Travels in India (Tavernier) 14.3.1

14.3.1

From Chitpour to Balambour (Palanpur) . 12 coss. „ Balambour to Dantiuar (Dantawara) 11 „ „ Dantiuar to Bargant (Wungaon ?) . 17 „ Bargant is the territory of a Raja, where one has to pay customs. On one of my journeys to Agra, when passing by Bargant, I did not see the Raja, but only his lieutenant, who treated me with great civility, and presented me with rice, butter, and fruits of the season. In return I gave him three waistbands of calico, gold, and silk, and four handkerchiefs of coloured cotton, and two bottles, one of brandy and the other of Spanish wine. On my departure he ordered me to be escorted for 4 or 5 coss by twenty horsemen. When returning from the same journey I sent before me my heavier goods by waggon, and to shorten the road I purposed to repass by the same route. I had with me sixty Peons or people of the country, and seven or eight attendants who ordinarily waited on me. One evening, being encamped on the frontiers of the territory of the Raja of Bargant, all my Peons assembled about me in order to tell me that by taking the route through Bargant we should run the risk of being all strangled, and that the Prince of that country spared no one, and lived by robbery alone. That at the least, if I did not engage one hundred other Peons, there was no possibility of escaping the hands of the runners, whom he would send from both sides, and that they were obliged, as much for my safety as their own, to give me this advice.