The Seven Cities of Delhi
the members of this did not proceed as far even as Agra, for the emperor was then at Ajmere and Mandu. A Captain Hawkins, with other
merchant-mariners lent out by the East India Company, had previously reached Agra. One of these, William Finch, journeyed, early in 1611,
by way of Delhi, to Lahore on business, and has left a journal of his travels, to which reference has been made. Finch was probably the first European to see Delhi; if one of the Jesuits, or Dutchmen, who lived at Agra in Akbar's time, preceded him, we have no record of it. In 161 5 a certain Thomas Coryate, who lived very much by his
wits at the Court of King James, undertook to walk to the court of the Great Moghal, and actually did so walk, all the way from Aleppo to Agra. The journey took him ten months, and only cost him the small sum of three pounds sterling, of ten shillings of which he was cheated; he must have been the first of those enterprising persons
who for a wager have wandered around the globe at the expense of the good-natured. He passed through Delhi, but the only object which
attracted his attention was the Pillar of Asoka, which was then still surmounted by the gilded ball and crescent. Later in this same year, Richard Steel and John Crowther passed through on a journey to Ispahan, and have recorded that224
