Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/152

 144 SHORT NOTICES January reigns of the emperors Akbar and Jehangir when Elizabeth and James I were ruling over this country. The narratives are reprinted from the earliest printed editions. The authors are Ralph Fitch, John Mildenhall, William Hawkins, William Finch, Nicholas Withington, Thomas Coryat, Edward Terry. The text of each narrative is supplemented by excellent foot-notes and is prefaced by a brief and admirable introduction. Mr. Foster has made a valuable contribution to the history of British pioneers in India. These men deserve to be remembered and held in honour for the persistent enterprise and courage which were later on to found the British Empire in India. Perhaps the most interesting narrative is that of the story of the merchant Ralph Fitch, who ' being desirous to see the countreys of the East Indies ' sailed with three companions in ' a ship of London ' to Tripolis in Syria on Shrove Tuesday 1583. In reading their account of the manners, customs, and religious practices of the people, one is impressed by the small degree in which the masses have changed since those days. But suttee, at any rate, has disappeared for good and all. When, however, William Finch tells us that he found ' a continuall forrest ' all the way from Agra to Jaunpur via Allahabad, even if we allow for a certain looseness of observation, we realize that the face of parts of India has greatly altered since those days, and that cultivation has widely extended. The narratives give us interesting glimpses of the emperors Akbar and Jehangir among their courtiers.- We find them governing in the most despotic and arbitrary fashion, but with a profusion and a love of display which were doubtless appreciated by their subjects. We find Jehangir still talking the Turki language which his ancestors had brought with them from Central Asia. We find in his empire a religious tolerance unknown in other countries ruled by Muslims. The book is one of excep- tional value to students of Indian history. H. V. L. Although it is primarily intended as a library catalogue, Mr. James Thayer Gerould, the compiler of the first number of the Bibliographical Series of the Research Publications of the university of Minnesota, expresses the hope ' that it may serve some of the purposes ' of a general bibliography. Its scope is sufficiently indicated by the title Sources of English History of the Seventeenth Century, 1603-1689, with a selection of Secondary Material (Minneapolis : University of Minnesota, 1921). There are altogether more than four thousand items, and these include not only printed books but also photographic facsimiles and a few original manuscripts belonging to the university. The arrangement is mainly chronological, by the dates of the events dealt with in each book, not by the dates of publication, but a careful index makes it possible to use the volume for various purposes of reference. Besides giving a most interesting view of this important collection, Mr. Gould's work will be of much use to students of this period, and will mitigate the inconveniences they suffer from the lack of an adequate systematic and critical bibliography of the period. D. In a monograph of Mr. Louis Hamilton, Vrsprung der franzosischen Bevolkerung Canadas (Berlin : Neufeld und Henius, 1920), we have an