Page:History of India Vol 4.djvu/129

 MANDELSLO'S ACCOUNT OF INDIA 95 Table of about fifteen or sixteen dishes of meat, besides the Desert." The favourite rendezvous for the English colony was the president's " great open Gallery," where his friends enjoyed the sea-breezes of an evening. There was a fair garden outside the city where they all re- sorted on Sundays after sermon, and where on week- days Mandelslo made a small fortune by winning pistol- matches, " shooting at Butts." Sometimes they made a night of it over some bottles of sack; but Mandelslo was an exceedingly virtuous young man, and spoke no English two effectual bars to excessive conviviality. When he went into the interior, the same hospitable reception awaited him, not only at the hands of the Eu- ropean agents, but also of the Mohammedan merchants. Short as his stay was, the assistance of his hosts en abled him to make the most of his opportunities, and his native gift of observation stood him in good stead. A knowledge of Turkish appears to have served him well, as it did Hawkins. As he goes towards Agra we pick up hints which help us to understand the state of the provincial government under Shah Jahan. In spite of the testimony of other writers, travelling seems to have been anything but safe in Gujarat in 1638. The Rajputs a kind oj: " High-waymen or Tories," as Jiir- gen Andersen, in 1646, calls them, according to Davies's translation infested the roads, and travellers had to journey in company with large caravans, and even had occasion to fight for their lives. Andersen de- scribes the governor of Ahmadabad as a " judicious, understanding man, but hasty, and so rigorous, that