In The New City Is The Royal Palace, In Which The King Dwells, With All
His Nobles And Officers Of State, And Attendants.
While I was there the
building of the new city was completed.
It is of considerable size,
built perfectly square upon an uniform level, and walled round, having a
wet ditch on the outside, filled with crocodiles, but there are no
draw-bridges. Each side of the square has five gates, being twenty in
all; and there are many places on the walls for centinels, built of
wood, and gilded over with gold. The streets are all perfectly straight,
so that from any of the gates you can see clear through to the opposite
gate, and they are so broad that 10 or 12 horsemen may ride abreast with
ease. The cross streets are all equally broad and straight, and on each
side of all the streets close to the houses there is a row of cocoa-nut
trees, making a most agreeable shade. The houses are all of wood,
covered with a kind of tiles, in the form of cups, very necessary and
useful in that country. The palace is in the middle of the city, walled
round like a castle, the lodgings within being built of wood, all over
gilded, and richly adorned with pinnacles of costly work, covered all
over with gold, so that it may truly be called a king's house. Within
the gate is a large handsome court, in which are lodges for the
strongest and largest elephants, which are reserved for the king's use,
among which are four that are entirely white, a rarity that no other
king can boast of; and were the king of Pegu to hear that any other king
had white elephants, he would send and demand them as a gift.
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