ORDINATION OF CHRISTIAN DAVID. 105 back from the Sunderbunds (their summer retreats); the white and red paddy birds are fluttering all over the Meidân; and the gardens, fields, and ditches, (and the ground-floors of some of the houses too,) swarm with the largest and noisiest frogs I ever saw or heard. One of these frogs I saw, about as large, I think, as a good sized gosling, and very beautiful, being green speckled with black, and almost transparent. Some of the lizards (also green) are very beautiful, but they are less abundant now than they were during the hot season. I have as yet seen in Calcutta neither snake, scorpion, nor centipede, nor any insect more formidable than a long thin starveling sort of hornet, or rather wasp, which has now disappeared. Of the fruits which this season offers, the finest are leechees, and mangoes; the first is really very fine, being a sort of plum, with the flavour of a Frontigniac grape. The second is a noble fruit in point of size, being as large as a man's two fists; its flavour is not unlike an apricot, more or less smeared with turpentine. It would not, I think, be popular in England, but in India it may pass for very good, particularly when the terebinthian flavour does not predominate. When not quite ripe it makes an excellent tart. June 14.-I have had a very interesting and aweful ceremony to perform in the ordination of Christian David, a native of Malabar, and pupil of Schwartz, who has been for many years a Catechist in the employ of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in Ceylon, and now came to me, recommended by Archdeacon Twistleton, and quali 106 ORDINATION OF CHRISTIAN DAVID. fied with the title of a Colonial Chaplaincy by Sir Edward Barnes, the Governor of the island. David passed an exceeding good examination, and gave much satisfaction to every body by his modesty, good sense, and good manners. He was ordained Deacon on Holy Thursday, on which day also I held my Visitation, and had a good attendance of Clergy, and a numerous audience, notwithstanding the early hour at which it was celebrated. On Trinity Sunday I had the satisfaction (though by me it was felt at the same time, in some degree, a terrible responsibility,) of ordaining him Priest. God grant that his ministration may be blessed to his own salvation, and that of many others! He was lodged during his residence in Bengal in the Bishop's College, and received much attention and kindness from Lady Amherst, and many others. He preached on Thursday evening at the old Church, and it was proposed to publish his sermon; but this I thought it best to discourage. CHAPTER V. CALCUTTA TO SIBNIBASHI. Departure-Pinnace-Bengalee boat-Hindoo Fanatics-North-Wester —Chinsura—Ranaghát—Sibnibashi-Ruins-Raja Omichund-Dur bar-Decoits. JUNE 15.-This morning I left Calcutta for my Visitation through the Upper Provinces. This excursion, to which both my wife and I had long looked forwards with delightful anticipations, will now become a dreary banishment to me, as the state of her own health, and the circumstance of her having an infant, are considered as insuperable obstacles to her undertaking such a journey. Accompanied by my domestic Chaplain, Mr. Stowe, I embarked on board a fine 16 oared pinnace for Dacca, which was to be the first station on my Visitation. After about two hours squabbling with the owner and navigators of the vessel, we got under weigh, with a fine south breeze and the floodtide. Archdeacon Corrie, with his wife and children, accompanied us in a budgerow, and we had two smaller boats, one for cooking, the other for our baggage. We advanced to Barrackpoor that night, and in order to make up for lost time, I urged the boatmen forwards a good while after it was dark, the river being familiar to us all. The lights in Serampoor and Barrackpoor, the tall massive 108 BENGALEE BOATS. shadows of the Government House, and of two state barges in the river, which, by this uncertain light, appeared like vessels of considerable importance, made our anchoring-place very beautiful. Soon after we were made snug for the night a strong storm of rain and wind came on. Our course during this day was pretty steadily north-northwest by quarter west, the distance 24 miles. June 16.—We weighed anchor about half-past four, and arrived at Chandernagore by half-past nine. We there paid the Governor, Mons. Pellissier a visit, who pressed us to stay dinner with him, which invitation we accepted. The Governor's house has been much beautified since I was here before, and now has really a very handsome appearance. Between Barrackpoor and Chandernagore are some large and handsome pagodas, which are however excelled in beauty by one of a smaller size, under a noble grove of tall trees. A Bengalee boat is the simplest and rudest of all possible structures. It is decked over, throughout its whole length, with bamboo; and on this is erected a low light fabric of bamboo and straw, exactly like a small cottage without a chimney. This is the cabin, baggage-room, &c.; here the passengers sit and sleep, and here, if it be intended for a cooking-boat, are one or two small ranges of brick-work, like English hot-hearths, but not rising more than a few inches above the deck, with small, round, sugar-loaf holes, like those in a lime-kiln, adapted for dressing victuals with charcoal. As the roof of this apartment is by far too fragile for CHANDERNAGORE. 109 men to stand or sit on, and as the apartment itself takes up nearly two-thirds of the vessel, upright bamboos are fixed by its side, which support a kind of grating of the same material, immediately above the roof, on which, at the height probably of six or eight feet above the surface of the water, the boatmen sit or stand to work the vessel. They have, for oars, long bamboos, with circular boards at the end, a longer one of the same sort to steer with, a long rough bamboo for a mast, and one, or sometimes two sails, of a square form, (or rather broader above than below,) of very coarse and flimsy canvass. Nothing can seem more clumsy or dangerous than these boats. Dangerous I believe they are, but with a fair wind they sail over the water merrily. The breeze this morning carried us along at a good rate, yet our English-rigged brig could do no more than keep up with the cooking boat. There is a large ruined building a few miles to the south of Chandernagore, which was the country house of the Governor during the golden days of that settlement, and of the French influence in this part of India. It was suffered to fall to decay when Chandernagore was seized by us; but when Mr. Corrie came to India, was, though abandoned, still entire, and very magnificent, with a noble staircase, painted ceilings, &c.; and altogether, in his opinion, the finest building of the kind in this country. It has at present a very melancholy aspect, and in some degree reminded me of Moreton-Corbet', having, like that, the remains of Grecian pil 1 A ruinous building in Shropshire.-ED. |