South India and her Muhammadan Invaders c15.s5.4

c15.s5.4

When I arrived at Madura, there was a contagious disease prevalent there which killed people in a short time. Those who were attacked succumbed in two or three days. If their end was delayed, it was only until the fourth day. On leaving my dwelling, I saw people either sick or dead. In this town I bought a young slave who, I was assured, was healthy; but she died the following day. A woman, whose husband had been one of the viziers of the Sultan Ahsan Shah (Ahsan-Shah) came to me one day with her son aged eight years, a child full of spirit, and I gave both her and her son some money. They were both healthy and strong; but the next day the mother returned to ask a shroud for her son, for he died suddenly. In the Sultan’s audience hall, at the time of his death, there were certain women servants brought to boil rice for the people. These women got ill and were thrown on the earth, exposed to the sun’s rays.