Friendly Missive of an Adept of Hermetic Science and Art

[to] manage well in these parts of the world, I also mastered Persian in two years, and became quite proficient in Hindustani in the time that followed. I spent four years at the court of the Great Mughal The Mughal Empire ruled most of northern India; the "Great Mughal" refers to the Emperor, likely Aurangzeb or a successor depending on the exact date of the voyage., then traveled from the Coromandel Coast with the Dutch to Batavia Now Jakarta, Indonesia; it served as the capital of the Dutch East Indies., and from this Dutch East Indian capital into China. I then returned to the mainland of India, and spent the remaining time in those regions. It was this part of the world—and specifically a place not far from the great Ganges River—that made me happy according to my desire and far beyond my merit. And here I found a man who truly possessed the great secret of nature, the Philosopher's Stone original: Lapis Philosophorum; the legendary alchemical substance capable of turning base metals into gold and serving as an elixir of life.