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these plantations, and now offer land, plants and seeds almost gratuitously to any one willing to undertake tea-planting. Their hope is to make it a permanent branch of agricultural enterprize, and these hopes may be fulfilled, as the soil of India is considered by good judges better adapted to tea than that of China, and in fact, tea actually grows wild in Northern India. Another advantage of India is the great cheapness of labour; but it may be doubted whether this is not more than compensated by its inferiority. For instance, in this plantation all the picking of the leaves and manufacturing is done by Chinese, brought from their home at great expense, to whom very high wages were paid. They were originally brought out only to teach the processes to the natives, but it having been found utterly impossible to rely upon the faithfulness and care of natives, even in the picking of the leaves, it is probable that Chinese labour will have to be permanently employed.

Mr. Thompson, the superintendent, showed us over part of the plantation, which had at the time about 350 acres under cultivation. The tea-plant is a thick, round bush about three feet high. The leaf is similar to that of the box, but larger. Only some of the leaves are fit for manufacturing. The difference between the two kinds is very perceptible, and Mr. Thompson said was easily learned by the natives, who picked the good leaves only, with perfect discrimination, as long as they were carefully overlooked; but the moment supervision was removed they would pick leaves of inferior quality. Every plan of rewards and punishments had been tried to make them more careful, but all had been unsuccessful, and they were now reluctantly concluding that Chinese labour would be a permanent necessity.

We visited the manufactory, a pukka tea is fired and prepared for the market.

building where the As it was not the proper season nothing was doing, and the empty rooms contained only some air-tight cases of tea-plants and seeds, which were to be sent gratuitously to any applicants.

We afterwards visited a neat row of cottages, the homes of the Chinese labourers, the comfort and order visible in which,

contrasted strikingly with the wretched mud-huts that shelter the natives of India.

Mr. Thompson informed me that only the finer qualities of tea are manufactured or grown at the Company's establishment. The average price realized at the tea sales which had just taken place was one rupee and ten anas or seventy-eight cents a pound.

I was very glad to have seen this plantation, not only on account of the interest of the experiment, but because they were the first tea plantations I had seen, my China travels having stopped short of the tea districts; and they are besides the largest in the world, as in China the herb is generally cultivated by small planters who have each but very little land.

Besides the tea-plantations of the Honourable Company; there are in India others belonging to private individuals. Of these, the largest are those of the Assam Company, which I believe pay very well, their tea bringing a very high price in London, and being used exclusively to give a body and flavour to inferior Chinese teas.

After leaving Mr. Thompson's we were stopped in a narrow lane, by a crowd around a juggler, and, for a few anas we witnessed a fight between a mungoos and a snake. The mungoos is a small animal, like a weasel. It is particularly hostile to snakes, and remains uninjured by their venom. After witnessing the death of two snakes we kept on to Dehra, and young Mr. Huzeltine drove me to the house of Mr. Woodside, an American Missionary, where he bade me good-bye.

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Rev. Mr. Woodside's-American Missionaries-Opening of the Ganges Canal-Excitement of Natives-Moral Effect-Missionaries' Opinion of the Company's Government -Its General Effects-Native States-A Seekh Temple-The Gooroo-Farewell to my Countrymen-Last view of Himalayas-Roorkhee-Workshops-Native Workmen-Repugnance between the English and Native Races-The Ganges CanalOther Buildings-Meeruth Again-Mutiny at Meeruth-Conduct of Officers, and their Feelings toward the Sepoys.

I FOUND Mr. Woodside's compound filled with tents, camels, horses, elephants, and servants, it being the convention of all the American Missionaries in that part of the country, and most of those who attended having to live, as they had come to Dehra, in tents. There were about twenty Missionaries present, some of whom had brought their wives and children. It was strange how my heart warmed at finding myself again in the company of so many of my own countrymen.

I was particularly pleased with the Rev. Mr. Bwho had served in the Mexican war, and had afterwards enlisted as a "soldier of the Cross." He was stationed in the Punjab, and recommended me very strongly to visit that country. Mr. B- had come to Dehra by marching," that is to say travelling with horses and camels and tents. The distance he had come was three hundred and twenty miles, the time occupied was thirty days, which will give a good idea of the slowness of the mode of locomotion, which was formerly universal in India, and is still the only practicable plan in many parts of the country.

Mr. B- described to me very vividly some of the scenes at the opening of the Ganges Canal. It seems that the Brahmuns were very much opposed to its construction, as all the ghâts on the Ganges were in their hands, and they made

their fortunes by contributions levied upon the bathers, whereas any one who pleased might bathe in the canal, and convenient ghâts had been constructed for the purpose by Government, at short distances. This opposition of the Brahmuns would have been enough at one time to have prevented the building of the canal; or at any rate they would have been reimbursed by government for their loss. I refer to the period when a Sepoy was turned out of the service for becoming a Christian, and when it was a standing regulation that "no natives but those of the Hindoo and Moosulman persuasions" should fill a post in the Honourable Company's service. On the day of the opening of the canal, Mr. B and a friend got into a boat and were carried on with the first of the water. The banks on both sides were crowded with thousands of natives from all the country round. It was night, and the ruddy glare of torches lit up the empty bed of the canal, and the close packed masses of black-skinned naked Hindoos, waiting with trembling anxiety to witness the result. They had been assured by the Brahmuns that the mighty goddess Gunga could not be diverted from her ancient and Heaven-appointed bed; that her pure waters would refuse to flow in any but the sacred channel. No doubt, in the minds of many of the spectators, the question to be decided was not whether the task of the engineers had been perfectly carried out; but whether the Brahmuns, the emanations from the godhead, nay, whether the very power of the gods themselves, would not be overcome by the irresistible might of that dread impersonality, "The Warrior Company."

As the water advanced wild shouts arose from the crowds, the mighty masses swayed to and fro with excitement, and finally they rushed headlong into the water. Many of them had never before bathed in the sin-absorbing waters-others had only done so in rare pilgrimages and at the expense of the greatest privations.

It is not too much to say that the opening of the Ganges Canal is the greatest blow that has ever been inflicted upon the infallible authority of the Brahmuns. The mighty goddess leaves her place at the bidding of an English engineer,

and flows in a channel which he has constructed. The armies of Heaven do not interpose to prevent the sacrilege; on the contrary, blessings arise, both temporal and spiritual. Millions of acres are fertilized and yield abundant crops, the inhabitants have the highest privileges of their religion brought to their door, and the same stream which washes away the sins of the cultivator will bear his plenteous harvests, rapidly and cheaply to a market. The benevolent science of the foreigner, stands triumphant over the mercenary superstition and the money-getting lies of the Brahmun.

I dined at Mr. Woodside's. I was curious in questioning these missionaries with a view of obtaining the opinions of disinterested and well-informed men, on the actual working of the Company's government. All with whom I conversed spoke in the highest terms, both of the general policy of the Government, and the great improvements in the condition of its subjects. Especially, they said, that too much praise could not be given to the very high character of the civil service; and the integrity, equity, and benevolent spirit of its members, generally. At the same time they confessed that the greatest oppressions were continually committed in the name of Government; but assured me that they were, in every instance, traceable to the native subordinates, and could not properly be laid at the door of the European officials. The missionaries from the Punjab spoke with particular warmth of the great improvements in the administration of that country, during the few years that had elapsed since its annexation by the British. The revenue of the country had been considerably reduced; the quota of each tax-payer was equitably adjusted; and he no longer had to satisfy the extortion of the taxgatherer, as well as the just demands of Government. Public improvements had been extensively planned, and their execution begun. Every man felt sure of his head, his wife, and his property-whereas, under the old rule, no man's life was safe, and if any one had collected wealth by industry, skill, or enterprize, he soon learned that his gains must be shared by his rulers small and great.

To show still further the effect of a transfer from native to

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