Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/336

 AN INDIAN DECORATIVE DESIGN. CHAPTER IX A DESCRIPTION OF BENGAL BY THE FRENCH VOYAGER FRANCOIS PYRARD DE LAVAL 1607 A. D. f'llHE interest of France in India, like that of Por- J- tugal, Holland, and England, led to expeditions for the purpose of trade and settlement in Hindustan, and among the most interesting accounts of India at the opening of the seventeenth century is that given by Francois Pyrard of Laval, who set out for the Orient in 1601 and spent nearly ten years in travelling in the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas, and various parts of India, returning to his home in 1611. In the account of his travels, Pyrard devotes considerable space to places along the coast of India, including the district of Bengal, where he spent a month. In spite of the fact that he complains of the shortness of his sojourn in Bengal, he has given a good account of the country, as will be seen in the following selection from Albert Gray's translation for the Hakluyt Society. 1 After a month's voyage, we arrived at Chartican (Chittagong, properly Chatigam), a port of the kingdom 280