ART. IX.-Description of the Fort of Galna, in Khandeish. By A. RICHARDSON, Esq., C.S. [With three Slabs of Stone, bearing Inscriptions in Persian and Devanagri.] Presented 11th December 1856. THE Fort of Galna, distant about 22 miles S. W. of Dhoolia, and somewhat less from Malligaum, is situated on a hill which the Aneroid Barometer showed to be 1145 feet above Dhoolia, or about 2082 feet above the sea. Accessible from the country about it by one way only, viz. a broad flight of steps cut into the northern face of the hill, the approach in the days of bow and arrow warfare must have rendered it totally impregnable. These steps traverse the hill-side from east to west, and then, reversing the line, ascend again to the eastward, passing under five gateways, all but the lowest in good preservation; and that, being in the middle of the straggling and depopulated village of Galna, appears to have served as a kind of quarry to the modern inhabitants who have been in want of fine slabs of grey limestone. The third and fourth gateways, about two-thirds of the ascent from the town, are approached by covered-ways, and are still furnished with strong iron-cased doors, and surmounted by walls nearly 20 feet thick, where the gateways are situated. These walls are continued along the face of the hill westward and eastward, till they unite into the highest battlements on the west and on the east ends of the hill, while a single wall encircles the plateau on the east, south, and west sides. The upper walls are perfect, and contain magazines of various sizes in each of the bastions, which are semi-circles and must have commanded the approach in every direction on the S. and W., while the face of the hill, being almost perpendicular for nearly one thousand feet below the wall, the lines are as straight as the outlines of the rock allow, and have been defended by large wall-pieces, which were moved on iron pivots, many of which are still seen on the round bastions at every 80 or 100 yards, on the W. and N. faces. The south side of the hill is a bare scarp, for so many feet from the wall, that it appears to have been considered unnecessary to erect any works for offensive warfare here; while at about two-thirds of the length from the east, there is a bastion in which are arches of Saracenic form, between the central two of which was the slab containing the Persian inscription which is dated H. 977, A.D. 1561. The second slab was taken from a niche between the battlements fronting the north, and surmounting a row of cellars, which, as they are furnished with moderate sized windows, must have been intended for residences, since we found in those cells which had no windows heaps of small stone, cannon balls of various sizes, and a considerable quantity of damaged gunpowder. This slab contained an inscription in the Davanagri character, dated Saka 14 and below it were four lines in Persian, to the effect that, that particular bastion had been built by one Mahomed Ali Khan, and completed on the first of Rubi-ul-Akhir H., or, from the employment of the Arabic numerals, it may be Soorsun 985, which will make the date 14 years later. This tower and bastion is close to the N.W. corner of the fort, a part where the whole of the wall shows appearances of comparatively recent repairs, with the débris of the original structure in the valley below. It is the weakest portion of the whole work, and the place where a breach would be made practicable. However, I am inclined to think that, from the height of the hill above the plains, the absence of any hills within some miles of the Fort in any direction but the east, (where a round-headed hill of nearly the same altitude as that on which the Fort is built, lies within a mile and a half of the fort walls), and from not being able to find any marks of cannon balls on any of the walls or buildings, no attack supported by artillery, was ever made on this Fort; and that the repairs were the consequence of some unusual fall of rain, or perhaps of an attempt to construct a reservoir of water on the plateau above. Walking from this tower on a narrow stone pavement which connects the whole circle of the battlements by flights of steps, as the ground rises or falls, and proceeding eastward towards the entrance gateways, we came upon a tower so constructed as to command the entire route of ascent, and immediately facing, of course, at different elevations, the third and fourth gateways. From this tower the side of the hill, sloping so as to render the plateau on the top more conical towards the E. than it is towards the W., admitted of two walls, furnished with batteries for swivel-guns and pierced with loop-holes at every elevation, so that from this point to the eastern extremity, every stone of the ascent, from the village to the mosque might have been enfiladed from numerous positions. There we found the third tablet, dated H. 993, A.D. 1577, the latest inscription on the Fort, but which ascribes its foundation to Mahomed Ali. Underneath this tower are many cells still filled with bad powder and small limestone or trapstone balls, of so curious a nature that one would imagine they could reach the plain only in the shape of dust. The hill above this spot approaches within 30 yards of the wall, and from this tower to the mosque there are a series of caves under the hill, which have been cut out of the rock, but are now filled with water, and inhabited by tortoises and bats. Some of these, from the remains of walls in them, must have been used for stores or for prisoners; while beyond is the mosque, which is in perfect preservation and very handsome. It is open to the east, and upon a stone terrace from which a few steps lead down to a small square tank of masonry, beyond which again the descent to the plain is commenced. The mosque consists of one room about 48 feet long from N. to S., by perhaps 25 broad, and has one very handsome, carved, stone window in it opening on a balcony which is surmounted by an elegant cupola from whence there is a magnificent prospect. Below lies the deserted village still called the "town" of Galna. As werode through the long rows of vacant sites, certainly not twenty grownup men, perhaps a dozen children, and less than that number of women, were counted; but three distinct lines of walls, evidently the designs of different ages, and suited for defence against various styles of attack, can be easily traced. On the south, ranges of low hills, a most difficult country either to cross or to travel, fall behind each other to the bank of the Panjar, some fifteen to eighteen miles distant, and the green masses of trees, the white houses, and the long walls of the jail at Dhoolia are distinctly visible as the sun declines; while the distant, northern horizon is bordered by the dim but picturesque outlines of the Satpoorah Hills, beyond the Taptee. To the east, the wide valley of the Taptee, intersected by the rapid but scanty streams which water Khandeish and all run into it, forms a plain, which, but for the abrupt peak of Lulling Fort and the rough forms of the hills near it, continues unbroken, till it vanishes in the mists, which hang over the cotton fields of Berar; and on the west, is an impenetrable mass of mountains of every variety of shape and hue, which extends from the Taptee to the peaks of the Syhadree Range round Supta Shring and Dhorubghur, (4112 and 4760 feet respectively above the sea,) from which the chain is continued on, in bleak outline of cone and table-land, until far in the S.E. the dim figures of the Shyadree Range sink into the plains beyond Adjunta. ART. X.-Old Tombs in the Cemeteries of Surat. Presented 10th October 1861. THE town of Surat was one of the first places in India at which the English established a factory, and carried on a lucrative trade. The Portuguese had made several Settlements along the western coast at a much earlier period, and we read that they pillaged the city of Surat even in A.D. 1512. But the Dutch, English, French, and for a short time, the Swedes, all established factories for trade at Surat in the beginning of the seventeenth century. The first English ship is stated to have reached Surat in 1608. The Dutch established themselves in 1617, and the French a few years later. The English and Dutch factories were the most successful; and after various vicissitudes of fortune, both these nations obtained favourable terms from the Emperors of Delhi and the Nawabs of Surat, and carried on a most thriving and prosperous trade. The French, on the contrary, obtained an unenviable character as pirates and plunderers, and did little in the way of commerce. The agents of these several nations vied with each other to live in the greatest splendour. In 1662 Sir George Oxenden, and after him Gerald Aungier in 1669, were the English Presidents of Surat. These Presidents are described to have lived in a handsome house, with upper and lower galleries, richly ornamented with carvings. Besides the public apartments where business was transacted, there were suits of private rooms with " a neat oratory," and a common dining hall, at which all the factors and writers, twentyeight in number, usually dined. The vessels and dishes were all of massive silver; each course was ushered in by a flourish of trumpets, and a band of music played during dinner. The President, when he went out, was preceded by a standard-bearer, a body-guard, a host of attendants with led horses, an umbrella of State, and other insignia of pomp and rank. The Dutch Presidents paid still more attention to these matters, with a view to impress their power and consequence on the minds of the natives. Men who lived in such grandeur may naturally be supposed to have emulated each other in erecting ostentatious tombs to commemorate their dead; and thus we find the sepulchral ruins in the cemeteries of Surat, even at the present day, bearing witness to the large sums that must have been expended for these purposes. Among the most pompous mausoleums in the English cemetery is that erected over those "most brotherly of brothers," Christopher and Sir George Oxenden. The structure is in fact made up of two tombs, of which one is interior to the other. Christopher died in A.D. 1659; and the first building, a domed structure, with four pinnacles at the corners, was erected over his grave, and an epitaph, written by his brother, was placed within it on a small marble slab. It is written in the old English character, and is a model epitaph for an exact merchant. It is as follows: "Hic situs est Christopherus Oxinden, probitatis Vitam, sed per contra scribat mors mihi lucrum. This may be freely translated :— "Here lies buried Christopher Oxinden, by his life an example of probity; by his death, one of the perishable nature of life. "He makes his entrance and his exit. Here he brought to a termination his undertakings and his life. "He was able to enter in his accounts only days not years, for Death suddenly called him to a reckoning. "Do you ask, O my masters, what profit you have gained, or what loss you have suffered? "You have lost a servant, we a companion, he his life; but on the other side of the page he may write 'death to me is gain."" Sir George Oxenden died in A.D. 1669, and Christopher's tomb was then inclosed in another, similar in style, but two stories in height, and remarkable for the peculiarity of its dome, which represents an open cross. In the upper compartment of this building is inserted a large marble slab bearing an 'inscription to the memory of Sir George, in which he is magnificently described as "Anglorum in Indiâ, Persiâ, Arabiâ, Præses." Both inscriptions are well preserved. The mausoleum of the Oxendens is thus described by Anderson :— "The height of this monument is forty feet. The diameter twenty |