Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 4.1.3

4.1.3

The maps of Asia point out the mighty extent of the Great Mogol's empire, known commonly by the name of the Indies, or Hindoustan. I have not measured it with mathematical exactness; but judging from the ordinary rate of travel, and considering that it is a journey of three months from the frontier of the kingdom of Golkonda to Kasni, or rather beyond it, near to Kandahar, which is the first town in Persia, the distance between those two extreme points cannot be less than five hundred French leagues, or five times as far as from Paris to Lyons. It is important to observe, that of this vast tract of country, a large portion is extremely fertile; the large kingdom of Bengale, for instance, surpassing Egypt itself, not only in the production of rice, corn, and other necessaries of life, but of innumerable articles of commerce which are not cultivated in Egypt; such as silks, cotton, and indigo. There are also many parts of the Indies, where the population is sufficiently abundant, and the land pretty well tilled; and where the artisan, although naturally indolent, is yet compelled by necessity or otherwise to employ himself in manufacturing carpets, brocades, embroideries, gold and silver cloths, and the various sorts of silk and cotton goods, which are used in the country or exported abroad. It should not escape notice that gold and silver, after circulating in every other quarter of the globe, come at length to be swallowed up, lost in some measure, in Hindoustan.