manners, and a most sincere Christian, of unspotted life and
conversation.

On the 20th and the night before, there fell a vast storm of rain,
called in this country the _elephant_, owing to which such prodigious
streams of water flowed into the great tank, the head of which is of
stone and apparently of great strength, that it gave way in one place,
causing a sudden alarm that the whole fabric would give way and drown
all that part of the town in which I dwelt. Insomuch that the prince and
all his women forsook their house, and my nearest neighbour carried off
his goods and his wife to the skirts of the hills on his elephants and
camels. All persons had their horses ready at their doors, that they
might save their lives by flight in case of necessity. We were in the
utmost consternation, and sat up till midnight, having no alternative,
as we thought, but to flee ourselves and abandon all our goods, for it
was reported that the water would rise three feet higher than the top of
our house, and carry all away, being only a slight mud building. The
foot of the tank was level with our dwelling, and the water was of great
extent and very deep, so that the surface of the water stood
considerably higher than the top of my house, which stood in a hollow,
in the very course of the water, and where every ordinary heavy rain
occasioned such a current at my door as to be for some hours impassable
by man or horse. But the king caused a sluice to be cut during the
night, to conduct the water by another course, so that we were freed
from the extreme danger; yet the excessive rain had washed down a
considerable part of the walls of my house, and so weakened it by
breaches in different parts, that I now feared its falling down, as much
as I had dreaded its being swept away by the flood. It was every where
so bemired with dirt and water, that I could hardly find a place in
which to sit or lie dry, and was forced to be at material charges in
having it repaired. Thus were we every way afflicted, by fires, smoke,
floods, storms, heats, dust, and flies, and had no season of temperate
air and quietness.

On the 27th, I received advice from Surat, that the Dutch had obtained
permission to land their goods, and to secure them in a warehouse at
that place, carrying on trade till the pleasure of the prince were
known, and under condition that they should depart at the first warning.

The king went to _Havar Gemal_ on the 29th, whence he employ