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142

FALLACIOUS DESCRIPTIONS.

next morning we embarked for Bombay, and arrived there in a few hours: on taking leave, we offered our conductors a present, which they respectfully refused; saying their prince's favour was beyond any other consideration, and they should forfeit it by accepting our bounty.

This was my first journey on the continent of India; I found it replete with novelty and entertainment: as a country, which, perhaps, precedes Egypt as the nurse of science; and by its arts, manufactures, and valuable productions, has contributed from time immemorial to the comfort and luxury of other civilized nations.

Aromatic gales and spicy groves; trees adorned by Flora and Pomona; pellucid lakes and murmuring fountains; charm in poetical descriptions: we wish to dwell in such delightful scenes. A residence in the torrid zone convinces us of their fallacy: hot-winds, and arid plains, unrefreshed by a cooling breeze or living spring, annoy the Asiatic traveller: and admitting the existence of such pleasures in the temperate climate and fertile provinces of Hindostan, we know from experience, that a constant possession of the loveliest objects, often renders them insipid: the revolving seasons and variety of Europe, seem more congenial to an Englishmen than the luxurious monotony of India, even in its most pleasing form.

In the court of an Asiatic sovereign we look in vain for true magnanimity: the nobles approach him with distrust and fear, conscious that his frown deprives them of life; nor can they, on so frail a tenure, enjoy wealth or honours: those in the middle walk of life, instead of being subject to one tyrant, are oppressed by numerous petty despots, who, dead to every feeling

MAHOMEDANS AND HINDOOS.

143

of humanity, rule them with a rod of iron. The lower classes of ryots, or husbandmen, are not in a more enviable situation; the despotic system pervades all ranks, and whole villages emigrate in the vain hope of finding a more equitable government: they have not indeed much to leave; their cottages being generally built of mud, and their furniture only a few mats and earthen pots.

In travelling, it is easy to distinguish the ancient inhabitants from those whom conquest or commerce have dispersed throughout Hindostan; not so much in complexion and outward appearance, as in the peculiarities of character: the Mahomedan is comparatively bold, enterprizing, and resolute; the Hindoo tender, humane, and timid: this distinction may in part be attributed to the mildness of the climate and difference of food, but still more to the doctrine of transmigration; since a religion, which teaches them that the dearest connexions they once enjoyed on earth, may, on the system of the metempsychosis, now animate the mortal form of a bird, beast, or insect, not only inspires them with horror at the idea of shedding blood, but, in a great measure, prevents every kind of cruelty.

In this part of my letters, youthful imagination, and enthusiastic patriotism, heightened by distance from the beloved object, led me to draw a long comparison between the inhabitants of Britain and India. Warmed by the amor patriæ, I pursued the delightful theme from Windsor's royal towers, to the palaces of the nobles, villas of the opulent, commercial sea-ports, manufacturing towns, cheerful villages, farms, and hamlets I traced the munificent endowments for art

144

BLESSINGS OF HOME.

and science from her splendid universities to the parochial schools. It was a picture, which in a distant clime and secluded situation, delighted the heart, and animated my endeavours to secure a competence, that I might the sooner enjoy those unspeakable blessings.

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Voyage from Bombay to Surat-Surat Bar-Ancient Trade of India with Europe-Diamond Mines and Jewels of IndiaCity of Surat-Gardens-Mode of Watering-Haram-Mogul Women-Hummums, Champooing-Banian Hospital-Manufactures-Trade of Surat with Europe-Visit of the English Chief to the Nabob-Nabob's Public Procession to the MosqueDress of the Mogul Ladies-Anecdote of a Mogul Widow and an English Gentleman-Country-Cultivation-GameBirds-Wild Beasts-A Cheeta-Hunt fully described-Pulparar -Hindoo Devotees-Burning of Widows-Similar practice among the Ancient Crestonians-Affecting account of the Immolation of a Hindoo Widow-Minute Division of the Hindoo Castes -Ablutions of the Hindoos-Travels of Hindoo DevoteesDeath of Calanus-Burning of an Indian Woman in the army of Eumenes.

Soon after my return from the hot-wells at Dazagon, I visited Surat, one of the principal cities in India where the manners and customs of the natives are more oriental, than in those places immediately under the English government.

Surat is about a hundred and twenty miles to the northward of Bombay; the voyage thither affords an opportunity of viewing Bassein, Damaun, and some other sea-ports: the hilly coast terminates half way at the lofty promontory of St. John's; from thence to the entrance of Surat river, the shore is flat and unin

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teresting the southern mountains are woody, and abound with teak trees, often called the oak of Hindostan, from their great value in ship-building. Teaktimber is more durable than oak, from its oleaginous quality preserving the wood and the iron necessarily used in naval architecture, for a considerable time longer than the British oak, which contains a corrosive quality, tending to consume the iron-work. I saw a ship at Surat which had been built near eighty years; and which, from veneration to its age and long services, was only employed in an annual voyage to the Red Sea, to convey the Mahomedan pilgrims to Juddah, on their way to Mecca; and then, returning with them to Surat, after the hodge, or religious ceremonies were finished, the vessel was oiled, and covered up on shore until the following season.

During the fair months, the sea between Surat and Bombay is covered with ships of different nations: large fleets of merchant boats, richly laden, sail every fortnight under convoy of the English cruizers, to protect them against the Coolies, a horde of pirates near the gulph of Cambay, whose swift-sailing vessels constantly infest that navigation.

On anchoring at Surat bar I left the ship which brought me from Bombay, and sailed up the Tappee in her pinnace: this river takes its rise at Maltay, a small town to the northward of Nagpore, the capital of Moodajee Bounselah, in the latitude of 21° 8' north, and 79° 44′ east longitude: and after an increase by many tributary streams, flows into the sea at Surat bar, a distance of nearly five hundred miles. We followed the serpentine course of the Tappee, or Tapty, through a flat uninteresting country, until

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