ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the imperial landscape of the Mughal Empire as decoded and represented in early seventeenth century travel writings. It examines the representations of geographical knowledge, environments, and cultural elements by early seventeenth century English travelers. With the trend of mercantilism that flourished in the sixteenth century, the landscape writings reveal the difficulties these pioneers encountered, and the tropes and typography of pre-colonial India. Cultural landscape is an important element in Fitch's writing. He describes the local religion of Akbar's realm and classifies the people as idolaters. Fitch's tediously informs his readers also of the distances between big cities and of ports that connected with islands in the East Indies such as Pegu, Sumartra, and others, in an area particularly laden with pepper, spices, and other commodities available in Burma and Malacca. His narrative is a mixture of geographical and ethnographical writing; marriage customs, ways of worshiping, and attires of people are all subjects for him to relate.
