Description
Considerations of this nature would not, it is true, entitle an account of the embassy to a place among the publications of the Hakluyt Society. But it happens that the ambassador kept, for the information of his employers a minute and careful record of the events of his mission, besides writing from time to time full accounts of his proceedings to his many friends in England; and, being in a land so little known to his fellow-countrymen, his diary and letters are naturally full not only of what he did but also of what he saw. His position afforded him excellent opportunities for observation, while a natural gift for literary expression imparted a vividness to his descriptions which is often lacking in the writings of other travellers of the period. The result is a picture of the India of the early seventeenth century which is of exceptional value and interest; and on this ground the Council of the Societal history have judged his journal suitable for inclusion in their series.