ty had recently left, and the late attack and plunder of Calpee. Of Nusseerabad the most dismal account was given, as a barren plain on the verge of the great salt desert, with very little water, and that little bad, and only one single tree in the whole cantonment. I know not from what singular fatality it has arisen, that almost all the principal establishments of the English in India have been fixed in bad situations. The reason which I have heard given is the unwillingness of Government to interfere with the comforts of their subjects, or to turn out people from their farms and villages, which has compelled them to fix on spots previously uninhabited and untilled, which of course, in an ancient peopled country, have generally been neglected in consequence of some natural disadvantage. But it would be so easy, at a moderate rate, to recompense any Zemindar Ryut whom a new cantonment inconvenienced; and the bad effects of an unwholesome, or otherwise ill situated station are so great, that this is a reason which, though it was gravely given, I could hardly hear with gravity. The fact, however, is certain; Secrole, the cantonments at Lucknow, nay, Calcutta itself, are all abominably situated. I have heard the same of Madras; and now the lately settled cantonment of Nusseerabad appears to be as objectionable as any of them.

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The affair at Calpee has excited great surprise not unmixed with alarm. Many of the party maintained that Sindia was at the bottom of the transaction, and that it was the harbinger of a new war in central India; but one gentleman, who came lately from Mhow, had no suspicion of the kind; and though he thought it not unlikely that the marauders in ques tion had been assembled in Sindia's territories, he did not think that the Maharaja was himself inclined to break with us. January 10.-This morning's stage was eight coss, to a small village called Furrah; it is built in a great measure within the enclosure of what has been, evidently, a very extensive serai, whose walls seem to have been kept up as a defence to the village. They have, however, not been its only defence, since on a little hill immediately above it is a square mud fort, with a round bastion at each flank, and a little outwork before the gate. It is now empty and neglected, but has evidently been in recent use, and might easily be again put into sufficient repair to answer every purpose for which such a little fortress could be supposed calculated. Most of the villages in this part of Hindostan were anciently provided with a similar fastness, where the peasantry, their families, and cattle, might seek refuge in case of the approach of robbers or enemies. The strength of the British Govern

ment, and the internal peace which has flowed from it, have made these precautions, as well as the walls and towers of the greater towns, to be almost universally neglected, though the recent misfortune at Calpee appears to prove that such means of defence may yet occasionally have their value.

The people and tusseldar of Furrah were very dilatory in bringing supplies, and the sepoys were so cold, hungry, and indignant, that I thought there would have been broken heads. The tusseldar at length made his appearance in a hackery hung with red cloth, and drawn by two very fine bullocks, which trotted almost as well as the common horses of the country. He was followed by the usual aids, and matters were reconciled. The peasantry, my servants complained, were not only negligent, but uncivil, and seemed to have heard, probably an exaggerated statement, of the sack of Calpee.

Soon after we had encamped, a numerous party of faquirs, and other similar vagabonds, like us, as it seemed, on their travels, appeared, and pitched their tents at a little distance. Dr. Smith foretold that we should lose some property by this contiguity, but there was no avoiding it, since neither in law nor justice could men in the open field object to others, travelling like themselves, taking up their abode in the same vicinity. In one respect, they gave us less trouble than might have been expected, since they did not beg. A party of them, however, came forwards with a musician, and a boy dressed up in adjutant's feathers with a bill of the same bird fastened to his head, and asked leave to show off some tricks in tumbling and rope-dancing. On my assenting, in less time than I could have supposed possible, four very long bamboos were fixed in the ground, and a slack-rope suspended between them, on which the boy, throwing off his bird's dress, and taking a large balancing-pole in his hand, began to exhibit a series of tricks which proved him to be a funambulist of considerable merit. He was a little and very thin animal, but broad-shouldered and well made, and evidently possessed of no common share of strength as well as of agility and steadiness. Meantime, while he was gamboling above, the musician below, who was an old man, and whose real or assumed name was Hajee Babee, went through all the usual jests and contortions of our English "Mr. Merryman," sometimes affecting great terror at his companion's feats and the consequence of his falling,-sometimes bidding him "Salam to the Sahib Log," or challenging him to still greater feats of agility and dexterity.

Our road, during great part of this day's journey, had lain by the side of the Jumna, which is here very pretty, a

486

ESCAPE OF TRIMBUKJEE.

wide and winding stream, with woody banks, and the fields in its vicinity more fertile and green than any which I have for a long time looked on. We saw a small vessel with masts and sails dropping down the river; but, except during the rains, its navigation is here so tedious and uncertain that few boats ever come up so high.

I heard this morning an account which interested and amused me, of the manner in which the Maharatta chief, Trimbukjee, whom I saw a prisoner at Chunar, had effected his escape from the British the first time he was seized by them. He was kept in custody at Tannah, near Bombay; and while there, a common-looking Maharatta groom, with a good character in his hand, came to offer his services to the commanding officer. He was accepted, and had to keep his. horse under the window of Trimbukjee's prison. Nothing remarkable was observed in his conduct, except a more than usual attention to his horse, and a habit, while currying and cleaning him, of singing verses of Maharatta songs, all apparently relating to his trade. At length Trimbukjee disappeared, and the groom followed him; on which it was recollected that his singing had been made up of verses like the following:

"Behind the bush the bowmen hide,

The horse beneath the tree;

Where shall I find a knight will ride
The jungle paths with me?

There are five and fifty coursers there,

And four and fifty men;

When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed,

The Deckan thrives again!"

This might have been a stratagem of the Scottish border, so complete a similarity of character and incident does a resemblance of habit and circumstance produce among mankind.

January 11.-This morning we arrived at Secundra; nine coss from Furrah, a ruinous village and without a bazar, but remarkable for the magnificent tomb of Acbar, the most splendid building in its way which I had yet seen in India. It stands in a square area of about forty English acres, enclosed by an embattled wall, with octagonal towers at the angles surmounted by open pavilions, and four very noble gateways of red granite, the principal of which is inlaid with white marble, and has four high marble minarets. The space within is planted with trees and divided into green alleys, leading to the central building, which is a sort of solid pyramid surrounded externally with cloisters, galleries, and domes, diminishing gradually on ascending it, till it ends in a square platform of white marble, surrounded by most ela

borate lattice-work of the same material, in the centre of which is a small altar tomb, also of white marble, carved with a delicacy and beauty which do full justice to the material, and to the graceful forms of Arabic characters which form its chief ornament. At the bottom of the building, in a small but very lofty vault, is the real tomb of this great monarch, plain and unadorned, but also of white marble. There are many other ruins in the vicinity, some of them apparently handsome, but Acbar's tomb leaves a stranger little time or inclination to look at any thing else. Government have granted money for the repair of the tomb, and an officer of engineers is employed on it. A sergeant of artillery is kept in the place, who lives in one of the gateways; his business is to superintend a plantation of sissoo trees made by Dr. Wallich. He says the soil does not appear to suit them; they grow, however, but by no means rapidly. For fruit trees, particularly the orange, the soil is very favourable, and the tall tamarinds and the generally neglected state of the garden afford more picturesque points of view than large buildings usually are seen in.

The next morning, January 12th, we proceeded to Mr. Irving's house near Agra, about six miles, through a succession of ruins, little less contiguous and desolate than those round Delhi. I noticed, however, that some of the old tombs have been formed into dwelling-houses, and Mr. Irving's is one of this description. I found there a very comfortable room prepared for myself, with plenty of space in the compound for my encampment.

In the evening, I went with Mr. Irving to see the city, the fort, and the Jumna Musjeed. The city is large, old, and ruinous, with little to attract attention beyond that picturesque mixture of houses, balconies, projecting roofs, and groups of people in the eastern dress, which is common to all Indian towns. The fort is very large and ancient, surrounded with high walls and towers of red stone, which command some noble views of the city, its neighbourhood, and the windings of the Jumna. The principal sights, however, which it contains, are the Motee Musjeed, a beautiful mosque of white marble, carved with exquisite simplicity and elegance, and the palace built by Acbar, in a great degree of the same material, and containing some noble rooms, now sadly disfigured and destroyed by neglect, and by being used as ware-houses, armouries, offices, and lodging rooms for the garrison.

The hall, now used as the "Dewanny Aum," or public court of justice, is a splendid edifice, supported by pillars and arches of white marble, as large and more nobly simple

488

PALACE OF ACBAR.-ABDUL MUSSEEH.

than that of Delhi. The ornaments, carving, and Mosaic of the smaller apartments, in which was formerly the Zennana, are equal or superior to any thing which is described as found in the Alhambra. The view from these rooms is very fine, at the same time that there are some, adapted for the hot winds, from which light is carefully excluded. This suite is lined with small mirrors in fantastic frames; a cascade of water, also surrounded by mirrors, has been made to gush from a recess at the upper end, and marble channels, beautifully inlaid with cornelians, agates, and jasper, convey the stream to every side of the apartment. In another of the towers are baths of equal beauty, one of which, a single block of white marble, Lord Hastings caused to be forced up from its situation, not without considerable injury both to the bath itself and the surrounding pavement, in order to earry it down to Calcutta. It was, however, too heavy for the common budgerow in use on the Jumna, and the bath remains to shame its spoliator. Should the plan, which has been often talked of, of having a separate Government for central India ever to be carried into execution, this would unquestionably be the Government house. It might still be restored at less expense than building a new residence for the Governor, and there is, at present, no architect in India able to build even a lodge in the same style. The Jumna Musjeed is not by any means so fine as that of Delhi. It is very picturesque, however, and the more so from its neglected state, and the grass and peepul trees which grow about its lofty domes.

Archdeacon Corrie's celebrated convert, Abdul Musseeh, breakfasted this morning at Mr. Irving's; he is a very finc old man, with a magnificent gray beard, and much more gentlemanly manners than any Christian native whom I have seen. His rank, indeed, previous to his conversion, was rather elevated, since he was master of the jewels to the court of Oude, an appointment of higher estimation in eastern palaces than in those of Europe, and the holder of which has always a high salary. Abdul Musseeh's present appointments, as Christian missionary, are sixty rupees a month, and of this he gives away at least half! Who can dare to say that this man has changed his faith from any interested motives? He is a very good Hindoostanee, Persian, and Arabic scholar, but knows no English. There is a small congregation of native Christians, converted by Mr. Corrie when he was chaplain at Agra, and now kept together by Abdul Musseeh. The earnest desire of this good man is to be ordained a clergyman of the Church of England, and if God spares his life and mine, I hope, during the Em