ened as we got into the middle of the river. The Serang told me we should do extremely well, provided we could make a particular clump of trees, which we were in a very fair way for, when suddenly the wind drew round to the south-east, and began to blow hard, with rain, which fairly compelled us to bring up on the opposite side of the "Jeel" to that which we intended, on a rotten marsh, overgrown with beautiful jungle-grass, tall and silky, and at least eight feet high, so as completely to bury the men who endeavoured to get through it. Towards sun-set the breeze moderated, when by help of a little rowing, we got off from shore, and found ourselves in a wide stream of muddy water, rushing at the rate of eight or ten knots an hour, in which our sails just served to keep us steady, and which carried us in little more than an hour to the point we were anxious to attain. We received two messages from Mr. Master, judge of Dacca, in the course of the day, with a most liberal supply of bread, fresh-butter, and fruit. His servants say we may easily reach Dacca to-morrow.

July 3.-This morning we advanced about twelve miles with the current, making some little advantage of our sails. About eight o'clock, however, the wind was so strong and so completely in our teeth, that we were forced to bring to, as usual on a lee-shore, but so soft and yielding, being in fact all marsh and reeds, that no harm was likely

In the dry season a jeel is merely a swamp, but during the rains, when near a river, it becomes navigable for pinnaces.—ED.

to happen to the vessel. We lay in this manner till past ten, when, it being very clear that, with such a wind, it was impossible for the pinnace to reach Dacca by Church-time next day, I determined on going thither in the jolly-boat, leaving Stowe, whose health would not admit of his joining such an expedition, behind. I accordingly embarked, taking with me, besides my clothes, a pocket-compass, and a common Bengalee umbrella, which being of straw, I thought would keep off the sun more effectually than my own. I took Abdullah and four of the best rowers of our crew, leaving on board the pinnace four of Mr. Master's police boatmen instead, who came to offer their services. The adventures of such a voyage were not likely to be very numerous. We found a really heavy sea in the middle of the jeel, which washed our faces liberally. The width of this expanse of water was on an average, I think, about a mile, shewing in many places, marks of the vegetation which it covered, and bordered, mostly, by tall rushes, jungle-grass, and rice-fields, as yet only partially inundated. The stream was exceedingly strong, so much so as perfectly to account for the height of the waves which the wind raised by their opposition. This latter, however, became more moderate after we had rowed about an hour and a half, and the remainder of our progress was very rapid and easy, the men having little more to do than now and then to give a pull at their oars. A striped flag at the entrance of a smaller stream on our left-hand, attracted my attention, and the

boatmen told me that a toll was paid there by all boats frequenting a market to which that nullah led. These local taxes are all, throughout the Company's territories, applied to the improvement of the districts where they are levied. A little farther we were hailed from the shore by a man earnestly begging to be taken on board. The dandees only laughed, but I told them to pull in and hear his story. He said he was a soldier in the 14th, Colonel Watson's regiment, that at their last night's halting-place he had missed the boat to which he belonged, and that now all the flotilla was passed by, and unless we gave him a lift he had no chance of getting to Dacca, the country being all flooded, and he unable to swim even a few yards. I immediately turned the boat's head to the shore, and he came on board, a very fine handsome man, naked save his waist-cloth, and with a Brahminical string, but with all the carriage and air of a guard's-man. Nobody could, indeed, mistake his profession, even if he had not made his military salute very gracefully. He said he had begged a passage that morning in six or eight boats, but seeing him naked and pennyless they had all (as he said) "run over to the other side, as if he had been a tyger." He added, on seeing a Sahib his hopes revived, but continued he, " these cursed Bengalees are not like other people, and care nothing for a soldier, or any body else in trouble." "To be sure," he said, laughing," they always run away well." He pointed out some budgerows and other large boats dropping down

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the stream a few miles before us, and said his comrades were there, and he should be very thankful if we would put him on board of any one. were about an hour overtaking them, but the first we approached turned out to be a cook-boat, and he begged hard that I would not put him in a vessel where he could not escape defilement, (shewing his string).

We accordingly proceeded through the fleet, which consisted of about twenty vessels, all deeply loaded, with their masts struck, and their long cumbersome oars answering very little purpose, except to keep them steady in the middle of the current. Such of them, indeed, as were in its strength, were only to be approached with caution, since as they dropped down at the rate of five or six miles an hour, and were perfectly unmanageable, they would, if they had struck her, have swamped our little boat in an instant. There was one, however, which we could board without difficulty, but this was a washerman's boat, and our passenger again objected. This second scruple excited such a burst of laughter from the Mussulman dandees, that the soldier blushed up to the eyes as soon as he had made it, and begged pardon of me, saying, "the boat would do very well," then jumping on board with another military salam, he left us to proceed with more rapidity when freed from his weight. The towers of Dacca were already in sight, at least the dandees could see them at the end of a reach of water, perhaps twelve miles in length, along which we sped merrily. As

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we drew nearer I was surprised at the extent of the place, and the stateliness of the ruins, of which indeed the city seemed chiefly to consist. Besides some huge dark masses of castle and tower, the original destination of which could not be mistaken, and which were now overgrown with ivy and peepul-trees, as well as some old mosques and pagodas, of apparently the same date, there were some large and handsome buildings, which, at a distance, bid fair to offer us a better reception, and towards which I, in the first instance, proposed to direct our course, knowing the difficulty which we should have if we passed them, in returning against the stream. The boatmen said, they did not think the "Sahib Log" lived in that part of the town, but were not sure, and the appearance of a spire, which as it seemed to mark the site of the Church, confirmed me in my resolution of bearing off to the left. As we approached, however, we found these buildings also (though of more recent date than Shah Jehanguire, and many of them of Grecian architecture) as ruinous as the rest, while the spire turned out to be a Hindoo obelisk. While we were approaching the shore, at the distance of about half a mile from these desolate palaces, a sound struck my ear, as if from the water itself on which we were riding, the most solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long, loud, deep, and tremulous, something between the bellowing of a bull and the blowing of a whale, or perhaps most like those roaring buoys which are placed at the mouths of some English harbours, in which the