that I shall see my lovely little Harriet again in this world, for I know the insidious nature of the disease. But I shall not return. I have, I feel, duties to fulfil here, and as you truly say, before I could arrive, her doom must be sealed, and your burst of grief, in case of the worst, must have subsided into a calmer sorrow. God support and comfort you! I am well, and I trust I shall be enabled to be patient and resigned.

There are rumours of wars in this part of the world, and people talk of armies and invasions from the Seiks, Nepâl, and Nagpoor. I am not very credulous of such reports, but I mention them to shew you that I am aware of them, and will not run into needless danger. God bless you; trust in Him, and pray for His help for your poor babies, and your affectionate husband,

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

TO THE REV. C. CHOLMONDELEY AND MRS.

CHOLMONDELEY.

Rahmatgunge, between Cawnpore and Lucknow, Oct. 19, 1824.

MY DEAR CHARLES and Mary,

I write to both in one letter, because, from the rambling nature of the life which I have been for some time leading, and still more from the number of business letters which I am obliged to attend

to, I have far less time than I could wish to thank my friends at home for the kind and interesting packets which I receive from them. Of those packets, I can assure you none has given Emily and myself more pleasure than Charles's account of the birth of your little boy.

My journey has hitherto lain through three, if not four, very distinct tracts of country and people; of the former I endeavoured to give you some idea in my letters from Calcutta, and I do not think that my first impressions have been altered. Bengal, of which I have now seen by far the greatest part, is all pretty nearly the same mass of luxuriant vegetation, fields of rice, indigo, and sugar, growing in and out of the water.

Bengal is not included within the bounds of Hindostan, and the term of Bengalee is used to express any thing which is roguish and cowardly; such as they are, however, I am far from disliking them; and I still am inclined to think

some parts of the country the most beautiful, I am sure it is the most fertile, and to an European the most novel and exotic district which I have yet seen in India. But if you wish to obtain an idea of the people or country of Bengal, I know not where I can refer you better than to the large prints of Cook's third voyage; the expression of

countenance is remarkably similar to that which his draftsman has given to the Otaheitans.

*

I ought not to omit, that the language of Bengal, which is quite different from Hindoostanee, is soft and liquid. The common people are all fond of singing, and some of the airs which I used to hear from the boatmen and children in the villages, reminded me of the Scotch melodies. I heard more than once" My boy, Tammy," and "Here's a health to those far away," during some of those twilight walks, after my boat was moored, which wanted only society to make them delightful, when amid the scent and glow of night-blowing flowers, the soft whisper of waving palms, and the warbling of the nightingale, watching the innumerable fire-flies, like airy glow-worms, floating, rising, and sinking, in the gloom of the bamboo woods, and gazing on the mighty river with the unclouded breadth of a tropical moon sleeping on its surface, I felt in my heart it is good to be here.

As we approach the frontiers of Bahar, these beauties disappear, and are replaced by two or three days' sail of hideously ugly, bare, treeless, level country, till some blue hills are seen, and a very pretty and woody tract succeeds with high hills little cultivated, but peopled by a singular and interesting race, the Welch of India.

I have now taken measures for placing an ordained Missionary of the Church of England among

them, and hope to be the means, by God's blessing, of gradually extending a chain of schools through the whole district, some parts of which are, however, unfortunately very unhealthy. I had myself not much opportunity, nor indeed much power of conversing with any of them; but I have since had the happiness of hearing that one old Soubahdar said that he and his men had a desire to learn more of my religion, because I was not proud; there certainly seem fewer obstacles to conversion here than in any part of this country which I have ever seen or heard of.

On leaving the hills of the Jungleterry district, the flat country of Bahar and Allahabad, as far as Benares, shews a vast extent of fertile, cultivated, and populous soil.

The whole scene, in short, is changed from Polynesia to the more western parts of Asia and the east of Europe, and I could fancy myself in Persia, Syria, or Turkey, to which the increasing number of Mussulmans, though still the minority, the minarets, and the less dark complexion of the people, much contribute.

But though this difference exists between Bengal and Bahar, Bahar itself, I shortly afterwards found, was in many respects different from the Dooab, and still more from the dominion of the King of Oude, in which I now am. Almost immediately on leav

ing Allahabad, I was struck with the appearance of the men, as tall and muscular as the largest stature of Europeans, and with the fields of wheat, as almost the only cultivation

I was tempted too to exclaim,

Bellum, o terra hospita, portas :

Bello armantur equi; bellum hæc armenta minantur.

Since that time my life has been that of a Tartar chief, rather than an English clergyman. I rise by three in the morning, and am on horseback by four, for the sake of getting the march over, and our tents comfortably pitched before the heat of the day.

I have then a few hours to myself till dinner time at four, after which we generally stroll about, read prayers, and send every body to bed by eight o'clock to be ready for the next day's march.

I have as yet said nothing of my professional labours, (though in this respect I may say I have not been idle ;) very few Sundays have elapsed since I left Calcutta, in which I have not been able to collect a Christian congregation, and not many on which I have not been requested to administer the Sacrament. I have already confirmed above 300 persons, besides those I confirmed before I set out; and I have found, almost every where, a great and growing anxiety on the part of the English families which are scattered through this vast