This Is An Extensive And Rich City, Compassed About With A
Strong Stone-Wall, And Entered By Twelve Handsome Gates.
Both in their
towns and villages, they have usually many fair trees among the houses,
being a great defence against the violence of the sun.
These trees are
commonly so numerous and thick, that a city or town, when seen at a
distance from some commanding eminence, seems a wood or thicket.
The staple commodities of this empire are indigo and cotton. To produce
cotton, they sow seeds, which grow up into bushes like our rose-trees.
These produce first a yellow blossom, which falls off, and leaves a pod
about the size of a man's thumb, in which the substance at first is
moist and yellow. As this ripens, it swells larger, till at length it
bursts the covering, the cotton being then as white as snow. It is then
gathered. These shrubs continue to bear for three or four years, when
they have to be rooted out, and new ones substituted. Of this vegetable
wool, or cotton, they fabricate various kinds of pure white cloth, some
of which I have seen as fine as our best lawns, if not finer. Some of
the coarser sorts they dye in various colours, or stain with a variety
of curious figures.
The ships that go usually from Surat to Mokha, are of exceeding great
burden, some of them, as I believe, exceeding 1400 or 1600 tons; but
they are ill built, and though they have good ordnance, they are unable
for any defence. In these ships there are yearly a vast number of
passengers: As, for instance, in that year in which we left India, there
came 1700 persons, most of whom went not for profit, but out of
devotion, to visit the sepulchre of Mahomet at Medina near Mecca, about
150 leagues from Mokha. Those who have been upon this pilgrimage are
ever after called hoggeis, [hajim] or holy men. This ship, from
Surat for the Red Sea, begins her voyage about the 20th of March and
returns to Surat about the end of September following. The voyage is
short, and might easily be made in two months; but during the long
season of the rains, and a little before and after, the winds are mostly
so violent that there is no putting to sea without extreme hazard. The
cargo of this ship, on its return, is usually worth L200,000 sterling,
mostly in gold and silver. Besides this, and the quantities of money
which come yearly out of Europe, which I do not pretend to calculate,
many streams of silver flow continually thither, and there abide. It is
lawful for all to bring in silver, and to carry away commodities, but it
is a capital crime to carry away any great sums.
All the coin or bullion that comes to this country is presently melted
down and refined, and coined with the stamp of the Mogul, being his name
and title in Persian characters.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 332 of 474
Words from 173040 to 173544
of 247546
