Hamilton’s account of the east indies.

3 ^

governors of towns and villages in mind of the contract, come in great numbers, andplunder, or lay them under contribution.

But whilft this rabble army lay before the town, the citizens built fconees in con-venient places, about half a mile without the wall, to protect the fuburbs, and all thole-fconces had cannon mounted on them, which kept the Gennims at a diftance y and*after the fconees were finilhed, they built a good high wall between each fconce, thatencompaffed the whole fuburbs, which wall is about five miles in length from the bankof the river above the town, to. that part that terminates below the town j and all theinclofure is well inhabited. The inhabitants are computed at 200,000 fouls,, andamongfl them are many very rich, both Mahometans and Gentiles. Abdul Gafour, aMahometan that I was acquainted with, drove a trade equal to the Englifh Eaft IndiaCompany, for I have known him fit out in a year, above twenty fail of fhips, between300 and 800 tons, and none of them had lefs of his own flock than lo.oooh and fomeof them had 25,000k ; and, after that foreign flock was fent away, he behoved to have-as much more of an inland flock for the following year’s market. When he died, heleft his eftate to two grandl'ons, his own fon, who was his only child, dying beforehim. But the court had a fling at them, and got above a million flerling of theireflate.

The trade of Surat was, and flill is very confiderable, for, from anno 1690, to 1705,,the revenues ariling from the cuflom-houle, land rents, and poll money, communibus;annis, came to 1,300,000 rupees, which is flerling 162,500k And the revenue ofAmadabant is generally reckoned ten times as much as Surat . Tire cufloms in theKing’s books are but 2 per cent, for Mahometans, and 5 per cent, for Gentiles..The land pays three quarters of its product in corn, and the poll about a. cr'ov/n a head jbut the rich generally aflifl the poor, fome paying for ten, fome for 100, and fome for1000. This account I had from an officer, called the Vaccanaviece, who is obligedyearly to take in the accounts of the collections, and fend them to court. Befides thecurrent news that monthly occur in his diftrict, he fends to the vizier by poll..

The poll in the Mogul’s dominions goes very fwift,. for at every caravanieray,. whichare built on the high-roads, about ten miles diflant from one another, men, very fwiftof foot, are kept ready. The letters are inclofed in a gilded box, which he that car-ries holds over his head when he comes near the Seray, and giving notice of his ar-rival, another takes it, and runs to the next, and fo on, night and day, at five or fixmiles in an hour, till it is carried where directed to, fo that in eight days, advices arebrought from the farthefl parts of that large empire, to court. And thofe couriersare called Dog Chouckies.

In the city of Surat there are as many different religions as in Amflerdam. That bylaw eflablifhed, is Mahometan, of Mali’s feet, and they are called Moors. Then thereare Perfians and Turks, and fome called Mufey, who obferve Mofes’s law as well as-the Alcoran, and another fe£t, called Molacks, who obferve fome ancient heathenifh-cufloms and feafls; but all the others reckon them hereticks. They have a yearlyfeafl, but the time of its celebration is only known to themfelves, wherein, after muchmirth and jollity, each fex withdraw to a room. The women take each an handker-chief, (or fome'fuch fign that may be again known) and go in the dark promifcuouflyamong the men, and, without fpeaking, lie down together on mats or carpets fpread.for that purpofe, and enjoy one another’s company fome hours, then withdraw to their»wn room, leaving their fignals with their bedfellows, who know whom, they havebeen careffed by ; but very 'often they find inceftuous -embraces, which at that feaflsyre only lawful. Aurengzeb made it death to be found at thofe meetings, yet that

S>. execrable