Storia do Mogor 3.9

3.9

Considerable attention is given to Catrou's work by Mr. H. G. Keene in his 'Turks in India' (1879). On p. 14 of the introduction he quotes Manucci's value for a 'sol,' and on p. 15 he inserts his statements of the Mogul revenues. On p. 116 he notices with approval Manucci's refutation of Bernier's imputations on Jahan Ara Begam, daughter of Shahjahan. His comments upon Catrou's mode of dealing with his materials are excellent and to the point. We cordially agree with Mr. Keene's summing up, p. 118, that 'the Father would have done far better to have left his author to tell his own story.' Many details are given erroneously in Mr. Keene's account, as can be seen from our author's text and the rest of this Introduction. Manucci landed in India in 1656, not 1649; the person to whom he entrusted his manuscript was not Laudes, but Deslandes (Catrou, Preface, 2); the 'favourable mentions' of Catholic missionaries are not Manucci's but mostly inserted by Catrou himself; in 1705 Manucci was certainly alive, but in India, not in Europe; the paintings have not disappeared: they are in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris, Département des Estampes, and we give reproductions of them; the first edition of Catrou is of 1705, not 1708.