A Pepys Of Mogul India1653-1708: Being An Abridged Edition Of The ?Storia Do Mogor? Of Niccolao Manucci

Niccolao Manucci, the hero of our narrative, ran away from Venice in 1653, being then fourteen. He hid on board a vessel bound for Smyrna, and was fortunate enough to find a protector in a certain Viscount Bellomont, an English nobleman, then on his way to Persia and India. He followed Bellomont through Asia Minor to Persia, and from Persia to India, meeting with many adventures by sea and land. The sudden death of his master near Hodal, in 1656, left Manucci friendless in a strange land. He seems to have been a youth of considerable resource, however, and fortune favoured him, for he soon found employment as an artillery man in the service of Prince Dara Shukoh, eldest son of the Emperor Shahjahan. Till Dara’s death, in 1659, Manucci followed his varying fortunes in peace and war, and, refusing to transfer his services to Aurangzeb, he gradually adopted the profession of medicine. The ?Storia do Mogor?, as a whole, is very lengthy, and somewhat diffuse; and a great deal of it is interesting only to the student and the scholar.