Sec.6. Sir Thomas Roe follows the Progress of the Court, and describes the King’s Leskar, and some Places through which he passed; with instances of the King’s Superstition and Drunkenness, and some curious Incidents respecting a Present.

The 25th of November I removed four cosses from Agimere, but waited during the remainder of that month, for the arrival of a caravan, going from Agra to Surat, by which I might transmit my papers in safety.  The caravan departed from Agimere at midnight of the 30th November:  and on the 1st December I went six cosses to Ramsor, where the king had left the naked bodies of an hundred men, put to death for robbery.  The 2d I travelled seven c.  I rested the 3d, because of rain.  The 4th I went five c. and this day I overtook a camel, laden with 300 heads, sent from Candahar to the king, the people to whom these heads had belonged having been in rebellion.  Travelling five c. on the 5th, and four c. on the 6th, I that day overtook the king at a walled town called Todah, in the best and most populous country I had seen in India since I landed.  The district was quite level, having a fertile soil, abounding in corn, cotton, and cattle, and the villages were so numerous and near together, as hardly to exceed a coss from each other in any direction.  This town was the best built of any I had seen in India, many of the houses being two stories high, and most of them good enough for decent shop-keepers, all covered with tiles.  It had been the residence of a Rajput rajah, before the conquests of Akbar Shah, and stood at the foot of a great and strong rock, about which were many excellent works of hewn stone, well cut, with many tanks, arched over with well-turned vaults, and large and deep descents to them.  Near it was a beautiful grove, two miles long and a quarter of a mile broad, all planted with mangoes, tamarinds, and other fruit-trees, divided by shady walks, and interspersed with little temples, and idol altars, with many fountains, wells, and summer-houses of carved stone curiously arched, so that I must confess a poor banished Englishman might have been content to dwell here.  But this observation may serve universally for the whole of this country, that ruin and devastation operates every where; for, since the property of all has become vested in the king, no person takes care of any thing, so that in every place the spoil and devastations of war appear, and no where is any thing repaired.

On the 7th the king only removed from one side of Todah to the other.  The 8th I was at the guzalcan, but found the king so nearly drunk, that he became entirely so in half an hour, so that I could not have any business with him.  The 9th I took a view of the royal leskar, or camp, which is one of the greatest wonders I had ever seen, and chiefly as I saw it finished and set up in less than four hours, all except the tents of some of the great men, who have double suits.  It could not well be less