ABSTRACT
The rainy season being over, we left Delly on the twenty-third of September, 1714 (twenty-fourth in Freyre’s account), and journeyed northwards. On the ninth of October (eleventh, according to Freyre), we arrived at the famous city of Lahor, capital of the province of Pengiàb [Punjab], or the Five Waters, called thus from the five rivers which eventually flow into the Indus. The fortress near the river was the residence of several Emperors, the last two being Oranzeb and his son Bahdur-Sciah. It is a large and densely populated town with a milder climate than Delly, and several of the Mogol Emperors have occasionally resided there. As various writers have described the city, I shall only mention that in the magnificent garden of the palace I was shown a number of fine white marble statues of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin, Angels, Apostles, and various Saints. These had formerly been set up in good array, but in the reign of Oranzeb, a violent iconoclast as I have already said, they were taken down and hidden away in a room. We were kept nine days in Lahor by some business, during which time we administered the Sacraments to resident Christians who were without a priest, and baptized five neophytes who had received instruction. On the nineteenth we left Lahor, and in a few days, after crossing the river Indus, 14 arrived at the city of Lesser Guzarat, where the immense plain of Mogol ends and the mountains of Caucasus begin. 15 The city is called Lesser Guzarat to distinguish it from the famous city of Amadabad, commonly called Guzarat, or Guzarat the Great.
