This Castle, Which Is Eight Coss In Circuit, Is Considered As The Gate Or Frontier Of Guzerat. Beyond It Is Beelmahl, The Ancient Wall Of Which Is Still To Be Seen, Near Twenty-Four Coss In Circuit, Containing Many Fine Tanks Going To Ruin.

From thence to Ahmedabad or Amadaver, by Rhadunpoor, is a deep sandy country.

Ahmedabad is a goodly city on a fine river, the Mohindry, inclosed with strong walls and fair gates, with many beautiful towers. The castle is large and strong, in which resides the son of Azam Khan, who is viceroy in these parts. The streets are large and well paved, and the buildings are comparable to those of any town in Asia. It has great trade; for almost every ten days there go from hence 200 coaches[257] richly laden with merchandize for Cambay. The merchants here are rich, and the artisans very expert in carvings, paintings, inlaid works, and embroidery in gold and silver. At an hour's warning this place has 6000 horse in readiness: The gates are continually and strictly guarded, no person being allowed to enter without a licence, or to depart without a pass. These precautions are owing to the neighbourhood of Badur, whose strong-hold is only fifty coss to the east, where nature, with some aid from art, has fortified him against all the power of the Moguls, and whence some four years ago, proclaiming liberty and laws of good fellowship,[258] he sacked Cambaya by a sudden assault of 100,000 men, drawn together by the hope of plunder, and with whom he retained possession for fourteen days.

[Footnote 257: Perhaps camels ought to be substituted for coaches; or at least carts drawn by bullocks. - E.]

[Footnote 258: This is very singular, to find liberty and equality in the mouths of Indian despots and slaves. - E.]

Between Ahmedabad and Trage, there is a rajah in the mountains, who is able to bring 17,000 horse and foot into the field, his people, called Collees or Quuliees, inhabiting a desert wilderness, which preserves him from being conquered. On the right hand is another rajah, able to raise 10,000 horse, who holds an impregnable castle in a desert plain. His country was subject to the government of Gidney Khan, but he has stood on his defence for seven years, refusing to pay tribute. This rajah is reported to have a race of horses superior to all others in the east, and said to be swifter than those of Arabia, and able to continue at reasonable speed a whole day without once stopping; of which he is said to have a stud of 100 mares. From Jalore to the city of Ahmedabad, the whole way is through a sandy and woody country, full of thievish beastly men, and savage beasts, as lions, tygers, &c. About thirty coss round Ahmedabad, indigo is made, called cickell, from a town of that name four coss from Ahmedabad, but this is not so good as that of Biana.

Cambaya is thirty-eight coss from Ahmedabad, by a road through sands and woods, much infested by thieves. Cambay is on the coast of a gulf of the same name, encompassed by a strong brick wall, having high and handsome houses, forming straight paved streets, each of which has a gate at either end. It has an excellent bazar, abounding in cloth of all kinds, and valuable drugs, and is so much frequented by the Portuguese, that there are often 200 frigates or grabs riding there. The gulf or bay is eight coss over, and is exceedingly dangerous to navigate on account of the great bore, which drowns many, so that it requires skilful pilots well acquainted with the tides. At neap tides is the least danger. Thieves also, when you are over the channel, are not a little dangerous, forcing merchants, if not the better provided, to quit their goods, or by long dispute betraying them to the fury of the tide, which comes with such swiftness that it is ten to one if any escape. Cambay is infested with an infinite number of monkies, which are continually leaping from house to house, doing much mischief and untiling the houses, so that people in the streets are in danger of being felled by the falling stones.

Five coss from Cambay is Jumbosier, now much ruined, and thence eighteen coss to Broach, a woody and dangerous journey, in which are many peacocks. Within four coss of Broach is a great mine of agates. Broach is a fair castle, seated on a river twice as broad as the Thames, called the Nerbuddah, the mouth of which is twelve coss from thence. Here are made rich baffatas, much surpassing Holland cloth in fineness, which cost fifty rupees the book, each of fourteen English yards, not three quarters broad. Hence to Variaw, twenty coss, is a goodly country, fertile, and full of villages, abounding in wild date trees, which are usually plentiful by the sea-side in most places, from which they draw a liquor called Tarrie, Sure, or Toddic, as also from a wild cocoa-tree called Tarrie. Hence to Surat is three coss, being the close of the itinerary of Nicolas Ufflet.

The city of Agra has not been in repute above 50 years,[259] having only been a village till the reign of Akbar, who removed his residence to this place from Futtipoor, as already mentioned, for want of good water. It is now a large city, and populous beyond measure, so that it is very difficult to pass through the streets, which are mostly narrow and dirty, save only the great Bazar and a few others, which are large and handsome. The city is somewhat in the form of a crescent, on the convexity of a bend of the Jumna, being about five coss in length on the land side, and as much along the banks of the river, on which are many goodly houses of the nobles, overlooking the Jumna, which runs with a swift current from N.W. to S.E. to join the Ganges.

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