From Anjou to Agra: A Letter from a French Traveller to Asia in the 1660s

This essay is intended to translate and present, as well as contextualize, an autograph letter written by a French traveler to Asia from the first half of the reign of Louis XIV, François le Gouz de la Boullaye. This letter may be found in the manuscript section of the Bibliotheque nationale de France in Paris, in the series of Nouvelles acquisitions françaises (NAF 5132, fols 37r-37v.). La Boullaye had visited India once in the late 1640s, and returned there in the mid-1660s, this time as an envoy of the Compagnie des Indes. His letter, written from Agra in late 1666, is an intriguing addition to what we know of French relations with the Mughal empire in this period.