DEPARTURE FROM DINAPOOR.

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reading and writing universal. The brigade-major was not present, but I said all I could to the colonel about the lending library, and a more regular attendance of the troops in Church, and was glad to find what I said, extremely well taken. The library I think I have secured, since every body present seemed pleased with the idea, when the nature of its contents and the system of circulation were explained. The heat was something which a man who had not been out of Europe would scarcely conceive, and the party, out of etiquette on my account, were all in their cloth uniforms. I soon put them at their ease, however, in this particular, and I am almost inclined to hope that the white jackets which were immediately sent for, put them in better humour both with me and my suggestions.

I was much pressed to stay over the next Sunday, or at least a few days longer; but it is only by going to-morrow that I can hope to reach Ghazeepoor, or even Buxar, by Sunday next; and all agreed, on telling them what I had to do, that I had no time to spare in order to reach Bombay before the hot winds.

August 25.-I parted from Dinapoor under a salute of artillery, and sailed, along the northern bank, which, where we first approached it, presented an outline far bolder and more abrupt than most which I have seen on the Ganges, being a precipitous bank of red earth overhung with trees and shrubs, with a native house of some consequence on its summit.

About noon we arrived at Chuprah, a large town on the north bank of the river, or rather on an arm of the river divided from the main stream by some marshy islands. Chuprah was the scene of a defeat received by Mr. Law, from, I believe, Sir Eyre Coote, (then Capt. Coote.) It is now the chief town of the district of Sarum, and the residence of the judge and collector; and contains also a good many large, handsome, native houses, and one very pretty mosque, or pagoda, I know not which. Its architecture resembles the first,but there are a peepul-tree, ghât, and other things near it, which lead me to suspect the latter, and I do not think its entrance tallies with the regard shewn in all mosques to the Kibla. While I was in this place, vainly waiting for the Corries, a very fine and fast-sailing budgerow arrived with Mr. and Mrs. Anson, on their way to join his regiment at Meerut, and we proceeded together.

Near our halting place, which was a very pleasant one, was a little open shed occupied by a Hindoo ascetic, with a double quantity of dung and chalk on his face, who was singing in a plaintive monotonous tone to a little knot of peasants, who seemed to regard him with great veneration. He did not beg of us, but suspended his hymn while we passed between him and the Ganges. He had not the tyger-skin, which those whom I saw at Boglipoor appeared to take particular pleasure in displaying. A village was near, and a fine orchard of mangoe-trees; a number of bearers passed with packages of various kinds, belonging,

FLOATING SHOPS.

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as they said, to a certain potentate named the "Dum-Raja," who was crossing the country to pay a visit somewhere in this neighbourhood. I was in hopes of an opportunity to see an Indian of rank on a journey, but it appeared that the great man had already passed. We overtook a number of vessels to-day, two of them of a curious and characteristic description. One was a budgerow at Chuprah, pretty deeply laden, with a large blue board on its side like that of an academy in England, inscribed "Goods for sale on commission," being in fact strictly a floating shop, which supplied all the smaller stations with, what its owners would probably call, Europe articles." The other was a more elegant vessel of the same kind, being one of the prettiest pinnaces I ever saw, with an awning spread over the quarter-deck, under which sate a lady and two gentlemen reading, and looking so comfortable that I could have liked to join their party. I found that it was the floating shop of a wealthy tradesman at Dinapoor, who, towards the middle of the rains, always sets out in this manner with his wife, to make the tour of the upper Provinces, as high as his boat can carry, ascending alternate years, or as he finds most custom, to Agra, Meerut, or Lucknow, by their respective rivers, and furnishing glass, cutlery, perfumery, &c. &c. to the mountaineers of Deyra Doon, and the Zennanahs of Runjeet Singh and Sindia. We passed in the course of this day the mouths of no less than three great rivers falling into the Ganges from different quarters, the Soane

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FILIAL PIETY OF NATIVES.

from the south and the mountains of Gundwana, the Gunduch from Nepaul, and the Dewah, from, I believe, the neighbourhood of Almorah: each of the three is larger, and of longer course than the Thames or Severn. What an idea does this give us of the scale on which nature works in these countries!

The heat all this day would have been intense, had not the breeze tempered it. No rain has fallen for many days.

August 26.-Our fine wind continued, which was the more fortunate since the sun was intensely hot and bright. In our way to Buxar the sirdar came to me with hands joined, and that sort of anxious smile which signifies that its wearer is about to ask a favour. He said that his parents lived close to the place where we now were, and requested a two days leave of absence, (promising to join me on Sunday night at Ghazepoor,) and also that I would advance him a month's wages to leave with them. I could not refuse him, though he is a very valueable person on board, and mention it because it seems to shew that among these poor people there is at least filial piety. The calling to see them was, indeed, natural; but the gift of the month's wages was what many valets-dechambre in England would have thought, I fear, "quite out of character." I forgot to mention in the proper place that the sota-burdar had made a similar request at Bankipoor, where he had, he said, a wife and three children still at home, and that Abdullah, whose friends also live in Patna,