Travels of Fray Sebastien Manrique 1629-1643. Vol. I: Arakan

1927

Journals G161 H2 Ser. 2 no. 59

Oxford: Printed for the Hakluyt Society

In 1629, Augustinian monk and missionary, Sebastien Manrique (c. 1590-1669), departed Oporto, Portugal, on his mission to spread Christianity in the East. He did not return home for 14 years. Manrique spent many of these years in South East Asia, and the majority of the first volume of his Travels tells the story of his journey to the ‘Kingdoms of Arracan’ (modern day Myanmar or Burma). Although his writing style is described by the Hakluyt translators as ‘atrocious’ and ‘cumbersome’, his account still provides invaluable information about the people, food, and environs. Travelling was treacherous and Manrique tells of a tiger attack on one of his party – the man was ‘almost disembowelled’. Manrique offered the man salvation by immediate baptism; the man accepted and promptly died.