[[141]] The greater part of the road from Lakkawurrum to Kollur is rocky, especially towards Kollur, and in two or three places I was obliged to take my carriage to pieces, which can be quickly done. Wherever there happens to be a small quantity of good soil between the rocks cassia trees flourish, the cassia produced from them being the best and most laxative in all India. This I know from the effect produced on my servants, who ate it as they walked along. Along the whole length of the town of Kollur there runs a large river [the Kistna], which flows into the Bay of Bengal near Masulipatam....

    *Masulipatam* is a straggling town, the houses in which are built of wood, and stand detached from one another. This place, which is on the sea shore, is renowned merely on account of its anchorage, which is the best in the Bay of Bengal, and it is the sole place from which vessels sail for Pegu, Siam, Arakan, Bengal, Cochin China, Mecca, and Hormuz, as also for the islands of Madagascar, Sumatra, and the [[142]] Manillas. It should be remarked that wheel carriages do not travel between Golconda and Masulipatam, the roads being too much interrupted by high mountains, *tanks*, and rivers, and because there are many narrow and difficult passes. It is with the greatest trouble that even a small cart can be taken. I have taken one to the diamond mines, but I was obliged to take it to pieces frequently in order to pass bad places.

It is the same between Golconda and Cape Comorin. There are no wagons in all these territories, and you only find there oxen and pack-horses for the conveyance of men, and for the transport of goods and merchandise. But, in default of chariots, you have the convenience of much larger *palanquins* than in the rest of India; for one is carried much more easily, more quickly, and at less cost.