1                          An Extract of a Letter

Monsieur Bernier, after he had benefited himself for the
.space of many years hy the converse of the famous Gassendi;
seen him expire in his arms, succeeded him in his Knowledge,
and inherited his Opinions and Discoveries, emharqued for
jUgypt, stay'd above a whole year at Cairo, and then took the
occasion of some Indian Vessels that trade in the Ports of the
Red Sea, to pass to Suratte; and after twelve years abode at
the Court of the Great Mogol, is at last come to seek his rest
in his native Countrey, there to give an Accompi oj' his Observa-
tio7is and Discoveries, and to poure out into the bosome of
France, tvhat he had amassed in India,

Sir, I shall say nothing to you of his Adventures which you
will find in the Relations that are to folloiv hereafter, which he
ahandcnis to the greediness of the Curious, who prefer their
satisfaction to his quiet, and do already piersecule him to have
the sequel of this History. Neither shall I me?ition to you the
hazards he did run, hy being in the neighbourhood of Mecca;
nor of his prudent conduct, which made him merit the esteem
of his Generous Fazelkan, who since is become the first
Minister of that Great Empire, whom he taught the principle
Languages of Europe, after he had translated for him the
whole Philosophy of Gassendi in Laiin,^ and whose leave he
could not obtain to go home, till he had got for him a select
number of our best European Books, thereby to supply the loss
he should suffer of his Person. This, at least, I can assure
you of, that never a Traveller went from home more capable
to observe, nor hath written ivith more knowledge, candour, and
integrity; that I knew him at Constantinople, and in some
Tonms of Greece, of so excellent a conduct, that I propossed
him to myself for a Pattern in the designe I then had to cany
my curiosity as far as the place where the Sun riseth ; that /
have often drowned in the sweetness of his entertainment the
bitternesses, which else I must have swallowed all alone in such
irksome and unpleasant passages, as are those of Asia.

^ Petri Gassendi . . . opei'a omnia in sex tomos divisa . . , Ltig-
duni sumptibus Laurentii Anisson, &" loan. Bapt. Devenet M.DC,
Iviii, is the edition here referred to.