Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/374

 33^ Readings in European History 368. India under the later Moguls. (From Bernier.) The Moguls claim to be descended from Timur. III. Condition of India before the English Conquest In 1655 a Frenchman, Francois Bernier, made a jour- ney to Hindustan, and there became the court physician of the Great Mogul. He wrote an account of his jour- ney and a number of letters. A letter addressed to Col- bert, which gives an admirable description of the state of India and the relations of the Great Mogul to the subject princes and peoples, is included in the following extract. He who reigned there was called Chah-Jehan, — that is to say, king of the world ; who, according to the history of that country, was son of Jehan-Guyre, which signifieth conqueror of the world; grandchild to Ekbar, which is great ; and thus ascending by Houmayons, or the fortunate, father of Ekbar, and his other predecessors, he was the tenth of those that were descended from that Timur-Lengue, which signifieth the lame prince, commonly and corruptly called Tamerlane, so renowned for his conquests ; who mar- ried his near kinswoman, the only daughter of the prince of the nations of Great Tartary, called Moguls, who have left and communicated their name to the strangers that now govern Indostan, the country of the Indians ; though those that are employed in public charges and offices, and even those that are listed in the militia, be not all of the race of the Moguls, but strangers and nations gathered out of all countries, most of them Persians, some Arabians, and some Turks. For, to be esteemed a Mogul it is enough to be a stranger, white of face, and a Mohammedan ; in distinction as well to the Indians, who are brown and pagans, as to the Christians of Europe, who are called Franguis. . . . From a letter My lord, you may have seen before this, by the maps of ° f r e iv^ erS Asia, now g^at every way is the extent of the empire of the Great Mogul, which is commonly called India or Indostan.