ese reinforcements were said to be 30,000 horse, but the
actual musters were not so numerous. Water was sometimes very scarce in
camp, and provisions grew daily scarcer and dearer, the part of the
country in which we now were not being well reduced to good government.
Not feeling these distresses, the king took no care to have them
alleviated; and as his khans, or great men, had their provisions brought
after them, they neglected to inform the king. The whole burden fell
upon strangers, the soldiers, and the poor followers of the camp, who
were worst able to endure the hardships. Every alternate day, as
formerly, the king removed his camp, three, four, or five cosses; yet on
the 29th of January, we were still sixty cosses short of Mundu.
On the 3d of February, having left the road of the leskar for my own
ease, and for the benefit of the shade, and while resting me under a
tree, Sultan Cuserou came upon me suddenly, seeking the same
conveniences. This is the king's eldest son, formerly mentioned as in
confinement by the practices of his brother Churrum and his faction, and
taken out of their hands by the king at his leaving Agimere. He was now
riding on an elephant, with no great guard or attendance. His people
called out to me to give place to the prince, which I did, yet I staid
to look at him, and he called on me to approach; and, after asking some
familiar and civil questions, I departed. His person is comely, his
countenance chearful, and his beard hung down as low as his middle. This
I noticed, by his questions, that he seemed quite ignorant of all that
passed at court, insomuch that he had never heard of any English, or of
me their ambassador. The 4th and 5th we continued our march without
halting, and on the 6th at night, we came to a little tower, newly
repaired, where the king pitched his tent in a pleasant place, on the
banks of the river _Sepra_, one coss short of the city of _Ugen_,
[Oojain,] the chief city of Malwa. This place, called _Callenda_, was
anciently a seat of the Gentoo kings of Mundu, one of whom was there
drowned while drunk. He had once before fallen into the river, and was
taken out by the hair of his head, by a person who dived for him. When
he came to himself, it was told him how he had been saved from drowning,
in hopes of having the slave rewarded. He called his deliverer before
him, and asking how he dared to be so bold as to touch his sovereign's
head, caused his hands to be cut off. N
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