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variety of callings which each man at present exercises, and the time which he loses in preparing his food. Make it worth their while to establish messes, where one should cook for the remainder, and give them facilities of eating a noonday meal on the scene of their work, and they would, I think, be easily persuaded, with far greater comfort to themselves, and advantage to their employers, to begin and leave off work at the same time with English labourers. Indeed, at some of the indigo works which we have passed, this seems the case; and I am sure that the fishermen and dandees work as late and early as any people.

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The stream as we advanced became broader, and the country assumed the character of inundation. The villages, on land a little elevated, were each surrounded by its thicket of bamboos and fruit trees. Some fine tall spreading banians and peepuls were scattered on the driest patches of the open country, but the rest was a sheet of green rice, intersected in every direction by shallow streams, which did not as yet cover the crop, but made it look like rushes in a marsh. The low banks of the river were marked out by the bushes of datura stramonium, and long silky tufted grass, which from place to place rose above the water, and here our boatmen waded sometimes mid-leg, sometimes knee-deep. Indigo, in this low country, is confined to the banks round the villages, whence we saw several boats conveying it to the works which we had left behind us.

About two o'clock we entered on an immense extent of flat and flooded country, stretching as far as the eye could reach to the north-west, without even trees or any similar object to break the line of horizon. Here at Gwalparah we, for the first time since leaving the Ganges, had the stream in our favour. As the wind was not altogether unfavourable, we hoisted sail, and the stream strengthened 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 sunset 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

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

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APPROACH TO DACCA.

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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 tiger." 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 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. We 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, (showing 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 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

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ARRIVAL AT DACCA.

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 winds make a noise, to warn ships off them. "Oh," said Abdullah, "there are elephants bathing; Dacca much place for elephant." I looked immediately, and saw about twenty of these fine animals, with their heads and trunks just appearing above the waTheir bellowing it was which I had heard, and which the water conveyed to us with a finer effect than if we had been ashore. Another mile or thereabouts of rowing brought us to some buildings of a more habitable description, and pretty much like those of Calcutta. One of these, close to the water's edge, was pointed out to me as Mr. Master's, who was himself in the court of justice; but whose servants, though surprised to see the style in which I arrived, had an excellent bed-room for me, with every thing ready for bathing and dressing. I found myself in no respect the worse for my boating, except that my face was a little burnt, in spite of my chahtah, by the reflection of the water, while my shins, (which had been exposed to the sun, owing to my trowsers slipping up in the uncomfortable situation in which I was compelled to sit) were scorched as if I had laid them before a great fire. These I washed in milk, which relieved them a good deal. Mr. Master, when he returned, said, that though I had, perhaps, done a rash thing in coming through the sun, yet certainly I took the only means of arriving in time for church. He said that he would send a guard-boat to help the pinnace on, but that she could not possibly get to Dacca under twentyfour hours. For my part, except my shins, I never felt better.

ter.

CHAPTER VII.

DACCA.

RUINS VISIT FROM THE NAWAB-VISIT RETURNED-DEATH OF MR. STOWE-CONSECRATION OF CHURCH, AND BURIAL GROUND-CONFIRMATION-ARMENIAN ARCHBISHOP-FARE

WELL VISIT TO NAWAB-MEER ISRAF ALI.

JULY 4.-I preached to a small congregation, in a very small but pretty Gothic Church. Mr. Parish read prayers, and gave notice of the Consecration and Confirmation for the Wednesday and Friday ensuing. About 4 o'clock the pinnace arrived, but Stowe, to my great concern, sent word that he was too ill to leave it, having had a very severe relapse of dysentery. I took Mr. Todd, the surgeon of the station, to him, who pressed his making the attempt for the sake of a more airy apartment than his cabin, and in an hour's time, the wind having abated, he got into Mr. Master's house and to bed, I hope not the worse for the exertion. Nothing can exceed Mr. Master's kindness to us both, but I am sorry to say, he is himself by no means in good health.

The river on which Dacca stands, has greatly altered its character since Rennell drew his map. It was then narrow, but is now, even during the dry season, not much less than the Hooghly at Calcutta. At present it is somewhat wider, but, from the upper windows of Mr. Master's house, the opposite bank may be seen also in a great degree flooded; and though the green rice rising with the water, gives it no other appearance than that of a swampy meadow, small boats are seen every where paddling about amid the crop, which yields them way without difficulty.

Dacca, Mr. Master says, is, as I supposed, merely the wreck of its ancient grandeur. Its trade is reduced to the sixtieth part of what it was, and all its splendid buildings, the castle of its founder Shabjehanguire, the noble mosque he built, the palaces of the ancient Nawabs, the factories and churches of the Dutch, French, and Portuguese nations, are all sunk into ruin, and overgrown with jungle. Mr. Master has himself been present at a tiger hunt in the court of the old palace, during which the elephant of one of his friends fell into a well, overgrown with weeds and bushes. The cotton produced in this district is mostly sent to England raw, and the manufactures of England are preferred by the people of Dacca themselves for their cheapness. There are still a VOL. I.

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