The Travels of Pietro della Valle in India. Edited by
Edward Grey. 2 vols. (Printed for the Hakluyt Society.)—Pietro dell& Valle visited India in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, about ten years after the establishment of the factories at Surat and Ahmedabad. The Portuguese had been there for more than a century. What the traveller has to say about them is as amusing as anything else in the book. He thinks them "very ignorant of the affairs of the world and of the State." This com- ment is provoked by the ambassador having told an Indian Prince that all England had been reduced to the Catholic Faith by the publick command of the King." Della Valle himself made a great impression on his native hosts by eating with a spoon and fork, and a napkin folded over his knees. Altogether, we have a curious picture of life in these pages.
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