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 167. 
 
 
SKETCHES OF INDIA: 
 
 WRITTEN 
 
 BY AN OFFICER 
 
 FOR 
 
 FIRE-SIDE TRAVELLERS 
 
 AT-HOME. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, WITS ADDITIONS. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR 
 
 LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 1824. 
 
P54 
 
 MORSE 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 New- Street - Square. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 RICH and abundant are the stores of in- 
 formation concerning India, which have 
 been provided by the labours of the 
 learned, to feast their fellow-scholars and 
 brother-antiquarians at home. 
 
 A familiar picture, however, of Indian 
 scenery and manners, may be added to 
 the journals, sketches, and lighter publi- 
 cations, which have treated on these sub- 
 jects without presumption : for although 
 it would be difficult to write any thing 
 positively new on them, yet the imagin- 
 ation of the general Reader, who would 
 fain follow with his mind's eye a friend 
 or relative to these distant shores, may, 
 according to his habits of life and thought, 
 his age or profession, be far better assisted 
 by one relation than another. 
 
 513904 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To any one who will venture on the 
 sacrifice of half a winter's evening to ride 
 a few marches with me, pass a day in my 
 tent, or take a seat in my budgerow, I 
 dedicate this trifling Volume. 
 
 A TRAVELLER. 
 
 Recently published by the same Author, 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS of the PENINSULA, containing 
 Sketches of the Manners and Character of the Spanish 
 Nation. The 2d Edit. 8vo. Price 8s. Bds. 
 
 " Few Writers, who are not Poets by Profession, have the Art of 
 Painting in Words, with so much Vividness and Distinctness, the 
 various Objects which surround their View. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to open the Book, without seeing useful 
 and lively Remarks, or descriptions indescribably descriptive." 
 Monthly Review, October, 1823. 
 
 Preparing for Publication by the same Author, 
 SCENES and IMPRESSIONS in EGYPT and 
 ITALY. In One Volume 8vo. 
 
SKETCHES 
 
 OF 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 IT was in the faint dawn of morning that 
 we first made the dark and beautifully 
 broken outline of hill and mountain, 
 which Ceylon presented as we bore up 
 for it. 
 
 The scene, ever changing, In tint and 
 colouring, as the sun slowly and grandly 
 rose, was at length fully illumined. 
 
 Tufted wood and thick jungle of bright 
 verdure clothed all the hills, the feathery 
 cocoa-nuts, and tall palms girded the 
 
2 CANOE. 
 
 . 
 
 yellow beach, and all silently proclaimed 
 a path of creation new to me, and the 
 abode of a family of mankind which I 
 had never seen. 
 
 We coasted in sight of the island 
 throughout the day. The eye, assisted by 
 the glass, now straining itself to discern 
 some object of interest, such as a hut, a 
 boat, or group of natives, now reposing 
 on the magnificent whole. 
 
 In the evening a rudely constructed 
 canoe came off to us. It was simply the 
 trunk of a tree hollowed and cut square, 
 not unlike an English horse-trough. A 
 large log of wood was thrown out to 
 windward by long bamboos, to prevent 
 its upsetting when under sail. Four na- 
 tives, with rags round their heads and 
 loins, filled this crazy-looking bark. They 
 were short, and, with one exception, slen- 
 der. Their complexions different, from 
 
 17 
 
MADRAS ROADS. 6 
 
 black to light tawny. They looked cun- 
 ning and lively, jabbered fast and loud, 
 and of course unintelligibly to most of 
 us; laughed at every trick the light- 
 hearted cadets practised upon them ; and 
 after disposing of their little cargo of 
 cocoa-nuts for one hundred times its 
 value, hoisted their sail of matting, and 
 left us. 
 
 On the afternoon of July the 10th, 
 1818, our vessel dropped anchor in 
 Madras Roads, after a fine run of three 
 months and ten days from the Mother- 
 bank. How changed the scene ! how 
 great the contrast ! Ryde, and its little 
 snug dwellings, with slated or thatched 
 roofs, its neat gardens, its green and 
 sloping shores Madras and its naked 
 fort, noble-looking buildings, tall columns, 
 lofty verandahs, and terraced roofs. The 
 city large and crowded on a flat site ; 
 a low sandy beach, and a foaming surf. 
 B 2 
 
CATAMARANS. 
 
 The roadstead there, alive with beau- 
 tiful yachts, light wherries, and tight- 
 built fishing-barks. Here, black, shape- 
 less Massoolah boats, with their naked 
 crews singing the same wild (yet not 
 unpleasing) air, to which, for ages, the 
 dangerous surf they fearlessly ply over 
 has been rudely responsive. 
 
 Here, too, all around, you see figures 
 or small groups of two and three, who 
 seem to stand, walk, or sit upon the 
 water without support ; for the least swell 
 conceals their catamarans, small rafts on 
 which they go out to fish, carry fruit, 
 letters or messages to the shipping, and, 
 indeed, will venture forth in all weathers. 
 
 The imposing air of costliness and 
 grandeur about Madras, from the size, 
 whiteness, and polish of the public build- 
 ings, is much diminished as you approach 
 the landing place. 
 
LANDING. 5 
 
 When the surf has violently lodged 
 you high and dry on the beach, you 
 find yourself immediately surrounded by 
 crowds so diversified in costume, com- 
 plexion, and feature ; so strange are the 
 voices of a new people, and the sounds 
 of unknown tongues ; so deafening the 
 surge continually breaking near you, that 
 to single out figures from such a scene, 
 under such circumstances, is almost im- 
 possible, and you feel it quite a relief to 
 hurry from the spot. I landed with 
 troops iu the afternoon, and marched 
 from the beach to a station or depot 
 thirteen miles inland. For three miles 
 we moved along, amid a curious talking 
 crowd perpetually changing. We fol- 
 lowed a fine broad road with avenues of 
 trees ; passed the fort ; and half a mile 
 beyond it passed continually, for a long 
 distance, gateways leading to large garden- 
 houses in spacious compounds, until at 
 length we left the signs of the presidency 
 behind us. With , the exception of a 
 B 3 
 
MARCH. 
 
 few followers, in employ, or seeking it y 
 the crowds dropped off, and we pursued 
 our march unmolested, No, I shall 
 never forget the sweet and strange sens- 
 ations which, as I went peacefully for- 
 ward, the new objects in nature excited 
 in my bosom. The rich, broad-leaved 
 plaintain ; the gracefully drooping bam- 
 boo ; the cocoa nut, with that mat-like 
 looking binding for every branch; the 
 branches themselves waving with a fea- 
 thery motion in the wind ; the bare lofty 
 trunk and fan-leaf of the tall palm ; the 
 slender and elegant stem of the areca; 
 the large aloes ; the prickly pear ; the 
 stately banian with drop-branches, here 
 fibrous and pliant, there strong and colum- 
 nar, supporting its giant arms, and form- 
 ing around the parent stem a grove of 
 beauty ; and among these wonders, birds, 
 all strange in plumage and in note, save 
 the parroquet, (at home, the lady's pet- 
 bird in a gilded cage), here spreading his 
 bright green wings in happy fearless 
 
POONAMALLEE. 7 
 
 flight, and giving his natural and untaught 
 scream. These, and more than I can 
 name, were the novelties we looked upon. 
 My dream of anticipation realised gave 
 me a delight which found no expression 
 in words. I felt grateful that I had been 
 led and permitted to see India ; I won- 
 dered at my own ignorance, and at the 
 poverty of my imagination when I re- 
 flected how much the realities around me 
 differed from what my fancy had painted 
 them. How some things surpassed, and 
 some fell short of my foolish expectations; 
 and yet how natural, how easy all ap- 
 peared ! All so fitted and adapted by the 
 hand of the bountiful and wise Creator, 
 that other than they were they had de- 
 formed, instead of decking the face of 
 nature. It was late and dark when we 
 reached Poonamallee; and during the 
 latter part of our march we had heavy 
 rain. We found no fellow-countryman 
 to welcome us, but the mess-room was 
 open and lighted, a table laid, and a 
 B 4 
 
8 NATIVE SERVANTS. 
 
 crowd of smart, roguish-looking natives 
 seemed waiting our arrival to seek ser- 
 vice. 
 
 Drenched to the skin, without changes 
 of linen, or any bedding, we sat down to 
 the repast provided ; and it would have 
 been difficult to have found in India, 
 perhaps, at the moment, a more cheerful 
 party than ours. 
 
 Four or five clean-looking natives, in 
 white dresses, with red or white turbans, 
 ear-rings of gold, or with emerald drops, 
 and large silver signet rings on their 
 fingers, crowded round each chair, and 
 watched our every glance, to anticipate 
 our wishes. Curries, vegetables, and 
 fruits, all new to us, were tasted and 
 pronounced upon ; and after a meal, of 
 which every one seemed to partake with 
 grateful good-humour, we lay down for 
 the night. One attendant brought a small 
 carpet, another a mat, others again a 
 
NATIVE SERVANTS. 
 
 sheet or counterpane, till all were pro- 
 vided with something ; and thus closed 
 our first evening in -India. 
 
 The morning-scene was very ludicrous. 
 Here, a barber, uncalled for, was shaving 
 a man as he still lay dozing ; there, an- 
 other was * cracking the joints of a man 
 half-dressed; here were two servants, 
 one pouring water on, the other washing, 
 a Saheb's f hands. In spite of my efforts 
 to prevent them, two well-dressed men 
 were washing my feet ; and near me was 
 a lad dexterously putting on the clothes 
 of a sleepy brother officer, as if he had 
 been an infant under his care. 
 
 There was much in all this to amuse 
 
 * Shampooing. It is a pressing and rubbing of the 
 limbs after fatigue, or as a customary refreshment. 
 A part of this strange ceremony is to make every 
 joint crack. 
 
 f Saheb, a gentleman, "Sir," or " master;" 
 used by the natives of India when addressing, or 
 speaking of their superiors. 
 
10 VISIT TO MADRAS. 
 
 the mind, and a great deal, I confess, 
 to pain the heart of a free-born English- 
 
 man. 
 
 Now, reader, I must beg you to ac- 
 company me for a hasty look at Madras, 
 in my palanquin. A palanquin, such as 
 the English use, is a close litter, with 
 pannels, painted and varnished like a 
 carriage. You may stretch yourself at 
 length, or sit half up in them, as on a 
 bed. They have cushions and linings of 
 leather, silk, or chintz ; and large sliding 
 doors on both sides, with Venetians. 
 Nine men carry you ; four at a time ; two 
 under the pole before, and two behind. 
 Relieving each other without stopping, 
 they will run with you twelve miles in 
 three hours. They jog along, making a 
 continual singing in regular cadence, 
 which assists them to keep step. 
 
 The few pictures I will now attempt 
 to sketch, are designed to assist you, 
 
COOLIES. 1 1 
 
 readei, in accompanying me to such 
 places and scenes as I may carry you to 
 look upon hereafter, when I shall hope 
 to excite in your bosom some portion of 
 the interest I felt in them myself. An 
 interest which, if not altogether destroy- 
 ed, would be much weakened by continual 
 explanatory interruptions. For the ram- 
 bling and familiar style I have chosen 
 for this portraiture, I crave your patient 
 indulgence. 
 
 These poor wretches, with no other 
 clothing * than a small rag round the 
 middle, a larger one for a turban, and 
 loads on their heads, whom you meet 
 singly, or in large groups, are the com- 
 mon coolies, or road porters of the 
 country ; for thus light burdens are usu- 
 ally conveyed here, even for distances 
 of two or three hundred miles. This 
 
 k The description may apply to all the poorer 
 labourers of India. 
 
12 MUSSULMAN. BRAHMIN. 
 
 haughty-looking man, with a prominent 
 nose, dark eye, and olive brown com- 
 plexion, having a large turban, muslin 
 vest, gaudy silk trowsers, and noisy slip- 
 pers, is a Mahometan. 
 
 This next, with his head bare afid 
 shaven, except a few thick-falling locks 
 clubbed behind, his forehead marked with 
 stripes of the ashes of cow-dung, his 
 naked body,^ clean yellow-coloured skin, 
 the zennaar, or distinguishing threads 
 worn over the shoulder, and a large pale 
 salmon-coloured loin-cloth, is an offici- 
 ating brahmin. 
 
 These fat-looking black men, with very 
 white turbans and dresses, and large 
 golden ear-rings, are dubashes ; a sort of 
 upper servants or public inferior agents, 
 ready to make any purchases for strangers 
 or residents; to execute their commis- 
 sions, change their monies, or transact 
 any business for them. 
 
WOMEN. 13 
 
 These men, with red turbans, broad 
 shoulder-belts of leather, breast-plates, 
 sashes, and swords, are government peons 
 of the zillah, or police foot-soldiers. 
 There are establishments of them in 
 every district. They are distinguished 
 by their belt-plates ; the belts being often 
 of red, blue, or yellow cloth, or even 
 tiger-skin. 
 
 There is a group of native women re- 
 turning to their houses with water : they 
 are of a common class ; but observe their 
 simple dress, erect carriage, and admir- 
 able walk. One piece of cloth wrapped 
 twice round their loins in its breadth, and 
 passing in its length upwards over the 
 bosom, is either disposed mantle-like to 
 cover the head, or thrown gracefully 
 across the left shoulder, and brought 
 under the right arm to the middle. Their 
 shining hair is neatly rolled up into a 
 knot at the back of the head ; and is oc- 
 casionally ornamented with little chaplets 
 
14 BODY-GUARD SEPOYS. 
 
 of pale yellow flowers. The vessels which 
 some carry on the head, some on the hip, 
 are of brass or clay ; but ancient, and 
 urn-like in their form. 
 
 This low, curiously-carved car, with a 
 white canopy, and cream-coloured bul- 
 locks, having their horns ornamentally 
 tipped with wrought brass, collars with 
 bells, and crimson body-clothes, is the 
 conveyance of some native merchant, or 
 shroff. 
 
 These horsemen with red hussar jack- 
 ets, high spherical-shaped caps of blue 
 cloth richly ornamented, leather breeches, 
 boots, and English saddles, so well mount- 
 ed, and as light-coloured as Spaniards, 
 are of the body-guard of the governor. 
 Observe the horse-keeper following that 
 staff-officer; thus the groom runs after 
 his master in this country, and will keep 
 pace with him at a smart canter. He is 
 
BLACK TOWN. 15 
 
 always provided with a leading rein and 
 chowrie.* 
 
 These well-appointed black soldiers 
 clothed and accoutred so completely like 
 British troops, except the peculiar cap of 
 blue cloth with brazen ornaments and 
 plates, are sepoys of the Madras esta- 
 blishment. 
 
 That officer in dark blue uniform with 
 red facings, brazen helmet and red horse- 
 hair, is of the Madras horse artillery; 
 a corps most deservedly admired all over 
 India. 
 
 The black or native town of Madras 
 is very extensive ; but, in general, meanly 
 built, noisy, and dirty. There are, how- 
 ever, many large, fine houses belonging 
 to merchants and shop-keepers; and 
 very many streets of small neat houses 
 
 * The chowrie is a fly-flap, made of the singularly * 
 bushy tail of the Bootan cow. 
 
16 ARMENIANS. 
 
 occupied by Portuguese, Armenians, and 
 half-casts ; or by such of the native mer- 
 chants and clerks as are become half 
 European in their habits of life. There 
 are a protestant church and some mission 
 chapels, an Armenian church of old date, 
 two or three Portuguese chapels, and a 
 capuchin convent. 
 
 That monk with the pale Italian coun- 
 tenance, grey hair, small scull-cap, black 
 robe, and white cords, just stepping out 
 of that old palanquin, is the superior: 
 he is a native of Rome. 
 
 This fine-looking young man, in a close 
 white vest with a dark blue sash, and 
 high cap of black velvet with many 
 points, is an Armenian gentleman ; and 
 the low stout man in a purple robe and 
 mitre cap, with a long black bushy beard, 
 who is speaking to him, is a priest from 
 Armenia. Almost all these persons of 
 half-cast complexion, whom you are con- 
 
GOVERNMENT-HOUSE. 1 7 
 
 tinually meeting, are the descendants of 
 our countrymen, or other Europeans by 
 native mothers ; those of Portuguese ex- 
 traction are very numerous. 
 
 All the government offices are in Fort 
 St. George, which, though not large, is 
 strong, handsome, well armed, kept in 
 excellent order, and contains a fine ar- 
 senal. In the centre of a small square, 
 surrounded with handsome buildings, 
 stands a fine marble statue of Lord 
 Cornwallis. A plain neat church adorns 
 the open space just leading from one 
 corner of the square. The government 
 house is situated more than a mile from 
 the fort on Choultry plain. One front 
 of the banquetting-room, as seen from a 
 considerable distance, has a noble im- 
 posing appearance. 
 
 A grand road leads from Fort St. 
 George to St. Thomas's Mount, nine 
 miles distant. It is certainly the finest 
 
18 GARDEN-HOUSES. 
 
 piece of road in India ; and is not ex- 
 ceeded by many in Europe. A fine 
 avenue of trees runs the whole length of 
 it ; and on its left, at the distance of 
 seven miles from the fort gates, is a race- 
 course, and a handsome stand on it. 
 
 The civil servants live in garden- 
 houses, all built nearly in the same style, 
 with porticoes and verandahs ; and while 
 v the beautiful chunam with which they 
 are covered preserves its polish, they 
 have a pleasing and elegant appearance. 
 They are surrounded by small paddocks 
 with trees, shrubs, and flowers ; and are 
 most agreeable residences. 
 
 Their carriages are all of English fa- 
 shion ; but their equipages and horses are 
 not, I think, remarkable. The Mount 
 Road is the favourite drive. A cenotaph 
 about four miles on it, has been erected 
 to the memory of Lord Cornwallis ; and 
 on the sweep round this monument they 
 
TRIPLICANE BAZAAR. 19 
 
 slowly circle as in the gay ring in Hyde 
 Park at home. 
 
 I engage, however, rather to show you 
 natives than English residents, therefore 
 let us turn down the Triplicane Bazaar : 
 here the population is Mahometan. 
 These crowds of mussulmans ever regard 
 us with jealousy, hatred, and scorn. 
 Their nawab, though stripped of autho- 
 rity, still sits upon a musnud *, rides in 
 state on an elephant, and holds a durbarf; 
 but can never, I should think, listen to 
 the royal salutes so repeatedly fired from 
 the British fort in compliment to his 
 princely rank, without shrinking from 
 the mockery. Courtiers, sirdars J, and 
 troops, the substantial appendages of a 
 native prince, are, luckily for the hap- 
 piness and peace of the Carnatic, no lon- 
 ger his. 
 
 Throne. f Native court. f Native chiefs. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 INDIVIDUAL FIGURES. 
 
 These restless-looking, haughty idlers, 
 who are sauntering up to us, their little 
 all expended on the fine robes they wear, 
 save a frugal meal provided daily in their 
 gloomy homes by trembling females or 
 some wretched slave, would, but for our 
 happier rule, be the petty tyrants of 
 some of those peaceful villages we shall 
 soon visit. 
 
 The large man on the grey horse, with 
 the shawl turban, gold-threaded sash and 
 silver-headed creese (or dagger), to whom 
 they are all now salaaming, is a native of 
 some distant province, not perhaps under 
 our authority. The housings of his 
 horse you see are embroidered with 
 gold ; his reins silken ; the animal too 
 has a breast-plate and head ornaments of 
 shell-work ; the servant running by his 
 side holds that spade-shaped screen so 
 as always to shade his face ; and the man 
 himself, though looking vain as well as 
 proud, has a free, cheerful, self-satisfied 
 a ir. Not so this moollah or Mahometan 
 
GOODS FOR SALE. 21 
 
 priest. Mark his iron-grey beard and 
 wrinkled forehead; and those fiercely 
 sparkling eyes, alive and youthful with a 
 feeling of hate. What an insolent vin- 
 dictive look he casts at us ! He recollects, 
 for he was a young man then, when in 
 the year 1780 the horse of Hyder rode 
 shouting through the gardens of our 
 countrymen ; and recollects too that he 
 wished them success. 
 
 As you pass along this bazaar, you 
 see exposed for sale under mean tile- 
 covered verandahs, supported by wooden 
 pillars, all such articles of food, clothing, 
 use or ornament, as there is a common 
 demand for among the Moors at Madras. 
 But, from the general poverty of this 
 class, you meet with no display of costly 
 goods or delicacies ; all sorts of rice, 
 grain, pulse, vegetables, spices, fruits, and 
 coarse sweetmeats ; shops filled with 
 cloths, silks, shawls, and tissue of com- 
 mon quality ; others with lace, em- 
 c 3 
 
22 PLACE OF TOMBS. 
 
 broidery, and tinsel ; others with slip- 
 pers of leather or cloth, more or less 
 showy in colour and ornaments ; others 
 with all sorts of women's "joys" or orna- 
 ments, such as ear-rings, nose-jewels, 
 armlets, anklets, and silver zones ; 
 some with small carpets of different pat- 
 terns ; others with horse furniture of 
 cotton^ silk, or embroidery ; some with 
 brazen vessels for cooking and drink- 
 ing ; others with hookah bottoms, &c. 
 Such is the common display of goods in 
 an Indian bazaar. Moreover, the different 
 workmen ply their trades in the open air. 
 
 At the farther end of the Triplicane 
 you pass a mosque, and come upon a 
 place of tombs, some of which are large, 
 and look like small temples. But it is 
 not at Madras that the traveller must 
 look for specimens of mosques, pagodas, 
 or tombs. A mile beyond these is the 
 little town of St. Thom6, prettily situ- 
 ated on the beach. A small cathedral 
 
MARCHING IN INDIA DESCRIBED. 23 
 
 and two neat chapels under the charge 
 of a Portuguese bishop, and a few Roman 
 Catholic priests from Goa, remind you 
 that some, nay many, in this land of 
 heathens bear the name of Christian ; 
 and kneel before that cross, which we 
 know in future ages will be adored in 
 spirit and in truth by their own more 
 blessed posterity, and by the ,happier 
 descendants of the blinded millions who 
 now bow down to idols, or rally round 
 the pale and waning crescent. 
 
 Very soon after my arrival in India, 
 I marched from the presidency to Bellary, 
 a military station and collectorship in 
 the ceded districts south of the Toom- 
 badra. 
 
 Marching in this country is certainly 
 pleasant, although perhaps you rise too 
 early for comfort. An hour before day- 
 break you mount your horse ; and, tra- 
 e 4 
 
24 REFLECTIONS ON THE 
 
 veiling at an easy pace, reach your ground 
 before the sun has any power ; and find 
 a small tent pitched with breakfast ready 
 on the table. Your large tent follows 
 with couch and baggage, carried by bul- 
 locks and coolies ; and before nine o'clock, 
 you may be washed, dressed, and em- 
 ployed with your books, pen, or pencil. 
 Mats, made of the fragrant roots of the 
 Cuscus grass, are hung before the doors 
 of your tent to windward, and being 
 constantly wetted, admit, during the hot- 
 test winds, a cool refreshing air. 
 
 Three o'clock is the common hour of 
 dinner ; and in the evening you ride, or 
 stroll out on foot, as inclination leads. 
 If your habits are those of a sportsman, 
 and you are provided with dogs, gun, 
 and hog-spear, you will be almost sure 
 to find amusement morning and eve ning 
 
 The man of tamer habits, looks round 
 and finds great and continual enjoyment 
 
COUNTRY AND INHABITANTS. 25 
 
 in contemplating scenes, and people, and 
 a world so new to him. 
 
 While our forefathers were clad in 
 wolf-skin, dwelt in caverns, and lived 
 upon the produce of the chace, the 
 Hindoo lived as now ; as now, his 
 princes were clothed in soft raiment, 
 wore jewelled turbans, and dwelt in pa- 
 laces. As now, his haughty half-naked 
 priests received his offerings in temples 
 of hewn and sculptured granite, and 
 summoned him to rites as absurd, but 
 yet more splendid and debauching than 
 the present. His cottage, garments, 
 household utensils, and implements of 
 husbandry or labour, the same as now. 
 Then, too, he watered the ground with 
 his foot by means of a plank balanced 
 transversely on a lofty pole, or drew 
 from the deep bowerie* by the labour 
 of his oxen, in large bags of leather, sup- 
 
 * A well 
 
26 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 plies of water to flow through the little 
 channels by which their fields and gar- 
 dens are intersected. His children were 
 then taught to shape letters in the sand, 
 and to write, and keep accounts on the 
 dried leaves of the palm by the village- 
 schoolmaster. His wife ground corn at 
 the same mill, or pounded it in a rude 
 mortar with her neighbour. He could 
 make purchases in a regular bazaar, 
 change money at a shroff's*, or borrow it 
 at usury, for the expences of a wedding 
 or festival. In short, all that the tra- 
 veller sees around him of social or civi- 
 lized life, of useful invention or luxurious 
 refinement, is of yet higher antiquity 
 than the days of Alexander the Great. 
 So that, in fact, the eye of the British 
 officer looks upon the same forms and 
 dresses, the same buildings, manners, 
 and customs, on which the Macedonian 
 troops gazed with the same astonishment. 
 
 * Shroff, an Indian banker, or money-changer. 
 
VILLAGES. 27 
 
 Allowing for difference in the face of 
 the country, and also in the sites of them, 
 Indian villages much resemble each other. 
 Those in the plain open country, in 
 addition to their mud wall, and their 
 heavy gates of wood studded with iron 
 knobs, have a small fort or ghurry, more 
 carefully built of mud, or else of brick 
 and often stone, according to the wealth 
 or importance of them. These sort of 
 defences throughout the company's ter- 
 ritories, have universally fallen to decay. 
 A volume in praise of our present rule, 
 as* compared with the ancient order of 
 things, could not speak more plainly, or 
 half so convincingly in its favour. 
 
 You meet with the same figures and 
 
 * I only speak comparatively ; I am well aware 
 how much, how very much, we have left undone. 
 What I mean, is, that the ryot under us is secure 
 from the caprices of a cruel despotism. I well know 
 his burdens, and that he is condemned to hopeless 
 poverty; the amelioration of his lot is our duty, and 
 would be every way our gain. 
 
28 DIVISION OF THE HINDOOS 
 
 objects in most of them. The ryots, or 
 cultivators, are almost always Hindoos. 
 If the village be large and rich, you see 
 numbers of sleek-looking, indolent Brah- 
 mins. All business, in places of any 
 trade, is transacted by men of the Bhyse 
 or Banian cast, who are shroffs, merchants, 
 shopkeepers, and clerks : these classes 
 generally wear vests of muslin, cotton, 
 or silk, large loin-cloths, and good tur- 
 bans. The ryots, who are of the Soodra 
 cast, wear very small cloths round the 
 middle, and coarse turbans. You find 
 the Chehteree, or fighting-cast, dressed 
 according to their means, with vest, tur- 
 ban, and sash, or with Brahmin-like loin 
 cloths; and they will labour on their own 
 land when not on military service. 
 
 The subject of the casts and sects 
 among the Hindoos has been so fully 
 and so ably discussed, that it is not 
 necessary for me to enter further on it 
 than briefly to shew the system. Suffice 
 
INTO CASTS. 29 
 
 it to say, that the Brahmins* rank pre- 
 eminently first ; they are privileged to 
 officiate as priests of the gods, supposed 
 to meditate continually on things divine, 
 and live upon the industry of the other 
 three. The second, or Chehteree cast, 
 is considered noble ; from this princes 
 are, or rather used to be chosen ; from 
 this men are trained to the use of arms 
 and military service. The third, or 
 Bhysef cast, conduct all the details of 
 business, commerce, and all the internal 
 trade. In the fourth, or Soodra, are 
 comprised all labourers, artizans, and 
 manufacturers ; many tribes of whom are 
 not acknowledged as properly belonging 
 to the cast, although they wear the mark 
 either of Siva or Vishnu, and have Brah- 
 mins as Gurus, who mark them once in 
 two or three years and give them holy 
 
 * The officiating Brahmin, however, ranks far 
 below those who teach others, or who pass their time 
 in study and meditation. 
 f They are at liberty also to hold farms, and often do. 
 
30 DIVISION OF THE HINDOOS 
 
 water. These people swell the crowds 
 at festivals and pilgrimages, and are, in 
 fact, Hindoos of the fourth cast. The 
 distinction pretended to be set up has 
 originated in the pride of the wealthier 
 Soodras, and has found encouragement 
 from the crafty Brahmin. All others of 
 the native population of India, and they 
 are numerous, are chandalahs or outcasts*, 
 and perform the lowest offices of toil and 
 drudgery. (I am not including here 
 the Mussulman inhabitants of Hindostan, 
 whom I only regard as the descendants 
 of invading conquerors and foreign set- 
 tlers.) 
 
 The vedas, or sacred books of the 
 Hindoos, can only be read by Brahmins ; 
 and the second cast alone is privileged 
 even to listen to them. The two others 
 
 * There are gradations even among these poor 
 wretches. They, too, live in separate societies ac- 
 cording to their degrees of impurity; many are in 
 slavery under the native farmers. 
 
INTO CASTS. 31 
 
 cannot either read or hear them read ; 
 they are permitted however to use the 
 shasters, or holy commentaries on the 
 vedas. The poor chandalah is more 
 highly privileged in the sight of the 
 Christian "than any of them. His idolatry, 
 like ours, must be that of a bewildered 
 fancy, or perverse heart ; for he dare not 
 enter a temple, touch an altar, or offer 
 devotion to 'any of their idols. All of 
 them, however, do follow some supersti- 
 tion, and, as the natural consequence of 
 their degraded state, their worship has the 
 character of the most slavish fear. Al- 
 most all their offerings and sacrifices are 
 made to evil spirits; some shapeless stone, 
 or a lump of sun-baked mud, which they 
 paint and anoint, represents the Being 
 whom they dread. Their fasts and fes- 
 tivals are held in the wild and pathless 
 jungle, where they see not the finger of 
 the scorner, and hear neither the curse 
 of the Brahmin, nor the laugh of the 
 Moor. In sorrow and in the sweat of 
 
32 INTERIOR OF A VILLAGE. 
 
 their faces do these men eat of the ground 
 all the days of their life. With them the 
 heart is sad and hopeless, the mind dark ; 
 and to them the shadowed images of the 
 invisible world are all terrific. These 
 unfortunates feel that they are fallen 
 creatures, which is the first, most difficult, 
 and most bitter lesson for the Christian 
 convert ; yet these are men whom the 
 Missionary, in his zeal to do extensive 
 good among Hindoos of cast, over- 
 looks, or with a feeling he would blush 
 and startle to examine, designedly avoids. 
 
 The reader, as we travel forward, will 
 soon discover what influence their reli- 
 gion has on the morals of the Hindoos ; 
 and the manner of their worship, and the 
 nature of the lives they lead, these pages 
 will in part illustrate. 
 
 In the villages, their cottages, though 
 built of mud, are many of them exceed- 
 ingly neat and clean. In front, they 
 
STYLE OF COTTAGES. 33 
 
 have wide seats of hardened clay raised 
 two or three feet from the ground, with 
 or without small verandahs. The roofs 
 of this first class of cottage are flat ; and 
 the walls inside and out are painted, or 
 rather daubed with white and red al- 
 ternately in broad longitudinal stripes. 
 The owners also, if of high cast, mark the 
 seat and the ground near the door with 
 stripes of the ashes of cow-dung fresh laid 
 on every morning. On these no man of 
 lower cast dare tread. 
 
 You often, at break of day, see a female 
 of the family with cow-dung and water 
 laying down these lines, and, holding a 
 little incense or a few sacred flowers in 
 her hand, repeat some formula of prayer. 
 If a tree be near the door, the trunk of it 
 enjoys the full benefit of these daubs and 
 sprinklings. 
 
 Of course, the common huts are smaller 
 and ruder ; they are generally thatched 
 
34 TRAVELLER'S TREE. 
 
 with leaves of the palm or cocoa-nut, and 
 sometimes, indeed, are made altogether 
 of matting or basket-work, with bamboo 
 supporters. 
 
 Almost all the dwellings are so built 
 as to admit of a court for their cattle, 
 either in a central space, or close behind 
 with a mud-wall inclosure. 
 
 In most villages, you see near the 
 bazaar one or more lofty wide-spreading 
 trees, with broad beds of hardened clay 
 raised round their huge trunks. Here, 
 at the burning hour of noon, the cooly 
 deposits his load, the traveller his bundle* 
 or the horseman ties up his steed, and 
 all under the favour of its shade compose 
 themselves to sleep. Even here they 
 contrive to avoid any accidental defile- 
 ment of cast ; and a very high cast 
 wealthy man would take sole and undis- 
 puted possession, without he encountered 
 
NATIVE TRAVELLERS. 35 
 
 one of the faithful* sleeping on his horse- 
 cloth, with a scimitar beside him. 
 
 Tanks, or reservoirs of water, and topes, 
 or small groves of trees, are commonly 
 found side by side at the entrance of 
 Indian villages ; and in such spots, if 
 native travellers be numerous, they halt 
 for the night, bathe, and perform their 
 ablutions in the tank ; cook, take their 
 food, and rest in the tope. Here you 
 may see the bearded Mahometan sitting 
 cross-legged on a carpet, smoking his 
 hookah, with a ragged boy shampooing 
 his tired horse beside him ; the Hindoos, 
 according to their casts, boiling their rice 
 and mixing their curry-stuff within small 
 circles cut on the ground, for you to pass 
 which would be defilement both to their 
 food and themselves ; and far apart, de- 
 spised and rejected of all, the wretched 
 chandalah eating his ten cash worth of 
 flavourless cold rice, and enjoying (for it 
 
 * A Mahometan. 
 D 2 
 
36 CHOULTRIES AND PAGODAS. 
 
 is bis enjoyment) a short respite from 
 Iabour 5 if not ill usage. 
 
 In poor villages the small temple for 
 the idol will be of mud, white-washed, 
 'and ornamented with clay figures, the 
 work of the potter. Here and there too, 
 in different spots are always to be seen 
 small Lingams* for daily Pooja f, or some 
 strange-shaped stones or ancient trees, 
 long since consecrated by the craft of a 
 Brahmin, and daubed over or decked 
 with flowers to secure the veneration of 
 the credulous and consenting people. In 
 and near towns or populous places are 
 stone choultries for travellers, supported 
 -by handsome pillars, curiously carved with 
 figures of men, women, and animals, re- 
 garded as sacred. In such spots, more- 
 over, the pagodas are solidly built of 
 
 * The Lingam is a very small stone pillar of a 
 peculiar shape, the origin and attributes of which will 
 be found in the systems of Hindoo mythology. 
 
 -j- Worship. 
 
TANKS. SCENERY NEAR THEM. 37 
 
 granite. Their walls, columns, and lofty 
 gateways, elaborately sculptured with 
 images in full, demi or bas-relief of gods 
 and monsters. They have also sacred 
 tanks, lined and faced with stone, to 
 which you descend by flights of steps in 
 rows, continued round the whole inside 
 of the tank. A more particular descrip- 
 tion of a pagoda I will attempt hereafter. 
 
 In the south of India, where there are 
 few large rivers, you often find spacious 
 tracts under cultivation entirely supplied 
 with water from immense tanks, filled 
 during the rains by many contributing 
 streams and torrents. These reservoirs 
 have been the beds of naturally-formed 
 pools originally, and have been enlarged 
 and kept full by the turning of channels, 
 assisting the localities, and casting up 
 embankments. I have met with them 
 many miles in circumference. If the 
 country near them be hilly, they give a 
 noble character to the scenery, and every 
 D 3 
 
88 OXEN AND BUFFALOES. 
 
 where, in a land like India in its hottest 
 season, delight and refresh the eye. 
 
 To walk along the bund or embank- 
 ment of one of these capacious lakes at 
 rise or set of sun, on one side of you a 
 broad sheet of water with a back ground 
 of lofty hill, rocky, broken, and patched 
 with jungle ; on the other a wide and 
 rich carpet of green rice, its stalks fresh 
 and glistening in their watery beds, and 
 its tender blades bright with a verdure 
 unknown in Europe, is a pleasure in the 
 enjoyment of which you may for a while 
 forget those rural scenes of old England, 
 which will often intrude themselves un- 
 bidden on your fancy, and render taste- 
 less views less favoured, but still of much 
 beauty. 
 
 About sunset you always meet large 
 droves of oxen and buffaloes returning 
 from pasture, to sleep within the village 
 walls. In our territories they no longer 
 
OXEN AND BUFFALOES. 39 
 
 need protection from predatory horse; but 
 there is still a fear of loss from tigers, or 
 common thieves, and small insignificant 
 parties of robbers. The buffalo, though 
 very useful, is the most hideous animal in 
 India. It is of a dirty mouse-colour, with 
 little and thin hair ; its horns, large and 
 unsightly, lie back upon the neck ; for its 
 head is always carried horizontally in its 
 length, protruding forward with a wild or 
 stupid gaze. The oxen of the East are, 
 on the contrary, very handsome ; they 
 have a peculiarly formed, but not an 
 ugly hump, rising above the shoulder, 
 large falling dewlaps, but clean, sinewy 
 limbs ; they are strong and active both 
 for draught and carriage ; and when they 
 are very young, before they are fit for 
 labour, they are as light and springy in 
 their motions as deer. The milk and 
 ghee* of the buffalo is used as commonly 
 among the natives as that of the cow, if 
 not more so. 
 
 * Ghee, clarified butter, much used in Indian cookery. 
 D 4 
 
40 EARLY RISING ON MARCH. 
 
 As you lie in your tent, just composing 
 yourself to sleep, you are often disturbed 
 by the wild cry of a large pack of jackalls. 
 Their yell is a mournful, almost an ap- 
 palling, sound. The images it conjures 
 up are all of a desolate character. The 
 idea of a faint, wounded, and forsaken 
 traveller, lying conscious of his horrible 
 fate, yet speechless, as they come howling 
 onwards, and snuffing for his blood, is 
 terrific. Many, many an Indian traveller 
 has thus perished ; I mean native of 
 course. They will at any time fly from 
 the voice or face of man ; and a waking 
 servant soon drives them from your tent. 
 
 The lighting of your lamp and the stir- 
 ring of your servants generally rouse you 
 up at three in the morning. While you 
 are washing and dressing he prepares you 
 a cup of coffee ;and your Lascars* begin 
 striking the walls of your tent, you feel 
 
 * Lascars, servants whose principal duty it is to 
 strike and pitch tents. 
 
HO ADS IN INDIA. 41 
 
 quite cold, and discover that a great-coat 
 is as much wanted in India by a traveller 
 as at home. You mount your horse and 
 follow the village guide, who, with large 
 fire-sticks, runs, or rather shuffles along 
 before you at a tedious pace, broken con- 
 tinually by trifling obstacles ; nor is it till 
 the grey dawn shows you your road, and 
 perhaps a small herd of antelopes bound- 
 ing beautifully across it, that you feel 
 your mind fully awake. To be sure, if 
 there be moon-light, the march has 
 beauties, and the stars in this climate 
 shine with a distinctness and a lustre 
 never seen in our native country. 
 
 The roads in India are only beaten car- 
 tracks, and seem to the English eye very 
 solitary and unfrequented ; there is little 
 stir, little travelling on them. Now and 
 then you meet a couple of merchants on 
 ambling ponies ; a woman with a child 
 in her arms, riding on a saddle-bullock, 
 followed bv her husband armed with an 
 
NATURE OF OBJECTS MET WITH. 
 
 old matchlock ; a few laden bullocks 
 with a family behind them, the men on 
 foot, the women in a covered hackery ; 
 a few sepoys on furlough, with their wives 
 and children ; a long string of clumsy 
 bullock-cars laden with goods or stores, 
 or a large caravan of brinjarry bullocks, 
 carrying grain. The brinjarries are a 
 race of wandering grain-merchants, arid 
 trade all over Hindostan, particularly in 
 the Deccan. They carry their families, 
 their few worldly goods, and even their 
 idols with them. A certain number of 
 their finest bullocks are the leaders of 
 small herds, and have lofty ornaments 
 between the horns of coloured cotton, 
 with a plume of the cow-tail, and collars 
 round their necks with small bells like 
 the mules of Europe. 
 
 Among the objects you meet on the 
 road are often seen the fakirs*, who are 
 
 * The term Fakir is strictly Mahometan, although 
 it is commonly applied to all religious mendicants. 
 
FEW HORSEMEN, &C. TO BE MET, 43 
 
 religious beggars. Some of them wear 
 turbans of a deep reddish yellow, and 
 loin cloths of the same ; others go naked 
 and shameless, with a matted head of 
 hair, and their bodies daubed over with 
 the ashes of cow-dung ; large strings of 
 beads round their necks, and muttering 
 or singing as they go. These wretches 
 have the hateful influence with the people 
 here, which the begging monks of the 
 order of St. Francis had with the people 
 of Europe before the blessed Reformation. 
 Such are the figures and groupes usually 
 seen on the roads in our territory in 
 Hindostan ; but where, you will ask, are 
 the elephants, the camels, the numerous 
 horsemen, objects you have ever associ- 
 ated in your mind with travelling in India. 
 On the Madras side you may journey 
 three hundred miles and see none of 
 
 Among the Hindoos they are divided into many 
 classes, and distinguished by different names. The 
 Mahometan fakir has generally a ragged green turban 
 and a tattered robe. 
 
44 POVERTY OF THE UPPER CLASSES. 
 
 either, without you meet a body of 
 troops, a general officer, or some civil 
 servant of high rank, then you may 
 chance to see a few carriage-elephants 
 and camels. The native princes con- 
 nected with us, who yet maintain the 
 shadow of their former power, have a 
 few howdah-elephants, and a few hundred 
 camels ; but their keep is very expensive ; 
 and the company's officers and servants 
 on the coast could not afford to have 
 them on their establishments. For the 
 service of our commissariat we, of course, 
 have many and very noble elephants. In 
 Bengal and the western provinces they 
 are commonly in use both with the mili- 
 tary and civil servants. 
 
 As to horsemen ; the habits of the 
 lower classes under us are peaceful ; and 
 the poverty of all, who would probably 
 have been the nobles and officers under 
 native princes, must account for the total 
 absence of that upper class of easy idler 
 
OF THE NATIVES OF INDIA. 45 
 
 you expect to meet with in a luxurious 
 country like India ; and would, but for 
 our conquest, have found. But it must 
 be recollected that rank and wealth are 
 the gifts of a day with an eastern ruler, 
 held only during his pleasure ; and the 
 possessors have generally lost them at the 
 death of their prince ; always by a change 
 of government, and the fate of conquest. 
 
 And now, reader, with this scanty 
 stock of real information, but with a few 
 portraits you will find useful in assisting 
 your mind's eye, I would carry you, with- 
 out regarding the connection of stages and 
 dates, to look upon such scenes as inter- 
 ested me, and will, I hope, not altogether 
 fail of amusing and interesting you. 
 
 About forty miles from Madras, the 
 route to Bellary brings you to the foot 
 of the eastern Ghauts, at the small town 
 of Naggery. Our camp was in a fine 
 verdant spot, with many old shady tama- 
 
46 ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS. 
 
 rind-trees, and a broad stream of clear 
 running water close to us. Before us the 
 Ghauts abruptly rose. The mountains 
 are broken into many forms, here 
 rounded and woody, there pointed and 
 of bare rock ; on the sides of them are 
 masses of confused strata intermingled 
 with shrubs and plants, and here and 
 there, as the soil may have found a more 
 secure lodgement, grow a few trees of 
 larger size. The whole producing a 
 noble effect ; for although the Ghauts 
 rise nowhere to a greater height than 
 three thousand feet, still, as you come 
 upon them after marching over the 
 plains of the Carnatic, they arrest and 
 please the sight. While breakfast was 
 getting ready I amused myself with look- 
 ing at a baggage-elephant and a few 
 camels, which some servants, returning 
 with a general's tents from the Deccan, 
 were in the act of loading. The intelligent 
 obedience of the elephant is well known ; 
 but to look upon this huge and powerful 
 
ELEPHANTS AND CAMELS. 47 
 
 monster kneeling down at the mere bid- 
 ding of the human voice ; and, when he 
 has risen again, to see him protrude his 
 trunk for the foot of his mahout or at- 
 tendant, to help him into his seat ; or, 
 bending the joint of his hind leg, make a 
 step for him to climb up behind, and 
 then, if any loose cloths or cords fall off, 
 with a dog-like docility pick them up 
 with his proboscis and put them up 
 again, will delight and surprise long 
 after it ceases to be novel. When loaded, 
 this creature broke off a large branch 
 from the lofty tree near which he stood, 
 and quietly fanned and fly-flapped him- 
 self, with all the nonchalance of an in- 
 dolent woman of fashion, till the camels 
 were ready. These animals also kneel 
 to be laden. When in motion, they have 
 a very awkward gait, and seem to -travel 
 at a much slower pace than they really 
 do. Their tall out-stretched necks, long 
 sinewy limbs, and broad spongy feet ; 
 their head furniture, neck-bells, and the 
 
48 NAGGERY. 
 
 rings in their nostrils, with their lofty 
 loads, and a driver generally on the top 
 of the leading one, have a strange ap- 
 pearance ; and if you meet them in the 
 sandy bed of a river, or on a barren and 
 burning plain, from ideas you associate 
 with them, are very picturesque objects. 
 
 At Naggery, a serious robbery was 
 committed on an officer of my detach- 
 ment. The town and neighbourhood 
 being under a native zemindar, or petty 
 rajah, though subject to us, is under his 
 immediate rule. The head people of 
 Naggery, who I had reason to know 
 harboured and protected the thieves, 
 rather countenancing, and perhaps bene- 
 fitting by their system of plundering 
 travellers, shewed no disposition to take 
 any trouble about the matter^ I therefore 
 arrested two of them ; this led to an 
 amusing scene. The rajah, who lives a 
 few miles distant, sent his vakeel to ac- 
 commodate matters between us, and in- 
 
VISIT FROM A VAKEEL. 49 
 
 terfere for their release. This man, a 
 most respectable-looking elderly person, 
 of grave polite demeanour, came on 
 horseback at the head of a large crowd 
 of people, among whom were several 
 brahmins and well-dressed natives, and 
 about forty armed men with round lack- 
 ered shields, swords, creeses, and tall 
 spears, They wore large turbans over- 
 shadowing their brows, and on their feet 
 sandals of a rude and ancient make, the 
 leather of them cut and stamped orna- 
 mentally. The vakeel alighted at some 
 distance from my tent, put off his slip- 
 pers at the door of it, and with his hands 
 joined, as we do in prayer, entered with 
 a very low salaam, bowing down and 
 touching his forehead with his hands. 
 Some attendants brought in curious old 
 brass dishes, presents of fruit, sweetmeats, 
 rice, and flowers ; outside, others held 
 two fine sheep, and several fowls. Not 
 thoroughly understanding or yielding to 
 their usages, I touched the flowers and 
 
50 INTERVIEW WITH THE VAKEEL. 
 
 fruit in token of acceptance, and for- 
 bade the rest. I treated him with great 
 respect, and expressed myself to him 
 plainly, without heat, but with serious 
 displeasure. 
 
 I wanted him to reimburse my officer 
 by a fine on the village, and refused to 
 release my prisoners without this was 
 done. He was disposed to do it, and 
 conferred with the prisoners, but they 
 were unyielding, as, to their astonish- 
 ment, I proved also; for I took these 
 proud brahmins three stages with me ; 
 and, but for the kindly conveyed advice 
 of the Chittoor magistrate, had marched 
 them many more ; which, from their in- 
 solence, and the information I knew 
 them to possess about the property lost, 
 they merited ; and I am sure they would 
 then have found means to recover it. 
 But it was only to introduce the group 
 that I have troubled you with this story ; 
 and I must add, that when, after the 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAKEEL. 51 
 
 vakeel had conferred with the prisoners, 
 he came to take leave of me, I was stand- 
 ing in the open air in my loose undress 
 almost alone. The whole party halted 
 about forty yards from me, and he ad- 
 vancing with a few, about twenty, left his 
 slippers there and approached me bare- 
 footed. 
 
 I can hardly describe what, as an 
 Englishman, a citizen of the world, and 
 a man, I felt at all this slave-like defe- 
 rence. However, reader, in or near the 
 company's territories, such a scene is of 
 rare occurrence ; for the administration 
 of justice, and the collection of revenue, 
 throwing all wealth, power, influence, 
 and patronage, into the hands of the civil 
 servants, cause the military officer to be 
 regarded with far less consideration and 
 respect, not only than he is justly en- 
 titled to, but than it is politic he should 
 enjoy. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 MY IGNORANCE. 
 
 Between Naggery and the village of 
 Codoor, there is much wild and pretty 
 scenery. At the top of the pass by 
 which you ascend the Ghaut, the road 
 winds for a few miles through a very 
 thick jungle. The day just broke as we 
 entered it ; there had been rain ; innu- 
 merable birds were fluttering about, and 
 calling in their different notes. Creeping 
 and climbing plants of a great variety, 
 and all beautiful, were scattered in rich 
 profusion ; here forming large thick beds 
 on the earth, and there hanging pendant 
 from branches, clinging round old trunks 
 of trees, and framing canopies from one 
 to another. 
 
 I must honestly avow, that having no 
 skill in plants, I cannot give their names; 
 and it is but fair to tell you, reader, 
 before you turn over the next page, that 
 I cannot scientifically describe any thing, 
 not even the process of a manufacture. 
 
REFLECTIONS. 53 
 
 Any information about mineral strata, 
 beds of rock, earths, names and classes 
 of rare vegetable productions, or other 
 wonders of the wide field of nature, I 
 could not attempt to offer from know- 
 ledge or observation of my own. And 
 as I have not either the wish or hope to 
 excite the attention of other readers than 
 those of my own class, I will venture 
 boldly forward on my own quiet path. 
 
 After all, I may ask, for my very con- 
 fession, humble as it reads, has awakened 
 and alarmed the little plaguing demon 
 of vanity, I may ask, I say, whether per- 
 ceptions of beauty in the works of nature 
 are greatly increased, by that acquaint- 
 ance with her arcana which common 
 minds, directed to the study of natural 
 history, rest satisfied to attain. I say 
 common minds, because some there are 
 who fathom so deep into the abyss of her 
 mysteries, that they seem to walk the 
 
 E3 
 
54 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 earth alone, and to maintain an acquaint- 
 ance with nature the most sublime, the 
 most enviable ;-- such a man is Hum- 
 boldt: puny philosophers feed on the 
 lightest and easiest of his treatises, and 
 fancy themselves wise ; he, familiar with 
 discovery, sighs for the possession of yet 
 another secret ; and, while he illuminates 
 the minds of thousands, laments the dark- 
 ness of his own. 
 
 To the eye of a Raphael, all the 
 beauties of an exquisite picture stand 
 fully and at once displayed. But while a 
 connoisseur of dwarfish attainments may 
 stand in a gallery, and descant upon the 
 peculiar defects or excellencies of this or 
 that school of painters, an amateur can 
 pronounce on the nature of this attitude, 
 the truth of that expression, the loveli- 
 ness of that face, or the graces of this 
 form, before he is told by a printed 
 catalogue that Titian, Caracci, Murillo, 
 
BAULPILLY. 55 
 
 or Guido, are the masters he is ad- 
 miring.* 
 
 On the road to a place called Baulpilly, 
 whither I sent the commissariat bullocks 
 the evening before our march to it, a 
 royal tiger sprung out upon them, and 
 carried one off. The carcase, half-de- 
 voured, was found in the morning near 
 the spot ; from the nature of the country, 
 it would have been impossible to find 
 the tiger. Our camp at Baulpilly lay in 
 a beautiful, but very small plain, on every 
 side surrounded by hills handsomely 
 wooded to their summits. 
 
 Here, as in Europe, an Englishman 
 fond of solitary rambles indulges, from 
 habit, even in jungle f j nor is there any 
 great danger, for most animals in a state 
 
 f I am very far from meaning to smile at the de- 
 lightful and profitable study of botany, where it is 
 pursued with an ardour and a taste which carry the 
 student beyond the mere learning of names, 
 f Jungle, a thick wood. 
 
 E 4 
 
56 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 of wildness, if not pressed by hunger, or 
 alarmed, and without a path for escape, 
 will fly the approach of man. 
 
 Of course, however, the feeling is 
 sometimes present, as you pass a lair 
 lately quitted, tread on the hole of the 
 hooded serpent, or see the foot-print of 
 the tiger, or cheeta*, in your path, that, 
 in such lonely haunts, danger and death 
 are never far from you. But then again, 
 a sweeter confidence is thus excited in 
 the fatherly love and care of a merciful 
 God; and gathering a wild flower, you 
 wander on, nor suffer the thought of a 
 possible fate, which may visit you as 
 easily in brilliant and guarded saloons, 
 as in pathless deserts, to disturb your 
 harmless enjoyment. 
 
 In my evening walk, I saw some of 
 the camp-followers burning the body of 
 
 * Cheeta, the leopard. 
 
BURNING OF A CORPSE. 57 
 
 a relative just deceased. Death does not 
 so much change the countenance with 
 them, nor from their complexion does 
 it wear that look of livid ghastliness so 
 affecting in the appearance of a Euro- 
 pean's corpse ; the closed eye, motionless 
 lips, and stiffened form, alone proclaim 
 this last and solemn sleep. 
 
 The body was placed on a few dry 
 logs, mingled with smaller sticks ; at the 
 head lay an oblation of rice and saffron ; 
 a few flowers were scattered on the pile ; 
 a libation of water poured out ; an 
 anointing of oil. I do not recollect to 
 have seen, on this occasion, the blood 
 offering which it is usual to make at 
 funerals by sacrificing a cock; but they 
 were poor and of low cast. I saw them 
 however again at a later hour, at the 
 funeral repast, and while the flames were 
 yet licking up the remains of that hand 
 which was but the yesterday in the same 
 dish with them. 
 
58 ENGLISH IDEA OF A PAGODA. 
 
 At a place called Wuntimettah, which 
 you approach by a noble tank some miles 
 in circumference, I found two pagodas; 
 one very large. Both were deserted* 
 having been defiled many years before 
 by Tippoo, who fortified, armed, and put 
 troops in them. Though in a state of 
 general decay, no part has fallen, and 
 much of the carved work is still perfect. 
 I must here remark, that, except among 
 the learned, the curious, or the wealthy, 
 who possess as library furniture the large 
 works on India, with their expensive 
 plates, you will find very few persons at 
 a dinner- table in England who would 
 listen with patience to any thing about 
 Indian architecture. Speak of Grecian, 
 or Roman temples, they are familiar 
 with such images. By the joint aid of 
 modern travellers, poets, or painters, the 
 mosque, the cupola, and the minaret, are 
 still better and more generally known ; 
 but pagoda is a word which conveys to 
 most of them the notion of some such 
 
A PAGODA DESCRIBED. 59 
 
 fanciful building as they see painted on 
 a Chinese screen, or figured on a Japan 
 card-box. 
 
 A brief description of a pagoda of the 
 large class may not be uninteresting. 
 A high, solid wall incloses a large area 
 in the form of an oblong square; at 
 one end is the gateway, above which 
 is raised a large pyramidal tower ; its 
 breadth at the base and height, propor- 
 tioned to the magnitude of the pagoda. 
 This tower is ascended by steps in the 
 inside, and divided into stories ; the 
 central spaces on each are open, and 
 smaller as the tower rises. The light is 
 seen directly through them ; producing, 
 at times, a very beautiful effect, as when 
 a fine sky, or trees, form the back ground. 
 The front, sides, and top of this gateway 
 and tower, are crowded with sculpture; 
 elaborate, but tasteless. A few yards from 
 the gate, on the outside, you often see a 
 lofty octagonal stone pillar, or a square 
 
60 A PAGODA DESCRIBED. 
 
 open building, supported by tall columns 
 of stone, with the figure of a bull couch- 
 ant, sculptured as large, or much larger 
 than life beneath it. 
 
 Entering the gateway, you pass into a 
 spacious paved court, in the center of 
 which stands the inner temple, raised 
 about three feet from the ground, open 
 and supported by numerous stone pil- 
 lars. An enclosed sanctuary at the far 
 end of this central building, contains the 
 idol. Round the whole court runs a 
 large deep verandah, also supported by 
 columns of stone ; the front rows of 
 which are often shaped by the sculptor 
 into various sacred animals rampant, rode 
 by their respective deities. All the other 
 parts of the pagoda, walls, basements, 
 entablatures, are covered with imagery 
 and ornament of all sizes, in alto or demi- 
 relievo. Here you may see faithfully 
 represented in black granite, all the in- 
 carnations of Vishnu the preserver ; here 
 
A PAGODA DESCRIBED. 61 
 
 Siva the destroyer, riding on his bull 
 with a snake twisted round his neck, and 
 a crescent on his head ; Krishen, their 
 Apollo, with his flute ; Kamadeva, their 
 Cupid, riding on a parrot, with his bow 
 of sugar-cane strung with flowers or bees ; 
 Ganesa, the god of prudence, with his 
 elephant-head ; Surya, the sun, drawn in 
 his chariot by a seven-headed horse ; 
 Chandava, the moon, in a car drawn by 
 antelopes ; Agnee, the god of fire, riding 
 on a ram ; Varoona, the god of the seas, 
 on a crocodile. Many female deities 
 and inferior nymphs presiding over sea- 
 sons, instruments of music, &c. or crowds 
 of warriors on horseback, and the fabu- 
 lous actions of their superior gods pour- 
 trayed in groups and pictures of demi- 
 relief every where ; generally in front of 
 the idol, and in other parts of the tem- 
 ple you see lingams * on their altars. 
 
 * The Lingam, the Bull of Siva, and other images 
 more peculiarly sacred to Iswara, mark the distinction 
 between the pagodas dedicated to the worship of Siva 
 and the temples of Vishnu. 
 
62 RHUTT, OR MOVEABLE TEMPLE. 
 
 Near every pagoda is kept a huge 
 wooden car, or rather temple, on wheels. 
 This, also, is curiously carved ; but the 
 scenes and figures represented are usually 
 so indecent and unnatural as not to admit 
 of description. At certain seasons, an 
 idol, painted and adorned, is placed on it, 
 and dragged by the united strength of 
 hundreds in procession. * 
 
 Such, though but roughly, and, I fear, 
 not very intelligibly sketched, is a pa- 
 goda. Here the worshippers daily re- 
 sort, with their humble offerings of rice 
 and plantains ; and hither, on high festi- 
 vals, they crowd with flowers, fruit, in- 
 cense, and money, to gaze on groupes of 
 dancing girls, beautiful in form, gaudy 
 in attire, and voluptuous in every look 
 and motion ; or listen to the wild and 
 
 * It not unfrequently happens, that frantic devo- 
 tees throw themselves on the ground, as the temple 
 approaches, and suffer themselves to be crushed by 
 its wheels. 
 
REFLECTIONS. 63 
 
 obscene fictions, sung by religious men- 
 dicants to the sound of strange and dis- 
 cordant music ; or gather round self- 
 torturing devotees, with frantic shouts of 
 approbation. 
 
 Thus it is that, according to enthusi- 
 astic Orientalists, the imaginative Hin- 
 doos worship one holy and invisible God 
 in all his various attributes. There can 
 be little doubt, that a fancy beautifully 
 creative laid the foundation of that sys- 
 tem of Hindoo mythology, the present 
 superstructure of which is so monstrous. 
 But to say, that, of the vast population of 
 India, any considerable body are simple 
 deists, is an assertion hardly worth one 
 scratch of the pen to disprove. 
 
 Among the countless millions of Brah- 
 ma's votaries, I do not believe there are 
 one hundred so spiritual in their percep- 
 tions, nor one-tenth of that number so 
 honest in their avowal and their teaching. 
 
64 PREJUDICES OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
 No ! they are blind idolaters ; blinded 
 by that common curse which fell upon 
 the whole family of the human race, and 
 are sitting in the shadow of that darkness 
 which the Sun of Righteousness can 
 alone dissipate ; and will, in the appointed 
 time, with the bright and beauteous rays 
 of mercy arid of truth. 
 
 I do not tell you that the Hindoos are 
 destitute of moral excellence ; but, to 
 speak generally, the standard of it is 
 miserably low. The ryot, who toils all 
 day and sleeps all night, is peaceful ; 
 the parent is fond, the husband ten- 
 der, friends are united. 
 
 But let us pause ! look at yon Brah- 
 min, stepping in haughty wrath from his 
 cottage : that poor wretch, of lower 
 cast, faint with a mortal sickness, has 
 fallen too near his threshold ; and may, 
 though he has not yet, defile it ! He 
 does not stoop to aid the dying man ; 
 
HINDOO WIDOW. 65 
 
 administers nothing to his crying, though 
 speechless wants. No ! such charity 
 would pollute him. He hurries off, 
 and returning with two obedient vil- 
 lagers, has him borne away, to breathe 
 his last, perhaps unsheltered ; and to rot 
 in an unfrequented spot near the village, 
 without the last poor privilege of a fu- 
 neral pile. 
 
 Look again at these aged Brahmins 
 in earnest converse. In the garden from 
 whence they are passing forth, sits the 
 widow of a respectable native just de- 
 'ceased. She is only twelve years of age, 
 and was betrothed (no more) to the hus- 
 band she had but once seen. She has 
 just heard from them how it is expected 
 she should honour God, and attain 
 heaven. Terrified she looks, and is. 
 The sun shines bright, the earth looks 
 green to her, she would live, and taste 
 those bounties a merciful Creator gives. 
 She must not ! *r- JEne the shadows pf 
 
 F 
 
66 RELIGION OF THE MAHOMETANS. 
 
 evening close, her ripening form and de- 
 licate limbs will be wrapped in flame. 
 Sad nuptials these, to be embraced on 
 the funeral pile by death ! yet the horn, 
 the drum, the cymbal, and the shouts of 
 a glad multitude, speak joy. 
 
 The mild Hindoo ! the term is 
 mockery. It is insulting the piety, it is 
 trifling with the sense of an Englishman, 
 to tell him that the Hindoos are inoffen- 
 sive and tolerating religionists. Pleased 
 with their own attainments in Oriental 
 literature, finding their pride flattered by 
 all that is respectful and submissive in 
 the manners, and their taste indulged by 
 all that is pretty and scenic in the cus- 
 toms of the people of India, I verily be- 
 lieve that half the men who have so 
 admiringly pourtrayed these unfortunate 
 idolaters, have deceived themselves, as 
 well as others. For my own part, I view 
 the faith of Islam with comparative re- 
 spect. The dregs of the Mussulman po- 
 
RELIGION OF THE MAHOMETANS. 67 
 
 pulation are, to be sure, vile enough ; but 
 the better class of Mahometans have 
 some knowledge of the God of Abraham ; 
 and pious Mahometans are to be met 
 with in India, who have been permitted 
 to distinguish between the stolen jewels 
 and the false stones and tinsel of the 
 Koran ; and know that the fasting of the 
 inner man, the cleansing of secret sins, 
 never born into acts, by repentance and 
 prayer, are the most precious sacrifices 
 they can offer to Him. I cannot but 
 think, and have long believed, that the 
 conversion of the Mahometan world, 
 whenever it begins, will spread with 
 astonishing rapidity. " Could Mahomet- 
 ans be satisfied," said a sirdar to me, 
 " that Isaac was the child of promise, 
 they would make but a short stand for 
 the Koran." And, as to their sins, they 
 could not make a stouter than most of 
 us born in Christian countries do, I am 
 sure I may safely add. But the sum of 
 what I mean is, that, as compared with 
 
 r 2 
 
68 CUDAPAH. 
 
 Hindoo worship, that of Mahometans has 
 a plainness, a simplicity, a rationality. 
 
 To return Cudapah was the first 
 place on the route which looked like a 
 city. Two or three mosques, sur- 
 mounted by gilt crescents ; a citadel in 
 ruins ; some decayed and crumbling 
 mansions, choked-up baths, and waste 
 gardens, declared that it had known 
 more splendid, though, perhaps, less 
 peaceful times. As you approach it, you 
 cross a vast plain, on which the only 
 trees are those planted on a long avenue 
 on either side of your road. The ba- 
 zaars here were spacious, built with much 
 regularity, and crowded with Mahomet- 
 ans ; Cudapah having been, for many 
 years* a Patan settlement, under an inde- 
 pendent Nawab. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of this place I 
 saw a bearded old man, in a dark 
 coloured vest and turban, riding a fine 
 
ELDERLY MUSSULMAN. 69 
 
 spirited horse, and followed by a servant, 
 carrying his hog-spear, and leading a 
 couple of dogs. He looked at me sternly, 
 and with much haughtiness ; but I felt 
 not an emotion of anger, for he looked 
 brave, and like a soldier, and, for aught I 
 knew, had once been a sirdar of rank and 
 approved fidelity, perhaps the killedar* 
 of the hill-fort, which frowned in the far 
 distance, and, awakening the pride of past 
 times, made him burn at the galling 
 thought that he was now a pensioner, 
 and of Christians. In some of the native 
 armourers' shops at Cudapah, I saw 
 many curious old shields and lances, and 
 some matchlocks, which had been very 
 ornamentally inlaid, and appeared of the 
 oldest construction. 
 
 At one of the villages where we halted, 
 I met with a sort of wandering tribe, in 
 
 * Killedar, the military governor of a fort, 
 F 3 
 
70 INDIAN GYPSIES. 
 
 basket-huts, much reminding me of the 
 gypsies at home. 
 
 They were a tall, fine-formed race, of a 
 tawny complexion ; their women loaded 
 with paltry ornaments, and beads of co- 
 loured glass : jack-asses, pigs? and fowls, 
 were straying about their camp. They 
 had also numbers of small Tattoo poneys, 
 large fierce dogs, and trained game- 
 cocks ; and several of them had tame 
 serpents, in baskets, which they dragged 
 out, and piped to for our amusement. 
 But they were not either of the juggler 
 class, or of the Brinjarry tribe. These 
 came from the northward of the Kistnah, 
 in the Mahratta country, and appeared 
 to deal in ornaments of wood, glass, tin, 
 and feathers. As Indian jugglers have 
 visited the Exhibition-room in Pall Mall, 
 and half the markets and fairs in Eng- 
 land, I need hardly name them. Their 
 exhibitions in India are the same they 
 
WEAVING VILLAGES. MONKIES. 71 
 
 have given at home ; only, here they are 
 generally accompanied by tumblers, and 
 snake-charmers, await your pleasure be- 
 fore the door of your tent, and thankfully 
 receive, for the whole performance, about 
 as much as an individual in Pall Mall 
 paid for his admission-ticket. 
 
 In the large weaving villages of India 
 you may see the labour, in almost all its 
 stages, going on in the open air ; some- 
 times in a tope of shady old trees, filled 
 with monkies, who gambol and chatter 
 above the villagers undisturbed. The 
 monkey is held sacred all over India. 
 There is a species of large baboon or ape 
 kept in their pagodas, and very highly 
 venerated from the credited tradition 
 that one 'of their gods dwelt under that 
 form while on earth. These animals ap- 
 pear as well acquainted with their privi- 
 leges as the Brahmins themselves ; and, 
 descending at sun-set from the tower of 
 the temple, in the niches of which they 
 F 4 
 
7 o03? STRENGTH OF ITS FORTS. 
 
 live, they plunder, fearlessly* the fields 
 and gardens ; nor are they ever molested, 
 except by a sly sceptic as to their di- 
 vinity, when he is certain he cannot be 
 discovered. 
 
 The next place to Cudapah, of any 
 note, was Gooty, a very formidable hill- 
 fort. It stands quite insulated, and rises 
 sfeVeral hundred feet above the level of the 
 plato. Its sides and rocky summit are 
 crowded with the defences peculiar to the 
 n&tiv style of fortification : walls within 
 walls, gates, winding passages, and flights 
 of steps, and towers at the irregular an- 
 gles, formed according to the nature of 
 the ground, look menacingly down on 
 the assailant : but " dare greatly, do 
 greatly," is, and always has been, the 
 motto in the attack of these fortresses. 
 
 You will be ready to exclaim, our In- 
 dian foes must be sad cowards. The 
 fact is not so. Individually, both the 
 
PINDARRIE PRISONER. 73 
 
 Moorish and Hindoo soldiers are brave. 
 They want discipline, system, depend- 
 ence on each other's fidelity, and a 
 humbler opinion of themselves* They 
 are very careless and indolent, especially 
 in garrison, relying much on the clumsy 
 and crowded defences of the fortress they 
 hold. The ease, therefore, with which 
 they are beaten in the field, and driven 
 from their strong holds, may be ac- 
 counted for. What native soldiers can 
 effect, when trained, appointed, and led 
 by British officers, the gallant Sepoys, 
 of all three presidencies, have openly 
 and honourably proved on many trying 
 occasions. 
 
 In the upper fort of Gooty, in a guard- 
 house on a confined shelf of rock, from 
 whence the view is very commanding, I 
 saw a Pindarrie chief, (if chief be not a 
 term too noble for the leader of two 
 hundred wretches, neither armed, equip- 
 ped, nor mounted for war, and formidable 
 
74 
 
 BELLARY. 
 
 only to defenceless villagers.) As he lay 
 upon the ground, wrapped in a coarse 
 cumly, he looked like a common cooly j 
 but, when he rose, his short sinewy 
 frame, thick moustachios, and restless 
 eye, bespoke that incredible activity, pi- 
 tiless ferocity, and quick caution, which 
 render these such terrible enemies to the 
 countries they over-run. 
 
 Early in September I reached Bellary, 
 It is a large station, with an upper 
 and lower fort, and extensive canton- 
 ments. The upper fort is built on a 
 bare naked rock, about four hundred feet 
 above the lower, in which there are bar- 
 racks for the European soldiers. The 
 lines for the natives are outside, about a 
 mile distant. Few, if any, of the officers' 
 bungalows are less than half a mile from 
 the fort gates. There are, on two dif- 
 ferent roads, very large detached subjurbs, 
 or pettahs. The bazaars, in both, are 
 
MILITARY STATIONS. 75 
 
 good : one very spacious, regular, and 
 well supplied. 
 
 The military stations in India have so 
 many features in common, that one de- 
 scription may give a general idea of all. 
 The Europeans invariably have barracks ; 
 the native soldiers lines, that is, on a 
 given line are built places of arms, either 
 several small, or a few large ones, as they 
 may be designed for companies only, or 
 for battalions. In front of these build- 
 ings is the grand parade ; in rear, are 
 the huts and families of the Sepoys. All 
 the officers live in bungalows, which are 
 neat dwellings of brick, with verandahs ; 
 the walls covered with chunam, and the 
 roofs tiled and sloping: these are either 
 rented, purchased, or built by the officers ; 
 and in size, convenience, and decoration, 
 differ according to the taste and circum- 
 stances of each individual. They have 
 all either gardens or compounds with 
 wells, stabling, and offices. 
 
76 MODE OF LIFE AT OUT-STATIONS. 
 
 The life at out-stations may be as 
 briefly sketched. The troops are under 
 arms whenever it is considered necessary, 
 for parade, or exercise, either at day- 
 break, or sun-set. At the same hours, 
 duty not interfering, you take your rides 
 and drives. There is a sort of social 
 luncheon called a tiffin, for which you 
 sit down to table at one or two o'clock 
 daily. The dinner hour is from seven 
 to eight in the evening. Occasional 
 sporting parties, and pic-nics, and if the 
 station be large, races, a few balls, and 
 perhaps a performance by amateurs in a 
 private theatre, or a musical party, break 
 the monotony of your life. " My horse !" 
 or " my hat, stick, and gloves !" are calls 
 never heard in this climate at noon-day. 
 The long summer-evening's ramble, or 
 the yet longer evening of winter with 
 lights, fire, books, and music, are alike 
 unknown here. It is dark before seven 
 all the year round. In the hot season, 
 the evening hours are breathless and 
 
MOHURRUM FESTIVAL. 77 
 
 oppressive ; in the wet season, damp, 
 windy, and comfortless, 
 
 I was six months at this station. 
 
 On the last night of the mohurrum, a 
 Mahometan festival, I walked out after 
 dark in a white jacket, went alone into 
 the large pettah outside the fort, and 
 mingled with the crowds on foot, that I 
 might fairly see the people, as it were, in 
 their joyous undress character : for, when 
 you ride among them, or are borne in 
 your palanquin, you labour under many 
 disadvantages for close observation. 
 
 A fine noisy tumultuous scene it was. 
 I first met an immense crowd carrying 
 a sort of light ornamental temple, made 
 of pasteboard, talc, and gauze, and painted 
 and gilt with much taste. At the head 
 of this crowd were groups of tumblers, 
 and men with ornaments and bells on 
 their legs, dancing like our morrice- 
 
78 VARIOUS GROUPES. 
 
 dancers ; there were also several low 
 masks, such as men naked, their bodies 
 painted like tigers, and led in chains by 
 others, either crawling on all-fours, or 
 roaring and springing about amidst the 
 crowd ; others daubed over with a shin- 
 ing African black colour, and armed with 
 short staves, imitating negro combats 
 and dances. 
 
 Then several hundred Mahometans 
 (most in our army), with glittering sabres, 
 black shields, and in their native dresses; 
 turbans, of green, red, purple, pale blue, 
 rose, brown, and all colours ; large wide 
 trowsers of silk, of the gaudiest patterns, 
 and many with shawls thrown over one 
 shoulder. Nearer the Tazier, were 
 groups of dancing-girls, covered with 
 joys, and dressed in showy muslins and 
 silks, with round golden embossed plates 
 on the back of the head. Numbers of 
 insolent-looking fakirs, and a vast con- 
 course of people of all casts and classes. 
 
MAGIC LANTERN. 79 
 
 All these distinctly seen at night-time, 
 by the light of innumerable torches, 
 matchlocks firing off, rockets flying, the 
 few natives who had horses, galloping 
 and prancing round the crowd, and one 
 huge elephant, borrowed from our com- 
 missariat to make up the procession, 
 gave a very lively picture of an eastern 
 festival. As I walked in the bazaar, I 
 came upon a crowd, one minute atten- 
 tively silent, the next merrily talkative. 
 I pushed among them, and found an 
 exhibition of the magic-lantern kind : 
 in light, colouring, and motion, it was 
 exceedingly well managed. The repre- 
 sentations were combats between natives 
 and English ; now groupes of horsemen, 
 now of foot ; now a single combat. The 
 showman explained every scene, with 
 many coarse jokes which I could not 
 understand, but which took vastly with 
 the crowd. The British were always 
 beaten, especially in the horse-encounters, 
 and their figures and dress were much 
 
80 FESTIVITIES. 
 
 caricatured. Had I been known, I should 
 perhaps have been insulted, but with my 
 hat over my eyes, and a handkerchief 
 held generally to my face, I was probably 
 taken for a half-cast Christian. Fruits, 
 sweetmeats, sherbet, arrack, and toddy, 
 were selling every where. In many 
 places were large shallow pits filled with 
 fires, round which circles of Moors, bran- 
 dishing their naked swords, danced a 
 sort of war-dance in honour of the vic- 
 torious Ali ; singing and shouting at 
 every pause " Ali, Ali !" Occasionally, 
 too, one or other of them leaped into 
 and through the fire with looks and ges- 
 tures half frantic. Walking on, you will 
 see at the corner of one street tumblers, 
 at another dancing-girls ; here singers 
 and music, there a story-teller with a 
 party squatted round him. In short, 
 every thing wore a festive pleasure-seek- 
 ing air ; and, in spite of the difference of 
 climate, religion, laws, and education, 
 we find the materials in which the heart 
 
REFLECTIONS. 81 
 
 of man seeks the coarse gratifications 
 suited to it in its natural state, are pretty 
 much the same all over the world 
 noise, glitter, show, vanity of dress, 
 and indulgence of animal appetite. 
 Portsdown-fair has its booths, stages, 
 merry-andrews, puppet-shows, jessamy 
 waistcoats, and flaring ribbands. Portman 
 Square, the Opera-house, the theatres, 
 and Vauxhall, have corresponding plea- 
 sures suited to tastes a little, and often 
 but a little more refined. And I could 
 remind, or perhaps inform the fashion- 
 able gamesters of St. James's Street, that 
 before England ever saw a dice-box , 
 many a main has been won and lost 
 under a palm-tree, in Malacca, by the 
 half-naked Malays, with wooden and 
 painted dice ; and that he could not pass 
 through a bazaar in this country without 
 seeing many parties playing with cards, 
 most cheaply supplied to them by leaves 
 of the cocoa-nut, or palm-tree, dried, 
 
 G 
 
82 CITY OF BIJANAGUR. 
 
 and their distinctive characters traced 
 with an iron style. 
 
 Such features of general resemblance 
 in their manners have the enlightened 
 inhabitants of Europe, and the poor 
 ignorant crowds of Hindostan ! 
 
 Within forty miles of Bellary are the 
 interesting ruins of the ancient city of 
 Bijanagur. As no common or public 
 route passes near them, they have been 
 seldom visited, and are little known. 
 Bijanagur was founded in 1336. It was 
 the last capital of the last Hindoo empire, 
 and appears, from its strong situation in 
 a difficult and rugged country just south 
 of the Toombudra, to have been fixed 
 upon as a sort of retreat for that mo- 
 narchy, after the loss of Deoghir, and the 
 reduction of its power in the Deccan. 
 It was at first, indeed, called the city of 
 science ; but, as it rose in strength and 
 splendour, that of victory. From hence 
 
SITE OF ITS INTERESTING REMAINS. 83 
 
 the Hindoo rajah gave the law to the 
 five kingdoms, into which the Deccan was 
 broken by those haughty and ambitious 
 princes, who had thrown off the yoke of 
 Delhi. For a long time these sovereigns, 
 though nominally independent, paid tri- 
 bute to the rajahs of Bijanagur; till, in 
 1564, they suddenly combined their efforts 
 for the overthrow of his power. In a 
 sanguinary battle on the plains of Telli- 
 cottah, Ram Rajah was taken and put to 
 death ; his immense host utterly defeated, 
 his capital laid open to the avarice and 
 fury of the victors, and the sceptre of 
 Hindoo empire broken for ever. 
 
 When the traveller, after winding 
 wearily for many a mile through hill 
 and jungle, at length reaches the small 
 village of Cumlapoor, he looks eagerly 
 to the north of it for the site and ruins 
 of Bijanagur ; but when he sees the 
 prospect filled and bounded by lofty and 
 rugged piles of rock, heaped up in strange 
 
84 SITE OF ITS INTERESTING REMAINS. 
 
 and threatening forms, and all the valleys 
 which separate them choked up with 
 bush and giant-grass, with, here and 
 there, a few large and ancient trees 
 thinly scattered, he pauses in doubt 
 and disappointment, for he cannot think 
 that city ever stood in so barren and 
 desolate a spot. The naked and torrent- 
 furrowed hills before him seem rather 
 the mighty ruins of some work of nature, 
 where, in the long succession of ages, 
 deluge after deluge has swept down the 
 soil that covered, and, with it, the ver- 
 dant dress of turf and shrub that adorn- 
 ed them. A colossal figure of the god 
 Ganesa, with his elephant-head, another 
 of the stately bull of Siva, two or three 
 broken gateways, and several large blocks 
 of hewn stone, scattered loosely on the 
 road beneath him, which they once 
 paved, make him look more attentively 
 around ; and he now sees that the sides 
 of these naked hills are studded with 
 rude choultries of stone ; that small pago- 
 das are erected at their summits; and 
 
WALK THROUGH THEM. 85 
 
 that the perpendicular masses of stone 
 in the rock itself, and those columns 
 prepared and raised by human labour, 
 are so intermingled with each other, as 
 not to be readily distinguished at the 
 first admiring unsettled gaze. In the 
 valleys between them he sees fragments 
 of pillars, walls, pagodas, or choultries, 
 scattered in the thick jungle ; here peer- 
 ing a little above it, there nearly concealed 
 by rich mantles of creeping plants. A 
 cluster of domes discovered on his right, 
 as he passes the large tamarind-trees 
 beyond the village, demand, by their 
 imposing appearance, his first visit. 
 
 One building of no great depth, with 
 ten lofty arches, and as many small 
 domes, declares its former princely use 
 as a stable for elephants. Of the larger 
 domes, one is over a fine gateway, the 
 other over the entrance to some presence- 
 chamber, which has long fallen in ; while 
 many lighter and smaller ones, on a high 
 G 3 
 
86 RUINS DESCRIBED. 
 
 decaying wall, still look upon a weed- 
 covered garden, adorned with the re- 
 mains of kiosks and fountains. Near this 
 again is a building with deep piazzas, 
 which doubtless have been often filled 
 with slavish guards, prepared alike to 
 defend or slay at the voice or even look 
 of a despotic master. 
 
 You cross the garden, where im- 
 prisoned beauty once strayed. You look 
 at the elephant-stable and the remaining 
 gateway, with a mind busied in conjuring 
 up some associations of luxury and mag- 
 nificence. And yet these are but the 
 meaner ruins of the hastily-built palace 
 of some nameless sirdar, to whom the 
 government of this scene of desolation 
 and misery was given by those victor 
 princes, who rode triumphant hence, 
 glutted with spoil, and drunk with 
 slaughter, and left him to glean that 
 field of blood and plunder they were 
 weary of devastating. Sorrowfully I 
 
ONE STREET NEARLY PERFECT. 87 
 
 passed on. Every stone beneath my feet 
 bore the mark of chisel, or of human 
 skill and labour. You tread continually- 
 on steps, pavement, pillar, capital, or 
 cornice of rude relief displaced, or fallen, 
 and mingled in confusion. Here, large 
 masses of such materials have formed 
 bush-covered rocks, there, pagodas are 
 still standing entire- You may for miles 
 trace the city-walls, and can often dis- 
 cover, by the fallen pillars of the long 
 piazza, where it has been adorned by 
 streets of uncommon width. One, in- 
 deed, yet remains nearly perfect ; at one 
 end of it a few poor ryots, who contrive 
 to cultivate some patches of rice, cotton, 
 or sugar-cane in detached spots near the 
 river, have formed mud-dwellings under 
 the piazza. Here also is a large pagoda 
 perfect, and kept in good repair ; for to 
 this spot a pilgrimage is made annually 
 by crowds of devout Hindoos, who hold 
 a fair in this wild scene, and perform 
 their ablutions in the sacred Toombudra, 
 
 G 4 
 
88 EMBLEM OF ETERNITY. 
 
 which flows past these ruins, hurrying 
 over a bed of rock, and often broken and 
 intercepted in its course by huge pic- 
 turesque masses of it. Here, on a smooth 
 stone, at the river's brink, I found the 
 impression of two feet, encircled by the 
 hooded or sacred serpent, the well known 
 emblem of eternity. Such symbol notes 
 a spot, where some shrinking victim of 
 the tyranny and craft of priesthood has 
 been driven to offer herself in sacrifice at 
 the funeral pile of her husband, or perhaps 
 deluded herself by the pride of super- 
 stition and custom, has with steady forti- 
 tude lighted the very flames, from which 
 she has madly hoped her conquering 
 spirit would ascend, and force the portals 
 of a vanquished heaven. 
 
 Such reflections, although they cannot, 
 nor should they blunt our feelings, as 
 the mind's eye realises the dreadful scenes 
 once acted in this now awful solitude, 
 when, maddened by bigot zeal, the Moor- 
 
SUBTERRANEOUS SANCTUARY. 89 
 
 ish conquerors stained all these mould- 
 ering pagodas with the blood of their 
 priests, may assist us in believing that 
 the followers of a faith so terribly hostile 
 to idolators, were the appointed mes- 
 sengers of the wrath of God for their 
 punishment. 
 
 One of the pagodas here deserves par- 
 ticular mention ; for, in addition to the 
 admirable sculpture, with which its gates, 
 pillars, and projecting cornices are adorn- 
 ed, it has an idol car, entirely composed of 
 black granite, ornamentally carved, and 
 beautifully executed. It has been move- 
 
 V 
 
 able, but its wheels are now half bedded 
 in the soil. It has, moreover, under the 
 inner temple, a subterraneous sanctuary. 
 This sanctuary receives a sort of gloomy 
 light from above, but was doubtless de- 
 signed to be illuminated by torches, when 
 any ceremony or sacrifice was performed 
 there. In it are a few small reservoirs with 
 channels and lips, which were wont, on 
 
90 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 solemn occasions, to be filled with the 
 urine of the cow, of which, in some of 
 their mysteries, a most disgusting use is 
 often made. 
 
 The blood creeps as you stand alone 
 in the gloom of this dungeon-like vault, 
 and reflect on the horrid rites it may 
 have often witnessed. It is dedicated to 
 the destroyer, and was, perhaps, first con- 
 secrated by human blood. It has, pro- 
 bably, often echoed shrieks, and laughter, 
 from which humanity and purity alike 
 revolt. The thought of such crimes might 
 well steel the heart, yet it will throb as 
 you image to yourself the hour of retri- 
 bution, when a band of Mussulmans 
 broke into this recess, and seizing the 
 assembled priests by those sacred locks 
 hanging from their shaven crowns, drag- 
 ged them with shouts to the light of day ; 
 polluted their necks with the foot of 
 pride ; slew all ; and rolled their gory 
 heads, as mock-offerings, to the foot of 
 
REFLECTIONS. 91 
 
 their goddess Kali*, whose necklace of 
 human skulls bespoke her not unac- 
 quainted with such sacrifice. 
 
 With a mind thus occupied, you pass 
 on through this wilderness, in a frame of 
 submission to the will of Heaven, but of 
 a character partaking more of awe and 
 fear, than resignation and love. The de- 
 solating judgments on other renowned 
 cities, so solemnly foretold, so dreadfully 
 fulfilled, rise naturally to your recollec- 
 tion. Now, as you tread, the wild pea- 
 cock, with a startling whirr, rises in your 
 path; now, you disturb the basking snake; 
 and here, as the rustling of a thicket at- 
 tracts your eye, are reminded that these 
 ruins are the haunts of the hyena, and 
 the panther ; that the small and frequent 
 
 * When the fortress of Chittledroog was taken by 
 the troops of Tippoo Saib, the heads of the Maho- 
 metans who had been slain during the siege, were 
 found piled up before the altar of Kali. Vide WILKS. 
 
92 SECOND VISIT TO THE RUINS. 
 
 patches of sugar-cane give shelter to the 
 wild boar; and that wolves are common 
 in the rocky hills above you. 
 
 I climbed the very loftiest rock at day- 
 break, on the morrow of my first visit 
 to the ruins, by rude and broken steps, 
 winding between, and over immense and 
 detached masses of stone; and seated 
 myself near a small pagoda, at the very 
 summit. From hence I commanded the 
 whole extent of what was once a city, 
 described by Caesar Frederick as twenty- 
 four miles in circumference. Not above 
 eight or nine pagodas are standing, but 
 there are choultries innumerable Fallen 
 columns, arches, piazzas, and fragments 
 of all shapes on every side for miles. 
 About a league from this spot, on the 
 opposite bank of the river, stands the 
 small village of Annagoondy, near which 
 are the ruins of an ancient bridge* 
 At Annagoondy resides the nominal ra- 
 jah, who receives a salary of 1500 rupees 
 
DESCENDANTS OF RAM RAJAH. 93 
 
 a month from us ; and boasts his descent 
 from the haughty Ram Rajah ; him, from 
 whose successors, degenerate in rank, in 
 possession and in name, we first received 
 permission to settle as factors on the 
 coast of Coromandel ; him, who fell on 
 the plain of Tellicottah, where he is said 
 to have marshalled 2000 war elephants, 
 and 1000 pieces of cannon ; who, a few 
 years before that fall, received the humble 
 visit of a king of Beejapoor, and con- 
 ducted him through the city to his palace, 
 their elephants marching along streets 
 strewn with cloths, and lined by crowded 
 terraces, from which were suspended 
 costly hangings of brocade, and tissue, 
 while purse-bearers scattered silver, and 
 gold pieces, and seed pearls, among the 
 multitudes. 
 
 Yes, such was the kingly procession ; 
 on which, from the very spot, perhaps, 
 where I sat, the eye of some delighted 
 youth hath gazed with the feelings, which 
 
94 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 youth alone can know. To me how dif- 
 ferent the scene ! Can there have been 
 streets and roads in those choked-up 
 valleys ? Has the war-horse pranced, the 
 palfrey ambled there? Have jewelled- 
 turbans once glittered where those dew- 
 drops now sparkle on the thick-growing 
 bamboos? Have the delicate small feet 
 of female dancers practised their graceful 
 steps where that rugged, and thorn- 
 covered ruin bars up the path ? Have 
 their soft voices, and the Indian guitar, 
 and the gold bells on their ankles, ever 
 made music in so lone and silent a spot ? 
 They have ; but other sights, and other 
 sounds, have been seen, and heard among 
 these ruins. There, near that beautiful 
 banyan-tree, whole families, at the will 
 of a merciless prince, have been thrown 
 to trampling elephants, kept for a work 
 so savage that they learn it with reluct- 
 ance, and must be taught by man. Where 
 those cocoas wave, once stood a vast 
 seraglio, filled at the expense of tears 
 
REFLECTIONS. 95 
 
 and crimes; there, within that retreat 
 of voluptuousness, have poison, or the 
 creese, obeyed, often anticipated the so- 
 vereign's wish. By those green banks, 
 near which the sacred waters of the Toom- 
 budra flow, many aged parents have been 
 carried forth and exposed to perish by 
 those whose infancy they fostered. Un- 
 der that half-tottering piazza, often has 
 the wealthy shroff doled out to the poor 
 soodra the sum a brahmin had extorted 
 from him for the expenses of a funeral, 
 or a marriage, at a rate of usury, from 
 the bonds of which the toil and suffer- 
 ings of years could scarcely redeem him. 
 
 Better, thought I, better the wilder- 
 ness should lie fallow a week of centuries, 
 than be fertile only in errors and in 
 crimes ; than bring forth nothing but the 
 bitter fruits of man's apostacy. It may, 
 it will blossom again, when sown with 
 the seed of God's blessing. Oh ! look 
 around the world and see, since the 
 
96 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 sword awoke against this city, how many 
 a hideous " wilderness has become a 
 fruitful field," and confess, with humility, 
 that the ways of the Most High are past 
 finding out. 
 
 Many millions of people, who acknow- 
 ledge the light and guidance of Christian 
 revelation, inhabit now the then pathless 
 forests and noxious swamps of America. 
 On the coasts of Africa, Negro and Hot- 
 tentot have, in small numbers, been re- 
 stored from the sad effects of the prime- 
 val curse, to the dignity of man's highest 
 hope and calling ; and, on the vast con- 
 tinent of India, the Day-spring from on 
 high has broken in, and partially illu- 
 mined the darkness of the land. It is, 
 in truth, but the faint and early dawn ; 
 but who, let me ask, as walking in his 
 garden he sees those pale and glimmering 
 streaks which succeed to the deep shadows 
 of night, does not believe that morn is 
 come, that the sun is rising, that darkness 
 
 8 
 
MARCH FROM BELLARY. 97 
 
 shall flee away from him, and that the 
 broad bosom of the earth shall feel the 
 warmth, and be lighted up by the blaze 
 of his meridian beams. So is it with the 
 moral and religious world. 
 
 After two days' rambling amid these 
 thought-stirring scenes, I returned to my 
 station, which I left soon after for Madras. 
 
 Marching in India, if the weather be 
 fine, is both pleasant and healthful. The 
 morning ride is not a dull constitutional 
 canter It has an object. There is a daily 
 change of ground and air; and you can 
 find no scene of nature without some 
 peculiar character of beauty or interest ; 
 no two were ever yet exactly alike ; in 
 some hill, rivulet, tree, or flower, a dif- 
 ference, though slight, is, by the practised 
 and loving eye, always discernible. The 
 very plain, all bare and barren as it is, 
 has beauty, and, from the ideas suggested 
 by it, an interest. You feel free and un- 
 
 H 
 
98 SPASMODIC CHOLERA. 
 
 confined. In such a scene you are led to 
 think of those immense hordes of Indian 
 cavalry which scour these wide and blade- 
 less tracts. Here, there is no tender crop 
 to be beat down by the tramp of their 
 destroying hoofs. Their horses may paw, 
 or gallop ; their lances and their swords 
 may glitter ; they do but dress the pic- 
 ture ; they may battle too, and bleed with 
 each other, for they 
 
 " Sow in the whirlwind, and must reap the storm. " 
 
 About the period of our march, the 
 spasmodic cholera raged dreadfully all 
 over India. I observed, generally, that 
 the sacrifices offered up by the Brahmins* 
 
 * I have been told that I have confounded the 
 priests of the cowkeeper cast, or tribe, with Brah- 
 mins, for that the latter never offer up a blood sacri- 
 fice. The cowkeeper cast is very numerous, and by 
 no means a low one; the Brahmins are their spiritual 
 teachers and guides, and by them these offerings must 
 have been at least sanctioned, if not enjoined. These 
 sacrifices were frequent, public, and attended by 
 
AN IDOL FLOGGED. 99 
 
 to avert this visitation were all blood 
 offerings of kid or lamb. They were 
 usually performed at night by the light 
 of torches, and with a great sounding of 
 horns, the tones of which are mournful 
 and sad, but harshly and unpleasingly so, 
 having an air of loud and shrill com- 
 plainings. 
 
 A most ridiculous thing occurred at 
 one place ; the inhabitants having in- 
 voked their favourite idol in vain, it was 
 brought forth into the bazaar and flogged, 
 with some foolish ceremonies by the 
 officiating Brahmins, for not answering 
 the prayers and sacrifices of the perishing 
 multitude. 
 
 In my way to the coast, 1 passed 
 Nundidroog, a strong hill-fort, built on 
 
 crowds, and if the officiating priests on these occa- 
 sions were not Brahmins, the zenaars and the loin 
 cloths deceived me. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 BANGALORE. 
 
 the summit of a mountain 1700 feet 
 high. 
 
 Bangalore, a native fortress in the 
 Mysore country, having a noble canton- 
 ment near it for several thousand of our 
 troops of all arms. Bangalore is ac- 
 counted very healthy: it stands on the 
 highest part of the table land of Mysore ; 
 and its climate is dry and cool. It is, 
 perhaps, the most agreeable residence in 
 southern India. 
 
 I descended the Ghauts by the Nack- 
 enairy pass, the scenery about which is, 
 romantic and fine. 
 
 On my route through the Carnatic, I 
 visited the garden of Sautghur, a spot 
 filled with orange-trees, cocoas, slender 
 arecas, and all formally laid out after the 
 eastern fashion, but rather prettily si- 
 tuated among low picturesque hills, co- 
 vered with thick brushwood, and loose 
 masses of rock. In this garden I met a 
 
AGED MAHOMETAN PRIEST. 101 
 
 venerable Mahometan priest, one hun- 
 dred years old ; a long snow-white beard 
 fell upon his breast ; I bowed low to his 
 hoary head with the respect I felt. Three 
 or four elderly Moors with him looked 
 very unbending and haughty, but he 
 placidly and calmly returned my salute. 
 In him, pride and revenge seemed to 
 have fallen asleep. 
 
 How little would this old man have 
 believed in the day of his youth, that a 
 few nameless and unimportant Christian 
 factors on the coast of Coromandel, of 
 whom he had then seldom heard even, 
 should, before he dropped into his grave, 
 encamp as conquerors on the banks of 
 the Indus, overturning every musnud 
 between the snowy mountains which 
 bound Hindostan to the north, and the 
 southernmost cape of a peninsula, 1800 
 miles in its length, by 1000 in its 
 greatest breadth. Let us pause for one 
 moment, and, after giving all due credit 
 H 3 
 
102 THOUGHTS ON OUR INDIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 to the wisdom and energy of our leaders, 
 and to the boldness and devotion of our 
 soldiery, let us calmly ask ourselves if 
 this work and this glory be ours ? 
 
 Did we first sow distraction, want of 
 faith, and suspicion in the councils of 
 jiative princes ? Did not ambitious and 
 traitorous sirdars undermine? Did not 
 invading Persians shake to its very centre, 
 and upstart Mahrattas finally overthrow, 
 the Mogul power? Did not treachery, 
 terror, and cowardice, make most of our 
 early fields cheap victories ? Have we 
 not armed nation against nation ? Men 
 born in the same country, speaking the 
 same language, following the same cus- 
 toms, and venerating the same religion ? 
 And, leading these against each other, 
 have we not seen a hundred flee before 
 ten, and a thousand before fifty. 
 
 Let these thoughts humble, for then 
 will they effectually strengthen us. We 
 
THOUGHTS ON OUR INDIAN EMPIRE. 103 
 
 are all instruments in an Almighty hand, 
 and to feel and acknowledge this, is to 
 be exalted in wisdom. The freest exer- 
 cise of our intellect and our courage is 
 ever mysteriously combined with Divine 
 agency. Who does, who can think that 
 such a belief impressed upon the heart, 
 will chain down the soaring wing of 
 mind, freeze the current of noble feeling, 
 or palsy the arm of courageous strength, 
 all of them the free gifts of that boun- 
 teous and fatherly Creator, who wills 
 them to be employed in his service at all 
 events, and first sanctifies and blesses 
 them to us, by showing us that they are 
 so employed, and sweetening our very 
 labour with the knowledge that it cannot 
 be in vain. 
 
 How the British power is protected 
 and upheld in India, I felt more sensibly, 
 as, a few days afterward, in the fort of 
 Velore, I looked upon the windows, 
 through which, in the dead of night, not 
 H 4 
 
104 FORT OF TELORE. 
 
 twelve years ago, so many of my gallant 
 countrymen were murdered by sepoy 
 mutineers ; and saw, a little further, the 
 spot where these wretches, triumphant in 
 their bloody rebellion for only a few 
 short hours, were, in their turn, sacrificed 
 to the natural revenge, and necessary 
 energy of our own dragoons, summoned 
 from Arcot. 
 
 \ 
 
 The fort of Velore is of native con- 
 struction, but perfect, and very hand- 
 some. Its battlements, small overhanging 
 towers, and wide ditch, look well and 
 strong; but as' a place to be held, it is 
 commanded, and useless. The sons of 
 Tippoo Sultaun were confined here, but 
 have been removed to Calcutta. His 
 women, however, still reside in Velore. 
 The king of Candy is also a state pri- 
 soner here. 
 
 About forty miles from hence, on the 
 road to Madras, is the large Brahminy 
 
GRAND PAGODA. 105 
 
 town of Conjeveram. It has wide streets, 
 neat houses with trees before them, and 
 several squares, adorned with large tanks 
 of masonry, having small temples in the 
 water ; and many choultries near the 
 handsome flights of steps, by which the 
 Brahmins descend to bathe and perform 
 their ablutions. 
 
 The principal pagoda is an immense 
 pile of building ; the tower over the gate- 
 way both massive and lofty. At the 
 entrance are two elephants, admirably 
 sculptured in stone. In one of the 
 large courts (for here there are several) 
 is a choultry, supported by Jive hundred 
 stone pillars. This pagoda is rich, and 
 has a large establishment of priests ; they 
 keep two elephants for their processions, 
 and have large companies of dancing 
 girls and musicians exclusively for the 
 service of this temple. Here, however, 
 where every thing wore the air of an 
 unmolested city, entirely Hindoo, my 
 
106 SAIL FOR CALCUTTA. 
 
 eye in one of the suburbs caught the 
 mosque-like dome of a pretty Mussul- 
 man tomb, in a retired shady garden ; in 
 it I saw a grave-looking man, in a large 
 snowy turban, kneeling in prayer, with 
 his face towards Mecca. The day of 
 permitted persecution in India is now 
 happily gone by ; a far different spirit 
 is now silently and irresistibly at work. 
 The Moollah reads his Koran, the 
 Brahmin his Bedas, in the very same 
 grove ; and the best men of both per- 
 suasions feel a wish for something more 
 sure to lean on than the hopes and pro- 
 mises of either, or than their own most 
 perfect obedience of the imperfect laws 
 contained in them. 
 
 I sailed from Madras early in June, 
 1819, for Calcutta. A fine steady breeze 
 carried us, in four days, to the pilot 
 station at the mouth of the Hooghly. 
 
 After an Englishman has passed a year 
 
THOUGHTS ON BOARD SHIP. 107 
 
 on the burning soil of India, as he again 
 treads the deck of an English vessel, 
 listens to, and looks upon her brave and 
 active crew, feels her bounding over the 
 ocean, and thinks of his home and the 
 wooden walls which defend it, he has a 
 throb of heartfelt delight and innocent 
 pride, which none but a Briton can 
 know. The sea is his element ; it en- 
 circles, it guards his native land; it bears 
 him forth, from pole to pole, to do her 
 pleasure, to carry out the fruit of her 
 labour, and bring her back the produce 
 of distant lands ; it bears him to protect 
 her friends, to assail her enemies, or to 
 do her blessed errands of charity and 
 peace ; it brings him home to her with 
 the rich harvests of wealth and glory, 
 or the yet richer of gratitude ; and, in 
 an English vessel, let him sail on what 
 sea he will, the fancies of the little family 
 circle round his fire-side at home can 
 follow him can see him in the little 
 cabin they perhaps visited before his ship 
 
108 GARDEN REACH. 
 
 set sail, and can well remember and recall 
 those faces round him, in which their 
 quick affection had seen or fancied the 
 traits of kindness or of feeling. 
 
 On the eastern bank of the Hooghly, 
 about one hundred miles from its mouth, 
 stands the city of Calcutta. It is nearly 
 six miles in length ; the breadth, how- 
 ever, is in no part very considerable. 
 The bold reach of the river, at the head of 
 which Calcutta stands, is, from the villas 
 and gardens on its banks, styled the Gar- 
 den Reach, and is as truly beautiful as 
 its name would prepare you to find it. 
 Spacious and elegant houses, shrubberies, 
 and lawns, give to the cheerful scene an 
 air both of costliness and taste. 
 
 As you approach Chandpal Ghaut, and 
 see a large, regular, and handsome for- 
 tress, a palace-like looking government- 
 house, a wide and grand esplanade, 
 many magnificent houses on one side of 
 
VIEW OF CALCUTTA. 109 
 
 it, and a range of stately edifices beyond 
 it, a little above this ghaut, an anchor- 
 age crowded with shipping, and a close- 
 built city, containing upwards of eighty 
 thousand houses, whatever your expecta- 
 tions may have been, they are surpassed. 
 
 A friend sent his servant and a boat 
 for me. Nothing, at first, can be more 
 striking than the difference both of cos- 
 tume and manner between the native do- 
 mestics of Calcutta and Madras. A robe 
 fitting closely round the body, but loose 
 and long below ; wide sleeves, hanging 
 open from the lower or fore- arm ; large, 
 full trowsers ; slippers ; turbans sitting 
 flat and close to the top of the head, but 
 with several narrow projecting folds, half 
 shading the neck and face, is the univer- 
 sal dress. In speaking, they join and 
 lift the hands, bending forward with a 
 soliciting and respectful look. They 
 none of them speak English ; are re- 
 
110 VIEW OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 markably clean in their dress and per- 
 sons, and graceful in their motions. 
 
 Although Calcutta contained a home, 
 and a very precious one, for me, I have 
 only engaged you, reader, to accompany 
 an unknown traveller ; and shall there- 
 fore speak of Calcutta as a stranger to 
 any other residence than an hotel. Here 
 is my first difficulty, in India there are 
 some houses of public entertainment; 
 but, to speak generally, they are not con- 
 sidered respectable, nor are they, except 
 under a pressing necessity, resorted to by 
 gentlemen. This is not so strange as it 
 at first appears, nor does it arise from 
 the hospitality of our countrymen in In- 
 dia, which, great as it allowedly is, has 
 much less influence over this state of 
 things than they perhaps imagine. It is 
 right to clear this up, because a gentle- 
 man and a traveller landing at Calcutta, 
 without letters of introduction, would 
 find himself much at a loss, and placed, 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF A STllANGF.il. Ill 
 
 moreover, in rather a mortifying situ- 
 ation. Our connection with India is not 
 a colonial one. We have settlements on 
 the coasts ; but we rule over an empire 
 by the agency of native servants and sol- 
 diers, who are subjected to the authority 
 and guidance of governors, generals, col- 
 lectors, judges, and other officers, civil 
 and military ; all British, and of British 
 appointment. It is never, therefore, that 
 gentlemen in the service of the Company 
 can land at any of the Presidencies with- 
 out an appointed place to go to. King's 
 officers have their barracks ; merchants 
 their correspondents ; captains of ships 
 their friends, or the purchasers of their 
 investments, or else they hire houses ; 
 and to individuals of any of these classes, 
 if they have private letters to a protector, 
 his doors are thrown open here, as they 
 would be elsewhere at a distance from 
 the mother-country. Taverns, therefore, 
 are principally resigned to such merchant 
 ship-officers, of junior rank, as get a few 
 
112 EQUIPAGES. 
 
 days' leave on shore, and have no other 
 resource. The necessary consequence is, 
 they pay extravagantly, and fare badly. 
 A stranger is certainly much surprised, 
 both at the number and style of the 
 equipages he meets on the fashionable 
 drive, at sunset. Many hundred coaches, 
 chariots, barouches, curricles, tilburies, 
 and humble gigs, give, by his familiarity 
 with the sight of such conveyances, an air 
 of England ; and, by his ever associating 
 the possession of them with rank or easy 
 circumstances, one of splendour. But a 
 something, in black coachmen dressed in 
 muslins and turbans, inferior cattle, awk- 
 ward driving, and harness ill put toge- 
 ther, in spite of many handsome and 
 some English-built carriages, tells the 
 eye that much will long be wanting be- 
 fore the chariot and pair, on the Calcutta 
 course, can vie with that of Hyde Park. 
 The young dashers, in their tilburies, 
 who instruct their servants in the art of 
 cleaning and putting-to, and drive them- 
 
EQUIPAGES. 113 
 
 selves, perhaps contrive a closer resem- 
 blance to English style, than the elder 
 and more sensibly indolent residents 
 trouble themselves to affect. 
 
 As for the number of conveyances, the 
 European in India is carried, according 
 to his fancy or means, wherever he has 
 to go ; and hardly ever walks, either for 
 pleasure or business, a thousand yards. 
 
 Many of the Armenian and native 
 merchants adopt our carriages and imi- 
 tate our manners in some particulars, 
 although retaining their own costume : 
 so that you may see the high-pointed 
 cap of the one, and the turban of the 
 other, in landaus or barouches, built after 
 the make of Long Acre. At the farthest 
 extremity of the course you may often 
 chance to meet a son of Tippoo's, wrap- 
 ped in shawls, and lolling in a phaeton ; 
 and you see native merchants continually 
 in gigs or on horseback. 
 
 i 
 
114 THOUGHTS ON CHOWRINGHEE. 
 
 As the evening closes in, the crowds 
 of carriages disperse ; and, about half an 
 hour after, you see the glare of torches 
 in all directions, lighting the - coaches 
 and palanquins, hurrying along to the 
 splendid entertainments, of which there 
 is a constant succession among the opu- 
 lent and luxurious inhabitants of Calcutta. 
 At twelve, you may see them returning 
 home ; and, if the oppressive heat drives 
 you, as it often does, to the roof or bal- 
 cony of your house for air, soon after, 
 when all is dark and silent round you, 
 the cry of jackalls, suddenly and wildly 
 breaking forth, then ceasing, then again 
 nearer or close to you, may be distinctly 
 heard. You are then reminded that this 
 city is the quick growth of a century ; 
 that, where they are, it is still half jungle ; 
 that, at Chowringhee, where you now 
 stand in a spacious verandah, supported 
 by lofty Grecian pillars, only sixty short 
 years ago the defenceless villagers could 
 scarce bar out the prowling tiger; and 
 
HALF-CAST POPULATION. 115 
 
 that, were this city to become suddenly 
 depopulated, in sixty more, these perish- 
 able palaces of timber, brick, and chunam 
 would totally disappear, and rank vege- 
 tation conceal the very ground they stand 
 upon. Such a fate, however, is not to be 
 apprehended for Calcutta. Long after our 
 interest in it, as Englishmen, may have 
 ceased by the entire loss of our Indian 
 possessions as governors, it will continue 
 a populous, powerful, and wealthy city. 
 Although we do not admit of colonization 
 in India, a class of natives connected 
 with us by blood, language, habits, edu- 
 cation, and religion, is rapidly growing 
 into consequence, in point of numbers, 
 possessions, awakened desires, enlarged 
 and enlightened views. They are the 
 small merchants, the shopkeepers, the 
 citizens, in fact, of our Presidencies. 
 They are shut out from the service of 
 the company ; but that they are the sub- 
 jects of the company must never be for- 
 gotten. The British blood and the native 
 
 i 2 
 
116 TOWN OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 blood in their veins are alike hateful to 
 them; for the Englishman and the Hindoo 
 alike disclaim them : but as the light of 
 knowledge beams upon them, they see 
 and feel that " honour and shame from 
 no condition rise." The revolution of a 
 few short years will fearfully increase their 
 numbers ; and, if the moral and mental 
 improvement of this class, now reckoning 
 in it many men of talent, integrity, and 
 piety, keeps pace with that increase, we 
 must not expect, nor ought we to wish, 
 that they should look upon themselves 
 as out-casts, without a country they dare 
 call their own ; without the common 
 privileges of freeborn men ; without eli- 
 gibility to honor, wealth, or usefulness ; 
 or to any share in the government of 
 themselves, 
 
 The native or black town of Calcutta 
 literally swarms with population. There 
 are also strangers to be met with here 
 from every part of Asia, Chinese, Arabs, 
 
CONVEYANCES. 117 
 
 Persians, inhabitants of the eastern isles, 
 and many Jewish, and other merchants 
 from the ports of the gulf, and the Red 
 Sea. It is highly diverting to pass through 
 the particular streets of Calcutta resorted 
 to by these strangers, and contemplate 
 the various groupes as you recline in a 
 slowly borne palanquin. 
 
 The palanquin is only used, however, 
 by Europeans in Calcutta for very short 
 distances, if their incomes are sufficiently 
 large to admit of their keeping coach or 
 bandy horses for change. At the hour 
 the public offices usually open at Calcutta, 
 you see more close carriages, chariots, 
 and palanquin-carriages than you see in 
 the day-time at Madras, in the course of 
 a month's residence. Most of the native 
 clerks have palanquins of country fashion 
 in make and ornament, and they rarely 
 walk if they are old or senior clerks. 
 Indeed, the streets of Calcutta have many 
 features, new even to the eye of an in- 
 i 3 
 
118 CONVEYANCES. 
 
 habitant of Madras. The palanquin- 
 bearers are, on this side, almost all from 
 Balasore, or some of the northern Circars, 
 and they are naked, bare-headed, and run 
 silently. There are numbers of bullock, 
 and one horse hackrees, with cotton 
 canopies, and backs and cushions to sit 
 on in the native fashion. There are 
 also two or three hundred small ill-built 
 coarse painted coaches drawn by wretched 
 country ponies. They are more clumsily 
 put together than the pigeon-house 
 jingles of Dublin ; nor are they ever 
 used by respectable persons, European 
 or native. But, by these, many a com- 
 mon sailor, who gets four-and-twenty 
 hours' leave, is spared the trouble of 
 staggering to look at the city, or regain 
 his boat ; and natives of low cast, or of 
 none, are carried as their business calls 
 them, from suburb to suburb, or ghaut 
 to ghaut, for a mere trifle. Lascars, or 
 the sailors of the Indian seas, may be 
 seen here in great numbers ; small scull- 
 
HABITS OF LOWER ORDERS. 119 
 
 caps edged only or covered 'with em- 
 broidery, short close vests and wide pet- 
 ticoat trowsers mark them in dress, and 
 they have generally thick bushy heads of 
 hair, a tawny complexion and stout limbs; 
 they spend the earnings of many months' 
 labour with a lavishness which surprizes 
 even an Englishman ; they drink freely, 
 and will stake their last dollar, and even 
 clothes at play. These vices are common 
 to the lower classes of Calcutta itself, to 
 which they add a taste for tawdry gilt 
 ornaments and common lace ; they also 
 consume great quantities of opium and 
 coarse confectionary, or preparations of 
 sugar. It is incredible what large sums 
 are thus expended during their great 
 festivals. 
 
 Although these indulgent excesses are 
 more common among the Moors than 
 the Hindoos ; yet it is a most erroneous 
 and mistaken notion to suppose that 
 these last are free from the vices named. 
 
 i 4 
 
120 BENGALEES. 
 
 At the corner of every street you may 
 see the Gentoo-bearers gambling over 
 chalked-out squares, with small stones 
 for men, and with wooden dice ; or 
 Coolies playing with cards of the palm- 
 leaf. Nay, in a pagoda, under the very 
 shadow of the idol, I have seen Brahmins 
 playing with regular packs of Chinese 
 cards ! As for intoxication, many Hin- 
 doos, who reject arrack, drink toddy till 
 they are scarce able to walk, and smoke 
 opium till they can neither see or speak. 
 
 The Bengalees are, as a race of men, 
 very inferior, I think, to those on the 
 coast ; they are small, slightly made, and 
 very black ; greater numbers of them go 
 naked, and, although they are doubtless 
 as clean as the corresponding classes at 
 Fort St. George, yet as all their clothes 
 are dark-coloured and unbleached, they 
 do nt>t appear so. Their huts too are 
 commonly made of bamboo, matting, and 
 thatch, and have, unless when new, a very 
 
BENGAL TROOPS. 
 
 mean appearance. The servants, whom 
 I spoke of at landing, form in Calcutta 
 quite a distinct class, and are generally 
 Mahometans. 
 
 The Bengal sepoy, however, or rather 
 the sepoy of the establishment, (natives 
 of Bengal Proper never being admitted) 
 are tall, stout, handsome looking men ; 
 they are generally enlisted from Bahar, 
 Oude, and the western provinces. 
 
 The Bengal troops are certainly finer 
 and larger men than those of the coast 
 army, but are not, I think, so smart look- 
 ing under arms ; their clothing is seldom 
 well fitted, and they do not either move 
 or handle their arms with that life, and 
 soldier-like steadiness, observable in the 
 Madras native infantry. The body guard 
 of Calcutta did appear to me rather in- 
 ferior to that of Fort St. George. They 
 are, however, a fine body of men, and on 
 state occasions add greatly to the splen- 
 
122 HALL OF AUDIENCE. 
 
 dour of the scene ; and a levee, on public 
 day at the government-house at Calcutta, 
 has such a court-air of show and ceremony 
 as the seat of supreme government should 
 present. I saw the venerable and noble 
 governor general preside at the college 
 disputation for 1819. The hall of audi- 
 ence below is a very noble one ; it is 
 paved with dark grey marble, and sup- 
 ported by several handsome columns, 
 covered with the most beautifully polish- 
 ed chunam. The room above, to which 
 you ascend by a poor ill-designed stair- 
 case, is a very fine one, floored with 
 polished wood, and ornamented with 
 several rich glass lustres, descending 
 from a painted ceiling. 
 
 In a state chair, covered with crimson 
 velvet and richly gilt, with a groupe of 
 aid -de-camps and secretaries standing 
 behind him, sat the Marquis of Hastings. 
 Two servants with state punkaps of crim- 
 son silk were fanning him, and behind 
 
MARQUIS OF HASTINGS. 123 
 
 them again were several native servants 
 bearing silver staffs. Next him, on either 
 side, were seated the examiners, and 
 below them again, the most distinguished 
 ladies of the Presidency. Next, in an 
 open space, were two small rostrums for 
 the disputants, and chairs for the profes- 
 sors ; the room behind these, and front- 
 ing the marquis, was quite filled with 
 company, and in the rear of all, the body 
 guard was drawn up in full uniforms of 
 scarlet with naked sabres. 
 
 In the tall, and once athletic form, the 
 manly brow and weather-beaten cheek 
 of the Marquis, you can easily retrace all 
 that he has been at the head of a com- 
 pany of British grenadiers ; and can well 
 imagine him the distinguished young 
 hero of Bunker's Hill ; while the mild- 
 ness of his look, voice, and manner re- 
 mind you of that hospitable nobleman, 
 who threw wide his portals to those high- 
 born, but destitute exiles, who, flying 
 
124 DISPUTATIONS. 
 
 from the storm of blood and anarchy in 
 France, found a refuge and a princely 
 one in the house of Moira. 
 
 Of the disputations I shall say nothing ; 
 for, conducted as they are, they are no 
 trials of strength, but merely final and 
 public exhibitions of such students as 
 have passed through the college, and 
 are reported fit for the public service. 
 While it is highly honourable to the 
 Company's civil service to consider how 
 many able and eminent men have adorned 
 it, a stranger may naturally, and with- 
 out presumption enquire, whether it is 
 sufficiently guarded from the intrusion 
 of the indolent and incapable, for there 
 is evidently no competition. A young 
 man, who is not insupportably immoral, 
 immovably indolent, or stupid to in- 
 firmity, is, and must be, provided for. 
 It is true, he would not be put in the 
 highest line : but surely, the mere col- 
 lectorship and magistracy of a district is 
 
REFLECTIONS. 125 
 
 a post most responsible, most important ; 
 and to such a post he would inevitably 
 attain, to represent England and English- 
 men in the eyes of foreigners and sub- 
 jects. Now, the districts of a country, 
 held on such a tenure as India is, can 
 never be superintended too ably for the 
 interest, the honour, and the security of 
 our government. Nothing is more false 
 than the notion which people in England 
 generally form of the East Indian re- 
 turning home, except it be the unsub- 
 stantial dream he himself has of what he 
 is to do, say, and be thought of among 
 his countrymen at home. The man who 
 has done his public duty in India well, 
 returns in easy circumstances, sits down 
 quietly, followed by the regard and es- 
 teem of those who know and appreciate 
 his worth, is soon met by a like feeling, 
 and enjoys that consideration among the 
 neighbouring gentlemen which he has 
 earned by a long course of official labour 
 abroad. The man, who has only sought 
 
126 PORTRAITS OF GOVERNORS. 
 
 what is now not often to be found, even 
 in India, namely, money, and who returns 
 full of the hopes and schemes of pride and 
 distinction, in the first visit to the Opera 
 or Hyde Park, or the first week's residence 
 at his country-seat, discovers at once, that 
 to enjoy even such pleasures as money 
 places within his reach, he must be con- 
 tent to be nameless and unpretending. 
 If he lives to be seen, he must be cruelly 
 disappointed ; if he lives, on the contrary, 
 to see, he may be comparatively happy. 
 
 In the council-chamber at Govern- 
 ment House are the portraits of many of 
 our Indian rulers ; that of Warren Hast- 
 ings, in a plain dress, seated carelessly, 
 and looking the English gentleman of 
 rank and talent, draws the eye at once 
 from the gaudy robes of Wellesley, 
 whose government was, in truth, splendid 
 enough to have afforded a plainer repre- 
 sentation of himself, and an undecorated 
 person. 
 
SITE OF THE BLACK HOLE. 127 
 
 I drove, this same day, past the site of 
 the too celebrated " black hole of Cal- 
 cutta." It was little more than sixty 
 years ago that one hundred and twenty of 
 our unfortunate countrymen perished in 
 one sad night by suffocation, while a 
 Moorish army of 70,000 men lay en- 
 camped around the factory. Only twenty- 
 three poor suffering wretches survived ; 
 and, among them, one ( a lady, wife, and 
 widow) to whom, perhaps, life itself 
 threatened the worst of deaths. How 
 light-footed and light-hearted in the 
 dance are many, who daily pass within 
 a few hundred yards of this spot, ignorant 
 that where they command the low salaam, 
 a form as fair, a heart too as soft as theirs, 
 has been dragged to the couch of loath- 
 ing and of shame, not longer ago than 
 when their grandmother, whose kind hand- 
 some old face, and white ruff, they love 
 to talk of, was youthful as they are now. 
 
 In the cabinet of a portrait-painter in 
 
128 PORTRAIT OF A FEMALE. 
 
 Calcutta, among a few valueless pictures 
 is one, which must often, I should think, 
 awaken a sigh in such of our fair country- 
 women as look on it. I have little 
 excuse for naming it here \ but it is 
 somehow naturally associated with beauty 
 and with sorrow. With beaver hat, and 
 clustering ringlets, marking the costume 
 of some forty years gone by, from a 
 damaged canvass in a dull-worn frame, 
 looks out upon you a face of such soft 
 loveliness, that you feel no surprise when 
 told it is that of a devoted and tender 
 mistress, who left the country of which 
 she was the flower, and came with her 
 protector here ; still less that she drooped, 
 and died upon this sickly shore. On a 
 tufted knoll (near the mouth of the river 
 she entered only as a corpse), stands the 
 small tomb, which love, grief, and re- 
 pentance, have raised to her memory. 
 
 " Would on its stalk I'd left the rose" 
 must often, often have been silently ut- 
 
BOTANIC GARDEN. 129 
 
 tered in the bosom of the sorrowing sur- 
 vivor, as busy memory recalled to him 
 the first moment when he gazed upon 
 the beauteous bud, as it smiled in blush- 
 ing innocence on its parent stem. 
 
 'Tis well. She was early, perhaps 
 mercifully torn from life and sin, and he, 
 in like mercy, spared to seek forgiveness, 
 where alone it may be found. 
 
 A morning may be delightfully spent 
 in a visit to the botanic garden. Here, 
 without wandering through the pestilen- 
 tial forests and swampy jungles of a 
 country lavishly adorned by profuse and 
 brilliant vegetation, you may see in one 
 short ramble, all the varieties of vegetable 
 form known and admired throughout 
 India. Large trees decked with flowers, 
 more beautiful and fragrant than those 
 of our plants in Europe; all the warm 
 aromatic shrubs which perfume the air ; 
 all the stately and graceful trees which 
 
130 ASIATIC MUSEUM. 
 
 adorn an Indian forest, and many of 
 which yield food, and minister abun- 
 dantly to all the uses and wants of man ; 
 and endless varieties of that large family 
 of creeping and climbing plants, which 
 clothe the earth, and the naked trunks 
 of decaying trees, the rocks and ruins, 
 which would otherwise encumber and 
 disfigure it, with beauty. A magnificent 
 temple is this world of ours, could wo 
 but look on it as we ought ; could we 
 but delight to see, and trace that hand 
 which openeth itself, and filleth all things 
 with goodness. 
 
 There is a museum in Calcutta in the 
 house of the Asiatic Society. Here you 
 will find fragments of sculpture, vases, 
 tablets, coins, arms, and natural curiosities 
 from every part of India ; canoes and 
 models, swords, clubs, spears, creeses, 
 war-dresses, and fabrics from all the 
 islands in the Indian Archipelago. 
 
PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 131 
 
 The nutmeg, the clove, and those 
 precious spices which have never been 
 transplanted with success to the continent 
 of Asia, may here be seen preserved in 
 glass jars, fresh as they were gathered in 
 small branches from the parent plants 
 in the favoured isles where they grow. 
 Above the hall is a library, or rather a 
 small collection of books, in a very large 
 noble room, where the members hold 
 their meetings ; the great and celebrated 
 men, who were the able founders and 
 zealous supporters of this institution, 
 have, for the most part, disappeared, and 
 the spirit of it is much on the decline. 
 
 There are two establishments for the 
 education of natives, under the protection 
 and patronage of the government, erne 
 a college for Mahometan, the other for 
 Hindoo youth ; where they are instructed 
 by moonshees and pundits in their re- 
 spective learning and laws, that they may 
 be qualified to fill petty offices in the 
 K 2 
 
132 NATIVE SCHOOLS. 
 
 courts of justice, or cutcherrys when of 
 an age to serve the Company. 
 
 I visited both. There was a something 
 in the venerable Mahometan teachers, 
 and in the good-looking, graceful, and 
 intelligent young scholars, far more in- 
 teresting and pleasing than the Hindoo 
 college*, with its dull brain-encumbered 
 pundits, and their plodding students, 
 could present. There is a dignity in the 
 very sound of the Arabic language, and 
 a mellow richness in the Persian, which 
 command the attention, and charm the 
 ear of a person unacquainted with their 
 import. Their Koran, their historians, 
 their Sadi, their Hafiz, do not seem, nor 
 are they removed so immeasurably from 
 our way of thinking, as the sacred com- 
 mentaries and fabulous histories of Hin- 
 doo authors. 
 
 * There are two Hindoo colleges. I speak of the 
 old establishment. The modern is smaller, for teach- 
 ing English principally, and has an English director. 
 
NATIVE SCHOOLS. 133 
 
 There are also in Calcutta many in- 
 stitutions for charitable purposes, and 
 for the support and education of poor 
 unfriended youth, European and half- 
 cast. And this city is, moreover, dis- 
 tinguished by a liberal and Christian 
 spirit, to reform the system of education 
 in native schools, wherever our influence 
 extends. Not only are there many en- 
 tirely under the superintendence of the 
 regular clergy of the establishment, or 
 missionary Christian ministers of other 
 denominations, but the wealthy and pub- 
 lic-spirited natives themselves, adopt and 
 encourage the use of our school-books 
 in the innumerable native schools over 
 which they exercise a control we could 
 not attempt. It is true, they will only 
 admit such small tracts of elementary 
 knowledge, as set forth the plain truths 
 in geography, natural philosophy, and 
 the sciences ; also our abridgments of 
 history, and beauties of morality. But 
 if they will so teach them while children, 
 K 3 
 
134 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 can they prevent them, when men, from 
 casting off the delusions and errors of 
 past ages ? Can they, when, by teaching 
 them plain truths, they have undermined 
 the clumsy fabric of that idolatry on 
 which they leaned, when they only learned 
 the fables and falsehoods connected with 
 it? Can they prevent them, I ask, from 
 eagerly and earnestly enquiring " who 
 will show us any good ?" And can they 
 prevent the ministers of the Gospel from 
 showing them Christ crucified for the 
 sins of an apostate and rebellious world, 
 and inviting them to drink freely at the 
 wells of salvation ? 
 
 The adamantine chain of cast is that 
 obstacle to the spread of Gospel truth, on 
 which many sincere and devout men, 
 whose hearts overflow with Christian 
 love to mankind, look with a sort of 
 hopeless despondency as impassable, as 
 never to be broken down by human ef- 
 forts : now, it is to burst open this barrier 
 
REFLECTIONS; 135 
 
 that I would see human means cou- 
 rageously applied ; nor are they, under 
 the Divine blessing, inadequate to the 
 task. A general use of printed (I do 
 not mean religious) tracts in their schools, 
 and a general dissemination of thern 
 among the people, will, in fifty years, do 
 much towards the confounding of these 
 base and cruel distinctions, if it be aided 
 by a government which has hitherto 
 showed as great a deference -for all the 
 privileges of cast, as if it were fettered 
 by prejudice or fear, and has long shared 
 with the Brahmins the enormous profits 
 arising from the customary offerings at 
 those pagodas, or sacred spots of super- 
 stitious resort, whither devout multi- 
 tudes crowd on pilgrimage, or for some 
 high festival, more or less frequently 
 during their lives, according to the dis- 
 tance and sanctity of the spot, the nature 
 of their vows, or the extent of their 
 means. 
 
 K 4 
 
136 PUBLIC EXAMINATION. 
 
 I am aware that I have only stated 
 one of many measures which should be 
 adopted with it ; nor am I able, or dare 
 I presume to pursue so deep a subject 
 farther; but I may be permitted to re- 
 mind both the believing Christian, and 
 the reasoning philosopher, that the for- 
 midable chain of cast is as one of cobweb 
 compared to that chain by which high 
 and low, wise and simple, Englishmen 
 and Hindoo, are alike bound, till it 
 pleaseth All-powerful and Pitiful Mercy 
 to set us free. 
 
 I was present at the examination of 
 many hundred native boys, selected from 
 different schools, entirely under the su- 
 perintendence, patronage, and control of 
 natives. 
 
 It was held at the house of a Brahmin 
 of great wealth and influence. In a qua- 
 drangular court, surrounded by piazzas, 
 were assembled about five hundred 
 
INTERESTING ANECDOTE. 137 
 
 children of all casts ; and these were 
 introduced, by classes, into a large upper 
 room open to the court, supported by 
 numerous pillars after the Hindoo fashion, 
 and furnished half in English, half in 
 Asiatic taste. 
 
 Many of the senior civil servants of 
 the establishment were present ; among 
 them the chief secretary to the govern- 
 ment. The boys were examined in 
 reading, writing, arithmetic, and repe- 
 tition ; and they all received as prize- 
 books, such as are translated by us, 
 printed in our presses, and used in our 
 schools. The masters, who were all 
 Brahmins, were rewarded with sums of 
 money, according to the proficiency of 
 the scholars selected from their respective 
 schools for the occasion. A pretty little 
 boy, habited in fine figured muslin, with 
 a row of valuable pearls about his neck, 
 and other rich jewels, probably the or- 
 naments of his doating mother, took his 
 
138 ARMENIAN CHURCH. 
 
 stand and chance in the class of naked 
 little fellows with whom he had been 
 instructed ; and was examined, side by 
 side, with many of inferior cast. I found 
 that he was the son of the very Brahmin 
 at whose house this gratifying and in- 
 teresting exhibition took place. Thus, 
 thus it is, that the shackled Soodra will 
 be lifted up, and learn to feel himself 
 
 a man ! 
 
 At an early hour one morning, I went 
 to the Armenian church to look upon a 
 form of Christian worship, known to me 
 only by report. The church was old and 
 small, but a pretty building in a quiet 
 taste. The court was paved with grave- 
 stones of black marble, or granite ; and 
 the inscriptions and ornamental figuring 
 on all of them (although many were 150 
 years old) seemed plain and perfect. 
 The church, in the inside, was divided 
 in the middle by a blue iron railing with 
 gilt heads. The men of the congregation 
 
ARMENIAN CHURCH. 139 
 
 place themselves in front of this ; the 
 women behind, and farthest from the 
 altar; just below the steps of which sits 
 the patriarch on his carpet, in the eastern 
 fashion. A veil of embroidery hangs 
 down before the altar, and paintings 
 adorn all the chapel walls. When the 
 veil is lifted up, you see priests in gor- 
 geous robes, and servitors with bells ; 
 staves having thin round laminae of gold 
 at the top, and censers of incense. The 
 altar is highly ornamented, has a scripture 
 piece painted over it, and the whole 
 scene has an air, though solemn,, yet 
 theatrically solemn, and not suited to a 
 temple. 
 
 In the course of the worship they carry 
 a painting of the crucifixion round the 
 church in procession. When they ad- 
 minister the sacrament, they give small 
 portions of the element of bread to all 
 the congregation, who receive it with 
 great reverence, taste, then wrap it up 
 in linen, and carry it away with them 
 
140 CEREMONIES. 
 
 after service. The patriarch always first 
 blesses the elements. The service closes 
 by the officiating priest reading a lesson 
 from the Gospel. The book, which is a 
 small volume with covers of solid silver, 
 wrapped in a napkin of gold tissue, is 
 brought forth with much ceremony, and 
 placed on a portable stand in the body 
 of the church. When the priest has 
 concluded, all the men and women draw 
 near in succession, kiss the book with 
 great devotion, and decently withdraw. 
 
 Throughout the whole service, the 
 silence, the fixed attention, pious looks, 
 and low prostrations of all surprise you. 
 In few Roman Catholic chapels have I 
 seen such reverential worship as in this 
 Armenian one. The absence of images, 
 the distribution of the element of bread, 
 and the reading of the Scriptures, are 
 the features which particularly mark the 
 distinction in the daily service of these 
 two churches. 
 
ARMENIAN COSTUME. 141 
 
 The costume of the Armenian women, 
 which I had never before seen, I very 
 greatly admire. 
 
 Over a small tiara-formed cap, with a 
 jewelled front, they wear fine shawls, 
 which, falling in large and not ungraceful 
 folds, cover and conceal their forms. 
 Their complexions are pale, almost to 
 sickliness ; but their eyes are full, black, 
 and expressive ; and their countenances, 
 in general, pensive, and interesting. In 
 the midst of the service, came in a rude 
 hardy-looking man, who bowed his knee 
 with little appearance of awe, and gazed 
 round him with a fearless curiosity. His 
 bare head, with a profusion of brown 
 sun-tinged hair, naked throat, brown 
 jacket, with full short trowsers of the 
 same, gathered just below the knee, and 
 a red sash, marked him an Armenian 
 sailor from some port in the Red Sea, or 
 Persian Gulf. 
 
142 JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 
 
 From this chapel scene I was led by 
 my conductor, the very same morning, 
 to one greatly and most affectingly con- 
 trasted with it. 
 
 I followed him down a narrow back 
 street, through a dark, and dirty entrance, 
 and up a stair-case, the lower half of 
 worn brick, that above of broken ladder- 
 like wooden steps, into an anti-chamber 
 filled with slippers ; from whence, after 
 rapping at a half-closed door, we were 
 admitted into a dismal-looking room, 
 where such daylight as found its way, 
 was broken and obscured by the dull 
 and feeble light of several mean lamps 
 of oil. 
 
 Round this chamber, sat about fifty 
 venerable-looking figures, in large robes 
 of white with turbans, out of the centre 
 of whose muslin folds the short top of a 
 crimson cap was just visible. 
 
JEWISH SYNAGOGUE. 143 
 
 One of them stood up at a raised 
 reading-table near the entrance ; and op- 
 posite him was fixed against the wall, a 
 sort of plain wooden press, looking like a 
 half book-case. 
 
 Of those seated round the room, some 
 were aged, with long silver beards/ some 
 middle-aged, with beards black or red, 
 and curling or bushy ; their complexions 
 differed from olive even to fresh, and 
 they were in general very handsome. 
 Although their dress and style of sitting, 
 save that they used a broad raised bench, 
 was Asiatic, still they appeared totally 
 unlike not only the Mahometans of India, 
 but also those from Asia Minor, who 
 visit our Indian ports. At the sounding 
 of a small bell, he at the table began 
 reading to them from an ancient manu- 
 script volume, and the eye of every one 
 was immediately riveted on small written 
 or printed books, with which each, even 
 a boy among them, was provided. 
 
144 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 Here, without temple, and without 
 altar, giving mournful evidence of the 
 truth of those very prophecies, the Di- 
 vine Interpreter of which their fathers 
 rejected, and the past accomplishment of 
 which they still deny, here was a stray 
 flock of the lost sheep of Israel. Un- 
 happy race ! Cursed be the man who, 
 believing your origin and history, should 
 in a bigot's zeal look on you with that 
 insulting pity which partakes of scorn. 
 Ye were, ye are, our elder brethren, We 
 know that arm, which scattered you with 
 fury, will gather you with great mercy ! 
 
 Is this mean chamber your temple ? 
 Do these dull lamps supply the mystic 
 branches of your golden candlestick? 
 Your tabernacle and ark of the covenant, 
 is it thus poorly you possess them ? The 
 altar of incense, the mercy-seat, are they 
 gone? And do ye, whose forefathers 
 went up, in open state, through the gate 
 Beautiful, into that temple so familiar to 
 
REFLECTIONS. 145 
 
 you by description, so clear in cherished 
 recollections of it, do ye steal through 
 yon dark entrance to your degraded wor- 
 ship ? Dry up your tears ; still press the 
 law and the prophets to your bosoms. 
 Seventy years before the destruction of 
 your second temple, the foundation-stone 
 of your third was laid ; was laid in the 
 sepulchre of a crucified Saviour : He too 
 is the key-stone of its loftiest arch, where 
 He sitteth on high, a King of Glory, 
 triumphant over sin and death ; a Prince 
 of Peace, making intercession for you ; a 
 God of Mercy waiting to be gracious ! 
 
 If my reader thinks these, and like 
 reflections, too solemn for introduction 
 on the pages of a light trifling sketch like 
 this, I beg him to remember that I can- 
 not feel, among these Indians, as other 
 than an Englishman and a Christian ; 
 and to confess, that, if in this heathen 
 land the history of God's dealings with 
 mankind first ceased to wear, for me, the 
 
 L 
 
146 CALIAGHAUT PAGODA. 
 
 dress of clouded tradition, it is a natural, 
 as well as pleasing duty, to offer such 
 grateful testimony of my rejoicing, as 
 the subjects I am writing on so frequently 
 call forth. 
 
 On the same day, in the morning of 
 which I had been present in the Arme- 
 nian church, and the Jewish synagogue, 
 I visited the Caliaghaut pagoda, the Hin- 
 doo temple most resorted to in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Calcutta. It is a poor 
 trumpery building, as on this side of 
 India they all are. I found it filled with 
 worshippers, sitting down, with their of- 
 ferings of plantains, rice, sugar, &c. in the 
 neat brazen vessels used for this sacred 
 purpose, 
 
 I went round to, and ascended that 
 higher part near the shrine of the idol ; 
 and got up by the side of a large group 
 of Brahmins. They bade me take off my 
 shoes ; but I refused, telling them, that 
 
BRAHMINS. ANECDOTE. 1 47 
 
 uncovering the head meant with us, as 
 they well knew, the corresponding com- 
 pliment. I was quiet, and grave, and 
 they were satisfied and civil. They 
 spoke English ; chattered with me about 
 the southern pagodas, of which they 
 evidently knew little ; and showed a 
 childish curiosity at my description of 
 one. They made some poor worshippers 
 stand out of the way, that I might look 
 at the hideous black idol, with its gilt 
 ornaments, and mother-of-pearl eyes ; 
 and, at last, asked me for money for 
 their god. I replied that he was not 
 mine ; and that it was useless to ask me 
 to do what I should consider sinful. But, 
 said I, a minute afterwards, as I saw 
 them consecrating to, and putting on 
 the god a chaplet of sacred flowers, " the 
 scent of those flowers is agreeable to me ; 
 I will, if you please, give a rupee for 
 those." It was immediately stripped from 
 the idol for me, and I bore it off in 
 triumph to my palanquin. 
 L 2 
 
148 IDOL-MAKERS. 
 
 I saw, as I passed out of Caliaghaut, a 
 shed with many hundred live kids, which 
 are sold there for sacrifice * ; and, in my 
 way back I was carried through a street 
 of idol-makers, who make all those small 
 ones which the Hindoos buy for the in- 
 side of their houses, and for public festi- 
 vals. .They ran by my palanquin, offering 
 them for sale with this strange recom- 
 mendation, "Babako waste, Sahib," (for 
 the children, master.) 
 
 I am sick of relating these puerilities 
 of Paganism ; but, in them I seem plainly 
 
 * Here again I may be told that I am mistaken, 
 if I suppose that Brahmins themselves officiate at the 
 sacrifice of animals. Certain I am that they enjoin 
 them. It is true that blood offerings are not made in 
 the body of any of the large pagodas, but in the 
 small swamey houses near them. I have the autho- 
 rity of Buchanan (not the clergyman) for saying that 
 the Brahmins in parts of the South of India have been 
 known to contribute for such sacrifices to avert the 
 wrath of the Sacti, who is supposed to preside over the 
 small-pox. 
 
BARUACKPORE. 149 
 
 to discover an internal principle of decay ; 
 and I think the idolatry of India is de- 
 clining in its baleful influence in the sight 
 of, and with the consent of the natives 
 themselves. 
 
 At Barrackpore, about fifteen miles 
 from Calcutta, the Governor-general has 
 a country residence, delightfully situated 
 in a park of uncommon beauty. A more 
 agreeable retreat from the scene of en- 
 slaving ceremony, and official labour, 
 which a government-house naturally pre- 
 sents, could not be desired. The park, 
 though small, has advantages which are 
 rarely seen combined. On one side of it 
 flows the Hooghly, along which you may 
 ride for upwards of a mile, enjoying a 
 fine view of a noble reach, extending in 
 one direction about four miles. The op- 
 posite bank is here adorned with a thick 
 robe of drooping bamboos, overtopped 
 by the stately palm, and feathery cocoa- 
 nut : there open with a lawn, or garden 
 
 L 3 
 
150 BAPTISTS AT SERAMPORE. 
 
 laid out round some dwellings ; and im- 
 mediately in front of that part where the 
 house is situated, rises the beautifully 
 clean, and quiet-looking town of Seram- 
 pore, a Danish settlement, and the chief 
 seat of that baptist mission*, over which 
 the venerable, pious, and devoted Carey 
 presides. How great, and how blessed 
 have been the labours of himself and his 
 able brethren, will appear, when I state 
 that upwards of one hundred schools are 
 under its fostering care ; and that, in its 
 ever-busy presses, the Scriptures entire, 
 or separate gospels are printing off into 
 sixteen of the languages or dialects of 
 India. The Marquis of Hastings, whose 
 eye, from his chamber at Barrackpore, 
 rests every morning on the building and 
 gardens of that establishment, must de- 
 rive great inward peace from the con- 
 
 * There is now, I rejoice to say, in British India, 
 a college at Calcutta having the same high objects in 
 view (at least I hope so,) under episcopal protection. 
 
MENAGERIE. 151 
 
 sciousness of having always respected 
 and encouraged its holy object. 
 
 The park-grounds are about four miles 
 in circumference ; and many a spot, 
 viewed detachedly, will remind you by 
 large noble trees, pieces of water, and 
 winding roads, of park-scenery at home. 
 Here is an aviary in one corner, built 
 after the model of a Gothic chapel : it is 
 prettily executed, but, I think, a poor 
 conceit; and must be an unaccountable 
 fancy in the eyes of our Moorish and 
 Hindoo subjects. The collection of birds, 
 with the exception of a few rare speci- 
 mens from the eastward, is not at all 
 remarkable. Neither is the menagerie 
 near it such a large or fine one as you 
 naturally look for in the East. The 
 black panther, the wild Cape dog, and 
 the Java pig, with its curious snout pro- 
 truding like the proboscis of the elephant, 
 and used in like manner, are the only 
 rare animals. It must be owned, how- 
 L 4 
 
152 MENAGERIE. 
 
 ever, that no menagerie could show, in 
 one cage, a more noble sight than the 
 three full-grown royal tigers, of enormous 
 size, here grouped together. To watch 
 them as they slumbered, or indolently 
 played with each other, like our do- 
 mestic cats in a cottage window, was a 
 favourite amusement with me while I 
 resided close to this park. I confess, the 
 childishness of my taste was no less gra- 
 tified, as, in the evening, I used to see 
 the Howdah elephants of the Governor- 
 general carrying out his domestic-looking 
 select party for the evening-air. A little 
 above the park is a cantonment for five 
 thousand sepoys, with several streets of 
 neat pretty-looking bungalows for the 
 officers. The communication with Cal- 
 cutta is easy and constant. You have 
 your choice of a fine, level, well-kept 
 road, or the bosom of a noble stream, 
 down which you drop easily in two hours. 
 
 As you pass the next reach above 
 Barrackpore, you come upon the French 
 
CHANDERNAGORE. 1 53 
 
 settlement of Chandernagore, situated on 
 the right bank of the river. It has a 
 character very distinct from Serampore ; 
 in the latter, the houses, though good, 
 are not large, but yet clean, and have a 
 pleasing effect, while the pretty spire of 
 a small Lutheran church at one end, 
 with the neat premises of the baptist 
 mission at the other, give it the air of 
 being inhabited as a home. At Chan- 
 dernagore, large lofty houses, and ware- 
 houses, discoloured, decaying, and half 
 empty, speak of lofty speculations and 
 disappointed hopes ; and had, to my eye, 
 the look of a deserted corner of Bourdeaux 
 Quay during the war. A forsaken mo- 
 nastery completes the picture. I landed, 
 and walked from one silent ghaut to 
 another, till I came opposite the house 
 occupied by the present governor. 
 
 In his garden, I saw two ladies dress- 
 ed half a la Parisienne, and before his 
 door a sepoy in French uniform. 
 
154 FRENCH UNIFORM. 
 
 The broad cap, red worsted epaulettes, 
 facings buttoned back, and in fine, all 
 that is peculiar in the military dress of 
 France, which I had gazed upon for the 
 first time of my life in Portugal with 
 such strange interest, and had subse- 
 quently seen in so many various situ- 
 ations, and under circumstances so dif- 
 ferent, filled my mind with a train of 
 reflections, which I have no right to 
 pursue here, but which brought the 
 camps and fields of the peninsula, many 
 scenes of exultation, some few of hardship, 
 one of misfortune, together with a French 
 prison, gens-d'armes, peace, Paris, gaiety, 
 the armies and kings of all Europe, and 
 the fate-governed exile, Napoleon, in 
 quick succession to my fancy. 
 
 About two miles below Chandernagore, 
 are the ruins of a superb house, the 
 residence of its former governors. Frag- 
 ments of doors and windows, still half 
 perform their office. The roof of what 
 
ANECDOTE OF A MISER. 155 
 
 was the music-room, and that of the 
 banqueting saloon beneath, have fallen 
 in ; and daylight, glaring in mockery upon 
 the faded colours on the walls, shows that 
 they were once decorated with taste, 
 and tell you, as the cawing rooks fly in 
 and out, that they have often echoed to 
 the rout, the revel, the chorus, and the 
 dance of gay careless Frenchmen, who 
 lived only the life of pleasure and in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 How different was the life of one of 
 the later occupants ! for here, in this 
 forsaken hall of pleasure, in one of the 
 upper chambers, the only one in which 
 a corner might yet be found where the 
 rain would not fall upon your couch, 
 lived, for three years, a singular gentle- 
 man, who practised an economy more 
 painful than that of the well-known 
 Elwes. He chose this retreat because 
 he got shelter rent-free. He kept one 
 servant to cook his pittance of rice, 
 
156 CHINSUHAH. 
 
 and was protected, by his mode of life, 
 from all intrusion, save that of indignant, 
 or pitying curiosity. His whole soul 
 was taken up with the love of money j 
 he had amassed much, and vested it 
 in English, continental, and American 
 funds. 
 
 That there should have been such a 
 tenant in such a dwelling, was worthy of 
 remark. 
 
 The Dutch settlement of Chinsurah is 
 about three miles higher up the river. 
 It has quite a national character. Many 
 small, neat houses, with green doors, and 
 windows ; a pretty little square, with 
 grass-plot and promenades, shaded by 
 trees ; a fortified factory ; a gloomy, old- 
 fashioned government house, looking 
 from one front to the quadrangle of the 
 factory, and from the other down an 
 avenue of trees to its garden-gate, are 
 the more remarkable features of it. 
 
BANDEL. RECOLLECTIONS. 157 
 
 A small convent at a place called 
 Bandel, just above the native town of 
 Hooghly, is the only building which tells 
 that the Portuguese ever had a settle- 
 ment here. In the year 1632, the town 
 of Hooghly belonged to the Portuguese, 
 who were numerous and wealthy. They 
 were attacked by a Moorish army, the 
 place carried by assault, numbers slaugh- 
 tered on the spot, and many on board 
 the shipping, to which they flew for 
 refuge. The captain of one very large 
 vessel, crowded with men, women, and 
 children, finding he could neither defend, 
 or fly with them, either scorning to yield 
 to, or fearing the cruelty of the Moors, 
 blew her up, and perished with two 
 thousand souls, in the explosion. 
 
 There is something inexpressibly awful 
 in that kind of fate, that immediate dis- 
 solution of soul and body, that entire 
 annihilating destruction of the frame. 
 The peaceful and soft loveliness of the 
 scene near this point of Bandel, as from 
 
158 CONVENT. 
 
 the belfry of the convent you gaze upon 
 it, gives such a tranquillizing tone to 
 your feelings, that, for the relation of the 
 fact I have just recorded, you are ill 
 prepared ; and it operates for the mo- 
 ment, as it would after a sweet sleep in 
 a shady grove, to stretch forth your hand 
 and find it touched and chilled by the 
 remains of a skeleton, and to be suddenly 
 reminded, that where you had been 
 dreaming with delight, a fellow-creature, 
 perhaps not many weeks before, had ex- 
 pired in agony. 
 
 In the small convent I only found two 
 brothers of the order, both from Goa. 
 They seemed to have little intelligence, 
 or feeling. The occasional chiming of a 
 bell, the trimming of a lamp, or, at 
 certain seasons, the more busy prepara- 
 tion for some church-holiday or saint's 
 day, on which a priest and some wealthy 
 Portuguese visitors may be expected 
 from Calcutta, form the main occupa- 
 
THE SUNDERBUNDS. 159 
 
 tions of a life, secluded without devotion, 
 and wearisome without action. 
 
 All these places I made excursions to 
 from Barrackpore. 
 
 On the east side of Calcutta, at the 
 distance of about four miles is a large 
 salt-water lake, on the far-side of which 
 are several passages of varying width, 
 which traverse the Sunderbunds, an im- 
 mense woody tract forming part of the 
 Delta of the Ganges, and so overspread 
 by waters disposed in lakes, rivers, chan- 
 nels, and creeks, as to admit of a complete 
 inland navigation to and beyond Dacca, 
 being a passage of near two hundred 
 miles. This lonely region of forest and 
 water, is without village or inhabitant. 
 A few temporary sheds for wood-cutters, 
 or salt-makers, may be occasionally met 
 with, though these are regularly watched 
 and guarded. To sleep out of their boats 
 is, otherwise, attended with great danger ; 
 
160 COMMERCE OF CALCUTTA. 
 
 but large and constant fires, and other 
 precautions, render such spots secure 
 from the numerous savage beasts who 
 range these wilds. 
 
 Of the commerce of Calcutta I cannot 
 speak further than that the mercantile 
 and agency-houses are numerous ; some 
 on a large scale, and apparently flourish- 
 ing. ,That there are numbers of Arme- 
 nian merchants, who conduct the trade 
 to China, to the eastward, and also to 
 the Gulf of Persia, and the Red Sea. 
 Innumerable Indian merchants carry on 
 trade with the interior by large fleets of 
 boats, as well as by land-carriage ; and 
 also with the coast of Coromandel, and 
 the Maldives, by donies.* Perhaps about 
 eight hundred ships and vessels, exclu- 
 sive of the coast-craft under Indian 
 colours, may enter, and depart from the 
 
 * The donie is a small coasting- vessel, of Indian 
 construction. 
 
BUDGEROW DESCRIBED. 161 
 
 port of Calcutta in the course of one 
 year. 
 
 About the middle of September, I 
 left the presidency for Benares, by water. 
 The river was in high beauty ; its waters 
 full, and just beginning to run off, and a 
 favourable time of the year for the wind 
 in going up. 
 
 The boat in common use with travel- 
 lers, is the budgerow ; it is a clumsy 
 concern, flat-bottomed, with a lofty poop 
 running forward two-thirds of its entire 
 length, while crowded on a low deck just 
 before the mast are the oars. 
 
 They vary in size, from eighteen to 
 twelve oared, can only sail before the 
 wind ; and against the stream are usually 
 tracked by the crew. Perhaps, however, 
 no boat could be substituted for it, con- 
 taining half so much accommodation and 
 comfort. Beneath the poop are two large, 
 
 M 
 
162 BUDGEROW DESCRIBED. 
 
 airy, cheerful cabins, with green Vene- 
 tians on both sides ; you have thus good 
 and separate apartments for sleeping and 
 sitting. A baggage and cook boat sail 
 with you, and you are free from all 
 incumbrances ; they sail up along-side 
 and come on board regularly with your 
 breakfast and tiffin as on shore. If you 
 are taking horses up the country, you 
 have also a large boat for them. Every 
 evening at sunset your budgerow is 
 moored for the night, and at peep of day 
 she is again under way. 
 
 Thus, as it were, without stirring out of 
 a parlour, except for exercise, morning 
 and evening, on foot, horseback, or with 
 your gun, you may be transported from 
 the ship's side, in which you enter the 
 Hooghly, to Agra, or even Delhi. This, 
 however, would be very tedious ; indeed, 
 above Cawnpore, few, if any, travellers 
 proceed by wate.r. 
 
SCENERY ON THE RIVER. 163 
 
 Great as were the varieties of scenery 
 between Calcutta and Berhampore, I have 
 not the power of description where a 
 character of general resemblance compels 
 a notice of the same objects, and a use of 
 the same epithets. The river Hooghly 
 has its banks most beautifully clothed 
 with tree and shrub ; and the number 
 arid size of the bamboos, which, delicate 
 and tender at the head, bend over the 
 water, with a drooping grace, form a 
 marked feature in the many pleasing 
 views, by which the eye is constantly 
 refreshed. It is moreover adorned with 
 villages, and large cultivated tracts : here 
 again it will break out into broad reaches, 
 so flooded above its banks, as to look 
 like spacious lakes ; and further on, per- 
 haps, will show large islands of waste 
 land, covered with straw-coloured glossy- 
 headed reeds, looking like ripe barley- 
 fields at home. Such were the materials, 
 which, assuming at every change of light 
 and position different appearances, gave 
 M 2 
 
164 VILLAGES. FLEETS OF BOATS. 
 
 me an exhaustless variety of beautiful 
 scenery. Each rising, each setting of 
 the sun had colours and charms pecu- 
 liarly its own. 
 
 Some of my moorings were, of course, 
 in barren jungly spots, but often near 
 some pretty Indian village, not far from 
 the ancient trees, where its elders as- 
 semble, and past which separate groupes 
 of women and men come down to the 
 river to bathe, wash their clothes, and fill 
 their brazen urns ; morning and evening 
 too, you see large herds of cream-coloured 
 cattle going forth to, or returning from 
 pasture, while you are sailing steadily 
 past them ; and you meet constantly 
 fleets of large boats deeply laden with 
 merchandize, walled with matting, and 
 covered with thatch, looking like floating 
 cottages. These boats drop down, ge- 
 nerally about forty, sometimes, just after 
 the rains, sixty or seventy miles a-day. 
 
BERHAMPORE. MOORSHEDABAD. 165 
 
 Berhampore, the first place of any note 
 you come to, (if I except the field of 
 Plassey, which is fast disappearing, and 
 will in a few years more be entirely 
 washed away,) is a very fine large can- 
 tonment, with a magnificent range of 
 barracks for Europeans. 
 
 Cossimbuzar, on a branch river about 
 four miles higher up, is the station of 
 one of our commercial residents, and 
 famous for its silk manufactures. 
 
 A league farther is the city of Moor- 
 shedabad, situated on the left bank of 
 the river Hooghly, and extending nearly 
 eight miles along it. One of the first 
 objects which strikes you as you approach 
 it, is a lofty, and though disproportion ed, 
 at a distance a very noble looking build- 
 ing with massive columns, designed by 
 us a palace for Nawab. He, however, 
 now occupies a large brick hospital-like 
 looking house on the right bank, also 
 M 3 
 
166 SNAKE-BOATS. 
 
 built for him by us ; and on this bank 
 there are several native houses also. I 
 had heard so poor an account of this city, 
 that I was rather agreeably surprised. 
 
 A few domes and minarets, and, all- 
 alorig the bank, a number of houses built 
 of brick or chunamed, with terraces, 
 small verandahs, flat roofs, and painted 
 doors and windows, do, in spite of the 
 mean huts of mud and bamboo which 
 may be here and there seen crowded be- 
 hind them, give the city, to my eye, a 
 very pleasing appearance. On these ter- 
 races, and in these verandahs, you may 
 see the respectable-looking owners, in 
 their Moorish dresses, smoking their hoo- 
 kahs, playing chess, or walking sedately 
 in small parties. In the evenings, se- 
 veral of them go upon the water, in boats 
 kept for pleasure, called snake-boats, 
 from their length and their quick darting 
 motion. They are very narrow, and 
 have large crews, who use short, broad 
 
MOOTIE JEEL, OR PEARL LAKE. 167 
 
 paddles, with which they strike the 
 water in a quick-measured cadence, 
 which tells loudly, as it falls on the 
 boat's gunwale. Here the owners are 
 seated on cloths or carpets, with, or often 
 without awnings ; have their hookahs, 
 and sherbet ; a musician or two, or a 
 story-teller : and the crews, too, sing ac- 
 customed airs with a wild chorus, led by 
 their coxswain, who stands at the very 
 stern, in a bold graceful attitude, as their 
 boat darts on the bosom of the stream 
 with fearful velocity. 
 
 I walked to look at the Mootie Jeel, 
 or pearl lake, on which once stood the 
 superb palace of pleasure, built in the 
 day of his pride by Aliverdy Khan. The 
 gateway by which you enter the grounds 
 is half decayed, and would, doubtless, 
 have disappeared altogether, but for a 
 mosque within, venerated, handsome, 
 and of fine stone, which the zealous fre- 
 quenters contrive, with ingenious taste- 
 M 4 
 
168 MOOTIE JEEL, OR PEARL LAKE. 
 
 fulness, to conceal with thick layers of 
 white-wash. What were the gardens are 
 now naked fields. On the farther sides 
 of the lake, which surrounds with two 
 broad arms this peninsulated spot, there 
 is a fringe of wood. Of the palace, 
 which stood close to the water, at the 
 extreme point of the gardens, there is 
 only one fragment ; but it is a noble one, 
 and a fitting memorial of it, being a ruin 
 of four arches supported by five columns, 
 the whole of the most beautiful black 
 polished marble, taken themselves from 
 an ancient and princely edifice among 
 the ruins of ancient Gour, to adorn, sur- 
 vive, and be the only memorials of a 
 second. While I stood near them, ten 
 or eleven elephants, belonging to the 
 present Nawab, were brought down by 
 their keepers to water in the lake just 
 opposite ; they looked in poor condition, 
 but yet stepped with that slow air of 
 pride, which spoke of other days, and 
 seemed in character with the scene. 
 
WALK IN THE CITY. 169 
 
 At night, there was a good deal of 
 noise and rejoicing in different quarters 
 of the town, it being a festival with the 
 Hindoos. Though Moorshedabad is a 
 Mahometan city, still, as I have before 
 remarked, the idle of all sects join in a 
 festival. Even my poor boatmen, who 
 were all Moors, had donned their holiday 
 skull-caps, trimmed with copper lace, 
 changed their loin-cloths, and hurried off 
 to some childish puppet-show or cheap 
 debauch. 
 
 In the morning, I walked into the city, 
 and took my stand in an irregular-shaped 
 open space, from whence branch out five 
 streets, with gateways. In this place are 
 the great mosque, Nobut Khana, old hall 
 for Durbar, and one or two other public 
 buildings. Hither had some of my fel- 
 low-countrymen, after the sad affair of 
 the Black Hole, been dragged in chains ; 
 here had they made the low salaam, 
 spoken the usual benediction, and peti- 
 
170 THOUGHTS ON SAILING PAST IT. 
 
 tioned for their lives and liberties from a 
 Nawab of Moorshedabad : and, a twelve- 
 month after that period, Clive had en- 
 tered it, a conqueror ; and, from the head 
 of a small firm band of Europeans, had 
 looked round upon the multitudes who 
 crowded with astonishment to gaze on 
 them, with a half-anxious and doubtful 
 joy as to the fulness of his success. 
 
 Here and there a glance of the dark 
 eye, and the haughtily-smoothed mous- 
 tachio, conveyed to me the smothered 
 curse of some descendants from the no- 
 bles of that day, as they passed near me. 
 
 I pushed off in the afternoon, and 
 sailed .up the whole length of the city. 
 The evil of past days is soon forgotten ; 
 while what was good, or fancied so, is 
 kept alive in the memory, with a self- 
 tormenting spirit. Such a strange, rest- 
 less, discontented mortal is man ! For- 
 getting the tyranny and oppression of 
 
REFLECTIONS. 171 
 
 their former rulers, they will relate how 
 they have heard their fathers talk of the 
 magnificence and liberality of Aliverdi 
 Khan ; who, at the marriage of his ne- 
 phew, in 1747, gave away ten thousand 
 khelauts, or dresses of honour, illumin- 
 ated the city every night, feasted the 
 nobles and sirdars, and fed the poor for 
 the space of a month. Nor can I won- 
 der at their too natural regret, if I, know- 
 ing this to have been a wily usurper 
 stained with blood, and knowing our rule 
 to be comparatively a blessing to these 
 poor murmurers, could busily assist my 
 imagination in recalling and enjoying the 
 illuminated city, the rejoicing crowd, the 
 blazing fireworks, and the river, red with 
 the glow of light and fire, and alive with 
 gaily-decked snake-boats, cheerful music, 
 and shouting crews* 
 
 I moored at night in a little glade, 
 retired and peaceful ; and as the shades 
 of that still hour concealed from me all 
 
172 JUNGYPORE. HOLIDAY. 
 
 that might have destroyed the illusion, 
 took a ramble under a few old trees by 
 the river side, and turned, with a heart 
 untravelled, to scenes and circles many 
 thousand miles from the bank on which 
 I strayed. 
 
 From hence I sailed, in four days, to 
 the branch-river head, passing one of 
 them very delightfully at a friends' 
 house at Jungypore, a commercial resi- 
 dency and extensive silk manufactory. 
 My first day's sail presented me with a 
 succession of groupes and scenes very 
 Jively and interesting. It was that period 
 of the Dussorah festival, when the wor- 
 shippers come in gay procession to the 
 river's banks with music and singers, 
 and bear forth the idol, all adorned and 
 decked off by the village Brahmins for 
 the holiday. Each village had emptied 
 itself of its population : dissonant and 
 harsh as is their rude music, it still con- 
 veys a sound of mirth ; but the glad 
 
MOONLIGHT NIGHT. 173 
 
 voices of the people, the shouts and 
 playful ablutions of the happy children, 
 and the bright and gaudy colour of the 
 women's garments, who dress on such 
 occasions in cloths of deep, rich, and 
 varied dyes ; and often wear little cor- 
 sets, fitting close to their breasts, of 
 figured muslin or embroidered silk ; 
 with joys and flowers in their shining 
 hair ; speak more plainly to the ear and 
 eye as you glide smoothly past them, and 
 command from your cool and shaded 
 cabin a full view of the festive throng. 
 
 I moored that first evening a few 
 miles below Jungypore, on the bank of 
 a little branch stream, which, it proved, 
 communicated with some large and 
 wealthy villages ; for as I sat gazing upon 
 that soft and pure light the moon ever 
 sheds in this eastern world, and fancying 
 myself a solitary lover of her charms, 
 the song, the chorus, and the Indian 
 
174 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 guitar, broke in mingled sounds upon 
 the silence of the night. Several snake - 
 boats approached the spot ; and, gliding 
 past with wonderful rapidity, disap- 
 peared like unreal visions, and were only 
 to be followed, nor that long, by the 
 listening ear. I can never wonder that 
 the moon has been an object of idolatrous 
 worship. There is a mildness in her 
 beam which speaks of mercy ; a calm- 
 ness in the still hour of her reign, which 
 breathes of peace. The Hindoos re- 
 present her as a female*, in a car drawn 
 by antelopes, those graceful, timid ani- 
 mals, so gentle eyed, so harmlessly wild : 
 she carries, too, a rabbit in her hand, 
 as marking her power over the prolific 
 womb. How often do we feel, like Job, 
 that the lip might be enticed to kiss the 
 hand in looking up at her, as she walks 
 in brightness ! How often, till the heart 
 
 * As a male more generally, but exceptions there 
 are, and I avail myself of them here. 
 
LARGE RIVER. 175 
 
 is broken with disappointment, and feels 
 a void such as they can never fill, do we, 
 professing to " look through nature up to 
 nature's God," stop short, dwell with 
 admiring fondness on his creatures and 
 his works, and thus virtually deny him ! 
 
 As, from the Cossimbuzar river-head, 
 you launch forth into a channel nearly 
 four miles in width, with waters rough 
 and rising into waves, and reflect that 
 you are on the bosom of a river three 
 hundred miles from the sea, you are 
 very powerfully impressed with the mag- 
 nificent scale on which the works of 
 Providence are here carried on ; and feel 
 less wonder when you are told, that the 
 Brahmins of India, whose veneration for 
 this flood is so well and generally known, 
 believe, among other absurdities, that 
 the first descent of Ganges from heaven 
 was designed to fill the hollowed, but 
 then empty, bed of ocean itself. 
 
176 VISIT TO GOUR. 
 
 I sailed across it to the left bank, and 
 moored in the narrow little creek of 
 Pookarya, where, from the deck of the 
 budgerow, you might almost have 
 touched the boughs of the lofty and 
 shady trees on either bank. 
 
 Hence, in the morning, I proceeded 
 up a small inland stream, communicating 
 at that season with the site of ancient 
 Gour, and moored for two days there. 
 
 Seven hundred and thirty years before 
 Christ, Gour was the capital of Bengal, 
 or Gaura, as the country was then 
 called. 
 
 The extent of its ruins is near fifteen 
 miles in length, by three in breadth ; or 
 rather, I should say, the extent of that 
 space on which ruins may yet be disco- 
 vered, and the whole of which was once 
 covered with buildings, and crowded with 
 inhabitants. 
 
VIEW OF ITS RUINS. 177 
 
 But where, you ask, are these ruins ? as 
 toiling through bush and long grass, now 
 crossing a field which some ryot has 
 farmed, now wading through pools of 
 water, or ferrying across them, you make 
 your way from point to point, and find 
 only the ruins of seven or eight mosques, 
 the half-broken-down walls of a large 
 Moorish fortress, and two strikingly 
 grand and lofty gates of a citadel evi- 
 dently built by Mahometans ; where are 
 the traces of that city, the date of whose 
 most flourishing existence can be fol- 
 lowed back to a period of time so awfully 
 remote ? a period thirteen centuries be- 
 fore the birth of the prophet Mahomet ! 
 Why here ! Enter this ruined mosque ; 
 look at this block of marble so beauti- 
 fully wrought ; observe the Arabic cha- 
 racters so fairly sculptured on it. Now 
 pass to the other side ; you will see the 
 Sungskrita inscription originally cut upon 
 it, ere the pagoda it long adorned was 
 overthrown, to furnish materials for the 
 
 N 
 
178 RAMBLES AMONG THEM. 
 
 erection of this mosque, styled by dis- 
 tinction, The Golden. The remains of 
 it indeed are very noble ; it is faced 
 throughout with the most precious black 
 marble. Many, however, of the inferior 
 mosques are upon the whole in higher 
 preservation ; their domes still perfect 
 and lined within by tiles painted of the 
 most vi\ 7 id colours, highly glazed, and 
 probably as bright as the day they were 
 laid on* One of the smallest of these 
 mosques has a tessellated pavement of 
 great beauty. 
 
 The gates of the citadel are very grand ; 
 one especially is of a loftiness arid span 
 which forcibly recall the days of Hu- 
 mayoon and Acbar, as does yet more 
 powerfully an imperial minar, the giant 
 top of which has fallen in shattered frag- 
 ments at its feet. This proud monument 
 stands in the very centre of these ruins, 
 and from its dizzy and tottering head 
 your eye may command the whole of 
 
REFLECTIONS. 179 
 
 that desolate tract which the city once 
 covered. The processions, the Moorish 
 squadrons, with their crowded spears 
 and glittering sabres, the howdahed 
 elephants, matchlock-men in groupes 
 over the gateways and on the city walls j 
 and a turbaned throng covering the 
 space below, rise and show you Jenne- 
 tabad in the sixteenth century. The 
 ruins of this city, and of Gour also, have 
 furnished materials both for building and 
 ornament to Moorshedabad, Maldah, Ra- 
 jemahl, Dacca, and many other places 
 during the last century, and at different 
 periods long before. With something 
 like a feeling of disappointment that the 
 traces of Gour should be so few, you 
 would leave the spot, your eye yet lin- 
 gering in its gaze till the red soil adher- 
 ing to your foot seems to exclaim, " You 
 are treading on the ruins of Gour. 
 This soil is formed of bricks now mould- 
 ered or crumbling beneath your tread ; 
 but fashioned by the hand of man ages, 
 N 2 
 
180 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 long ages ago. Here, in the dust, lie 
 the temples, the palaces, the dwellings 
 of the city whose memorial you seek. 
 Can you discover at Jerusalem one brick 
 of the famed temple of Solomon ? Is 
 one stone left upon another of the second 
 temple of Jerusalem, which was rased to 
 the ground eight hundred years after the 
 day of my strength and pride ? What 
 seekest thou ? Babylon, and Tyre, and 
 Sidon were my sisters ; Egypt and its 
 idols knew me ; empires on empires have 
 arisen and fallen since my day ; Carthage, 
 Rome, and Byzantium lie low. As, in 
 the days of Hezekiah, Isaiah, the prophet 
 of the Lord, foretold of other cities of 
 renown, so has it been with me, and 
 with my conquerors since me. My sons 
 were mighty in valour, my towers high, 
 my walls fenced,>my treasures full, my 
 daughters fair ; music and dancing were 
 in my feasts ; I was proud and lifted up, 
 and I am brought low, even to the dust," 
 
SACRED MONKEYS. 181 
 
 Reflecting thus, I walked slowly to- 
 wards my boat ; it was late, and from 
 the ruins of a mosque and wall near 
 some large tamarind-trees I saw springing, 
 with many a fantastic bound and gesture, 
 several of those large-sized sacred mon- 
 keys. They fittingly represented satyrs 
 dancing in wild mockery on this desolate 
 spot. A marble tomb near me reminded 
 me of the days of Acbar. Could I have 
 broken the slumbers of its tenant, how 
 had he grieved and wondered ! Before 
 him, Jennetabad in ruins ; and beyond, 
 no sign of camps or arms, war-horses, 
 or Moorish standards ; and yet, how 
 strange to think, that could you raise at 
 your bidding an inhabitant of Gour, who 
 perished two thousand years before, and 
 place him where those trees might be 
 supposed to shelter and to shade yon 
 small ghaut, and shew him that groupe 
 of Brahmins, with their brazen vessels 
 and flowers, performing their ablutions 
 in the stream, he would not fancy more 
 N 3 
 
182 GOMALTY. MY HOST. 
 
 than one night dreamed away ; and, bath- 
 ing himself, would prepare to re-enter 
 the city in their company. So that, after 
 all, we have ruins of Gour more striking 
 to the mind than the half-standing co- 
 lumns of Babylon, or the more perfect 
 temples of Egyptian Thebes. We have 
 the helpless, blind, and feeble posterity 
 of an erring and fallen race clinging to 
 the gods of their fathers, with a pertina- 
 city at once to be admired and pitied. 
 
 I continued my course on the narrow 
 stream, and moored by invitation at the 
 garden bank of Gomalty, a charming 
 spot, almost on the site of Gour, and 
 the residence of a gentleman, whom to 
 know is to esteem, and to converse with 
 is long and affectionately to remember. 
 He has resided twenty -six years on that 
 ground. He is a most eminent Bengallee 
 scholar. Perhaps no European has ever 
 attained to so thorough and perfect an 
 acquaintance with any of the oriental 
 
REFLECTIONS. 183 
 
 languages or dialects as he has with this 
 one. In a study, from the window of 
 which his eye rests on the site of ancient 
 Gour, and from whence with a pebble 
 he may strike the ruins of a handsome 
 mosque standing just beyond his garden- 
 gate, this benevolent man has translated 
 the Gospel into Bengallee ; and has writ- 
 ten in the same language several simpile 
 and beautiful dialogues, designed as fa- 
 miliar and easy expositions of the Book 
 of Genesis. When I retired to my cham- 
 ber for the night, I found on my table 
 the Scriptures ; and on the book-shelves 
 the works of such pious men as have la- 
 boured for the edification of mankind. 
 A bed-chamber thus furnished, in such 
 a country, and on such a spot, would 
 have awakened thoughts neither to be 
 repressed at the time, nor forgotten after- 
 wards, in bosoms which had never ad- 
 mitted the intrusion of that awe with 
 which Religion, when she first draws 
 
 N 4 
 
184 RAJEMAHL. 
 
 aside the glittering veil of illusion, and 
 shows man the naked realities of his 
 state, never fails to impress him. 
 
 From Gomalty, in two days, I made 
 Rajemahl. Here the country assumes 
 quite a new aspect. The hills above that 
 town, and the continued chain of them 
 all up the southern bank, for many miles, 
 have a most beautiful and enlivening 
 appearance. 
 
 Rajemahl was, at two or three different 
 periods during the first half of the seven- 
 teenth century, the capital of Bengal, 
 and a royal residence. The town at pre- 
 sent is very inconsiderable, meanly built, 
 and thinly inhabited. There are vestiges, 
 however, of its former consequence. A 
 few tombs and mosques, black, damp, 
 and half decaying, give shelter to poor 
 travellers and mendicants. The ruins of 
 a spacious palace, which the river is year 
 by year breaking down, form a very pic- 
 
HILL PEOPLE. MR. CLEVELAND. 185 
 
 turesque object, whether from your boat 
 you mark the clear waters flowing over 
 its fallen fragments, or wander through 
 silent and forsaken apartments, some of 
 which are of marble. 
 
 In the bazaar I saw some of the Hill 
 people ; a short, thick-set, sturdy-built 
 race, with the African nose and lip. One 
 of them had a bow of bamboo ; but not 
 of the size or strength I expected. These 
 mountaineers were formerly savage un- 
 tractable neighbours ; they were, how- 
 ever, conciliated, and much of the wild- 
 ness of their dispositions and manners 
 corrected, by the sensible and well-di- 
 rected efforts of a Mr. Cleveland, the 
 judge of that district, who died in 1784. 
 His memory is much revered by them ; 
 and by them, as well as by ourselves, 
 monuments have been erected to it 
 
 At Sicly-gully, where there is a cele- 
 brated pass between Bengal and Bahar, 
 
186 FAKIR'S HERMITAGE. 
 
 at Terriagully, at Pointee, and Colgong, 
 the mooring-places are all beautiful. The 
 walks among the hills, and the views of 
 the noble Ganges, in its grand sweeping 
 curves, together with the rich scene of 
 cultivation in the level country on the 
 opposite bank, give variety and interest 
 to every day. At Pointee you pass some 
 rocks which protrude into the river, and 
 are covered in rude relief with repre- 
 sentations of Hindoo deities. Some va- 
 gabond fakirs dwell in a shed near them. 
 They live by begging. To you they are 
 only importunate and troublesome ; but 
 to the poor natives exacting and tyran- 
 nical. 
 
 Near Colgong, there are two or three 
 small rocky islands in the middle of the 
 stream. One of these has been almost 
 always the hermitage of a fakir ; and, 
 according to my boatman's account, a 
 miserable devotee then occupied it. I 
 rowed there in a small boat at day-break. 
 
FAKIR'S HERMITAGE. 187 
 
 No spot could I find which bore the 
 mark of a landing-place, and my servant 
 and self scrambled over the rock through 
 bush and brier to a sort of deserted 
 shelter, half cave, half hut, with a wooden 
 cot, some fragments of chattees, a small 
 heap of ashes, and near the door, a low 
 rude altar with a lingam. We called 
 aloud, but no one answered ; we searched 
 the tree above, looked behind all the 
 masses of rock, beat every bush : not a 
 sound but the rustling of a snake, or a 
 lizard. Disappointed in my visit, I re- 
 turned to the main bank, and on ques- 
 tioning a peon, found that it had not 
 been permanently occupied for these 
 three years ; when, it seems, the old fakir- 
 who had for many years previous dwelt 
 on it in solitude and silence, the object 
 of the Hindoo's veneration, the Mus- 
 sulman's contempt, and the Englishman's 
 pity, finding his pride imposed penance 
 insupportable, consummated his vain 
 sacrifice of all that made life valuable, 
 
188 BOGLIPOOR. 
 
 by that of life itself; and having an- 
 nounced his intention some months be- 
 fore, drowned himself in the sacred 
 waters of the Ganges, in the presence of 
 an immense concourse of the devout and 
 superstitious, the sneering and the idle. 
 Since that time it has been tenantless, 
 save being now and then visited for a 
 few days by some shrewd rogue, to fleece 
 a pious Hindoo traveller, or mock a 
 curiosity-hunting Englishman. 
 
 Boglipoor, a little higher up the river, 
 and the capital of a small district in 
 Bahar, where reside a few civil servants, 
 is one of the most cheerful clean-looking 
 places on the Ganges, on a branch-stream 
 of which river it is delightfully situated. 
 The roads, the fields, the gardens, and 
 the cottages, all have an air of order and 
 of industry. The inhabitants here and 
 throughout Bahar are a fine-looking tall 
 robust race, and have, as compared to 
 
BOGLIPOOR. 
 
 189 
 
 the Bengallee, great manliness in their 
 carriage, and a pleasing frank manner. 
 
 Throughout this province, agriculture 
 and manufactures flourish. Here, cotton- 
 cloths and mixed cloths of silk and cot- 
 ton are easily procurred. Grain, sugar, 
 and indigo, are in abundance ; and opium 
 is produced in very large quantities. 
 Whole fields of poppies, as varied in 
 their gay colours as tulips, must, in the 
 season, have a very lively effect, con- 
 trasted with the deep green around. I 
 took great delight at first in wandering 
 over these fields in India, where the 
 productions are so different from those 
 in England. 
 
 The cotton-plant with its bursting pod 
 disclosing a soft and snow-white wool ; 
 the bushy dark-green indigo shrub ; the 
 plantations of the sugar-cane ; the plan- 
 tain gardens, with the broad rich-coloured 
 soft leaves, and the thick clusters of 
 
190 BOGLIPOOR. 
 
 its bread-like fruit ; the gardens of the 
 betel plant ; the cocoa-nut trees, whose 
 fruit, shell, oil, leaf, bark, fibres, juices, 
 are all so highly prized by and indis- 
 pensably necessary to the natives of India j 
 the graceful bamboo with which they 
 make houses, inclosures, mats, couches, 
 scaffoldings, ladders, in short, all con- 
 veniences. 
 
 These awaken astonishment and ad- 
 miration ; as for delight, when the no- 
 velty is gone by, you feel it is not your 
 path of creation ; and the lively recol- 
 lection of all the rich and varied beauties 
 of the landscape in southern Europe, or 
 of the still dearer, though less romantic 
 scenery of England, with all that is rural 
 and secure in its crowded and neatly 
 dressed inclosures, forbade my rejoicing, 
 as I reflected that many thousand miles 
 of pathless ocean separated me from my 
 native country, and from all that made 
 that country dear. 
 
SULTANGUNGE. 191 
 
 On the evening after I left Boglipoor, 
 I moored near Sultangunge. Close to 
 this spot in the middle of the Ganges, 
 stands the celebrated fakir's rock. It 
 rises abruptly in the centre of the stream, 
 is of a conical form, and has a small 
 temple to Mahadeva on its summit. You 
 land on a ghaut with stairs cut out of 
 the solid rock ; and by flights of steps 
 cut in the same manner, ascend to the 
 small temple. Here I found a groupe 
 of a dozen lazy insolent fakirs ; an el- 
 derly one, who appeared the chief, was 
 sitting on the skin of a tiger with the 
 skull of one by his side, looking stupid, 
 dirty, and fierce. He was much tamed, 
 however, by my asking him some ques- 
 tions which he was too ignorant to 
 answer satisfactorily, and by my disco- 
 vering from one of my Moorish boatmen, 
 that this very wretch possessed a large 
 pasture-farm and several hundred head 
 of cattle, the fruit of a life of successful 
 hypocrisy and fraud. 
 
192 MONGHYR. 
 
 As you approach Monghyr, the river 
 spreads to a noble width. It was cloudy, 
 and blew fresh, and I overtook a large 
 fleet of boats within a few miles of it. 
 Nothing could have a more beautiful 
 effect than the various lights and shades 
 thrown on the thin and torn sails of 
 these numerous barks. 
 
 Monghyr stands on a bend of the 
 Ganges ; and little postern-gates lead 
 from the fort walls directly opening on 
 its banks. One of the ghauts here is 
 held very sacred by the Hindoos. Mon- 
 ghyr, however, was fortified by Mussul- 
 man princes. Although it was for a long 
 period occupied Ipy effective garrisons of 
 our army, as our rule has extended, it has 
 been dismantled, and is going fast to 
 decay, being now resigned to the charge 
 of invalids. The ruins of a Moorish 
 palace are within. Several deserted bun- 
 galows are still standing scattered about 
 in the fort arid outside. There are very 
 
SEETAKOON HOT WELL. 193 
 
 many fine prospects from different parts 
 of the fort itself, and a most commanding 
 one from a hill-house in the neighbour- 
 hood. All that variety of beauty which 
 near and more distant mountain-scenery, 
 river-views, and rural landscapes, in a 
 fertile country can give, is here to be met 
 with ; so that wherever you turn your 
 eyes they are fed in their gaze. 
 
 The bazaar, on the outside of the fort, 
 wore a novel and peculiar appearance. 
 The pillars supporting the verandahs, 
 and the wooden projecting cornices of 
 the houses being ornamentally and care- 
 fully carved, as in our very old chapels, 
 and some of the oldest parts of our most 
 ancient cities at home.* 
 
 Near Monghyr, in rather a lonely dis- 
 mal-looking spot, is a hot spring. The 
 well is inclosed in a square stone building 
 
 * Chester, for instance. 
 o 
 
PATNA. 
 
 with piazzas, and it runs off in a small 
 stream, which flows steaming for a consi- 
 derable distance, and empties itself into a 
 large standing pool. In the well itself 
 you can hardly hold your hand half a 
 minute, so great is the heat. 
 
 I found near the wells many miserable 
 objects, sick, maimed, and cripples, and 
 many stout healthy-looking Brahmins: 
 these last guarded both the well and 
 stream, allowing the pennyless to ap- 
 proach neither. The Brahmins asked me 
 for money ; I laughed at them ; to the 
 poor wretches near them I gave alms, 
 reflecting, however, with anger, that they 
 would be exacted from these sufferers 
 by the Brahmins the moment I turned 
 my back. 
 
 It was near sunset when I made 
 Patna. Your track-rope has to be handed 
 round all the projecting towers of the 
 fort, whose walls are bathed by the river : 
 
PATNA. 195 
 
 and your progress, from the want of foot- 
 ing for your crew, in some places, and 
 the numbers of moored boats in others, 
 is slow ; I therefore came-to for the night 
 at a ghaut about midway : passing one- 
 half of the city walls in the evening, 
 the other at the early morning hour. 
 About Patna there is a rich colouring of 
 decay, rather than antiquity. The walls, 
 towers, &c. are of brick. Many lofty 
 houses, having terraced roofs and balco- 
 nies, have been chunamed ; but the chu- 
 nam*, black, dull, and in parts falling off, 
 leaves the brick building naked. All this 
 reflected at sunset in the smooth-sur- 
 faced waters, made a fine picture ; with 
 the still-life beauties of which, busy 
 groupes at all the ghauts, and in the bal- 
 conies, wealthier natives seated on car- 
 pets and cushions, smoking and convers- 
 ing, very happily contrasted. I passed 
 five days at Digah, about eight miles 
 
 * Chun am, a very fine description of plaster. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 PATNA. 
 
 above Patna, near Dinapore, which is a 
 fine cantonment, and has a noble range 
 of barracks for Europeans. Here, during 
 the rainy season, the river, when flooded, 
 is five miles in width. On the opposite 
 bank, at a place called Poosah, the Com- 
 pany has a large and well-conducted 
 stud-establishment. 
 
 I saw but little of Patna. It is an an- 
 cient city, and is said to stand on the site 
 of Palibothra. There are few vestiges, 
 in the way of ruins, of any great anti- 
 quity ; but the learned are, I believe, of 
 opinion that this was the capital of the 
 Prasii ; and that here Megasthenes, the 
 ambassador of Seleucus, long resided. 
 My brightest and most pleasing recollec- 
 tions of my stay in that neighbourhood 
 arise from my having passed my time 
 in a circle of cheerful, devout, practical 
 Christians; leading lives to the honour 
 of God, and the benefit of their fellow- 
 creatures. 
 
BUXAR BATTLE OF. GHAZIPOOR. 197 
 
 The next place of any note is Buxar, a 
 small fort, now dismantled. It was near 
 this place that, in 1764, a Major Adams, 
 in our army, at the head of a few hun- 
 dred Europeans, and about six thousand 
 Sepoys, routed a native army of forty 
 thousand men : taking all their tents, 
 baggage, treasure, and one hundred and 
 thirty pieces of cannon. The colonel 
 commanding the station, when I passed 
 it, told me that long, long after he landed 
 in India, Buxar was our frontier. 
 
 I sailed from hence to Ghazipoor in 
 two days. The first object in the native 
 part of this place is an old palace, for- 
 merly belonging to the Nabob of Oude, 
 which overhangs the river. Higher up, 
 is a cantonment for three thousand men ; 
 and a mausoleum, not yet completed, to 
 the memory of the brave, venerable, and 
 humane Marquis Cornwallis. It stands 
 on an elevated site, commanding the 
 reaches both up and down the river. 
 
 o 3 
 
198 BENARES. 
 
 Perhaps no governor-general in India 
 ever conciliated the affections of those 
 natives under our government, or the 
 respect of those opposed to us, more 
 than the Marquis Cornwallis. 
 
 To the pictures or statues of this 
 nobleman, at either Presidency, more 
 especially at Madras, you will often see 
 the old pensioned Sepoys and native 
 servants salaam profoundly, with a rever- 
 ence at once solemn and affecting. Here, 
 like an aged tree, he fell in the very rose- 
 garden * of India : for here, leaning 
 against his mausoleum, you may, in their 
 season, see the whole neighbourhood 
 blushing with those beauteous flowers. 
 
 Perhaps there is no city in India which 
 a traveller feels more desirous of visiting 
 than Benares, (or Casi the Splendid,) the 
 ancient seat of Brahminical learning, the 
 present school of Hindoo theology, the 
 
 * Ghazipoor is famed all over India for rosevvater. 
 
BENARES. 199 
 
 university from whence educated Brah- 
 mins are sent forth yearly to perpetuate 
 the reign of error ; that most holy city, 
 to whose absolving shrines all the yet 
 powerful or wealthy nations of Hindo- 
 stan send vakeels, to perform, by proxy, 
 their sacrifices and ablutions. 
 
 The very first aspect of Benares is 
 fine ; and, when you come opposite to 
 one of its central ghauts, very striking. 
 It extends about four miles along the 
 northern bank of the river, which makes 
 here a bold sweeping curve. Its build- 
 ings, which are crowded, built of stone 
 or brick, and uniquely lofty ; its large 
 ghauts, with long and handsome flights 
 of steps ; here and there, the sculptured 
 pyramidal tops of small pagodas ; one 
 mosque, with its gilded dome glittering 
 in the sunbeam ; and two proud and 
 towering minars, rising above another, 
 form a grand and imposing coup cVceil. 
 I landed, dismissed my boat, and pro- 
 o 4 
 
200 FEATURES PECULIAR TO 
 
 ceeded to the house of a friend at 
 Secrole ; which is the station of our civil 
 and military servants. 
 
 The city is only to be visited on horse- 
 back, or in a palanquin. I decided, at 
 the recommendation of my friend, on a 
 tonjon, or open sedan chair ; as thus only 
 can you leisurely survey every thing, 
 from the extreme narrowness of the 
 streets, and the crowds in them, through 
 whom your way must be cleared by a 
 police-trooper in your front. 
 
 In the heart of this strange city, you 
 are borne through a labyrinth of lanes, 
 with houses of six or seven stories high 
 on either side, communicating with each 
 other above, in some places, by small 
 bridges thrown across the street. These 
 houses are of stone or brick ; and many 
 of them are painted either in plain 
 colours or stripes, or with representations 
 of the Hindoo deities. Every bazaar or 
 18 
 
BENARES. SHOPS. 201 
 
 street containing shops, you find a little, 
 and but a little, wider than the others. 
 Shops here stand in distinct and separate 
 streets, according to their goods and 
 trades. In one, all are embroiderers in 
 muslin, which they work here in gold 
 and silver most beautifully ; in another, 
 silk merchants ; in another are displayed 
 shawls ; in some, shops filled only with 
 slippers ; in one, jewel merchants ; in 
 the next, mere lapidaries. Several con- 
 tiguous streets are filled entirely with the 
 workmen in brass, who make the small 
 brazen idols ; also the various urns, 
 dishes, vessels, lamps, which the Hindoos 
 require either for domestic or sacred pur- 
 poses. These shops make a very bright 
 and showy display ; and, from the ancient 
 forms, various sizes and patterns of their 
 vessels, attract your attention strongly. 
 You meet numbers of the naked offici- 
 ating Brahmins indeed, but you also see 
 here a distinct class of wealthy Brahmins, 
 
202 POPULATION. 
 
 most richly dressed in fine muslin tur- 
 bans, vests of the most beautiful silks, 
 and valuable shawls. Their conveyances 
 out of the city are the open native 
 palanquins, with crimson canopies ; or 
 hackrees, sometimes very handsome, and 
 drawn by two showy horses, with long 
 flowing manes. 
 
 The women in Benares, (for many of 
 high cast fetch all their own water,) are 
 beautifully formed, wear garments of the 
 richest dyes, and walk most gracefully. 
 But these are minor features ; innu- 
 merable Hindoo youth, of high cast, are 
 sent hither for education. They have 
 not colleges or schools, but reside six 
 or seven in each Brahmin's house, and 
 pursue the studies which their pundit 
 enjoins. There are eight thousand houses 
 in Benares belonging to Brahmins : what 
 number may receive students I know 
 not. Of their education I will speak a 
 few words presently. 
 
PAGODAS. 203 
 
 He who has looked upon the pagodas 
 of the south of India, is quite surprised 
 to find those of Benares so few in number, 
 so small and inconsiderable. The prin- 
 cipal one is covered with much beautiful 
 sculpture, representing fancy flower-and- 
 wreath borderings. I went into it. During 
 the whole time I remained, there was a 
 constant succession of worshippers ; for, 
 except on festivals, they visit their tem- 
 ples at any hour they please or find con- 
 venient. This temple is dedicated to 
 Mahadeva ; and has several altars, with 
 lingams of large size and beautiful black 
 marble. It has two fine statues of the 
 bull of Siva couchant ; and, small as the 
 temple was, three or four Brahminy bulls 
 were walking about in it, stopping in the 
 most inconvenient places. All the floor 
 was one slop, from the water used at the 
 offerings ; and the altars, shrines, &c. 
 were quite covered with flowers, glisten- 
 ing with the waters of the Ganges. The 
 only thing in the temple, which was to 
 
204 TEMPLE OF VARANASHI. 
 
 me novel, was a small representation in 
 brass of Surya, the Indian Apollo, stand- 
 ing up in his car, and drawn by a seven- 
 headed horse. The arched crests and 
 eager bend of their necks were exceed- 
 ingly well executed. It appeared to me 
 to stand neglected in the temple; and 
 none of the priests seemed to have any 
 feeling of particular interest about it. 
 
 In an open space at the back of this 
 temple, and connected with it, is a small 
 building containing a well of some pe- 
 culiar sanctity, for its waters were sold. 
 Here rather an uncommon scene pre- 
 sented itself. On one side of this irre- 
 gular square was a mosque, rather a fine 
 one, no longer resorted to for worship, 
 but used as a sort of caravansera. A few 
 Mussulmans were lounging in it : the 
 other sides of this open spot were formed 
 by the gable-ends of lofty houses, dead 
 walls, and street-heads. Two or three 
 trees grew round the well, which stood in 
 
GROUPE OF MAHRATTA HORSEMEN. 205 
 
 front, and to the right of the mosque. 
 Under the shade of a dead wall, a little 
 to the rear and right of the well, leaned 
 or sat half-a-dozen Mahratta horsemen, 
 holding their lean, ill-conditioned, jaded 
 steeds by the bridle. They were the 
 escort of some Mahratta chief, come 
 hither ostensibly to pay his vows ; but 
 although they were armed with shield 
 and sword, spear and matchlock, there 
 was, to my eye, an unnecessarily affected 
 meanness and poverty in their condition. 
 Near the sacred well sat one of those 
 fat, bloated, unwieldy Brahmins, looking 
 at once proud and stupid ; a very fit, 
 pitiless, and unyielding guardian of these 
 highly-prized waters, which may be, in 
 truth, styled golden. He asked me for 
 alms: I told him, laughingly, that he was 
 too fat to beg, and I too lean to give them. 
 Perfectly in character with the moss- 
 troopers of Walter Scott was the grin of 
 my Mahratta friends, as they caught my 
 reply ; and the contemptuous jokes and 
 
206 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 lawless looks with which they appeared 
 to speak of and regard this Brahmin, and 
 a groupe of others coming up at the 
 moment, showed that piety had little 
 share in their long journey to the temples 
 of Benares ; in the spoil of which city, 
 they would hesitate very little to join. 
 The plunder-seeking man in arms, who, 
 scorning the control of discipline, follows 
 the chief he likes best, is, and has been 
 ever, the same creature, whether gallop- 
 ing with the descendants of Esau in the 
 deserts of Arabia ; ranging the forests of 
 Germany, the Apennine hills, the Sierra 
 Morena, or the wilder Albania with fear- 
 less banditti ; devastating the plains of 
 the Deccan with Pindarrie chieftains ; 
 or, as in times past, riding forays on the 
 border. 
 
 I made my way hence, through long 
 crowded streets, to the famous mosque 
 built by Aurungzebe in the very heart of 
 the city, on the site, and with the ma- 
 
MOSQUE BUILT BY AURUNGZEBE. 207 
 
 terials of their proudest pagoda, to com- 
 memorate the triumphs of the crescent. 
 From its lofty and towering minar you 
 overlook the city with many of the ad- 
 vantages possessed by the famed Devil 
 on Two Sticks ; for all the roofs having 
 terraces, all the stories galleries within, 
 and the lower one a court, you see 
 multitudes busily employed or lazily 
 lounging, unconscious that they are not 
 secluded from observation, but that an 
 eye rests on them, and of a stranger. If 
 Aurungzebe, who viewed Christians with 
 a Saracen-like hatred, except where 
 policy said, " Be merciful," could have 
 started from the sleep of death, and have 
 seen the obsequious Mussulman, who, as 
 porter of the mosque, shows it to English 
 visitors, tormenting me with an officious 
 disturbing civility not altogether unin- 
 terested, how would he have burned with 
 the impotence of anger, to think that this 
 fame-seeking monument of his pride was 
 thus strangely polluted and degraded. 
 
208 A STONE OBSERVATORY. 
 
 Benares contains one curiosity, erected 
 about a century and a half ago, by a 
 liberal-minded Hindoo rajah, who en- 
 couraged the arts and sciences, and gave 
 a favourable reception to all educated 
 Europeans whom he could meet with ; 
 doubtless by one of whom, though at his 
 cost, this curious observatory was built. 
 It is entirely of stone. All the instru- 
 ments are of vast size, and built of solid 
 masonry. For a more particular and 
 scientific description of it I refer my 
 reader to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 There were no Brahmins here. An old 
 woman is the guardian of it ; and makes 
 a rupee or two monthly by opening and 
 shutting the doors which lead up to it. 
 Perhaps it may at times be visited by a 
 solitary seeker after knowledge ; doubt- 
 less, at certain seasons, by many who, 
 ignorant of its real use, come and look up 
 to the heavenly bodies, contented with 
 the absurdities of their own planetary 
 system, and exulting in the fancied at- 
 tainment of a pretended species of astro- 
 
EDUCATION OF BRAHMINS. 209 
 
 logy, by which they affect to pronounce 
 on the fate of kingdoms and men, to 
 foretel seasons of rain and drought, abun- 
 dance and famine, to decide on the pro- 
 pitious hour for monarchs' drawing the 
 sword, or for peasants' turning up the 
 earth with the plough, and thus to rivet 
 the chains of their tyrannical priestcraft 
 alike on the haughty rajah and the hum- 
 ble ryot. One word upon the education 
 of Brahmins. My belief is, that very, 
 very little is known about it. It is known 
 from what books they are taught, and 
 what those books contain ; but it is not 
 known to what parts their attention is 
 more particularly directed, 
 
 The four Bedas are said to be composed 
 in metre ; twenty-five thousand stanzas 
 in each Beda ; four lines in every stanza. 
 
 The first treats of the science of di- 
 vination, astrology, and the creation of 
 matter. 
 
 p 
 
210 BRAHMINICAL FAITH. 
 
 The second treats of all religious and 
 moral duties, honours a Supreme Being, 
 but acknowledges and contains hymns 
 to many inferior intelligences. 
 
 In the third, their religious rites and 
 ceremonies are laid down with strict 
 rules for all their burdensome observ- 
 ances. 
 
 The fourth Beda is said to treat en- 
 tirely and solely of the knowledge of 
 the Good Being ; but either from anti- 
 quity or a peculiar dialect, the language 
 of it is become obsolete, and few of their 
 pundits profess either to read or under- 
 stand it. 
 
 The Shasters are holy commentaries 
 or mere books of divinity and science. 
 There are two principally known ; one is 
 more highly esteemed in the north, the 
 other in the south of India. 
 
BRAHMINICAL FAITH. 211 
 
 They have also books of laws, the 
 justice of which may be guessed as they 
 are styled, The Ordinations of the Pun- 
 dits, and founded upon that prejudice of 
 cast which does not view all men as 
 equal, or visit in like manner the very 
 same offence on men of different casts. 
 
 They have histories, originally founded, 
 perhaps, on a few traditionally known 
 facts, but now so disguised with fabu- 
 lous adventures, fantastic imagery, and 
 poetic fiction, that, as records, they are 
 useless. 
 
 That many passages in the religious 
 writings of the Hindoos may be found 
 which speak of the Deity as One, in- 
 visible, almighty, and omniscient, is true ; 
 but we must not examine their books 
 to find out what they may learn ; we 
 must look to their language and their 
 lives, to see what they do. If their be- 
 lief is as pure and simple as some would 
 p 2 
 
212 BRAHMINICAL FAITH. 
 
 represent it, how odious, how abhorrent 
 is the hypocrisy of their practice. Look 
 at them, ministering before innumerable 
 idols ; giving out legends and allegories 
 as articles of faith ; imposing fasts, purifi- 
 cations, penances ; predicting falsehoods ; 
 enjoining sacrifices and offerings ; and 
 celebrating the wild indecent orgies of 
 midnight festivals. I am sadly ignorant 
 of all the mysteries of oriental learning, 
 but I do not think that there is among 
 them any thing like what the Deist of Eu- 
 rope would call a pure deism, and \vith 
 which he so liberally invests them. They 
 are split into innumerable sects, I allow, 
 but it will be found these principally 
 disagree on minor points of faith or mere 
 religious observances. How can this be 
 otherwise, when they have a calendar 
 crowded with gods, and count their infe- 
 rior deities by millions ? 
 
 I have 'done : without knowledge, I 
 must be silent. 
 
RESERVE OF THE NATIVES. 213 
 
 Nothing, perhaps, so much damps the 
 ardour of a traveller in India as to find 
 that he may wander league after league, 
 visit city after city, village after village, 
 and still only see the outside of Indian 
 society. The house he cannot enter, 
 the groupe he cannot join, the domestic 
 circle he cannot gaze upon, the free un- 
 restrained converse of the natives he can 
 never listen to. He may talk with his 
 moonshee or his pundit ; ride a few miles 
 with a Mahometan sirdar ; receive and re- 
 turn visits of ceremony among petty na- 
 wabs and rajahs ; or be presented at a native 
 court ; but behind the scenes in India he 
 cannot advance one step. All the natives 
 are, in comparative rank, a few far above ; 
 the many far below him : and the bars to 
 intercourse with Mahometans as well 
 as Hindoos, arising from our faith, are so 
 many, that to live upon terms of inti- 
 macy or acquaintance with them is im- 
 possible. Nay, in this particular, when 
 our establishments were young and small, 
 p 3 
 
214 SCHOOLS AT BENARES. 
 
 our officers few, necessarily active, neces- 
 sarily linguists, and unavoidably, as well 
 as from policy, conforming more to na- 
 tive manners, it is probable that more was 
 known about the natives from practical 
 experience than is at present, or may be 
 again. On their morals, and on their 
 laws, perhaps, however a greater light is 
 thrown by the proceedings of our cut- 
 cherries and courts of justice. 
 
 Before I leave Benares, I must observe, 
 that in the very heart of the city is a 
 school, founded and patronised by a 
 wealthy Brahmin ; who has stepped forth 
 from the crowd of idolaters, is a friend to 
 knowledge, and certainly not an enemy 
 to Christianity, having placed it under 
 the care of a pious ^and able young Eng- 
 lishman, an orphan eleve of the Rev. 
 Mr. Corrie. There is another school 
 under the charge of this young man in 
 the cantonment ; and Christian missions, 
 
RAMNAGHUR. ITS TEMPLE, &C. 215 
 
 of other denominations than those of our 
 church, have establishments here. 
 
 From Benares, I made an excursion by 
 Ramnaghur to Chunar. At the former 
 place, which is about four miles from 
 Benares, on the opposite bank of the 
 river, resides the rajah, in a small forti- 
 fied palace, surrounded by a large village, 
 filled with Brahmins. About two miles 
 from this spot is a small temple, built 
 not many years ago, on which, in sepa- 
 rate compartments, you find less con- 
 fusedly represented than usual, in demi- 
 relievo, all the gods, goddesses, inferior 
 and attendant deities of the Hindoos, 
 with many scenes in their fabulous lives : 
 the costumes, arms, vessels, instruments 
 of music, &c. are most faithfully and mi- 
 nutely depicted. Near this temple is a 
 noble stone tank, and a garden of the 
 rajahs, with a small summer-house, 
 looking out on the water ; and, at the 
 further end of the garden, a palace-like 
 p 4 
 
216 CHUNAK. 
 
 pavilion of stone, with arched divans be- 
 low and above, supported by columns 
 and a terraced roof, from whence you 
 enjoy a view of Benares, the river and 
 country near, grand beyond conception. 
 
 Chunar is thirteen miles higher up the 
 river, on the same side. It is a hand- 
 some-looking Indian fort, boldly situated 
 on a freestone rock, which rises abruptly 
 and considerably on the land-side, and 
 juts out far into the stream 01 the Gan- 
 ges. The walk round its walls presents 
 many fine points of view. There is a 
 palace in the fort occupied by the state 
 prisoner Trimbuckjee, the active, intrigu- 
 ing minister of the Peishwah ; a man 
 who rose from the rank of a common 
 hircarrah originally, by being a low pro- 
 curer for the haram of his unmanly 
 master, now a dethroned and unpitied 
 prisoner himself, on the banks of this 
 same river, a few hundred miles higher 
 up. 
 
 17 
 
CHURCH AND SCHOOLS. 217 
 
 Chunar has a cantonment for Sepoys, 
 outside the fort. The officers' bunga- 
 lows are prettily situated. Many invalid 
 European soldiers, who are allowed to 
 wear out the remnant of their lives in 
 India, have chosen this as the place of 
 their retreat. 
 
 I saw these climate and war-worn men 
 assembled at the house of the minister, 
 for service ; and marked, in the eager and 
 grateful looks of some few, the hope and 
 belief that they were called to enter, at 
 the eleventh hour, the vineyard they had 
 so long despised. 
 
 In this station is laid the foundation- 
 stone of an unperishable monument to 
 the memory of the good and pious Corrie, 
 in two thriving schools, and a small 
 Christian church, established through his 
 apostolic labours. To him, also, under 
 God's blessing, are Benares and Agra in- 
 
'218 JOURNEY TO AGRA DAWK. 
 
 debted principally for the Christian ad- 
 vantages and privileges they enjoy. 
 
 My friend at Benares lent me a travel- 
 ling palanquin ; and I travelled from 
 thence to Agra Dawk ; stopping one day 
 at Allahabad, and two at Cawnpore. 
 
 From Agra, my determination was to 
 traverse central India, in a direct line to 
 the station of my regiment, at Bangalore, 
 in the Mysore country ; marching the 
 regular stages through the country of 
 Scindiah, and across the Deccan. 
 
 You generally commence a Dawk trip 
 after dark ; and, habited in loose-drawers 
 and a dressing gown, recline at full length 
 and slumber away the night. If you are 
 wakeful, you may draw back the sliding 
 pannel of a lamp fixed behind, and read. 
 Your clothes are packed in large neat 
 baskets, covered with green oil-cloth, and 
 carried by palanquin boys ; two pairs will 
 
 
ALLAHABAD. ITS FORT. 219 
 
 contain two dozen complete changes. 
 Your palanquin is fitted up with pockets 
 and drawers. You can carry in it, with- 
 out trouble, a writing desk, and two or 
 three books, a few canteen conveniences 
 for your meals, and thus, you may be 
 comfortably provided for many hundred 
 miles travelling. You stop for half an 
 hour, morning and evening, under the 
 shade of a tree, to wash and take refresh- 
 ment: throughout the day read, think, 
 or gaze round you. The relays of bear- 
 ers lie ready every ten or twelve miles : 
 and the average of your run is about four 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The country between Benares and Alla- 
 habad is fertile and well cultivated, but 
 quite flat. Allahabad is a very ancient 
 city. The fort stands on a tongue of 
 land at the confluence of the Ganges and 
 the Jumna ; which last is a fine clear 
 amber-coloured stream, more beautiful 
 and nearly as large as the rival to whom 
 
220 SACRED CAVERN. 
 
 it pays the rich tribute of its waters, which 
 lose their own sanctity and fame in the 
 holier Ganges. 
 
 On the land-side, the defences of the 
 fort are modern, regular, and strong. To 
 the water it still retains its native cha- 
 racter. A few yards only within the wall, 
 stands a palace over-looking the rivers 
 where their waters meet. Acbar is said 
 to have often visited this spot. And be- 
 fore the six most miserable years of his 
 long and troubled reign, here Shah Alum 
 resided. 
 
 I visited in the fort a subterraneous 
 cave filled with pillars and idols, and 
 having within its dark recesses a tree of 
 ancient growth, and a sacred spring, of 
 which many strange tales are related. 
 During the reign of Moorish persecution, 
 here they concealed their idols ; here 
 they stole to perform the rites of their 
 superstition. Oh ! would it were yet 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES. 221 
 
 confined in its hateful influence to that 
 narrow and gloomy cavern. But, alas ! 
 Allahabad at certain seasons presents a 
 scene from which I turn with the deepest 
 and saddest indignation. Multitudes of 
 pilgrims crowd hither to worship at the 
 sacred confluence of these holy streams : 
 and every season some victims, either 
 madly offering themselves, or devoted by 
 the cruel piety of their friends, meet an 
 early and untimely death. Earth does 
 not cover, fire does not consume their 
 bodies ; but after a few days, the restless 
 waters throw the swoln carcase to the 
 surface ; and the expectant quick-eyed 
 vulture, lighting on the well-known prize, 
 fastens his talons on a tender bosom ; 
 and feeding leisurely, or sitting gorged 
 upon the half-devoured corpse, floats on 
 the broad bosom of the tranquil Ganges. 
 
 On the small point of land at which 
 the rivers join their waters, sit numbers 
 of Brahmins, known by their distinguish- 
 
THOUGHTS ON OUR POLICY. 
 
 ing flags, who receive the sums each pil- 
 grim must pay for performing his ablu- 
 tions, seal them, sell amulets, certificates, 
 and Ganges water to be conveyed many 
 hundred miles distant by the purchasers. 
 
 Does this picture rouse your indigna- 
 tion, reader? Learn, then, that one half 
 of the receipts arising from the dues paid 
 at this, and all other places of supersti- 
 tious resort throughout India, enters the 
 coffers of the honourable Company. A 
 Sepoy sentinel near the spot boasted of 
 the privilege he enjoyed ; as, being in 
 our service, he was exempted from the 
 usual fine ; paying a smaller sum for per- 
 mission to dip his body in the sanctifying 
 stream at this blessed place, 
 
 To prop superstition, and countenance 
 fraud, is surely a policy at once timid 
 and impious ; to benefit by the credulity 
 of the poor plundered idolater, is a finan- 
 cial arrangement very little to our ho- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE BRAHMINS. '223 
 
 nour, and perhaps as little to our real 
 interest. 
 
 It is my firm persuasion that the Brah- 
 mins are felt by the mass of the natives 
 to be a voluptuous, self-indulgent, op- 
 pressive class ; a burden upon their in- 
 dustry ; a barrier to their ambition ; 
 but they are forced to bend : and why ? 
 From the Brahmins they receive in- 
 formation on subjects which they are 
 artfully forbidden to look into for them- 
 selves, such as the histories of their gods, 
 the laws and observances of their reli- 
 gion ; the rules of government and civil 
 polity ; the distinctions of the seasons ; 
 the influence of the stars. The Brahmins 
 conduct all their festivals, identify them- 
 selves with all their pleasures, preside 
 at their assemblies. It was thus in the 
 darkest era of the Christian history. Such 
 was the relation between the priests and 
 monks and the ignorant enslaved pea- 
 santry. Forth came the Bible, light, li- 
 
224 ENGLISH CONVERT 'TO HINDOOISM. 
 
 berty, and salvation shining on every 
 page, and the awful shades of this men- 
 tal darkness were dispelled. 
 
 Thus it was with the Jewish nation : 
 when, sunk in the lowest idolatry, a copy 
 of the law, long concealed from them, 
 was discovered under the reign of Josiah. 
 It was read before the people ; expounded 
 to them ; blessed to them ; their idols 
 were thrown down; they met regularly 
 for purer worship ; and became, from 
 blind idolaters, sincere and spiritual in 
 their devotions. 
 
 At every step in India you seem to 
 look upon the religious rites and ob- 
 servances of the idolatrous nations de- 
 scribed or alluded to in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures ; so close is the resemblance. 
 
 Incredible as it may sound, reader, 
 there is at this moment a British general 
 in the Company's service, who observes 
 
MOORISH TOMBS. 225 
 
 all the customs of the Hindoos, makes 
 offerings at their temples, carries about 
 their idols with him, and is accompanied 
 by fakirs, who dress his food. He is 
 not treated as a madman, but would not, 
 perhaps, be misplaced if he had his 
 idols, fakirs, bedas, and shasters, in some 
 corner of Bedlam, removed from its more 
 rational and unfortunate inmates. 
 
 From Allahabad to Cawnpore, the 
 road led near Korah, once the residence 
 of the Mogul governor in these parts. 
 Here, on a broken, stony, undulating 
 plain, stands a large place of tombs. In 
 India such are frequently met with ; and 
 they are very magnificent objects. The 
 domes and cupolas have a grand ap- 
 pearance ; and even the humbler tombs 
 are of a handsome form. Our church- 
 yards are mean compared to them ; al- 
 though I still prefer the rustic graves in 
 Wales, where each humble stone has a 
 little flower-bed sunk in its top. The 
 
 Q 
 
226 CAWNPORE. 
 
 walls of arched aisles and cloisters, 
 adorned with marble memorials of the 
 dead, such as we meet in the English 
 cathedrals, have, of course, a grandeur 
 far superior to these buildings. If near a 
 city, you will always see the Mussulmans 
 walking at sun-set among the tombs of 
 their ancestors. In attitude of thought 
 or devotion, I have seen them for hours 
 together in such scenes. 
 
 Cawnpore is the chief military station, 
 and largest cantonment of the Bengal 
 army. It extends about six miles along 
 the Ganges. There are many good houses 
 and bungalows. Howdahed elephants, 
 barouches, tilburies, and numerous pa- 
 lanquins, give it an air of wealth and 
 luxury very superior to the stations of 
 the Madras army. 
 
 I was kindly received by a hospitable 
 staff-officer. He entered at once into my 
 humble plan ; assisted me in procuring 
 
KANOG. 227 
 
 tents, and a smart active Mahratta poney, 
 and dispatched them for me by Culpee 
 to Gualior ; where, making a detour by 
 Agra, and passing a week or mpre in 
 that interesting city, I was to join them 
 and commence my march southward. 
 
 On my road from Cawnpore, I visited 
 Kanoge ; like Gour, it sleeps in the dust ; 
 only one ruin of a small pagoda remains 
 at all in a state to excite interest. The 
 most striking objects in or near the 
 place, are two large handsome Moorish 
 mausoleums standing on a lofty eminence, 
 from whence you overlook the neigh- 
 bouring country, which is richly culti- 
 vated, and handsomely adorned with 
 wood. From this eminence, twelve hun- 
 dred years ago, you might have looked 
 down upon a city so populous and ex- 
 tensive, that it is said tq have contained 
 thirty thousand shops which sold bete} 
 alone. 
 
 Q 
 
228 BANKS OF THE JUMNA. 
 
 From hence, also, four hundred years 
 later, you might have seen crowded and 
 desolating squadrons of Tartars, under 
 that bigot Mahmood, of Ghizni, gallop- 
 ing with fierce eagerness and ready 
 cruelty to the spoil of its temples, and 
 the slaughter of its priests. They bring 
 you here many ancient coins, or rather 
 said to be ancient, for sale. Those I saw 
 were totally defaced, and valueless. 
 
 It was already night when I reached 
 the Ghaut, by which you ferry across to 
 the southern bank of the Jumna above 
 Agra. My last stage had lain entirely 
 among wild gloomy-looking small ravines, 
 into which the barren and sandy plains 
 you traverse in this neighbourhood are 
 broken. It was quite a refreshment to 
 spring out on the banks of the Jumna, 
 and look upon its clear waters here and 
 there overshadowed by the magnificent 
 remains of tomb, palace, or mosque, 
 which intercepted with their dark ruins 
 
VISIT TO THE TOMB OF ACBAR. 229 
 
 the bright silvery light of a full-orbed 
 moon ; and to find your frame braced by 
 that healthfully cold feeling belonging to 
 the close of a fine English October. After 
 crossing the ferry, I had a run of about 
 four miles to my friend's house, half-way 
 between Agra and Secundra. 
 
 A fire in one of the rooms at the hour 
 of breakfast, and a piece of ice as big as 
 a nutmeg, brought in by one of the party 
 from his early walk, had quite an air of 
 the climate and customs of Europe. 
 Eager and anxious I set out, at eleven 
 o'clock, to visit the tomb of Acbar, about 
 three miles distant. I was alone : and 
 as I reclined in the lofty howdah on a 
 noble elephant, commanded a fine view 
 of the ruin-covered plain. On every side 
 domes rose on domes, various in size, 
 and various in appearance, from a state 
 entire, to the last stage of decay. Walls, 
 tombs, mosques, minarets, summer- 
 houses, according to their materials and 
 Q 3 
 
230 TOMB OF ACBAR. 
 
 size, either half-broken down, black and 
 crumbling; or strong and handsome 
 (even though neglected) from the stone, 
 granite, or marble, of which they were 
 originally built. 
 
 Is this a tomb ? you ask yourself, a 
 mere tomb ? as descending from your 
 elephant at a high arched and lofty gate- 
 Way, with gallery chambers and vaulted 
 dome, you see, through and far beyond 
 it, a vast pile of building of the most 
 beautiful red granite, adorned in stone 
 and marble, with many rich borderings 
 of flowers, and with inscriptions from 
 the Koran, in free bold letters of pro- 
 digious size. You follow a paved path- 
 way through the garden, now covered 
 with rank grass, and stripped of half its 
 trees, and approaching nearer, pronounce 
 the building, though grand, too much 
 overcharged for the eye of taste. Too 
 many small minarets are crowded on its 
 
DESCRIPTION OF IT. 231 
 
 top, nor is the ascent to the door suf- 
 ficiently spacious or raised. The lower 
 story has one lofty dome, under which 
 lies the dust of Acbar, beneath such plain 
 and narrow tomb as would simply mark 
 where a Moslem lay. 
 
 Above, upon the higher story, are arched 
 verandahs, and marble chambers ; and on 
 the very top, a handsome space paved 
 with marble, and surrounded by a light 
 piazzaed gallery, whose outer face is open 
 screen-work of the same precious ma- 
 terial, perfectly white and polished^ but 
 representing branches and wreaths in- 
 terwoven with the most natural grace and 
 ease. 
 
 Here is a small sarcophagus of white 
 marble. Natural in form, and naturally 
 
 / 
 
 strewn, are the pale flowers which lie 
 
 thickly scattered on it. For whom the 
 
 sculptor scattered them, four small and 
 Q 4 
 
232 
 
 ACBAR. 
 
 beautifully formed letters declare : 
 Acbar *, you read ; and read no more. 
 
 Of all the princes who sat upon the 
 throne- of the Moguls, none, perhaps, 
 has so much enjoyed the admiration of 
 posterity as Acbar. 
 
 His wars, his personal exploits, his 
 acts of generosity, his sayings, are trea- 
 sured in the memory of all the better 
 educated Mussulmans. He was born 
 during the distress and exile of his 
 father Humaioon. At thirteen ascended 
 the musnud ; at fourteen commanded an 
 army in person ; fought and conquered 
 the immense host of Abdool Khan on 
 the famous plains of imperial Delhi, and 
 slew the leader of that host with his own 
 hand. 
 
 He encouraged arts, manufactures, and 
 * In Arabic characters. 
 
HIS CHARACTER. 233 
 
 trade. He was tolerant in religious mat- 
 ters. Under the vigorous administration 
 of Abul Fazel *, his able, faithful, and 
 enlightened minister, Hindostan flourish- 
 ed in proud tranquillity. f He gathered 
 that beautiful emerald for the crown of 
 the Moguls, the little kingdom-valley of 
 Cachemire; and after reigning pros- 
 perously for half a century, he died, 
 How ? in the well-fought field ? or, ripe 
 in age and honour, on the peaceful couch 
 of expected death ? neither, in throes 
 and agonies, convulsed by poison ! 
 
 Look out upon these wide and sunny 
 plains, the summons of his signet had 
 
 * Abul FazePs tomb; a large plain handsome one 
 of stone and marble, lies not far from his imperial 
 master's. Much, very much of Acbar's fame and 
 popularity, may be traced to the able counsels of this 
 great man. 
 
 f Would hardly be deemed such in any other part 
 of the world. It means a state short of actual rebellion. 
 
 RENNEL. 
 
234 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 covered them with two hundred thou- 
 sand soldiers ready to bleed around his 
 standard. His own brave arm was ever 
 ready for service of honour, or of peril ; 
 yet, perhaps, did the feeble hand of some 
 coward slave, or trembling female, mix 
 for him the fatal draught. Look out 
 again ; look where the red towers of 
 Agra glitter near the tranquil Jumna. 
 Still grand and perfect is the fort. But 
 on this side, see how small, how poor 
 the city of which the founder sleeps 
 below ! Scarce two centuries ago, the 
 approaching traveller had started, as from 
 some favouring spot he might have seen 
 at one broad glance, the domes of a 
 hundred mosques ; the lofty and tur- 
 retted walls of sixty caravanseras ; the 
 smaller cupolas, and minarets of palaces, 
 baths, and tombs innumerable ; the proud 
 and massive fort with its armed walls ; 
 and on the plain beyond, the white tents 
 and gay standards of an army of Moorish 
 
REFLECTIONS. 235 
 
 horse, ever ready at the trumpet's 
 sound. 
 
 As, leaving this scene of splendid ruin, 
 you hear your footsteps echo, you feel 
 sad at the dead loneliness. Scarce four- 
 teen years ago, if chance had led you to 
 this tomb, you would have found its 
 chambers and verandahs filled with Bri- 
 tish soldiery, careless and rejoicing ; you 
 would have heard its domes echo to their 
 cheerful and exulting voices ; for, during 
 a monsoon in Lake's victorious campaigns, 
 three corps of British cavalry were bar- 
 racked in it, and war horses stood pick- 
 etted in the garden below. 
 
 Strange, strange revolutions ! As I 
 took a parting gaze at this princely pile, 
 and bethought me that beneath this 
 cumbrous and stately monument lay the 
 mouldering remains of a murdered king, 
 a familiar passage of our great poet came 
 forcibly to my recollection. 
 
236 TAAJE MAHAL. 
 
 " For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground, 
 And tell sad stories of the death of kings, 
 How some have been deposed, some slain in war, 
 Some haunted by the ghosts they have deposed, 
 Some poisoned by their wives, some sleeping killed, 
 All murdered /" 
 
 In the pomp, the splendour, and the 
 power of eastern despotism, as there is 
 more to tempt the heart, so have am- 
 bition and her sister crimes, treason and 
 murder, more flourished in the poisonous 
 soil of these bright dominions of the 
 sun, than in our gloomier and colder 
 climes. 
 
 In the afternoon of this day, I drove 
 to visit the Taaje Mahal. It is indeed 
 the crown of edifices. As I drew near I 
 could not take my eyes from its dome, 
 white with such cold calm lustre as sheds 
 the pure unsullied top of a snow-crowned 
 mountain. 
 
 I could not pause at the magnificent 
 
TAAJE MAHAL. 237 
 
 gateway ; I could not loiter as I paced 
 up the garden ; till, from near a basin 
 in the centre, where fountains murmur 
 and play, the view of a lofty and polished 
 dome of marble, and of the graceful and 
 elegant detached minars of the same 
 beautiful material, Parian in whiteness, 
 rising above a thick bed of dark foliage 
 formed by the intervening trees, arrested 
 my step, and fixed for several minutes 
 my admiring gaze. 
 
 I thence moved slowly forward, as- 
 cended the terraced area on which the 
 building stands, and walked, wherever I 
 trod, on marble. 
 
 The front of this splendid mausoleum, 
 adorned with borderings of flowers, and 
 headed by inscriptions from the Koran, 
 the former executed with due attention 
 to colouring and form, both of leaf and 
 flower, entirely inlaid with stones more 
 or less precious, and the latter com- 
 
238 TAAJE MAHAL. 
 
 posed of Arabic characters cut with 
 freedom and boldness out of the blackest 
 marble, and then closely and beautifully 
 let into the white, perfectly astonishes 
 you. But, when led within the dome, 
 where stand two small sarcophagi co- 
 vered with the most delicate Mosaic, 
 and surrounded by walls of Mosaic to 
 correspond, without a leaf, a flower, or a 
 petal wanting : when you see cornelians, 
 agates, blood-stones, opals, pebbles, and 
 marbles of all colours wrought into the 
 finest Mosaic, and producing an effect at 
 once rich, chaste, and so perfectly natural, 
 that the easier art of the painter seems 
 mocked, you are silent. They tell you, 
 and they tell you truly, that it is the 
 most superb mausoleum in the world. 
 Pride must have been ingenious in de- 
 vising a work so costly, and the artist 
 must have laboured with delighted won- 
 der, as the precious materials for this 
 sumptuous edifice were displayed in rich 
 abundance before him. Perhaps there 
 
ITS SURPRISING BEAUTY. 239 
 
 never was exhibited in any work of the 
 same size, such a regardless disdain of 
 the expence which might be incurred. 
 
 The whole, whether seen inside or out, 
 looks as if the scaffolding had not long 
 been cleared away, and it was just fresh 
 from the hands of the architect. 
 
 The delicacy may be in some degree 
 guessed, by those who have never seen it, 
 from the expression of Zophani, an 
 Italian painter, who, after gazing long 
 upon it with fixed admiration, said, that 
 it wanted nothing but a glass-case of 
 sufficient magnitude to cover and pro- 
 tect it. 
 
 I visited it again by moonlight ; a light 
 soft, and well adapted to give effect to 
 the cold clear polish of the dome. I also 
 passed a long solitary day, either in mi- 
 nutely examining its beauties within, or 
 viewing it from without, while seated 
 
240 SHAH JEHAN. 
 
 under a shady tree near one of the gar- 
 den-fountains. At every visit I felt 
 more strongly, that to describe the Taaje, 
 at once so chaste and so splendid as it is, 
 would be a task, either for pen or pencil, 
 impossible. But after all, how poor, 
 how mean are the associations connected 
 with it ! It is a monument of the 
 boundless exactions of a beauty's vanity ; 
 of the yielding folly of a proud volup- 
 tuous slave-governed sensualist ; for such 
 was Shah Jehan, a prince who made 
 his way to the throne of the Moguls by 
 the murder of a brother and four ne- 
 phews ; and who shed the blood of one- 
 half of his subjects, to secure the trem- 
 bling obedience of the other. The close 
 of a debauched life he passed as the 
 degraded captive of his hypocritical son, 
 Aurungzebe. Here under these beauti- 
 ful sarcophagi, in this noble mausoleum, 
 lie Shah Jehan and his favourite Begum, 
 side by side. 
 
MOOTIE MUSJID. 241 
 
 I must confine myself in Agra to the 
 principal features, for inferior and in- 
 teresting remains of its day of pride are 
 numerous. Next therefore, I would name 
 the Mootie Musjid, or Pearl Mosque, 
 in the fort. It is built entirely of white 
 marble ; walls, arches, columns, minarets. 
 It has a very spacious court, with a basin 
 in the centre, all of the whitest marble. 
 There is very little ornamental sculpture, 
 except a few flowers on the columns ; 
 but no stone of any colour interferes 
 with the chaste simplicity of this temple, 
 at once the plainest and most costly of 
 its kind. 
 
 Nearly opposite the mosque stands 
 the palace. Although its halls and 
 chambers are almost all of marble, and 
 have borderings of inlaid Mosaic work, 
 they did not strike me, as they undoubt- 
 edly would, had I visited them before I 
 saw the Taaje. There are baths in the 
 palace, the walls of which are covered 
 
 R 
 
242 DELHI GATE. 
 
 with looking-glass, and have much va- 
 rious-coloured foil. These apartments, 
 brilliantly lighted up, must have a very 
 splendid effect. But a northern visitor 
 turns, with a heart-sickness, from these 
 traces of the debauching pleasures and 
 corrupt manners of eastern sovereigns. 
 
 The fort itself is a very noble one. 
 Its walls of red granite are built with that 
 embattled crown-like top, characteristic 
 of Moorish fortresses, and are very mas- 
 sive. The gate, called the Delhi Gate, 
 is prodigiously fine, adorned with flowers 
 and inscriptions, inlaid in a very large, 
 bold style. Many a noble elephant, his 
 lofty war-howdah filled with spears and 
 arms, bannaret and pennon, has passed 
 under it. But yet, I admit, the historical 
 associations here, and throughout India, 
 are too often mean. Even Acbar's name 
 has many a blot ; and some historians 
 tell you that he had designed the poi- 
 soned cup, out of which he himself 
 
GENERAL REFLECTIONS. 243 
 
 " drank the sherbet of dissolution/' for 
 another, and perished a striking example 
 of retributive justice. To the aged 
 Beiram, the instructor and friend of his 
 youth, his guardian and counsellor in 
 his first struggles as a king, he behaved 
 with neglect and ingratitude, which was 
 so notorious as to be generally recorded. 
 These reflections are painful ; and here 
 we more readily discover and admit them 
 than we should, perhaps, on the site of 
 a Grecian temple, a Roman camp, an 
 old English castle, or a forsaken mo- 
 nastery. 
 
 The town of Agra has a bazaar, and 
 many substantial houses of stone ; but 
 has otherwise many features of degrad- 
 ation, poverty, and decay. You see a 
 few countenances of Mussulmans hand- 
 some, and even commanding. And the 
 appearance of the Mahometan youth is 
 engaging : their dress is becoming, their 
 voice pleasing, and their address po- 
 
 R 2 
 
244 ABDOOL MESSEE. 
 
 lished. The ease and gracefulness of 
 their carriage are, before they become 
 dissipated, and broken down by a li- 
 centious course of life, very striking to 
 the English eye. At Agra resides the 
 well known Abdool Messee, the most 
 distinguished of the few Mahometans 
 who have cast away the crescent for the 
 cross ; a native of Lucknow, of respect- 
 able family, well educated, with good 
 temporal prospects. He was attracted 
 to the gospel by the preaching of Mr. 
 Martyn, a name dear to thousands who 
 knew him not, and now embalmed in 
 death. By examination, conviction, and 
 prayer, he became a proselyte to the 
 Christian faith. He has endured the 
 contempt and revilings of his nation 
 and kindred ; the scorn, or pity, or sus- 
 picion of many of our countrymen ; not, 
 however, will I believe, of any who have 
 looked upon him. He is aged, and 
 somewhat infirm ; but, perhaps, a coun- 
 tenance more venerable and command- 
 
HIS CONVERSION, CHARACTER, &C. 245 
 
 ing, yet, at the same time, more truly 
 subdued into a gentleness free from de- 
 pression, and a meekness free from 
 timidity, I never saw. It was a blessed, 
 a humbling, a strengthening sight. He 
 is poorly supported by our Missionary 
 establishment, and superintends a school 
 for them. He has some skill in medi- 
 cine, and practises gratuitously among 
 the natives. His patience, forbearance, 
 and benevolence, have so far conquered 
 his persecutors, that he leads a life of 
 comparative peacefulness. I felt it a 
 privilege to meet and speak with this 
 great-hearted pilgrim ; and feeling how 
 impossible it was that he should either 
 have risen, or now stand, in his own 
 strength, found new support in the path 
 of difficulty myself. 
 
 During the time I passed at Agra, from 
 
 the absence of the clergyman, there was 
 
 no divine service : but my reader will 
 
 learn, with a strange feeling of pride and 
 
 R 3 
 
246 ENGLISH LITURGY USED AT AGRA. 
 
 surprise, that the same holy liturgy to 
 which, on every revolving sabbath, he 
 devoutly listens in the small still church 
 of his village, is read also at Agra, in a 
 large apartment, in that very palace in 
 which Mogul princes, the sternest ene- 
 mies to the cross, the proudest support- 
 ers of the crescent, have often read or 
 listened to the koran of Mahomet. 
 
 Every thing which man could do to 
 make me feel Agra a home, did the kind 
 friend and excellent civil servant of the 
 Company, with whom I staid while at 
 Agra. To purchase or hire good camels, 
 and to engage surwans for them, and 
 body-servants for myself, to be depended 
 on, I found not an easy matter, in conse- 
 quence of the length and direction of my 
 route. A kind, cordial stranger, lent me 
 four fine camels, with two elderly trust- 
 worthy surwans *, to accompany me to 
 the frontier of the Bengal establishments 
 
 * Surwan, a camel-driver. 
 
MY DEPARTURE FROM AGRA. 247 
 
 southward, with an arrangement on my 
 part that they might return under escort. 
 And, after some trouble, I got a rough, 
 black-bearded Mahometan, as a head ser- 
 vant, who frankly confessed, that though 
 his father had been a khidmutgar * to a 
 British colonel, he had served in the 
 artillery under Scindiah, and preferred 
 military service; but that, as it was peace 
 and starvation, he had already lived a few 
 months with one Sahib ; could only give 
 that one reference, and was willing to 
 engage with me ; that the length of the 
 journey was no objection ; he would pro- 
 mise to go with me all the way ; that I 
 should find him willing and respectful ; 
 but that a blow he would not take from 
 any man living ; and it was but fair to 
 warn me, for few men of his stamp would 
 be found as servants. I took him, and 
 found him thoroughly to correspond in 
 
 * Khidmutgar, a personal attendant who waits at 
 table, &c. 
 
248 CROSS THE CHUMBUL. 
 
 character and conduct with his own ac- 
 count. He was, moreover, very honest* 
 
 About forty miles from Agra, you 
 come to Dhoolpoor, rather a fine town 
 on our frontier, with a small native fort ; 
 and, ferrying across the river Chumbul 
 to its southern bank, enter the territories 
 of Scindiah. 
 
 A short stage brings you to Nurabad, 
 a town which has been handsome. Near 
 it flows the river Para, over which is a 
 bridge in ruins. Here I found an ele- 
 phant and two horsemen waiting, by the 
 kind arrangement of a friend at the Re- 
 sidency, to carry me in the last stage. 
 
 It was about six o'clock in the evening 
 when I set out ; just the hour at which 
 the ryots return from their labour, and 
 the herds are driven in from their pas- 
 ture. It was calm, tranquil, and refresh- 
 ingly cool. On such evenings, in our 
 
CHANGE IN ASPECT, &C. OF THE PEOPLE. 249 
 
 own provinces, it had been often my 
 solitary amusement to watch all the 
 images of peacefulness, security, and re- 
 pose which the neighbourhood of the In- 
 dian village presents at the close of day. 
 But here the character of the peasant's 
 return to his cot, how different ! The 
 husbandman, though he has the mattock 
 or light plough-share in one hand, carries 
 the matchlock or sword in the other ; 
 and the round shield hangs ready on his 
 back. The herdsman has spear and 
 creese ; and both look as if they prized 
 the possession of arms, and were familiar 
 with the use of them : prompt to resist 
 a lawless soldiery, and fight in defence of 
 their corn, cattle, families, and even lives. 
 
 Soon after quitting Nurabad the road 
 lies over a barren-looking plain ; from 
 the midst of which you may see before 
 you many of the low rugged-looking hills 
 which surround Gualior. 
 
250 BRITISH RESIDENCY. GUALIOR. 
 
 It was cold and late when I reached 
 the British Residency. I found the gen- 
 tlemen over their wine in the dining hall, 
 and was received by Mr. R. the assistant 
 resident, to whom I had been introduced 
 by letter, and by Capt. S. the acting 
 resident, with a cordiality never to be 
 forgotten. A hospitality evinced by the 
 most ready acts of kind trouble during 
 my short stay ; and continued to me 
 long after I left, by a thoughtful atten- 
 tion to the wants and inconveniencies 
 which any traveller must expect to meet 
 in a solitary march through the country 
 of a native power. 
 
 The fortress of Gualior stands on a pre- 
 cipitous isolated hill, close round the 
 brow of which its defences of stone are 
 carried. It is a mile and a half in length, 
 but in breadth less than a quarter of a 
 mile, and about three hundred and fifty 
 feet above the level of the plain. 
 
REFLECTIONS. 251 
 
 I confess I was not much struck with 
 either the strength or beauty of the fort ; 
 for the hill-forts to the southward are far 
 more formidable in point of defence, and 
 bolder objects to look upon ; but to see 
 before me the state-prison of the Mo- 
 guls ; to think of the scenes acted within 
 those walls ; the unhappy princes or 
 leaders whose crime was popularity, 
 drinking the cup of death, or convulsed 
 and writhing under the bowstring, awak- 
 ened reflections, though painful, most in- 
 teresting. For when I thought on our 
 present relation to it, I felt, although a 
 native prince possessed it, to our peace- 
 ful-looking chownie, which lay within 
 two gun-shots, the captive of caprice and 
 the victim of tyranny might still look 
 with hope -, and might feel, that in ap- 
 pealing to the protecting interference of 
 British power, he would not appeal in 
 vain. 
 
 A striking example presented itself to 
 
252 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 me at the moment; for, within a few 
 hundred yards of the Residency, a 
 chieftain, ruined in an affair against us 
 during the late war, and disgraced and 
 degraded by his private enemies in the 
 durbar of Scindiah, had pitched his tat- 
 tered tents, and, with a few faithful fol- 
 lowers and starving cattle, seemed to 
 rely for the security of life and person on 
 us, whose very cannon and sabres had 
 deprived him of the troops and treasure 
 to which he owed his rank, and with 
 which, even to the loss of them, he had 
 faithfully served the interests of his 
 master. 
 
 In the afternoon, one of my friends 
 took me on an elephant to make the 
 circuit of the fort. We passed through 
 the town which contains many good 
 houses, a large and busy bazaar, and vast 
 crowds of dissolute armed idlers, and 
 poor squalid beggars. . 
 
MAHRATTA HORSEMEN. 253 
 
 Near the town we saw a few indi- 
 vidual Mahratta horsemen. They are 
 very fond of display ; and if they chance 
 to be tolerably mounted, and well-dressed 
 and armed, they are either riding the 
 ring or figure of eight, or passaging ; and 
 every few minutes break into a short 
 burst of a gallop. I observed one man 
 in particular, rich perhaps by plunder, 
 but not otherwise of high rank, with 
 turban and sash of gaudy gilt tissue, and 
 horse-furniture covered with shell-work, 
 ride the figure of eight as we were pass- 
 ing, then pull up and salaam to us, 
 then burst past us like an arrow, and 
 repeat the same ceremony. 
 
 We passed along and under the south- 
 western face of the fort, looking up to 
 its battlements, its towers, and prison- 
 palaces ; and visiting, about half-way up 
 the rocky hill, some curious caves con- 
 taining colossal figures of the god Budh. 
 From the mouth of one of these caves, 
 
254 MAHRATTA CAMP. 
 
 as I looked out on the plain below, I 
 saw several small soowarries in motion ; 
 here an elephant with a party of horse- 
 men ; there a couple of women's hackrees 
 going to a garden, with a small escort of 
 horse; and here again, a leader with a 
 whole plump of spears ; while individual 
 figures scouring along the plain might 
 be seen every where. But it was not 
 till leaving this side of the fort we came 
 to its northern head, that we got a full 
 view of the Mahratta camp. It is not 
 quite, perhaps, what you expect ; for it 
 presents the appearance of an immense 
 village, or rather collection of villages, 
 with about a dozen chunamed buildings, 
 shapeless, coarse, without any air of 
 ornament ; and here and there many 
 small trees and hedges of the milk-plant, 
 all of quick growth and late planting, 
 but yet giving the whole a fixed and 
 settled aspect. At the second gaze, 
 however, you see interspersed, many 
 tents and palls, flags and pennons ; in 
 
MAHRATTA CAMP. 255 
 
 some parts, hutted lines and piles of 
 arms ; in one range, a large regular 
 park of artillery ; in all the open spaces, 
 horses irregularly picketted, strings of 
 camels, and a few stately elephants. On 
 the skirts of this large mass, a few 
 smaller and more regular encampments 
 belonging to particular chiefs with their 
 followers better armed and mounted. 
 The sounds too, of neighings, of drums, 
 of horns, and fire-arms ; and, occasionally, 
 the piercing trump of the elephant, min- 
 gled in confusion with the hum of a 
 population, loud, busy, and tumultuous, 
 tell you, convincingly, the trade here is 
 war: the manufactures are of arms. 
 
 Many years, however, has the Mah- 
 ratta camp happily been stationary. Nor 
 is there treasure in the coffers, or energy 
 in the councils of Scindiah, who now 
 stands a power, isolated, helpless, and 
 without hope, ever again effectually to 
 set it in motion. From a prodigious 
 
256 MAHRATTAS. 
 
 host, it lias dwindled in numbers greatly; 
 in efficiency and readiness of equipment, 
 still more : perhaps not more than seven 
 thousand mounted men are in his camp ; 
 about three brigades of infantry ; his 
 artillery alone fine, and disproportionately 
 so; his stores miserably low. Happy 
 that it is so ! Think only of the mean 
 origin, lawless ambition, cruel devasta- 
 tions, boundless tyranny of these scourges 
 of India. Think of princes whose mus- 
 nuds were their horse-cloths, whose 
 sceptres their swords, whose dominions 
 the wide line of their desolating marches. 
 Think of subjects who yearly sacrificed 
 to each of their war-horses a sheep, and 
 sprinkled them with its blood : and 
 whose chief at the dussorah, a great fes- 
 tival, after which they take the field, and 
 march to the collection of the choute*, 
 cuts a handful of ripe corn with his 
 sword for a sickle, thus denoting the 
 
 * Tribute. 
 
BRITISH CHOWNIE. 257 
 
 lawless object of his march. Such were 
 the Mahrattas ; such they still are in 
 spirit ; and such they would be in life. 
 
 We did not enter the camp this even- 
 ing, but skirted it ; and as we turned the 
 north-western angle of the fort, came in 
 sight of the British chownie, containing 
 only a few very small houses in neat 
 gardens, with the lines of two companies 
 of Sepoys, and a squadron of Hindo- 
 stanny horse in our pay. This peaceful 
 little spot, and quiet band, formed a 
 wonderful contrast to that, which, turn- 
 ing on my howdah, I saw crowded 
 under the small hills over which my 
 road lay. 
 
 In the dining-bungalow we sat down, 
 a small English party ; enjoyed the table- 
 talk of England ; and, after our wine, 
 adjourned for coffee to a neat apartment, 
 which, from the style of its furniture, 
 might, when the black servants were out 
 
 8 
 
258 STORM OF GUALIOR IN 1780. 
 
 of it, have been taken for a summer- 
 parlour in the west of England. Here 
 the presence of an English gentlewoman, 
 chess, cards, books, drawings, &c. car- 
 ried your mind quite home, though 
 within a ten minutes gallop of a Mah- 
 ratta camp. 
 
 The following day, after tiffin, we drove 
 to the foot of the lofty ridge of hills just 
 opposite the fort, to the north-west, which 
 commanded a fine extensive view, both 
 of the fort and camp. 
 
 The escalade of Gualior, on the third 
 of August 1780, directed by major Pop- 
 ham, and led by the gallant Bruce, was 
 a most spirited and well-conducted enter- 
 prize ; and is a proof of what the native 
 soldiers of Hindostan, led by Britons, 
 can effect. 
 
 Descending the hill again, we mounted 
 elephants and rode into the Mahratta 
 
MAHRATTA ARTILLERY. 259 
 
 camp. Our object was to see their artil- 
 lery. I had no idea of any thing so sol- 
 dier-like among them as the encampment 
 of it. The guns, upwards of 150, were 
 regularly parked in line. The guns beau- 
 tifully bright ; and a chaplet of flowers 
 hung on most of them. The parade- 
 ground clear; and the hutting of the 
 soldiers attached to them very orderly. 
 The Golundauze are proverbially faithful 
 and brave; will die at their guns, and 
 may be said to half-worship the cannon 
 they are attached to. They are almost 
 invariably sacrificed when brought into 
 action. A native prince likes to form a 
 long line; and we, allowing for the loss 
 by their fire in getting to them, inva- 
 riably and easily possess ourselves of as 
 many guns as may be ranged against us. 
 But if these guns were disposed on the 
 field as well as they are served, our bat- 
 tles would not be such easy victories. 
 
 s 2 
 
260 MEET SCINDIAH. 
 
 In traversing this rude irregular en- 
 campment, the sort of groupes we met ; 
 the horses picketted in circles with 
 the rider's spear planted in the ground 
 at each head-rope ; men lying on their 
 horse-furniture; pillowed on their shields; 
 or busy cooking ; ,or cleaning their horses 
 and arms. Their women making fires ; 
 fetching water and bringing in grass ; 
 their children of all sizes at play in the 
 dust naked. All these were features, to 
 the eye of the European officer, strange 
 and interesting. 
 
 As we passed back round the fort, we 
 were fortunate enough to meet Scindiah 
 returning from the chace, surrounded by 
 all his chiefs ; and preceded or followed 
 by about seven hundred horse. Dis- 
 charges of cannon announced his ap- 
 proach ; and a few light scattered parties 
 of spearmen were marching before the 
 main body. We stopped our elephants 
 just on one side of a narrow part of the 
 
SCINDIAH'S CHIEFTAINS. 261 
 
 road, where the rajah and chiefs with his 
 immediate escort must pass. 
 
 First came loose light-armed horse, 
 either in the road, or scrambling and 
 leaping on the rude banks and ravines 
 near ; then some better clad, with the 
 quilted poshauk* ; and one in a complete 
 suit of chain-armour ; then a few ele- 
 phants, among them the hunting ele- 
 phant of Scindiah, from which he had 
 dismounted. On one small elephant, 
 guiding it himself, rode a fine boy, a 
 foundling protege of Scindiah, called the 
 Jungle Rajah ; then came, slowly pranc- 
 ing, a host of fierce, haughty chieftains, 
 on fine horses, showily caparisoned. They 
 darted forward, and all took their proud 
 stand behind and round us, planting their 
 long lances on the earth, and reining up 
 their eager steeds to see, I suppose, our 
 
 * A garment of cloth, or silk, quilted and stuffed 
 with cotton so as to render it sabre-proof. 
 
 s 3 
 
262 DRESS OF MAHRATTA CHIEFTAINS. 
 
 salaam. Next, in a common native pal- 
 kee, its canopy crimson, and not adorned, 
 came Scindiah himself. He was plainly 
 dressed, with a reddish turban, and a 
 shawl over his vest, and lay reclined, 
 smoking a small gilt or golden calean. 
 We stood up in our howdah and bowed ; 
 he half rose in his palkee, and salaamed 
 rather in a courteous manner, At this 
 there was a loud cry of all his followers 
 near, who sung out his titles, and the 
 honour he had done us, &c. And all 
 salaamed themselves profoundly. 
 
 I looked down on the chiefs under us, 
 and saw that they eyed us most haughtily, 
 which very much increased the effect 
 they would otherwise have produced. 
 They were armed with lance, scymitar, 
 and shield, creese and pistol ; wore, some 
 shawls ; some tissues ; some plain mus- 
 lin or cotton ; were all much wrapped in 
 clothing; and wore, almost all, a large 
 fold of muslin, tied over the turban-top, 
 
REFLECTIONS. 263 
 
 which they fasten under the chin ; and 
 which, strange as it may sound to those 
 who have never seen it, looks warlike, 
 and is a very important defence to the 
 sides of the neck. 
 
 How is it that we can have a heart- 
 stirring sort of pleasure in gazing on 
 brave and armed men, though we know 
 them to be fierce, lawless, and cruel ? 
 though we know stern ambition to be 
 the chief feature of many warriors, who, 
 from the cradle to the grave, seek only 
 fame ; and to which, in such as I write 
 of, is added avarice the most pitiless? 
 I cannot tell. I recollect often before, 
 in my life, being thus moved. Once, 
 especially, I stood over a gateway in 
 France, as a prisoner ; and saw file in se- 
 veral squadrons of gens-d'armerie d'elite 
 returning from the fatal field of Leipsic. 
 They were fine noble-looking men, with 
 warlike helmets of steel and brass, and 
 drooping plumes of black horse-hair ; 
 s 4 
 
264 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 belts handsome and broad ; heavy swords ; 
 were many of them decorated with the 
 cross of the Legion of Honour. Their 
 trumpets flourished ; and I felt my heart 
 throb with an admiring delight, which 
 found relief only in an involuntary tear. 
 What an inconsistent riddle is the hu- 
 man heart ! In what strange food does 
 it delight ! A lady will shrink from the 
 very thought of a wound, or a corpse, if 
 named in conversation, yet she will 
 hang with the revengeful Giaour of 
 Byron over the prostrate and murdered 
 Hassan ; will bid you mark how Kean, 
 by the last feeble thrusts of a hand from 
 which the sword has dropped, shows, in 
 his very fall, the bold persevering spirit of 
 murderous hate in Richard ; will gaze, 
 and listen with delighted taste to the 
 portrait of Lady Macbeth, which a Sid- 
 dons alone can give, a Shakspeare alone 
 could have written. Such is the human 
 heart ! It is related by an ancient father, 
 that a friend of his, a humane, polite, 
 
ANECDOTE OF AN ANCIENT FATHER. 265 
 
 lettered man, detested even to hear of 
 the cruel amusements of the amphi- 
 theatre ; and, being compelled to go 
 there on a public occasion, he forcibly 
 shut his eyes, and sat retired behind his 
 party : but, chancing to open them, and 
 seeing a fierce and bloody struggle on the 
 arena between wild beasts and gladiators, 
 he was so pleasurably affected by the 
 horrid interest of these animating con- 
 flicts, that he became for a long time a 
 constant attendant, and confessed, when 
 he afterwards gave it up, it was a pleasure 
 and indulgence he with difficulty resisted. 
 And the Christian, in his better judgment 
 and prevailing dispositions, would, in the 
 walls of Covent Garden, feel disapproved 
 delight at the triumphant revenge of 
 Zanga, or the cold-blooded cunning ha- 
 tred of lago. 
 
 I passed two more days at the Resi- 
 dency. On one of them we drove out 
 to their suite of tents, pitched near a 
 
266 NARWHA. 
 
 very pretty garden filled with fruit-trees 
 and vegetables. 
 
 On the night of the 17th of December 
 I left Gualior in a palanquin, having sent 
 my people in advance forty miles to 
 Narwha. 
 
 Narwha is a lofty fort, or rather, for- 
 tified hill, with a small town below : they 
 suffered me to enter neither. From this 
 place I marched regularly. I was pro- 
 vided with passports both from the re- 
 sident and Scindiah, and my little money 
 in hoondies*; and had with me four 
 Hindostanny horse from Capt. S/s escort. 
 These men wore a large wrapping vest 
 of dark grey cloth, white Mussulman 
 trowsers, and crimson turbans ; had 
 matchlocks, sabres, creese and pistols. 
 As the season was fine and cold, except 
 a burning hour or two at mid-day, I rode 
 
 * Hoondie, an Indian bill of exchange. 
 
INSUBORDINATION OF SCJNDIAH's ARMY. 267 
 
 all my stages after breakfast, mounting, 
 that is, about seven o'clock. Indeed, 
 from the dislike of the natives to the 
 cold, it was a necessary as well as a 
 pleasant arrangement ; for thus, 1 saw 
 the country, and rode what pace 1 chose. 
 I had always two of the escort with me, 
 and left two with the baggage. 
 
 The state of Scindiah's country may 
 be judged, from my being told it was 
 likely I should hear of, perhaps meet, a 
 brigade of infantry in open rebellion, 
 levying contributions ; and that most of 
 the troops were without pay, and in a 
 half state of mutiny. But Captain S. 
 added, he did not really think that any 
 of them would offer violence to a British 
 officer travelling. Nay, in the town of 
 Gualior, they often break open the houses 
 of shroffs and merchants, and some- 
 times surround Scindiah's residence with 
 threats. And, by way of a little court 
 anecdote, I must tell you, that about a 
 
268 COURT ANECDOTE. 
 
 fortnight before my arrival at Gualior, a 
 dancing-girl from Delhi, having received 
 merely the applause of Scindiah, and a 
 present of some value, became the object 
 of his begum's jealousy, who directed a 
 party of horse in her interest to arrest 
 her, cut off her nose and ears, and carry 
 her over the Chumbul. Scindiah luckily 
 heard of it, and sent her off to the north 
 bank of the river by night on horseback, 
 escorted. The begum's party followed, 
 and would have fought to effect their 
 purpose, but were happily too late. So 
 much for the zenana of Scindiah. In 
 his durbar is a strong war faction, at the 
 head of which is this begum, who rules 
 him with a rod of iron. But Scindiah 
 himself, is said to be peaceably inclined : 
 likes rest, now and then broken by the 
 chace, his hookah, and opium, and the 
 common dull pleasures of the unintel- 
 lectual life of a Hindoo. Indeed, it is 
 certain, if he were to attempt again to 
 disturb the peace of India, he would 
 
CHANGE IN SCINDIAH'S POWER. 269 
 
 become a greater beggar and a captive. 
 Nor can he, who has fourteen years ago 
 rode at the head of 150,000 horse, with 
 a fine body of 15,000 infantry, trained 
 and led by Frenchmen, and a very nu- 
 merous and well equipped artillery, feel 
 any pride, confidence, or pleasure, in 
 leading such comparatively inferior forces 
 as he now could, with his greatest exer- 
 tion, collect. 
 
 I have only engaged, reader, to give 
 you a slight sketch, or familiar picture 
 of what I actually saw ; and now and 
 then, a reflection in my own humble 
 way. To attempt more would be im- 
 possible, with my scanty stock of inform- 
 ation ; and therefore it is, that I write 
 lines instead of pages, on such fertile 
 subjects as Benares, Agra, and these 
 Mahrattas. 
 
 As for my march, I have before dis- 
 tinctly told you, that such intercourse 
 
270 TRAVELLERS IN INDIA. 
 
 between Europeans and natives as should 
 give any great variety or interest to the 
 relation of a journey in India, does not 
 exist. Forster assumed the native dress. 
 The admirable Bernier was domesticated 
 among the omrahs of Delhi and Akba- 
 rabad, and in his travels, you will find 
 more animated, lively, and faithful de- 
 scriptions of the court and camp of the 
 Mogul princes, and a more striking por- 
 traiture of the manners of the people, 
 than in any narrative before or since his 
 day. In these modern times, we have 
 been favoured with travels written either 
 by civilians or officers of rank, travelling 
 in the discharge of their public and im- 
 portant duties ; assisted in their inves- 
 tigations by able natives in their train, 
 and received every where with marks of 
 distinction and honour by the native 
 powers. But I marched a plain regi- 
 mental officer of humble and unpretend- 
 ing rank. The salaams of the village 
 aumildars, and the low prostration of the 
 
DUNGREE. RIVER SINDE.. 
 
 peasantry* to myself and escort, were 
 continually the same. I must, therefore, 
 confine myself to a plain journal of my 
 route. 
 
 On the 19th I marched to Dungree. 
 The scenery throughout this day was 
 very beautiful. Woody and rocky hills ; 
 narrow winding roads ; and many very 
 picturesque views of the river Sinde, 
 whose loose, broken, and stony bed, with 
 waters as clear as crystal, is twice cross- 
 ed, were its principal features. As we 
 came in sight of the river at the spot 
 where we last forded it, a groupe of a 
 few Mahrattas giving their horses water, 
 and some infantry soldiers fording with 
 their women and children on bullocks, 
 made the picture very complete. On 
 the other side of the water, in a narrow 
 rocky glen, I met about a hundred Mah- 
 ratta. horse ; they salaamed to me with 
 great respect ; reining up their vicious 
 horses, and looking with some surprise 
 
272 RUINED VILLAGE. 
 
 upon the saddle, reins and martingale of 
 the English. For they, like all Asiatic 
 horsemen, ride on wide-raised cushions, 
 covered with cloths, have very short 
 stirrups, and standing martingales ; and, 
 famed as they are for horsemanship, 
 would be quite as much at a loss in our 
 seat, as we in their's. Their chief was 
 in his open palkee, smoking his hookah, 
 and made me a courteous salaam. 
 
 I looked back upon them as they 
 moved down the glen a round shield 
 on every back, and their spears held low 
 among the branching trees and felt 
 what the pencil could have done for the 
 picture ; a couple of elephants, some 
 camels, hackrees, tattoo-ponies, women, 
 servants, boys, &c. followed the party. 
 And, after clearing them all, I hurried to 
 my ground ; a village deserted and in 
 ruins. The fires of the last night's camp, 
 and round, the marks of many a larger 
 force, rendered any questioning of the 
 
SIPARRY. 273 
 
 few squalid wretches who remained in 
 the village, otherwise deserted, unne- 
 cessary. 
 
 My people procured milk, grass, and 
 fuel ; and, near a rivulet, my tent when 
 it arrived was pitched for the night. 
 
 I had a short pleasant ride in the 
 morning to Siparry; and a beautiful 
 piece of encamping ground among trees 
 and tombs, looking out on a fine tank. 
 Siparry was a walled town. At the sight 
 of my passport, every thing I could re- 
 quire was sent out ; and the chief, who 
 excused himself from coming out, sent 
 word that he had the rajah's order to 
 send me a small escort of honour. I 
 told him I had a sufficient guard. In the 
 evening, here, as I was strolling near the 
 tank, I met a party of the natives, among 
 them several Brahmins, and one who was 
 inclined to be very insolent. He first 
 asked me whence I came, and whither I 
 
274 INTERVIEW WITH A BRAHMIN. 
 
 was going, courteously enough ; but then 
 bursting out, asked if this was our 
 country ? saying, I suppose you English 
 consider us all your slaves. I told him 
 that he well knew he was a subject of 
 Scindiah's ; that I was passing through 
 with his rajah's dustuk * ; and that I 
 should resent impertinence by represent- 
 ing it to Gualior. He now became 
 alarmed, and after several very ignorant 
 observations, and some vulgar attempts 
 to please, enquired if I would not like to 
 have a nautch f at my tent ; that he 
 would order up the whole set of girls, 
 and hinted at the handsome present some 
 former traveller had made them. I 
 declined their attendance, observing, it 
 was not by debauching their minds in 
 a slumbering, unmanly way, in presiding 
 at low nautches J, that my countrymen 
 
 * Passport. 
 
 f Nautch, a dance performed by native women. 
 J The Indian reader will understand me. No 
 Englishman of sense would hesitate to be present at 
 
ESCORT OF HORSE. 275 
 
 had fought their way over India. This 
 reply drew forth from the groupe of 
 inhabitants a respectful and assenting 
 testimony as to what they knew or had 
 heard of the superior tastes and pursuits 
 of British officers ; as to their courage and 
 skill in war ; and their great knowledge in 
 all things. And, as I withdrew, they all 
 salaamed in a very marked and gratifying 
 manner. 
 
 At the dawn of day a party of twelve 
 apparently picked men, with a leadeiy 
 paraded in front of my tent ; and I was 
 no sooner mounted, than four of them 
 went careering forward. Their leader 
 took his station a little to my right and 
 rear, and the rest of the party grouping 
 up behind me, I rode away in petty 
 
 the nautches given on public occasions of festival 
 and ceremony. They form, in fact, a principal feature 
 in all native entertainments, and are among 'the most 
 ancient customs of the East. 
 
 T 2 
 
BRIGADE OF SCINDIAIl's INFANTRY. 
 
 state ; and to get rid of it and them as 
 soon as possible, indulged their humour 
 by going at a brisk heating rate the 
 whole stage. Nothing can be more flat- 
 tering, in its way, than the sort of pride 
 they seem to feel in escorting you ; and 
 look where you will, their eyes are ever 
 fixed on you, waiting, as it were, the very 
 direction of your glance. 
 
 At Kallarus, I found a brigade of Scin- 
 diah's infantry encamped : and, on one 
 side of the town, lay a hundred Hin- 
 dostanny horse, in our pay, being part of a 
 thousand under the command of a British 
 officer. The Russuldar sent to ask per- 
 mission to wait on me ; saying he had 
 received orders to give me an escort of 
 twenty. As I sat at the door of my 
 tent, I saw a groupe of these horsemen, 
 returning from a scouring excursion after 
 robbers. They wore uniform vests of 
 pale blue, red turbans and sashes, were 
 well mounted and armed, and rode up to 
 
 
FIELD-EXERCISE. 277 
 
 my escort, who were now picketted in a 
 line near me, to ask the news, &c. 
 
 I cannot describe the free manly aspect 
 of these little parties of native horse, as, 
 resting their tall lances on the ground, 
 and patting the curved necks of their 
 horses, they stand in easy converse with 
 each other. 
 
 In the afternoon the corps of infantry 
 had field-exercise by regiments. I walked 
 down to look at them ; but the quarter- 
 guards refused to let me pass. The com- 
 mandant of the corps nearest sent an 
 immediate order to let me approach. He 
 did not, however, come up to me, or 
 speak. He looked like a French drum- 
 major, old style. The corps performed 
 their manual and platoon very steadily 
 and smartly ; wheeled, and marched both 
 in line and column correctly ; but with 
 that knee-bending stamping pace which 
 has been happily resigned in Europe to 
 T 3 
 
278 CAUSES OF RESPECT 
 
 the marches and processions on the boards 
 of a theatre. One of these corps had a 
 neat green European-cut uniform and 
 cap, with black cross-belts and pouches. 
 The other two had large brown quilted 
 poshauks, brown turbans, a broad buff 
 cross-belt, with sword and bayonet, and 
 the old cartridge-box worn round the 
 body. Their camp was regular and 
 clean, each company having a large wide- 
 spreading fly, or pall. Their arm-racks, 
 colour-stands, &c. quite in the European 
 style. When dismissed, at least half of 
 them, in passing, either saluted me with 
 the hand, or in the still more soldier-like 
 way by carrying the firelock. Not one 
 of them shewed any disposition to im- 
 pertinence. 
 
 I had been some time walking from 
 my tent in my light jacket unarmed, 
 before accidentally looking around I saw 
 the three chief men of my little escort a 
 few paces behind me with creeses and 
 
TO BRITISH OFFICERS. 279 
 
 pistols glittering in their belts. I would 
 have sent them back, but they told me, 
 with low salaams, and placing the hand 
 on the breast, they were, while with me, 
 my slaves, and could not leave me, 
 
 I learned by questioning these men, 
 that the uncommon respect of the sol- 
 diery here, and indeed throughout this 
 state, to the British officers, arose, not 
 only from the skill and bravery we had 
 so often shown in opposing them, but 
 from honest fidelity in fulfilling our pecu- 
 niary engagements with such contingents 
 of horse, Hindostanny and Mahratta, as 
 had from time to time been placed under 
 British officers. 
 
 The native commander of a thousand 
 horse makes a little fortune, said one to 
 me, by defrauding the soldiery of half 
 their pay. Give us an English sahib at 
 our head, and we know that we may 
 trust him. Our wants, our wishes, and 
 T 4 
 
280 VISIT FROM A UUSSULDAR. 
 
 our just claims, he makes his own. Nor 
 does he ever hold back for one hour, the 
 soldier's due. 
 
 A fine old Russuldar waited on me 
 in the evening ; and a good deal embar- 
 rassed me, when on my only touching his 
 nuzzur* (a few rupees), he insisted on its 
 being taken. I held it a few minutes in 
 my hand, and then passed it to my ser- 
 vant shaick, Hingham, who stood behind 
 my chair. After explaining to him that 
 I was travelling in light order, and no- 
 thing with me worth offering him, I at 
 last caught up an old sash, and telling 
 him that dull, worn, and valueless as it 
 looked, I prized it as an old fellow-cam- 
 paigner in Europe, begged him to accept 
 it. He wrapped it immediately round 
 his loins with a very pleased expression 
 of countenance. And when I gave him 
 the rukshutf, hobbled out on his battle- 
 
 * Nuzzur, a present. 
 
 f Rukshut, permission to depart. 
 
PROVINCE OF MALWAH* 281 
 
 shattered limb ; and mounted his horse 
 in high exulting glee. 
 
 My shaick told me afterwards, that the 
 nuzzur was a mark of submissive respect ; 
 and that I had highly honoured him by 
 my present. A broker in the loll bazaar 
 at Calcutta would have thought my shaick's 
 share of the compliment the best worth 
 having by far. 
 
 From thence, parting with all my old 
 escort, who drew up in the morning to 
 take leave of me, I pursued my route 
 with a dufFadar and twelve men of the 
 Hindostanny horse I have named above. 
 
 Malwah, the inhabitants of which, 
 though Mahratta subjects, are not Mah 
 rattas, is a very fine province, in an ele- 
 vated region ; the country open ; the 
 land extremely fertile, producing large 
 quantities of dry grain, much cotton 
 and opium, the finest tobacco, and hav- 
 
282 FEATUllES OF MALWAH. 
 
 ing large pastures and numerous herds 
 of cattle. The villages, to speak gene- 
 rally, in spite of Scindiah's sad adminis- 
 tration, have a thriving appearance. 
 Among the features peculiar to these 
 provinces out of our territory, are the 
 far greater number of horses. Brood- 
 mares and colts may be seen in all the 
 pastures. The breed of Malwah, how- 
 ever, is by no means good ; or rather, 
 the race is small, and very inferior in 
 size to that in common use among the 
 better Mahratta cavalry, who have large? 
 bony, strong horses. Another feature 
 in Malwah is the number of old serais. 
 Some of these are in ruins, and have vil- 
 lages built within or around them. The 
 inside of a serai is a peculiar picture. 
 In a square enclosure, with piazzas all 
 round, you see travelling groupes of all 
 descriptions: horses, tattoos*, camels, 
 bullocks ; parties cooking, sleeping, and 
 
 * Tattoo, a common Indian poney. 
 
HALT AT NYA SE11AI. 283 
 
 others smoking their hookahs. The 
 chief, the common soowar*, the fat 
 Brahmin, the merchant, the fakir, the 
 cooly, all under the same piazzas, and 
 distinguished only by the various quali- 
 ties of their clothes, carpets, &c. 
 
 On the 25th of December, I halted at 
 Nya Serai, a village built round, and in 
 the ruins of an old serai. There are, on 
 this route through Malwah, several ruined 
 caravan ser as, which recall the days when 
 the soubhadars of the Deccan travelled 
 thither in pomp from the imperial court ; 
 or, when the armies of Aurupgzebe 
 marched down to destroy the Mahratta 
 forces, then just springing into notice ; 
 since that day possessing themselves of 
 Delhi and Agra ; holding the Mogul a 
 wretched captive ; overthrowing the pa- 
 laces and tombs of his ancestors ; ran- 
 sacking their treasures, and violating the 
 
 * Soowar, a horseman or trooper. 
 
284 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 recesses of the haram ; and now again, 
 in their turn, subjected by us. 
 
 My day at Nya Serai is one of my 
 life, although marked by no peculiar in- 
 cident, not to be forgotten. It is a happy 
 festive day in Old England. All the 
 images and associations connected with 
 it are joyous. Family circles, smiling 
 children, indulged and contented ser- 
 vants, Christmas gifts, holiday fare, and 
 cheerful faces ; and, with the more aged 
 pilgrims in this vale of years, the reflected 
 pleasure from the innocent gaiety of 
 children and dependants ; and a holy, 
 high, and hopeful joy, a deep gratitude 
 for the birth of that Redeemer in whom 
 alone they find rest for their souls. No 
 bell here knolled for church ; no humble 
 voice read to me the glad tidings of 
 peace on earth, goodwill towards men. 
 Yet was this day most blessed to me. 
 The Moslem lay slumbering near my 
 tent ; the lawless Mahratta rode past it ; 
 
REFLECTIONS. 285 
 
 the Hindoo peasants of Malwah were 
 busied in their fields ; a burning sun 
 shone fiercely ; sound, sight, and climate, 
 seemed alike to mock the season I would 
 think of: but, with a pocket-bible in my 
 hand, I felt the emptiness of all fancied 
 situations, means, and ordinances, com- 
 pared to the fulness of God's word ; or, 
 of their poor influence, compared to the 
 power of his holy spirit. I traced back 
 my Christmas days for many years, 
 during all of which I had felt about 
 them only with a common, thoughtless, 
 unmeaning joy. I had celebrated them at 
 home, at sea, in camp ; in Portugal and 
 in Spain, too, had been present at the 
 midnight mass of Christmas eve; in 
 France, had forgotten Frenchmen and 
 captivity in the common conviviality of 
 that marked day ; always had I been in 
 the society of relatives or friends : but 
 yet, in a land, heathen and almost hos- 
 tile, passed one of the happiest days of 
 my whole existence. I saw that the words 
 
286 HINDOSTANNY HORSE 
 
 uttered from heaven to the adoring shep- 
 herds were to the whole earth : and 
 though I grieved to think the sound had 
 not yet reached the dark spot around me, 
 still did the conviction that it would, 
 strike to a heart, not one year before as 
 dark itself: and I felt that, all alone as I 
 stood, my thanksgivings and prayers as- 
 cended to the throne of grace, together 
 with those of the assembled congregations 
 of my native land. 
 
 Pardon me, reader ! Perhaps fully to 
 do so, you should pass one such clay 
 alone in a foreign land. 
 
 At a place called Kutchnar Serai, a 
 very large, noble one of stone, my detach- 
 ment of horse was relieved, from a post 
 several leagues to my right, where a con- 
 tingent of 3000 Mahratta, and 100 Hin- 
 dostanny horse was stationed. These 
 people are paid by Scindiah, but are 
 under the charge of two British officers, 
 
DISBANDED. 287 
 
 to visit whom I received a kind invitation, 
 but could not for want of time. The 
 party who left me were Hindostannees, 
 and heard they were about to return to 
 the Jumna, and be disbanded. They 
 were very much downcast, and said that 
 war had been their pursuit from boy- 
 hood, and what could they do? They 
 added, it must end in their taking service 
 wherever they could get it, or looting* 
 for themselves. I pointed out to the 
 duffadar, that soldiers must take their 
 turn, in peace, of sufferings ; light, com- 
 pared with what they inflict themselves 
 in war. That a man was indeed a poor 
 creature for a soldier who could not 
 buckle himself to a little change of for- 
 tune ; and that, if they rejected the care 
 of pastures or tillage, they would, in the 
 end, be hunted down, and perish disgrace- 
 fully. He bowed his head, with many a 
 grave " such f," " such ;" arid when he 
 
 * Plundering. f True," true." 
 
288 CHANGE OF ESCORT. 
 
 drew up with his party to take leave, 
 looked quite sorrowful. Indeed I had 
 found them all very respectful and atten- 
 tive ; and had, of course, indulged them 
 now and then with two or three sheep 
 for a little feast, and they, perhaps, felt 
 sorry their short march with me was 
 ended. 
 
 The duffadar of the escort which now 
 joined me, was a strikingly handsome, 
 fine-looking man ; the image, in bronze, 
 of a brother officer in England. Indeed, 
 it is very remarkable how often you may, 
 in the people of India, trace in feature a 
 close resemblance to English or Eu- 
 ropean friends. 
 
 From hence I marched, by Mogulkee 
 Serai, to Seronge, a large handsome 
 town, the capital of Ameer Khan's 
 country, though still in Malwah. I had 
 a hoondie, or bill, on a shroff of this 
 place, for a trifling sum ; and dispatched 
 
OF BILLS OF EXCHANGE. 289 
 
 the shaick to find out the man. Two 
 men, of mean appearance, walking on 
 foot, and one, rather elderly, returned 
 with him. The eldest put on his spec- 
 tacles ; read it ; said I should have the 
 money immediately ; and added, that he 
 hastened to me, as, if it had been for se- 
 veral thousand rupees, he must have got 
 me to halt one day, as he should have to 
 send to his other house at Bhilsah. His 
 whole deportment was humble as a me- 
 nial ; yet was he the richest shroff in 
 Seronge ; yet could he have given me a 
 bill on Benares, Delhi, or Surat, for a 
 lack of rupees, without any danger of its 
 being dishonoured. No where do bank- 
 ers seem to have so little open enjoy- 
 ment of their wealth as in India. Yet 
 such is the faithfulness of banking trans- 
 actions here, that you may pass all 
 through India with hoondies on the 
 principal places, without any fear of dis- 
 appointment ; arid the principles of ex- 
 change, gain, loss, &c. are calculated from 
 
 u 
 
290 APFEAftANCE OF SERONGE. 
 
 province to province by experienced 
 travellers with the most scrupulous ex- 
 actness. 
 
 The Aumildar of Seronge, mounted 
 and attended, came to wait on me with a 
 sort of message from the relation and re- 
 presentative of Ameer Khan ; who was 
 about thirty leagues to the northward, 
 with a few followers, not above 3000. 
 
 The look of Seronge, from a hill in 
 the suburbs, is half European ; tiled 
 and slated roofs, houses of two and three 
 stories, and gardens near the river, have 
 a very charming effect. The bazaar was 
 one of the handsomest I had seen, built of 
 fine stone, raised three or four feet from 
 the street, and filled with goods. 
 
 My bivouac here was in a handsome 
 place of tombs. On the plain near the 
 river below me, was a large encampment 
 of Brinjarries : their sacks of corn all 
 
VfSIT FROM PATAN HORSE. 291 
 
 piled in heaps near them ; and all around 
 covering, whitening, and enlivening the 
 whole flat with their numerous and hand- 
 some cattle. 
 
 I saw several natives of rank, or rather 
 / 
 
 in easy circumstances, in the evening. 
 Among them, a fine handsome boy, very 
 young, on a large well-fed, showy grey 
 horse, with the ends of his mane and 
 the tip of his silvery tail dyed red. He 
 came near my tent with the natural 
 curiosity of his age, and also to make a 
 little display, caracolling about in circles, 
 figures, and all sorts of forms, very easily 
 and gracefully. But the generality of 
 the natives being adherents of that bitter, 
 crafty, and cruel enemy of ours in heart, 
 Ameer Khan, I did not think proper to 
 hold any communication with them. 
 
 A strange thing happened to me here. 
 About a dozen fierce-looking Patans, with 
 horses and arms, came and took post 
 u 2 
 
292 DEPARTURE OF THE PATANS, 
 
 near my tent, and clamorously asked to 
 be entertained in my service, and to 
 march with me to the Deccan ; said they 
 were poor and without employ ; that we 
 had cut away their master's means of 
 supporting them ; and, in short, would 
 have forced themselves on me. I sent 
 out my servant and the duffadar to get 
 rid of them, without success ; and, at 
 last, went out and told them in my oad 
 Hindostanny, that I was neither more or 
 less than the chief of one hundred Eng- 
 lish soldiers in the service of my own 
 king, entertained by him, though com- 
 manded by me. That I was travelling 
 across to join my corps ; could not afford 
 the empty pomp of any retainers beyond 
 domestic servants ; and if I could, should 
 despise it ; that the escort I had was 
 large, enough to be useful in guiding me, 
 getting supplies, &c. ; and, commanded 
 by me, in protecting me ; that they made 
 a noise, made my head ache, and wasted 
 their own breath and time, and I desired 
 
PATAN TRAVELLER. 293 
 
 they would leave me : they did so, and 
 in great good humour. 
 
 At my first halting-place after leaving 
 Seronge, a handsome, well-dressed, well- 
 armed, respectable-looking Patan, mount- 
 ed on a small indifferent horse, with a 
 little serving boy on a tattoo, came to 
 my ground, and asked, through my ser- 
 vant, permission to march under my 
 protection to the Deccan. I said, as long 
 as he behaved well, and gave me no 
 trouble, he was at liberty, if he chose, to 
 stay night by night wherever I did. My 
 servant and the duffadar, with whom he 
 seemed to associate familiarly, always 
 paid him great respect ; and his manner 
 and address often led me to think he 
 was a sort of spy*", perhaps of Ameer 
 Khan's, to see what was the object of 
 
 * He accompanied me to Ellichpoor, and then 
 quitted me. I now think that he expected the dis- 
 turbance which was plotted at Nagpour about that 
 period. 
 
 u 3 
 
294 PATAN TRAVELLER. 
 
 my journey ; as the idea of travelling to 
 look about you, never enters the head 
 of a native. Poor fellow ! I used to laugh 
 within myself at times,, as I thought of 
 his sadly provoking errand. In the suite 
 of a man whose delight was in clambering 
 hills, sauntering among temples, tombs, 
 or ruins, walking in woods, or on the 
 banks of rivers, and reading under the 
 shelter of his tent, or of a neighbouring 
 tree. He always shunned either riding 
 or conversing with me in person ; re- 
 maining and coming up with the shaick 
 and my baggage. In the very few con- 
 versations I had with him, I found he had 
 served much, and in different parts of 
 India. He spoke angrily of Runjeet 
 Singh, the Lahore chief; saying, he pur- 
 sued a selfish timid policy, and changed 
 his officers continually ; which was de- 
 claring in pretty plain language, though 
 it evidently escaped from him, that he 
 had no love for the English. 
 
APPROACH TO BHILSAH. 295 
 
 The approach to Bhilsah is pretty. 
 The scenery on the river Betwah, which 
 you ford at a beautiful bend where some 
 small, but very handsome pagodas are 
 built in the stream, with ghauts and 
 flights of steps, and a broad stoney dam, 
 over which the clear waters break and 
 run brawling down, is very romantic. 
 Bhilsah itself is a fine walled town ; the 
 neighbourhood pretty and fertile. It 
 produces the finest tobacco in all India. 
 I encamped in a very sweet spot. The 
 soowarree of a Mahratta chief going on 
 some visit to a place of religious worship^ 
 with horsemen and footmen, elephants, 
 palkees with women, &c., passed me 
 to-day. 
 
 In the evening I walked out and 
 climbed a lofty rock about half a mile to 
 the eastward of the town, on which is 
 also a durgah to the memory of a Maho- 
 metan saint. There are steps cut in the 
 rock ; and here and there gateways and 
 u 4 
 
296 FRANTIC FEMALE DEVOTEE. 
 
 small walls. On the top all is bare and 
 naked, but would make, and has evidently 
 been used as a point of defence. The 
 deserted huts of a large irregular bivouac 
 still lie between its shelter and that of 
 the town. As I stood gazing round me, 
 now looking out on the noble and ex- 
 tensive scene below, now examining the 
 durgah, there burst on me a figure which 
 quite startled me. From the cottage I 
 had remarked, there came forth an old 
 woman, in form and feature horrible ; 
 and with angry wild gestures in a hoarse 
 voice bade me begone. Her lean shrivelled 
 arms, loose breasts, haggard features, and 
 grey dishevelled hair, gave her an appear- 
 ance absolutely horrible. I affected first 
 to disregard, and then soften her ; neither 
 would do. She seemed half-frantic, and 
 said many things in a loud hurried unin- 
 telligible tone of voice. I left the spot 
 quite with a sinking of the heart. Her 
 age, her sex, forbade me to use violence 
 of any sort which might defend me ; 
 
LOSE MY WAY. . 297 
 
 and mad she seemed with hate, the off- 
 spring of superstition, or of wrong, I 
 could not tell which. She evidently 
 dressed the durgah with flowers, and 
 dwelt there as its guardian : widowed, 
 childless, or destitute, or all she might 
 have become through war. Here, where 
 six hundred years ago the crescent was 
 planted on the field of bloody triumph ; 
 here, where some demon saint, who with 
 Koran and creese had marched among 
 the slaughtering bands, rested in the 
 tomb ; here had she fitly chosen such 
 sad solitude as the unsubdued revengeful 
 spirit seeks, but not for soothing. Here 
 sits and broods pitiless vengeance ; and 
 finds the spot, all lonely as it is, thick 
 peopled with the furies preying on her 
 heart. 
 
 I walked slowly and thoughtfully home- 
 wards ; and being inattentive, lost my 
 way : the darkness came quick upon me. 
 The scene I had just left, my being 
 
298 REMONSTRANCES OF MY DUFFADAR. 
 
 alone, unarmed, and in a strange place 
 where many a heart was bitterly hostile, 
 alarmed me. Every man I met was 
 armed ; but these were in motion re- 
 turning from some distance, and could 
 give me no information : some replying 
 surlily ; some asking a curious question. 
 At last I saw a fire with two fellows 
 cooking at it ; and their swords, shields, 
 and matchlocks by their side. Without 
 being previously agreed I knew these 
 fellows can never trust each other ; and 
 that they must have seen my tents before 
 sunset. So hurrying up, I asked in a 
 commanding tone the way to them ; and 
 enquired if they had seen any of my 
 attendants looking for me. One pointed 
 out the direction ; the other looked up 
 surlily, and was silent. I found my people 
 alarmed; my duffadar said respectfully 
 it was very wrong and unbecoming my 
 rank to stir out alone. I told him in my 
 country the king would take an evening 
 walk alone ; at which he appeared much 
 18 
 
RAHSEIN. 299 
 
 surprised, said the English were strange 
 people ; but sensibly added, the English 
 custom has nothing to do here ; you are 
 not in your own country now, but in ours. 
 
 At Bhilsah two confidential hircarrahs* 
 of a British officer in charge of a large 
 body of irregular horse came to me from 
 his camp, near one hundred miles to the 
 north of my route, bringing me an ex- 
 ceeding kind letter from that gentleman, 
 with another enclosed for a friend of his 
 at Husseinabad. 
 
 He stated his regret that his force was 
 at that time so far from its ordinary 
 station ; and had given directions he said 
 to his hircarrahs, who were well acquaint- 
 ed with the most direct road to Hussein- 
 abad, to accompany me thither. 
 
 Rahsein is a hill-fort with a town be- 
 
 * Messengers. 
 
300 ROUTE TO HUSSEINABAD. 
 
 low ; or, I should rather say, it is a high 
 mountain with a spacious top, encircled 
 with a turretted wall of stone. 
 
 From hence to Husseinabad, a distance 
 of fifty-five miles, the country is moun- 
 tainous and woody, and all its features 
 are wild and savage, but exceedingly pic- 
 turesque and romantic. On the route I 
 took there was only one inhabited village 
 the whole way ; the spots named for 
 halting-places were in small valleys, green 
 with young corn, and under cultivation, 
 but neglected sadly. A few straw huts, 
 blackened and beat down by rain, with 
 rude and broken implements of hu&- 
 bandry lying about, and a few of those 
 round hardened threshing-floors, tell the 
 traveller that some wandering families, 
 of a rude unsettled people, visit these 
 vales at sowing time and harvest ; and 
 labour indolently at the necessary, but 
 despised, task of the peaceful ryot. It is 
 here that, in such seasons, you would see 
 
PINDARRIES. 301 
 
 the families of those ferocious and deso- 
 lating bands, the lawless Pindarries. 
 Here, collecting under their different 
 chiefs, in spots like these, scattered 
 through a tract of country running for 
 nearly a hundred miles along the line of 
 the Nerbuddah, and about fifty miles in 
 depth to the northward, and here and 
 there to the southward also, they leave 
 to the aged, the women, and the children, 
 the hated toils of husbandry, and, mount- 
 ed on small, hardy, coarse-looking horses, 
 with innumerable led ones for carrying 
 plunder, they sally forth through the 
 wild defiles of this mountainous region ; 
 cross the Nerbuddah simultaneously at 
 different points ; and, at length, unite 
 under some head chieftain, on the plains 
 of the Deccan, to the amount of ten, 
 twenty, or even thirty thousand; and 
 carry fire, sword, and rapine to town, vil- 
 lage, crowded fairs, and wealthy bazaars, 
 all over the country, under the guidance 
 of their leader. They are only armed 
 
302 DEBAUCHERY OF THE PINDARRTES. 
 
 for murder ; only mounted for travelling ; 
 which they do with a persevering and 
 continuing rapidity almost incredible ; 
 so that regular troops cannot act effect- 
 ually against them.* They march eight, 
 and halt four hours ; and keep, this up 
 for weeks, giving their horses stimulating 
 and medicated food. 
 
 The wealth thus gained is either 
 squandered in the lowest dissipation, 
 during their seasons of relaxation, when, 
 concealing their arms and turning out 
 their cattle to pasture, they visit indivi- 
 dually large debauched cities and market 
 
 * Although a regular army would have little 
 chance of overtaking or of bringing to action these 
 numerous hordes of predatory horse, they were, dur- 
 ing the late campaign of the Marquis of Hastings, de- 
 stroyed by the combined movements of many and 
 widely-separated divisions of the British-Indian ar- 
 mies, by whom some of their detachments were 
 caught and cut up ; others scattered and dispersed ; 
 and their force so completely broken, that they have 
 not since re-appeared as a large body. 
 
DISPERSION OF THEM. 303 
 
 towns ; or else is spent in feasting and 
 drinking, in small sequestered camps ; 
 or, by a few, is expended in mounting 
 and equipping themselves to serve in the 
 Mahratta or Deccanny cavalry, under na- 
 tive princes. 
 
 They have happily been put down 
 now for a time ; and the native princes 
 who protected them, either punished or 
 deprived of the power of any longer har- 
 bouring them, as the great valley of the 
 Nerbuddah is now in our possession ; 
 Asseerghur garrisoned by us ; a large 
 force at Husseinabad ; a cantonment at 
 Mhow, in the territorry of Holkar ; and 
 large bodies of irregular cavalry in the 
 territories of Scindiah, under our or- 
 ders, and commanded by British officers; 
 But such they were, and in the very 
 country through which I passed, they 
 long found a safe harbour with the con- 
 nivance of Scindiah. The fate of Seetoo, 
 the most celebrated chieftain among 
 
304 CHIEFTAIN KILLED BY A TIGER. 
 
 them, who led thirty thousand Pindarries 
 to the plunder of the Deccan, who was 
 supported by and closely in the interest 
 of Appah Sahib, deserves mention. He 
 escaped from the fortress of Asseerghur, 
 a few days before our troops invested it. 
 Without followers, without friends, he 
 crossed the Nerbuddah, and directed his 
 flight northwards. A few days after- 
 wards, his horse was found wandering 
 without a rider ; and, on the border of the 
 jungle, near some bye-road, the corpse of 
 Seetoo, evidently killed and preyed upon 
 by a tiger, and since torn by jackalls. 
 His arms, so often bathed in the blood 
 of others, had lain useless by his side, 
 and were stained with his own. A few 
 jewels and money, provided for his flight, 
 were in his scrip. They would not bribe 
 the fierce and savage lord of these wilds 
 from his foul meal. Papers and pass- 
 ports, framed and prepared with art to 
 ensure safe conduct through populous 
 and peaceful districts, had failed him 
 
SCENERY ON THE MARCH. 305 
 
 here ; where, under the fangs of an irre- 
 sistible and powerful wild beast, only 
 less blood-thirsty and cruel than himself, 
 he perished, as hopelessly as the trem- 
 bling female, " or tottering infant, under 
 his lifted spear. 
 
 I enjoyed my march through these 
 wilds greatly. Now you wound through 
 narrow and deeply-wooded glens ; now 
 ascended ghauts, or went down the 
 mouths of passes ; now Skirted the foot 
 of a mountain ; now crossed a small plain 
 covered with the tall jungled-grass from 
 which, roused by your horse tramp, the 
 neelgae looked upon you ; then flying 
 with active bound, or pausing doubtful 
 trot, joined the more distant herd. You 
 continually cross clear sparkling rivulets, 
 with rocky or pebbly beds ; and you hear 
 the voice of waters among all the woody 
 hills around you. There was a sort of 
 thrill too at knowing these jungles were 
 filled with all the ferocious beasts known 
 
306 BEASTS OF PREY. 
 
 in India, (except elephants, which are not 
 found here ;) and at night, in hearing 
 their wild roars and cries. 
 
 I saw, one morning, on the side of a 
 hill, about 500 yards from me, in an 
 open glade near the summit, a lioness 
 pass along, and my guide said there were 
 many in these jungles. 
 
 The ravages made by the tigers on the 
 poor native travellers, such as hircarrahs 
 or Dawk carriers, on these roads are 
 dreadful. At particular stations in the 
 jungles are small guard-houses, contain- 
 ing a few persons armed, whose principal 
 duty is to fire and burn the grass and 
 jungle for a few yards on each side of the 
 road; and this duty they very greatly 
 and shamefully neglect. 
 
 To return to my lioness : I must ex- 
 cuse myself for not being able to describe 
 its hunt, defence, death, &c., and inform 
 
HOSHUNGABAD. 307 
 
 my reader, that to penetrate the imper- 
 vious and pathless jungle over one open 
 rocky spot which she passed, would have 
 been, for the keenest and boldest sports- 
 man (I am neither), altogether impossible. 
 
 At Hoshungabad, I was cordially and 
 kindly entertained by the commanding 
 officer of one of the Bengal regiments of 
 native infantry. Their force consisted 
 of a regular division of infantry and artil- 
 lery, with two corps of cavalry. Having 
 been nearly two years occasionally sta- 
 tioned there, they have built a few sub- 
 stantial houses ; and almost all the 
 officers have small temporary bungalows 
 and gardens close to their tents. 
 
 The camp style of the Bengal army is 
 certainly superior to that of the coast in 
 some things. They have larger and finer 
 tents ; more servants ; the hookah is more 
 used ; they have more palanquins. And 
 you will see, occasionally, a senior regi- 
 x 2 
 
308 BENGAL ARMY. 
 
 mental officer with a baggage elephant. 
 Camels, when they move in Hindostan, 
 all ranks invariably have ; but the coun- 
 try, on the Nerbuddah, had proved so 
 fatal to them, that this force, with the 
 exception of one corps of horse just come 
 down from Rajpootana, and the commis- 
 sariat and artillery, had all bullock and 
 buffalo transport : and their bullocks 
 were so inferior to those met with on 
 the Madras side of the country, that on 
 a long march they would, I should think, 
 have found themselves sadly encumbered 
 with their large tents, and the vast quan- 
 tity of baggage. Their infantry regiments 
 looked remarkably well under arms. I 
 did not see their artillery or cavalry out. 
 But they admit, themselves, that the 
 horse-artillery of the Madras army is a 
 very superior corps, and has very su- 
 perior advantages to theirs. From those 
 I saw, I should think the Bengal cavalry 
 not quite so fine as that of the Madras 
 establishment. 
 
CAPTAIN SPARKE'S DETACHMENT. 309 
 
 From hence, I marched through jun- 
 gles and hills to the most advanced can- 
 tonment of the Hoshungabad force at 
 Tikaree, in the Baitool valley, a spot 
 very fatal the year before to a fine de- 
 tachment under poor Captain Sparkes, 
 which was surprised and cut to pieces by 
 an overwhelming force of Arabs. A 
 very few miles from Husseinabad on this 
 route, the country re-assumes the savage 
 romantic aspect of that I described on 
 the northern bank of the Nerbuddah. 
 The distance to Tikaree is seventy-six 
 miles. With the exception of the town, 
 or village of Shahpoor, you find nothing 
 but those small forest-guard stations, 
 which I have described. Few, very few 
 people are met in these wilds. Now and 
 then you meet two or three Bheels. They 
 live by the chace and by rapine ; on the 
 roads they never show themselves armed ; 
 the bow and arrow and javelin, are their 
 weapons; but I never saw any remarkable 
 for size or strength. They are a short 
 x 3 
 
310 DESCRIPTION OF THE BHEELS. 
 
 thick-set people, with hideous counte- 
 nances, flat noses, and thick lips, but far 
 less handsome and finely formed men 
 than the Africans ; neither have they the 
 very dark complexions, and that fine 
 clear shining black; their hair is straight; 
 they look stupid, to speak of them as 
 men, but yet have a quick little piercing- 
 eye, such as would discern the far-off 
 deer, the deep-swimming fish, the lofty 
 bird's nest, or the wild bee-hive. Their 
 women are even more hideous than the 
 men ; these you meet more frequently, 
 and in larger groupes, carrying bundles 
 of wood for sale. The favourite haunts 
 of this half-barbarous people, are in the 
 deepest and most unknown recesses of 
 the jungles. They often plunder and 
 murder on the roads ; and seemed to 
 hold no fellowship with any other race. 
 They are supposed to be the aborigines 
 of the province of Guzerat. 
 
 At Tikaree, I passed a day with the 
 
SAGACITY OF THE ELEPHANT. 311 
 
 regiment cantoned there; and having 
 met with a violent hurt from the rearing 
 and falling back of my horse, was glad 
 to accept the kind offer of the colonel 
 commanding, who was going to march a 
 few stages on my route with a body of 
 infantry and some horse, to take a seat 
 for those stages in his howdah. 
 
 This gentleman was a very great 
 sportsman, and beat the country right 
 and left as he went along. His elephant, 
 a large female, uncommonly well trained, 
 perfectly astonished me by her sagacity. 
 It is generally known, that this noble 
 animal beats jungle for large game : and, 
 although we met with none, still I had 
 the opportunity of seeing into how thick, 
 and apparently impervious jungle it will 
 force its way. But it was the perfect 
 dog-like manner in which she put up 
 small game that surprised me ; carefully 
 putting up from the low tufted grass in 
 which they nestle, those smallest of game 
 
 x 4 
 
312 MARAUDING PARTY. 
 
 birds v the quail. My companion killed 
 from his howdah in this manner, without 
 dogs, both hares and black partridge, a 
 few yards only from the road-side. With 
 a small escort of sepoys for my baggage, 
 and four horsemen with myself, I left 
 him at the village of Satnair to pursue 
 my route by the jungle of Seelmindah, 
 and over the mountains to Ellichpoor. 
 Not fourteen days before I passed this 
 road, it had been visited by Shaick 
 Dullah, a broken down Pindarrie chief, 
 who still levies contributions on a few 
 defenceless villagers, and plunders tra- 
 vellers at the head of a small body of 
 vagabond horse, about 100 in number. 
 We could hear nothing of him. The 
 colonel offered me a larger escort, as he 
 said the motions of these men could 
 never be followed ; they doubled about, 
 and that I might, perhaps, fall in with 
 him. However, the " cantabit vacuus" 
 was my motto ; and I moreover well 
 knew, it would not be the shaick's object 
 5 
 
POPULATION OF A VILLAGE. 313 
 
 to rouse the British, by an act of violence 
 on an officer, to an active and persevering 
 pursuit of him. 
 
 My road was very beautiful ; wood, 
 hill, rock, water, and all the materials of 
 picturesque scenery abounding. 
 
 In a particularly romantic pass, I met 
 the entire population of a village return- 
 ing to the valley of the Nerbuddah ; from 
 whence they had been driven during the 
 late war : and carrying with them the 
 oxen, the implements of husbandry, the 
 few household utensils and valuables they 
 had been able, when flying, to save from 
 the spoiler. 
 
 I felt my heart throb with pleasure as 
 I looked on these groupes of all ages, and 
 both sexes; all with countenances lighted 
 up with joy at the prospect of soon gain- 
 ing the threshing-floor and wells of their 
 forefathers. They salaamed to me with 
 
314 CITY OF ELLICHPOOR. 
 
 an air that said, the protection and se- 
 curity of their lives and properties they 
 were about cheerfully to confide to us. 
 
 As I descended into the plain, about 
 fifteen miles from Ellichpoor, I found a 
 small body of the Nawab's horse en- 
 camped to protect the rich villages on 
 his frontier from the troublesome shaick. 
 I passed one night at the wealthy and 
 pretty village of Curry Gaum ; not far 
 from my tent door was a garden and 
 well, and near me a field richly carpeted 
 with poppies. 
 
 Ellichpoor is a province held under 
 the Nizam, by aNawab tributary to him. 
 The city is handsome, and was formerly 
 the capital of all Berar. It is surrounded 
 by a handsome wall. The palace is in 
 the city. The bazaars spacious, and well 
 supplied ; and the suburbs have a few 
 tombs and gardens kept up in tolerable 
 good order, and giving a pretty effect to 
 
HUNTING CHEETA OR LEOPARD. 315 
 
 the scenery of the neighbourhood. Ele- 
 phants and a few natives well dressed 
 and mounted, proclaim it the seat of a 
 petty native court; while a brigade of 
 sepoys in cantonment, clothed, armed, 
 and appointed like our own, and com- 
 manded by British officers, show that our 
 influence here is paramount. 
 
 I was most kindly entertained by the 
 British officers in the Nizam's service. 
 They showed me all considered worth 
 seeing; but there was really nothing 
 which, coming from Hindostan, struck 
 me, except that in the bazaar here, as all 
 over the Deccan, you find English broad 
 cloths and hardware, of which, among 
 such as can afford them, there is a great 
 consumption. I saw here several of 
 those hunting cheetas or leopards, merely 
 hooded and tied up under an open shed 
 in the street. For the chace, they are 
 taken out on a car ; brought near a herd 
 of deer ; and then being unhooded, and 
 
316 INVITATION FHOM THE NAWAB. 
 
 slipped at them, they fix on one and 
 fasten it down till it is taken from them. 
 If they miss their spring, they never 
 pursue, but slink back to their keepers. 
 They are very beautiful creatures. 
 
 The Nawab sent many curious en- 
 quiries to the officer commanding the 
 troops, about my name, journey, object, 
 rank, &c. He sent one of the chief 
 officers of his durbar to en quire if I would 
 receive the visit of his son, (a man of 
 thirty, a soi-disant general, a sort of silly 
 play-at-Englishman* kind of Mussulman), 
 and also begged I would wait on him at 
 durbar in the evening, and partake of 
 an entertainment at his son's. All this 
 civility I declined. I knew they were 
 thoroughly mistaking my importance, the 
 object of my journey, &c. I felt that I 
 could not converse in Hindostanny, as it 
 is desirable that every English officer 
 should do, in the presence of natives of 
 any rank, that is, without blunders and 
 
MARCH TO HINGOLEE. 317 
 
 vulgarisms. And I felt no want of a 
 present ; and not one spark of curiosity 
 to see a party of Anglo-Mahometans 
 drinking cherry-brandy and playing the 
 fool. Could I have seen the old Nawab 
 alone, and his durbar, I had gone per- 
 haps ; but of the son and his party, I had 
 before heard what determined me not to 
 go near them. My conduct rather con- 
 firmed their error about me ; and when, 
 on sending back my camels to Agra, by 
 my escort from the Bengal army, I found 
 I could not either hire or purchase others 
 there, the Nawab, to whom I had 
 brought a letter of introduction from 
 Gualior, lent me camels to Hingolee ; 
 and not suffering me to depart with a 
 couple of horsemen as I wished, sent 
 twelve, and a duffadar, evidently chosen 
 men, with a view to compliment me. 
 
 I marched in eight days to Hingolee. 
 My halting places were in general large 
 villages, wearing marks of decay and de- 
 
318 MONGROLE. 
 
 sertion as compared to their former num- 
 ber of inhabitants. My route lay entirely 
 through the Nizam's territory ; perhaps 
 in no part of India are the subjects more 
 oppressed, the collections worse man- 
 aged, or the revenue so bad. Those who 
 hold jaghires under the Nizam, squeeze 
 the ryot ; and finally ruin, or driving 
 him away, impoverish their own posses- 
 sions. Those natives who collect for 
 the Nizam, rob the people and defraud 
 him. And many chiefs who reside on 
 their land resist the collection ; and 
 make it a great expence to this wretched 
 government. 
 
 At the large village of Mongrole, I 
 found a camp of about two hundred ir- 
 regular horse, with tents, elephants, &c., 
 and the establishment of a native col- 
 lector travelling on the performance of 
 his tyrannical duties. In this town there 
 is the tomb of some famous Mahometan 
 saint, It stands on an eminence just 
 
TOMB OF A MAHOMETAN SAINT. 319 
 
 above the Caravan Serai, through which 
 you go to it ; the steps leading up to it 
 were lined by lazy insolent-looking dis- 
 gusting beggars : and the piazzas and 
 square of the Caravan Serai were filled 
 with travellers of all ranks. On a heap 
 of earth in the open air I saw a man of 
 about fifty, with a woman of the same age 
 near him, sleeping. He was a wayfaring 
 man ; and their dress showed they were 
 very poor, though evidently not mendi- 
 cants. I touched him on the shoulder 
 gently, and wakening him offered him a 
 rupee : he looked surprised and not of- 
 fended ; but at once civilly and quietly 
 declined it : I was humbled as I walked 
 away, almost to tears, by this salutary 
 lesson. O ! spirit of contented industry i 
 how proud, how virtuously proud, may 
 oe your rich possessor: I felt how low 
 beneath him, how deservedly low I stood. 
 How few, how easily supplied, were this 
 man's wants. He was a cultivator, I saw, 
 and a Mahometan. There are in these 
 
320 BASSIM. - HINGOLEE. 
 
 territories many Mussulmans, who are 
 settled in farms as ryots, a life in general 
 throughout India resigned to the Hin- 
 doos. My next stage from Mongrole 
 was Bassim, a large Hindoo town, having 
 a temple of some note, and a sacred tank. 
 My road lay over a fine elevated plain ; 
 and I met a party of horse. It is a fine 
 sight to see the vicious horses of two 
 parties meeting in this country; recon- 
 noitring each other as they come up 
 with ears erect, and snort, and neigh : 
 and their riders always ready for display, 
 if their horses have a leg to stand on, 
 reining them up, and putting them on 
 their mettle. 
 
 At Hingolee, the cantonment of a very 
 fine brigade in the Nizam's service, com- 
 manded by British officers, and many of 
 the men composing which have been 
 enlisted in Hindostan and brought down 
 to the Deccan, I passed four delightful 
 days. I met a young officer I had served 
 
MEETING WITH A SCHOOLFELLOW. 321 
 
 with before ; but I met, reader, a school- 
 fellow, a class-fellow, one whom I had 
 not seen from boyhood, since the day 
 when we played together in the meadows 
 of Winchester college, climbed Catherine 
 Hill, ran the labyrinth there, or stole 
 down the banks of the Itchin for a feast 
 of fruit and milk at the sweet village of 
 Twyford. Oh ! ho\^ very pleasing it is 
 to the soul to have the memory of our 
 schoolboy days awakened ; to hear names, 
 and tales, and picture scenes, and boys, 
 now men, and scattered over the world. 
 Thoughts which have slept for many 
 long dark years, start at some natural 
 touch : and you live again your school- 
 boy years. 
 
 He had early found in India the only 
 blessed stay for the heart and mind ; and 
 had trod the walk of the Christian's faith 
 and hope for ten long years ; had seen 
 much hard service as a soldier ; and had 
 
322 ROUTE OF HYDERABAD. 
 
 been happily and deservedly distinguished 
 by a valuable appointment here. 
 
 The day I left him I passed at a small 
 beautiful village filled with ruined pago- 
 das ; encamped on a shady verdant spot 
 beside a pretty peaceful tank ; and busy 
 were my thoughts. 
 
 I crossed the Godavery at Kair, and 
 took the route of Hyderabad. Kair is a 
 handsome town, walled, and surrounded 
 with very beautiful gardens. At a place 
 called Oudghyr, four stages further, I 
 halted for a day. A spacious tank, a 
 handsome cypress-garden, tombs, &c. gave 
 great beauty to the scenery : and I met 
 two fine young men, who passed the day 
 with me, and gave me news of my corps. 
 From Hingolee, ^is the weather was get- 
 ting hot, I sent on my servants and party 
 the night before, and followed at an early 
 hour in the morning, to breakfast. My 
 servant, acquainted with my taste, gene- 
 
BEEDER. TOMB OF AMEER BEREED. 323 
 
 rally chose very pretty spots. A well, a 
 tree, a ruin, or a tomb, became my friend 
 for the day ; and many a tranquil spot 
 and happy hour can I look back upon 
 during this route. 
 
 About two leagues before you reach 
 the city of Beeder, you ascend a fine 
 table-land. The approach to it is very 
 noble. There are some fine princely- 
 looking tombs : and the dark embattled 
 walls surrounding the city have a warlike 
 and magnificent aspect. They have seen 
 sultans and warriors before them, Beeder 
 was one of the five Deccanny kingdoms ; 
 was the seat of the Bhamenee dynasty of 
 sovereigns, and of two later. The tomb 
 of the ambitious and successful Ameer 
 Bereed, the founder of one in 1518, is 
 one of the most beautiful in its pro- 
 portions, and, for its materials, in the 
 tastefulness of its decorations, that I have 
 seen in India. The tesselated floor \ the 
 beautiful colours, and form of the tiles 
 Y 2 
 
324 DESCRIPTION OF BEEDER. 
 
 within the dome ; the fine execution of 
 the inscriptions from the Koran, are 
 much to be admired. The blue pigeons, 
 sacred with the Mahometans, fly securely 
 about from dome to dome, and find 
 nestling-places over the body of many a 
 stern vindictive soldier. There are seve- 
 ral tombs and ruins of mosques on all 
 sides. The walls of the city are six miles 
 in circumference ; they have many round 
 towers ; a citadel within, and some hand- 
 some decaying palaces. A dry ditch, cut 
 in the solid rock, runs round the whole. 
 To the east side, the walls run down un- 
 dulating with, and taking the form of the 
 ground, which, on all the other sides, is 
 level plain. But here, just opposite the 
 fort, is a mount, not very lofty, but com- 
 manding a noble and extensive view. 
 There is one old, large, and beautiful 
 banyan on it, which was probably planted 
 long before this city was founded. I saw 
 in the evening a Moorish gentleman 
 riding. To show off before me, he rode 
 
COSTUME OF THE SEIKS. 325 
 
 at speed, going through that beautiful 
 motion of their attack and defence in pur- 
 suit and flight, when, stooping below the 
 horse's neck on one side, they keep turn- 
 ing the eye and sword rapidly before and 
 behind alternately. You often meet 
 these Moors, too, with hawks on the 
 wrist ; for of this diversion they are pas- 
 sionately fond. 
 
 In my march forward, at a place called 
 Sunjum, where there was a sort of fair, 
 I saw a party of Seiks. They were in- 
 fantry, armed with swords, creeses, and 
 matchlocks ; and carrying a curious mis- 
 sile weapon like a quoit*, but lighter, 
 and with sharp edges. These they whirl 
 round the finger, and throw with uner- 
 ring and fatal precision, to the forehead 
 of an opponent. I hardly ever saw 
 any where men more graceful, strong, 
 and well made. Their complexions were 
 
 * It is rather, if I may so term it, a circular blade. 
 Y 3 
 
326 COSTUME OF THE SEIKS. 
 
 a fair olive. They wore beards curling 
 round the chin. Their turbans small 
 and high, and peculiar in form. The 
 loin-cloth wrapped close under the fork, 
 leaving the limb entirely unincumbered, 
 save by a light handsome sandal. Their 
 women were handsome, with fine forms, 
 and their robes much loaded with orna- 
 ment. Some of them told me they were 
 now in the service of Chunder Loll, the 
 prime minister of the Nizam ; that in the 
 Nizam's dominions two or three thousand 
 were generally entertained : but two or 
 three of them told me they had served 
 in the last war in the very north of Hin- 
 dostan against the forces of Candahar. 
 At sunset, they assembled round the 
 oldest, a venerable-looking man, who 
 wore a long dark blue robe, and sung a 
 hymn. He also repeated some form of 
 prayer. 
 
 Four more stages brought me to Hy- 
 
ARRIVAL AT HYDERABAD. 327 
 
 derabad. I rode past the tombs, and 
 under the famed fortress of Golcondah, 
 which stands frowning on a rocky conical 
 hill. But, familiar with such objects, I 
 will not pause to describe what I did not 
 examine ; for the fort you are not per- 
 mitted to approach ; and the tombs, in- 
 ferior even to those of Beeder, and more- 
 over disfigured by whitewash, did not 
 interest me. Skirting the suburbs of the 
 eity of Hyderabad, I rode along the 
 bund of a large and noble tank to the 
 cantonment, which lies at a considerable 
 distance from the city walls. 
 
 I passed only four days in the canton- 
 ment ; and never once entered the city. 
 The view of it, as you descend from the 
 road dn the bund, is certainly handsome. 
 The only building, however, worth nam- 
 ing is the Mecca mosque, built of stone, 
 in a fine free style of architecture, with 
 proud towering minars. The city is 
 Y 4 
 
328 BRITISH INFLUENCE THERE. 
 
 walled, and about four miles in length, 
 It contains more wealthy Mahometans 
 than any place in the centre or south of 
 India. The Nizam's territories are large. 
 There are numerous Jaghirdars holding 
 lands under him : his court and capital 
 contain noblemen, who are soldiers or 
 courtiers. And there are, of course, 
 some wealthy merchants. But, although 
 it is said that many of the old forms and 
 ceremonies of the Mogul courts are kept 
 up by the Nizam, the nobles of Hyder- 
 abad, both in their dress and in the fur- 
 niture of their houses, use articles of 
 English manufacture ; and yield in their 
 habits and customs to those least credit- 
 able to us. They are expensive and pro- 
 fligate ; distressed and oppressive. The 
 Nizam himself is an imbecile ; his minis- 
 ter accounted able, and said to be devoted 
 to us. Our influence does certainly ap- 
 pear in the politics of his durbar, in the 
 formation and employment of his military 
 
BRITISH RESIDENCY. 329 
 
 establishments ; but, alas ! extends not 
 to those points which materially affect 
 the well-being and happiness of his sub- 
 jects. It is a wretched government; a 
 disordered miserable country ; and the 
 nature of our present relation to it almost 
 absurd. The state of these dominions 
 reflecting greatly on our character as the 
 rulers of India. 
 
 We have a fine building here for a re- 
 sidency, but not in the best taste. I re- 
 ceived civility from the resident, in the 
 way of invitations to stay there, &c. which 
 I declined ; but passed one evening at the 
 residency, at a ball. 
 
 Through him I might have been gra- 
 tified with seeing something of the city, 
 and the court, or the ministers ; but only 
 through him. And as a visit here is con- 
 sidered as begging a present, he is very 
 properly sparing in the exercise of his 
 
330 ENGLISH MERCHANT. 
 
 patronage. My object would have been 
 far different in seeking that gratification. 
 And, I confess, as I had made a very 
 long and arduous journey across central 
 India, I had expected that some offer 
 would have been made to facilitate the 
 object of my wishes here, as elsewhere. 
 But, no ! 
 
 I passed one morning, and took tiffin 
 with a famous English merchant, who 
 holds a singular sort of durbar every 
 morning, at which you may see shroffs 
 and merchants, officers and nobles, com- 
 ing to beg, borrow, lend, or transact bu- 
 siness ; all which is done according to 
 the native customs. These Mr. P. ob- 
 serves in every thing connected with his 
 establishment ; even when alone, to the 
 sitting on the floor to a dinner served 
 in their fashion ; reading the Arabian 
 Nights with his Moorish wives ; and (de 
 gustibus non est disputandwri) listening 
 
HIS POPULARITY. 331 
 
 with pleasure to the musical sounds of the 
 native tom-tom.* 
 
 He is a man of uncommon talent and 
 great information, very popular among 
 the natives of course, and with the British 
 also, for his liberality, ready and obliging 
 politeness, and unbounded hospitality to 
 all : to the poor also he is very charitable. 
 The choice of an eastern mode of life is 
 with him not altogether unnatural. He 
 was born of a native mother, a female of 
 Delhi, of good descent. He was sent to 
 England as a boy for education, re- 
 turned early to this country, and long 
 commanded a large body of horse in the 
 Deccan under native chiefs. To me he 
 was very civil ; and had it not been my 
 last day, I am sure through him I should 
 have procured materials for a few more 
 pages. 
 
 * Tom-tom, a drum usually beat with the hand. 
 
332 DEPARTURE FROM HYDERABAD. 
 
 I took leave of my cordial host in the 
 cantonment, and marched rapidly for 
 Bangalore. There are some beautiful 
 spots on the route. In crossing the Kist- 
 nah you are ferried over in rude circular 
 baskets covered with hides. Such are 
 mentioned in the wars of Alexander, and 
 such were doubtless used in the north of 
 India by Macedonian soldiers. It was 
 early in the month of March that I once 
 more saw the waters of the Toombudra, 
 near the pretty town of Kurnool; those 
 waters on which I had looked with such 
 deep interest, as I sat only one year be- 
 fore among the ruins of Bijanagur. And 
 after a short march further, I for the 
 second time encamped under the armed 
 and rocky hill of Gootty. 
 
 And now, Deader, farewell 5 more, 
 much more could I add. Very hastily 
 and in a frame of mind not suited to 
 this style, have I written all the latter 
 
CONCLUSION. 333 
 
 part of this hurried sketch. The friend, 
 who a few weeks ago first urged me to 
 this weak attempt, and who has watched 
 the growing picture, as day after day, at 
 broken intervals, my awakened recollec- 
 tions were thrown into it, with all a 
 friend's anxious partiality ; embarks this 
 evening for dear old England, and carries 
 this letter for you. 
 
 It has not been the vanity of playing 
 author, which has induced me to consent 
 that this should be offered to the press. 
 I am very sensible of its trifling, senti- 
 mental, unimportant character. But I 
 write for men like myself; and if a 
 scholar should look on it by accident as 
 he sat alone over the fire in a solitary 
 inn, he might innocently beguile an hour 
 over these unlearned pages ; and go per- 
 haps to his bed, after wandering with me 
 among haughty followers of Mahomet, 
 and idolatrous Hindoos, more grateful to 
 
334 CONCLUSION. 
 
 his Father in heaven, for having cast his 
 happier lot in a land, where, under the 
 cross of Christ, he may read his interest 
 in, the precious promises of the Gospel ; 
 and mark how the benign influence of 
 Christianity softens and adorns the cha- 
 racter of the English people. 
 
 Fort St. George, 
 1th Oct. 1820. 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 THE FEAST. 
 
 ONE of the greatest Hindoo festivals in 
 the Carnatic is held annually at Conjeve- 
 ram. It is called the Garudastavum, and 
 celebrates the descent of the god Vishnu 
 upon earth. For ten successive days a 
 small, holy, and ancient image of the god 
 is either borne in triumphal procession 
 among his delighted followers, or exposed 
 to their adoring gaze in the courts of his 
 temple. For ten days the streets are 
 thronged with Brahmins and fakirs, pil- 
 grims from afar, and peasants from the 
 neighbourhood. Nothing is heard but 
 the frenzied shout of the exulting fanatic, 
 or the song of the merry idler, whom the 
 
336 ADDENDA. 
 
 season of holiday sets loose from his 
 wonted toil. 
 
 I chanced to be stationed within a few 
 miles of Conjeveram at the period of this 
 festival, in June, 1822, and I went over 
 to enjoy the scene. It was at the second 
 hour after midnight that I mounted my 
 horse, and rode forth alone. There had 
 been rain in the night ; the moon was 
 still up ; and all around, and on my path, 
 whether tree or shrub, grass, or gravel-* 
 sand, or pool of water, was glistening and 
 silvery. 
 
 My heart beat happily as I looked 
 about me, and though alone, I felt not 
 lonely ; no, not even when the moon set, 
 and left me in darkness. The old world 
 was present to my imagination ; I was on 
 my way to gaze on a scene familiar to 
 those nations whose history and fate are 
 recorded in the sacred page of the Old 
 
THE FEAST. 337 
 
 Testament, a scene only to be now 
 viewed among the idolaters of India, 
 
 As I approached the town, I entered 
 upon the more public road, and found 
 numbers of native peasants in groupes 
 of families, some with burthens on their 
 heads ; others with children in their arms, 
 or on their hips*; or leading those who 
 could run alone ; some aged, and bending 
 to their tall staves ; all pressing on with a 
 noiseless foot-fall, and that silent heart- 
 throbbing eagerness with which, in all 
 countries, we hasten to a high place of 
 public and solemn assembly. 
 
 My guide led me to the choultry whi- 
 ther the procession was to come, instead 
 of to the gate of the pagoda, whence it 
 
 * The Indian mother often, indeed generally, 
 carries her child astride on her hip, which she pro- 
 trudes for that purpose. 
 
338 ADDENDA. 
 
 first issues ; so that I lost the moment 
 when, with the break of day, the doors 
 of the temple are thrown open, and the 
 breathless multitude behold, and bow 
 before their god ; light the incense on 
 their small censers ; and break and pour 
 out the milk of their cocoa nuts ; and send 
 up those maddening cries with which 
 they hail the revered image glorified, as 
 they believe it to be, by a present deity. 
 
 Directed by the sound of the tumult, 
 and the hurried movement of the crowds, 
 I soon discovered the procession.* It was 
 led by one of their wandering saints, a 
 hale old man, with a flowing white beard, 
 robes of deep salmon colour, and a turban 
 of the same, but high and mithric in 
 form. He brandished in his right hand 
 a staff* with an iron head, in shape like 
 the sceptre of Vishnu ; and he sang 
 aloud, and danced with a wild rotatory 
 motion. 
 
THE FEAST. 339 
 
 Some twenty men followed, mounted 
 on Brahminy bullocks, and beating tom- 
 toms. Next four elephants with banners, 
 and the nagara or large royal drum. Long 
 files of dancing girls, with joys and 
 flowers in their shining hair, came after, 
 linked hand in hand, and moving in mea- 
 sured steps to the music of the temple. 
 Then the image of the god*, borne on the 
 bowed neck of Ganidaf, with attend- 
 ant Brahmins, and the umbrella J and 
 chowriej of sovereignty. All these were 
 carried on a vast platform raised far above 
 the heads of the crowd. A throng of 
 officiating Brahmins, with their peculiar 
 complexion and shaven crowns, closed 
 the procession ; and their chaunt, now 
 
 The image of Vishnu was very small, adorned 
 with jewels most richly, and clothed with brocade. 
 
 f The Ganida is represented by the figure of a man 
 larger than life, with the head of an eagle ; the whole 
 of gilt copper. 
 
 J The well-known emblems of Indian royalty. 
 
 z 2 
 
#40 ADDENDA. 
 
 loud and nasal, now deep and musically 
 so, reminded me strongly of the convents 
 and cloisters of the far West. 
 
 But why does such a thought intrude ? 
 Look around on the dark multitude 
 mark their dress and ornaments look 
 at those " round tires like the moon" on 
 the heads of the women observe those 
 fakirs, the one with the iron rods forced 
 through his skin all festered and bloody, 
 the other suspended from the branch of 
 that tree, his head downwards, and a fire 
 under it, and a third near them, his head 
 buried under a heap of earth, and his 
 naked and disgusting body protruded on 
 your path. Come here to the idol-maker's 
 stall : what will you carry back, poor 
 travel-worn pilgrim, to your distant cot- 
 tage ? Here are all your gods all their 
 symbols all the little vessels for sacri- 
 fice. Nay, I smile not on you in scorn, 
 but in pity. 
 
THE FEAST. 341 
 
 " Great God ! I'd rather be 
 A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, 
 So might I, standing on some pleasant lee, 
 Have glimpses which might make me less forlorn;" 
 
 than walk this world in name a Christian, 
 but in heart a sceptic. 
 
 We dined, a large party of us, with 
 Mr. C. the acting collector and magis- 
 trate, on the evening of this day, at his 
 temporary bungalow in the town, and 
 were summoned from table soon after 
 nine to meet the night-procession. The 
 order of it was like that of the morning, 
 but now Vishnu rode upon a gilt and 
 glittering figure of Hanuman, the mon- 
 key-god ; the platform was lighted up, 
 hundreds of the attendants were bearing 
 torches, and about fifty men carried large 
 tresuls/ whose trident heads were all 
 flame : they were firing off rockets on 
 all sides, and just after we came out, the 
 procession halted. A large space was 
 cleared ; there was a good show of fire- 
 z 3 
 
342 ADDENDA. 
 
 works ; and two immense colossal figures 
 of pasteboard, well dressed, and admirably 
 managed, danced to the loudly laughing 
 crowds ; and here in the midst of this 
 multitude were a dozen of us pale Euro- 
 peans, a rajah and two of his sons, and 
 a wealthy native merchant, seated on 
 English arm-chairs. I shall never forget 
 the scene ; I had feared that the moon 
 would spoil the effect of the lights and 
 fire-works, but no ; there was much sul- 
 phureous blue in the fireworks, and the 
 flaring blaze of the torches gave to the 
 leaves of the tall cocoa-trees, which line 
 the streets, a metallic brilliancy : on 
 many of them -were clusters of Indian 
 boys, every house-top, every broken wall, 
 was covered with groupes, thronging as 
 bees swarm, and a dense moving mass 
 filled the streets. I was much delighted 
 with the picture, yet I did, at times, look 
 up to the blue cloudless vault of heaven, 
 "and to the golden stars, and, as I gazed 
 upon the moon shining in calm majesty, 
 
 
THE FEAST. 343 
 
 the tumult of my spirits was reproved 
 and repressed. 
 
 We accompanied the procession to the 
 Muntipum*, and saw the nautch girls 
 dance before the god. They were none 
 of them remarkable for beauty, but the 
 dress, and the measured step, and move- 
 ment of the arms, cannot be viewed with 
 indifference by any one for whom histori- 
 cal or poetical associations have charms. 
 
 The next morning I saw the image of 
 Vishnu borne on a huge coiled serpent of 
 gilt metal, with a spreading hood, and 
 seven heads of silver, over- arch ing and 
 canopying the god, and it trembled as it 
 moved. 
 
 I afterwards rode home, but returned 
 to witness the Rutt Jatra. The night 
 before, a curious ceremony takes place: 
 
 * Small Temple of Rest. 
 z 4 
 
344 ADDENDA. 
 
 the Vishnu vites carry their god on a huge 
 gilt elephant to insult the temple and 
 the followers of Siva. This has been 
 customary for centuries, and was once a 
 constant cause of tumult and bloodshed. 
 Now there is a particular pillar to which 
 they may go ; a servant of the company 
 is always present, and it ends, if not in 
 good humour, at least harmlessly. I saw 
 this folly : their expression of contempt 
 is not different from that adopted by 
 common consent into all pantomimes, 
 whether Dutch, Italian, or English. The 
 god and the elephant turn their rumps 
 towards the front of Siva's temple, and 
 are thrice propelled to the permitted 
 point with the shout and the gesture of 
 insult ; some of the Vishnuvites appeared 
 quite mad, they leaped on each other's 
 shoulders, shook their large torches, and 
 sang defiance. 
 
 It was at day-break on the following 
 morning that I saw the Rutt in motion, 
 
THE FEAST. 345 
 
 and certainly it is a sight for the tra- 
 veller : the platform of this car or tem- 
 ple is five and thirty feet from the 
 ground, and the tapestried canopy and 
 its supporters and decorations, five and 
 thirty feet higher ; it is capable of con- 
 taining twenty or thirty Brahmins ; the 
 whole is solid, strong, curiously carved, 
 and heavy ; the wheels are ten feet in 
 diameter, solid, and of enormous thick- 
 ness. Four cables, one hundred yards 
 in length, are attached to it, and with 
 shoulders under, or hands on these 
 cables, there are certainly not less than 
 two thousand labourers engaged in draw- 
 ing it along. On it moves, high above 
 the uplifted faces of the crowded wor- 
 shippers* ; these press to come near, 
 throw up (with money) an offering of 
 cocoa-nuts ; the attendant Brahmins 
 break and present them to the god, and 
 
 * Here the devotees do not throw themselves under 
 the car, as at Juggernaut. 
 
346 ADDENDA. 
 
 cast them down again, thus consecrated, 
 to the wretched, yet glad devotee, who 
 shares them with the family he brought 
 up to the feast, and with which he has 
 to retrace the long and weary way to his 
 native village. 
 
 This Rutt is dragged through the prin- 
 cipal streets, and on its return, when it 
 arrives within about a hundred yards of 
 the spot where it is to be drawn up, 
 there is a shout and a yell, the move- 
 ment is more rapid, and fearfully it 
 towers and totters along till its ponderous 
 wheels are again bedded in their resting 
 place. 
 
 During the whole of this scene num- 
 bers of young Brahmins armed with 
 thongs of the deer*, are leaping about 
 in the crowd, striking now those who 
 drag the car, now those who press upon 
 
 * The skin of the deer is not considered as polluting. 
 
THE FEAST. 347 
 
 their path, and you may observe wealthy 
 and well-dressed men come and just 
 put their hand over to touch the rope, 
 and claim the merit of having dragged 
 the car. The women hold up their little 
 children above their heads, and every 
 sight and sound speak tumultuous joy. 
 But let us pause, the crowds are dispers- 
 ing : Who are those twenty or thirty 
 poor men covered with sweat and dust, 
 looking toil-worn and hungry, and now 
 salaaming with fear to that stern Brah- 
 min ? They are village coolies, who were 
 pressed and driven in to drag the car of 
 Vishnu, the lowest of whose followers 
 would spurn them from his path. 
 
 And here come into this tope ; and 
 down to the edge of this tank ; look at 
 these groupes of poor families with their 
 small and insufficient portions of cold 
 rice. They are not acknowledged, even 
 by the Soodras, but they wear the mark of 
 Vishnu ; class themselves among his 
 
348 ADDENDA. 
 
 humble followers ; have come up to the 
 feast, to worship, and make the offering 
 of their little all ; and will now go home, 
 and practise the most painful economy 
 for a year to come. Now enter the 
 courts of this temple ; here all is feasting 
 and smiles ; these groupes of sleek fat 
 men are officiating Brahmins, who are 
 partaking of an entertainment provided 
 for them by that black Hindoo mer- 
 chant of the Bhyse cast, with diamonds 
 in his ears, and cunning in his eyes, 
 who has come up from Madras for the 
 occasion. 
 
 Such is an Indian festival pictorially 
 sketched : it were a long, long comedy 
 if I attempted to carry my reader behind 
 the scenes, among Shenitadars, Moon- 
 shees, Peons, and the whole herd of 
 petty oppressors ; a comedy I say, but 
 I mean it not unfeelingly : the word 
 tragedy I reserve for higher and more 
 serious considerations, for can there be 
 
GOA. 349 
 
 a deeper or more awful one, or one more 
 afflicting to the heart of the believing 
 Christian, than to look upon these mil- 
 lions, feeding on ashes, their deceived 
 hearts turning them aside, holding fast a 
 lie in their right hands, and seeing not 
 the cup of astonishment and desolation 
 prepared for them ? 
 
 GOA. 
 
 As I was passing down the coast of 
 Malabar from Mangalore to Bombay, in 
 the month of December 1822, I bade 
 the Tindal * of my Patamaref, bear up 
 for the harbour of Goa. If you close 
 your eyes while listening to the song of 
 the Moorish Classeesj, you may, for the 
 time, fancy you hear the peasants of the 
 south of Spain, and so, with all my 
 recollections of the Peninsula strongly 
 awakened by the power of association, I 
 
 * Captain, f A small coasting vessel. J Mariners. 
 
350 ADDENDA. 
 
 sailed into the outer harbour, a noble 
 and capacious basin well land-locked, 
 and over-looked by hill and tower, and 
 neglected fort. One Portuguese man of 
 war lay idly there, without any look of 
 life, or readiness, and it was difficult to 
 believe, as you marked the slovenly 
 figures leaning over her sides, that they 
 were the descendants of those mariners 
 who first braved the stormy spirit of the 
 Cape. 
 
 I was soon seated under an awning in 
 a boat frem the shore, and was rowed 
 rapidly across the second bar, and up the 
 noble reach, on one bend of which stands 
 modern Goa, a small inconsiderable sea- 
 port, some miles below the old city, 
 which has from a variety of causes been 
 deserted, fallen to decay, and with the 
 exception of its convents and, churches, 
 palaces and prisons, which, from the 
 solidity of their construction, yet remain, 
 has disappeared. I landed at the port, 
 
GOA. 
 
 351 
 
 and, from the shop of a Parsee, the only 
 place in this dirty town in which I 
 could find shelter, I wrote a note to 
 the Governor, requesting permission to 
 visit old Goa. The only fine looking 
 men to be seen in the streets, were the 
 soldiers of a corps lately arrived from 
 Lisbon, for the inhabitants looked poor, 
 and indolent, their dress, mean and dirty, 
 yet not without an affectation of some- 
 thing, which bespoke the existence and 
 indulgence of vanity. 
 
 On the return of my servant, we 
 again rowed forwards. Nothing can be 
 finer, in its way, than the thick plant- 
 ations of the cocoa-nut, (ever so graceful, 
 and so beautifully rich in appearance,) 
 which clothe either bank of the broad 
 water near old Goa, whose churches 
 and convents peer forth from among 
 them with an air 'of monastic repose 
 and stateliness. We moored our boat 
 at the garden steps of the convent or 
 
352 ADDENDA. 
 
 college of St. Thomaso. It was a burn- 
 ing afternoon, and the hour of siesta ; I 
 could find no one to answer my inquiries. 
 I paced the cloisters below, and the gal- 
 leries above, and heard but the echo of 
 my own boots. At last, I saw a sickly 
 face at an open door, and entering, found 
 it was the dispensary. To the lean- 
 visaged guardian of it I stammered out 
 my story, in very different Portuguese to 
 that which I could and should have 
 spoken ten years before ; and bade him 
 say to the brothers that I wished a 
 night's lodging in the convent. I then 
 went below, and desiring my servant to 
 prepare a curry and spread my carpet on 
 the river's bank, I walked up the hill 
 above towards the Augustine Convent. 
 I shall never forget the deep, dull sound 
 of its loud and mournful bell, as the 
 first note of its vesper-peal struck upon 
 my ear. Heavily to the heart it went. 
 I never heard a finer toned or more 
 sadly musical "bell, than that which calls 
 
(;OA. 
 
 from llic tower of the Augustines to the 
 forsaken, solitary, and grassgrown city of 
 Goa. I entered its large handsome 
 church. The voice that read, and those 
 that chaunted, and the tinkling monitor 
 for their kneelings and crossings, all 
 sounded strangely weak, as if they 
 struggled with a sense of desertion and 
 loneliness ; with a deep silence, which 
 mocked and oppressed them. 
 
 I walked slowly round their cloisters, 
 filled with paintings in fresco, of little 
 merit, but the subjects interesting ; al- 
 most all relate some tale of the martyr- 
 dom of brethren of the order. The 
 dark and savage Moor, and the pale and 
 patient monk, are, in some of them, very 
 happily contrasted. I wished to find the 
 tomb of Francis Xavier : one of the lay 
 servants directed me towards it. It is in 
 a small church near the empty and decay- 
 ing college of the Jesuits. A young 
 sacristan opened for me the dark chapel 
 
 A A 
 
#54 ADDENDA. 
 
 which contains this tomb. It is richly 
 ornamented. There is a chest of silver 
 above, said to contain his ashes, and 
 lamps of silver are hung around : below, 
 there are four reliefs most beautifully 
 executed in bronze. The subjects, his 
 preaching to the idolaters, his baptizing 
 of the converts, his persecution, his 
 death. You cannot look upon the por- 
 traiture of such a life and such a death, 
 without uttering that broken sound, which 
 is neither a word nor a sigh, but which 
 implies that we venerate the tenant of 
 the tomb. You pass forth, however, and 
 exult to see the Inquisition open to the 
 curiosity and contempt of the passer-by, 
 and abandoned to disregarded decay. Not 
 so do you look at the deserted palace of the 
 ancient governors ; for the Albuquerques 
 and De Castro were no common men. 
 I wandered on through narrow green 
 paths, and among tall trees, and visited 
 two more convents before sunset. None 
 have their complement of brethren ; but 
 none, save that of the Jesuits, are empty. 
 
GO A. 355 
 
 Generally, the superior and one or two 
 more are Europeans, or of European 
 parents ; the others are Goa-born, Eu- 
 ropean only by descent and in name, 
 but having Indian complexions, and all 
 the confined notions of their ignorant, 
 uneducated fathers. 
 
 I returned to my carpet and my curry, 
 and found one of the order waiting to 
 conduct me to the senior brother. I ex- 
 cused myself till I had dined, and then 
 went up. He was very cordial, and 
 amusingly and fussily civil. He was an 
 Indian born, with a deep yellow complex- 
 ion. He gave rne a large glass of ex- 
 cellent Lisbon wine, ordered me a room 
 and a bed, and seemed to me to carry as 
 many keys, and open as many cupboards, 
 and go as often in and out of the cham- 
 ber as a disturbed old housekeeper. 
 
 I found my good host too distrait to 
 give me information on the subjects most 
 A A 2 
 
356 ADDENDA. 
 
 interesting to me, and I relieved him 
 and myself by retiring to my cell, where 
 I laid me down on an excellent bed with 
 fine linen, and felt all the luxury of being 
 fatigued. With the early morn I was 
 forth again ; again heard the bell of the 
 Augustines, and obeyed its summons. 
 After passing some time in its church 
 and cloisters, I went down to the ca- 
 thedral ; there were ten canons in their 
 stalls ; the dean officiated ; the sacristans, 
 the vespers, and the choristers, all in 
 their appointed places ; as for congrega- 
 tion, there was only one person present, 
 an elderly Portuguese gentleman. Yes, 
 there were four stout African slaves, the 
 bearers of the dean's Mancheela *, who 
 talked, and whispered, and giggled in 
 the side aisles, till the bell announced 
 the elevation of the host, and then ran 
 forward and knelt and crossed them- 
 selves. They were fine young men, with 
 
 * A litter peculiar to the Malabar coast. 
 
GOA. 357 
 
 athletic frames, naked, skins black and 
 polished, teeth like ivory, the thick lip, 
 the woolly and curly head, and they had 
 the cunning glance, the free gesture, and 
 the broad laugh of the half-tamed sa- 
 vage ! I was wonderfully struck with 
 all this. The establishment of this ca- 
 thedral being still supported by the ori- 
 ginal grants of land, and the priests here, 
 as well as the monks in the neighbouring 
 convents, clinging of course to their pro- 
 perty, Goa presents a scene which per- 
 haps no other place in the world can, or 
 should. 
 
 You may enter seven large churches 
 within a two miles' walk : the black robe, 
 the white robe, the brown, the cowl and 
 the skull cap ; the silk cassock, the laced 
 surplice, the red scarf, the glittering vest- 
 ments, you may see them all. Pastors 
 abound, but where are the flocks ? I 
 found in one about fifty Indian-born For- 
 
358 ADDENDA. 
 
 tuguese, in another a few common black 
 Christians with beads and crosses. 
 
 Goa the golden exists no more. Goal 
 where the aged De Gama closed his 
 glorious life. Goa ! where the immortal 
 Camoens sung and suffered. It is now 
 but a vast and grassy tomb, and it 
 seems as if its thin and gloomy popu- 
 lation of priests and friars were only 
 spared to chaunt requiems for its de- 
 parted souls. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONBOH : 
 Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, 
 
 New- Street- Square. 
 
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