Fray Sebastien Manrique ( pt, Sebastião Manrique; c. 1590 – 1669) was a Portuguese
Augustinian missionary and traveler. He traveled around countries of the East for about sixteen years during 1628–1643. In 1653, he published his work, titled ''Itinerario de las Missiones Orientales del P. Manrique'' (Itinerary of the Oriental Missions of Father Manrique), in Rome.
Manrique traveled to India and reached
Dhaka in September 1640 to inspect the Portuguese Catholic Church. He spent about 27 days in Dhaka.
[
In 1628–29, he travelled from Cochin to Bengal, residing in Hoogly for some months. He spent five years in Arakan, following which he travelled to Goa. He sailed for Japan, but was stopped by Portuguese authorities in Manila and Macao. After that, he returned to India. He returned to Europe by land, passing through ]Qandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the ca ...
, Baghdad and Damascus
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. He had left India in 1641 and reached home in July 1643.[
Particularly noted among his writings are the ones relating to Arakan, where he recorded the customs of the court and people that were mixed with Buddhist, Muslim and ]animist
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
ideas. The first volume of the ''Itinerario'' is one of few the pre-19th-century western accounts of the kingdom.
He was murdered in 1669 in London by his Portuguese servant.
References
1590s births
1669 deaths
Portuguese explorers
Explorers of India
People of Portuguese India
17th-century Portuguese people
Portuguese travel writers
People from Porto
Portuguese murder victims
Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries
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