[5] -- Firishtah was a Persian of good family, and was born about 1570 A.D. Early in his life he was taken by his father to India, and resided all his life at the Court of the Nizam Shahs of Ahmadnagar, rejoicing in royal patronage. He appears to have begun to compile his historical works at an early age, since his account of the Bijapur kings was finished in 1596. He appears to have died not long after the year 1611, which is the latest date referred to in any of his writings. [6] -- According to tradition the wealth carried off was something fabulous. See Appendix B. [7] -- It is highly probable that amongst the hills and crags about the upper fortress of Anegundi there may be found remains of a date long prior to the fourteenth century; and it is much to be regretted that up to now no scientific examination of that tract, which lies in the present territories of Haidarabad, has been carried out. Want of leisure always prevented my undertaking any exploration north of the river; but from the heights of Vijayanagar on the south side I often looked wistfully at the long lines of fortification visible on the hills opposite. It is to be hoped that ere long the Government of Madras may place us in possession of a complete map of Vijayanagar and its environs, showing the whole area enclosed by the outermost line of fortifications, and including the outworks and suburbs. Hospett and Anegundi were both part of the great city in its palmy days, and Kampli appears to have been a sort of outpost. [8] -- Nuniz erroneously gives the date as 1230. The error will be commented on hereafter. [9] -- Scott, i. 45, 46. [10] -- Delhi. [11] -- The Portuguese historians often mistook "Cambay" for the name of the country, and "Gujarat" for one of its dependencies. [12] -- SIC. The meaning is doubtful. [13] -- There is evidently a confusion here between tales of the doings of Muhammad Taghlaq and much older legends of Rama's Bridge and his army of monkeys. [14] -- Mallik Naib. (See the chronicle below, pp. 296, 297.) [15] -- "Your honour" was probably the historian Barros (see preface). [16] -- Sheik Ismail's power in Persia dates from early in the sixteenth century. Duarte Barbosa, who was in India in 1514 and wrote in 1516, mentions him as contemporary. He had subjugated Eastern Persia by that time and founded the Shiah religion. Barbosa writes: "He is a Moor and a young man," and states that he was not of royal lineage (Hakluyt edit. p. 38). Nuniz was thus guilty of an anachronism, but he describes Persia as he knew it. [17] -- "Chronicle of the Pathan Kings of Delhi," by Edward Thomas, p. 200. [18] -- Firishtah (Briggs, i. 413). [19] -- Elphinstone, "History of India," ii. 62. [20] -- Lee's translation, p. 144. [21] -- Sir H. Elliot's "History of India," iii. 215.