This is an herb called betel, or paune, its leaf resembling that of our ivy.  They chew this leaf along with a hard nut, called areka, somewhat like a nutmeg, mixing a little pure white lime among the leaves; and when they have extracted the juice, they throw away the remains.  This has many rare qualities:  It preserves the teeth, comforts the brain, strengthens the stomach, and prevents a bad breath.

[Footnote 232:  The author here describes coffee, now so universally known in Europe.—­E.]

Their houses are generally very mean, except in the cities, where I have seen many fair buildings.  Many of the houses in these are high, with flat roofs, where, in the cool of the mornings and evenings, they enjoy the fresh air.  Their houses have no chimneys, as they use no fires, except for dressing their victuals.  In their upper rooms, they have many windows and doors, for admitting light and air, but use no glass.  The materials of their best houses are bricks and stone, well squared and built, as I have observed in Ahmedabad, which may serve as an instance for all.  This is an extensive and rich city, compassed about with a strong stone-wall, and entered by twelve handsome gates.  Both in their towns and villages, they have usually many fair trees among the houses, being a great defence against the violence of the sun.  These trees are commonly so numerous and thick, that a city or town, when seen at a distance from some commanding eminence, seems a wood or thicket.

The staple commodities of this empire are indigo and cotton.  To produce cotton, they sow seeds, which grow up into bushes like our rose-trees.  These produce first a yellow blossom, which falls off, and leaves a pod about the size of a man’s thumb, in which the substance at first is moist and yellow.  As this ripens, it swells larger, till at length it bursts the covering, the cotton being then as white as snow.  It is then gathered.  These shrubs continue to bear for three or four years, when they have to be rooted out, and new ones substituted.  Of this vegetable wool, or cotton, they fabricate various kinds of pure white cloth, some of which I have seen as fine as our best lawns, if not finer.  Some of the coarser sorts they dye in various colours, or stain with a variety of curious figures.

The ships that go usually from Surat to Mokha, are of exceeding great burden, some of them, as I believe, exceeding 1400 or 1600 tons; but they are ill built, and though they have good ordnance, they are unable for any defence.  In these ships there are yearly a vast number of passengers:  As, for instance, in that year in which we left India, there came 1700 persons, most of whom went not for profit, but out of devotion, to visit the sepulchre of Mahomet at Medina near Mecca, about 150 leagues from Mokha.  Those who have been upon this pilgrimage are ever after called hoggeis, [hajim] or holy men.  This ship, from Surat for the Red Sea, begins