Difficultly removed, yet are they very commodiously used,
and discharge enormous stone bullets, some of which have been sent to
the king of Portugal as rarities. The city of _Abnezer[130]_, in which
Nizam-al-Mulk resides, is seven or eight days journey inland from Chaul.
Seventy miles[131] from Chaul toward the Indies, or south, is Dabul, a
haven belonging to Nizam-al-Mulk, from whence to Goa is 150 miles[132].
[Footnote 129: Probably meaning that they were formed of bars hooped or
welded together, in the way in which the famous _Mons meg_, long in
Edinburgh Castle, and now in the tower of London, was certainly
made. - E.]
[Footnote 130: Perhaps that now called Assodnagur in the Mahratta
country, about 125 miles nearly east from Chaul. - E.]
[Footnote 131: In fact only about half that distance. - E.]
[Footnote 132: About 165 English miles - E.]
SECTION VII.
_Of Goa._
Goa, the principal city of the Portuguese in India, in which the viceroy
resides with a splendid court, stands in an island about 25 or 30 miles
in circuit. The city, with its boroughs or suburbs, is moderately large,
and is sufficiently handsome for an Indian city; but the island is very
beautiful, being full of fine gardens, and adorned with many trees,
among which are the _Palmer_, or cocoa-nut trees, formerly mentioned.
Goa trades largely in all kinds of merchandise usual in these parts, and
every year five or six large ships come directly thither from Portugal,
usually arriving about the 6th or 10th of September.
