How Thomas Coryate Walked from England to India in the Year 1613
In the early seventeenth century, Thomas Coryate, an eccentric Englishman, a writer and a wanderer, decided to walk from his village of Indies—to the court of the Great Mogul, Jehangir, and onwards to Chin, the land from where the silks came. His search was for fame, not fortune; he wanted to be the first man to write about those distant lands. Above all, he wanted to prove himself—to his many sceptics in Prince Henry's court, whom he amused for a living, and the lovely Lady Anne Harcourt, whom he loved deeply, only to be hurt.
The Long Strider tells the extraordinary story of Coryate’s 5000-mile journey on foot to India, across the forbidding Arabian desert mountains. To reach the court of Jehangir, Corayte survived penury, loneliness, ridicule and extreme hostility; but disillusionment awaited him at the end of this journey: despite her many wonders and charms, he was also shocked and repelled by India, and the emperor, possessor of fabulous wealth, made a mockery of his dream. Coryate died in the port city of Surat, and was buried there in an obscure grave.
Interwoven with the narrative about Coryate’s quest is an account of the authors’ own travels through the cities the Englishman visited nearly four hundred years ago. In Coryate’s footsteps, they go to Delhi, Ajmer, Agra, Aligarh and Surat, and discover that while much has changed, in some respects the India Coryate encountered is not very different from the India that exists today.
Part biography, part travelogue, The Long Strider, written with elegance, wit and insight, is a compelling read.
