NO. 1. Calcutta bog-buzar, i. e. the Tyger-Market. LOUISA ******, Lethulier's boarding-school, Westminster:

YOU desired me to write to you on my arrival in India, and promised in return to answer my let­ters. I send you this by the ship I took my passage in, now on the eve of her departure for Europe.

On our leaving the Downs, having a leading wind down channel, we soon cleared the land, and running between the Azores, i. e. the Western Islands and the main continent of Europe, made the island of Madeira in about fourteen days; where, without coming to an anchor, we took on board 150 pipes of Madeira wine, (a drink highly acceptable to the Europeans in India) and on our way to the south­ward, anchored at St. Jago, one of the Cape de Verd islands; where, after fitting up our empty water casks, and taking in poultry, goats, and other re­freshments, we weighed and steered to the south, when Teneriffe remaining in sight 'till it's peek or vertex, which terminates in a conical point and per­vades the clouds; (the whole island being but a base as it were, to this pyramid) was by a meridian ob­servation of the sun, visible even at the distance of 150 nautic miles, which argued the great height of that remarkable mountain. We continued on our way to the Cape of Good-Hope, the southernmost promontory of Africa; having crossed the equinox­ial line in the longitue of about 19 degrees west from the meridian of London.

[Page 2]You have learned the use of the globes, and must recollect that if London is brought under the gra­duated edge of the brazen meridian, and then the sphere moved on it's axis until the Cape of Good-Hope is brought under the same artificial circle, that the difference of longitude between the two places can be obtained by counting the degrees con­tained between the two meridians; and in like man­ner for any other two places whatever. In crossing the Equator, we had thunder squalls, calms, and heavy rains, attended with sharp lightning, which is frequent in these climes; after which, falling in with the S. E. i. e. south east trade wind, which blows as constant in that quarter of the compass to the south­ward of the equator, as the N. E. i. e. the north east trade wind, blows to the northward of it be­tween the two Tropics, viz. Cancer and Capricorn. We made the most of the wind, and doubling the Cape of Good-Hope, after very tremendous wea­ther, which obliged us at times to lie hull too, with our yards and topmasts struck, and lower yards at portland, in a mountainous sea; and at other times to scud before menacing waves for life and death, under a close reefed main-topsail lash'd down to the cap of the mast, thinking this the safest to scud under, as the loftiest sail that could be carried, and most out of the reach of our briny stern-chasers, the bellowing foaming billows that followed our ship, and every successive surge menaced our stern. In this dangerous and boisterous season of the year (it being the winter of this part of the globe) hawl­ing up to the northward, to use a sea phrase, we entered the Mosambique channel; (which cast your eye on a map of the world, you will find lies between the island of Madagascar, which is 1000 miles in length, and the main continent of Africa) within the course of a week we anchored at Joanna, one of [Page 3] the Comora Islands (in sight of the above menti­oned island of Madagascar.) This Comora is a small island, but of a beautiful appearance, viewed from the sea; it rising all round with an easy as­cent from the beach, in little swelling hills project­ing out from the main body of the mountain, of which the bulk of the island is seemingly composed. This mountain, and it's hills and intermediate val­lies, are covered with trees and verdure, which pro­duce dates, lemons, limes, and tropical fruits in general; fronting the little bay where the ships lie at anchor is the watering place, which is a na­tural receiver of sine sweet water, precipitated from the top of the island down a channel formed by the celerity of the stream, which running in a serpen­tine direction through the bushes and vallies, has a pleasing effect that cannot but attract the sight. About one third of a mile from this watering place, is a compact little village, composed of two small narrow streets that run parallel to each other about two hundred yards in length; it's houses are small, and neatly built with stone and cement, and was the work of the noted Avery, the pirate, and his peo­ple, who made this island their principal rendez­vous. This place is remarkable (as are all the Co­mora islands, likewise Madagascar) for a breed of bats, or flying squirrels, the colour of foxes, as big as cats in general, and as full of hair and fur as weasels; as well as mococks and mungooses, ani­mals in make like greyhounds, but no bigger in their bodies than a large cat, with long bushy tails, which are both held in estimation in India and Eu­rope, particularly the mococks, which are the co­lour of dark sables, but covered with a thick fur. These animals the ladies in Europe affect such fond­ness for, that they frequently permit them to wrap their soft bushy tails round their necks, and repose [Page 4] with their heads on their bosoms. This island also abounds with a race of small bulls and cows, about the size of yearlings, which are very fleshy and fat; they have a hunch on their shoulders, and lit­tle horns, very sharp, but no longer than a man's thumb.

At this island we watered and refreshed, and then proceeded through the Maldavia Islands for Bengal, after which making in our way, the Island of Cey­lon, (famous for it's cinnamon, the smell of which was very perceptible in the neighbourhood of the land) we entered the Bay of Bengal, and in about forty-eight hours discovered the high land of Bal­lasore, when taking a pilot on board that had been looking out for the Europe ships, we stood on for the mouth of the river Hugely, a branch of the Great Ganges, a very critical navigation, the mouth of this river being frontiered with sands, some of which shift, and are equally blocked up with swampy islands, infested with tygers of an enormous size, and aligators, also large serpents. The pilot had not been long on board before (whether through his obstinacy or the precipitancy of the Captain) the ship shallowing her water, she struck on the tail of the eastern brace, one of the most dangerous sands in that vicinity, and had very nigh been lost; but escaping this danger, she anchored at Ingillee the latter part of July, when, with the ladies we had on board, some Company's servants, and other passengers, I proceeded in a budgero to Calcutta.

This first part of my letter is written in a stile calculated for the perusal of a seafaring gentleman apparently, rather than that of a young lady; but as intended for your amusement and information, as introductory to the letters to come, I have hazarded it's insertion.

NO. 2. TO THE SAME.

ON our arrival at Calcutta, which was the day following, we passed by Fort-William, and the budgero gaining the front of the settlement, she hawled into a landing called Bibby-Watts, i. e. the Woman Watt's landing, where a number of boats, different in their construction from any I had seen before,— burrs, dinghees, budgeros, and Moor pun­kys, added to the exotic appearance of the inha­bitants assembled in innumerable bodies, (Moors, Genloos, Armenians, Callo-fringhees, or Country-born Christians,) men, women and children, all in general remarkably well dressed, particularly in the stile of the country, who I was informed were of the Gentoo tribes, attracted my attention, as well that of the rest of the passengers; and being given to understand that something extraordinary was to be transacted on or about the spot we had come to at, being as well situated in the varandos of the budgero as we could wish, we waited the event of these novel preparations, and in the interim through the means of the mangy, under whose direction the boat was, who spoke English in common tollerably well, I informed myself which were the different casts or tribes amongst this numerous assemblage of people; who pointed them out to me much to my satisfaction, saying, that is a Mussulman,—that is a Hindoo,—this a Callo-fringhee,—that an Armenian. This man, from his childhood employed by Euro­peans, had acquired a considerable share of expe­rience in polemical matters, and amongst other things could tell us, that though the Toppe-wallees governed Bengal and all the coast of India, and did [Page 6] as they pleased with the Badshaws and Nabobs, there were Moor men enough, stanch Shakes, Syeds, Mo­guls and Patans, without the Gentoos, to bury them all alive in a day, with but a handful of sand each, had they but courage; for that there were, accord­ing to the account of the Bramins, who knew the number of the inhabitants, ten millions of Mussul­mans in Indostan, and not half one hundred thou­sand Toppe-wallees, including the Callo-fringhees in all; but, added the Mangy, so immense a number of Hindoos, that were they not as timid as women, without any other weapons than even bamboos in their hands, they could drive both Mahometans and Fringhees out of the country; for that there were ten Hindoos for one Mussulman, which made an hundred million of Gentoos in all, but the Hindoos are infidels and idolaters, says this man, and Pyrum­bur will not let them rule over true believers, though he permits the Toppe-wallees to be a scourge to them for a time. This and other discourse he held us while I was surveying the crowd, and paying at­tention to their dresses, which I shall in their proper place describe minutely. The Moors and Gentoos dress alike, with jammers and turbans of fine white muslin or callico, and sashes of the same, and crys­sis stuck into their sashes, which are bound tight around their waists, and have edges to them of gold fringe, &c. These jammers are gowns made much like the women's in America or Europe, but with long sleeves that taper as they come down to the wrists, and are so long in general, both before and behind, that when walking the streets they are un­der the necessity of gathering up a bunch in one hand, to keep the border from being trampled un­der foot: these jammers are bound with silk, mode or ribband, or else with a binding of the same stuff they are made of. Their turbans are traversed chequer­wise, [Page 7] and the ends of some of them a foot and others a span deep, which they take care to let come out at the top, by way of ornament. Over this tur­ban frequently is tied obliquely to the forehead, a handsome shawl, handkerchief, or a small silk or sattin sash, and fringed with gold or silver. The Moors esteeming themselves Seapoys, wear swords on all occasions, and when in sawawry, or on a visit, carry in their hands shields made of Rhinoceros or wild Buffalo's hide, thick enough to send off the blow of a scymitar, but not an arrow or musket ball. The Gentoos go equally armed, but none but Rajahpoots, whose business it is to sight, and Bramins of distinction amongst them, wear any other arms than a Chury or Chryss, except on particular occa­sions, as, for instance, on celebration of their nup­tials, or the festivals held amongst themselves, when the addition of the sword and shield take place, though a mere matter of parade. These two casts of people made up the assembled crowd, excepting a few Armenians and Callo-fringheees that were in­termixed with them, commonly called Portugueze, of which latter there are a great number in Bengal, and in all the European settlements in India. The Armenians are a fair complexioned people, and dress much like the Moors and Gentoos, except their caps, which they wear instead of turbans, which are mostly made of black velvet, or broad cloth. The Portu­gueze or Callo-fringhees dress exactly like the Euro­peans, and being as remarkable for their vanity as their superstitious attachment to the papist religion, endeavour to envy each other in finery and equipage. The Gentoo women and girls from all the neigh­bouring parts had likewise gathered together on this occasion, and were mixed with the multitude, but few or no Moor women were to be seen, except some of inferior stamp; the females amongst the [Page 8] Mahometans in India, like the women belonging to the Turks in Asia and Europe, not exposing them­selves to public view, nor going out without being compleatly covered from head to foot with a veil. These Gentoo women in general are dressed in a mus­lin or callico pizwawge, resembling the gown I have described the men wear, which I shall be more particular in the account of hereafter; under this pizwawge they wear an upper and under skirt, the upper one some brilliant colour and the under one fine linen: they wear no shoes, but go barefoot through the streets, except the Ranahs, i. e. wives and daughters of Rajahs, and Hindoo ladies of the first rank, who keep themselves as hidden as the Moor women from the sight of men. Over the pizwawge they wear a lungah, and over that a de­putah; the lungah is to cover them when they are bathing and the deputah is their veil, both which they throw over them in a careless manner, but will occasionally peep out from under their veils, and discover their faces as they pass through the streets, or remain standing in a crowd. The palms of their hands and the soles of their feet are tinged with mindy, as likewise their finger and toe-nails, which being a beautiful pink colour shews to no disadvantage. They wear rings in their right no­strils and the middle stnip of their noses; the rings they carry in their nostrils are frequently the di­ameter of a dollar, and sometimes not exceeding that of a pistareen, which always have two preci­ous stones, saphires, rubies or amethysts, with pearls between the two jewels suspended, and the same to the rings that are reeved through the snip of their noses, which are less than the nostril rings, being so contrived as only to admit the jewels sus­pended thereto to come down to the upper-lip.— We had not long amused ourselves with contemplat­ing [Page 9] this crowd, when the sun setting below the ho­rizon of a beautiful serene sky, I was struck with the splendid and sudden appearance of some thou­sand little pagodas, or Indian temples of different magnitudes and proportions, (all of them painted and gilded, from three to six feet in height, with their respective porticos, galleries, ballustrades, tur­rets, domes and spires,) launched from the strand; and numbers of pleasure boats in different parts of the river, on flat boards of sufficient bearings to float them; which illuminated with little gilded ta­pers within side and without, reflecting on and shin­ing through casements of transparent isinglass, ex­hibited in a very advantageous light the images that were fixed on pedestals in the centre of these edifi­ces: some of Bramin bulls, and peacocks with their tails expanded, and others of Jagarnaut and Christ­nou Swamy, and different idols worshipped by these deluded uninformed people. These glittering tem­ples had no sooner been launched, than a report as smart and as loud as musketoons, like a feu-de-joye or street firing, was heard from all quarters. They were a number of Chinese crackers, discharged from the hands of boys, dressed, painted and decora­ted with jewels, on the occasion; the boys in these parts wearing necklaces and earrings, with rings in their noses like the women; and even men, when full dressed, will never appear without them. These crackers are neatly made up and bound tight with small wires, cat-gut and Indian weed, and filled with strong double fortified elastic powder; thus artfully confined though the interior tube that con­tains the powder, will be no bigger than a large por­cupine quill: on being fired they make an incredible loud report.

This scene was novel and pleasing enough to have attended to awhile, but the turning of the tide [Page 10] against a breeze of wind that began to increase, soon overset this fragile navigation, extinguished the luminaries of these little floating temples, and immerged in the stream these various Indostan dei­ties, amidst the repeated shouts and acclamations of the Gentoo tribes on the river and adjacent shores, and compleated what the Europeans in Bengal call drowning Jagernaut: this day happening to be the celebration of an annual festival held in commemo­ration of that Pagan divinity, who by the Gentoos is looked upon as a mediator between Bogwau and man.

NO. 3. TO THE SAME.

JAGERNAUT drowned, as I wrote you by the last year's shipping, the different equipages by this time brought down to the landing for conveying we new-comers to our respective connections, viz. phaetons, chariots and palanquins, in disembark­ing we were felecitated on our arrival by some gen­tlemen on the spot, the ladies handed into carriages and drove to the government (it being an invariable rule for every gentlewoman who is sent from Europe to visit the Governor first) who never parts with her 'till he delivers her into safe hands, and sees her honorably accommodated. These ladies, daugh­ters to gentlemen of narrow fortunes, with the consent of their friends, annually, some two or three in a ship, go to India, where having nobody on the spot to supercede them, they in a short time make [Page 11] a conquest of some gentleman or other, advanced in the Company's service; for no one less than a factor dare presume to think of an European lady, nor will the Governor (without whose consent they cannot be married) admit of such a match, which restrictions secures to them considerable settlements, and I believe an instance never was known for a young maiden of spotless character not making a brilliant fortune by a trip to Bengal. The women bowled off in their superb carriages; a palanquin that had been sent for me by Mr. Lambert, a senior merchant in the Company's service, I stepped into it, and was shewn how to fix myself without en­dangering it's tilting, and orders given in a language that I did not understand, (as I was afterwards in­formed) to carry me to the house of a Mr. Middle­ton, a gentleman then in Council at Calcutta. As this vehicle is not only a shining but a necessary equipage in India, I will give you a short description of it, and refer you to my glossary for further par­ticulars. A palanquin may with great propriety be called a valant couch; it is oblong in it's make, and bespread with mattrasses, and a silk or sattin covering called an epinjary, that is spread over the arch of the bamboo, to keep out the dew and sun beams, and is carried by four men at a time on a thick bamboo, that forms an arch over the main body of the palanquin, and runs projecting out some six feet before, and about four feet behind; two of the men keeping forward and the other two in the rear. These bamboos have their ends neatly covered with leather, and the arches of them with velvet or broad-cloth. Three handsome tassels hang under the bamboo, the body of the middle one as big as an ostrich egg, and the tassels in general a couple of spans deep. These are of use and ornament both, for bobbing this way and that way with the motion [Page 12] of the palanquin, they serve to keep off the flies and musquitoes, with which this country abounds. At the but end of the fore part of the bamboo is fixed in cast metal, gold, silver or brass, the head and claws of a dragon, a griffin, or crocodile; and at the other end of the bamboo, the tail and posterior parts of the same animal that is fixed in the front: and a palanquin being a mark of honor and distinc­tion in Indostan, no subject presumes to mount one, except authorized by the Mogul himself, a Soubah, Nabob or Rajah; which right remains hereditay, or only during office or life, at the will of the Prince who confered it.—Thus fixed in my palanquin, though in a very inexpert manner, as it then stood on it's four feet on the ground, the sides of it were held by two men, whilst the bearers stooped down and dexterously raised it up by clapping the ends of the bamboo under their shoulders, when they set off in a dog trot, at a rapid rate, singing out as they jogged along, in a plaintive tone, a kind of a song I did not understand. In this way I was conveyed to the house of my friend, where the palanquin was set down, and I conducted up stairs and received by Mr. Middleton, who introduced me to his acquain­tance, and gave orders for a notch, and as we pas­sed up and down the varando, amongst other things told me that he would furnish me with a banyan, when his carrany called me aside to inform me there were sent into an apartment destined for me, two bags of rupees; upon which I took the hint, and with this carrany withdrew, who counted out to me two thousand rupees,—I deposited them in my escrutoire, which was no sooner done, than a fat short man of a straw coloured complexion, accompanied by his son, a boy about twelve years of age, accosted me: this man was a Gentoo, of the bramin cast, and a substantial banyan. They both were richly dressed [Page 13] in the stile of the country, and had all the appear­ance of people of credit. The subject they waited on me was that of my employing the father as my banyan; who producing a line from my friend, I ac­cepted of his offer, with a nazar, he presented me, consisting of five gold mohars and three sicca rupees, which was looked upon, I was informed, as an in­dication of an agreement; when they paid their compliments by meeting their right hands with their foreheads, and letting them fall in a graceful man­ner while they bowed their bodies, (which is called making a sallam)—after this they retired, and left me to my private cogitations. My friend returning after supper, we went into a large saloon, when a company of women, about fifteen in number, ad­vanced as it were, in the front of a theatre, by ty­phas, i.e. sets, with their bajana wallas, and paid their compliments by sallaming us in the manner the banyan and his son sallamed me; the women varying nothing in this particular from the men, in Indostan. This done, they seated themselves cross-legged on the carpet, according to the custom of all Asiatics, when a typha, which always consists of three of these dancing girls, sang a song (much in vogue then, and accompanied it by the serindas, to the satisfaction of the audience) that was called the fate of the Soubah Serajahdowlah, which name introduced in the cho­rus occasionally, ended every verse; when beatle was brought in to entertain them.

NO. 4. LADY CAROLINE *********, Westminster.

THE girls to whom I have hitherto addressed myself from India, correspond with each other, and will be as proud to transmit you my letters as I am to understand by yours that you wished for a perusal of them: in future, it will be improbable I should neglect writing to you the first. Your letter I have made the frontispiece to my Europe miscellanies. The letters antecedent to this, should ere now, by the steps I am informed you had taken, have fallen into your hands. The company seated, (as I wrote Louisa ******'s sister in my last letter) afforded me an opportunity of contemplating their persons and examining their dress, both which I shall give you a sketch of in my letters to the ladies I corres­pond with in general.

The dresses of these females, closely copied from the fashions of the Seraglios, which are constant standards for the women in those parts to regulate themselves by in that important article of dress and the decoration of their persons; it being to be re­marked that these Asiatics are as tenacious in the points of dress, and any significant addition or di­munition might be made thereunto by a predomi­nant party of belles in the Seraglio of the Mogul, Vizier or Soubah, as ever a set of the first rank la­dies that ever formed a route in London or Paris. To return from which digression, the Indostan wo­men wear shifts which differ but little in make from those of the European women, and under their [Page 15] skirts, which are always made of tissue or a brilliant coloured silk or sattin, set off with a deep gold or silver fringe below, and as often embroidered with sprigs of the same, they wear likewise a white li­nen petticoat, and within that striped silk drawers, drawn round the waist with silk, knit, or wove ban­dages, and in the same manner drawn tight round the ancles of their legs; whilst the Gentoo women, who differ from the other Indostan women in this particlar, dispense with these drawers and wear an extraordinary skirt in their stead. Over the dress above described goes the pizwawge, a robe or gown made in the following manner; two pieces of mus­lin are laid flat on each other like sheets of writing paper in a quire, then doubled from the middle, which making them fourfold adds to the strength of them, and makes the whole better calculated for the lower part of the pizwawge, which forms a skirt with a handsome gold border to it of about a span deep all round; these pieces of muslin being finished off in that manner while fabricating on the bamboo stands, are made of such lengths as to admit occa­sionally their being converted into pizwawgee's, in the making of which by doubling the lengths to­gether, it may easily be conceived how the ends of these pieces by making them meet, may be contrived to answer the purposes of a border to the lower part of the pizwawge, which the Zundirjees, i.e. the women taylors, pay particular attention to, as well as the length of the train of the pizwawgees, in the making of which, with the Indostan ladies they must never be infringed on. In order to accomplish this, the Zundirjees employed for that purpose in measur­ing the lady the dress is intended for, begin by tak­ing her circumference from just below her shoulder-blades, and that part of the body that coincides with them, not from the small of the back above [Page 16] the hips, according to the custom of the American and European ladies. This done, they cut off the upper part of the folded muslins and lay them apart for the body or vest of the robe, whilst the part that forms the skirt is drawn up into a convenient number of gatherings; then they adjust the body, and fix it to the skirt to their liking, making the hind part terminate in a train as proposed, while the fore part but barely meeting the floor has loops to raise it and keep it from incumbering the feet, by contriving it so as to admit of the border's just reaching the instep; which contraction of the robe discovering (as the party walks or dances) the glit­tering annulets, and large hoop rings incrusted with pearls and gems of different culours with which her toes, ancles and legs (if a female of the least pre­tensions) will be in a manner incased, whilst her train flowing behind sweeping the rich Persian carpet she treads on, exhibits to great advantage the graceful­ness of the person, and elegance of the dress.

I am addressing myself to ladies, or I should per­haps be less diffusive on a subject that by the other sex might be thought effeminate; in future I will be less minute, but beg leave to finish the detail of an Indostan lady's attire in the manner I have began.

I will now write in the plural number, and not confine myself to the dresses of the women in ques­tion, their disposition and manners in particular, but treat of them in general.

The sleeves of Indostan ladies robes are fixed to their pizwawgees much in the same manner the Ame­rican or European women's gowns are, only these growing narrower by degrees are made to extend to about half a yard, when pulled out, beyond their finger ends, that by that contrivance a number of muslin ringlets may be made to form a pretty cuff when shoved up above the wrist, without concealing [Page 17] the gold rings and bracelets adorned with precious stones that they wear night and day on their fingers and wrists. These sleeves being strait, to render them more convenient for the motion of their arms, are slit at the elbows; and the edge of that aperture worked round in needle-work, like the edge of a Dresden wristband. They wear neither tippets nor handkerchiefs over their necks and shoulders, but have a half vest or bodice of muslin, edged with small rubies, sapphires, emeralds, or pearls, if able to purchase them; if not, a narrow binding of silk answers the purpose; which demi vest they slip un­der their shifts and clap over their breasts: these demi veils are called chatty bunds, and are made exactly to fit, and being diaphanous, the women solely depend on the contexture of their veils for the concealment of their charms, which, as one of the most indispensable parts of an Indostan female's dress, you must not be surprized should I be rather leng­thy in the description of it in my next.

NO. 5. TO THE SAME.

THESE veils I had promised you a description of are about three ells long, and an ell and one quar­ter wide, of an azure, purple, pink, green, scarlet, or any fancy colour whatever; and though of an extreme fine manufactured muslin, are so thick as not to be transparent but from within side: they have all gold or silver edges to them of about four fingers wide, and the ends terminate like the ends of the sashes or bottoms of their pizwawgees, in a [Page 18] deep gold or silver border, and as one of the most essential appendages of an oriental lady's dress, as I have already intimated, are by them manouver'd and handled with as inexplicable art and inimitable ease and oconomy: whether when travelling in their pa­lanquins, doolies or hackerries abroad, or when walk­ing in their varandoes, saloons or gardens at home, or sitting down in public, or tète à tête in private with a friend, it matters not, the veil must be intro­duced. When in a state of real or seeming despon­dence, the head reclined on the arm inwrapt in one end of the veil, a part of the face will be discover­able under the shining border of the other end or golden edges, with the marks of anxiety or care de­picted thereon. At funerals the veil the disconso­late mother, sister or relict, throws over her in such a manner as to cover the whole body from head to foot except her hands, which wringing with a bunch of it retain'd in them, she suddenly will convert into a ramol to absorb the tears dropping from her eyes. When exasperated by the perfidy or frowns of a lover, the veil, by the irritated dame who wears it, will be distended, then twisted first one way and then another, and the ends converted into tassels to beat time to the sighs and sobs intervening her ejacula­tions. When overjoyed at the unexpected sight of a long absented friend, parent, husband or lover, (con­tracted to in marriage perhaps, and given over for lost) the veil then, like wings, will be expanded at the full extent of the hands and arms, whilst the enraptured female with rapidity and obvious solici­tude, will fly to the embraces of the welcome and unexpected guest; and if a parent or husband, fall down at their feet and wipe them therewith. The veil in short, under all circumstances of the mind or body, whether fortuitous or premeditated, exigent or voluntary, comes of use in course; and without [Page 19] it, with satisfaction and decorum, nothing trivial or important can be effected. I have described in my letter, No. 2, to your neighbour Louisa ******, the necklaces, bracelets and annulets they wear on their wrists and ancles; which but differ more or less from each other in mode or value, in proportion to the circumstances and taste of the women who wear them; which rings, &c. except the thumb ring wore by women of all degrees in Indostan, are all the trinkets that at present occur to me, belong­ing to them. The thumb ring is about the size of a common signet, of the diameter of a quarter of a dollar, and worn on the right thumb; the surface of it is a bright speculum of plain polished steel, or a bit of good looking-glass, set in a socket of gold, environed with little gems. They are cut out into ovals, perfect circles, or polygons, at the pleasure of the goldsmith or female it is intended for. This little mirror serves the women to adjust their hair by, pencil their eye-brows, accommodate to their fancy their veils, or contemplate their faces in, and ans­wers the purpose both of portable mirrors and orna­ments. There remains nothing now but the sash and the slippers to compleat the inventory of the decorations and dress of an Indostan female: The sash differs in nothing from the veil but in colour, (which is always by way of contrast different) and in dimensions, it being in general about one third less than the veil. These sashes they wear partly round their waists and partly round their bodies, as fancy or chance at times decides, with frequently one end of them circumflected round an arm, whilst the other end carelessly playing about will reach down to the bottom of their pizwawgees, and fall in with the border before or behind. Their slippers are either silk, velvet or red leather, and ornamented with spangles, and often with gems. They likewise [Page 20] use ramols, i. e. handkerchiefs, and are in as perpe­tual want of them, it may be supposed, in a cli­mate situate under one of the tropics, but do not convert the one and the same handkerchief to all the menial purposes Europeans do theirs, for their sto­machs would revolt at the idea of wiping their faces with the same ramol they had wiped their noses with; which is not the only instance of the delicacy of these women, for they are the epitome of neatness in body and apparel: in every other respect, bathing themselves, and having their hair comb'd out and cleansed, their bodies and clothes perfumed, their ears picked, and their nails pared at the same time, daily, not neglecting their teeth every morning; to preserve which and keep clean they rub with munjun, (a searching powder in use in those parts) and once a month apply mindy to their fingers, toe-nails, palms of their hands, and soles of their feet, which keeps them cool, and gives them a beautiful crimson tinge. [See in glossary further described.]

In this manner do the women in Indostan dress and adorn themselves, with little if any variation in those particulars, except in the different degrees of magnificence of their cloathing and intrinsic value of the auxiliary decorations.

No. 6. TO THE SAME.

AFTER having been diffusive in the description of Indostan women's dresses, it would be remissness in the extreme to neglect their persons; but wishing to deduce my criterions from particular observation rather than from instances, when discriminating the manners and habits of a nation, I shall now, as I am [Page 21] about depicting the scene that was represented to me the evening I arrived in Calcutta, by confining my animadversions to the characters alluded to, in a dis­play intended to discriminate only a particular cast or tribe, avoid including in the portrait the main body of the people or rather the females belonging to them; reserving for a more favorable opportu­nity such a general deliniation.

These women, amongst others, falling into the hands of Abdally, (stiled Amud Shah) by the fate of war, or paid him as an equivalent at different times, after a considerable devastation he had made with his army in Sarmarcand, Bochara, Circassia, and the confines of Persia, in different parties were sent to Shah Aullim, and Sarahjahdowlah, as presents, in expectation, 'tis supposed, of adequate returns: after which translation of these females, Sarahjahdowlah's army being totally defeated at the battle of Buxar, and dispersed, amongst other fugitives of his camp, these women having lost their lord and master, and flying to Shah Aullim for protection, and meeting there their former acquaintance, a connection cemen­ted under remarkable circumstances, sympathizing with each other's lot, in pathetic terms, in the hear­ing of Shah Aullim, the Emperor struck with the vicissitudes of their fortunes, they expressing a desire to live together, he ordered all those ladies in his presence by whom he had had no children, who were either related to, or had been formerly connected with this new arrived party; when, on their making their appearance, he not only gave the whole of them the choice of continuing with him in his Se­raglio, or seeking their fortunes elsewhere, but on their prefering the latter, dismissed them with hand­some presents, and gave them the appellation of Shahzadees, at the same time: they have retained that title eversince, and been respected accordingly, [Page 22] and by such Indostan families of the first rank, as knew their history, invited to and called upon to improve by their conversation and manners, their young male children and female connections, and even looked upon as precedents for behavior in the precincts of the Zunnannah [...] [...]f princes, or before whatever company they happened to perform, or be invited to visit; which should not be thought sur­prizing when women of this description, or less pre­tensions, are frequently called upon by both Maho­metans and Gentoos, on similar occasions, to improve their children; which the experience of ages has demonstrated to be the most successful mode of weaning children from their puerile habits, for by conquering in them early an aukward bashfulness natural to some, or a too prompt disposition to be forward and refractory, as peculiar to others: by their being frequently compelled to dress, and ap­proach their parents and relations with a chearful alacrity and respect, before a company from abroad, introduced for their edification and amusement, they as insensibly fall into a happy mediocrity of behavior, between downright effrontery and what the French call la mauvaise honte; for however inconsistent with our ideas of delicacy and decorum, and incompati­ble with the rigidity of European documents, the countenance given to women of this stamp in In­dostan may appear to be, their acting but according to the dictates of their consciences and the tenets of their respective religions, in a country where poly­gamy is lawful, and a plurality of female companions (ladies not conjoined by matrimonial bands) equally admissible; which gives a sanction to their proceed­ings, that amongst Gentoos and Mahometans not only exempts them from any imputation of immorality or irreligion, but renders them unexceptionable in the eyes of the main body of the people. It must [Page 23] not be thought surprizing, that from their infancy taught with care by able hands to dance, to walk, to sit down, and rise up in the easiest and most grace­ful attitudes the body will admit; instructed equally in sine needle-work, and reading and writing the Persian language, as well as vocal and instrumental music, by people declared enemies to all species of inebriety and intemperance or illiberal conversation, and as remarkable for their rigid observance of holy feasts and fasts, their punctuality in their daily de­votions and aptitude to give alms, from whom they imbibed these principles; were trained up and taught to know that their maintenance would depend solely on their personal accomplishments, the elegance of their dress and delicacy of manners and deportment, should be introduced occosionally as precedents for behavior, and held in estimation throughout an em­pire like Indostan.

The women in question, with respect to their per­sons, sprang from parents of one colour and sect, though of different nations; an obvious similarity of physiognomy, manners and make, were discoverable throughout the whole set; and to be conclusive, had I them to class as the Poets have classed the graces, (Juno, Pallas and Venus) I should have divided them into three parts, and stiled them Junos, Pallasses, and Venuses; for they equalled these historic God­desses in stature, proportion and attitude, and in my eye inheriting the prevailing characteristics of beau­ty, viz. an harmony of features and limbs, black sparkling eyes, long fine hair, and complexions and skins as clear as amber, and a shade lighter than wheaten straw, they might, except American and English women, vie with the whole globe in these particulars, and be stiled beauties of the superlative degree. I could have wished this Asiatic belle as­sembleè, had been constituted of characters less ex­ceptionable [Page 24] in the opinion of more refined nations in the European or American world, particularly those of the ladies; but as a description of such re­markable casts of women, and of the means by which they maintain themselves in splendor, cannot but tend to chracterise the voluptuous Bassas, Na­bobs and Rajahs, and licentious European Agents in these parts, on whose favors these females and all of the like stamp are dependent for a livelihood, and will demonstrate equally to what a degree the preju­dices of education, and religion founded on false principles, and irreconcilable with theology and morality, will influence the human mind, and biass a bigotted people, I could not but include the above matters in the series of my letters.

No. 7. TO THE SAME.

THE beatle brought in to regale this company with, as I wrote you in No. 4, was handed round for them to partake of, and then laid before them with the pondon, when they began to expatiate upon the goodness and quality of the leaf, and other of it's constituent parts, as the gentlemen around in­formed me, and by their looks and actions I judged was the case, which were so significant and expressive that without speech even were obvious indications of their minds.

These people, fond to excess of this beatle, which from their infancy they had been taught to chew like tobacco chewers, snuff-takers, or dram-drinkers amongst the Christians, among whom a long use of [Page 25] the intoxicating weed, spirituous liquors and cepha­lic fumes renders habitual, the sudden deprivation of goes as hard with, as the gratification of their de­praved appetites therewith must be pleasing. These Indostan women seem to expect their pan sapyary (the expression for beatle in the Indostan language) as much as these dram-drinkers, tobacco-chewers, and snuff-takers do their inebriating potions, and could probably as ill dispense with their daily auxilaries as these folks above hinted at, could pass without theirs, but with this material difference in favor of the one substitute and against the use of the other, that beatle sweetens the breath, preserves the teeth, is aro­matic in it's smell and balsamic in it's taste, without having any disagreeable medicinal twang, and by the addition or the dimunition of the cochineal and chu­nam can be rendered more or less astringent or con­coctive, as required, the juice in either cases that in­voluntarily escapes downwards being known to be an excellent stomatic, consequently salutary; whilst the auxilaries used by the others are pernicious to the ultimate degree, debilating mind and body, and carrying with them a train of consequences destruc­tive to mankind.

I left the women expatiating on the quality of the beatle, which they did with as much glee as a club of fashionable connoisseurs in wines would over a batch of Burgundy, when charging the red battalions they engage hob and nob with full bumpers in hand. This beatle besides it's other good qualities, cheers up the heart, and gives a zest to conversation, and in short, is held in such estimation in all parts of In­dostan, that the females at visits with as much assi­duity and punctilio as ladies in America or Europe wait on each other at tea, attend their visitors over their beatle, and pondans in which they keep their beatle, the little spoons and utensils and the different [Page 26] ingredients that constitute this beatle all together, and priding themselves on the utility, intrinsic value and magnificence of their pondans, which are in general made of the finest gold or silver filligre their appendages; a pondon is held as a very essential part of an Indostan lady's equipage.

No. 8. PETER SEGUIN, Gent. Dublin.

YOU was always fond of East-India intelligence, and I keep my word in writing to you from these parts, either Louisa or Anne ******, preserve co­pies of all the letters I transmit them or my acquain­tance, they will with pleasure submit them to your perusal, by which you will get initiated into the spi­rit of these miscellanies, without which you would be at a loss to form your criterions. A set of danc­ing girls having been sent for on my arrival in Ben­gal, to entertain me by their performances, I will give you a sketch of the plot and history of the comic opera that was played, and in my next send an account of the performance throughout, to some one or other of my correspondence, as usual.

The piece was called the Durrabas Sardar, (this is the deceitful Lord) and the persons of the drama were as follows: Sardarilly Kan, a sovereign Prince amongst the Patans, at war with the Sicks; Shah Jahan, Emperor of Indostan; a peerzadah, i.e. priest, and two eunuchs.

The women were, Mawtab, one of the Emperor's daughters, and Sittarradar, a Princess residing at [Page 27] Lahor with Zemroude, who had been seduced by Sardarilly Kan. Mawtab is contracted in marriage to Sardarilly Kan, whom the Emperor dispatches after this contract, to engage the Sicks, proposing the nuptials to be consummated on his return from battle, who having set off to meet the enemy, Maw­tab impatiently waiting her lover's return; but he paying his addresses to another lady at the same time, one Sittarradar, of Lahor (unknown to Maw­tab and the Emperor her father) after having ob­tained the victory, he sends a rich dooly with an em­broidered ramol as a private token to Sittarradar, in order to convey her incog. to the palace at Agra, where he proposes meeting her with a priest that shall join their hands immediately on her arrival; and prior to that, he having wrote two letters, one to Mawtab at Delhy, and another to Sittarradar, the Princess at Lahor, which letters, in the hurry of his affairs he making a mistake in the superscrip­tion, by addressing the letter intended for Sittarra­dar to Mawtab, and the one intended for Mawtab to Sittarradar; allowing Sittarradar sufficient time to pay him the proposed visit and return before Maw­tab could, from the nature of his appointment with her, reasonably expect him at the capitol, which opening an unexpected scene to these two ladies, (neither of which, as women of the first rank, could brook the idea of a competitor in their pretensions to the ascendency in matrimonial rights, the first wife amongst Mahometans, notwithstanding a plu­rality of wives is admissible, ever claiming a prero­gative over the rest) enraged at Sardarilly Kan's dissimulation, (though apart) these ladies formed similar plans, at meeting together at Delhy (being intimate from their childhood) they unbending their minds to each other, and concerting measures for ex­posing their deceiver, and being revenged on him for [Page 28] his perfidy to them, they put them into execution in the following manner; Zemroude, whom Maw­tab had taken for an attendant, compassionating her misfortune, jointly with Sittarradar opened the se­cret to her, and proposing to her to dress herself in Sittarradar's cloaths and jewels, and in the identi­cal Dooly sent for Sittarradar, and to set off for Agra and meet Sardarilly Kan at midnight (the time ap­pointed) in the Varando of a garden within the pa­lace, whilst they, disguised as Kistmutdars, would ac­company her with all expedition to Sardarilly Kan, who having been deluded by him, with eagerness consented to carry on the plot, that a strong simi­larity of age, features, voice, size and gesture, which subsisted between her and Sittarradar could not but considerably contribute to the success of.

These steps taken, the two heroines with the in­jured Zemroude set off for the metropolis of Agra, where at the time and place appointed by the Patan General, Zemroude (personating Sittarradar) meets her seducer, falls into his arms, and presenting him with a rich ramol embroidered with diamonds, sent as a token, and the letter that was received by Maw­tab, but intended for Sittarradar, not doubting the identity of the person she represents, the priest makes his appearance, and at an altar joins them in lawful marriage, Mawtab and Sittarradar being called upon as witnesses to the deed; all which personages by favor of their veils, notwithstanding the brilliancy of the lunar orb and the glare of the tapers, escaped to all intents and purposes discovery.

The nuptial knot tied by the Peerzadah, the the new married Prince with his Princess withdraws and retires to his Seraglio, leaving two eunuchs to guard the doors; Mawtab and Sittarradar witness to these transactions, and though overjoyed at the suc­cess of their undertaking on the one hand, but as [Page 29] exasperated, and with reason, at the chicanery of this Patan on the other, agreed to force their way into the Zunnannah and open the plot, and directly strove to burst the doors, in attempting which, two eunuchs opposing them, the Princesses draw their poignards against these eunuchs breasts, and oblige them to deliver up to them the keys, which they do with timidity and precipitation, when the scene changing to the Zunnannah, where Sardarilly Kan and Zemroude appearing arm in arm, Mawtab and Sittarradar throwing off their veils and appearing to Sardarilly Kan as Princesses, and Sardarilly Kan dis­covering his mistake, the conflict happens, when the two Princesses contemn this common deceiver, load him with bitter reproaches, spurn him from them and deride him, 'till at last Sardarilly Kan, provoked by their behaviour, by the trick that had been played him, and by his being made an object of ridicule by these Princesses, in the heat of his pas­sion he orders Zemroude to be strangled, but the Badshaw all this while apprized of what was going forward, and determined to see justice done, timely interfering, a stop is put to these rash proceedings, silence imposed all round, and immediate restitution to all parties ordered by Shahjahan from Sardarilly Kan, who is compelled to make good the settle­ments he had proposed when he promised the Prin­cesses marriage, by paying down the stipulated value of them, and ordered to make over his Jaghier to Zemroude, or swear to be loving and faithful to her during life, when choosing the latter, and begging pardon for his indiscretion, the piece ends more happily then it began.

No. 9. General letter to my CORRESPONDENTS.

YOU form one circle of correspondence, and communicate your letters I know to each other, I shall therefore in future not point out to any of you any more the methods you may take to get at this or that particular number, but leave it to your­selves to do as you please therein, as I shall confine my addresses entirely to this circle of my acquaint­ance; and thinking myself highly honored by the attention paid to my scralls, my study shall be to render them as worthy your acceptance as possible.

The persons among the dancing girls who were fixed upon to represent the characters in the drama, we may suppose a long while prepared before hand, and exercised in the like performances by such fre­quent representations, must have got their particular parts well off by heart, and be sufficiently adequate to the task. The parts of Mawtab and Sittarradar were to be acted by two young beautiful girls, whose real names taken from history happened to be the same as those of the personages they were going to represent: these girls moreover happening to be maidens, and as females in Indostan during the state of virginity are particularly distinguished and more than ordinary attended to during that state, before I proceed any further I will give you an account of them.—A girl that is a maiden never wears a pink or scarlet pizwage or skirt, except it is on the day of her wedding, when her friends if they think pro­per may invest her with this mark of distinction; and as an important indication of virginity the pearl that is wore in common and suspended by a little ring reeved through the middle snip of the nose and ad­mits [Page 31] the pearl down to the top of the upper lip, has during her virginity no collateral jems on each side like the middle pearls wore by the rest of her sex who have been joined in hymeneal bands, as an undeni­able mark of innocence and purity, nothing but the bare pearl drop on her lip appearing till after con­summation in marriage; and being in general the youngest of the females in a family, a greater atten­tion is paid to her by her connections, and more means used to improve as well as amuse her, particu­larly amongst the dancing girls, when a cheerabund, as the flower of the flock and favorite of the com­pany or set she belongs to, being on account of her youth the best calculated to please, no pains are spa­red to render her equally attractive in other respects by an extraordinary attention paid to the decora­tions of her person, that her superficial ornaments added to her natural charms and acquired accom­plishments, she may by being exhibited in the most advantageous point of view the more readily attract the eye of a Shazahdah; a Soubah, or opulent Rajah, or a rich young libertine amongst the English or French Toppe-wallas in their settlements at a notch, and by making a signal conquest of a man of fortune secure to herself and her friends a capital sum of rupees, with rich presents from the fascinated Syab, whom she has allured with her charms on taking leave; bestowed as an equivalent for the favors con­served and the sacrifice she has made of her charms to the lofty borrah Syab or pompous asiatic lord. The two persons pointed out to represent the two princesses, I have noticed; which with a spirited young female who was pitched upon to act the part of Zemroode, and two personable grown women larger than the rest, to do that of Shajahan, the Emperor and the Priest with two tall palled looking girls who were at hand to act the parts of the eu­nuchs, [Page 32] constituted the whole of the persons of the drama.

These leading characters dressed in a more con­spicuous manner than the rest of their comrades, to suit the occasion, advanced in front forming three Typhas, with Mawtab in the centre of the first, Sat­tarradar in the centre of the second, and Zemroode in the like position with respect to the third, when the opera opened, and was conducted in the follow­ing manner,—the Typhas thus in readiness, on the entrance of about ten Mossolljees with their lighted mossalls blazing in their hands, (which are flambeaux used all over India) fixed in brass handles, they al­tered their Typhas, and Mawtab between Settarra­dar and Zemroode, in trio, sang a song, the tune of which resembled in some measure the tune of 'Wa­ter parted from the sea,' &c.—This was accompa­nied by the Serindas, Tomtoms, and Beringealls; in the course of which scene the abused Princesses would interchange frowns and smiles in different ca­dence, rise and fall their voices, and modulate them to the different keys or pitch of the instruments of the band then playing, and to the measure of the tune in hand; which artfully adapted to the sense of the words, being alto and fortissimo, where com­plaints should be expressed in rage, and moderato adagio or piano, in less irritable altercations when the dialogue was cheerful, &c. &c. All this while the bodies and limbs of every musician belonging to the band was in motion, from the Serindawallas down to the Tomtoms and Beringealls; the Serindawallas notwithstanding the softness with which they drawed their bows across the strings of their viols, and the delicacy with which they stopped their fingers, would give at times such sudden exertions of their crests and shoulders, and violent retrogradations of their elbows, that a spectator who had never seen them [Page 33] perform before, would imagine they had thrown themselves into convulsive fits; and the same with the others in the different departments of their busi­ness. The Tomtoms and Beringealls being on oppo­site sides of the place, emulated in endeavouring to outdo each other in a variety of odd positions they put their bodies in, and as uncommon gesticulations they made with their limbs, and grimaces with their faces, by various aggravations of the features, and confronting each other like combattants who had entered the lists to decide some warlike dispute, would begin the contest by mutual nodding, wink­ing and beckoning across the saloon; after which the Tomtoms perhaps leading the van for the then present, would with fingers and thumbs (for those are all the implements they have to extort sounds out of the instruments with) in order to succeed without failing in the part they were playing at that particular juncture, shrink their heads to such a degree into the hollow formed, by shrugging up of the shoulders at the same time, in order to facilitate and humor the ratling the revilleè they were beat­ing with their fingers on their hollow instruments or Tomtoms, while the Beringealls not idle on their part, and equally ambitious to demonstrate their abilities, would draw up their mouths, grin and bite their lips, stare the opposite Tomtoms full in the face, then grasping their Berringealls, menace with them, seemingly, the Tomtoms; and continue this sport for some time in the following manner: the Serin­dawallas now conjoin both timbrels together, clap them in that position to one ear, and with incredi­ble rapidity and violence ding for half a minute or so, then rattle them over their heads, or with less violence when any soft tender air was playing, gently sound them within a respectful distance of the Prin­cesses ears; and on a transition of the tune from [Page 34] piano to fortissimo, from that position that was partly erect, suddenly bending their bodies downwards with their fists employed as before, as suddenly sweep the surface of the carpet on which they were standing, and looking eagerly at the performers in the face, however uneasy the posture they might be in by the unnatural curvature of their necks; whilst the ac­tresses on their part observing carefully their quee throughout the different scenes of action, accompa­nied this vocal and instrumental music with as great a variety of agreeable alterations in the disposition of their robes and the inclination of their heads and elegant positions of their feet and hands and arms; while the veils all this time, like different coloured ensigns and pendants waving about ships sterns and mast-heads in light intermitting breezes, circum­volving round these brilliant asiatic actresses in in­numerable gyrations, heightened the complexion of the entertainment, and obliged the company to con­cur that it transcended any theatrical performance they ever saw exhibited in Europe. Thus did they proceed, enveloping and developing themselves with their veils; sometimes exhibiting to full view their whole persons from top to toe, at others affording but as transient a glimpse thereof, whilst in a per­petual motion of their bodies and limbs, without jumping up or down or beating time with their heels, or crossing over and figuring in, as is done in hornpipes, jiggs, &c. amongst us, which they would esteem rude in a female to pretend to attempt; they went through the innumerable evolutions of the dance, to the end of the piece. This may convey to you a tolerable good idea of what is called in Indostan a notch; there remains now but to determine what name, with propriety, might be given to this asiatic entertainment, in English. In treating of it all along, I have occasionally called it an opera, a [Page 35] dance, or a dramatic performance, which latter in­cludes all productions of the drama whatever, and a name general to all theatrical productions, I thought with great propriety might be applied to a notch: they have all the properties of a dramatic piece, viz. an history, with an episode, a plot, and a counter-plot, which are well wound up and con­cealed, and the characters as well supported and contrived, replete with variety and incidndence; and the laws of time, place and action, as minutely observed, inasmuch that were these pieces to be acted in one of the Theatres in London, by his Majesty's comedians, they would meet with as general ap­plause as any opera that ever was acted; which lat­ter species of writing I think they should be classed amongst; but this disadvantage these operas labour under in Indostan, where no man cannot even as much as ride out in the same carriage with a female, or sit near her in public, without becoming an ob­ject of ridicule, it would be absurdity then to the last degree, and a subject of admiration and con­tempt, to see men and women indiscriminately mixed together on an occasion like the one I am alluding to; but for a man to offer to kiss a lady's lips be­fore a company, or take her in his arms, would be an offence that could not be pardoned, and conse­quently inadmissable in Indostan; which will suffi­ciently account for the women acting the part of men on these occasions, and the reason they have not public Theatres on purpose for exhibitions of this nature is as plain. The natives of Indostan fond of permanent things, and holding all scenery and picturesque representations of palaces and groves as puerile and tawdry, prefer carrying on their country dissipations in actual Saloons covered with rich Persian carpets; and superb Varandos, and na­tural august groves formed by nature, with some [Page 36] elegant edifice therein to retire to; and flattering myself that you will side with me in opinion of the rectitude of the Indostan gentry, in these last parti­culars, and in that of their notches being dramatic pieces that may come within the description of co­mic operas, I will conclude and bid you adieu.

No. 10. GEORGE C*******, esq Athy, in Ireland.

I Have now been in the country a considerable time, and a long intercourse with the natives, ad­ded to the knowledge I have acquired of the lan­guage, enables me to judge for myself in matters I was before obliged to be guided by others in: I can maintain a conversation with any people I have business with, dictate a letter, or listen to a history while reading to me, without being at a loss to understand its meaning; and it being a fine evening, I have been solacing myself in the varando of Plassey garden-house, and satisfying my curiosity in visiting the particular spots on these plains that Plassey gives name to, that have became the most remarkable and in a manner eminent for some important incident at the battle that was fought on them by major Clive, when he engaged the Soubah Serujahdowlah, where, after compleatly defeating him, this unhappy Prince in his flight fell a victim to the private re­sentment of a fellow of low stamp, who for theft some time before, had his ears cropt by order of his highness. A number of particulars were related to me concerning this battle, by some people who at­tended [Page 37] this garden-house, I have mentioned that per­haps I might transmit to you as matters that have escaped the observation of other writers, but shall decline it, I think, and prefer filling my letters with my own observations, and proceed in giving you an account of my voyage to this place from Calcutta. On the eve of my departure from Fort-William, be­ing employed to assist in a branch of a survey that was to be made in the province of Dacca and Chit­tagan, which latter place is at the bottom of the bay of Bengal, I was furnished with a Budgero, or rather allowed the hire of one I had bought a little before, a large Dinghy, with two cook-boats to carry and to dress the victuals in, and cook in besides when we should not make fast at some Gott, or run up some creek in the evenings, as is customary, with a little boat to pass and repass from the shore to the larger boats. In this Budgero I had embarked my Pa­lanquin and equipage in general, my naval and mili­tary department and houshold, if I may be allowed to use such lofty distinctions in so humble a sphere as I revolve in. My military consisted of an Huvle­dar and fifteen Seapoys, with their arms and am­munition, and two field pieces, four Gollandashes; which with two Classees, my Mangy and sixteen Dandees to govern and row the Budgero, and a Man­gy and sixteen Dandees to the Dinghies, with five men to each cook-boat besides, compleated my naval force; my own private equipage and attendants were as follow, a new and handsome Palanquin, with sil­ver dolphin's head and tail in their proper place, a sprightly sizeable tarsy horse, that cost me about fifteen hundred rupees, with European bridle and saddle and furniture, constituted my equipage; and my attendance were in the order and rank I have below placed them, leaving them to you to enume­rate,—Ramramboss my Banyan, a Bramin and of [Page 38] course a Gentoo, Syedillykan my Munsee or Persian school-master to teach me to write and read the Per­sian language; Mamadkan my Consommah or butler, and under him a Bobbojan or cook, and a Courageba­dar or market man, a Kittysawl boy to carry my umbrello, a Pankahbadar or fan-man, a Chowzeeba­dar, a little Callofringhy boy, two Mossowljees or flambeaux-men, a Mattarrany or woman room swee­per, a Sardar-bearer, and under him eight others, making nine bearers in all to carry my Pallanquin. The above were Ballasore bearers, which are the best of bearers, being remarkable for their activity, strength and cleanliness; add to these an Hookerba­dar and his assistant or man, and boy to take care of and trim my Indostan pipe; an Hadgeam or barber, a Doben or washer-man, a Durrahwan or porter to watch the door, a Fruss to brush my clothes and furniture, a Sitrigebadar or carpet-man, and a Hal­lacors, compleated the whole of my domestics.— The residue of my train being of quite a different stamp, as likewise the offices they filled, I shall place them apart:—imprimis, a Chubdar; secondly, two Peuns, and thirdly, two Harcarars. The business of the Chubdar was to announce the arrival of any person, and to usher him in, if permitted, who, as an emblem of his authority carries a Bamboo-mace in hand, covered with silver. The Peuns are a specious of military men, and are armed with daggers, swords and shields, and act the part of body guards. The Harcarars, who are Hendoos, are employed in no other service than that of delivering letters and messages, though it is part of the duty of either of the former to do either, or to arrest men they have controversial business with, collateral to this equi­page and to these attendants. My Banyan, Munsy, and Consommah, Chubdar and Peuns, had theirs; the Banyan had his Hackerries, Palanquin and Tanyon, [Page 39] or mountain horse, with double the number of ser­vants; for being a Bramin, his daily bathings, liba­tions and different calls of religion exacted a greater number of attendants than had he been of any other tribe or cast. The Munsy had his Tanyon, his Hoo­kerbadar and Syss, and one half of the servants at least each another servant to attend him. My tra­velling utensils and furniture, were as follow,—a tea equipage, in camp baskets covered with red leather, and carried by Bearers on Bamboo poles, when tra­velling by land; my wines in ditto, a silver Hooker, a Gallab perch, Chowrees, Punkahs, Chillam and Chil­lamchee, two Pig Dannies ^* and cooking utensils.

With this luggage, navigation and attendants, having every thing in readiness to depart early in the morning, I proceeded up the river, and in ranging the shore along passed by Bogbuzar, Barnagore, Chit­pore, and several other intermediate little hamlets and buzars. Bog Buzar is about two coss from Calcutta, and is where the company manufacture their gun-powder. Barnagore is two coss farther up the river and belongs to the Dutch, who have a counting-house there and a large flag-staff to hoist their colours on. Above Barnagore is Chitpore, an Hindoo hamlet, remarkable for having been the spot where Serajahdowlk's army encamp'd when he march­ed against Calcutta and sack'd it, which as an event that prov'd fatal to a number of Englishmen, and by which the company sustained a considerable loss, tho' related by Mr. Holwell in very striking and pathetic terms, who was then upon the spot, and narrowly escaped with his life, as a matter strictly connected with the subjects I am treating of; in my own words, and from accounts collected by myself I will relate.

[Page 40]Serajahdowlah, the Soubah of Bengal, a young voluptuous prince, too apt to be influenced by the advice of sycophants, in consequence of repeated complaints made to him of the English merchants encroachments on the lands, stands in buzars, wharves, rotts, and harbouring places of the Moors and Gen­ [...]s, his subjects, in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and at other of their settlements: likewise of the increase of cannon on the walls of their factories added to their repeated peremptory refusals of pay­ments of certain customs, that independent of their exempts of duties from the Sircar, the Soubah thought himself entitled to, and their having confined and punished a Patan for some slight offence he had given one of the companies factors, and was then in actual service of the Nabob, a fellow who likewise had served him in his pleasures on repeated occasions. Serajahdowlah resenting this behaviour, and wishing to pay his eastern territories a visit, having the ex­pulsion of the English in view, with a large army of Indostan cavalry marched from Muxadabads to Chit­pore, where he encamped; when the chief of the English settlement, apprised of his approach, dis­patched one of his factors to know the reason of such an oftensible appearance, but the messenger being treated cheap, and receiving no satisfactory answer, returned to Calcutta; and the Soubah's ar­my approaching, some of the English inhabitants saved themselves with what effects they could muster on board the ships in the river, while the chief, with Mr. Holwell, and a few of their acquaintance, plant­ed at the most eligible passes of the town, four or five pieces of cannon, and stood ready to oppose their en­trance, and on their striving to force their way sword in hand, the English killed a considerable number of their horse, and made such a devastation amongst them, that had there been but people sufficient to [Page 41] supply their artillery and ammunition in proportion, they would have, as it was thought, frustrated their designs so far as to have withdrawn the most valua­ble of their effects, and secured them on board the shipping; but fatigued with the working and load­ing of their guns, without necessary reliefs, &c. they were obliged to fly and retreat into the old fort and other recesses of the town for safety, when the Sou­bah entering with his troops, they plundered the houses and stores, and ended the evening in the ruin of Calcutta and the death of one hundred and forty-five Englishmen, who were suffocated during the night, in a place called the black-hole, fronting the interior gate of the old fort. This melancholy affair was ascribed to the rash and premeditated orders of the Nabob: ^* but without palliating the matter or exculpating him from blame, this was the case as represented to me, by people of undoubted veracity, who were witnesses to the whole transaction. Some of the stores taking fire in the old fort after the ene­my had possessed themselves of the place, the English who were then under a guard, alarmed for their safety and not knowing but the incineration was done de­signedly, in order to get rid of them by burning them in their barracks, forced their way out, and being seized on by the Seapoys, they were clapped into the black hole, a dark subterranean dungeon belonging to the fort, about 20 feet square, which had but one small window to let the air in, below the level of the ground, and secured with iron bars; where the close­ness of the place and the want of water, and fresh air for respiration, one hundred and forty-five of them perished as above mentioned. The dimensions of the place were unknown to the officer of Seapoys who commanded the party that had imprisoned these [Page 42] Europeans, and when application was to have been made to the Soubah, for to exchange their place of confinement, he had unfortunately retired within the precincts of his Zunnannah, where it was impracti­cable to have access to him, or the untimely death of these unhappy men might, tis probable, have been prevented; but neither that step nor several others that Mr. Holwell, who escaped the fate of his comrades, had taken for their preservation, answered any essential purpose. The Soubah immerged in his pleasures, and his troops employed, some in resting themselves and others in dividing their spoils, the repeated cries of the prisoners, panting and gasping for air and water, unattended to, they died in a heap, in the happening of which catastrophe, if the Sou­bah was reprehensible in any thing, it was the little attention, 'tis said, he paid to the news that was brought him the morning following of the death of these people, when it was suggested he would have punished the commandant of Seapoys for his remiss­ness in not examining into the size of the prison before he ordered such a number of men into con­finement; but calling for his Hooker, whilst smoak­ing it, instead of attending to the matter in question, tho' serious enough in its nature to have exacted a greater share of his attention, he satisfied himself with saying, Allap kuhhookum, i. e. The will of God. Waw toppee walla kuh nasseeb, and the hat men's lot; some weeks after which he returned towards his capitol, thinking he had effectually routed the En­glish out of his dominions, but disappointed in that, and the immense quantity of riches he thought to have possessed himself of, by surprizing and plun­dering Calcutta, which was, if not a primary, a secondary motive for his making this descent: pro­voked at his disappointment and the fallacious re­presentations which had been made to him of the [Page 43] wealth of this settlement, he determined on making an example of the person who had infused those no­tions into his head, and sending a messenger for the identical man, a fellow who under the colour of religion had acquired the character of a pious and sincere Mahometan, tho' in fact an hypocrite and deceiver, taxing him with his imposture, ordered him to be strangled and thrown into an old tomb on the road side, as he was on his march within about four or five coss of his capital, with an alcoran that he had clasped to his breast, and a bunch of beads in his hands that he had used to carry continually about him. This unfortunate Mussulman having been informed by Fakirs and other emigrants of as little credibility, that the Toppee Wallas at Calcutta possessed immense riches in their stores, tho' but meerly chimeras, infused into his brain by these itinerant enthusiastics, he to flatter the ideas of the prince and to induce him to plunder a place, in the despoiling of which he guessed he might have be­come a gainer (in a private audience he had demand­ed of him) imparted those matters to him as facts, induced him to precipitate a step he might other­wise probably have declined.

These anecdotes I thought proper to introduce, as they contribute to shew the temper of this man, and to point out by what an unexpected chain of events the credit of the English factors in Bengal was re-established, and the overthrow of this restless young Prince brought about; who not many months after fell a victim to the resentment of the English, by their contrivance, and lost his life in a disgrace­ful manner in the fray, for major Clive arriving with commodore Watson, from Europe, he engaged one Meer Jaffier Alli Kan, a Syed of some repute, who was then a general under the Soubah, to head an army against his master, in consort with the Com­pany's [Page 44] forces, then consisting of about 600 Euro­peans and a small train of artillery, headed by major Clive, who having previously agreed to give this Meer Jaffier the Soubahship of Bengal for his services, with this Indostan army and European detachment they gained the plains of Plassey, situate on the banks of a branch of the river Hughly, about thirty coss from Calcutta, and twenty coss from Muxada­bad's, where the Nabob was encamped with an army of a thousand cavalry and infantry, besides a large train of artillery posted to advantage in the topes of Plassey; which Clive's army approaching, and be­ginning to annoy with their field pieces, the Soubah's forces sallying out, headed by himself, and the con­federate troops advancing at the same time, a gene­ral engagement took place; when the Soubah's troops unable to withstand the brisk fire of the En­glish platoons and artillery, giving way, they were soon put to flight, and quit the field with a conside­rable loss sustained on their side; when Jaffier Ally Kan, in whose name the battle was fought, having gained a complete victory through the craftiness of Clive, in front of the two armies, was proclaimed Soubah, and conducted to Muxadabads to take the place on the musnud of the vanquished Prince, who had exalted him to great honors, and intrusted him with the second in command of his troops; when Serajahdowlah, averse to falling into the hands of the enemy, not trusting to his elephant or a horse that was offered him to retreat on, he dismounted and concealed himself in a valley of thickets, where being discovered and known by a man he had not many months before punished by cropping his ears, this vindictive Moorman recollecting the injury, taking him by surprize, split his scull with a battle-ax, and afterwards cut his head off and carried it to Jaffier Ally Kan.—From Chitpore, in my Budgero, to [Page 45] Sirampore, a danish settlement about four coss to the northward of Chitpore, during this interval, my time was employed in viewing the different scenes that successively presented themselves as the Budgero was tracted by Coolies up the river; a method adop­ted by all the navigators of the great Ganges, and its largest or inferior branches; the rapidity of all which streams are so great that no boat with wind alone, except in the months of November, Decem­ber and January and February, when southerly winds set in, whose influence extends more or less to some distance up the country during about four months of the year, one half of which it will, as observed, at times blow fresh enough to send even heavy laden burs up the Ganges, against a very strong current, without tracting, but the only cer­tain dependance of getting up the Ganges, the river Hughly and the Gogra, and in short up all the rivers that are frequented by boats of trade and passage in this country, being by tracting, a method from time immemorial used in these parts, the Dandies and Mangies, and people who have the conduct of these boats, having a very successful knack in tract­ing them, as matters that might tend to the infor­mation of future European or American adventu­rers disposed to direct their pursuits towards these parts, I will describe their method: they have small but well made cotton lines, about three times the thickness of whip-cord; these lines they fasten to the vessel's mainmast-head, after reeving them thro' smooth thimbles or rings that are spliced into lines that can occasionally be cast off or hauled down to the vessel's bow, as may be required to keep her from (what in the sea phrase is called) shearing broad off from the shore, which without this pre­vention they would be very apt to do. These lines are always made of a sufficient strength to sustain [Page 46] any jerk they may receive from a sudden zigzag mo­tion of the vessel, when repelled on the bow or the quarter by the violent retrograde direction of the stream, and long enough to afford a sufficient scope for the vessel to keep always at a safe and convenient distance from the strand, and equally to admit of six, ten, fifteen or twenty coolies, more or less as may be required, to haul the vessel along shore by this tracting line, which coolies, the conductors of boats belonging to the Company in Bengal, are never at a loss to obtain; a Harcarar being sufficient at any time, or on any occasion, to supply that defecct by only shewing himself in the out-skirts of a town, or village, and calling out Begary! Begary! When whether Zemindars busied in making or repairing their granaries, in grinding grain or sugar canes, howing, harrowing or ploughing, or mechanics of any denomination whatever, weavers, masons, car­penters, smiths, taylors, and in short, men of all the above descriptions, at the signal given for Begaries, must quit their respective occupations, however deeply engaged in them, and away with the Har­carars to draw the Toppee Wallas boats along, or if travelling by land, to carry their luggage, in as much that the loom, agriculture, mechanics with all its branches, must be thrown aside till the Company is served; and as a discovery of the least repugnancy to obeying these unreasonable orders of the folks belonging to these Toppe Wallas, be attended with smart Chaw Bucking (i. e. whipping) these subor­dinated people knowing the consequences of hesita­tion or being refractory, on the appearance of the above-mentioned emissaries, will flock round them with submission till they shall have assembled perhaps double the number wanted, when one half of those there should be no need of: on their bribing the Har­caras or Seapoys with two or three rupees, or more [Page 47] or less, in proportion to their number and circum­stances, will be dismissed, and those that are detained frequently stripped of their turbans, which will be lodged on board as forfeitures, in case they should give them the slip. These Coolies will tract the boats from the place they were taken from to the next habited spot, let the distance be long or short, when the same steps will be taken to obtain fresh hands, and the last catched Coolies after sallaming released, it being an established custom amongst the inhabitants of this country, never to leave a person he has been treating with or been employed by, without Sallam­ing him first, and these Coolies, according to custom of the country; on parting will be very strenuous in obtruding their Sallams to the Peuns, Harcarars and Seapoys, or any of the attendants belonging to the boats they had been tracting, tho' in return to their compliments they will be sure to meet with abuse. These Indostan hirelings under the Company valuing themselves on the important offices they fill, imagine they show their consequence by treating the inhabi­tants cheap, as verified, not only in this instance, but in others, will generally return their compliments with kicks and cuffs.—I shall now return to the thread of my narrative and continuing my account of my voyage up the river Hughly to Plassey.

Our proximity to the shore in sailing along, af­forded me all the opportunity I could wish to survey the country, its buildings, animal and vegetable produce; the images of which are lively in my mind, I think I see them now in the Budgero I then was in. Figure to yourself a large river, bounded by a flat sandy beach, with a bank of tough earth and clay cut through with gutters running in an oblique di­rection to the front, made by the descent of the wa­ters during the rains, at a distance sufficient to admit two or three carriages driving abreast between it and [Page 48] the stream, and you will have a tolerable good idea of the side of the river. The country, which is in general level from Calcutta to Muxadabads, runs back in plains to a considerable distance till it meets the Burampore hills, and others that divide it from the southern provinces and the Decan, which inter­spersed with little groves and lone trees here and there in the midst of fields and verdant plains, gives it a rural and pleasing prospect. These lands are of a rich soil, and favorable to the production of grain or vegetables, and the trees in general are as friendly in bearing variety of fruits.

The groves I mentioned are of the utmost utility to the country and its inhabitants;—in them the Mahometans and Gentoos have their places of wor­ship, Mosques and Pagodas, public Bagnios and wells, or reservoirs of water. If a Mosque, and situate in one of these groves, a Fakir or a Peerza­dah will have his abode there, and sometimes six or seven others of the same denomination with him, constant residents, and perhaps proprietors by inhe­ritance or by purchase; Mahometans and Gentoos both frequently buying of the Sircar districts for an abode during life or pleasure, in one of these shady, solitary or frequented spots. If the grove is occupied by a Gentoo Fakir, a Bramin or Byrahghy, it is as likely he may be accompanied by some of his sect as not, but seldom or ever a Fakir, whether Gentoo or Mahometan, is without a man or a boy to keep his company and attend him. In these groves, let the proprietor be what sect he will, an alter will be erected of mud, brick or stone, with a turret over the platform, and a pedestal for an alco­ran to lie on, if a Mussulman; and if a Hendou, there will be in the place of an alcoran the figures of a Branim, Braminbull, Jaggernaut, or Krisnou Swamey, hewed in stone or cut in wood. These [Page 49] Fakers making these places their constant home, have likewise at least a little shade made of thatch, to keep of the dew whilst sleeping, and a kind of a cook-room to put their utensils in, with a fire-place adjacent to dress their victuals at; which fire-place being nothing but three lumps of baked clay stuck on the surface of a little terras of the same material, rose about two inches from the ground, that they smooth at the top by wetting their hands and then rubbing them over it 'till it is even, are made with little trouble; so that a traveller can be provided with victuals, be accommodated with a fire-place, with wood for fuel; which article can also be ob­tained as readily, it being scattered all over the country amongst the bushes and trees; fire is like­wise to be had at these Fakir's stands, as they never are without tinder, flints and matches.—These groves serve likewise for the cattle to retreat to in the middle of the day, as well as all kinds of repo­sitories for travellers: in the neighbourhood of large towns or villages, or in the vicinity of thick settled parts of the country, these groves, with which all Indostan is shaded, are the spots fixed upon for their most superb Pagodas and Mosques, particularly the latter, in Bengal, where the Gentoo religion has from immemorial and centuries back, had such innumerable adherents, and where Brumma being perhaps born, and his doctrine first originated, the discipline of it has since been so tenaciously observ­ed; which together with the number of rich, super­stitious Hindoos, who at the instances of the Bra­mins, and as munificent and liberal Rajahs, that during their lives and at their deaths bequeathed as many more for the same purpose; together with the innumerable donations from the various resort of the Hindoo tribes, who from all parts of Indostan annually flock down to the Pagodas to pay their [Page 50] devotions and compleat the different vows they have made to their respective divinities, by way of expiation for their sins, may account principal­ly for these temples being in greater number in Bengal than in any other part of Indostan.— The superb appearance of which buildings, situated amidst these verdant groves, excited my curiosity to take a closer view of them, (particularly a remarka­ble large one about half way between Syram Pore and Chandernegore). I quit my Budgero, and with my Banyan and Munsy, made a little incursion from the place we landed at, ordering the boats to pro­ceed up to Hugly, and directed our steps towards this Indian temple, It stood in the middle of a large grove of mangoe trees, the fruit of which being ripe, and some of them presented us by a Bramin, atten­dant on this building, we ate of them and I thought it delicious fruit. An avenue cut thro' this grove lead up to the front of the Pagoda, a very lofty pile, and of some considerable magnitude. It stood on an oblong platform of bricks, with a revetement of fine white Chunnan about six feet rose from the sur­face of a large esplanade pavement, composed of the same materials, that extended every way about forty yards from this platform. On the platform, which I take to have been thirty yards by sixty, was erected the temple, consisting of one compleat square, and a lofty hall in the midst, included within four larger exterior apartments that had all arched entrances at right angles, with little columns at their gate-ways or entrances, whose pedestals were demi-urns cut through the conjugate diameter of their out-lines, and inverted, which met pine apples rector on the top, from the bases of which ran diminishing regular­ly upwards, fluted columns that met capitals corres­ponding with whole pines above, with a cornish that in the larger columns went round the building both [Page 51] within and without side these apartments, were niches in the walls, with seats large enough for to sit down cross-legged; and another story above this were correspondent apartments, much in the same stile, but with the addition of a gallery that went all round and was ornamented with balconies that projected considerably without the main body of the building. The second story was flat, and above it ran the up­per part of the Pagoda, in form of a pyramid, with a number of narrow niches and arched slips and peep holes in it; in which was hung, according to the custom of all the large Pagoda's, a set of bells about the size of ting-tangs, that the Gentoos ring on fes­tivals. On the sides and angles of this upper terras, were other less spires and turrets, with a bullastrade all round, and little balconies at convenient intervals, without which, supported by a double colonade of large pillars, whose pedestals met the out-line of the main oblong platform below, was carried round on a flat roof parade, covered with cement, about thirty feet in breadth and two hundred and forty feet in length, the two longest sides which was screened with a wall of six feet in height, divided into niches and arched windows, filled up with chequers, or brick work, like pidgeon holes, that let in the light, and answered the purposes of windows. Upon this wall, at equal distances, stood urns and pine apples, and both within and without, in every other nich, in has relief, were the figuers of men, some mounted on bulls, others on rams, and others on fishes, pea­cocks and Braminy kites, with a variety of other extravagant representations of men with enormous heads and large eyes, and a number of hands and arms projecting out from their bodies, with figures representing demons, with horns to their heads and claws to their hands and feet, and wings to their bodies, with the ugliest aspects can be conceived, all [Page 52] which were characters taken out of the Hindoo's holy writ. The Vidam and Shastra which matters were learnedly expatiated on by my Banyan and a Bramin belonging to the Pagoda, that accompanied me as a virtuoso and antiquarian, to explain the inscriptions that were written under many pieces of statuary, and tell me in brief, the names and histories of the various idols with which the walls of this Indian temple were invested; that he did indeed extremely to my satisfaction. From this gallery I had a nearer view of the upper part of the Pagoda, that diminished by degrees into a point, in about the proportion of the pictures of the pyramids of Egypt. On the top of which pyramid was a large gilt copper flat-rim form­ing a circle of about four feet diameter, traversed cross wise with two other flat pieces of gilt copper, the same dimensions of the outward rim, which was fixed with its plain perpendicular to that of the ho­rizon (facing the east) on an iron rod, measuring ten feet from a gilded ball it passed through. On the upper part of this circle was a figure, resembling a trident, with this difference, that it had five prongs on which were inscribed five black letters, in the character of the Shastrah, which were the initials of five mysterious cabalistical names, viz. Shey Ou Dee Ou Dee, the sense of which is only known to the Bramins; and every cupola, dome or spire, belong­ing to the building, had these prongs on their tops, or the holy leaf of the Peepal tree—a tree held in such veneration amongst the Hindoos that they never wound its body or presume to pluck a leaf from its boughs; only daring to take them up when they fall, or are blown down by the wind: and as a greater argument of the important lights it is considered in by these people, a Gentoo to swear by this leaf, whe­ther the oath he takes be administered to him by a Bramin in a court of judicature, or on a less public [Page 53] occasion, it is held as sacred as though he had sworn by the holy water of the Ganges.

The large pillars that went round the building were much in the same stile as those small ones I have already described, forming lofty and spacious Varandos on all sides of the Pagoda. In the four sides of the building were four porticoes, supported by eight pillars on each side, projecting out from the range of their respective calonades, square with the flights of steps that lead up to the platform on which the main body of the building stood with balconies and cupaloes over them.

In the centre of the middle chapel there was erected an altar, on which stood the figure of a bull sitting, with four small bull calves at the corners, in butting positions: the Gentoos worshiping these idols, it is customary for them to accompany their adora­tions with offerings of Ghee, milk, honey, cream, sugar, sweet-meats and money, which offerings being brought from all parts adjacent to the Pagodas, by the inhabitants, a considerable quantity of donations daily are accumulated, which monies and vegetable food these inanimate bulls and calves having no need of, fall to the lot of more rational creatures, viz. Bramins, who frequent, and in a manner reside in these places of worship, a part of which will be bestowed by them on the Byraghees that occasionly visit these temples, and make them places of tem­porary abode. Fronting the entrance of the middle chapel was a gygantic figure of Jagernaut, to whom the Pagoda is dedicated, and in niches in the other sides of it, were, in a less proportion, the represen­tation of the various births, lives, and transmigra­tions of Chrisnou Swamey, from his first being born of a woman, and then transmigrated into a hog, and from that into a fish, until his translation to heaven according to the Shastrah.

[Page 54]Without the whole pile of building on the angles of the esplanade were four elegant little Pagodas, in the form of Pentagons, with gilded spires and prongs on their tops, resembling those on the lar­ger pyramid. Having sufficiently satisfied my cu­riosity in the examination of this temple, accompa­nied by my Banyan and a few attendants, I pro­ceeded in my Palanquin to Chandernagore, the head settlement belonging to the French, in Bengal, where I was received with politeness by mons. Jean Babtist Chevalier, the then governor, and some gen­tlemen of his factory; and passed from thence to Chinchura, the first Dutch presidency in Bengal, and met my Budgero and people at Hughly, a large town belonging to the Nabob, about four coss to the northward of Chandernagore, where resides a Fazdar.—This city is situated on the banks of the river it gives name to; it is very populous, but the streets irregular, and the houses in general in decay; but commanding a pass, the Nabob, and Company, have their Choques there to examine the Dustocks, and take duties,—the latter having erected a bat­tery there to command respect, as it is one of the greatest thorough-fares by land and water between Calcutta and Patna. All the Burrs laden with salt, transient Budgeroes, Dinghees and fleets of boats laden with goods, going up or coming down the river Hughly, being obliged to send off a Nabob's or Company's Dustock, or hawl along side the gott, and be examined by the Choques, fixed there to collect the customs. It being about sun set when I arrived there, I quit my Palanquin and went on board my Budgero, where I had not been long before a Chubdar from the Fazdar brought in his master's Sallam with a customary present, called in India Meersmahny; consisting of goats, fowls, eggs, ghee, butter, sugar, milk, fruit, sweet-meats, and twenty rupees in cash. [Page 55] This custom of sending presents to travellers of any credit, from the chief man of the town, on the first of their arrival, in proportion to the rank they dis­cover they bear, is as ancient as laudable, as inva­riably observed throughout Indostan by both Maho­metans and Gentoos, who daily send eatables to their respective places of worship in the towns or villages they belong to, for the supply of the various tribes of itinerant Fakirs, or pilgrims and fanatics, who traverse the boundaries of this extensive empire, viz. Hadgees, Hafusts, Taveegewallas, Hackeems, amongst the Mussulmen, and amongst the Hindoos, Bramins, Byraghees, Bambollahnautmen; either of which sects, without infringing on the rigid precepts of their re­spective religions, by which means, from the mouth of the great Ganges to the westernmost limits of Indostan, a distance of fifteen hundred miles, and from Cape Comorin, the southern promontory of this empire, to the foot of the mountains of Thibet, in length two thousand miles, can the wearied tra­veller find a place to repose in, and sustenance as well as the wealthy merchant, or Sardar, in this country, who though pagans and infidels, their pre­dominant characteristics notwithstanding, are un­paralleled urbanity and hospitality.

After returning my compliments to the Fasdar, it being new moon, which had just made its appear­ance, my Munsy, Banyan and attendants, with their hands spread out and Rupees in them, looking up to the lunar orb, began to mutter (the Mussulmans in Arabic, and the Gentoos in the language of the Shas­trah) prayers, seemingly of congratulations for the return of this brilliant concomitant; when the Mus­sulmans, as usual, beginning their prayers with the words bissimallah! nirrouhah, alloim! and ending aloud with the words an sharlot allah! whilst the Gentoos called out as loud in the language of the Shastrah, [Page 56] krisnou govendro ram ram! hurreekus houry houry!— This done they sallamed me, and my Banyan, on the part of the Gentoos, presented me with a stem of Indian corn, and the Mussulmans with a saucer full of grated cheese and sugar candy; which car­ries this emblem with it, that salt and sweets go to­gether; whilst the Gentoo gifts implies a wish for the increase and multiplying the human species. After this the Mossalljees lighted their mossalls, and my Banyan, Munsy and attendants, sallamed me anew and retired. The new moon as one of the most adjacent and conspicuous orbs in the creation, the Asiatics, both Mahometans and Gentoos, cele­brate its appearance with remarkable solemnity, making it as a general rule when night comes on to light their lamps, tapers and flambeauxs, and at the same time to pay their compliments to their masters. I was at last left alone but soon interrupted by the appearance of a well dressed, handsome fellow, per­haps twenty years of age, who brushing by the Chubdar and a Seapoy that attended, and presented me with a Rupee as a Nazur, which I accepted, and asking his business, he was interrupted in his answer by the harsh language and frowns of my Chubdar and a Seapoy; who displeased perhaps more at his having got access to me without a silver pass, than at his audacity in approaching without their leave, began to reprimand him, and were for turning him out, but I detained him and bid them desist, when my servants interfering again, notwithstanding the countenance I had already shown this fellow, and provoked with the business they knew he had come upon, told me he was a Burawwaw, i. e. a pimp, and that I must permit them to drive him away, when without any further ceremony they dismissed him, by which visit I discovered the large cities in Indostan were no more than those in Europe desti­tute of Mercuries for the negociation of business carried on incognito.

No. 11. OLIVER *********, esq in the Temple, London.

I WAS happy to understand by your letter from Blackheath that my Hooker got safe as I directed, and that you received the little alcoran, the piece of the Shastrah, and Mallabar letter, written with an iron skewer on a couple of palm leaves, that I sent you; they will serve you as specimens of their writ­ing and the different characters they use, until an opportunity offers to transmit you some account of their language. I repent I did not address my let­ters to but one person alone, instead of distributing them amongst a number of my acquaintance; but that would have prevented my keeping my promise with them all. Should they swell out big enough to form a little volume—should I live to return to the Western Hemisphere, perhaps I may publish them. In the interim they must remain in different hands as directed. I was relating the account of my passage from Calcutta to Hugly, by land and water, where I had arrived, and remained all night with a few Seapoys and attendants, in boats on a branch of a survey I had set off to assist in. In the morning by day light, the boats cast loose and tracted up the river, and next morning arrived at the place I date my letter from.

On my arrival at the Gott I saw a greater num­ber of people than ordinary in a cluster, a little above the landing, when I took a walk to the spot to see on what occasion they had gathered together; it was a Gentoo, a man of the Bramin cast, who had died about an hour before, whose corps they had conveyed to the water side, to perform his obsequies [Page 58] rites over a pile, which was made of dry sticks and pieces of Bamboo that was about five feet above the ground, in the construction of which a kind of order seemed to have been aimed at, by their having laid the sticks as nigh as they could in squares, and crossed them with others in the diagonals; the lower part of which pile was limited by two long Bamboos and two short ones, forming a long square, and between this bottom and the top were parallel to those at equal intervals, two sets more of such Bamboos placed in the like manner, and another correspondent set of Bamboos above all, which were fastened with lines leading across the main body of the pile. On this was laid the corps extended, and an earthen pot, filled with water that having been mixed with the water of the holy Ganges, became by confluence and adoption both related to the sacred stream. The widow and her children, with all the female relations, stood apart on the left side of the hill, and the male relations opposite to them on the right side: a Bra­min then pulled off his Lungah, as did the eldest son of the deceased, (a boy about 11 years of age) when both he and the Bramin, after pouring the water out of their Loutahs over their heads and bodies, and making libations by pouring water likewise into the river, and some into the palms of their hands, mut­tering in a low key, with great precipitation at the same time, a number of words, and at intervals hold­ing their hands towards the sun, and locking the backs of their hands together by interlinking their fingers and thumbs in the manner baskets are begun at the making of their handles, and forming there­with a variety of circumplications, which part of the ceremony over, the Bramin, with an air of true so­lemnity, addressing himself to Bogwan, i. e. the su­preme God, with his eyes and hands directed towards heaven, expatiated in truly philosophic terms, on the [Page 59] shortness of life—the certainty of death—the expe­diency of making the most of our time, and improv­ing the gifts of nature, by the contemplation of sublime things and the conquering our passions, that when transmigrated into another body; whether the body of a reptile, a bird, or a beast, which ever it should please Bogwan, the ruler of all things, to send the fugitive soul into, by having been habituated to re­striction it might undergo the next change with less pain or uneasiness, which in comparison to the changes that have already happened, in created existencies since the creation, and future ones that would take place before the ultimate and general translation of souls into celestial bodies and classes; and conjunc­tion of spirits was no more than a grain of sand com­pared to the mountains of sand that line the seas and dreary desarts. It behoved man, as he had observed, to be prepared for such vicissitudes, that by a speedy gradation of purifications, obtained by the observ­ance of the above precepts, they might the sooner attain to perfect felicity, as the soul was immortal and incapable of annihilation, and would in the end join with Bogwan, the creator of all things. The similarity of which doctrine to that contained in the metempsychosis of Pythagoras, render it highly pro­bable to have originated therefrom; which oration over, the Bramin whispered the son of the deceased in the ear, who immediately took from one of the company, with his left hand that he put behind his back, a whisp of straw, whilst in the other hand he held a fire brand, both which he kept apart by ex­tending his arms at the full length; when the Bramin taking a new Gennony, or Bandelier, that he took from off his own neck and shoulders, and putting it over the departed Bramin's, he took the earthen pot of holy water, springled him with it, and dashing it afterwards into the river, made a signal to light the [Page 60] pile, which the youth did in an instant, on which the relations and friends approaching, each throwing an handful of rosin mixed with frankincense, on it, while the Bramin called out aloud, Hourrykas, Hourrykas, Krisnou Govendro, Ram Ram,—which words, the spectators all joining in and repeating, amidst these invocations, the pile rapidly taking fire, the corps presently burnt up to cinders, and the company went singing a plaintive song to the house of the deceased.

No. 12. GEORGE CHAPMAN, esq Athy, in Ireland.

YOUR curiosity has been excited at my relating to you the manner the Spaniards fight the bulls at Barcelona, Valentia, Malaga, and other parts in Spain; I will now give you an account of a fight I was witness to last week, of elephants, rhinoceroses, tygers, and wild buffaloes. The Nabob was visited by a brother of the Nizam, and some other men of distinction from the Decan, at the same time, and meaning to compliment them with an elephant fight, amongst other diversions he gave orders to that ef­fect, and preparations were made accordingly. At the foot of the city of Muxadabads runs a little ri­ver that divides it from Moradbaugh, a village on the opposite shore, remarkable for the number of beautiful gardens and pleasure houses of former Na­bobs and great men, viz. Jaggertfeet, reputed to be the richest banker in the world, and other opulent men, living and deceased. In the kingdom of Ben­gal, on the eastern side of this rivulet, stands the [Page 61] killah or palace of the Soubah, a large pile of build­ings, or rather concatenation of buildings, consti­tuted of a number of large courts or squares that contains the Zunnannahs, Seapoys barracks, parks of artillery, arsenals, stables, and elephant stands, and all the different offices belonging to the Sircar of the Soubah; fronting which rivulet, over a gate­way, were a number of galleries and a large balcony that had communication with one of the Soubah's presence-chambers; opposite to which, on the other side of the river, was a sandy plain about half a mile in length and one eighth in breadth, bounded by a stout high garden-wall that ran partly parallel to the edge of the river, perpendicular to which a line of houses run down to the waterside, which with several horsemen, and men on camels, and footmen together, that were assembled on the southernmost part of the plain, formed an oblong square in the front of the opposite palace; the inside of which being reserved for the combatants, it was kept clear by the horsemen, who kept galloping up and down for that purpose; which crowd with the populace on the top of the garden walls, and those that filled the windows and apartments of the houses to the north­ward, and the balcony and galleries of the palace, comprehended the whole number of spectators, and composed an amazing concourse of people. The combat was to begin at eight o'clock in the morn­ing, at which time the Soubah, magnificiently dres­sed, appeared with his company, and Aumeers at­tending him, in the balcony described; when the nobut that had been playing ceased, and a discharge of artillery was made, it being the concerted signal for the fighting elephants to begin the combat; a female elephant, by her driver, was then pushed on to the middle of the plain, when two large elephants from opposite sides of the square, made their appear­ance: [Page 62] these elephants had, previous to this recoun­tre, been painted, after first being well washed and scrubbed with pumice stone in the river, whilst lying on their sides; which operation these creatures (fond of wallowing in water) conform to with alacrity and pleasure; after which being exposed to the sun, their skins drying and growing hot, they rubbed them with linseed-oil, which the heat of their bodies soon absorbing, they painted them from head to foot with a shining jet black, that as soon as laid on dried up, and was so fixed a colour that though rubbed hard with clothes afterwards left scarcely a stain thereon. I was witness to this scrubbing and painting match, and took notice of the process. This ground work laid on the whole superficies of the creatures, two painters with their pencils, be­ginning just below the upper part of their heads, completed conspicuous ornamental circumferences about those parts, resembling laurel, muric, or civic crowns. Circles of different colours were likewise drawn round their eyes, with well defined edges, and large broad streaks of vermillion drawn from thence down to the extremeties of their trunks, and the insides of their ears painted with the same colour, which added considerably to the fierceness of their aspects. Their heads and bodies thus painted, scar­let cloth or crimson velvet coverings, fringed and embroidered with gold, were thrown over their bo­dies and secured from falling off by girths fastened under their bellies. Each elephant had a bell about the size of a half gallon pot, suspended to a broad leather collar, right under his neck, with round bells of different sizes fixed at convenient distances from the large bell, towards the upper part of his head, on the same collar: these bells are both of ornament and use, for chiming when the elephants enter a buzar or a town, they give warning of their [Page 63] approach, and give people time to take their chil­dren out of their way, and to avoid them themselves if they think proper, as notwithstanding their re­markable sagacity and docility, amidst multitudes of people tricks being plaid them, the creatures at times resent the affronts, and kill or maim the un­wary inhabitants.

The elephants thus painted and decorated, the drivers presented themselves to them, in order to mount, when the beasts knowing their duty, gently extending their trunks downwards in a curve, with a striking dexterity clapping them under the hams of these their drivers, gave them each a successful cant on to the back of their heads; when they fix­ing themselves to their conveniencies, by striding over the necks of the elephants, when their legs and thighs were screen'd by the elephants ears, as large at least as small round tea-tables. These drivers were both stout personable men, well dressed and armed in the stile of the country, with additional weapons in their hands called punjahs, about the length of ships boat-hooks, and pointed sharp enough to wound their elephants on the top of their heads, which purposes alone they apply them to when they prove disobedient or refactory, and to menace them with occasionally on the march.

The drivers thus mounted, with their punjahs up­lifted, and their right hands to their left sides, form­ing bows, in an ostentatious manner as they passed their elephants on and urg'd them to the charge, who prepared for the fight, in an instant faced each other, and irritated with the spirits they had given them before they had left their stands, and jealous of each others approaches to the female shewn to them on the ground, the riders with both hands seizing the iron punjahs and driving them into the flesh on the top of the creatures heads, and renew­ing [Page 64] their blows, while at every stroke the blood spouted out and trickled down their cheeks, which added to their fury, they rushed on towards each other with the most violent impetus, their drivers in approaching, before the attack, reciprocally sa­luting, by lifting their right hands up to their heads and calling out in Arabic assallam allycam! allycum sallam!

Matters in this position, the people on foot who formed great part of the southernmost side of the square to secure themselves against any sudden attack of the engaging elephants, began to draw off and gain the tops of the garden walls, the adjacent mos­ques and dwelling houses, and horsemen, and men with wheel rockets, which they kept playing, who were employed for that purpose, kept a continual driving up and down in the front of that line of peo­ple that formed the southernmost barrier to the field already noticed, in order to prevent the crowd from approaching too near whilst the animals should be engaging.

No. 13. TO THE SAME.

THE spectators more used to these sights than myself, formed, I discovered earnest and different ideas of the determination of the battle, and laid wagers accordingly: two parties subsisted, one in favour of the Aurangabad elephant, and one in fa­vour of the Gorackpore elephant; two places whose vicinities are famous for good elephants. The Go­rackpore elephant was a size smaller than the other, but seemed possessed with more activity though less craft, and the expectations of the crowd were raised to a considerable pitch when the attack began, in the manner following:

The larger elephant being on the level of the plain, while the smaller one was on the declevity of an hillock, the big elephant ran one of his fangs in­to his mouth, that in the push passed through the fleshy part of his cheek under the ear, and hooking him at the same time with the other tusk under one of his hams, got himself so entangled that notwith­standing his repeated endeavours to overset him, he failed in his attempt; when the other elephant tak­ing the advantage of a stumble his opponent made with one of his fore feet (that buried itself up to the middle of the leg in a sand hole) expeditiously ran him through the gullet with one of his tusks, and set him in a gore of blood. All this while their trunks, like two ropes, were twisted in one, and thus entangled together they seesawed backwards and forward for the space of about five minutes, beweltered in blood, and their eyes swelled with the distention of their trunks, and the agony it put them in, to such a degree they appeared as though they would burst in their heads; while their strength and spirits wasted with fatigue, the pain of their wounds [Page 66] and the great loss of blood they had sustained, they stood stock still for perhaps another five minutes, panting and puffing, and blowing so loud that the sound of their respiration was distinguishable amidst even the din and clamour of the surrounding popu­lace; notwithstanding which enfeebled state, they vigorously maintained their hold, in order, appa­rently, to recruit their wind and spirits, that they might be the better enabled to begin the combat anew; while at intervals the drivers calling out to their elephants aloud by their respective names, to hold out to the last, and never yield while there was breath in their body, for the honor of their illustri­ous master the Souhah, and his subjects the specta­tors, both drivers, laterly with their punjahs prick­ing the heads of their respective elephants (already like honeycomb with the holes that had been made in them in the course of the action by these wea­pons) both unable to bear the repeated stabs of the punjahs, and the excrutiating pain they indured by this rude circumplication of each others trunks, after making two-most hedious roars, with obvious repugnance let go each others trunks, and after­wards with as great a reluctance withdrew their for­midable fangs from the bloody incissions they had made in each others bodies (hitching back at the same time, and watching each others motions with unremitted attention) when the rider of the smaller elephant urging his beast to the charge again, they both by this time being reinforced with wind and spirits, he advanced with tolerable celerity towards his antagonist, who instead of facing him, turned from him and ran as hard as he could drive towards that part of the plain that was barrier'd by the con­course of the people above mentioned, and getting amongst the thick of them before they could get out of his way, both men and horses he scooped up [Page 67] with his tusks and tossed over his head with the same facility a cat would as many mice, until the elephant in pursuit of him having come up with him, he tur­ned round to face him, and a fresh combat ensued, when (as these animals are very apt to do on con­fronting) they receded back some few fathoms, in order to join with the greater force on renewing the attack, then pushing on towards each other with seeming greater violence than ever, the smaller ele­phant with his trunk circumflected round a tooth, the better to secure it perhaps from danger, which gave him an arch look and made him appear the more formidable, with remarkable activity on meet­ing his antagonist, after giving a loud roar, run his other tooth down the throat of his enemy with such success that its point came out below the shoulder blade, brought him to the ground, and killed him dead on the spot; when the other elephant was sur­rounded by horsemen, who felicitating his driver on the conquest, conducted him to the front of the balcony where the Soubah and his nobles were sea­ted, when both the victorious elephant and his dri­ver, saluted the Nabob in form, attended by this escort and a Chubdar on horseback in the front, an­nouncing his sallam and the creatures, they both paying their compliments at the same time, the Fazdar ^*, as usual, by lifting up his hand to his head, and the elephant by inverting his proboscis and bending it backwards over his own head and the drivers, three times, and giving loud roars at each incurvation of his trunk.

Any injuries done to individuals by the elephant on the day of the fight, the Soubah ordered ample restitution to be made, and saw it done himself, by having called into his presence the relations of those people who had been killed or maimed in the con­flict; [Page 68] when the evening was appointed for a main of cocks to be fought, and little lolls, and a battle of antelopes and fighting rams,—while which orders were going forward several other diversions were carried on, on the plain; boys, Gentoos and Moors, all richly armed and dressed, mounted on Arabian and Persian steeds, with bows and arrows slung over their shoulders, without any thing on their horses but cloths and silk nets fringed with gold or silver, circling round the plain in different parties, made sham attacks on each other, sometimes with javelins, at others with scymitars, and at others with their battle-axes; whilst some extending themselves on their backs, with their heads on their horses rumps, would draw their bows charged with arrows, and bring down with them hawks, kites, and vultures hovering above them in the air: when two elephants making their appearance, and shutterwans, viz. armed cameliers, and dividing themselves into two distinct parties, rushed on towards each other with their drawn swords, which flourishing and clashing together, after discharging a shower of arrows over each other's heads, dispersed; when followed by the horses, the elephants with their drivers on their necks, menacing them at times with their punjahs, and at others encouraging them with fair words, plunged into the river with the whole of the ca­valry; when the elephants disporting themselves in the stream, encompassed with the squadrons of horse and shutterwans, shewed their remarkable craftiness by filling their trunks with water they had sucked up with them as they swam along, and spouting it out again at times, like grampuses, up in the air, and wetting the adjacent horsemen with the show­ers of it as it fell again; and at others, when nigh enough to do execution, blowing a quantity smartly in the faces of any two or three horses and their [Page 69] riders, who happened to be within the limits of their humorous cascases. The coast clear, the fly­ing army had no sooner gained the river than a number of paper kites suddenly were seen flying in the air, different in their construction from such as are made in Europe, which had been mounted by boys who were dispersed in different parts of the plain, handsomely dressed with scymiters by their sides and poignards in their wastebands or sashes: and others in that of dragons or land or sea mon­sters, made of the finest transparent paper, painted, varnished and gilt, with glittering tails of the same materials, that mounted to considerable heights, and hovering over the river, palaces and plains, to me was a sight as pleasing as novel.

No. 14. The Miss CHAPMAN's in general, at Castle-Michel and Castle-Raben, near Athy.

LADIES, I have been describing to Mr. Chap­man, the diversions I was witness to yesterday fore­noon, which letters there is no doubt but you have seen and will impart to those of your acquaintance, with whom I correspond.

The heat of the day coming on the Soubah retired within the walls of his palace, and the spectators withdrew to their respective homes, whose example I followed by going to my friend's at Moradbaugh, an English captain, commanding two battalions of Seapoys in this department. This gentleman had been some years in the country, spoke the Indostan language perfectly well, and was even a critic in it; and initiated along while into the ways of the natives, whether Gentoos or Mahometans; likewise of a sa­tirical turn, and a young fellow of excellent wit and [Page 70] finished education, proved an agreeable companion, and was, during my stay at Muxadabads of great service to me, in his informations respecting the country.

In the cool of the evening we returned to the place of action, in a few minutes after which the Nabob, with his visiters and aumeers, appeared again in the same balcony they did in the morning, on which a rhinoceros, and an elephant prepared for battle, were brought forth, who on the sight of each other, in­stantly approaching, begun with the utmost fury to engage. The elephant, at the first onset, oversetting the rhinoceros in scringing back to get sufficient play for his teeth, which were at least between eight and nine feet long, he being a very large elephant, and upwards of ten feet in height, and proportion­ably strong and robust, and in appearance double the magnitude of his foe, but failing in his attempt by only helping the unweildly animal up by lifting him bodily with his teeth, that he ran compleatly under him, instead of through his vitals as he intended; the recovered brute, with all his might, rushing his head under the elephant's belly, in order to rip it open with the horn that projected out from his fore­head (which is always the rhinoceros's play when engaging his common enemy the elephant) he con­tinued poking at his antogonist's guts, having got at last both his head and shoulders between the ele­phant's hind legs, which being out of the reach of the elephant's teeth, giving him pain without his being able to disengage himself.

Provoked with his situation, he gave three sudden successive roars, followed by a violent jerk of his whole body backwards, which bringing the rhinoceros in front, with an incredible rapid push of one of his teeth, he maimed him to such a degree, that unable to continue longer the fight, he turned tail and [Page 71] marched off, and left him master of the field, amidst the shouts and acclamations of the crowd; when he was conducted by an escort in the same manner the conquering elephant had been in the forenoon to sa­lute the Soubah his sovereign lord and master. The rhinoceros I have been treating of, though described in the encyclopedia, and by writers of natural his­tory, as an animal not so generally known as many others of a less note, I will, before I proceed in my account of the diversions I have promised in my let­ters, say something about this creature. The head of a rhinoceros has resemblance to both a camel's and a boar's, and so thick the bone of his scull that it will repel a musket ball, or the blow of an ax; but dis­proportionate to his body, which with his legs and thighs resemble much an elephant's: upon his fore­head grows a horn, turning inwards towards his ears, to which his forehead is a base, this horn being about six inches in diameter below that part of it that coheres to his face, and seven inches in length, ter­minating gradually from the base to a point; which horn though not very large is very solid and stubborn and is the only weapon he has to trust to for offence or defence, except his hide, which is a compleat coat of mail, nature having provided this animal with, above all others known in the creation, the most redoubtable barriers against the missive weapons of men, or the formidable talons and voracious jaws of other beasts, an hard knobby crust of ramifica­tions and thick impenetrable scales covering the su­perfices of his hide, excepting his belly and lower parts, that, though retained within a skin of an inch thick, and of a more glutinous and elastic nature than that of even a buffaloe's, lies exposed to the wound of shot and pointed weapons. His food is ve­getable, and when kept up a while, he will grow do­cile and pacific; and his horn is said to be so certain [Page 72] an antidote, that liquor even drank out of it, though mixed with poison, will have no fatal effects.

After this engagement, I observed the multitude suddenly broke the line they had formed on the south side of the plain, and were contending who should gain the banks of the river first, till by degrees thousands of spectators assembled on both sides. The ladies of the seraglio had been taking a party of pleasure on the water, and were then returning in their Bud­geroes. A fleet of these Budgeroes, or Indian barges with about three hundred boats of different sizes and construction, appeared on the river winding into that branch of it that ran between Muxadabads and the opposite shore, that I amongst the rest of these spectators stood on. These boats formed a three distinct divisions, viz.—front, centre and rear. In the centre of each division was a large Budgero, commanding the rest, and in the centre of the middle division, seven of greater magnitude, the middle of which was at least as big again as the Budgeroes in general amongst the whole. The lesser boats were painted Dinghees and Moor Punkies with little Kisties attending them, and rowing a-head at times, and then dropping a-stern, according to the signals given from the rest of the fleet, which signals were made by the firing of small brass cannon from the large Budgeroes, and waving particular flags, and from the Dinghees and Moor Punkies by dis­charging several guns or large Burghundasses. In this order divided, they advanced down the river, but the current running against them, which was pretty strong, the progress they made was but slow, whilst the wind, being contrary, likewise which prevented their carrying sails; it gave good opportunity for examining the form of the boats, the dress of the people that managed them, and their mode of con­ducting them. The Budgeroes were all painted and [Page 73] gilded, and decorated with carved work heads and sterns, with elegant varandos to them, screened by silk and sattin, venetian blinds, and windows of flow­ered glass to the apartments of the Budgeroes, that the ladies within side might see without being seen. The tops of the Budgeroes were all covered with scarlet broad cloth, and fringed with gold, and waist cloths and quarter cloths of the same. The oars were painted red, and the Manjies and Dandies were all dressed in scarlet cloth coats with narrow sleeves, and long trowsers of the same, but different coloured, sashes and turbans, with gold borders and fringes to them, which variety and contrast in these parts of their dress had the more pleasing effect. In this manner were the crews of the Budgeroes, Dinghies and Kisties dressed, throughout every squadron, but the Manjies and Dandies of the Moor Punkies, wore a different garb, and additional ornaments, having all scarlet Jammers of stout linen, and turbans and sashes of the same, whose extraordinary businesses were to beat time to bands of music these boats were all furnished with.—They had appen­dages to their dress to answer that purpose, having bells fastened by bandages round their arms and wrists, likewise across their bodies and round their waists, hanging bells in the form of those that are in steeples, and others cast like those that are hung round the necks of slay horses in America, or car­riers horses in Europe. The bandages these bells were tacked to were from two to three inches wide, and had tufts of black silk sewed to them, with thick bunches of black horse hair fixed in silver sockets to their wrists and elbows, and each Manjy and Dandy, an ornament of the same kind hanging to the back part of his turban.

The largest of the Budgeroes that was in the centre of the fleet was called the Sultana, on board of which [Page 74] was the Beagum or queen, and the others were named in general after ladies in the seraglio;—she had twenty-four Dandies on a side to row her along, making forty-eight in all, with a fore-castle that was about twelve feet in length, and a cabbin or ac­commodations abaft, that reached from the after oar to the stem, at least thirty feet, making the Budgero in all about ninety feet long; on her poop or top of the cabbin were seated guards of Seapoys, Peuns, and Harkarars, all handsomely dressed, and officers of trust, with a number of female Arabs, (women in the capacity of menial servants) were seen going in and out of the Varando of the Budgero; likewise eunuchs, young and old, superbly dressed and armed, a large band of music was on the fore-castle, and a quantity of musicians, more or less in every boat, and Moor Punky in the fleet. The colours that were flying on board the Sultana, were a large scarlet silk ensign fastened to the toping-lift of the main-boom, (as she was rigged sloop fashion) and in form of the section of a cone, snipt at the vertical point, that formed two ends, with a pair of black sheers in the centre: with a large long pendant, that extended by the breeze of wind that was stiff, ran beyond the taffel of the Budgero that was in a right line with the Sultana a stern, with smaller pendants fastened to the same flag-staff, in the shape of swallows tails, and a large flag on a staff, fixed on the bowsprit, be­sides several ensigns of different colours. Men and boys carried others, fastened to painted and gilded staffs. The other Budgeroes of the fleet were all in the same style that the Sultana's was. The Dinghies were open boats painted, and their heads, sterns and waists, covered with cloths of different colours, and filled with people differently dressed; these boats belonging to individuals amongst the inhabitants who had accompanied this fleet in order to take [Page 75] their pleasure had joined in with this fleet, but each boat had at least a musician on board, and some two or three, and some a whole band; the boats being near two hundred in all, formed at least two-thirds of the fleet. The Moor Punkies, of which there might be fifty of different sizes, were some five or six of them 70 feet in length, made like petiauguas, but with high poops and little top-gallant decks or fore-castles and prows, some of them carrying thirty or forty Dandies. These petiauguas or Punkies were rowed with paddles (not oars) which were neatly made, about five feet six inches long, with blades to them about eight inches wide, and made upon the whole exactly like a spatula. The Kisties were a number of small skiffs in the form of whale boats, that passed to and fro the fleet, and did the business of tenders for them, and were painted and ornamen­ted like the rest, on the occasion.

The fleet thus in three divisions having gained the front of the palace, all hauled into the shore, where a large elephant with a silver turret on his back, with columns of solid gold and incrustations of diamonds, made his appearance, with Pelanquins, Doolies, and Hackerries, on the water side, to convey the ladies of the seraglio, to their respective apartments, when, the sun going down, orders being given for a salute, a discharge of artillery was made from the walls of the Killah; platoons were fired by the Seapoys drawn up along shore, and a general discharge of all the guns of the Burgundosses and Musketoons of the Shutterwans; which being answered by the guns on the opposite side at Moradbaugh, made what might with great propriety be called, a feu de joye, which ceasing when the sun-set, the ladies, covered with scarlet cloths, were huddled into their equipages, and conveyed through different avenues into the palace, when the multitude quitting this scene of dissipation [Page 76] on hearing the sound of Allah, which is God, echo­ing from the battlements of the mosques, and from the pagodas of the Gentoos, that of Bogwan, they withdrew to their respective places of worship, or falling prostrate on the spot they were then standing on, joined in with the common invocations made to heaven, and concluded the day in prayer; for no business whatever is carried on by those people with­out calling on the name of God both at the begin­ning and ending of it, throughout the empire.

No. 15. TO THE SAME.

THE day thus ended, I returned with my friend to his place of residence, as usual, and after refresh­ing ourselves (which indeed we were in want of) a Chubdar coming in with the compliments of the Soubah to this captain, inviting him to the entertain­ments of the evening; and understanding by him that there were to be illuminations and fire-works, (besides a grand Notch) that were to be exhibited before the public, my friend declining the visit, and returning his compliments to the Nabob, accompanied by my Banyan and Munsey, and a few necessary at­tendants, I returned with this Chubdar, and crossing the river, with my servants close to me, through the means of the Nabob's Chubdar, got a very conve­nient seat in the front of a balcony that commanded a prospect of the square the principal diversions were to be exhibited in, and faced exactly a spa­cious Varando the Nabob and his company were to be seated in, with a Musnud erected for the Soubah; [Page 77] a difference being paid me on account of the cha­racter I appeared in, of an English gentleman, which put me upon a footing with a Soubah or Rajah, and above any other Mahometan or Gentoo in the realm. The whole palace was illuminated within side and without with gilded and painted candles and lamps, that were placed so thick that the windows, niches, and arches of the building, were in a manner cover­ed with them; besides a number of glass and isinglass lanthorns, of various colours and sizes, and of as many different forms; some representing Pagodas, and others barges, suspending in the air, with can­dles and lamps burning; both without side and within a number of trophies, ensigns and pendants, and em­broidered cloths and velvets were spread at intervals over the ballustrades; and in the front of the balco­nies of all the different galleries, up to the battle­ments of the building, which was lined with spectators. On one side of this square were six or seven elephants, richly adorned, with magnificent turrets on their backs, and the sons of Omrah's and Aumeer's sitting on them: a guard of Seapoys were on each side of the gate-way, with brass cannon pointed across the passage, and the intervals of the colonnade that sup­ported the lower gallery, crowded with spectators of all ages and descriptions; whilst below in the mid­dle of the court, which to me appeared to be one hundred yards square every way, was an amphithe­atre, whose top ran up to the summit of the palace, by means of scaffolding that was erected for that purpose; the walls of which were embossed with va­rious circular, asteric and gibbons figures of sulphur, camphire, and other pyrotechanic compositions, be­ing intended for an exhibition of fire works, had a stage or platform within side, level with the middle story of the palace court; and was stout enough to bear a number of people on, with a gallery run round [Page 78] it within side and without. This platform which might be twenty yards square, was plained smooth and fixed on for the spot on which the game cocks and Lolls were to fight their battles, while the inter­vals between this amphitheatre, below on each side on the pavement, were destined for the battles to be fought between the fighting rams and fighting antelopes.

These princely matters all in readiness, the Sou­bah's arrival was announced aloud by the Chubdars and eunuchs, who advancing in the front of the Va­rando, accompanied by his Omrahs and Aumeers, seated himself on the Musnud, and received the com­pliments of the spectators in general, and returned the same by putting his hand to his head, when the Peerzadas calling out, Dowlat Zadah Bahadar Gee­teeo! that is, Long live and prosper! The words were repeated by the throng in such loud peals the palace trembled with the sound, which compliments passed the amphitheatre, which was illuminated, and a number of cocks brought in, by men in short jack­ets, to fight a general battle as proposed; they all belonged to different owners on the spot, and being, if not different breeds, were of different coops and stands, and as strangers to each other, wherever they should meet would fight; which cocks being let loose on the platform, at a signal given, began with great fury to engage.

These creatures varying in their shape considera­bly from European or American fowls of the same species, being of a smaller breed and resembling fal­cons in their heads and formation of their bodies and limbs, displayed as obvious a difference in their strength and spirits, both of which they possess to such a superior degree, that without gaffs or steel weapons (the game cocks are armed with amongst Europeans) they will strike such decisive blows, that [Page 79] in but a short contest, a combatant will be struck dead by a blow through his head, the back bone or rump, or some vital part, or knocked down and laid struggling at his adversary's feet, when the vindictive conqueror, not satisfied with his conquest, or the mere death of his enemy, will seize with his talons, the dead or wounded fowl, and by digging them into the flesh, with the most pointed exertions of his whole body and limbs, with his bill and claws together, peck the eyes out of his head, tear a hole in the carcass, and pluck out the entrails and heart, and finally, lay it open to the back bone; and exult­ing in his conquest, besprinkled over with blood, and though wounded himself and pricked to the quick, in a majestic posture treading on the mangled car­cass with his feet, will clap his wings and crow, and proclaim his victory aloud, then walk with as me­nacing and imperious an air over others in the same condition, towards cocks of an opposite party, until he meets with one to take up his challenge, and be­gins a new fight. From this intimation you form some idea of the battle that was fought by the cocks brought upon the stage of the amphitheatre before the Nabob, when I add that amongst twelve sets let loose upon each other, making about sixty game cocks in all, who peremptorily engaged and sing­ling each other out by pairs, fought amidst a cloud of feathers and streams of blood, 'till only eleven were left standing erect on the place of action, peck­ing at the mutilated carcases of the fowls they had vanquished; some of them during the conflict, at times springing up by pairs, to the height of, some four, others five, and others six feet, before they met each other's heels, or exchanged with their ta­lons their formidable blows; whilst others in pairs would fall down dead with their talons in each other's skulls, or some as sensitive apart amongst expiring [Page 80] cocks gasping for life, and defending themselves to the last, on their sides or backs: which scene was not a little heightened in its sanguinary appearance, by the contrast of some milk white cocks amongst them painted crimson with the blood of their own wounds, and the gore of other bleeding warriors they were fluttering among and trampling over, which, added to the repeated clapping of wings, and reciprocal crowings of the inveterate incorrig­able creatures, made it upon the whole as interest­ing and striking a contest of animals as I think I ever beheld. These combatants all killed or wound­ed, excepting the eleven remaining upon their legs in the field, were taken up by their keepers, chucked under the gills, and commended both by them and the spectators, for their behavior; and on their be­ing carried off the stage, proclaimed unanimously Borrah Bahadars, by the spectators.

This scene of action over, the killed and wounded were carried off and thrown to leopards to devour, and the stage cleared and covered with Setringees ^*, and about twenty cages of lolls brought on it by Chirrouahwallas ^§, each cage containing in number a dozen lolls. These lolls are little birds, a size less than wrens or indigo birds, but exactly the shape of bullfinches, with dark brown feathers, but so co­vered with innumerable red specks that they predo­minating over the brown ground work of their plu­mage, has given rise probably to their being called lolls, which signifies red, in the Indostan language; which birds being as remarkable for fighting as for their beauty and longevity, (some of them being known to live, though in cages, twenty years) they are held in estimation in India, and amongst the [Page 81] grandees often brought out to fight, as verified on this occasion. These lolls brought on the setringees, were no sooner let loose than like a cloud they rose from the surface of the stage, and meeting each other indiscriminately, friends or foes, cocks or hens, aloof began a battle pell mell, that soon de­monstrated to the spectators that though with re­spect to birds they were but pigwidgions, they could fight like harpies when put to the test, and began to knock each other down by scores; whilst others engaging on the plain, would do a propor­tionable part of the execution, though so smothered in their feathers and gore that it appeared surpriz­ing to lookers on they could fall on each other but by chance; be that as it will, these little annimals had not quit their cages one quarter of an hour be­fore the one half had killed or wounded the other half, and laid them sprawling on the stage.

No. 16. TO THE SAME.

THIS battle over, the antelopes, about twenty in number, and as many rams, were brought in upon the pavement below, tied by the horns with silk cords, and held in hand by their keepers until the proposed signal was given for engaging, when they were let loose at the four angles of the square, and the rams disposed of in the same manner at the sides; the keepers of the latter having plentifully rubbed their noses with garlic preparatory to the sight, which they pretend sharpens the sensations and has a cephalic effect, and likewise making them [Page 82] snort and sneeze, irritates them the more, and fits them the better for action; and thus both parties at liberty, they rushed on towards each other with great celerity, the antelopes approaching erecting themselves on their hind legs that their heads might meet with greater force, while the rams, possessed of more strength but less activity, rencontred in a more quadruped-like manner, receiving the blows of each other's heads in a more horizontal directi­on, that stunning them in general at the instant of the point of contact, they remained twisting each other's heads about with their horns interlocked until the dizziness wearing off, the keepers forced them asunder, and hauling them back to their former distances, after a fresh application of garlic, let them return to the charge, when meeting as before with the shock of the formidable blows they repeat­edly exchanged, made the colonnades and galleries of the whole building rebound, in which manner the engagement was continued (the antelopes with the antelopes, and rams with the rams) for about half an hour, during which time the rams and ante­lopes both were so bruised about their heads and faces that their eyes were closed up in general, and their mouths and noses battered and swoln to such a degree, that but one mutilated gibbous lump re­maining, the original out-lines of their faces were totally destroyed, and not the least degree of excen­tricity discernable on them; in which condition the conquering rams and antelopes, with their keepers, had their Sallam announced by the Chubdar to the Soubah, who, returning their compliments, they retired with their parties.

The rams and antelopes taken away, the fire workers called Attash Bagywallas, in the Indostan language, or men who make fire-works, came in with ladders, hammars and nails, and several mantles [Page 83] of various colours and dimensions, which they tack­ed up to different parts of the amphitheatre, with other pyrotechnic figures composed of salt-petre, sulphur, gun-powder, charcoal, file dust, camphire, &c. of different forms and sizes; this done, the stage within side this pile was taken away, and a distinct view obtained through the arches of the whole building, from the pavement to the upper part of it all round; and now nothing remaining but to play off the works with which this edifice were embellished, four men from the battlements of the palace at a signal given, with fire brands neatly fixed into the ends of long Bamboos, touched the heads and tails of four fiery dragons that were fixed on iron spindles opposite to each other on the upper part of the amphitheatre, they instantly began to turn round upon their respective axis, and continu­ed in motion during the exhibition from the extre­mities of their wings, claws and tails, and all the extravasated points of their bodies, emitting fires of different colours, and voiding out of their mouths and nostrils and posterior parts; likewise burning compositions, that bursting would scatter in clusters resembling festoons, which with globes of a larger size, projected from the mouths of four figures of monsters below that in their flight like shells sent from mortars, bursting with great explosion, and dispersing globular fire around, lighted the fuzes of all the works belonging to the pile, and exhibited to the view of the spectators a scene of novelty, beauty, variety and contrast, I had never seen be­fore. A large blazing orb made to represent the sun, the diameter of a butt, in the centre of the amphitheatre, that filled up the arched intervals of this pile intended for tapestry: to the sides of this pyrotechnic pile displayed to great advantage, the variety of exotic and grotesque figures of beasts, [Page 84] fishes and fowl, and of men, some gygantic, and some pigmantic, with grottos, groves and cascades, that cut through the body of the mantles, like flow­ers or figures on open work in lace, with but little assistance of the imagination, formed much the ap­pearance of real existances, that the vibration of the mantles occasioned by the circulation of the air, rarified by the circumambient heat, and the evapo­ration of the different compositions on the surfaces of the mantles, did not a little contribute to. This sun by degrees losing its brilliancy, and setting be­low an artificial horizon, was extinguished, and the figures on the mantles by this time grown dim and indistinct, had vinegar thrown over them and their vestiges taken down, when a new moon appeared, rising by degrees above the artificial horizon, and increasing in measure as it was elevated by a pole, till it got to the proposed height where it rested, when it appeared like a large full moon with spots on it's disk, amidst numberless constellations and as­terisms, burning as tho' in a firmament around, which with the sky-rockets flying aloft, and the wheel revolving below, and a number of fire-balls of dif­ferent magnitudes rowling about this central lumina­ry, helped to show in a conspicuous light, a num­ber of extramundanian figures vibrating on spindles in the different arches and porticoes of the amphi­theatre, together with those of copracapellas, or hooded snakes and serpents, hovering seemingly in the air, the wires that suspended them being invi­sible to the naked eye, whilst others were spitting fire and brimstone in all the entrances of the edifice; when the lunar orb dissipating by degrees, and the circumvolving fires evaporating in smoke, these nocturnal lights suddenly were extinguished by the spouting of a cascade from the body of the obscured moon, and from water projected from the top of [Page 85] every pillar and little spire or turret belonging to the amphitheatre, as well as from the heads, tails, and wings of the dragons and serpents, who but a few minutes before, had been vomiting fire and brimstone: the inside of all these columns being hol­low, and having a communication with the artificial dragons and other monsters, which water-works playing, as taken notice of from all quarters, and projected up to above the top of the palace, cooling the air and interior part of the square;—these di­versions had been carried on while all the serandas and music on the spot were playing in concert; at the same time the company embraced this occasion to refresh themselves with different meats their ser­vants had prepared for them, and to quench their thirsts with sherbetts, and various beverages this country is remarkable for. These water-works had played half an hour, when they suddenly ceased, and in less than five minutes the whole amphithea­tre was taken to pieces and carried off, and the pavement dried up and covered with carpets; when sets of dancing girls from all quarters appeared with their musicians and slambeaux, and began a comic opera, which they went through with much in the same manner as the dancing girls I described in my letters to Louisa ******, and other correspond­ents, and finished by twilight; when the Nabob withdrawing, the company broke up, and I crossed over to Moradbaugh and reposed myself.

No. 17. TO THE SAME.

BOTH here and at Muxadabads, the streets are crowded with fakirs, musicians, players, singers, and sportsmen of all casts and descriptions; men, wo­men and children, viz. bucties, rope-dancers, tumb­lers, posture-masters, mimicks, gladiators, cudgel­lers, pilewans, puppet-show men, antic goat-men, snake-dancers, falconers, &c. one half of which characters, tho' I might have had a cursory view of before, ere now I never was witness to their per­formances, which, tho' matters in themselves but of meer dissipation and amusement, and less interest­ing perhaps than others of similar purport already transmitted to you, as they contribute to diversify the subject, and display more amply the manners and customs of the people I am about to describe; at all events, I shall venture to fill a page or two in the delination of the above characters. The Bucties are sets of dancing boys, who, from various for­tuitous means, having fallen into the hands of these casts of people who conduct notches, and the like amusements, and by them adopted as their children, and taught music, singing and dancing, during their childhood, from the age of about seven years, till they arrive to that of about fifteen or sixteen; they, on being called upon to act the same parts in public, or before particular companies as the dancing girls, no boys answering the purpose of bucties, but such as have delicate features, are well limbed, and are of the lightest complexions the country affords:— they are in general exceeding handsome, and when they appear in character, being elegantly dressed, and decorated with jewels, they wearing them in [Page 87] their noses, ears, &c. and ornaments of gold or sil­ver round their wrists and ancles, were it not for the obvious distinctions of turbans, and the sashes they wear round their waists, they would be scarce distinguished from women. The Rope-dancers are composed of men, women and children, and by the natives are called Nutnys, and are, as well as the tumblers, posture-masters, puppet-show-men, and cudgellers, of a dark mulatto complexion; which former and latter performers, both in their exhibi­tions, differ but little from those of the like deno­mination in Europe: but the Pilewans, a cast of people whose gifts must be those of nature, and im­proved by art, merit more attention. These men in their infancy, are selected out of numbers of children, here and there one, on account of the ap­parent strength of their bodies, contexture of their limbs, and goodness of constitution; and with the consent of their parents, in the towns or cities they dwell in, taken as apprentices to Pilewans to learn their art, and by degrees become expert in the line of their profession, as eminent wrestlers or Pilewans. To effect which, during the time of their appren­ticeships, they are kept up and exercised as regularly mornings and evenings, as bred horses are amongst sportsmen in England; all access to the fair sex is denied them during their minority, and as well as intoxicating liquors or fumes, and equally taught to avoid too great a repletion of food, or indulgence in sleep, they esteeming the one as productive of indigestions and head-achs, and the other of as le­thargic effects; by observing the regimens proscrib­ed with respect to their diet, they improve their constitutions, and acquire additional health and strength to that which nature supplied them with at their birth; and being the strongest men in the country they live in, are consequently best calcu­lated [Page 88] for the feats of strength and activity, which it is their business to exhibit, in the which they are unparalleled as yet by any other people on the face of the globe; inasmuch that a boy of sixteen, that has been under the tuition of Pilewans, and habi­tuated to their mode of living and exercises, will stand in opposition to a man in full growth, face him in the field, on the sod, or on a solid pavement, where the falls are more redoubtable and less avoid­able than on soft ground to an unexperienced compe­titor, and by sending off his passes, and repeated ef­forts to grasp him, and close in with him, by a sud­den and masterly catch, made at a sensitive and muscular part of the arm with one hand, and by a dexterous application of an elbow in the pit of the stomach with another, and of a finger and thumb each in as delicate a part, viz. the one under the gullet, compressing the jugular vein, and the other in as close a point of contact with an auricular pas­sage, and as seasonable a circumplication of an op­posite leg and thigh about that of his adversary, with such incredible impetus, cant him slap against a slab, or the terra-firma they stand on, as to lay him senseless on the spot, and sometimes to kill him by the fall, by dashing his brains out against the pavement; from which specimen of one of these probationary Pilewan's abilities in manual and bo­dily exercises, you may form some idea of what must be the contest when two experienced adepts enter the lists, in order to try their strength, before their princely masters and fellow countrymen!

The antic Goatmen, who are the next it appears to me on the list, are people who make a trade by carrying goats up and down the country to divert the populace; and however insignificant these ca­pricornicular animal's performances may appear to be, one of them alone will bring in money enough [Page 89] in his travels to maintain his master and a man, be­sides a tatto ^* to carry the luggage and the aparatus belonging to his profession; which latter article, from the observations I made lately on one of these itinerant goat's equipages, consisted of the follow­ing articles, viz. a long bamboo to reach the goat when on the top of his pile while playing his antics, with a flag to it; a tripod, with a triangular frame fixed to it, to clap on the goat's head and to suspend cages of birds to, when he mounts with ten cones turned in wood, with ridges round their lower parts, of about two inches broad, and of different diame­ters, with holes perforated in their bottoms for the reception of screws.

The points of these cones terminated in order to connect the whole number of cones together occa­sionally, that when so connected by means of these screws the whole of them might form an obelisk or pyramidical figure of about thirty feet in height, for the goat to ascend on when exhibiting before a croud; they having been turned in proportion to the different diameters of the proposed fabrick; with which apparatus fixed, the pyramid being se­cured to the ground, on it's base, by means of long pegs to keep it from tilting when mounted by the goat, and a sufficient number of spectators having assembled on the appearance of one of these antic goats, sufficient to encourage the proprietor to begin (which in a country like Indostan, remarkable for the addiction of its natives to scenes of dissipation, would it may be supposed, require no great time to obtain) the tripod is fixed on the goat's head, and three or four cages of little birds hung to it; when with a fringed mantle thrown over his body, which is [Page 90] hung round with bells, he begins. On being or­dered to mount the building, and clapping his feet on these circumferential ridges that run round the fabrick and form an escalade to the whole. Natu­raully addicted to climb, though but indifferently calculated, from the formation of his body and limbs, for mounting very critical precipices, he pretty ex­peditiously ascends to the summit, which not ex­ceeding the space of the top of an half hour-glass, obliging the goat to converge into one cluster his four feet, in order to get a footing solid enough to stand on, in that uneasy posture and critical situa­tion he will remain for some time, balancing himself one way or the other, by means of the triangles on his head, and the cages of birds suspended to them, and by which he acquires applause amongst the crowd, when he descends backwards, on being ordered, and comes down.

The snake dancers are men who catch snakes while they are young, extract the various poisons they con­tain in their jaws, and cherishing and habituating them to run out daily to feed, while they played on tubular instruments, resembling hautboys in their sound, after the snakes, replenish themselves with their food, which is generally eggs, milk, and dough made of rye or indian corn, and the carcases of small birds or larger fowl: the animals exhilirating in the beams of the sun, and animated by the impressions the different sounds of the instruments have on their nerves, they will circulate in a variety of directions, perambulations, and circumpositions, on a grass plat, or in short any surface, and accelerate their steps in measure to the vivacity of the tune, with a little in­terlocutory sencurisagement of their patrons. Some of these animals in their dancings adhering to the surface of the ground, without so much as rearing their heads above it an inch, of which are the black [Page 91] snakes and meadow snakes, whose bites are not ve­nomous, whilst others are, for instance the Covra-ca­pel, or hooded snake, and the Covra-manil or ringed snake, which former of these two are remarkable for carrying his head erect, with one fourth of his body perpendicular to the other part of it, in which possession making zig-zags and oscillatory vibrations of his whole frame, as though it moved upon an axis, passing through the angular point of his crest, at times and at others, advancing progressively; in both which evolutions he spreads an umbrella, ^* which na­ture has supplied him with, that participating of a similitude to fins and to wings, as well as answering the purposes of a shade to keep off the intensity of the solar rays, gives him an unparalleled air of vi­gilance and intrepidity and ascendency in beauty to any other of the serpentine race as yet known; but as fierce as fallacious in his nature: he will attack either man or beast openly or by surprize, and by darting at the throat, seize that part above with his jaws, of a capacity sufficient to take in a lambkin's head, if in proportion to a body of three yards in length, which in general are their dimensions, while entangling their legs, by winding his body and tail round them below, he oversets his game and feasts on the crimson stream; which serpent, notwithstand­ing [Page 92] his natural ferocity, their owners find means to tame and domesticate, as well as the Covra Manil or ringed snakes, which snakes is about one fifth less in proportion than the Covra Capel, differing little, if any, from other serpents, than in it's jaws, which are of less eccentricity, but a more dangerous ene­my to animals and mankind than any, perhaps, of the reptile species; the progress of it's poison being so rapid, that without the limit that is wound­ed by it's bite is directly cut off, or an antidote instantaneously applied, with external remedies, the whole mass of blood, within less than an hour, will be corroded, and the patient expire in agony with the pain.

This snake during the dance, contrary to the motions of the rest, would form itself into a com­plete spiral, with her head upwards at one time, and downwards at another, resting on the earth, while with the circumgyrations of its body and tail, it would catch an accessable adiacent bough of a tree or twig, and snatching himself up retain himself by it 'till a bird above or fowl below coming within length of his grasp, dart at it and retire to devour it. Besides which above animals carried about in this country by people of the above cast, there is a race of large snakes which infest the swamps in the province of Dacca and Chittagan, of an enormous size, some of them measuring one and twenty feet in length and three feet in circumferance, with heads as large as horses, and fins and combs to them of a black membraneous substance resembling whalebone, but grown like hog's bristles, and in somewise re­sembling a mane; which with the redness of their lips, and the irritated glare of their eyes when their jaws are open and their tongues are lolling out, with the slime and the saliva running therefrom, (in which situation I have seen them basking in the sun) gives [Page 93] them as terrific as obnoxious an appearance; not­withstanding which enormous size and capacity to depredate on either man or beast, a set of people who frequent the jungley parts of these provinces, reduce them to such a degree of subordination that at a call they will rouse from their places of confine­ment or abode, and return to them as soon, after being fed, at the word of command; (an argument of their superior sagacity to other reptiles) which monsters are carried in large baskets on bamboos through Indostan, and let out to satisfy the curiosity of the inhabitants.

I have described these different sets of people as I set them down in the order they occured to my mind when I began my letter, without paying any regard to precedency, a thing of which the Indos­tans above all are tenacious, or I should have placed the faulconers, if not the first at least, the second on my list, as these men are always in the service of omrahs or princes, who mostly bestow the office of faulconer on a decayed Mahomedan of former good repute, or the son, of a like character. Their bu­siness is to train the young faulcon up to his business, to feed him and air him daily, according to custom, and to always attend his master in sawary ^*; on which occasion, if the omrah he belongs to pro­poses going any distance, the faulconer is furnished with a horse from the stables to ride on, when he joins in with the sawawry, with his royal bird per­ched on his left hand; on which, to secure him from the gripe of his talons, he wears a stout lea­rher glove; in which manner he conducts him 'till a pidgeon or partridge is seen aloft, when the hood being taken off his eyes he takes an aerial excur­sion, and seizing on his winged prey, at a call re­turns [Page 94] in variegated directions, exulting in his suc­cess to the wrists of his keeper, who seizing on the wounded fowl, before the breath is out of his body, that nothing may be eat by this royal bird, that may contaminate him, takes a knife from out of it's scab­bard, from his side, and pronouncing the words, Bissim Allah Nirouah Alloim, draws the blade across it's throat and sacrifices it, when it is lawful for him to eat it, which he gives him to devour.

No. 18. LADY CAROLINE *********, Westminster.

IN my letter, No. 6, in treating of the dancing girls, I declined, including in a description of them, the women in general of the country, from a defer­ence I wished to shew women of other stamp, on the one hand, and from my want of a sufficient know­ledge of the Indostan females in general on the other, since the writing of which letter my experience in the country has enabled me to form a tolerable good idea of the temper, character and manners of it's inhabitants, and particularly of the females, oppor­tunities that have been afforded me and very lately of becoming acquainted with the domestic oeconomy of women of the first stamp, having supplied me with materials enough, not only to fill up a letter, but a little volume on the occasion, I shall venture upon a general description, however concise, of their persons, morals and manners. The Indostan women, whether Gentoos or Mahomedans, are allowed by all travellers, to be remarkable for animated and beautiful countenances, proportionable bodies and [Page 95] limbs, and a delicacy of behaviour, which charac­teristic may be said to be general, for though de­scended from parents of different tribes and com­plexions, which a long intercourse with foreign nations and between the Mahomedans and Gentoos that did not subsist in any considerable degree until the total subversion of the Hindoo authority and their subordination to the Mogul's took place, may account for, that has notwithstanding produced an obvious difference in their complexions, in propor­tion to the colour of their progenitors, a similarity of looks, gait and actions, and even formation of body and limbs; subsists to the ultimate degree.

With respect to their persons, the unwearied at­tention they pay to them, and indefatigable pains that are taken by them to keep them clean (parti­cularly among women of rank) is so unparalleled that, in the eyes of any other nation than them­selves, or people who had resided amongst them, however expedient the mode, and indispensably ne­cessary, it would appear as ridiculous as useless, an appropriation of time, and as undeniable a conta­mination of it, notwithstanding not only the pre­cepts of their religion, independent of the invaria­ble custom of the country; their invincible desire to render themselves agreeable to their connections, whether feminine or masculine, and if married, to please their partners to whom they are inviolably attached, and owe implicit obedience; their situa­tion with respect to latitude, and a combination of other mental and local considerations, as evident to themselves as indistinguishable to others, in a cli­mate like the one alluded to, where the intense heat of the sun that keeps both the rational and animal part of the creation in a state of fumigation and perspiration, which calls upon all the precautions prudence can dictate for the preservation of health; [Page 96] as for instance, the frequency of baths, and repeat­ed lavations of the body; for the restoration of it's wonted elasticity reduced to a state of relaxation, and for the prevention of scum and soil accumulat­ing and adhering to the skin, exacts, if not all, a considerable part of that attention they pay to their persons, and argues a propriety that is commend­able, and worthy of imitation.

I propose confining my remarks for the present, to the description of the manners of women of dis­tinction, who, enemies to indolence, and brilliant in their nature, rise with the sun, make a short prayer to heaven, and invoking Mahomet, call for their attendance, consisting of eunuchs, servant maids and women, with their shawls and veils thrown carelesly over their bodies, and a few coriander seeds mixed, with their beatle in their mouths, in an ele­vation of spirits that is always attendant on health and an unclouded mind, in a cluster huddled up in this undress retire, to a bath in a garden, situate under an arborage or bower, within the walls of the Zunnannah; where, with their lungahs round their waists, and their veils over their shoulders, they re­peat a second prayer prostrate on the ground, then rise and plunge into the bagnio, taking care to stop their ears up with little plugs of cotton perfumed, and corns of pimento within side as preventatives against colds and the obstruction of water, and use similar precautions with their nostrils, by pinching them close between their fingers and thumbs before they dive, and keeping them confined in that man­ner while immerged in the water, where, as a part of their education, taught from their infancy to swim, disporting in the limpid plain, they will emulate with each other in feats of activity, washing and rubbing themselves at the same time with Ro­mals, that their attendants continually supply them [Page 97] with through their watery excursions, that snatch­ing out of their hands and passing over their heads, in their circumprogressive lavations and immersions, in the lucid stream, added to the various circum­fusions of their beautiful coloured Lungahs and veils, with their shining borders glittering through the transparent waves, constitutes a scene easier to con­ceive than express. These diversions they will con­tinue for the space of a quarter of an hour: upon quitting the bath a screen will be made of their Lun­gahs and veils, by hanging them on silk lines that always environ the sides of their baths, and large callico cloths thrown over their bodies that cover them from head to foot; this done they seat them­selves on wove mats, and with multan mittee and water, prime their whole bodies, and clot their hair likewise, (when they expose themselves to the sun, which dries it up instantaneously) after which their maids take balls of Indian meal and sand and rub well their whole bodies with it, while others are employed in pouring water over them and washing away the dregs, 'till they have sufficiently cleared them of the multan mittee, when the ladies investing themselves anew in the order they had done at rising, plunge themselves again into the baths, and after a second lavation return to their apartments, when another process is begun.—The ladies then throw themselves on their settees, and their servants pare their nails and file them, prick their ears and clean them, then comb out their hair, braid it and perfume it, and after that, hand them Munjun to rub and cleanse their teeth and gums with, and two or three waters to wash them withal, when almond powder is used as a substitute for soap, which to those ladies would be as obnoxious as the applica­tion of odour, after which they perfume them with Ottah, by slightly rubbing their skins with it when [Page 98] they invest them with their jewels and dress them in fresh attire; when after reading part of a chap­ter in the alcoran, they join in a short prayer, and withdraw into a saloon to breakfast, within an epin­jary or cage, being a light portable fabrick con­stituted of frames, like those of a screen, the top covered with tissue the inside with coloured gauze, in order to prevent the intrusion of flies and mus­quetoes, at meals,—so offensive to Indostans, par­ticularly to the women, that a large fly to enter one of their apartments alone, or in company, would occasion such an hue and cry that a troop of domestics would assemble, and with forceps made on purpose for the entrapping these voltigent in­truders (constructed after the manner of drum battle-doors, but of a larger circumference, and covered with gauze) chace and catch the buzzing maroder, and confined in that manner, have him conveyed beyond the confines of their Zunnannahs before they will venture to sit down and enjoy them­selves.

Thus incased in their epinjary, secure from the in­novation of flies, the eldest in company saying grace, they seat themselves down according to the custom of the country, to partake of the meats prepared for their breakfast. The manner in which these repasts are conducted are in every respect like the Turks, and other Asiatics, that in the course of your read­ing you must have become sufficiently acquainted with. After breakfast they wash their mouths and hands, pass round the beatle, and make a short ex­cursion in the gardens; which done they enter their apartments, and their servants sprinkle them with rose-water out of the golab perches, they then pay their compliments to them, and ask their com­mands, when the business of the day will be pointed out, whether at home or abroad; if the latter, and [Page 99] there is a married lady in question, she will perhaps retire to a private part of the mansion with her daughters, and ordering her sons into her presence, after reciprocal salutations, accompany her enqui­ries after their health with some mark of her esteem, a trinket, a toy, or some appendage of dress; for instance, if a boy, perhaps a handsome arrow made at Labor ^*, a new ink-stand, or tassels for his poig­nard; while to the girls some piece of fine muslin will be distributed, to make up into robes, and mantua-makers called in to measure them and cut out the garments;—when if an apple or a pear is given to them, it will be divided with delibe­ration equally, by their being cut into slices; then one of the ladies to whom the ascendency is given in point of declamation, will be requested to recite some select passage of some ancient or modern au­thor; after which another will repeat a copy of as chosen verses, probably composed by herself; an acquaintance, or one of the party or family, or a matron remarkable for her retentive faculty and ap­titude to relate stories, fabulous or fact, will under­take the recital of an extract from the Persian or Arabian night tales, a concise history of one of the emperors, or anecdote of the times; in the course of which relations, which they make a point of cut­ting short, they admiring precision and brevity in their discourses, (which they are as remarkable for as their laconic replies and speeches in altercations in general) animadversions will be made by different persons in the company, on the style, diction, va­riety, contrast, and propriety of the narrative, while parties are amusing themselves at plays, tho' listen­ing attentively to different narrations at the same time; one party perhaps at cards, and another at fox and geese; the cards they play with being round, [Page 100] about the size of crown pieces, and painted, gilt and glazed, and the tables for the other games made of sattin lined with canvass, and with the diagonals and squares worked with gold and silver threads, while little ivory standards represent the fox and geese, which, and the like amusements, will conti­nue till the heat of the day coming on, they will retire to their lords in the interior parts of the Serag­lio, (the ladies connected in marriage) and those in a state of celibacy, to other as secluded apartments.

I did propose having finished an account of the domestic oeconomy of the ladies and females in gene­ral in this letter, to have subjoined a sketch of the singular and refined mode of education of both sexes in these parts; but an order I have received from the chief at Eleabas, that obliges me to proceed di­rectly up the Ganges for Patna, prevents my treating any farther on these subjects at present: I therefore request you will let the following lines, directed to the care of my friend at Athy, who has taken upon him the charge of transcribing and distributing my letters as addressed; as they are all submitted to his perusal; if not supply that defect answer the pur­pose of an East-India packet, which in your last was all you exacted.

No. 19. GEORGE CHAPMAN, esq Athy, in Ireland.

FROM the completion of my letters you might conclude that my time was solely taken up in one continued round of pleasures, and in remarking the manners and customs of Indostan, it's animal and vegetable produce, manufactures and buildings; but [Page 101] it is not the case, as a small proportion of it is spent that way; the business I am upon exacts a rigid attention: I have angles to take from the sides of ri­vers and creeks, and tracts of land to measure across Jungles I am surveying, and other places as difficult to penetrate; when on board of my Budgero, or in my marquee, maps and charts of different data and different proportions and projections to methodise; some gnominic, some stereographic, some artho­graphic, and some mercators; differing both in their longitude and latitude of places; some being obso­lete and some modern: in general, all rude and in­digested materials, which I have to reduce to one scale and species of projection, and from them and other materials of Gentoos, men but little experienced in the business, and Europeans as inexpert, or just initiated into the art of Geodosia; besides, a jour­nal of my proceedings I have to keep to throw before the committee at the precedency appointed to ex­amine into the business of the survey. These may be said to be my public concerns; besides which, I have a private trade to carry on, whether licit or contraband, and matters of litigation to settle, whe­ther belonging to me the prorogative or not, no ad­venturer in India hoping to obtain a competency ever, without transcending the narrow precincts of the Company's civil, military, and commercial or­dinances and restrictions, much less to come at ten or a dozen lacks of rupees before he arrives to the rank of a counsellor, (a mere Bagattelle) in compa­rison to what some Companies servants in Bengal have acquired, between their being writers and get­ting into council, an apprenticeship of about 9 or 10 years they generally serve before they arrive to that honour, when they may be said to set up for them­selves: how they acquire such rapid and immense fortunes I shall make it my business in future to in­form you.

[Page 102]At present I am engaged in making preparations to leave Muxadabads; it is reported that Hyder Ally Khan has laid all the country waste to the southward, and that the Company's affairs are in a very precarious situation in the department of Ma­drass. Last season troops were sent to them from Bengal, and now we are informed they are in want of more supplies. How the governor and council at Calcutta will order matters I cannot tell; but it is said here by the old standards in the country, that they are apprehensive the folks at Madrass have got themselves in a predicament they will not so readily extricate themselves from. Hyder Ally has more than once hemmed in the Company's brigades. He storms their camps (as their letters report) sword in hand, and obliges them to form whenever he thinks proper, and gallops up with his horse to the mouth of their cannon, cuts down their artillery­men, and turns their pieces against them; in short, by his stratagems, and a run of successes he has had, he has so hampered the military, and disconcerted the measures of the governor and council there, that, unable to act any longer on the offensive, and of extending Mamadilly, the Nabob of Arcot's pre­tended territorial rights, they find themselves re­duced to the alternative of paying Hyder his own demands for the expence they have put him to by a war, and surrendering him up Sandysyab's family, now prisoners in the fort of St. George, with other weighty requisitions Hyder, it is rumored, expects them to make him before he sheaths his sword, or let the re-establishment of their credit (not a little hurt by their conduct towards this man) rest on the risk of a battle with him, on the success of which would solely depend the completion of their annual investments of cloths, diamonds, and other articles, the produce of the Carnatic, in which, if they fail, [Page 103] the Company's affairs will receive a shock in these parts that must materially effect their whole credit in India and at home; be it as it will, there are nothing but rumours of wars with us here; a mi­litia is raised at Calcutta, and all it's subordinates to be prepared for the Marattas, now encamped near Eleabas, in case their confederates on the fron­tiers of our settlements to the southward should have planned an invasion from two quarters, and in consequence of some dispatches arrived this instant from the Decan, the three European brigades are ordered with a large army of Seapoys and artillery, to march to Monghere.

In my next, it is likely I shall be able to let you know the event of all this bustle. I expect to be in the thick of it before next season; in the interim, do not expect to hear from me till my arrival at Bangermau, a place a little inland from the Gan­ges, where the business I am upon will oblige me to make some stay, when I propose embracing an opportunity of writing a general letter to my friends.

No. 20. TO THE SAME.

I ARRIVED here yesterday morning with a tent and equipage, having left my Budgero at Fra­kabadgott, when a Chubdar directly from the Kil­lah, brought me the compliments of Allybegkan, the Fasdar, with meersmanny, who I accompanied with my attendants to the Killah, (a few steps off) where I was met by two handsome young Co­jahs, whose physiognomies and dresses were more like women than men, and conducted by them to Allybeghan.

[Page 104]This man was short and robust, about 70 years of age, had a venerable black beard, they having an art to tinge the hair black to a great degree of perfection. He was copper-coloured, had a black sparkling eye, and was a native of Ispahan, and from his infancy, intimate with Thomas Koulikan, afterwards styled-Nadir Shaw, following the for­tunes of this eminent warrior, became one of his principal confidents and leading officers: but on Nadir Shaw's being killed, retreating with his fa­mily and a body of horse to Indostan; to strengthen his interest, he married one of his daughters to the Vizier, who retained him in his service, and ad­vanced him and his followers. He was seated on a carpet leaning against a large cushion, in a circle of Mogul officers who lined the apartment.

These Moguls had a fierce look methought, which their ruddy complexions, bushy beards, sharp white teeth, fiery eyes, and big turbans, did not a little contribute to any more than their arms and dress; they wearing all high cylindrical caps within their turbans, exactly in the proportion and form of an high crowned hat of different coloured velvets, sat­tins, broad-cloths and kincobs, and traversed round with shawls, or some beautiful manufacture, and tied over all with a ramol to keep them snug, and from falling off when on horseback. Their coats were like Hussar's vests, both in the body and sleeves, but longer and fuller in the skirts, they coming down to their ancles, and are bound all round their waists with large shawls or silk, or chequered linen sashes, in which they stuck their poignards and their scy­mitars, which are eccentrical, and hung by their sides by handsome belts passed under the sash. In­stead of breehches they wear drawers, and over them velvet or broad cloth long full trowsers; all which clothes were neatly made, and under all their shirts, [Page 105] which differ in no wise from women's shifts, having neither collars nor wrist-bands to them. Their boots vary in nothing from European boots but in the heels, which are made exactly like our women's high heeled shoes, and their slippers are made in the same manner but stouter, and are mostly of vel­vet or cloth, or of red, blue or green leather. The clasps of their belts, and the hilts of their swords, and in short, all the metal about their arms and missive weapons, were in general gold, and studded with jewels; and upon the whole, they cut as war­like as respectable an appearance, and being the flower of Nadir Shaw's soldiers, tho' most of them advanced to 40 or 50 years of age, and numbers of them upwards of 60 or 70; they neither wanted vigour of body or mind, which were both evident in their looks and actions, having in general a warlike aspect, and had upon the whole, the ap­pearance of men of credit and wealth; they having, most of them, more or less gold in specie and jewels they had accumulated at different times in battle, and favorites of the Grand Vizer were perpetually employed on lucrative jobbs that added to their wealth; these men being cuttlebashes, not common horsemen, but even part of the identical body of men who had been employed by Nadir Shah, to exact the contribution of the inhabitants of Delhy and Indostan, when he invaded the empire.

On my making my appearance the old man arose and met me half way, took me in his arms, according to the custom of the country, and sat me down at his right hand, placing a cushin between us both to lean on; when I signified to him that I wished for a private conference, on which the company and at­tendants were told to withdraw, and no one but eunuchs, who are admitted to all privacy whatever, remained in the saloon; when after some few ques­tions, [Page 106] of course independent of the business I was upon of a survey, I opened to him my mind on ano­ther subject quite remote; it was on that of my quitting the connection of the English and trying my fortune by joining Sujah Dowlah. The exalted idea I had formed of that Vizier from the various accounts I had had of his magnificence and the spe­cimens I had seen of his opulence amoust the English, who had made their fortunes by the plunder they gained at the battle of Buxar; added to the great wages he gave to Europeans of even the lowest stamp, and the superior encouragement he had given to some French gentlemen, and other foreigners who had sought employment under him, with a number of other powerful incentives, strongly biassed me towards the step. He was an enterprizing prince, with no bounds to his generosity, and it appeared to me in a strong light, that could I but get intro­duced into his service, I could not fail of answering his purpose and making my fortune; but such im­pediments laid in my way against accomplishing such a design, that it was evident to me, without uncom­mon luck and some extraordinary effort of interest, out of the usual channel, exerted in my favour, I should never gain my point.

The Company, to their sorrow, had experienced already the disagreeable effects of Europeans having straggled up the country, and joined the country powers; but particularly in the body of them this prince had got together, by whose means he had not only raised an army of thirty thousand seapoys, equal, if not superior, in discipline, to the Com­pany's troops; set a foot a large train of artillery, as well mounted and served as any at Fort-William; and initiated his artificers and mechanics in all the collateral branches of artillery and warlike appara­tus; circumstances so diametrically opposite to the [Page 107] Company's politics, that it getting to the ears of the court of directors at home, they reprimanded the governor and council in their letters to them from Europe, for tacitly permitting the Vizier to taile such a military force; who made it an object of such consequence to them in the main, that they sent a messenger to him by one of their factors, to dismount his artillery and disband his seapoys; which Sujah Dowlah considered in such an approbrious light that he dismissed their ambassador without giv­ing him an answer; and provoked with this measure, and not knowing what sinister designs they might have, he assembled his whole army, and marched through Gorackpore towards Patna, when a second message from the Company, to know the reason of such a warlike appearance on the frontiers of their lands, that gave his highness an opportunity of coming to an explication of his motives for assemb­ling his troops. After they came to an eclaircisse­ment he ended his expedition in a drill campain, and his army, artillery, and European detachments have been encreasing ever since; from which time, while the Company to prevent any future migrations of Europeans up into the interior parts of the country, have given orders tolet no white men, without their permit, pass the Choques forts or settlements, and enacted in council, that any servant of the Com­pany's who should presume to visit the Patcha, Vizier, Soubah, or any of the country powers, without their leave, he should be dismissed their service; and if a free merchant, free mariner, or any other adventurer in the country (though not in their service) for such on offence be sent a prisoner to the Presidency, and as such conveyed to Europe. These restrictions sub­sisting, were the stumbling blocks in my way, which apparently had hitherto prevented my attempting affecting any business with Sujah Dowlah; in order [Page 108] to remove which obstacles, on my arrival at Ban­germau, it occurred to me that the Fasdar, who saw with an envious eye the growing power of the Com­pany, and had talked loudly of their late imperti­nent behaviour to the Vizier, might possibly listen to a preposition that had a tendency to the aggran­disement of his son in law; as my vanity made me presume, that the offer of an English Toppee Wallas's services (of my consequence) might not be consi­dered as an object of no importance, and flattered with that idea, I determined on explaining myself to this Mogul of eminence on the occasion, which, in the interview I had required of him, I did in earnest and sufficient terms, that he listened to with the greatest attention; and though prepared with an answer, as he afterwards informed me, then told me it was a matter of the utmost moment, that re­quired some mature and deliberate consideration, to which he would attend, and give his opinion of in the evening: in the interim, informing me break­fast was ready, that had, he added, been retarded upon my account, which he would be glad I would partake of; I accordingly went with him into the apartment adjoining.

This was the first time I ever ate with a Mogul, and as the entertainment was to me new, I will give you an account of it: a large covering was spread in the middle of the apartment, made of camel's leather, neatly sewed together and fringed with the same, with diaper cloths and beautiful mats above all, to place the dishes on; Madeira and claret wines were then, by order of the Fasdar, brought in from my own cases, for my use, when after they had seated themselves cross-legg'd, as usual, with the Fasdar at the head of his company, consisting of about forty Moguls and others, bread of two diffe­rent kinds was handed round,—the one sort was [Page 109] nonpor bread, the other chappaty bread; the nonpoy bread was leavened, and about the size of thick pan­cakes or slapjacks, and the chappaty or unleavened bread, (the dimensions of a common china plate) made of fiber and water, converted into dough, fastened out with hands, and afterwards baked on [...] or hollow iron utensils. Their meats were of various kinds, and too tedious to enumerate; however some of them I will introduce by way of variety; which were their Pilloes, saline Sourrou­adars and meat Curryadar. Their pilloes are their favourite and standing dishes, and are made of rice and the meat of kid, mutton, antelope, deer or fowls, and cooked much after the manner as in Europe, with this difference, that the flavour of them is not heightened by the addition of ham, which to chris­tians, though so agreeable to Mahomedans, is so obnoxious that what quantity of it would satisfy the appetite of a child amongst us, would not only con­taminate the meats of a single repast, but pollute a whole tribe of Mussulmans that should partake of it. The smaller dishes were kid, mutton and fowl; fried, boiled and roasted, and some of each made into forc'd-meat-balls; with fish, flesh and fowls dressed with Currystuff and Salline Sourrouadar (of which two last articles, See Glossary for explication). The pilloes were served up in dishes of about three feet in diameter; the one of gold, the other two of silver: the other meats were served up, some in thin wooden trenchers, and some on plates and dishes of china, silver and gold, of different sorts and sizes; they prefering this variety, in those articles, through­out the country, to that uniformity therein we so much admire. Thus seated, and grace being said by the Fasdar, as head of the family, he began to officiate at table in distributing the different meats that were before us, which he did with great alacrity [Page 110] and chearfulness; and shewing me a deference as a stranger, had the dishes of Pilloe handed to him, when taking two of these large flat Nonpoys, above de­scribed, with a proportion of the Chappaty bread, clapping both hands first into one dish and then into another, filled them with Pilloe, and sent me at dif­rent times, double handfuls of these articles, with a pickled mango in each, on the surface of these broad cakes pinch'd up like a hat to confine the meat as it was handed from the Fasdar to me; when rejecting the knife and fork that was laid on purpose for me, that I might conform to the manners of the com­pany I was in, I ate with my right hand, though without being able to acquit myself with that faci­lity and fashion the Fasdar and his company did.

These Asiatics in general, averse to useless and trivial altercation, are more remarkable for their taciturnity than loquacity, which I discovered at this interview, notwithstanding which they are still so­ciable and communicative, decisive, and laconic in their speech, and without using strained compli­ments like the Christians, are naturally hospitable and generous, rather than polite and ceremonial; esteeming any thing that will excite laughter as ri­diculous, whether an act, word or deed: a person by his writings or expressions, to acquire the name of a wit amongst them, would be esteemed, if not a fool, a buffoon, without being pitied or despised.

The Moguls, by profession warriors, are used from their infancy to face danger and the extremities in­cident to their calling; their character and depend­ance resting on their supporting the dignity of a Seapoy, contemning every thing that has the colour of effeminancy or frivole; their constant study being never let their words and actions contradict their pretensions to equanimity and honour; and equally manly and tenacious of their behaviour among them­selves [Page 111] in public or private companies, no sudden start or flirts of body or mind, will with the strictest scrutiny, be discovered in an intercourse of seven years with these people, to hear them break out into a loud vociferation or horse laugh, notwith­standing the natural brightness and chearfulness of their temper: though used to depredation in war, and decisive when they strike a blow, as they never draw their swords in vain, they still know when to show mercy or when to give no quarter: as for in­stance, an aged or defenceless man, woman or child, would be sure of an asylum, from all quarters, amongst Moguls or Indostans, under any circumstances whatever, whether in war or peace; and with respect to women, so sacred is held the person of a female in those parts, that a Dooly, Palanquin, or Hackerrey, with women therein, covered with scarlet cloth and announced to be a Zunnannah, be­tween even contending armies, would not only pass unmolested, but escorts from both parties would be detached to convey them out of harms way; for to violate this law is death without reprieve; inasmuch that even to lift up, through curiosity or any other motive, the mantle of the carriage, if apprehended, the party's right hand will be cut off, and the other branded with an hot iron, for infamy, let the woman or women in question be of whatever stamp or qua­lity may be; it matters not be they rich or poor, their honour and persons are held sacred in these parts and amongst these people.

They are not less rigid in the observance of the payment of their debts, and equally as charitably disposed, having a natural propensity to give alms without being urged to it from the commandments of their alcoran, which makes charitable acts as es­sential a duty in men as prayer, but actuated by inherent principles of humanity when asked for re­lief [Page 112] by a distressed person, without framing idle pre­texts to evade helping the needy, or aggravating the suppliant's misfortune by ascribing them to idleness, drunkenness, gaming, or other extravagance, as is too frequently the case amongst many very apparent good christians, but immediately order him victuals, and if any company, a small collection will be made amongst them for the poor mendicant, and when dismissed, give them their farewell in earnest terms, by saying allah hafust, which signifies God be with you.

They are not less commendable in points of re­ligion and morality, never taking God's name in vain; that is, have not recourse to oaths, but when called upon by courts of judicature, or exacted of them on emergent occasions, when the formalities of laws, and justice require it. When a Seapoy swears by his scymitar or the alcoran, putting his hand on the one or the other, both being equally held sacred in this case, and no provocation can in­duce them to use execrations, or illiberal language to each other, or neglect their duty to their parents, whom they love to excess, tho' the same affection does not subsist between brothers and sisters, which arises entirely from the liberty of their alcoran, (i. e. their bible) that permits them to have plurality of wives, from which different branches of sons and daughters may spring, and all claim equal right to parental affection and inheritance. Hence the va­rious paricides, fratricides, and massacres, through­out all the Mahometan dominions, that the wisdom of the christian laws happily precludes. With re­spect to religion without being great bigots, ex­cepting their priests, who are not without their craft, any more than many others of other sects; they neglect not the worship of God, for they pray [Page 113] twice a day, and freqently peruse the alcoran, or hear a Molvee read a chapter.

I shall now return to our repast, which having finished, a desart of fruit was brought in, and an apple and a pear presented me as a rarity, in which light indeed they might be considered; they hav­ing been produced on the frontiers of Arabia, and brought from thence in little screw boxes, and se­parately packed and stowed in cotton, and sold af­terwards at the rate of two rupees a-piece when not plentiful, and at a rupee a-piece on an average. After the desart, the Fazdar smoaked his hooker, and the rest af the company their sulphos, and form­ed parties, some at chess, (a favorite game amongst them) others at fox and geese, some at chequers, and others at cards; during which dissipations, sherbetts occasionally were called for to taste of, (not quench their thirsts with, as that is only admissible with water) and to moisten their mouths and give a zest to their smoaking, which they do without spitting; a circumstance peculiar to no other peo­ple but Asiatics, as well as their rejection of all spi­rits or intoxicationg liquors on these occasions, or on any other, but such as I shall point out, wherein the use of either taken under certain circumstances, as an auxilliary contributory to health renders it salutary; whereas from the frequent use of which, not only a train of fatal consequences arises injurious to both body and mind, and equally detrimental to society, but is productive of a degeneracy in the human system, that by debilitating it, becomes a bar to the increase of mankind, and held in such detestation in Indostan, that notwithstanding there are stills for the distillation of spirits, the sale of them are under the most rigid restrictions, in any part of the country where Europeans have not had influence, and used in common by no people but [Page 114] Hallalcores, Sewarwollas, and Chummars, who all go under the denomination of Harricajl; who, be­ing held as unfit to associate with others, are not permitted to dwell within the walls of their cities or towns, but have little huts or houses in the su­burbs alotted them to reside in, who drink at sea­sonable times spirits, but never to excess; as for instance, when overcome with fatigue by carrying burdens, it falling to the lot of these people to serve as begaries throughout the country, more than any others, as well as to do the most laborious parts of work without doors, or when after the labours of the day, or at a wedding festival, or an entertain­ment, when in imitation of the Christians, they will regale themselves with a few potions of the inebri­ating juice, while Aumeers and Rajahs, like the ge­nerality of other great men, whether Pagans or Christians, who, building upon their rank and in­dependence, together with their superior talents and education, claim luxuriant pharasanalia, and prerogatives amongst themselves (that with the vulgar would never be admissible, or by them be thought of) in their hours of dissipation, whether with lords of their acquaintance, or when solacing themselves during the rainy seasons, in their bungaloes or budgnroes; or at other times in their serraglios, be so conscientious, as to refuse from the fair hands of their mistresses rich wine or cordial, of which their consorts on these occasions will pertake, but in such stipulated potions, that what would serve a lady of quality in England, would be sufficient to satiate a large company in Indostan.

The above innovation on the laws of the alcoran and Shastrato, which makes it Haram ^*, to drink wine or spirits, is entirely confined to the sets of people I have been discriminating, and the dancing [Page 115] girls and players of all denominations, who notwith­standing the freedom they violate them with at times, conscious of their having broken through moral and religious restrictions, thinking themselves unfit for prayer, or further legal prosecution of their affairs, until they have expiated their sins by lavations of the body, and acts of contrition, never appear in public after a breach of this kind, or be­gin any other negociation public or private, till they have plunged in a bath, and asked forgiveness of Osman ^* and Mahomet (if mussulmans) and wash­ed away their sins with the holy waters of the Gan­ges, (if Gentoos) and prayed to Bogwan, the Sun, and four elements; made libations and prostrations to them at the same time, and invoked Jagernaut and Chrimou Swamy, for remission of their crime: which restitution for sin, in breaking this weighty commandment, however reconcileable to the secu­lar part of these people, is repugnant in every shape to the sentiments of their priesthood, as in their eyes incompatible with the principles of religion and morality. Bramins amongst the Hindoos, or any other set of men amongst the Mahometans, parti­cularly with priests, would as soon dispense with poison, as with spirits or wine.

Something less than an hour was passed away in those amusements after dinner, when the company taking leave of the Fasdar, they dispersed; which time I employed in sounding Allybegkan, on the subject I had introduced to him in the forenoon, concerning the eligibility of my joining the Vizer, not having patience to wait his answer as proposed, till evening; or should not that be made out at all pacticable, circumstanced as things were then be­tween him and the Company, and of diverting my pursuits into another channel, and courting the [Page 116] friendship of the Patcha ^*, and following his for­tunes as soon as he should quit the connections of the English, which it was commonly reported, he had ultimately determined on doing before the set­ting in of the next rains, which the preparations he had made, and his behaviour to the Company, left no manner of room to doubt but he would accom­plish if he could.

The impossibility of removing the variety of ob­stacles that would apparently intervene with any attempt I should make, of connecting myself at that juncture with Sujah Dawlah, being demon­strated to me by this man in a clear and perspicuous light, I adopted the latter, relinquished all idea of the former, and substituted in it's place that of ac­companying Shaw Aullim, in his intended expedition to Delhy, as already thought of, for, not satisfied with my situation, however eligible, and present pur­suits, and fond of exchanging a way of life for any one that carried with it the face of enterprize, I was determined to improve the reasons that present­ed itself of consulting with this Mogul, how to bring about a matter so consonant to my wishes, and urg­ing him pretty strennously on that head, as he had already remarked; for given me all manner of as­surances of his advice and assistances, he concluded by telling me, that a Vacquil had arrived with dis­patches from Alligore ^†, that were to be forwarded by him to Sujah Dowlah, with whom, as soon as he should have some conversation, which would be in the evening, he would candidly give me his opi­nion of the matter, and a definitive answer, ob­served that the heat of the day was come on, and [Page 117] he was going to repose, which, if I was disposed to do, his attendants would wait on me, when I was shewn to an apartment, where was a long couch with camel's skins nicely cured, and pallanpoes spread thereon, over which hung a swing punkah on an hinge, about the size and form of half the leaf of a large oval table; it being made of a stout bow retained in a circular form, by a cross piece of round wood or cane that formed the cord of the arch, and both served for an axis, and a member of the implement, which was covered with silk in the man­ner the heads of drums are covered with parchment, having fringe about a foot deep round the edge of it; at the vertex or middle part of which bow, was fastened a silk cord, that leading up to the ceiling through a little pulley or sheeve, and passing down again obliquely through a small hole made in one side of the wall for the passage of this cord through, was moved backward and forward by a servant or slave without, to fan away the musquetoes, and maintain a breeze within the apartment, while thro' a lettice on the other side, that was made on pur­pose to admit the fresh air, was discoverable the arborage and verdure of a garden, from which the sound of a band of Indostan music that was play­ing at intervals, gently reverberating with the cir­culation of the zephyrs that fanned the trees of this rural department conducing to repose.— I soon was lost in sleep; and continued on the couch dreaming of Patchas and Viziers, till a young eunuch, about eighteen years of age, dressed like a prince, with scymiter and poignard, incrusted with diamonds, coming in, awoke me by dashing rose-water in my face from a Golab Perch, which he told me smiling, was by order of the Nabob, the rank and title Ally Begkan had borne from the day of his alliance with Sujah Dowlah by affinity, on which [Page 118] arising, I was met by his excellency, who without preparing me for the visit he had in his eye to make, proposed my accompanying him in an excursion with­out doors, attended by a single eunuch, and an old matron (who was a Cashmirian birth) through a number of avenues of the Killah, which, though far from being magnificent, it being but a mud fort with a brick house erected within side of it, for the residence of a Killadar, was furnished well enough to answer all the purposes of a temporary abode for the Nabob, during the business he was then on of col­lecting the revenue, and reducing to reason a dis­affected set of subjects, who had of late been remiss in the payment of their duties and taxes, viz. Rajah-poots and Zemindars. To return from which di­gression, conducted by Ally Begkan through some number of passages to the interior part of the Killah, we stopped at a door, where an Abyssinian eunuch, who had been seated, arose, and snipping off with a pair of sheers, by order of his master, a label that was fastened by silk threads, and on which was an im­pression upon virgin wax, of the Nabob's private signet; according to an ancient and invariable cus­tom of these Asiatic lords, who not confiding alto­gether in their ladies integrity, and the barriers alone of iron and steel of the apartments of their seraglios where they are sequestered, have the ad­ditional security of locks and keys, and the impres­sion of their signatures; which label the Abyssinian eunuch having cut, he opened a red leather case, (in which the padlock that fastened the door we had come to was contained) that he pulled off, and with a key he had about him, unlocked the door, and letting us in, we passed through an anticham­ber this door was entrance to, covered with Persian carpents, that lead into an interior apartment more elegantly set off; a canopy of crimson sattin fringed [Page 119] with gold, covereing the whole ceiling, and silver nets, decorated with pearls, lining its walls; where about thirty women were seated, with treble the number that were to be seen in a Varando that lead out of this place into a long gallery back adjacent to it, standing on their legs, or passing to and fro at­tending them; some fanning them with Puncahs, some with Chouries, others dashing rose-water over them through Golab Perches, and others helping them to Sherbetts, almonds, raisins, walnuts, pears, apples, and Beatle. We had taken these ladies at a non-plus; they were surprised, and no wonder; so unexpected and unprecedented an intrusion of a man, young or old, a stranger and an European too, and in company with the Fasdar, struck them with amazement, and left them at a loss what to do or say, until the Nabob telling them to be easy, that I was a friend, and more than that, I was his son, and that they must receive me as such,—his prin­cess (which rank I afterwards discovered she had by birth, a woman of about forty years of age, a native of Candahar, and sister to Amud Shaw, the Durany, commonly called Abdallah, or Abdally, the then reign­ing prince of Candahar) rising, sallamed me, when all the seragli [...] followed her example; which com­pliments being returned by me in the style of the country, Ally Begkan seating himself opposite to his wife, and placing me at his right hand, after con­versation of about half an hour, we retired.

During this visit I was complimented with beatle, and when the surprise of the women was over, was asked questions by six or seven of the leading cha­racters amongst them, such as whether I understood the Persian or Indostan language?—how long I had been in the country?—and whether the women in mi [...] dressed in the manner they did? &c. &c. All which females, excepting his excellency's wife (who [Page 120] was on the decline, and about a dozen years past her grand climacteric) were, I observed, the grea­test beauties amongst them; that prevalent article beauty, (a staple commodity) purchasing favor and pre-eminence at the court of Badshaws and Viziers, all over Asia, and independent of their pretensions to rank from descent, or parentage, owed their pre­sent exaltation and ascendency to the superiority of their charms, in which they excelled any women I ever saw in India before or since, to an inexpressible degree; for these were, if I may be allowed the comparison, like concomitants to a Sun, shining in an exalted sphere.—The select pieces of Sujah Dowlah's seraglio eminent for an assemblage of the greatest beauties in the world, one of Alligore's el­dest daughters had been paying a visit to the Vizier's queen, at Phazabad ^†, and this Zunnanah ^* of his highness, to do her honor, accompanied her on her way back to Eleabus, as for as Allybekan's, when they were detained by the civilities of his wife and family; for this good old Mogul advanced in years, though formerly remarkable for the number of wo­men he had in his seraglio, confined his affections laterly to his first wife, by whom he had had five children, one of which was married to the Grand Vizier, as already observed.

I met this Zunnannah and its escort, on the banks of the Ganges, and assisted in embarking the Bad­shazadee ^‖: it was the most magnificent fight I ever beheld,—a Rasalladar ^‡, commanding a thousand Mogul horse, each cavalier rightly armed and dres­sed, mounted on Persian barbs, led on the advanced [Page 121] guard, while two lines of Indostan cavalry, com­posed of Shakes, Syeds and Patans, marched on each side the Zunnannah, which I call the centre, and a body of Maratta Pullagars, mounted on horses and mares which Rumchundersunnes had accommodated the Princess with, brought up the rear; the flanks of the Zunnannah being guarded by two hundred Shutturwans, equally divided, dressed in scarlet, and their camels covered with cloths of the same, fring'd with yellow silk, and top knots as big as pine ap­ples, of black silk and silver threads, with tassels of the same kind hanging to their sides; while within, eunuchs on superb horses, with gold and silver stir­rups and bita, silk bridles and saddles, and furniture composed of the same materials, kept prancing and parading within the different corps of cavalry and Shutturwans; between whom and the front, on three elephants in a row, without turrets, were seated be­hind the drivers, the Bajannawallas to sound the nobut, a martial serenade of drums (equal in diameter to the bulge of butts and pipes) and trumpets of different sizes and tones.—Chubdars, with silver maces in their hands, were scattered about the Zun­nannah, all mounted on horseback; and men, sing­ing the praises of the Princess they were conducting, at intervals, and in concert with the Nobut, that kept a constant beating. The ladies were all con­ducted on Palanquins covered with crimson velvet mantles, embroidered with gold, and deep fringes of the same, with peep holes in them to look thro'; and their attendants travelled in Hackerries covered with scarlet cloth and silk blinds, drawn by large milk white guzerat bullocks, with mantles on their backs of silk, sattin or velvet, except the Badsha­zadee, who was mounted on an elephant, in the centre of six others, in a turret covered with a man­tle of sattin sprigged with diamonds and rubies, and [Page 122] fringed with emeralds and pearls; the elephant hav­ing round his neck bells of solid silver, and trappings of gold. On the foremost elephant was Meerza­many, the Vizier's eldest son, a very corpulent young fellow, about twenty four years of age; on the second was Jungly Mungly, the second son, and a handsome youth; and on the third Morajah Dow­lah, the Emperor's uncle; while Mawboob, Bus­sunt, and Leetaffat, (three young eunuchs of great trust, belonging to the Vizier) filled the turrets of the three other elephants behind; with several Sardars ^§ mounted on horseback and on elephants, who had joined the party to take their pleasure, scowered the plains. Which escort having conduc­ted the Princess to the side of the Ganges, where a bridge of boats was thrown across, she was received by another party, when the ladies attending her, and those belonging to the Vizier, took leave of each other by interchanging their compliments thro' means of the Chubdars; when the Shutterwans dis­charged their muskettoons, and the Vizier's party returned, and marched to Bangermau.

Having finished our visit to the Zunnannah as re­lated, the Fasdar and I withdrew,—when he give audience to the Vacquil arrived from Eleabas; when returning, I asked him what news from the Sultan? On which he shook his head and cried worse and worse! you must not think of disjointing yourself from your countrymen, nor joining the unfortunate itinerant Alligore. Some fatality, says this Fas­dar, attends the steps of this prince, defeats all his attempts; his evil stars will not let him arrive to the pinnacle of his wishes. He is of a restless dis­position, and equally suspicious; he has been so unfortunate in his undertakings, no one wishes to be concerned with him; will never succeed in his [Page 123] present scheme of getting himself established on the throne of Delhy. The moment he leaves your brother, the Toppee Wallas, he is ruined, and will become a vagabond, and in the end, will be thrown by the contrivances of his enemies, into the hands of the Marattas; the legitimacy of his birth is disputed, or be that as it will, the English, your countrymen, have made friends with Ragouby, who massacred Madarow; and countenance under the rose, the steps he is taking for gaining the sove­reignty of Pounah, and affect to not dispute the Maratta's right to the inheritance of the empire; you cannot, must not think of the step at any rate; at present it would be equally as impracticable as that of your joining my son in law.—The ensuing season, should he in earnest take the des­perate step of joining the Marattas, and you should happen to be upon the spot, he might perhaps not not refuse your assistance, and the impediments that are in your way now, would no longer subsist. The truth of Allybegkan's remarks were too evident to admit of dispute, and consoling myself with the Emperor's quitting the next year the Company's connection, and paying my court to him, I made myself easy on the subjects of Shaw Aulim and Su­jahdowlah, and got all in readiness to go on with my survey.

No. 21. On board the Peggy, Capt. Markbridge, at an anchor in Ballasore road [...], bound to Madrass.

IT is upwards of a year since I have set down to write to my friends, a multiplicity of affairs has totally prevented my continuing as usual my cor­respondents. I promised lady Caroline — a [Page 124] further account of the women of this country, and other matters, and Mr. Chapman a description of the buffaloe and tyger fights, and shall begin now with an account of my proceedings, and what of­fered to me worth notice, or committing to black and white, from the time I left Muxadabads, till my arrival at Bangarmau, and return here again by the way of Dacca and Sundry-Bunder, at Chit­tagang; by the way of Dacca, after leaving Ban­germau, and return through the Sundry Bunder to Calcutta. On my leaving Muxadabads, I proceed­ed in my budgero, by the way of Bogwangollah, (the greatest gunge and repository of grain in Ben­gal) to Rajahmaul, on the banks of the Ganges, once the seat of empire during the power of the Hindoos, where the Company have a factory, and a fortress.—In that neighbourhood I remained a week, and had an opportunity of seeing a num­ber of Decoits; at which place is a palace of black marble, of as ancient as curious construction.

From Rajahmaul I proceeded to Monghere, where the Company have fortifications, it being their second military department, their first being at Fort William, and the other at Kassim Buzar; this being one of the principal passes of the coun­try, and to narrow (being cut through a solid rock) that a file of musqueters, or a single field piece can defend it against the invasion of an army. From Monghere I proceeded to Patna, the largest and most populous city in the three kingdoms of Ben­gal, Bahar, and Orixar or Orissa, there being a greater concourse of people in the markets and streets, and about it's suburbs, than I ever beheld in any other city in any part of the globe, which is one of the principal settlements of the Company in India, where the French, Dutch and Danes, have likewise factories, and the Portuguese and Italian missionaries of different orders; Jesuits, [Page 125] Augustines, and Franciscan and Dominican friars, who have churches or chapels there, and in short in all the European settlements in India. At Patna and about it, the salt-petre and opium is produced, and Kincobs ^§, Gulabuttons ^†, Mushrooes ^‡, Chandarees ^§, and a variety of other beautiful articles manufac­tured here, that the Company export to different parts of India, and to Europe. At Patna I had an opportunity of seeing Bulmonsin, the Beneras Rajah, who is the first Hindoo prince in riches and rank in these three kingdoms. He was then about 40 years of age, of a copper coloured complexion, and rather a pacific than predominant character in his face.—From Patna, I proceeded up the Ganges to Eleabas, where, for the first time I saw the Nabob, Sujah Dowlah. It was early in the morning, and he was mounted on a small ele­phant, without a Houdah ^‖, striding his neck him­self, with his punjah in his hand, and a broad scy­miter by his side His Highness was exactly five feet ten inches high, as I have been credibly in­formed, but appeared to be a taller man on his elephant; he was corpulant, without being fat, of a dark copper colour, wearing both beard and whiskers, and in any garb, or under any circum­stances, would by a remarkable authority, and ma­jesty in his countenance, be known to be a person of repute. The circumstance of his being mount­ed in this manner, attracted a greater crowd to see him than otherwise probably it would have assem­bled. He had been to pay the Patcha a visit, and [Page 126] was on his retain to Phyzabad, when, remarkable for his courage, strength, and feats of activity on elephants and horseback, the boats not being in readiness that were to have conveyed him and his retinue over the river; notwithstanding it's breadth opposite the place, he changed the elephant he had passed through the city on, for the one I have al­ready described, and mounting him in the man­ner above mentioned, he proceeded for the river side, when plunging in thus mounted, he crossed this great stream in despite of a rapid current, and within a pistol shot of the opposite shore, cut asun­der an alligator that attacked his elephant, and landed safe in about 20 minutes, in sight of above a thousand Europeans then at Patna, including their military.

From Patna I proceeded to Eleabas, which city stands on an angle of land that terminates where the confluence of the streams of the Great Ganges and the river Jumnah meet, and is one of the grand passes of the empire.

At Eleabas, the other parties engaged in the survey agreeable to appointment, met, when we compared our works; a few days after which, we took different routs, and I proceeded to Frackabad, and from thence to Bangermau; whence, after a week's stay, I passed by land through Lucknoar, and other towns in my way to Phyzabad, where I proposed meeting my Budgero and other boats, with all dispatch to avoid the approaching rains, which would interfere with the business I was upon, and had ordered the boats round by the way of the Gogra accordingly. During my stay at Banger­mau, my leisure hours were agreeably enough dis­posed of, some of them in conversation with the Fasdar, wherein the accounts I gave him of Europe, the coast of Africa, its inhabitants, and the West-Indies, &c. were not less agreeable to him, than were those he gave of the interior parts of Asia he [Page 127] was acquainted with, and of his enterprizes amongst the Mogul Tartars, Cossacks, Russians, and others, with his former General Nadir Shah, interspersing them with anecdotes of that warrior's life, equal­ly singular and interesting, which creating an in­timacy with Allybegkan, that amounted to a de­gree of friendship, that on his part he had remark­ably demonstrated, by the compliment he had paid me of carrying me into his Zunnannah, and consi­dering me as one of his family; I had opportuni­ties afforded me thereby, of observing the man­ners and ways of the boys and females belonging to him, and the behaviour towards the children in the bringing of them up, sufficient to enable me to form a general idea of the mode of education of both sexes I have alluded to, that the Asiatics in these parts are so remarkable for, as well as of the domestic oeconomy of the ladies and females in these parts, that otherwise I might not have had in a continuation in the country of seven years, and agreeable to the promise I made you, I will give you a summary of my observations, if not in ela­borate terms that will be represented without ex­aggeration.

The girls, when they have learned to walk, the use of speech coming to them generally about the same time, have their baby cloths thrown aside, and in their stead other dresses prepared for them, viz. long drawers, pizwagees, veils, sashes, slip­pers, annulets, bracelets on their hands and arms, with necklaces, pendants for their noses and ears, and round the neck, and taveeges ^* in lockets to fasten round their arms, and mindy to tinge their finger and toe nails with, and as much care and exactitude observed by the mantua-makers in the measuring them and making up these cloaths, un­der [Page 128] the direction of their mothers and female con­nections, as though they were preparing wedding suits; the same care is likewise taken by the lapi­daries, jewellers and goldsmiths, in the accom­modating the ornamental et-ceteras that they may fashioned in exact proportion to their limbs, and the parts they are intended for, particularly with respect to the diameter of the rings that are to be suspended by a pendant over the young misses lips in question, who, always prior to this first investi­ture of their sex, have their noses and ears bored, while lulled into a profound sleep, to palliate or prevent the sensation of pain.

Thus dressed will these infants, in the arms of maids, be carried up and down the houses and gar­dens they belong to, and out in Hackeries or Budge­roes daily, not omitting plunging them every morn­ing in cold water, to brace up their nerves and increase their bodily strength, and handed from one relation to another to receive their carcases; from that period until they arrive at the age of between three or four years, (at which time children in these parts are one third more mature and advanced in their bodily and mental faculties, and adults in pro­portion, than cotemporaries of either sex of the same age amongst the nations in Europe) when they begin to qualify them for the future necessary pur­poses of life, by having them instructed in all the different branches requisite for a female to be ac­quainted with; as for instance, embroidery, plain needle-work, reading and writing the Persian lan­guage, the composition of the same by setting them tasks, and pointing out to them subject to expa­tiate on verbatim, and by giving them dialogues to get off by heart, and repeat before companies occasionally at home or abroad; and subjects to write letters upon to each other, by way of miscel­laneous correspondence, together with dancing, [Page 129] vocal and instrumental music; and accompanying their mothers and females belonging to their fami­lies by sun rise in the mornings to bathe, and taught to copy them in the prostrations they make at pray­er, and the remarkable reserve and oeconomy with which they divest themselves of their morning robes and conduct themselves in their baths until they return to their apartments and dress themselves in fresh attire. By this association a similitude of man­ners and improvement in their intellectual parts, and exterior deportment, are acquired, that grow­ing up with them, subjoined to their other collate­ral instructions, by the time they arrive at eleven or twelve years of age, compleat their education, and qualify them for the society of male or female; while the boys are invested at the same time with dresses and ornaments suited to their sex; and from that time until they arrive at seven years of age, when they are circumcised, and some military ad­ditions are made to their dresses, their hair shaved off their heads, excepting a single lock which is left on the top of them, as a distinction to indicate their being Mahometans, both till then and after­wards, accompanying their fathers and male con­nections in their daily adorations and bathings, as well as excursions abroad on elephants or horses, which they are taught early to ride and manage, while they acquire health and strength by these exercises and others, as for instance, the drawing the bow, and discharging arrows, swimming for wagers against currents, and diving, from great heights, into deep waters, together with the lite­rary instructions they receive from their preceptors within doors, by adhering to the precepts of all these different masters, and following the examples of their lofty connexions, in point of decorum and manly behaviour, fit themselves in their sphere, to [Page 130] fill such offices as their merits, fortunes, or differ­ent interests may obtain them.

Having finished my business in the neighbourhood of Bangermau, I took leave of the Fasdar, and by the way of Lucknoar, as I mentioned, proceeded to Phyzabad to join my Budgero and department there, where I visited the Vizier, and presented him with a Nazur ^* in Golabbaug, ^† by Morajah Dowlah and a son of Allybegkan, and invited to the Toppe Connor‡ by monsieur Sanson the commandant, saw the Vizier review his ten battalions of Seapoys and train of artillery, conducted by the Europeans men­tioned in former letters. From Phyzabad I crossed the Gogra, a large river that discharges itself into the Ganges, dispatched my boat to Chunnan Chop­prach, facing Patna, and proceeded to Gorackpore, where the Fasdar, a Mogul, entertained me with a Notch and a fight with a wild buffaloe, and tigers; when a tiger being brought forth in a cage, was let loose by his keepers, who, the buffaloe at the first onset meeting, (though larger and more corpulent than any ox I ever saw, and longer in the body by two [...]et) overset him and dashed his brains out with his horns, which were in a manner shapeless, resembling billets of wood as long as a tall man's thigh, and 8 inches thick at the lower parts, when a second tygress being let loose on him, he rushed at her head-foremost, but missing of his aim, by a start she took sideways, she leaped on his back, and with the talons of her hind feet in his neck and shoulders, and fore feet in his hind haunches, with her teeth fixed in his loins, tore out his back bone, and killed him dead upon the spot; and not having been fed for two days before, in order to make her more voracious, tore out his entrails, buried her head in his body, satiated herself on the flesh, and [Page 131] glotted herself with the blood, till, with the heat of the day and fatigue of the combat, intoxicated with the buffaloe's gore, she fell a sleep and laid in that situation in the beams of the sun.

From Gorrackpore I proceeded through the jun­gl [...] ^*, where frequently at a distance, I saw herds of elephants feeding in the wilderness with their young, some of which, by the assistance of my re­fractor, I could discover to be no larger than young bullocks, and others as small as grown hogs. This wilderness is equally habited by tigers, leopards, baboons, and apes of all sorts and sizes, elks, deer, antelopes, innumerable jackalls, serpents, alliga­tors and crocodiles; of the bird kind, eagles, vul­tures, pilicans, hawks, kites, peacocks, all prey­ing (beasts and birds) the one preying on the other. In crossing which wilderness, penetrating the coun­try to the northward, I discovered the Napal hills, where I was obliged to precipitate my march, in order to avoid the Rajah poots of those mountains, then out upon the scout to intercept the Company's surveyors and detachments sent to explore their country, and discover the passage up those hills, in order to come at the knowledge of the rich gold mines their country is replete with; and one and twenty days from the time I left Brangermau, I arrived at Chunnam Choppah, when I embarked in my budgero, and proceeded with the rest of my boats by the way of Jillinghee to Dacca, one of the largest cities in Bengal, and capital of a province, and famous for its muslin manufactures, that are fa­bricated by men who work under groves of trees, in walks resembling rope-walks, where they have the threads of the muslins extended on bamboo stands, with cross pieces on them, and traversed through and through with shuttles in this manner, without being manufactured, as some have imagined, in a [Page 132] loom, which cloths being first taken off these bam­boo implements, tho' of book muslin, which is of the first sort, are as thick as callicoes, till they have undergone a variety of washings by the Do­bens ^*. From Dacca, I proceeded down the Great Ganges to Chittagan. Chittagon is at the bottom of the bay of Bengal, and is the easternmost of the Company's settlements on the continent infra Gan­ges; is a very mountainous country, and so subject to earthquakes, that half a year never passes away without some two or three shocks. This province joins to Aracan, on the confines of the empire of China, eminent for it's riches, and the idols of solid gold which are in the temples of it's capitol. —The inhabitants of Aracan are remarkable for their dexterity in the use of bows and arrows, as well as for their depredations by sea and land; — they having frequently in the bay of Bengal, by keeping the shore along, and screening themselves and their boats amongst the islands in the mouths of the Great Ganges, seized upon large burs, Com­pany's sloops, and once or twice, some twenty years past, a brig or two, and carried them up the rivers in the country, where they have kept the people prisoners with stout wires run through their noses, and chains to their hands and feet, till the Company have sent ransomes composed of Eu­ropean goods, to release them, which, with the Dacca decoits ^†, who infest these parts, and make [Page 133] it a practice of scuttling the vessels they seize on, and after despoiling them, frequently massacre the crews, renders it necessary to use some precautions to prevent being surprized by either in the night; as in the day time, a single four pounder, with six or seven men armed with musketry, would be suf­ficient to keep at a distance a fleet of such craft. My business called upon my ranging these shores along, and gave me an opportunity of informing myself of their haunts and force, which, with re­spect to the Muggs, the name which the inhabi­tants of Aaracan go by amongst the Europeans in India; their excursions are confined to the precincts of their own shores, and the mouths of the Ganges, a fight of which they never choose to lose, or ven­ture out of the reach of, so far but what they may regain by the turn of the sea breeze; and the Dacca dec [...]ts, whose excursions are of less eccentricity, never exceeding the bounds of the tides, with which they pass up and down the embouchures of the rivers that enter themselves into this part of the bay of Bengal. Any vessels to the southward of these parts, in a defenceless situation, need not appre­hend any attack from these quarters, whatever they may from pirates of other parts in the bay of Ben­gal, which, as a subject interesting to navigation in general, that I have promised to comprehend in the series of my letters to my correspondents, and comply equally with the promise I made them, of giving them an account likewise of the monsoon and trade winds in these parts; I will embrace this opportunity of dedicating a few lines to that effect, which, as capable of being comprehended in a narrow compass, will answer all the purposes of a larger display, therefore will quit the subject of pirates at present, and enter upon that of the winds called monsoons. The monsoons are winds that blow and shift their direction periodically with [Page 134] the seasons all over India, and are distinguished by the names of the easterly and westerly monsoons. In the bay of Bengal, the westerly monsoons be­gins to set in between the beginning of Septem­ber and the latter end of October, which shifting of the monsoons is generally attended with such vio­lent and sudden alteration of the weather, that the Company, to prevent the loss of their shipping, and the underwriters that of a greater risk of their insurance, have made it a principal article in their police, and the former made it an established or­der for the ships to leave the bay of Bengal, on or before the 24th of October, on which day the flag staff at Fort St. George is struck, that the ships at anchor in the roads may regulate them­selves accordingly, a precaution necessary, not to be considered in a trivial light; as a proof of which, I was standing on the beach at Madrass, in a tre­mendous hurricane, that attended the shifting of the monsoon alluded to, that the surf (which is the biggest surf in the known world) running mountain high, made an innovation on the ramparts of the fort, that filled some of the narrow avenues of the town up to the eves of the houses with water; in which inundation, some few people were drowned; which wave, in its recession, carried away a Huvle­dar, and a Seapoy that was centinel on the sali­ant angle of the bastion, back into the sea, where they were drowned; notwithstanding which dan­gerous surf, a Kattamaran, with a Malabar on top of it, landed safe from an Indiaman, then rid­ing with three whole cables veered away to their better ends, and three anchors a head, her yards and top-masts struck, and lower yards a-portland; which foundered the same evening, and bulged, it was supposed, by striking with a lift of the sea, notwithstanding she was then in six fathom water.

[Page 135]This monsoon blows constantly between the north and west, in a direction of about West N. West, from about that time above mentioned, for six months successively, when it changes and blows on the opposite point of compass, and so on alternate­ly; which change of the season is called shifting of the monsoon, which is equally attended with as hazardous weather as the former; which latter monsoon is called the easterly monsoon, it blowing between the south and the east; while the other, for contradistinction sake, is called the westerly monsoon;—which winds blow in diametrically op­posite directions in the same seasons of the year, on the westerly side of the peninsula, the south easterly monsoon blowing from that part of the coast of Africa which is intersected by the equator, to the verge of the coast of Malabar, from April till October; and the north westerly monsoon blowing the other six months via versa. From which in­formation, any captain of a ship could not fail to regulate himself by; and with respect to any other pirates than those I spoke of already, excepting the Coolies, who infest the coast of India from the mouth of the river Indus, and all along shore to Diu, (a Portuguese settlement) to the gulph of Guzerat and coast of Malabar; and extend their cruises from the northward of Surat, down to Cape Comorin, the southernmost peninsula of Indostan, and off the island of Ceylon, and sometimes to the southward of the Laccadavies; and a small square rigged vessel or so that Hyder Ally at times when at variance with the English, under Maratta co­lours or his own, may equip at Mangolore ^*, capa­ble of seizing on a vessel unarmed or unprepared, are all the vessels that can come under the denomi­nation of pirates this side the Chinese seas, from [Page 136] which any danger might be apprehended,—the Mallays in the straits of Malacca, and on the island of Sumatra, never extending any of their pursuits seaward from the eastern coast of the Bay of Ben­gal. What may or may not be apprehended from these Coolies, Maratta or Mangalore cruisers, you will be able to form a judgment of when I describe to you the magnitude of their vessels, and their warlike equipments. I shall begin with the Coo­lies, as having from ages back made a practice of ranging the shores along, and the coast of Mala­bar, &c. as above described, and making prizes of what vessels they could master, and carrying them into their ports. These Coolies are a race of Hindoos that inhabit the coast of India from the borders or the river Indus to the south-westernmost part of the gulph of Guzerrat, the major part of which coast being frontiered with dangerous rocks and shoals, as well as the rivers and creeks that lead up to the places where the principal haunts are, on account of the intricacy of their naviga­tion inaccessible to any craft but their own, equip boats of different dimensions, of a size from fif­teen to thirty or forty tons burthen; some with two and others with three masts, with light cotton sails and rigging, and coir cables ^§;—in which boats, furnished with long bow chasers from a bore of three to six pounders, and men armed with mus­kets, swords and pistols, with always a black Top­pee-wallas or two on board of each boat, they will find their way through the intermediate passages of these shoals, and extend their pursuits down the coasts I have described, attack and take any vessels belonging to the Marattas, with whom they are generally at peace, and send or carry them into their ports; but having latterly met with such [Page 137] warm reception from vessels belonging to gentle­men in the Company's service, and private adven­turers in the country, as to have convinced them of the folly of attempting any vessels of a respect­able appearance, they now keep themselves aloof, and seldom or never make a larger prize than a cotton boat or other coaster, or sometimes a fleet of them in their way backwards and forwards to Bombay, and the mouth of the river Indus, and others thereabouts; for though they will run within the Grand Carranjar, and the islands that barrier the bay of Bombay, so close as to be seen from the windows of the houses of the settlement, in hopes of cutting off some small craft they espy coasting along the shore, they will on a small armed sloop of the Company's appearing, make off like a flock of geese;—though upon the whole, a number of them might in a calm hamper a vessel so, by firing at her with their bow chasers, and resolutely row­ing up to her from all quarters, and boarding her, make a prize of her; which they have succeeded in some three or four times, and no more, since the reign of the celebrated Angria, whom the Company took prisoner and entirely ruined, toge­ther with his naval force.— With respect to Hyder Ally's ships, under Maratta colours or his own, they are generally old crazy vessels, patch­ed up in his port of Mangalore, armed with old rusty uneven guns of different lengths and calibres, manned by Lascars, and commanded by Europeans of a low stamp, and Callofringhees or black Chris­tians, who at the sight of a vessel with but a can­nonade on their quarter deck, that stands her way without avoiding them, will keep their distance.

I have now given you an account of the mon­soons that blow in these seas, and of the different pirates that infest them;—I shall now return to Chittagon, where having finished my business, I [Page 138] took my leave of the chief, and of the gentlemen of the factory, and by the way of Dacca, I returned to Calcutta, where having orders to proceed to Madrass, in the vessel I date my letter from, we dropped down Ingillee, and from thence to Bal­lasore roads, and are now getting under sail in or­der to proceed to the southward.

No. 22. To my friends and Correspondents in general, in Europe.

I Have been now four months at Madrass, during which time I have been witness to transactions that to relate at large would fill a volume: I must cut them short, and contract them into a narrow compass.—I shall begin with my arrival at Ma­drass, which was eight and forty hours after leav­ing Bengal, when we dropped anchor in the roads, within half a league of the sort, bearing west and by south,—when two Mussoullah boats from the shore, and a Kattamaran ^§ came along side; the Kattamaran with a letter from the governors mes­sieurs Bouchier and Dupree, and the Massoula boats to convey the captain, and any passengers who might be on board, on shore; in one of which I embarked with capt. M ^cBride, and landed amidst [Page 139] a very great surf,—when I waited on the go­vernors with letters of business, and recommen­dation; who were so emerged in the concerns and negotiations with Hyder, that they were obliged to take turn about night and day to receive and return answers to dispatches from their own army, and from that quarter. They have invaded Hy­der's country, possessed themselves of several of his subjects not taken in arms, and among the rest some principal women, and some of the males belonging to the family of Sandysyab, and fixed their colours in several towns and hamlets, in the name of Mam­hudilly, the nabob of Arcot; to whom they pre­tended these places, with a considerable more ter­ritory beyond them, belonged. In return to which he came down to Madrass with his army, laid the whole country waste, and was obliged them in short to pay him his own demands for the expence they had put him at by the war: made them re­turn these families of consequence they had taken prisoners, and sign the most shameful concessions ever made by British subjects to a foreign power; which put a blot in the Company's escutcheon it is thought they never will be able to obliterate; which concessions being signed April 1769, and securities given for the mutual performance of the contracts, Hyder's troops, who but a few days before had been the terror of the whole settlement, entered [Page 140] the black town and the gates of Madrass, and were seen bartering the plunder they had taken from the Company's connections, with the merchants and shopkeepers of these two places;—during which time I visited Hyder Ally, within a few miles of Poulay-Malay, where he received me with his son, in his tent, then a handsome tall youth, of an olive coloured complexion, his father being considerably darker, about five feet ten inches high, corpulent and lusty. It was midnight when I entered his camp and was shewn to his tent, when asking my business, on my informing him that it was nothing but the desire I had of seeing so great a man, he smiled, and ordering me a pair of super fine shawls, as a mark of his esteem, I took leave of him, and with an escort he ordered me, of a dozen Pullagar ^§ horse, they cond [...]d me to the gates of the line of circumvallation that had been formed round Madrass, from sea to sea, to keep off his horse,— when knowing the countersign, I was admitted by the captain of the guard, and returned to a tavern in the black town,—I taking the opportunity of visiting the Nabob in the night, that it might not be known to the council. A few days after this, he marched towards his capitol, and general Smith had orders, which were with the consent of Hyder, to watch his motions, by marching within a few miles of his rear, till he had entirely quit the boundaries of Mamhudilly's territory. I con­tinued three months after this in and about Ma­drass, where I had an opportunity of seeing their chintz pallampores stamped and printed, which process differing but little from that performed in Europe, I think it needless to relate; when a ves­sel being ready to sail, in which I proposed re­turning to Bengal, I prepared for my departure [Page 141] accordingly,—about which identical time the at­tention of the Europeans on the spot, and the in­habitants, was taken up with the appearance of a comet with a remarkable large atmospherical tail that from the head to the extremity of the said tail occupied the space of near thirty degrees in the heavens: its motion was direct, and from an observation some of us took of its path, its orbit was very elliptical, and moved with such velocity that it was not visible in those parts fifteen days after its appearance, when it was in the zenith of Madrass.—From which comet's appearance, the Bramins foreboded famines, wars, &c.

I prosecuted my voyage to Bengal, and in a hun­dred hours after my leaving Madrass, arrived at Calcutta, where I was employed anew in the busi­ness of the survey; but these [...] being counter­manded, I was sent under the pretence of a survey to assist in finding out such of the inhabitants about Burdawan and Midnopore, and interior to those places as might, under the colour of their not hav­ing paid the back taxes due to the Sircar of the Soubah, be (if monied men) sent prisoners to the Presidency, in order to be squeezed, for that is the technical term used in India by Europeans, for ex­tortion, which afforded me an opportunity of being witness to the many unwarrantable means by which the English East-India Company's servants, exclu­sive of their commercial emoluments, acquire their rapid and immense fortunes; amongst a number of which, that I was witness to, while on this un­derhand business in the back part of the country, were the following: on a senior, merchant, factor, writer, or any other of the Company's servants being informed by their Harcaras of a rich Bra­min's daughter being on her way to be married, to seize on the company and retinue, on pretence of mistaking the Bramin for an offender they were [Page 142] in quest of; convey these people to a convenient retired place, there threaten to sacrifice a bull, cow, or calf, and drench him with the broth of the creature out of a horn; whilst the young bride and females attending her, would, on the other hand, be threatened with being dishonoured, if a lack of rupees or such a quantity of money as these gentle­men should think proper to exact, was not produced and securities given till the stipulated sum was paid.

Amonst the Gentoos, the bull, cow, or calf, is venerated and occasionally deified, and excepting the Rajahpoots, none of these people will taste ani­mal food of any kind; and so tenacious in the observation of this rigid precept of their religion, that even several vegetables there are they will not eat; as for instance, onions, carrots, radishes, &c. Onions, why? b [...]use if they excite not your pity when prepared to be ate, they extract, they will tell you, tears, and should induce you to refrain from devouring them: reasons, which in the eyes of European nations, however absurd to them, are irresistable; and carrots and radishes are equally compassionated in their state of vegetation, on ac­count of the sanguine tincture of their roots, and the fibrous nature of their texture—so analogous, as they will tell you, to blood, sinews and bones: and a drop of blood from a bull, cow, or calf, to fall on a Gentoo, contaminates him; directly he loses his native purity, and can no longer associate with his tribe; his nearest and dearest relations even cannot, or dare not receive him; and equally scrupulous, or rather circumspect in their conduct towards the fair sex; a man to lay his bare hands on the hands and arms of a female, defiles her, and she is exterminated for ever her cast or tribe.

It is not surprising then that people so tenacious of their religious rites and customs, and delicate with respect to their ideas of women, should rather [Page 143] than have their deities sacrificed, themselves pol­luted, and their ladies dishonoured, surrender up a lack of rupees, or more in measure, to their pe­cuniary abilities, to avoid incurring the formidable penalties of these avaricious Toppe Wallas.

The business that I was employed upon took me up about six months, during which time I became tolerably initiated into the various mysteries of squeezing; when, returning to Calcutta, I was dismissed the service, for refusing to give an account of a quantity of rupees I received, that I thought myself entitled to as much as the Inquisitors.— about which time a famine happened that swept off within the space of four months, according to the computation of the people or the country, half a million of inhabitants; entirely arising from the measures adopted for the emol [...]ent of the Com­pany and its substitutes, which took place as follows:

A monoply of grain of all species was thought of, and it was decreed in council at Calcutta, that all the ghee, wheat, rice, Indian corn, bodgero, gram and grain in general, within the three provin­ces of Bengal, Behar and Orixa (on the pretext of measuring and sharing it for the respective proprie­tors) should be delivered up to the Company's agents on pain of death, confiscation, or imprison­ment, at such a stipulated price; and officers ap­pointed to see it done. The mandates were obeyed, all the granaries ransacked, and seapoys put over them till godowns were built for the depositing these articles; and within three months from this decree's having passed, no quantity exceeding a [...] (of ghee, or grain) could be procured without the Company's chop, and that at an exorbitant rate, from the mouth of the Great Ganges, to the utmost confines of the above mentioned extensive provinces. Money could not at last purchase it: it was a reserve made, the Company said, for a [Page 144] time of need. What were the effects of the mono­ply? It produced a famine throughout the country. Gentoos and Mahometans would be seen begging aloud for routtee; and however contrary to the tenets of their respective religions, the latter ab­horring swine's flesh, and the former, to them all animal food as obnoxious, particularly beef. The calls of nature breaking through all religious ties, glad were these famished people, the Gentoos, to devour the flesh of the cow; and the Mahometan's swine's flesh, which pollutes, according to the al­coran, both body and soul, and excludes them for ever the mansions of the blessed.

The famine increased; the natives began to die for hunger in abundance, inasmuch that the streets of Calcutta were so bestrewed with dead bodies, that it made it necessary for people to have their palanquins hung round with sprigs of rue, and chaffindishes with burning charcoal and frankin­cense evaporating in them, to keep off the noxious fumes of the dead bodies; for so thick were the human carcases, that the bearers, in narrow streets, and at the turnings of corners, were obliged to walk over them; the dead bodies increasing daily it was more than the Hallalcores and Sewerwallas could do to keep the streets clear of them, though they were well paid for throwing them into the adjacent rivers.

Men, women and children, staggering after pas­sengers, craving for alms, unable to hold out any longer, world be seen to fall amongst other expiring Gentoos and Mahometans, to shun the common fate of their famished countrymen; while the name of Allah by the Mahometans, and Bogwan by the Gentoos, which signifies God, in their respective languages, alternately rung by peals in one's ears, would add considerably to the horror and awfulness of the scene.

[Page 145]The banks and sides of the river Hughly, which runs by Calcutta, lined with the bodies of these unhappy people, attracting in prodigious numbers the jackalls, piadogs, pillicans, Braming kites, vultures, and carrion crows, with which this country abounds; the dead bodies and some of them but expiring (men, women and children) screened from the eye by these contending parties of vora­cious animals, and the amazing volumes of flies that the stench had drawn together, formed a scene as horrid as obnoxious to behold.

The quadrupedes, some of them satiated with their repast, would be seen sleeping, some watch­ing, and others basking in the sun; whilst some finishing and beginning their meal, interrupted by the intrusion of new comers (four footed animals and winged fowl) skirmishes would ensue, and fre­quently terminate in a general battle, in which all parties would be indiscriminately engaged,—the crow, kite, vulture, dog and jackcall, pell mell; at which juncture, should caprice or curiosity lead a spectator to fire a gun towards them, flocks of fowl would rise in bodies, thick and extensive e­nough to cast an obvious shadow to considerable distances on the banks of the river, that would seem to darken the adjacent shore.

After the height of this famine was over, the news being confirmed at Calcutta of the Badshaw having broke with the English, in a small Budgero, with a fixed determination of joining him I set off, with a few attendants and a Banyan, one whom I could confide in, for Eleabas, and proceeded up the Ganges to above Frakabad, where in a creek, a few miles from that city, I harboured my Budgero not choosing to be seen by the English then at Can­pore with Sir Robert Barker, the then commander in chief of their troops; and made Frakabad my residence, where I was accommodated with an eli­gible [Page 146] house for me and my attendants, by order of the Nabob Mussoffre Jung, a Patan, about eighteen years of age, where I waited until the English took leave of the Patcha and returned to Bengal, which as a very interesting event, before I proceed on a detail of any other matters, I will give you an ac­count of the Badshaw's motive for this step, and of the situation of his affairs when I arrived at this place.

The Badshaw having early discovered the sinis­ter views of the English East-India Company, had a long while determined on striking up a confede­racy with the Marattas, who, glad to listen to any proposition that might favor a plan they had in view, of laying all the country without Bulmonsin, the Beneras Rajah, Sujahdowlah's, and the Com­pany's territory, under contribution, affected to make it a business on purpose to march for, in order to join Alligore, who receiving assurances from Rumchundergunnis, Tucojah-hulkah and Sindia, to that effect he regulated himself accordingly, and Nannaby, an important Maratta, and a Bramin, likewise with Sindia, otherwise Petellzibe, and Tucojah-hulkah, (three powerful chiefs) moved their armies from the Decan, and crossing the Jumnah, encamped in Anterbade, while Nagebe­kan, an enterprising Mogul, of repute in the Bad­shaw's houshold, augmented his body guard to the number of 6000 Mogul horse, and engaged about double the number of Indostan cavalry, with a pro­portion of Indostan Burgondosses, perhaps a thou­sandmen, viz. mercenaries, the Badshaw resolved to take the field, and riding through the gates of Eleabas mounted on an elephant, followed by his Zunnannah and confidents, attended by his court, and the two battalions of Seapoys the Company had all along alotted him for his safeguard, he crossed the Great Ganges in a boat without dis­mounting, [Page 147] and in a few hours afterwards joined the Maratta army on the banks of the Ganges, and encamped; having, prior to this, signified his in­tentions to the British commander in chief, Sir Robert Barker, then on the spot, who remonstrated to the Emperor with all his eloquence and artifice in vain, to decline all thoughts of prosecuting such a plan, pointing out to him the inexpediency of taking the field, and exposing himself to the mercy of a rapacious set of troops; but the Pacha, tired out with the reiterated impertinances of the English and their barefaced impositions, resolutely set for­ward as described, and joined this new formed connection as intended, who received him with all the marks of friendship in their power, and Elea­bas evacuated in a manner by this step of the Mo­gul, it taking wind through the country, his for­tunes were followed by such a number of opulent men, bankers and merchants from all parts, who, having experienced the cruel oppressions of Clive, Cartier, Verelst and Sikes, while at Cassambuzer and Bouehier, and Dupee at Madrass, with Horn­by at Bombay, and their agent in general, eagerly embraced this opportunity to save their lives and fortunes, and travelling back up into the country again in disguise, by the same unfrequented by ways, &c. they first passed to join the English, gained the Patcha's army, and offering him their pecuniary assistance, he found himself unexpectedly in a condition to augment his forces, and add strength to his credit, while the provinces of Ben­gal, Behar and Orixa, the vicinities of Madrass, Bombay and Surat, felt a sudden want of monied men to furnish them as usual, with loans upon their bonds. A few days after this the Badshaw moving within four miles of Frakabad, and the Maratta army having changed their front to the rear, in order to proceed on towards the north, I em­braced [Page 148] this opportunity to visit him, when I was instantly introduced by Akborillykan, an Aumeer, and on my presenting him with a nazur, consisting of a dagger studded with diamonds, (Allybegkan in return, to a brace of handsome pistols had made me a present of) he ordered me a horse and sword, which is considered as a great mark of honor; when I was conducted to the entrance of the court to pay my devoirs, which I did by sallaming, during which my name was pronounced aloud, as like­wise the Badshaw's, by the Chubdar's attendants, when returning to the throne I was welcomed by Shaw Aullim to his court.—This happened to be his birth day, and the Maratta army and his own embraced the opportunity of celebrating his inauguration, on which occasion all the Omrahs of his houshold, and generals of his army were assem­bled; a varando, supported with eight pillars was erected for that purpose, that had a canopy under­neath it of purple velvet, embroidered with brilli­ant diamonds, and fringed with rows of pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other jems, un­der which was a throne with seven steps on, the upper one of which was a chair without a back to it, upon which he sat with his seven eldest legiti­mate sons, viz. Murzahjumakbux the eldest, about 26 years of age, on his right hand, and Sukundar­shaw, a tall young fellow, of a light cane coloured complexion, about 20 years of age, on his left hand, (both standing) with Akborshaw his third son, a beautiful youth, about 15 years of age, seat­ed on the second step downwards, and Solomon­shaw, a little boy, about 7 years of age, and three younger boys below those three, all magnificently dressed with diamond crescents in their turbans, scymitars by their sides, and poignards by their wastes. I attended the Durbar ^* five hours, during [Page 149] which time the Badshaw was employed in receiving nazurs, returning presents, and conferring honors upon his grandees and officers of the two armies, when he arose, and encircled by the eunuchs and Aumeers of his houshold, who on that occasion link­ing their hands together, conducted him to the tents where he kept his seraglio; when I was shewn to a tent by order of the acting Vizer, who informed me that I should not be able to do any business with the Patcha till after the expiration of nine days, which interim I employed in observing the Maratta army and the Patcha's, a sight easier to conceive at once than to relate in few words, but confined in time, I must cut this and other matters short.

The then army of the Marattas consisted of one hundred and twenty-five thousand horse, interspersed with perhaps 200 elephants, commanded by three of the most important chiefs of the Decan, viz. Sindiah, Nannahby, a Bramin, and Tucojahhal­kah, with about fifty thousand Pindarrahs, plun­derers, mounted on big and little, old and young horses and mares, with as many buffaloes, oxen and camels, to carry their tents and baggage, and about ten thousand camels to carry the tents and equipage of the regular horse; and about as many more camels to carry the goods and equipages of the various merchants, artificers and tradesmen, who follow these armies, with perhaps upon an average, about fifteen thousand buffaloes, laden with grain and ghee; which with flocks of sheep and goats, destined for the slaughter for those tribes in the army, whose laws permit them to eat flesh, added to the thousands of piadogs and jackalls that allured by the offals and carrion that falls to their lot among these itinerant troops, with the in­numerable quantities of vultures, and birds of prey, attracted by the same incentives, and the immense volumes of flies of different kinds, this immense [Page 150] body of men and animals are so formidable and numerous, that on encamping on the frontiers of a territory, without drawing their swords, they can exact contribution. The wood they require for fuel and the grass they require for forage for their horses and cattle being so great that wherever they encamp, the spot thereon and circumjacent country is laid waste, the trees are cut down, the grass pulled up by the roots, and the wells and ponds in general dried of their waters, and dreary barren plains left behind; which, with above army of the Patcha, constituted the force prepared to reduce to obedience the revolted power of the country. The nine days elapsed, when I was informed he had received a message from Eleabas, to prevent his employing me, in which they menaced him with maintaining some person as an equivalent, if he gave me any encouragement, upon which I took my leave and wished him success, and never saw him again until three years after that, in his palace at Delhy, where he was seated on the throne of his ancestors, and received me with unexpected marks of attention; about which time Sir Alexander Champion, on St. George's day, in conjunction with Sujah Dowlah, engaged the Ruhillah army, commanded by Hafuft Ramut, an eminent Patan, and totally defeated it at the beginning of the action; the Ruhillah general being knocked off his elephant by a cannon ball, and killed on the spot, when the English, after enriching themselves with the plunder, marched with Sujah Dowlah to his dominions, where soon after this eminent Asiatic warrior finished days in the following manner,—A beautiful young princess about 15 years of age, a grand daughter of the Ruhillah general, who had the Ruhillah's been victorious, would have been married to a prince, the second in command to her grandfather's army; but he being killed and she [Page 151] taken prisoner by the Vizier's troops, and carried before Sujah Dowlah, struck with her beauty he paid his addresses to her, but disappointed in his expectations of her yielding to his desires, and at­tempting illicit means, this princess determined not tamely to yield to his unlawful embraces, in a contest between them that happened on the oc­casion, by a blow from a poisoned poignard that she aimed at his heart, that in fending off with his right hand entered deep into his thigh; not­withstanding all the advice of many eminent phy­sicians, and the joint efforts of doctor Fullerton, (then surgeon to the English army, and to whom the Vizier's mother promised ten lacks of rupees, should he save the life of her son) the wound mor­tifying, and the baneful taint of the poignard con­taminating his vitals, he expired in great agony fourteen days from that on which he received the blow;—and to prevent the circumstances of his death transpiring but as little as possible, he was buried incognito, in Mawtabbaugh, at Phyzabad, in the forty eight year of his age.

Thus after having rendered himself conspicuous, and even formidable in the eyes of Asiatic nations, by a long series of warlike enterprises, (by the hands of a female, a girl, and a captive!—in the centre of armed troops) fell this blazing star of the eastern hemisphere; he having in point of retinue, grandeur of his army, and brilliancy of his Serag­lio, obliterated all his cotemporary princes in the East,—a just sacrifice to his folly and dishonorable aim. Adieu.