Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/155

 Emerging from this crowded quarter the two horsemen at last came to one of those wide and spacious streets which intersected the central part of the city. These streets were lined with houses of stone or brick, ornamented with those carved balconies, verandas and gateways which still distinguish the dwellings of Agra. Rich traders displayed their silk and woollen stuffs in the rooms below, and goldsmiths and silversmiths produced those articles of quaint workmanship for which Northern India is still famous. The brass work of Benares, the brocade and jewellery of Delhi, the enamel work of Rajputana, swords and lances manufactured in Gajrat [sic], and the fine cotton fabrics made in Bengal, were exhibited in rich shops which lined the streets. For the great Akbar encouraged the manufacturers of his Empire, and the different provinces sent the products of their skill and industry to the Imperial City.

Foreign traders from Persia, Tartary and other Asiatic countries frequented Agra, and had their rich shops under the colonnades which lined some of the finer streets. European traders, too, had been attracted to the place, and Akbar permitted, and even invited, Christians to settle in the Imperial City. Portuguese Jesuits had built a church and established a college in Agra, where they privately gave instruction to the children of twenty or thirty Christian families. The Dutch had followed in their wake, and had built a factory in the same town where they had commenced a fair amount of trade.

Passing through lines of wealthy shops, and by substantial Sarais which had been built for the accommodation of travellers and strangers, Gajapati