Note 42 — Chapter III

The kingdom of Carnate must certainly have enjoyed a long state of peaceful prosperity under its native kings. This we have reason to conclude from the extensive pagodas, regularly built with art and a sort of magnificence, which are found in it; and also from the many old castles and fortified towns on the borders of the kingdom, and in the passes which conduct through the mountains called the Gauts. The duration of the ancient buildings, for so many centuries, may be explained by the nature of the mortar used in India, which is a mixture of oil and viscous substances, and by the dry warm climate. The Mahometan princes first brought poverty into this country, formerly so fortunate; and what they began the Europeans completed, by carrying thither as soldiers the refuse of all nations. F.