The Same Is Related By Strabo
Concerning The Inhabitants Of Arabia Felix.
Agra is a very great city,
but in every respect much inferior to Lahore.
Here the Mogul used always
to keep his court, till within these two years.
From Agra I went in ten days to the Mogul's court, at a town called
Asmere, [Ajimeer,] where I found an English. Cape merchant with nine
more of our countrymen, residing there in the way of trade for our East
India Company. In. my journey from Jerusalem to the court of the Great
Mogul, I spent fifteen months and some days, travelling all the way
a-foot, having been so great a propatetic, or walker forwards on foot,
as I doubt if you ever heard of the like; for the whole way, from
Jerusalem to Ajimeer, contains 2700 English miles. My whole
perambulation of the greater Asia is likely to extend almost to 6000
miles, by the time I have returned back through Persia, by Babylon and
Nineveh to Cairo in Egypt, and thence down the Nile to Alexandria, when
I propose, with God's blessing, to embark for Christendom.
The reigning Great Mogul is named Selim.[247] He is fifty-three years of
age, his birth-day having been celebrated with wonderful magnificence
since my arrival. He was that day weighed in a pair of golden scales,
which by great chance I saw that same day, the opposite scale being
filled with as much gold as counterpoised his weight, and this is
afterwards distributed among the poor. This custom is observed every
year. His complexion is of an olive colour, something between white and
black; being of a seemly stature, but somewhat corpulent. His dominions
are very extensive, being about 4000 English miles in circumference,
nearly answerable to the compass of the Turkish territories; or, if the
Mogul kingdom be any way inferior in size to that empire, it is more
than equally endowed with a fertile soil beyond that of any other
country, and in having its territory connected together in one goodly
continent, within which no other prince possesses one single foot of
land. The yearly revenue of the Mogul extends to forty millions of
crowns, of six shillings each, while that of the Turk does not exceed
fifteen millions, as I was credibly informed in Constantinople, nor that
of the Sophy five millions, as I learnt at Ispahan. It is said that the
present Great Mogul is not circumcised, in which he differs from all
other Mahometan sovereigns.
[Footnote 247: He was Sultan Selim before his accession to the throne,
but was afterward known by the new name of Jehunguire. - E.]
The Great Mogul speaks with much revrence of our Saviour, naming him
Hazaret Eesa, that is to say, the Great Prophet Jesus.[248] He
likewise uses all Christians, and especially the English, with more
benevolence than does any other Mahometan prince. He keeps many wild
beasts, such as lions, elephants, leopards, bears, antelopes, and
unicorns, [rhinoceroses,] of which I saw two at his court, the strangest
beasts in the world. They were brought out of Bengal, a kingdom in his
dominions of most wonderful fertility, above four months journey from
this place, the mid-land parts of which are watered by various channels
and branches of the famous river Ganges. I have not yet seen that
country, but mean to visit it, God willing, before my departure, the
nearest part of it being only about twelve days journey from hence.
[Footnote 248: The Persian word Hasaret, here erroneously rendered
Great Prophet, seems to signify literally face or presence, and is
metaphorically used as a term of highest dignity, of which an instance
occurs in the present section, used by Coryat himself in addressing the
Great Mogul - E.]
Twice every week elephants are made to fight before the Mogul, forming
the bravest spectacle that can be imagined, many of them being thirteen
feet and a half in height, and they jostle together as though they were
two little mountains; and were they not separated in the midst of their
fighting, by means of certain fire-works, they would exceedingly hurt
and gore each other, by their murderous tusks. The Mogul is said to keep
30,000 elephants, at a most enormous expence; and in feeding them,
together with his lions and other beasts, he expends an incredible sum
of money, being at the least 10,000 pounds sterling daily. I have myself
rode upon an elephant since I came to this court, meaning in my next
book to have my effigies represented in that form. This king keeps a
thousand women for his own use, the chiefest of whom, called Normal,
(Noormahal) is his queen.
In my ten months journey between Aleppo and this court, I spent just
three pounds sterling, yet fared reasonably every day; victuals being so
cheap in some of the countries through which I travelled, that I often
lived competently for one penny a-day. Of that three pounds, I was
actually cozened out of ten shillings, by certain evil Christians of the
Armenian nation; so that in reality I only expended fifty shillings in
all that time. I have been in a city of this country called
Detee,[249] where Alexander the Great joined battle with Porus king of
India, and defeated him; and where, in memory of his victory, he caused
erect a brazen pillar, which remains there to this day. At this time I
have many irons in the fire, as I am learning the Persian, Turkish, and
Arabic languages, having already acquired the Italian. I have been
already three months at the court of the Great Mogul, and propose, God
willing, to remain here five months longer, till I have got these three
languages; after which I propose to visit the river Ganges, and then to
return to the court of Persia.
[Footnote 249: This is obviously a misprint for Delee, meaning Delhi;
but it is more probable that Alexander never was beyond the Punjab.
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