The Great Mogul is one of the richest and most powerful princes in the world, having a most magnificent court, and a numerous army always on foot. The directors at Bengal and Surat know perfectly well how to deal with him, and, by making shewy presents, procure valuable diamonds and other precious stones in return. Surat is a town of no great antiquity, yet very large and immensely rich. It is in compass about five miles within the walls, and is computed to contain about 200,000 inhabitants. The Moorish and even the Indian merchants here are many of them prodigiously rich. The former chiefly addict themselves to the diamond trade, which is very precarious; for sometimes a small stock produces an immense fortune, while at other times, a man wastes immense sums without finding stones of any great value: For, at the diamond-mines, the adventurers purchase so many yards square at a certain price, employing slaves to dig and lift the earth, taking whatever stones are found in that spot; which sometimes are of great value, and sometimes so few and small as not to pay costs. Other Moorish merchants deal largely in foreign trade, and as the Mogul is a very easy master, some of them acquire prodigious wealth, and carry on commerce to such an extent as can scarce be credited in Europe. About twenty years ago, [that is, about the year 1700,] there died a Moorish merchant at Surat, who used yearly to fit out twenty sail of ships, from three to eight hundred tons, the cargoes of each of which were in value from ten to twenty thousand pounds, and who always retained goods in his warehouses equal in value to what he sent away. The customs of Surat amount every year to upwards of L. 160,000 sterling, and, as the merchants pay three per cent. at a medium, the value of the goods must exceed five millions yearly.