Travels in India (Tavernier) 138.3

138.3

As for the King and the great nobles, they travel in pallankeens, and have elephants which have been trained for war. The inhabitants of Tipperah are not less troubled by goitre than are those of Bhutan. I was told that it attacked some of the women on the breasts. Of the three men from Tipperah whom I saw in Bengal, the one who was at Dacca had two goitres, each of the size of the fist; they are caused by the bad water, as in many other countries of Asia and Europe. Nothing is produced in Tipperah which is of use to foreigners. There is, however, a gold mine, which yields gold of very low standard; and silk, which is very coarse. It is from these two articles that the King’s revenue is derived. He levies no revenue from his subjects, save that those below the rank, corresponding to that of the nobility of Europe, have to work for him for six days every year either in the gold mine or at the silk. He sends both the gold and silk to be sold in China, and receives silver in return, with which he coins money of the value of 10 sols. He also coins small gold money like the aspres of Turkey, and has two kinds of them, of one of which it takes four to make an écu, and of the other it takes a dozen. This is all I have been able to ascertain concerning a country which has been unknown to us up to the present, but about which we shall hereafter have more information, as also of others which the accounts of travellers have made known to us, all not having been discovered in a day.