boatmen told me that a toll was paid there by all boats frequenting a market to which that nullah led. These local taxes are all, throughout the Company's territories, applied to the improvement of the districts where they are levied. A little farther we were hailed from the shore by a man earnestly begging to be taken on board. The dandees only laughed, but I told them to pull in and hear his story. He said he was a soldier in the 14th, Colonel Watson's regiment, that at their last night's halting-place he had missed the boat to which he belonged, and that now all the flotilla was passed by, and unless we gave him a lift he had no chance of getting to Dacca, the country being all flooded, and he unable to swim even a few yards. I immediately turned the boat's head to the shore,. and he came on board, a very fine handsome man, naked save his waist-cloth, and with a Brahminical string, but with all the carriage and air of a guards-man. Nobody could, indeed, mistake his profession, even if he had not made his military salute very gracefully. He said he had begged a passage that morning in six or eight boats, but seeing him naked and pennyless they had all (as he said) "run over to the other side, as if he had been a tyger." He added, on seeing á Sahib his hopes revived, but continued he, "these cursed Bengalees are not like other people, and care nothing for a soldier, or any body else in trouble." "To be sure," he said, laughing, "they always run away well." He pointed out some budgerows and other large boats dropping down APPROACH TO DACCA. 181 the stream a few miles before us, and said his comrades were there, and he should be very thankful if we would put him on board of any one. We were about an hour overtaking them, but the first we approached turned out to be a cook-boat, and he begged hard that I would not put him in a vessel where he could not escape defilement, (shewing his string). We accordingly proceeded through the fleet, which consisted of about twenty vessels, all deeply loaded, with their masts struck, and their long cumbersome oars answering very little purpose, except to keep them steady in the middle of the current. Such of them, indeed, as were in its strength, were only to be approached with caution, since as they dropped down at the rate of five or six miles an hour, and were perfectly unmanageable, they would, if they had struck her, have swamped our little boat in an instant. There was one, however, which we could board without difficulty, but this was a washerman's boat, and our passenger again objected. This second scruple excited such a burst of laughter from the Mussulman dandees, that the soldier blushed up to the eyes as soon as he had made it, and begged pardon of me, saying, “the boat would do very well,” then jumping on board with another military salam, he left us to proceed with more rapidity when freed from his weight. The towers of Dacca were already in sight, at least the dandees could see them at the end of a reach of water, perhaps twelve miles in length, along which we sped merrily. As 182 APPROACH TO DACCA. we drew nearer I was surprised at the extent of the place, and the stateliness of the ruins, of which indeed the city seemed chiefly to consist. Besides some huge dark masses of castle and tower, the original destination of which could not be mistaken, and which were now overgrown with ivy and peepul-trees, as well as some old mosques and pagodas, of apparently the same date, there were some large and handsome buildings, which, at a distance, bid fair to offer us a better reception, and towards which I, in the first instance, proposed to direct our course, knowing the difficulty which we should have if we passed them, in returning against the stream. The boatmen said, they did not think the "Sahib Log" lived in that part of the town, but were not sure, and the appearance of a spire, which as it seemed to mark the site of the Church, confirmed me in my resolution of bearing off to the left. As we approached, however, we found these buildings also (though of more recent date than Shah Jehanguire, and many of them of Grecian architecture) as ruinous as the rest, while the spire turned out to be a Hindoo obelisk. While we were approaching the shore, at the distance of about half a mile from these desolate palaces, a sound struck my ear, as if from the water itself on which we were riding, the most solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long, loud, deep, and tremulous, something between the bellowing of a bull and the blowing of a whale, or perhaps most like those roaring buoys which are placed at the mouths of some English harbours, in which the APPROACH TO DACCA. 183 winds make a noise, to warn ships off them. "Oh," said Abdullah," there are elephants bathing; Dacca much place for elephant." I looked immediately, and saw about twenty of these fine animals with their heads and trunks just appearing above the water. Their bellowing it was which I had heard, and which the water conveyed to us with a finer effect than if we had been ashore. Another mile, or thereabouts, of rowing brought us to some buildings of a more habitable description, and pretty much like those of Calcutta. One of these, close to the water's edge, was pointed out to me as Mr. Master's, who was himself in the court of justice, but whose servants, though surprised to see the style in which I arrived, had an excellent bedroom for me, with every thing ready for bathing and dressing. I found myself in no respect the worse for my boating, except that my face was a little burnt, in spite of my chahtah, by the reflection of the water, while my shins (which had been exposed to the sun, owing to my trowsers slipping up in the uncomfortable situation in which I was compelled to sit,) were scorched as if I had laid them before a great fire. These I washed in milk, good deal. Mr. Master, which relieved them a when he returned, said that, though I had, perhaps, done a rash thing in coming through the sun, yet certainly I took the only means of arriving in time for Church. He said that he would send a guardboat to help the pinnace on, but that she could not possibly get to Dacca under 24 hours. For my part, except my shins, I never felt better. CHAPTER VII. DACCA. Ruins-Visit from the Nawab-Visit returned-Death of Mr. Stowe― Consecration of Church, and Burial Ground-Confirmation—Armenian Archbishop-Farewell visit to Nawab-Meer Israf Ali. JULY 4.-I preached to a small congregation, in a very small but pretty Gothic Church. Mr. Parish read prayers, and gave notice of the Consecration and Confirmation for the Wednesday and Friday ensuing. About 4 o'clock the pinnace arrived, but Stowe, to my great concern, sent word that he was too ill to leave it, having had a very severe relapse of dysentery. I took Mr. Todd, the surgeon of the station, to him, who pressed his making the attempt for the sake of a more airy apartment than his cabin, and in an hour's time, the wind having abated, he got into Mr. Master's house and to bed, I hope not the worse for the exertion. Nothing can exceed Mr. Master's kindness to us both, but I am sorry to say, he is himself by no means in good health. The river on which Dacca stands, has greatly altered its character since Rennel drew his map. It was then narrow, but is now, even during the dry season, not much less than the Hooghly at Calcutta. At present it is somewhat wider, but |