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and lofty minarets in the far-famed city of Agra. Thither we 

 marched very early the next morning, and arrived there at day- 

 break on the ninth of May, after a journey of six hundred and 

 thirty-six miles from Sural, performed entirely on horseback, in 

 fifty-five days including halts, at the hottest season of the year. 

 As Sir Charles Malet preferred riding, we followed his example, 

 though we had the option of using his elephants or our own palan- 

 quins. 



The country through which we travelled for several days past 

 has presented a melancholy picture, occasioned by a dreadful 

 famine, which had sadly diminished population, and left the sur- 

 vivors in a state of misery. At Gwalier the whole suburbs were 

 strewed with skeletons ; from thence to Agra the villages were 

 generally uninhabited, and the land become a wilderness from 

 want of cultivation, but our arrival at Agra presented a scene 

 lamentable beyond conception. 



The gloom of the morning veiled the suburbs in a great mea- 

 sure from our observation, and we entered the gates of Agra, or 

 Akber-abad, with the early dawn ; and proceeding through the 

 cpiarter called Momtazabad, beheld on all sides the most melancholy 

 objects of fallen grandeur : mosques, palaces, gardens, caravansa- 

 ries, and mausoleums, mingled in one general ruin. Agra had 

 been the frequent subject of our conversation, we had anticipated 

 much novelty, and expected every comfort at the close of our 

 fatiguing journey. These considerations added to the poignancy 

 of disappointment — instead of the spacious squares and frequented 

 streets of a great capital, it was with difficulty and danger we 

 kept our horses on their feet amidst the magnificent, but terrible 



