stle of Doolpoor is very strong, having
four walls within each other, with steep ascents to each, the outermost
having a deep and broad ditch. This castle is three quarters of a mile
through, and has similar walls and gates to be passed on going out Its
inhabitants are mostly Gentiles. The 3d April we went to _Jahjaw_, nine
c. and next day other nine c. to _Agra_. In the afternoon the captain
carried me before the king, where I found Mr Thomas Boys, three French
soldiers, a Dutch engineer, and a Venetian merchant, with his son and
servant, all newly come by land from Christendom.

In May and part of June, the city of Agra was much distressed with
frequent fires by day and night, some part or other of the city being
almost ever burning, by which many thousand houses were consumed, with
great numbers of men, women, children, and cattle, so that we feared the
judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah had gone forth against the place. I was
long and dangerously ill of a fever, and in June the heat was so
excessive that we thought to have been broiled alive. The 28th June
arrived _Padre Peneiro_, an arch knave, a jesuit I should say, who
brought letters from the Portuguese viceroy with many rich presents,
tending entirely to thwart our affairs. In this time Mucrob Khan[240]
was complained against to the king by our captain, Mr Hawkins, when
Abdal Hassan, the grand vizier, was ordered to see that we had justice:
But birds of a feather flock together, and Mucrob Khan, partly by
misstatements and partly by turning us over to a bankrupt banyan, would
only pay us with 11,000 mamudies instead of 32,501-1/2 which he was due,
and even that was not paid for a long time.

[Footnote 240: Finch uniformly calls this person _Mo. Bowcan_, but we
have substituted the name previously given him by Hawkins.--E.]

In July news came of the bad fortune of the king's army in the Deccan;
which, when within four days march of Aumednagur, hoping to raise the
siege of that place, was obliged by famine and drought to retreat to
Boorhanpoor, on which the garrison was forced to surrender after
enduring much misery. The royal army in the Deccan consisted of at least
100,000 horse, with an infinite number of elephants and camels; so that,
including servants, people belonging to the baggage, and camp followers
of all kinds, there could not be less than half a million, or 600,000
persons in the field. The water in the country where they were, became
quite insufficien