200,000 men at a river side in the neighbourhood, where he remained fourteen months, at the end of which a peace was concluded.  It was reported in Goa that a great mortality prevailed in his army during the winter, which also killed many of his elephants.  When I went in 1567 from Goa to Bezenegur or Bijanagur, the capital city of the kingdom of Narsinga, eight days journey inland from Goa[134], I travelled in company with two other merchants, who carried with them 300 Arabian horses for sale to that king; the horses of the country being of small stature, occasioning Arabian horses to sell at high prices in that part of India.  Indeed it is necessary that the merchants should get good prices, as they are at great charges in bringing them from Persia to Ormuz and thence to Goa.  At going out of Goa, 42 pagodas are paid of duty for each horse; the pagoda being a small gold coin worth about 6s. 8d. sterling.  In the inland country of Narsinga, the Arabian horses sell for 300, 400, and 500 ducats each, and some very superior horses sell as high as 1000 ducats.

[Footnote 133:  About 175, N.E. from Goa.  In the original it is called Bisapor.—­E.]

[Footnote 134:  The ruins of the royal city of Bijanagur are 190 English miles nearly due east from Goa.—­E.]

SECTION VIII.

Of the City of Bijanagur.

In the year 1565, the city of Bijanagur was sacked by four Moorish kings of great power:  Adel-Khan, Nizam-al-Mulk, Cotub-al-Mulk, and Viriday-Khan; yet with all their power they were unable to overcome this city and its king but by means of treachery.  The king of Bijanagur was a Gentile, and among the captains of his numerous army had two famous Moors, each of whom commanded over seventy or eighty thousand men.  These two captains being of the same religion with the four Moorish kings, treacherously combined with them to betray their own sovereign.  Accordingly, when the king of Bijanagur, despising the power of his enemies, boldly faced them in the field, the battle had scarcely lasted four hours, when the two treacherous captains, in the very heat of the battle, turned with their followers against their own sovereign, and threw his army into such disorder that it broke and fled in the utmost confusion.

This kingdom of Bijanagur had been governed for thirty years by the usurpation of three brothers, keeping the lawful king a state prisoner, and ruling according to their own pleasure, shewing the king only once a year to his subjects.  They had been principal officers under the father of the king whom they now held a prisoner, who was very young when his father died, and they assumed the government.  The eldest brother was called Ram rajah, who sat in the royal throne and was called king; the second was named Temi rajah, who held charge of the civil government of the country; and the third, Bengatre, was