Storia do Mogor : or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine.

  • Manucci, Niccolò, 1639-approximately 1717.
Date:
1907-08
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Storia do Mogor, or, Mogul India, 1653-1708 / by Niccolao Manucci, Venetian ; tr., with introduction and notes, by William Irvine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    493/512 (page 371)
    DESCRIPTION OF ARAR AN The kingdom of Arakan adjoins that of Bengal to the east, and on its border has, as its maritime frontier, Chatganw (Chittagong). Once on a time many Europeans lived there, men of various nations, principally Portuguese [270], and many indigenous to the country, who were all Christians. These inhabitants inflicted great damage on the lands of Bengal, and, penetrating with their boats into all parts of that province, carried off men, women, and children, gold and silver ; and when they could get them, they did not hesitate to carry off babes at the breast along with their mothers. When these cried at night, they would, with unheard of cruelty, snatch them from their mothers’ arms and throw them into the sea. They lived with such lawlessness that it would take much space if I attempted to record their misdeeds. I sav in one word all that need be said ; they were unworthy not merely of the name of Christians, but of men. The King of Arakan relied much on this class, and made little account of the kings his neighbours, both from the bravery of the aforesaid men, also from the nature of his country. No one can enter this territory with an army, the ground being marshy, with impenetrable jungles and mighty rivers full of alligators. If this had not been so, the Mogul would have conquered this kingdom and that of Pegù equally with that of Sia5 (Siam), the which are conterminous with one another on his (the Mogul’s) frontiers. Arakan is between them and the Mogul territory. In the kingdoms of Arakan and Pegù there are macoreos,^ thus called, which are sudden floods that at certain seasons overflow the country with great velocity, so that a horse galloping its hardest cannot escape. In less than half an hour more than twenty leagues of ground are flooded. The soil is fertile, yielding abundantly and luxuriantly; but the in- habitants are as barbarous as the tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes which dwell in its jungles. ^ Macoraes (see Yule’s ‘ Glossary,’ second edition, 527), a word of doubtful origin, applied to what is now called a bore, or tidal wave.'i 24—2