ABSTRACT

[343/1] On the evening 1 of that most blessed day on which the Most Exalted Father of all mercies took human shape and began his work of redeeming [343/2] the human race, that is, on the twenty-fourth of December of the current year, 1640, we reached the mighty City of Agra. [344/1] It stands on a lovely wide plain on the banks of the pleasant Gemana river, which, as being a source of the ancient Ganges and rejoicing in the same attributes, is similarly held to be sacred by that foolish Paganism. 2 Along the bank of this river the City of Agra spreads out in a semicircle. It is twenty-eight degrees and thirty-nine minutes north of the equator. 3 Before 152the Emperor Achabar's day the City had but a small population, but after the capital of his Empire passed to it in 1566 he continued to increase its size and importance until it is today one of the most famous Cities of the East, filling two full leagues in length, its area embracing, according to the commonly accepted opinion, six hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants, excluding the large number of strangers who continually fill ninety Caramossoras and other private houses, which are situated throughout the town. This makes the chief streets so crowded that it is difficult to pass along them.