Early Travels In India (1583-1619)

Preface THE following pages contain the narratives of seven English- men who travelled in Northern and Western India during the reigns of the Emperors Akbar and Jahingir. Though these do not by any means exhaust the list of English visitors of that period who have left us records of their experiences, they include practically all those of real importance, with the exception of Sir Thomas Roe, whose lengthy account of his embassy is already procurable in a modern edition.

In the case of none of these narratives is a manuscript source available, and it has been necessary to go instead to the earliest printed editions. Ralph Fitch's story of his adventures appeared first in Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, from which it is here reprinted. The other six are to be found in the voluminous collection published by the Rev. Samuel Purchas in 1625, and in the case of four of them we follow the text there given. For Nicholas Withington, however, use has also been made of a fuller version (from his original manuscript) given in a scarce eighteenth-century work; while the letters of Thomas Coryat are printed from the contemporary pamphlets in which they first saw the light and from which Purchas made merely a selection.

**Contents and Sample Pages**