A Pepys of Mongul India (1653-1708)

by Niccolao Manucci

  This persecution was bad enough, but without a doubt the Christians persecuted me worse than the Mahomedans. It arose from their envy at seeing me with name and fame, whereas at the place where I had settled down I had done no harm to any one of them. God alone knows how many times they tried to murder me, and they sent men to steal my books, on which I relied. Finding their projects had no success, they made up their minds to do openly what they had failed to do in hiding. To this end they sent four Europeans of various nations to murder me. Two came into the house as friends and began to talk to me ; another who was to do the deed stood in the doorway, shouting hoarsely a thousand abusive

  terms at my servants; and the last sat on his horse with his pistols ready, to back up what was going on at the door. Hearing this row I came out, begging the disturber to hold his tongue ; he might come in if he wanted to, but if he did not come in, let him go his way. When he heard this he fired his pistol, which was already at full-cock, when one of my servants, grappling with him, took the pistol from his hand. He drew his sword to defend himself from the servants, who had begun settling his business for him with thick sticks, applying them without remorse to him and his servants until they fled. Then I recognised that it was planned treachery and ordered one of my servants, with a drawn bow, to see that the one on horseback should not move his hand in the direction of his pistols; if he moved, an arrow was at once to be let fly at him. Thus terrorised, he was afraid to stir or to assist his companion who was getting his beating. I told the others with their bows and arrows to watch, without a word, over the two men in the house. Meanwhile, I ordered a good thrashing to be given to the insolent fellow. While drawing his sword to defend himself from the servants he cut his hand, and one of my servants seized him round the body so violently that he was brought to the ground. But he would not let his sword be taken away; I therefore ordered them to give it to him well until he let go the sword. Seeing that he still clung to it, one of the men planted one foot on his chest, and so crushed it that he had to give up the sword. Thereupon I told them to bind him and carry him to the magistrate. But the man on horseback dismounted, and earnestly begged me not to pass this affront upon a white man. His petition was his undoing. I told him to fall at his protector's feet. He declined, but my servants by thumps and holding his neck got him to his knees.

  Then I left all the four, and rode off at once to Fida,e Khan, who at the time this happened was in

  MANUCCI AND THE PATHAN WIDOW 157

  Labor. He recognised that I had good reason for anything that I had done, and sent men to escort my assailants to the other side of the river Chinab, and on the road he who was the leader died. I will state here that my enemies seized this occasion at the time that the Europeans of the army were on their way to the attack on the Pathans, since being war-time no one would be able to know afterwards who had made the attempt. But God, who seemed to cherish a special desire for my protection, would not permit my death at the hands of those who wished to do so on the quiet by entering my house in the guise of friends. They did not succeed in this or other treacheries, but my enemies managed to give me poison, from which I escaped, although I felt its effects for some years.

  So great was the name that I had of being fortunate with the cases that I undertook that they came from many places distant from Lahor to call me in to visit patients. This was of great profit to me, even to the extent that many wanted me in marriage. If I had been of little wisdom I should have had no want of marriage proposals of exceptional quality among the Mahomedans. But, thanks to God, although I left home a mere youth, there remained ever graven on my memory the good teaching of my parents.

  But I cannot resist telling of one case that happened to me with a well-connected widow woman, the daughter of Dindar Khan, Pathan. On one occasion I had treated one of her sisters at Qasur, twenty leagues from Lahor. This lady was present, and took such a fancy to me that she wanted to marry me. She herself spoke to me about it, and told me she would make her own arrangements for flight. At first I paid no heed to these things, still, seeing the woman so determined, and she being rich, well proportioned, and intelligent, I began to entertain the idea of carrying her off to Europe as she desired.

  The agreement was that she should give sufficient

  158 MANUCCI AND THE PAJHAN WIDOW

  money to buy a big ship, on which would b*e placed the bulk of her wealth. Then she would pretend that she had vowed a pilgrimage to Mekka, would obtain permission for this, and leave home. When she was on her voyage, and had left the port of Surat, I with my ship was to fall upon the vessel going to Mekka, and carry her off with me to Europe. The agreement was in process of execution, but she was not sufficiently prudent. She roused suspicions of her affection for me by forwarding message upon message by an old woman in her service. But the special cause for the non-execution of the agreement was a Portuguese called Joao Rodrigues de Abreu. After having done him many favours, and proved him sufficiently faithful, I confided our plans to him, intending to take him along with me. But he did not act in correspondence to my friendship, for he went off and told Misri Khan, who was a suitor for marriage with the same woman.

  Discovering thus the agreement we had made, and the friendship of the said widow, which she had declared by sending me messages with valuable presents, Misri Khan, through fear of Fida,e Khan and other nobles who were very fond of me, was content not to do me any harm, or send men to murder me, but only wrote me a letter in which he said that he knew quite well why Jam Btbf, the widow's maidservant, came so often to my house, but he saw quite well that what I was doing would in the end cost me my life. I pretended I did not understand the letter, and replied that Jani Bib! came and went as if she were my mother. If it displeased him that she came to my house he had only to tell her not to go again. By this means I found out we were already discovered. When Jani Btbi came I asked her to inform her mistress that it was no longer safe to come, and she must conceal everything or she would cause my death. On finding that her project could not succeed, the widow married Misri Khan, but only lived for eight days after her marriage. If I had been like many

  Europeans in the Mogul country and Hindustan, I should have accepted the money that she wanted to give me for buying the ship, then taken flight for Europe, disregarding the marriage and all my promises. I did not act thus, not for fear of discovery, but because I had always professed to be an honest man, and thus I did not allow myself to fall into this temptation. The only thing that weighed upon me was that, through the treachery of that Portuguese, the lady continued to be a Mahomedan when she desired to become a Christian.

  The fame 1 had acquired as a good surgeon and physician was the cause, among other things, that I was importuned by the eunuch Daulat, a man of staid habits, rich, and well known. This eunuch was in the employ of 'Ali Mardan Khan, he who made over the fortress of Qandahar to the King Shahjahan. When his master died, in the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-two, this eunuch of his carried his bones to Persia to be buried in the tomb of his forefathers. The fact became known to Shah 'Abbas, at that time King of Persia, who ordered the arrest of the eunuch Daulat. 'Ali Mardan Khan's remains he directed to be burnt, and the eunuch's nose and ears to be cut off. He was then to be expelled from the country. The king held it an act of presumption to bring the bones of a traitor to the kingdom of which in his lifetime he was a declared enemy.

  The wretched Daulat retired full of shame to Lahor, and kept close within his house. Knowing the work I had done, he several times requested me by some art or ingenuity to make his nostrils and ears grow again, an impossible thing. But he imagined that Christians could do impossible things with elixirs. Therefore he besought and entreated me that 1 would do to him this favour, and he would give me anything I asked. I answered that now there was no remedy, the wounds being old, for if they had been fresh something might have been done. This reply of mine

  only inspired greater hopes, and he asked me to renew the sores by making new wounds. T
hen I was to cut off the best-shaped nose and the finest ears from one or other of his slaves, and apply them to his face. He embraced me, he styled me Galen, Bu Alt (i.e. Avicenna), Aristotle, and Plato; he begged me to do him this favour, and make him happy all the rest of his life.

  The slaves then present were in a great state of mind lest I should accept the eunuch's proposal, and gazed at me with mournful faces, as if entreating me not to comply with the request. I was laughing inwardly at them, contrasting the eagerness of Daulat with the fright of the slaves. But as a final answer I stated that even if I did what he asked, and cut off the noses and ears of the slaves, it would be of no avail, for being another's flesh it would never unite, the only result being to disfigure his slaves without any benefit to him. Finding there was no remedy, and being a facetious fellow, he said in joke: " I know not what sins I have committed to be made an out-and-out eunuch twice over, first in my inferior part, and secondly in my upper half. Now there is nothing more to deprive me of, nor do I fear anything but losing my head itself." This saying served us often afterwards as a subject of conversation.

  Not only was I famed as a doctor, but it was rumoured that I possessed the power of expelling demons from the bodies of the possessed. This idea spread because I was a man capable of conversation, in which I showed my nimbleness of wit whenever an occasion presented itself. Once some Mahomedans were at my house consulting me about their complaints, when night came on. I did not want to lose the chance of over-aweing them, and letting them see that 1 had the power of giving orders to the devil. In the middle of our talk 1 began to speak as if to some demon, telling him to hold his tongue and not interrupt my talk, and let me serve these gentlemen, for it was already late. Then

  I resumed my conversation with the Mahomedans. But now they had only half their souls left in their bodies, and spoke in trembling tones. I made use of their terror for my own amusement, and raising my voice still more I shouted at him whom I assumed to be present, lying invisible in some corner. I resumed my talk to the Mahomedans, and this I did four or five times, each time showing myself more provoked and fierce. At length I threatened the demon with expulsion from the house, and rising to my feet, angrily laid hold of a coarse glass bottle in which I had a little spirits of wine, and going near the candle set light to it, and uttered a lot of abuse to the supposed unquiet spirit. Then approaching the window, I made a noise with the bottle like a pistol-shot. I returned the bottle to its place and said to the demon that I objected to his coming any more into my house. I then turned again to the Mahomedans, and resumed the conversation. They were unable to speak a word out of fright, and prayed for permission to leave, they would come back another time. But the special joke was that they were afraid to go out, dreading that the demon might attack them in the street. I reassured them by saying that the demon stood in fear of me, and would not do such a thing, for I had the means of punishing him. It would suffice, while going to their houses, for them to say en route that they came from the Doctor Sahib. A grand medicine certainly, and a great exorcism for a make-believe phantasm !

  But this was not enough to induce them to venture out; whereby I was forced to send with them one of my servants, who as they progressed was to mutter :

  II Duhai Hakim Jl "—that is : " On the part of the Doctor Sahib." Under these conditions I got rid of all those Mahomedans. Being credulous in matters of sorcery, they began to bruit abroad in all directions that the Frank doctor had the power of expelling demons, including dominion over them. This was enough to make many come, and among them they

  brought before me many women who pretended to be possessed (as is their habit when they want to leave their houses to carry out their tricks, and meet their lovers), and it was hoped that I could deal with them. The usual treatment was bullying, tricks, emetics, clysters, which caused much amazement, the actual cautery, and evil-smelling fumigation with filthy things. Nor did I desist until the patients were worn out and said that now the devil had fled. In this manner I restored many to their senses, with great increase of reputation, and still greater diversion for myself. It may be that some reader will not put faith in me, but Europeans who are acquainted with the Mogul country, and my character in India, know that I was capable of many practical jokes of this sort. What is certain is that I very seldom lost my temper, and knew how to divert myself in proper time and place with harmless amusements.

  Havingacquired a sufficient capital, I became desirous of withdrawing from the Mogul country and living once more amongst Christians. This I could not effect by moving to Goa, for the mode of life of those gentlemen did not suit me. I resolved to retire to a village called Bandora, which is under the Jesuit Fathers, who do not allow any of the Portuguese to live in it, beyond a few of their own faction. For as soon as a white man appears they put a spy on him, who follows him constantly. On no account will they allow such a man to sleep in the village. Nevertheless, as they knew that I was not a troublesome man, they were content to allow me to become a resident. In the village dwelt many merchants of different nations, it being a place of trade. One could live there in security through the efforts of the fathers in defending themselves from the thieves, who traversed the ocean in such numbers that it was necessary for many vessels together to leave port, for the Malavares (? Malabarts) and Sanganes (? Sanjanfs) infest this coast.

  The news spread that I meant to leave Lahor, and I

  was forced to affect that the report was false, for they would never have let me go away, neither the nobles nor the lower orders, for I had great repute and was much thought of. To keep me they placed spies upon me to hinder my departure. But I carried out my intention in such a way as to mislead the spies ; I left at night without letting anyone know. Thus I was able to proceed on my journey, for I left my heavy luggage behind, and everything in my house in its usual order. I reached Sihrind without interference, and from Sihrind, passing outside Dihli, I rested in Agrah. From Agrah I went to Surat, where I came across the woman I spoke of earlier, she who married the Armenian. From Surat I went on to Damao, then through the territories of the Portuguese, where the Fathers of the society (i.e. the Jesuits) did me many kindnesses, and at length I arrived at Bandora.

  Here I was advised by some people to buy a ship, and thus not to leave my capital without fructifying. They proposed to me for taking charge of the ship a certain Ignacio de Taide, a Portuguese, who lived with the reputation of being a good Christian. To him I made over my ship and its cargo, which in all cost me the sum of fourteen thousand rupees. This caused others to confide to him considerable sums of money, seeing that I had faith in him. My orders to him were not to stray from the convoy. But having other views of his own, he went with the convoy only for a certain time. After that he began to fall behind, and,abandoning the ship, disappeared, for he had raised large sums on Respondentia bonds ; he now started the story that the pirates had seized the ship. In that case he would not be obliged to pay the money that he borrowed. By this means I was left devoid of capital, having nothing left but a little money for daily expenses. This necessitated my asking payment from Diogo de Mello de Sampayo, son of Luis de Mello de Sampayo, called the Roncador (the Bully), of whom I have spoken, he who fought so valorously at Damao. I asked him to

  164 RETURN TO THE MOGUL COUNTRY

  do me the favour of returning the two hundred rupees with which I had helped him in his necessity, out of which he had only repaid twenty. But all I received was the answer that he had given me the twenty rupees in charity; as for the money he owed me, I might collect it from the Mogul, who was indebted to him in a large amount.

  Finding myself without means and very ill, I made up my mind to return, on recovering my health, to the Mogul country, and try my fortune once more. Thus when 1 had got well, 1 left Bandora with a friar in my charge, whose name out of respect I will not disclose, and Antonio Machado, a man well known for his bravado and talk, which led to his murder at Goa. God alone knows what I endured with this fellow-traveller, who,
looking on the Mahomedans of Hindustan as being the same as the Portuguese, tried to carry everything off by bravado. He ignored the fact that Hindustani Mahomedans are very touchy, and possess sense and judgment like any other nation. If I wanted to write here the foolish acts done on the road by these two men, my story would become a very long one.

  On arrival in Agrah, I left behind me the friar, who stayed on account of some business. The other man wished to come with me as far as Dihlf; then he attempted by force to take up his quarters in my house. But I declined, and he was forced to search for a home elsewhere. He encountered all that I had prognosticated, for I was fairly well acquainted with the Mogul country. It wanted very little more for this man to have brought the Fathers of the society (the Jesuits) to perdition ; for, in his desperation, having nothing to eat, he tried to denounce them to the qazl of Agrah. He said that the only object of the Fathers' stay in the Mogul realm was to buy Qurans and transmit them to Europe. There on a fixed day in each year a festival took place, when they burnt the image of Muhammad. This was quite