Albrecht von Mandelslo, then only nineteen, begged to be allowed to accompany the ambassadors and explore the distant countries to which they were accredited. He was attached to the embassy as a "Gentleman of the Chamber," and was even granted leave to pursue his travels further, when the ambassadors' business was accomplished. Accordingly, when their Excellencies the Sieurs Crusius and Brugman departed from Isfahan in the beginning of 1638, Mandelslo pushed on to India by way of Persepolis, Shiraz, and Gombroon, where he took sail in an English ship, the "Swan," three hundred tons, twenty-four guns, Master Honywood, bound for Surat, and after nineteen days' voyage made the port on the 25th of April. Mandelslo's travels in India – he afterwards went to China and Japan – were chiefly limited to the usual stay at Surat, and a journey through Ahmadabad to Agra and back by Lahore to Surat. Out of the eight months of his sojourn in the Moghul empire, five were spent at Surat, while his stay at Agra was unexpectedly brought to an end, apparently before he had been a month at the capital. Nevertheless, he found time to prepare a famous journal of his stay in India, which was edited, after its author's death, by the German Olearius – a Latinization of the very Teutonic Oelschläger – and then translated into French with many additional details, by Abraham de Wicquefort. This Gallic version was rendered, in its turn, into English by Davies in 1662, and from this quaint translation our extracts here are taken.
Like Della Valle, Mandelslo was much impressed with
