as terminated, and the husband or wife proceeded to make a new choice. When the missionaries addressed themselves to the classes which lay beneath the influence of cast, they were met by obstacles equally powerful. These persons, benumbed by oppression, poverty, and hard labour, could not be roused to any due sense of their spiritual concerns. They declared that they would take their chance of a future life, provided they had enough to eat and drink in the present,-their gods were rice and cloth, they were poor illiterate persons, who could scarcely find food for their bodies, and had no time to think of their souls. From these various causes, the efforts of the missionaries, though zealous, rational, and judicious, were not attended with any corresponding fruit. Their only success was produced by means of schools, where, however, they had to support, not only the masters, but also the pupils, none being to be obtained whose whole maintenance was not provided by them. These scholars, however, were not only taught Christianity themselves, but became afterwards the means of imparting it to others, so that a silent and gradual extension took place. It is stated by Niecamp, that in thirty years, beginning at 1705, there had been converted at Tranquebar 3517 persons, of whom 2331 were then alive. In Madras, Tanjore, and other districts, the conversions amounted to 1140.

CHAPTER VI.

GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL VIEW OF

INDOSTAN.

Physical aspect of Indostan.-System of Agriculture.-Natural Products. Population.

NOTWITHSTANDING the information afforded by a number of intelligent travellers, a deep mystery continued to hang over India, its manners, its laws, and the real spirit of its people. Since the institution of the Asiatic Society, however, the labours of our learned countrymen have accumulated a vast mass of information, and have almost entirely removed this veil of obscurity. The numerous papers contained in the transactions of that body; the translations from the Sanscrit by Wilkins, Jones, Colebrooke, and the missionaries; the fifth report to Parliament on India affairs, with its extensive and valuable appendices; the recent narratives by Buchanan, Lord Valentia, Graham, Broughton, Fitzclarence, and other travellers; the accounts of the religion and people of India by the missionaries Ward

and Dubois, have collected materials for the solution of almost every question connected with this vast country. As these sources, however, are extensive and multifarious, and many of them not accessible to common readers, it is proposed to introduce here a general view of the statistics, institutions, economy, and present state of our Indian empire. This task will be much aided by the able and more copious summary given by Mr Mill, in his great work on the History of British India. It is intended to consider successively its geography and statistics,-its religion and literature, the various classes of its inhabitants,and the influence exercised upon it by the British system of administration.

UNDER the appellation of Indostan it is intended here to include only that region which is most peculiarly called so; which is bounded on the west by the Indus, on the north and north-east by the range of the Himmaleh, and on all other sides by the ocean. The western provinces of Caubul and Candahar were indeed included within the limits of the Mogul empire, and sometimes even contained its capital; but they have always been distinguished by the character of nature and society, as they are now politically disjoined from the territory included within the above boundaries. This vast and beautiful region, the pride

of Asia, and as it were the garden of the world, affords ample materials for a separate description. It forms a very irregular triangle, situated nearly between the 68th and 92d degree of east longitude, and the 8th and 35th degree of north latitude. The greater portion forms an immense plain, such as, under the rays of a tropical sun, is too often exposed to extensive aridity and desolation. It is preserved, however, from these evils by that mighty storehouse of waters contained in its great northern barrier of mountains. From every part of this chain, extending for nearly two thousand miles across the greatest breadth of Indostan, vast floods are poured down, which spread their innumerable canals over the plains beneath. Before reaching the ocean, however, they all unite in the two great channels of the Indus and the Ganges. Most even of the streams which descend on the northern side of the Himmaleh, and from the equally lofty ridges behind, ultimately force their way into the plains of Indostan. The Brahmapoutra, after a winding course, unites its waters at last with those of the Ganges. The Setledge crosses the Himmaleh, and joins the Indus. The Indus itself, after draining all the waters of Little Thibet, and of the eastern side of the Beloor, collects them into one vast torrent, and bursts with tempestuous impetuosity through the loftiest part of the chain of Hindoo

Coosh, to water the western frontier of India. None of these waters, indeed, reach the great peninsula of the Decan. As we approach it,

however, new chains arise, which supply these southern regions with copious moisture. The Vindhya mountains, stretching from west to east, nearly across its greatest breadth, give rise to the great streams of the Nerbuddah and the Taptee. From north to south this region is traversed by the double chain of the Ghauts, the loftiest line of which, running parallel to the western coast, sends eastward across the continent the Godavery, the Kistna, and the Cavery, which rival the greatest streams of Europe, though they cannot bear a comparison with those fed by the eternal snows of Himmaleh. The supplies which they afford are sufficient to exempt any great extent of this region from suffering under the evils of drought.

With all these advantages, it were erroneous to regard India as presenting a scene of unvaried fertility. The streams that descend from the north, directing themselves either eastward to the Ganges, or westward to the Indus, leave between these two rivers an extensive unwatered region, which approaches in its aspect to the most dreary deserts of Arabia and Africa. In other quarters, on the declivity of the hills, or in the marshy grounds on the sea-shore, the too copious supply