After having given a short account of the different coinages and currencies, which is interesting, but of which the various localities are left to the imagination, he writes: -- "The natives of Central India make use of the ballistae,[128] and those machines which we call bombardas, also other warlike implements adapted for besieging cities. "They call us Franks and say, 'While they call other nations blind, that they themselves have two eyes, and that we have but one, because they consider that they excel all others in prudence.'[129] "The inhabitants of Cambay alone use paper; all other Indians write on the leaves of trees. They have a vast number of slaves, and, the debtor who is insolvent is everywhere adjudged to be the property of his creditor. The numbers of these people and nations exceeds belief. Their armies consist of a million men and upwards." Abdur Razzak also visited, the city during the reign of Deva Raya II., but about twenty years later than Conti. He was entrusted with an embassy from Persia, and set out on his mission on January 13, A.D. 1442. At the beginning of November that year he arrived at Calicut, where he resided till the beginning of April 1443. Being there he was summoned to Vijayanagar, travelled thither, and was in the great city from the end of April till the 5th December of the same year. The following passage explains why he left Calicut. "On a sudden a man arrived who brought me the intelligence that the king of Bidjanagar, who holds a powerful empire and a mighty dominion under his sway, had sent him to the Sameri[130] as delegate, charged with a letter in which he desired that he would send on to him the ambassador of His Majesty, the happy Khakhan (I.E. the king of Persia). Although the Sameri is not subject to the laws of the king of Bidjanagar, he nevertheless pays him respect and stands extremely in fear of him, since, if what is said is true, this latter prince has in his dominions three hundred ports, each of which is equal to Calicut, and on TERRA FIRMA his territories comprise a space of three months' journey." In obedience to this request, Abdur Razzak left Calicut by sea and went to Mangalore, "which forms the frontier of the kingdom of Bidjanagar." He stayed there two or three days and then journeyed inland, passing many towns, and amongst them a place where he saw a small but wonderful temple made of bronze. "At length I came to a mountain whose summit reached the skies. Having left this mountain and this forest behind me, I reached a town called Belour,[131] the houses of which were like palaces." Here he saw a temple with exquisite sculpture.