Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 5.8.4

5.8.4

Before I quit the subject of Dehli, I will answer by anticipation a question which I am sensible you wish to ask, namely, What is the extent of the population of that city, and the number of its respectable inhabitants, as compared with the capital of France? When I consider that Paris consists of three or four cities piled upon one another, all of them containing numerous apartments, filled, for the most part, from top to bottom, that the streets are thronged with men and women, on foot and horseback; with carts, chaises, and coaches; and that there are very few large squares, courts, or gardens; reflecting, I say, upon all these facts, Paris appears to me the nursery of the world, and I can scarcely persuade myself that Dehli contains an equal number of people. On the other hand, if we take a review of this metropolis of the Indies, and observe its vast extent and its numberless shops; if we recollect that, besides the Omrahs, the city never contains less than thirty-five thousand troopers, nearly all of whom have wives, children, and a great number of servants, who, as well as their masters, reside in separate houses; that there is no house, by whomsoever inhabited, which does not swarm with women and children; that during the hours when the abatement of the heat permits the inhabitants to walk abroad, the streets are crowded with people, although many of those streets are very wide, and, excepting a few carts, unincumbered with wheel carriages;