at Buxar, and set off, finding as an additional reason for quitting my present situation, that the water in the river had fallen nearly a cubit in the course of the night, and that if I remained, I might have some difficulty in getting the pinnace out of the colly. I had the usual salute from the garrison, and left Buxar after a day of great and unexpected interest.

The attendants in the school were of all ages, several young boys, some little girls, but the majority full-grown women. The boys were in the usual attire of other Indian children; the women and girls were decently wrapped up in their long shawls, barefooted, with the anklets and armlets usual with their countrywomen, but with no marks of caste on their foreheads. I heartily wished for some of the enemies of Missions to see, in this small and detached instance, the good which in a quiet and unpretending way, is really doing among these poor people. Curreem Museeh was, I believe, a havildar in the Company's army, and his sword and sash were still hung up, with a not unpleasing vanity, over the desk where he now presided as Catechist; he is a very decent-looking, middle-aged man, his white cotton clothes and turban extremely clean, and his colour like that of most of the inhabitants of these provinces, not very much darker than the natives of the south of Europe. I am indeed often surprised to observe the difference between my dandees (who are nearly the colour of a black tea-pot,) and the generality of the peasants whom we meet with on the shore or

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in the bazars. The difference of climate will not account for this, for I have never in Bengal felt the sun more powerful than it has been within these last few days in Bahar; nor, though the people here wear rather more clothing than the lowest ranks of Bengalees, does this amount to more than a mantle over the head and shoulders, which, after all, they put on during the rain and breeze, not in the sun. I cannot help believing that as the language is different, so their race is also, and that in Bengal are some remains of an earlier, perhaps a negro stock, such as are now found in the Andaman islands, but who have been subdued by, and amalgamated with, the same northern conquerors who drove the Puharrees to their mountains.

CHAPTER XII.

BUXAR TO BENARES.

Caramnasa-Ghazeepoor-Lord Cornwallis's Monument-Palace-Salubrity-Rose-Fields-Suttees-Lepers-Dák Journey - SeidpoorBenares-Case of Native Christians-Confirmation-Mission Schools -Description of Benares-Native Houses-Pagodas-VishvayesaObservatory-Jain Temple-Vidalaya-Hindoo Astronomy-Street Preaching-Amrut Row-Visit from the Raja.

A LITTLE to the south-west of Buxar we passed a large town with some neat mosques and the remains of a fort, named Chowsar, and a little further the mouth of a considerable river, the Caramnasa, whose singular properties I have before mentioned. It is for this river, which crosses the great road from Calcutta to Benares, that the ropebridge exhibited by Mr. Shakespear at Cossipoor was intended by the Baboo Ramchunder Narain. At this place it is the boundary between the provinces of Bahar and Allahabad, and was, till the administration of Warren Hastings, who pushed on the border to Benares, the extreme limit of the Company's territories. How vastly have they since been extended! The river is here much con

tracted in width, as might be expected after getting above the junction of so many great tributary streams, and the banks are generally high and abrupt. The country has but little timber in comparison with Bengal, but would not be thought deficient in this respect in most parts of Europe. The trees are round-topped, few palms being seen, and the cultivation, wheat, oats, and pulse, intermixed with grass leys covered with vast herds of cattle.

In passing along a colly, which we entered a little after we left the Caramnasa, I heard some disputing on deck, and suddenly found the boat going over to the other side of the stream. On enquiry, the venetians being closed on the side where the difficulty was, I was told that some European serjeants, with some Company's boats under their charge, who had put up for the night on that shore, had sent a message warning us off, lest our tow-line should occasion them some little trouble. I was angry, and asked the Serang why he attended to such an impertinent order, and why he obeyed it without consulting me? He answered that one side of the stream was really as good as the other, and that as he expected soon to lugana for the night, he had no desire to be in the neighbourhood of such people. However it is, I fear, a specimen of the way in which these gentry order about the natives, and even the European traders; not seeing any uniforms or white people in the boat, they perhaps took it for one of the floating shops which I have mentioned.

We brought to about a quarter of an hour afterwards, by a vast grass field, divided into butts by rows of the tall and beautiful cotton-grass. It is cultivated for the "Choppers" thatched roofs, of bungalows, and also for ropes, and even for a coarse but strong kind of canvass. It evidently was regarded as a valueable crop, from the exactness with which it was planted. As no cows would eat it except in extreme hunger, it is safe from their attacks, and the intervening stripes of grass afford a rich and noble pasture. I never saw, I think, finer land. The banks of the river are all a light, marly loam, like garden-mould, dry, sound, and friable, without any intermixture of stones or cold clay, and with very little sand. Abdullah, who is a warm patriot, so far as his admiration of the climate, soil, and productions of Hindoostan goes, and who is much pleased to observe the interest which I take in these matters, said, "Ah, my Lord, why not get leave to buy land in this good place and good climate, my Lady and children always have good health here, settle it on young lady, native of country, and call it Harrietpoor." I laughed, and told him the reasons of the law which hindered the English from buying land in India; he owned that it was a very good law to prevent the English collectors and magistrates from being tempted to extort lands, as the Mussulmans had done, from the people by false accusations, and added, that it was wonderful how the English parliament took notice of every thing, and every body.