Having concluded his negotiations at Surat, he set out upon his journey to the diamond-mines; and passing, among other towns, through Navapoor, where he found the rice, which he regarded as the best in the world, slightly scented with musk, and through Dowlutabad, one of the strongest fortresses in Hindostan, arrived in about two months at Golconda. This kingdom, which was then a powerful and independent state, contained an abundance of fertile lands, numerous flocks and herds, and many small lakes, which furnished inexhaustible supplies of fish. Baugnuggur, the capital (the modern Hyderabad), vulgarly called Golconda, from the fortress of that name in the vicinity, in which the king resided, was then a city of recent construction; but nevertheless contained a number of fine buildings, several admirable caravansaries, mosques, and pagodas, and the streets, though unpaved, were broad and handsome. Upon the roof of the palace were gardens, in which grew immense trees, yielding a large and grateful shade, but menacing to crush the structure with their weight. Here stood a pagoda, which, had it been completed, would not only have been the largest in all India, but one of the boldest structures in Asia, or perhaps in the world. The stones employed in this building were all of very large dimensions; but there was one of such prodigious size that it required five years to lift it out of the quarry, as many more to draw it to the pagoda, and a carriage with fourteen hundred oxen! That a temple commenced upon such a scale, and with such materials, should be left unfinished, was not greatly to be wondered at; and accordingly it was never completed.