28

DESCRIPTION OF CALCUTTA.

adorned it, frequently cost 3000' rupees; at present the people are poorer and wiser.

The approach to the city from the fort is striking; we crossed a large green plain, having on the left the Hooghly, with its forest of masts and sails seen through the stems of a double row of trees. On the right-hand is the district called Chowringhee, lately a mere scattered suburb, but now almost as closely built as, and very little less extensive than, Calcutta. In front was the esplanade, containing the Town Hall, the Governmenthouse, and many handsome private dwellings,the whole so like some parts of Petersburgh, that it was hardly possible for me to fancy myself any where else. No native dwellings are visible from this quarter, except one extensive but ruinous bazar, which occupies the angle where Calcutta and Chowringhee join. Behind the esplanade, however, are only Tank-square, and some other streets occupied by Europeans,-the Durrumtollah and Cossitollah are pretty equally divided between the different nations, and all the west of Calcutta is á vast town, composed of narrow crooked streets, brick bazars, bamboo huts, and here and there the immense convent-like mansion of some of the more wealthy "Baboos" (the name of the native Hindoo gentleman, answering to our Esquire) or Indian merchants and bankers. The Town-hall has no other merit than size, but the Government-house

'The highest price of an English built palanquin in the present day, is 300 rupecs.-Ed.

has narrowly missed being a noble structure; it consists of two semicircular galleries, placed back to back, uniting in the centre in a large hall, and connecting four splendid suites of apartments. Its columns are, however, in a paltry style, and instead of having, as it might have had, two noble stories and a basement, it has three stories, all too low, and is too much pierced with windows on every side. I was here introduced to Lord Amherst; and afterwards went to the Cathedral, where I was installed. This is a very pretty building, all but the spire, which is short and clumsy. The whole composition, indeed, of the Church, is full of architectural blunders, but still it is, in other respects, handsome. The inside is elegant, paved with marble, and furnished with very large and handsome glass chandeliers, the gift of Mr. M'Clintoch, with a light pulpit, with chairs on one side of the chancel for the Governor-General and his family, and on the other for the Bishop and Archdeacon. We dined to-day at the Governmenthouse; to a stranger the appearance of the bearded and turbaned waiters is striking.

October 12.-This was Sunday. I preached, and we had a good congregation.

October 13.-We drive out twice a day on the course; I am much disappointed as to the splendor of the equipages, of which I had heard so much in England; the horses are most of them both small and poor, while the dirty white dresses and bare limbs of their attendants, have, to an unaccustomed eye, an appearance of any thing but wealth and

luxury. Calcutta stands on an almost perfect level of alluvial and marshy ground, which a century ago was covered with jungle and stagnant pools, and which still almost every where betrays its unsoundness by the cracks conspicuous in the best houses. To the East, at the distance of four miles and a half, is a large but shallow lagoon of salt water, being the termination of the Sunderbunds, from which a canal is cut pretty nearly to the town, and towards which all the drainings of the city flow, what little difference of level there is, being in favour of the banks of the river. Between the salt lake and the city, the space is filled by gardens, fruit-trees, and the dwellings of the natives, some of them of considerable size, but mostly wretched huts; all clustered in irregular groups round large square tanks, and connected by narrow, winding, unpaved streets and lanes, amid tufts of bamboos, coco-trees, and plantains, picturesque and striking to the sight, but extremely offensive to the smell, from the quantity of putrid water, the fumes of wood smoke, coco-nut oil, and above all the ghee, which is to the Hindoo his principal luxury. Few Europeans live here, and those few, such as the Missionaries employed by the Church Missionary Society in Mirzapoor, are said to suffer greatly from the climate. Even my Sircar, though a native, in speaking of the neighbouring district of Dhee Intally, said that he himself never went near the "bad water" which flows up from the salt-water lake, without sickness and head-ache.

To the South, a branch of the Hooghly flows

also into the Sunderbunds. It is called by Europeans, Tolly's nullah, but the natives regard it as the true Gunga, the wide stream being, as they pretend, the work of human and impious hands, at some early period of their history. In consequence no person worships the river between Kidderpoor and the sea, while this comparatively insignificant ditch enjoys all the same divine honours which the Ganges and the Hooghly enjoy during the earlier parts of their course. The banks of the Tolly's nullah are covered by two large and nearly contiguous villages, Kidderpoor and Allypoor, as well as by several considerable European houses, and are said to be remarkably dry and wholesome. To the North is a vast extent of fertile country, divided into rice-fields, orchards and gardens, covered with a thick shade of fruit trees, and swarming with an innumerable population, occupying the large suburbs of Cossipoor, Chitpoor, &c. This tract resembles, in general appearance, the eastern suburb, but is drier, healthier, and more open; through it lie the two great roads to Dum Dum and Barrackpoor. Westward flows the Hooghly, at least twice as broad as the Thames below London Bridge,covered with large ships and craft of all kind, and offering on its farther bank the prospect of another considerable suburb, that of Howrah, chiefly inhabited by ship-builders, but with some pretty villas interspersed. The road which borders Calcutta and Chowringhee, is called, whimsically enough, "the circular road," and runs along nearly the same line which was once occupied by a wide ditch

and earthen fortification, raised on occasion of the Maharatta war. This is the boundary of the liberties of Calcutta, and of English law. All offences committed within this line are tried by the "Sudder Adawlut," or Supreme Court of Justice; -those beyond, fall, in the first instance, within the cognizance of the local magistracy, and in case of appeal are determined by the "Sudder Dewannee," or Court of the People in Chowringhee, whose proceedings are guided by the Koran and the laws of Menu.

From the North-west angle of the fort to the city, along the banks of the Hooghly, is a walk of pounded brick, covered with sand, the usual mate→ rial of the roads and streets in and near Calcutta, with a row of trees on each side, and about its centre a flight of steps to descend to the river, which in the morning, a little after sun-rise, is generally crowded with persons, washing themselves and performing their devotions, of which indeed, ablution is an essential and leading part. The rest consists, in general, in repeatedly touching the forehead and cheeks with white, red, or yellow earth, and exclamations of Ram! Ram! There are some Brahmins however, always about this time seated on the bank under the trees, who keep counting their beads, turning over the leaves of their banana-leaf books, and muttering their prayers with considerable seeming devotion, and for a long time together. These are "Gooroos," or Religious Teachers, and seem considerably respected. Children and young persons are seen