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Sebastien Manrique, Antonio Monserrate, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and William Hawkins's Contributions to Our Understanding of Life During Their Time

Decent Essays

People of different cultures worked, traded and traveled throughout the Empire, contributing to its power and dynamics. Some Europeans who began to criss-cross the roads with Mughals recorded themselves in forms of diaries or letters about the people and the lands they encountered on their journey, which are well preserved today. Europeans such as Sebastien Manrique, Antonio Monserrate, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, and William Hawkins recorded their experiences and observations from fascinating and informative visions travel and life in india during this period and provide invaluable contribution to our understanding of life at the time.

Sebastien Manrique, a priest who went on a journey to India for missionary work, writes his experiences to educate his audience as well as entertain the audience. While writing this well-constructed article, Manrique keeps his audience in mind by providing exceptionally detailed experiences that he had on his journey. He is able to portray his journey as if the reader were truly there alongside him. The reader is able to imagine the drastic situations he went through on his journey due to the “monsoon floods, voracious mosquitos, appetizing peacocks, violent fever and affronted villagers – as well as threatening Mughal officials.” He is also well aware of what he must do in order to continue his narrative without boring his audience, “give a detailed description of their appearance and control, as well as of the arrangements made in them.”

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