Ralph Fitch: European traveller to the Mughal Court

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Ralph Fitch, who has left an eyewitness account of the social life and economic condition of the Mughal India, was a European traveller and trader. He was one of the first Englishmen to visit India. During the course of his journey which he undertook in a ship named Tiger he was arrested at Hormuz from where he was taken to Goa then under the control of the Portuguese.

After being released on bail he left Goa and in 1585 he reached the Mughal court of Akbat at Fatehpur Sikri, the new capital built by the emperor near Agra.

From Fatehpur Sikri, Fitch proceeded to the eastern part of India including Bengal.

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