- E.]

Sec. 5.

Description of Futtipoor, Biana, &c.; of Nill, or Indigo; and of other Matters.

The 1st of November I was sent to Biana to buy nill, or indigo. I lodged the first night at Menhapoor, a great serai or public inn, seven c. from Agra, near which the queenmother has a garden, and Moholl, or summer-house, very curiously contrived. The 2d I halted at Kanowa, or Kanua, eleven c. At every coss from Agra to Ajmeer, 130 coss, there is erected a stone pillar, owing to the following circumstance. At Ajmeer is the tomb of a celebrated Mahometan saint, called Haji Mondee; and as Akbar had no children, he made a pilgrimage on foot to that famous shrine, ordering a stone pillar to be erected at every coss, and a Moholl, with lodgings for sixteen of his principal women, at the end of every eight coss; and after his return he had three sons.

At twelve coss from Agra, on this road, is the famous city of Futtipoor, built by Akbar, and inclosed by a fair stone wall, still quite fresh, having four great gates, some three English miles between each. Within the walls, the whole extent of the city lies waste like a desert and uninhabited, being very dangerous to pass through in the night time. Much of the ground is now occupied as gardens, and much of it is sown with nill, or different kinds of grain, so that, one could hardly suppose he were in the middle of what was so lately a great and populous city.

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