'A Journey from Bengal to England, through the Northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia, by the Caspian-Sea. By George Forster. In the Civil Service of the Honourable the East-India Company in Two Volumes. Vol. I.' [‎73] (98/342)

VoL. I.
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againfl
FORSTER’S TRAVELS; 7 j
venue of between feventy and eighty lacks of rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. , but fuch is
the impoverifhed and depopulated Rate of the Vizier’s country,
that it is at this day reduced to a fourth of that amount. Shaiflah
Khan, who was appointed by Aurungzebe to govern the provinces
of Bengal and Bahar after the death of Amir Jumlah,* hath left
many monuments of his liberality in the vicinity of Allahabad.
On an infulated rock in the Jumna, near the city, and at a fmall
diftance from the fouth fliore, he built a lofty apartment, which
is cooled by the refrefhing winds of the river, and commands adif-
tant and wildly diverfified view. A Perfian infcription which I
tranfcribed, fays that Mahomed Shirreef, in the year of the Hegira,
I0 55 >+ finifhed this airy feat of pleafure by order of Shaiftah
Khan.- But from great men and their fplendid works, let me de
fend to more trivial concerns, and to fome account of my private
adventures.
India, you know, hath ever been famed for affording conve «
ment places of accomodation to the traveller, who at the dif.
tance of eight and ten miles, feldom fails meeting with a public
lodging, or a refervoir of water, where he may perform his ablu -
tions, and quench his third:. As the greater part of the inhabi -
tants of India, from a fimplicity of life, and the clement Rate of
their climate, have but few fuperfluous wants; a flight defence
* The officer employed by Aurungzebe to oppofe Sultan Shujah.
f A. D. 1645.