the government of the Moluccas, to make an accurate calculation of the expences attending them, and to estimate, as nearly as poffible, the advantages that may be expected to flow from thofe poffeffions. In doing this it is neceffary to ftate, that the freight of all fhips which either bring troops; provifions, or merchandize; may be fuppofed to be repaid by a profit of 50 per cent. upon all articles of merchandize imported for the ufe of the natives, and fhall on that account be omitted in the following estimate. Befides this, a more thorough knowledge of thofe feas, together with a further experience of the feafons and prevailing winds, will fhow, that a conftant communication may be kept up with Amboyna; and that not only ftores of all kinds may be brought to, but the fpices conveyed from that ifland, in the eafieft as well as the cheapest mode, by our outward and homeward bound China fhips, without making any confiderable deviation from their ufual track. On account likewife of the very great may expence of advantages which may be expected to arife to the nation at large from the extenfive trade that will be opened among the eastern islands, and the confequent increafed fale of our manufactures, the any naval force that hereafter be ftationed, either in the ftraits of Macaflar, or among the islands to the northward, fhall not be noticed in the estimate; but the equipment of the armed fchooners, already fuggefted as a part of the new eftablishment, will of course be confidered as one of the expences attending it. The whole will, therefore, be comprehended in the eftimates of the civil eftablishment, the military force, and the marine; alfo the price paid to the natives for the fpices, and an allowance far contingencies. The amount of thefe expences, contrafted with a valuation of the neat produce of the average quantity of fpices, which, under proper management, the plantations may be expected to yield, will at once exhibit the real advantages that may be derived from the poffeffion of the Spice Inlands. Eftimate of the Sale of the above Spices, clear of all expence of Freight and other charges. 600,000 lb. of Cloves, at 8s. per lb. 250,000 lb. of Nutmegs and Mace, at 20s. per lb. Whole expence of Civil, Military, and Marine Establishments, Remains, after every poffible charge, a clear annual balance in greater quantity than what has been ftated, we have no hesitation in af ferting, that, in the course of three years, the plantations would produce, under proper management, nearly treble that quantity; and of nutmegs and mace, about 600,000lb. weight annually, which was number of pounds that the Banda the Inlands yielded, previous to the hurricane in 1778. Upon the whole, confidering the profits likely to arife from the fpice trade, together with thofe advan tages that may be expected to be derived from the fale of British and Indian manufactures, for which than trade will unquestionably open an extenfive market, we are authorifed to conclude, that these islands produce to GREAT BRITAIN a clear annual revenue of HALF A MILLION STERLING. may An Account of the Cities of CALICUT and BIJAN AGUR in the 15th Century, tranflated from the Perfic of KHONDEMIR, with Ex planatory Notes*. + CALICUT is a part of Hinduftan equal to Hormuz: its inhabitants are polytheifts; though many true believers refide there, and have erected two elegant mofques of wood, in which they affemble on Fridays for divine worship. So ftrict is the - adminiftration of juftice, and fo vigilant the police, that the merchan. dife imported by foreigners is guard. ed by the Aumils of the Dewan, who are refponfible for its lofs; and when the goods are fold, they colTect a duty of 2 per cent. on the proceeds, which they have never been known to exceed. Though, when vellels are wrecked on the coaft, the Hindus, ftyling it a deodand, do not fcruple to feize on the cargo; yet this practice does not extend to Calicut, where a duty of 24 per cent. is collected on the goods faved from hipwreck, as from other merchandife. Many of the inhabitants of Calicut go naked, excepting from the navel to the knee, which is covered with a longuti. They ftyle their fovereign the Sameri (Zamorin), and when he dies he is fuccceded by his fifter's fon; nor do his fons, brothers, or other relations, ever poffefs fufficient influence to difturb the established mode of fucceffion. Every article of luxury is to be found in Calicut. The most inexpiable crime in that country is to kill a cow, or to eat of its flesh; and those who are con victed of either, are inftantly put to death. Indeed fo great is the ve neration which thefe wretched idolaters entertain for that animal, that they befmear their foreheads with its dung. Mulana Camaleddin Ab dul Rezac, (who was fent on an embaffy to India by Mirza Shahrockh,] relates, that, notwithstanding the fame fyftem of polytheifm prevails univerfally, yet the inhabitants are divided into feveral cafts. In one of the higher orders it is cuf tomary for a woman to marry fe veral It is manifeft that Khondemir derives all his information refpecting Hindustan from the ambaffador of Mirza Shahrockh; as he discovers in other parts of his work a furprifing ignorance of every thing relating to it. His account of Calicut ments at tention, from comprifing in a few lines all that is important in the domestic and po litical economy of the Nairs. + Calicut and Calcutta is the fame word, though differently pronounced by foreigners; the latter derives its name from a temple of Cali, the Indian Hecate, fituated at the diflance of two miles. The fane is ftill much frequented; and there is reafon to believe, that at no diftant period it was occafionally polluted with the blood of hurten victims. ! veral hufbands, each of whom enters ture. BIJANAGUR. Bijanagur is a city to which the eye, that fable dreffed traveller, has ho-where found a parallel; and the ear, that acute informer of the mind, has in no region heard of its equal. It is furrounded by feven lofty walls, the intervals between which are fill ed with houfes. On the outfide of the first wall, which is 50 guz + in breadth, is a parapet of ftones, about fix feet high, and reaching fix feet below, to prevent perfons from approaching the walls. Were we to illuftrate the ichnography of Bi janagur, by a comparifon with the noble city of Herat, let it be imagined that the length of the exterior wall equals the distance from the field of the Two Brothers to the bridge Malan, and its breadth from the bridge ornamented with a spire to the village of Sinan. The fecond may extend in length as far as from the bridge Jui to the bridge in the village, and in breadth from the fandy bridge to the gardens of Zo. beida. The third as far as from the fepulchre of Elama to the tower of Mahommed Sultaun; the fourth as far as from the royal university to the bridge Cared; the fifth from the gardens of Zaghan to the road of Shaikh Khorem; and the fixth comprehends the distance from the royal gate to the gate of Firozabad. Each of thefe fix walls are defended by forts, and the gates are of wonderful ftrength t. The feventh wall was in the centre, and might comprehend a fpace equal to ten times that of the four market places of Herat, and in it ftood the palace of the prince, who is named Raï Govind. Bijanagur is confounded with Bijapur by the late Mr. Chambers, who has favoured the public with a tranflation of the curious correfpondence between Mirza Shahrockh and the Emperor of China; by Mr. Anderfon, in his account of Malabar, it is faid to be the fame with Golconda. With all due deference to authority fo highly refpectable, it may be proper to premife, that the city founded in 1314 by Rajah Belal Deva, and named Bijanagur, after his fon Bija Chundro, was neither Golconda on the banks of the Mufa, nor Bijapur near the river Bimra; but that these three cities were the refpective feats of diflinct and contemporaneous fovereignties. When Sultaun Mahommed Shah fucceeded his father on the newly erected throne of Calberga, the Rajah of Telingana kept his court at Golconda, which was reduced by that prince in 1371. On the other hand, Bijapur was never the feat of a Hindu monarchy: in the year 1489, by the defection of Yufuf Adil Khan, governor of the province for the Sultaun Mahommed Shah Bhameni, it became the capital of a Mollem empire; and in 1565, Ali Adil Shah, the reigning Sultaun of Bijapur, was one of the confederacy which overthrew the dominion and deflroyed the capital of the Rajahs of Bijanagur. Vijaia (invincible) is a common Sanfcreet appellation both for perfons and places: this the Moflems have corrupted to Bija; and the fite of this once fplendid city is marked on most maps by the ftill more erroneous appellation of Bifnagar. + The Perfic guz may be eflimated at fomething less than two feet. Unfatisfactory as this mode of illuftration muft appear to perfons unacquainted With the topography of Herat, it may be remarked, that the 6th and 7th, or two maft interior inclofures, comprehended a space equal to the whole of that city; which, in the time of Shahrockh, was unquestionably one of the most populous and splendid of all Afia. Khana, 30 guz in length and 6 in vind. In the two first inclosures to Rajah Govind was probably the fecond fon of Deva Rajah, whofe anfuccefsfu! attempt to reconquer the provinces, in which the princes of the houfe of Bhameni had establifhed their fway, is related at length by the hiftorian of the Deccan. His oldeft fon fell in an engagement in 1443, and the Rajah concluded a peace with Sultaun Aladdin in the fame year. His own death probably took place foon after, when Rajah Govind afcended the throne. The arms of the Moflems being employed in a different direction, during the remainder of Aladdin's reign, and thofe of his immediate fucceflors, Rajah Govind appears to have enjoyed the dominion of Bijanagur without moleflation from the new but formidable empire erected in his neighbourhood. This dominion was ftill extenfive, and fill powerful, notwithstanding the lofs of the provinces wrefted from it by the Bhameni Sultauns; it comprehended, either in actual fovereignty or in tributary dependance, the whole of the countries fouth of the river Crifna; for, though the Emperors of Delhi had carried their arms as far as the celebrated bridge of Rama, at the extremity of the peninfula, yet their authority was as tranfitory as the effects of the irruption. + This incidental remark betrays the vaft inferiority of the police and government in Mollem ftates to thofe which prevailed under Hindu governments. An inhabitant of the mofl polished flate in Perfia was aftonished, at Bijanagur, to perceive private merchants venture to difplay their riches, without dreading the cupidity of courtiers, or the depredation of the populace. Of these two fubftances, the first only is known to the tranflator. When the characters are traced on the leaves with ink, they are liable to be effaced. But it is alfo very customary to indent them with the point of the ftylum into the substance of the leaf, which leaves an impreffion not to be eradicated. The tranflator cannot conceal his surprise at finding eunuchs employed to exercife judicial functions at the court of a Hindu prince, as they are confidered unclean by his religious tenets. The hillorian Ferifhta mentions, that the father of Rajah Govind invited many Aby ffinians to his court, in whofe fidelity and talents he repofed much confidence. Is it not poffible that the ambassador may have imagined these were eunuchs, like the majority of their countrymen in Afia? Yet the word Dun-ang, by 2 which H |