Fall of the Mughal Empire v3.c33.6

v3.c33.6

Unfortunately for the historian, the French captains have left no accounts of their romantic Indian careers. The very short memoirs of René Madec touch only the fringe of the subject and end as early as 1776. De Boigne lived for many years after returning from India, but from the cosy chair of his palace in Chambery he only talked to Grant Duff and Grant Duff has not played the Boswell to the veteran. Perron was a weaver's son who hated to touch a pen. Their Indian secretaries have left behind them letters only,—mere business papers and money accounts,—in Persian, but no regular history or even journal, like the priceless memoirs of Anderson's *munshi* Khair-ud-din. What would we not have paid for a volume of Indian recollections by De Boigne like the *Journal du Voyage du Bengale à Delhy* (1774-1776) written by the cultured aristocrat Comte de Modave, the nature of which can be judged from the portion translated by me in *Bengal Past and Present*.