This grandiose composition can scarcely be called a marine painting. Like its pendant picture (BHC1933) it has traditionally been identified as Surat viewed from the land but the lack of clearly congruent features, and other evidence, now shows that this is unlikely. It is more probably intended as Ahmadabad, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, 200 kilometres to the north, capital of Gujarat and a thriving centre for trade in the seventeenth century. The terrain represented is flat and dry, intersected by a waterway which acts as a répoussoir, leading the viewer’s gaze towards the tableau of buildings in the background. In the foreground, an envoy in a covered cart is drawn by buffaloes and led by men on horseback and on foot, travelling diagonally across the picture plane. This grisaille panel is also a composite image, its elements derived from a range of other visual sources.