The Baloches Are Of Great Note On This Account
Among The Mahometans, Being The Inhabitants Of Hjykan, Adjoining To
The
Kingdom of Persia; as also the Patans, taking their denomination
from a province in the kingdom of Bengal.[236] These
Tribes dare look
their enemies in the face, and maintain the reputation of valour at the
hazard of their lives. Among the many sects of the Hindoos, there is but
one race of warriors, called Rashbootes, or Rajaputs, many of whom
subsist by plunder, laying in wait in great troops to surprise poor
passengers, and butchering all who have the misfortune to fall into
their hands. These excepted, all the rest of the natives are in general
pusillanimous, and had rather quarrel than fight, being so poor in
spirit, in comparison with Europeans, that the Mogul often says,
proverbially, That one Portuguese will beat three of them, and one
Englishman three Portuguese.
[Footnote 236: This is a strange mistake, confounding the city of Patna,
in Bengal, in the east of Hindoostan, with the Patans, a race of
mountaineers between Cabul and Candahar, far to the west of India,
called likewise Afgans, and their country Afghanistan. - E.]
In regard to arms for war, they have good ordnance, which, so far as I
could learn, were very anciently used in this country.[237] I have
already described the iron pieces carried on elephants. They have
smaller guns for the use of their foot-soldiers, who are somewhat long
in taking aim, but come as near the mark as any I ever saw.
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