Thence I Went To Agra In Twenty-Six Days, Having Travelled The Whole Way From Surat To Agra, Which Is 700 Coss Or 1010 English Miles, In Thirty-Seven Days Of Winter, During Which Time It Rained Almost Continually.

From Surat to Burhanpoor is a pleasant champain country, well watered with rivers, brooks, and springs.

Between Burhanpoor and Agra the country is very mountainous, not passable with a coach, and scarcely to be travelled on camels. The nearest way is by Mando, passing many towns and cities on every day's journey, with many high hills and strong castles, the whole country being well inhabited, very peaceable, and clear of thieves.

Agra is a very large town, its wall being two coss in circuit, the fairest and highest I ever saw, and well replenished with ordnance; the rest of the city being ruinous, except the houses of the nobles, which are pleasantly situated on the river. The ancient royal seat was Fatipoor, twelve coss from Agra, but is now fallen into decay. Between these two is the sepulchre of the king's father, to which nothing I ever saw is comparable: yet the church or mosque of Fatipoor comes near it, both being built according to the rules of architecture. In Agra the Jesuits have a house and a handsome church, built by the Great Mogul, who allows their chief seven rupees a-day, and all the rest three, with licence to convert as many as they can: But alas! these converts were only for the sake of money; for when, by order of the Portuguese, the new converts were deprived of their pay, they brought back their beads again, saying they had been long without pay, and would be Christians no longer.

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