Storia do Mogor 13.1
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 13.1
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13.1.1
Although, as Foscarini says, Manucci's life, 'che fu piena d'accidenti curiosi,' can be easily put together from the 'Storia,' the accounts of him in the usual biographical dictionaries are singularly meagre and erroneous. Neither in the old nor the new edition of the 'Biographie Universelle' (Michaud) does his name appear either under Manouchi or Manucci. In the 'Nouvelle Biographie Générale' (Didot), xxxiii. (1860), we certainly have an entry. But, unfortunately, it is one crowded with demonstrable errors. There is no evidence that Manucci died about 1710; on the contrary, his continued existence in 1712 can be proved. That he returned to Europe in 1691 or any other year; that he retired to Portugal; that he published a work which had become very scarce, are all untenable propositions. The entry in Sir Thomas Phillipps's catalogue is of a manuscript, not of a printed book; it is, therefore, hardly to be wondered at if the dictionary contributor (F. D.) had never been able to find a copy. His authority, the 'Mercure Galant' for 1691, I have not been able to consult, as it is not in the British Museum; what his 'documents particuliers' were, we, of course, cannot know now.
13.1.2
By the inquiries I instituted at Venice, I was unable to find any trace there of Manucci. I was told that the name was not Patrician. The only other Manuccis that I have come across do not, I fear, shed much lustre on the name; both occur in Casanova de Seingalt's 'Mémoires': one was the spy who denounced Casanova as a heretic, and secured his committal to I Piombi; the other was a friend met at Barcelona, whose plans Jacopo Casanova inadvertently betrayed. As Manucci nowhere tells us his father's Christian name or the parish of his birth, to search for his birth or baptism was a hopeless task. Nor did the police reports yield any notice of such a boy's disappearance. Further search under the right year and month (November, 1653) has not produced anything, nor any mention of Viscount Bellomont's stay at Venice and departure from it by sea. Thus the only means of reconstituting Manucci's life-story and its chronology is a search through the 'Storia.' This reconstruction I now attempt.
13.1.3
In the early part of his book, and up to about the year 1678, there is an almost constant defect of two years in Manucci's dates. From external evidence we know that the eclipse of the sun he saw at Zulfah, in Armenia, took place on August 12, 1654; that he landed in India in January, 1656; that the Battle of Samugarh, near Agrah, was fought on June 8, 1658. Calculating from these points as fixed data, we find that Manucci left Venice in November, 1653 (not 1651). He says he was then fourteen, and thus must have been born some time in 1639. He ran away from home, and hid on board a vessel bound for Smyrna; here he encountered Viscount Bellomont (Henry Bard), then on his way to Persia and India. Bellomont had pity on the lad, and took him into his service. From Smyrna they went through Asia Minor to the Persian court at Qazwin (August, 1654). Thence they moved to Isfahan, where they remained a year (September, 1654 to September, 1655), finally reaching Gombroon (Bandar 'Abbas) via Shiraz and Lar. A passage was obtained on the H.E.I. Company's Seahorse, in which they reached Surat, on the west coast of India, in January, 1656. Leaving that place in April, they travelled by Burhanpur, Handiyah, Sironj, Narwar, Gwaliyar and Dholpur to Agrah; thence they started for the Mogul court at Dihli. On June 20, 1656, when near Hodal, a place between Mathura and Dihli, Bellomont suddenly expired.
13.1.4
Manucci went on to Dihli, and, through the dispute arising over the late ambassador's affairs, obtained an introduction to Prince Dara Shukoh, eldest son of the emperor Shahjahan. Manucci was enlisted as an artilleryman in Dara's service on rupees 80 a month. In 1658, when the princes Aurangzeb and Murad Bakhsh moved against Agrah, Dara Shukoh marched south to oppose them, Manucci being in his army. A countermarch to Samugarh followed, and there battle was delivered. Manucci was in the field, and after Dara's defeat fled with the rest to Agrah. Subsequently he succeeded in attaching himself in disguise to Aurangzeb's army, and was in it when Murad Bakhsh was seized. From Dihli Manucci managed to get away and join Dara Shukoh at Lahor. With that prince he marched to Multan and Bhakkar. He was placed at the head of the artillery in the latter fortress, under the command of the eunuch Basant, and the garrison stood a siege, only surrendering after the capture of their prince. Evacuating Bhakkar, the garrison returned to Lahor, and there Manucci escaped with his bare life from an attack in which Basant was killed. Returning with the other European artillerymen to Dihli, Manucci refused further service, as he disliked Aurangzeb.
13.1.5
After he had witnessed that monarch's departure from Dihli for Kashmir (December 8, 1662), Manucci made an expedition eastwards, and, taking boat at Patnah, travelled to Rajmahal and Dhakkah, thence through the Sundarbans to Hugli, returning to Agrah by way of Qasimbazar. At Agrah and Dihli he gradually adopted medicine as a profession, but, obtaining an introduction to Rajah Jai Singh, of Amber, through his second son, Kirat Singh, he was offered by that prince the post of captain of artillery on 10 rupees a day. Jai Singh was appointed Governor of the Dakhin between March and September, 1664. Manucci marched with him for that country, being deputed on the way to negotiate with some petty rajahs north of Bombay. After seven months he rejoined at Aurangabad, where the rajah had united his forces with those of Shah 'Alam. He saw Shiva Ji in the rajah's camp in June or July, 1665. In Jai Singh's further move southwards against Bijapur Manucci also took part.
13.1.6
Apparently tiring of his position, Manucci resigned (II. 108, 109), and made his way via Kaliyani to Bassain, twenty-eight miles north of Bombay; he was there during the Lent of 1667, and narrowly escaped the Inquisition (III. 230). He reached Goa in May, 1667, and after a stay of fifteen months (May 1667 to August 1668) he left it disguised as a Carmelite, and returned to Agrah and Dihli (II. 130). At the latter place he attached himself to Kirat Singh, obtaining from him a horse and rupees 5 a day. After a year's time Kirat Singh was ordered to Kabul, and Manucci resolved to move to Lahor (end of 1670 or early in 1671), and start practice there as a physician. He practised as such for about six or seven years, and, having realized a small competence, decided on removing into territory governed by Europeans. This must have been in 1676, as he was at Daman, on the west coast, in that year (II. 137, III. 198), and during 1677 (III. 264, 265) he made his home at Bandora, on Salsette Island, nine miles north of Bombay fort. Having lost his money in a bad speculation, Manucci was obliged to try his fortunes once more at the Mogul court. He returned to Dihli, where, through a court chamberlain, he was called in to attend one of Shah 'Alam's wives, and, having cured her of a gathering in the ear, the lady interested herself in his affairs and procured his appointment by that prince as one of his physicians.
13.1.7
This must have been subsequent to January 30, 1678, the date on which Shah 'Alam returned to Dihli from Kabul. On September 28, 1678, Shah 'Alam was made governor of the Dakhin, and Manucci went there in his train. He says once that he was at Agrah in 1679, and possibly the occasion was on this march to the Dakhin. On September 6, 1679, Shah 'Alam's thirty-seventh birthday, they were at Aurangabad; but not long before this (December 18, 1678) Jaswant Singh of Jodhpur had died in Kabul, and Aurangzeb, after failing to seize one of the rajah's infant sons, resolved on the conquest of the Jodhpur state. Shah 'Alam was recalled to take part in the campaign, and the prince (Manucci with him) passed the rains of 1680 at Ujjain (II. 204). In January, 1681, they joined the main army at Ajmer, having seen a comet on their way (December 24, 1680). Prince Akbar had just fled (January 13, 1681), and had raised the standard of revolt. On the 26th Shah 'Alam was sent in pursuit, and remained on this duty until the end of March (1681). Some sort of peace was patched up with the other Rajputs, Akbar escaped to the Mahrattahs in the south, and, in consequence, on September 15, 1681, Aurangzeb began his first march towards the Dakhin, a country from which he was destined never to return.
13.1.8
Finding his position an irksome one, and having some money in the hands of the Theatine Fathers at Goa, Manucci, apparently in 1682 or early in 1683, resolved to get away under the pretext of two months' leave of absence. On reaching Surat he obtained a boat from Francois Martin, of the French Company, which took him to Daman, and thence to Goa. The then governor of Goa, the Conde de Alvor, had taken charge on September 11, 1681, and at the time of our hero's arrival found himself closely threatened by an army under Sambha Ji, son of Shiva Ji, the Mahrattah. About August, 1683, having unwisely offered battle at Ponda on the mainland, the viceroy was badly defeated. Negotiations were opened, and Manucci was sent to interview Sambha Ji. Nothing resulted, and Santo Estevaon, one of the Goa islands, was captured by Sambha Ji during the night of November 25, 1683. Once more Manucci visited the Mahrattah chief, and also went to see Shah 'Alam, who was approaching in a threatening manner. He also took part in a second embassy to Shah 'Alam. For all these services the governor conferred on him a patent of knighthood in the Portuguese Order of St. Iago, this patent being dated January 29, 1684.