History of India . ent of the ciiltivators, theprobity of the law-courts, and the honesty of the excheq-uer personally audited by this magnificent paragon ofmonarchs. There is, no doubt, exaggeration in thesepanegyrics. Shah Jahan knew how to tickle the imag-inations of his subjects by gorgeous pageants and pro-fuse expenditure, and he cotdd be good-natured andgenerous when it did not interfere with his personalcomfort. But he was too shrewd a man to pamper thepeople, and his expensive tastes demanded so muchmoney that there must have been severe pressure on thetaxpayers, who naturally had no
History of India . ent of the ciiltivators, theprobity of the law-courts, and the honesty of the excheq-uer personally audited by this magnificent paragon ofmonarchs. There is, no doubt, exaggeration in thesepanegyrics. Shah Jahan knew how to tickle the imag-inations of his subjects by gorgeous pageants and pro-fuse expenditure, and he cotdd be good-natured andgenerous when it did not interfere with his personalcomfort. But he was too shrewd a man to pamper thepeople, and his expensive tastes demanded so muchmoney that there must have been severe pressure on thetaxpayers, who naturally had no voice in revising theeulogies of contemporary chroniclers. That such was the case may be gathered from theobservations of Mandelslo, who ranks quite as high, asan intelligent traveller, as the more famous DeUa was a native of Mecklenburg, and was educated asa page at the court of the Duke of Holstein. Whenthis potentate in 1633 despatched an embassy to theGreat Duke of Muscovy and the King of Persia, Johann. THE TRAVELLER MANDELSLO 93 Albrecht von Mandelslo, then only nineteen, begged tobe allowed to accompany the ambassadors and explorethe distant countries to which they were was attached to the embassy as a Grentleman ofthe Chamber, and was even granted leave to pursuehis travels further, when the ambassadors business wasaccomplished. Accordingly, when their Excellencies theSieurs Crusius and Brugman departed from Isfahanin the beginning of 1638, Mandelslo pushed on to Indiaby way of Persepolis, Shiraz, and Gombroon, where hetook sail in an English ship, the Swan, three hundredtons, twenty-fotir guns. Master Honywood, boimd forSurat, and after nineteen days voyage made the porton the 25th of April. Mandelslos travels in India—heafterwards went to China and Japan—were chiefly lim-ited to the usual stay at Surat, and a journey throughAhmadabad to Agra and back by Lahore to Surat. Outof the eight months of his sojourn in the Moghul empire,five were spen
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