The Travels of the Abbé Carré: in India and the Near East, 1672 to 1674

1947

Journals G161 H2 Ser.2 no.95

London: Hakluyt Society

Barthélemy Carré de Chambon (Abbé Carré; b.1640) was employed by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister to Louis XIV, to report on the activities of the French East India Company in India. Before he even arrived on the West Coast, this adventurous and observant traveller had been robbed by an Arab bandit, had slept a night in a tree to escape marauding lions, and was forced to ‘make-do’ by steering his ship by the Pole Star. He disliked the Portuguese in Goa, but got on well with the English governors in Bombay and Madras. The manuscript of his journey languished in the India Office for years until it was translated by Lady Fawcett.