"The land of the Marathas is generally open. The people are gay, strong and healthy; they depend only on their courage and their arms. Cavalry is their mainstay; hospitality their principal virtue. This land seemed to me the land of Nature. As I spoke to them I almost believed I was conversing with people of the first age. A large camp of huts Ponin [Pune], this present capital of the Maraths, is quite a flourishing town."