’l Hasan

205. Persian miniature portrait of Abu’l Hasan

206. Portrait of Akkana of Golconda

207. Sultan Abu’l Hasan visits the Dutch church at Masulipatam

208. Laurens Pit and the sultan

BOOK THREE

FOLLOWING PAGE 1380

209. French map of Siam, 1691

210. King Narai of Siam on the royal elephant

211. Imperial three-tiered vase of gold filigree

212. Crocodile of Siam: anatomical description

213. Title page, Observations physiques et mathematiques, 1688

214. Mandarin’s balon (galley)

215. Noblemen’s ballon

216. Water-pipe smoked by the Moors of Siam

217. Siamese rhythmic musical instruments

218. Siamese song in Western notation

219. Siamese alphabets, Pali alphabets, Siamese numbers

220. Buddhist monastery in Siam

221. Siamese images of the Buddha

222. The three Siamese envoys to France, 1686

223. Second Siamese emissary

224. Third Siamese emissary

225. Reception of the Siamese emissaries by Louis XIV

226. Title page, Histoire de la revolution de Siam, 1691

227. Title page, Abbé de Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, 1687

228. Title page, Pierre Joseph D’Orleans, Histoire . . . de la revolution, 1692

229. Title page, Alexandre de Chaumont, Relation de l’amhassade, 1686

230. Audience hall of the king of Siam

231. Illustrative plate of 1693 showing maps of Ayut’ia and Bangkok, Siamese trees, plough, insect, and golden imperial vase

232. Map of India extra Gangem

233. Insulindia: Western archipelago

234. Map of Borneo, 1601

235. Map of the Moluccas, 1688

236. Map of the Moluccas, from Blaeu’s Atlas major, 1662

237. Map of Banda, 1609

238. Dutch map of Vietnam and Hainan Island, ca. 1660

239. Frontispiece, Vremde reyse inde coninckrycken Cambodia ende Louwen, 1669

240. Daniel Tavernier’s map of Tongking

241. Map recording the gradual uncovering of the Austral lands

242. Map of the Philippines and the Ladrones

243. Mrauk-u, royal capital of Arakan, in 1660

244. Procession of the queen of Patani

245. Royal palace of Tuban

246. French-Malay-Javan vocabulary, 1609

247. Makassar soldiers with blowpipes

248. Sketch of Bantam

249. Foreign merchants at Bantam

250. Javanese of Bantam on the way to market

251. Principal Chinese merchants at Bantam

252. Muslim legate from Mecca with governor of Bantam

253. Chinese shrine in Bantam

254. King of Bali in royal chariot drawn by white oxen

255. Gentleman of Bali on the move

256. Sumatran chief and his people

257. Javanese gong orchestra

258. Javanese dancers

259. Takraw, Malay football

260. Javanese cockfight

261. Mosque of Japara in Java

262. Harbor of Gamulamo in Ternate

263. The Tygers Graft, a canal street of Batavia

264. Batavia: betel and pynang garden

265. Batavia: Fort Ryswick

266. Soldier of the imperial guard in Tongking

267. Mandarin of Tongking

268. Fishing at Ternate

269. Indian salamander or gecko

270. A strange bat, or the flying fox

271. The melon tree, or the papaya

272. Close-up of the durian fruit

273. The Javanese rhinoceros

274. The dodo

275. Animals of the Indian Ocean islands

276. Emu, or cassowary

277. The Orang-Utan

278. Durians, banyan, and bamboo

279. Title page, Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, 1609

280. Market at Bantam

281. Title page, Christophoro Borri, Cochin-China, 1633

282. Title page, Vremde geschiedenissen in de koninckrijcken van Cambodia en Louwen-lant, 1669

283. Title page, Sebastian Manrique, Itinerario de las missiones, 1653

BOOK FOUR

FOLLOWING PAGE 1730

284. Purchas’ map of China

285. Map of China and its eastern periphery (1652)

286. Martini’s map of China and its periphery

287. Map of China dated 1654

288. Map of China dated 1655

289. Couplet’s map of China

290. Kircher’s map of China

291. Nieuhof’s map of China

292. Map with route of Dutch embassy from Canton to Peking

293. Route of Dutch ambassadors in China

294. Frontispiece, Blaeu, Atlas major, Vol. X

295. Frontispiece, Martini, Novus atlas sinensis

296. Title page, Kircher, Chine illustrée

297. Title page, Blaeu, Atlas major, Vol. X

298. Portrait, Johann Nieuhof

299. Mysterious flying bridge of Shensi

300. The Great wall myth

301. Mountains of the Five Horses’ Heads

302. Map of Metropolitan Peking

303. Peking with Great Wall in the distance

304. City plan of Peking

305. Imperial city at Peking

306. Imperial throne in Peking

307. Observatory at Peking

308. Tartar Gate in the Great Wall near Hsi-ning

309. Confucius in the Imperial Academy

310. Johann Schall in Mandarin dress

311. Shun-chih, the first Manchu emperor

312. Portrait of the K’ang-hsi emperor published 1697

313. Portrait of the K’ang-hsi emperor published 1710

314. Reception of emissaries at the imperial court

315. Mughul envoys to Peking

316, 317. Two Chinese noble ladies

318. Nanking Province

319. Vista of Nanking

320. Street in Nanking, 1656

321. Porcelain Pagoda of Nanking

322. Banquet in honor of Dutch emissaries

323. Portrait of Old Viceroy of Kwangtung

324. Xaocheu, or Sucheu

325. Chinese map of Chekiang Province

326. Nangan (Nan-an) in Kiangsi Province

327. Different types of Chinese vessels

328. Floating village

329. Tonglou (Dong-liu), a Yangtze town

330. Dragon boat

331. Dutch Fort Zeelandia on Taiwan

332. Macao

333. Celestial, terrestrial, and infernal gods of the Chinese

334. Temple of Sang-Won-Hab

335. Chinese idols

336. Various types of Chinese priests

337. Chinese priests or monks

338. Chinese temple and pagoda

339. Chinese sepulchre

340. Chinese costumes

341. Chinese ladies

342. Porcelain couple

343. Title page, Magalhaes, History

344. Magalaes’ Chinese commentary on Confucius

345. Title page, Confucius Sinarum philosophus

346. Title page, Martini, Decas prima, official Jesuit version

347. Title page, Martini, Decas prima, Blaeu version

348. Martini’s hexagrams of the I Ching, published 1658

349. The sixty-four hexagrams, from Confucius Sinarum philosophus, 1687

350. Letters invented by Fu-hsi, the first emperor

351. Examples of the Chinese writing system

352. Attempt to alphabetize Chinese

353. Sample page from Chinese-French dictionary

354. Title page, Couplet, Tabula chronologia

355. Chung yung, or Doctrine of the Mean

356, 357, 358. Parts of the body, pulses, and acu-points in Chinese medicine

359. Title page, Boym, Clavis medica

360. Draag Zetel, or palanquin

361. Chinese farmers

362. Ruffian and his prize

363. Chinese actors in costume

364. Popular performers

365. The mango

366. The phoenix and the forest chicken

367. Cormorant, or fishing bird

368. Chinese fruit trees: persimmon, custard, and a nameless fruit

369. Chinese fruit trees: cinnamon, durian, and banana

370. Giambo and litchi trees and fruit

371. Title page, Palafox, History of the Conquest of China by the Tartars

372. Map of Great Tartary from the Volga to the Strait of Iessu (Yezo)

373. Title page, Foy de la Neuville, Relation de Muscovie

374. Emissary of the Lamas

375. Kalmuks and their habitations

376. Tanguts

377. Emissaries from South Tartary to Peking

378. Costume of a Tartar archer

379. Costume of a Tungusic warrior

380. Tartar cavalier and Tartar woman

381. Tartar (Manchu) women

382. Tartar (Manchu) men

383. Woman in the dress of northern Tartary

384. The Potala

385. The Dalai Lama and Han, revered king of Tangut

386. The idol Manipe in Lhasa

387. Pagodes, deity of the Indians, with Manipe

388. Title page, Semedo, History

389. Title page, Baudier, Histoire

390. Map of Japan

391, 392. Title page and frontispiece, Montanus, Ambassades

393. Miyako (Kyoto)

394. Title page, Varen, Descriptio regni Japoniae

395. Imperial palace at Miyako

396. Daibutsu temple and its idol

397. Buddhist temple of a thousand images

398. Idol at Dubo near Miyako

399. Rich carriage of a lady-in-waiting

400. Edo (Tokyo)

401. The Tokaido (road from Osaka to Edo)

402. Shogun’s castle at Edo

403. Part of the shogunal castle

404. Shogunal audience in Japan

405. Sepulchre at Nikko, grave of Tokugawa Ieyasu

406. Temple of the Golden Amida in Edo

407. Shaka (Buddha) in an Edo temple

408. Japanese Buddhist priest

409. Bonze preaching

410. Japanese god with three heads and Buddha Amida

411. Wandering Buddhist priests

412. Temple of Vaccata in Kyushu

413. Temple of Vaccata in Kyushu, in reverse image

414. Temple of Kannon in Osaka

415. Chateau and pleasure house near Fisen (Hizen)

416. Japanese cross

417. Costumes of Japanese women in Edo

418. Dress of women of quality

419. Urban costume of Suringa (Suruga)

420. Daimyo and wife

421. Japanese clothing

422. Noble Japanese woman and her entourage

423. Japanese men of substance

424. Seppuku—ritual suicide in Japan

425. Faisena, a Japanese pleasure yacht or flyboat

426. Japanese emblems and decorations

427. Japanese writing instruments

428. Two types of Tzudtzinsic trees

429. Japanese prostitutes of a pleasure quarter

430. Wandering players

431. Japanese fisherman and wife

432. Japanese charter of privileges granted the English by the Emperour of Japan, 1613

433. Japanese beggars of the road

Maps

BOOK ONE

1. Principal centers of European activity in Asia

BOOK TWO

2. The Mughul Empire and South India

3. Eastern Gujarat

4. West Deccan and the west coast of India from Gujarat to the Goa area

5. From Goa to Cape Comorin (around 1680)

6. Insular South Asia ca. 1680

7. Southeastern India ca. 1670

BOOK THREE

8. Continental Southeast Asia

9. Insulindia: the western archipelago

10. Insulindia: the eastern archipelago

11. Australia, New Guinea, and the surrounding islands

BOOK FOUR

12. China and its periphery

13. Tokugawa Japan

Part III

The European Images of Asia

Introduction

The images of Asia that had evolved in the sixteenth century became, during the seventeenth century, more numerous, sharper, and much richer in detail. In particular, the Portuguese profile of India inherited from the previous century was filled in by missionaries and merchants who penetrated almost every sector of the subcontinent from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin. Much that was discovered in the sixteenth century, such as Hinduism, was rediscovered and studied by the Jesuits and the Protestant pastors of the seventeenth century. The Mughul state, which governed north India, admitted and employed Europeans, and its subjects traded with them through the port of Surat and in Bengal. The Jesuits were even encouraged by the Mughuls to investigate Tibet and the overland route to China. In politically divided south India, the Portuguese and Dutch established commercial enclaves in which their merchants lived on a semi-permanent basis and from which their missionaries and merchants were able to push into the hinterlands and the archipelagos of South Asia. In Coromandel the Europeans witnessed the demise of the Hindu empire of Vijayanagar and of the Muslim state of Golconda. Across the Bay of Bengal the traders and missionaries advanced into the remotest reaches of insular and continental Southeast Asia. From the Dutch, Europe learned in detail about Indonesia, from the Dutch and the French, especially, about Siam and its satellites, from the French about Vietnam, and from the Spanish about the Philippines and the Marianas. A rosy image of China was delineated by the Jesuits who penetrated into its court, into many of its interior cities, and even into its periphery. The Jesuits studied and translated Confucian texts to deepen their understanding of China’s ancient civilization. Because China possessed a single culture and a unified state, what they learned in one place could in many instances be applied universally within the empire. Japan alone was closed after 1640 to all the Europeans except the Dutch. So it was from the Dutch that the Europeans had to learn what they could about Japan and Korea. By century’s end every continental state in Asia east of the Indus was known to the Europeans. Of all the important islands only Australia, the empty continent, remained little more than an outline on the map.

CHAPTER IX

The Mughul Empire before Aurangzib

The geographical profile of the Indian subcontinent had first been traced out in the Portuguese secular writings of the sixteenth century. Details about trade and life in Gujarat and eastern Bengal had then been gradually etched into this coastal outline, primarily by the sketches of Humayun’s disastrous wars of the 1530’s. Beginning in 1545 the Jesuit letter-writers had gradually shaded new lines into this rough likeness by their reports of the Fishery Coast and the Serra of the St. Thomas Christians. The Italian, English, and Dutch commercial travelers and commentators of the latter half of the century had added touches and contours of their own, particularly on interior routes, marts, products, and military activities. Three Jesuit missions from Goa to the court of Akbar in 1580–83, 1591, and 1595–1605 had as byproducts new European reports and books highlighting the hopes of the Christians for the conversion of the Mughul ruler. As the new century dawned, the prospects in India seemed bright for both the Portuguese and the missionaries. In Europe their optimism was reflected in the publications of the Jesuits, especially Peruschi (1597), Rebello (1598), and Guzman (1601), and in those of secular authors, especially Balbi (1590), Linschoten (1595–96), and Fitch (1599). The map of India, now far more than a profile, would soon be filled in, it was confidently expected, to the satisfaction and profit of the Europeans.¹

At the beginning of the new century the Portuguese and the Jesuits were the only Europeans to enjoy relations with the Mughul Empire. In England the desire for an all-sea route to India had risen swiftly during the last decade of the sixteenth century. In the buoyant mood following the victory over the Spanish Armada, the lure of India became ever more powerful in London as the Dutch rivals of England began to send their pre-Company voyages to the East. Envious of the Dutch direct penetration of the spice trade, the London merchants began to petition the crown for the formal right to send their own voyages to the East. After the formation of the chartered English East India Company in 1600, two reconnaissance voyages were sent to the Indies. In 1603 John Mildenhall was dispatched overland to Agra to establish relations with Akbar and the mainland of India. The presence of an English Protestant intruder at the imperial court immediately aroused the opposition of the Jesuits at Agra and of the Portuguese at Goa. Although Mildenhall failed to obtain a farman (a written order) permitting the English to trade in India, the Company nonetheless sent its third fleet to Surat in 1607 with Ambassador William Hawkins on board.

Despite the opposition of local authorities, Hawkins finally made his way to the emperor Jahangir’s court at Agra early in 1609. Able to speak directly to the emperor in Turkish, Hawkins soon won assurances that the English would be permitted to trade legally at Surat. Again, however, the Jesuits and Portuguese working through courtiers friendly to them convinced the emperor that the English were potentially a danger to his ports and trade. While Hawkins negotiated at Agra, the Company sent another fleet to Surat with orders to establish a factory and obtain a privilege exempting their trade from duty. This fleet, under Captain Thomas Best, in 1612 defeated a Goa armada off Surat, thus opening India’s west coast to the English. The Mughuls, impressed by this decisive English action, began to see the English as a counterweight to the Portuguese. Thomas Kerridge, the English factor, was therefore informally permitted to establish a factory at Surat. Three years later Sir Thomas Roe arrived at Jahangir’s court, where he worked for three years in a vain effort to secure a formal treaty of commerce. While Roe obtained nothing more than orders allowing the continuance of trade, the English were hereafter treated with greater respect as they gradually replaced the Portuguese as the paramount power in the foreign trade of the Mughul Empire.²

1   THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH PROFILE: FIRST GENERATION

Many of the earliest English adventurers wrote journals and narrative accounts of their Indian experiences. For example, Robert Coverte, who was shipwrecked off Surat, spent most of 1610–11 traveling about in northern India; on his return home he published in 1612 a report of his hard and paineful Pilgrimage.³ The journals of many other English sailors, merchants, chaplains, and emissaries were published as a whole or in part by Samuel Purchas in his massive Pilgrimes (London, 1625).⁴ In this collection were issued the accounts of John Mildenhall (II, 297–304), William Hawkins (III, 1–51), William Finch (IV, 1–77), Nicholas Downton (IV, 214–51), Richard Steele (IV, 266–80), Sir Thomas Roe (IV, 310–468), Edward Terry (IX, 1–54), Thomas Best (IV, 119–47), Nicholas Withington (IV, 162–75), and Thomas Coryate (IV, 469–94). Finch (in India 1608–11), Withington (1612–16), Best (1612), and Steele (1615) were sailors and merchants; Mildenhall (1603–5), Hawkins (1608–13), and Roe (1615–19) were royal emissaries to the court; Terry (1616–19) was chaplain to Roe’s embassy; and Coryate (1615–16) was an adventurer who wrote five letters home to his friends and relatives about his experiences and observations in India which were published separately (1616, 1618) in London before appearing in Purchas’ compendium.⁵ The most comprehensive of these accounts are those by Finch, Roe, and Terry. Purchas published only a truncated version of Roe’s journal, about one-third or less, in fact, along with excerpts from several of his letters.⁶ Terry’s narrative was amplified substantially by the author and republished at London in revised form in 1655.⁷

Many of these English authors, in contrast to the more experienced Jesuit and Portuguese writers, were intent upon relaying to their insular readers general information on the extent, geography, peoples, products, and politics of the Mughul Empire. Roe and Terry, in particular, provide an account of the political divisions of the empire. Shortly after his return to England in 1619, Roe had William Baffin, a surveyor and mapmaker who had been a master-mate on Roe’s ship, prepare a map of the Mughul Empire. This map, now in the British Library (K115 [22]), was re-engraved and reduced in size for inclusion in the Pilgrimes. In 1655 it appeared as a frontispiece to Terry’s independent book. For unexplained reasons the map and the literary descriptions of Roe and Terry do not always agree. Still, despite all its inaccuracies, Baffin’s map delineates the territories of the Mughul Empire, particularly its interior places, more clearly and with greater precision than any other contemporary European maps. In fact, it remained the base for most later maps of the Mughul Empire.⁸

As Terry described it, the Mughul Empire is bounded on the east by the Kingdome of Maug (the Mughs),⁹ on the west by Persia, on the north by the mountains of Caucasus and Tartary, and on the south by the Deccan and the Gulfe of Bengala. The Deccan, lying in the skirts [borders] of Asia, is divided among three Muslim rulers as well as some other Indian Rhajaes.¹⁰ This spacious monarchy, called Indostan (Hindustan) by its inhabitants, is divided into thirty-seven provinces which anciently were particular Kingdomes. Terry follows this with a list of the provinces, their geographical positions, and their chief cities, all of which we there had out of the Mogol’s own records. His catalog of the provinces proceeds from Qandahar in the northwest to the mouths of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal at the empire’s eastern extremity. In listing the chief cities of the provinces, Terry adds bits of information about the rivers on which they lie, their distances from one another, and the most notable sights to be observed in some of them.¹¹

This vast empire is fertile, abundant, and self-sufficient in all necessaries for the use of man. Its land produces wheat, rice, barley, and various other grains. Their wheat growes like ours, but the Graine [head] of it is somewhat bigger and more white. From it they make a bread that is better than bread as they do in Liège. The ordinary people shape their bread into cakes (chapati) which they bake on small iron hearths. With their bread they eat butter and cheese made from the milk of Kine, Sheepe, and Goats. Meat is abundant and cheap, for they have buffaloes, cattle, sheep, venison, hares, and a wide variety of fish and poultry. Their beef cows differ in that they have a great Bunch of grisselly flesh between their front shoulders; their sheep exceed ours in great bob-tayles, which cut off are very ponderous [heavy].¹² Salt and sugar to season this good provision are both abundant and cheap. The country is full of fruits: muskmelons, watermelons, pomegranates, Pome-citrons (pomelos?), lemons, oranges, dates, figs, grapes, plantains or bananas, mangoes, pineapples, apples, and pears. They have root crops, especially good carrots and potatoes, as well as onions, garlic, and herbs for salads. In the south, ginger grows everywhere. Terry calls Taddy (Hindi, tāṛī, or English, toddy) a pleasant cheere liquor . . . as pleasing to the taste as any white Wine.¹³

In northwestern India, it never raines but one season of the yeere, during the summer monsoon of May to September. These violent Raines commence and end with Fearefull tempests of Thunder and Lightning . . . yet seldome doe harme. Once this hot, rainy season ends, the Skie is so cleere, as that scarecely one cloud is seene in their Hemisphere, the nine months after. The monsoon blows constantly, six months from the south and six months from the north. In the dry season these heavy winds sometimes raise thick clouds of dust and sand which annoy the people when they fall among them.¹⁴

Without rain for almost nine months the land lookes like to barren sand at winter’s end. One week or so after the Raine begins to fall, it puts on a greene Coate. In May and at the beginning of June, the farmers plant their plots tilled with Oxen, and foot-Ploughs. They harvest in November and December the grain which came up as thicke as the land could well beare it. Their fields are not enclosed unless they lay close to the numerous villages and towns which stand very thicke in the countryside. They do not mow their grass to make hay but cut it, green or dry, only when they wish to use it. While they raise much tobacco, their curing methods do not please Terry.¹⁵ Many woodlots lend beauty to the landscape, but the trees are all different from those of England. One tree, obviously the banyan, has branches which grow little sprigs downward till they take root. The flowers of India are colorful and a delight to the eye, but very few of them except roses are any whit fragrant. They are so plentiful they seeme never to fade.¹⁶

The large animals, except for horses and mules, are likewise very different from those of England. Native horses, as well as many of the Persian, Tartarian, and Arabian breede, are kept daintly by being rubbed down two or three times a week with butter. They are fed a boiled grain called Donna (Hindi, dāna) which when cold they mix with coarse sugar. Many camels and dromedaries are used for transport. Occasionally a rhinoceros may be seen, whose skins lye platted, or as it were in wrinkles upon their backs. Elephants are numerous, the royal beasts alone numbering fourteen thousand. After telling several familiar stories about the tractable and rational elephants, Terry reports that Jahangir delights in putting on elephant fights. Many of the imperial elephants are trained for military service. They are taught to carry an iron gun and a gunner. Other elephants are trained to participate in state occasions and royal processions. Although many nobles try to keep elephants of their own, these beasts are inordinately expensive to maintain, and the males are dangerous when in rut. Each of the imperial males is allocated four females as wives. Among the harmful beasts are lions, tigers, wolves, and jackals, as well as crocodiles, snakes, stinging scorpions, annoying and numerous flies, mosquitoes, and bigge hungrie Rats.¹⁷

Besides having many rivers, northern India is dotted with wells fed by springs upon which in many places they bestow great cost in stone-worke. In addition, they have many ponds which they call Tankes,¹⁸ some more then [than] a mile or two in compasse, made round or square. These tanks are generally surrounded by stone walls and usually have stone steps which lead down into the water. In these tanks water is stored during the rainy season for use during the dry months. The Indians commonly drink water rather than any other beverage since in these hot countries, [it] agreeth better with mens bodies, then any other Liquor. They also drink, though not commonly, a small quantity of Rache (arrack) and "Cohha [Arabic, ḳahwa, or coffee], a black seed boyled in water, which doth little alter the taste of the water.¹⁹ Coffee is very good to helpe digestion, as is an herbe called Beetle [betel] or Paune [Hindi, pān, the betel leaf]. Its leaf looks like ivy and they chew it with a hard nut [areca nut] and a bit of pure white Lime among the leaves."²⁰

Ordinary dwellings are generally poor, except in the cities where there are many faire Piles. Better houses are built high and flat on the toppe, the roof being used as a veranda in the cool of the day. Since they use heat only for cooking, their houses have no chimneys. Their upper rooms have many windows without glass as well as doorways to let in the air. In Amadavar (Ahmadabad), for example, the buildings are well-constructed of brick and stone. This most spacious and rich Citie is surrounded by a stone wall pierced by twelve faire Gates. Around their houses, whether in town or country, they plant many trees for shade. The trees are planted so thickly that if a man behold a Citie or Towne from some conspicuous place, it will seeme a Wood rather than a Citie.

The main export products of the Mughul Empire are cotton, cotton goods, and indigo. Cotton seeds are planted which grow into shrubs that produce yellow blossoms. When the blossom falls off, a cod [pod] remains about the bigness of a man’s thumb, in the interior of which there is a moist, yellow material. As this capsule ripens it swells and finally breaks and so in short time becomes white as Snow, and then they gather it. These plants bear for three or four years before being replaced.²¹ From the cotton wool they make a pure white cloth, some of which I have seene as fine, if not purer than our best Laune [lawn].²² The coarser cotton cloth they dye in various colors or else in it steyn [stain] varietie of curious [intricate] Figures.²³ Indigo or Nill (nīl, the common name for indigo in India is derived from Sanskrit, nīla meaning blue) is a shrub not more than one yard high, and with a stalk about the diameter of a man’s thumb. It produces a pod about one inch long, which holds a seed that becomes ripe for gathering and planting in November. Shrubs used to make blue dye are pulled up at the end of the rainy season and soaked in water. After the shrubs rot, they press out the juice and put the pasty substance on a cloth to dry in the sun. Once it is somewhat hard, they roll it by hand into little balls which are put on sand to dry. When dry, these balls become the indigo of commerce.²⁴ The empire also produces a good store of Silke, which they weave curiously [skillfully], sometimes mingled with Silver or Gold [threads]. They also make a hard wax from gum-lac (shellac).²⁵ The earth yields lead, iron, copper, and brass (?) and they say Silver, which, if true, they neede not open, being so enriched by other Nations.²⁶

Silver streams into the empire from all over the world in exchange for Indian commodities. The huge pilgrim ships plying annually between Surat and the Red Sea usually return with great supplies of precious metals. Silver remains in the empire, for it is a Crime not lesse than Capitall, to carry any great summe thence. Bullion imports are melted, refined, and made into coins and then the Mogols stampe (which is his Name and Title in Persian Letters) put upon it. Their silver coins are the purest known without any allay [alloy], so that in the Spanish Rial [the purest money of Europe] there is some losse [in exchange]. Silver Roopees (rūpaya or rupees), the basic coins of the realm, are minted in several denominations, and are either round or square, but so thicke that they never break or wear out. In Gujarat there is a coin of inferior value called Mamoodies (maḥmūdīs). For petty payments they use brass (actually copper) coins called Pices (Hindi, paisa) which are large and heavy.²⁷

The people of Hindustan are called in general Hindoos but ever since Tamerlane subdued them they have been mixed with Mahometans. The population also includes many Persians, Tartars, Ethiopians, and Armenians, as well as a few of almost every people of Asia, if not of Europe. While some Jews live there, the very name is a . . . word of reproch. The Indians are tawny or olive in color with straight black hair and erect posture. They do not admire white or fair-skinned people because they look like lepers to them.²⁸ Most Muslim males, except for Moolaes (mullahs) and the aged, shave their chins but suffer the haire on their upper lip to grow as long as Nature will feed it. They shave their head bare except for a lock on the crown which Muhammed will use to pull them into Heaven. People of all persuasions wash their bodies often and anoint themselves with sweet-smelling oils.

Men and women dress in similar fashion in white cotton gowns which fall below the knee. Underneath they wear tight pants from the waist to the ankles which are wrapped like the boots on the smal of their legs. On their bare feet, they wear slippers, which they remove indoors. Floors are covered with carpets (made in that Kingdom, good as any in Turkie or Persia) or something similar, upon which they sit like tailors to visit, to conduct business, or simply to eat. The men wrap a long, thin band of cloth, either white or colored, around their heads which they call a "Shash" (Arabic, shāsh, turban cloth). When saluting superiors they do not bare their heads but bow and put the right hand to the top of the head; equals exchange greetings by grasping the chin or the beard of each other. To wish a friend well they use many expressions such as Greeb-a Nemoas (Hindi, gharib nawaz), or I wish [for you] the Prayers of the Poore.²⁹ Muslim women of quality, who rarely are seen outdoors, cover their heads with veils, tie silks in the long hair that hangs down their backs, bedeck their necks and wrists with jewelry, and wear ornaments in their ears and in one nostril. Women of all classes have an easy time in childbirth.³⁰

When traveling, men and women of the lower classes usually ride on oxen, horses, mules, camels, or dromedaries. They are sometimes borne in two-wheeled coaches covered on the top and back, with the front and sides open. Drawn by oxen, these coaches will easily carry two riders and a coachman. The oxen are guided by lines which are run through their nostrils, between their horns, and into the coachman’s hands. These conveyances can traverse twenty miles in a day at a good speed. More important travelers ride elephants or are carried in covered palanquins. Inns are found only in large towns and cities. These hostels called Sarray (Persian, sarāy) are open and free to travelers. The individual is required only to supply his own bedding and food. Where there are no inns, travelers pitch the tents they usually carry in their baggage.³¹

Among the Englishmen of the early years of the century, one of the most experienced in India travel was William Finch, the indigo merchant based in Surat from 1608 to 1611. He gives in detail the names of the towns through which the trade routes ran from Surat to Agra (via Burhanpur), from Agra to Ahmadabad, and from Lahore to Kabul.³² His other itineraries as well are, in Purchas’ somewhat extravagant words, supplied in substance, with more accurate observations of Men, Beasts, Plants, Cities, Deserts, Castles, Buildings, Regions, Religions, than almost any other, as also of Waires, Wares, Warres.³³ Finch left Surat in January, 1610, for Agra. Besides giving a description of the port of Surat itself, he notes the towns in its immediate vicinity and observes that in Ranele (Rander) live the Naites (Konkani (?), Nawāyit), a seafaring people who speak another language.³⁴ Of the cities on the road, he describes in some detail the beastly city and fortress of Burhanpur, the ruined city of Mandu, and the pleasant city and adjacent fortress of Gwalior. Arrived in Agra on April 4, Finch describes the devastating fires which swept the city in May and part of June. During July, news reaches the capital of the setbacks suffered by Jahangir’s armies in the Deccan. Finch reports on the arrival of Father Manuel Pinheiro in Agra and the christening of three nephews of the emperor, the sons of his dead brother Danyl. Leaving Agra on November 1 for Bayana, Finch notes that the road to Ajmer is lined with stone pillars marking each coss.³⁵ Akbar’s unfinished city of Fatehpur-Sikri is totally devastated and depopulated, with much of the ground now being converted to Gardens. All that remains standing are the city’s stone walls with their four gates. Its tanks, like those of Agra, are covered with Hermodactyle, a weed that produces a soft and tender fruit, white and of a mealish taste, much eaten in India.³⁶ The city of Bayana where Finch went to purchase indigo is also in ruins except for two inns and a bazaar.³⁷

After returning to Agra, Finch was again quickly on the road, this time to Lahore. At Delhi he describes Humayun’s tomb and asserts that in the successive cities of Delhi the Kings of India are crowned. He digresses on the rebellion of Salim and notes that Akbar had mulberry trees planted on both sides of the six-hundred-mile highway from Agra to Kabul to commemorate the defeat of the prince.³⁸ Lahore, now to be inclosed with a strong wall, is one of the greatest cities of the East. It was first made into an imperial center by Humayun. Lahore’s fortress and royal abode is situated on the Ravi, a river that empties into the Indus. Ships transport goods down this river system to Thatta in Sind, passing by Multan and Bhakkar on their way southward. Within a retiring room of the imperial residence are mural portraits of Jahangir and other Mughul notables. In a small sitting room overlooking the river there are murals of Akbar and Prince Salim as well as other portraits. The women of the court, to the number of two hundred, are lodged in a new palace whose end walls are covered with portraits of the King in state sitting amongst his women. In the emperor’s own, sumptuous apartment are paintings of his ancestors from Babur onward. On the east side of the palace-fortress outside the wall is a beautiful garden and on the west a ferry which connects with the highway to Kabul. On May 17, 1611, news arrives in Lahore of the sack of Kabul by Pathan rebels from the surrounding mountains. Finch follows this with a list of the routes into the Mughul Empire through the mountain passes of the north.³⁹

From his friend Nicholas Uphet, Finch learned of another route from Agra to Surat via Ajmer and Gujarat. The city of Ajmer is famous for the sepulchre of Hoghee Mundee (Khwaja Muinuddin), a saint much respected by the Mogols, to whose tomb Akbar made a pilgrimage on foot from Agra. At Jalor there stands a great mountain-top fortress, which Finch describes in some detail, that is called the Gate to Gujarat.⁴⁰ After crossing a deepe sandy Desart [in Rajasthan], the traveler arrives at Ahmadabad, a city whose buildings are comparable to any citie in Asia or Africa. Within this walled city the streets are wide and well paved, its merchants rich, and its artisans excellent for Carvings, Paintings, Inlayd Workes, imbroydery with Gold and Silver. Since the emperor’s authority in Gujarat is constantly being threatened, persons entering or leaving Ahmadabad are required to obtain passes.⁴¹ South of Ahmadabad is Cambay, the mart of Gujarat and the haunt of the Portuguese merchants. On the road to Surat there is a great agate mine at Broach, a city also renowned for its rich Baffatas (Persian, bafta, woven), or white cotton textiles.⁴²

From Agra eastward the route leads into the Ganges valley. Thirty rivers flow into the Ganges making it normally three-quarters of a mile in width. When rains are heavy it floods the whole valley before falling into the Bay of Bengal. On one of its eighteen distributaries stands Lucknow, an important linen center. At Awadh, an ancient city and once an important Pathan center, are ruins in which Brahmans live who record the names of all Hindus who bathe in its river. Pilgrims from all parts of India come here and carry away with them tokens of remembrance in the form of grains of black rice. The route then goes to Jaunpur, a commercial town on a small river (the Gumti) over which is a bridge with Houses like London Bridge, but nothing so good.⁴³

A second route from Agra to Jaunpur runs through a continual forest to Allahabad. This Ganges city, anciently called Praye (Prayaga), is one of the wonders of the East.⁴⁴ The construction of its fort was begun by Akbar forty years ago at the point where the Jumna river flows into the Ganges. For many years, twenty thousand persons were assigned to its construction, and it is still unfinished. Its walls, like the fort at Agra, are of red, square stone. Prince Salim (later Jahangir) stayed here after he rebelled against Akbar and before he became emperor. In