520 
INTRODUCTION TO 
love blind and deceive me, I am of opinion that it will not prove useless to the 
students of Geography and Antiquity, especially to those of Ours, who apply them- 
selves to the classics, when they come across historical matters concerning India. 
“ Whatever pertains to the Mission of our Priests, to their sojourn at the King’s 
Court, and the issue of the Chabul war, I wrote down truthfully, as it all happened 
and I saw with my own eyes. [As to the particulars concerning Cinguiscan, Temurbeg, 
the Scythians and the Mongols, which I have, so to say, borrowed and inserted 
after my narrative, at the end of this first book, I learned them, in the first place, 
from King Zelaldin himself; then from a journal containing an account of the travels 
of a certain ambassador of Plenry IV, King of Castille, to Temur; 1 2 finally, from many 
writers of no mean authority. 
“I have divided the work into two books : this, the former one, is an account of 
the first Mission to the King of the Mongols ; the latter contains, by way of appendix 
and scholium to the former, what appertains to the Geography and Natural History 
of India intra Gangem , the customs of the ancient aborigines and the present-day 
F 2b natives.] 2. In two other books, which I have added to the two former ones, I describe 
on the same plan, in the first, my departure for Ethiopia; in the second, the Geogra- 
phy and Natural History of Arabia. 3 
In these writings — I say it without presumption — I have endeavoured, for the 
sake of the Professors of our schools, to correct, clear up and conciliate, as modestly 
and temperately as possible, not a few passages of the Geographers and Historians 
who deal with matters Indian or Arabian. 
Would to God that my labour redound to the glory of God’s name and to the 
advancement of knowledge, which we must not only ardently wish, but strive after 
with all our might. If, in your wisdom, you judge that this double object has been 
attained in my two-fold study, I believe that it will amply commend itself to you. 
Farewell. 
<c At Sanaa, the 7th before the Ides of January, in the year of the Ford one 
thousand five hundred and ninety-one.” [Jan. 7, 1591.] 
Several passages in this preface call for comment. 
It is plain, first, from the many deletions and accretions, which the author alone 
1 Allusion to the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo to the Court of Timur , of which C. Markham gave an English 
translation in 1859. Hakluyt Society, London. 
2 The passage in [ ] is a later improvement by Monserrate on the following: “As to those particulars con- 
cerning Cinguiscan, Temurbeg, the Scythians and the Mongols, which, for the sake of Zelaldin, I added by way of 
parergon at the end of the work, I learned them, in the first place, from King Zelaldin himself; then, from a diary of 
the travels of an ambassador of Henry IV, King of Castille, to Temur; finally, from Strabo, Q. Curtius, Pliny, Ptolemy, 
Diodorus, Justinus, Sabellicus, Antoninus of Florence, Pius II, and Paul Jovius of Nocerra, authors of no mean autho- 
rity. I finished the work at Sanaa and added another work — [at first : “ another small work, a kind of small appendix 
or scholium.’’ Theu, after changing the word “ opusculum ” = “ small work’’ to “ librum,” Monserrate erased: a 
hind nf mall appendix or scholium ] in which I described what appertains to Natural History and to the customs of 
the ancient aborigines and indigenes, customs which agree with those of the present-day natives.” 
The last words have been partly cut away by the binder. We reconstitute the sense, as best we can. 
The reference to his two books on Ethiopia and Arabia was written at a later date, as appears lower down by his 
allusion to his “ two-fold” study, where his two books on India are alone meant. 
