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be only palliated and a little delayed in its course, by any remedies which medicine can supply.

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November 20.-We went to see the Botanical Garden with Lady Amherst. Captain Manning took us down in his ship's cutter to the "Ghât," or landing-place, at the Garden Reach, which is on the opposite side of the river, and where we met Lady and Miss Amherst who were waiting for us with one of the Governor's boats. Of these there are two; the largest is called the Sunamookee, and is a splendid but heavy gilt and painted barge, rigged like a ketch, with a dining-room and bed-room. The other, on which we were now to embark, is the " Feel Churra," elephant bark, from having its head adorned with that of an elephant, with silver tusks. It is a large, light, and beautiful canoe, paddled by twenty men, who sit with their faces towards the head, with one leg hanging over the side of the boat, and the great toe through a ring fastened to its side. They keep time with their paddles, and join occasionally in chorus with a man who stands in the middle, singing what I was assured were verses of his own composition; sometimes amatory, sometimes in praise of the British nation, the " Company Sahib," and the Governor-General; and in one or two instances were narrations of different victories gained by our troops in India. The tunes of many of them are simple and pleasing, but the poet has not a good voice. His appearance is singular,―a little, thin, squinting man, extremely conceited, with large silver manacles, like those of women, round

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BOTANICAL GARDEN.

his naked ancles, which he jingles in cadence to his story. In the fore-part of the boat is a small cabin, very richly ornamented, like the awnings in English barges, but enclosed with Venetian blinds; and between this and the head the macebearers of the Governor stand. The Union Jack is hoisted at the head and stern of the boat, and the Company's flag in the centre. With oars it would go at a great rate, but the inferiority of paddles was now fairly proved, by the far more rapid progress of Captain Manning's boat, though quite as heavy, and with only ten rowers.

The Botanical Garden is a very beautiful and well-managed institution, enriched, besides the noblest trees and most beautiful plants of India, with a vast collection of exotics, chiefly collected by Dr. Wallich himself, in Nepaul, Pulo Penang, Sumatra, and Java, and increased by contributions from the Cape, Brazil, and many different parts of Africa and America, as well as Australasia, and the South Sea Islands. It is not only a curious but a picturesque and most beautiful scene, and more perfectly answers Milton's idea of Paradise, except that it is on a dead flat instead of a hill, than any thing which I ever saw. Among the exotics I noticed the nutmeg, a pretty tree, something like a myrtle, with a beautiful peach-like blossom, but too delicate for the winter even of Bengal, and therefore placed in the most sheltered situation, and carefully matted round. The sagopalm is a tree of great singularity and beauty, and in a grove or avenue produces an effect of striking

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solemnity, not unlike that of gothic architecture. There were some splendid South American creepers, some plantains from the Malayan Archipelago, of vast size and great beauty; and, what excited a melancholy kind of interest, a little wretched oak, kept alive with difficulty under a sky and in a temperature so perpetually stimulating, which allowed it no repose, or time to shed its leaves and recruit its powers by hybernation. Some of the other trees, of which I had formed the greatest expectations, disappointed me, such as the pine of New Caledonia, which does not succeed here, at least the specimen which was shewn me was weaklooking and diminutive in comparison with the prints in Cook's Voyage, the recollection of which is strongly imprinted on my mind, though I have not looked at them since I was a boy. Of the enormous size of the Adansonia, a tree from the neighbourhood of Gambia and Senegal, I had heard much; the elephant of the vegetable creation! I was, however, disappointed. The tree is doubtless wonderful, and the rapidity of its growth is still more wonderful than its bulk: but it is neither particularly tall nor stately. Its bulk consists in an enormous enlargement of its circumference immediately above the roots, and for a comparatively small height up its stem, which rather resembles that disease of the leg which bears the elephant's name, than tallies with his majestic and well-proportioned, though somewhat unwieldy stature. Dr. Wallich has the management of another extensive public establishment at Titty-ghur,

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BISHOP'S COLLEGE.

near Barrackpoor, of the same nature with this, but appropriated more to the introduction of useful plants into Bengal. He is himself a native of Denmark, but left his country young, and has devoted his life to Natural History and Botany in the East. His character and conversation are more than usually interesting; the first all frankness, friendliness, and ardent zeal for the service of science; the last enriched by a greater store of curious information relating to India and the neighbouring countries, than any which I have yet

met with.

These different public establishments used to be all cultivated by the convicts in chains, of whom I have already spoken. In the Botanical Garden their labour is now supplied by peasants hired by the day or week, and the exchange is found cheap, as well as otherwise advantageous and agreeable; the labour of freemen here, as elsewhere, being infinitely cheaper than that of slaves.

During Lady Amherst's progress through the gardens, I observed that, besides her usual attendants of gilt-sticks and maces, two men with spears, also richly gilt, and two more with swords and bucklers, went before her. This custom is, so far as I have seen at present, confined to the Governor and his family; but I understand it used to be the case with most persons of condition in Calcutta.

To the north of the Botanical Garden, and separated from it by an extensive plantation of teaktrees, stands the new College, founded by the So

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ciety for the propagation of the Gospel, under the management, and at the suggestion of Bishop Middleton, in a beautiful situation, and the building, from a little distance, beautiful also, in the Gothic of queen Elizabeth's time.

December 12.-I attended, together with a large proportion of the European Society of Calcutta, an examination of the Native Female Schools, instituted by Mrs. Wilson, and carried on by her together with her husband and the other Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. The progress which the children as well as the grown pupils had made, was very creditable; and it may shew how highly we ought to appreciate Mrs. Wilson's efforts, when I mention, that when she began her work there was no known instance of an Indian female having been instructed in reading, writing, or sewing; and that all those who knew most of the country regarded her attempt to bring them together into schools as idle as any dream of enthusiasm could be 1. She is a sensible and amiable young woman, with patience and good temper sufficient to conquer most obstacles, who has acquired an influence over these poor little girls and their parents, as well as over her grown pupils, which at first sight seems little less than magical. It was very pretty to see

At the end of the year, 1826, Mrs. Wilson had about 600 scholars in various schools in the suburbs of Calcutta. When the Central School is completed, these will all be concentrated. At the commencement of this experiment, Mrs. Wilson thought herself fortunate when she had obtained the attendance of six or seven children.-ED.