The Travels of the Abbé Carré in India and the Near East, 1672-1674, Volume II
About this text
Introductory notes
The Travels of Abbe Carre was published in 1990.It was written by Bartholomew Square. It is a travelogue of the Frenchman set in India and the nearby area between 1672 to 1674. Square was born in 1636.He was a French clergyman who travelled on behalf of The East India Company. His date of death is not given. Selections have been made from Volume 1 and Volume 2 of The Travels of Abbe Carre .A detailed description of India at that time is given with an emphasis on the multiple forces at work in the sub-continent. Primary Reading Carre,Abbe, The Travels of Abbe Carre ,Volume Two, Asian Educational Services. Suggested Reading Tavernier,Jean Baptiste,Travels in India,Volume 1, Oxford University Press. Tavernier,Jean Baptiste,Travels in India,Volume 2, Oxford University Press.
THE TRAVELS OF
THE ABBÉ CARRÉ
IN INDIA AND THE
NEAR EAST
1672 TO 1674
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL II
PUBLISHED by Asian Educational Services
1990
1.
The next two days I told several of these merchants that I wanted two boat-loads of vegetables, rice, and other grain, very promptly. I was served in the most compliant manner, and i spent a day and a night without rest in measuring and filling my store rooms with these things. I felt assured of two boats ordered by the Viceroy from Senhor Britto, a Madras Portuguese, who had promised them for dispatching this grain; but, when i went to tell [Page 606] him I was ready to load them at night, I was much surprised to receive his cold reply that he did not dare let us have them, as he was threatened by both Moors and English that the boats would be confiscated and his house pillaged, if he did anything to help the French. I found myself, therefore, much embarrased, not know ing how I was to send all these provisions. I thought that, as the English had ten ships in the roads with quantities of boats, they might possibly have the civility to lend me some of them for my business, it taking only half an hour to go by sea from Madras to St. Thome.