Jan. 13, 1666: French traveler Tavernier arrives in what is now Bangladesh
Most of us have never heard of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, but the Frenchman was a world traveler of the first order who hobnobbed with some of the most important figures of his day.
After hearing tales of far-away lands from his father, a cartographer, Tavernier developed a lifelong case of wanderlust that would take him to corners of the world largely unknown to folks back home. He first traveled all over Europe, learning multiple languages along the way. That skill would help him in his early career as a translator for both military and merchant explorers.
As a jewel trader with his own fortune, Tavernier went to India—where he met Emperor Shah Jahan—and Indonesia. He made his fortune partly by selling the 116-carat Tavernier Blue Diamond, which he discovered in India (and which was later recut into the Hope Diamond), to Louis XIV of France. It was on his last long trip that he reached Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, and met Shaista Khan, a powerful general and governor of what was then known as Bengal.
Not only was Tavernier a traveler, he was a writer, publishing several volumes of biographical accounts. They include detailed descriptions of the places he went, giving people at home an idea of what lay beyond the lands they knew.
