REVIEW: Storia do Mogor, by Niccolao Manucci

Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653-1708 (vols. 1 and 2), Niccolao Manucci, (trans. William Irvine, John Murray, 1907). There are people who say “you can just do things,” and then there are people who at the age of fourteen stow away on an ocean-going vessel heading who-knows-where. Niccolao Manucci was the latter sort, and he held out down in that ship’s hold as long as he could, until hunger got the best of him. In fact, he lasted so long that when he finally gave in and presented himself to the captain it would have been inconvenient and uneconomical to return him to his parents in Venice. As the sailors debated whether to toss him overboard, press him into service, or maroon him on the closest bit of coastline, young Niccolao went and chatted up the other passengers. One of them, Lord Henry Bellomont, had recently escaped death at the hands of Oliver Cromwell, and invited Manucci to accompany him on an important mission to Persia. That sounded pretty good to the teenager, so he d

Storia do Mogor; or, Mogul India 1653-1708 (vols. 1 and 2), Niccolao Manucci, (trans. William Irvine, John Murray, 1907). There are people who say “you can just do things,” and then there are people who at the age of fourteen stow away on an ocean-going vessel heading who-knows-where. Niccolao Manucci was the latter sort, and he held out down in that ship’s hold as long as he could, until hunger got the best of him. In fact, he lasted so long that when he finally gave in and presented himself to the captain it would have been inconvenient and uneconomical to return him to his parents in Venice