The distance was only eight miles; but the roads were execrably bad, and there was a mountain-pass to cross similar to that near Adjunta.  The fortress, one of the oldest and strongest in India, is considered as the most remarkable of its kind, not only in the Deccan but in all India.  It presents a most imposing aspect, and is situated upon a peak of rock 600 feet high, which stands isolated in a beautiful plain, and appears to have been separated from the adjoining mountains by some violent natural convulsion.  The circumference of this rock amounts to about a mile.  It is cut round perpendicularly to a height of 130 feet and thirty feet below the top of the moat by which it is surrounded, which cutting is equally perpendicular, so that the whole height of the escarpment is 160 feet, and the rock, consequently, inaccessible.  There is no pathway leading to the fortress, and I was, therefore, extremely curious to know by what means the summit was reached.  In the side of the rock itself was a very low iron door, which is only visible in time of peace, as the ditch can be filled a foot above its level when required.  Torches were lighted, and I was carefully conducted through narrow low passages, which led with numerous windings upwards through the body of the rock.  These passages were closed in many places by massive iron gates.  Some considerable distance above the precipitous part of the rock, we again emerged into the open air; narrow paths and steps, protected by strongly-fortified works, led from this place to the highest point.  The latter was somewhat flattened, (140 feet in diameter), completely undermined, and so contrived, that it could be heated red-hot.  A cannon, twenty-three feet long, was planted here.

At the foot of this fortress are scattered numerous ruins, which, I was told, were the remains of a very important town; nothing is left of it now except the fortified walls, three or four feet deep, which must be passed to reach the peak of rock itself.

In the same plain, but near to the range of mountains, standing on a separate elevation, is a considerably larger fortress than Dowlutabad, but of far inferior strength.

The numerous fortresses, as well as the fortified towns, were, as I here learned, the remnants of past times, when Hindostan was divided into a great number of states, continually at war with each other.  The inhabitants of the towns and villages never went out unarmed; they had spies continually on the watch; and to secure themselves from sudden attacks, drove their herds inside the walls every night, and lived in a continual state of siege.  In consequence of the unceasing warfare which prevailed, bands of mounted robbers were formed, frequently consisting of as many as ten or twelve thousand men, who too often starved out and overcame the inhabitants of the smaller towns, and completely destroyed their young crops.  These people were then compelled to enter into a contract with these wild hordes, and to buy themselves off by a yearly tribute.