'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎91] (762/1024)

Cities of Indoftan.
no Man wi count rafcaliy or beggerly People > whereas inDehli^ for two or three
Perfons that are pretty well covered, you (hall always find feven or eight poor and rag*
ged People i the Army which is there drawing after it all that crew of Beggers and
Rafcals. Yet this is to be acknowledged for a truth, that in as well as in Paris
one meets with a very great quantity of Perfons well made, gallant, well mounted’
well dreiied, and w^ell attended. And indeed,to be upon the great Place before the Fortrefs
af the hours when all thofe Omrahs, Rajas, and Manfeb-dars go to the AlTembly and
to the Guard, that hath fomething, great and fpiendid in it: when you lliall fee there
every where arrive thofe Manfeb-dars well accoutred, {Lining with Gold, and well
mounted, a couple of Men going before them to make place, and as many behind } when
you fhall alfo fee many of thofe great Omrabs 2nd Rajas riding upon proud Elephants
and feme of them on Horfe-back like the Manfeb-dars, and moil of them fitting in their
rich Paletys, carried upon the {boulders of fix men, their back leaning againft fome thick
Cufhion of purfled Gold, chewing their Petek, to have a good breath and vermilion
lips, with a Servant on the fide carrying a Tooth-pick, and a Porcelain or filver Spit
ting-Veflel i and two more, fanning him and keeping off the flies and duft from him
with Peacocks-tails j and three or four others marching before to put by the People i to
which is to be added part of their Gavalry fl mean the braveft and beft mounted ©f
them ) following after : When, I fay, all this is feen together marching, as hath been
faid, with the crowd made there as well as at Paris, it will not be denied to be fome
thing great and very gallant.
As to the Country about Vebli, it is confiderable for its fertility * for it beareth Rice,
Millet, and three or four other forts of Legumes, f which is the ordinary food of the
common People ) Corn, Sugar, Indigo, and all that in abundance. At two leagues
off the City on Agra's fide, in a place by the Mahumetans called Koja Kotubeddine,xhcxo
is a very antient Edifice which hath been a Temple of Idols, where are Infcriptions that
muft alfb be very antient, the Charadrers of them being fuch that no body knows what
they are, and different from thofe of all the Languages of the Indies,
On another fide, at two or three leagues diftance from the Town, you fee an Houfe
of pleafure of the Kings, which indeed is a ftately and Royal Houfe, but yet you muft
oot think it approach to Fontain-bleau, or to St. Germain, or to Verfaille. Neither muft
you imagine that in this Gampagne of Vehli there are any St. Cloux, Chantilly's,Meudons,
Liancours, Vaux, Ritelles, and many fuch others ; or that you fee there any of thofe 0-
ther inferior Houfes of pleafurebelonging to fimple Gentlemen, Citizens and Merchants.
The Maxime, That the Subjedfs of a Kingdom have no propriety in any thing hinders
aU that.
Laftly, to make you pafs quickly thefe fifty or fixty leagues, which are betwixt Dehli
and Agra, you are not to think, that upon this road you {hall fee any fuch large and rich
burroughs as there upon our roads. Set afide Maturas, where you fee ftill an antient
and ftately Temple of Idols, and excepting fome Karavan-farrahs , that are well
enough, found on the high-way to fervefor night-lpdgings, I find nothing confiderable
there, but that Royal Alley of Trees planted by the command of Jehan-Guire, and
continued by the fame order for an hundred and fifty leagues, with little Pyramids or
Turrets exeded every half league, to mark the ways, and with frequent wells tb
afford drink to Paffengers, and to water the young Trees.
or A Ci R A. ,
T O pafs to the defeription of Agra, you have the Idea of it, if you have well taken
thatofMtf/A at leaft in refpedfc of its feituation, which is alfo upon the Gemma,
and in regard of the Fortrefs, or Royal Houfe, andofmoftof the Buildings. It
true, that Agra hath this advantage over Vehli, that being a City where the Kings have
already refided a long while, viz. fince Akber, who caufed it to be built, and called it
after his name Ahfer-abad, it is of greater extent then Dehli, and hath more of thofe
fine Houfes of the Omrahs 2nd Rajas, and more of the hixKarvanfarrahs , as alfo more
pretty Houfes ofStone and Brick belonging to particular Perfons i befides that
it hath two famous Tombs, of which I {hall fpeak hereafter : But then it. hath thefe
pifadvantages, that it wants Walls •, that having been built altogether by one defign,
it hath not thofe fair and large Streets of uniform buildings as Dehli j and that excepting
four or five~cf thofe principal Streets of Merchants, which are very long and well
N enough