In which an account is given of the land and sea forces of the Great Mogol and of his innumerable cavalry

[404/1] I have already dealt with the political, civil, and military government of this great monarch. It will now be necessary for me to describe, for the curious Reader, those military forces in which his greatest strength lies. So great is their number that I should not dare to enumerate them, especially as a few months ago I saw the great astonishment caused in certain minds by a statement in an account published under my name at this Court of Rome ¹ that this very monarch of whom we are treating placed an army of 400,000 horse in the field when he attacked the kingdoms of the Deccan and Idal Kan. ² But I have no intention of relying solely on their opinions [404/2] and views, but on the incontrovertible statements of the Portuguese authors who wrote upon this subject, statements which were afterwards confirmed by several European writers. I rely above all upon the books in the Royal Nacassares, which are the homes in which are deposited the income and annual tributes of that Ruler. One of these is situated, as I heard, in every city which forms the head of a Principality or Province.