tmei 
i 
In the Province of Baltabat are. bred the moil .adlive 
Tumblers in the World, who do all the Tricks of ours in 
Europe ,. and many more ; they are as iupple as an Eel, 
and will turn their whole Body into a Bowl, which others 
may roll about with their Elands ; but the moil adlive are 
Girls, in the Province of Chitanagar, which is di verbified 
with TTills and Plains. The Hills afford Iron, of which, 
at the Town of Indelvarchicly, the People make a great 
many Swords, Daggers, and Lances, which are 1 vended all 
over the Indies . All the Plains are good Ground, Tome 
fowed with Rice, arid the fell planted with Cotton Trees, 
Tamarinds, Warrs, Cadjours, Manguires, Quiefari,. and 
others, and all watered with feveral Rivers, which turri 
and wind every Way "with fair Tanques, out of which they 
draw the Wafer with Oxen ; but thdfe Parts are mitch 
troubled with Thunder, Lightning, Whirl- winds, Rain, 
and Hail-ftones, as big "as Pullets Eggs. . -*v. 
In the Province of Bengal as there are many G entil'ei, 16 
there are none more fuperflitious than they. They haEc 
abundance of Pagods, with Figures of Monfters, which caff 
excite nothing but Horror inftead of Devotion, unlels in 
filch deluded Souls. They uie frequent Wafhings ; for 
Men, Women, and Children, as foom as they are out of 
their Beds in the Morning, go to the Rif hr to wafh, and 
the Rich have Water brought them, and fo again as often as 
they eat. Women, who have loft their Huibands, are con- 
ducted to the River by their Friends that comfort them, 
to #afh, and fo are Women as foon as they were brought to 
Bed ; for in no Country are Women fo eafily delivered as 
here. They will eat nothing but what is dreffed by them- 
felves, or their own Call or Tribe, and buy all their Food 
oh the Banyans. They drink nothing but Water, wherein 
they; put Tea or Coffee, nor ufe any Diihes, but Leaves 
of Trees, for fear any Perfon of another Religion fhould 
have eaten out of it. Tliey eat no Flefti, except it be on 1 
a certain Day of the Year, and that very privately { but the 
Rajhpoots eat any Fifh, or Fleih, except the Cow; they ufe 
Failing very much, their ordinary Fail is twenty-four 
Hours ; and there are a great many that- will faff, efpe- 
cially Women, fix or feven Days, and fome will faff a 
Month, eating no more than a Handful of Rice a Day, and 
others will eat nothing at all, only drink Water, in which 
the Root of Criata has been boiled, which is good for many 
Diftempers, and ftrengthens the Stomach. When the Fail 
is at an End, the Bramin goes with a Drum to the Houfe 
of the Penitent, and gives him or her Leave to eat. Laftly, 
in the Province of Baglana^nd alfo the People on the Sea- 
Coaftj-who are much given to Sea-faring ; the Gentiles offer 
many : Sacrifices to the Sea,- efpecially when any of their 
Relations are abroad upon a Voyage. The: manner of fa- 
crificing is thus : They make a Veffel of Straw about three. 
Foot long, and cover it with a Veil, and carry it down to 
the Shore, with a Bafket or two of Meat and Fruits, there 
they throw it into the Sea, and having made fome Prayers, 
leave the Bafket on Shore, that the Poor' and others may 
come and eat what it contains. 
At the End alfo of September, when the Sea, after 
the tempeftuous Seafon from May becomes again na- 
vigable, they offer another Sacrifice, but with no great 
Ceremonies ; for they only throw Cocoa-nuts into the Sea, 
and every one throws one, the Boys plunging themfelves 
into the Sea to catch them, and ihewing many Tricks in 
the Water, which are pleafant to behold. In this Province 
the Indians marry their Children- Very young, and make 
them cohabit looner than in any other Part of fhei Indies ; 
they' rnarry- Them at four, five, and fix Years old, and fuf- 
fer them to bed together when the Boy is ten, and the Girl 
eight; but they leave bearing by -thirty, arid grow ex - 
treamly lull oi Wrinkles and therefore in 'fome Parts of 
the Indies they do Tot .marry 'till fourteen Years, of Age. 
The-' WOmen ar'e very fruitful, becaufe they live very fru- 
gally, as well as 'their Huibands, and their Children are 
giit up very eafily. ' Thby go naked till they are about 
are 
feven Years old,’ and' when they are about two. Or three 
Months old theRlet them 'crawl about till they are able to 
go, : hhd'Wi:““ H.t- - , -. . . .--a v. , , 
come to b’e 
’ Or' Stays'; 
go, ;antl wiieri tbey/are dirty, they wafh't hem, and To they 
as ftrait as oiifsi witHour the ' Torture of fiwad- 
1 5. Bengal is one of the moil fruhy Countries in thl 
World, fuperior . even to' Egypf ItfelF It bears Rice iafuch 
abundance, that it not only ftirnifhes its Neighbours, biff 
very remote Countries, fuch ^Ceylon, ■mdlheMaldwesl 
it. abounds Jo. m Sugar, that it ^fupplies the' Kingdom of 
Golc'onda with it, as alifq Jjrabipi^ £nd Rrlejopoianita, by the 
Way of Mocha and Baffin ] m^Perfta, itfelf; by Bandera- 
bqffi. The Borgugueze . make ' excellent Sweet-nRats here. 
With; which they drive a, great Trade, ; and" the People pre- 
ferve and;. candy ' Pome-Citrons y a : Rooc which is long, like 
SarfaparillR very delicate. Ambafs, , Anana’s, Mobalan.si 
Lemons 'and Ginger, great Quantities of which are knt to 
us in Europe, , It is, true, Jt.doesfnot produce, .much Corn, 
becaijfe the People feed To much upon Rice.; ; but it pro- 
duces iiiffcient for their ..life, ./Jnci to accommodate the 
Ships of Europe with excellent Bifcuits very ' cheap ; three 
of four forts of PulL, which, ; -togctiier with..' Rice and. 
Butt A,' are the ufual Food qf the poor People, are there to 
be " had almoft for nothing’; for a Rupee, which is about 
half a Crown,' you may. buy . twenty good Pullets, and 
more, and.. Geefe, and Ducks, in .Proportion. Kids and' 
Sheep are -very plentiful ; and there is TucJV Store of Pork; 
that the Pbrtugueze live off nothing elfealmoft, and the 
Englijh and Du/ch vidtual their “Ships with it. There is alfo 
Plenty of all forts of Fifh, both in the frefh and fait Wa- 
ter, and -Want* of nothing ; for this Reafon, together with 
the Liberty that all Men enjoy for ; the Exercile offtheir 
Religion there, all the Chriftians are Fed thither -from all 
Ports taken by the Butch • To that in Agonli,. ’tis Tud, there 
are eight or nine thoufand Chriftians, and in other Parts of 
the Kingdom above twenty-five thoufand more ; it is.: the' 
general Magazine. for Cotton Cloths, and Silks, not only 
for Indojtan, but all the neighbouring Kingdoms, and Eu- 
rope itfelf. 
The Hollanders tranfport vafl Quantities of both, fome 
fine, and" others coarfe, both dyed and white into Japan, 
Europe , and pther Places, befides what the Poriugueze, 
Englijh, and other Merchants' fell eife where : .’Tis true, the 
Silks .are not fo fine as thofe of Perfia, Syria , Said ' and 
Bampl ; but then they are cheaper, and very good of their 
Price. Saltpetre is found in luch Quantities in this Coun- 
try, that the Englijh and Butch load whole Ships full to 
carry it to many Places of the Indies, and into Europe. 
From Bengal alfo there comes Lac, Opium, Wax, Civet, 
and Long- Pepper; and even their Butter is tranfported 
into other Places. The Air, indeed, is not over healthy, 
efpecially near the Sea for Strangers, fo that of the Englijh 
and Dutch many of them died at their firft corning there; but 
now by reftraining their Intemperances, and ufing a little 
Bourdeaux Wine, Canary, or Shiras, they preferve them- 
felves tollerably healthy among them. The whole Coun- 
try is well watered by Channels cut out of the River 
Ganges, which contributes as much to their Commerce as 
Plenty ; it is well peopled, and has abundance of Villages 
full of Gentiles , and the Fields produce, befides Sugar, Rice, 
Corn, and Pulfe abovementioned, Sefamum for Oil, final! 
Mulberries to feed Silk- worms, Anana’s, and other Fruit- 
bearing Trees. In the Ganges alfo are many other fruitful 
Ifles covered with continual Verdure ; but towards the 
Mouth Tome of them are abandoned, became they were 
much infefied by the Corjairs and the Franks of Racon % 
fo that they have no other Inhabitants butTygers, Gazala’s, 
Hogs, and Poultry. Nature in this Country produces 
Miracles, as they Fern to us far diftant. It is not uncom- 
mon in rainy Seafons to fee Rainbows of the Mobn in the 
Night, when the Moon is at the full, and in fome calm 
Seafons the Bufhes will be covered fo thick with little fling- 
ing Flies, chat they feem all on Fire, and there arife fright- 
ful Flames in great Globes, which the ignorant look upon 
as Devils. 
16. The Kingdom of Bout an is of a large Extent, and 
it is hard to come to a perfedi Knowledge of it, the Mer- 
chants that trade from thence into the Indies being able to 
give but a very imperfedl Account of it. The Caravan is 
three Months travelling to Batura, fetting out at the End 
of December, and in eight Days arriving at Gorrochepour, 
which is the lail Town in the Great Mogul’s Dominions ; 
and there is a heavy Cuftom of 25L per Cent, impofed 
upon 
