They
Took Him For A Great Man, But In My Opinion He Was Only A Lazy Lubber,
Whom I Left Sleeping There.
The people of these countries are much given
to these dissembling hypocrites.
From Patna I went to _Tanda_ in the land of _Gouren_[409], which is in
the country of Bengal. This is a place of great trade in cotton and
cotton cloth, formerly a kingdom, but now subject to the great Mogor.
The people are great idolaters, going naked with only a cloth about
their middles, and the country hath many tigers, wild buffaloes, and
wild fowl. _Tanda_ is about a league from the river Ganges, as in times
past the river flowed over its banks in the rainy season, and drowned a
considerable extent of country with many villages, and so it yet
remains, and the old bed of the river still remains dry, by which means
the city now stands at a distance from the water. From Agra I was five
months coming down the Jumna and the Ganges to Bengal, but it may be
sailed in much shorter time.
[Footnote 409: In our modern maps Tanda and the country or district of
Gouren are not to be found; but the ruins of _Gour_, which may have some
reference to Gouren, are laid down in lat. 24 deg. 52' N. long. 88 deg. 5' E.
about seven miles from the main stream of the great Ganges, and ten
miles south from the town of Maida.
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