A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
Boorbanpoor; and a third to _Nonsary_,[232] a town ten coss from Surat,
where much calico is manufactured, standing near a fine stream or small
river. About ten coss farther in the same direction is _Gondoree_,
[Gundavee,] and a little further _Belsaca_, [Bulsaur,] the frontier town
towards Damaun. Just without _Nunsary_ gate is a handsome tank of
sixteen sides, surrounded on all sides by stone steps, three quarters
of an English mile in circuit, and having a small house in the middle.
On the farther side of this tank are several fine tombs with a handsome
paved court, behind which is a small grove of Mango trees, to which the
citizens resort to banquet. About half a coss beyond this, is a great
tree much venerated by the Banians, who alledge that it is under the
protection of a _dew_, or guardian spirit, and that although often cut
down and grubbed up from the roots by order of the Moors, it has yet
constantly sprung up again.
[Footnote 230: This depth probably refers to the anchorage below the
bar.--E.]
[Footnote 231: Masulipatam, or, more correctly, Mutshelipatnam, is at
the mouth of the Kistna, on the opposite coast of India.--E.]
[Footnote 232: Nunsary is a small river, with a town of the same name,
16 or 18 miles south of the Taptee.--E.]
Near the castle of Surat is the _Alphandica_, where are stairs down to
the river for landing and shipping goods, and within the alphandica are
store-rooms for keeping goods till they are cleared; the customs being
two and a half per centum for goods, three for provisions, and two for
money. Without the gate of the alphandica is the great _Gondoree_ or
_Bazar_, being the market-place for all kinds of merchandize. Right
before this gate is a tree with an arbour, where the _fokeers_,
[faquiers,] or Indian holy men, sit in state. Between this and the
castle, at the entrance of the green, or _atmeidan_, is the market for
horses and cattle. A little lower, and on the opposite side of the
river, is a pleasant small town named _Ranele_, inhabited by a people
called _Naites_, who speak a different language, and are mostly seamen.
The streets of this town are narrow, with good houses, each of which has
a high flight of steps to its door. The people are very friendly to the
English, and have many pleasant gardens, which attract many to pass much
of their time there. On the trees round this village there are an
infinite number of those great bats we saw at St Augustine in
Madagascar, which hang by their claws from the boughs, and make a shrill
noise. This bird is said by the people to engender by the ear, and to
give suck to their young.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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