Storia do Mogor 237.1

237.1

In this province are the diamond mines. A quantity of printed cloth is made, and these goods are the best to be found in India. They also make a great deal of white cloth, coarse and fine. Iron is abundant. The garrison kept there is of about twenty thousand horse, although the king pays for sixty thousand, since the Karnatik has been annexed. But the officers make a profit out of the difference, and embezzle without any fear. The capital of the province lies at nineteen degrees forty minutes of latitude, and at one hundred and twenty-four degrees forty minutes of longitude. Money is coined in every one of the provinces spoken of above. In Gulkandah, of which I have just been speaking, is a district called Bezoar (? Baizwada), near the country of Chanda. In that part goats are very numerous, and in them grow the bezoar stones. It is from this place that the stones take their name. It is found that these stones grow in the small intestines of the goat, and the goat-herds who tend them are aware of how many there are in each goat, and the weight of each. As for the latitudes and longitudes of the above places, as recorded by me, they are founded on the calculations and estimates of the astronomers in this country. They have a great reputation for strict exactness.