The Rajahs of Kanoge are mentioned by Ferishta as early as 1008. The town was conquered, though not permanently retained, by Mahmood, of Ghuznee, A.D. 1018. The late Lieutenant-Colonel W. Francklin, Bengal army, in his "Enquiry into the Site of the Ancient Palibothra," calls it "Kennouj, or Kanycacubja." The learned Mr. Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities (p. 36), observes, of this city, that it was enclosed by walls fifty coss, or one hundred miles, in circumference; and, in page 42 of the same work, states, on the authority of the Ayeen Akbaree,[66] that, in the beginning of the sixth century, under the reign of Maldeo, it contained 30,000 shops where betel-nut was sold, and 60,000 bands[67] of singers and musicians, who paid a tax to government. The extent of the city might reasonably allow of a population of from two to three millions of souls. If these positions be admissible, we surely need not cavil at the extent of the city of Palibothra, as assigned to it in the Hindoo records. Colonel Francklin writes of Bisnagur (Beejanuggur), "of this city, Cæsar Frederic, a Venetian merchant, who was there in 1567, says, 'that it had a circuit of ninety-four miles, and that it contained within it a number of little hills and pagodas.'" Major Rennel, the well-known Surveyor-general of India, in his Dissertations, agrees with the Venetian, that these hills and pagodas were within the boundaries. Of course, there were many temples at Kanoge; and there seems to be no reason whatever for disbelieving the fact of its having been one hundred miles in circumference, or of there having been 4,000 souls to a square mile. Now, let us take the city of Benares. The late Mr. James Prinsep,[68] between the years 1824 and 1827, found the population to be 183,491; or, 34,621 to the square mile. The census was taken under peculiar difficulties. Benares, or Kasi, is the most sacred Hindoo city in Hindoostan. In the late census, taken in 1848-49, the population was allowed to stand the same as when taken in 1824-27. The lapse of more than twenty years will give a great increase of population, even supposing that there had been an over-calculation.