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From 
 
 New York to Delhi, 
 
 By way of 
 
 Rio de Janeiro, Auftralia and China. 
 
 By 
 
 Robert B. Minturn, Jr. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 New Y o r k : 
 D. Appleton & Co., 346 & 348 Broadway. 
 
 London: 16 Little Britain. 
 
 1858. 
 
 vw 
 
POLITICAL DiVtSlONS 
 
 0S]D3^ 
 
 The English Territory ?> (vlonrvd darkret/ . 
 The Native States are mtoitm/ IkjM red . 
 The Presidency y Madras „nd,h Dependencies 
 
 a/Y' boanded hi/ a bUie Ime. . 
 The Presidency^ Bonibay«„rfis. Dependencies 
 
 are bounded by a green line . 
 The Presidency^Ben^al w,A. Dependencies 
 comjirue U,e. rest of die-. BrUi.f/i Posse.mon.9 . 
 Indimtes Hie route o/'lhe . \itllior. 
 
 ■^^oF Sanmy.Myor&I6uipp/ri9 Braad:vay. XY. 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the yeai" 1858, by 
 EOBEET B. MINTUEN, Jk., 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 
 
 TRAWSfEB 
 
 9 
 
 MAY 25 1945 
 
 Serldtl Record Ofvislim 
 Th« Library off CongreM ^. 
 
 Copy ^^ « ^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following work has grown out of a six months' tour in India, 
 just before the outbreak of the recent mutiny. The materials were 
 principally derived from letters intended only for the perusal of my 
 family. I have been induced to give my observations a more permanent 
 form and a wider circulation, both on account of the interest which has 
 been excited in the subject by the events of the last year, and because, 
 considering the size and population of the Indian peninsula, its im- 
 mense capabilities of production, and the important position that it 
 may hereafter hold in the economy and commerce of the world, it 
 certainly has not hitherto attracted in this country its due share of 
 attention. 
 
 The poHcy and administration of the East India Company's govern- 
 ment are so generally misunderstood, and so hopelessly unpopular, that it 
 seems a thankless task to say a word in its favour. I have stated, how- 
 ever, only what I beHeve to be the truth, after the most careful investi- 
 gation which I could give. I do not hold, with some, that the East India 
 Company was the only perfect government in modern times ; but, on the 
 other hand, I beHeve that posterity, if not the present generation, will 
 admire and wonder at the sagacity and wisdom of a pohcy which has 
 enabled fifty thousand men (for, until the late difficulties, there have 
 never been more Englishmen in India) to conquer so vast a country, and 
 hold in subjection myriads of men, of most opposite national character, 
 generally civilized, often warhke, and defended, in more than one in- 
 stance, by the science and skill of the art of war as practised in Europe. 
 
 I am aware that many things which I have stated with regard to the 
 character of the natives of India may appear improbable or incredible. 
 All I can say is, that no European can ever comprehend an Asiastic, 
 and that the more their peculiarities are studied, the more inconsistent 
 
iv Preface. 
 
 they appear. How can Englishmen or Americans ever rightly appre- 
 ciate people who have no *^xpression in any of their languages for 
 " India," the country in which they Kve ; no equivalent for " thank- 
 you," and no word for "patriotism," and many such ideas. 
 
 The last five chapters in the book contain statistical and other in- 
 formation, which would perhaps be most valuable, if perused before 
 the description of the country itself. 
 
 Since this work has been written, the East India Company has ceased 
 to exist as a government. One of the Queen's ministers is now in name, 
 as he has long been in fact, the supreme authority in Indian affairs. The 
 very slight modifications introduced into the system of government by 
 the new act is the best possible testimony to the excellence of the 
 old organization, an excellence which can only be found in a system 
 which is based solely upon the conclusions of common sense, and has 
 grown up from the results of practical experience. 
 
 The difficulties consequent upon the revolt still continue, but the 
 war is now purely defensive on the part of the rebels, and their fate is 
 certain unless they can find new allies among the native princes or 
 feudal lords. The great heat of the present season, the small number of 
 English troops, and the superiority of the natives in rapid marching, all 
 tend to delay the restoration of order ; though they do not seem to 
 strengthen the rebellion, which appears to possess neither unity nor 
 organic vitality enough to spread or become aggressive. Disturbances 
 are now confined to a comparatively small extent of country, and do 
 not affect the peace and security of the peninsula at large. 
 
 It now only remains that I should acknowledge the very valuable 
 assistance that I have derived from many previous writers on this 
 subject, especially Colonel Sleeman and M. de Valbezen, whose very 
 words I have, in several instances, followed. The facts and figures 
 which I give I have endeavoured to make as accurate as possible by a 
 careful collation of difierent authorities, and a reference to official docu- 
 ments, whenever practicable. 
 
 Nev?- Toek, August 14, 1858. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. I. — Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cause of visiting Kio — Entrance of the Harbour — Eepairing Yessels at Eio — Porters 
 — European Appearance of the City — Architecture — Priests and Eeligion — 
 Slaves — Villas in the Country— Tejuca — Substantial Houses — Business — Polite- 
 ness — Opera — Government — Departure from Rio 13 
 
 Chap. II. — Australia. 
 
 First View of Australia — Sydney Harbour — The Town and its Climate — Passage to 
 Melbourne — Public Land System — The Road to Ballaarat — Colonial Milestones — 
 Bushrangers 20 
 
 Chap. III. — Australia, continued. 
 
 First View of Ballaarat— Description of the Place— Gold Digging — A Colonial 
 Theatre — Socialism at the Antipodes — Geelong — Melbourne— Paramatta — Re- 
 publicanism in Australia — Government and Education — Emigration and probable 
 Future of Australia 27 
 
 Chap. IV. — North China. 
 
 The Passage from Australia — Making the Chinese Coast — The Yang-tze-kiang — The 
 Foreign Settlement — Dress and Life of the Resident Europeans — Chinese Sol- 
 diers — Natural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China— Native Town 
 of Shanghae — Streets — PaAvnbrokers — Public Buildings — Temples, and Worship 
 — Phonographic "Writing — State Visit of the Taootai — A Chinese Cafe — Romish 
 Mission — Executions and Torture— Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals — 
 Captain Marryatt's Story— The " Battle of Shanghae" 87 
 
 Chap. V. — A Trip Inland. 
 
 Leave Shanghae for a Trip up the Canals — Our Boat — Swimming— Banks of the 
 Canal — Military Stations — Temples — Graves — Villages — Dress of Chinese — Town 
 of Kwunsan — Grain Junks— Comparison of Chinese and American Governments 
 — This part of China once Submerged — Cormorants — Approach to Soo-Chow — 
 The City — " Foreign Devils" — Grand Canal — Heat— Hills near Soo-Chow — View 
 of Ty-hao— Mandarin's Tomb— Ty-hao— Chinese River Thieves — Their Honesty. 50 
 
 Chap. VI. — A Trip Inland, continued. 
 
 Ascend Toong-toong-ting-shan — The View — The Great Lake of China — A Beautiful 
 Canal — Villages — Return to Soo-chow — Grand Canal — A Customs- Barrier — A 
 Chinese Fort— Ping-bong— Chinz^— Nan-zing— Effect of Drought on Rice Fields 
 — Our Examination by Mandarins— Preparations for the Rebels — Hoo-chow — 
 Pretty Girls — Are compelled to return to Shanghae — Bridge at Yang-kow-shin 
 — Kahing — Troops— Mandarin's House in Lake — ^Arrive again at Shanghae— 
 Charity in China , 61 
 
vi Contents. 
 
 Chap. VII. — Southern China. 
 
 PAGS 
 
 Leave Shanghae — The Peninsular and Oriental Company — Hong Kong— Foreign 
 Settlement of Canton— The Chinese Suburbs— Ceremonies at Ming-qua's House 
 —Making Tea— Opium Smoking- The OpiumTrade— Temple of a Hundred Gods 
 —Beggars Dying of Starvation— Interior of a House — A Chinsse Eestaurant — 
 Chop-sticks— Eat Grills and Dog Stew— Public Opium Shops— The Boat Popu- 
 lation of Canton — Indifference to Life — Lepers — How-qua's Garden — Unique 
 Method of Hatching Eggs — Monasteries of Honan — Boodhist Services — Sacred 
 Hogs— Gambling— Macao— A Protective Policy— The Portuguese— Effect of the 
 "War on the Commercial Importance of Canton T2 
 
 Chap. VIII. — To Calcutta. 
 
 The "Lancefield" — Entomology — Singapore — First Yiew of Orientals — The Parsees 
 —Malays— Garrhees— Proas— Black Water — Torture— Crew of a Ship in the 
 Indian Seas— Jolly Tars— An Indian Watering-place— The Hoogly— Bores— First 
 View of Natives— Hubble-bubble— Fattening Shell-fish for Market 85 
 
 Chap. IX. — Calcutta. 
 
 Palkees — ^Buggies— The City of Calcutta— Government House— Tanks— Bazars— 
 The largest Mint in the World — Supreme Court — Conflict of Laws — Missions 
 and Schools — Spence's Hotel — Servants— Expenses of Living in India — Civil 
 Servants — Their Salaries — The Language of the Camp — A People without a 
 Country, and a Country without a Name 96 
 
 Chap. X. — Calcutta, continued. 
 
 Eoasting Human Bodies — Adjutants in Calcutta — Unpaid Scavengers — Early Eising 
 — The Morning Drive — "The Strand" — Clothing — Country around Calcutta — 
 "Stations" — Dum-Dum — ^Artillery Mess — An Ameer of Sind — Barrackpoor — ^The 
 Sepoys — ^Too much Petted— Some Causes of the Mutiny 105 
 
 Chap. XI. — Calcutta, concluded. 
 
 Life in Calcutta — ^My Friends there — The India Trade — Skill of the Natives in Com- 
 merce — Conduct of American Eesidents during the Eevolt — Travellingin India — 
 The Palanquin — "Marching" — Steamboats on the Ganges — Garrhee-dak — The 
 Mail-cart 116 
 
 Chap. XII. — To Benares. 
 
 Eailway to Eaneegunj— Indian Eailways — Coal — A Dak-Gdrrhee— Dak Companies — 
 The Eights of Horses— Leopards and Jackals — ^Dak-Bungalows — Scenery — Com- 
 parison between Natives of India and China — Land-Tenure — Nullahs — People 
 on the Eoad — Sahussuram — Two fine Tombs — A Dancing Cow — The Village 
 Zemindar — " Taking Leave" — Unsympathetic Character of the Natives — Country 
 between Sahussuram and Benares — Seroor 121 
 
 Chap. XIII. — ^The Holy City of India. 
 
 The Sacred Apes— The City from the Eiver— ThQ Observatory— Oriental Science— 
 The Golden Temple — Sacred Bulls — The Great Devil — Hindooism — The Goddess 
 of the Sknll-Chaplet— Poojah— The Holy Well— SeJf-Torture— Caste— Brahmun- 
 Ical Regeneration— Supremacy of the Sacred Caste 186 
 
Contents. vii 
 
 Chap. XIV. — Benares, concluded. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Religious Ablutions — Aurungzeeb's Mosque — View from Minar — Burning Ghat — 
 Market Place — Hindoo College — " Native Gentlemen" — European Manners and 
 Morals in India — Kuins of a Boodhist Monastery— Gold Brocade — Opium 147 
 
 Chap. XV. — Allahabad — "The City of God." 
 
 Arrival at Allahabad — Zubburdustee — Seekhs — Ilindoostanees — Fort at Allahabad — 
 An Invisible Eiver — Sooltan Khooshroo's Sural — Hindoostanee Wells — Allahabad 
 to Cawnpoor — Bullock Trains — Elephantiasis 154 
 
 Chap. XVI. — Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 
 
 The Station of Cawnpoor — Disorder in Oude — Cawnpoor to Lucknow — Elephants — 
 Kaorees — Lucknow — Making Ice — The Weather — The Generosity of the Sove- 
 reign Company — My Man Brown — First View of Lucknow — A Moral — The Gate 
 of Rome — The Taza — The Imambara — A Fine Coup-d'ceil — Situation of Oude — 
 Splendour of the Court — Indian Misgovernment — Indian Gentlemen — Extortion 
 and Tortures — Lord Canning's Confiscation — Brutal Degradation of the Court — 
 Relations of the East India Company to the King of Oude — Violated Faith 160 
 
 Chap. XVII. — Lucknow, concluded. 
 
 A Morning Surprise — Salam — Native Polish — Hindoo Manners — Parade — Red Coat 
 — Character of Sepoys — An Army of Priests and Kings — Caste Misunderstood — 
 Pariahs — India Conquered for the English by Natives— Bullock Artillery — 
 "Hathee pur Howdah" or Elephant Riding — Rich Dresses — Chokeedars — Fuk- 
 heers — A Coat of Paint — Royal Palace — Vanity — The Social Evil — A Modern 
 Sodom — Defence of the Lucknow Residency — The Massacre of Cawnpoor 178 
 
 Chap. XVIII.— To Meeruth. 
 
 Appearance of Country — Bishop Heber — Christian Missions — Colonel Tucker — 
 Country between Futtehghur and Meeruth — Ganges Canal — An Indian " Sta- 
 tion" — Sirdhana — Dyce Sombre's Tomb — Free Lances of India — An Ingenious 
 Process for Collecting Money — A Female General — Success of the Begoom — To 
 Moozuffarnuggur — Dhoolee Travelling — Persian Inscription — Natural History.. 192 
 
 Chap. XIX. — The Himalayas. 
 
 A Night in a Dhoolee— The Turai Forest— First View of the Snowy Range — Siwalik 
 Hills — Ram 1 Ram ! — The Dhoon Valley — Rajpoor— Ascent of the Himalayas— 
 Puharrees — Munsooree — Indian Hospitality — Landoor — View of Snow-clad 
 Peaks — Hill-stations— An Accident— The Descent — Agriculture in India — Tea 
 Plantation — Chinese Workmen— A Snake Fight 202 
 
 Chap. XX. — Return to Meeruth. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Woodside's — American Missionaries — Opening of the Ganges Canal — Ex- 
 citement of Natives — Moral Effect — Missionaries' Opinion of the Company's 
 Government— Its General Effects- Native States— A Seekh Temple— The Goo- 
 roo— Farewell to my Countrymen— Last View of Himalayas — Roorkhee — Work- 
 shops—Native Workmen— Repugnance between the English and Native Races 
 —The Ganges Canal— Other Buildings— Meeruth Again— Mutiny at Meeruth— 
 Conduct of Officers and their Feelings toward the Sepoys 218 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 Chap. XXI. — The Imperial City of Delhi. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First View of Delhi— Entrance to the City— The Palace— The Houses Low— The Ar- 
 senal—Col. Skinner's— The Church— The Square of Death— The Signal Tower- 
 Drive to Kootub— Euins— Old Delhi— An Imperial Whim— Safdur Jung's Tomb 
 —The Kootub— Indian Sam Patches— The Observatory— Chandee Chok, the 
 Broadway of Delhi— Dandy Moosulmans— The Mosque of Slaughter 224 
 
 Chap. XXII. — Delhi, continued. 
 
 A Juggler- Poses Plastiques— Entrance to Palace— Dewan Am— Emperor's Throne 
 —Mosaics— Drawing First Blood— A Paradise on Earth- Peacock Throne— A 
 Microcosmic View of the Mogul Empire — Shah Jehan in State— A Hundred 
 Tears Later— Native Tact— The Glory has Departed— Maharattas in the Palace 
 — Gholam Kadur, the Eohilla, seated on the Eoyal Throne— Eestoration of the 
 Empire by the British— Their Majesties, and their "Particular Slaves"— The 
 Last Emperor— The Last Tenants of the Dewan Khas— The Pearl Mosque- 
 Palace Gardens— The Jumma Musjeed — View from Mindr— Moosulman "Worship 
 — Feerooz's "Walking Stick— Hoomaioon's Tomb— Chubootras— Peculiarities of 
 Mahommedan Architecture— Capture of the King of Delhi 236 
 
 Chap. XXIII. — Delhi and Umbala. 
 
 The Saint's Tomb— A Eoyal Cemetery— A Victim of the English— The Old Fort— A 
 Nach at Mr. Skinner's— The Dinner— The Girls— Their Songs— Dancing Boys- 
 Native Gentlemen— Snakes— The Bazars of Delhi— The Streets— A Native "Wed- 
 ding—A " Public Night" at the Mess of the 54th— Dak to Umbala— Sick— A 
 Dandy Servant — "Vengeance is Sweet" — Sepoy Bands — The Native Army— 
 Cashmeer Shawls 251 
 
 Chap. XXIV. — Return to Delhi. 
 
 Desertion- Life of an Indian Officer — Christmas Evening at Mr. Beresford's — The 
 Mutiny at Delhi — Murder of my Friends— Fate of the Beresfords — The Eevolted 
 Emperor's Government — The City while held by the Mutineers — Uniform De- 
 feats of the Mutineers — The Siege and Assault — Taking of the City and Flight of 
 the Mutineers — News of the Taking of Delhi — The City after its Occupation by 
 the English — "Wholesale Punishment 269 
 
 Chap. XXV.— Agra. 
 
 iirrival at Agra— The Taj— Its Proportions— Mosaics— The " Tribe of the Infidels" 
 —"The Ornament of the Palace"— Cost of the Taj— The Fort— The Pearl 
 Mosque— The Dewan Am — Dewan Khas — A Seat for a Sovereign — A Court of 
 the Zenana — The Palace of Mirrors — The Terrace — ^Sleeping Eooms — Town of 
 Alexander — The Printing Establishment — Akbur's Tomb — Akbur's Character 
 — His Legislative and Administrative Acts — His Eeligion— An Unexpected 
 Meeting — Dine with my American Friends — "Young Bengal" — Illumination 
 of the Taj — Eevisit the Palace — An Indian Oubliette — The Old Hindoo Palace — 
 Hindoo Art — A Great "Well — A Pleasant Summer Residence — Presentation of 
 Colours— Commander-in-Chief's Camp — Manly Sports— The Cathedral — Eam- 
 bagh— Tomb of Aktmud-ood-Dowlah— "The Light of the Harem"— Her Ambi- 
 tion and its Success 281 
 
Contents. ix 
 
 Chap. XXVI. — Agra to Jaipoor. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Chowdris — Combination versus Competition — Our Retinue — Price of Labour — Com- 
 mercial Integrity — Leaving Agra — The Departure of " A Warrior Lord" — A 
 Loan to the Sovereign Company — The Royal Pilgrimage — " Seekree, the City of 
 Victory — Tomb of a Wealthy Saint— Bishop Heber's Guide — Human Chessmen 
 — Blind-man's BuflF— A Triumph for Religion — " Pointing ft Moral" Four Rupees' 
 worth of Picturesque Piety — Bhurtpoor — English Protection and its Fruits — 
 An Indian Sebastopol— Rajah's Palace — Battle of Deeg— Quail Fighting— A 
 Boxing Match — Deer — Bosawur — Breakfast at 3 P. M. — Antelopes — Manpoor — 
 Walled Tillages— Naked Sanctity — Buranah — Hills of Jaipoor — Palace of the 
 Rajah — Jaipoor 300 
 
 Chap. XXVII.— Jaipoor. 
 
 Elephants — Beauty of the City — The Zenana and Palace — Novel Stairways — View 
 from Roof — A Court — Revenue Department — Dewan Khas — Sitringees — Native 
 Furniture— Curtain-ladies— A Lovely Character — Palace Gardens— His High- 
 ness' Toys — " Composite Architecture" — Native College — Marriage Nach — Ob- 
 servatory — Palace in Lake — Palaces of Ummeer — Tiffin in the Reception Court 
 — Bishop Heber's Praises of the Palace — Bazar of Jaipoor — History of Jaipoor... 320 
 
 Chap. XXVIII. — Rajpootana — "The Country of Princes." 
 
 Bugroo — Peacock Shooting — Thakoor's House — Dhoodoo — Superstition about Wells 
 Jain Temple — Kishinghur — Visit from Baboo — Rajah's Palace — Excitement of 
 the Public — A Dancing Elephant — Road to Ajmeer — Scenery — Dress and Man- 
 ners of Rajpoots — Fort of Ajmeer — Ruins of a Hindoo Palace — Nusseerabad — 
 Bombay Sepoys — The Shop of a Fire-worshipper — Bunai — Hindoo Cooking — A 
 Native Huntsman — Dablah — Filial Grief— Bunaira — Remarkable Castle — Road 
 to Ummeerghur — Cheap Meat — The Day of Rest 331 
 
 Chap. XXIX. — Country of the Maharattas. 
 
 Arrival at Chittor — Seven Miles of Ruins — Tank — The Moon Lady — The Great Tem- 
 ple — Hindoo Religious Architecture — The Great Tower — Antiquity of Hindoo 
 Ruins — Religious Pic-nic — Enter the Maharatta Territories — " Zubburdustee" — 
 " The Good Old Rule" — Poppy-fields — Neemuch — Noble Banyan Tree — Irriga- 
 tion — Mundissoor — A Pleasant Resting-place — Jowra — Nawab's English Palace 
 — Khachrod — New Style of Architecture — The Soobah's Politeness— Oojen — The 
 City — Temple of Kunaia — The God's Carriage — Indian "Punch" — The Maha- 
 rattas — A Native Government — Professional Robbing — Spread of the Maharatta 
 Power — Nature of their Government — Their Subjugation by the English — 
 Gwalior States— The Police— Indirect Utility of Native Misrule 342 
 
 Chap. XXX.— To Ellora. 
 
 March of Sir R. Hamilton — Indor — The Rajah's Palace — Strike into the Mail-road — 
 Revolt of Kuhars — Origin of the Present Rajah — Mhow — Goojree — Kurrum- 
 poora — A Stray White Man — Mannersof Natives— Si ndwar — Fortress in Ruins — 
 Sirpoorah — Peculiar Police Regulation — Old Venetian Coins — Dhoolia — Native 
 Town — Evidences of having entered British Territory — Malligaum — Canton- 
 ments — Native Town — NandgaoTi — Camp in a Grove — Sakigao?i — Put up in 
 a Temple — Enter the Dekkun— Physical Geography— The Nizam— "Might 
 makes Right 860 
 
X Contents. 
 
 Chap. XXXI. — The Cave Temples op Ellora. 
 
 PAoa 
 General Description of the Temples—Khallas — Fine Sculptures — "The Work of 
 Gods or Devils ?" — Other Caves— A Heavenly Carpenter — A Disorderly House- 
 hold — Yiew from Hill — Saint's Tomb— Eoza — Aurungzeeb's Tomb — His Charac- 
 ter — Splendour and Power — Decay of the Mogul Empire — A Night in Para- 
 dise — Indra Sabha — Sonorous Obelisks — The Doorma Lena'— Architectural 
 Ornaments of the Caves — Hindoo Religious Mendicants — Peasantry — Their 
 Complexions 370 
 
 Chap. XXXIL— To Bombay. 
 
 ■Road to Dowlutabad— " The City of Eiches"— A Stronghold—The " Master of the 
 Plain" — Meet "the Moon-Lady" again — Aurungabad — A Magician — Tomb of 
 Aurungzeeb's Daughter — Another Eevolt — Separation of our Forces — Toka — 
 The Godaveri— Brahmuns — A Hungry God — Eope-and-boat Bi-idge— Imam poor 
 — Ahmudnuggur — Meet our Friends — The Fort — The Kingdom of Ahmudnug- 
 gur — The Largest Brass Cannon in the World — Duelling among Natives of India 
 — Chand Beebee again — Death of Aurungzeeb — Bombay Kuhars — Seroor — Kon- 
 dapoora — The Elver Kistna — Poonah — Dismiss our Kuhars — Good-bye to Dhoo- 
 lee-travelling — Irregular Cavalry , 380 
 
 Chap. XXXIII. — Bombay. 
 
 Khanddia — The Ghftt Mountains — Cave Temples — The Eailway — Obstacles to its 
 Construction — Situation of Bombay — The Fort — Native Town— Eesidences of 
 Europeans — Growth of Eastern Cities — Commercial Ability of Natives — Com- 
 merce of Bombay and Calcutta — Variety of Nationalities represented in Bom- 
 bay — Parsees^Their Costume, Eeligion, and Customs — Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeb- 
 hoy — Other Native Inhabitants — Hindooism in Bombay— Bohoras and Portu- 
 guese — Peculiarities of English — Degeneracy of all other Nations in the East — 
 The Hoolee — Nach at the House of Juggurnathjee Sunkurset — Anglomania in 
 India — Old Hindoo Costume — Cave Temple of Elephanta 390 
 
 Chap. XXXIV. — ^Bombay to Cairo. 
 
 The " Ganges"— Our Fellow-passengers— The Crew — ^Life on the Steamer- — Aden — 
 Its Appearance—" Hell with the fires pnt out" — An Original Head-dress— Arabs 
 — ^The Cantonments — The Fortifications — Importance of the City — Free Trade— 
 A Foot-print of Civilization — The " Gate of Tears" — The Eed Sea— Its Heat — 
 Suez — Transit Across the Desert— Its Appearance — The Eoad — The Pyramids — 
 The " City of Victory" — A Recommendation for Indian Travel 402 
 
 Chap. XXXV. — -Climate and History of India. 
 
 Size of the Country — Not Thickly Settled — Eainy Season — Cold Season — Hot Season 
 — Unfit for a Eesidence of Europeans — Effect on their Health — Origin of the 
 Present Inhabitants of India — The Hindoo Conquest— Eemnants of the Abo- 
 rigines — The Four Castes — Changes in Them — Arguments in Favour of this 
 Hypothesis — Mahommedan Invasions — Tamerlane — Foundation of Mogul Em- 
 pire by Babur — Akbur — Shah Jehan — Aurungzeeb — Decay of the Empire — 
 Revolts — Maharattas — Rajpoots— Death of Aurungzeeb — The Seekhs— Utter 
 Disorganization — Nadur Shah's Invasion — Rise of the English — Conduct of the 
 Company toward Conquered Princes — Annexation contrary to the Company's 
 Policy — Character of Native Dynasties — Government of Dependent States .... 410 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 Chap. XXXVI. — English Government in India. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abolition of Company's Trading Privileges — Board of Control — Government of India 
 Nominiilly in the Hands of the Directors, but really under the Control of the 
 Ministry — Civil Servants Appointed by Examination — Objections to this System 
 — Unfitness of Natives for Government Employ — Government in India — District 
 Magistrates — Salaries — Character of the Civil Service — Native Employees — Un- 
 covenanted Service — Universal Lying — Instances from Eeal Life — Rules of Tes- 
 timony — Civil Law of India — Mild Criminal Code — Thugs — Dukoitee — Eellgious 
 Murderers and Eobbers — Infanticide and other Crimes — Suttee and Human 
 Sacrifices — Poisoners — Peculiarities of Crime in India — Thieves — Stealing a Sheet 
 from under a Man Sleeping — Precautions — Disregard of Capital Punishment — 
 Black Water — Blowing from Guns — Model Prisons — Caste in Jail — Smoking — 
 Licentiousness — Discourteous Manners of English to Native Gentlemen — What 
 is a Gentleman ? — Dlfiiculties of Magistrates— Native Police — Their Corruption 
 and Tyranny — Torture in India — Bribery and Corruption — The Eemedy — Causes 
 of the Moral Degradation of the Hindoos 425 
 
 Chap. XXXVII. — The Army of India. 
 
 Its Strength — Dlflfereut Classes of Troops — English and Native Ofiicers — Enlist- 
 ment purely Voluntary — Pay — Madras Army — Bombay Army — Low-Caste 
 Men — An Army of Gentlemen — Truckling to Caste — Tame Tigers — Salaries of 
 Officers — Staff-Service 451 
 
 Chap. XXXVIII. — Revenue and Wealth of India. 
 
 Undeveloped Condition of the Eesources of India — Cotton — Obstacles to Develop- 
 ment — Small Agriculturalists — Caste — Want of Capital among Agricultural 
 Classes — Inferiority of Native Labour — Want of Eoads — Railways — Ganges Canal 
 — Want of European Capital and Energy — Obstacles to the Supply of this — 
 Land-tax under Native Governments — Under the English — Lord Cornwallls's 
 " Settlement"— The Madras System — The " Village System" — Its Advantages — 
 To be made still more Liberal — Eevenue and Expenses of the Indian Govern- 
 ment — Low Taxation — India a Poor Country — Misapprehensions that have 
 prevailed with regard to the Wealth of Oriental Nations 456 
 
 Chap. XXXIX.— The Revolt. 
 
 Indian Rebellion not a Matter of Surprise — Eevolutions and Rebellions common un- 
 der Native Governments — Rebellion did not originate among the People — Cha- 
 racter of the old Native Governments — Nature of the English Conquest, and 
 Character of their Rule — Evidence that the Rebellion was not a Movement of 
 the People — The Rebellion was not in its Origin a Military Mutiny — The real 
 Instigators were the Moosulman Princes — It was the dying Effort of Islamlsm — 
 Character of the Mahommedan Population of India — Favourable Circumstances 
 for the Rebel Leaders — Abortive Attempts of the Eebels to arouse the Mass 
 of the Population — The Moosulman Character of the Movement evident in its 
 Development— Atrocities — Noble Stand of the English — The Eevolt in Oude — 
 Sympathies of the Population of India — The Disaffected Classes — The probable 
 Result of the Rebellion if it had not been restrained 470 
 
ORTHOGEAPHY. 
 
 In writing Indian names and words, I have thought best to adopt a 
 uniform system of spelling, choosing the one in common use in India, 
 rather than that system which has been adopted by the Asiatic Society, 
 and which is, perhaps, neater, but has the disadvantage of giving to 
 every vowel a sound different from its common English pronunciation. 
 In the system which I have followed : 
 a is pronounced hke 
 
 d 
 
 e " " 
 
 e " " 
 
 ij or i " " 
 
 o " " 
 
 6 " " 
 
 u « « 
 
 y, vowel " " 
 
 y, consonant " " 
 
 ai " " 
 
 au, or aw " " 
 
 ee " " 
 
 ot, or oy " " 
 
 00 " " 
 
 ou, or ow " " 
 
 The consonants are generally pronounced as in English. G is always 
 hard. The letters in th and ph are pronounced separately, as in out- 
 house and upMU. N, in italics, represents the sound of the Trench 
 nasal n. The acute accent does not change the sound of the vowel, but 
 only indicates the syllable on which the stress of the voice is laid. The 
 circumflex accent also does not change the sound of the vowel, and has 
 only been used in a few instances to prevent long vowels from beino- 
 carelessly pronounced short. 
 
 In the case of certain proper names, I have varied from my system 
 in order not to appear pedantic. Thus, I write Hoogly, not Hooglee ; 
 Oude, not Owd ; Delhi, not Dihli, or Dillee ; Aurungzeeb, not Owrung- 
 zeeb ; Mahommedans, not Mohummudans. The latter spelling of each 
 of these words would more truly represent its real pronunciation, but 
 would appear uncouth. 
 
 a 
 
 in 
 
 all 
 
 a 
 
 in 
 
 hat 
 
 e 
 
 in 
 
 there 
 
 e 
 
 in 
 
 met 
 
 i 
 
 in 
 
 hit 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 so 
 
 
 
 in 
 
 rock 
 
 u 
 
 in 
 
 hut 
 
 y 
 
 in 
 
 my 
 
 y 
 
 in 
 
 young 
 
 ai 
 
 in 
 
 aisle 
 
 au 
 
 in 
 
 author 
 
 ee 
 
 in 
 
 see 
 
 oi 
 
 in 
 
 noise 
 
 00 
 
 in 
 
 soon 
 
 ou 
 
 in 
 
 house 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 RIO DE JANEIRO. 
 
 Cause of visiting Kio — Entrance of the Harbour — Eepairing Vessels at Eio — Porters- 
 European Appearance of the City — Architecture — Priests and Eeligion — Slaves — 
 Villas in the Country — Tejuca — Substantial Houses — Business — Politeness — Opera — 
 Government — Departure from Eio. 
 
 We entered the harbour of Rio de Janeiro on the i6th of 
 January, 1856, having made Cape Frio the day before. The 
 ship on which I was a passenger, was bound for Sydney, and 
 thence for China; but a succession of those violent gales, 
 which, in that winter, destroyed so much property and so 
 many lives on our coast, had completed the work begun by a 
 summer's sun in New York, and when about a fortnight out, 
 we found the ship leaking badly, a state of things which 
 finally compelled us to put into Rio and caulk our upper 
 works. 
 
 The entrance to Rio harbour surpassed the highest ex- 
 pectations which any of us had formed. The mouth is narrow 
 and bordered by lofty walls of granite, rising steep and sheer 
 for 1,500 or 2,000 feet, while farther back the Pao d'Assucar, 
 or " Sugar Loaf," towers into the air — the first of a series of 
 sharply-defined, lofty, barren, and isolated peaks surrounding 
 the harbour, and imparting a grandeur to the rich verdure of 
 its immediate shores, which they would not otherwise possess. 
 From the foot of these peaks, the land slopes gradually down 
 to the water's edge, and is covered with beautiful villas, 
 mostly in the Italian style, embowered in that luxuriant foliage 
 and redundant vegetation which we are accustomed to associ- 
 ate with the idea of a tropical climate. 
 
1^ Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 Passing the picturesque fort which guards the entrance to 
 the bay, we sailed up three or four miles, and cast anchor 
 among a crowd of vessels, all with their ensigns set. On our 
 left, situated on a low flat of not more than two miles' breadth 
 to the foot of the hills, lay the city of Rio. The ground on 
 which it is built is all made^ or, rather, the city is built upon 
 piles, the locality having been formerly a marsh. It is, ot 
 course, low and flat, and drainage is an impossibility, which 
 accounts for its great unheal thin ess at certain seasons. There 
 is usually a- great deal of shipping in the harbour, as there is 
 considerable trade, and this is a favourite place of repair for 
 vessels which may have become dismasted or otherwise in- 
 jured on the voyage to India, Australia, or the western coast 
 of America. In this respect Rio has rather a bad reputation, 
 as the repairing of damaged ships has become a regular branch 
 of trade, and is remarkably well understood — many of the 
 ship-carpenters finding themselves in a position to allow a 
 handsome percentage to such ship-masters as will give them a 
 job. I heard of one or two captains who had put in there 
 with disabled vessels, and who were supplied with luxurious 
 country seats, where they were kept in a continuous round of 
 dissipation while their ships were refitting. Of course, they 
 could not afterwards question the charges of those who had 
 provided for them a " home and all its comforts" in a foreign 
 land, and taken all the tedium of business ofl" their hands. 
 
 Most of the loading and discharging at Rio is done by 
 lighters — there being but one wharf The merchandise is 
 conveyed from the lighters to the shore by negroes, who wade 
 up to their middle in the water, carrying the goods on their 
 heads. On shore, these fellows walk in a long procession, 
 singing a monotonous song. They seem to prefer carrying 
 burdens on their heads — transporting the very heaviest ar- 
 ticles in this way. I have seen as many as sixteen men carrying 
 a piano forte, locking step as they walked, and all joining in 
 the song, which, in this case, was of real importance as en- 
 abling them to keep step. It is said that when the railway to 
 Petropolis was being built, the negroes insisted on carrying 
 the handbarrows, which were furnished to them, on their 
 
Rio de Janeiro. Ij; 
 
 heads, turning the wheel in front with the hand, in time to 
 their song. The negro porters are fine burly men, and are 
 always slaves. They are, however, only required to bring 
 home to their master a certain sum each day, which amounts 
 to about one half or two thirds of w^hat they can earn. On 
 landing, I was much struck with the European appearance of 
 every thing. The buildings are of that substantial character 
 which may be of any age, and which is so different from the 
 prevailing taste in North America. A large plaza with a 
 fountain borders on the quay, and directly in front of the 
 landing, occupying one side of the square, is the Royal Palace, 
 a large, but not a striking building, where, however, the Em- 
 j)eror rarely resides. In front of the jDalace gate two negro 
 soldiers were keeping guard. The army is entirely composed 
 of free blacks, by whom, also, the navy is manned. How 
 reliable they may be, I did not have an opportunity of learn- 
 ing. The streets of Rio are narrow — a very good peculiarity 
 in a climate where there is much sun. The houses are usually 
 large, and built with walls three or four feet thick. The 
 shops are full of French goods — the taste of the Brai^ilians 
 being decidedly Gallic. The churches are not fine, though 
 very massive. They are all in that Jesuitical style which dis- 
 tinguishes modern Romish churches everywhere. The interior 
 decoration is generally tawdry. The priests are a low, filthy, 
 and dirty set ; very immoral, and far from popular, yet they 
 are said to have great control over the Emperor. They 
 have not been able, however, to prevent the toleration of 
 Protestant opinions, and the free circulation of the Sciiptures. 
 A very pretty custom prevails here in celebrating the funerals 
 of children. The pall, the liveries of the coachmen and 
 grooms, and all the decorations are scarlet, while the hearse 
 is covered with flowers placed there by friends, and thrown 
 from house windows as the procession passes through the 
 streets. In the case of young people, not children, blue dec- 
 orations replace the red ; black being reserved for those who 
 are grown up or advanced in life. 
 
 The streets of Rio are filled with negroes, free and slaves — 
 many of the latter being African born — and known by the 
 
i6 Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 tribal mark branded on their foreheads. Slavery exists, how- 
 ever, in Brazil, or, at least, in Rio, in a mitigated form. Any 
 negro may demand a valuation by a magistrate, and, when- 
 ever he can make np the sum fixed, may purchase his own 
 freedom. On becoming free, a negro assumes shoes, a luxury 
 not allowed to slaves. The price of slaves is now high on ac- 
 count of the suppression of the slave trade during the last 
 four or five years, and it is to be presumed that planters cannot 
 now afford to indulge often in the amusement of hoiling a 
 negro, a sight which two Quakers, who wrote a little work 
 on Brazil, were invited to witness. The negroes live princi- 
 pally on a powdered root termed " farinha," black beans, and 
 fruit. Wages are very low. Negro porters, of whom there 
 are a great many, lie about in baskets, like the lazzaroni in 
 the streets of Naples. One of these fellows will carry a parcel 
 a mile, and consider himself well paid by two cents. 
 
 The country around Rio is very pretty, and filled with 
 villas and suburban residences belonging to the richer inhab- 
 itants. The buildings are low (one or two stories), but built 
 at great expense, with walls two feet thick. The exteriors 
 are stuccoed and decorated with arabesque ornaments on a 
 ground of blue or some gaudy colour, the roof being invaria- 
 bly of bright-red tile. One of these houses, in a beautifully 
 kept garden of tropical plants and trees, has an Eden-like 
 effect, which must be seen to be appreciated. I think that 
 some of the larger and better kept of these residences, might 
 well have written over their gates, the celebrated inscription 
 on the Dewan-ee-Khas at Delhi, "If there be a Paradise on 
 Earth, it is here, it is here !" 
 
 Tejuca and Petropohs are both summer resorts, within a 
 few hours' ride of the city. I visited the former only. The. 
 scenery is, I think, as fine as anything in Switzerland, though 
 of course, in quite a different style. The immense granite 
 masses which border the gorge through which the road 
 passes, and the views of the sea through the narrow valleys 
 are something magnificent. Near Tejuca I saw much coffee 
 growing; it looks like a hardy plant and did not seem to 
 have been carefully cultivated. Banana trees are, of course, 
 
Rio de Janeiro. l^ 
 
 to be seen everywhere, being somewhat of a ^veed among the 
 trees ; and I saw, besides, the breadfruit, bamboo, orange, 
 lemon, palm and palm. 
 
 While at Rio, I could not help noticing and admiring the 
 substantial character of all the buildings. The streets are 
 paved with square blocks of stone, and lighted with gas ; the 
 walls of the dwellings are of great thickness. Durability and 
 comfort seem to have been much more consulted than in the 
 United States, where, in weather occasionally just as hot, we 
 live in wooden houses, not even filled in with brick. The 
 store of M. W. & Co., the consignees of the ship on which I 
 was a passenger, was a model of its kind. An immense build- 
 ing, with solid walls four feet thick, contained the offices, the 
 rooms where the employees lived, a large parlor looking on 
 the bay, a saloon where partners and clerks all dined in com- 
 mon at two o'clock, and warehouses where their goods were 
 stored. I got, from some of the American residents of Rio, a 
 very curious, and well-nigh incredible, account of the way in 
 which business is done there. A sale for cash implies a credit 
 of two or three months, withm which it is a personal offence 
 to ask for your money ; and one is expected to renew a note 
 as often as requested, provided the interest be punctually paid. 
 I say " a note," but the fact is, that even the largest transac- 
 tions have, as I was told, in general, only a verbal guarantee. 
 
 The market of Rio is well supplied with fruit all the year 
 round (and here I may remark, that no one knows the taste 
 of an orange who has not eaten it fresh from the tree) ; the 
 fish are very fine ; the mutton is excellent, but the beef poor. 
 Oxen and horses do not thrive in Brazil for some reason, 
 probably, at least in the case of horses, from not being fed on 
 grain. 
 
 The Brazihans are a tame, inoffensive people. A very 
 marked feature in their manners, that strikes a stranger 
 directly, is their great politeness. On entering or leaving an 
 omnibus you uncover and bow to the company, who do the 
 same ; and at a table d^hote the same formality is complied 
 with by all who leave before the rest, the whole company 
 rising and bowing. I was sorry that we could not remain for 
 
i8 Kio de Janeiro. 
 
 the carnival, which took place a week after we left, and is, 1 
 understood, well kept up. The Brazilians are very fond of 
 holidays, and are always ringing the church bells and firing 
 salutes from the fort in honour of one day or another. The 
 ships in the harbour were until lately bound to reply to these 
 salutes, but as they used good powder, while the Brazilian 
 government bought large quantities of damaged stuff for the 
 purpose, they found it rather expensive. The various admirals, 
 therefore, took advantage of a period of sickness among the 
 men, and gave that as an excuse for not replying, alleging 
 that the noise disturbed their sick men. This was three years 
 ago, and I beUeve that they have not resumed saluting since. 
 
 I went to the Opera the last evening that I spent in Rio. 
 The house is a temporary affair, but the singing and music 
 are good ; and I had an opportunity of seeing the Emperor 
 and Empress, and the ladies of Rio, who are seldom visible 
 in the street. The Emperor was a fine looking man, about 
 thirty years old when I saw him — the Empress, a great, heavy, 
 Spanish-looking woman, much older than her husband. Of 
 the beauty of those specimens of Brazilian ladies which I saw, 
 I cannot say much. Their majesties came without any state, 
 in a coupe^ drawn by eight mules. Their arrival produced no 
 commotion in the audience, but I suppose much enthusiasm 
 could hardly have been expected, as the Emperor attends the 
 opera every night. His suite were in court-dress, but himself 
 and the Empress in the simplest evening costume. It seemed 
 to be very common to bring little children to the opera, at 
 least among the occupants of the boxes — but as they and all 
 the elite left when the Emperor did, at i o o'clock, this is per- 
 haps not surprising. His majesty is said to be an intelligent 
 man, fond of, and well read in, the sciences, but not possessing 
 enough strength of character to resist the Jesuitical influence 
 which surrounds him. 
 
 The government of Brazil is very liberal, both houses of 
 the Parliament being elected by the people, and the lower 
 house having complete control if there be in it a majority of 
 three-fourths in favor of a measure ; since, if the Senate do 
 not agree, the two houses meet in convention, and a plurality 
 
Rio de Janeiro. 19 
 
 of votes passes the law. The Senate can always be ontvoted, 
 as its number is small compared to that of the House. The 
 Emperor's veto suspends a law for one year, when, if it be 
 again passed by the Legislature, it takes effect. The govern- 
 ment is thus a real republic, with a permanent executive de- 
 prived of legislative power. There are, however, some ardent 
 young men in the country who desire a republic in name. 
 This would be, as an old American resident once said to me, 
 the worst thing that could happen to Brazil, as it would 
 probably subject her to those periodical pronunciamentos, 
 revolutions and upturnings of the whole government, which 
 have ruined all the Spanish- American republics. 
 
 On the morning of the 25th we sailed out of Rio harbour, 
 our ship having been made thoroughly tight by caulking the 
 upper works. We again admired the lofty rock-bound coast, 
 the highest peaks of which we did not lose sight of till the 
 afternoon of the following day. The weather had been clear 
 and sultry the whole time of our visit, and the great heat 
 (the thermometer having ranged between 80° and 90°), made 
 it pleasant to get to sea again. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AUSTRALIA. 
 
 First View of Australia— Sydney Harbour— The Town and its Climate— Passage to Mel- 
 bourne — Public Land System — The Eoad to Ballaarat — Colonial Milestones — Bush- 
 rangers. 
 
 On the morning of the 8th of April, 1856, I had my first 
 view of the coast of AustraHa — a long line of low cliffs, with 
 no visible break for the mouth of Sydney harbour, of which, 
 nevertheless, we were nearly abreast. The fact is, the open- 
 ing is so nan^ow, and the harbour makes so short a turn (if I 
 may be allowed the expression), that its mouth is almost in- 
 visible, except when one is just entering. It is said that, when 
 Captain Cook was in this part of the world, as he sailed down 
 this coast, the man who was stationed at the mast head to 
 look out for harbours and landmarks, hailed the deck and an- 
 nounced that a harbour's mouth was in sight. Before, however, 
 the captain could get on deck, the ship had gone so far that 
 the narrow entrance was quite invisible. The man was, in 
 consequence, reprimanded for giving false alarms, but the cir- 
 cumstance was entered on the ship's log-book, together with 
 the man's name, Jackson. Soon after, the mouth of Botany 
 Bay came in sight, and as there could be no doubt of that 
 being a harbour, it was entered, surveyed and named. When 
 the government sent the first ship load of convicts to Aus- 
 tralia, Botany Bay was the place chosen for their disembarka- 
 tion, but as its shores were found unsuitable for a settlement, 
 the country round was reconnoitred, and Sydney Bay, twelve 
 miles off, chosen for the convict colony. As the new location 
 possessed every advantage, both for the settlement and as re- 
 garded the harbour, no more convicts were ever sent to Botany 
 
Auitralia. 21 
 
 Bay ; and as it was recognized that Jackson had been right, 
 after all, in his discovery, the bay was called after his name, 
 and is now known as Port Jackson or Sydney Harbour. It is 
 one of the finest harbours in the world, and there are few that 
 excel it in beauty. It wants the lofty mountains which give 
 so much grandeur to the harbour of Rio, but the fine slope of 
 its banks, which are studded with country seats (the houses 
 generally of white stone), and the numerous picturesque coves 
 and islands give it a peculiar beauty. As the bay takes a turn 
 immediately inside the heads and runs parallel with the coast, 
 the harbour's mouth is, from most parts, quite invisible. This 
 gives the view a lake-like appearance, that adds much to its 
 efiect. The Government House, too, an extensive castellated 
 building, standing on a promontory which forms part of a 
 finely laid out park, " the Domain," as it is called, is visible 
 from all parts of the bay, and has a really fine appearance — 
 the royal standard flying from one of the turrets, giving it a 
 good deal the air of Windsor Castle, though it is of course 
 not so large. The harbour is no less excellent in point of 
 utility, the water being so deep that the largest vessels can 
 enter, while the shores are so abrupt that ships can lie any- 
 where close to the land, and wharves are almost imnecessary, 
 and the peculiar turn which I have described the bay as 
 making, with the narrowness of the entrance and the height 
 of the surrounding land, protects vessels from all effects of 
 gales. 
 
 Sydney itself, is built around one of the coves at the further 
 end of the harbour, and covers also the promontory which 
 divides it from the next cove. It contains now about 85,000 
 inhabitants, and is an English town in every respect. In some 
 parts you would suppose you were in London, were it not that 
 all the houses are of a bright yellow freestone. This is the 
 cheapest building material, as the woods of the country are 
 too hard for such purj)Oses ; they do, however, excellently 
 well for rafters, &c., and are almost fireproof. A great deal 
 of Oregon pine is exported to Australia, for building, but goes 
 mostly to Melbourne, the outskirts of which city resemble 
 New York beyond the fire limits. The inhabitants of Sydney 
 
22 Auftralia. 
 
 are mostly English, and preserve the old country manners re- 
 markably. Drunkenness is very prevalent, and I more than 
 once saw women drunk on the sidewalk at nine in the morn- 
 ing. In fact, I never saw so much drinking anywhere as in 
 Austraha. It is, however, a curious fact, that the " natives," 
 as they call the descendants of Europeans, born in Australia, 
 do noti as a general rule, drink at all. These " natives " are 
 very different in aj)pearance from Englishmen, tall and thin, 
 arriving at puberty earlier than in England, and frequently 
 with an indescribably mild eye and voice. They are said to 
 be much inferior to their parents in energy. When I was in 
 Australia, there had lately been a controversy among the phy- 
 sicians, as to whether the climate is favourable to the European 
 race or not. It was admitted that disease of the heart was 
 more prevalent than elsewhere ; and that the teeth go to ruin 
 as rapidly as in America, but in other respects the climate 
 seemed to hold its own against its impugners. Another 
 hundred years vsdll settle the question much more firmly. The 
 weather is oppressively hot, at times. When the " Brick- 
 fielders," the north-westerly winds from the interior deserts, 
 blow, the thermometer occasionally rises to 1 20° in the shade, 
 for a short time, and clouds of dust make it impossible to go 
 out of doors. But the great heat does not last long, and the 
 weather is generally delightful. Frost and snow are some- 
 times seen in the interior, but never on the coast, and the trees 
 are green all the year round, the old leaves falling only in the 
 spring, when they are forced off by the new. 
 
 Sydney has the advantage of a finely kept park, " The Do- 
 main," consisting of about 30 acres, running along the shores 
 of the bay, and enclosing a Botanical Garden, in which are 
 the plants of all climates, growing side by side, in the open 
 air. The oak, however, and other northern trees, do not seem 
 to thrive — all the specimens that I saw being puny and stunted. 
 
 There are but few fine buildings in Sydney — the cathedral 
 being incomplete. There are, however, several very fair stone 
 churches, and the houses, though none of them are showy, 
 have a well built, comfortable look. The police is excellent, 
 on the plan of that in London — the mounted police, particu- 
 
Aultralia. 23 
 
 larly, who patrol the town at night, are as well mounted, and 
 fine looking men, as ever I saw. 
 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 After remaining three days in Sydney, I left for Melbourne. 
 There is, as yet, no road between the two places — the only 
 connection being by water. The steamers are fine, iron-built, 
 sea boats, with every comfort, and very gentlemanly captains. 
 And here I must bear my testimony, that as far as my expe- 
 rience is concerned, the class of men who command English 
 steamers, is at least equal to any similar body in our service, 
 while there are some of them who, I think, surpass any that 
 we have, in knowledge of the world, and refinement. With 
 respect to scientific acquirements, the examinations which 
 English masters and mates have to pass before they are en- 
 trusted with the care of a vessel, at least ensure a greater 
 amount of scientific accuracy than can be found in the Ameri- 
 can service. 
 
 I made the acquaintance, on board the steamer of several 
 " squatters," as the sheep and cattle farmers are called in the 
 colonies, and got a good deal of information from them about 
 the " squatter-system " of disj^osing of public lands, which is 
 so deservedly unpopular among the miners. It seems that if 
 a man wants a " run," as a sheep farm is called, he may get 
 one in three ways: 1st. By buying one already occupied, in 
 which case he buys the stock also : 2nd, by attending a gov- 
 ernment land auction, where the land is sold to the highest 
 bidder above £1 the acre; 3d, if he fancies a particular unoc- 
 cupied run, he gives in his name and a description of the run 
 at the land-office, with proofs that he is able and ready to 
 stock the land directly. After a certain time, if no other ap- 
 plicant presents himself, he receives the land at the upset-price 
 of £1 the acre, but if another applies for the same run, the 
 highest bidder has the preference. This system, of course, 
 throws all the land into the hands of a few large proprietors, 
 and renders it impossible for a poor man to get a few acres to 
 cultivate, at a reasonable price — since, in the vicinity of the 
 
24 Auftralia. 
 
 coast, all the lands are already taken up as sheep farms, by 
 men who do not wish to have settlers in their midst. And 
 further back, even if the Government could sell lands for other 
 purposes than sheep-raising, the distance from the coast, and 
 the absence of roads, would prevent all profitaible cultivation. 
 The squatter system is, then, as before remarked, very unpop- 
 ular among the miners ; and in Victoria, (the colony of which 
 Melbourne is capital,) the squatters are looked on as a sort of 
 landed aristocracy, whose interests are directly opposed to the 
 best interests of the colony. What farming is done, is all on 
 the coast, whence produce can be readily conveyed by coasters 
 to Sydney and Melbourne. Fruit, of all kinds, which can be 
 grown all the year round at Moreton Bay, a place about three 
 hundred miles up the coast from Sydney, is, in Sydney, dearer 
 than I ever saw it elsewhere — pine-apples as expensive as they 
 used to be in London, peaches three to four shillings per 
 dozen, and common cooking apples at the same price. 
 
 It is about fifty hours, run (four hundred miles) from Syd- 
 ney to Melbourne. I arrived in the evening, and after a night 
 in a dirty hotel, where I was nearly eaten up by fleas and 
 mosquitoes, started next morning at six for Ballaarat diggings. 
 We got off at a full gallop — a pace that was kept up, with a 
 few exceptions, the whole way, doing the ninety miles in about 
 eleven hours. 
 
 The coaches being under the control of an American, or 
 rather having been started by one, are in the shape of Ameri- 
 can country " extras," long wagons, uncovered, with half-a- 
 dozen seats facing the same way. The horses seemed to be 
 all fine, fresh, well-groomed animals^ — as they must have been 
 to sustain the pace for the stages of ten miles. My fellow- 
 travellers were all miners, and had manners of quite colonial 
 familiarity. By the way, colonial is a term used to explain 
 anything extraordinary you may observe : e. g.^ I noticed a 
 great many bullocks' skeletons on the road, and enquired how 
 they came there ; " Colonial Milestones, Mate !" was the re- 
 ply — Mate being an endearing colonial appellation, constantly 
 given, and indicating a pleasing feeUng of equality, and ten- 
 dency to republican familiarity. 
 
Auftralia. • 25 
 
 The baclness of the roads, generally (though in some parts 
 they were as wide and well made as any in Europe,) conipelled 
 a change of horses every ten miles, whea everybody went to 
 take a drink. On these occasions it commonly happened that 
 some one man invited the whole company to " drink at his 
 expense," — no small matter, as each drink cost a shilling 
 sterling, and no one ever declined. After drinking, they 
 would all fill and light their short black cutties^ and smoke quite 
 contentedly till the next change, or watering of horses, when 
 the same scene was repeated. They were generally good-na- 
 tured fellows, and not at all surly, though veiy rough ; and I 
 gleaned from their conversation much information with respect 
 to the diggings, and. the state of society there. 
 
 Every little while we would pass a couple of "mounted 
 police," patrolling. Like the members of the corresponding 
 body at Sydney, they were generally large, fine looking men, 
 on noble horses. Their uniform was blue, and they were 
 armed with a carbme and dragoon sword. Being very well 
 paid, I understood that there were among them many men of 
 good family and education. This corps have done good ser- 
 vice, as there were formerly many robberies by the bush- 
 rangers (colonial highwaymen) — whereas, when I was there, 
 the road, though mostly through an unpeopled country, was 
 as safe, as in many thickly settled localities. The existence 
 of this force has also spared Australia the horrors of Lynch- 
 law ; and it prevents a great deal of bloodshed, by allowing 
 no weapons to be carried. I understood that robbery is im- 
 known at the diggmgs, though many diggers keep large 
 quantities of gold in their tents. Perhaps this is owing to 
 their being constantly on the alert, and well provided with 
 watch-dogs, of which every man has two or three. 
 
 The country between Melbourne and Ballaarat is generally 
 undulating, though there is one level prairie which the road 
 crosses for about ten miles. Most of the land is entirely un- 
 cultivated; much of it is not wooded, and much, again, aj^pears 
 as if the wood had been thinned out and the underbrush 
 cleared. There is but little pecuharity in the general appear- 
 ance of the vegetation, although the trees are all different 
 
 2 
 
26 Auftralia. 
 
 from those existing in other parts of the world. The " gum- 
 tree," " cherry-tree," and others the names of which I cannot 
 remember, differed very much, even in appearance, from any- 
 thmg I had before seen. A very singular thing is, that the 
 Melbourne " cherry-tree" does not bear any fruit, and does 
 not in the least resemble the European tree of the same name; 
 while what they call the " Australian cherry" in Sydney, is a 
 small fi'uit with the stone outside, which does not grow on a 
 cherry-tree, and only resembles its European synonym in 
 being red-coloured. The road to Ballaarat, was, as before 
 remarked, in some places very broad, level and finely macad- 
 amized ; in others, however, we went right through the bush, 
 taking the ground as we found it, and whenever it could be 
 managed, at full gallop. The country was dried up by the 
 hot weather, but I was told that as we were in the month of 
 April, winter weather might soon be expected, when the rains 
 would in a few weeks, make it look green again. 
 
 We passed a great many drays carrying goods and luggage 
 to Ballaarat. They were drawn by from eight to sixteen 
 oxen ; the driver having a long-lashed whip, which trailed on 
 the ground as he walked by his team, and with which he could 
 touch up any one of them without altering his position. 
 
 The expense of conveying goods to Ballaarat makes the 
 necessaries of life very dear, as nothing is produced in the 
 vicinity, and everything has to be brought from the coast on 
 these bullock-drays. 
 
 Numerous horsemen passed us on the road, most of them 
 going at full gallop, the horses of Australia not being broken 
 to trot. The occupation of most settlers requiring them to 
 pass the greater portion of their time in the saddle, an eques- 
 trian costume is the prevailing fashion outside the towns; and 
 knee-breeches with top-boots or ISTapoleons are worn by 
 almost every body. A stock-whip completes the equipment. 
 This is shaped Hke a dog- whip, with a lash six feet long, and 
 an inch and a half thick in the middle — no insig-nificant 
 weai^on, as a well given cut will go right through the hide 
 of a bullock, and make the blood spurt again. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AUSTRALIA 
 
 First View of Ballaarat— Description of the Place— Gold Digging— A Colonial Theatre- 
 Socialism at the Antipodes— GeeloDg— Melbourne— Paramatta— Itepublicanism in 
 Australia— Government and Education— Emigration and probable Future of 
 Australia. 
 
 We did not see any diggings, tiU, about four in the aTter- 
 noon, Ballaarat burst on the view. I say " burst on the view," 
 for you mount the hill which surrounds the place without 
 seeing any outlying tents or huts, and, all at once, on attain- 
 ing the summit, come in full view of a valley three or four 
 miles long, by two or three broad, filled throughout its whole 
 extent by white cotton tents — a sea of canvass ! Tlie whole 
 view so much exceeded, and differed from my expectations, 
 that I could not help feeling that there was in it a certain 
 sublimity — though I suppose few will understand the applica- 
 tion of the term to such a scene. 
 
 Tents are almost the only sort of habitation in the place, as 
 there is no soft timber of which, as of our pine, the settler can 
 in a few days build himself a temporary abode. 
 
 It is impossible, I believe, for one who has not seen a simi- 
 lar place, to realize the appearance of Ballaarat. The whole 
 valley has been, or is being dug, so that there is not a green 
 bush or blade of grass to be seen from one end of it to the 
 other. The tents are regularly laid out in streets, and just 
 wide enough apart to allow of a shaft being sunk between 
 them. 
 
 I went to the United States Hotel — one of the few v/ooden 
 houses in the places — and liaving left my carpet-bag, walked 
 out to see the gold-washing. I was not, however, fortunate 
 ill witnessing the discovery of any largo nuggets. The holes 
 
28 Auftralia. 
 
 are, some of them, from 150 to 200 feet deep. They are 
 always worked by several men who own shares, other parties 
 also, generally shopkeepers in the place, frequently having an 
 interest. Persons who wish to dig must mark out a claim, in 
 the possession of which they will be protected by the police. 
 To secure this protection, however, a gold-digger's license 
 must be obtained, which costs about £1, and does not require 
 renewal. The quantity of land that can be thus secured is 
 limited by the number of the party. If gold is discovered on 
 a squatter's land, he cannot refuse the digger the right of 
 mining, but many demand a certain monthly rent. 
 
 The mode of digging gold at Ballaarat is as follows : the 
 shaft is sunk until the workers arrive at a certain pebbly 
 marl which contains the gold. The shaft is generally four 
 feet square, and supported all the way down by a lining of 
 logs, squared and dovetailed into each other. On attaining 
 this depth, or before arriving at it, the shaft is frequently 
 flooded, and months are often spent in freeing it of water, 
 before the digging can- be prosecuted. The shaft once dug, 
 and not having more than a foot or two of water in it, the 
 auriferous marl is hoisted out by a hand-windlass, or by horse- 
 power, and puddled. Puddling is the first, rough washing, in 
 a large trough, and requires two men with shovels. In the 
 larger establishments, horse-power is applied to this also. 
 The next j^i'ocess, cradling^ is done by a single man. The 
 sand, &c., taken from the puddling trough, and now much 
 reduced in volume is transferred to a " cradle" — a sort of 
 three-storied tub on rockers. This instrument is kept in 
 motion by the left hand, and water poured on by the right. 
 The sand is thus washed away and the gold, on account of its 
 weight, remains in the cradle. The two lower stages of the 
 cradle, are for the finer grains of gold which are carried off 
 the first stage by the rush of the water, but bring up on the 
 second or third. The refuse of the puddling and cradling 
 processes is bought and worked over by the Chinese, of 
 whom there are several thousands in Ballaarat. They do not 
 however, confine themselves to working over refuse, but have 
 holes of their own — some of them very deep. The Chinese 
 
Auftralia. 29 
 
 in Australia are a low and abominably degraded set, and as 
 in California, very unpopular. An effort has been made, 
 since I left Australia, to prevent any increase of their num- 
 bers, by a prohibitory tax on Chinese immigration. The law, 
 however, has been evaded by landing them up the coast and 
 letting them make their way to the gold diggings overland. 
 They do not bring their women with them, and as soon as 
 they make a little money, return to China to enjoy it. 
 
 The description given above of gold-mining is only applica- 
 ble to what are called " dry diggings." There are also in 
 Australia, as in California, numerous Avet diggings, where the 
 bed of the stream is worked for the gold brought down by 
 its waters. The dry diggings are said to pay the best, but 
 are also the most uncertain. No rule can be followed in se- 
 lecting a claim, no rough test a2:)plied to ascertain its probable 
 richness. The shaft has to be sunk as fir as the auriferous 
 stratum, and strengthened at great expense and labour, and 
 weeks and months must pass in draining the water before the 
 digger can form even an approximate^estimate of the richness 
 of his hole. I saw one man who belonged to a party which 
 had been digging in various places for two years, without get- 
 ting £100 worth of gold ; but they were still persevering, and 
 felt sure of ultimate success. There may be two holes, side' 
 by side, out of one of which thousands of pounds worth of 
 gold may be dug, and out of the other, not one ounce. Not- 
 withstanding this well-known fact, no sooner is there a great 
 nugget, or much gold found in any one place, than every one 
 abandons his old claim, if an inferior one, and is off to the 
 new El Dorado. The population of these mining settlements 
 is, consequently very fluctuating ; and, a place which contains 
 several thousand inhabitants one week, may not have the same 
 number of hundreds the next. Ballaarat, when I was there, 
 was supposed to contain 60,000 inhabitants. I know not what 
 is the present population. 
 
 The diggers generally sell the gold to the shop-keepers at 
 low rates, who send it down to Melbourne once a week, by 
 the government gold escort of cavalry. The shopkeepers and 
 publicans made more money, I was told, than any other class 
 
30 Auftralla. 
 
 in the place. The bar-room of the hotel I stoj)ped at was full 
 all day long, and till two at night, with men and women 
 drinking; and when I got down stairs next morning about 
 seven, the room was again crowded with drinkers, and one 
 woman was lying drunk on the floor. All drinks cost one 
 shilling, except sherry cobblers, which were two and sixpence 
 on account of the ice used in making them, which came origi- 
 nally from America, and had to be brought up country on ox 
 drays, . 
 
 There are quite a number of old California gold diggers, at 
 Ballaarat. One or two of them told me that they liked their 
 old quarters much better, on account of the greater quantity 
 of game and other amusement there. In Australia there is no 
 game but kangaroos, and even of them there are but few near 
 the settlements. The gold-yield of Australia is, however, 
 allowed to be greater than that of California, in proportion to 
 the number of diggers. 
 
 In the evening I went to one of the two theatres in Bal- 
 laarat. Theatres seem an amusement of which the Australians 
 are very fond ; as they have several in Sydney, a very fine 
 large one at Melbourne, and at least one in every other place 
 I heard of. The performance at Ballaarat was sufficiently bad 
 to be amusing, none being more fully awake to the absurd 
 incapacity of the company and properties, than the audience 
 in the pit. These gentlemen and ladies kept up a rattling fire 
 of jokes at the players, and even proceeded to the more prac- 
 tical facetiousness of projecting certain missiles, to the discom- 
 fiture of the heroes of the buskin. This conduct several times 
 neces,sitated the interference of the police, the advent of whom 
 was a signal for the suspension of the piece, and for a scene 
 of the most terrific uproar, during which the ofiender made 
 his escape. 
 
 After the play, I returned to the hotel, where there was a 
 public dinner to a Gold Commissioner, or some other oflicial, 
 which did not end till three o'clock, and where every body 
 got so jolly that it was impossible to go to sleep on the floor 
 above. 
 
 Before retiring I engaged, and paid for, my place by coach 
 
Auibalia. 31 
 
 for the following morning, and settled my hotel bill which is 
 always paid in advance " in the Colonies." I paid for two 
 beds, and was booked as " Mr, Minturn and friend," in order 
 to have a room to myself. At about three the next morning, 
 just as I was falling into a doze, I was wakened by a man 
 undressing himself in my room, and making ready to occupy 
 the spare bed, I told him that I had. engaged both and paid 
 for them; but he said that he wanted a bed, and that if I 
 supposed I was in England, where a man could appropriate 
 what was wanted by the pubhc, I would jfind myself much 
 mistaken, I finally found it necessary to get up, when he 
 left the room. The next morning I found that my little ad- 
 venture had cost me £4, as the fellow who paid me the visit 
 in the night, was the porter charged to wake me in time for the 
 early coach, who had taken an easy revenge by not calling me. 
 
 I left Ballaarat by a different route at eight o'clock, and 
 glad enough I was to get out of it. The inhabitants are the 
 roughest set I have ever seen. The men generally wear the 
 hair and beard long, a red shirt, cord breeches, and long 
 boots. The honest women are commonly very neatly dressed ; 
 the others, of whom there was a large number, rigged out in 
 gorgeous satins, with silk bonnets, and all the latest Parisian 
 inodes. The two barkeepers at the "United States," had 
 their hands full all day long, and in the evening could hardly 
 manage to wait on the people — the crowd was so great. 
 These bar-keepers were both Americans, and got £10 a week 
 a piece, wages, besides perquisites, which, as they kept the 
 landlord always drunk, must have been considc/rable. 
 
 I left Ballaarat on the morning of the 15 th, and arrived at 
 Geelong, a town on the coast west of Melbourne, at three that 
 afternoon. On arriving, I found that the boat for Melbourne 
 had left half an hour before, and that I should have to remain 
 until the next day at the same hour, which brought me to 
 Melbourne an hour too late for the boat of the i6th, to 
 Sydney — a most annoying specimen of Colonial arrangements. 
 Geelong is a fine, stone-built town, of about 15,000 inhabi- 
 tants. It had formerly a great deal of business with the 
 miners, but they now get most things direct from Melbourne, 
 
32 ' Auftralia. 
 
 The hotel at Geelong is the best in the Colonies. The races 
 had just begun, and the place was crowded with jockeys, 
 betting-men, et id genus omne. The coflee-rooni was 
 crammed all the evening long, by men in top-boots, cut-a- 
 ways, white cravats, etc., making up their books, singing out 
 the odds in a loud voice, and talking horse. 
 
 I arrived the next day in Melbourne. In the evening I 
 went to the theatre, an iron building. The performance was 
 good, and the house crowded, as the theatres seem always to 
 be, in Australia. 
 
 Melbourne is now almost twice as large as Sydney, the 
 former having about 150,000 inhabitants; the latter, about 
 8 5,000. The city is laid out with broad streets, which are 
 generally built up with fine g'rey freestone houses. The shops 
 are much handsomer than in Sydney, immense plate-glass 
 windows, and other decorations being as much the fashion, as 
 on Broadway. 
 
 I called on the Bishop of Melbourne, to whom I had a 
 letter, but found him engaged. He has a fine palace, but his 
 cathedral is a poor affair. In Sydney, the Bishop, though 
 Metropohtan of Australia, lives in a small cottage, while his 
 cathedral will be, when finished, a very fine building. To be 
 sure, it has been in the course of erection for many years, and 
 is only finished as far as the clere-story ; but then, they wait 
 for aid from Government, instead of taking up private sub- 
 scriptions, which would, no doubt, soon complete it. 
 
 Melbourne is marked by much more business activity than 
 Sydney, and is, no doubt, destined to be the principal port in 
 Australia. Sydney, however, has great advantages in her 
 harbour ; that of Melbourne being exposed, and distant two 
 miles from the city, so that all goods must be lightered nine 
 miles up a winding river, or conveyed to town by railway. 
 The expense of the latter mode of conveyance may be esti- 
 mated from the fact, that the railroad, although only two 
 miles long, and over a level country, with no bridges or other 
 works to build, is said to have cost £280,000. The principal 
 expense was in the labour, which was hard to obtain at the 
 current rate of £ i a day, when the road was constructed. 
 
Auftralia. 
 
 SYDNEY AGAIN. 
 
 33 
 
 On my return to Sydney, I visited Paramatta, the old 
 capital of 'New South Wales. It is a small, very English 
 looking country town, with a large Government House in a 
 park, and several handsome rural churches. The latter are of 
 the universal freestone, but the Government House, and most 
 others in the place, are built of brick, which gives them a 
 very un-colonial air. The likeness to an English town is in- 
 creased by the quantity of English trees, which were planted 
 at the first founding of the place, but are, as elsewhere in this 
 climate, feeble, puny things. A cactus, however, or some 
 other tropical plant, growing by the wayside, undeceives you, 
 and modifies the /i07ne-n.ii' of the place, which constitutes, I 
 believe, the real attraction to the Sydney people, who arc 
 always making excursions to Paramatta. We returned from 
 Paramatta by railway, having gone thither in a steamboat. 
 The railway is entirely on the English plan, solidly and 
 expensively constructed, with a double track, stone bridges, 
 servants in livery, three classes of carriages, &g. We did 
 the distance back, 14 miles, in 42 minutes, stopjijig every 
 mile or two. 
 
 I also visited Botany Bay, which is about six miles' ride 
 from Sydney, across a low and sandy country, covered mth 
 scrub bushes, &c. The harbour is a large and fine one, but 
 not so good as Port Jackson, while the country about the 
 latter is infinitely superior. There is now at Botany, a hotel 
 to which parties resort on Sundays, and for a drive, from 
 Sydney. A menagerie forms one of the attractions of the 
 place, and contains, beside the standard lio)is, several kanga- 
 roos, and some emus, an Australian variety of the ostrich. 
 
 I was quite curious to find out whether there were any re- 
 publican sentiments in the colonies. So far as I could discover, 
 however, there were no such feelings, even at the mines. The 
 sentiments on this subject were emphatically English. They 
 knew when they were well off, and preferred to avail them- 
 selves of the protection of the mother country ; and while 
 
 o* 
 
34 Auftralia. 
 
 they blustered about the aristocratic feature in the new con- 
 stitution which confided to the governor the choice of two- 
 thirds of the upper house, no complaints were heard of the 
 gubernatorial office being non-elective, nor of the high salaries 
 which the colony has to pay to crown appointees. The elec- 
 tions for the lower houses were going on while I was in the 
 country, but excited very little interest. A very curious 
 proof of the aristocratic tendency of Australian opinion is 
 found in the fact that before my arrival and during my stay, 
 the subject of an Australian peerage was extensively and 
 favourably discussed by the newspapers of Sydney. 
 
 The colonies of New South Wales, Yictoria, Adelaide, and 
 Swan River, are all entirely independent, each having a gov- 
 ernor appointed by the crown, and a legislature chosen by its 
 own inhabitants. A curious proof of their independence was 
 furnished by the fact that sovereigns coined at Sydney, by a 
 royal mint situated at that place, did not pass as currency in 
 Melbourne when I was there, never having been adopted as 
 a legal tender by the colony of Yictoria, though they were 
 intrinsically rather more valuable than the English sovereign. 
 
 I went into the courts at Sydney. The judges wore the 
 gown and bag-wig, as also the barristers — a costume which 
 must be rather uncomfortable in this climate. The jury con- 
 sisted of four only — -a necessary provision in a country where 
 few have leisure. Either party, however, may demand a full 
 jury, but this is rarely done. 
 
 Education and religion are both, in Australia, provided for 
 by government. The schools are of two classes, " denomina- 
 tional" and " national," both of which are aided by govern- 
 ment. They are not, however, free, but at the denominational 
 schools a child is rarely refused, even if it cannot pay. The 
 teachers of the denominational schools are appointed by boards 
 chosen by the difierent sects. There is a regular university 
 at Sydney, which will be a fine institution. A building is 
 now being erected for it, out of town, in a style worthy of a 
 place among the colleges of Oxford. 
 
 Salaries are paid by government to the Episcopalian, Ro- 
 man Catholic and Presbyterian clergy; but of these the 
 
Auftralia. 35 
 
 Church of England is much the b^st provided for. There is, 
 however, no distinction in the legal standing of the various 
 relio:ious societies. The Roman Catholic cathedral will be a 
 fine structure, but the nave is not yet completed. The chancel 
 and transepts are however shut in by a wooden partition, and 
 thus made available for the performance of service. The cathe- 
 dral is surrounded by a collection of schools, nunneries, &c. 
 
 Sydney has two club-houses, both fine buildings. There 
 are several theatres, but none so fine as one of those at Mel- 
 bourne, which is as large as, and handsomer than, the Metro- 
 politan Theatre on Broadway. 
 
 The two Sydney newspapers are well written, well printed, 
 and remarkably good specimens of antipodean journalism. 
 They are the only rival papers I ever heard of that did not 
 abuse one another. 
 
 Emigration to Australia had, when I was there, been for 
 sometime very slack, and the want of labour was much felt. 
 Salaries of all kinds were enormously high, and servants hard 
 to get at any wages. While I was in Sydney I sent an um- 
 brella to a tailor's to have a small hole repaired. The tailor 
 sent it back unrepaired, with the message that while he was 
 making half a crown mending my umbrella he might be mak- 
 ing a guinea at something more profitable. 
 
 On account of the great expense of the passage to Austra- 
 lia, immigrants have usually been assisted by the colonial 
 governments, either gratuitously or else a note was taken for 
 the whole amount of the passage money or a part. The for- 
 mer of these systems has been so badly managed as to bring 
 out to the colonies the refuse male and female population of 
 the large cities — the most undesirable class possible. The fol- 
 lowing fact, which I had from the American consul, gives a 
 good idea of how this thing was managed. It seems that 
 some one left money, or some money was collected, to bring 
 to New South Wales a number of " destitute Irish orphans." 
 When the " orphans" arrived, the colonists, who had engaged 
 them all as servants, were equally surprised and disgusted at 
 finding them women of thirty or forty years, almost all en- 
 ceintes^ and the rakings and scrapings of the worst and most 
 deorraded class. 
 
36 Auitralia. 
 
 . The necessity of emigr^ion is made more urgent by the 
 character of the black race, on whose labom-s the settlers can- 
 not rely. They will work perhaps steadily for some time, and 
 then leave, without notice, to attend a palaver, or fight with a 
 hostile tribe. If they have no excuse of this kind, they will 
 allege, on their return, that they have been " taking a walk," 
 which means wandering over the country for five or six months. 
 They are a cheerful, harmless race, but all attempts to civi- 
 hze them, or permanently improve their condition, have failed. 
 Such has also been the fate of all missionary efiTorts among 
 them. They are, in fact, rapidly dying away, and disappear- 
 ing before the white race. The few that I saw were wretched 
 looking objects, begging in the streets of Sydney, but they, I 
 suppose, hke the Indians one sees at Saratoga, were not fair 
 specimens. The blacks, however, are not the only beggars in 
 Sydney. I saw some sturdy Irish mendicants, who begged 
 rather than take eight or ten shillings a day, which they con- 
 sidered too low for their services. 
 
 Australia, though in time it may become a place of great 
 importance, can never become a rival to America. It is too 
 far from the mercantile portions of the world for its produc- 
 tions to have a ready market, when in competition with what 
 can be produced equally well here. Secondly, access to the 
 interior is difficult, and must continue so, as there are no great 
 navigable rivers, and the mountain chains run in such a way 
 as to be a great obstacle to the construction of railways. 
 Thirdly, it is not by any means certain what may be the efiect 
 on the Enghsh race of a residence in so warm a climate for 
 several generations, but if we may judge of the ultimate re- 
 sult from what we can now see, it will tend to its deteriora- 
 tion. Fourthly, so long as the present system of land apportion- 
 ment continues, no considerable and permanent immigration 
 can ever take place. K^early all the present inhabitants oi 
 Australia are only there temporarily, and intend to return 
 home sooner or later ; and this will continue to be the case, 
 until inunigrants have facihties afforded them for purchasing 
 land to cultivate, and securing a homestead, however small, 
 which shall be their own. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 NORTH CHINA. 
 
 The Passage from Australia — Making the Chinese Coast — The Yang-tze-kiang — The For- 
 eign Settlement — Dress and Life of the Eewdent Europeans — Chinese Soldiers- 
 Natural Characteristics in Northern and Southern China — Native Town of Shanghae 
 — Streets — Pawnbrokers — Public Buildings— Temples, and Worship — Phonographic 
 Writing — State Visit of the Taootai — A Chinese Cafe — Eomish Mission — Executions 
 and Torture — Indifference to Pain shown by Orientals — Captain Marryatfs Story — 
 The " Battle of Shanghae." 
 
 We had a delightful passage of about sixty days from Syd- 
 ney to Shanghae. The sea w^as so smooth that we might have 
 come in safety in a small boat, and the light winds and fair 
 weather made om* long passage seem short by allowing us to 
 amuse ourselves on deck, by reading in the day time, studying 
 astronomy at niglit, and an occasional game of sJiovel-hooi'dj 
 the standard amusement of ennuyes on shij^board. Our only 
 excitements w^ere the occasional violent squalls prevalent m 
 that part of the ocean, which, as they give no warning, some- 
 times caught us with everythhig set and laid us right over on 
 our side, frequently carrying away something aloft, and always 
 occasioning a fearful disturbance in the steward's department. 
 We had also two adventures ; the losing of a boy overboard, 
 and seeing a whale, which remained for a quarter of an hour 
 wdthin a cable's length of the ship. Though both these inci- 
 dents were exciting, and the first saddening to us at the tune, 
 I feel that a description would be out of place. Any one can 
 realize to himself the unfortunate boy, struggling in the water, 
 unable to swim, impeded by his sea-boots and heavy clothing, 
 and finally sinking, in full view of the ship, not two minutes 
 before the arrival at the spot, of the boat desj^atched to his 
 rescue. The whale is still less difiicult to imagine. A black 
 slimy bank, covered with barnacles, visible for a few minutes, 
 
38 China. 
 
 and then sinking to appear soon in another direction, is all we 
 saw of the leviathan. 
 
 The 25th of June was foggy, and so thick that we dared 
 not run for land, although we saw indications of its proit- 
 imity in the quantities of cuttle-fish bones on the water, rock- 
 weed, and one yellow water-snake about four feet long. On 
 the 26th we got soundings in thirty-five fathoms, and as it 
 cleared up iu the morning, we stood in for land, which we 
 continued doing although the fog soon closed in again. About 
 ten o'clock, just as we had tacked, having given up the at- 
 tempt to make land, the fog rose just long enough to show 
 us Leuconia on the port beam, and " The Brothers," two 
 rocky islands, on the starboard quarter. We must have 
 passed dangerously near the last. We thus ascertained our 
 position for the first time in two days, and ran with confi- 
 dence for the Barren Islands, which we made at two o'clock. 
 Thence we steered for the Saddle-rocks, which are at the 
 mouth of the Shanghae river, and anchored within them 
 about eight in the evening. For the last two hours we had 
 a man in the chains, sounding with a hand-lead — a precau- 
 tion which is necessary in the Yang-tze-kiang, on account of 
 the great shallowness of the river, the numerous banks and 
 mud-flats, and the channel not being marked by any buoys 
 or landmarks. The next morning we found ourselves among 
 three or four other ships at anchor, the land nowhere visible, 
 the water of the colour of coffee and consistency of chocolate — 
 I mean both as prepared for diinking, which the river cer- 
 tainly is not. The weather was thick and unpromising ; but 
 as it cleared up early in the day, we made sail, and anchored 
 at Woosung, without adventure, at 4^ P. M. We had taken 
 a Chinese pilot before noon. He boarded us in a two- 
 masted native boat, of about ten tons, which held some 
 twenty-five men, who aU talked, screamed, and jabbered at 
 once, and at such a rate that we thought they were in dis- 
 tress. Once delivered of the pilot, however, their noise ceased, 
 and they relieved our ears and olfactories of their noisome 
 presence. The pilot laboured under the disadvantage of not 
 understanding English ; his whole attainments consisting in a 
 
North China. 39 
 
 limited knowledge of the " pigeon-English," the lingua franca 
 in which foreigners converse with Chinese shop-keepers and 
 servants. This " pigeon-English" consists of English words, 
 with a few Chinese intermixed. The idiom is Chinese, the 
 nouns having no inflection, the verbs no conjugation. The 
 first question of our captain may serve as a good specimen — ■ 
 " How many piecy Mellikan ship-poo have got top-side that 
 river?" by which he meant, "How many American ships are 
 there up the river ?" This pigeon-EngUsh is a real language, 
 and it takes a stranger a month or more before he can speak 
 it with fluency. Grammatical English is perfectly unintelligi- 
 ble to the Chinese. They learn this peculiar dialect from 
 native teachers, who make a living by giving instruction to 
 those wishing to enter the establishments of Europeans, or 
 who expect to have business with them as shopkeepers. 
 
 The banks of the Yang-tze-kiang are low and level, with 
 no landmarks, and piloting is rather difiicult. The fellow we 
 had, however, did very well until we reached the mouth of 
 the Wang-poo river, at the hamlet of Woosung, where we 
 found many foreign ships at anchor. As we turned to go up 
 the Wang-poo, the pilot so mismanaged things as nearly to 
 run us ashore, and then, getting frightened, he jumped into a 
 native boat which was passing under our stern, and we saw 
 no more of him. 
 
 We anchored at Woosung, and next morning, leaving the 
 ship in the care of a European pilot, ascended the Wang-poo, 
 in a pilot boat, to Shanghae — twelve miles. The Wang-poo 
 is, in most parts, more than a mile broad, and is navigable for 
 the largest ships. We passed several very large junks, some 
 propelled by sail alone, and some by oars as well. I was sur- 
 prised by seeing how fast they sailed, and how very manage- 
 able was their rig. 
 
 At a turn of the river, we came in sight of the foreign 
 settlement, extending for a mile and a half, or more, on the 
 left bank of the river ; and a half-mile above it the Chinese 
 city now came into view, with the countless fleet of junks 
 which always lie in the river. Lower down were twenty or 
 thirty European vessels. The houses of the European settle- 
 
40 China. 
 
 ment are always of large size, built commonly of stone, covered 
 with stucco ; and as they are not crowded together, but each 
 residence is in a spacious conipou7id^ or square, which includes 
 the stores and a large garden, the whole effect is very good. 
 Before many of the hongs^ as the residences of foreigners are 
 termed, rose tall flag-staffs, bearing the flag of the power of 
 which the proprietor of the hong was Consul. The first 
 buildings which we passed were the American Episcopal Mis- 
 sion, a large white building, with a gothic chapel in its com- 
 pound. This mission, and those of other societies, are separated 
 by a creek from the rest of the settlement. The next house was 
 her Majesty's consulate, which looked quite palatial, with its 
 long row of great columns, and the fine gardens which surround 
 it. Then came the establishments of the important firm of Jar- 
 dine, Matheson & Co., (perhaps the largest commercial house in 
 the East,) and those of other English business firms, and last, 
 the two large buildings belonging to the great American house 
 of Russell & Co. In the midst was the Chinese Custom 
 House, a regular native wooden building, with two flag-staffs, 
 from which floated pennants of the Imperial yellow. Behind 
 this Ime of hongs, which front on the himd^ as the quay is 
 called, are the residences of the other merchants, all on the 
 same magnificent scale. 
 
 We landed, and in accordance with the hospitable eastern 
 custom, which welcomes any stranger to take up his residence, 
 without invitation, at the house of any resident with whom he 
 may be, however slightly, acquainted, proceeded at once to the 
 house of B. N". & Co., to whom our ship was consigned. 
 
 On the way to the house we met several Europeans, in 
 sedan chairs, each carried by two Chinamen. The costume of 
 the foreigners struck me as delightfully cool and sensible. 
 White canvass shoes, white cotton trowsers and jacket, no 
 waistcoat, and a sola tox^ee^ forms the universal dress. The 
 sola topee is a helmet, or broad-brimmed hat, made of pith, 
 half-an-inch thick. It does not fit to the head, but rests on a 
 frame work which does. It thus allows a constant ciixulation 
 of air, and the pith is at once so thick and so light, as to pre- 
 vent the ill-effects of the sun's rays, and not to inconvenience 
 
North China. 41 
 
 the wearer by its weight. This same dress is worn, even to 
 full dress dinners — a sensible custom, contrasting strikingly 
 with the regulations of society in India, which compel one to 
 put on a full black dress suit when going out for the evening. 
 
 On landing in China, every stranger at once provides him- 
 self with a Chinese servant, (" boy " as he is called,) who acts 
 as valet, waits on him at table, and accompanies him wher- 
 ever he may go out to dine. Should he not do this, he will 
 find himself totally unserved, as each foreigner has one boy, 
 and no one of them wiU wait on anybody but his master. 
 
 I spent about two weeks in the foreign settlement, and the 
 description of one day will do for almost any other. I was 
 called by my servant, about 8^ o'clock, who put out clean 
 clothes and got my bath ready in one of those large porcelam 
 bathing tubs that we sometimes see in this country. Conve- 
 niencies for fuU ablutions are always attached to every room 
 in the East. At half-past nine we had breakfast, which most 
 of the company made every day of rice, fish and eggs, mixed 
 into one mess. Breakfast commonly lasted an hour, and the 
 gentlemen then went into the ofiice to business. I should 
 have mentioned before, that all the clerks and subordinates of 
 these establishments, live in the same houses with their prin- 
 cipals, and all take their meals together. At half-past two, 
 we had tiffin^ or lunch, which would be called a dinner in this 
 country, and at which large quantities of "East India Pale 
 Ale," the favourite beverage of the Orient, are commonly 
 consumed. At five, we dressed in flannel, and went out for a 
 drive on the race course, the only road which is passable for 
 carriages ; this part of China being entirely cut up by canals, 
 by means of which, or on men's shoulders, all goods are trans- 
 ported. The drive generally lasted an hour and a half, and 
 on our return, we dressed again for dinner, which was on tlie 
 table by eight. While on the subject of dressing, I should 
 have mentioned, that ladies in the east generally wear low 
 necked dresses all day long, which must, I should think, con 
 duce much to their comfort. 
 
 Dinners, in the East, are always on a great scale. It is the 
 event of the day — the consummation, of which the tifiin is the 
 
42 
 
 China, 
 
 bright foreshadowing. Silver services always deck the board, 
 abundant and numerous courses prolong the entertainment, 
 wine and beer stimulate and aid digestion, while the swinging 
 punkah dissipates the otherwise oppressive heat. There is 
 always a chair and a cover for any friend who may choose to 
 drop in — to provide for which contingency, the eatables are 
 on a liberal scale, which would make an American housewife 
 shudder. The entire care of the household is in the hands of the 
 Chinese servants, who submit to no interference, and make no 
 exceptions to the daily routine. The consequence is, that I have 
 sometimes sat down alone to a dinner which would have been 
 amj^le for a dozen. This is, perhaps, an appropriate place for 
 describing the punkah, that instrument which is so important 
 a part of the comforts of an eastern climate. It consists of a 
 square frame, two-thirds as long as the room it is hung in, 
 and usually about four feet wide, suspended by cords from the 
 ceiling, so that its lower edge, from which dejDends a fringe, is 
 about seven feet from the floor. This instrument is kept con- 
 stantly swinging, by a rope attached to one side of it, and 
 passing out to the verandah, where it is pulled by a servant. 
 It operates as a gigantic fan, and is a delightful alleviation to 
 the intense heat of the climate. In China, punkahs are only 
 used in the dining-rooms, and over the desks of some mer- 
 chants ; but in India, every room has one, and they are pulled 
 all night long in the bed-rooms, by relays of punkah-walas. 
 
 During my stay at Shanghae, I made several visits to the 
 native town. It is situated on the banks of the river, about 
 half a mile above the extremity of the foreign settlement. 
 The city is surrounded by massive stone walls, the gateways 
 being strong towers, defended by outworks. At each gate- 
 way was a detachment of Chinese soldiers, dirty ragamuffins, 
 whose uniform consisted of a blue cotton shirt, with the Chi- 
 nese word for " soldier " embroidered on the breast and back. 
 They were mostly armed with long and awkward matchlocks, 
 and seemed to pass their time in smoking opium and gambling. 
 
 All the cities in the north of China are accessible to foreign- 
 ers, who are seldom annoyed by the Chinese. The country, 
 too, is entirely open, and any one can penetrate as far as he 
 
North China. 43 
 
 pleases. In this, as in other respects, the Northern Chinese 
 present a remarkable contrast to the men of Canton and the 
 south. These latter are a taller and finer race, but marked 
 by an mtense hatred of the "Fan-qui" (foreign devil). They 
 will not allow strangers to go into the country even as far as 
 they are permitted by treaty, viz : a day's journey, or to 
 penetrate into any of their towns. At the north, however, 
 the people are a far happier, pleasanter race, detesting the 
 Canton men, and showing rather a liking for foreigners. As 
 before remarked, occidentals can penetrate into the interior 
 as far as they choose, the only risk being that of offending 
 some mandarin, any of whom possesses, by treaty, the power of 
 dispatching all foreign travellers to the sea-coast, where a fine 
 of $400 is imposed. 
 
 One Chinese city, as I have been assured by men who had 
 seen many, is precisely like every other. How this may be I 
 do not know, as I have been in the interior of one only ; but 
 if they are all like Shanghae, they must be the most uninter- 
 esting cities in the world, as soon as the novelty of their com- 
 mon peculiarities has worn ofi*. 
 
 Within the walls of Shanghae there is a space left vacant 
 between the town and the ramparts, that the inhabitants may 
 not be in the immediate vicinity of the belligerents in case of 
 an attack. The town itself consists of low two-story houses, 
 with stone partition walls and wooden fronts. They are 
 mostly occupied as shops, in which case the lower story is 
 entirely open. When the house is used as a dwelling exclu- 
 sively, it is generally situated some distance back from the 
 street, and the view cut ofi:' by a wall which entirely se^^arates 
 it from the public thoroughfare. The streets are very narrow, 
 and no wheeled conveyances are ever used. Ther^ are no 
 public buildmgs worth mentioning. The great court of jus- 
 tice is merely an open shed at one end of a large court-yard ; 
 and the principal houses of the town, as regards height and 
 size, are certainly the pawnbrokers' shops. Pawnbroking is, 
 m China, a most important business. All Chinese dress well, 
 most of them wearing numerous silk robes and furs in the cold 
 weather. Now as the severe cold only lasts for three months 
 
44 China. 
 
 of the year, they deposit their magnificent habiliments at the 
 pawnbrokers' for safe keeping dming the other nine. Beside 
 this use these establishments also answer the same pm-pose as 
 the like establishments elsewhere. 
 
 The temples in Shanghae are not very good of their kind. 
 The form is the same as that of others I have seen. A high 
 wall encloses a court within which, at the further extremity, 
 is the statue or painting of the threefold Boodh. In the cen- 
 tre of the court is a bronze urn where scraps of paper and 
 sticks of punk burn in honour of the deity. The idol is also 
 protected by a roof which completely covers the further third 
 of the enclosure. The room thus formed is entkely open 
 towards the court and is usually gaily decorated. Around 
 the wall are frequently arranged the statues of minor gods, in 
 whose honour the joss-stick (punk) defiles the air with its 
 foetid smoke. The largest temple in Shanghae is connected 
 in some way with the government, and the mandarins go 
 there every week to worship. In it the statue of Boodh is 
 about eighteen feet high, the smaller effigies which surround 
 it being twelve feet in height. I suppose it is generally known, 
 by this time, that educated Chinese have no religion, and the 
 lower classes just as much as they find convenient. So far as 
 I could judge, no worship is ever ofifered by the laity — the 
 whole form consisting in the chaunting of certain Sanscrit 
 services by the monks. A pious layman propitiates the gods 
 by the simple and compendious process of lighting a few sticks 
 of punk in their honour. The fact of the Boodhist services 
 being in Sanscrit is a remarkable testimony to the Indian 
 origin of that religion. This fact was long overlooked, the 
 Chinese priests being themselves ignorant that the sounds 
 w^hich they sung, and which were represented by Chinese 
 characters, had any meaning in any language. This plan of 
 representing foreign sounds by Chinese characters has been 
 long practised by the Roman Cathohc missionaries, who de- 
 note in this. way, in their Chinese service-books, the Latin 
 w^ords of the Mass. I have heard a Chinese congregation in 
 the Romish cathedral at Shanghae, singing, "Ola pelo nobi!" 
 to a Gregorian tune, with as much earnestness as if their Ian- 
 
North China." 45 
 
 guage permitted them to represent or pronounce the true 
 Latin sounds of " Ora irt^o nobis l'^'' 
 
 One of the most mterestiug sights in Shangliae is the tea- 
 garden. This is an open space in the middle of the city, ar- 
 ranged on Chinese principles of landscape gardening. There 
 are ponds of green slime, brooks of standing water, artificial 
 rocks which look like nothing in nature, and bridges in the 
 shape of the celebrated structure which we have all admired 
 on the loilloio-icare plates. In this garden are numerous tea- 
 houses whither the Chinese resort in the evening to partake 
 of their favourite beverage. The buildings are one or two 
 stories high and open all round. They usually can accommo- 
 date from fifty to two hundred persons, seated two by two at 
 small tables, as in a European cafe, No edibles are furnished 
 at these establishments, but the heated wines and spirits of 
 which the Chinese are so fond may be obtained, and it is 
 almost universal for hahitues to smoke as they drink and con- 
 verse with their opposite neighbours in the soft-flowing accents 
 of their native land. To a stranger these places seem anything 
 but a deliojhtful resort. All of one's senses are assailed and 
 tortured at once. The breezes which fan the revellers having 
 come first across the town, and having been freshened by the 
 varied odours of the ponds before mentioned, are far from 
 bahny ; the smoke of the Chinese tobacco is positively stink- 
 ing; and the accents of the vernacular, now guttural as Arabic, 
 now nasal as Yankee, and all screamed in those "tones as 
 trumpet loud" which I have only elsewhere heard in the Pa- 
 risian bourse^ and certain New York parties, make the visitor 
 indescribably nervous. When you add to this that many of 
 those present, for greater ease, remove all garments but their 
 very short trowsers, that the Chinese have a constitutional 
 aversion to water as a means of ablution, and that the habit 
 of eructation is the recognized exhibition of gastronomic grat- 
 ification among the most pohshed oriental society, the picture 
 of this Celestial symposium is complete. 
 
 Shanghae is the head quarters of the Romish missions in 
 China. Their establishment is near the river's bank above the 
 Chinese city. They have a large and massive cathedral in the 
 
46 China. 
 
 Italian style, and several other buildings, used as habitatioi^s 
 for the priests and as school houses. The whole is under the 
 protection of the French consul, and the imperial tricolour 
 floats from a flag staff in the compound. I visited this mis- 
 sion one Sunday afternoon, arriving during the singing of the 
 " Litany to the Virgin," and was much pleased with the ear- 
 nestness with which a numerous congregation of Chinese 
 chaunted the responses to a mediseval tune. I sujopose, after 
 all, they understood as little of what they were saying as the 
 Boodhist priests do of their Sanscrit liturgy. The priests and 
 acolytes officiating at the altar wore a peculiar and very gay 
 head-dress which I took to be one of those extraordinary 
 properties (to use a theatrical term) which the Romish church 
 occasionally permits, to secure the attention of the wavering 
 faithful and attract them to her services by the meretricious 
 fascination of scenic display. 
 
 After the service was concluded, I was invited to join the 
 resident missionaries at their afternoon repast. There were 
 about ten at table, all Frenchmen, but dressed in Chinese cos- 
 tume, and wearing the greater part of their heads shaven, 
 with the long cue behind. The collation consisted of rice, 
 fruits, nuts, and wine; and I found my entertainers very 
 pleasant and intelligent men. Only one of the number spoke 
 English, the conversation being chiefly in French. Their cus- 
 tom is to make this mission their head-quarters, and from this 
 point begin their excursions into the country, where they 
 often remain for years, returning again to the sea-coast when 
 they have excited the suspicions of the authorities, or are ex- 
 hausted by long continued labours, and the want of congenial 
 society. The Romish missionaries have, it is well known, 
 large numbers of Christian disciples in the empire; but I 
 learned from these fathers that they no longer endeavour to 
 make new converts, finding their time fully occupied in taking 
 care of those already under their guidance. These gentlemen 
 had all known M. Hue, the celebrated author of a work on 
 China, and a book of travels in Thibet. They avowed, how- 
 ever, that they had not entire confidence in his narrative ; 
 
North China. 47 
 
 and the light, that in his writings, he had frequently given way 
 to the temptation of telling travellers'' tales. 
 
 During my stay at Shanghae, I witnessed the state visit 
 of the Taootai (collector), the principal Chinese magistrate of 
 the district, to Mr. Cunningham, the Consul for Sweden. 
 The cortege was composed of about 250 civil and military 
 attendants, the whole being preceded by gongs and discor- 
 dant musical instruments. The great man himself, and one or 
 two others, were mounted on wretched Uttle ponies, but all his 
 followers were on foot. The soldiers had no uniformity in 
 their equipment, some being armed vrith lances, some with 
 swords, and a few with even more extraordinary weapons. 
 The most remarkable part of the company were some execu- 
 tioners, with whips, swords, and other instruments of punish- 
 ment and torture, to be used summarily on all who should not 
 treat their master with proper respect. Many of the soldiers 
 had two swords in one scabbard, which were intended to be 
 used in combat, one in each hand. 
 
 I saw no executions in China, but they are very frequent, 
 and occasionally very cruel. About a year before I arrived in 
 the country, the town of Shanghae had been occupied by 
 some rebels, and held for a considerable time against the Im- 
 perial forces. When the place was taken, about five per cent. 
 of the captives were reserved to be tortured, and all the 
 remainder were executed in a peculiarly Chinese style. Their 
 tails were tied to a bamboo supported above the head, and 
 the neck was then neatly cut through by one stroke of a 
 sword, the body falling to the ground, and the head remain- 
 ing suspended in a convenient position for subsequent collec- 
 tion. Many thousands of persons were thus disposed of, and 
 their heads packed in baskets, to be exhibited in public situa- 
 tions. I saw two or three over the gates of the city. The 
 Chinese, like other Oriental nations, seem to show great in- 
 difference to pain, and even death ; whether inflicted by or 
 upon themselves. Suicides are common, from the slightest 
 motives ; and the legal punishments are of frightful severity. 
 Another proof of this, to us, inexplicable peculiarity, is the 
 well known fact that vicarious punishment is recognized by 
 
48 China. 
 
 the Chinese law, and that substitutes may be hired to undergo 
 every legal penalty, even death itself. An additional fact, 
 corroborating this ^dew, is, that great pirates and robbers 
 have been frequently known to surrender themselves for trial, 
 when a large reward had been offered for their apprehension ; 
 in order that their families might be rendered comfortable for 
 life, by the price of their blood. This singular obtuseness to 
 bodily suffering is found, more or less, among all Orientals. 
 The most fearful tortures will rarely extract an avowal of 
 guilt, or the betrayal of a confederate. Captain Marryatt 
 tells a story of a Malay, whom he caught, when on service in 
 the Eastern seas. The Captain was nearly sure that his cap- 
 tive possessed certain information which he wished to obtain, 
 and finding all bribery and gentle means unavailing to make 
 him speak, finally threatened him with death, and ordered a 
 file of marines to be got ready for the purpose. The man was 
 not in the least disturbed, but requested leave to finish a segar 
 which he was smoking ; and permission being given, he sat 
 down in a port for the purpose. In a few minutes, however, 
 he threw his segar away, though but half consumed, complain- 
 ing that it did not draw well, and at once began to make 
 preparations for his own death, by binding up his long hair in 
 a knot, on the top of his head, and unwrapping the c^Ao^ee, a 
 long cloth worn about the loins. Folding his dhotee^ and lay- 
 ing it on the deck to catch his blood, he knelt down, and 
 waited with perfect unconcern for the fatal stroke. Captain 
 Marryatt, findmg that even this means was ineffectual in over- 
 coming the obstinacy of his prisoner, was unwilling to take 
 life unnecessarily, and had him sent ashore, after giving him 
 some slight presents, in admiration of his plucTc. 
 
 It was in the course of the siege of Shanghae, to which I 
 have alluded above, that the celebrated attack by about two 
 hundred English and Americans on several thousand Chinese, 
 occurred. The Imperial troops had taken up such a position, 
 that the cannon-bails fired by them and the rebels in the town, 
 constantly fell among the houses of the foreign settlement. 
 As this was sufficiently disagreeable and dangerous, notice was 
 given to the Imperial commander, that he had better change 
 
North China. 45 
 
 his point of attack. He, however, persisted in remaining 
 where he was, and the above number of Anglo-Saxons started 
 one morning, with several small cannon, and a few marines 
 and sailors from the ships, to dislodge him, and the force 
 under his command. They succeeded in effecting their pur- 
 pose, though at the cost of several lives, and numerous 
 wounds. On taking possession of the Chinese position, it was 
 found that there was an immense piece of artillery, masked, 
 and crammed to the muzzle with all sorts of projectiles, which 
 completely commanded the road up which the American de- 
 tachment had marched to the attack. Had the Chinese been 
 able to discharge this cannon, they would probably have 
 killed or wounded most of the Americans who were concerned 
 in this escapade. 
 
 3 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A TRIP INLAND. 
 
 Leave Shanghae for a Trip up the Canals — Our Boat — Swimming — Banks of the Canal — 
 Military Stations — Temples — Graves — Villages— Dress of Chinese — Town of Kwnn- 
 san — Grain Junks — Comparison of Chinese and American Governments — This part 
 of China once Suhmerged — Cormorants — Approach to Soo-Chow — The City — "For- 
 eign Devils" — Grand Canal — Heat — Hills near Soo-Chow — View of Ty-hao — Manda- 
 rin's Tomb — Tyhao— Chinese Eiver Thieves — Their Honesty. 
 
 Having spent about two weeks, as above described, in the 
 foreign settlement of Shanghae, I became anxious to see a 
 little more of the country, than I had had the opportunity of 
 observing in the walks and sails which we occasionally took 
 in the afternoon. It fortunately happened that an English 
 gentleman, whose acquaintance I had formed in Shanghae 
 was about to go up the canals, for a ten-day excursion in his 
 boat, and he kindly invited me to bear him company. 
 
 We started on the afternoon of the eleventh of July, and 
 proceeded up the canal until about ten o'clock, when we an- 
 chored, and all hands turned in except one man, left awake to 
 guard against robbers. Our boat was a regular Chinese junk- 
 shaped craft, square in the bow and stern. Her mast could 
 be lowered when not required, and she sailed remarkably well 
 before the wind, under her one sail of mats ; but on the wind, 
 her flat bottom prevented her from doing much. When there 
 was no wind, we put two or three men ashore, and let them 
 tow us by a rope made fast to the mast head. The man who 
 remained on board assisted by sculling with one of those long, 
 heavy, permanent sculls, with which all Chinese canal boats 
 are furnished, and which act at once to propel aud to steer the 
 vessel. Our boat's crew consisted of three or four sailors and 
 a mate, who also acted as cook and servant. The length of 
 the boat was about twenty-five feet. Of this, about twelve 
 
A Trip Inland. ^i 
 
 feet in the waist was occuj^ied by the cabin, which was what 
 is termed half-poop, with windows in the sides. Low lockers 
 which held wine, beer, &c., ran on each side the whole length 
 of the apartment, and served as settees by day and couches 
 by night. The remaining space was occupied by the table. 
 There was, altogether, much more room than one had a right 
 to expect on a boat of the size, and we had in her a most 
 agreeable home during the trip. Of course we had to take 
 wine, beer, coifee, bacon, butter, sugar, and such delicacies 
 with us ; but we found, wherever we went, an ample supply 
 of eggs, fowls, fish, and a few other substantial. 
 
 On waking on the morning of the second day, we found 
 ourselves, in a flat, but very pretty country, with numerous 
 large trees, and a village on the side of the canal a little way 
 ahead. We at once jumped into the canal, which was tolera- 
 bly clean, and swam on ahead of the boat, which had been 
 towing slowly since day broke. As we swam past the village 
 before mentioned, the inhabitants espied us, and rushed down 
 in a crowd to the water's edge. They were surprised by 
 three things— Jirst, by the sight of our white, and in their 
 eyes, leprous-looking skins, since outside barbarians rarely go 
 uj) this canal, and still more rarely expose their heads as we 
 were doing, to the full force of the sun's rays ; Becondly^ by 
 the fact of our swimming at all, as the inland Chinese are 
 rarely adepts in the natatory art ; Thirdly^ and this would be 
 the most marvellous feature of the case in a Chinaman's eyes, 
 that we should voluntarily make the exertion to swim, when 
 we could go so much more easily, in our boat. Having 
 astonished the innocent natives, by swimming on our backs, 
 treading water, turning summersaults, and other equally un- 
 dignified performances, we terminated the exhibition with the 
 fearful hurrah^ which is so pecuhar a characteristic of the for- 
 eign white-skinned and red-haired devil, and soon afterwards 
 reentered our boat for breakfast. 
 
 The banks of the canals in China, are mostly so high, that, 
 from a boat like ours, the fields on each side are quite invisi- 
 ble^ — the view from our cabin windows being generally re- 
 markably similar to that which regales the eyes Of railway 
 
52 China. 
 
 travellers, when passing through deep cuttings. We used, 
 however, for some hours each day, to go ashore, and walk on 
 the towing path, from which we could see the canal and coun- 
 try round. The features of the country during the first day 
 were remarkably tame, but the large number of boats on the 
 canal, and foot passengers on the tow-path, relieved the 
 monotony. The levee is raised on each side several feet above 
 the general level of the land, and is commonly about two 
 hundred feet broad. It is not cultivated, but covered with 
 graves. Beyond were cultivated fields, generally of rice, and 
 carefully irrigated by water raised from the canal, and con- 
 ducted in channels, continually subdividing to every inch of 
 soil that required watering. Every quarter of a mile at least, 
 the levee was interrupted to give passage to the waters of a 
 tributary canal ; some large and intended for traffic, some 
 small and used only for irrigating purposes. At such points 
 the tow-path is continued by a stone bridge, passing over the 
 subordinate canal ; but these bridges, like most other public 
 works which I saw in China, seemed to be generally in bad 
 repair. "We also passed frequently, military stations — wooden 
 houses about thirty feet square, and generally out of order 
 and deserted, either from the troops having been called up 
 country to oppose the rebels, or from the military mandarin's 
 finding it profitable to draw the money for their support from 
 the imperial treasury, without going to the expense of keeping 
 them up. Joss-houses, as foreigners ca,ll the Boodhist temples, 
 were also of frequent occurrence on the levees, but no care 
 seemed to be taken of them, and, in many instances, they 
 were used either as workshops, or as storehouses for grain or 
 agricultural implements. Their shajoe and internal arrange- 
 ments were the same as I have before described, when speak- 
 ing of similar buildings in Shanghae. 
 
 The graves which I have before said cover the levees, seem 
 here to merit a description. When a Chinese dies, his body, 
 protected from ofiensive decomposition by quick-lime and 
 similar substances, is encased in numerous coffins, the outer 
 one being as magnificent a specimen of the joiner's art as the 
 relatives can afibrd. Thus encased, the coi-pse is either kept 
 
A Trip Inland. j'g 
 
 m the house, or deposited m the open air with a sUght arched 
 covering of bamboo and mats. At the end of a year, if the 
 family can bear the expense, the coffin is covered in with 
 stone or stuccoed brick work, or is sometimes buried in the 
 earth, a headstone being erected to mark the spot. The 
 headstone is generally of the shape usual in our cemeteries, 
 or else is a mere square pillar of unhewn granite, with the 
 name roughly carved upon it. In many mstances, however, 
 the people are too poor to erect a tomb, however simple, and 
 the coffin with its contents is then allowed to go to decay, the 
 body bemg generally devoured by rats. When this consum- 
 mation is complete, the dutiful survivors collect whatever 
 bones and other remnants of mortality can be discovered, and 
 enclosing them in a small earthen vessel, protect them by 
 some permanent covering. These cinerary urns are known 
 among foreigners by the irreverent name of "potted ancestors." 
 The Chinese, like the Hindoos, attach an exaggerated import- 
 ance to funeral honours, though they do not, like the latter, 
 believe them to have any bearing on their future happiness. 
 M. Hue says, what I understood to be strictly true, that a Chi- 
 naman when sick unto death, will often deny himself the 
 expensive luxuries of a physician and medicines, preferring to 
 reserve the money to buy a coffin, and pay for the post-mortem 
 indulgence of a stone tomb. 
 
 It often struck me as singular, that so thoroughly utilitarian 
 a people as the Flowery Nation, who are so loath to allow the 
 least waste of any thing that can be turned to account, and 
 tax so unremittingly the productive energies of every inch ol 
 soil, should be willing to give up so much good ground to the 
 dead who are of no use to any one ; but I suppose that there 
 are none of us poor mortals without our little inconsistencies, 
 and that a contempt for this mortal coil, such as was for 
 many years witnessed in the condition of Washington's last 
 resting place, can only come with a very high degree of 
 civilization. 
 
 Every mile or so, along the line of the canal, we passed villages 
 or hamlets, either commercial or agricultural. In the former case, 
 the hoiLses were built in a long row on each bank ; in the latter. 
 
54 China. 
 
 they were commonly situated a little way back in the country, 
 and frequently sheltered and adorned by fine large trees. The 
 Chinese peasant is generally a free-holder, and allows the 
 shades of no tree to interfere with the patch of ground which 
 has come down to him, diminished in size by continued testa, 
 mentary subdivision. For this same reason the cultivators 
 live in villages, choosing for their location, a comparatively 
 unproductive spot, and being thus enabled doubly to econo- 
 mize ground, and moreover to enjoy the shade of trees. On 
 the banks of the canal which is nearest a village, there are 
 always several irrigating machines, which raise the water to the 
 level of the embankment, from which it flows in channels to 
 every part of the land owned by the villagers. These machines 
 consist of an endless chain, travelling round a wheel below the 
 level of the water in the canal, and moved by a light windlass 
 on the bank, being the same in principal as the Yankee " chain 
 pump." The ascending part of the chain, passes through 
 a water-tight tube, up which it carries the water, forced into 
 the tube and retamed there by projections from the chain like 
 the hox of a steam-piston. The windlass is generally near the 
 ground, and moved by the feet like a treadmill. Each machine 
 requires one or tw^o men or women to work it, and a slight 
 shed protects the workmen from the sun. The country people 
 seem a hard-working, economical, but light-hearted and cheer- 
 ful people. Their houses, in the villages, however small, are 
 generally of stone and thatched, and appear comfortable, while 
 the universal order and neatness which everywhere meet the 
 eye, show that however contracted may be their means, there 
 is not among them the same wretchedness as there is among 
 the ryuts of India, or the lowest classes in Europe. The dress 
 of those natives, whom we saw working in the fields, consisted 
 of a very broad but short species of trowsers for both sexes, 
 the upper part of the body being covered by a jacket reaching 
 to the middle, but rather longer in the case of women. This 
 is the dress of the lower classes throughout China, in whatever 
 occupation engaged. The material is generally coarse cotton, 
 frequently dyed black. The head is protected during labour- 
 ing hours in the open fields, by a hat of basket-work, resting 
 
A Trip Inland, 5^ 
 
 on the head, but not fitting to it, and retained in its position 
 by strings. The better classes, in the cities, wear the same 
 trowsers, but of silk, and gathered below into a stocking made 
 of cotton cloth ; their coats are long, reaching below the knee, 
 and are of some fine material. Women wear nearly the same 
 dress as the men in both cases. Both sexes frequently remove 
 the ahirt or coat when in the shade, retaining only the short 
 trowsers, but in this case, the women always cover the breasts 
 by a short, red boddice, about six inches broad, fastened be- 
 hind the shoulders. I have often seen girls of ten or twelve 
 with no other covering of any sort, than this narrow waist. 
 The head is generally left uncovered in the case of both sexes, 
 except when on a journey, or during long continued exposure 
 to the sun's rays. 
 
 About ten o'clock in the morning, we arrived at Kwun-san, 
 a to^vn of several hundred thousand inhabitants, defended by 
 stone walls about thirty feet high, and a broad ditch formed 
 by the waters of the canals which centre here, and some of 
 which pass completely through the toT\'n. It was here that I 
 first saw the grain junks, vessels remarkably similar in their 
 shape to the ]SFoah?s Arks that children have for toys. They 
 have often a capacity of two or three thousand tons according 
 to our measurement, and were formerly used to convey the 
 tribute of grain from the northern provinces to Pekin, via the 
 Grand Canal. Within ten years, however, the officials have 
 found it cheaper to send the corn in j^rivate junks, via the 
 Yangtze-kiang, so the poor old grain junks are now laid up in 
 ordinary, and are most of them inhabited by a disreputable 
 set of vagabonds, who are supposed to be the crew, and as 
 such draw pay from government. The Chinese government, 
 as at present administered, seems in some respects remarkably 
 Hke ours. The first great resemblance is, that in theory it is 
 perfect, and in practice works remarkably badly. Secondly, 
 it is a mere machine for collecting taxes, and enriching those 
 who can put themselves into ofiice by bribery or any other 
 means. Thirdly, the officials have no power excej^t when sup- 
 ported by public opinion, and fourthly, the government has 
 lost the respect of the people, w^ho, m case of difficulty, con- 
 
56 China. 
 
 sider a government official the last person to go to for advice 
 or redress. 
 
 Soon after passing Kwun-san, we saw on our right the hill 
 of the same name. It is not very high, but is of a conical 
 shape, and becomes a conspicuous object from the general flat- 
 ness of the country. This hill is owned by the Boodhists, and 
 crowned by a monastery. It is ascended by a winding path, 
 paved with stone and bordered by rows of trees. AH this 
 part of China was formerly under water, and records remain 
 of a period when these hiUs were islands in the ocean. 
 
 Leaving Kwun-san we passed into another canal somewhat 
 larger than that upon which we had come thus £ir. The embank- 
 ments were now supported by a water-wall of squared stones, 
 which was, however, in many places, in want of repairs. Crowds 
 of boats of all sizes now filled the canal, and frequently compel- 
 led us to stop for some minutes before we could obtain a pas- 
 sage. During the afternoon we passed through a lake of 
 considerable size, but shallow. The course of the canal was 
 here marked by a stone causeway, which served as a tow- 
 path and bridge. I saw upon this lake many boats fishing 
 with cormorants. They are filthy looking birds of the vul- 
 ture kind and about the size of a turkey. When unoccupied, 
 they perch upon the gunwale of the boat, each bird wearing a 
 brass ring round its neck to prevent its swallowing any fish it 
 may catch. At a word from their master they soar over the 
 lake like gulls, and like them dart upon their prey the moment 
 the unwary fish approaches the surface. At another signal, 
 the obedient bird brings the booty to its master, and does not 
 leave the boat a second time until it receives the word of com- 
 mand. 
 
 We were now approaching Soo-chow, a city of about two 
 millions of inhabitants, though in China not of the first class. 
 During the afternoon we had passed two express-boats^ light 
 canoes, holding only a single person, who paddles along at a 
 tremendous pace. These express-boats are dispatched to 
 Shanghae every day, to convey to the Chinese merchants there 
 the price of opium at Soo-chow, which is the great depot of 
 this drug for the interior. The approach to Soo-chow was 
 
A Trip Inland. ^7 
 
 marked by a large number of boats and the widening of the 
 canal, which encircles the city in a moat, a quarter of a mile 
 broad. The town is walled, and is about twelve miles in cir- 
 cuit. We i>assed around two sides of it and then entered and 
 rowed through a part of the city, emerging on a third side. 
 The cities in this part of the country are all like Venice, in 
 being traversed by canals, but unlike that city are also provi- 
 ded with causeways for foot passengers, running along the 
 canals. The general appearance of the streets was similar to 
 that of Shanghae. As it was now approaching evening, and 
 the heat of the day was past, we made our appearance on the 
 outside of our boat, and at once became the cynosure of all 
 eyes. The public followed us in crowds during our progress, 
 saluting us with the oft rej^eated cry of Qui-tsa, Qui-tse, 
 yang-qui-tsa, terms conveying at once our diabolical charac- 
 ter, and the conventional attributes of whiteness and red-hair, 
 which are supposed to mark the outside barbarian. This was 
 the first piece of discourtesy of which we had to complain, and 
 my friend, who had been a good deal mland, and sometimes 
 quite alone, told me that he had seldom had cause to fear 
 violence. Whenever he had been stoned or pelted with mud 
 he always found that by lacing the enemy and stroking his 
 beard, at the same time appealing to that sense of politeness 
 which is so strong in the Chinese, he at once put a stop to all 
 rudeness. He considered his beard a great advantage, as 
 among Chinese, none but a grandfather can wear one, and 
 respect for old age is a most prominent feature in the charac- 
 ter of this people. A beard is therefore more of a protection 
 against popular violence in China, than grey hairs would be 
 here. Inside the town the canal is frequently spanned by stone 
 bridges, generally of a single arch and very high. On these 
 bridges there was an immense crowd of gamins to see us pass 
 under, but we always disappointed their curiosity by taking 
 refuge in the cabin, my friend having discovered on previous 
 occasions, that the peculiar effects of a dead cat, or rotten egg^ 
 when falling or projected from an eminence, are as well under- 
 stood in China as in the galleries of some theatres. Passing 
 out of Soo-chow from another gate, we found ourselves on a 
 
58 CHina. 
 
 broad piece of water, the deboucheinent of the Grand Canal. 
 There was a great crowd of boats in all directions, but the pas- 
 sage was clear to the Grand Canal, which opened directly in 
 front, and was spanned by one of the largest single-arched 
 bridges I have ever seen. We turned to the right, and 
 passing through the crov/ded junks soon came to another canal, 
 up which we went. The sides of this canal and the country 
 in every direction around Soo-chow, are completely covered by 
 the suburbs of the great city, which extend for more than two 
 miles in this direction alone. In these suburbs I first saw 
 monumental arches. They consist of four stone columns of 
 from 15 to 25 feet high, surmounted by an entablature deco- 
 rated with bronze ornaments. They are erected by private 
 individuals in commemoration of some person or event. 
 
 After clearing the outsldrts of this city, we again anchored 
 for the night. The thermometer had been up to 95° in our 
 cabin during the day, and fell only about ten degrees at night, 
 so that we suffered considerably from the heat. The mos- 
 quitoes, too, which abound on this and other canals, troubled 
 us not a httle, as our quarters were too contracted to allow 
 of rigging the mosquito nets properly. 
 
 The next day found us among a range of hills,- perhaps 900 
 feet high. As soon as we turned out, we determined to ascend 
 them. There was a walk of a mile to the foot of the hills, 
 across lice-fields which had been watered till they were soft 
 mud for six or eight inches deep, and we could only obtain a 
 footing by walking on the narrow banks of the little sluices 
 which conducted the Avater in different directions. We had 
 a hard climb of an hour to the summit, but when there, the 
 view quite repaid us. On one side, about ten miles off, lay 
 the city of Soo-chow, in a valley, still enveloped by mist, from 
 which emerged its lofty pagodas. On the other, the great 
 lake of China, the Ty-hao, lay spread out before us. The 
 chain on which we stood, stretched thirty or forty miles on 
 each side of us, separating the valley of the lake from that of 
 the city. The rest of the country was a dead level, mth the 
 silver network of the canals shining clearly out through the 
 fog, which still lingered on the low ground. We went into a 
 
A Trip Inland, j;g 
 
 small joss-house, which we found on top of the mountain, and 
 ate a hght breakfist : after which we began our descent in a 
 slightly different direction. The side of the hill by which we 
 had ascended was almost bare, with only a few low scrub- 
 bushes here and there. Our path in descending, however, led 
 through a grove of pine-trees, surrounding a mandarin's tomb. 
 The trees afforded us a j^leasant protection against the rays of 
 the sun, which had now risen so high as to be uncomfortably 
 warm. The tomb was in an enclosed space of about an acre 
 and a half, surrounded by a stone wall, and planted with 
 cypress and fir-trees. The enclosure was, in shape, a narrow 
 paraUeUogram, and, as it was situated on the slope of the hill, 
 had been divided into three smaller courts, separated by 
 flights of stone steps to equahze the ascent. In each division 
 was a pond, planted with lotuses, and surrounded by a stone 
 coping ; and scattered about each, were uncouth and colossal 
 statues of horses and dogs. At the highest extremity of the 
 upper division was a stone temple, about twenty feet square, 
 which, I supj^ose, held the body. The entrance was at the 
 lowest extremity of the whole enclosure, the wall on each side 
 being drawn out in a semicu-cle, broken by an ii'on gate about 
 fifteen feet wide. Two* gigantic stone efiigies of watch-dogs 
 acted as janitors. This was the largest private tomb wdiich 
 I saw, but there were several others, on this same hill-side, on 
 a similar plan, but smaller and less elaborately arranged. 
 Subsequently we frequently saw these homes of the dead — the 
 trees which they enclosed lending cheerfulness, and an appear- 
 ance of nature, to the otherwise monotonous and artificial 
 landscape. 
 
 We joined our boat some distance further up the canal, 
 about ten o'clock, and went steadily on all day toward the 
 Ty-hao, keeping under the foot of the hills, round the extrem- 
 ity of which it w^as necessary to pass to enter the lake. About 
 nightfall, the canal widened into an open bight of water, and 
 we were in an arm of the Ty-hao. We kept on till the inlet 
 was a quarter of a mile broad, from one low bank to the other, 
 and then anchored for the night in three feet of water. The 
 canal through which we had come during the day, was nar- 
 
6o China, 
 
 rower than either of those in which w^e had been the day 
 before, and after returning from the ascent of the hill, we saw 
 nothing of special interest. The heat was intense all day long, 
 the thermometer standing, for six hours, at 98° in the shade. 
 As nightfall did not bring much alleviation, we sought cool- 
 ness, and a deliverance from the swarms of mosquitoes, by 
 plunging into the muddy lake, in w^hich we continued for a 
 couple of hours, lying under the water, supported by a short 
 rope from the boat, and occasionally eluding the pursuit of 
 a pertinacious mosquito by plunging wholly under the suiface. 
 Before retiring for the night we loaded our revolvers, and 
 fired them off twice, to fiighten off any pirates who might be 
 in the vicinity. These canals and lakes are infested by pii-ates 
 and water thieves, who levy black mail on all the weaker 
 craft. They act, however, with no little moderation — seldom 
 taking more than one third of a boat's cargo. This course 
 commonly prevents a prosecution. Mr. Fortune, who was sent 
 up country by the East India Company to buy tea-plants, was 
 one night robbed, on one of these canals, of a tin box contain- 
 ing all his papers and some silver dollars. The money was to 
 him a matter of importance, but the loss of the papers was 
 irreparable. A hole had been sawn in the side of the boat, 
 and the box taken from under his pillow as he slept. He 
 remained all day at the same place, trying, ineffectually, to 
 discover some trace of the offenders, and had given up all 
 hopes, when, the next night, his boat was hailed from the bank, 
 and a voice informed them that if a man were sent ashore, 
 he would find the box on the tow-path. He accordingly sent 
 ashore and recovered his box, in which not an article had 
 been damaged or removed, except the dollars, which were, of 
 course, all gone. The thieves had, no doubt, surmised, what 
 was actually the case, that the papers were of more impor- 
 tance to Mr. Fortune than the money, and hoped, by return- 
 ing them, to avoid any further enquiry into the occurrence. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A TRIP INLAND. — CONTINUED. 
 
 Ascend Toong-toong-ting-shan — The View — The Great Lake of China— A Beautiful 
 Canal — Villages — Eeturn to Soo-chow — Grand Canal — A Customs' Barrier — A Chi- 
 nese Fort — Ping-bong — Chinza— Nan-zing — Effect of Drought on Eice Fields — Our 
 Examination by Mandarins — Preparations for the Rebels — Iloo-chow — Pretty Girls 
 — Are compelled to return to Shanghae — Bridge at Yang-kow-shin — Kahing — Troojis 
 — Mandarin's House in Lake — Arrive again at Shanghae — Charity in China. 
 
 At daybreak on the morning of the 13th, we ascended the 
 Toong-toong-tmg-shan, a hill about five hundred feet high, 
 which separated the inlet, in which we had passed the night, 
 from the body of the lake. The shape of the hill was irregu- 
 lar, being cut up by deep gullies, around the sides of which 
 wound the long flight of stone steps conductmg to the sum- 
 mit. On the top is a Boodhist monastery, of thirty or forty 
 monks, and we passed several minor estabUshments on the 
 M'ay up. These religious houses, as well as the pathway, were 
 well sheltered by trees. At the highest point, above the large 
 monastery, is a small joss-house, under the shade of which we 
 partook of breakfast. An old woman officiated as genius loci^ 
 and was terribly frightened by our oifering her an empty 
 claret bottle, fearing that it might be in some way connected 
 with a spell, or the Evil Eye. After breakfast, we remained 
 on the summit for a quarter of an hour, enjoying the view. 
 Behind us was the inlet from which we had come, and the 
 low country stretching toward Shanghae; in front another 
 inlet, separated from the first by the hill on which we were ; 
 and beyond it another hill, precisely the counterpart of the 
 first, the Si-toong-ting-shan, the summit of which was also oc- 
 cupied by a monastic establishment. On our right stretched 
 the great lake for a hundred miles, bounded by the range of 
 
62 China. 
 
 hills behind us, round which we had come on the previous 
 
 day. 
 
 The sun soon became too hot to make a longer exposure to 
 its rays desirable, and we descended to our boat, stopping 
 only to visit the large monastery. This establishment was 
 composed of several quadrangles, surrounded by the cells ot 
 monks. At the extremity of the furthest was the temple, in 
 no way remarkable. All the buildings were of stone, and the 
 whole was surrounded by a high stone wall, and shaded by 
 magnificent trees. We saw only a few monks. They were 
 dressed in loose lilac gowns, and had the hair of the head 
 entirely shaven. Many of these Boodhist foundations in 
 China are very rich, and as the monastic vows can be can- 
 celled at will, they afford a sort of asylum to indigent persons 
 who seek a retirement from the troubles of the world in the 
 quiet of the cloister, from which they can emerge at will 
 should better times smile upon them. 
 
 On returning to the boat, and consulting with the mate, 
 we found that the lowness of the water in the Ty-hao would 
 prevent our crossing it, which was the nearest route to Hoo- 
 chow, a city which we desired to visit. We, therefore, re- 
 luctantly determined to strike into another canal, and proceed 
 to Hoo-chow by a much more round-about route. 
 
 The Ty-hao, though the largest lake in China, is never more 
 than six or eight feet deep, and when we visited it was in 
 most places not more than two or three feet deep, while some 
 parts were quite dry. This was owing to the two or three 
 months' drought, which it was feared would cause a famme in 
 all the northern part of China, by lowering the great canals, 
 and drying up their smaller and shallower branches, on which 
 the country depended for irrigation. In the south of China, 
 on the other hand, they had had that year just the opposite 
 trouble, the country being flooded, villages entirely covered 
 by water, and the crops destroyed in consequence of violent 
 and long-continued rains. 
 
 The canal which we now entered was a fine one, and appa» 
 rently well kept up. It was frequently spanned by tall stone 
 bridges, which were in good condition, and some of them 
 
A Trip Inland. 63 
 
 actually undergoing repair. The bridges, like those which I 
 had before seen in similar positions, were built with one semi* 
 circular arch, the upper line of the bridge rising to a point. 
 Ko mortar was used in their construction, the structure being 
 held together entirely by the accurate cutting of the stones, 
 and the scientific perfection of the arch. I should have 
 mentioned that the material of all is grey granite. 
 
 The country through which we were passing was prettiei 
 than on any previous day. The hills on the Ty-hao, and those 
 between that lake and Soo-chow, were all visible, and the 
 fields on each side of the canal were relieved of their monotony 
 by the frequent occm-rence of private cemeteries and monas- 
 teries. We passed through several very large villages, one of 
 which extended alonc^ the canal for more than three miles. 
 When the canal passed through a village, its sides were gen- 
 erally lined with flights of stone steps, ascending to the level 
 of the street, or paved levee. In villages, a large part of the 
 canal was frequently occupied by the buffaloes, who, to get 
 relief from the great heat, stand in the canal v/hen it is shallow 
 enough, with only their eyes and nose above water. We no- 
 ticed that many of the water-wheels which we passed during 
 this day were turned by very pretty girls, with much clearer 
 complexions than those of the women on the coast. The 
 only drawback to their appearance was that, like all women 
 in the north of China, they had little feet, but even to this 
 one soon gets accustomed, and I am not sure that, after all, it 
 is not a much less unnatural distortion, than the habit which 
 occidental ladies have of compressing the waist. 
 
 By evening we again arrived at Soo-chow, to which city 
 we had been compelled to return in order to proceed to Hoo- 
 chow via the Grand Canal. We had again to pass through 
 the crowded ranks of junks, which I have described as moored 
 about the city, and it was consequently late before we entered 
 the Grand Canal. By nine o'clock we had got clear of the 
 suburbs, and of other boats, and again anchored for the 
 night. 
 
 The next morning we had a better view of the great high- 
 way to the capital of China — for centuries the largest artificial 
 
64 China. 
 
 water-course in the world. It is here more than one hundred 
 and fifty feet in width, but is in some parts of its course nar- 
 rower, and in some even broader. It is crossed by bridges, 
 similar to those which I had seen on the other canals, but of 
 course longer, and proportionately larger. The embankments 
 on each side were faced with stone, and the tow-path paved 
 with square stone blocks. We continued up the Grand Canal 
 all day. It led us through several lakes, like the Ty-hao, 
 broad but shallow. At a town called Ping-bong we were 
 stopped at a customs' barrier, but as soon as the officials in 
 charge learned who we were, they made no objection to our 
 passing, merely requesting that we would kindly give them 
 some books—a reasonable demand, which my friend hastened 
 to comply with, by presenting to them some of the Chinese 
 publications of a London society. The subjects of these 
 works come under the head of useful knowledge, and it is 
 always customary for foreigners to carry such books on their 
 inland excursions, as they make the best presents to native 
 officials who are disposed to be civil. 
 
 The city of Ping-bong is situated in a lake, and all the 
 streets are traversed by canals. The town itself is not walled, 
 but the approaches by the canal, in both directions, are pro- 
 tected by small forts and batteries. In the latter, the guns 
 are of assorted sizes, from two feet to six in length, some 
 mounted, and some lying on the ground. Even in the largest 
 Chinese cannon, the bore is seldom more than four inches in 
 diameter ; since, as the celestials buy their guns by weight, it 
 is, of course, the interest of the English manufacturer, to 
 make the calibre as small as possible. 
 
 The appearance of Ping-bong, as it were, floating upon the 
 water, is really very pretty, and some wooded islands which 
 surround it, increase the picturesque effect. Many of the 
 bridges which cross the Grand Canal, in its passage through 
 the town, are forty feet high, and the quays are strongly built 
 of stone, descending by stone steps to the water. The city, 
 like all others in the low plain of IsTorthern China, is entirely 
 built on piles. Passing Ping-bong, we proceeded a few miles 
 further along the canal, and again anchored for the night. 
 
A Trip Inland. 65 
 
 The thermometer had stood at 96° durmg the heat of the 
 day. 
 
 Before I awoke next morning, we had got imder weigh, 
 and passed Chinza, a considerable to^\^l. About ten o'clock 
 we went by ISTanzing, a large place, and the entrepot of all the 
 silk which goes to Shanghae, but in appearance similar to the 
 cities already described. We were now entering the silk 
 country, and the plantations of mulberry trees added much to 
 the livehness of the view, The a:reat drouo^ht was here tellino 
 severely on the rice, the fields being hard enough to walk on, 
 whereas, they ought, when properly irrigated, to be of the 
 consistence of mud. About noon, we came in sight of the 
 mountains which surround Hoo-chow, and about four o'clock 
 we were stopped at a customs' barrier, and the mandarin sent 
 on board to summon us ashore for examination. Now, it is 
 always the best j^lan, and saves a great deal of trouble, to 
 treat oriental officials with a high hand, and above all, not to 
 allow them to begin intercourse with an assumption of supe- 
 riority. It thus became an object with us to cause our dignity 
 to shine upon this little great man, and we answered his mes- 
 senger that we had prepared and made ready our miserable 
 boat, in the hopes that it would be illumined by his presence. 
 The internuncio soon came back to say, that the press of busi- 
 ness would prevent the officials from having the honour of 
 coming on board our magnificent vessel, but that they again 
 ventured to beg us to visit them in the wretched hut where 
 they laboured. This style of communication was kept up for 
 some time, ending in our refusing to go on shore on the ground 
 of illness — a plea which was only diplomatically true. As it 
 became now quite plain, that, come what would, we were not 
 to be enticed ashore, and as these subordinate officials did not 
 dare to let us pass the barrier without examination ; and, on 
 the other hand, would not, unsupported, venture on the ex- 
 treme measure of sending us back to the coast, they determined 
 to visit the boat, and we accordingly drew ashore to enable 
 them to come on board. My friend and I took our seats at 
 the extreme end of the cabin, trying to look as dignified as 
 possible to make up for the simplicity of our attire, which 
 
66 China. 
 
 consisted only of night-shirts and loose drawers. The Chinese 
 officers did not make us wait long. Only two came on board, 
 both young men, and simply dressed. My friend, who spoke 
 Chinese, and was well acquainted with their customs, received 
 them with a ceremonious politeness, which set me off into the 
 most indecent fits of laughter. As the Chinamen entered, a 
 sweet smile, expressive of a sort of holy joy, illumined their 
 muddy countenances ; changing, as they caught sight of my 
 friend, into a full-blown grm, intended to intimate that they 
 had at length attained to the fruition of perfect bliss, and that 
 all their highest earthly hopes were fulfilled since they were 
 honoured by being permitted to enter into the immediate 
 presence of a chief man of that great nation by whom the 
 exti^mities of the earth were governed. All this was written 
 on their faces, and spoken in their opening address. My 
 friend also succeeded in moulding his countenance into ex- 
 pressing similar pleasurable emotions, with a skill, which was, 
 to me, a subject of admiring mirth. Both parties chin-chined^ 
 or saluted, in the Chinese fashion, by clasping both fists, pla- 
 cing them in juxtaposition on the breast, and giving them a 
 prolonged tremulous shake, at the same time uttering the 
 words tsin-tsin (hail ! hail !) several times. After the first 
 elaborate greetings were over, it was some time before we 
 could so far overcome the modest scruples of our visitors as to 
 induce them to sit down. They remained only a few minutes, 
 which they occupied by questioning my friend about our des- 
 tination, and then took an elaborate leave, after having ac- 
 cepted the present of a few books. 
 
 We found out, afterwards, that these extra precautions (it 
 not being usual to stop foreigners at this barrier) were owing 
 to the vicinity of the rebels, who were, at the time, only 36 
 mUes off, but were prevented from advancing by the lowness 
 of the canals. Hoo-chow was, however, strongly fortified, in 
 preparation for their arrival. The walls were in thorough 
 repair, the outworks on the canal had been put in order, all 
 the cannon were mounted, and we saw a great many of the 
 forty thousand soldiers who had been collected and quartered 
 in and about the city. The gate of the city was more rigidly 
 
A Trip Inland. 67 
 
 guarded than even the barrier, and we found it impossible to 
 enter on any pretext. 
 
 In size and exterior appearance, Hoo-chow very much re- 
 sembles Soo-chow. It is surrounded on three sides by hills, 
 the highest of which are about 1,000 feet high, and are 
 covered with monasteries, one of which is well worth seeing. 
 We could not, however, ascend these hills, as the canal leading 
 to their foot was too low to give our boat a passage. We 
 passed through the suburbs of Hoo-chow, which, though not 
 so extensive as those of Soo-chow, seemed to have a larger 
 number of houses inhabited by the wealthier classes, whose 
 dwellings can always be distinguished by the high wall that 
 surrounds them. This city is in the heart of the silk country, 
 and we admired very much the gay costume of the pretty 
 Hoo-chow girls, who are in the habit of wearing bright scarlet 
 silk trowsers, whereas, lower down the country, the women 
 generally wear no colour but black. We put these young 
 ladies very much out of countenance by eyeing them through 
 lorgnettes. 
 
 Our appearance caused great excitement here, as in the 
 other towns, and our boat was followed, as before, by shout- 
 ing crowds of ragamuffins : but, on this occasion, in addition 
 to calling us names, they paid us the more tangible attention 
 of aiming at us mud and stones, from which we had to take 
 refuge in our cabin. 
 
 By eight o'clock, we had got clear of the outskirts of the 
 city, and anchored for the night. This was the hottest day 
 of the whole trip, the thermometer in the shade, touching 
 100° at noon, and remaining above 90" all night. We took a 
 swim in the canal before turning in, but passed an unpleasant 
 night, being tormented by mosquitoes, and by that unpleasant 
 eruption called prickly heat, which attacks nearly all Euro- 
 peans, in China and India. 
 
 From Hoo-chow we had intended to go on to the provincial 
 city of Hang-chow, where are some remarkable temples, and 
 colossal stone representations of Boodh, forty feet high. The 
 lowness of the canals, however, forced us to give up this 
 
68 China. 
 
 plan, and on the morning of the i6th, we turned our faces 
 again toward Shanghae. 
 
 For the first day, we returned on the same branch of the 
 Grand Canal, by which we had come to Hoo-chow. We 
 again passed through Nanzing, Chinza, and other towns and 
 villages " too numerous to mention," The shopmen were still 
 sitting at the open front of their stores, exjDOsing theu' sleek, 
 broad bellies to the admiring gaze of passers-by ; the buffaloes 
 were still cooling themselves in the canal ; the ceaseless activ- 
 ity which is the most characteristic peculiarity of a Chinese 
 community, still went on ; and our appearance again excited 
 the curiosity, and called forth the vocal energies of the mob. 
 
 By evening, we had passed Ping-bong, near which town we 
 stopped for the night. 
 
 The next morning, when I awoke, I found that we had 
 come into another canal, and were opposite the town of Yang- 
 kow-shin, which boasts the finest bridge that I saw in China. 
 The material is granite, the upper lines being straight, and 
 making a very obtuse angle where they meet, at the middle 
 point of the bridge. There are three arches, resting on two 
 j)iers, with the abutments. The upper curve of all three is a 
 semicircle, sHghtly returning below to an oval. The centre 
 arch has about forty feet span, and the two side arches over 
 thirty. The breadth of the bridge is at least twenty feet, and 
 its whole length about 175. 
 
 During the day, we passed the city of Ka-hing, in the moat 
 of which we found many large junks anchored. One of the 
 largest had, over one end of its house on deck, an extended 
 umbrella, the official signal of the Mandarin, who was on 
 board, and who, we learned, was in command of a body of 
 troops, with which the other boats were loaded. They were 
 going up the canal, in the direction of Hoo-chow. Ka-hing is 
 a city of about a million of inhabitants, and has large suburbs, 
 which we were nearly three hours in passing through. There 
 are several large lakes, which come quite up to the walls, 
 though they do not, as in the case of Ping-bong, entirely sur- 
 round the city. In one of these lakes, we saw the country- 
 seat of a mandarin, a large building on a low island, nicely 
 
A Trip Inland. 6g 
 
 shaded by trees. The lake, in front of the house, was pre- 
 served for fish, many acres being inclosed in a line of sub- 
 aquatic hedges, the tojDs of which just appeared above the 
 surface of the water. This practice is very common in China, 
 and we saw such preserves in several other lakes, though 
 I have not before mentioned them. 
 
 The fortifications of Ka-hing had evidently been prepared to 
 resist an expected attack of the rebels, and we saw large 
 numbers of soldiers, as at Hoo-chow. I do not know whether 
 these warriors meant fight or not, but they certainly did not 
 look it. 
 
 For the next twenty-four hours, we passed through the 
 prettiest country that I saw on the trip. The trees were not 
 confined to the vicinity of villages, or cemeteries ; the canal 
 passed frequently through small lakes ; and the merits of the 
 locality seemed to have been appreciated by wealthy Chinese, 
 whose country-houses were visible on all sides. The water- 
 wall and bridges, too, were in good repair, and the latter were 
 frequently covered by creeping vines. 
 
 Towards the afternoon of the next day, the country lost its 
 interest, and I saw nothing else worthy of detail here. We 
 arrived at Shanghae on the evening of the nineteenth of July, 
 having been absent just eight days. 
 
 Though we had not accomplished as much as we wished or 
 intended, and had at no time been more than 1 20 miles from 
 Shanghae, and though we had seen and learned less than we 
 could have done in any other country in the same time ; yet I 
 could not but feel it a great advantage to be able to see what 
 I did. Although we only, as it were, entered and passed the 
 boundary of the country, yet very few, except the mission- 
 aries, have done more ; and this feeling of seeing something 
 out of the common track, is what gives the greatest mterest 
 to our travels. 
 
 After my return to Shanghae I saw more of the American 
 missionaries than when I was first there. In company with 
 one of these gentlemen I visited an establishment in the Chi- 
 nese town known as the "Institute of Universal Benevolence." 
 It consists of a large room furnished with small tables, at each 
 
yo China. 
 
 of which is seated an employe^ either a physician, lawyer, or 
 visitor of the poor. Here any poor man may receive gratui- 
 tous medical advice, legal assistance, or relief in the shape of 
 food, clothing, and money. This institution has been in exist- 
 ence at least a hundred years — I believe more, but have for- 
 gotten. It was founded by private Chinese benevolence, and 
 has, since its foundation, received so many bequests that it is 
 now quite wealthy. The system was very complete, and the 
 amount of good effected very large, but its operations were 
 entirely suspended and deranged by the rebellion in the city, 
 and when I visited it, it had not again returned to perfect and 
 harmonious action. The number of applicants who crowded 
 the hall was however considerable. It is very pleasant to see 
 such evidences of charity in a heathen country, and to know 
 that similar institutions exist in many other cities of the em- 
 pire. Benevolence is one of the most attractive features of 
 the Chinese character, and one that our preconceived ideas 
 find it hard to reconcile with infanticide and other cruelties 
 which disgrace this and all heathen nations. I was told that 
 during a recent famine m the north of China, a single mer- 
 chant offered to board and lodge, at his own expense, all 
 children from the city of Shanghae who should be entrusted 
 to his care. Several thousands profited by the benevolent 
 offer, and were comfortably sheltered and furnished with food 
 for several months, while men and women were dying, hun- 
 dreds in a day, in the streets of the city, of starvation and 
 exposure. 
 
 In connection with this it should be remembered that the 
 Chinese and other oriental governments do nothing for the 
 relief of paupers — a state of things that always calls out pri- 
 vate sympathy to its fullest extent ; but still the systematic 
 beneficence of the Chinese, shown in the foundation of such 
 institutions as I have described, and in the custom which 
 allows no beggar to leave a house without an alms, stands in 
 bright contrast with the conduct of all other pagan peoples. 
 In India, for example, though there are asylums for all brute 
 animals, even fleas and lice, established by the Boodhists and 
 Brahmuns, I did not hear of a single foundation for the benefit 
 
A Trip Inland. 71 
 
 of the human species, nor of one such act of munificent charity 
 as that of the Chinese merchant at Shanghae. To this remark 
 I must except the case of the Parsee baronet, Sir Jamsetjee 
 Jeejeebhoy,the princely liberaUty of whose charities has been 
 the theme of admiration throughout the world. It should be 
 remembered, however, that Sir Jamsetjee had the advantage 
 of li\dng at Bombay, among a numerous Christian commu- 
 nity, and that he is alone among natives in the distinguished 
 benevolence of his course. In ancient Greece and Rome we 
 hear of no charitable establishments, and I believe that no- 
 where but in China have they arisen except from the teaching 
 of the Christian rehgion. Should any one think hardly of the 
 Chinese character, let him remember that they have sponta- 
 neously acted upon those principles of benevolence which 
 elsewhere required the teaching of an incarnate God to give 
 them practical force, and that in a heathen land one of the 
 highest virtues of the Christian is practised without the Chris- 
 tian's hope of an immortal reward. My companion, being of 
 Calvinistic views, feelingly regretted that so many good works 
 should not redound to the advantage of the doers, since, being 
 done before justification, and not having as a motive the love 
 of Christ, they would, in the language of the Articles, " par- 
 take of the nature of sin." I could only hope that stich good 
 intentions might be apj^reciated by Him in whose eyes the 
 alms of the unconverted Cornelius were pleasing, and that 
 some benighted Chinaman might hereafter find that in doing 
 good, without hope of reward, to one of the least of his breth- 
 ren, he had done it unawares to that great Elder Brother who 
 is able and willhig to reward beyond either our desires or de- 
 serts. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 SOUTHERN CHINA. 
 
 Leave Shanghae— The Peninsular and Oriental Company— Hong Kong— Foreign Settle- 
 ment of Canton — The Chinese Suburbs — Ceremonies at Ming-qua's House — Making 
 Tea— Opium Smoking— The Opium Trade— Temple of a Hundred Gods— Beggars 
 Dying of Starvation — Interior of a House — A Chinese Eestanrant — Chop-sticks — 
 Eat Grills and Dog Stew— Public Opium Shops— The Boat Population of Canton- 
 Indifference to Life— Lepers— How-qua's Garden— Unique Method of Hatching Eggs 
 — Monasteries of Honan — ^Boodhist Services — Sacred Hogs — Gambling — Macao — A 
 Protective Policy — The Portuguese — Effect of the War on the Commercial Impor- 
 tance of Canton. 
 
 On the last day of July I left Shanghae for Hong Kong, on 
 board the steamer Erin, belonging to the Peninsular and Ori- 
 ental Steam N"avigation Company, or, as they are called for 
 short, the P. and O. Company. This is the largest steamship 
 company in the world, owning, two years ago, thirty-eight 
 steamers, aggregating fifty thousand tons, English measure- 
 ment. They had, at the time of which I speak, the undisputed 
 monopoly of steam conveyance in the Eastern seas ; and even 
 now their only rival is the Australian Steamship Company, to 
 which they lend boats and officers, so that it must be, in fact, 
 either the same parties under a different name, or some good 
 friends of theirs. 
 
 The Peninsular and Oriental Company take advantage of 
 their monopoly to charge an enormous price for the passage 
 to Hong Kong. The distance is only about 800 miles, and 
 the fare I120, which, when I paid my passage, was equal to 
 £45 sterling. 
 
 The " P. and O." boats are all admirably fitted up, and the 
 whole service is, I suppose, by far the finest j^rivate service in 
 the world. The table is as good as circumstances will allow, 
 and beer, wines and liquors are furnished without extra charge. 
 
 Our course was close to the shore, and we were alwavs in 
 
Southern China. 
 
 73 
 
 sight of, and often close to, the steep and barren hills which 
 form the coast of the Flowery Kingdom ; at least, after pass- 
 ing the low alluvial plain of Northern China, which is scarcely- 
 raised above the level of the ocean. 
 
 On the fourth day we arrived at Hong Kong, which is situ- 
 ated on the sides of a high barren hill, an island in one of the 
 many inlets which receive the waters of the Canton river. 
 The whole island is in the possession of the English, and is a 
 colony by the name of Victoria. The residences of Europeans 
 are built on the side of the hiU, and are similar in form to the 
 hongs at Shanghae, except that they are not uniformly so 
 large, and that they are rarely enclosed in comj^ounds. The 
 lower part of the hiU, next the water, is occupied partly by 
 the houses and offices of foreigners, and partly by the native 
 town which has grown up since the possession of the island by 
 the English. 
 
 I remained only a few hours in Hong Kong, and took, in 
 the evening, the mail-boat to Canton. The distance up the 
 river is about forty miles, and we arrived at Canton about 
 eight o'clock next morning. The branch of the river through 
 which we went, winds among high and steep hills, by which 
 the city of Canton itself is entu-ely surrounded. The foreign 
 factories were situated outside the walls of Canton and further 
 down the river. They consisted of a compact block of stone 
 houses, four stories high, and each about sixty feet front. 
 Between them and the river was a garden, about a quarter 
 of a mile long and 200 feet broad. This formed the only 
 walk of the foreign residents, and was consequently very pret- 
 tily laid out. At the upper end of the garden was a building 
 containing a subscription library, and two club billiard rooms. 
 The lower part of this structure was arched and unenclosed, 
 and served as a shelter to the light " out-riggers" in which the 
 younger members of the Canton Euroj)ean community took 
 aquatic exercise. 
 
 The whole space occupied by the foreign community at 
 Canton, was not more than eight or ten acres, and was, there- 
 fore, very closely built up. The buildings had no enclosures 
 surrounding them as at Shanghae, but were all crammed into 
 
 4 
 
74 China. 
 
 a compact block, consisting of five or six rows of houses, one 
 behind the other; each row being divided from the other 
 by only a narrow space, and the whole being connected by 
 tunnelled passages running completely through. It may be 
 easily 'imagined that Canton was not so pleasant a residence 
 as Shanghae. In fact, the feeling to a stranger was that of a 
 prison. 
 
 No strangers are allowed within the walls of Canton, al- 
 though a free ingress is secured by treaty. The suburbs are, 
 however, very extensive, and through these I made an excur- 
 sion with Mr. Gray, H. B. M. Chaplain at Canton. 
 
 Almost all the wealthy Chinese reside in the suburbs, and 
 we were kindly invited to enter the house of Mingqua, a Chi- 
 nese merchant of eminence. Like aU private residences, this 
 was surrounded by a wall, shutting off all connection from 
 the street. It contained several courts surrounded by build- 
 ings. The space between the first and second courts was 
 covered in, and contained a large private temple, similar in its 
 arrangement to all public joss-houses which I saw. During 
 our visit we had the opportunity of witnessing a seiwice per- 
 formed by some Boodhist monks, to celebrate the recovery 
 from sickness of Mingqua's mother. The ceremony consisted 
 wholly of chaunting and singing to the accompaniment of sev- 
 eral discordant instruments ; among them a shrill fife, which 
 " carried the air." The ladies of the establishment were pre- 
 sent, but in the back-ground, and we enjoyed an opportunity 
 rarely afforded, of seeing Chinese women of the higher classes. 
 They were four or five in number, and dressed in black or 
 blue satin. The face and neck were both painted with admira- 
 ble art, and the hair drawn back from the forehead into a 
 large knot behind, and retained by gold ornaments. They 
 had all small feet, which, in this part of China, is a mark of 
 high rank ; the lower classes allowing their feet to attain the 
 size of nature, which is, after all, very small and pretty. 
 
 When the ceremony was concluded, we adjourned with the 
 males of the family to a small room where tea was served. 
 The floor of this room, as of all rooms in these houses, was of 
 marble blocks; the furniture consisted of little tables with 
 
Southern China. 75 
 
 marble tops, and marble-seated chairs, placed around tbe sides 
 of the room, and the walls were entirely bare. At one end 
 of the room was a divan, covered with matting, and furnished 
 with two small hard Chinese pillows and a little lamp. The di- 
 van was for opium smoking, and the arrangement was precisely 
 that of the similar divans which exist in every shop in Canton. 
 After partaking of some delightful tea, I was asked to try a 
 pipe of oj^ium, an offer which I was glad to accept, as I wished 
 to make a trial of the fascinations of this drug. I shall first 
 describe the Chinese manner of making tea, and then the 
 opium smoking. 
 
 The tea is put into a shallow cup, and boiling water poured 
 on. The saucer, which is not nearly so broad as ours, but 
 deeper, is then put as a cover over the cup, and the tea is 
 allowed to " draw." When the decoction is strong enough, 
 the cup is raised to the lips and the saucer slightly tilted on 
 the edge, so as to retain the tea leaves, but allow the pure tea 
 to pass into the mouth. Sometimes the tea is made in a pot, 
 but what I have described is considered the best plan. In no 
 case, however, is the pot, or cup, ever filled the second time 
 with water, and a Chinese would shudder at the idea of letting 
 the tea " simmer" on the fire. 
 
 Opium is not generally indulged in by a man alone. The 
 effect of the drug is to excite the imagination and spirits to 
 such an extent, that a companion is a sort of necessity to per- 
 fect enjoyment. The two companions who propose to indulge 
 in a pipe, recline on a divan, supporting the body on the 
 elbow, and resting the legs on a stool. Between them is a 
 lamp, and two little pots of a decoction of opium, as thick as 
 molasses. The opium pipe is generally made of some reed, 
 and is a hollow tube about eighteen inches long with a bore 
 of an inch or more. At one end is an ivory mouth-piece, and 
 the other end is closed. Two thii-ds of the way down it, is a 
 hole in which fits a hollow earthen bulb, with an interior ca- 
 pacity of about a cubic inch. There is a small aperture 
 of the size of a pin's head in the top of this bulb. The 
 opium smoker, thus rechning, and turned toward his compan- 
 ion, dips a steel instrument, like a square knitting-needle in 
 
^6 China. 
 
 the solution of opium. A drop adheres to the needle, and is 
 then held in the flame of the lamp, where it effervesces and 
 shrinks into a pasty coating. The needle is then again dipped 
 into the opium, and the process repeated until a small pill is 
 formed on the end of the needle, which is then passed through 
 the httle hole on the earthen bulb, and withdrawn with a twist, 
 leaviug the pill on the surface of the bulb, over the aperture. 
 The pill is now held in the flame of the lamp, the smoker at the 
 same time inhaling the fumes, which pass into the bulb, and 
 thence into the body of the pipe and the lungs. Each opium 
 pill will furnish three or four full inspirations, and the smoke is 
 retained in the lungs as long as possible. The preparation of 
 the pill takes three or four minutes, and the smoking not more 
 than one or two. It is said that an habitual smoker finds the 
 quantity of opium necessary to intoxicate him, continually 
 increasing up to a certain point ; after which the necessary 
 amount becomes less and less until, in some cases, where the 
 system has become very much debilitated by continual indul- 
 gence in this habit, a single pipe will produce full intoxication. 
 A European, too, is much less easily affected than a Chinese. 
 I smoked on this occasion, five or six pipes, which did not 
 produce the least mental effect ; they entirely removed, how- 
 ever, the great fatigue and exhaustion which I had felt firom 
 my long walk in the sun. From what I heard in China, I 
 should imagine that opium smoking does not produce those 
 universally deleterious effects which are commonly attributed 
 to it here and in Europe. Like alcoholic beverages, or any 
 other stimulant, it is very susceptible of abuse ; but I should 
 fancy that the victims of over-indulgence in this drug, are not 
 relatively more numerous than drunkards are among those 
 nations where habitual stimulants are of an alcoholic nature. 
 The opium is all smuggled into the country by foreigners, 
 who keep three or four opium store-ships at a place called 
 Cum-Sing-Moon, on a branch of the Canton River, which 
 leads to Macao. When the drug has been once introduced 
 into the Empire, it is conveyed throughout the country with 
 the knowledge of the officials, to whom it pays black mail at 
 at every customs' station. 
 
Southern China. 
 
 77 
 
 A class of very fast boats is employed to run the drug from 
 the store ships to Cantou. These boats are numerously 
 manned by desperate fellows to whom high pay is given. 
 Their great speed generally enables them to avoid the impe- 
 rial revenue boats and the pirates, but they are sometimes 
 overtaken and fearful fights and loss of Hfe are the result. 
 
 We passed about half an hour at Mingqua's after the con- 
 clusion of the rehgious ceremony. My friend conversing in 
 Chinese with our entertainer. In the course of conversation, 
 he happened to remark that he was a Master of Arts, and I, 
 a Bachelor, upon hearing which the whole company arose, 
 and made us a respectful salutation. It is well known that 
 the Chinese have similar academic degrees, which are con- 
 ferred on all who can pass the government examinations. 
 The graduates form the body from which mandarins are 
 chosen, and are looked upon in China with great respect. 
 
 On our way back to the factories we stopped at a temple 
 which contained, in a vast chamber, over a hundred idols, 
 about four feet high, made of stone and gilded. They were 
 arranged on a shelf along the wall, and no two of them had 
 the same dress or expression. 
 
 After leaving the temple of a hundred gods we passed 
 through what is known as the beggars' square, where those 
 mendicants who become too old or infirm to exercise their 
 profession, are taken by their friends to die. They are 
 generally laid on a piece of matting, and protected from the 
 sun by a temporary shelter. They perish of starvation, if not 
 by disease. There were three or four wretched beings there, 
 when I visited the square. They seemed more than half 
 dead, and one man, to whom I threw a quarter of a dollar, 
 did not pick it up. 
 
 We stopped, before reaching home, at another private 
 house, the general arrangement of which was like that of 
 Mingqua's establishment. The family, however, had, in this 
 case, gone into the country, and we were shewn all over the 
 house by the children's tutor, a skinny old graduate, with 
 immense horn spectacles. The rooms were all small, bare and 
 cheerless; the only exceptions being the women's quarters. 
 
y8 China. 
 
 which were smaller, barer, and more cheerless. One or two 
 apartments had been arranged as a kind of green-house, with 
 artificial rocks, stunted trees, growing bushes trained to form 
 bird-cages for canaiies, and others of those distortions of 
 nature in which the Chinese take so much pleasure. 
 
 I made one or two other excursions among the suburbs of 
 Canton, with Mr. Gray, who was well acquainted with all that 
 there was to see, and very kindly acted as pilot. 
 
 On one occasion, we went into a Chinese eating-house, a 
 dirty, noisy hole, but we were very hungry and thirsty, and 
 ventured on a pomegranate and some tea. The establish- 
 ment was crowded with guests, who removed their shirts for 
 greater coolness, as the Chinese do in the house. We found 
 the smell of the Chinese dishes, which are cooked with rancid 
 oil, by no means appetising. Of course this afforded a splendid 
 opportunity for witnessing the practical management of chop- 
 sticks. The method of using these puzzling substitutes for 
 knives and forks is, after all, very simple, but can hardly be 
 described in writing. Both sticks are held by one hand, and 
 the dextrous Chinaman rapidly- picks out, by their means, 
 the choice morsels of meat which are brought to him already 
 cut up, and mostly made into ragouts. When dining with a 
 friend, if disposed to be very polite, he will, with his own' 
 sticks, extract a choice morsel from the dish, and place it in 
 the mouth of his companion. 
 
 Besides this large chow-chow (eating) house, we went into 
 several smaller estabhshments, where the usual bill of fare 
 was increased by the addition of rat-grills and dog-stew. In 
 the back division of one of these latter restaurants I saw a 
 dozen or two puppies in little coops, being fattened for the 
 table. 
 
 I visited several public opium shops. They were mostly 
 dirty rooms up-stairs, very dirty, and the resort of the 
 lower classes only. The higher classes prefer to enjoy this 
 luxury, in a room set apart for the purpose, in their own 
 houses. The atmosphere of these places was foul and heavy 
 with opium smoke. It is a strange peculiarity of opium that 
 its taste and smell are disagreeable to all, and the smell of its 
 
Southern China. 79 
 
 smoke particularly offensive, and yet the taste of the latter is 
 delightful, and no harsher to the delicate air-passages of the 
 lungs than the purest air. These public opium-shops have a 
 room up-stairs, whither their customers are conveyed when 
 dead-drunk, and left to lie, closely packed on the floor, until 
 they have slept ofi" the effects of the drug. 
 
 I went one day with Mr. Gray to visit the Gardens of How- 
 qua, situated a few miles up the river. "We went in a large 
 boat. The river off Canton is completely filled with craft of 
 all sorts, leaving only a very narrow passage. In this channel 
 the tide very often runs with prodigious force, and, as col- 
 lisions often take place, it frequently happens that a small boat 
 goes to pieces. I have several times seen such accidents, the 
 boat breaking completely up, and the passengers floating in 
 the water. Dozens of boats would at once put off from the 
 shore, and pick up every stick of the boat, but it rarely hap- 
 pened that they attempted to save life, until they had got all 
 they could of the wreck. It is really incredible how little 
 attention is paid in these countries to human life. I have seen 
 several people drowned from such accidents as I have de- 
 scribed above, and I have heard a shij)-captain say, that he 
 had seen a boat row by a drowning man, within an oar's length, 
 without stopping to render him assistance. 
 
 Most persons know that there is an immense population 
 living in boats, moored off the city of Canton. These boats 
 are not often more than twenty feet long, and generally about 
 six feet wide. They are entirely covered by a house, in which 
 the whole family sleep and live, taking their meals on the 
 little deck at the bow of the boat. At the stern of these, as 
 of all Chinese boats, there is an idol, which is propitiated by 
 burning joss-sticks. The Chinese boats which were used by 
 foreigners for going off to the shipping, or down the river, 
 were usually of larger size, and propelled by oars. A woman 
 was generally the commander, and worked the large scull at 
 the stern. It was in one of these latter boats that we went 
 up the river to Howqua's Garden. On the way, we passed 
 several flat, unsheltered scows, floating in the stream, and 
 containing lepers. These miserable beings are, in this coun- 
 
8o China. 
 
 try, compelled to live in this way, after their disease has made 
 a certain progress. The skm assumes a tint, the colom- of an 
 infant's flesh, instead of the putty colour, which is the natural 
 complexion of a Chinaman. They hnger miserably on their 
 boats for a few years, never being allowed to go ashore, and 
 having a little food thrown to them, when they pass the craft 
 on the river. Doubtless many of them die from exposure 
 and the want of the necessaries of Hfe, as those I saw had no 
 clothing, and their boats were quite unprotected by any 
 cabin. 
 
 Howqua's Gardens, as well as those of another merchant, 
 which we saw, cover several acres, and are laid out with a 
 good deal of taste, in the extravagant and artificial Chinese 
 style. They do not, however, merit a more particular de- 
 scription. 
 
 On our return from the Gardens, we stopped at an egg- 
 hatching estabhshment. This was a large, wooden, barn- 
 shaped building, on the river's bank. The eggs are purchased 
 out of the produce boats that come down the river, and are 
 here artificially hatched. The process employed is singular, as 
 using only the natural heat of the egg, and is as follows. 
 Large baskets, each twice the size of an ordinary barrel, and 
 thickly lined with hay to prevent the loss of heat, are filled 
 with the eggs, and then carefully closed with a closely-fitting 
 cover of twisted straw. The eggs are now left for three days ; 
 after which, they are removed from the basket, and replaced 
 in different order — those eggs which were before on the sur- 
 face being now on the lowest tier. At the end of three days 
 more, the position of the eggs is again altered, and so on, for 
 fifteen days; after which time the eggs are taken out of the 
 basket and placed on a shelf in another apartment, and 
 covered with bran. In the course of a day or two, the 
 chicken bursts its shell, and makes its way out of the bran ; 
 being at once taken charge of by an attendant, who is always 
 on the watch. The whole secret of this process is in the fact, 
 that the animal heat of the whole mass of eggs being retained 
 by the basket, which is formed of materials which do not con- 
 duct caloric, is sufficient to support the animal life of any one 
 
Southern China. 8i 
 
 particular egg, and to foster its development. This is the 
 only egg-hatching process I ever heard of, which did not 
 require artificial heat. I should think it might be practised 
 in America, in summer. 
 
 During my stay at Canton, I visited Honan, an island oppo- 
 site the factories, belonging to a community of Boodhist 
 monks, and covered by a large monastic establishment. There 
 were several hundred monks in residence at the time of my 
 visit. They occupied rooms around a court, containing two 
 or three acres of ground, nicely sodded, and shaded by fine 
 old trees. At the upper end of this court was a large temple, 
 of the usual form ; and behind the temple, another court, pre- 
 cisely like the first. Besides these two open quadrangles, 
 there were several other smaller courts, generally paved, and 
 without trees, around which were the residences of the abbot, 
 and other fimctionaries. Beyond the buildings was the gar- 
 den, covering five or six acres, where the monks were at work. 
 At the further end of the garden was a little stone building, 
 within which, ujDon shelves, were earthen urns containing the 
 ashes of those priests who die at the monastery.- Outside the 
 little building was a stone furnace to burn the body. I could 
 not learn whether this practice of incremation was peculiar to 
 this establishment, or prevailed at other conventual institu- 
 tions. After seeing the garden, we were invited by the abbot 
 into his private parlour, which was elegantly furnished. He 
 entertained us with a cup of tea, and then ]3roposed our wit- 
 nessing the afternoon service, which was about being per- 
 formed. He accordingly returned to the temj^le, where about 
 a hundred monks had assembled, all in their ordinary slate- 
 coloured robes, excej)t two or three, who knelt in front, and 
 acted as leaders. These latter were envelo^^ed in ample scarfs, 
 of yellow satin. The service consisted principally in a 
 monotonous nasal chaunt, alternating between the priests in 
 the yellow scarfs, and the remaining monks, who stood around 
 the wall. Occasionally they would walk in procession around 
 the figure of Boodh, saluting it as they passed. The chaunting 
 was accompanied by a fife and bell. The service lasted about 
 twenty minutes. After the prayers, we visited the printing- 
 
 4* 
 
82 China. 
 
 press of tlie monastery, at which all the sacred books for the 
 whole of China are printed. Moveable types are not nsed, 
 but the characters are cut on blocks of box-wood. There 
 were three or four presses, similar in form to our old-fashioned 
 hand-presses. We also saw the asylum for animals, where 
 several pigs and other beasts are supported at the expense of 
 the monastery, to avert the wrath of Heaven from the Chinese 
 generally, on account of their slaughter of these animals. 
 This convent at Honan is one of the largest and wealthiest in 
 China, and covers, with all its buildings and gardens, about 
 twenty acres. 
 
 Gambling forms one of the most promment amusements of 
 the Chinese, and may be described as their ruling passion. 
 Whenever they have a moment's leisure, they will sit down at 
 some game, and government officials, as having nothing to do, 
 seem to pass most of their time at this employment and opium 
 smoking. There are gambling houses in every street in Can- 
 ton, all perfectly open and public. The game is generally 
 conducted fairly ; and the profits of the establishment do not 
 come, as with us, from an advantage in the game, but from a 
 discount on all sums won by players. 
 
 During all the three weeks that I remained at Canton, the river 
 was very high, on account of the long-continued rains, which 
 had caused as much distress in the southern part of China as 
 the drought had in the north. The gardens, in front of the 
 foreign factories, were, for several days, overflowed, and 
 people had to go from one hong to another in boats. 
 
 The weather was very warm, all the time, which, added to 
 the damp season, produced much fever and ague. They had 
 an excellent plan to shelter the factories from the greatest heat 
 of the sun. A bamboo scaffolding was built along the whole 
 front of the hue of hongs. Upon this scaffold, and upon sup- 
 ports resting on the roofs of the houses, there was a roof of 
 thick matting, which acted like a gigantic umbrella, breaking 
 the force of the sun's rays, and shading the windows of the 
 hongs, and the street in front. Many of the merchants at 
 Canton took their only exercise on the tops of the hongs in 
 the evening. The roofs being flat, and covered with tiles. 
 
Southern China. 83 
 
 made a very pleasant, though not very spacious walk. The 
 young men commonly walked in the garden, which was con- • 
 sidered somewhat too plebeian a resort for the "tai-pans," 
 as the partners in commercial houses are called. 
 
 I spent about two weeks, very pleasantly, at Macao, which 
 was a sort of watering place of Canton. Most European 
 merchants owned a house at Macao, as well as at Canton, 
 going down to the former when they were exhausted by the 
 hot air and impiisonment of the factories. Macao is a very 
 pretty place, built on the side of a gently sloping hill, which 
 bends around its bay in a semicircle. The hills in its vicinity 
 are very picturesque, and, in the offing, are numerous lofty 
 islands, which act as a great protection to shippmg in the bay. 
 The harbour, which is a cove, running around behind the 
 town, is, naturally, I believe, as good as that of Hong Kong, 
 and had the Portuguese government been liberal enough, they 
 might, during the English war with China, have attracted to 
 Macao, and retained there, much of the trade which afterwards 
 centred in the British colony of Hong Kong. But they 
 would not alter their old system of high duties, which were 
 imposed even on the importation of bullion, and would do 
 nothing for the improvement of the harbour. When Hong 
 Kong began to reap the advantages of an opposite poUcy, 
 the Portuguese saw their error, and endeavoured to repau' 
 the mistake by throwing Macao open as a free port, but they 
 were too late, as trade had become firmly settled in the direc- 
 tion of Hong Kong, and Macao can never, in all probability, 
 be anything more than a pleasant residence for foreigners 
 during their weeks of leisure. The native Portuguese popu- 
 lation, who once inhabited the vast palace-hke residences that 
 aboimd in Macao, and who once formed the most flourishing 
 and wealthy colony of Portugal, are now miserably degraded 
 by intermixture with Chinese. They speak a corrupt jargon, 
 half Chinese, half their ancestral language ; and are most of 
 them miserably poor and ignorant. They are an idle race, 
 and generally hve on the remains of their property. Some 
 famiUes manage to exist, in their native fashion, on as Uttle as 
 |8o per annum. Degraded and brutalized as this Portuguese 
 
84 China. 
 
 population is in all other respects, they still retain the Chris- 
 "tian religion ; and the churches, in size and general appearance, 
 remind one of those in Europe. Macao has good sea-bathing, 
 veiy pretty walks, a good road for a drive, and a pleasant 
 society, composed of such English and American families as 
 live there constantly, (at least the ladies and children,) for the 
 benefit of pure air ; and of a continuous stream of transitory 
 visitors from Canton and Hong Kong. 
 
 I left Hong Kong for Calcutta about the middle of Sep- 
 tember. Soon after that time, the disturbances between the 
 English and the Chinese began — among the earliest results of 
 which was the destruction of the foreign factories, and the 
 flight of the merchants to Hong Kong and Macao. This 
 will, probably, be a heavy blow to the foreign trade of Can- 
 n, ah-eady diminished by the rivalry of Shanghae and Foo- 
 ow, ports which- are much more favourably situated for 
 conmiunication with the tea and silk districts. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 TO CALCUTTA. 
 
 The "Lancefield" — Entomology — Singapore — First Yiew of Orientals — The Parsees— 
 Malays — Garrhees — Proas — Black "Water — Torture — Crew of a Ship in the Indian 
 Sea— Jolly Tars — An Indian "Watering-place — The Hoogly — Bores — First View of 
 Natives — Hubble-bubble— Fattening Shell-fish for Market. 
 
 The steamer in "which I made the passage from China to 
 India was called the "Lancefield," and formed, with the 
 " Fiery Cross," a sister ship, a monthly connection between 
 Calcutta and Hong Kong. Both these boats belonged to an 
 eminent English firm, and their great employment was carry- 
 ing opium to China, for which purpose they had entirely sup- 
 planted the opium sailing clippers, formerly so numerous in 
 the Eastern waters. They had, at that time, and, I suppose, 
 have still, almost a monopoly of this most lucrative traffic. 
 Their cargoes of opium were principally on account of the 
 owners. The "Lancefield" and "Fiery Cross" were iron 
 ships, of the best clipper models, fitted with screws, and most 
 of the wood work was of teak. The cabin accommodations 
 were exceedingly comfortable, the only drawback being the 
 great quantities of centipedes and cock-roaches, which infest 
 all ships in the India trade, but especially those which carry 
 opium. These centipedes are insects, from three to seven 
 inches in leng'th, and shaped a little like the earwig. Their 
 sting is very poisonous, and sometimes causes the loss of a 
 limb — always fever and pain. The cock-roaches look much 
 like the ordinary animal of that name, but are from an inch 
 and a half to three inches long, and have the power of flying. 
 Besides these specimens of the entomological kingdom, to 
 which I had got somewhat accustomed in China, we had, on 
 the " Lancefield," some remarkably fine varieties of monster 
 
86 India. 
 
 spiders. One of the hardest things for ah Occidental to en- 
 dure in the East, is the superabundance of animal life, par- 
 ticularly in the lower grades ; and it was a long time before I 
 •got used to seeing two or three-inch cock-roaches walking 
 calmly across the table, during dinner, as they do frequently, 
 both in China and India. The annoyance of these beasts on 
 the " Lancefield," was, however, intolerable. If I came down 
 into the cabin, during the evening, it was quite impossible to 
 go from the companion-way to my state-room, without crush- 
 ing several cock-roaches under foot, and they flew in my face, 
 caught in my hair, and walked up my trowsers during supper, 
 until I was fairly disgusted, I only tried one night to sleep 
 in the cabin. On that occasion, I awoke about midnight, and 
 found a cock-roach on my face, several others about the bed, 
 one or two on the wall, and an immense spider on my pillow. 
 I jumped out of my bunk, dressed myself, and slept that 
 night, and the rest of the passage, on deck. I found the deck 
 cooler than below, and not a much harder bed than the mat- 
 trasses of bamboo chips which are mostly used in China. The 
 only trouble was the rain, of which we had more or less the 
 whole passage. 
 
 We arrived at Singapore, after a week's passage, on the 5th 
 of October, and remained there twenty-four hours to coal. 
 
 Singapore is built on an island, the general surface of which 
 is .almost perfectly level, but a little way behind the town the 
 ground rises in hillocks, on the tops of which the merchants 
 have built their country houses or bungalows. The sloping 
 grounds around the bungalows are frequently covered with 
 nutmeg trees. 
 
 Singapore consists of three divisions. The first has the 
 greatest resemblance to a city, consisting of large solid houses 
 formerly inhabited by Europeans, and numerous streets of 
 houses in the Indian style. This part of the town is mostly 
 inhabited by Hindoos, Parsees, Malays, &g. There is, besides, 
 the Chinese quarter, built and arranged like a Chinese town, 
 and peopled by several thousand of this enterprising and in- 
 dustrious nation. The residences of the English merchants are 
 in a hue along the coast of the bay. They are generally large, 
 
To Calcutta. 87 
 
 square, unarchitectural buildings, in roomy compounds, shaded 
 by fine trees. As in China and Calcutta, these buildings were 
 generally of brick stuccoed. 
 
 The hotel where we stayed was a very large establishment, 
 consisting of three main buildings, and many outhouses in a 
 great compound. We took our meals under a sort of shed in 
 the open air. The servants were all Chinese, who make, I 
 think, the best servants in the world. The house itself was 
 uncomfortable, as are almost all houses in the East, even the 
 best private ones, to people with European ideas. The great 
 size of the apartments, the bare floors of the bed-rooms, the 
 paucity and poverty of the furniture, with the fact that neither 
 the doors nor the windows will close tightly, give a stranger 
 anything but a feeling of comfort. All large houses m the 
 East, are built with an open hall in the centre, to admit of a 
 free passage of air. The rooms open on this hall, the doors of 
 the sleeping apartments not being closed at night, but a cur- 
 tain being drawn across the lower part instead. 
 
 Having been well seasoned by a summer in China, we did 
 not find the heat oj^pressive at Singapore although it is nearly 
 on the line. 
 
 It was at Singapore that I first saw something of oriental 
 as distinguished from Chinese life. The population is, to be 
 sure, one-half composed of Chinese emigrants, but most of the 
 lower classes are Malays, who wear the graceful 8arong^ and 
 this city is the temporary residence of traders from all parts 
 of the East, Parsees, Jews, Armenians, Turks, Arabs, Indian 
 Moosulmans, and representatives of other nationalities, the 
 picturesqueness and variety of whose costume pleased and 
 surprised me, as I had supposed that most of that show in 
 dress, which we read about and see in pictures, had disap- 
 peared. None of these natives appeared to be at all Euro- 
 peanized, except the Parsees, some of whom wore Euroj^ean 
 trowsers and shoes. 
 
 The Parsees are the descendants of the old fire-worshippers 
 of Persia, who were driven from their homes by the Mahom- 
 medan conquest, and took refuge in India a thousand years 
 ago. They still follow the religion of Zerdoosht, and the ever- 
 
88 India. 
 
 lasting fire, brought with them from Persia, still burns at 
 Bombay, and wherever else they are settled. Their sacred 
 language is still the Zend, and is the tongue in which their 
 prayers are recited. But few, however, even of their priests, 
 understand the liturgy, which, in truth, is very much muti- 
 lated, the largest part of it having been lost in their hurried 
 flight from their Moosulman conquerors. Bombay is the 
 chief settlement of this ancient people, and was their first 
 place of refuge, but in late years their commercial enterprise 
 has led them to settle in all the principal oriental ports. They 
 always, however, look upon Bombay as their home, since it is 
 the residence of their women, whom they do not take with 
 them abroad, on account of the unavoidable publicity of travel- 
 ling in public conveyances. The opium trade is now getting 
 largely into the hands of the Parsees, of whom there are 
 several, both in Shanghae and Canton. Their dress is a long, 
 plain cassock of white cotton in summer, of black cloth in win- 
 ter. They wear the loose Eastern pa^zjama, or trowser, and 
 a high circular turban, resembling a mitre in shape. They 
 delight in imitating Occidentals in equipage, &c., and gener- 
 ally speak good English. They do not bury their dead, but 
 expose them in towers, on hill tops, to be devoured by birds. 
 
 The Malays are a fine athletic race of men, with dark flash- 
 ing eyes, clothed generally in nothing but an ample skirt which 
 is tucked up behind, and thus made into a kind of trowser. 
 
 In all oriental countries some sort of conveyance is always 
 employed, in going about, both on account of the heat and as 
 a protection against the coup de soleil, which is supposed to 
 arise from peculiar properties in the sun's rays quite separate 
 from their heat. In China, I have said that people go about 
 in sedan-chairs ; in Singapore, they use, as a substitute, a little 
 four-wheeled carriage, with room in the interior for two only, 
 sitting facing one another. These Httle traps are called pdJr 
 Jcee gdrrhees, (the Hindoostanee word for a carriage being 
 garrhee) and are commonly drawn by one horse, the groom 
 running by his side, as there is generally no box seat for a driver. 
 
 The Malay proas deserve the reputation they enjoy for 
 beauty of model and speed. They are generally propelled by 
 
To Calcutta. 89 
 
 oars, but the largest ones by sails. The evening before we 
 left Singapore two other passengers and myself took one of 
 these proas to go round by water to our steamer, which lay 
 five or six miles from the hotel, and were caught in a tropical 
 storm, which wet us through, and drove us among the coral 
 reefs, where we nearly went to pieces. After escaping from 
 the reefs, we got among the nets and fishing-stakes, which 
 were almost as dangerous, as it continued to blow a gale, 
 and our boat ran half way on the tops of the nets, and being 
 very crank, came near being capsized several times. We got 
 back after a couple of hours, and were heartily thankful to 
 put our feet on terra firina again, although we had to walk 
 six miles, by land, around to the ship, which started at six the 
 next morning. 
 
 Singapore is a British settlement, and has only become a 
 place of importance since the British occupation. It is under 
 the jurisdiction of the East India Company, and is used by 
 them as a convict settlement. I saw several chain-gangs of 
 Indian convicts working on the roads. Transportation is in 
 India a favourite penalty, since it is regarded by the natives as 
 the most terrible of all punishments. By the religion of the 
 Hindoos, all caste is lost by leaving India. The high caste 
 Sepoys of the Bengal army have on several occasions mutinied 
 rather than break through this rule of their religion, which 
 forbids their leaving India — a rule the infringement of which 
 is punished, according to their belief, by the perdition of the 
 ofiender and of his ancestors and descendants for seven gen- 
 erations. For this and other reasons, "kala panee" (black 
 water), as the natives call transportation across the leaden sea, 
 is looked upon as the last misfortune, and a calamity to which 
 death is infinitely preferable. 
 
 During my stay in Singapore I went into the Court of 
 Justice, and saw the judge in the same hot scarlet robe which 
 is worn in England. He looked as if etiquette would be the 
 death of him. In Australia, the judges wear the wig, and 
 not the gown ; in India, they wear the close robe and no 
 wig: which of the two is the more oppressive, I suppose no 
 one but the sufierers themselves can tell. 
 
go India. 
 
 We arrived without fiirtlier adventure at the " Sandheads," 
 which mark the mouth of the Hoogly river, on the 13th of 
 October. I had had a most pleasanit passage, having been 
 much ]3leased with the captain and my fellow-passengers. The 
 only drawback was the cock-roaches and spiders. The crew on 
 the Lancefield^ like those on the P. & O. Company's steamers, 
 was composed of all sorts of nationalities, each of which had 
 its appropriate work. First, the captain and mates were 
 Scotch — that being a nation which has many representatives 
 among the British in the East, particularly in the mercantile 
 classes. Secondly, the quartermasters and secunnies (helms- 
 men) were fi'om Manilla and China, and wore the naval 
 costume of duck-trowsers, and a shirt with a broad blue 
 collar. Thirdly, the crew of the captain's gig were China- 
 men, who make the best rowers in the East. Fourthly, the 
 firemen and stokers were great burly negroes from Africa, 
 known as seedipoys. Fifthly, the cabin servants, to j)ull the 
 punkahs, were Sooratee Moosulmans. Sixthly, the khitmut- 
 gras, who waited at table, were Calcutta Moosulmans. These 
 two last classes wore the chupJcun^ or double-breasted cassock, 
 which forms one of the most common dresses in India. On 
 their heads they had narrow flat turbans. The negroes had 
 no clothing but a cloth around the waist, and a low basket- 
 work cap, with a rude turban twisted around it. This cap 
 was also worn by the cabin boys from Soorat. The mariners 
 were Lascars, or,' as they are more properly called from the 
 name of their caste, Kulassees. They are a low caste of 
 Moosulmans, coming from the Malabar coast, and a more 
 spiritless, miserable looking set of men I never saw. Hindoos 
 never become sailors, as their caste forbids their leaving India, 
 and they would not probably be much inclined to a seafaring 
 life even if this obstacle did not stand in the way. In shipping 
 a Lascar crew, three times as many are always taken as if they 
 were white sailors, and this gives about the correct ratio of 
 their relative strength and activity. It is not usual to provide 
 any shelter for the Lascars at night, but they stow themselves 
 away on deck in the snuggest place they can find, and are 
 allowed to select the softest planks as a bed. They never take 
 
To Calcutta. 91 
 
 more than two suits of clothes on board with them, and keep 
 one of these suits for muster-days, so that our fellows wore 
 the same wet clothes day and night from Hong Kong to Sin- 
 gapore. The Lascars are under the immediate direction of 
 natives called tyndals^ answering to our boatswain's mates. 
 Each tyndal ships the men whom he commands, they having 
 either voluntarily adopted him for their master on shore, or 
 being so much in his debt as to be in his power — so that a 
 tyndal is in some respect like a sailors' boarding-house keeper 
 with us. Above the tyndals is the serang, answering to our 
 boatswain. The European officers very seldom attempt to 
 work or discipline the men, leaving all that in the hands of 
 the serang and his subordinates, to whom they give the orders. 
 The men are not divided into watches, but when they are not 
 wanted drop ofi* to sleep on deck. When some hands are called 
 to do any piece of work, the tyndals go about the deck, drag- 
 ging their trembhng men out of the hiding places to which they 
 betake themselves, and awaking them to a sense of the reali- 
 ties of life by mild applications of the colt (which is said to 
 be so called from its " helping you along"). The food of the 
 Lascars is rice and salt fish, made into a curry, of which they 
 partake squatted on the deck around large kids. The only 
 good point of these Kulassees is their agility, which far exceeds 
 that of European sailors. They ascend the rigging without 
 the help of the ratlins, by inserting the shrouds between the 
 toes, at the same time grasping them above with the hands. 
 In this way they will loalk up any largo rope as quickly as a 
 monkey. They will also, in the same way, walk out a try-sail 
 gaff, and, in fact, every Lascar is a far better performer than 
 our best acrobats. This peculiarity of the native sailors has 
 occasioned the custom of not " rattUng down" the rigging in 
 East Lidia ships. Then- skill depends jDrincipally on the use 
 they make of their toes, which a native uses with almost as 
 much facility as we do our fingers — e. g.. if he sees a small ob- 
 ject on the ground, he will not take the trouble to stoop down 
 and pick it up, but will take it up with his toes. Nor is it 
 with their toes only that the natives display their remarkable 
 
CfL India. 
 
 supjileness, as I shall have occasion hereafter to remark when 
 describing the nach girls and jugglers. 
 
 We lay all night at the mouth of the river, in order to give 
 the owners time to profit by the information which we brought, 
 and which we telegraphed to them from Saugor, sending a 
 boat ashore for the purpose. 
 
 At the pilot-brig which was anchored outside we were 
 joined by two officers, who had been down there to spend the 
 Doorga Poojah, a two weeks' Hindoo festival, which had just 
 ended. This pilot-brig is rather more comfortable than the 
 light-ship off New York harbour, and that these gentlemen 
 should go there for fresh air and amusement shows how much 
 of each can be obtained in Calcutta. 
 
 We began ascending the river on the morning of the 14th 
 of October. The Hoogly, as is well known, is one of the 
 mouths of the Ganges. In its dirty colour, and general features, 
 it resembles the Yang-tze-kiang, Mississippi, and most other 
 great alluvial streams. Like them, its navigation is attended 
 with great danger, from the shifting of the channel and the 
 sudden formation of shoals and banks. In the Hoogly, how- 
 ever, the difficulty and danger are increased by the strength and 
 swiftness of the tides, which, at certain times, come up the 
 river in a wall of water from two to six feet in height, tearing, 
 frequently, even the large ships from their moorings. These 
 tide- waves are called "bores," and are found, more or less 
 developed, wherever the waters are crowded together by a 
 cone-shaped bay like that of Bengal. 
 
 The banks of the Hoogly are low and uninteresting, but 
 covered with a luxuriant growth of tropical vegetation, above 
 which rises the spreading banyan, or tall cocoa-nut tree. The 
 river craft are few and ugly, so shaped as to have as small a 
 portion of the boat as possible in the water, the bow and stern 
 being made high and long, and the bottom flat. This enables 
 them to put a great deal of cargo on deck without much re- 
 sulting depression of the vessel. The natives whom I here 
 saw were, to my surprise, quite black. They were generally 
 nearly naked, having only a narrow cloth twisted around the 
 loins. The hair was commonly shaven off the head, which was 
 
To Calcutta. 93 
 
 unprotected by a turban or other covering. I found after- 
 wards, however, that this description was applicable to all the 
 lower classes in Calcutta. They are certainly a far inferior 
 race to the Chinese. On the boats they may be seen squatted 
 on the high bow smoking the huhble-bubhle — a position and an 
 occupation which are a Bengalee's ideal of existence. The 
 huhhle-huhhle^ as the foreigners call the commonest kind of 
 native hookah^ from the peculiar noise heard when it is smoked, 
 merits a description, as its use is one of the standard occupa- 
 tions of a native's life ; and its awkwardness, with the impos- 
 sibility of doing any active work while it is in use, are very 
 characteristic. It consists of a cocoa-nut shell, half filled with 
 water, and pierced above with two apertures. Through one 
 of these, which is on top, passes a tube descending into the 
 water. The other hole is for the mouth. The tube is ten 
 inches or a foot long, and is surmounted by the earthen chil- 
 lum^ or pipe-bowl. The smoke passes down the tube, through 
 the water, and out of the small hole into the smoker's mouth. 
 The tobacco, as used by the natives, is formed into a soft paste 
 with molasses, and has to be kept aUght by the contact of 
 burning charcoal, or balls of dried cow-dung, called ghools^ 
 which are ignited and laid on the tobacco. When used, the 
 shell is raised to the mouth with both hands, the tube and 
 chillum rising above the head. It has to be held with great 
 steadiness, as any motion will shake off the ghools. ISTo more 
 awkward instrument could be devised, and none better calcu- 
 lated to induce inaction in a people whose chief pleasure is 
 smoking, and who are naturally lazy. 
 
 But to return to the Hoogly. I have said that it resembled 
 the Yang-tze-kiang, but many things showed that we were not 
 on that river, or in China. First, the small numbers, and 
 awkward build and rig of the native craft, with the laziness 
 of their navigators. Then, again, the river was covered at 
 one place with floating timber, from a lumber vessel which 
 had gone to pieces the day before. In China every stick 
 would have been picked up in an hour. Another most disa- 
 greeably distinctive feature was the dead bodies, bloated, 
 
94 India. 
 
 blenched, and covered with vultures and crows, which we 
 constantly passed. The regular plan is to burn the dead and 
 throw the ashes into the river ; but in this observance the will 
 is taken for the deed, and the relatives burn as much of the 
 body as can be consumed by the amount of wood which they 
 can afford. As wood is very dear in' Calcutta and most Hin- 
 doos very poor, it consequently happens that the body is gen- 
 erally only half burned, or even only singed; and no more 
 disgusting sight can be conceived than such a corpse, swollen 
 by decomposition, half destroyed by the fire and half eaten by 
 the birds, the skin bleached by the weather, affording " shel- 
 ter and food" to numerous prawns and shrimps, who fatten on 
 such diet for the famous " prawn cm-ry" of Calcutta. 
 
 For the last two miles before reaching Calcutta the scenery 
 of the river is so beautiful that it is known as " Garden Keach." 
 On the eastern shore are numerous large houses, the residences 
 of Europeans. The compounds are large, and filled with beau- 
 tiful trees. A fine road leads down from the city, and is a 
 favourite drive in the evening. On the opposite bank of the 
 river is the Botanical Garden, a very extensive establishment, 
 which the Calcutta people suppose to contain the largest ban- 
 yan tree in the world. 
 
 In a window of one of the houses in Garden Reach we saw 
 the King of Oude. He was sitting in a chair watching the 
 arrival of our steamer. Two servants, with long fans of pea- 
 cocks' feathers, brushed the flies away from his majesty. 
 
 For the last year or so the King has been kept in confine- 
 ment on account of suspected complicity in the revolt. It is 
 doubtful if the government will be able to prove anything 
 against him in a court of law; though in India every one 
 befieves that he and his minister, Ali Nakhi Khan, were aware 
 of the plot from the first, and that they were among the ori- 
 ginal conspirators. At any rate, his whole offence is confined 
 to concealing from the government what he knew, and abet- 
 ting the plots of his minister, since the miserable wretch is so 
 utterly exhausted by a life of brutal debauchery as to be quite 
 incapable of devising any great scheme, or taking an active 
 
To Calcutta. 95 
 
 part in it. It is to be hoped that he will not be again re- 
 leased, and permitted to re-establish such a nest of nameless 
 vices as was his mansion in Garden Keach, In truth, a life 
 spent in confinement would not be an inappropriate termina- 
 tion to the career of one who, in his own person, degraded 
 human nature below the level of the lowest brute. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CALCUTTA. 
 
 Palkees — Buggies — ^The City of Calcutta — Government House — Tanks — ^Baz&rs — The 
 largest Mint in the World — Supreme Court — Conflict of Laws — Missions and Schools 
 — Spence's Hotel— Servants — Expenses of Living in India — Civil Servants — Their 
 Salaries— The Language of the Camp— A People without a Country, and a Country 
 without a Name. 
 
 On landing in Calcutta I was at once surrounded by a 
 crowd of nearly naked " niggers," painted all over the face 
 and breast with red and white streaks, the sign of their hav- 
 ing made poojah, i. e., done worship to some idol that morning. 
 These gentlemen crowded me so much with their black, oily 
 bodies, that I found a vigourous beating with my umbrella 
 necessary to keep them at a respectful distance. They offered 
 to convey my luggage to the hotel, and I accepted the ser- 
 vices of one fellow, who at once distributed the various arti- 
 cles to about twenty others, one carrying a carpet-bag, another 
 an umbrella, &c. I then inserted myself in a palanquin, or, as 
 they are commonly called in Bengal, palkee. This is a black 
 box, seven feet long, three feet high, closed all around, with a 
 sliding door in the side, and furnished inside with a mattrass 
 and bolster. At each end of the palkee, near the top, there 
 is a pole, three feet long, projecting at right angles, which the 
 bearers rest on their shoulders. Four bearers are under the 
 palkee at any one time, and two more run alongside as a 
 relief. To enter the palkee you turn your back toward it and 
 sit down on the mattrass in its bottom, and then, by a dex- 
 terous " slew," bring your legs and head inside. You then 
 lie down and are carried along reclining at full length. The 
 palkee-bearers have a peculiar lock-step which prevents the 
 least jolt, and nothing can be more luxurious than this mode 
 of conveyance, at least for short distances. 
 
Calcutta. ▼ gy 
 
 Palkees were formerly universally used by foreigners in 
 going about the city, but they are now suj^planted by garr- 
 hees and buggies ; the former, a vehicle which I have de- 
 scribed when speakmg of Singapore ; the latter, a two-wheeled 
 gig, with a top descending very low m front to keep off the 
 sun. Eveiybody in Calcutta keeps or hires a buggy ; even 
 the captains of ships, and some of the mates, have their bug- 
 gies waiting for them all day on the quay. The necessity of 
 some conveyance arises fi.*om the impossibility of walking out 
 exposed to the sun. In the palmy days of palkees, they were 
 richly ornamented, and a single one would often cost as much 
 as 3,000 rupees, or $1,500 ; and a certain number of palkee-bear- 
 ers were a necessary part of every gentleman's household. 
 
 Calcutta is situated on the eastern branch of the Hoogly, 
 and was the first concession to the British in this part of India. 
 It was, when they obtained it, only a miserable village, known 
 as Kalee-Ghat, of which its present name is a corruption. It 
 is now supposed to have 600,000 inhabitants at least. Below 
 the city of Calcutta, and between it and " Garden Reach," is 
 a broad open j^lain, of from 100 to 150 acres, running along 
 the water's edge. This is called the " Esplanade," or, as fre- 
 quently by its Hindoostanee name, Maidan. It is the great 
 drive of Calcutta, being divided by fine broad macadamized 
 roads bordered with trees. The space between the roads is 
 plain turf. Along the river's bank runs the largest of these 
 roads, called the " Strand," where is seen in the evening the 
 greatest show of carriages and equipages. Fort William, 
 the principal defence of Calcutta, and one of the strongest 
 fortresses in the world, is on the river's bank, wholly contained 
 within the Maidan. Around the Maidan is built the European 
 portion of Calcutta — fine houses of stuccoed brick, covering 
 much ground, but commonly not over two stories high, and 
 generally without compounds. At the lower extremity of the 
 Maidan, surrounded by fine trees, is the cathedral, a large 
 decorated Gothic building, of no particular merit. The finest 
 building in Calcutta is Government House — the residence of 
 the Governor General. It fronts on the Esplanade, but is 
 surrounded by an open square of its own. It consists of two 
 
 5 
 
98 * India. 
 
 semicircular galleries, placed back to. back, and meeting in a 
 central hall. Rows of columns decorate the exterior, a dome 
 surmounts the central pavilion, the entrance is by a broad and 
 massive flight of stone steps, and the whole is of sufficient 
 size to be imposing, and even majestic. Between Govern- 
 ment House and the river is the Town Hall, and Spence's 
 Hotel, where I stopped. The whole vicinity of Government 
 House Square is built up with fine private residences, and 
 streets of shops, which are here on a large scale. 
 
 The side of the town toward the river is separated from the 
 water by a broad quay, fronting on which are the stores of 
 the merchants, similar to the private houses in architecture 
 and extent, but much higher. They were formerly occupied 
 by the merchants as residences — a custom which still obtains 
 in China. Behind this line of princely counting-houses, be- 
 hind that mass of noble residences which surrounds the Maidan 
 and Government House Square, and which have given Cal- 
 cutta its name, " The City of Palaces," shut out from all 
 view, and light, and air, are the narrow, filthy streets with 
 open sewers, the dark and winding lanes, the low and squahd 
 huts, which form the vast native town, or, as it is commonly 
 called, the " Black Town" of Calcutta. 
 
 Calcutta being altogether a modern place, contains no 
 native buildings of interest — the Hindoo temples and Ma- 
 hommedan mosques being all small and insignificant. The 
 latter are without minarets, which compel the Muezzin to 
 stand at the door when calling the faithful to prayer — a call to 
 which, in Calcutta, they rarely attend, as they are altogether 
 a very spurious and inferior variety of Moosulmans. 
 
 The city is supphed with drinking water from wells, but 
 there are beside large tanks, or 023en reservoirs excavated 
 from the earth. These tanks are commonly 150 or 200 yards 
 long by 100 wide, and thirty or forty feet deep. These 
 become filled in the rainy season, and their water is used for 
 washing, bathing, sprinkling the roads, &c. One of the tanks, 
 much larger than the others, is filled from the Hoogiy by a 
 steam pump. These tanks are quite universal in Lower Bengal, 
 about country houses, each house having several. 
 
Calcutta. 99 
 
 The bazars, of which the city is full, are nasty, narrow, 
 native streets, of little low shops. In them you can buy 
 almost anything at ridiculously low rates,by wasting time and 
 patience in chaifering with the natives, who almost stun you 
 as you walk through, with their clamorous entreaties to enter 
 their shops, and the enumeration of their stock, and its excel- 
 lence. Here, as throughout the East, it is always customary 
 to ask many times as much for a thing as the seller expects to 
 obtain. 
 
 The Calcutta mint is the largest establishment of the kind 
 in the world, the next in size being the mints at Bombay and 
 Madras. It is situated in the upper part of the city on the 
 quay. The machinery is of the best kind, and on a much 
 larger scale than at either London or Paris. The coin struck 
 is the Company's rupee, of the value of two shillings sterling, 
 and copper pieces. No gold coin is now struck, gold not 
 being in India a legal tender, or even a recognized currency. 
 
 During my stay at Calcutta, I attended the sessions of 
 the Supreme Court, which are held in the Town Hall. The 
 jurisdiction of this tribunal extends to all cases in Calcutta, 
 and over all the inhabitants of the United Kinc^dom residinsr 
 in the Jlofussil — a native term used to designate all parts 
 of India, except the three Presidency towns. There ig 
 another Supreme Court, the Suddur Dewan-ee-Adawlut, a 
 Comj^any's Court, which hears appeals from the Courts in the 
 Mofussil. N'o Englishman can be tried excej^t in the Presi- 
 dency town, and before the Supreme Court, with all the priv- 
 ileges of the common law of England. On the other hand, 
 no native can be tried in the Presidency town, for an offence 
 committed in the Mofussil, but must be conveyed up country 
 to undergo trial. These regulations are the means of prevent- 
 ing many vexatious prosecutions, as a native possesses to 
 a large extent the common faihng of a fondness for law. In 
 the Mofussil the criminal proceedings are very simple, the 
 delay short, and the punishment, though mild, certain, except 
 in the case of capital sentences, which must all come before 
 the Suddur Court for approval. In all British India, with its 
 100,000,000 of inhabitants, there is but one Court in each 
 
lOO India. 
 
 Presidency which can, of its own authority, inflict the pun- 
 ishment of death. 
 
 The pleadings and legal proceedings in the Supreme Court 
 are in English ; in the Suddur Court, as in all the Company's 
 Courts, they are in Persian, the speeches and examinations 
 being in almost any of the numerous tongues spoken in India. 
 The civil proceedings in the Company's Courts are somewhat 
 confused and unsettled, as the Hindoo and Moosulman codes 
 with all the peculiar native usages and customs have been 
 allowed to prevail, almost unchanged. Thus the institutes of 
 Menoo, the Shastras, and Yedas form the only standard of the 
 Hindoo law, while the Koran is the sole guide to the Moosul- 
 man code. Again, there are large classes like the converted 
 Christians and half-castes hving in the Mofussil, who are not 
 properly subjected to either of these codes. It may be 
 imagined that the Company's Judges get rather confused in 
 this " conflict of laws," especially as they are never educated 
 for lavryers — perhaps this last fact is the real secret of their 
 being able to administer at all so confused a system. 
 
 Calcutta is the seat of many missionary establishments, 
 one of the largest of which is the schools of the Free Scotch 
 Church. It is situated in the native town near the mint. 
 The buildings are large and suitably arranged, and the ben- 
 efits of instruction are eagerly sought by the native children. 
 The Enghsh language is almost exclusively employed, and the 
 scholars, when their education is complete, generally become 
 Baboos, or native clerks in foreign commercial houses. One 
 of the instructors took great pains in showing me over the es- 
 tabhshment. He says the boys are very bright and eager to 
 learn, but the converts are few ; instruction seems only to 
 destroy their faith in their own superstitions. In this school 
 the prejudices of caste are entirely disregarded, and the 
 Brahmun sits on the same bench with the Soodra. The 
 teacher told me, however, that the Brahmun boys were often 
 very much delayed on their way to school, being stopped by 
 the common people that they might bless their stock of 
 drinking water by dipping in it their sacred feet. In old 
 times, the touch of one of a lower caste would have defiled 
 
Calcutta. lOl 
 
 a Brahmun for the day. In fact, in Calcutta, among educated 
 natives, (who, it should be remembered, are, after all, only a 
 small class), the j^rejudices of caste have been very much 
 modified, and many of them will eat or drink "^dth Christians, 
 and even partake of the sacred flesh of a cow, and indulge in 
 the forbidden cup. The latter practice, many of them carry 
 out to its fullest extent, and it may be doubted whether their 
 releas^ from the other prejudices is not dearly purchased at the 
 price of the spreading habit of intoxication. These enfran- 
 chised Hindoos continue to celebrate their idolatrous rites 
 and perform all such ceremonies as are necessary to prevent 
 their expulsion from caste, which involved until quite recently 
 by the law of India, ciml death; but, in heart, they are deists 
 or atheists, and make no scruple of avowing their infidelity. 
 The strict seclusion in which native women are kept, has pre- 
 vented the formation of girls' schools — but some efibrts have 
 been made, vrith partial success, by the missionaries' wives, 
 for their private instruction. 
 
 Spence's hotel, where I stayed, while in Calcutta, is a " fur- 
 nished apartment " sort of establishment. There is a table 
 d'hote^ to be sure, but each man has to keep his own servants, 
 or he will not be waited on at table, and his rooms wUl not 
 be cleaned. Servants, in Calcutta, are, generally, Moosul- 
 mans. Their dress, a tight-fitting, white cotton chupkun^ 
 loose 23a?2Jama, and a flat pugree (turban). They speak 
 nothing but Hindoostanee, and the first time I took dinner I 
 got scarcely anytliing to eat, from not knowing the native 
 words for the edibles. I had the greatest trouble in getting a 
 native servant, who could speak Enghsh, to accompany me 
 up country, and finally had to hire an untrained half caste boy. 
 These half-castes, the descendants of a mixture of the English 
 or Portuguese, and native races, form a large class in India. 
 They dress in a quasi-European costume, and generally speak 
 English, though they are mostly as black as any native. They 
 are supposed to have all the faults of both native and Euro- 
 pean, with none of their virtues, and are, certainly, a dread- 
 fully proud, lazy, lying set; on account of which qualities 
 Europeans scarcely ever employ them. They are sometimes 
 
102 India. 
 
 called by the barbarous name of " Eurasians " — a supposed 
 compound of "Europe" and "Asia." 
 
 The wages of servants are very low. A JcJiitmutgra^ or 
 butler, gets only five or six rupees a month, and the others 
 even less. Out of this, to us small sum, they have to feed, 
 clothe and lodge themselves and family — for all natives are 
 married. But all the necessaries of life are very cheap, and 
 the wages of a working man, which are only three or four 
 rupees a month, (1 1.50 or $2,) amply suffice for the support of 
 his household. 
 
 The number of servants necessary in India, from the sub- 
 divisions of labour, and the prejudices of caste, is enormous. 
 The servant who pours out the water into your basin, will not 
 empty it when dirty; nor would he touch an article of food 
 prepared for your use. Much more display of servants was 
 customary in the "old Indian" times, when the European 
 residents imitated the gorgeous ostentation of the rich natives. 
 Bishop Heber says, that in his time, it was customary for 
 Enghshmen of rank, to be preceded in the streets by sipahees 
 with spear and buckler, hiirJcarus and chohdars bearing mas- 
 sive silver maces, a chattah-hurdar^ carrying a large red 
 umbrella, and many other followers with fans, etc. ]^ow-a- 
 days, all this show is left to the rich natives, who rather despise 
 it, and affect the European style. It is still necessary, how- 
 ever, to keep very large retinues for the ordinary service of 
 the household, and a family of four or five, must, in Calcutta, 
 have twenty or thirty servants, so that their wages, though small 
 for each, will, in the aggregate, amount to more than the pay 
 of the smaller number of domestics who would do the same 
 work in Europe. 
 
 The expenses of Hving in Calcutta, and, indeed, throughout 
 India, are very large, notwithstanding the low price of food. 
 This is owing to several causes. One is the high cost of all 
 European goods, (the price of which is kept uj) by the uni- 
 versal system of credit, and the consequent number of bad 
 debts,) another is the state which it is customary to maintain, 
 and the extravagant style of living, with the large use of wine 
 and beer, which is universal. House-rent is also very high. 
 
Calcutta. 103 
 
 This manner of living prevails all over Lidia, and it is rare, 
 indeed, to find any one living within his means. The conse- 
 quence is, that nearly all the officers of the army, and most of 
 the civil servants, are deeply in debt to natives ; and this, 
 notwithstanding the high pay of the civil servants, (magis- 
 trates, judges, &c.,) who receive from 1,000 to 8,000 rupees a 
 month. The Governor-General receives a salary of £25,000 
 per annum, besides allowances, which make it amount to as 
 much again — but his expenses are very great. 
 
 The Governor-General of India resides at Calcutta, and has 
 direction of the general affiiirs of the whole contment, the 
 Governors of the two other Presidencies of Bombay and 
 Madras being subordinate to him — though not to the same 
 extent, as are the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, the Chief 
 Commissioner of Oude, the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra and 
 the North Western Provinces, and the Chief Commissioner 
 of the Punjab, who are directly under his control. The 
 Governor-General, and the Governors of the two other Presi- 
 dencies, are appointed by the Crown, although under the 
 du'ection of the Company, which may dismiss them. All 
 other posts in the civil service are, however, now open to 
 competition, those persons being appointed who succeed best 
 at the Company's civil service examination in London. These 
 examinations are open to all British subjects, and several 
 natives have passed high, and received very good appoint- 
 ments. 
 
 The language of Bengal, is the Bengalee, a tongue which 
 has much affinity with the Sanscrit ; but the common language 
 used by natives to foreigners, both in Calcutta and throughout 
 India, is the Hindoostanee, which is only vernacular in Hin- 
 doostan. This Hindoostanee, or, as it is more correctly 
 termed, Oordoo, (the camp dialect) is a sort of lingua franca^ 
 which arose after the Moosulman conquest, and was invented 
 to facilitate intercourse between the conquerers and the con- 
 quered. It contains many Arabic, Persian, and Sanscrit words, 
 the proportions being dissimilar in difierent parts of the coun- 
 try. The further you go to the north-west, the more does 
 the Perso-Arabic element prevail. It is a very flexible 
 
104 
 
 India. 
 
 tongue, readily appropriating words from all languages ; but 
 has regular declensions and conjugations. Being only used, 
 in the greater part of India, between people who speak dif- 
 ferent languages, it is, of course, poor in words, and has no 
 Hterature. I said above, that it was vernacular, in parts of 
 Hindoostan. This expression may be misunderstood, as the 
 term Hindoostan is incorrectly used here, to designate the 
 whole peninsula of India. It, really, only describes the coun- 
 try north of the IsTurbudda, west of Benares, and east of the 
 Sutiej, and is often, if not generally, used in a still more con- 
 tracted sense — those of the Rajpootana states, which are 
 within these limits, and even the dominions of Scindiah, not 
 beiug commonly considered a part of Hindoostan. The term 
 Hindoo, also, it should always be remembered, is appropriate 
 to a religion, and not to a race. The peninsula of India is 
 inhabited, and always has been, by men of various races, dif- 
 ferent languages, and subject to numerous independent sov- 
 ereigns. Their only tie is caste, which is at once, a bond 
 connecting together a certain number, and insulating them 
 from all others. There is no approach to a feeling of common 
 nationality among the inhabitants of the various countries into 
 which India is divided, and in none of the native languages is 
 there a word answering to "India," or "an Indian.""^ I 
 think I am not wrong in saying that there is far less sympathy 
 between a Bengalee, a Hindoostanee, a Punjabee, and a Dek- 
 kunee, than between the same number of individuals picked 
 out of the most dissimilar countries in Europe. Were these 
 facts more generally known, they might remove some mis- 
 conceptions with respect to the recent mutiny in India. 
 
 * The word India was formed bj the Romans, from the name of the river 
 "Indus " — ^in the native language " Sind." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CALCUTTA — CONTINUED. 
 
 Boasting Human Bodies — Adjutants in Calcutta — Unpaid Scavengers — Early Eising — 
 The Morning Drive— "The Strand" — Clothing— Country around Calcutta— " Sta- 
 tions"— Dum-Dum— Artillery Mess— An Ameer of Sind— Barrackpoor— The Sepoys 
 — ^Too much Petted — Some Causes of the Mutiny. 
 
 One of the most remarkable sights in Calcutta, is the 
 " Burning Ghat ;" a piece of ground on the river's bank, in 
 the upper part of the city, used for the incremation of the 
 dead. It is about a hundred feet square, surrounded on three 
 sides by brick walls, eighteen or twenty feet high. On the 
 fourth side toward the river it is open. The enclosure is 
 unpaved and slopes to the water's edge, near which the funeral 
 pyres are erected. At the u]3per end, against the wall, are 
 miserable huts where those sick Hindoos, who can pay for the 
 privilege, come to die near the sacred Gunga — a consummation 
 which must be materially hastened by the stench of the local- 
 ity, the exposure of lying in wretched hovels made only of 
 mats, and the custom of keeping them on a very light diet 
 mdeed. In some very obstinate cases, the relatives shorten the 
 agonies of their dying relations by stuffing the mouth and nos- 
 trils with the sacred mud of the Hoogly. The religious rites 
 connected with the burning are in the hands of certain brah- 
 muns, the practical details being intrusted to the members of a 
 peculiar caste y both drive a thriving trade. Two bodies were 
 burning and frizzling on miserably insuffi^cient piles of fuel, when 
 I visited the place, and the fetid, deadly, odour of the fumes, 
 the horrid, dissecting-room stench of piles of human bones, 
 half covered with flesh, on which birds of prey were feeding, 
 with the groans and cries of pain from the poor wretches in 
 the sheds, soon sickened me with the place, and made me 
 
io6 India. 
 
 glad to leave. I have before mentioned that the bodies are 
 generally only half burned. When all the wood that the 
 relatives have jDaid for has been consumed, the roasted car- 
 case is thrown into the river, and floats away or not, accord- 
 ing to the tide. In either case, it is at once pounced on by the 
 loathsome carrion birds, which sit on the wall of the enclosure, 
 motionless as statues, waiting till their meal be cooked. 
 These birds are called hurgilas^ but have been nicknamed 
 adjutants by the foreigners from the solemnity and stiffiiess 
 of their carriage. They form quite a feature of Calcutta, 
 standing motionless on the roofs of houses, and even in the 
 streets and squares. They look like a cross between the 
 stork and vulture, stand about three feet high, and measure 
 about eight from tip to tip. They have a disgustingly roomy 
 pouch under the bill, and are altogether horrid looking crea- 
 tures. Their demeanour is particularly calm and sedate, and 
 they will stand motionless for hours in the most frequented 
 squares, probably reflecting on the possibility of their soon 
 making a meal on the passers-by. They will let you come as 
 near them as you like, having no fear of man, as a city regula- 
 tion prevents their being molested. This immunity they owe 
 to their being the only scavengers, except the other carrion 
 birds, of which there are great numbers in Calcutta. No such 
 birds are seen in China, where the dead are all buried, and 
 everything else on which they feed is carefully collected, and 
 made into manm'e, or turned to some useful purpose. The 
 filthy condition of Indian towns and villages contrasts most 
 disadvantageously Vkdth Chinese towns ; I do not believe that 
 there are any cleaner cities in the world than the latter, if the 
 narrowness of the streets and the absence of drainage be taken 
 into account. 
 
 Europeans in India keep very different hom-s from those in 
 China. Every house in Calcutta is shut up. by ten o'clock, 
 and the whole city is asleep. In this respect the habits of 
 foreigners depend very much upon those of the natives. In 
 China, where the Chinese Hke to sit up late, foreigners con- 
 form, and do not go to bed before twelve, getting up very 
 late. In Bengal, however, all the servants leave their mas- 
 
Calcutta. 
 
 107 
 
 ter's house by ten, or before, to go to their own homes — and 
 rise very early in the morning, customs which the Europeans 
 are forced to imitate. Uj^-country, the natives keep later 
 hours, but the requirements of the service compel the officers 
 to rise before day-break, when parade takes place, and in con- 
 sequence they generally retire to bed by nine o'clock in the 
 evening. 
 
 The custom of rising early in Calcutta, enables the residents 
 to get a ride before breakfast — the early morning being the 
 only part of the day, until after sunset, when exercise is pos- 
 sible in the Indian cUmate. From five till seven in the morn- 
 ing the Maidan is covered with ladies and gentlemen on 
 horseback; but the greatest show is in the evening, from 
 half-past five to seven. Between these hours, every one in 
 Calcutta, who can muster any vehicle, betakes himself to the 
 Strand, which is then as crowded as Hyde Park in the season. 
 The equij^ages are, some of them, very handsome, but entirely 
 English in style, even when they belong to rich natives. The 
 coachmen are ah natives, and generally wear long beards. 
 They drive remarkably well. Each carriage has as many 
 saeeses or grooms, as there are horses. They are Moosulmans 
 of a peculiar caste, and wear a short tight-fitting jacket and 
 flat turban, the lower part of the body being covered by a 
 tightly wound dhotee which leaves the legs bare. They carry 
 in their hands the chouree^ or tail of the Thibet goat, fitted 
 with a short handle; with this, running along side of the 
 horses, they brush away the flies. These saeeses will run for 
 almost any distance with a carriage, or after the horse upon 
 which their master rides, and up-country their endurance is 
 often put to severe tests. In Calcutta, however, as the roads 
 in the Maidan are very crowded, the saeeses are generally 
 allowed to sit on the footboard. Beside the neat turn-outs of 
 the Europeans, one sees on the Strand the equipages of the 
 rich natives, which are also in the English style, but much 
 gayer, each carriage being often accompanied by six or eight 
 servants, including a " silver-stick." The owner of ^W this 
 splendour will sit alone on the back seat of the carriage, 
 divested of aU clothing, if a Bengalee baboo, except a fine 
 
io8 India. 
 
 linen dhotee from the waist downward. These baboos, or 
 native merchants, are often enormously rich, and live in as 
 handsome houses, and in as elegant style, as the most wealthy 
 Europeans. They ape the English customs to a great extent. 
 The native princes, many of whom live at Calcutta on large 
 pensions from the Company, also appear on the drive. Their 
 carriages and attendants are commonly similar to those of the 
 baboos, but with them dress is a great consideration, and 
 their costume is frequently magnificent. Beside these large 
 carriages, there are crowds of buggies, containing officers and 
 gentlemen ; and a great many caranchees^ a miserable, broken- 
 down sort of garrhee, unpainted, imwashed, drawn by a single 
 animated skeleton of a horse, and driven by a naked nigger, 
 who perches on the narrow box-seat, holding the rope-reins 
 with one hand, and with the other plying the whip with un- 
 remitting diligence. These caranchees are a sight such as 
 can be seen nowhere else than in Calcutta. They are com- 
 monly filled with Bengalee clerks, or a drunken party of 
 sailors from the ships in the harbour. In contrast with these 
 are the Arab horse-dealers, who come to Calcutta with Arab 
 horses for sale, and who take advantage of the evening to 
 show off their steeds, riding them at full speed across the 
 grassy esplanade. They dress in loose and graceful robes of 
 brightly-contrasted colours, their horsemanship is magnificent, 
 and their horses combine every perfection but size, which is 
 the one drawback to an Arab horse. 
 
 English horses will not stand the climate of India, and the 
 native animal is a coarse, heavy-boned, big-headed beast, with 
 an ugly temper. Many horses are consequently brought from 
 Arabia, but their price is very high. The best, and cheapest 
 breed is that raised at the Honourable Company's stud stables, 
 from which officers have to buy their chargers. The stud- 
 horses combine the good qualities of the Arab and native 
 breeds, of which they come; being larger, and more bony 
 than the pure Arab, but possessing all his suppleness, speed, 
 and good temper. 
 
 Perhaps, no one thing surprised me so much, on first land- 
 ing in India, as the complexion and features of the natives. I 
 
Calcutta. 
 
 109 
 
 had always supposed them to be of a brownish colour, and to 
 have something like a Caucasian countenance. I found them 
 in Bengal nearly black, and with a very low cast of counte- 
 nance. Up-country, the features become finer, but even in 
 Hindoostan, the mass of the people are very dark. Towards 
 Bombay, the complexion of the inhabitants is lighter, but 
 they never have the clear slun^ which is a distinctive mark of 
 the Caucasian race, and which is found even among its dark- 
 est variety, the Spaniards, when the blood is unmixed by 
 Moorish, or Negro contamination. 
 
 The mass of the people in Bengal wear no clothing, but a 
 narrow cloth around the loins. The women, however, and 
 the men of the better classes, dress in a wide long piece of the 
 finest muslin, which is disposed around the body so as to form 
 a skirt, or loose trowser below (the dhotee), and is then 
 brought up over the shoulders, completely covering the whole 
 body, and falling nearly to the ground, in graceful folds. This 
 is a most picturesque costume, especially when seen in the 
 country, but a most unmanageable dress to do any work in. 
 
 The country around Calcutta, though very level, is yet 
 pretty, and in some places even beautiful, from the luxuriance 
 of the vegetation. The roads are broad, and finely made, and 
 the trees which border them are of great size. The whole 
 was a scene of exuberant vegetable life, which, perhaps, im- 
 pressed me the more, because I had become accustomed to 
 the utilitarian neatness of China, where nothing is allowed to 
 go to waste, and not a tree or bush j^ermitted to encumber 
 the ground, except it is directly useful to man. Agriculture 
 in India is quite a difierent thing from Chinese cultivation, 
 being conducted in the most lazy and careless manner, and 
 the whole of the crops are often pledged to some native 
 banker for sums advanced before the ground was planted. In 
 fact, while I remained in India, I became daily more impressed 
 with the inferiority of the people to the Chinese, and their 
 want of that economy, order, and industry which enables the 
 latter nation to bo comfortable, even on the smallest means. 
 The huts of the natives of India are miserable mud. hovels, 
 unfit for pigs, wretchedly thatched, and afford a most insuf 
 
no India. 
 
 ficient protection against the rain ; while the houses of the 
 Chinese agriculturists are always solid, in good repair, and 
 comfortable looking, however poor the dwellers in them may 
 be. 
 
 The vicinity of Calcutta, for five or six miles around, is a 
 favourite place of residence of the European merchants, and 
 rich natives from the city. All along the roads, one passes 
 large, handsome country-houses, in the Anglo-Indian style, 
 about a quarter of a mile from one another. The compounds 
 are planted with fine large trees, and the lawns covered with 
 turf, which does very well in Bengal, though such a thing is 
 never seen in any other part of India. Many of these sub- 
 urban residences are occupied by native princes, who have 
 been deposed, and are detained at Calcutta, or who prefer to 
 live at that city. The former class are always in the receipt 
 of large pensions from Government, but they generally con- 
 trive to spend all they get, living very expensively, and being 
 an easy prey to horse-jockeys and other sharpers. 
 
 I had letters to the officer commanding the artillery sta- 
 tioned at Calcutta. I found him at Dum-Dum, which is the 
 artillery station, as Barrackpoor is the infantry station of the 
 capital. All troops in India are stationed near the cities which 
 they protect, but not in them. The stations consist of a vil- 
 lage of mud huts for the soldiers, and lines of bungalows for 
 the officers ; each bungalow being separated from the others 
 by a compound, and generally inhabited by two officers, who, 
 unless they are married, prefer to divide the expense of the 
 rent. Every station contains a shop, where all sorts of Euro- 
 pean stores can be obtained ; a bazar, where the soldiers buy 
 their food and other necessaries, and a mess-house, where the 
 unmarried officers dine in common. In*large stations there is 
 also a church, with a chaplain appointed by Government. 
 Where two or more regiments occupy the same station, there 
 is a bazar for each regiment, and each has its own lines. It 
 will be understood, that when I speak of soldiers, I mean the 
 native sepoys, who, until recently, formed the army of India ; 
 and in describing the cantonments, I describe arrangements 
 which are done away with by the revolt of the soldiery, the 
 
Calcutta. Ill 
 
 murder of the officers, or their forced flight, and the burning 
 of the bungalows, stores, and churches, 
 
 Dum-Duni was a very large station, but when I was there, 
 had been diminished in importance by the removal of the 
 artillery head-quarters to Meeruth. I found Colonel Mowatt, 
 to whom my letter was directed, living in the largest bunga- 
 low, which was about forty feet square, and two stories high. 
 He was a most amiable person, who took the greatest pains to 
 amuse and entertain me during my stay in Calcutta; and 
 when I went up-country, gave me letters to several officers, 
 which I found a great advantage. I dined, by the Colonel's 
 invitation, at the artillery mess-house, which is considered the 
 finest building of the kmd in India ; it is very spacious, and 
 decorated in front by a broad verandah, with a fine row of 
 columns. The officers were, like all those whom I had the 
 pleasure of meeting in India, a very gentlemanly set of 
 men. Several of them obligingly gave me letters to friends in 
 the interior, and Major Broom, whom I met at the mess, 
 showed me the Company's gun foundry at Cossipoor, of which 
 he was the director, and kindly made me a present of some 
 curious native armour. I spent a couple of days at Dum-Dum 
 with Colonel Mowatt, who was unremitting in his attentions. 
 He showed me over the Dum-Dum percussion-cap manufac- 
 tory, of which he was at the time, the head; took me to an 
 amateur theatrical performance by the officers, and some 
 European soldiers ; and got me an invitation to a ball at the 
 mess-house, where most of the great peoj)le of Calcutta were 
 present. The Colonel took me also to visit one of the de- 
 posed Ameers of Sind, who lives in an elegant residence near 
 Dum-Dum. On the road to the Ameer's, we passed a large 
 country-seat, called " Seven Tanks," belonging to a wealthy 
 native merchant, in the inclosure of which we saw a rhinoce- 
 ros, standing in a pond of water. Of elephants, I saw several 
 in the roads about Calcutta, but none in the city itself There 
 are now but few of them used lower down the country than 
 Oude. 
 
 On asking for the Ameer, we heard that he was taking his 
 siesta, but, just as we were about driving away, he came out on 
 
112 India. 
 
 the verandah and invited us to walk in, having been awakened 
 by the noise of our carriage. He received us in a very large, 
 plain room, Avith no other furniture than 2upullun (low native 
 bedstead) in the centre, and a few chairs about the wall. The 
 Ameer seated himself cross-legged on the pullun, over which 
 swung a punkah, and we took chairs near him. He was a 
 little man, of clear olive complexion, and a very Jewish caste 
 of features ; not having dressed since his nap, he wore only 
 a fine muslin shirt, and loose pa72Jama of the same material. 
 We remained nearly an hour, the colonel and the Ameer con- 
 versing in Persian, the court language of the East. Of course 
 I could take no direct part in what they said, but the colonel 
 translated to me the most interesting remarks of the prince. 
 Before we left, the Ameer showed us several swords, daggers 
 and other arms, which were heirlooms in his family. These 
 weapons were of the finest Indian steel, which is considered 
 superior to that made in Europe. The hilts, scabbards, belts 
 and buckles of these arms were decorated in the most magni- 
 ficent manner with diamonds and other jewels. One sword 
 was estimated to be worth £40,000, and one dagger, nearly 
 half that sum. The Ameer also brought out for our inspec- 
 tion a copy of the Koran, which had been in his family for 
 two hundred years. It was written on the finest vellum, and 
 the execution was as perfect as that of any manuscript I have 
 seen. The case which contained it was of velvet, set with 
 jewels, worth many thousand pounds. At the end of the 
 volume were the signatures of the other Ameers, the brothers 
 or cousins of our entertainer, who wrote them there when 
 they swore on this book, to be faithful unto death to him and 
 each other, having done which, with the usual fidelity of 
 natives, they betrayed him to the English the same day. The 
 Ameer's servants were all old followers, dressed like their 
 master in the long muslin shirt, the pa^^jama, and the low, red 
 cap, with a projecting crown, Vv^hich form the costume of Sind. 
 They were tall, heavily built men, with long white locks, and 
 magnificent snowy beards, their complexion clear, although 
 rather tawny, their gait and bearing majestic — altogether as 
 fine looking specimens of men as you will easily see. They 
 
Calcutta. 113 
 
 reminded me a little of the old representations of men in the 
 Nineveh sculptures. 
 
 Barrackpoor, the infantry station of Calcutta, and the scene 
 of the premonitory symptoms of the recent general mutiny, is 
 situated about 1 5 miles from the city ; while the distance from 
 the city to Dum-Dum is only 6 miles. There was always a 
 considerable number of troops at Barrackpoor, only two regi- 
 ments being kept in Fort William. It is also the residence 
 for the greater part of the year of the Governor General, who 
 has here a magnificent mansion, surrounded by gardens and 
 enclosed in a large park, well filled with trees. 
 
 It was at Calcutta that I first saw the Sepoys, or more 
 properly Si2)ahees, from sipali^ the Persian word for a bow. 
 They were a better looking race of men than the Bengalees, 
 being recruited up-country. Their uniform was similar to that 
 of English soldiers, except that their shako had no leather 
 peak, which would be an ofience to their caste. The Sepoys 
 always looked better when oft' duty in their native dress, than 
 when in uniform, as they had not the prominent chest of the 
 European ; and the heavy red coat seemed a most inappro- 
 priate dress for the climate. However, they were very proud 
 of it, and so much did it take the fancy of the natives, that 
 years ago it v>^as introduced into the armies of all the mdej^en-- 
 dent native princes. The Sepoys made good troops generally, 
 and would fight well enough in company with European regi- 
 ments, of which the Honourable Company had seven, and the 
 Queen generally twenty or more, in India. The English regi- 
 ments wear, in this hot climate, an undress uniform of white 
 cotton, with a cap of the same, having a w^hite turban wound 
 around it. A turban is found to be the best protection against 
 the eftects of the Indian sun, and no European ever goes out 
 without one round his hat. 
 
 The great trouble with the Sepoys was that they were 
 always too much petted. Their pay was higher than what 
 they could have earned by any other occupation; and far 
 higher than that of any army in Europe, if the expense of 
 the necessaries of life be taken into account. The lowest 
 wages of a Sepoy were six rupees per month, more than double 
 
114 India, 
 
 the ordinary wages of a labouring man, and a sum which 
 would equal $35 to $40 in this country. Their caste was high, 
 and its requirements exacting ; they could not pass the limits 
 of India, eat certain food, wear certain clothing, or cook their 
 meals in less than a certain number of hours, which were 
 necessary for the performance of the religious ceremonies 
 which are obhgatoryin the preparation of all food to be eaten 
 by Hindoos. In all these respects theu' prejudices were very 
 properly respected; but when they refused to dig in the 
 trenches at Mooltan, and white men did the work, under a 
 broihng sun, while the niggers looked on and sneered at them, 
 it must be acknowledged that the government was rather too 
 complaisant ; and when a white soldier could be flogged with 
 five hundred lashes, by order of a regimental court-martial, 
 while a Sepoy could not be touched with the lash, it must be 
 confessed that the regulations of the army were both unjust, 
 and calculated to give the native soldier altogether too high 
 an idea of his own importance — particularly as every native 
 is accustomed to be flogged and kicked from his earhest in- 
 fancy, and never hesitates to use such disciphne on others. The 
 extent to which this system of petting the native soldier was 
 carried on in India is hardly credable. For the last few years 
 ,it was scarcely possible to punish a Sepoy for any ofience, the 
 process of sending the sentence up for approval, being so 
 long and uncertain. The result was that discipline became 
 relaxed, and the men haughty, impertinent, and imj^atient of 
 the least hardship. It is this state of things which has caused 
 several minor mutinies during the last twenty years, and has 
 at last ended in the recent ferocious outbreak, and grand 
 united effort to step into their masters' shoes. These remarks 
 apply principally to the army in the Bengal Presidency, which 
 was mainly recruited in Oude, from the high caste Rajpoots. 
 In the other Presidencies, and in the Punjab regiments of the 
 Bengal army, the men were of low caste, the requirements of 
 their religion few or none, and the discipline much stricter. 
 The result has been that they have almost without exception 
 remained faithful — the wavering of some of the Bombay regi- 
 ments being probably attributable to their having been raised 
 
Calcutta. 
 
 115 
 
 in Oude ; thoiigb, not being Rajpoots, they would probably 
 under ordinary circumstances have made as good soldiers as 
 any others. The natives of India make excellent mercenaries, 
 as they are so split up into nations and castes, that they can 
 be easily played against one another; and have so little patri- 
 otism that they will serve whoever jDays best. This is one 
 great secret of the wonderful spread of the British power in 
 India, and it was only on account of the negligence of the 
 government, which recruited the Bengal army almost entirely 
 from one caste, that it was possible for the instigators of the 
 recent mutiny, to produce any unanimous and sympathetic 
 action among the various regiments. Had the Bengal army 
 contained men of all castes, and of several different nations, 
 no general rising could ever have been planned, much less 
 carried out, without the government receiving timely warn- 
 ing. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 CALCUTTA. — CONCLUDED. 
 
 Life in Calcutta— My Friends there — The India Trade— Skill of the Natives in Commerce 
 —Conduct of American Eesidents during the Eevolt— Travelling in India— The Pa- 
 lanquin — " Marching" — Steamboats on the Ganges — Garrhee-dak — The Mail-cart. 
 
 I EEMAiNED about two weeks in Calcutta, during which 
 I enjoyed myself very much. It is a pleasant place for a 
 stranger during a brief sojourn, is the paradise of the Eng- 
 lish in the Mofussil, and life in Calcutta represents the extreme 
 of luxurious enjoyment, in the popular imagination of Occiden- 
 tals ; yet, I must confess, that existence in the capital of India 
 is marked by a wearisome monotony, which would be alone a 
 sufficient counterbalance to the luxuries of a large establish- 
 ment of servants and splendid dinners, even if the climate, 
 the reptiles, and the diseases were all put out of the question. 
 Anything like society is almost impossible, where all the world 
 goes to bed by half-past nine or ten, in other words, immedi- 
 ately after the dinner, which follows the evening drive— and 
 where few will expose themselves to the sun's rays in the day- 
 time, unless some urgent necessity calls them out of doors. 
 There is no theatre, no public amusement of any kind ; and 
 the exile cannot even enjoy the pleasures of his family, if a 
 married man, as it is necessary for the health, nay, the very 
 life of his children, that they should be sent to Europe when 
 five or six years old — earlier, if jDossible. The wearisome 
 sameness of such an existence can scarcely be imagined. It 
 is only surpassed by life in the Mofussil. Many a man who 
 envies the Indian civilian his rich appointments, would gladly 
 renounce all pretensions could he but experience for a month 
 the unenviable life which they lead. 
 
Calcutta. 117 
 
 Many kindnesses and unexpected attentions gave me a 
 most favourable imjoression of those gentlemen in Calcutta, 
 whom it was my good fortune to meet. I was especially in- 
 debted to Colonel Mowatt and his amiable wife, and several 
 officers of the artillery, to the mess of which branch of the 
 service I was kindly introduced by Colonel Mowatt. Little 
 did they or I anticipate at the time the fate which has since 
 overtaken many of them. Colonel Mowatt had a high com- 
 mand at the siege of Delhi, and died there — of cholera, it 
 was said, like so many others in prominent positions, includ- 
 ing several generals-in-chief. Whether this was the case, and 
 age, with the cares and anxieties of theu* position, brought on 
 the chiefs the disease, from which the younger, but more ex- 
 posed, officers entirely escaped, or whether they all perished 
 by one of those subtle native poisons which simulate morbid 
 action so well, will probably never be ascertained. Mrs. 
 Mowatt, who was separated from her husband at the time of 
 the outbreak, had to flee into the jungul, and wander there a 
 week, exposed to every hardship. My friends among the 
 younger officers whom I saw at Dum-Dum were nearly all at 
 Meeruth during the mutiny at that place. Many perished 
 there — many have since died. Of the fate of the ladies, I am 
 ignorant. 
 
 I also was shown much kindness by several Enghsh and 
 American merchants, to whom I beg here to return my 
 thanks. 
 
 The English merchants mostly do business as agents, or on 
 commission". The day for making large and rapid fortunes in 
 the East India trade passed away with the explosion of the 
 colossal houses which took up the Calcutta trade on the abo 
 lition of the Company's monopoly. The chances are now 
 the same as in any regular commission business elsewhere 
 Native capital is largely employed by the English houses, and 
 in many instances the natives have gone into the European 
 business in their own names. Their sagacity and shrewdness 
 are far greater than those of Europeans, their resources are 
 often very large, and were their honesty and fidelity in any 
 way commensurate, they would no doubt soon do all the foreign 
 
Il8 India. 
 
 business in India. The natives have no idea of honour or 
 truthfulness, and no regard for character — two defects which 
 have hitherto stood very much in their way. They are, how- 
 ever, daily occupying a position of increasing importance in 
 the commercial world of India. 
 
 There are a large number of Americans in Calcutta, and 
 other parts of India, engaged in commercial and other pur- 
 suits. They live on terms of perfect friendship and equality 
 with the English, and it would be difficult to find a pleasanter 
 or more hospitable set of men. During the recent disturb- 
 ances in Bengal, the American residents in Calcutta formed 
 themselves into a military body and offered their services to 
 the Governor-General, which were most gratefully accepted 
 by his lordship. As long as alarm continued, they shared the 
 duty of their English friends, and kept with them alternate 
 watch and watch. 
 
 Having seen Calcutta pretty thoroughly, I began my prepa- 
 rations for a trip up-country — a plan which I had formed in 
 China, but as to the feasibility of which I had at first enter- 
 tained great doubts. Until within a few years there were no 
 great roads opened in India, but since the completion of the 
 Grand Trunk Koad, which is fifteen hundred miles in length, 
 from Calcutta to Peshawur, the extreme frontier station in the 
 north-west, travelling has become comparatively rapid and 
 easy. Under the old native rule, the roads were very few and 
 bad. The only available conveyance was the palkee or palan- 
 quin, which continued to be employed by Europeans down to 
 quite recent times, and is still used on all the lines of travel 
 except the Trunk Road. ISTothing can be more irksome than 
 travelling in a palanquin, the confinement of which is intoler- 
 able during the beat of the day, so that the traveller must 
 rest all day, and travel only at night for the greater part of 
 the year. The only other way of travelling in old times was 
 what is called " marching," much slower, but infinitely plea- 
 santer than the palkee. Before the establishment of dak- 
 bungalows by government, " marching" was the only way of 
 making any considerable journey, and as it is still much em- 
 ployed when a whole family is on the move together, and by 
 
Calcutta. 
 
 119 
 
 the judges and other government officers in their ch'ciiits, I 
 will describe the "march" of one of the officials as a specimen 
 of this mode of locomotion. Every official in India has a 
 number of tents, elephants, camels, &c., proportionate to the 
 size of his estabhshment, always on hand. A day or two be- 
 fore he starts on his circuit, he informs his head servant of his 
 intention, who makes all the necessary preparations. On the 
 morning of the day the magistrate and his family start on 
 elephants at four in the morning, but as soon as it becomes 
 light enough to see the road, they dismount and continue the 
 journey, either on horseback or in a carriage, where the road 
 permits. By half-past seven they have arrived at their resting- 
 place for the day, and the sun is now so hot that they are glad 
 to take shelter in a small "breakfast-tent," which they find 
 ready pitched, where breakfast is served up by the servants, 
 who have preceded them on foot. Meanwhile the house 
 they have left has been entirely stripped. Every article, 
 however bulky, of utility or comfort, has been removed, and 
 brought on by camels or on ox-carts, so that by the time 
 breakfast is finished, and a cheroot or hookah has been 
 smoked, the large tents, which answer in number and size to 
 the rooms of the house, have been furnished, and the trav- 
 ellers have as comfortable a residence for the day as that 
 which they have left. The encampment is generally set up 
 in a top or grove, one of which is commonly to be found near 
 the outskirts of every considerable native village. These 
 t6ps are generally composed of mango trees, and offer a suf- 
 ficient shade, even to the traveller who cannot afford the 
 luxury of a tent. 
 
 Both these modes of travelling, which, until within a few 
 years, furnished the only means of proceeding up-country, 
 were so slow, that had there been no other conveyances, 
 I should have been obliged to give up my trip ; as the steam- 
 boats up the Ganges are much slower than even the palanquin, 
 and are, moreover, very uncertain in the length of their pas- 
 sages. 
 
 Fortunately, however, I found that companies had been 
 established to run regular carriages along the whole extent of 
 
120 India. 
 
 the Grand Trunk Road, or at least, so far as the bridges are 
 completed. Transit by these conveyances I found to be 
 rapid, comfortable, and economical; and the facihties which 
 they offered determined me to go up-country, at least, as far 
 as Delhi. 
 
 There is yet one other way of travelling in India, to which 
 I might have had recouise. I mean, the mail-cart, which is 
 allowed to carry one traveller. These mail-carts are a square 
 box, mounted on two wheels, and look very like the English 
 dog-cart. They go along at ten or twelve miles an hour, 
 stopping only to change horses; and for a few minutes, at 
 each post-station. The seat is very hard, there is seldom any- 
 thing in the way of a shade, only fifteen pounds of baggage 
 can be carried, there is no rest, without waiting over a day ; 
 and, what is worst of all, the carts are always breaking down 
 from the imperfection of their construction, the speed at 
 which they are driven, and the viciousness of the post-horses. 
 Altogether, I suppose it is the most uncomfortable mode of 
 travelling yet discovered. Few people ever go by it, unless 
 they are very much j)i*essed for time. As for myself, I think 
 it very unlikely that I should have had the pluck to face the 
 fatigue, hunger, and exposure ; and I should probably never 
 have visited the capital of the Moguls, if the mail-cart had 
 been the only conveyance within my reach. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 TO BENARES. 
 
 Eailway to Kaneegunj — Indian Railways— Coal— A Dak-Garrhee— Dak Companies— ^The 
 Eights of Horses — Leopards and Jackals — Ddk-Bungalows — Scenery — Comparison 
 between Natives of India and China — Land-Tenure — Nullahs — People on the 
 Road — Sahussuram — Two fine Tombs — A Dancing Cow — The village Zemindar — 
 "Taking Leave" — Unsympathetic Character of Natives — Country between Sahussu- 
 ram and Benares — Seroor. 
 
 I LEFT Calcutta on the evening of the first of November, 
 1856. Crossing the Hoogly to Howrah, I took the railway- 
 to Raneegunj, a distance of 1 20 miles, which we accomplished 
 in nine and a half hours. It was dark when we started, and 
 before morning, we had passed the limits of lower Bengal. I 
 have since regretted not taking a train by day, as the country 
 which this road traverses is one of the few parts of India 
 where much cultivation or natural luxuriance of vegetation is 
 to be seen. The carriages were very comfortable, and divided 
 into compartments, on the European plan. I enjoyed a com- 
 fortable night's rest, the seats being arranged to draw out, 
 and form a bed. 
 
 This railway is to extend to Delhi, and probably in time, to 
 some place on the Indus, as Mooltan. It is to connect at 
 Agra with a proposed road to Bombay, and is one of a great 
 net-work of railways projected to connect all the important 
 points in India. The road had been in construction twelve 
 years, when I was there, and only these 1 20 miles were com- 
 pleted. Another section was nearly finished, but has been 
 since that time much injured by the mutineers. In the Pre- 
 sidencies of Bombay and Madras, not 200 miles of road alto- 
 gether had been completed. It is now seen that it was a 
 great error of Government, not to have pushed forward more 
 
 6 
 
122 India. 
 
 rapidly tlie completion of these great highways, since the 
 facility of transporting troops on them would have done much 
 for the prevention or suppression of the recent mutiny. In- 
 dependently of the use of the railways in a military point of 
 view, they would no doubt have been emmently successful 
 financially, as the navigation of the Ganges is very dangerous, 
 and precarious as regards time; and the transportation of 
 merchandize on camels or ox-carts by the Grand Trunk Road, 
 could never compete with a railway in time or expense. 
 These railroads were the first great public work that the 
 Government of India intrusted to private enterprize, and it 
 was supposed that the advantages presented by the scheme 
 were so great, that private capital would be readily furnished 
 for then* completion, especially as Government guaranteed the 
 stockholders a dividend of five per cent. It was found, how- 
 ever, that the rich natives, from whom much of the money 
 was expected, were very backward in contributing to an 
 enterprize of a kind in which they had previously had no 
 experience, and from which any immediate return beyond the 
 five per cent, guaranteed, was doubtful. The idea of any 
 great public work being accomplished by private capital, is 
 something quite opposed to a native's habits of thought — if 
 he has any spare money, he hesitates about investing it per- 
 manently in land, or any other way, preferring to retain it in 
 his own hands, and loan it to individuals on short time, and 
 at a high rate of interest. In India, twelve per cent, a year 
 can always be obtained, with the best security, and where the 
 money is loaned to the poor ryuts by the month, at com- 
 pound interest, and in sums of a few rupees, as is generally 
 the practice of native bankers, the rate amounts to six or 
 seven per cent, a month. 
 
 Raneegunj, the present terminus of the railway, is situated 
 at the foot of the Rajmahal hills, a low, irregular range, 
 bounding lower Bengal on the west. It has but few Euro- 
 pean residents, and they are all connected with the railway, 
 dak companies, or coal mines. The coal obtained is of excel- 
 lent quality, it is said, and if so, will supply a great want, as 
 the Labuan coal is far from good. 
 
To Benares. 
 
 123 
 
 I had engaged at Calcutta my passage to Fiittehghur, by 
 the " North Western Dak Company," one of the three staging 
 companies, {dak being Hindoostanee for "staging,") which 
 conveyed persons and light parcels up-country, along the line 
 of the Grand Trunk Road. As soon as I arrived at Ranee- 
 gunj, I went to see the vehicle in which I was to proceed to 
 Benares. I found it a square-built, roughly-finished, but 
 strong gdrrhee^ with patent axles, sliding doors, and a row of 
 windows on both sides, shaded by Venetian awnings. The 
 well^ where, in an ordinary carriage, we put our feet, was 
 covered over, and appropriated to small parcels ; and a mat- 
 trass extended the whole length of the vehicle. This is a 
 most admirable arrangement for travelling a long time in 
 a carriage, as lying down is, no doubt, the position which can 
 be continued the longest time with the least fatigue ; and the 
 convenience for sleeping is a matter of importance, where, as 
 in India, it is customary to travel night and day, and in the 
 hot weather, principally, if not solely, by night. 
 
 The Grand Trunk Road is at present the great line of com- 
 munication between all Northern, and North-Western India, 
 and the coast. It is a broad, macadamized road, as well kept 
 up as any in Europe, stretching in an unbroken line from Cal- 
 cutta to Peshawur, at least 1,500 miles. The operations of 
 these dak companies extend along the line of the Trunk Road 
 and its branches, as far to the north-west as Umbala, (the first 
 Punjab station,) beyond which point the bridges are not com- 
 pleted. The branches of the Grand Trunk Road go to Luck- 
 now, Futtehghur, and Moozufiurnuggur, beyond Meeruth. 
 The construction of this great road is entirely the work of the 
 English Government, the Ganges having been previously the 
 only line of communication with the interior. 
 
 The dak companies do not run their garrhees at any fixed 
 time, but whenever they are engaged. The usual practice is, 
 for one traveller to occupy a garrhee alone, but the expense 
 and comfort are occasionally shared by two persons, who must 
 be in rather close quarters when they lie down, as the interior 
 of the carriage is not more than four feet wide, if so much. 
 Each garrhee has a native coachman, who accompanies it for 
 
124 India. 
 
 about sixty miles, and a sdees or groom, who is changed witk 
 the horse, every six miles. 
 
 I had heard a great deal about the dak horses, but the re- 
 ality far exceeded my expectations. They are the most 
 vicious and untamed set of brutes that it is possible to con- 
 ceive as being made in any respect useful. The first specimen 
 which I saw, made his appearance with eight or ten saeeses, 
 tugging at a rope made fast to one of his fore legs ; the object 
 of this was to move his leg forward, upon which, he, of his 
 own accord, brought his body up to it. This mode of pro- 
 gression is, as may be imagined, slow, although sure. It took 
 about twenty minutes to get him into the shafts, and when 
 made fast, he planted his fore-legs firmly apart, and again 
 refused to move. The saeeses renewed their efforts, first try- 
 ing mild measures, and calling the stubborn beast by every 
 endearing name, among which were the sweet titles of 
 "father," and "mother." As the brute, however, showed 
 himself utterly insensible and unmoUified by the attributed 
 honours of paternity ; and moreover, seemed determined at 
 least to assume the parental privilege of chastisement by biting 
 and kicking his swarthy and supposititious offspring, the 
 original plan of dragging his foot forward was again resorted 
 to, accompanied and aided by the united efforts of a dozen or 
 more black fellows who pushed the garrhee behind. These 
 efforts being persisted in for half a mile, and the coachman 
 vigourously applying the chdbook (whip), our gallant steed 
 at length was wearied with resistance, and, determining to 
 free himself from his persecutors, and give up an unavaiHng 
 struggle for the rights of horses, rushed off at a ten mile pace, 
 which he kept up the whole stage. The next horse was 
 quieter, but lame. Natives, however, have very httle of that 
 quality which " is not strained," and the lame horse did his 
 five or six miles in less time than his predecessor. The above 
 performances, and practical lessons in the art of horse-break- 
 ing, are generally repeated at every third or fourth stage. 
 The only variety in the exercises is when you have a particu- 
 larly pig-headed animal who lies down — the remedy for which 
 amiable peculiarity is to Hght a straw fire under him. These 
 
To Benares. 123 
 
 performances are at first amusing, but "familiarity breeds 
 contempt," and their oft repetition causes them to pall. When 
 one is in a hurry, they are particularly annoying, and I have 
 often felt very like shooting some of these beasts, after an 
 hour or so spent in endeavouring, by every gentle and violent 
 means, to terminate an obstinate haulJc. 
 
 It was nine o'clock before I left Raneegunj. Two officers 
 left at the same time in another garrhee, but as their horse 
 had lamed himself the night before, by falling into a ditch 
 when chased by a leopard, I soon left them behind. India is 
 so thinly populated a country, that there is an enormous num- 
 ber of wild animals, even close to settlements. Everywhere, 
 the jackals make night hideous with their dreary wolf like howl ; 
 and in many parts of the road, even in the day-time, every 
 one you meet, on foot or on horseback, is armed with a sabre, 
 spear or halbert — whether against man or beast, I could not 
 precisely make out, but probably a little for both, and a great 
 deal " dekne kee wastee," i. e., "for show" — a phrase that ex- 
 plains more than one thing in India. 
 
 The country, after leaving Raneegunj, was an undulating 
 common, but little cultivated or inhabited, and with but few 
 trees. We arrived at two o'clock at Gyra dak-bungalow, 
 where I stopped for dinner. These dak-bungalows are build- 
 ings for the accommodation of travellers, erected by the 
 liberality of Government, at fixed distances, on all the great 
 roads in India. On the Grand Trunk Road, they are generally 
 ten or twelve miles apart, but on the less frequented routes, 
 the interval between one bungalow and another is often twenty 
 or thirty miles. All dak-bungalows are of one build, and the 
 size varies but little. They are generally about forty feet 
 square, with walls ten or twelve feet high, a verandah running 
 all around, and covered by a steep thatch or tile roof, the 
 edges of which rest on the verandah wall, the ridge being 
 twenty-five feet or more from the ground. There are in each, 
 two suites of apartments, consisting of a parlour, dressing 
 room and bath room — the latter a great advantage in a hot 
 climate. Each bungalow has about a dozen servants, of whom 
 only two or three are paid by Government — the others being 
 
1 26 India. 
 
 dependent upon the traveller's generosity. Every traveller 
 has a right to occupy one suite of rooms for 24 hours, and as 
 much longer as they are unclaimed by a new arrival. These 
 bungalows are not only a great convenience, but almost a 
 necessity for a ddk traveller in India, where there are no ho- 
 tels except in the largest stations, and where caste forbids the 
 native to allow a Christian's food to be cooked in his house, 
 or even to give him a drink of water from his cup. 
 
 On arriving at the bungalow I was received with low 
 salams by Khansahma^, Khitmutgra, and Beras, {Anglice, 
 steward, waiter and valets,) and the Khansahmai»i asked what 
 my honour would be pleased to order. I asked what could 
 be had ; and was answered " anything !" On further inquiry, 
 however, I discovered that the only choice was between fowl 
 and duck, of which I preferred the former. A scampering 
 and screaming of the feathered bipeds outside soon told me 
 that my wishes were being carried out, and I made a good 
 meal off. curry and rice, and grilled-fowl (commonly called 
 "sudden death"). If there is anyone thing that a native 
 can do well, it is cooking ; they all seem to be born with a 
 natural talent for the culinary art — a talent practically devel- 
 oped in most cases by the rules of caste, which oblige each 
 man to cook for himself, unless he is rich enough to hire a 
 Brahmun to do so for him. The servants in the dak-bunga- 
 lows, except the bearers, are all Moosulmans, as no Hindoo 
 will cook, or have anything to do with the eating of beef or 
 fowls. The bungalow furniture consists of a native cotton 
 floor-cover, a table, bed (with no mattrass), three chairs and a 
 punkah, to each suite of rooms. The bath-room is about ten 
 feet square, with a cement floor, and a ridge to prevent the 
 water flowing into the next room. There is no regular bath, 
 but instead, five or six earthen gurras of water, each holding 
 about a gallon, which the traveller empties over his head. 
 
 The charge for the use of the bungalow for three hours is 
 eight annas (24 cents), for any longer time, one rupee per diem. 
 During the hot weather, it is customary to spend nearly the 
 whole day in the bungalow, travelling only at night, but for 
 three or four months in the year it is quite cool enough to 
 
To Benares. 
 
 127 
 
 travel during the day, especially in a garrhee, the rapid mo- 
 tion of which allevia»tes the discomfort of the heat. My habit 
 was to stop t\Yice a day, once in the morning, when I bathed, 
 dressed, and got breakfast, and again in the afternoon, when 
 I took another bath and dined. 
 
 I slept very comfortably in the garrhee, even the first 
 night. The only annoyance was being waked up once or 
 twice to pay toU, and once to give the customary bucksees of 
 one rupee to the coachman, when he was reheved. I woke 
 up the next morning refreshed by a good ten hours' sleep. 
 On waking I found the scenery quite different from that of 
 the day before — ^in fact, during this day I passed through 
 three entirely different kinds of scenery. In the first place, 
 we were among the Rajmahal hiUs, the passes in which, and 
 the views of which were exactly like hundreds of similar 
 scenes in any hilly part of the Northern States of America. 
 Leaving these towards the afternoon, we came ujdou a plain 
 where the cocoa-palm, the orange and plantain trees, and 
 other similar objects, told of the richness of the soil, and the 
 vivifying power of the tropical sun. And again, on the same 
 plain, and between these fertile and cultivated oases (which 
 were always situated around villages), there were tracts of 
 uncultivated land, stretching for mile after mile, with no 
 grass, no trees, no house, or even hut — nothing to tell of life 
 but a few low scrub bushes, or a lot of vultm-es, sharing with 
 the foul pariah-dogs the rotting carcase of some camel or buf- 
 falo which had died upon the road. These pariah-dogs are 
 miserable, unkempt, uncared-for brutes, devouring any filth 
 that comes in their way, and making themselves useful in a 
 humble walk as public scavengers ; during the recent mutiny 
 they have had dainty fare, having been fed by the Sepoys 
 upon the flesh of their mangled victims. 
 
 The general neglect and want of cultivation, which meets 
 the eye of the traveller everywhere in India, contrasts, as I 
 have before said, most disadvantageously with the economy 
 and thrift which are so remarkable in China. It is, however, 
 necessary to bear in mind the very different incentives to 
 labour in the two cases. The Chinese has a freehold property, 
 
128 India. 
 
 and can always invest his savings profitably and safely (the 
 principle of "limited liability" being, in China, carried to a 
 greater extent than in any other country) ; or, if he has not a 
 fi-eehold, he has always the privilege of retaining his farm at 
 the same rent as long as it is paid punctually. The poor 
 Indian ryut (cultivator) on the other hand, at least in Bengal, 
 farms the soil on shares for the zemindar^ who hires many 
 fanns direct from government. The rent which the ryut 
 pays, in Bengal, is always exorbitant, and would be increased 
 if the production became greater under good management. 
 The Chinese, too, always have some information, and can read 
 and write to a certain extent, and the greatest exertions are 
 made by a whole family to supply funds for the education of 
 any one of the younger members, who may have shown good 
 intellectual powers, in the hope that he may pass creditably at 
 the Public Sei'vice Examinations, and obtain a government 
 appointment. No such hopes, no such motives, present them- 
 selves to the Indian ryut — the bonds of caste, if nothing else, 
 being sufficient to prevent any change of condition. In the 
 last analysis, these results, so disadvantageous to the native 
 of India as compared with the Chinese, are no doubt due to 
 the difference of national character. The system of society, 
 beyond a doubt, in one case fosters, in the other discourages, 
 every effort. Still those systems are but the reflex of the 
 national mind, and neither would long exist were the national 
 character changed. The Chinese is active, industrious, enter- 
 prizing, and independent — the native of India, idle, living 
 only for the day, never wishing or hoping to change his con- 
 dition, always irretrievably in debt, and never able to work 
 without a master. The remarks above, on the land tenure, 
 apply only to Bengal, where the land was leased by govern- 
 ment, in perpetuity, to a number of large proprietors, who do 
 undoubtedly, to a certain extent, demand unreasonable rents 
 from the cultivators of the soil. This system was preferred 
 by the English government in their early days, when the ex- 
 tent of their possessions was still limited, as it was supposed 
 that the existence of a large number of "landed gentry" 
 would do much to consolidate their power, and would pre- 
 
To Benares. 
 
 129 
 
 serve at least one powerful class who had a great stake in the 
 permanence of the English rule. As the dominions of the 
 Company extended, and their sway became more unques- 
 tioned, such precautions became unnecessary, and in all the 
 North-western Provinces, the Punjab, and both the lesser 
 Presidencies, a tenure of land has been introduced, which 
 amounts in fact to hiring directly from government. The 
 rent, which includes all direct taxes, is fixed every few years, 
 with reference to the average production of the land, the 
 price of corn and other products, and various modifying cir- 
 cumstances, and varies, for the most productive lands from 
 one eighth to one quarter of the proceeds. Now, if it be 
 remembered that this tenure is in fact equivalent to " farming 
 on shares," I think the proportion of the profits paid to the 
 landlord will seem anything but exorbitant, especially as there 
 are no direct taxes in addition. In the determination of the 
 rent, the ryut is always heard and consulted, and the bargain 
 between him and government is the same as between man 
 and man in any country. Should he be dissatisfied with his 
 assessment, he is at liberty to give up the land, and do what 
 he pleases. This liberty, to be sure, is rather restricted, not 
 only by the prohibitions of caste, but by the state of slavery 
 to huniahs^ or native bankers, under which most of the popu- 
 lation labour and toil. The agents of the Company, however, 
 never take advantage of the necessities of a native, but always 
 endeavour to give the land on desirable terms — it being the 
 policy of government to encourage in every way the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil, an occupation which is looked upon, by the 
 natives, as about the lowest condition in life. It is, therefore, 
 the aim of government to make farming a profitable, if not an 
 honourable, career. Their efforts have been, however, quite 
 unsuccessful. It might with reason have been expected that 
 the condition of ryuts in the up-country would be superior to 
 that of their fellows in Bengal, where the old zemindaree 
 system obtained. No such difference, however is found to 
 exist. The natives are so impacted in a mass of customs and 
 prejudices, that the tilling of the land is all left to a class who 
 have been so engaged from generation to generation, who are 
 
 6* 
 
130 India. 
 
 ignorant and lazy to a degree ; who cannot appreciate any 
 improvements in agriculture — and if they could, would not 
 have the means to adopt them ; who are so improvident as to 
 be always completely in the power of their creditors ; and so 
 idle, so spiritless, and so bound about by an iron prison of 
 prejudice and caste, that any amelioration of their condition 
 seems hopeless. I really believe that the lower classes would 
 be more comfortable and happier under a mild system of 
 serfdom ; while the soil would be cultivated as it has never 
 been; millions of acres of prolific, but now unproductive, 
 land would be made profitable; and, in the absence of 
 native enterprise, encouragement would be given to the 
 colonization of the country, and cultivation of the soU, by 
 Europeans, who have hitherto been restrained and disheart- 
 ened by the necessity for relying on the voluntary industry 
 of the blacks. 
 
 But to return from moralizing to the description of the 
 second day's ride. We had to cross many nullahs^ as the 
 beds of streams are called, and tiresome work enough it was, 
 the bridges having been nearly all carried away during the 
 rains. The streams had shrunk into small compass, and did 
 not form much of an obstacle ; but the garrhee had to be 
 dragged over hundreds of yards of soft sands, by the aid of 
 coolees^ (a term used by Europeans to designate the lower 
 classes of labourers in many parts of India and China). I put 
 on as many coolees as could get a hand anywhere on the gar- 
 rhee, but they are a wretchedly weak race, and hardly earn the 
 paisa (f ct.) with which they are well satisfied, after tugging, 
 straining, and shouting for twenty minutes or more. 
 
 The groups that one passes on the road are motley and 
 often very picturesque. Some tall, fine looking fellow with a 
 fierce moustache, long lance and shield, will go by on horse- 
 back, and next will follow a train of bullocks of burden, with 
 panniers, going to market. The next people may be a train 
 of fifty or more women, going to, or returning from labour — 
 all with some bright coloured paint on the forehead, most 
 with silver bangles on the arms, some with gold rings through 
 the nose, but almost all carrying a baby a-straddle on the hip. 
 
To Benares. 131 
 
 The coloured paint-marks indicate the deity to whom the 
 wearer has, that morning, performed poojah ; the bangles are 
 of solid silver or gold, generally worn by even the poorest 
 classes, and are commonly heirlooms which are not parted 
 with except on the direst necessity ; gold nose-rings, are not 
 uncommon, nor do they look ill upon a pretty brown face. 
 They are considered merely as ornaments, and are readily sold 
 or changed by the wearers ; the babies are often three years 
 old, it not being the custom in India to wean children much 
 before that age — they sit, as I said, a-straddle on the mother's 
 hip, and are supported by her arm. This is not a bad way to 
 carry a child, but far inferior to the Chinese plan, which con- 
 sists in strapping baby like a knapsack on his mamma's back, 
 thus leaving both her hands at hberty. 
 
 We may next see a long train of baggage camels, each one 
 having his nose made fast to the tail of the one ahead; and an 
 elephant may be the next object that meets the eye. Now 
 we meet a hacJcuree^ or bullock-cart covered with a gaudy red 
 tent, and containing a whole family with all their goods and 
 chattels — and the next vehicle is perhaps a bailee, a smaller, 
 two- wheeled conveyance, covered with a rich crimson awning, 
 and drawn by a fine pair of little bullocks who will trot bravely 
 off their five or six miles an hour, and kee^^ the pace up all 
 day — the curtains are closed, and we guess that some rich 
 lady is within, a supposition which is confirmed by the armed 
 men who follow to guard the bailee. The mail-cart, shaped 
 like a dog-cart, passes us in a trice, as their horse is going at 
 ten miles an hour, and ours stops to look at a milestone or 
 something else, just as we are getting him into a good pace. 
 The mail-coachman blows a joyous blast on his bugle, and is 
 lost in a cloud of dust. We in our turn, soon after pass in 
 similar triumph an English travelling carriage, going at four 
 miles an hour, drawn by coolees. 
 
 On the morning of the third day, I woke up in what struck 
 me as the prettiest scene, that I had beheld in India. It was 
 the environs of the town of Sahussuram, and the clear morn- 
 ing air and bright sun, made particularly charming, a picture 
 that would at any time have been striking. As I caught sight 
 
132 India. 
 
 of a fine mosque rising above the trees, I determined to stop 
 for breakfast at the dak-bungalow, and visit the mosque, 
 which was the first native building of any pretensions that I 
 had seen since landing in India. All the way from Calcutta I 
 had not seen a single mosque or Hindoo temple — ^I suppose 
 because the villages were too miserably poor to afford any 
 edifices of religion. I had expected that there would be more 
 outward respect for religion in India than in China, but was 
 astonished to find the reverse the case. The Chinese are, how- 
 ever, doubtless, the most irreligious people in the world — all 
 educated men being atheists of course, and on principle, while 
 even the common people have only a very qualified respect 
 for their idols. On the other hand I suppose, there is no 
 nation in the world so utterly credulous, and so sunken in a 
 debasing superstition, as are most of the inhabitants of India. 
 
 I stopped at Sahussuram three hours, and visited the 
 mosques, which were primarily tombs, and never intended as 
 places of public worship. Their shape was that of the Arabian 
 mosques, of which we see pictures in the books of travellers 
 in Egypt and Syria ; the material, a light, red freestone, very 
 fine grained and durable, the same as that of which all the fine 
 buildings in Benares are constructed. Both of these mosques, 
 like most other public monuments in India which are not actu- 
 ally in use, were falling into decay. A native scarcely ever 
 repairs his own house, much less a public edifice in which he 
 takes only an indirect interest. The smaller of the two 
 mosques was first visited. I ascended to the roof by a stair- 
 case in the wall, which was elsewhere of solid masonry, and 
 very thick. This mosque being in the town, was separated 
 from the adjacent houses by a court yard, surrounded by 
 cloisters, constituting a sural. It had formerly other buildings 
 surrounding it, and particularly a large crypt under the court 
 yard, but the crypt is now full of water, and of the other 
 buildings, the sural (or free lodging house for pilgrims or 
 travellers) alone remains in tolerable repair. The larger 
 mosque is really a very striking building. Similar in design 
 to the other, it is seen to great advantage, being situated on 
 a stone platform in an artificial lake, perhaps 800 feet long by 
 
To Benares. 133 
 
 500 broad. It is an octagon in form, each side being about 
 60 feet long, with four mindrs (minarets) and a noble dome. 
 The Chubootra, or platform, which supports it, is an artificial 
 island, about 200 feet square, and faced with stone toward the 
 water. It was formerly connected with the land by a stone 
 bridge, but this has now nearly gone to ruin. The building 
 is still very handsome, but when painted and gilded, as at 
 first, must have been gorgeous in the glaring sun. 
 
 On the way back from the mosques to the dak-bungalow, 
 I saw a dancing cow, which I told them to make perfonn for 
 me ; but they said she was too young and not sufficiently 
 trained to amuse so great a lord as I. We passed through 
 the village bazar, and here I noticed for the first time, the 
 women covering their faces as I passed, a custom introduced 
 by the Moosulmans, which does not obtain in lower Bengal, 
 and is not universal anywhere in India. In this place too, I 
 noticed some signs of a greater variety in dress, the rich green, 
 red and yellow muslins of Hindoostan being intermingled with 
 the universal white of Bengal. I met also one or two tall, 
 wild-looking fellows, wrapped in shaggy blankets, with a bright 
 coloured turban and long spear — a species of animal which is 
 not seen further down the country. 
 
 The village of Sahussuram, though the largest I had seen, 
 is after all only a village, the houses being all of one story, 
 and mere sheds, built of mud. At the doors of these dwellings 
 the inhabitants were squatted industriously engaged in smok- 
 ing the hookah. On the outskirts of the vUlage were one or 
 two larger houses, built of stone — the residence of the zemin- 
 dar, and a few others who were comfortably off. 
 
 On my return to the dak-bungalow, I was accosted by the 
 zemindar of the village, a mild-looking young Moosulman, 
 who asked permission to come in and see me. This being 
 granted, he sat down while I breakfasted. It soon came out 
 that his object was to practise his EngUsh upon me. He pre- 
 sented me with his card in Persian, and I gave him mine in 
 English, and we kept up quite a conversation on the propriety 
 of Moosulmans eating with Christians, which they refuse to do 
 in India. He afterwards began begging for books, papers, <fec.. 
 
1 34 India. 
 
 and offered to sell me his ring, when I became disgusted and 
 dismissed him. His visit was rather longer than he intended 
 it to be, from my ignorance of the Indian usage which forbids 
 a visitor to depart until he has received permission from his 
 host. I had been hoping he would go, and when he began 
 begging, expressed my wishes to my servant, who advised 
 me to say " Kookhsut hy," i. e., " There is permission to de- 
 part," when he looked very grateful, put on his shoes, salamed, 
 and left. This is a custom which it is somewhat hard for a 
 stranger to learn, as it seems to us rude to turn away a guest. 
 Some of our expressions, however, seem to point to its having 
 once been usual in Europe, as, for instance, " to take leave" 
 in English, and "prendre conge" or "donner conge" in 
 French. 
 
 Soon after leaving Sahussuram we came up with an old 
 fellow on a camel. As he did not get out of our way quickly 
 enough, my coachman gave him a cut with his whip-lash, 
 which so discomposed him that he tumbled off his beast, and 
 must, I fancy, have had a pretty heavy fall. I spoke to my 
 servant about it, and told him to reprimand the coachman, but 
 he seemed to consider it a most excellent joke. There seems 
 to be no sympathy with suffering in the East. A man may 
 die by the roadside, with hundreds of people passing him, not 
 one of whom will take the least trouble for his relief. The 
 parable of the " Good Samaritan" must come with great force 
 to men thus constituted. Among Christians, however incon- 
 sistent their general practice might be, no man could lie 
 wounded and dying by a wayside, and not become the object 
 of general attention and care. In India, on the other hand, 
 were a Brahmun to touch such a person he would be defiled ; 
 were any of a higher caste to touch his blood pollution would 
 ensue ; so that both these classes would be forbidden to give 
 relief by their religion itself ; and no one of his own or of a 
 lower caste, not even his acquaintances, would probably think 
 it worth while to interfere unless they hoped for some advan- 
 tage by so doing. When I was going from Agra to Bombay, 
 with a retinue of twenty bearers, it happened several times 
 that men were taken ill, and left by the others to die on the 
 
To Benares. 
 
 135 
 
 road without a rupee to relieve even their immediate necessi- 
 ties. I did not usually find such occurrences out till several 
 days after, when a man would be missing when I counted the 
 bearers ; the miserable rogues always concealing the fact of 
 one of their number having given out, in order to get the 
 wages which are his due, and divide them among themselves. 
 
 After leaving Sahussuram the country is a flat, uninterest- 
 ing plain, with hardly any trees, villages sparsely scattered, 
 and cultivation in patches. We crossed the Ganges at mid- 
 night, in a large scow, and at two o'clock on the morning of 
 the 5t]i of November, arrived at the hotel in Seroor. 
 
 Seroor is four miles from Benares, and is the military sta- 
 tion of that city. It is just like Dum-Dum and all other can- 
 tonments in India — the same broad roads, the same ugly, low- 
 walled, one-storied bungalows with steep, high, thatched roofs, 
 in desolate compounds ; the same hideous church, and the two 
 stores. Seroor being a large station, and on the great route 
 up-country, has two hotels, which are, like other Mofussil 
 hotels, merely ordinary bungalows furnished by some native 
 or half-caste on the chance of travellers requiring better ac 
 commodations than they can get at the dak-bungalow. They 
 will not accommodate more than seven or eight lodgers. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE HOLY CITT OF INDIA. 
 
 The Sacred Apes — ^The City from the Eiver — The Observatory — Oriental Science — The 
 Golden Temple — Sacred Bulls — The Great Devil — Hindooism — ^Tho Goddess of the 
 BkuU-chaplet— Poojah— The Holy "Well— Self-Torture— Caste— Brahmunical Eegen- 
 eration — Supremacy of the Sacred Caste. 
 
 The city of Benares is the Jerusalem or Mecca of the Hin- 
 doo ; nay, it has in his eyes a far greater sanctity than have 
 either of those two holy places in the estimation of Christians 
 or Moosulmans, for he believes that Benares is not founded 
 on the tortoise which is the common support of the earth, but 
 rests on the point of Seewa's trident ; that all who die in, or 
 within nine miles of it, proceed directly to heaven ; and that 
 the material and visible Benares is not so much a city, in se, 
 as a shadow or ektype of the celestial city, the heavenly Be- 
 nares. 
 
 There are about 500,000 inhabitants in Benares, but the 
 number cannot be exactly ascertained, as both Hindoos and 
 Moosulmans regard it as impious to number the people — an 
 opinion which seems to have prevailed among the Jews. 
 
 Colonel Mowatt, the commandant at Dum-Dum, had given 
 me a letter to Captain Waddy of Benares, asking him to show 
 me all the sights, and let me have an elephant on which to go 
 through the market-place. Captain Waddy had, however, 
 unfortunately, gone to Deenapoor, and a humble garrhee had 
 to be substituted for the majestic elephant. 
 
 I engaged a young Armenian as guide, and we left the 
 hotel at five in the morning, in order to be in time to see the 
 bathers in the Ganges. A drive of three-quarters of an hour 
 through a suburb of mud huts brought us to the river's edge, 
 at the upper end of the city. On our way we passed what is 
 
The Holy City of India. 137 
 
 called the " monkey-garden," an enclosure containing several 
 temples and many hundred apes, sacred to Hooniman, the 
 divine ape who conquered Ceylon for Rama. The apes are 
 generally fine fat fellows, of a rich orange colour, and do not 
 at all confine themselves to their enclosure, but range for a 
 mile around, laying hands on all they can find. A Hindoo 
 considers it a great honour and advantage if he can, by rich 
 food and comfortable lodging, entice one of these animals to 
 stay any length of time on his premises. The apes are very 
 tame, as their sacred character protects them from all moles- 
 tation. An Englishman was once drowned in the Ganges 
 near Benares, for having ignorantly shot one of them. 
 
 We embarked in a dingee on the Ganges, and commenced 
 pulling down the river. The sun was about an hour high, and 
 shone full on the long line of palaces, temples, and mosques, 
 built on the edge of the cliff on which the city is situated. The 
 opposite bank of the river is perfectly flat and unoccupied. 
 From the summit of the cliff, which is about eighty feet above 
 the river, a long and continuous line of broad stone steps leads 
 down to the water's edge. Near the bottom the ghdt (steps) 
 is broken by a broad platform, which serves as a thoroughfare, 
 and gives accommodation to numerous small traders. From 
 this platform jetties project into the river. At the further end 
 of these jetties are graceful stone kiosks, sheltering some 
 hideous idol before which a Brahmun may generally be seen 
 performing poojah. 
 
 The buildings which crown the cliff, and form the water 
 fi'ont of the city, are all striking in appearance. The dwelling 
 houses are always large, being the residences of rajahs, and 
 other rich men who come to Benares to end their days, on 
 account of the sanctity of the place. Like the ghats and 
 temples, they are constructed of a fine light-coloured and 
 durable freestone. The architecture varies somewhat, but the 
 windows and doors are pointed — the former generally filled 
 up with stone trellis-work, in lieu of glass. The mundras, or 
 Hindoo temples form a striking feature in the coup d'oeil. 
 They are never of large size, and are surrounded by an enclo- 
 sure, above which are seen the pyramidal spires which form 
 
138 India. 
 
 the distinguishing feature in Hindoo sacred architecture 
 throughout India. The larger mundras have three spires, the 
 smaller, only one. Each spire is commonly decorated by a 
 number of smaller spires surrounding it in diminishing rows 
 up to its summit, where it ends in a gilt ornament. Rarely, 
 the whole spire is gilt. The musjeeds, or mosques in India, 
 two or three of which are visible from the river, have always 
 either one or three bulging Saracenic domes, and at each 
 extremity, a tall, slim minar, surmounted by a kiosk, and 
 relieved from the effects of unsupported height by one or two 
 narrow galleries. 
 
 As we rowed down the river the whole view was very 
 striking, and came nearly up to what I had dreamed of Hin- 
 doo splendour — a dream, in the reality of which, like many 
 others, I was most miserably disappointed, and which found a 
 satisfactory realization only in this view of Benares, and one 
 or two other cities, which it was my good fortune to visit. 
 
 The ghats of Benares are covered in the morning by mer- 
 chants, offering their wares for sale, in the shade of immense 
 gaudy umbrellas ; with men and women, dressing and undress- 
 ing ; with barbers, fukheers, brahmuns, and water-carriers. 
 While on the lower steps of the ghat, which reach into the 
 water, thousands of both sexes are occupied in bathing, and 
 washing their garments in the river. 
 
 When it is recollected that the buildings above are a 
 hundred feet or more long, and four or five stories high ; that 
 the ghats are eighty feet in height, and are, in themselves, 
 magnificent constructions of which any city might be proud ; 
 that this row of palaces, temples, and ghats, extends for two 
 miles along the river's bank, worthily terminated by the mus- 
 jeed of Aurungzeeb, with its graceful minars, and that the 
 whole scene was lighted up by an eastern sun, bringing 
 out the gaudy colours of the dress of the- people, and the 
 gilded ornaments of the mosques and temples, the reader 
 may, perhaps, understand and pardon the enthusiasm excited 
 in me by the splendid architectural effect of this river front, 
 which cannot be parallelled or surpassed by any similar scene 
 in India or in the world. 
 
The Holy City of India. 139 
 
 After descending the river about half a mile, we landed at 
 the observatory ghat, and went to view the building. It is 
 of stone, about 200 feet square, and 50 high. Within are 
 many small courts and apartments, once appropriated to sci- 
 entific purposes, but now in ruins. The chief interest is on 
 the flat roof, where there still remain several charts of the 
 heavens on stone, and some of the instruments which were 
 formerly used in astronomical observations. There is an im- 
 mense stone sun-dial in the form of an arc, perhaps twenty 
 feet in diameter ; a meridional wall of stone with two iron 
 sights, besides several other arrangements which I did not 
 understand, and piers and iron rings for the support of instru- 
 ments which have been removed. This observatory is one of 
 three, founded several hundred years ago, by Jai Singh, the 
 Rajah of a Rajpootana State — the other two, were one at 
 Delhi, and the other, at his own capital of Jaipoor. Hindoo 
 astronomy is known to have made considerable progress long 
 before the science was at all cultivated in Europe, but its 
 study is now abandoned in favor of the more perfect systems 
 of the West. It will scarcely be believed that so careful were 
 the East India Company of all the religious feelings and pre- 
 judices of their subjects, that for years after they had estab- 
 lished schools for the natives, the old Hindoo systems of 
 geography and astronomy, which represent the earth as sup- 
 ported by a tortoise, the source of the Ganges as the centre 
 of the world, and the sun as revolving daily around the earth, 
 continued to be taught in colleges, to the support of which, 
 the Company contributed. 
 
 This observatory, like the other two which I have men- 
 tioned, is now never used, and is fast falling into ruin, all 
 except the solid walls. The revenues for its support are H])- 
 propriated by the Brahmuns. 
 
 Leaving the observatory, we again took boat, and landing a 
 little lower down, ascended the ghat, and visited the golden 
 temple, the principal mundra in the city. The road from the 
 bank to the temple lay through narrow streets, having on each 
 side large, lofty, and solid stone houses, looking rather gloomy, 
 as there were few windows, and those small. The streets 
 
140 India. 
 
 were filled with worshippers going to the temple, each having 
 a small basket containing offerings of flowers, rice, &c. The 
 sacred bulls which once filled the streets of Benares, are still 
 inconveniently numerous and tame, but they are not treated 
 with as much respect as formerly, and many hundreds had 
 recently been seized by government and put to work. The 
 temple consisted of a small square court, having around it a 
 verandah, filled with stone images of bulls, before which many 
 worshippers were making poojah. The bull is the most sacred 
 animal in the Hindoo mythology ; he is called Nahadeo, or 
 the little devil, and is the steed of Mahadeo (the great devil), 
 which is one of the chief symbols under which the god 
 Seewa is worshipped. A Hindoo considers the slaughter of a 
 bull or cow, as a greater crime than parricide ; and in old 
 times this offence was punished with death — a penalty that 
 was long permitted to remain in force in some parts of India, 
 by the Honourable Company, so fearful were they of seeming 
 to interfere with the rehgious customs of the natives. In the 
 centre of the court was the temple itself, raised several feet 
 from the ground, upon a stone platform. It consisted of 
 three rooms opening into one another, each not more than 
 twelve feet square — ^the roofs rising into those pyramidal 
 spires of which I have spoken before. The interior of these 
 rooms was perfectly plain, but in each there was a Mahadeo — a 
 stone cylinder, three feet or so high, and rounded at the top, 
 rising from a basin sunk in the stone floor. The Mahadeo is the 
 deification of the Ungam^ or creative principle, and as it is an 
 emblem of Seewa, the destructive element in the Brahmunical 
 trimoortee, it must typify the eternal origin of hfe from death 
 — that is, if it has any such deep meaning at all. It answers 
 to the Phallos and Priapus, and is, perhaps, only an Indian 
 phase of that Phallic worship, which seems to have been so 
 general in various places, in the earlier stages of religious 
 development. The Mahadeo, say the Brahmuns, is the only 
 idol which has an intrinsic sanctity ; the others must be con- 
 secrated, but any conical stone or rude mound of earth will 
 be a worthy representation of the god, and can be rightly 
 worshipped. 
 
The Holy City of India. 141 
 
 Speculators on Indian religion have made out the Brah- 
 munical system to be one of the purest and most perfect that 
 the world has ever seen, and we have derived from those 
 theorists some very pretty and systematic notions about a 
 Brahmunical Trimoortee, or Trinity, in which the Creative, 
 Preserving and Destroying Powers were supposed exactly to 
 counterbalance each other, and govern the universe in har- 
 mony. Such may have been the doctrines of the early vedas, 
 but, at the present day, the fact is, that, in theory, the whole 
 religious system is the most confused, contradictory, beastly 
 tissue of incredible fables ; in practice, it is even worse ; the 
 Trimoortee is altogether ignored, and it is only a very learned 
 pundit who would know that his religion presupposed such a 
 thing. Brahma is never worshipped ; Vishnoo has some fol- 
 lowers in the south; but Seewa and his wife Parbutee are 
 the gods to whom most of the homage is paid. Seewa is 
 always venerated in the Mahadeo ; but his wife Parbutee has 
 numerous forms, each more repulsive than the other. As Kalee, 
 in Bengal, she presides over self-torture, swinging suspended 
 by hooks in the back, burning villages, and murdering the in- 
 habitants, and other amusements, of which her followers are 
 so fond ; as Bhowanee, in the centre of India, she is the mis- 
 tress of the Thugs, in whose honour they drive their murder- 
 ous trade, and whom the blood of a man slain for her sake is 
 supposed to make smile for a thousand years ; as Devee, in 
 the rest of India, she is the dread small-pox, which is so fear- 
 ful a scourge among the natives. When one is taken ill of 
 this disease, his friends say ''J)evee Nikala^'' "Devee has 
 manifested herself," and it is considered impious to attempt to 
 dislodge the goddess, or to burn the body which she has 
 honoured by taking up her abode in it. In all these forms, 
 Parbutee presides over every form of torture and horror — in- 
 fanticide being one of her favourite failings. It was formerly 
 customary to offer to her sacrifices of men and horses, but 
 these have been discontinued since the introduction of the 
 Company's rule. It must be remembered that this most 
 amiable and attractive goddess is worshipped by about half 
 the population of India, while the greater part of the other 
 
142 India. 
 
 half worship her husband, Seewa, who is a deity of equally 
 bad character, only his qualities are not developed in the same 
 obtrusive hideousness. He is supposed, however, to be an 
 accessory before the act in all that his wife does. 
 
 The worship of the Mahadeo is very simple. It consists 
 merely in putting upon the stone lingam, rice, flowers, bright- 
 coloured powder, and some other things, which are then 
 washed off by a stream of Ganges' water, poured by the 
 attendant Brahmun, who keeps mumbling Sanscrit prayers. 
 As each worshipper completes his offering, the Brahmun 
 paints his forehead with certain stripes of bright-coloured 
 paint, which show, during the whole day, to what deity the 
 wearer has done poojah in the morning. 
 
 The Golden Temple was crowded with naked devotees, 
 sacred cows, begging Brahmuns, &c., and was a nasty, wet 
 place. We had to give the priests a fee of a rupee apiece, in 
 return for which they put a garland of flowers about our 
 necks. This Mundra is the property of an hereditary cor- 
 poration, and its income is said to be a lakh of rupees, or 
 £ 1 0,000, a year. 
 
 Leaving the court of the temple, we went into an adjacent 
 enclosure, which contains the sacred well, into which flows the 
 water that has been poured over the Mahadeo in the adjoin- 
 ing temple. The well being a mere sink, is of course putrid, 
 but is, notwithstanding, worshipped with great reverence. 
 There is a stone platform around it, about fifty feet by forty, 
 covered by a solid stone roof, supported on rows of columns. 
 The temple which I have described was formerly on the other 
 side of the well, on what was the most sacred spot in the 
 world. The old location was, however, unfortunately defiled 
 by that violent Moosulman, the Emperor Alum Geer, and the 
 gods and temple were transferred to their present position. 
 One of the goddesses, however, who inhabited the old temple, 
 is said to have been dissatisfied with the change, and to have 
 plunged down this well, where it is thought she still is. 
 
 The platform around the well was filled with devotees and 
 pilgrims — men of different races, dress, and appearance. There 
 was one old Yogee (Hindoo religious mendicant), who, squat- 
 
The Holy City of India. 143 
 
 ted on the ground, with his back to a column, and his hands 
 on his knees, silent and motionless. He had made a vow 
 never to move or speak, nor to eat, unless food was put in his 
 mouth. By this process he had attained to great sanctity, 
 but very poor condition. His head and body had been hber- 
 ally anointed with cow-dung and Ganges-mud by some of his 
 admirers, and I saw many persons salaming and making 
 poojah to him, but no one seemed to feed the poor wretch. I 
 gave a bystander a few anas, with which a most bountiful 
 meal was purchased. The old fellow eat it with much appe- 
 tite, but an expression of countenance which seemed to say, 
 " I despise it while I enjoy it." In old times, this place was a 
 great resort for these performers of self-imposed penances, 
 of which we read so much in tracts ; but the practice of self- 
 torture is gradually, but steadily, dying out in ISTortheru 
 India. A great change having been effected by the abolition 
 of the Churruk-poojah by government. This was a festival 
 in which men were swung in the air, supported by iron hooks 
 run under the muscles of the back. The performers used 
 generally to intoxicate themselves by smoking bhung (the 
 Cannabis Indica). We have all read in missionary tracts, 
 of people throwing themselves under the Car of Juggurnath, 
 of men with their limbs fixed in unnatural positions, the nails 
 growing through their hands, &c., and suicide in the Ganges 
 off Benares used to be committed by hundreds every year, 
 who wished to die within the sacred influence of that holy 
 city, and thus secure an immediate transition to eternal felicity. 
 All these barbarous practices, however, are now fast disap- 
 pearing; and suttees, with the various other forms of self- 
 immolation, have long been prohibited and abolished by the 
 Honourable Company. 
 
 Both Hindooism and Mahommedanism would seem to be 
 gradually breaking up in the Company's territories ; not that 
 there has yet been any great impression produced upon the 
 mass of the population, or that any better creed is being sub- 
 stituted ; only there are numerous signs to show that neither 
 of the old religions is in as vigourous a state as it was some 
 years ago, or as Hindooism, at least, is still, in the dominions 
 
1 44 India. 
 
 of some native princes. The musjeeds are mostly out of repair, 
 and in many instances fast going to rain, except some of them 
 which are kept np by government. The Moosulmans in India 
 have long abandoned the purity of their old faith, and become 
 more or less infected with Hindoo superstitions, and the 
 great bulk of them rarely go to the mosques, or observe those 
 daily prayers which are so striking to the traveller in other 
 Moslem countries. Among the Hindoos the change is seen 
 more in the gradually increasing disregard of caste. A few 
 years ago a Brahmun would have been polluted for the day by 
 the touch of a low-caste man, and would as soon have thought 
 of wearing leather shoes, eating beef, or drinking spirits, as 
 of killing his mother, eating her flesh, and drinking her blood. 
 Now, however, patent leather pumps are very fashionable in 
 the cities among them ; the higher classes, whose wealth and 
 position enable them to despise public opinion, eat and drink 
 what they like — especially the latter; and the pollution by 
 touch, if remarked at all, is too inconvenient to be long re- 
 membered. It must not be supposed, however, that this 
 disregard of caste is yet at all general. Among the lower 
 classes, that maxim, so general among oriental nations, that 
 " that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man" is still uni- 
 versally and scrupulously observed, and any deviation from 
 the rules of caste is severely punished. Even those iUuminati, 
 of whom I spoke above, are in many instances so hampered 
 by the prejudices of their youth, that they would not eat at 
 the same table with one of another caste or drink water from 
 his cup. 
 
 I had a little illustration of the inconveniences of caste 
 before reaching Benares, after crossing the river Son. The 
 coachman had left the carriage to get a fresh horse, and as he 
 was rather long gone, I took up the bugle, which is carried 
 by all dak-coachmen, to recall him. No sooner, however, had 
 my lip touched it, than all the bystanders groaned in concert. 
 I asked my servant what the matter was, and heard, in reply, 
 that the coachman was a Brahmun, and would be unable 
 henceforth to use the bugle without loss of caste, which, as 
 he was a Brahmun, could not be regained. However it turned 
 
The Holy City of India. 145 
 
 out that lie was a very low-caste Brahmun (for they, like all 
 other castes, are broken up into subordinate ranks, according 
 to greater or less purity of blood) and could be reinstated by 
 the payment of a fine, in the shape of a feast to his friends ; 
 so he finally made up his mind to blow the bugle, lose caste, 
 and restore himself by standing treat, rather than have the 
 greater expense of buying a new bugle. He would not 
 touch his mouth to it, after all, without heating the mouth- 
 piece in live coals, and scouring it with mud and cow-dung to 
 purify it from the pollution of my lips. It may seem strange 
 to some that a Brahmun should be coachman, but in fact they 
 are found in all positions, and very commonly hire themselves 
 out to natives as cooks, since the food which they prepare can 
 be eaten by men of any caste. There are, however, a very 
 large number, particularly among the higher castes of Brah- 
 muns, who subsist wholly on their religious character — living 
 on the charity and hospitality of one family after another. 
 They are a very licentious race, and the customs of society 
 give this tendency of theirs full swing, as, if a Brahmun leaves 
 his shoes outside the door of a house into which he enters, it 
 is unlawful for the owner of that house to enter until invited ; 
 and again there can never be any scandal with respect to 
 them since a Hindoo would rather die than say anything to 
 the disadvantage of a Brahmun. In old times, slandering a 
 Brahmun was punished by cutting out the tongue ; and death 
 was the penalty for a blow given to one of the sacred caste. 
 Of course these penalties have been inoperative since the 
 government of the country by the Moosulmans, but the 
 offences, which they were designed to prevent, are none the 
 less rare. The dress of the Brahmuns does not differ from 
 that of other natives, except that they all wear a piece of 
 thread over the shoulder, falling to the hip, tied in a particu- 
 lar knot. This thread is put on the young Brahmun when he 
 is about nine years old. Certain religious acts are performed 
 on this occasion, and he is acquainted with a certain mystic 
 sentence called the gayootree^ which is in Sanscrit, and 
 although now well known by foreigners, has at least half a 
 dozen different translations. When all this is done, the novice 
 
 1 
 
146 India. 
 
 is said to be twice born. Under tlie Hindoo system of govern- 
 ment, tlie Brahmnns occupied a position of superiority which 
 is almost incredible. All the other castes existed only for 
 their use and advantage. If a Soodra (or member of the 
 great caste which comprises the mass of the population, and 
 of which the present castes are only subdivisions) presumed to 
 learn by heart any portion of the Shastras, the penalty was 
 death ; if he only repeated a few of the sacred words without 
 learning them, he was let off with a dose of boiling oil poured 
 down his throat. The kilhng of a Soodra by a Brahmun was 
 the pollution of a day ; a blow inflicted on a Brahmun by a 
 Soodra, was, as before stated, a capital offence. These and 
 other exorbitant privileges have been lost, both by the rise in 
 importance of the lower castes, by the degeneracy and impure 
 blood of the present race of Brahmuns, and especially by the 
 effects of the Mahoramedan invasions which deposed them 
 from their despotic pre-eminence. They are still, however, 
 universally regarded by the Hindoos with a superstitious rev- 
 erence, and are permitted to enjoy many privileges which 
 they abuse. For instance, monogamy is the general rule 
 among the Hindoos, except under peculiar circumstances, but 
 the Brahmuns, and especially those of the high class called 
 Kooleen, are allowed to marry several v/omen. A Kooleen 
 Brahmun can have as many wives as he pleases, and fre- 
 quently weds as many as fifty or even a hundred girls, for the 
 sake of the dowries which the parents are willing to give to 
 secure the honour of so hio-h-caste a husband for their dauo-h- 
 ter. As these Kooleens are frequently poor, they have no 
 home of their own, but stop with such of their Wives as they 
 fancy — ^frequently never seeing the others after their nuptial 
 day. This is, of itself, a fearful source of immorality, second 
 only jDcrhaps to the Hindoo custom of prohibiting the remar- 
 riage of widows. In some parts of India, the Brahmuns have 
 attained a social position even higher than that assigned to 
 them by the laws of Menoo, as they are looked upon as deities, 
 and called by the same word which is used for a god. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 BENARES — CONCLUDED 
 
 Religious Ablutions — Aurnngzceb's Mosque — Yie-w from Minar — Burning Ghat — 
 Market Place — Hindoo College — "Native Gentlemen" — European Manners and 
 Morals in India — Euins of a Boodbist Monastery — Gold Brocade — Opium. 
 
 Leavixg the Golden Temple, we returned to the ghat, 
 re-embarked in om* boat, and continued down the river. The 
 ghats were still occupied by bathers, though the crowd was 
 now not so great as earlier in the morning. Bathing in 
 Ganges-water is a religious ceremony, which must be per- 
 formed every morning, by all who live within any reasonable 
 distance of that river. In case of persons who live more than 
 twenty miles from the Ganges, the rule is so far relaxed as to 
 allow them to bathe in any other river which may be more 
 convenient. Next in sanctity to the Ganges, or Gunga as it is 
 called by the natives, is the Nurbudda in Central India, which 
 indeed is believed, by many of those who live on its banks, to 
 be the Ganges itself, or to have a mysterious underground 
 communication with it. Bathing being, as before remarked, 
 a religious ceremony, is accompanied with prayers, joining of 
 the hands, throwing up the water toward the sun, and nume- 
 rous other rites. When the religious act is complete, the 
 bather thoroughly washes every part of his person, scours his 
 hair with mud, and cleanses his teeth with a piece of soft 
 wood, which he has previously chewed into a brush, using 
 the mud as tooth-powder. As this act is punctually j^erformed 
 every morning by every Hindoo, they are in person perhaps 
 the cleanest people in the world. After bathing they take ofi 
 their clothing and wash it, frequently putting it on again 
 without waitincr for it to drv. In Beno;al, oil is rubbed into 
 
148 India. 
 
 the skin after the bath, hut in Hindoostan this is not custom- 
 ary. Men and women bathe together promiscuously, but 
 although all the clothing has to be removed in the water, 
 they contrive to do so without any immodest exposure. 
 
 We kept down the river, almost to the end of the town, 
 and landed by the Musjeed of Aurungzeeb, where we landed 
 and ascended the Ghat. The mosque itself is not a particu- 
 larly handsome building, but the minars are very fine, rising 
 to perhaps 150 feet above the ground, which is about 100 feet 
 above the river. All mosques in India have one shape, which 
 is distinct from the form usual in other Moosulman countries. 
 They consist of an open portico, forming the western side of 
 a court. The portico is the place of prayer, and is supported 
 by a row of columns on the side which is open toward the 
 court. The other two sides are walled in. In the middle of 
 the western wall is a niche, the hibla^ which indicates the di- 
 rection of Mecca. Close beside the kibla is a stone platform, 
 raised a few feet from the pavement, on which the moolah^ or 
 preacher, sits. All this is on the western side of the court. 
 On the eastern side is the main gateway. The court itself is 
 frequently occupied by worshippers, when there is a crowd. 
 In the centre is generally a pool of water, for the purification 
 which the Koran enjoins previous to prayer. At each ex- 
 tremity of the colonnade dividing the open court from the 
 portico, which has been described as the special place of 
 prayer, is a minar. Every mosque has two. They are used 
 as standing-places for the muezzins, who chaunt on their 
 summits, certain Arabic verses which call the faithful to 
 prayer. 
 
 We ascended to the top of one of the minars of Aurung- 
 zeeb's musjeed, from which we had a view of all the city, the 
 river, and the country for miles around. In the town itself, 
 there were no buildings which stood out very prominently, 
 except the Hindoo college. The houses generally had flat roofs, 
 and were larger than in other towns which I saw in India. 
 The Ganges had a very deserted look — ^there being only one 
 or two boats upon it. In China, such a river would be 
 
The Holy City of India. 14.9 
 
 crowded with vessels. Such parts of the country as we could 
 see were all barren juugul. 
 
 Leaving the mosque, we again entered our boat, and re- 
 turned a short distance up the river. We passed close to the 
 " Burning Ghat," which I had not noticed as we went down, 
 since we had kept in the centre of the stream. It was much 
 like the corresponding establishment at Calcutta, and had 
 quite as foul a smell, but there were not so many hurgilas to 
 be seen. Two bodies were burning and two or three others, 
 lying in the mud, wrapped in red muslin, awaiting incremation. 
 
 Landing agam, we dismissed our boat and entered the gar- 
 rhee. We passed through the chok, or market-place, and the 
 Burra Bazar, or great street of shops. They were, neither ol 
 them, very remarkable sights ; but, in the afternoon, when I 
 visited them again, were crammed full of people buying and 
 selling — so much so that I had to leave my carriage and make 
 my way through the crowd as best I could on foot. I had 
 cause to regret not having the elephant, with Avhich I should, 
 no doubt, have been furnished, had Capt. Waddy been in 
 Benares, as such an animated scene as the chok of a large 
 Indian city, at high market time, is much better seen from a 
 howdah than in any other way. 
 
 We returned home by way of the Hindoo college, an ex- 
 tensive establishment, built and supported by Government. 
 The material is the same light free-stone, which is so generally 
 employed in Benares ; the architecture, a sort of Indian Gothic, 
 badly carried out. The tuition is free, and, as in all govern- 
 ment schools, all mention of religion is carefully excluded. 
 The school was not in session, the day being a Hindoo festival. 
 
 My companion of the morning oflered to take me to see 
 some Hindoos of eminence with whom he was acquainted — 
 which I should have been glad to do — but he was afterwards 
 prevented by business. Rich natives generally live in a very 
 retired way, and foreigners do not get on intimate terms with 
 them — they, are, however, very glad to have acquaintances 
 among the English, and receive visits from them, and are 
 much disposed to adopt English customs in exteriors. There 
 is, in fact, no such thing as intimacy among the natives. They 
 
1 50 India. 
 
 have no confidence in each other, and so there cannot be any 
 friendship among them. Again, a native's home is in his 
 zenana, among his women — a place of retirement into which 
 his most intimate friends are not admitted ; so that any so- 
 ciety, in our sense of the word, is, of com'se, impossible among 
 them. The English, in India, have been censured for their 
 haughty manner toward the higher class of natives, and the 
 footing of inequality on which the latter mingled with the 
 former. I do not think that they are open to this charge, to 
 the extent which is supposed, as the Company always desired, 
 and as far as possible enforced the utmost respect, in the man- 
 ners of its servants towards all natives of respectability. For 
 instance, there was an army regulation that the English offi- 
 cers should always invite into the house any native officer 
 who might call, and give him a chair. These native officers 
 were men who could neither read nor write, and had no fur- 
 ther training than a perfect knowledge of drill, being there- 
 fore in education, as well as in character, infinitely inferior to 
 the European sergeant who was required by the same regula- 
 tions to stand up in the officer's presence. Besides even the 
 best and highest classes of natives, were addicted to such low 
 and foul vices, as our laws say cannot even be mentioned by 
 any Christian man — ^how then were they fit companions to as- 
 sociate with honourable gentlemen ? The manners of a native 
 of standing, are as polished as those of the most refined no- 
 bleman in Paris, perhaps even more so — ^his mind and his 
 character, as foul and depraved as those of the most degraded 
 outcast of that capital. 
 
 I met at the hotel, in Seroor, a very intelligent and agree- 
 able captain of infantry, from the North Western Provinces, 
 going home on sick leave. He told me that he knew person- 
 ally, Arnold, the author of "Oakfield," a work that produced 
 much excitement in India, and made some, stir in England, 
 and even in America. 
 
 This officer told me that he could, as I can, understand how 
 Arnold might have written the book in perfectly good faith, 
 being a very quiet, religious, gentlemanly, highly-educated, 
 but somewhat narrow-minded man ; while he yet contended, 
 
The Holy City of India. 151 
 
 as I fully believe, that " Oakfield" was a great misrepresentation 
 of the Indian army as it now exists. The fact is, that like 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin," the work was intended to satirize cer- 
 tain individuals^ and both books were supposed both by their 
 friends and foes to be meant as representations of the entire 
 class to which these individuals belonged. Moreover, I heard 
 on all hands, in India, that within ten or twelve years a great 
 change for the better had come over the Company's service ; 
 and if we go back to the times when the present generals 
 were " griffins" or " griffs" (as they call cadets,) the alteration 
 in manners is most essential. At that time India v/as so cut 
 off from the rest of the world, and travelling from one part of 
 the country to another so slow, that men were isolated, and 
 became very like savages. Shut off from all communication 
 with what was of general interest, and coming out too young 
 to form literary tastes, (which even had they had, they could 
 not have gratified,) they gave themselves up to playing, drink- 
 ing, and other vices; generally kept native mistresses or 
 wives, and for want of better society, associated familiarly 
 with the sepoys, and their native officers; an association 
 which shows the depth to which they must have sunk, and 
 which must have tended to dras: them lower still. In old 
 times, some Englishmen became so lowered in character under 
 the influence of the heathen wives and companions among 
 whom they lived, that instances have been known where they 
 actually painted their faces, and performed poojah at the 
 Ganges. N"owadays, the number of Europeans is very much 
 increased ; their quality is improved, by which I mean, that 
 they are men of higher cultivation before they leave England, 
 and occupy a better standing in the society of that country 
 than did their predecessors ; communication with home and 
 different parts of India is rapid, and manners have undergone 
 a very great change for the better. Perhaps, what did more 
 than anything else to effect this desirable result, was the in- 
 crease in the number of English ladies, who give a higher tone 
 to society than it ever had before, and exclude from theii* 
 cu'cle any man who has a native wife or mistress ; in addition 
 to which, Government took the matter ujd, and any officer 
 
152 
 
 India. 
 
 who indulged himself in this respect, soon found that by so 
 doing he lost the confidence of his -superiors, and diminished 
 his chance of promotion. The result of all these causes was to 
 produce on the whole a most satisfactory state of morality 
 among the Indian officers, who all feel that the eyes of society 
 and Government are constantly upon them, since one is never 
 unaccompanied by servants in India, and every act is by them 
 made a subject of conversation in the bazar, whence any 
 scandal soon makes its way throughout the whole station. 
 
 On the follomng day I went with the landlord of the hotel 
 to see the remains of a large Boodhist establishment, about 
 eight miles from Benares. This was formerly a great centre 
 of Boodhism, and is described by contemporary Chinese trav- 
 ellers in works which still exist. It was, however, entirely 
 destroyed during the contests between the Boodhists and 
 Brahmuns. The remains consist of ten or twelve acres of 
 brick mounds, which have been recently cleared away in some 
 places, showing the foundations, which are very thick. The 
 buildings must have been both strong and lofty, judging from 
 the quantity of bricks that remain. The only building stand- 
 ing, is a sort of monument, bemg a round tower, perhaps, 60 
 or 70 feet in diameter, and about the same in height ; it was 
 once loftier, but the upper part has fallen to ruin. It is of 
 stone, filled in sofid with brick, the stone coating alone being 
 twelve feet thick. Each stone is numbered. The exterior of 
 this tower is decorated with most elaborate carvings of fruit, 
 geometrical forms, and numerous other designs. The work is 
 very deep and sharp, and in some places still remains incom- 
 plete. 
 
 As we drove to these ruins, our road lay through fields of 
 indigo and sugar-cane ; but the former had hardly sprung 
 from the ground. 
 
 In the afternoon, I visited a manufactory of the kinkob, or 
 gold brocade, for which Benares is famous. The estabhsh- 
 ment which I visited, although the largest in Benares, was all 
 comprised in one small room, with an earthen floor. There 
 vvere only four looms, which were placed close to the ground, 
 the weaver sitting on the earth, in a little excavation. The 
 
The Holy City of India. . 153 
 
 material of the kinkob is silk, and threads of pure gold. 
 Being exclusively used for pa^ijama, the pieces are only 41 
 yards long. It brings from 50 rupees to 150 rupees the piece. 
 Benares is one of the great opium depots, the other being 
 Patna. The Company's plantation is 87 miles from the city, 
 but I did not care to visit it, as the poppy was not ripe. 
 Opium is a Government monopoly in the east of India, and all 
 private growers must sell their drug to the Company's agent 
 at a fixed rate. In the west of India, however, that is to say, 
 the Malwar country, private cultivators are allowed to sell to 
 whom they will, only paying a duty to Government. 
 
 7* 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ALLAHABAD— "THE CITY OF GOD." 
 
 Arrival at Allahabad — Zubburdustee — Seekhs — Ilindoostanees— Fort at Allahabad — An 
 Invisible Eiver — Sooltan Khooshroo's Sural — Hindoostanoe "Wells — Allahabad to 
 Cawnpoor— Bullock Trains— Elephantiasis. 
 
 Leaving- Benares on the evening of the seventh of N'ovem- 
 ber, I found myself next morning on the north bank of the 
 Ganges, opposite the city of Allahabad, which is situated on a 
 narrow tongue of land between the Jumna and Ganges, 
 at their point of junction. The position of Allahabad is not 
 unlike that of 'New York, excej)t that it is not an island. The 
 fort, which is a large structure with high red stone walls, oc- 
 cupies a j)osition corresponding to that of Castle Garden. 
 
 The Ganges was low, not more than a mile wide, and it 
 took us a couple of hours to push the garrhee across the 
 sandy bed of the river, from which the water had receded. 
 Arrived at the river's bank, I found that the bridge of boats 
 which connects the city with the northern bank of the 
 Ganges, had been opened to allow of the j)assage of some 
 boats loaded with troops. 
 
 Arrived at Allahabad, I put up at a tolerable hotel kept by 
 a native, and drove in a buggy to the fort, to present a letter 
 of introduction to Captain Russell, the Commandant. On the 
 way I counted fifty-three native drays, employed compul- 
 sorily by Government to aid in the preparations for the 
 expected visit of the Commander-in-chief, the late General 
 Anson, who was then on a tour of inspection. The Govern- 
 ment in India take by force anything that is required for the 
 public service, whether belonging to natives or English, pay- 
 ing at a fixed rate, which is generally very fail*. This system 
 
Allahabad. i ^^ 
 
 seems to us harsh and tyrannical, but has always been usual 
 under previous Governments, who, however, seldom made any 
 payment for what they took. The natives do not think this 
 custom op23ressive, as they consider it the height of folly for 
 any one to pay, w^hen he can avoid so doing ; and have alw^ays 
 a tendency to appropriate their neighbour's goods and services 
 zubburdustee (by force) whenever they have the power so to 
 do. When we were going from Agra to Bombay, our follow- 
 ers used constantly to steal vegetables growing in the fields ; 
 take, by force, food from the bazar, and press the services of 
 villagers as guides. We found it almost impossible to restrain 
 them, or to convince them that there was any wi'ong in what 
 they did. The aggrieved villagers used also to take things 
 very coolly, so that it was only rarely that their dei^redations 
 became known to us. 
 
 Outside the fort a regiment of Seekhs were encamped. 
 They are the best soldiers in India, and have proved them- 
 selves the most reliable in the recent revolt. In appearance 
 they w^ould be an honour to any army in the world. It is 
 impossible to imagine a greater discrepancy than exists be- 
 tween the proud, martial, rough-spoken Seekh, and the mild- 
 looking commercial and courtly Bengalee. The difference in 
 appearance, of the races who inhabit India, is even greater 
 than between the different nations of Europe. The national 
 peculiarities have been, I suppose, perpetuated by the institu- 
 tion of castes. I was now regularly in Hindoostan, Benares 
 being generally considered the boundary betw^een that coun- 
 try and Bengal. The features of the people were more regu- 
 lar and finely cut than lower down the country, but the com- 
 plexion of the lower classes was very dark — in many cases 
 quite black. The costume worn here was entirely different 
 from that of Bengal, which consists of voluminous folds of 
 pure white muslin wound gracefully around the body. In 
 Hindoostan the men dress in a long, tight-fitting cassock, 
 (chupkun) and pawjama or trowsers. I have before described 
 this dress as worn by the Moosulman khitmutgras at Calcutta ; 
 it was in fact introduced by the Mahommedan conquest, but 
 has now become the general costume of Hindoostan. The 
 
1 ^6 India. 
 
 Hindoos, however, do not wear pa?2Jama, but keep the dhotee, 
 and theu' chupkuns open on the right breast instead of the 
 left. The Hindoostanee women generally wear very tight 
 pa?2Jama, and a scarf (saree) wound around the upper part of 
 the body and over the head. The material of the dress of 
 both sexes is bright-coloured calico. In cold weather the 
 women often wear a thick blue or green petticoat over the 
 pawjama. In Hindoostan men always wear turbans, which 
 are small and generally bright-coloured, but in Bengal it is 
 usual to go with the head quite uncovered. In cold weather 
 the Hindoostanees wrap themselves in cotton quilts precisely 
 resembling, in make and appearance, what we call " comforta- 
 bles" in America. 
 
 The fort at Allahabad is, as I have said, situated at the 
 extremity of the town, at the junction of the Jumna and 
 Ganges. It was an old native stronghold, but has been so 
 entirely remodelled that the armoury alone bears any traces 
 of its former masters. Captain RusseU, whom I found in his 
 office, showed me aU over the place, which covers many acres 
 of ground. I saw, among other things, a siege-train which 
 had been got ready before the annexation of Oude, in case 
 that any of the strongholds of the country should hold out. 
 Under the fort are extensive catacombs, into which we pene- 
 trated for some distance. They contain shrines of several 
 gods, and two or three Mahadeos. There is also, in the court 
 of the fort, a shaft of stone about fifty feet high, and covered 
 with an inscription in one of the old languages of India. The 
 kind of stone of which this pillar is made, shows that it must 
 have been brought from an immense distance. Only two sim- 
 ilar columns are known in India. 
 
 I afterwards drove through the city, which is as large a 
 place as Benares, but not so handsome. There are none of 
 those fine brown-stone residences which I admired so much in 
 Benares. The houses are all low and small, and in the Moo- 
 sulman style of architecture, which prevails throughout Hin- 
 doostan. 
 
 AUahabad is considered by the Hindoos as one of the most 
 
Allahabad. 
 
 157 
 
 sacred localities, being a place where three rivers join.* 
 Only two of these rivers, however, are visible ; the third is 
 supposed to flow direct from heaven, and here, unseen by- 
 mortal eyes, to add its celestial waters to those of the sacred 
 Gunga. Inhere is a great religious festival held every year at 
 this place, where the Brahmuns make an immense amount of 
 money, since they have, as elsewhere, the entire control of the 
 bathing ghat, and make all pay well for the privilege of wash- 
 ing away their sins in the purifying waters of the Ganges. 
 They have also the monopoly of shaving, which is very profit- 
 able, as every one who is shaved at this fair gains a thousand 
 years of Paradise for every hair removed. 
 
 The principal sight at Allahabad, beside the fort, is the 
 Sural and Gardens of Sooltan Kooshroo. They may have 
 been founded by that monarch, who died seven hundred years 
 ago, but certainly the present buildings are much more mod- 
 ern. The sural is a quadrangle, about 500 feet square, sur- 
 rounded by a high stone wall, against which are cloisters, 
 aftbrding shelter to travellers, while their camels occupy the 
 centre of the court. Every town, and most large villages, in 
 India, have at least one of these surais, built either by some 
 rich individual, or by government. They are always free to 
 all comers. 
 
 On one side of the sural is one of those noble gateways 
 which form so striking a feature of Saracenic architecture. It 
 is nearly sixty feet high, and about fifty feet deep, and leads 
 to the gardens, which contain six or eight acres of land, and 
 are well kept. At the further end of the garden are three 
 tombs, raised over a j^rincess and two princes. The tombs 
 are of stone, about forty feet square, surmounted by marble 
 domes, and raised on stone chubootras, fifteen feet from the 
 ground, so that their fine proportions are seen to great advan- 
 tage. 
 
 The public wells are among the prettiest objects in the towns 
 
 * Its former name was Deeg, which, I believe, means " the junction" in 
 Sanscrit. It was called Allahabad, or " the city of Allah," by the Moosulman 
 invaders, who were much struck with its situation, and were very fond of 
 changing the names of towns which they conquered. 
 
138 
 
 India. 
 
 and villages of Hindoostan. They are generally octagonal 
 stone platforms, raised four or five feet from the ground, and 
 approached by four flights of steps. Four stone columns over 
 the well's mouth, support cross pieces from which the pulley 
 is suspended. In Bengal no pulley is used at the wells. In 
 the north of India generally the women draw and carry the 
 water. The only men seen at the wells are the bheestees, a 
 pecuhar caste whose occupation is to carry water in a goat's 
 skin slung on their back. It is said that the constant pressure 
 of the wet skin against the back, occasions the growth of a 
 parasitic worm in the flesh, which occasionally causes death. 
 
 Toward evening I took a drive through the cantonments, 
 which are considered the prettiest in India — there being many 
 nice roads to drive on, shaded by avenues of trees. We 
 drove around the parade-ground, the road about which is 
 called in all stations " the Mall," and is the favourite drive of 
 the officers in the evening. We passed a large number of car- 
 riages and buggies — the saeeses were generally running beside 
 the horses, instead of seating themselves comfortably on the 
 foot-board, as they do in Calcutta. Every station of course 
 has its parade ground, which is always admirably adapted for 
 the j)urpose, on account of the perfect flatness and barren- 
 ness of most of the country in India. In fact almost any part 
 of the country which is not cultivated, would do for a parade- 
 ground. In this respect, India is, perhaps, the finest country 
 in the world for military evolutions, and almost every part of 
 it has been the scene of some bloody fight. 
 
 I left Allahabad the same evening, and breakfasting the 
 next morning at Futtehpoor, arrived in Cawnpoor by seven, 
 in time for dinner at the hotel. The country through which 
 I passed between Allahabad and Cawnpoor, was, as before, a 
 perfectly dead level, with hardly any trees or vegetation to 
 be seen. There was, however, rather more cultivation about 
 the villages, and I noticed several large fields of maize and 
 other grains. I saw no palm trees between Benares and 
 Cawnpoor. 
 
 During the day I passed an unusually large number of bul- 
 lock trains. These are, as the name implies, trains of bullock- 
 
Allahabad. 
 
 159 
 
 drays. They belong to the various dak companies, and run 
 the whole length of the Grand Trunk Road. The drays are 
 built after European models, and are much superior to those 
 of the native form. These bullock trains carry heavy goods, 
 and also take native passengers, who are never very particu- 
 lar about speed on a journey, or, for that matter, in anything 
 else. 
 
 After arriving at Benares I did not see any cases of ele- 
 phantiasis — a disgusting disease which is very common in 
 Bengal. It usually attacks one of the limbs, which swells 
 enormously. I have often seen a very pretty girl ('' mulier 
 formosa superue ") with a leg as thick as her body. I believe 
 that death finally supervenes, perhaps from mortification of 
 the affected limb. 
 
CHAPTER XVL 
 
 CAWNPOOR TO LUGKNOW. 
 
 The Station of Cawnpoor — Disorder in Oude— Cawnpoor to Lucknow — Elephants — 
 Kaorees — Lucknow — Making Ice — The Weather — The Generosity of the Sovereign 
 Company — My Man Brown — First View of Lncknow — A Moral — The Gate of Eome 
 — The Taza — The Imambara — A fine Coup-d'oeil — Situation of Oude — Splendour of 
 the Court — Indian Misgovernment — Indian Gentlemen — Extortion and Tortures — 
 Lord Canning's Confiscation — Brutal Degradation of the Court — Eelations of the 
 East India Company to the King of Oude— Yiolated Faith. 
 
 I EEiviAiisrED at Cawnj)Oor over night, and on the morning 
 of the tenth, started for Lucknow by a branch of the Grand 
 Trunk Road. 
 
 Cawnpoor was a large and important station, especially 
 before the annexation of Oude, from which district it is sepa- 
 rated by the river Ganges only. Oude was always a difficult 
 kingdom to keep in order. Its population are mostly Rajpoot 
 Hindoos — the governing class were Moosulmans of the sect 
 called Sheeahs, who are considered by the orthodox Mahom- 
 medans as no better than infidels. The Rajpoots are a mili- 
 tary caste, and when not in actual service, have generally 
 employed themselves in robbing, Thuggee, or some similar 
 occupation. The government of the King at Lucknow had 
 no influence or authority in the rural districts, and was only 
 heard of when there were taxes to be raised — ^the collection of 
 which generally required the presence of the King's army, and 
 a pitched battle between the tax-payers and tax-gatherers. 
 The warlike Rajpoots held their land by a species of feudal 
 tenure, and in cases of fighting, gathered round their zemin- 
 dar, who commonly lived in a fortified village, and seldom 
 yielded to the authority of law without showing good fight. 
 Some of these zemindars had large possessions, many follow- 
 ers, and strongly fortified residences, and were almost inde- 
 pendent of the King. When in want of money, they would 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 161 
 
 organize predatory expeditions against their weaker neigh- 
 bours, and slay, burn, torture and rob, until they had collected 
 sufficient booty. When the exchequer of the King ran low, 
 he used to send an army to one of these large villages, and 
 demand of the zemindar either so many rupees or else so 
 many bushels of ears. As the people did not like to part with 
 their ears, and their leader was seldom inclined to shell out on 
 a mere summons what he had gained with the red right hand, 
 the result generally was a resort to arms, which in Oude was 
 the prima as well as the ultima ratio of all disputants. 
 In these conflicts, if the villagers were beaten, they were 
 robbed, murdered, tortured, and frequently had their villages 
 burnt down. If the king's troops had the worst of it, the vil- 
 lagers j^ractised upon them the cruelties to which they them- 
 selves would have been subjected had the result been different. 
 All the native states of India are a prey to the worst kind of 
 tyranny, and in none of them is there much security for life or 
 property ; but in Oade, affairs were in a far worse state than 
 under any other native government. There was absolutely 
 no law outside of Lucknow ; and the country swarmed with 
 gangs of robbers, and professional murderers, who took refuge 
 there from the police of the Company's territories, and 
 emerged on predatory expeditions whenever they could do so 
 safely and profitably. The result of this unsettled condition 
 of the country, was that agriculture, trade, and all settled 
 occupations were interfered with ; large districts which were 
 as fertile as any in India were allowed to become jungul, and 
 tliere was a great and increasing emigration of the labouring 
 and agricultural classes into the Comj^any's territories. It 
 may be imagined that the existence in the midst of their states 
 of such a community, independent of their power, was a con- 
 tinual source of anxiety to the Company's government. The 
 frontier stations were always on the alert, and of these Cawn- 
 poor, as commanding the road to Lucknow, the only good 
 road in the kingdom, was the strongest, and was always kept 
 garrisoned by a large force. After the condition of Oude 
 became such as was not only destructive of its o^vn prosper- 
 ity, but seriously threatened the peace and security of the 
 
l62 India. 
 
 adjacent possessions of the Company, the king was deposed 
 and his territories annexed by the British government. Many 
 of the troops, which had previously been stationed at Cawn- 
 poor were then removed to Lucknow, so that the former sta- 
 tion, had, at the j)eriod of my visit lost much of its old impor- 
 tance. 
 
 The ride from Cawnpoor to Lucknow occupied the whole 
 day. The country was, as before, perfectly flat, and mostly 
 jungul. Wherever it was cultivated, however, the crops in- 
 dicated the fertile soil. The road led through two country 
 bazars, enclosures separate from any village, surrounded by a 
 high mud wall and closed by gates — a peculiar arrangement 
 which I never saw elsewhere. On the road we passed several 
 elephants carrying passengers — the first time that I had seen 
 them so employed, though I had often seen them used for 
 other purposes. The natives sit on a broad pad upon the ele- 
 phant's back — the howdah being a European invention. The 
 Mahoot rides, a-straddle, upon the elephant's neck, and guides 
 him with a sharp iron pike, about two feet long. In " old 
 Indian " times, elephants were much used throughout the 
 country, both by natives and foreigners, but the English car- 
 riage is now generally preferred as a conveyance, and ele- 
 phants are not often seen far down the country. It is not, 
 perhaps, generally known, that the elephant mil not breed in 
 captivity — they must always be caught wild, and tamed. Their 
 numbers must, therefore, be always limited, and, when I was 
 in India, Government had bought up all the good ones and 
 sent them to the Punjab, where they were needed for miUtary 
 purposes. 
 
 In describing the country, above, I have several times used 
 the word "jungul" — a Hindoostanee term, meaning "wild" — 
 and when applied to land, meaning simply " uncultivated ' — 
 whether there is any vegetation or not. I think this exj^lana- 
 tion necessary, as I have noticed that both in England and this 
 country, "a jungle " is supposed to be a cane-brake or forest. 
 It may be so, undoubtedly, but much of all the jungul in 
 India has hardly a single tree or bush upon it. 
 
 It was on the road between Cawnpoor and Lucknow that I 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 163 
 
 first saw Jcaorees used as money. Their use is general 
 throughout India, but it so happened that I had not before 
 seen them. They are small but solid shells, of a purple colour, 
 which are only found in certain streams. Their value is about 
 one eighty-fifth of a cent. Nothing can be bought with a 
 single Jcaoree, but the existence of so small a medium of ex- 
 change, proves the cheapness of food. 
 
 We reached Lucknow about eight o'clock, and drove 
 through the town, on the far side of whicli the dak-bungalow 
 is situated. I was surprised to find the whole city awake, the 
 shops open and illuminated, and the streets crowded with 
 people. It showed, at any rate, that I was no longer in Ben- 
 gal, where the whole city would be asleep two hours after 
 sunset. There was only light enough for me to see many 
 large buildings, some tall mmars, and several fine gateways. 
 
 We drove more than two miles through the streets of the 
 city, crossed the river Goomtee on an iron bridge, and keeping 
 on for about a mile, arrived at the dak-bungalow, which is on 
 the outskirts of the cantonments. I found the dak-bungalow 
 rather uncomfortable, having only been built since the country 
 came into the Company's hands, but there was no hotel, so I 
 had to make up my mind to it. The room where I slept had no 
 window-sash, an article of furniture of which I felt the want 
 very much, as it was now freezing every night, and I was the 
 more sensitive to cold from having been so long in hot 
 weather. Throughout Hindoostan it generally freezes in the 
 night time for two or three months in the year. This has been 
 taken advantage of, for several years past, by the Europeans, 
 to obtain a supply of ice for the hot weather. The plan is, to 
 expose water to the cold air, in very shallow pans, having a 
 net at the bottom. The water freezes during the night, to the 
 depth of about a quarter of an inch, and the sheet of ice is 
 lifted out in the morning, by help of the net, and carefully 
 packed in an ice-house. Though the weather is so cool at 
 night, and though even in the day-time one feels chilly within 
 doors or in the shade, yet so hot is the sun, and so powerful 
 are its rays, that it is quite unsafe to expose the head without 
 the protection of a thick turban — or, as it is always called in 
 
164 India. 
 
 India, pugree. During the cold weather I generally found it 
 necessary to wear flannel clothes, and even an overcoat in- 
 doors ; but 'when I went out I put on a thin alpaca coat, 
 taking care, however, not to expose my body to the sun's rays, 
 and whiding around my felt hat more yards of fine Dacca mus- 
 lin, than a novice would believe it possible to arrange in a 
 convenient and even graceful and picturesque pugree. 
 
 After I had eaten a curry and drank a bottle of beer, I 
 dispatched my letter of introduction to the mihtary Secretary 
 of Government, Captain F. Hayes, and then heapmg upon the 
 charpoy (low native bedstead) all the shawls and coats I could 
 find, got a better night's rest than could have been expected, 
 considering the cold, and that as the Khan sahma^z told me. 
 much to my disgust, " Sircar, Koompanee, Bahadur kee Suk- 
 hawutne bichona koee nuheei^^ diya hy." (The generosity 
 of the sovereign warrior company has not provided any bed- 
 clothes.) I had, by this time, picked up a good many words 
 of the Hindoostanee, and was beginning to be able, by the 
 help of a pocket dictionary, to dispense sometimes with the 
 assistance of my servant, as interpreter, in which capacity he 
 was not of so much use as I had expected, being often too 
 stupid to understand my questions. He was a half-caste, 
 and had a most peculiar character. He was awfully lazy, very 
 extravagant, and generally stupid, but yet he was sometimes 
 sharp enough, and once extricated me cleverly from a trouble- 
 some predicament in which I had put myself by beating a 
 moonshee (native clerk and agent) of the dak company, who 
 filled some small office under the government. 
 
 Brown (my servant) used to take advantage of the delicate 
 distinctions in the construction of the Hindoostanee sentence, 
 to use forms in his conversation with natives which implied an 
 equality in position between him and me. As soon as I began 
 to understand the lingo, however, I j)ut a stop to that. When 
 I bought anything, he invariably exacted from the seller the 
 dustooree of six per cent,, which is always allowed in India, 
 but he never kept the money for himself, giving it away to 
 the servants at the dak-bungalows, or wherever we were 
 staying. He could never understand the difference between 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 165 
 
 numbers. One day he told me that, during the Doorga Poojah 
 at Calcutta, his uncle and he had driven out of town a hun- 
 dred miles, and taken tiffin at some place of public resort. I 
 asked him how long it had taken him to drive out. He said, 
 "two hours,?' without seeming to remark any discrepancy 
 between his two statements, and it was a long time before I 
 could show him by the rate of our travelHng that the distance 
 could not have been as great as he supposed. At last he was 
 convinced, and said, without the least confusion, " Ah ! then, 
 sir, it must have been ten miles." One day we were talking 
 about castes, and he told me that all the Khitmutgras in Cal- 
 cutta were Christians. I was surprised to hear this, and asked 
 him to what Church they belonged. " Oh, sir," he replied, 
 " they do not belong to any Church, but they will all eat 
 jDork and drink brandy." Like all the natives, Brown seemed 
 very insensible to the cold weather. He dressed in Alpaca 
 clothes, and as he slej^t on the roof of the garrhee, without 
 any covering, while we were travelling, I feared that he might 
 suffer from the severity of the weather, and bought him a 
 thick blanket. The next morning I asked him if he had found 
 the blanket comfortable. " Very, sir," he replied ; " I used 
 it for a pillow." He used to lie, of course, as all natives do, 
 but I expected that, and did not mind it. He remained with 
 me until I arrived at Agra, when he left my service, returned to 
 Delhi, and got emj^loyment in the office of the " Delhi Gazette," 
 an Enghsh newsj^aper pubUshed in that city. At the massacre 
 of the Christians, he was one of the few who escaped, and 
 curiously enough, his safety was reported in the very mail 
 which brought the first news of the mutiny, and his name 
 was printed in all the newspapers in Europe, when the fate of so 
 many more important people was a question of doubt and 
 anxiety for weeks after. 
 
 Next morning I sent for a buggy to drive to tlie city. Just 
 as I was starting, a chuprassee, or messenger, from Captain 
 Hayes, arrived on a fast camel, with a letter from him inviting 
 me to dinner, and promising me his advice and assistance in 
 seemg the city on the following day — both of which offers I 
 was happy to accept. After sending back the chuprassee, 
 
l66 India. 
 
 1 entered the buggy and drove to the town — about one 
 mile off. 
 
 On crossing the iron bridge over the Goomtee, the view 
 before me astonished even more than it delighted me. I knew, 
 beforehand, that the city of Lucknow was a place of over two 
 hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, that it had been for 
 years the capital of the most fertile portion of the Ganges 
 valley, and that, until within some months of my visit, it had 
 been the seat of the most considerable and splendid native 
 court in India ; still I had been so much disappointed by all 
 the native towns which I had seen (except Benares, the archi- 
 tectural features of which are quite peculiar to itself and dif- 
 ferent from those of all other towns in India) that I was 
 wholly unprepared for the magnificent coup cVceil which pre- 
 sented itself to me on the further bank of the river. The 
 city, which extends for several miles along the bank, seemed 
 one mass of majestic and beautiful buildings, of dazzling 
 whiteness, crowned with domes of burnished gold, while 
 scores of minars, many of them very high, lent to the scene 
 that airy grace for which they are so famous. The whole 
 picture was like a dream of fairy land. I stopped the horse 
 and gazed upon the view for a few minutes with unalloyed 
 pleasure. Here, at last, I thought, I have come upon some 
 real " Oriental magnificence" — ^this place will give me a vivid 
 idea of the proud state of the Emperors of Delhi. True, the 
 princes who built these mighty palaces no longer inhabit 
 them ; they no longer worship Allah in these glorious temples 
 which they have reared as grand tributes to the supremacy 
 of a pure monotheism ; but still their buildings bear witness 
 to their mightiness and wealth, and even if their strength was 
 used in tyi-anny, and their riches gained by extortion, yet this 
 employment of their power and money in promoting art and 
 beauty, gives us a lurking feeling of regret that Justice should 
 demand the utter abolition of the Moslem's rule. 
 
 A nearer view of these buildings, however, destroys all the 
 illusion. The "lamp of Truth" burnt but dimly for the archi- 
 tects of Lucknow. You find, on examination, that the white 
 colour of the buildings, which presented in the sunlight the 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 167 
 
 effect of the purest marble, is simply white-wash. The mate- 
 rial of the buildings themselves is stuccoed brick ; and your 
 taste is shocked by the discovery, that the gilded domes, of 
 perfect shape, and apparently massive construction, which so 
 much attracted your admiration, are merely thin shells of 
 wood, in many places rotten. Everywhere you discover traces 
 of disorder and want of repair. You come, at last, to the 
 conclusion, that the whole thing is a gigantic sham, and, 
 perhaps, think as I did, when recollecting my first impressions 
 upon the further bank of the Goomtee, that the architecture 
 of Lucknow is no bad type of the native rule, and the native 
 character generally — very prepossessing loTien seen and judged 
 from heyond the water. 
 
 I drove through the city to the Imambara, the principal 
 mosque of the place. The streets were, as usual, narrow and 
 crowded ; the houses, as in all towns where the Moosulman 
 influence prevails in the architecture, low and mean. This 
 circumstance increases greatly the apparent height of the 
 principal buildings, and to it they owe much of their ef- 
 fect. 
 
 After threading these narrow streets for half a mile or so, 
 we passed through a great gateway, and entered an open 
 paved square used as a market, and having on one side, a 
 large but deserted and dingy-looking palace. At the further 
 end of this square, was another gateway, the Room-ee-Dur- 
 wazu'''' — the most magnificent structure of the kind I had 
 seen. Passing through it we entered another square, similar 
 to the first, but larger. It was also surrounded by several 
 mosques, of which, by far the finest and most conspicuous, 
 was the Imambara, on the left. These Imambaras are build- 
 ings pecuhar to the Sheeah sect of Moosulmans, who differ 
 from the orthodox Mahommedans, or Sconces, in permitting 
 
 "'• This means, literally, " The Gate of Rome." Rome being the name bj 
 which the natives of India know Constantinople, eyenr at the present day, aa 
 it was the name applied to it as long as the "Eastern Empire" lasted. Tho 
 gates of large native cities are usually called ostentatiously after tho principal 
 places in tlio direction of which they lie. 
 
] 68 India. 
 
 the use of images in worship. The original spht between the 
 rival sects, I believe was occasioned by disputes about the 
 the succession to the office of Caliph. However that may be, 
 they are now divided, also, on doctrinal points, and look upon 
 one another as no better than unbelievers. Constantinople 
 has always been the head quarters of the Soonees, Persia of 
 the Sheeahs. In India, the Moosulmans of Delhi were Soonees, 
 while those of Lucknow professed the Persian faith. The 
 Sheeahs venerate the two brothers, Hiissun and Hoosen, al- 
 most as much as they do Mahommed, and keep each year a 
 season of fasting and mourning in memory of their death. 
 The fast, the moTviiTTumj^ terminates by a grand procession, 
 called the Taza, in which effigies of the prophet's winged 
 horse, several angels, the two Imams, and other figures and 
 representations of sacred objects are carried in procession 
 amid the blaze of fireworks, and the lamentations of true be- 
 lievers over the untimely death of the two great brothers. 
 The images and other objects carried in these processions are 
 often made of precious metals, and being of great value, are, 
 when not needed, deposited in a mosque, called the Imambara. 
 The Lucknow Imambara consists of two courts, rising with a 
 steep ascent, one above the other. Each of these courts is 
 entered by a noble archway, and is, I should think, two hun- 
 dred feet square. At the extremity of the furthest is a great 
 gallery, perhaps sixty feet high, under which are ke|)t the 
 sacred images described above. JSTotwithstanding their value, 
 they are yery ugly. This portico is a curious combination of 
 a sacristy, garde-rohe^ and cemetery. It contains the tombs 
 of two or three members of the royal family, which are cov- 
 ered with showy and expensive tabernacles of silver and 
 precious stones ; and is, besides employed as a store-house of 
 the more valuable curiosities collected by the various kings. 
 There were a number of chandeliers, a blue glass tiger, a 
 great throne plated with silver, royal standards embroidered 
 with gold and precious stones, and other heterogeneous objects 
 — altogether, a collection of great value, but showing the 
 most barbarous taste. The two courts of the Imambara are 
 laid out as gardens, and on one side of the upper court is a 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 169 
 
 large mosque, built at right angles with the portico described 
 above. 
 
 On leaving the Imambara, I visited several other mosques 
 of great size. Their architecture left but little to desire, but 
 the inferiority of the materials employed in their construction, 
 and the general want of repair, were painfully evident. I also 
 went to see the old Imambara, at no great distance from the 
 new edifice of the same name. Its general arrangement is 
 similar to that of the new one, but its size is greater, and it 
 includes a college and other buildings. It is with reference 
 to this building, that Bishop Heber says, " taken in conjunc- 
 tion with the Room-ee-Durwazu which adjoins it, I have 
 never seen an architectural view which pleased me more from 
 its richness and variety, as well as the j^roportions and good 
 taste of its principal features. The details a good deal resem- 
 ble those of Eaton, the Earl of Grosvenor's seat in Cheshire, 
 but the extent is much greater, and the parts larger. On the 
 whole, it is, perhaps, most like the Kremlin ; but, both in 
 splendour and taste, my old favourite falls far short of it." 
 Since the construction of the new Imambara the old building 
 is deserted, and its courts are used as a Sural. The walls are 
 almost black with mould, and it sadly needs a coat of white- 
 w^ash. 
 
 After viewing these mosques, I drove my buggy through 
 the market-squares around which they are situated. The 
 day was now so far advanced that the squares, which, in 
 the morning were almost deserted, were thickly crowded with 
 tradesmen and others. The sj)acious market-place, the gay 
 dress of the inhabitants, the beautiful outline of the mosques, 
 and the dark mass of the old Imambara and Palace, made a 
 scene which I shall not soon forget, and not the least part of 
 which was that noble structure, the Room-ee-Durwazu, sepa- 
 rating the two squares. The material of which it is built, is, 
 to be sure, defective, and the details are liable to criticism, 
 but in size, grace, and the beauty of the general design, I 
 do not believe that it is surj^assed by any gateway in the 
 world. 
 
 I returned to the dak-bungalow, as it was becoming late, 
 
 8 
 
1 yo India. 
 
 and, after dressing, drove to the residence of Captain Hayes, 
 for dinner. His bungalow was soraewliat larger than these 
 buildings generally are, and was built with a slight regard for 
 taste, but in other respects was similar to all others I have 
 seen, having no second story, the walls being low, and the 
 thatched roof high and steep. Mrs. Hayes had also some 
 flowers in the compound, and a little grass-plat, which were 
 great curiosities ; and they had even gone so far in innovation 
 as to make a bold, although only partially successful attempt 
 at a kitchen-garden behind the house. 
 
 Captain Hayes was the Military Secretary to the chief com- 
 missioner of Oude, and had, at the time, almost the whole 
 administration in his hands, as his colleague, the Civil Secre- 
 tary, was absent. The two together formed the ministry of 
 the commissioner, who is charged with the supreme govern- 
 ment of the province. It will be seen, therefore, that Captain 
 Hayes' duties, in the absence of the other Secretary, were not 
 light, as they amounted in fact to the Legislative, Executive, 
 and Judicial oversight of a population of six millions. He and 
 Mrs. Hayes were among the most agreeable people whom I 
 met in India, and disposed to do everything in their power to 
 make my stay pleasant. They pressed me to remain some time 
 with them, but I was so hurried that I could only afford one 
 more day at Lucknow, and was forced to refuse their hospi- 
 table invitation. Captain Hayes was one of the most tho- 
 rough gentlemen I ever met, and, what is rare in India, a very 
 accomplished scholar. He was a Master of Arts of Oxford ; 
 and, in addition to his heavy duties, made it a point to devote 
 a portion of every day to study. In this way he had acquired 
 about thirteen different languages — including Russian and the 
 Oriental tongues. His knowledge of the latter was of the 
 greatest advantage in his governmental capacity. Being 
 thoroughly acquainted with the j^eople and government, I 
 found his conversation most instructive, and the information 
 which he gave me was of the greatest advantage in enabling 
 me to form correct opinions. He told me that I had lost a 
 great deal by coming to Lucknow since the dethronement of 
 the king — as th^ capital was formerly the residence of a host 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 171 
 
 of nobles who lived in the most magnificent style, going about 
 gorgeously dressed, seated in splendid hoicdahs on the backs 
 of elephants, and accompanied by troops of followers — the 
 whole presenting such a scene of real Oriental magnificence 
 as is now to be found only in books — Oude being the last very 
 large native Court that remained. The king of Oude, he told 
 me, was nearly indej^endent ; at least, the amount of control 
 exercised over him by the resident agent of the Company, 
 was entirely dependent upon the personal character of the 
 man. 
 
 Captain Hayes gave me a most lively picture of the tyranny 
 and disorder which prevailed under the royal government. 
 The king's power scarcely extended outside the city walls. 
 Beyond that his orders met with obedience when the army 
 was present to enforce them. Taxes were seldom collected 
 without a fight, since the people knew that if they paid with- 
 out opposition, the collectors would pocket the money, and 
 then, reporting to head-quarters that they had been unable to 
 collect the tax, would come again, reinforced by troops, and 
 make the unfortunate villagers pay over again. The cultiva- 
 tors were completely at the mercy of their feudal landlords, 
 who took from them all they could spare. What portions of 
 their property they could not spare, they were relieved of by 
 some adjacent landlord who had not been able to squeeze 
 enough out of his own tenants, and resorted to predatory 
 excursions upon the villages of his weaker neighbours. Should 
 the wretched ryuts still save something from these harpies, the 
 chances were that it would fall into the hands of the author- 
 ized agents of government, or be forcibly carried off by the 
 bands of organized dukoits whom the lawless state of Oude 
 attracted from the adjacent territories of the Company. The 
 administration of justice was of course a mere farce — the man 
 with the fullest purse being, as in most Eastern countries, 
 nearly sure of his cause. 
 
 Misgovernment among an Eastern nation is quite a differ- 
 ent thing from anything that has ever existed in the West, 
 and the disorganization of society in Oude is almost incredible 
 to a European. In Oude, rapine and murder, ferocious era- 
 
1 72 India. 
 
 eity and abominable lust were common as the air. Assassina- 
 tion was not only raised to a doctrine but solidified into ac 
 institution. Female infanticide, in its most horrible form, 
 was almost universal. In fact a large number of the inhabi- 
 tants formed, what a European can hardly imagine, a nation 
 of banditti. These men, whose hands were red with blood, 
 and whose minds were blackened by the practice of the most 
 loathsome vices, were at the same time persons of bland exte- 
 rior and polished manners, and some of them associated freely 
 with Europeans, by whom they were regarded as fine speci- 
 mens of advanced native intelligence. 
 
 The awful cruelties and atrocious crimes committed by these 
 men, especially in their predatory excursions into each other's 
 territories, surpassed the most horrible outrages during the 
 recent mutiny, and show that those acts of appalling horror 
 which concentrated on this rebellion the execration of man- 
 kind, were far from being unparallelled, and were, in fact, the 
 ordinary practices and every-day occurrences in the kingdom 
 of Oude before its annexation. 
 
 One of these gentlemen^ Dursun Singh, marched into the 
 country of an adjacent Rajah who was temporarily absent. 
 His fort surrendered, and his followers obtained leave to depart 
 freely on giving up all their property. They crossed to a 
 small island in the river, and there intended to await the 
 departure of their invader ; but no sooner had Dursun seen 
 them collected into one spot than he opened his guns upon 
 them and killed between one and two hundred — the rest fled. 
 The son of Dursun, who was charged with collecting the reve- 
 nue of a large district, so ruined the country under his care, 
 that whereas it once supplied grain to all the adjacent coun- 
 try, after a few years of his management it had to import corn 
 from Lucknow and even from Cawnpoor. In an incursion 
 made by one of these individuals, as late as the year 1 846, he 
 drove off two thousand prisoners and eighty thousand animals. 
 On the road pregnant women were beaten by the troops with 
 bludgeons and muskets, and many of them gave premature 
 birth to children. When the troops came to a halt the prison- 
 ers were paraded and tortured with all the helHsh ingenuity 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 173 
 
 of Orientals. Their sufferings, which included the public dis- 
 honour of women and such bestial cruelties as cannot be 
 named, served as a mid-day recreation for their captors. The 
 commander smiled, and the soldiers danced with delight as 
 they elicited screams from their victims. Another of these 
 model governors made war on his own brother, and when he 
 had taken him prisoner, cut off his head with his own hands, 
 and that, too, in violation of a solemn oath that his life should 
 be spared. Buksh Ali, who passed sometime at Cawnpoor, 
 associating on terms of intimacy with the European residents 
 of the station, was considered a very fine specimen of a native 
 gentleman. Yet his origin and his life were equally degraded. 
 He was originally a drummer for a nach-girl. Having obtained 
 admittance to court in this capacity, he became a favourite, 
 and a large district was assigned to him. His" territories soon 
 became the most lawless in Oude. Not a day passed but 
 some new act of cruelty and oppression occurred, and his 
 seraglio was filled with girls kidnapped from the country 
 around. Another famous character was Juggurnath Chu- 
 prassee. He and his five brothers were the terror of the coun- 
 try. They headed large bands of soldiers and joined harmo- 
 niously in the work of devastation. Juggurnath, however, 
 wished to have all the pickings to himself, and with his own 
 hands killed two of his brothers. A third was shot in a foray. 
 The remaining two set up independently of each other and of 
 their elder brother, and the miserable cultivators had thence- 
 forth three bands of plunderers instead of one only. 
 
 The tortures and barbarities employed by these wretches 
 for the purpose of extorting money are almost incredible in 
 their atrocity. Women were stripped naked and had boiling- 
 oil poured over their skins. Men were plastered with moist 
 gunpowder, which was fii;ed when dry. Beating to death was 
 the favourite form of execution. Mutilation was common, and 
 was sometimes prolonged till the victim expired. Men and 
 women were slain after bestial outrages that might make a 
 devil blush. 
 
 Such was the condition of the country of Oude, and such 
 the character of its barons. The above acts are not excep- 
 
1 74 India. 
 
 tional, but are only instances of what was done continually 
 and in all parts of the country. These are the men who, this 
 year, have offered a pertinacious resistance to the authority 
 of the British, as w^ell they might, knowing that under Eng- 
 lish rule such acts as the above could not be committed. The 
 " confiscation" proclaimed by Lord Canning, after the capture 
 of Lucknow, was aimed only at this class, that is, the land- 
 holders ; as the people proper^ the cultivators, held land merely 
 as their tenants, and no greater mercy could be shown them 
 than to rid the country of these locusts. Under the manage- 
 ment of such landlords the country could not be expected to 
 be very prosperous. Accordingly, we find that the revenue 
 was always diminishing, while the value of a district of equal 
 extent which was ceded to the British in 1801, has since that 
 time increased fiearly to double. 
 
 Such was the state of the country. As for the capital. Luck- 
 now, it cannot be better described than in the words of Dr. 
 Duff. He says, " Lucknow w^as a very Sodom and Gomorrha 
 of iniquity, the hard-worn earnings of the ground-dow^n and 
 tortured ryuts and villagers, the spoils of cruelly ravaged dis- 
 tricts and provinces, were there consumed in monstrosities of 
 wickedness and vice which might put Pandemonium itself to 
 the blush." It was to Lucknow that the barons and land- 
 lords above described resorted to spend in luxury and pleasure, 
 the fortunes which they had collected as above described. 
 Besides them and their troops of lawless retainers, the popu- 
 lation of the city was principally composed of the trades people 
 and others who lived by ministering to their pleasure. The 
 only other inhabitants were the numberless dependents that 
 are attached to every native court. 
 
 The degradation and vice of the royal court can scarcely be 
 imagined. The palace was a den of infamy, a sink of indescrib- 
 able licentiousness and incredible degradation. Bad as w^ere 
 the native aristocracy still they were men, and the king shun- 
 ned their society, and lived among his singers, and the crea- 
 tures dedicated to his licentious gratification. The lowest 
 and vilest minions were raised to the highest posts ; old ser- 
 vants of government were degraded to gratify a whim, and 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. 175 
 
 aged members of the royal family were subjected to the lowest 
 indignities to amuse a set of dancers, and were robbed of their 
 property, and forced to flee to the Company's territories, to 
 secure their lives. 
 
 This state of things may be thought to be unendurable, and 
 in feet could never have lasted had it not been for the support 
 w4iich the Company afforded to the king. The throne of 
 Oude was created by them. They had recognized the inde- 
 pendence of a revolted vassal of the Emperor of Delhi, and had 
 estabUshed him as the first King of Oude. The treaty by 
 which this was effected, provided that that king should govern 
 well and faithfully, and promised protection and support of 
 the Company. From the time that the arrangement was 
 entered into, it became a ceaseless source of anxiety and 
 trouble. The Company's power had to be constantly exerted 
 to support the authority of the king, and prevent usurpations. 
 The court was utterly corrupt ; the king was entirely without 
 authority ; the feudal lords were unrestrained in their lawless 
 excesses ; the country was becoming a nest of bandits and 
 murderers from all j^arts of India ; the soil, the most fertile 
 in the valley of the Ganges, was relapsing into jungul; the 
 wretched villagers were sinking into mere beasts of burden, 
 and fled each year, in great numbers, into the Company's ter- 
 ritories. 
 
 Again and again the English resident remonstrated with 
 the king and called upon him to observe the stipulations of 
 his treaties, which required him to govern with some shoAV of 
 justice, and maintain at least the appearance of order. The 
 remonstrances met with no attention from the miserable im- 
 becile, lost in the beastly j^leasures of his zenana. The 
 Company could no longer continue their protection without 
 making themselves accamj^lices of all these w^rongs. They 
 could not withdraw their support and leave the Idng indepen- 
 dent, for that would have thrown the kingdom into worse 
 confusion than ever. The king had no authority or respect, 
 and w^ould not have remained upon the throne a day. The 
 strongest of the zemmdars would have usurped the royal 
 power, and the whole country would have been plunged into 
 
176 India. 
 
 a state of anarchy, the conclusion of which could not have been 
 foreseen. In fact, such a usurpation was liable to occur at any 
 moment, and might have given the Company the greatest 
 trouble m the restoration of peace. 
 
 The disorganization of society had thus been complete. 
 The government was a malignant and incurable cancer, eating 
 out the very life of the body politic. Extirpation was the 
 only remedy. The ravages of the disease threatened to 
 extend to the English possessions. In their own interest, in 
 the interest of their subjects, finally in the interest of human- 
 ity and civilization, only one course* was possible and that 
 was bravely taken by Lord Dalhousie in the annexation of the 
 kingdom. After the deposition of the king, he removed to 
 Calcutta, where he was allowed a pension of £150,000 sterling 
 a year, which was to be continued to his descendants. 
 
 The deposition of the king, as Captain Hayes' informed me, 
 was not received with any great satisfaction by the inhabitants 
 of the city, who had profited largely by the presence of the 
 court, and into whose cofiers had flowed much of the wealth 
 extorted from the country-people. Even the ryuts did not 
 find their position materially bettered at first, as the revenue- 
 
 * This course has been condemned as a violation of plighted faith. With- 
 out stopping to discuss the ethical question whether this was not one of the 
 cases that constantly arise in pohtics, where a permanent engagement in 
 writing may and ought to be set aside, from a total change in circumstances ; 
 it is here sufficient to state that by the treaty of 1831, the Company had a right 
 to assume the administration of the country. This, it is plain, would amount 
 practically to the course actually taken, and would be an equal infringement 
 of the theoretical rights of the King. 
 
 The question whether the annexation of Oude was not a political blunder, 
 is evidently quite distinct from the above. It may be contended that the 
 great land-holders above described were too powerful a class for their resent- 
 ment to be dared with impunity — ^that, however much they deserved punish- 
 ment, it was unwise to attempt to inflict it. Such arguments may be used 
 with great force, particularly since the rebellion in Oude. But whether the 
 question be decided in one way or the other, the decision will not affect the 
 justice or injustice of the act, and will not compromise the wisdom of the 
 Company's policy, since, as is well known, the annexation of Oude was a 
 measure entirely dictated by the English ministry, as almost all the aggressive 
 acts of the Indian government have ever been. 
 
Cawnpoor to Lucknow. lyy 
 
 administration had to be temi^orarily continued in tlie hands 
 of the old native agents, Avho found their facilities for extor- 
 tion increased by the restoration of the supremacy of law. 
 The real benefits of the change would only be felt when the 
 whole administration system had been altered and conformed 
 to the admirable arrangements in force in the North- Western 
 Provinces and the Punjab — measures which required time to 
 introduce and perfect. 
 
 I noticed in Captain Hayes' house, that the ceilings were 
 formed of canvass, painted in the Italian style. In Bengal 
 the rooms are open to the roof These canvass ceilings are 
 common all over the North- Western Provinces, and were 
 introduced by the Italian architects and artists, who were at 
 one time attracted to these Indian courts, and whose influence 
 is veiy often perceptible in the architecture of the buildings, 
 and their decorations. 
 
 12* 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 LUCKNOW. — CONCLUDED, 
 
 A Morning Surprise — Salam — Native Polish — Hindoo Manners — Parade — Eed Coat- 
 Character of Sepoys — An Army of Priests and Kings — Caste misunderstood — Pa- 
 riahs—India Conquered for the English, by Natives— Bullock Artillery—" Ilathee 
 pur Howdah" or Elephant Eiding— Eich Dresses— Chokeedars—Fukheers— A Coat 
 of Paint— Eoyal Palace— Vanity— The Social Evil— A Modern Sodom— Defence of 
 the Lucknow Eesidency — The Massacre of Cawnpoor. 
 
 After dinner I returned to the dak-bungalow, and next 
 morning again rej)aired by invitation ' to Captain Hayes', to 
 accompany him to a review. As all parades take place before 
 the heat of the sun becomes oppressive, I was obliged to get 
 up very early, and after driving the two miles from the dak- 
 bungalow, arrived by five o'clock. I found the Captain not 
 yet dressed. His house was shut up. On opening the door, 
 I discovered ten or twelve servants asleep on the parlour floor, 
 having chosen that resting place on account of the warmth of 
 the house and the softness of the carpet. The noise I made 
 in entering awoke them, and they all got up and salamed. 
 The salam consists in opening the hands and placing them so 
 that the little fingers touch, and both hands form one flat sur- 
 face ; then bowing and touching the hands to the earth and the 
 forehead. This is the most respectful form and is employed 
 by servants and inferiors. In it, the upper part of the body 
 is bent as far as possible. There are less respectful varieties 
 of the same salute, made by not bending the body so much, 
 or lowering the joined hands so far. The lowest form of all 
 is a simple inclination of the head, and touching the forehead 
 three or four times with one hand. The salutation by salam 
 was introduced by the Moosulraans, though it is now also 
 practised by the Hindoos. 
 
 When used by one Mahommedan to another, the gesture de- 
 
Lucknow. 1 79 
 
 scribed above is accompanied by the words " Salani Alekoom," 
 to which the reply is, " Alekoom Salam." The Hindoo salu- 
 tation, which is given only to a Hindoo, is Ram-Ram. Hm- 
 doos are, commonly, much less polite than Moosulmans. The 
 former never salute any one whom they do not know — 
 the latter salute all whom they have reason to believe supe- 
 riors. The manly independence of Hindoo manners is, how- 
 ever, scarcely found in the north of India, where the Mahom- 
 medan influence has been very powerful. As a general rule, 
 the manners of a native are cringing and slavish to his supe- 
 riors — coarse and brutal to his inferiors. In addressing a 
 superior, every deferential circumlocution is employed. The 
 verb is never used in the second person, but always in the 
 third, Tvdth the title " Sahib " — " lord ;" "Gureeb Purwar "— 
 " provider for the poor ;" " Khodawund " — " representative 
 of God ;" " Huzoor " — " your worshijD ;" " Sahib Bahadur " — 
 " warrior Lord ;" " Bahadur Shah " — " warrior king," or some 
 such term used as the subject. On the other hand, the native 
 speaks of himself as " bunda," " your slave," or by some title 
 of humility. Mrs. Colin Mackenzie relates that one morning her 
 husband Vvas travelling by palkee, and saw some others behmd 
 on the road. He put his head out of the door and asked one of 
 his bearers how many other palkees there were. The reply 
 was, " There are two, three, or even four, if such be your 
 Lordship's pleasure." Another story is told of one of the 
 Lieutenant Governors of Agra, who took .much interest in 
 native schools. One day he was examining a remarkably 
 clever protege before some friends. After several other 
 questions, he asked the boy, " what makes the earth go round 
 the sun ?" and was told, " the earth revolves by the favour of 
 your Highness." The servants of Europeans, as is the uni- 
 versal custom of all natives, never wear their shoes in the 
 house. When addressed by their master, they stand with the 
 arms folded, and when speaking, join the hands in the attitude 
 of prayer — a position well suited to the slavish style of their 
 speech. When a native has a particular favour to ask, he 
 kneels down on the ground, and puts his head under your 
 feet. When they are flogged, they never think of resisting. 
 
1 8o India. 
 
 but kneel down with their foreheads in the grouDd, and joining 
 the hands above their heads shriek frightfully, crying to the 
 Honourable Company to come to their aid, and now and then 
 yelling out that they are dead. 
 
 The servility of the Moosulman manners, would be all very 
 well if they implied any real respect — but when you know 
 that they detest and despise you, that, if they dared, they 
 would spit upon you for an infidel dog, and that they would 
 feel themselves eternally disgraced by sitting down at your 
 table — you cannot help feeling a hearty contempt for the mis-- 
 erable fawning, cringing, slavish cowards. 
 
 Soon after five o'clock Captain Hayes joined me, and we 
 went together to the j)arade ground. We stood near the 
 colours, and saw the troops march by. They were all Sepoys, 
 but very fine-looking and tall men. Like all native regular 
 regiments, they were officered by an equal number of Euro- 
 peans and natives. The latter looked intensely j)roud of their 
 red coats, slLowy accoutrements, and the strings of gold beads 
 around their neck. The dress of the Sej)oys, is nearly the 
 same as that of Enghsh soldiers, and though not so pleasant 
 or convenient as the native dress, is much preferred by them. 
 The red coat takes the fancy of the natives, both on account 
 of its colour and the 2:>restige attached to it. It was adopted 
 years ago in the armies of the independent native princes ; 
 and in the Punjab war the Seekhs were only distinguished 
 from the Company's sepoys by wearing a turban instead ol 
 the military cap. N'ative soldiers march as well as possible, 
 mancEuvre admirably, and are better shots than Europeans. 
 The only desiderata as regards drill, are a prominent chest, 
 and physical strength. In all other respects they would be as 
 fine soldiers as any in the world if they only had one thing — 
 and that is manly courage. 
 
 Oude was the great recruiting ground of the Bengal army. 
 Among its teeming population there is an unusually large 
 proportion of Brahmuns, and Rajpoots, the latter the highest 
 of the Soodra castes ; and they had contrived almost to mo- 
 nopolize the army appointments. The pay of the army was 
 so high, and the service so desirable in every way, that each 
 
Lucknow. 18 J 
 
 soldier would induce his young relations to enlist, and at tlu 
 same time would endeavour to prevent the enrolment of 
 men of inferior caste. Though the Oude Brahmuns and 
 Rajpoots, were the finest races in India, yet one quality alone 
 of theirs would have totally unfitted them for a serviceable 
 army. I mean their indomitable pride — which far exceeded 
 that of the bluest-blooded Castilian noble. The hidalgo may 
 trace back his descent for several hundred years of unspotted 
 lineage, but the Rajpoot's genealogy ends only in the sun or 
 the moon — the Spanish gentleman may fancy himself equal to 
 any prince or nobleman, but the Rajpoot would not acknow- 
 ledge his inferiority to a king, and would not even allow the 
 equal rank of most monarchs. But if such is the Rajpoot's 
 pride of birth, how much greater is that of the Brahmun. 
 The former believes that he is the equal of any living man, 
 the latter, that he is by far their superior. " You may say, if 
 you please," they will observe, " that Brahmuns are men, like 
 the rest of mankind — so it is true that cows and hogs are both 
 animals, but you can never make a hog into a cow, nor pre- 
 tend any equality between them. A wicked Brahmun is 
 entitled to more reverence than the most virtuous Soodra — is 
 not a vicious cow better than a well-behaved cat ?" In speak- 
 ing of this divine caste, the great law-giver Menoo says, 
 " Whatever exists in the universe is in efiect, if not in form, 
 the property of the Brahmuns — and so the Brahmun is enti- 
 tled to everything by primogeniture and superiority of birth. 
 The Brahmun who lives on another's charity is under no obh- 
 gations ; he eats but his own food, wears but his own aj^parel, 
 and bestows but his own alms. It is, indeed, only by the 
 benevolence of the Brahmuns that other mortals enjoy life." 
 How could discipline be maintained in an army composed ol 
 men with such feelings ; any one of whom would consider 
 himself eternally disgraced by dining with you, my reader ; 
 and would almost pi'efer death to eating a meal prepared for 
 him by the hands of his own general, whom he would consider 
 as bearing the same relation of rank towards himself, that the 
 unclean hog does to the pure and sacred cow. 
 
 This institution of caste is the most remarkable feature in 
 
l82 India 
 
 Hindoo society, and is, perhaps, scarcely at all understood by 
 those who have not lived in India. Almost all the English 
 books which I have read on the subject of India, seem to as- 
 sume the actual existence of the original four castes, the 
 Brahmun, Kshatrias, Vaishyas, and Soodras — whereas the 
 two intermediate castes have wholly disappeared, and the Soo- 
 dras, who comprise the mass of the population, have become 
 broken up into innumerable subordinate castes, as entirely 
 separate from one another as from the Brahmuns. Although 
 the Brahmuns are properly priests, and the other castes are 
 generally called by the name of some trade, so that they are, 
 to some extent, guilds — yet a man of any caste is allowed to 
 do anything which does not require him to touch substances 
 or engage in occupations which are pollution, according to 
 the rules of his particular caste. For instance, a Brahmun 
 will be a coachman, a clerk, or an employe of government, 
 and perhaps their most common occupations are cooking as 
 domestic servants in the houses of natives, and begging. But 
 no matter how menial is their occupation, howsoever poor 
 and miserable they may be, whether squatted on the mud 
 cooking, begging naked in the streets, or licking your feet for 
 an extra bucksees, he always considers himself, and is looked 
 upon by all Hindoos, as infinitely superior in rank to the 
 mightiest monarch in Christendom. So also, any Hindoo will 
 be a domestic servant — but he will not cook beef or take care 
 of fowls ; he will make his master's bed and mend his clothes, 
 but he will not sweep the room or emjDty the dirty water, 
 unless he be of a low caste. The higher the caste, generally, 
 the fewer the occupations that the subject can engage in, and 
 the more limited the number of articles he can eat. There 
 are some castes so low that scarcely anything is a pollution to 
 them, and they even eat the putrid meat of animals which 
 have died a natural death. StiU they are very punctilious on 
 the few points which mark their caste^ 
 
 Lowest and most degraded of all are the Qut-castes, who, 
 in Southern India, form a large part of the population. 
 An English missionary describing the condition of this class, 
 and comparing them with negro slaves, says ; " The slave may 
 
Lucknow. 183 
 
 tread the same floor with his master, v>dthoat polluting the 
 house, he may enter the room where he sits, touch the meat 
 he uses, sleep under the same roof, and prepare the food he 
 eats. He is not made to feel that his step defiles the room, 
 that his touch infects the purest wares, and that he carries in 
 his body, no matter how clean, a cursed incurable filthiness 
 which fills with disgust all who have proper human sentiments. 
 Above all he may possibly die free, or his children may become 
 manumitted. But the Out-caste has no such hoj^es. He must 
 bear his curse down to the grave, and bequeath it to his chil- 
 dren, who like him will be com^^elled to live beyond the 
 village walls, will be hunted from every door, scorned by the 
 most base, loathed by the most vile, and know that the same 
 malediction awaits his little ones." The condition of these 
 Out-castes, who number some twenty millions, is only one of 
 the curses of the caste system. No such insuperable barrier 
 has ever been reared elsewhere between the members of the 
 human race. It is an mstitution which destroys all brother- 
 hood between man and man, and is therefore one of the 
 deadUest opponents of the Christian religion — do not all 
 Christians eat of one bread and drink of one cujd ? but the 
 very essence and test of caste is eating and drinking. A man 
 of one caste would not take a cup of water from one of 
 another caste, though they had been life-long companions ; 
 nor would he touch to his lips the pipe used by the other. 
 Caste, then, looses the bonds which binds society together, it 
 prevents intimacy between man and man, destroys friendship, 
 and supplants patriotism. The Hindoo has no attachment to 
 his rulers, no care for a particular form of government, no 
 sentiment of nationality, no love for freedom : — for these sen- 
 timents which exist in greater or less extent in every other 
 nation of men, and have existed in all ages, are in the Hindoo 
 centred and bounded by the limits of his caste. 
 
 It was by taking advantage of these difierences in caste, 
 and the indifference to nationality induced thereby, that the 
 English obtained their power in India. A native will be a 
 mercenary soldier to w^hoever pays best, and will fight his 
 own neighbours as willingly as men of another nation. India 
 
184 India. 
 
 was conquered for the English by the natives themselves , 
 and it was only when the precaution of arraying caste against 
 caste, and nation against nation was neglected, that the alle- 
 giance of the native soldiers was destroyed, and the magic 
 chain was loosened by which India had been conquered and 
 held. 
 
 The parade at Lucknow went off very well. After the 
 troops had marched past the colours, the artillery were exer- 
 cised. The guns were drawn by bullocks, and I was surprised 
 to see how well these animals worked. The driver of each 
 pair ran between his animals, and guided them with a short 
 goad. On account of the great difficulty of obtaining good 
 horses in India, elephants, camels, and bullocks, have aU been 
 employed with artillery. The experiments with the two 
 former have now been abandoned, as they are not naturally 
 adapted to draft labour ; but the bullock batteries although 
 they do not give entire satisfaction, are still in use. 
 
 The parade lasted for several hours, and I was glad when 
 we returned to breakfast, as not having eaten anything, I 
 found the sun's rays very oppressive. Breakfast was finished 
 by eleven, and Captain Hayes informed me that his duties 
 would prevent his going through the city with me, but that 
 he had obtained an elephant from the Residence for my use, 
 and would send with me one of his servants to show every 
 thing. 
 
 The elephant was a very large beast, with tusks, and capa- 
 risoned with crimson. At the word haith^ he knelt upon the 
 ground and I mounted by a ladder into the howdah — a box 
 with seats for two in front and one behind. When I was 
 seated, my host warned me to hold on tight, and then told 
 them to let the elephant rise, which he did at the word ootha. 
 It was well I minded the warning to hold on tight, for I never 
 experienced anything like the heaving of the ponderous car- 
 case as it rose into the air — a small steamer at sea in a gale is 
 nothing to it — I should think that people who ride elephants 
 would not mind earthquakes. 
 
 The elephant walked at about three miles the hour. As he 
 belonged to the Chief Commissioner, not only were his ap- 
 
Lucknow. 1 85 
 
 pointments splendid, but he was accompanied by half a dozen 
 servants, beside the mahoot who sat a-straddle on his neck, 
 and directed his movements, enforcing his commands by 
 pricks with a sharp iron hook. One man Avalked beside the 
 elephant's head and talked to him constantly, recommending 
 him to take care of stones, holes in the road, &g. In the seat 
 of the howdah behind me sat the servant whom Captain 
 Hayes had sent in my company. He held over my head a 
 gigantic scarlet chattah or umbrella. I did not particularly 
 like elephant-riding, the paces are not comfortable until you 
 are used to them. You are thrown first to the right and 
 then to the left — occasionally the motion is backward and 
 forward — but you cannot keep still for an instant, and I found 
 my sides sore for several days afterw^ards, from violent contact 
 with the howdah. Altogether it reminded me uncomfortably 
 of riding on a slow trotting horse — you cannot help imagining 
 that if he would go faster he would be easier, and yet if you 
 succeed in increasing the pace, your suflerings are probably 
 aggravated. 
 
 Wherever I went, the elephant and retinue attracted the 
 greatest attention and respect. Horsemen faced round and 
 saluted, some of them even dismounting and making salams. 
 The sentries all presented arms, and at one or two points they 
 even turned out the guards. All that I could do was to make 
 a military salute in acknowledgement, try to look as dignified 
 as possible, and convey the impression that it was all my due, 
 and something to which I ^vas quite accustomed. 
 
 The streets were full of people, as it was a great Hindoo 
 festival, and presented a most interestmg sight- The dress in 
 Lucknow is much more picturesque, and gave the impression 
 of more wealth, or, at least, more luxury than the costumes 
 which I had seen further down the country. Many of the 
 men had shawls, some of them very beautiful and costly, w^orn 
 as kummurbunds (sashes), or pugrees (turbans), or else 
 thrown loosely over the shoulders. The great mass of the 
 people, however, as elsewhere, w^ore little clothing, and that 
 of the coarsest yellow cotton. 
 
 We met numbers of the chokeedars, or native police, who 
 
l86 India. 
 
 are so obnoxious to the people, and whose extortions, and 
 abuse of power, are so difficult to control. They were dressed 
 in the native fashion, wearing a blue cloth cassock with tight 
 trowsers, and were armed with shields and spears. These 
 weapons were necessary, as a very large proportion of the 
 people in the streets carried swords, and sometimes shields 
 also. 
 
 I noticed among the crowds a good many fukheers, or reli- 
 gious mendicants, who answer to the durweeshes of Persia. 
 They generally wear little clothing, and are daubed over with 
 white streaks or mud. One of them was entirely naked, his 
 hair dressed with feathers, and covered from head to foot 
 with a yellow powder. I thought he must be cool in this cos- 
 tume, but learned afterwards that it was a common dodge 
 with the fukheers to rub this powder into the skin, as it occa- 
 sions a slight cuticular irritation, and thus yields an artificial 
 warmth. 
 
 Crossing the bridge again, and keeping down on the other 
 side through a street parallel with the river, we arrived in a 
 short tune at a large gateway leading to the Furad Buksh, 
 the palace occupied by the late king. It consists of a suc- 
 cession of courts, connected by gateways, and each surrounded 
 by rows of two-storied buildings, in a plain, Saracenic style. 
 The palace extends to the river, on the banks of which are 
 three larger and more lofty buildings, surmounted by gilt 
 domes. The courts behind these buildings were of consider- 
 able size, and laid out in the Italian style of gardening, v/ith 
 fish ponds, and marble copies of antique Grecian statues. The 
 whole establishment covers many acres of ground. We passed 
 through the stables, the courts for servants, those of the zenana, 
 and many others, the former use of which I did not ascertain, 
 and at length arrived in the garden court fronting that por- 
 tion of the palace, used by the king for tlie reception of visi- 
 tors. This building is four or five stories high. The lower 
 story consists principally of a large room, open toward the 
 court, and surrounded by several smaller apartments, used 
 as breakfast-rooms, or for similar purposes — all furnished in 
 English style. A billiard room, with an old table, occupied 
 
Lucknow. I 87 
 
 the side toward the Goomtee. I found three or four young 
 officers quartered here and in the adjacent apartments. One 
 of them had taken the billiard table for a bedstead, and a 
 terrier dog was quietly sleeping on a tall gilt throne of Orien- 
 tal shape. 
 
 We ascended to the roof, which, though not very high, 
 commands a good view of the city. The houses are generally 
 very low. I was sui'prised at the great space of ground cov- 
 ered by the Furad Buksh, and at the extraordinary number 
 of palaces in sight. The king alone had five palaces at Luck- 
 now, besides sumptuous country seats in the vicinity ; and the 
 great men of the court o^\Tied magnificent residences, many 
 of which rival the Furad Buksh in size. Like the royal palaces, 
 these edifices were closed and inaccessible to visitors, their 
 owners having withdraA\ai to the country after the dethrone- 
 ment of the king, and dissolution of the court in the previous 
 Februaiy. 
 
 None of the rooms which I saw in the palace were large, 
 but they must have been handsome when the frescoes and 
 gilding were fresh. At best, however, they never could have 
 been so elegant as the rooms of very many private houses in 
 ]^ew York — the decoration was often tawdry and in bad taste, 
 and always perishable, as nothing but stone retains any fresh- 
 ness in the Indian climate. The weather, hot and rainy one- 
 third of the year, and hot without rain for most of the remain- 
 der, makes all stuccoed buildings look shabby in a short time ; 
 and when it is remembered that such is the material of nearly 
 all edifices m Lucknow, and that no repairs are made to them, 
 it is easy to understand why it has been necessary for the kings 
 to build one palace after another. Another reason for build- 
 ing so many palaces was the desire of each monarch to sig- 
 nalize his reign by constructing for himself a residence more 
 splendid than those of his predecessors. This foolish wish each 
 successive kmg carried out "^dth that recklessness which is so 
 characteristic of Oriental sovereigns in the gratification of 
 every whim. 
 
 Mounting the elephant, and passing again through the de- 
 serted courts of the palace, I left the Furad Buksh, and passed 
 
1 88 India. 
 
 through the bazar and chok. The streets were again crowded 
 with people, and were so narrow that the foot passengers often 
 found it difficult to get out of the elephant's way. As I sat 
 in the howdah, I was on a level with the upper story of the 
 houses, and could look in upon the apartments. In the prin- 
 cipal bazar these were mostly tenanted by young girls, dressed 
 in fine sarees of green or red muslins, decorated with gold 
 nose-rings and jewellery, their eyes darkened with kohl (anti- 
 mony), and their hands tinged red with heena. These ladies 
 are called in Hindoostanee Jchushees^ or more politely, loll- 
 heebees (red-ladies). N'ot to be less polite than the natives 
 themselves to those who are in India, as they were in Greece, 
 the only well-educated class of women, we will call them 
 bayaderes, though it is a word which I never heard in India. 
 The bayaderes then sat at the windows, smoking their naichas, 
 displaying their finest clothes and jewellery, and sometimes 
 making remarks to me in Hindoostanee or English. 
 
 "Ite quibus grata est picta lupa barbara mitra." 
 
 Sometimes might be seen beings still more repulsive — me/a 
 with their pale faces, long, oily locks, decorated like their 
 female correlatives, and gazing out of the windows with spirit- 
 less leering eyes : 
 
 > " Hispo subit juvenes et morbo pallet utroque. 
 
 Talia secreta coluerant orgia tseda 
 Cecropiam soliti Baptas lassare Cotytto. 
 Ille supercilium madida fuligine tactuui 
 Obliqua producit acu pingitque trementes 
 AttoUens oculos ; vitreo bibit ille Priapo 
 Reticulumque comis auratum ingentibus implet, 
 Cserulea indutus scutulata aut galbina rasa." 
 
 The city of Lucknow is spread over a large space of ground, 
 but the best streets are all near the palace and Imambara, so 
 that it did not take me long to see them all, particularly as ] 
 was on an elephant : in fact, there was such a crowd that, in 
 any other conveyance, progress would have been almost im- 
 possible. Once or twice we met with other elephants, and 
 
Lucknow. 189 
 
 then as the streets were too narrow for the elephants to pass 
 or turn round, the other always had to retreat backward be- 
 fore ours, till he came to a cross-street. 
 
 After taking another view of the Imambara and Room-ee- 
 Dunvazu, we again passed the bridge to return to the bunga- 
 low. As we reached the opposite shore of the river, I turned 
 round and took my last view of Lucknow. It seemed to me 
 even more beautiful by the slanting rays of the evenmg sun 
 than when I had seen it before, shining as if made of silver in 
 the full blaze of an Indian noon. That evening I read Bayard 
 Taylor's description of Lucknow, and the expressions of his 
 feeling on seeing for the last time that magnificent home of 
 vice and crime, represented my own feelings so well that I 
 cannot forbear quoting the words : " The sun is setting, and 
 the noises of the great city are subdued for a moment. The 
 deep-green gardens lie in shadow, but all around us, far and 
 near, the gilded domes are blazing in the yellow glow. The 
 scene is lovely as the outer gate of Paradise, yet what decep- 
 tion, what crime, what unutterable moral degradation fester 
 beneath its surface !" 
 
 In truth, every native capital in India is a nursery of the 
 darkest crimes, a hot bed of the most disgusting forms of 
 licentiousness ever invented by the depraved passions of man. 
 Should the doom of Sodom descend upon these cities, no one 
 who knows what they are would dispute the terrible justice 
 of the punishment. 
 
 I again dined at Captain Hayes', who gave me much advice 
 during the evening as to my further progress, and furnished 
 me with letters to his friends in the stations whither I was 
 going. Late in the evening I bade adieu, with regret, to my 
 kind entertainer and his wife, for whom I had formed senti- 
 ments of sincere respect and esteem. 
 
 The subsequent fate of Captain Hayes was sad. He took 
 command of a regiment of irregular cavalry, a service for 
 which he was eminently adapted by his intimate acquaintance 
 with the natives and their language ; and fell, among the first 
 victims of the mutiny, treacherously shot from behind, by one 
 of his trusted followers. 
 
igo India. 
 
 The same evening I left the city of Lucknow, which was 
 subsequently the scene of so much noble endurance, and such 
 heroic gallantry. The siege of the Residency is, I believe, 
 unparallelled in the world's history. The residency is a large, 
 three storied house, of not more than average strength, and 
 entirely unsuited for defence ; and yet here a little band of 
 noble hearts held out for month after month of sickening 
 suspense, with unexampled courage, unflinching endurance of 
 privation, and a never-failing trust in their countrymen, 
 against countless hordes of well-armed, well-provisioned, and 
 ferocious enemies. They were fighting to save their wives 
 from barbarous indignities, worse than a thousand deaths ; 
 themselves and their children from the hellish tortures of the 
 heathen, whose tender mercies are cruel ; and the English 
 name from disgrace and degradation. Their struggle was 
 watched with breathless interest by the civilized world ; their 
 success and safety were hailed with universal applause — an 
 applause shared by their heroic rescuers. 
 
 I arrived at Cawnpoor again on the morning of Novem- 
 ber 13, and, having breakfasted, left in garrhee for Futteh- 
 ghur. At breakfast I met some officers who offered to show 
 me splendid sport if I could give a week to it. They were 
 going with camels and tents to have some deer and antelope 
 shooting ; but I felt that I must push on as fast as was com- 
 patible with seeing the most remarkable objects, and was 
 obliged to refuse myself the pleasure. 
 
 Six months after I left Cawnpoor, its troops revolted, and 
 its European inhabitants fell a prey to the treachery and bar- 
 barous cruelty of Nana Sahib — a wretch, who, it is to be 
 hoped, vtdll soon meet with the just reward of his horrible 
 crimes, and die amid the curses of the world ; a monster 
 whose name will always be mentioned with loathing, and 
 heard with horror. To all his other vices he added cow- 
 ardice. Miserably inefficient as were the hasty defences which 
 the feeble band of Europeans had reared against the muti- 
 nous thousands, they were strong enough to hold those 
 overpowering odds in check, and the leader of the rebels was 
 obliged to resort to the basest perfidy, and perjure himself by 
 
Lucknow. igi 
 
 the most sacred oath of his religion, to obtain that surrender, 
 which he and his followers dared not force. Black treachery- 
 was followed by pitiless slaughter, and the blood of the inno- 
 cent called on Heaven for vengeance. ISTor was Heaven in- 
 diftereut to the cry. Though every circumstance seemed to 
 promise the mutineers immunity for their crimes, a stern and 
 speedy avenger was found in the " Pm'itan" soldier, Havelock, 
 and his army of " Saints." " Though only a few thousand in 
 number, far away from all succom-, and in the ends of the 
 earth, they marcbed unfalteringly amid, millions of disaffected 
 people, and armies of trained mutineers, over thousands of 
 miles, in the worst season of the year, besieging and over- 
 throwing great cities, meeting intrepidly all sorts of surprises, 
 against incredible odds of numbers, and defeating day after day, 
 vast hordes of well-armed and desperate men. They did this 
 while the air sighed with the dying sobs of English women and 
 children perishing under horrors which no pen has dared fully to 
 tell. Wrung to the heart with these sorrows, but cool and de- 
 termined, they marched to avenge themselves and the hu- 
 man race against the demonism which had broken out around 
 them."* Honour, then, to the brave soldier, whose life-blood 
 was shed in doing his duty ; pity and tears for the fearful fate 
 of the helpless women and innocent children ; but indignation 
 and contempt for those who wrought this shame ; the gallows 
 and the cannon are a fit punishment for the coward and the 
 traitor. 
 
 * New York Christian Advocate amd Journal. 
 
CHAPTEE XYIII. 
 
 TO MEERUTH. 
 
 Appearance of Country — Bishop Ilebcr — Christian Missions — Colonel Tucker — Country 
 between Futtehghur and Meeruth — Ganges Canal — An Indian "Station" — Sirdh^a 
 Dyce Sombre's Tomb — ^Free Lances of India — An Ingenious Process for Collecting 
 Money — A Female General — Success of the Begoom — To Moozuffarnuggur — Dhoo- 
 lee Travelling — Persian Inscription — Natural History. 
 
 After leaving Cavvnpoor, the appearance of the country- 
 improved much. The population seemed thicker, the cultiva- 
 tion better, and the tops more numerous. A top is a grove 
 regularly jolanted, generally near a village, and used as a rest- 
 ing-place for caravans. The land on each side of the road 
 was, in many places, overgrown with jungul-grass, a tall, thick 
 sort of grass, which rises to the height of ten feet or more 
 sometimes. Palm trees again became abundant, but I saw 
 scarcely any banyan trees up-country. 
 
 I used to amuse myself in the garrhee by studying Hin- 
 doostanee, and reading Bishop Heber's travels, which is the 
 only guide-book for India, beside being extremely well written 
 and interesting. His character must have been really lovely. 
 He certainly made all with whom he was brought in contact, 
 love him. It was related to me as a most remarkable proof ot 
 the great respect and affection entertained for him by all classes 
 of both Europeans and natives, that at his death, commemora- 
 tive religious services were held, not only in the churches of all 
 the numerous Christian sects represented in Calcutta, but also 
 in the mosques and temples of that city. 
 
 The Bishop's darling hope was the conversion of India, and 
 he used to think that he saw hopeful signs. It would not 
 appear, however, that the work is going on much more rap- 
 idly than in his time. The converts are few, and mostly of 
 
To Meeruth. igj 
 
 the most degraded classes. The pride of caste forms an 
 almost insurmountable barrier to the recej)tion of the Gospel ; 
 and ages of abject superstition seem to have eradicated all 
 noble and manly qualities from the Hindoo character. 
 
 People in this country cannot appreciate the extreme im- 
 probability, I might almost say impossibihty of the conversion 
 of a high-caste Hindoo. Humanly speaking, it would be 
 almost as reasonable to expect the archbishop of Canterbury 
 to sacrifice a goat to Parbutee. As for arguing with a Hin- 
 doo of intelligence, it is like using cannon against Hindoo 
 earth-works. He will grant every argument of the Christian, 
 will admire his religion, admit his miracles, and acknowledge 
 the truth of the Incarnation. At the same time he will con- 
 tend that he has an older and a better system, miracles much 
 more astounding, and numberless awatars, instead of one 
 only. He is the most tolerant man in the world ; will allow 
 every religion to be true, and as his own system will not admit 
 of converts, he recommends every man to adhere to his par- 
 ticular creed, and permit him V^ do the same. 
 
 I arrived at Futtehghur on the morning of November 14, 
 and at once presented my letter from Captain Hayes to 
 Colonel Tucker. He received me very kindly, and presented 
 me to the ladies of his family, an honour for which I was not 
 at all prepared, dressed as I was from head to foot in white 
 flannel. I had come to Futtehghur with the intention of pro- 
 ceeding thence to JSTynee Thai, one of the most beautiful 
 stations on the Himalayas. I found, however, from the 
 Colonel, that the journey would be exposing, and the trip 
 would take considerable time. I therefore determined, by 
 his advice, to alter my plans and proceed instead to Islun- 
 sooree, also a hill-station, but much more accessible and 
 affording an equally fine view of the snowy range. I dined 
 in the afternoon with the Colonel, and started in the evening 
 by garrhee for Meeruth. Colonel Tucker was afterwards shot 
 through the head, while defending, in company with a few 
 other gentlemen, a place of refuge to which they had betaken 
 themselves with the ladies, I believe they were all mas- 
 sacred. 
 
1 g^ India. 
 
 The Lieutenant Governor of the North Western Provinces 
 was encamped under a top near the dak-bungalow at Fut- 
 tehghur. His camp was quite picturesque, comprising numer- 
 ous tents, regularly laid out, a dozen or two of camels, half a 
 dozen elephants, several companies of sepoys, and camp fol- 
 lowers enough for a European army. 
 
 The country between Futtehghur and Meeruth was the best 
 cultivated that I had seen since leaving Raneegunj. I saw for 
 the first time several plantations of castor-oil plant. Tops 
 were numerous, long strings of camels constantly went by, 
 elephants were often seen, and we passed many drays convey- 
 ing bales of cotton down-country. But notwithstanding these 
 pleasant features in the day's ride, the greater part of the 
 country through which the road lay, was the same flat barren 
 waste which had been wearying my eyes ever since I began 
 my trip — a very disappointing substitute for the luxuriant 
 foliage and picturesque scenery which I had expected to meet 
 in India. The villages through which I passed were just as 
 miserable as those lower dow^j the country. They consisted 
 of the same collections of wretched, ill-built mud huts, and 
 displayed the same want of order, energy, and economy. 
 Though the weather was now cold, the inhabitants were very 
 insufficiently clad. Many of them were nearly naked, and 
 the children entirely so, if I except a bit of string round the 
 waist, which, as some one told me, " illustrates the intention." 
 
 As the great plain of India has no decided natural features, 
 the absence of cultivation near the road takes away its only 
 claim to beauty. Still, it might be tolerable, if the long level 
 prairies were only covered with vegetation ; but I did not see 
 a square foot of turf in India from the time I left Calcutta, 
 except in gentlemen's compounds, and most of the unculti- 
 vated land is almost as unproductive as the Arabian desert. 
 This defect is owing to the want of water, a difficulty under 
 which most of this country used to labour greatly ; wide- 
 spread droughts, causing famine over large extents of country, 
 and the death of many thousands, being of frequent occur- 
 rence. The Ganges canal, however, fi'om near the source of 
 that river to Cawnpoor, has done much to remedy the diffi- 
 
To Meeruth. ig^ 
 
 culty, and free the husbandman from all dread of losing his 
 crop by drought. Its length is 450 miles, or, including its 
 branches, 900 miles. Its breadth is eighty feet and its aver- 
 age depth eight feet. It is bordered by rows of trees and 
 broad tow-paths, is everywhere finished with the greatest 
 care, and has locks and bridges of massive masonry, beside 
 ghats at short distances for the convenience of bathers. It is 
 probably the most extensive and perfect work of irrigation 
 and transportation ever constructed, secures the fertility of 
 nearly five millions of acres, and is one of the greatest benefits 
 conferred upon India by the British rule. 
 
 I arrived at Meeruth on the morning of the sixteenth, and 
 took up my quarters in a hotel, which, like those at Seroor 
 and Cawnpoor, was merely a large bungalow, and had accom- 
 modations for only a very few guests. 
 
 I was busy all the morning writing and making arrange- 
 ments for laying a ddk to Raj poor, a place at the foot of the 
 Himalayas. " Laying a dak" is a technical term, and means 
 simply bargaining with a chowdri (maitre de poste) to have 
 relays of bearers in readiness along the road for your convey- 
 ance to any point. In the afternoon I hired a buggy from the 
 master of the hotel, and drove to a village called Sirdhana, 
 above ten miles from Meeruth. I had to drive some distance 
 before passing the limits of the station, which was one of the 
 largest in the North-west, and consisted, like all others, of 
 rows of low-walled, high-roofed bungalows in desolate com- 
 pounds. Meeruth being a large station had two churches, 
 each a tolerably exact copy of every other in India, and 
 remarkably similar in form to a New England meeting-house. 
 The only difference between stations is their size — ^in all other 
 respects they are precisely similar. There are always the 
 same broad, macadamized roads, crossing each other at right 
 angles, and bordered by rows of puny trees ; on each side of 
 the road there are the same low stone walls, enclosing exten- 
 sive compounds, which sometimes contain trees, sometimes 
 are entirely uncared for ; iji the midst of each compound rises 
 a bungalow, an exact model of any other within a thousand 
 miles, looking like a hay-stack with its high, thatched roof. 
 
196 India. 
 
 In each compound is a row of low mud huts, built against the 
 wall, where the servants live, and where all the cooking is 
 done. 
 
 After passing the limits of the station, the road became very- 
 bad, and I was forced to walk the horse for fear of breaking 
 the springs of the buggy. The last two miles of the way 
 were along the tow-path of the Ganges canal. It is quite 
 broad enough for two buggies to pass, and being perfectly 
 level makes a very good road, so that I was enabled to 
 increase the pace, and thus arrived at Sirdhana in time to see 
 the monument in the church before sunset, which I should not 
 have been able to do had all the road been as bad as the pre- 
 ceding five or six miles. 
 
 The church at Sirdhana is a large edifice of pukka, or stuc- 
 coed brickwork. It is in the Italian style, cruciform, and 
 surmounted by a dome. It was built by the Begoom Sombre, 
 a native princess who became converted to the Romish faith. 
 A large convent and school are connected with it. 
 
 The interior of the church is in no way remarkable, the 
 only point of interest being the tomb of Dyce Sombre, the 
 old Begoom's great grandson and heir, who is buried in a 
 chapel on the right of the altar. The tomb is of marble, and 
 is decorated by an allegorical group of five life-sized figures, 
 which is as incomprehensible as most allegories. There are 
 also statues, as large as life, of the Begoom and Dyce Sombre, 
 which are said to be excellent likenesses. This tomb was 
 executed in Italy, and cost altogether three lakhs of rupees 
 ($150,000). 
 
 The Begoom Sombre was a most remarkable woman. By 
 birth a lineal descendant of the Prophet Mahommed, she mar- 
 ried early in life a German adventurer named Reinhard, who 
 had received the appellation " Sombre" from the melancholy 
 cast of his countenance. Sombre commanded a regiment of 
 free soldiery whom he hired out to whichever of the native 
 princes would pay best. It is said that he always took care to 
 be on the winning side, and if he foi^nd the battle going against 
 his friends, he and his troops deserted en masse to the enemy. 
 
 In the stormy times which intervened between the decay 
 
To Meeruth. , 197 
 
 of the Mogul power, and the restoration of order by the Eng- 
 lish, such bands of adventui'ers, especially when commanded 
 by Europeans, were eagerly hired by the petty native princes 
 who sprang up on all sides, as they were of the greatest 
 assistance in giving security to their power, and moreover 
 could always be made useful in the constant wars which pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 By hiring out his forces to one prince after another, and the 
 prudent method of fighting described above, Sombre finally 
 accumulated much property and attained considerable power. 
 His troops, by an ingenious process, managed to obtain a 
 share of the former. Wlienever they entertained suspicion 
 that he had accumulated considerable wealth, they put him in 
 confinement until he confessed his hiding-place. When he was 
 more than usually obdurate he was tied to a cannon, at the 
 further end of which a fire was lit. In that j^osition he was 
 kept until the increasing heat compelled him to come to an 
 arrangement. 
 
 Sombre died in 1778 ; seven years previously, his wife, tho 
 Begoom, had been baptized by a Romish priest. 
 
 On her husband's death, the Begoom took the command of 
 his troops, which were now a very large, powerful, but disor- 
 ganized and ill-disciplined body. She was formally commis- 
 sioned by the puppet-Emperor Shah Alum, and intrusted tho 
 immediate command to a German called Pauly. He attempted 
 to have a creature of his own appointed minister by the 
 Emperor, when he would have obtained the exercise of what- 
 ever power now remained in the Grand Mogul's hands. The 
 plot faUed, and Pauly was assassinated. The troops now 
 became very disorderly, and resorted to their old practices to 
 obtain money. The Begoom was a woman of great courage 
 and energy, and determined to be obeyed. An opportunity 
 occurred for asserting her power. Two of her slave girls set 
 fire to some houses containing her valuables, which were then 
 plundered by their soldier paramours. The ofienders then 
 eloped, but were captured and brought before the Begoom. 
 After a brief trial, she had them flogged nearly to death, and 
 then buried alive within her tent. The severity of this pmiish- 
 
198 India. 
 
 ment struck terror into the troops, and occasioned the greatest 
 respect for the old lady. 
 
 After Pauly's death, the troops had various commanders. 
 One of these was a man called George Thomas, who had been 
 quarter-master of a ship, but, possessing great military talent, 
 finally raised himself to a principality in N'orthern India. He 
 was supplanted in the Begoom's affections, and the command 
 of her army, by a Frenchman named Le Yassoult. After 
 losing his command he formed an army of his own, and made 
 extensive conquests in the Seekh country. Indeed he would 
 probably have deposed Runjeet Sing, and obtained his power, 
 had it not been for the jealousy of certain French officers in 
 the Maharatta service, whose troops, united to those of the 
 Seekhs, were sufficiently strong to crush him. 
 
 The Begoom now established her capital at Sirdhana, where 
 she kept the larger part of her troops; the rest were at Delhi. 
 The new commander, Le Yassoult, does not seem to have 
 possessed the requisite qualities for his post. The troops broke 
 out into open mutiny. He and the Begoom took to flight ; 
 the soldiers pursued. When it became evident than they 
 would be overtaken, they resolved to die. The Begoom 
 stabbed herself as she lay in her palkee. Le Yassoult seeing 
 her clothing stained with blood, blew out his own brains with 
 a pistol. The Begoom's wound proved trivial, whether by 
 intention or accident. Her soldiers kept her chained under a 
 gun-carriage for a week, at the end of which time they released 
 her, and acknowledged her authority. The troops now 
 amounted to six battalions. They served under the Maharattas, 
 and were present at the battle of Assai. After that event, the 
 Begoom, seeing which way fortune was turning, sought the 
 alliance of the English. Beside the original six battalions, she 
 had now a battery of European artillery, and a troop of cav- 
 alry. She built at Sirdhana, a gun-foundry, arsenal, and fort. 
 The whole expenses of her establishment were six lakhs a-year, 
 which the revenues of her territory barely sufficed to meet. 
 The latter were, however, considerably increased under the 
 protection of the Company's government. She built the 
 church and convent at Meeruth, and had palaces in several 
 
To Meeruth. 199 
 
 cities of India. In her will she left a million of rupees for 
 various charitable purposes — so that if her property was not 
 very honestly obtained, at least part of it was well employed. 
 She had only one son, who was a person of infirm intellect. 
 His daughter man-ied a Mr. Dyce, whose son became the heir 
 to the Begoom's fortune of sixty lakhs ($3,000,000), and took 
 the name of Dyce Sombre. He was a miserable debauchee, 
 went to England, married a nobleman's daughter, treated her 
 shockingly, and finally died, a few years since, from burning his 
 foot while sitting drunk in a chair before the fire in a London 
 hotel. His constitution, shattered by a life of every excess, 
 could not recover from the trivial injury. After his death 
 his property became the subject of a long suit in Chancery. 
 His tomb in the church at Sirdhana, I have described above. 
 
 After seeing Sirdhana I returned to Meeruth. On the way 
 I passed a camel harnessed to a dog-cart ; it trotted along at 
 a very good pace, although the camel is not well adapted to 
 draught labour. 
 
 The native towns of Meeruth and Futtehghur are both con- 
 siderable places, but I saw nothing of either. In fact a man 
 might travel all over India by dak, without seeing a single 
 city, as the dak-bungalows are always some distance from the 
 city or village to which they belong, and when there are can- 
 tonments, they always contain all the hotels, bungalows, dak- 
 offices, &c., and are invariably several mUes from the city, for 
 obvious sanitary and other reasons. 
 
 I left Meeruth early in the morning of November 1 7th, by 
 garrhee for MoozuflTurnuggur ; arriving there at noon, and 
 leaving again at four in the afternoon, by dhoolee. 
 
 On leaving Meeruth, I witnessed a parade of troops, and 
 passed by their camp, which presented quite a picturesque 
 scene, with the large numbers of camels and elephants, the 
 bazar, &o. 
 
 The dhoolees, by which I continued my journey from 
 Moozuffurnuggur to Rajpoor, are a rough sort of palkee. To 
 make a dhoolee, take a bedstead, six feet by three ; cut off 
 the legs to six inches long, and the bed-posts to three feet or 
 so, and cover the whole with mamzama^ or waxed canvass. 
 
200 India. 
 
 Finally, pass a bamboo pole immediately under the roof, so 
 that it shall project four feet fore and aft. A palkee is the 
 same in princij)le, but made of wood and heavier. I had eight 
 bearers, who relieved one another several times in a quarter 
 of a mile — ^four carrying the dhoolee at once, the bamboo pole 
 resting on their shoulders. One of the disengaged bearers 
 carried a torch at night. Had I been in a palkee I should 
 have had two torch-bearers to do nothing else. The stages 
 were about ten miles long, and the work cannot be very 
 fatiguing, as in one instance, when the fresh bearers had not 
 arrived at the Chokee, the old bearers took me on with un- 
 diminished speed. The great annoyance in this kind of travel- 
 ling is the moaning and grunting of the kuhars (bearers), 
 sometimes dignified as their song^ and a custom they have 
 of waking you up at night for their bucksees, which is four 
 anas, or twelve cents, for the ten men. This gives each man 
 a httle over a cent, which is considered a liberal gratuity. 
 After all, this annoyance is not greater than that of being con- 
 stantly waked up to pay tolls, when travelling by garrhee. 
 The worst trouble of all was the dust, which was almost insuf- 
 ferable. It lay five inches deep on the road, and the four 
 extra bearers and banghee-burdar kept kicking it up. My 
 sufferings were aggravated by being in a dhoolee, which 
 hangs within eighteen inches of the ground. A palkee, being 
 differently swung, is nearly a foot higher. 
 
 To give an idea of caste prejudice, I may mention here that 
 in some parts of India, the same men that carry a palkee, will 
 not carry a dhoolee ; while in no part of the country will 
 either of them carry a burden on the head or back. On the 
 other hand, coolees can only, or will only, carry a burden on 
 the head. The Puharrees, or inhabitants of the Himalayas, 
 carry burdens on the back, shoulder, or head indifferently. 
 My luggage was all contained in two small portmanteaus, 
 which were slung one at each end of a bamboo pole and car- 
 ried by a man called the banghee-burdar. 
 
 After leaving Meeruth, I noticed that the inscriptions on 
 the milestones were in the Persian character. In Bengal they 
 are in the Bengalee, and further up country in Hindee — both 
 
To Meeruth. 201 
 
 of which languages use the old Sanscrit character. In the 
 North-west, however, where the Mahommedan population is 
 very large, Persian is very commonly spoken, and its character 
 is more generally understood than any other. 
 
 I was much struck with the beauty of the birds in India. 
 There are many varieties, the more common kinds being the 
 parrot and dove ; but birds of the most remarkable shapes, 
 with high crests, lyi-e-tails, and other peculiarities, that I have 
 elsewhere met with only in ornithological collections, are con- 
 stantly seen ; others again have plumage the colour of every 
 precious stone, and nearly as brilliant in the bright sunlight. 
 The glare of the sun in India is something wonderful. It 
 really seemed as if the ground and everything around me were 
 a mirror. Although it was now winter, freezing every night, 
 and quite cold enough duiing the day to make a flannel suit 
 comfortable, yet a turban around the hat and an umbrella were 
 indispensable accessories to a walking costume. 
 
 A remarkable characteristic of the birds in India is their 
 tameness. The little birds fly into the house without the least 
 suspicion of intruding, and the crows, of which there are im- 
 mense numbers, will do the same thing, particularly during 
 meal-time. They may often be seen riding about on the backs 
 or horns of bufialoes, bullocks or goats. In fact, the utmost 
 harmony seems to prevail between the different orders of the 
 brute creation, and they have apparently no fear of man. 
 Monkeys, foxes, jackals, deer and vultures will all watch with 
 interest the traveller who passes within a few rods, but do 
 not show any alarm. The reason, I suppose is, that so very 
 few of the inhabitants ever hunt. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE HIMALAYAS.. 
 
 A Nigbt in a Dhoolee — The Turai Forest — First Yiew of the SnoAvy Eange — Siwalik 
 Hills — Earn ! Earn ! — The Dhoon Valley — Eajpoor — Ascent of the Himalayas — Pa- 
 harrees — Munsooree — Indian Hospitality — Landoor — View of Snow-clad Peaks — 
 Hill-station-s — An Accident — The Descent — Agriculture in India — Tea Plantation — 
 Chinese Workmen — A Snake Fight. 
 
 My first night in a dhoolee was rather uncomfortable.. The 
 road lay through the Turai forest, a belt of woodland running 
 parallel to the Himalayas. This forest has a particularly bad 
 reputation for jungul fever — an intermittent in its worst form, 
 with a tendency to typhoid. In the hot season it is dangerous 
 to pass through it even by day ; the cold weather, while it 
 diminishes the danger, does not make it entirely safe, espe- 
 cially for night travelling. Beside the fever, the Turai is full 
 of elephants and tigers ; and though I cannot say that I was 
 at all afraid of them, as I knew wild animals to have more 
 fear of man than he has of them, yet the fever and the tigers, 
 added to the great and positive discomforts of my convey- 
 ance, made the night's sleep rather broken. 
 
 When I awoke the next morning, we had almost passed the 
 limits of the forest. The trees do not grow very thickly, but 
 are of large size — some of them entirely covered with creep- 
 ers, and others bearing beautiful flowers. There were also 
 several banyans, the first which I had seen since leaving Ben- 
 gal. The ground between the trees was covered with tall 
 jungul grass. 
 
 I did not have the good fortune to see any of the elephants, 
 tigers or leopards, which are said to abound — but there were 
 plenty of monkeys in the trees. The leopards (cheetas), are 
 frequently tamed, or rather trained, and used instead of 
 
The Himalayas. 203 
 
 hounds in deer-hunting ; which is said to make the sport more 
 exciting. 
 
 After passing the forest, we arrived, about ten o'clock, in 
 a valley from which I had my first view of the Himalayas — a 
 range of mountain monarchs, sitting in state, looking over 
 the broad plains of Hindoostan ; covered, as to their heads, 
 with turbans of clouds, as becomes sovereigns of the Orient. 
 One snowy face alone, of a Jungfrau of the East, was visible, 
 and she, as an Eastern maiden should, soon shrouded her 
 countenance and was seen of me no more. 
 
 Crossing ihe valley, we had to pass the Siwalik hills, a low 
 range, before entering the valley of the Dhoon, which divides 
 them from the Himalayas. The pass through the hills was 
 certainly not grand, but picturesque to one who had seen 
 so httle mountain scenery for a year ; and had been travel- 
 ling for a thousand miles over a succession of desert plains, 
 as level as a bowling alley. The pass was about three hundred 
 feet wide, its bottom was the rocky bed of a mountain torrent 
 which had now almost disappeared ; its sides were steep, from 
 one to three hundred feet high, looking Hke the sections of 
 hills in geological works. 
 
 All the natives whom we met on the road, gave the bearers 
 the Hindoo salutation. Ram! Ram! — which I had not heard 
 before, probably on account of having always travelled in a 
 garrhee. This Hindoo salutation is only used to a Hindoo. 
 To a Moosulman, or a Christian, the Hindoo uses the Moosul- 
 man salam — an obeisance which is, I suspect, very much what 
 the Greeks meant by rrpogfcvveXv. All the poUte forms ot 
 speech by which a superior is addressed, as " Ap " — " your 
 Honour;" "Bundugee" — "releaser of slaves;" and "Gurreeb- 
 Parwar " — "provider for the poor," were introduced by the ser- 
 vile Mahommedans, but are now universally employed in 
 Northern India. The latter title is the usual one in the north- 
 w^estern provinces, and it is with respect to it that Bishop 
 Heber made the mistake of supposing that he had earned it 
 by his attention to the wants of his dependents. 
 
 After passing the Siwalik hills, w^e entered the valley of the 
 Dhoon, about twenty miles broad, beyond which rose the 
 
204 India. 
 
 Himalayas. Being well watered, and protected hj the two 
 ranges of hills, it is very fertile, and I saw palm-trees and 
 plantains in abundance. About half-way across the valley we 
 changed bearers at the village of Dehra, which was the best 
 looking place of its size that I had seen in India. The 
 houses, though low and small, were constructed of pukka, 
 instead of mud. They were generally whitewashed, and some 
 of them decorated with gaudy pictures of nach-girls, or 
 mythological designs. It was high market when we passed 
 through the bazar, and as I noticed most of the people munch- 
 ing sugar-cane, I determined to do so likewise, having eaten 
 nothing for over twenty hours, and found it very cool and re- 
 freshing. 
 
 About four in the afternoon I arrived at Rajpoor, a small vil- 
 lage immediately at the foot of " the Hills," as the Himalayas 
 are always called in N'orthern India. The hotel being very 
 comfortable, I put up there for the night, as I was very tired, 
 hungry ^nd dusty. 
 
 Rajpoor is over three thousand feet above the level of the 
 sea, and the summit of the first range about six thousand. 
 
 The next mornins^ I ascended this on horseback. The 
 mountains rise almost perpendicularly from the plain, and 
 although the path is constructed with much engineering 
 skill, I found the ascent so steep, from the very commence- 
 ment, that I dismounted and walked most of the way, fearing 
 that my weight was too great for the little pony I had hired. 
 
 The sides of the hill were covered with low trees. The 
 road wound around the vast, narrow gullies which are the 
 distinguishing feature of Himalayan scenery. They make a 
 sharp, deep cut into the mountain range, and are apparently 
 so narrow that you almost fancy you could throw a stone 
 across. Should you be so deceived by the vastness of every- 
 thing around as to make the attempt, your missile, if pro- 
 pelled by a vigourous arm, will lodge, a thousand feet below, 
 on the precipitous side of the chasm. 
 
 On the way up we passed many Puharrees, or hill men, 
 carrying burdens slung on the back. They are a small, light, 
 but strong and agile race. Their dress is a shirt and trowsers 
 
The Himalayas. 205 
 
 of coarse brown woollen stuff, girt with a rope, and they wear 
 woollen caps instead of pugrees. They are not so cleanly as 
 the inhabitants of the plains — indeed, they are suspected of 
 never taking off their clothes until no longer serviceable. 
 Their religion is a very low form of idolatry, and they have no 
 caste. They make excellent servants, as they will do any 
 kind of work, and are considered thoroughly honest. I 
 noticed by the side of the path several bushes decorated with 
 rags, to show that they are esteemed sacred on account of 
 some god's having, when wearied, sat down under a bush of 
 the same kind. There was also a black stone which the hill- 
 people stopped to worship, each " leaning on the top of his 
 staff" like Jacob. 
 
 Mu^zsooree is on the crest of a spur which puts out from the 
 main ridge, and is a little lower and more sheltered than 
 Landoor, which is on the very summit. They are both places 
 of several miles in extent, and consist of one-storied bunga- 
 lows scattered about on the steep side of the mountain. 
 
 On arriving at Mu^isooree I found, to my dismay, the only 
 hotel closed. Not having any letters to a resident I began to 
 fear that I should have to return the same evening to the 
 plains. Fortunately, however, I went in my despair to the 
 club-house, the khansahma?i of which, although he refused to 
 do anything for me, recommended me to apply to Mr. Scott, 
 a merchant. That gentleman received me with the greatest 
 kindness and hospitality, offered me the use of an unoccupied 
 bungalow, and invited me to take my meals with his family — 
 and this without knowing anything about me except that I 
 had no other quarters. 
 
 Indian hospitality is proverbial, and deservedly so. Any 
 gentleman who finds himself without acquaintances in a place 
 where no public accommodations are provided by government, 
 need only apply at the magistrate's house, where he will meet 
 with the readiest and most liberal welcome, and receive any 
 assistance he may require. 
 
 Soon after arriving at Munsooree, I went with Mr. Scott up 
 to Landoor. The ascent is about five hundred feet. We rode 
 for several miles on an excellent road, around the summit of 
 
2o6 India. 
 
 the ridge, which is in some places not a hundred yards broad: 
 The views, on the side toward the Dhoon valley and the plains, 
 were magnificent, but when we crossed a low ridge, and came 
 upon the northern side, the grandeur of the view was almost 
 overpowering. At our feet was a dark and narrow valley, 
 sinking almost perpendicularly for hundreds of feet ; beyond 
 were the parallel chains of the Himalayas, each more distant 
 range a little higher than those which were nearer ; beyond 
 all, and towering high above all the others, were the magnifi- 
 cent peaks of the snowy range. At first I could not believe 
 that the rounded, snow-white masses which I saw, far above 
 the clouds, were really the summits of the mountains, but the 
 cloud-bank soon passed away, and left the grand old hills 
 unconcealed, in all the sublimity of realized vastness — a hun- 
 dred miles distant, yet seeming scarcely as far off as the low 
 range which I had crossed in the morning. 
 
 I have been asked to compare the scenery of the Himalayas 
 with that of the Alps. The comparison is impossible. In the 
 Alps you have the greatest variety ; in the Himalayas the 
 most unvarying monotony. The mountain views of the Alps 
 have a beauty and picturesqueness which at once detracts 
 from their grandeur, and is partially dependent upon 'the com- 
 paratively limited size of the features in the landscape. The 
 Himalayas, on the contrary, are wholly deficient in the beau- 
 tiful and the picturesque; their very vastness places them 
 beyond the reach of the artist. They are simply immense and 
 sublime. 
 
 Besides, how immeasurably do the traditions of the Indian 
 mountains surpass those of the Alps. Their snows feed the 
 Ganges and the Indus, rivers second only to the Nile in the 
 venerable antiquity of their history; they are the scene of 
 legends the origin of which is lost in the obscurity of bygone 
 ages ; they have been for countless generations looked upon 
 by a large part of the human race as the actual residence of 
 some of their most worshipped gods, and are stUl so regarded 
 by one-sixth of the whole human family.' They are the most 
 formidable natural barrier ever interposed between a rich and 
 fertile country, inhabited by a cowardly and effeminate race, 
 
The Himalayas. 207 
 
 and the warlike inhabitants of a more northern clime, and yet 
 they have seen more numerous and more bloody invasions, 
 more frequent and more sanguinary contests in the fair plains 
 which they overlook, than have ever been the lot of any other 
 portion of the world. 
 
 The height of the loftiest peak visible from Landoor, is 
 twenty-three thousand feet ; but the mountains become higher 
 as you go eastward. The greatest height yet measured is 
 thirty thousand feet; in future surveys, however, even this 
 enormous measurement may be surpassed. In the west, the 
 Plimalayas are in several parallel ranges, nearly equally high ; 
 as you go eastward, the more northern range continually 
 grows higher ; the southern ranges, on the contrary, diminish, 
 and one after another drops off, until, in the extreme east, 
 where are the highest summits, the northern range stands 
 alone. 
 
 I remained on top of the hill for an hour, and then descended 
 with regret, but determined to have another view on the mor- 
 row. 
 
 On returning to Mr. Scott's I found that he had sent his 
 servants to arrange for my reception the bungalow which he 
 had offered me. Fires had been made, and everything was as 
 comfortable as could be expected on so short a notice. 
 
 Before dinner we took a ride around the " Camel's Back," 
 a steep and narrow ridge separating two gullies, each over a 
 thousand feet deep. The road was a good and broad one, 
 and there were people out taking their evening exercise. 
 Some were riding, others carried in jan-pans, a kind of sedan 
 chair, much used in the hills, and looking Hke the body of a 
 small gig, with the top removed. 
 
 Mu^isooree is one of several hill stations. The others are 
 Darjeeling, Nainee Thai, and Simla. I do not know if there 
 are any more. These' are kept up principally as Sanitaria. 
 Hither are sent the European soldiers, when their health be- 
 comes affected by long residence in the plains. Here, too, all 
 the children of English parents must pass the greater part of 
 each year that they remain in India. To these healthful 
 heights resort all those English ladies whose fresh beauty has 
 
2o8 India. 
 
 withered under the hot sun of India, and their society add? 
 so much to the natural attractions of the hill stations, that 
 every officer who can obtain leave of absence, and command 
 the funds, passes the hot season, if possible, in the hills. There 
 is the most excellent shooting, admirable tiger-hunting in the 
 Turai, and all the gaieties of watering-place society, so that it 
 is not surprising that " a summer in the hills" is looked upon as 
 one of the few bright periods in the dreary monotony of an 
 Indian existence. The good effects of the bracing climate" 
 were seen in such ruddy cheeks, such'^ealthful complexions, 
 and faces expressive of such exuberant vitality, as had not met 
 my eyes since I was on ship-board. 
 
 During the evening,' Mr. Scott pressed me to join him in a 
 trip he was about making northward into the mountains. He 
 said that we should have to walk most of the way, but could 
 occasionally be carried in a hammock slung from a bamboo. I 
 forget the name of this conveyance, which requires only two 
 bearers, and is much used in the hills. Tempting as this pro- 
 posal was, the limits of my time prevented my accepting the 
 kind invitation. 
 
 The next morning I rose before day-break, and went up to 
 Landoor to have an early view of the snowy range. I re- 
 mained there an holir, and then descended to breakfast. On 
 the way back, my horse slipped on some ice and rolled over, 
 crushing and bruising my leg. I lay on the road for some 
 time, waiting for my servant to bring me a jan-pan, but as 
 none was procurable, I managed to limp to the house on one 
 leg — two young Moosulmans, whom I caught, supplying the 
 place of the other. On arriving at the bungalow, my leg had 
 all sorts of doctoring, rubbing, &c., to undergo — Ml*. Scott, 
 coming down from his house every few minutes to see if I 
 was comfortable, or suggest some improved treatment. 
 
 My accident made any further stay useless, as it was quite 
 evident that I was to be lame for several days, at least, so I 
 made up my mind to return to the plains, and set off the same 
 afternoon in a jan-pan, bidding adieu, with many thanks to 
 my hospitable entertainer. 
 
 The views in going down are much finer than in ascending. 
 
The Himalayas. 209 
 
 The path is so steep that, when you go up, you always, as it 
 were, have a blank wall before you. On the contrary, in de- 
 scending, you realize at a single glance your immense height, 
 as you look down upon the plain almost immediately under 
 you. The reckless speed with which the jan-pan bearers run 
 along the most frightful precipices, and around the sharpest 
 turns, in a road which everywhere hangs suspended over 
 giddy abysses, w^ould, I should think, be trying to the delicate 
 nerves of an invalid, seeking restoration of health in the 
 mountain air, and creates in a stranger a certain feeling of ap- 
 prehension that does not detract from the impression produced 
 by the scenery ; indeed, many critics hold Terror to be an es- 
 sential quality of the Sublime. 
 
 I arrived at the Rajpoor hotel in about two hours after 
 leaving Muwsooree, and passed the night there. 
 
 The next morning I received a visit from the landlord of 
 the hotel, Mr. Huzeltine, an old soldier of the Company, now 
 pensioned. I found him very intelligent, and got a good deal 
 of information in the course of conversation. We were talk- 
 ing about the tenure of land, and the great quantity of waste 
 land. I suggested that, with so fertile a soil, labour so cheap, 
 and the terms offered by government so favourable, it was 
 strange that the waste land was not all taken up. He explained 
 this by saying that the climate was such that no European 
 could himself give that active supervision which would be 
 necessary in an agricultural enterprise, and that reliable native 
 superintendents could not be obtained. On the other hand, 
 native capitalists wiU not embark in agriculture, so that the 
 cultivation of the soil is left entirely in the hands of small 
 holders, who are invariably deeply involved in debt to the na- 
 tive bankers. This state of things, by making the ryuts mis- 
 erable, prevents the increase of population ; and by rendering 
 that misery hopeless (since they all owe more than they can 
 ever hope to pay), checks the very feeble enterprise of the 
 native character,-and consequently prevents the thorough tillage 
 of the soil, and puts restraint upon a more extended cultiva- 
 tion. As Mr. Huzeltine said that these debts were in the na- 
 ture of inheritances, and had been accumulating for genera- 
 
210 India. 
 
 tions, I remarked that if they could once be wiped away, and 
 the ryut could feel that his condition depended entirely upon 
 his own exertions, a much greater scope would be given to 
 whatever enterprise and industry he possessed, and, at any 
 rate, such a change would give opportunity for forming a much 
 fairer judgment of the capabilities of natives. The landlord 
 replied that he had once undertaken to cultivate some land, 
 and in order to start fair, had paid off the debts of all his 
 ryuts, stipulating that they should repay him in instalments, 
 as they should be able, with a moderate interest. All went on 
 well for some time, only he was disappointed at not finding the 
 good effects he had expected from the change. At length he 
 was surprised by hearing that a few of his ryuts had contracted 
 considerable debts with the buniahs, and, on making further 
 enquiries, found that they had all returned to their old courses, 
 like the sow that we read of in Scripture, that they were all 
 again irretrievably in debt, and as much slaves as ever to the 
 buniah, and that all his efforts for their good had been in 
 vain. Since that time Mr. Huzeltine has despaired of any im- 
 provement in the condition of the ryuts. 
 
 Another interesting fact told me by Mr. Huzeltine is, that 
 Polyandry, or the custom of one woman having several hus- 
 bands, prevails among the Puharrees, as it does among several 
 of the aboriginal races of India. Repulsive as this custom is 
 to our notions, it is but the natural complement to the poly- 
 gamy of the plains, and is not, m se, perhaps any worse. 
 
 I left Kajpoor about nine in the morning of November 21st. 
 The landlord's son offered to accompany me to one of the 
 Company's tea plantations, and as I found that I could sit in 
 his buggy with the game leg outside, I accepted the invi- 
 tation. 
 
 This plantation is one of several belonging to Government, 
 and making altogether two thousand acres under cultivation. 
 The Honourable Company has taken great trouble, and spent 
 much money, in attempts to introduce the culture of tea into 
 India. 
 
 . They employed Mr. Fortune to travel in China, and collect 
 plants and seeds of the best qualities ; they have supported 
 
The Himalayas. 2 1 1 
 
 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 maybe 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 planta- 
 tion 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 faithful- 
 ness 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 differ- 
 ence 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 building where the 
 tea is fired and prepared for the market. As it was not the 
 proper season nothing was doing, and the empty rooms con- 
 tained 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, 
 
212 India. , 
 
 contrasted strikingly with the wretched mud-huts that sheltei 
 the natives of India. 
 
 Mr. Thompson informed me that only the finer quaUties of 
 tea are manufactured or grown at the Company's establish- 
 ment. 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 cul- 
 tivated 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 mun- 
 goos is a small animal, like a weasel. It is particularly hostile 
 to snakes, and remains unhijured by their venom. After wit- 
 nessing the death of two snakes we kept on to Dehra, and 
 young Mr. Huzeltine drove me to the house of Mr. Woodside, 
 au American Missionary, where he bade me good-bye. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RETURN TO MEERUTH, 
 
 Eev. Mr, "Woodside's — American Missionaries — Opening of the Ganges Canal — Excite- 
 ment 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 — Koorkhee — Workshops — Native Work- 
 men — Kepuguance between the English and Native Eaces — The Ganges Canal — 
 Other Buildings — Meeruth Again — Mutiny at Meeruth — Conduct of Officers, and their 
 Feelings toward the Sepoys. 
 
 I FOUND Mr. "Woodside's compound filled with tents, cam- 
 els, 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 w^as particularly pleased with the Rev. Mr. B , 
 
 who 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 for- 
 merly 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 ghats on the Ganges were in their hands, and they made 
 
214 ' India. 
 
 their fortunes by contributions levied upon the bathers, whereas 
 any one who pleased might bathe in the canal, and convenient 
 ghats 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 w^ith 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. I^o doubt, in the minds of many of the spec- 
 tators, 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 over- 
 come 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 god- 
 dess leaves her place at the bidding of an English engineer, 
 
Return to Meeruth. 213 
 
 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 inhabi- 
 tants 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 Gov- 
 ernment ; 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 mission- 
 aries 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 tax- 
 gatherer, as well as the just demands of Government. Public 
 improvements had been extensively planned, and their execu- 
 tion 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 
 
2i6 India. 
 
 English rule, I quote the words of a missionary now in this 
 city, " At one of the missionary stations of our church in 
 Upper India, a native chief was in power when the missionary 
 first visited the city, which then contained a population of 
 sixteen thousand souls. Soon afterwards the old chief died 
 and left no heirs. His principality, according to native usage, 
 escheated to the British ; if his town had been on the other 
 side of the Sutlej, it would have fallen, in like manner, to the 
 miserable old king referred to above. British rule was set up, 
 the reign of law commenced, people from neighbouring dis- 
 tricts, still under native rulers, removed to this town, and in a 
 few years its population was numbered at nearly eighty thou- 
 sand souls. Facts like this confute whole pages of declamation." 
 No one who sympathizes with the restoration of order in 
 France by the Great Napoleon, ought to object to the annex- 
 ation of native territories by the Company. The two cases 
 are almost exactly parallel. In both we have the forcible sub- 
 stitution of a good government for a bad one — of law for 
 anarchy. In both certain rights were necessarily violated, 
 and certain classes offended. Whatever differences there are 
 in the two cases, are in favour of the Enghsh. The tyranny 
 of a native government is worse than that of the Bourbons, 
 or of the Revolutionary authorities. In France there was a 
 large class who were much attached to the old Royal govern- 
 ment ; in an Indian State, such a class is small, and consists of 
 the government officials who live by extortion, and the 
 feudal princes who grow rich by violence and plunder. In 
 France, too, if Napoleon had not arisen, the Bourbons would 
 probably have been restored, and would have inaugurated a 
 government purified of the abuses which had driven them 
 from the throne. In India there was no such chance. Gov- 
 ernments there never change or improve — they only become 
 weak. The royal races degenerate, and, as vitality diminishes 
 in the central organ of the body politic, the extremities 
 become corrupt and disorganized. Then comes a bloody 
 usurpation, and the same thing is repeated. Sometimes the 
 catastrophe is a conquest ; but, with that change, the above 
 formula is an accurate description of the history of the native 
 
Return to Meemth. 217 
 
 dynasties of India. Fortftnate are those States which, at such 
 a crisis in the afiairs of their rulers, have been taken under 
 British protection, and saved from the indefinite repetition of 
 revolutions, tyrannies, anarchy, and conquest. The term 
 " revolution," which I employ, may be misunderstood. I 
 would not imply a popular movement. There never has been, 
 and never can be anything of the kind in India, with reference 
 to government. The great mass of the population have stood 
 inactive for centuries, and seen their country invaded ; their 
 royal families in chains, or put to the sword ; armies of in- 
 vaders devastating their fields, and robbing their wealth. They 
 have beheld, unmoved, every possible change in the supreme 
 power ; they have submitted without a murmur, to the most 
 grinding cruelty and oppression ; but they have never once 
 struck a blow in their otvti defence — they only fled to the 
 jungul and its tigers, when their country was overrun by 
 robbers, like the Maharattas, of more than average cruelty ; 
 or took refuge in the British territories, when, as in the case 
 of Oude, the tyranny of government was no longer endu- 
 rable. 
 
 I was very glad to learn that during the Punjab war, the 
 Punjabee proclamations of the English General were printed 
 at the press of the American missionaries. This fact alone, 
 shows the light in which our countrymen looked upon that 
 movement. The English government has lately had the 
 opportunity of repaying its obligations. During the recent 
 disturbances a very large amount of American property was 
 destroyed at Loodianah. As soon as order was restored. Sir 
 John Lawrence assessed the sum upon the town, and thus 
 promptly reimbursed the loss sustained by our missions. 
 
 After dinner, I drove out with Mr. Woodside, in his buggy. 
 We visited a handsome new surai which has recently been 
 built by public subscription ; the school-house of the mission- 
 aries, a pukka building on the model of a Connecticut Sem- 
 inary, and a Seekh temple — which last is a curious place. It 
 consists of a court containing one large building on a raised 
 platform, and four similar, but smaller edifices at each of the 
 four corners. The Seekhs, it is w^ell known, are a rehgious 
 
 10 
 
2i8 India. 
 
 sect who arose at Labor, about four hundred years ago. Their 
 founder pretended to a new revelation, which is contained in 
 a sacred volume called the Grunth. The new religion bor- 
 rowed many dogmas from both the Hindoo and Mahommedan 
 systems, and was embraced with equal readiness by the fol- 
 lowers of either faith. This temple typified, to some extent, 
 the two-fold origin of the Seekh creed. Its form, though 
 similar to those of the mosques, also recalled the Hindoo 
 temple. The shape of the arches and decorations may be 
 described as impure Saracenic. The main building contains 
 the tomb of the founder of an extensive sect of 'Fukheers, or 
 Mendicant Friars, in whose hands the establishment is. The 
 four smaller buildings at the angles shelter the remains of the 
 saint's wives. He allowed himself four of these luxuries, but 
 forbade marriage altogether to his disciples. All five of the 
 tombs have domes. The larger one has a coating of polished 
 white cement, but the four smaller buildings are beautifully 
 decorated with colours, which have withstood, uninjured, the 
 effects of the climate, for over a century and a half. As we 
 were looking at the large temple, we were accosted by the 
 chief Fukheer, a very tall, venerable-looking old man with a 
 long white beard. His rich dress seemed somewhat incongru- 
 ous with the poverty and mortification professed by the body 
 to which he belonged ; and contrasted forcibly with the naked 
 sanctity of his followers. He made a profound salam and of- 
 fered us some pecuhar spices, after which, he made a long 
 speech which I could not understand, but which Mr. Wood- 
 side said was a complimentary oration descriptive of the high 
 respect entertained by him for missionaries generally, and 
 Mr. Woodside in particular. The Gooroo afterwards accom- 
 panied us around the enclosure, and pointed out the beauties 
 of the smaller tombs. One of them had met with a remark- 
 able accident. During an earthquake, its wall had become 
 cracked completely through, in a line parallel with the ground. 
 The upper part remained stationary, while the lower and 
 larger part had moved under it about three inches in a circu- 
 lar direction, in which position it now remains, and is apparent- 
 ly as strong as ever. 
 
Return to Meeruth. 219 
 
 After making our salams to the Gooroo, we returned to 
 Mr. "Woodside's, and had prayers and a very long sermon. 
 The congregation was rather numerous, and contained several 
 famihes of the station — the gentlemen of which had taken a 
 great deal of interest in the Mission, and contributed a large 
 part of the funds for the construction of the school, and the 
 purchase, for the Mission, of the fine large house in which Mr. 
 Woodside was residing. 
 
 Mr. Woodside informed me that he had just returned from 
 a missionary tour in the Himalayas, during which he had 
 ascended the snowy range to the height of twenty thousand 
 feet, and he showed me a fragment of granite brought by him 
 from that height. 
 
 The prayers being finished, we had supper ; and after that 
 meal, having bade farewell to my host and other countrymen, 
 and having received from Mr. B two letters of introduc- 
 tion, which he kindly wrote for me to friends of his in the 
 Punjab, I entered the dhoolee and started for Roorkee, at 
 which place I hoped to arrive by seven next morning. We 
 did not, however, arrive till ten o'clock, but I was consoled 
 for the delay by the magnificent view of the hills and snowy 
 range which was continually before my eyes for the last two 
 hours of the road. 
 
 The situation of Roorkee is very pretty, as it is on a fertile 
 and well cultivated plain, and is quite hid by groves of mango 
 trees, from which emerge several minars and domes. The 
 dak-bungalow is under the trees, just outside the town, which 
 I did not have the curiosity to enter. After taking breakfast, 
 I went to see the Honourable Company's Iron Foundry, and 
 Machine Manufactory. It is a very extensive establishment. 
 The iron used, comes altogether from England, and I could 
 not at first understand the object of estabHshing a foundry at 
 this place, nearly a thousand miles from the coast. The super- 
 intendent, however, who showed me over the works, explained 
 that the real object was to test the ability of native workmen 
 in the manufacture of iron ; and to introduce to them a new 
 branch of industry. The enterprize is prevented from being a 
 great failure in a monetary point of view, by manufacturing 
 
220 India. 
 
 mostly small articles, and parts of things, to supply defects 
 and breaks-down in machinery — as men prefer to pay high 
 jmces for such articles, rather than have the delay of sending 
 to England. I was informed that the natives learned the 
 trade very much more quickly and easily than Europeans, but 
 that they never could be depended on to perform their task 
 with faithful care and accuracy, if their labour was not con- 
 ducted under the vigilant supervision of Europeans. Here, as 
 elsewhere, they find it impossible to entrust the supervising to 
 natives, of whom an intensely narrow-minded selfishness, which 
 cannot see the advantage of adopting another's interest as its 
 own, seems to be an almost universal characteristic. I think 
 this feature in their character, and the universal absence of 
 truth and honesty, goes far to explain the want of sympathy 
 between the English and native races — a want of sympathy, 
 compared to which, our feeling towards negroes in America, 
 is a warm affection. In fact, the two sentiments are quite 
 difi*erent. The mass of the people in this country entertain a 
 sort of contempt, nearly akin to physical disgust, towards the 
 African race. We will not sit down with them, eat with 
 them, or admit them to our society. There is no such feeling 
 towards a native in India. The repulsion between the two 
 races is almost entirely moral, and arises in great part from 
 the scorn felt by the blunt, brave, open, and truth-loving 
 Englishman, for the cringing servility, the abject cowardice, 
 the unfathomable duplicity, lying, and hypocrisy of the native 
 character. 
 
 After leaving the iron foundry, I went to see the aqueduct 
 by which the Ganges canal is conducted over the river Sulanee. 
 It is constructed entirely of brick-work, and is nearly two 
 hundred feet broad. Its whole length is about a quarter of a 
 mile, and it is supported by sixteen arches, the piers of which 
 are sunk twenty feet below the bed of the river. The masonry 
 of the arches is never less than four feet thick, to enable them 
 to bear the weight of such a mass of water. The successful 
 completion of this aqueduct is a great triumph of engineering 
 skill, as from the peculiarly shifting character of the sand 
 which forms the bed of Indian rivers, almost aU bridges that 
 
Return to Meeruth. 221 
 
 have been built have given way when tried by the torrents of 
 a single rainy season. 
 
 Roorkee also contains a Government college, a fine looking 
 building, which, however, I did not visit. As soon as I had 
 seen the aqueduct, I left for Moozuffurnuggur, where I ex- 
 changed the dhoolee for a garrhee, and reached Meeruth at 
 five o'clock on the morning of N^ovember 23. 
 
 I found the weather warmer than in the hills, but a fire was 
 quite necessary at night. The natives of India, in the cold 
 weather, wear wadded cotton clothes, wrapping themselves at 
 night in thick ruzais, or what we should call " comforters." In 
 this respect they form a contrast to the Chinese, who dress, 
 during the winter, in velvet, silks, and furs ; depositing them 
 with the pawnbrokers for safe keeping in summer. I used to 
 be surprised in India to see many of the natives without any 
 provision at all against the cold, going about in dresses of the 
 thinnest muslin, while almost all the children and babies were 
 entirely naked, even in the severest weather. I used to find 
 it necessary to sleep with my clothes on ; in fact, for a month 
 after I left Calcutta, I only undressed for the purpose of 
 bathing and changing soiled clothes. 
 
 The 23d, being Sunday, I rested at Meeruth, and early 
 next morning left this station, which became afterwards 
 the scene of the first outbreak in the general revolt of the 
 Bengal army. I say the first outbreak, although there can 
 now be little doubt that the Barrackpoor mutiny was to have 
 been the signal for the general insurrection, but the prompt 
 extinction of that movement discouraged the other disaffected 
 regiments, and deferred the catastrophe. 
 
 The mutineers at Meeruth shot their officers, set free thou- 
 sands of criminals from the jails, and then having fired many 
 of the bungalows and massacred the inmates, ladies and chil- 
 dren, with that hellish refinement of barbarity, which is usual 
 in Asiatic warfare, but which almost surpasses the belief of 
 more civilized and Christian nations, they at once set out for 
 Delhi, no doubt in virtue of a previous arrangement. 
 
 The conduct, on this occasion, of the commanding officers at 
 Meeruth, has called down great censure ; but only shows how 
 
222 India. 
 
 entirely the whole revolt took India by surprise. The feeling 
 of the older officers towards the sepoys was far different from 
 that which exists between the officers of any European army 
 and their soldiers. These men had grown up with the sepoys 
 from their boyhood ; they knew them, and loved them almost 
 as their children,"^ and they would not believe that the troops, 
 which had always displayed so much affection for them, and in 
 whose fidelity they had such unbounded confidence, had really 
 proved faithless. Even when men came in wounded and 
 bloody to tell them the news, they were still unconvinced ; 
 they said it must be a slight matter, and that they could 
 pacify the troops. Full of this confidence, they went to meet 
 the mutineers, and fell, riddled with balls. Even after the 
 revolters had left the station, after all the devastation and the 
 fiendish outrages had been committed, men of this class still 
 persisted in their error, and when the commander of a cavalry 
 regiment offered to pursue the mutineers and cut them up, the 
 permission was refused. 
 
 Everywhere was the same incredulity, the same blind con- 
 fidence, incomprehensible to those who have not seen the light 
 in which the sepoy was looked on by his officer. Officers felt 
 that though all the other regiments were to revolt, yet theirs 
 would prove faithful. They yielded to the prayers, the pro- 
 testations, the tears, and the embraces of their men, and left 
 them their arms, with which the treacherous scoundrels mur- 
 dered them the same night. 
 
 Such things would be impossible in any other country. 
 
 * In fact, the sepoys were called by their ofiGlcers "baba-log" — "the chil- 
 dren," or "the dear children." The feelings entertained by the older ofScers 
 toward their men, do not in the least contradict what has been said about the 
 natural repugnance of the English and native character. They only show 
 how entirely national prejudices may be obliterated by a residence in foreign 
 countries, and by intercourse with their inhabitants. In. this respect, there 
 was a most marked difference between the feelings of the old officers, who 
 had passed their life in the country, and those of the younger men, who did 
 not intend to stay in India any longer than they could help, who had a tho- 
 rough English education before they went out, and who never kept native 
 women, or associated on terms of equahty with the native officers of their 
 regiments. 
 
Return to Meeruth. 223 
 
 The deep dissimulation of the Indian character is fortunately 
 the characteristic of no other race. 
 
 It is remarkable that the oldest officers, those who knew 
 most of the people, and most of their men, were just those 
 who, by a misplaced lenity, added fuel to the revolt. While 
 the young men, who had just come out, with all their English 
 prejudice fresh, were those who first appreciated the real im- 
 portance of the movement, and who, had they been allowed to 
 act, might, by vigour and well-timed severity, have moderated 
 the terrific violence of the conflagration, or perhaps entirely 
 extinguished it. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 THE IMPERIAL CITY 0¥ DELHI. 
 
 First Yiew of Delhi — Entrance to the City — The Palace — The Houses low — The 
 Arsenal — Col. Skinner's — The Church — The Square of Death — The Signal Tower — 
 Drive to Kootub — Euins — Old Delhi — An Inaperial Whim — Sufdur Jung's Tomb — 
 The Kootub — Indian Sam Patches — The Observatory — Chandee Chok, the Broadway 
 of Delhi — Dandy Moosulmans — The Mosque of Slaughter. 
 
 I LEFT Meeruth by garrhee-dak for Delhi, at two o'clock 
 on the morning of November 24th. 
 
 I slept all the way, and was only awakened by the demand 
 for toll at the bridge across the Jumna. On looking out of 
 the garrhee, I saw, on the opposite bank of the river, the 
 bright red walls of the Imperial City, and above them, the 
 white domes and beautiful minars of the Jiimma Musjeed. 
 
 Although Delhi possesses larger and finer edifices than 
 Lucknow, and although the mass of tombs and ruins which 
 cover the country around, give it the efiect of immense 
 extent, yet its appearance is not nearly so imposing as that of 
 the capital of Oude. 
 
 There are not so many tall minars, which always form a 
 chief beauty of a Mohammedan city. The domes are fewer 
 in number, and not gilt ; while the material of the chief 
 buildings is red sandstone, instead of the white pukka, which 
 has so fine an efiect at a distance. In Lucknow, too, all the 
 principal objects are finely grouped, whereas at Delhi they 
 are much scattered, and many of them are distant several 
 miles from the city. 
 
 The walls of Delhi are over fifty feet in height, and broken 
 by circular bastions. The battlements were not square, as in 
 European architecture, but rounded with a Saracenic curve— 
 a very effective decoration. 
 
Delhi. 225 
 
 Crossing the river, we entered the city through two lofty 
 gates, between which was a deep moat. We were now in a 
 broad unpaved street — almost a square — which runs around 
 the royal palace. All around this open space were low houses. 
 The palace itself is not at all what we understand by that 
 word. It is an immense collection of buildings, containing the 
 king's residence, gardens, mosques, open squares, and build- 
 ings for servants, and the dependents of the court — in fact a 
 small town. It extends for half a mile along the river's bank, 
 and is surrounded by fortifications similar to those which de- 
 fend the city, but loftier and broken by three gateways. 
 These gateways, like all others of Saracenic style in India, are 
 made a principal, instead of a subordinate, feature in the 
 architecture. They are far higher and broader than the wall 
 through which they give entrance, and their roofs are deco- 
 rated with kiosks of white marble, and a low stone colonnade 
 around the edge, supporting a row of little stone domes, 
 looking like turbans — not a very pleasing ornament. 
 
 We drove around the Palace, which I shall call by this, its 
 usual name, although a better title would be the Fortress 
 " khila," as it is always denominated by the natives. 
 
 The dak-bungalow is situated in a street not far from the 
 Palace, and consequently inside the town — the only case of the 
 kind I know of. As soon as I had got breakfast and dressed, 
 I drove in a buggy to the bungalow of Captain Russell, of the 
 54th Native Infantry. I had to drive for about three quarters 
 of a mile through the city, again passing through the open space 
 in front of the Palace. After traversing several streets, the 
 houses on which were small and low, I came in front of a large 
 pukka building of EngUsh style, which I afterwards heard was 
 the Arsenal. This was the most important establishment of the 
 kind in this part of India, and the fact of its being entrusted 
 wholly to the protection of native soldiers, shows what entire 
 reUance was placed in their fidelity. At the time of the 
 mutiny Lieutenant Willoughby was in charge of the Arsenal. 
 As soon as he saw the danger, he came to the courageous 
 resolution to blow it up with his own hands — although he 
 must have fully expected to lose his life in so doing. The 
 
 10* 
 
226 India. 
 
 explosion was terrific, and killed many hundreds of the 
 mutineers who were in the building at the time. By what 
 seems a miracle, Lieutenant Willoughby escaped from the 
 danger which he had so bravely faced in the discharge of 
 duty. 
 
 Soon after passing the Arsenal, the road widened into an 
 open space, having on the right, the Church of St. James ; on 
 the left, Colonel Skinner's house, arid in front, the city wall 
 and Cashmeeree Gate. Colonel Skinner was a half-caste, or 
 descendant of a European and native. When the English 
 arms were first carried as far as Delhi, he was in command of 
 a very considerable body of irregular cavalry, known as 
 " Skinner's Horse," which were of great service in the war. 
 Having acquired a great deal of property, he built this splen- 
 did residence, where he lived in a style of mingled Eastern 
 and Western luxury. I believe his wives were all natives, 
 and in order to show the broad liberality of his views, he 
 built not only the church of St. James, on the square opposite 
 his house, but also constructed, at the same time, a Moham- 
 medan mosque, and a Hindoo mundra. St. James' Church, 
 which was used as the station chapel, was a considerable, cruci- 
 form, pukka building, in a sort of Doric style, surmounted by 
 a dome. 
 
 It was in this square that the officers of the Fifty-fourth 
 Regiment were murdered, and here, when Delhi was taken, 
 the English troops were horrified by finding a Christian 
 woman hanging in the agonies of crucifixion. 
 
 I passed through the Cashmeeree Gate, which being de- 
 fended by outworks, was by far the strongest entrance to the 
 city, and became subsequently the main point of attack for 
 the English troops. 
 
 The cantonments were over a mile from the city walls. 
 The road led past the Residency, an extensive pukka building 
 of English castellated architecture, and then ascended a low 
 hill, beyond which were the cantonments. On the summit 
 of this hill was the Signal Tower, a round stone building, 
 in which the ladies and some officers of the station took 
 refuge on the outbreak of the mutmy. The Sepoys who 
 
Delhi. 
 
 227 
 
 accompanied them gave the strongest evidences of fidelity, 
 and the most solemn promises of protection, but as soon as 
 they were all within the tower, and apparently beyond the 
 chance of escape or assistance, the cowardly wretches massa- 
 cred all but one or two ladies and Lieutenant Vibart of the 
 Fifty-fourth, with whom I was well acquainted. These 
 jumped from the toj) of the building, a feat that I should 
 consider very dangerous for a man, and almost impossible for 
 a lady, and fortunately escaping with but few wounds from 
 the volleys fired after them by the Sepoys, at last succeeded 
 in reaching and fording the river. After wandering for 
 many days in the jungul, weary, foot-sore, almost starving, 
 exposed daily to insult and blows, and hourly in peril of death, 
 they at length found safety in Meeruth. 
 
 Descendino; from the hill on which the Signal Tower was 
 situated, and on which the batteries of the English besieging 
 force were erected last autumn, I entered the station and 
 drove to Captain Russell's bungalow. He received me very 
 kindly and wished me to stay with him ; but I had to decline, 
 as I expected to leave in a day for the Punjab. After show- 
 ing me a number of tiger's skins, elk, deer, and antelope horns, 
 and other trophies of his skill with the rifle, Captain Russell 
 took me to tiffin (luncheon) at the mess-house of the Fifty- 
 fourth. I was introduced to the other officers, who showed 
 me every kindness during my stay. 
 
 The next day I went in a buggy with Captain Russell to 
 see the Kootub Minar, which is about thirteen miles south of 
 the Delhi gate of the city. 
 
 The surface of the country is uneven, the soil barren and 
 rocky, so that our drive would have been uninteresting had it 
 not been for the ruins of palaces, mosques, temples, and tombs 
 which were visible on all sides. The present city of Delhi is 
 quite a modern place, having been built by Shah Jehan about 
 the middle of the seventeenth century. It was called after 
 him Shah Jehanabad, a name which literally translated means 
 " The City of the Kmg of the World." Although the Eng- 
 lish adopted the old Hindoo name of Delhi, or, as it should be 
 written, Dihli, yet the Moosulmans retain that appellation 
 
228 India. 
 
 whicli recalls the glory of their most splendid sovereign — -just 
 as they always delight in calling Agra by its later name of 
 Akburabad. 
 
 Before the present city was built, Delhi had occupied vari- 
 ous sites within a circuit of twenty miles to the south and west, 
 most of which space is now covered with ruins. These changes 
 of locality were owing sometimes to invasions destroying the 
 old towns, and necessitating the construction of new ; some- 
 times to the ambition of particular emperors who wished to 
 found a more splendid residence than that of their predeces- 
 sors ; sometimes merely to the caprice of the sovereign. 
 Wherever the king built his fortified palace, there the nobles 
 clustered around him, and the other inhabitants of the old 
 city soon followed the court, both on account of the trade 
 which it controlled, and also because their old town being 
 unprotected by the king's soldiery, became exposed to the 
 assaults of the robber tribes. 
 
 The most remarkable removal to which the inhabitants of 
 Delhi were ever subjected, was designed and carried out by 
 Mohummud Toghluk, who occupied the imjDerial throne during 
 the fourteenth century. He caused all the population to mi- 
 grate to Dowlutabad in the Dekkun, where he established his 
 capital and built what is to the present day the strongest for- 
 tress in India. Dowlutabad is eight hundred miles from 
 Delhi, and the country between the two places is mostly jun- 
 gul, so that a large portion of his unfortunate subjects died 
 before reaching their new home. After the transfer was com- 
 plete it was discovered that the new city had no natural 
 advantages to enable it to support so numerous a population, 
 so that it had finally to be abandoned, and the royal residence 
 was again fixed at Delhi. A few years afterwards, however, 
 the king again repeated his mad freak, and as the second 
 march was made during a famine, the sufierings of the towns- 
 people were much greater than on the first occasion. This 
 was the same monarch who, driven to desperation by his ina- 
 bility to extort from his impoverished subjects the requisite 
 funds to pay for his military expeditions, used to order out his 
 whole army and form them into a circle enclosing a vast 
 
Delhi. 
 
 229 
 
 extent of country, after the manner of a battue. The army 
 then closed in upon itself, murdering the inhabitants of all 
 the villages so enclosed, without distinction of age or sex. 
 Another feat of Mohummud was the flaying alive of his 
 nephew who had ventured to oppose him in arms. 
 
 About half-way between the walls of Delhi and the Kootub 
 is the magnificent mausoleum of Sufdur Jung, who was a 
 wuzeer of the Mogul empire, and usurped the independent 
 government of Oude, of which country he had been viceroy. 
 This event occurred about a hundred years ago. The Hon- 
 ourable Company recognized his family in the government of 
 Oude, and even conferred upon them the royal title, both of 
 which they retained until within three years. The Delhi 
 Moosulmans, however, never acknowledged the superior title 
 conferred on the ruler of Oude by the Company, but always 
 considered and spoke of him as a wuzeer, or minister of the 
 Padshah. 
 
 The mausoleum is about a hundred feet square, having at 
 each corner a round minar surmounted by a kiosk. It is 
 elevated upon a marble terrace or chubootra, and is sur- 
 mounted by a white marble dome of great beauty. The 
 walls are constructed of red sandstone relieved by layers and 
 arches of marble. The windows, of which there are two tiers, 
 are not glazed, but closed by marble slabs most delicately cut 
 into open fretwork. The interior contains one large apart- 
 ment and four smaller ones. In the centre of the large apart- 
 ment, under the dome, is the cenotaph, a plain white marble 
 tomb ; immediately under it, but beneath the terrace, is the 
 real tomb, which protects the body. 
 
 The garden in which the mausoleum is situated is three 
 hundred and fifty yards square. It has been at one time 
 beautifully laid out, and is still filled with trees. The red 
 stone wall which surrounds it is formed into a cloister on the 
 inner side, and is used as a surai by native travellers. The 
 gateways are very large and fine. 
 
 Outside the gateway we found several hundred natives 
 encamped. They were the followers of a young relation of 
 the Rajah of Jaipoor. He had come to Delhi to get married. 
 
230 India. 
 
 There were in the camp about thirty of his soldiers in a green 
 uniform, on the English model, but very shabby. None of 
 them wore shoes. 
 
 After driving about six miles from Sufdur Jung's tomb we 
 came to the Kootub — the loftiest and most remarkable column 
 in the world. Its form tapers from the base to the summit, 
 and it is divided into seven stories by heavy balconies, the 
 distance between which diminishes in proportion to the diame- 
 ter of the shaft. The effect of this very peculiar and highly 
 artistic arrangement is to add very much to the apparent 
 height of the pillar by exaggerating the perspective. The 
 lower story is polygonal, but above the first balcony the mi- 
 nar is round. Its surface is deeply fl.uted all the way up. The 
 flutings on the first story are alternately semicircular and an- 
 gular, on the second story they are all semicircular, on the 
 third all angular. The first three stories are built wholly of 
 fine red sandstone ; the last two are principally white marble, 
 and have a plain surface. The projecting galleries, which 
 separate the stories, are massive, and richly decorated and 
 supported by heavy stone brackets. Around the lower story 
 are six horizontal bands of passages from the Koran, carved 
 in the boldest relief. The second story contains two such 
 bands, and the third one of them, but there are none above. 
 The whole height is now two hundred and forty feet, but there 
 can be but little doubt that it was once sixty feet higher. The 
 base is fifty feet in diameter, and the summit only thirteen 
 feet. It is now in perfect order, having been thoroughly re- 
 paii-ed by the Company in 1826, at the cost of several thou- 
 sand pounds sterling. 
 
 We ascended to the top of the minar, from which we ob- 
 tained a most extensive view of the country, which was 
 everywhere covered with ruins as far as the eye could reach. 
 
 After descending from the minar, we walked through the 
 courts of a very old and now ruinous mosque, built by Kootub- 
 ood-Deen, the deputy of Sooltan Mohummud, one of the 
 early Pathan conquerors, in the year 592 of the Hijra, an- 
 swering to 1 195 of our era. The Moosulmans contend that 
 the Kootub was intended as one of the minars of this mosque, 
 
Delhi. 
 
 23» 
 
 the Hindoos on the other hand assert that it existed before 
 the advent of the Moosulmans. Each view has earnest sup- 
 porters, who find very strong arguments for their respective 
 opinions. Whichever party is right, the Kootub is certainly 
 perfectly unique. If it was built by the Mahommedans, it is 
 unlike every other minar in India or the world, both in form 
 and decoration ; if, on the contrary, it was constructed by the 
 Hindoos, it is the only edifice of considerable dimensions 
 erected by them which has come down to the present day. I 
 suppose the question will never be decided, for no nation would 
 willingly give up for its race the honour of having devised 
 and completed a monument which so far surpasses in sublimity 
 every other creation of oriental art, and which, whether we 
 consider the grandeur and originality of the conception, or the 
 workmanUke knowledge of art displayed in its construction, 
 whether we look at the boldness, grace, and exquisite execution 
 of the ornaments with which it is covered, or their perfect 
 harmony and entire subordination to the grand features of the 
 design, must, I think, be allowed a rank by the side of the 
 most renowned triumphs of western architecture. 
 
 The mosque which I have mentioned as situated at the foot 
 of the minar, was built as the Jumma Musjeed, or principal 
 mosque, of old Delhi. It is doubtful whether it was ever 
 completed ; at any rate it would now be in ruins were it not 
 for the care of the Company's government, which has caused 
 the tottering walls to be strengthened, and restored the 
 largest of the arches, which is of majestic proportions, and 
 decorated with beautiful designs in scroll-work and Arabic 
 inscriptions carved in the stone. In one of the court-yards of 
 the mosque is the celebrated " Loha ka Lat," or "iron pillar." 
 This column is really of bronze, about twenty feet high and 
 two feet in diameter. It bears a short inscription, in a very 
 ancient character, which was for a long time unintelligible. 
 Its origin is unknown, but there is a legend that it cannot be 
 moved from its present position, and the Hindoos point tri- 
 umphantly to a dent in its surface, which they say was made 
 by a cannon ball fired against it by the orders of Nadur Shah, 
 who in vain tried to batter it down. 
 
232 India. 
 
 . Leaving the pillar, we walked a quarter of a mile to the 
 little village of Mehrowlee, to see the diving, for which the 
 inhabitants are famous. The "locus in quo" is a haolee^ a 
 species of well which is not uncommon in the north and west 
 of India. The excavation is perhaps sixty feet long by thirty 
 broad, and the sides are supported by stone walls. The sur- 
 face of the water, which is about forty feet below the level of 
 the ground, is approached on one side by a flight of stone 
 steps. The divers took their stand on top of one of the per- 
 pendicular sides and then jumped down, moving their hands 
 and feet to and fro in their descent. On striking the Avater, 
 they suddenly closed the legs together and drew the arms 
 close to their sides. They made a tremendous splash on en- 
 tering the water, and sunk so deep that before they rose again 
 the surface was perfectly unruffled. 
 
 We afterwards took tiffin in the pavilion of an old sural, 
 and returned to Delhi, by a different road, which led us by the 
 observatory of Jai Singh, the scientific rajah of Jaipoor, who 
 also built the similar establishments at Benares, Oojen, and 
 his own capital, the former of which I have before described. 
 The most remarkable object in this observatory is the great 
 sun dial, the gnomon of which, built of stone, is one hundred 
 and four feet in length, fifty-six in height, and about ten feet 
 thick. The shadow thrown by this gnomon was received on 
 two immense graduated quadrants, which, as well as the gno- 
 mon itself, were formerly cased with white marble. The ob- 
 servatory was founded one hundred and thirty years ago, and 
 was formerly a great seat of astronomical science. It was, 
 however, abandoned before the conquest by the English, and 
 its numerous buildings have fallen into utter ruin, with the 
 exceptions of the sun dial and two round stone towers pierced 
 with numerous openings, the shadow of the sun's rays passing 
 through which indicated his altitude. 
 
 We returned to the city, and after dinner I drove in a buggy 
 through the Chandee chok, or Silver market, which is alto- 
 gether the handsomest street in India. It is about a mile in 
 length, extending from the great western entrance of the pal- 
 ace, to the Lahoree gate of the city. Its breadth is one hun- 
 
Delhi. 233 
 
 dred and twenty feet, and an open aqueduct bordered by 
 rows of trees runs through its centre. The houses on each 
 side are mostly of pukka, and not over two stories high. 
 Their roofs are tiled, and they have light wooden balconies in 
 front which add much to the appearance of the street. The 
 ground floor of these houses is commonly used for shops ; the 
 upper stories are often inhabited by what the natives call 
 " scarlet ladies," and by other " great evils of great cities " in 
 the East. When I was at Delhi, Chandee chok was the gayest 
 scene in India. Every native who could muster a conveyance 
 of any description betook himself thither in the cool of the 
 afternoon. Some came on elephants, which were magnificently 
 caparisoned, and painted with bright colours around the eyes 
 and on the trunk. Others rode milk-white horses, the tails of 
 which were dyed scarlet, and which were decorated with 
 housings of fine cloth and gold embroidery. Others rode in 
 bailees, or two-wheeled carts covered with red canopies, and 
 drawn by neat teams of bullocks. A few preferred palkees, 
 or ton-jons, a vehicle very like the jan-pan of the hills. But 
 at least half had abandoned oriental fashions, and adopting 
 the manners and customs of their conquerors drove on the 
 chok in graceful English phaetons or buggies, drawn by well- 
 groomed and well-harnessed Arab steeds. All had as many 
 followers as possible, who ran ahead armed with sword, spear 
 and shield, shouting out their master's titles, and clearing the 
 way, with words and blows, through the closely packed crowd. 
 The dress of the inhabitants of Delhi is very gay. The tight 
 fitting cassock (chupkun) is of some dark cloth or flowered 
 cotton, and the turban and kummurbund are of scarlet or 
 some rich colour, often fringed with gold. Sometimes Cash- 
 meer shaAvls, or the imitation ones made at Delhi, are worn 
 around the head, waist or shoulders. Some of the costumes 
 are very rich and costly, but most of them are tawdry, and 
 decorated with spangles and artificial jewellery. In Delhi 
 there are a great number of " dandy Moosulmans." They are 
 frequently sepoys, who pass their spare time as "coureurs 
 d'aventures." Their dress is as showy as their limited means 
 will allow, and they wear a natty little skull-cap, cocked on 
 
234 s India. 
 
 one side of the head, from which their loog, straight, greasy 
 hair hangs down upon their neck. Their appearance is alto- 
 gether far from respectable, and they interchange salutations 
 with the young ladies of the market, who sit at the w^indows 
 of the upper stories, or parade their charms in open bailees. 
 Now and then one may see an Afghan, a short, thick-set man, 
 with loose grey woollen clothes, broad, heavy features, a dirty 
 face, of the colour of leather, and brown tangled locks. He 
 evidently looks with the utmost contempt on the unmanly 
 foppery of the effeminate race whom his ancestors have con- 
 quered and spoiled whenever they chose ; and if asked his 
 opinion, will express it in no measured terms, and in language 
 far different from the courtly euphemisms of the Hindoostanee. 
 Half way down the Chandee chok is a pretty little mosque, 
 with three gilt domes, where, scarcely more than one hundred 
 years ago, IS^adur Shah, the Persian conqueror, sat with drawn 
 sword, looking on while his troops sacked the city. The 
 slaughter lasted from morning till night, and was accompanied 
 by all the horrors of unrestrained lust, rapine and vengeance. 
 Over a hundred thousand of the inhabitants perished, and the 
 aqueduct in the Chandee chok ran red with blood. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DELHI. — CONTINUED. 
 
 A Juggler — Poses Plastlques — Entrance to Palace — DewAn Am — Emperor's Throne — 
 Mosaics — Drawing first Blood — A Paradise on Eartli — Peacock Throne — A Micro- 
 cosmic View of the Mogul Empire — Shah Jehan in State — A Hundred Years Later 
 — Native Tact — The Glory has Departed — Maharattas in the Palace— Gholam Kadnr, 
 the Rohilla, seated on the Eoyal Throne — Eestoration of the Empire by the British 
 — Their Majesties, and their "Particular Slaves" — The last Emperor — The last Ten- 
 ants of the Dewan Khas — The Pearl Mosque — Palace Gardens — The Jumma Musjeed 
 — View from Minar — Moosulman Worship — Feerooz's "Walking Stick — Hoomaioon's 
 Tomb — Chubootras — Peculiarities of Mahommedan Architecture — Capture of the 
 King of Delhi. 
 
 The next morning I had a juggler to perform for me, who 
 did some most wonderful tricks with almost no preparation or 
 means of deception. There came also to the bungalow some 
 nach girls of a low class, who danced and sang — both indiffer- 
 ently; but afterwards they performed some feats, showing 
 that wonderful suppleness which is so remarkable in all na- 
 tives, but especially in this class. I put a four-ana bit (about 
 as large as a dime) upon the ground. The girl then placed 
 one foot on each side of it, and standing up, bent gradually 
 backward until her head came between her legs; she then 
 caught the silver piece in her eyelids and resumed the upright 
 position. The performance was afterwards repeated, with 
 variations, the paolee (four-ana bit) being taken up by the 
 nostrils or ears. 
 
 Afterwards I visited the palace. I passed in my buggy 
 through the lofty gateway and entered a small court, where I 
 was requested to get out, as no vehicles were allowed to enter 
 further. A number of shabby looking soldiers were lolling 
 about. They wore a clumsily-made uniform, after the English 
 pattern, and were Sepoys of the Emperor's army, commonly 
 called the "Palace Guard." Captain Douglass, their com- 
 
236 India. 
 
 raander, who was the first victim of the mutiny at Delhi, gave 
 me two chobdars, or royal mace-bearers, to accompany me 
 through the palace. They were an ill-dressed, slip-shod pair 
 of Moosulmans, whose chief idea seemed to be " bucksees." 
 The maces were heavy silver canes, about four feet long. 
 
 We passed through several very lofty vaulted galleries of 
 stone, leading from one court to another, and at length 
 emerged into a very large court, surrounded by stone build- 
 ings. Above the arched entrance is a gall-ery, called the 
 Nowbut Khana, or music room, where the band used to play. 
 On the opposite side of the court, and projecting into it from 
 the wall of the zenana, is an extensive square stone terrace, 
 approached by three stairways from the court. This terrace 
 has a stone roof, supported by many stone columns. In the 
 wall at the back, which separates the hall thus formed 
 from the zenana, is a stairway that leads up to the throne, 
 which is raised about ten feet from the ground, and covered 
 by a canopy supported by four pillars. The canopy is all of 
 marble, and the wall behind it is also of the same material. 
 They are both covered with the most exquisite mosaics, repre- 
 senting the flowers, birds, and beasts of Hindoostan. These 
 were executed by Austin de Bordeaux, a French jeweller of 
 great skill, who, having committed some crimes in Europe, 
 took refuge at the Mogul court. The throne has a doorway 
 behind it, by which the Emperor entered from his zenana. On 
 the stone floor of the hall is a raised slab, on which the wuzeer 
 stood and handed up to his imperial master the petitions which 
 he received from the suitors below. 
 
 This hall is called the Dewan Am, or Court of Pubflc Jus- 
 tice. Here the Emperor in person administered justice every 
 day. The parties concerned were examined by the monarch 
 himself; judgment was summarily rendered, and the sen- 
 tences executed without delay. 
 
 In the great court-yard which surrounds the Dewan Am, on 
 three sides, the cavalry and retinues of the grandees used to 
 pass in review before the Emperor, as he sat on his throne. 
 Here also were paraded for inspection the royal horses and 
 elephants, covered with splendid trappings. The latter car- 
 
Delhi. 
 
 237 
 
 ried howdahs of gold or silver, their foreheads were painted 
 with gay colours, their ears bore chourees formed from the 
 white bushy tail of the Thibet ox, and around their necks 
 were suspended massive silver chains, from which hung bells 
 which tinkled as they marched in stately procession around 
 the area. As each elephant came before the throne, he bent 
 one knee, raised his proboscis into the air, and trumpeted. 
 After these came antelopes, rhinoceroses, bufialoes, leopards, 
 and other wild animals, trained to fight each other ; then fol- 
 lowed sporting dogs of all kinds, and the procession closed 
 with falconers, bearing on their wrists every kind of bird used 
 in falconry. 
 
 When I visited the Dewan Am, it had not been used for 
 many years, and was in a wholly neglected and ruinous condi- 
 tion. The mosaics were in many places picked out, the ter- 
 race was dirty and uncared for, and the great quadrangle was 
 filled with mud huts and stables. During the recent mutiny, 
 it has again come into use ; and here, it is said, the Shahza- 
 dehs, or princes, sitting on the marble terrace, "drew the 
 first blood" from the trembling Christians in the court below, 
 after which they were butchered by the Khasburdars. Of this 
 story, it may be said, " Sinon vrai, du moins vi*aisemblable ;" 
 if it is not true, it is one of those illustrative stories, so many 
 of which find a place in history, and which represent indi- 
 viduals performing acts which typify the feeUngs of whole 
 classes. At any rate, it is quite certain that, if the royal family 
 did not take an active part in the slaughter, they, at least, gave 
 the orders, and that, too, after the most solemn promises and 
 oaths that the lives of all who had fled to their protection 
 should be spared. The Khasburdars, who ofliciated as execu- 
 tioners, were the highest servants of the palace, and were 
 allowed to perform the task as a favour, since Indian Moosul- 
 mans believe that whoever kills a Kafi'ur, or infidel, wipes 
 away by the act all his previous sins. 
 
 From the Dewan Am we went into a smaller court, on one 
 side of which, upon a terrace of pure white marble, is the 
 Dewan Khas, or private hall — where the Emperor held his 
 levees, and received the higher nobles to audience. It is a 
 
238 India. 
 
 square marble canopy, resting on massive square pillars and 
 arches of the same material. The marble is very highly pol- 
 ished. There is but little decoration — a few exquisitely 
 graceful flowers in mosaic work being the only ornaments. 
 One side of the Dewan Khas opens on the court, a second 
 side looks on the palace gardens, a third side commands a fine 
 view of the broad Jumna, which runs below, and the fourth 
 rests against the walls of the zenana. Between each pair of 
 the outside rows of pillars is a very beautiful balustrade of 
 marble, chastely carved in several designs of perforated work. 
 The roof has at each corner a marble kiosk with a gilt dome. 
 The shape of the building is oblong, and its greatest length 
 not more than sixty feet. I cannot deny that my first feeling, 
 after all the encomiums I had heard, was one of disappointment 
 with the size. 
 
 The ceiling was once entirely composed of gold and silver 
 filagree work, for which the goldsmiths of Delhi are still 
 noted. In the centre stood the famous peacock throne, so 
 called from its back being formed by jewelled representations 
 of peacocks' tails. The throne was six feet long and four 
 feet broad, composed of solid gold, inlaid with precious gems. 
 It was surmounted by a gold canopy, supported on twelve 
 pillars of the same material. Around the canopy hung a 
 fringe of pearls, and on each side of the throne stood two 
 chattahs^ or umbrellas, the symbol of royalty; they were 
 formed of crimson velvet, richly embroidered with gold thread 
 and pearls, and had handles eight feet long, of solid gold, 
 studded with diamonds. Tliis unparalleled achievement of 
 the jeweller's art was constructed by Austin de Bordeaux, 
 by command of the Emperor, Shah Jehan, who founded the 
 present city of Delhi, and built this palace. The value of the 
 throne is estimated by Tavernier, a Frenchman who saw it, 
 and who was himself a professional jeweller, at six millions of 
 pounds sterling. 
 
 Here then, on this magnificent throne, in the most beautiful 
 apartment of the grandest palace in the East, within the walls 
 of his splendid and populous capital, sat the Emperor Shah 
 Jehan, arrayed in the most sumptuous attire, sparkling in 
 
Delhi. 239 
 
 jewels of unparalleled beauty, and surrounded by the pomp and 
 state of a court, in comparison with which even the costly 
 splendour of Louis XIV., which ruined his kingdom and dy- 
 nasty, grows pale. He was at the head of an almost countless 
 army, the absolute sovereign of one-sixth of the human race ; 
 and as he sat in state and received the homage of his powerful 
 vassals, he must have gazed with satisfaction on the proud le- 
 gend which he had caused to be inscribed on the cornice of 
 this his presence chamber, " If there be a paradise on earth, 
 it is here, it is here." Little did he anticipate that all this 
 should pass away from his grasp, and that he himself, after 
 ten years of imprisonment, would die in the fortress of Agra. 
 
 A hundred years later, Mohummud Shah, a descendant of 
 Shah Jehan, is sitting in this same apartment. He is still sur- 
 rounded by all the insignia of royalty, but beside him sits a 
 Persian soldier, in whose hands is aU the power. Nadur 
 Shah wills to be treated as the guest of his captive, and takes 
 a pleasure in mocking humbled royalty by allowing the con- 
 quered Emperor to preserve the outward show of authority. 
 Coffee is brought by the highest lord of the household, but 
 he is uncert^n to whom he should first offer the fragrant bev- 
 erage — he knows that his head will be the penalty for the 
 least apparent slight to either of the monarchs whom he is 
 serving. But the native tact of the Indian Moosulman bears 
 him safely through the trial, and with a graceful pohteness 
 that would have honoured a noble of the " old regime," he 
 takes the salver to his old sovereign, saying as he presented 
 it, "I know that your Majesty would not allow your distin- 
 guished guest to be served by any but your own royal hands." 
 With a true Persian appreciation of courtly polish, ISTadur 
 Shah says to the Emperor, " If all your Majesty's servants had 
 known their duty as well, and done it as thoroughly as this 
 one, I should not now be sitting here." 
 
 So the coffee was served without bloodshed, and the two 
 kings sat and sipped it, and talked together as if they were 
 the best friends in the world. The next day Delhi was sub- 
 jected to all the horrors of a general sack and massacre, and 
 the old Emperor lay prostrate at the conqueror's feet inter- 
 
240 India. 
 
 ceding for the lives of his subjects. The month which followed 
 was spent in plundering and torturing high and low to obtain 
 their money, and in scarce six weeks from his first appearance 
 in the capital, ]S"adur Shah led back his victorious army, bear- 
 ing to his western home the golden peacock throne, the 
 hoarded treasures of the Mogul Empire, all the money and 
 jewels which could be collected, and leading with him into 
 captivity many hundreds of those skilful artisans and work- 
 men for which Delhi has always been famous. 
 
 Henceforth we read of one invasion after another. The 
 power of the Mogul throne had passed away, the few trea- 
 sures of the palace and the public buildings which escaped 
 the rapacity of the Persians and Afghans were plundered by 
 the Maharattas, who melted down the gold filagree ceihng of 
 the Dewan Khas, and destroyed a magnificent crystal seat, 
 which was one of its most remarkable ornaments, by lighting 
 a fire round it. Two occupants of the imperial throne were 
 successively assassinated. Their successor was forced to throw 
 himself on the protection of the English, who gave him shel- 
 ter and an ample income at Allahabad. Five years afterwards, 
 in 1 77 1, he again returned to Delhi, where he soon became a 
 mere tool of the Maharattas. Six years later and the scene is 
 again in the Dewan Khas. Delhi has been invested by a for- 
 midable body of rebels, to which the Maharatta garrison offered 
 no resistance. The Emperor was dragged before the rebel 
 chief Gholam Kadur, who is seated in the throne-room, and 
 is commanded to show where his treasures are concealed. In 
 vain he plead the utter poverty of himself and his family. The 
 rebel general, incensed at his inability to extract the mforma- 
 tion, knocked down the aged monarch, and kneeling on his 
 breast, put out his eyes with his dagger, while the poor old 
 man could only murmur, " Why should I be deprived of those 
 eyes which have been incessantly employed, for sixty years, in 
 studying the sacred Koran ?" 
 
 The Maharattas, however, soon returned in great force. They 
 deposed the rebel chief and caused him to be trodden to death 
 by elephants. The Emperor was restored to a nominal sov- 
 ereignty, but he was really only a little more comfortable than 
 
Delhi. 
 
 241 
 
 when a captive of Gholam Kadur. Sindiah, the rajah of the 
 Maharattas, and his French officers, only allowed the imperial 
 family a miserably insufficient annuity, retaining in their own 
 hands nearly the whole revenue of the Crown property. 
 Bishop Heber relates that during this period most of the 
 marble and inlaid ornaments of the palace were mutilated ; 
 as they were actually sold by the Emperor to obtain bread for 
 himself and his children. In 1803 the arms of the British 
 triumphed over those of the Maharattas. The Emperor at 
 once threw himself under the protection of Lord Lake, and 
 begged to be delivered from his oppressors. Five years after 
 he was deposed and blinded by Gholam Kadur, the poor old 
 monarch again took a seat in the throne-room of his ances- 
 tors, the scene of his former humiliation. The splendour of 
 the Mogul empire had long since dej)arted, wdth its power, 
 and the blind and feeble king had only a tattered canopy over 
 his head to mark his royal rank. Lord Lake approached the 
 Emperor with the utmost respect ; he recognized him as the 
 " fidoi," or feudal sovereign of the Company, and reinstated 
 him in the enjoyment of his revenues. The deliverance of 
 their Emperor from the combined tyranny of the Maharattas 
 and their French officers, was a cause of the greatest rejoicing 
 to the inhabitants of Delhi, and an immense concourse of peo- 
 ple assembled to greet the solemn entrance of the English 
 commander. For a long time the English continued to rule 
 India in the name of the Emperor. Since 1830, however, the 
 meaningless form has been abohshed, but the Emperor was 
 still recognized as a sovereign, although the imperial power 
 was confined to the limits of his palace. The lowest member 
 of the royal fimily, of whom there are hundreds living in the 
 palace, always addressed the British Resident as " Our particu- 
 lar slave," and was answered, " Your Majesty's slave has 
 heard your Majesty's commands, &c." The royal family re- 
 ceived regularly an allowance of $750,000 per annum, on which 
 the Emj)eror was enabled to keep up considerable state, and 
 held regular courts in the long abandoned Dewan Khas, 
 where Bishop Heber was presented. Of this ceremony ho 
 gives an interesting description in his " Travels." 
 
 11 
 
242 India. 
 
 For fifty years after this time Delhi enjoyed uninterrupted 
 tranquillity, under the powerftil protection of the British. 
 The city was thoroughly fortified and drained ; and its aque- 
 duct, which had become useless under the Maharattas, was 
 restored. The inhabitants were freed from the fear of inva- 
 sion and piUage from without, or the oppressive rapacity of 
 their native governors. The royal family were protected in 
 the enjoyment of their throne, honours, and revenues. 
 
 The last Emperor, who was on the throne when I visited 
 Delhi, appeared in public only once a year. The rest of his 
 time he passed in the puerile amusements of his zenana. He 
 is an old man, almost childish it was said, and might have 
 died quietly if he had not been sufiiciently foolish to join the 
 recent revolt — a movement which, had it succeeded, would 
 have thrown India back to the state in which it was after 
 N'adur Shah's conquest— from which he could have expected 
 no advantage (for no one who has studied the history of India 
 will believe that he could have retained power for any time) ; 
 and which, in its failure, involved the ruin of himself and his 
 family, the devastation of his city, and the misery of what 
 were the dominions of his ancestors. 
 
 The Dewan Khas is again occupied. The last monarch of 
 Shah Jehan's line is again present in the throne-room of his 
 empire. He is a mean-looking old man, plainly dressed, 
 crouched upon a low native bedstead, and smoking a hookah. 
 His hairs are white, and what little expression remains in his 
 Jewish features, is not pleasant to look at. Before him, at a 
 table, sit a row of ofiicers in the English uniform. They are 
 judging him for treason to the Power to whose protection 
 and generosity alone he owed his position and ability to do 
 mischief. After the most ample and pains-taking investiga- 
 tion, they convict him of treachery and murder. 
 
 Of all the remarkable events of which the Dewan Khas has 
 been the theatre, certainly this was the grandest and most 
 significant. If the trial of Charles the First was not merely 
 his individual condemnation, but was also the practical denial 
 and abolition of the Divine Right of English kings, and the 
 adoption of the democratic idea in the government, then the 
 
Delhi. 
 
 243 
 
 judgment pronounced upon the king of Delhi was not only 
 the decree of a British court upon a miserable old man, ren- 
 dered almost imbecile by age and a long life of debauchery : 
 it was the verdict of the civilised world on the whole line of 
 which he was the last representative — it was the sentence 
 pronounced by Christendom upon the utter incapacity, the 
 childish folly, the hopeless corruption, the abandoned licen- 
 tiousness, the fiendish cruelty, and the intolerable oppression 
 of the effete dynasties of Asia — it was the decision of Human- 
 ity in the grand trial between Christianity and Paganism for 
 supremacy in the East — a decision which, it is not presump- 
 tuous to say, has been ratified by the Eternal Justice of the 
 King of kings. 
 
 The narrative of the various events that have taken place in 
 the Dewan Khas, has led me away from the regular descrip- 
 tion of my visit to the Palace, and to that we will now return. 
 
 I had now seen the two reception courts of the Mogul 
 emperors, the Dewan Am and the Dewan Khas. Leaving 
 the latter, I wandered for a while among the extensive gar- 
 dens which were once magnificent, but had long been sadly 
 neglected, like the rest of the Palace. 
 
 I next visited the Motee Miisjeed, or "Pearl Mosque," 
 where the Emperor worshipped every day. It is a small 
 building of the purest white marble, and without ornament. 
 The domes were gilt, and the doors were of bronze, worked 
 with much skill and taste. 
 
 I had now seen all that was exhibited to visitors, in the 
 Palace. The zenana, or private apartments, were of course 
 not visible, and the rest of the large space enclosed within the 
 Palace walls was used for the residences of the many depen- 
 dents of the court, and was not worth seeing. 
 
 From the Palace I went to the Jumma Miisjeed, or prin- 
 cipal mosque, which is about a quarter of a mile distant. It 
 is situated on an elevation in the centre of the city, and is 
 visible from every part of the town. Around the crest of the 
 elevations runs a red stone wall, having three gates, each 
 approached by a broad flight of fifty steps from the street 
 below. The eastern gateway is the finest, and the steps 
 
244 India. 
 
 leading up to it are the broadest ; they are used as a sort 
 of market, during the afternoon, by birdsellers, muraba 
 (sweetmeat) dealers, and others. These three entrances lead 
 into a quadrangle, about three hundred feet square, on the 
 western side of which is the mosque proper. The court is 
 paved with red sandstone, inlaid with white marble; and 
 contains in its centre a large marble tank for ablutions. 
 
 The mosque proper, as I have said before, occupies the 
 greater part of the western side, being the side toward Mecca. 
 It is built of red sandstone, and is about two hundred feet 
 in length by over one hundred deep. Toward the court it is 
 open, the wall being supported by the arches, of nearly Gothic 
 form. Within, it is paved with oblong slabs of marble, inlaid 
 vn.th borders of black stone, which define the space allowed 
 to each worshipper. The western wall is also wainscotted 
 with marble slabs. In its middle is the Kibla, a marble niche 
 showing the direction of Mecca. Close to the Kibla is the 
 pulpit, a solid marble platform, approached by a few steps 
 from the ground. There are three domes, of great size and 
 very graceful. They are formed of white marble, relieved by 
 vertical layers of red stone ; and terminate in delicate spires 
 of gilt copper. The mosque is flanked by two minars, one 
 hundred and thirty feet high, composed of white marble and 
 red stone, in alternate vertical layers. At about equal dis- 
 tances are three projecting galleries, and they are crowned 
 with light pavilions of white marble. 
 
 The whole efiect of the mosque is extremely imposing, and 
 I suppose it is, as the natives claim, the finest building ever 
 erected for Mahommedan worship. 
 
 I ascended one of the minars, from which I obtained a mag- 
 nificent view of the city and the surrounding country. The 
 appearance of Delhi is quite different from that of Benares. 
 In the latter, the houses are high, and have flat paved roofs. 
 In Delhi, on the contrary, although more than half of the 
 population are Hindoos, the architecture is entirely Moosul- 
 man, as it is in almost all the other cities of IsTorthern India. 
 The houses are low, with tiled roofs, upon which the inhabit- 
 ants amuse themselves with flying kites — a national amuse= 
 
Delhi. 245 
 
 ment, which formed one of the most frequent and serious 
 occupations of the royal family. 
 
 As I sat on the summit of the minar, looking east, the 
 panorama was very striking. Before me rolled the Jumna, 
 almost parallel with the front of the mosque. On the further 
 bank of the river nothing was to be seen but the low shore, 
 and the broad barren plain. Sometimes, they say, the 
 Himalayas are visible, but that can only be in the fairest 
 weather. Along the western bank, ran the Palace, which 
 with its fortifications, its courts and streets, and the great 
 variety of buildings which it encloses, presented just the 
 appearance of a v/alled town. From the great gate of the 
 Palace, the broad Chandee chok ran west to the city walls, 
 dividing the mass of tiled roofs into two nearly equal areas. 
 Beyond this street was seen the house of the Begoom Sombre, 
 a sj^lendid residence. This and the Palace are almost the only 
 conspicuous objects in the city, except the mosques, which for 
 size and splendour do not compare with those of Lucknow. 
 Although so large a part of the inhabitants are Hindoos, I did 
 not remark the pointed spire of a single Mundra. 
 
 Beyond the city walls all was desolation. On my left, that 
 is on the northern side, rose the low hiUs which intervened 
 between the city and the cantonments. On the south side of 
 the city, were the ruins of old Delhi, conspicuous among which 
 were the tombs of Hoomaioon and Sufdur Jung, the Obser- 
 vatory, and the old forts of former dynasties. Far in the 
 distance I could see the Kootub Minar. 
 
 On descending from the minar, I made an unsuccessful 
 attempt to enter a portion of the court which is partitioned 
 oif by a beautifully carved white marble screen. In it are 
 kept certain relics of the Prophet, and of the two famous 
 Imams, Hiissun and Hoosen. This enclosure, however, is so 
 sacred that no Kaffurs are allowed to enter it; indeed, formerly, 
 Europeans could not come within the great enclosure of the 
 mosque without removing their shoes. This prohibition had, 
 however, been removed by government, who obtained the 
 right to interfere by the repairs which they have made to the 
 building, and the sums of money which they allowed for its 
 support. 
 
2/^b India. 
 
 It being Friday, the Mahommedan Sabbath, some hundreds 
 of Moosulmans bad assembled for worship. This may seem a 
 small number for so large a city, especially as I did not see 
 any worshippers at the other mosques ; but I believe I have 
 mentioned before that the Moosleem in India are far from 
 displaying that regular attention to the forms of their religion 
 which is so strikins^ to the traveler in Arabian and Turkish 
 countries. The devotions consisted in various genuflexions, 
 and the rapid muttering of Arabic prayers, which are not 
 " understanded of the people." 
 
 On the last day of the Ramuzan the Emperor always came 
 m state to this mosque to break up the Fast. The vast enclo- 
 sure of the building, which holds twelve thousand persons, 
 was then filled with the faithful in their gayest attire, and 
 marshalled in straight rows by the marble lines and spaces in 
 the pavement. The spectacle is described as deeply impres- 
 sive. 
 
 The Jumma Miisjeed was built in 1630, by Shah Jehan, the 
 same monarch who founded the present city and constructed 
 the Palace. It is said that for many years prayers have been 
 ofiered up in it for the restoration of the Moosulman Empire. 
 This is very likely, as, although the government would cer- 
 tainly have known of it, they would not feel themselves called 
 upon to interfere with the religious worship of the natives ; 
 and would look upon it as a matter of very small importance, 
 whatever might be the tenour of the jDrayers. Since the 
 taking of Delhi, certain persons have proposed that this build- 
 ing should be turned, into a Christian Cathedral. As it con- 
 sists mainly of a large court, it is plain that the plan is imprac- 
 ticable. It could only be carried out by walling up the east- 
 ern arches of the mosque proper, which would give a very 
 awkward apartment entirely unadapted to Christian worship, 
 and would utterly destroy the architectural effect. 
 
 From the Jumma Miisjeed I returned to the dak-bungalow 
 and took tiffin, after which I drove to the tomb of the Em- 
 peror Hoomaioon, which is about three miles south of the 
 Delhi gate of the city. 
 
 On the way I stopped to see a celebrated object called Fee- 
 
Delhi. 247 
 
 rooz Shah ka Lat, or the Emperor Feerooz's walking stick. 
 It is situated among the ruins of the palace of that monarch, 
 and is a round granite shaft, thirty or forty feet high. The 
 material of the column is a sort of stone which is not found 
 nearer than the Siwalik hills, a hundred miles from Delhi. It 
 was originally set np in Meeruth, but was removed from that 
 place by the Emperor Feerooz, a Moosulman prince of the 
 Toghluk dynasty, who ruled in Delhi during the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, and died ten years before Taimoor's invasion. The Lat 
 is covered by an inscription, in a very ancient character, 
 which was entirely unintelligible to the most learned Brah- 
 muns, even in the time of Feerooz. European skill has, how- 
 ever, deciphered the writing, which proves to consist of cer- 
 tain edicts for the furtherance of religion and virtue enacted 
 by a king called Dhumma Asoko Piyadasi, who reigned B.C. 
 320, and who must have changed his character after ascending 
 the throne, as he only obtained that dignity by the murder 
 of ninety of his relations who had prior claims. The column 
 is therefore at least twenty-two hundred years old, and the 
 inscrij^tion upon it is j^robably the oldest writing in India. 
 
 All around the Lat are the massive ruins of the palace and 
 Jumma Musjeed, built by Feerooz at this 23lace, which was then 
 the centre of his capital city. 
 
 Hoomaioon's tomb is a square building of red stone and 
 marble, built upon a terrace about three hundred feet square, 
 and twenty high, formed of the same materials. The archi- 
 tecture is in the purest and simplest form of Indian Moosul- 
 man art. Each side of the mausoleum is over a hundred feet 
 long, and contains three deep arched recesses, almost the Avhole 
 height of the building, within which are the windows. The 
 arches are almost pure Gothic, but a little flattened. The 
 dome is of white marble, and is considerably lower than those 
 of the later Moosulman buildino-s. 
 
 Within the building, under the dome, is a large circular^ 
 room, containing in its centre the simple, unadorned tomb of 
 the Emperor. Hoomaioon was the son of Babur, and father 
 of Akbur. He did not long enjoy the empire conquered by 
 his father, for, having been deposed by a successful rebelUou, 
 
248 India. 
 
 he became a fugitive from one Indian court to another, and 
 finally had to take refuge with the King of Persia. At length 
 he treacherously got possession of a city belongmg to his pro- 
 tector, and with the money and forces obtained by this act, he 
 succeeded in overthrowing one of his most formidable oppo- 
 nents, his younger brother Kamran. Having put out Kam- 
 ran's eyes he contmued the reconquest of his empire, and at last 
 reestabhshed his throne at Delhi, after sixteen years of exile. 
 Six months afterwards he died, having fallen from the stair- 
 case of his library upon a marble floor. He was a great 
 schol^', astrologer and patron of literature, and is considered 
 one of the finest characters in Indian history. 
 
 The two wives of Hoomaioon are also buried in this build- 
 ing, which contains besides the tombs of other members of 
 his house ; among them that of Dara Sheko, the eldest son 
 of Shah Jehan, who was murdered by the command of his 
 brother, the Emperor Aurungzeeb. 
 
 The terrace, or chubootra, on which this mausoleum is built, 
 is a distinctive feature of Moosulman art in India. It is always 
 much broader than the building w^hich it supports, and gener- 
 ally just so high that when the observer stands at the entrance 
 of the court-yard, the lower line of the building is apparently 
 on a level with his eye. The efiect of these chubootras is 
 really wonderful, and is like that of a good frame to a picture, 
 or a pedestal to a statue. The arched recesses which are 
 spoken of above, are also pecuhar to this architecture. They 
 begin at the ground, and commonly cover nearly half the sur- 
 face of the building. The doors and windows, which are 
 within them, may be of any size, but these recesses are always 
 as large as cu-cumstances will permit, and are the grand feature 
 of every fagade. 
 
 This magnificent mausoleum is enclosed in a quadrangle, 
 nearly four hundred yards square, which was formerly laid 
 out as a garden, with marble fish ponds and other decorations, 
 but is now neglected and uncared for. The quadrangle is 
 enclosed by a lofty embattled wall of redstone, with towers 
 and four fine gateways. Being a place of considerable sk*ength, 
 the enclosure of this tomb as well as that of Sufdur Jung's 
 
Delhi. 
 
 249 
 
 mausoleum, were formerly used as places of refuge by the 
 inhabitants of the suburbs during the incursions of the Maha- 
 rattas. It was here that the King of Delhi took refuge after 
 the capture of the city last autumn ; and here he was taken 
 prisoner by Captain Hodgson. ISTothing can give a better idea 
 of the immense moral superiority of the European over the 
 native, than this daring achievement. The enclosure, I have 
 said, was strong, far stronger than the Residency at Lucknow. 
 The king was within, surrounded by troops of armed follow- 
 ers. The Englishman was alone, far away from all help, and 
 accompanied only by fifty black suwars (horsemen) who could 
 not be relied on. He ordered the king to come out, promis- 
 ing him only his own life, and that of his favourite wife and 
 her son. The disj^roportion of these commands mth Captain 
 Hodgson's power of enforcing them would be ludicrous were 
 it not for the imminent danger to which he was exposed, and 
 the confidence in himself and his race which he displayed. 
 He knew the native character, and felt sure that under the 
 cifcumstances no native would have the sj)irit to resist a com- 
 mand. The king yielded at once, and set forth with his fol- 
 lowers towards the city. The procession moved at a foot pace, 
 the road was bad, on every side were tombs and other ruins 
 that would serve for ambush or refuge, but Hodgson coolly 
 rode by the side of his prisoner, with drawn sword ready to 
 kill him should a rescue be attem^^ted. All around were thou- 
 sands of armed men, any one of whom might have shot that 
 lonely Englishman without dread of the consequence, but not 
 a man dared to Hft his hand ; all were cowed by the calm 
 courage and undaunted confidence of his expression. That 
 was the grand triumph of the Anglo-Saxon blood. A native 
 may fight as well as another when excited ; he will even risk 
 his life more readily than a Euroj)ean, but there is not a man 
 in India who will not quail before an Englishman's eyes, and 
 tremblingly obey his commands. 
 
 During the recent mutiny, English courage has nobly sup- 
 ported its ancient reputation. Feeble companies have borne 
 the attack of countless adversaries, ladies have shot down the 
 wretches who dared to assail their life and their honour, and 
 
 11* 
 
250 India* 
 
 have then killed themselves to avoid a "vvorse fate. Eveiy^ 
 where the odds were a thousand to one. Everywhere the 
 war was one of extermination, yet not one Englishman ever 
 despaired, not one ever doubted the result of the struggle. 
 But in the long list of acts of individual heroism which have 
 distinguished this above all modern wars, and which, when 
 We hear them told, carry us back to the days of chivalry, I 
 think no single action is so thoroughly characteristic of Brit- 
 ish pluck, as the capture of the King of Delhi by Captain 
 Hodgson* 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 DELHI AND UMBALA. 
 
 The Saint's Tomb— A Eoyal Cemetery— A Victim of the Engllsli— The Old Fort— A 
 Nacb at Mr. Skinner's — The Dinner — The Girls — Their Songs — Dancing Boys — Na- 
 tive Gentlemen — Snakes — The Bazars of Delhi — The Streets — A Native "Wedding — 
 A "Public Night" at the Mess of the 54th— Dak to Umbala— Sick— A Dandy 
 Servant — "Vengeance is Sweet" — Sepoy Bands — The Native Army — Cashmeer 
 Shawls. 
 
 Fkom Hoomaioon's tomb I went to a village, half a mile 
 north, where is bmied a celebrated Moosulman saint, Nizam- 
 ood-Deen, who died in the early part of the fomteenth century. 
 The tomb is within a court paved with marble. It is a small 
 but very beautiful white marble building, surrounded by a 
 colonnade, and covered by a dome. Between the pillars of 
 the colonnade are scarlet cloth purdahs, or curtains. In the 
 centre of the building the body of the saint lies in a low 
 sarcophagus of marble, which is covered with silk brocade, 
 strewn with fresh flowers. The sanctity of this shrine is such 
 that it still attracts pilgrims from all parts of India, whose 
 contributions keep tlie tomb in order. Within this court-yard 
 are buried several members of the imperial family, among 
 others, the Emperor Mohummud Shah, during whose reign 
 the invasion of ISTadur Shah took place. Close by is the tomb 
 of Prince Mirza Jehangeer, who was banished by the English 
 government from Delhi, on account of frequent attempts to 
 murder his elder brother, and excite insurrection. He killed 
 himself by drinking cherry brandy, of which liquor he used 
 to swallow a glass an hour, limiting himself to that amount, 
 in order to protract the pleasure and delay intoxication. He 
 was the favourite son of the old Emperor, who always be- 
 lieved that he died of " sighing." At his death, the limited 
 resources of the imperial purse were drawn on to give him a 
 
252 India. 
 
 handsome tomb in this place. Many other tombs he around, 
 among which the most remarkable is that of Jehanara Be- 
 goom, the eldest daughter of Shah Jehan, and a very lovely 
 character. All these tombs are of the same character. They 
 are plain, square marble structures, about six feet long and 
 two feet high, surrounded by screens of that exquisite marble 
 trellis-work which is so beautiful a feature of Moosulman 
 architecture. The tomb of Jehanara is shaped like the others, 
 arid, hke themj is surrounded by a screen ; but it is not 
 covered with a slab. At its head is a stone, containing an 
 inscription dictated by herself, and explaining this peculiarity. 
 It runs as follows : " Let no rich canopy cover my grave. 
 This grass is the best covering for the tomb of the poor in 
 spu'it. The humble, the transitory Jehanara, the disciple 
 of the holy men of Christ, the daughter of the Emperor Shah 
 Jehan." The allusion to Christ is thought by some to signify 
 that she had become a convert of the Romish priests, others 
 suppose that she belonged to some Moosulman sect who partic- 
 ularly revered the character of Jesus. When Shah Jehan 
 was imprisoned by his son Aurumzeeb, Jehanara voluntarily 
 resigned her liberty, and accompanied her father into confine- 
 ment, where she continued with him till his death. She died 
 soon afterwards — ^poisoned, it is said, by her sister. 
 
 Close to these tombs is a baolee, or deep tank, about sixty 
 feet square, similar to that near the Kootub. Here the same 
 feats of diving, which I had seen at the former place, were 
 repeated ; but the leap is far higher, being at least sixty feet. 
 
 On the way back to Delhi, I stopped to see the Poorana 
 Khila, or old Fort, which was formerly the centre of the old 
 Pathan city of Delhi. It is a very large building, w^ith -high 
 and massive walls, of dark coloured stone. The top of the 
 walls was plain, not decorated vath those arched battlements 
 which distinguish the later Moosulman fortresses. The in- 
 terior of the " Old Fort" is now occupied by an extensive 
 village of mud huts, but it still contains a very large and mas- 
 sive tomb of redstone, and another considerable building in 
 good repair. 
 
 That evening I dined at Mr. Skinner's, or, as he is called 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 253 
 
 by the natives, Sekundur Sahib — Sekundur, being the Hin- 
 doostanee pronunciation of Alexander, which is his first name. 
 The party was very large, as nearly all the officers in the gar- 
 rison were invited, I suppose fifty sat down to table. All 
 the guests sent their own servants, plates, and silver — which 
 is always customary in India where many are invited. As I 
 was not aware of this habit, I was rather at a loss, having 
 come without servant or plates ; but my friend. Captain Rus- 
 sell, was kind enough to provide me with all that was neces- 
 sary, and lend me one of his two Khitmutgras. 
 
 Mr. Skinner is a half caste, almost black in complexion. 
 His father, the celebrated Colonel Skinner, whom I mentioned 
 before, left his property to each of his sons in succession, on 
 the condition that a certain large portion of it should be spent 
 yearly in entertainments. Accordingly, the hospitality of the 
 Skinners became famous in India, and the races, hunts, cours- 
 ing-matches, dinners, and nach parties, which they gave, were 
 considered one of the chief attractions of Delhi as a Station. 
 
 The house where this dinner w^as given was situated on the 
 square near the Cashmeeree Gate, and opposite the church of 
 St. James. It was built by Colonel Skinner, and w^as a spacious 
 one-storied mansion, in a compound filled with shrubbery. 
 
 Mr. Skinner having a great de^l more black blood than 
 white in his veins, conformed in many respects to native 
 usages, and kept a zenana, where he had several wives and 
 concubines. One of the latter was said to be a sister of his 
 eldest wife. These Httle peculiarities cut him off from the so- 
 ciety of the ladies of the station, but he always found guests 
 enough among the officers to enable him to comply with the 
 hospitable provisions of his father's will. 
 
 The dinner was of the best that could be had, and on the 
 most liberal scale, and the usual amount of " beershurab" and 
 " simpkin," as the natives call ale and champagne, were con- 
 sumed in honouring the old customs of drinking healths and 
 toasting, which still reign in India. 
 
 After dinner we retired into a large drawing-rootn, where 
 the remainder of the evening was spent in witnessing the per- 
 formances of some nach girls. 
 
1|4 India. 
 
 I had always heard a great deal of these bayaderes, so that 
 I expected a treat ; particularly, as Delhi is famous throughout 
 India for its dancing girls, and Mr. Skinner would, of course, 
 have the best that could be procured. The result, however, 
 very much disappointed my expectations. 
 
 The girls were ten in number, of whom not more than two 
 performed at the same time. They were dressed in pa?^jama, 
 or trowsers, of velvet, silk, or muslin, which reached to below 
 the ankle, and trailed on the ground. These trowsers are so 
 loose that they sometimes contain fifteen or twenty yards of 
 stuff. The upper part of the body is entirely covered by 
 a muslin saree, wrapped many times round the person, and 
 brought over the head. The colours of the dress are gener- 
 ally green and red. The clothes of several of these girls 
 were embroidered with gold thread, and they all Vv^ore gold 
 armlets, anklets, nose-rings, ear-rings, and another ornament, 
 which is a great favourite among Indian beauties, and consists 
 of a precious stone, set in gold, which is glued to the forehead 
 between the eyes, and really has a very pretty effect on the 
 bro'wn skin. Their hair was plainly dressed " a la Chinoise"— ~ 
 a mode which should be called " a I'Indienne," for it is univer- 
 sal in India, and by no means so in China. Of course, they 
 wore no shoes, as natives never do in the house, but the soles 
 of their feet and palms of their hands were stained red with 
 ^' heena," and the languishuig expression of their dark eyes 
 was heightened by a border of kohl, or antimony, around the 
 edge of the lids. 
 
 The songs they sang were in Persian, and were of two 
 kinds.* The first was very simple, both in words and music, 
 consisting merely of a repetition of such words as, " Oh, ray 
 mother-in-law, go to the river and fetch water," or, " My be- 
 loved prince, take me to Calcutta, with howdah on elephant, 
 saddle on horse." The second variety they sung in the latter 
 part of the evening. They were Amoebean strains, sustained 
 by two voices, and representing a quarrel between women. 
 The words were all curses, so foul that I do not believe they 
 could have been invented out of India. 
 
 As the girls sang they swayed the body to and fro, bent 
 * See Appendix, at the end of the Book. 
 
Delhi and Umbak. Ij'j; 
 
 tte hand upon the wrist, and assumed other positions, beating 
 the feet upon the ground in time with the music, and jin^ 
 gliiig the circles of silver bells which they wore around the 
 ankles. 
 
 The girls had each two or three musicians, jaunty-looking 
 Moosulmans, who accompanied them upon the drum, sitai' 
 (native guitar), and other instruments. The drum was played 
 with the fingers ; and there were no wmd instruments used, 
 The music was in general slow and monotonous, as were also 
 the postures of the girls'^— for their movements can scarcely 
 be called dancingr. 
 
 The nach girls are a iDCCuliar class. Their lives are spent in 
 debauchery, and they will drink more raw spirits than most 
 men I have seen. Like women of the same character else* 
 where, they do not bear children, but instead thereof they buy 
 mfants, sometimes from their parents, sometimes from kid^ 
 nappers or slave dealers ; for slavery, although abolished by 
 law, still exists as a domestic institution in India. These chil- 
 dren they train up to their trade, and it is said that their edu- 
 cation must begin in early life, or they can never acquire the 
 requisite grace and suppleness. The consequence of this 
 strange custom is, that this class present the peculiar spectacle 
 of women who never have had the slightest idea of virtue or 
 modesty. Some of these dancing girls whom I saw at Colonel 
 Skinner's brought two or three of these children with them. 
 They were pretty little timid girls of five or sis years old, 
 with very graceful and winning manners; but when once en- 
 couraged to talk, they uttered sentiments and expressions 
 which would brins: a blush to the oldest habituee of the 
 Haymarket. 
 
 The nach girls are rarely handsome — they say that all the 
 good-looking ones are at once seized by the native princes 
 for their zenanas. How this may be, I do not know, but some 
 of them have certainly risen to positions of eminence and great 
 power in Eastern courts. Their voices are very high, and fre- 
 quently harsh and nasal — but that is not esteemed a defect. 
 The ordinary pay is from five to ten rupees an evening, but 
 some of them, who are very graceful, and have particularly 
 
256 India. 
 
 high voices (for good looks and a sweet tone are not taken 
 into consideration), occasionally get as high as five hundred 
 rupees a night. 
 
 The entertainments at Colonel Skinner's were varied by the 
 introduction of some nach boys. They were about seven 
 years old, and although they did not possess the same undu- 
 lating grace as the girls, their voices were sweeter, and they 
 sang with more spirit, so that they were quite as interesting. 
 They were dressed in clothes similar to those worn by the 
 nach girls, and they danced in the same way. The characters 
 of these boys were, if possible, more degraded than those of 
 the women. 
 
 During the evening three Moosulmans, of high rank, joined 
 the party. The eldest of the three was a thick-set man, of 
 about forty, with a dark skin, and bushy black beard. He 
 wore a very rich dress of blue cloth, embroidered with gold, 
 and a large red turban, worked with gold thread. The other 
 two were yonnger, and had much lighter complexions, and no 
 beards. They were dressed simply in white, but wore kum- 
 murbunds and turbans of fine Cashmeer shawls. 'None of the 
 three was armed, and they all took off their shoes before en- 
 tering the room. Their manners had a high-bred polish, which 
 would have done honour to a nobleman of the court of Ver- 
 sailles, and which is often found in natives of rank. I was 
 particularly interested by the youngest two, who had very 
 pleasing countenances, and regretted that I could not con- 
 verse with them, since they did not speak English, I after- 
 wards learned that they were near relatives of Shumsh-ood- 
 Deen, who was hung at Delhi for the murder of his patron 
 and friend, Mr. Frazer. 
 
 These native gentlemen, as well as my host, and a few of 
 the officers, smoked their hookahs the whole evening. This is 
 undoubtedly the most luxurious form of smoking. The hookah 
 is similar in principle to a Turkish narghile, but is much larger, 
 Und many persons keep servants whose only business is to 
 attend to their hookahs. The smoke of these pipes has a very 
 pleasant smell, the tobacco being perfumed, and the smoke 
 being conducted through rose-water. They were formerly 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 257 
 
 much used, and have this advantage, that it is allowable to 
 smoke them at table in the presence of ladies, or in a drawing- 
 room. Of late years, however, many new English ideas have 
 been introduced, among which is the smoking of cigars and 
 pipes, and I suppose hookahs will soon be entirely out of 
 fashion among Europeans. 
 
 The people of India — men, women, and children — all smoke. 
 Tobacco is so common and cheap as to be within the reach 
 even of the poorest, and smoking is almost the only consola- 
 tion of the poor ryut, whose idea of enjoyment is limited to 
 perching like a monkey on the top of some wall, mth his be- 
 loved hookah at his lips. 
 
 The next morning, as soon as I awoke, my servant told me 
 that there was a snake-man, (samp-wala,) as the natives call 
 snake charmers, outside the bungalow, who longed to have the 
 honour of amusing me. Accordingly, I opened the Venetians, 
 and found two or three black fellows squatted on the veran- 
 dah, with some earthen chattees, or pots, which contained the 
 snakes. The natives made their salam, and the performance 
 commenced. One of the ,men played on two pipes, the ends 
 of which were fitted into a hollow gourd, into which he blew. 
 As soon as the music began, his companion removed the cover 
 of a chattee from which a large cobra soon reared his head. 
 The snake seemed to be so pleased at getting his hberty, as 
 to be quite peaceably inclined, and had to be poked with 
 a stick before he became angry. When his temper was ex- 
 cited, he dilated the skin of his neck, which stood out several 
 inches from his head, in shape like a monk's hood. It is from 
 this remarkable property of this animal, that it derives its 
 name of " cobra di capello," or " snake of the hood." The 
 name was first applied by the Portuguese, and was afterward? 
 adopted by the English. After the snake had come out of 
 his pot, he looked around for a moment, and then stiffening 
 his body, he raised his head a foot from the ground, and gazed 
 at the musician, at the same time swinging himself slightly 
 from side to side, which I was informed w^as dancing. It was 
 certainly quite as much like that exercise, as the performances 
 of the nach girls, the night before. I was afi:erwards shown 
 
258 India. 
 
 other snakes of various kinds, and a mungoos was finally pro- 
 duced, who concluded the entertainment by killing several of 
 them. 
 
 After breakfast, I walked out through the different bazars, 
 and made several purchases. Delhi is famous for its shawls, 
 made in imitation of those of Cashmeer ; I saw a number of 
 very fine ones. Another manufacture in which the artificers 
 of Delhi excel, is the gold and silver jewellery, and especially 
 filagree work, which is even finer than that made by the Chi- 
 nese. The artists of Delhi are very celebrated for their 
 exquisite miniatures upon ivory, the execution of which is as 
 good as anything of the sort I ever saw in America. They 
 represent public buildings, and celebrated personages; the 
 pictures of buildings being much the best, as the anatomy of 
 the figures is defective. I used to think that some one of 
 these fellows must have taken lessons of a European, and that 
 the rest of them only copied his pictures, because Delhi is the 
 only town in India where you see any even tolerable pictures 
 by natives, and at Delhi all the likenesses of the same indi- 
 vidual which you may see, no matter by whom taken, resem- 
 ble one another in every minute detail of dress, posture, and 
 expression. 
 
 The streets of Delhi are very gay, much gayer than those 
 of any other native town which I saw, and I found much in- 
 terest and amusement in observing the people. The Moosul- 
 mans in Delhi seemed to me to have nothing to do but to 
 strut about, and show their fine clothes. But I do them in- 
 justice — they have one serious occupation, and that is, flying 
 kites, which they construct with so much skill, that they do 
 not require tails, as in other countries. The expression on tlie 
 faces of these dandy Moosulmans was one of the most insuffer- 
 able arrogance and insolence ; equally removed from the timid 
 manner and cunning smile of the Bengalee, and from the 
 really martial, though somewhat gasconading bearing of the 
 Rajpoot. To afford food for the bodies of this noble race, 
 shops of confections and sweetmeats occupied every corner, 
 while the constant tomashas^ or shows, which were to be seen 
 in the streets, nourished and strengthened their minds. Of 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 259 
 
 these shows, there were two kinds : the stanclarcl, and the oc- 
 casional. Among the standard shove's were jugglers and 
 snake-charmers ; but by far the most popular of all was a rude 
 sort of puppet-show, infinitely inferior to Punch. This amuse- 
 ment was not, hke the performance of that hero, intended for 
 the diversion of children, but was witnessed by crowds of men 
 with shouts of admiration and enthusiasm. 
 
 Among the occasional shows, weddings were the most com- 
 mon and most 23opuIar. In India, this ceremony generally 
 takes place when the parties to the marriage are not more 
 than seven or eight years old. The wedding lasts eight or 
 nine days, and is celebrated with as much pomp as the circum- 
 stances of the families will allow. Once performed, the mar- 
 riage is indissoluble, although the bjide does not reside with 
 her husband nntil she is sixteen years old. Should the hus- 
 band die in th'^ meantime, his bride is considered a widow, 
 and by the Hindoo law a widow can never marry again, a 
 custom which is productive of great immorality, and a thou- 
 sand evil consequences. I saw several marriage processions, 
 but none so imposing as one of a Rajah's son, which is de- 
 scribed by Mrs. Mackenzie. I extract the description, both 
 because she teUs the story better than I could hope to do, and 
 because the thing described was grander than any similar 
 scene which I witnessed. Occasionally I have taken the 
 liberty of altering a phrase, to make the meaning clearer. 
 Mrs. Mackenzie occupied a mndow in the Chandee chok. She 
 says : " The procession was joassing down the street, on the 
 side furthest from ns, and turning at the end of the street, it 
 paraded before the bride's house, which was a little way above 
 us, and then came close under our windows. It was more 
 than a mile long ! The balconies and flat roofs of the houses, 
 which were generally low, were covered with people; here 
 was a variegated group of men and children, there a bevy of 
 shrouded Mahommedan women. The gay dresses of the 
 crowd gave it the appearance of a bed of tulips. 
 
 " Just as we had seated ourselves, numbers of empty pal- 
 kees were passing; then a crowd of tonjons, some empty, 
 Bome with one or two children in them. Many of these were 
 
26o India, 
 
 gorgeously dressed in brocade or velvet, with Greek caps of 
 gold or silver ; and some of them were borne by four men in 
 scarlet, and attended by a man on each side with a chouree, 
 or brush formed of the tail of the yak, or Thibet ox, to keep 
 the flies away. All the friends of the bridegroom's family do 
 him as much honour as they can, by sending their led horses, 
 elephants, and vehicles of every description to swell the pro- 
 cession. The ladies of the Emperor's family were also there 
 in bullock-carts, with scarlet hangings. His Majesty had also 
 sent his guards, and his camels carried small swivel cannon, 
 which were fired at intervals. The led horses formed a very 
 picturesque feature in the procession ; some of them were 
 painted; a white one had his legs and tail dyed red with 
 heena, and splashes of the same on his body, as if a bloody 
 hand had been repeatedly laid on his side. Then came a 
 body of men, dressed as English soldiers, at the Rajah's 
 expense, and a band in the same costume played a Scotch 
 melody. 'Next appeared a number of magnificent elephants, 
 their faces elaborately painted in curious patterns, and their 
 bodies gaily caparisoned in scarlet, green, and other bright 
 colours. 
 
 " On a small baby-elephant, most richly adorned, sat a Httle 
 boy, with an aigrette of jewels in front of his turban. His 
 dress was a robe of lilac gauze, edged with gold, reaching to 
 his feet, and carefully spread out, fan-wise, on each side, as he 
 sat astride on the elephant. Then came the little bridegroom, 
 who was a mass of gold. He sat alone in his howdah, with a 
 careful servant behind him; his turban was covered with 
 a veil of gold tissue, which he held up with both hands, that 
 he might see all that was going on. Bearers of peacock fans, 
 and others with gold pillars walked by him, while his- elephant 
 was as splendid as could be. A few other elephants closed 
 the procession, the head of which now passed under our win- 
 dows on its return. It consisted of huge trays filled with 
 artificial flowers, the eflect of which, as we looked down the 
 street, was exceedingly pretty, like a parterre of the gayest 
 colours. Then there were moving pavihons, with beds of 
 flowers in front of them, peacocks on the top, and bands of 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 261 
 
 musicians inside. Such music ! fancy flutes in hysterics, drums 
 in a rage, violins screaming with passion, and penny trumpets 
 distracted with pain, and you will have a good idea of native 
 harmony. A crowd of women and boys, of the humblest 
 class, then appeared, carrying little flags. 
 
 " Eastern processions are like Eastern life — comprising the 
 greatest contrasts of poverty and magnificence. They seem 
 to think that everything, no matter what, helps to make a 
 show. After, and among, the moving flower-beds came trays 
 of huge dolls, and others of little puppets, one set of which 
 represented a party of European officers at dinner, with their 
 khitmutgras w^aiting on them." These dolls were stuffed 
 with sweetmeats, and were finally given up to be scrambled 
 for by the crowd. They were followed by "several nach 
 girls, sjDlendidly dressed in red and gold, their muslin trow- 
 sers full of gathers, and very wide, and their long hair hang- 
 ing down their backs. They were each carried by men on a 
 canopied platform." The manners of these nach girls, and 
 their postures, were bold to a degree which struck Mrs. Mac- 
 kenzie as " most unpleasing in a woman ;" but it is not very 
 clear what else she could expect. This closed the procession, 
 but Mrs. Mackenzie drove to a point opposite the bridegroom's 
 house, which was illuminated by torches. As soon as he 
 entered, the gate was closed after him, a custom which re- 
 minded her of the expression in the Gospel, " the bridegroom 
 came, and they that were ready went in with him to the 
 marriage ; and the door was shut." This description is written 
 by a lady, and for that very reason is much more accurate and 
 particular than if the scene had been observed and described 
 by a man. I hope that its interest will be a sufficient excuse 
 for its insertion. 
 
 I dined that evening at the mess of the fifty-fourth regiment. 
 It was a " public night," that is, an evening on which it is i:>er- 
 mitted to any member of the mess to invite as many of his own 
 acquaintances as he may choose. The officers of the other 
 regiment then stationed at Delhi were present, so that with 
 the exception of a few black-coated civiHans, who came by 
 invitation, the company was the same that I had met at Colo- 
 
262 India. 
 
 nel Skinner's. The evening was long and pleasant, and I did 
 not return to the dak-bungalow till midnight. 
 
 I left Delhi in garrhee for Umbala, on the morning of ISTo- 
 vember 29th. My intention was to make a rapid tour through 
 the Punjab, which I supposed could be accomplished in a 
 little over two weeks. In order to accomplish the trip in this 
 time, I meant to travel beyond Umbala by the mail-cart, 
 which goes ten miles an hour, only stopping to change horses. 
 Although this conveyance is fatiguing and exposing, I felt 
 quite in a condition to endure it, and accordingly left my ser- 
 vant, and all my luggage except a small carpet-bag, at Delhi. 
 
 The bridges not being comj^leted beyond Peeplee, ninety 
 miles from Delhi, the garrhees do not run beyond that place. 
 The remaining thirty miles I went by dhoolee, and arrived at 
 Umbala on the morning of the thirtieth. I had been in robust 
 health up to the time of leaving Delhi, and started from that 
 place with every prospect of a pleasant and rapid trip. But 
 after entering the dhoolee at Peeplee I began to be troubled 
 with the premonitory symptoms of dysentery, and was much 
 relieved when deposited at Umbala dak-bungalow. Once 
 there, I soon found that it would be impossible to think of 
 continuing my trip on that day ; so I determined to go to bed 
 and endeavour to cure myself as soon as possible. Unfortu- 
 nately, however, I mistook the nature of my complaint, and 
 commenced doctoring myself with mutton broth, beef-steak, 
 and hot brandy punch — a course of treatment which, by the 
 following day, threw me into a high fever. The next morn- 
 ing I felt very ill, and began to think how I could get medical 
 advice — not a very easy question to answer, for the only phy- 
 sicians on an Indian station are the surgeons attached to the 
 various regiments. I was engaged in puzzling my brains on 
 this question, and had almost made up my mind to do with- 
 out a doctor, when the postmaster came in to give me notice 
 that I must leave the dak-bungalow, as several parties required 
 the apartment which I occupied, and no traveller can claim 
 accommodation in one of these establishments for more than 
 twenty-four hours. I was in a complete dilemma — so ill that 
 I could hardly move, without medical attendance and shelter, 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 263 
 
 or any claim on any one for either. I now regretted tliat I 
 had not taken the letters which my friends in Delhi offered 
 me to their friends in Umbala. My perplexity was fortunately 
 relieved by the arrival of Mr. Vauquelin, the assistant agent 
 of the dak company, in the carriages of which I had come from 
 Calcutta. As soon as he saw my condition, he at once offered 
 me the use of the bungalow belonging to Mr. Powell, the 
 dak agent, who had gone to Rawul Pindee — Mr. Yauquelin, 
 who invited me, having charge of the business. 
 
 I had very comfortable quarters at Mr. Powell's, whither I 
 was carried in a dhoolee. The bed had sheets, between a 
 pair of which I had not slept since leaving Calcutta ; a mat- 
 trass, even, being a stray luxury in dak-bungalows and Mofus- 
 sil hotels, the beds of which generally have bottoms of cane, 
 or of plaited cotton listing, like those used by the natives. 
 Such a couch, with a sheet spread over it, makes much the 
 best bed in hot weather. In cold weather of course a mat- 
 trass is used ; and travellers generally carry one with them, 
 and find it useful in the dak-garrhee, and almost necessary in 
 the dhoolee. Indian travelling has this peculiarity : the more 
 baggage you have the more comfortable you are. Your bag- 
 gage is no trouble to you, being all taken care of by your ser- 
 vants, and if you do not carry your own comforts with you, 
 you will not find them on the way. Many men take even 
 their wash-basins with them. I shall know better if I ever go 
 to India again, but on this occasion, being inexperienced, I took 
 with me neither sheets nor mattrass. On this part of my trip I 
 was even worse provided than durmg the rest of my journey, 
 for, having left my servant and luggage in DeUii, in expecta- 
 tion of travelling by dak-cart, and having with me only the 
 few indispensable articles that could be contained in a very 
 small carpet-bag, I was of course quite unprepared for a 
 month's sickness and detention, which was my lot at Umbala. 
 
 Mr. Vauquelin provided me with a physician, a young 
 assistant-surgeon, who, on first seeing me was forcibly struck, 
 as he afterwards confessed, with the impression that he would 
 have the pleasure of attending my funeral. The disease with 
 which I was affected is very dangerous in India, and I had it 
 
264 India. 
 
 in an aggravated form, so that the doctor's apprehensions 
 were not without foundation, particularly as several soldiers, 
 who were taken down at the same time, and whose symptoms 
 were not so bad as mme, died within a week. 
 
 I was waited on, or rather ought to have been waited on, 
 by a young and dandified Moosulmau servant, to whom I 
 promised abundant bucksees if he would take good care of 
 me. But seeing that I could not get out of bed to chastise 
 him and enforce obedience, he used to absent himself nearly 
 all day, so that I was quite alone except two visits a day from 
 the doctor, and one from Mr. Yauquelin. For this treatment 
 on the part of my servant I kept nursing up feelings of re- 
 venge, and at length I had an opportunity of paying him off. 
 For the first few days the doctor would not let me eat any- 
 thing, but on the third day he told me that I might have a 
 little arrow-root in the evenmg. The method of preparing 
 this article of food was fully explained to the " bearer," and 
 he faithfully promised to have it ready at eight o'clock. Ac- 
 cordingly I kept awake past my usual hour of going to sleep, 
 but eight o'clock came, and no bearer ; another hour passed — 
 it was nine, and still no signs of the servant. Yet another 
 hour I lay there, almost frantic with the mingled emotions of 
 hunger, sleepiness, hope deferred, and impotent rage. At 
 length at ten o'clock my dandy made his aj^pearance. He 
 brought me my supper. At the sight of it all my anger van- 
 ished. I seized the bowl with eagerness, and beheld — not the 
 rich gelatinous mass, upon the expectation of which my fancy 
 had been gloating for twelve hours, but a pint of tepid water 
 upon which floated some lumps of undissolved arrow-root. 
 This was too much for a sick man's endurance. I knew the 
 fellow would not have dared to treat me so if he had supposed 
 that I was well enough to get out of bed and chastise him for 
 his carelessness and inattention. I felt as if my life depended 
 on that bowl of arrow-root, and having tasted one spoonful of 
 the nauseous mixture, and spit it all back again into the bowl, 
 my long pent up exasperation found vent, and I threw the 
 whole thing at the fellow's head. It did not hurt him much, 
 but it deprived him of caste. The food which I had tasted 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 265 
 
 had touched his lips. " Oh ! Representative of God, oh ! 
 Releaser of Slaves, oh ! Provider for the Poor," he cried, " I 
 am dead ! my caste is gone !" I told him that he ought to 
 take more care of a sick man, and the lesson had a good effect, 
 as he was pretty attentive after this occurrence. The next day 
 the other Moosulman servants held a Panchayut, or Council 
 of Five, over him, and read him out of caste — a thing they do 
 on the least pretext, as the person so ejected has to give them 
 a feast to procure his readmission. All the rest of the time 
 that I remained at Umbala this servant kept wearying me 
 with entreaties for three rupees to give the above-mentioned 
 feast. Sometimes he would put his head under my feet, and 
 after my recovery, whenever I went out, I was sure to find 
 him on my way ready to prefer his prayers. But, although 
 wearied with his importunities, I never gave him anything for 
 the purpose, as I considered it a very just punishment, and 
 besides, the wages which I paid him, and which were far more 
 than he had earned, were amply sufficient to defray these ex- 
 penses, and leave something over for his trouble. 
 
 My days passed rather wearily. I was awakened before 
 dawn by the morning gun, and bugles sounding the reveille. 
 From that time sleep was impossible. The thunder of artil- 
 lery and the rattle of small arms lasted until eight. From 
 that time there were no events, except the visit of the Doctor 
 and Mr. Vauquelin. I used to lie in bed and calculate the 
 probability of dying from the length of the Doctor's face. I 
 even began writing a letter, to be sent home in case of my 
 demise. 
 
 After a week's starvation, we got rid of the fever, and I 
 began rajoidly to mend. As soon as I could get out of bed, I 
 went in a dhoolee to the station hotel, as Mr. Powell, whose 
 room and bed I had been occupying, was expected back soon. 
 
 The hotel was very pleasant and comfortable. I remained 
 tliere over ten days, and gained rapidly in strength and 
 v/eight, both of which had been much reduced during my short 
 illness. In one week I had lost twenty pounds of flesh. 
 
 Umbala was a very large station, and a band from some one 
 of the native regiments used to play every evening on the 
 
 12 
 
266 India. 
 
 parade-ground, where all the fashion of the station congrega- 
 ted. I frequently went there to hear the music, which was 
 quite good. There is never any difficulty in forming a band 
 of natives. Almost every man has the requisite ear and skUl, 
 and they learn the European notation with wonderful facility ; 
 but they never could be made to play with any spirit. It 
 seemed as if they never entered into the meaning of occidental 
 music. However, it is much the most fashionable among the 
 natives. At their great weddings and feasts they always 
 engage, if possible, the services of musicians who play English 
 tunes ; and it is said that a few days before Lucknow was 
 captured this spring, the bands of fifty-three regiments had 
 united in a monster concert, while the leaders of the mutineers 
 were celebrating a great banquet. 
 
 During my stay at XJmbala, and after my return to Delhi, I 
 saw a good deal of the sepoys, in their every day life. Their 
 dwellings, like those of other natives, are mere mud huts, which 
 the soldiers of each regiment generally build for themselves. 
 When off duty, the sepoys wore a dhotee of coarse cotton 
 wound around the loins, and forming below a loose trowser, 
 which reached as far as the knee, and was open at the back of 
 the leg. They were usually beautifully formed men, very tall, 
 and rather thin. The upper part of the body was commonly 
 clothed in a short white jacket, with tight sleeves ; and on the 
 head they wore a white cotton skull-cap, jauntily set on one 
 side. Being of high-caste, warriors by birth and profession, 
 and also, as they expressed it, " servants of the warrior com- 
 pany," they felt a pride in themselves and contempt for the 
 ordinary natives, which they showed very clearly in every 
 motion, as well as in their intercourse with the common 
 people. Whenever they met a European they always gave 
 the military salute, by stopping, facing about, drawing up the 
 body to its full height, and then extending the arm and bring- 
 ing it round with a sweep, on a level with the shoulder, until 
 the thumb of the right hand rested on the forehead. I have 
 read recently an article in an Enghsh periodical, blaming the 
 English residents for not having foreseen the late mutiny. 
 Among other things, the author says that the " officers re- 
 
Delhi and Umbala. 267 
 
 ceived daily, the resj^ectful salutes of the men ; they replied 
 to them, as a matter of course, and drove on regardless of the 
 flashing eye, which gave the lie to the outward respect of the 
 act," — these are not the exact words, but they convey the 
 meaning, and I only quote them because I wish distinctly to 
 assert that I do not believe the writer, or any one else, ever 
 saw any flashing eyes, unless he returned the sepoy's salute 
 with his left hand, whicli is, with them, a great insult. 
 
 The native commissioned ofiicers, although they took rank 
 with the EngHsh captains and lieutenants, and were paid 
 many times as much as the common sepoys, did not seem to 
 be at all above them, in social j^osition. They lived in the 
 same mud huts, and might be seen squatted naked on the 
 ground, cooking their food in a mud furnace. After the late 
 rebellion, they rejected their native titles, and became colonels, 
 captains, and lieutenants of the revolted regiments. In fact, 
 one of the most remarkable features of the rebellion is the 
 way in which all the revolted troops preserved the organiza- 
 tion given them by the EngHsh. They always made a point 
 of carrying ofl" the regimental colours. This is j^erhaps not 
 so wonderful, as they were in the habit of worshipping them 
 as gods ; but it is strange, that they should continue as 
 they did to wear the uncomfortable English uniform, and that 
 they should even impose this dress upon the new levies which 
 they raised durmg the revolt. 
 
 There are a number of shawl dealers in Umbala, who used 
 to bring their wares to the hotel for me to see. The shawls 
 nearly all come from the Punjab, only a few from Cashmeer. 
 All shawls that come to this country from India are called 
 " Cashmere," or " Camel's Hair," but really, there are scarcely 
 any true Cashmeeree shawls in America — and none anywhere 
 of " Camel's Hair." The Cashmeeree shawl is made of the 
 inner wool of the Thibet goat, which is brought from Ladak 
 in Thibet, and woven into a fabric called j^^shmeena, which 
 forms the basis and centre of the Cashmeeree shawl. The 
 embroidery of the shawls is sometimes looven^ sometimes 
 ^corked loith the needle^ in either case the work is done by 
 men, and requires an incredible amount of time. The Ma- 
 
268 India. 
 
 harajah of Cashmeer does not allow any of the workmen 
 to leave his clommions. If caught attempting to escape they 
 are hung ; but, notwithstanding this risk, many of them have 
 made their escape to the Punjab, where, at the towns of 
 Labor, Loodiana, and Umritsur, they have long established 
 manufactories of shawls, from which the markets of the West 
 are supplied. Every shawl manufactured in Cashmeer, has a 
 few square inches of work left incomplete. After the shawl 
 is bought, it is finished in the private manufactory of the 
 Maharajah, where it pays him about one hundred per cent, of 
 its value, as duty. This regulation also gives the Maharajah 
 the opportunity of ascertaining the party to whom the shawl 
 is sold — which he always wishes to know, as he will not 
 allow the shawls to be sold to traders. 
 
• CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 RETUEN TO DELHI. 
 
 Desei-tiou— Life of an Indian Officer— Christmas Evening at Mr. Beresford's— Tlie Mutiny 
 at Delhi— Murder of my Friends— Fate of the Beresfords— The Eevolted Emperor's 
 Government— The City while held by the Mutineers— Uniform Defeats of the 
 Mutineers— The Siege and Assault— Taking of the City and Flight of the Mutineers 
 —News of the Taking of Delhi— The City after its Occupation by the English- 
 Wholesale Punishment. 
 
 It was nearly too weeks after I moved to the hotel, before 
 the doctor considered me strong enough to continue my jour- 
 ney. I had to give up my intended trip through the Punjab, 
 having spent at Umbala all the time and money which I had 
 appropriated to it. After I became strong enough to sit up, 
 the time passed very pleasantly. The hotel was remarkably 
 well kept, the weather was just cool enough for a fire, there 
 were two officers lodging at the hotel en permanence^ whose 
 company I found very agreeable, and we had a constant suc- 
 cession of pleasant guests. 
 
 At length, on the 22d of December, the doctor told me I 
 might leave ; and on the evening of that day, having bid good- 
 bye to my acquaintances, and thanked Messrs. Yauquelin and 
 Powell very warmly for all their kindness to me, I started in 
 a dhoolee toward Delhi. About the middle of the night I was 
 waked up by my palkee stopping, and on looking out was in- 
 formed that four of my bearers had run away, and taken the 
 back track in company with two other dhoolees, which we had 
 met going toward Umbala. I at once jumped out, sick as I 
 was, and clothed only in my night-dress, and ran barefoot for 
 a quarter of a mile, followed by the mussalchee or torch- 
 bearer. I came up with the other palkees and my truants, 
 just as they were crossing a river. I began to think it was 
 aU up now, as it was impossible for me to go in the water ; 
 
270 India. 
 
 bnt, much to my surpiise, I enticed them out by threatening 
 to jump in and kill them if they did not return. As soon as I 
 got them on terra firma^ I asked them why they had deserted. 
 As they could give no explanation, I tied them together with 
 the turban of one of their number, and flo2:2!:ed them back to 
 the dhoolee, where the head-man of the j)arty also bestowed 
 some blows on account of himself and the other bearers. Had 
 I not caught these fellows, I might have been obliged to pass 
 all night on the road, as the four bearers who remained 
 could not have carried me to Peeplee, five miles or more from 
 the place where the difficulty occurred. 
 
 In reading over my notes to my friends since my return, 
 some of them have considered this occurrence a little extraor- 
 dinary. But in truth those parts of the incident which excited 
 their wonder were only those which were characteristic of the 
 native character. In any other country it would seem strange 
 that a sick man, entirely unarmed, could bind and beat four 
 men, any one of whom was quite a match for him, even if he 
 had been well. But in India it is the most natural thing in 
 the world, and similar occurrences are constantly happening 
 to every one. I felt quite sure there would be no resistance, 
 and I am certain they never thought of offering any. The 
 only difficulty I found was, that whenever I gave them a blow 
 they would all fall down on the ground, yelling and joining 
 their hands over the head, so that we did not get back to the 
 palkee as soon as was desirable, considering that it was a 
 cold night and I was scarcely clothed at all. 
 
 On arriving at Delhi I put up at the bungalow of Lieuten- 
 ants Anderson and Butler, as my friend Captain Russell, who 
 had asked me to stay with him when I should return, was 
 absent at a coursing meeting. 
 
 I remained four days at Delhi, partly because the doctor 
 had advised me not to travel fast, and partly because it was 
 difficult to lay a dak, the horses being all taken up for several 
 days by parties going up country. Although on some accounts 
 this delay was annoying, yet on the whole I liked it, as I had 
 very pleasant quarters, and could thus pass Christmas in 
 civilized society. 
 
Return to Delhi. 
 
 271 
 
 During my stay I saw something of "the life of an Indian 
 officer ;" which struck me as far from luxurious. Two men 
 generally occu2)y a bungalow together. Each of the " chums" 
 has one or two rooms to himself, and there is a large centre 
 apartment which they have in common. The furniture con- 
 sists of a bed, a table and a few chairs, generally of different 
 patterns. The walls are bare or only decorated with an elk's 
 head and horns, or some such trophy of the occupant's prow- 
 ess. In one corner are a pair of foils and a gun. Against the 
 wall are two large trunks, made to strap on a camel, which 
 contain the officer's wardrobe. A few books in Persian and 
 Hindoostanee, and the last magazine (six months old) lying 
 on the table, complete the description of the " Oriental lux- 
 ury" in which the young unmarried officers of the Comj)any's 
 service live. 
 
 As they advance in rank and pay, and particularly when 
 they get married, they of com-se manage to collect around 
 them some of the comforts of an English home — but still the 
 above is a fair description of the interior of most of the bun- 
 galows. 
 
 The officer's life is as follows : He is wakened by his servant 
 long before sunrise, dresses in uniform, and attends morning 
 parade. This is over by seven or nine o'clock, according to 
 the season. He then returns to his house, takes a bath, and 
 dresses in civil costume. About ten, comes breakfast, known 
 as hurra hazree^ or " great breakfast " to distinguish it from 
 chota hazree^ or " little breakfast " which consists of a cup of 
 tea or coffee and a bit of toast taken before the parade. Some 
 officers prefer to take this first meal at the mess-house, and it 
 is then called " coflee shop." The burra hazree usually in- 
 cludes meat or fish or fruit, and is often followed by a hookah. 
 Then comes business, either regimental, or the officer's study 
 with a moonshee, or native interpreter — an occupation to 
 which of late years they have been nearly all addicted. At 
 two o'clock there is tiffin at the mess-house — cold meats, mulli- 
 gatawney soup, and ale. After tiffin there is generally a game 
 of billiards — nearly every regiment having a billiard table in 
 its mess-house. After tiffin there are calls to be made on the 
 
272 India. 
 
 ladies of the station, or else there is more regimental duty and 
 study. At about five the officer dresses again in uniform and 
 goes to the course (or drive around the parade-ground) either 
 m buggy or on horseback. Here all the residents and ladies 
 of the station are to be found on the afternoons when the 
 band plays. If there is no band, the " afternoon parade " oc- 
 cupies the time that would otherwise be spent on the course. 
 Dinner comes as soon as it is dark, and concludes the day. 
 As there are no other amusements for the evening, it is made 
 as long as possible, and very pleasant indeed the dinners were 
 of which I partook at the mess of the Fifty-fourth. After the 
 table was cleared we would draw around the wood fire, some 
 of the men smoking their hookahs, others cheroots. An hour 
 or so would be passed in convei'sation, or a quiet game of 
 cards, and by half-past nine or ten every man had returned 
 home and gone to bed, in readiness for the early call next 
 morning. 
 
 On Christmas day I went with several officers to a large 
 dinner at the house of Mr. Beresford, the manager of the 
 Delhi bank. His house was a large and handsome mansion in 
 the city, near the Chandee chok. It was built and at one 
 time occupied by the Begoom Sombre or Sumroo of Sirdhana. 
 Mr. Beresford came out to India as a common soldier in the 
 Company's European army, and had raised himself by his tal- 
 ents to the opulent position which he then enjoyed. The 
 Misses Beresford, two very charming young ladies, who had 
 just returned from England, where they had been educated, 
 and other ladies of the station were present. 
 
 After dinner we had music, and dancino- ; and the evening;' 
 concluded with the old fashioned games of snap-dragon, blind- 
 man's buff, and hunt-the-ring. At the latter. Colonel Riddle, 
 who was on his way to Agra, to take charge of the newly- 
 raised Third European regiment, distinguished himself 
 greatly. Among the decorations of the room were several 
 misletoe boughs, which had been brought with much trouble 
 from the Himalayas, but there Avere so few young ladies that 
 kissing would have been personal, so the old custom went 
 unhonoured. 
 
Return to Delhi. ly^ 
 
 Altogether the evening at Mr. Beresford's was one of the 
 most delightful and homelike that I spent during my travels ; 
 and the whole time that I spent at Delhi, became by the kind- 
 ness and attention of the officers, one of the most agreeable 
 periods of my journey. 
 
 Four months after I left Delhi, one hot morning in May, 
 the Christian inhabitants were startled by hearing that the 
 mutinous Mahommedan cavalry of Meeruth were crossing the 
 bridge and entering the city, massacring all the " infidels " on 
 whom they could lay hands. 
 
 The news was probably no less unexpected and unwelcome 
 to the Hindoos, who, after the fashion of their people, at once 
 shut uj) their shops and secreted their property. 
 
 The officer in command of the Cashmeeree gate at once 
 sent to cantonments for reenforcements. The sepoys of the 
 Fifty-fourth, on learning the news, demanded to be led against 
 the mutineers. Their request was complied with. As they 
 marched to the city they vied with one another in professions 
 of fidelity, and threats against the insurgents, but no sooner 
 had they entered the gate and met the mutineers in the 
 square before St. James' Church, than they separated on each 
 side of the road, leaving their officers unprotected. My un- 
 fortunate friends had felt so confident of the result that they 
 had come out without even their side-arms. A suwar galloped 
 U23 to each and pistolled him like a dog. 
 
 The Christian mhabitants of Delhi, including the English, the 
 half-castes and the native converts, concealed themselves as best 
 they might, or sought safety in flight. All who were taken were 
 mercilessly put to death. A few fled to the royal palace, and 
 were promised protection by the Emperor, but they too were 
 afterwards slain by his orders. 
 
 The cantonments were plundered by the mutineers and rab- 
 ble of the city. A very few of the officers and ladies escaped, 
 some to Umbala, some to Meeruth. One party, comprising 
 several ladies, entrusted themselves to a sepoy guard, who 
 swore to protect them, but when they had conducted them to 
 a secure^ place, turned round and butchered them. All who 
 were found in the cantonments were slain, and among the hor- 
 
 12* 
 
274 
 
 India. 
 
 rible sights that met the English troops when they arrived, 
 was the body of a little boy, who had been nailed, head down- 
 v^ards, to the wall of one of the bungalows, and so left to 
 die. 
 
 As I was travelling in Germany last summer, I met a Ger- 
 man who had escaped from Agra during the mutiny. He 
 told me of the fate of the Beresfords, which he had learned 
 from a native who was m Delhi at the time. The details were 
 sickening. The whole family, parents, and five children were 
 " done to death " in the presence of each other, with such re- 
 finements of mental and bodily torture as Hell itself might 
 learn a lesson from. 
 
 When the city was fairly in the hands of the revolted sol- 
 diery, they proclaimed the supremacy of the Emperor, and 
 established a sort of government, the forms of which seem to 
 have been largely derived from those of their English masters. 
 The Emperor was to be supreme, but had a " council," at the 
 head of which was a "Seketur" (secretary). This council 
 was composed of the "Kurnuls" of all the revolted regiments. 
 A document emanating from it has been discovered, by which 
 it appears that but few of these high oflicials could even sign 
 their names. 
 
 As the revolt spread through the Presidency, the mutinous 
 troops all poured into Delhi. Their support must have been 
 a tremendous burden on the Hindoo inhabitants. On the first 
 day they shut up their shops, but afterwards they were or- 
 dered by the Emperor's government to open them and sell 
 their property to the soldiers considerably below cost. These 
 orders being enforced by flogging and the fear of death, Avere 
 complied with. By the same means large subsidies were forced 
 from the reluctant bankers and other rich men — a class wholly 
 composed of Hindoos, and the only class in the country 
 who possess wealth, and have any very great stake in the pre- 
 servation of order. They must often have cursed a state of 
 afiairs, which compelled them to sup23ort, by their hard-earned 
 wealth, the mad movement which was ruining them, and 
 which forced them to contribute to the establishment of a gov- 
 ernment under which they well knew how insecure would be 
 
Return to Delhi. 275 
 
 the tenure of any property which they might preserve or ac- 
 quire thereafter. 
 
 While all this was going on, Delhi was besieged on the 
 north side by a feelD^e force of English under General Anson, the 
 commander-in-chief. They established themselves upon the 
 range of low hills between the cantonments and city, the 
 distance from the walls averaging three-quarters of a mile. 
 Here they remained through the burning heat of an Indian 
 summer. The want of guns and the paucity of their numbers 
 prevented any offensive movements. One conimander-in-chief 
 after another sickened and died — of cholera, it was said, but 
 some persons think that native servants can produce cholera. 
 
 Meanwhile the numbers of the mutineers received daily 
 accessions ; they had two hundred heavy guns which they 
 used with that skill for which the native artillerymen are 
 famous ; the arsenal, in their hands, contained countless stores 
 of warlike materiel. Every advantage of position, numbers, 
 climate, and arms were theirs, and yet, all summer long, they 
 never got the advantage in a single sortie. 
 
 When it is recollected that these were men of that same 
 sepoy army, which, fighting side by side Tvdth English troops, 
 had gained by their bravery the admiration and applause of 
 every General who commanded them, some may be inclined 
 to wonder at their total want of success when fighting for them- 
 selves, and they may even be condemned as cowardly. This 
 would be a hasty and not a just decision. They might be 
 cowards in our estimation, and yet their courage might not 
 be less than that of a European, but only of a different kind. 
 Asiatic courage is of one kind, European of another, and the 
 former bows before the latter, just as the nations of Asia kneel 
 before the supremacy of the European. The sepoys could 
 fight as well as any, on the same side with Englishmen, but 
 they were powerless against them. 
 
 If any one thing has been demonstrated by the recent mu- 
 tiny, it is the indescribable moralinferiority of Asiatic races. 
 Great as has been the ukbal^' of the Enghsh, henceforth it is 
 greater and more awful than ever in the eyes of the native. 
 
 * Ukbal, a native term signifying '-good fortune" — or the "prestige which 
 arises from success." 
 
276 India. 
 
 So passed the summer of 1857, at Delhi. 
 
 Early hi September the besiegmg force was strengthened 
 by a siege train and additional forces from the Punjab. Their 
 whole strength now amounted to 6,000 infafttry, 1,000 cavalry, 
 and 600 artillery, including Ghoorkas and other native regi- 
 ments. None of the reinforcements sent from England ar- 
 rived in time. 
 
 On the eleventh of September, the batteries, which con- 
 tained only eight "S-inch howitzers, ten heavy mortars, and 
 forty-two other guns, the heaviest of which were twenty-four 
 pounders, opened fire. 
 
 On the fourteenth the assault was made, principally on the 
 Cashmeeree gate, which had to be blown in by gunpowder. 
 The " forlorn hope " which undertook this arduous service 
 had to advance in broad daylight to the gateway, in the teeth 
 of a hot fire of musketry from above and through the gateway, 
 and on both flanks. The powder bags were coolly laid and ad- 
 justed, but Lieutenant Salkeld, who commanded the party, was 
 by this time disabled, with two bullets in him. Sergeant 
 Carmichael then attempted to fire the fuse, but was shot dead. 
 Sergeant Burgess then tried and succeeded, but paid for the 
 daring act with his life. Sergeant Smith, thinking that Bur- 
 gess too had failed, ran forward, but seeing the train alight, 
 had just time to throw himself into a ditch and escape the 
 effects (*f the explosion. With a loud crash the gate was 
 blown in, and through it the column entered the city, just as 
 the other columns had carried the breaches in the walls. 
 
 The English were now firmly established, but it was six 
 days before the city was completely in then- power. The loss 
 of the English during the siege was three thousand, or be- 
 tween one-quarter and one-third of ail the troops that were at 
 any time engaged. The assault cost eight hundred men — over 
 eleven hundred, one-third of the force engaged, being put 
 hors cle combat by death or wounds on the first day. 
 
 The six days which intervened between the assault and the 
 complete occupation of the city, were occupied by the muti- 
 neers in decamping. The larger part of them went to Luck- 
 now, but others escaped in different directions. The Emperor 
 
Return to Delhi. 277 
 
 seems to have been abandoned Ify the sepoys. He also left 
 the city, with a part of his family and a largo number of fol- 
 lowers. The other inhabitants of Delhi did likewise, concealing 
 or carrying away with them the most valuable part of their 
 property, so that on the twentieth of September there was not 
 a hving soul within the city exce^jt the English forces. The 
 Palace and Jumma Miisjeed were occupied as quarters by the 
 Punjab and Ghoorka regiments with a few English troops ; 
 the i"est were quartered in various parts of the city. The 
 houses of Mr. Skinner and Mr. Beresford, which I have men- 
 tioned, were taken by the principal officers as quarters. 
 
 Soon after the capture of the city, the Emperor and his 
 favourite wife were taken by Captain Hodgson, as I have 
 mentioned before, and brought as prisoners into the city. 
 Three of the Shahzadehs, or Princes, who were wdth the old 
 king, were shot by Captain Hodgson, who thus, (in order to 
 prevent the chance of their escaping on the w^ay to the city,) 
 forestalled what would have been their certain fate at the 
 hands of the court-martial. All three of them had been in 
 command of bodies of the mutineers, who seem to have 
 deserted them when the city was taken. The youngest of the 
 three, Aboo Bukhur, rivalled the w^orst of the mutineers in 
 the atrocities which he committed, and is said to have hacked 
 several poor creatures to pieces with his own hands. The 
 bodies of these scions of royalty were brought to the city in a 
 common bullock-cart, and thrown into the open sewer near 
 the Kotwalee, or native mayor's office. An English officer 
 writing home, says of this arrangement : " They lay open and 
 exj^osed for any one that liked to see and take a lesson — a 
 very ghastly and suggestive spectacle, I can assure you. How 
 long they remained there I neither know nor care, but I sup- 
 pose until, as in hfe so in death, they had become a foul and 
 disgusting nuisance — rotten and intolerable." 
 
 The Reverend William Butler, an American Methodist 
 missionary, gives an interesting account of the appearance of 
 Delhi after its capture. He had been driven from his station 
 by the mutiny, and had taken refuge at Almora, on the Hima- 
 layas. His description of the way in which he first learned 
 
278 India. 
 
 the fall of Delhi, is too affecting not to be quoted. As he was 
 sitting in his cottage, he heard a gun from the fort near by. 
 "A brilliant hope flashed across my heart; I snatched my hat, 
 and ran up the hill, while peal after peal thundered out, mak- 
 ing even the Grand Himalayas reverberate. At last I gained 
 the summit, and stood while I counted the ' Royal Twenty- 
 one.' It needed no one to tell me what that meant, our 
 commanding officer had received an express announcing that 
 Delhi had fallen ! that Britain was triumphant ! 
 
 " I stood there wrapped in thoughts that can never be for- 
 gotten, and a luxury of feeling flowed through my very heart, 
 that will make that moment a bright spot in my life and 
 recollection forever. 
 
 "How often before has the thunder of these British cannon 
 jjroved the inlet of salvation to the oppressed and persecuted ! 
 I am not the first American missionary to whom they have 
 announced ' glad tidings of great joy.' I thought of Judson 
 and his heroic wife, to whose ears, in his melancholy dungeon, 
 these cheerful peals proclaimed approaching liberty. 
 
 " None but those who, like ourselves, have been practically 
 captive for months, not knowing but any day our doom might 
 be sealed by the hand of violence, can imagine how every gun, 
 as it rung the knell of the Moslem city and power, while it 
 ' proclaimed liberty' to the Christian and missionary of the 
 cross — none but those so situated can appreciate the luxury ol 
 such an hour as that. May Heaven bless the British ]N"ation ! 
 May God save the British Queen ! Ah, yes ! and let every 
 lover of liberty, of civilization, and of Evangelical Christianity 
 in our own happy America, say, from the depths of his heart. 
 Amen ! to that prayer !" 
 
 Mr. Butler afterwards came to Delhi. He walked throus^h 
 the Chandee chok which was wont to be thronged by gaily 
 dressed crowds. N^ot a soul was to be seen, all was silence 
 and utter desolation. The shops where the gold and jewels 
 and precious shawls of India were sold, had all been plundered 
 and gutted. The houses were open and tenantless. " The 
 wretched cats were silently moping about, and the dogs 
 howled mournfully in the desolate houses. Far rather would 
 
Return to Delhi. 279 
 
 I see a city knocked down and covered in its ruins than 
 behold a scene like this. A tomb, or Herculaneum, can be 
 contemplated Avith interest ; but Delhi is now like an open 
 grave, rifled of its contents, and its dishonoured condition 
 lying bare to the gaze of day. 
 
 "As I stood that night in the midst of this stern desolation I 
 was forcibly reminded of the regular lesson in the calendar, for 
 the 14th of September, the day in which the assault was given. 
 The lesson was the third chapter of Kahum. It begins: 'Wo 
 to the bloody city ; it is all full of lies and robbery ;' and the 
 whole chapter is as applicable to Delhi, as it ever was to 
 Nineveh ; and here was her ' woe,' and she is ' naked,' a ' gaz- 
 ing stock,' and ' laid waste,' her ' nobles in the dust,' her 
 people ' scattered ;' so that with truth it may be said of her 
 ' There is no healing of thy bruise, thy wound is grievous ; all 
 that hear the bruit of thee shall clap their hands over thee, 
 for uj^on whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually ?' " 
 
 As soon as the English were fairly established, a court- 
 martial began to sit permanently for the trial of the rebels. 
 The great body of the mutineers had escaped, so that there 
 could be no " wholesale punishment," but fortunately a num- 
 ber of the leaders and prominent men were captured, tried, 
 and executed. A gallows was erected by the Kotwalee, 
 where deeds were done in May and June that fiends might 
 blush to own, where Englishwomen 
 
 " Perished 
 In unutterable shame." 
 
 The scene of their suflerings witnessed their wrongs revenged. 
 As soon as order was restored a proclamation was published 
 inviting all peaceably disposed inhabitants to return to their 
 homes. This, however, was complied with but slowly. All 
 suspected persons, and particularly Moosulmans, were either 
 excluded, or had to produce a written pass before they could 
 enter. The efiect of these measures, and of the trials in the 
 Dewan Khas,'is thus described by Mr. Butler: "This rigid 
 exclusion of the suspected Moosulman population ; this calm, 
 quiet and continued investigation by the authorities; this 
 
28o India. 
 
 searching out and bringing to justice the perpetrators of the 
 outrages of May and June; this discrimination; this justice 
 even to the most suspected wi'etches, to whom every oppor- 
 tunity is given of proving their innocence (one trial alone 
 lasted ten days'") ; the prompt execution of those who are 
 proved guilty ; this manifest anxiety to separate friends from 
 enemies, and to take care that only the guilty suffer ; all this 
 with the disposition of government to acknowledge and reward 
 fidelity, is producing an immense impression. It is all so con- 
 trary to the rash and indiscriminate mode of Oriental despot- 
 ism, and argues in their estimation such resources, and justice, 
 and calm resolve as are invincible ; and which it is therefore 
 folly and madness to resist. We have seen, I believe, the last 
 rising against British authority that India will ever witness." 
 
 * This was written before the trial of the Emperor, which occupied much 
 more time. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 AGRA. 
 
 Arrival at Agra— The Taj— Its Proportions— Mosaics— The "Tribe of the Infidels"- 
 "The Ornament of the Palace"— Cost of the Taj— The Fort— The Pearl Mosque 
 — The Dewan Am — Dewan Khas— A Seat for a Sovereign — A Court of the Zenana 
 — The Palace of Mirrors — The Terrace — ^Sleeping Eooins — Town of Alexandei- — 
 — The Printing Establishment — Akbur's Tomb — xikbur's Character — His Legis- 
 lative and Administrative Acts — Ilis Keligibn — An Unexpected Meeting — Dine with 
 my American Friends — "Young Bengal" — Illumination of the Taj — Eevisit the 
 Palace — An Indian Oubliette— The Old Hindoo Palace — Hindoo Art — A Great Well 
 — A Pleasant Summer Eesidence — Presentation of Colours — Commander-in-Chiefs 
 Camp — Manly Sports — The Cathedral — Kam-bagh — Tomb of Aktmud-ood-Dowlah— 
 "The Light of the Harem" — Her Ambition and its Success. 
 
 I LEFT Delhi, by garrhee-dak, on the evening of December 
 28th, and arrived in Agra tlie next day about noon. On the 
 outskirts of the city there were ruins of many gardens, tombs, 
 and other buildings, but neither in number or beauty did they 
 compare to those which cover the country outside the walls 
 of Delhi. 
 
 The city of Agra is situated on the south side of the Jumna, 
 a hundred and fifty miles below Delhi. Its buildings and 
 pubHc edifices are quite equal to those of Delhi, as it was the 
 capital of the great Emperor Akbur, and was a favourite resi- 
 dence of several other sovereigns. 
 
 The cantonments w^ere situated about two miles from the 
 town. I put up at one of the hotels, which compared very 
 unfavourably with that at Umbala. 
 ^ On the day after my arrival I drove to the Taj,''^ the mag- 
 
 * This word is a corruption of the last syllable of Moomtaz, the name of 
 the Queen whose tomb it is. The "j" should be pronounced soft, as in 
 French, or as if the word were written "tarshj" — remembering to give the 
 "a" a broad sound, as in the word " father." 
 
282 India. 
 
 iiificent tomb erected by Shah Jehan, the most splendid of 
 the Mogul Emperors, over the remains. of his favom'ite wife 
 Moomtaz-ee-Mahul. 
 
 The Taj is built apart from all other buildings, on the banks 
 of the Jumna, two miles east of the city. It is in a beautiful 
 garden, surrounded on three sides by a lofty wall of redstone. 
 The garden is entered by a magnificent gateway, which 
 is approached through several large paved courts, used as 
 surais. 
 
 The northern side of the garden is occupied by a chubootra, 
 or platform of redstone, over nine hundred and fifty feet in 
 length. It is open toward the river, and the side of it which 
 is washed by the waters of the Jumna is protected by a water 
 wall of squared redstone. 
 
 At each corner of this vast chubootra is a tower, with a 
 white marble kiosk. Two mosques occupy the east and west 
 sides. Like the towers, they are of red sandstone, inlaid 
 with white marble. Their domes are of the latter material. 
 The western mosque only was used for prayer, which must 
 always be made in the direction of Mecca. That to the east 
 was built as a jowab, or ansioer to the other, in order to pre- 
 serve the symmetry of the group. 
 
 Upon this redstone chubootra is reared another of white 
 marble, which supports the Taj. The marble chubootra is 
 over three hundred feet square, and has at each angle a round 
 minar, one hundred and fifty feet high, with two projecting 
 galleries, and a light kiosk, or dome, supported by columns. In 
 the centre of the chubootra, between the minars, is the Taj 
 itself Its form is octagonal, but the sides which face the foui- 
 cardinal points, and contain the entrances, are by far the 
 largest. Each is about one hundred and thirty feet long, but 
 if produced, so that the building should be a square, would 
 be nearly a hundred and seventy feet in length. The roof is 
 seventy feet from the surface of the chubootra ; above rises ; 
 for fifty feet the circular neck of the dome. The height of 
 the dome from where it begins to swell is seventy feet. It is 
 surmounted by a gilt copper ornament, the top of which is 
 two hundred and twenty feet from the marble chubootra. 
 
Agra. 283 
 
 and nearly two hundred and sixty feet from the ground 
 level.^' ■ 
 
 The proportions of the Taj are then as follows : The chu- 
 bootra, on which it is situated, is one-third as long as the one 
 of redstone w^hich supports it, and forms the north end of the 
 garden. The four minars are twice as high as the walls of 
 the Taj, and the highest point of the ornament on the dome 
 is three times as high. 
 
 The entrances to the building are through doorways, in the 
 back of large arched recesses, which also contain the windows, 
 and which occupy nearly one-third of each principal side. These 
 niches are as high as the roof, and the wall around them is 
 continued up, as a screen, above the general level of the 
 eaves. 
 
 The shape of the dome, which is high in proportion to its 
 diameter, and the great length of the circular neck on which 
 it rests, are evidences of the late period at wdiich the building- 
 was erected. They have been objected to by some as defects, 
 but are really like the great size of the entrance-niches, only 
 the carrying out of the idea and genius of Moosulman archi- 
 tecture, which is to give prominence to the principal features 
 at the expense of the general'mass of the building. 
 
 The Taj, its dome, the minars, and the chubootra, are all of 
 the purest white marble, highly polished. Every part of the 
 whole external surface is inlaid with the most beautiful designs 
 in various coloured stones, and yet with such surpassing skill 
 has this been done that the general efiect of the pure wdiite 
 surface is not interfered with, and it is only on close examina- 
 tion that the elaborate ornamentation is detected. 
 
 The interior of the building is a circular hall, wath a dome- 
 shaped roof The walls are all of polished marble, ornamented 
 with designs in sculpture and mosaic. The pavement is alter- 
 nate blocks of wdnte marble and jasper. An octagonal screen 
 
 * I think it right to state that these numbers are not the result of actual 
 measurement by me. I computed them by comparing various authorities, so 
 that I cannot vouch for their entire accuracy. The proportions I believe to 
 nearly correct. 
 
284 India. 
 
 of the most delicate marble filagree work smTounds the CQiio 
 taph of the Queen, which is immediately under the centre of 
 the dome. The tomb of the Emperor, her husband, is by her 
 side. These are both covered with elaborate mosaics, delicate 
 as the work of Florentine jewellers. One single floTver con- 
 tains a hundred precious stones, each cut to the exact shape 
 required. The Queen's tomb has upon it certain passages from 
 the Koran, inlaid in black stone. One of these extracts, facing 
 the entrance, terminates with the words, " And defend us from 
 the tribe of the Infidels" — the same tribe which now governs 
 the country of Shah Jehan, and keeps his tomb in repair. On 
 the Emperor's tomb, which was erected by his pious son 
 Aurungzeeb, there are no passages of the Koran. They were 
 omitted for fear the foot of man might perchance some day 
 tread upon the " holy words" — a very possible contingency, as 
 things turned out. 
 
 I have now described, as well as I can, this flower and ideal 
 of Saracenic art. I must leave it to other and more eloquent 
 writers to dwell upon its perfect harmony, its purity, its almost 
 heavenly beauty. It has been often said that one sight of the 
 Taj was worth a journey from England. I will not dispute it, 
 and I feel sure that one might make the pilgrimage, visiting 
 on the way all the great triumphs of European art, and not 
 find among them all anything that would compare with the 
 Taj at Agra, in chaste beauty, perfect simplicity, and exquisite 
 grace. 
 
 The Taj was built in the latter part of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury by Shah Jehan, the same Emperor who founded the pre- 
 sent city of Delhi, and built the Palace there. He had intended 
 to build a precisely similar structure on the opposite bank, as 
 a mausoleum for himself, connecting the two edifices by a 
 bridge over the river. This ambitious design was begun, but 
 never carried out, and his remains now repose in a sarcophagus 
 beside that of his Queen. 
 
 Moomtaz-ee-Mahul, "the ornament of the Palace," for 
 whom Shah Jehan erected this magnificent mausoleum, was 
 the niece of the famous Noor Jehan, the wife of Jehangeer, 
 who is the heroine of Moore's poem, "The Light of the Harem." 
 
Agra. 285 
 
 He calls her " [tToor Mahnl," the " Light of the Palace," a 
 title which she afterwards altered to "Noor Jehan," or 
 " Light of the World." 
 
 The gardens of the Taj are filled with beautiful trees, form- 
 ing avenues, which shade raised walks of marble slabs. In the 
 central avenue is a row of fountains, extending from the great 
 gateway to the foot of the chubootra. The water of these 
 fountains is conducted in open canals down the centre of the 
 other avenues, and serves to irrigate the plants and trees. 
 The garden and all the buildings are kept in perfect order by 
 the Company. 
 
 The accounts of all the expenses of building the Taj are 
 still preserved. From them we learn that the whole cost was 
 three crors, seventeen lakhs and a half, of rupees, or three 
 million, one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds ster- 
 ling — a sum which, allowing for the diminished value of 
 money, and the difierence in the price of labour, would be 
 equal to over twelve millions of pounds sterling, at the pre- 
 sent day in England. 
 
 The next day I drove to the town. The interior contains 
 little that is worth seeing, except the fort. The general ap- 
 pearance of the buildings is far inferior to those of Delhi, and 
 the only large mosque, the Jumma Musjeed, is sadly in want 
 of care and rej^airs. The town and fort were both built by 
 the great Emperor Akbur, who reigned in the latter half of 
 the sixteenth century. Agra is still always called by Moosul- 
 mans Akburabad, or the city of Akbur. 
 
 The fort is within the walls, along the river's bank. It is 
 defended by high fortifications of redstone, with strong but- 
 tresses, and lofty gateways. The top of the wall is orna- 
 mented mth arched battlements, like those upou the palace- 
 walls of Delhi. 
 
 Driving through one of the gates, and up a steep inclined 
 plane, I found myself in a large open court-yard, having on my 
 right the palace, and in front the Motee Musjeed, or " Pearl 
 Mosque," which I first visited. It consists of a court, about 
 one hundred feet square, paved with polished marble, sur- 
 rounded by marble walls, and having at its further end a 
 
286 India. 
 
 marble colonnade, all of the purest white, exquisitely polished, 
 and without a speck or flaw in any part. It well deserves its 
 name. 
 
 From this Musjeed I was conducted to the palace, which 
 was built by Shah Jehan, who also constructed the Taj, and 
 the city and palace of Delhi. 
 
 The first room which we entered was a large hall, having 
 its stone roof suj)ported by rows of pillars. This was the 
 Dewan Am, or public reception hall of the Emperor, and was 
 formerly open to the court. IsTow, however, it is walled in 
 and when I visited it, was used as an armoury. The walls were 
 covered with panoplies, and rows of various arms ; and from 
 the pillars hung httle blue flags, on which were inscribed in 
 English, Persian, and Hindee, the names of the various victo- 
 ries of the English in India. At one end of this hall, sur- 
 rounded by drapery, are two elaborately carved doors of 
 sandal-wood, bearing evident marks of age and hard usage in 
 their injured and worm-eaten appearance. These gates be- 
 longed to a celebrated idol-temple called Somnath, in Gooze- 
 rat, on the west coast of India. In the year of the Hijra 415, 
 or A.D. 1024, the temple was taken and sacked by Sooltan 
 Mahood, an Afghan prince, who carried the gates back with 
 him to his home, the city of Ghuznee, in Afghanistan. There 
 they remained until the late Afghan war, when Lord Ellen- 
 borough had them removed, with a view of taking them to 
 Calcutta, but the expense of transport amounted to so large a 
 sum by the time they arrived at Agra, that he made up his 
 mind to deposit them in this arsenal. 
 
 Opposite the door of the armoury is the Emperor's throne, a 
 recess in the wall, like the box of a theatre. It is decorated 
 with marble, inlaid with mosaics, and now contains a sofa and 
 two chairs of marble open-work, which were presented to 
 Lord Ellenborough by a Caboolee chief. 
 ,j^ The royal throne was approached by a door from behind. 
 
 Passing through this, we came upon a stone terrace, enclosing 
 a court-yard about fifty yards square. Three sides of this ter- 
 race were protected by a roof, and surrounded by buildings. 
 The fourth was open, and overlooked the river. This part of 
 
Agra. 287 
 
 the terrace was very broad, and paved with white marble. 
 At one end was a marble colonnade, with a roof of the same 
 material. Here the Emperor used to sit during his state 
 receptions, and this court was the Dewan Khas of the Agra 
 Palace. 
 
 The whole effect of the court was fine ; and the view across 
 the water to the Taj, which is situated around the bend of the 
 river, is very striking. The Jumna is here so wide, that it is 
 very shallow, not being navigable for vessels of any size. Two 
 elephants were standing nearly in the middle of the stream, 
 yet their legs were only just covered by its waters. They 
 were washing themselves, an operation which they accom- 
 plished by drawing up the water into their trunks, and then 
 squirting it out upon their bodies. 
 
 On this terrace are two large and thick slabs, one of black 
 marble, the other of white. They were both used as thrones, 
 the latter by the great Akbur Shah. Each of them has a 
 corner broken off. When and how this damage occurred, is 
 not known. The black marble slab is regarded with great 
 reverence by the Moosulmans, who always salam to it, and 
 say that no one but an emperor or king can sit on it. I 
 ansAvered the question practically by takmg a seat upon it, 
 and requested the guide, a Moosulman, to do the same. But 
 he said the stone would not bear him, and thlit on the occa- 
 sion of one of the Maharatta conquerors impiously sitting 
 upon the stone, it bled in two places, pointing to some red 
 spots. He accounted for my impunity by the supposition that 
 all Europeans are sovereigns,* (sircar-log,) which, with a little 
 change in locality, is, I believe, a j^art of every true Ameri- 
 can's creed. 
 
 Leaving the Dewan Khas, I went into one of the courts of 
 the Zenana. Part of it was laid out as a garden, at one end 
 of which was a broad marble terrace, sheltered by a canopy 
 of the same material, supported on colonnades. Between the 
 garden and this " loggia" was a marble tank, perhaps forty 
 feet long by twenty broad. In its centre was a fountain 
 which filled it with water, and all around the edges were 
 
288 India. 
 
 marble stalls, where, the guide said, the ladies of the Zenana 
 used to sit up to their necks in water. 
 
 We next went to the Sheesh Mahul, or Hall of Mirrors, the 
 walls of which are completely covered by little mirrors, em- 
 bedded in a kind of stucco, which gleams like frosted silver. 
 On one side is a recess, where a stream of water entered, and 
 running down an inclined plane, tumbled into a marble basin 
 in the centre of the room. The whole was so arranged, that 
 the hall was entirely lighted by powerful lamps, placed behind 
 the waterfall, and beneath the marble tank. When I saw the 
 place, the water had long ceased to flow, and the ceiling and 
 walls were blackened by the smoke of the guide's torches. 
 
 From the Sheesh Mahul we ascended to the story above the 
 Dewan Khas. Here- there was a magnificent terrace running 
 along the battlements of the fort. Seventy feet below was the 
 moat, and beyond it the Jumna. Along the edge of the para- 
 pet are several pavilions of white marble, which partially over- 
 hang the water. Their floors are of marble, and have a foun- 
 tain in the centre, and from within the Jumna and Taj are 
 seen through panels of that wonderful marble open-work which 
 can only be compared to the lace of Europe or the most deli- 
 cate ivory carvings of the patient Chinese. The walls of these 
 pavilions, as well as those of -^ome other parts of the Palace, 
 are inlaid with* mosaic designs, to which the highest praise 
 that can be given is, that if possible they surpass those of the 
 Taj. The exquisite taste of the whole and of every detail, and 
 the perfection of the mosaic ornaments and the most fragile 
 open-work, after the lapse of two hnndred years, surpassed 
 anything that I had expected. 
 
 We now went through the numerous sleeping apartments 
 of the zenana. They were small and mean, all the taste and 
 splendour being reserved for the courts and terraces where the 
 day was passed. After visiting two small mosques where the 
 ladies of the harem attended reUgious services,which were held 
 by a little boy (for no 'man would of course be allowed within 
 the zenana), my guide informed me that I had seen all that 
 there was of interest. So I dismissed him with a bucksees, 
 reentered my buggy, and returned to the hotel. 
 
Agra. 289 
 
 The next day I drove out to Sekundra, a j^lace about six 
 miles from Agra, called after Alexander the Great, whose 
 name, pronounced by the natives Sekundur, is still held in 
 great respect in India. There are many towns of the same 
 name, just as there are many " Washingtons" and " Jackson- 
 villes" in America, but the invasion of the Macedonian con- 
 queror did not extend beyond the river Hydaspes, now called 
 the Jhelum. 
 
 The drive to Sekundra is very j^leasant, the road being bor- 
 dered with fine trees, an unusual thing in India. On the road 
 tbere are two coss-minars, or pillars, to mark the distance. 
 They are found on all the roads leading from Delhi and Agra. 
 Their form is a cone rising from a cylinder, about fifteen feet 
 high ; the material of which they are constructed, is rubble 
 work covered with stucco. They were erected by the Mogul 
 Emperors, and do not seem ever to have borne inscriptions. 
 The coss, the usual measure of distance in India, varies in 
 length in diflerent parts of the country ; but in Hindoostan it 
 is one mile and a half English. 
 
 On the road to Sekundra I passed the ruins of many large 
 buildings, and the place itself contains many such remains of 
 antiquity. It is now inhabited principally by people employed 
 in a large missionary publishing establishment, the presses and 
 workshops of which are established in one ' of the largest 
 tombs. 
 
 The principal object of interest is the tomb of the Emperor 
 Akbur, erected by his son Jehangeer. It is situated in a large 
 quadrangle surrounded by redstone walls, the inner side of 
 which, as is usual in these buildings, is formed into a roofed 
 verandah and used as a sural or resting place for travellers. 
 In the middle of each side is a lofty and massive gateway, 
 from each of which a broad stone causeway leads to the chu- 
 bootra in the centre of the quadrangle. The space between 
 the causeways is laid out as a garden, and filled with mango, 
 lemon, orange, and other trees. The tomb rises in the centre 
 of the quadrangle. It consists of five terraces, rising pyra- 
 midally one above the other. The material of which it is 
 constructed is redstone, like the chubootra, on which it rests. 
 
 13 
 
290 India. 
 
 The lowest and largest terrace of the building is three hun- 
 dred feet square. The highest story, which alone is built of 
 white marble, is not more than two thirds of that size. The 
 pavement of the highest story, which is at the same time, the 
 roof of the building, is formed of white marble blocks. In its 
 centre is the cenotajDh, a plain marble tomb on which are 
 carved the " ninety-nine names" of God, The Emperor's 
 body lies directly under this cenotaph, on the ground floor of 
 the building, as is the case in all the Mausoleums. 
 
 The monotony and heavy appearance of the redstone, which 
 forms the material of the tomb and gateways, was once re- 
 lieved by bold and free decorations in the gaudiest style of 
 " j)olychrome," but of this, nearly all traces have been re- 
 moved by time and the weather. 
 
 The Emperor Akbur, whose last resting-place this is, was 
 the best and greatest of the descendants of Tamerlane. He 
 carried his arms to every part of India, and for the first time 
 thoroughly subjected the whole peninsula to the supreme 
 power at Delhi. He not only gained the power, but by his 
 wise administrative measures, so strengthened and bound 
 together the whole empire, as to lay the foundation of the 
 greater splendour of his successors. Shah Jehan and Aurung- 
 zeeb. 
 
 He introduced reforms into the whole civil and military 
 service, and subjected all his territories to a uniform system 
 of government. But the greatest and most important of his 
 enactments concerned the revenue, which was then, as now, 
 principally derived from the tax or rent of land. For .this 
 pur]30se he caused exact surveys to be made, and divided all 
 the cultivated soil into three classes according to its yield. 
 The demand of government was one third of the produce.* 
 Although this may seem to our ideas excessive, yet it was 
 considered at that time a great reduction from the previous 
 assessments ; and this enactment has always been looked on 
 as the most important and beneficial act of his reign. 
 
 * The land-tas of the East India Company, now amo-unts to from one 
 sixth to one eighth of tlie produce. 
 
Agra. 291 
 
 Besides being a general and legislator, Akbur Avas a man of 
 letters, a theologian, and a philosopher. He caused Persian 
 translations of several of the old Sanscrit writings to be made 
 for his perusal, and was the first and only Moosulman Prince 
 who took an interest in Hindoo literature. 
 
 As a theologian, he caused the professors and teachers of 
 Hindoo and Mahommedan religions to argue before him in de- 
 fence of their respective faiths ; and he even brought some 
 Christian priests from the South of India to be present and 
 join in their disputations. An account of one of these debates 
 is preserved in the Akburnameh, a Persian work of the time. 
 The Christians seem to have had the advantage, both in tem- 
 per and argument, and the dispute is ended by Akbur's reprov- 
 ing the Moolahs for their violence, and declaring that in his 
 belief, God could only be rightly worshipped by following 
 reason, and not relying on any system of revelation. 
 
 In accordance with these views, the Emperor invented a 
 religion of his own, which was a system of pure Deism. He 
 abolished all ceremonies as unessential observances ; but al- 
 lowed his disciples to pray if they found it necessary for their 
 weakness. If any external symbols of worship were to be 
 chosen, he recommended the sun, or fire. Although his reason 
 led him to frame a system so averse to external observances, 
 yet he seems naturally to have had deep religious feelings 
 which found vent in superstitious j^ractices, and even magic 
 arts. It was this feature in his character which led him to kiss 
 and place upon his head, the images of our Lord, and the 
 Blessed Virgin, presented for his adoration by the Christian 
 priests. 
 
 On the whole, Akbur was by far the greatest, wisest, and 
 best of the Mogul Emperors, although he was neither the 
 most powerful, or the most splendid. Of all the rulers of In- 
 dia, he is the only one on whose character and acts, the 
 Christian student of history can look back with admiration 
 and respect. 
 
 My original plan had been to go from Agra to Bombay by 
 the mail-cart, which does the eight hundred miles in about five 
 days — sometimes a little less. This mode of travelling is, I 
 
292 India. 
 
 have said before, very exhausting, and my sickness at Umhala, 
 from the eflects of which I was still suffering, made it impos- 
 sible for me to undergo the exposure and fatigue. 
 
 I then thought of going by dhoolee. But finding that there 
 were no chokees, or places where relays of bearers could be 
 obtained, that the dak-bungalows were few and far apart, and 
 that I should be quite alone for over a month, I gave it up, 
 and reluctantly determined to return to Calcutta, and proceed 
 thence homeward by the Peninsular and Oriental Company's 
 steamers. 
 
 With this intention I went to the dak agent and engaged a 
 dak down country. After transacting this business I wished 
 to go to the other hotel, about a mile off. A young English 
 Engineer, Mr. Gibson, who happened to be in the ofiice at the 
 time, offered to take me in his buggy. On the way he in- 
 formed me that he also, was bound homewards, and intended 
 to go by way of Bombay, if he could get any one to join him. 
 This entirely changed the aspect of affairs, and as soon as I 
 arrived at the hotel, I sent ofi" a messenger to countermand 
 my dak. 
 
 At the hotel, the landlord happened to mention that two 
 American gentlemen were staying in his house. I was 
 delighted at the prospect of seeing some of my countrymen 
 and at once sent in my name. I found them to be two young 
 men travellmg like myself for pleasure and information. One 
 was from Boston, and knew several of my friends there ; the 
 other was a Virginian. To my surprise and delight I found 
 that they also wished to go to Bombay, and had even bought 
 palkees and engaged bearers for the purpose. They were to 
 start in two days for Delhi, but would return in a week and 
 leave at once for Bombay. 
 
 Their plans so nearly coincided with those of Gibson and 
 myself, that we soon came to a compromise and agreed to 
 unite our forces. 
 
 Gibson had been in favour of " marching " with camels, 
 horses and tents, which would have been the pleasantest and 
 cheapest plan — but as time was a matter of importance to the 
 rest of us, he gave up his preference. The other two had 
 
Agra. 293 
 
 proposed to go by wiiy of Gwalior, which is the regular 
 mail-road ; but as I had been reading a description of the 
 country, and knew that by making a detour of two hundred 
 miles we could see the most interesting sights of Western 
 India, the others yielded in this respect, and we determined to 
 go by way of JaijDoor. 
 
 The chance which brought us together, and enabled me to 
 go across the country to Bombay, was very remarkable. In 
 the first place, travellers of any kind are very rare in India, 
 but American travellers are still rarer ; and that three of these 
 O'arm aves should meet by chance, was still more remark- 
 able. Then it was extraordinary that our plans should coin- 
 cide as they did, and that we should all be going by a route 
 which, being through a wild country, where there is almost 
 no road, is scarcely ever travelled over. Lastly, our meeting 
 with Gibson was most fortunate, as his acquaintance with the 
 country and language enabled us to see much more than Ave 
 otherwise could, and saved us a great deal of trouble. 
 
 I dined the next day with my two countrymen. At their 
 hotel I saAv a Calcutta Baboo, who was on his way to Delhi. 
 He belonged to " Young Bengal " — a class of natives in Cal- 
 cutta, who Iiave cast aside more or less the prejudices of their 
 nation and religion, and adopted the habits, manners, and 
 dress of Englishmen to some extent. This specimen was 
 enormously fat and sleek, and very dark skinned. He was 
 almost a Christian, being in the habit of drinking brandy pro- 
 fusely, wearing his shoes in the house, and eating without 
 scruple in the company of Europeans. He still, however, re- 
 tained a heathen prejudice against beef. 
 
 After dinner we went in carriages to the Tiij, which we 
 caused to be illuminated by coloured lights. The effect was 
 beautiful beyond description. The view by moonlight is said 
 to be better, but I can hardly think so. One of the party had 
 brought with him a flute, and played some slow and plaintive 
 airs. The rich tones rose to the dome and floated around 
 its sides, each successive note mingling with those that had 
 gone before, till they were all blended in one rich harmony, 
 which hung throbbing in the air, like the music of the spheres, 
 for long minutes after the flute had ceased to play. 
 
294 India. 
 
 The next day my two American friends went to Delhi 1 
 occupied the time during their absence by seeing the remain- 
 ing sights of Agra, and making preparations for the journey 
 to Bombay. 
 
 During this time I went again over the palace, in Gibson's 
 company. I again saw and admired all that I had seen when 
 last there, but on this occasion we succeeded in seeing much 
 more, through the iufluence of Gibson, w^ho understood man- 
 aging the natives. The guide took us through several courts, 
 with flower-gardens, tanks and white marble pavilions; through 
 endless galleries ; and one suite of rooms after another. At 
 the end of a long, low passage, far removed from all the other 
 apartments, we found a small arched vault, in which the faith- 
 less wives of the Padshah* were hung. The beam with the 
 hole for the fatal rope yet remained in its place. After the 
 culprit's death, her body was thrown down a dark and deep 
 oubliette, opening immediately under the gallows, and leading 
 to the river. 
 
 This was how the Padshah got rid of his women. The 
 capital punishments reserved for men were to be trodden, or 
 gored to death by elephants ; or else cut to pieces by sharp 
 knives attached to the feet of these animals. 
 
 We also visited the remains of a very ancient Hindoo pal- 
 ace, which are contained within the fort. They are almost 
 the only specimens of an ancient Hindoo dwelling which I 
 saw in India. These remains consisted of two small grass- 
 grown courts, surrounded by many-storied buildings of dark 
 brown stone. The court-yards were dark, gloomy and mys- 
 terious. .Within the buildings all was the same dingy stone, 
 lookino; as if it would fall and crush him who ventured inside. 
 Even the floors and low ceilings were of great blocks of stone, 
 supported by columns carved into serpents, dragons, devils, 
 and all foul and hideous forms. The arch was no where to be 
 seen. 
 
 There is nothing grand about Hindoo art. All of their 
 buildings which remain (if we except the Kootub at Delhi. 
 
 * Padshah, i. e., Emperor. 
 
Agra. 295 
 
 the authorship of which is not known) are small, heavy and 
 gloomy. Their temples have exactly the same form all over 
 India. The tall and heavy pyramid, the low entrance, and 
 the small dark chamber in the centre are the same in all. 
 Bishop Heber says that there is something impressive and 
 awful in these temples. I think this is the case ; the cruelty 
 and immorality of the religion, reacts upon the architecture 
 of its temples, and you feel within them that you are in a 
 shrine dedicated to the worship of devils. 
 
 In the great court-yard of the fort is a noble well, about 
 fifty feet deep, and thirty in diameter. A flight of broad 
 stone steps, the entrance of which is about a hundred feet from 
 the" mouth of the well, leads down through the ground to the 
 surface of the water. The ground over the stairway is sup- 
 j)orted by an arched roof of stone. 
 
 The fort of Agra proved of the greatest service during the 
 mutiny. As long as the troubles lasted all the Christian resi- 
 dents of the station, city, and from the country around, re- 
 mained in safety within its walls. 
 
 Recent disclosures have made it probable that the mutiny 
 was to have come off on New Year's day. If it had taken 
 place at that time, and I had escaped with my life, I might 
 have been compelled to pass last summer within the Fort of 
 Agra, which would have been a much warmer and less agree- 
 able residence than the mountains of Switzerland, which I was 
 enabled to reach by the miscarriage of the original plan for 
 insurrection. 
 
 After leaving the fort we drove to the parade-ground, and 
 witnessed the j^i'esentation of colours to the "Third Euro- 
 peans " — a new regiment which had just been embodied, in 
 accordance with a resolution of the Indian Government, al- 
 lowing three regiments of English soldiers, instead of two, to 
 each Presidency. The colours were presented by Mrs. Anson, 
 wife of the commander-in-chief, who was then at Agra on his 
 tour of inspection. The regiment was commanded by Colonel 
 Riddle, whose acquaintance I had made at Delhi. His speech 
 and that of Mrs. Anson were both very good, and the affair 
 was quite briUiant, as all the ladies and gentlemen of the 
 
296 India. 
 
 station had come in carriages or on horseback to witness the 
 ceremony. 
 
 Afterwards we walked over to the commander-in-chief's 
 camp, which, with its various tents, elephants, camels, and 
 other a«cessories, occupied a space three times as large as 
 Washington parade-ground in l^ew York. 
 
 The next day was devoted to the " old sports " of leaping, 
 running, throwing cannon balls, running in a sack, and others. 
 They were joined in by the men of the Third Europeans, and 
 attracted a large number of spectators from the station. 
 
 Wherever the English are they must have their manly ex- 
 ercises. Climate is not the slightest obstacle. The soldiers 
 in India play cricket bareheaded in the sun's rays, when the 
 thermometer stands at 100° in the shade; their officers dare 
 both the deadly sun of summer and the pestiferous miasms of 
 the jungul, in hunting the tiger. Every English colony or 
 settlement has its races, every station in India has its racket 
 court, every Englishman in India will ride a hundred miles 
 without rest for a single day's snipe-shooting, and even when 
 the forces were collecting at Cawnpoor for the relief of Luck- 
 now, when more sentimental soldiers would have been thinking 
 of what they had passed through and of what was still before 
 them, the English army engaged in the sports of the olden 
 time, with as much zest as if they were on the peaceful shores 
 of " merrie England." 
 
 On the following Sunday I went to mass at the Romish ca- 
 thedral, which is a large pukka building in the Doric style, 
 but cruciform, and covered with a dome. The music of the 
 service, which was sung by the nuns, was exceedingly good. 
 After church I called on the Bishop, whose palace is in the 
 same compound with the cathedral. I had received a letter 
 of introduction to him, from Era Raffaello, the Romish priest 
 of XJmbala. I found " his Lordship," as he is called, a very 
 pleasant, gentlemanly man. He was a capuchin from Naples. 
 We had quite a long conversation, during which he informed 
 me that there are ^ about five hundred thousand native Chris- 
 tians, of the Romish persuasion, in India ; but confessed that 
 now-a-days but few converts were made ; all the efforts of the 
 
Agra. 297 
 
 priests being required to retain Christian families in the faith 
 Agra once contained twenty-live thousand Christian families, 
 according to M. de Thevenot, who visited the city in 1666. 
 This number may be a little exaggerated, but there must have 
 been a very large number of Christians. They were mostly 
 French, or Dutch, or their half-caste descendants, who were 
 employed in the artillery, arsenals, and gun-foundries of the 
 Emperor. These duties were, in all parts of India, entrusted 
 exclusively, by the native rulers, to Europeans, avIio were all 
 Christians, and formed in the aggregate quite a large Christian 
 population. When M. de Thevenot visited Agra it had half 
 a million of inhabitants — while now it has not over seventy- 
 five thousand. 
 
 I was anxious to see whether the opinion of the native char- 
 acter formed by the Bishop, as an Italian, a Romanist, and 
 one who had been for years in daily intercourse with natives, 
 would differ at all from the impressions which I had myself 
 derived from observation, history, the conversation of English- 
 men and such intercourse as I had been able to hold with the 
 natives themselves. I found that he entertained exactly the 
 same opinions which I had formed, and have expressed, and 
 he said that in all parts of India the missionary priests, who 
 live almost as natives, have come to the same judgment. 
 
 The following day I crossed over the river to the " Ram 
 Bagh" or " Garden of Ram" — a beautiful and extensive gar- 
 den on the bank of the Jumna. It was founded in the time of 
 the Mogul Emperors, but is now kept in order by the Com- 
 pany. The stone pavilions and marble villas which it con- 
 tains, are always occupied in the summer season by picnic and 
 other parties, who often remain several days. 
 
 On the way back I stopped at the mausoleum of Kwaja 
 Aeeas, commonly called "the tomb of Aktmud ood Dowlah." 
 It stands within a quadrangular enclosure, upon a marble chu- 
 bootra. The mausoleum is of white marble, about fifty feet 
 square, and twelve feet high. At each corner is a round mar- 
 ble tower, about forty feet in height, surmounted by a marble 
 kiosk. In the middle of the roof, is a square, dome-shaped 
 canopy of marble, resting on supports of marble openwork. 
 
 1.3* 
 
298 India. 
 
 The whole tomb was once covered with decorations in mosaic 
 and painting, hut both are now in bad repair. 
 
 In the interior is a circular apartment, with marble walls, 
 and an arched marble roof, both richly decorated with grace- 
 ful designs in various colours and gilding. In the centre of 
 this room lie the remains of Kwaja Aeeas, one of the most 
 remarkable characters of Jehangeer's reign. 
 
 He came originally from Western Tartary, being attracted 
 to India by the hopes of procuring employment in the court 
 of the Emperor Akbur. So poor was he that he started on 
 this long journey, with only one bullock, which carried his 
 wife and their little baggage. On the way his wife was deliv- 
 ered of a daughter. Once arrived at Akbur's court, he 
 rapidly rose to a high position, both by his intrinsic merits, 
 and the favour of some relations who had long been in the 
 Emperor's service. His daughter, IS'oor Mahul, had now 
 grown up to be a prodigy of beauty. Being freely admitted 
 to the royal zenana she was accidently seen by the Prince 
 Mirza Suleem, afterward the Emperor Jehangeer, who at once 
 conceived for her that violent passion, which forms the subject 
 of Moore's poem, " The Light of the Harem." 
 
 Sheer Afgun, a Toorkman noble, had long been espoused 
 to ISToor Mahul, and, notwithstanding the opposition of the 
 heir-apparent, he married her. As soon, however, as Jehan* 
 geer was seated on the musnud, as Akbur's successor, he 
 caused his successful rival to be murdered, and took possession 
 of his wife, whom he married. From this time ISToor Mahul, 
 or as she now styled herself Noor Jehan, exercised an abso- 
 lute sway over the Emperor, and became a paramount author- 
 ity in the government. Her father, over whom this tomb was 
 erected, was raised to the rank of Aktmud ood Dowlah or 
 high treasurer ; and afterwards promoted to be the prime 
 minister of the empire. Her relations from Tartary flocked 
 to the court, and were well provided for. 
 
 She never had any children by Shah Jehan, but her one 
 daughter by her first husband, she married to a younger son 
 of the Emperor. In order to secure the crown to her son-in- 
 law, she induced the Emperor to put out the eyes of his eldest 
 
Agra. 299 
 
 son Khosroo. His mother was then invited by Noor Jehan 
 to visit her apartments. She led her out to a well in the 
 court, which she asked her to look down. Her victim com- 
 plied, and Noor Jehan at once threw her in. Khosroo was 
 afterwards taken to the South of India hy Shah Jehan, the 
 Emperor's second son, who said " he could not bear to be 
 separated from his poor blind brother" and was there mur- 
 dered by his orders. 
 
 ISJ'otwithstanding the efforts of ISToor Jehan, the Emperor's 
 second son, Shah Jehan, succeeded to his father's throne on 
 his death. He put the Empress in confinement, and blinded 
 his brother Shah Reear, her protege. His other relations 
 were all strangled by his orders. With the accession of Shah 
 Jehan the influence of this remarkable woman ceases. For 
 ten years she had in fact governed the empire, had even led 
 the imj^erial troops in battle, and had caused her name to be 
 struck on the coin of the royal mint — a solitary instance of 
 that honour being awarded to a woman in India. 
 
 The new Emperor Shah Jehan, had married her niece, 
 Moomtaz-ee-Mahul, over whose remains the Taj was after- 
 wards erected. She seems to have inspired her husband with 
 an aflection as deep and powerful as that of which Jehangeer 
 felt for her aunt ; but Shah Jehan being a man of greater 
 ability than his father did not leave the reins of his govern- 
 ment in the hands of a woman. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 AGRA TO JAIPOOR. 
 
 Chowdris — Combination versus Competition — Our Eetinue — Price of Labour — Commer- 
 cial Integrity — Leaving Agra — The Departure of "a Warrior Lord" — A Loan to the 
 Sovereign Company — TheEoyal Pilgrimage — "Seekree, the City of Victory — Tomb 
 of a Wealthy Saint — A Magnificent Gateway — ^Bishop Heber's Guide — Throne-room 
 —Human Chessmen— Blind-man's Buff— The Old Lake— A Triumph for Eeligion — 
 Irreverence — Dining in a Palace — "Pointing a Moral " — Four Eupees' worth of Pic- 
 turesque Piety — Fording a Jheel — Bhurtpoor — English Protection and its Fruits — 
 The Fort — Its Sieges— An Indian Sebastopol— Eajah's Palace— Battle of Deeg— 
 Quail Fighting— A Boxing Match— Deer— Bosawur— Breakfast at 3 P. M.— The Vil- 
 lage — A Native Distillery — People on Eoad — Antelopes — Manpoor — Walled Villages 
 — Naked Sanctity — Pilgrim to the Shrine of Juggurnath — Buranah — Pigeons — 
 Dress of the Eajpoots — Hills of Jaipoor — Palace of the Eajah — Jaipoor. 
 
 On the 1 2th of January, my American friends had returned 
 from Delhi, and we were all ready to start for Bombay. The 
 previous week had been occupied in making arrangements, 
 and bargaining for the bearers. We at first made application 
 to a Chowdri* who lived near the hotel, but not liking his 
 terms we had recourse to all the others in the place. These 
 fellows were ostensibly in opposition to each other ; but as 
 we discovered that they were really in league, we gave our 
 custom to the first man with whom we had spoken. This is 
 a curious feature in the habits of all native tradesmen. As 
 some one has remarked " they do not understand comj^etition, 
 but are masters of combination." All trades and occupations 
 are in the hands of certain castes or guilds, who unite their 
 forces against the customer. By an ajDparent competition 
 they will induce purchasers to buy at a price far exceeding 
 the real value of the article ; and the surplus profit is then 
 divided among all those who have joined in the plot. This 
 
 * Chowdri, a native maitre de posie from whom kuhars or palkee-bearera 
 are hired. 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 301 
 
 custom makes it impossible for a stranger or European to buy 
 anything at a reasonable price in the bazars. It is much bet- 
 ter and cheaper for him to make such purchases through a 
 native, and submit to the cheating of one rather than be de- 
 frauded by a combination of a dozen. 
 
 Gibson and I went in dhoolees, which are more commo- 
 dious than palkees, and which being lighter required only 
 twelve bearers each. The two other Americans had j^alkees, 
 and sixteen kuhars each. Our baggage was carried upon bam- 
 boo poles by eight banghee-burdars. We also took a servant 
 who was in the pay of the Americans, but cooked for the whole 
 party. He went in a dhoolee with twelve bearers. Besides 
 these there were six extra banghee-burdars to carry cooking 
 utensils and j^rovisions ; and four mussalchees, or torch-bear- 
 ers, for the palkees, so that our retinue amounted to eighty- 
 six men exclusive of the servant. 
 
 In the northern part of India, as I have before stated there 
 are lines of chowkees along all the principal roads. At each 
 chowkee a fresh relay of bearers is obtained, so that the same 
 set only carry the palkee for a stage of ten miles, but in Cen- 
 tral India there are no such arrragements, and we had to hire 
 in Agra, a sufficient number of men to carry us all the way 
 to Bombay. The road is regularly divided off, before start- 
 ing, into day's marches — the estimated number, by the route 
 which we took, being thirty-nine. If we remained a day at any 
 place we agreed to pay a fixed sum to the men as demurrage. 
 
 To give an idea of the cheapness of labour and living in 
 India, it is only necessary to state the terms on which we 
 hired the kuhars for this trip. 
 
 The distance was nearly a thousand miles ; they were to 
 feed and clothe themselves ; and would have to return all the 
 way on foot, without the chance of carrying another palkee 
 back, that being forbidden by the rules of their guild. For 
 this service, the hire of each man was seventeen rupees, of 
 which pittance an ana per rupee goes as commission to the 
 chowdri, and ten per cent, is retained by the hotel-keeper at 
 whose house you are staying, so that the poor kuhar only gets 
 about fourteen rupees, four anas ($6 84), for his two months' 
 
302 India. 
 
 labour, and even that is considered high pay, and exceeds the 
 wages j^aid to other labourers. 
 
 Gibson and I paid a Httle more than these rates. We gave 
 each bearer eighteen rupees ($8 64), and paid the commission 
 out of our own pockets. "We did this to make our men con- 
 tented, and were in hopes that they would work better than 
 the others. In this expectation we were disa23pointed, and 
 for a long time could not understand the cause. At length, 
 when we were almost at the end of our journey, the men con- 
 fessed that they had actually been fools enough to pay all the 
 commissions over again, for fear of offending the chowdri, on 
 whose good wiU they were dependent for work. So that our 
 liberality had only gone to enrich the chowdri who lived on 
 the life-sweat of these poor wi'etches. 
 
 We made the best bargain we conld with the chowdris but 
 yet they contrived to cheat us considerably in this and other 
 respects. As all the money passed through their hands, 
 they made arrangements with some of the bearers to desert 
 during the early part of the journey — the chowdri, of course, 
 retaining the larger part of the wages which we had paid 
 supposing that the stipulated number of men would continue 
 with us all the way down. We did not discover this little 
 game for some time, and afterwards prevented its repetition 
 by counting our men every few days. Another dodge which 
 we discovered, was this : whenever a man became foot-sore, 
 or too sick to go on, they would say nothing to us of what 
 had occurred, and not supply the man's place as they were 
 bound to do by agreement. The profits of this arrangement 
 inured to the kuhars in this way. We had paid half their 
 wages through the chowdri before starting. The other half 
 was paid by us in instalments on the road. ISTow whenever 
 pay-day came round, they would get a man from the next 
 village to personate the missing bearer, and would then 
 divide among themselves the wages of the poor man whom 
 they had left sick or dying upon the road. This cheat was 
 also stopped by the j^lan of frequently mustering the bearers. 
 
 We left Agra on the 15th of January, 1857. The day was 
 cold and drizzly, but by two o'clock it cleared off*, and we 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 303 
 
 had magnificent weather during nearly all the rest of our trip 
 —a matter of great importance in travelling by dhoolee, 
 which affords but a slight protection against rain. 
 
 The scene presented as our long procession set out on the 
 road, was very lively ; and the shouts of the bearers added 
 much to the effect. At starting, and at every village which 
 we passed, they would sing out in chorus : *' Sahib Bahadur, 
 kee jaee !" " Kalee, kee jaee !"* words which mean nearly, 
 " Help us, oh Kalee ! A warrior lord is pleased to travel !" 
 The people of the villages all replied by calling down blessings 
 on our heads. Crowds of beggars ran alongside our dhoolees 
 while we were in the villages, supplicating alms in the name 
 of all sorts of gods, and calling us Shah Bahadur, warrior king, 
 and Biindugee, or releaser of slaves. 
 
 We soon determined to walk and did so for eight miles, as 
 far as Futtehpoor Seekree. 
 
 On the way we were passed by several very fierce looking 
 suwars (native cavalry), wearing a dirty native uniform, and 
 armed with spears and shields. One of these fellows stopped 
 his horse, made a salam, and asked us, " Sahibo^i, upne tush- 
 reef kidhur lejate ?" " Whither are my lords carrying their 
 honour's effulgence?" On learning that we were going to 
 Bhurtpoor, he informed us that he belonged to an escort of 
 cavalry, which had come from that place to Agra, with eight 
 lakhs of rupees ($400,000) as a loan from his master, the 
 Rajah of Bhurtpoor, to the "Sircar Koompanee," or Sovereign 
 Company, as the Honorable Company is called in that part of 
 India. 
 
 The Indian government was then in considerable financial 
 trouble, as Lord Dalhousie's great stroke of calling in the five 
 per cent, loan, and re-issuing it at four and a half per cent., had 
 proved a failure, as might have been expected in a country 
 where twelve and fourteen per cent, is the usual interest paid 
 for large sums. The diflEiculties of the government were, on 
 this account, so great, that when I left Agra, it was currently 
 
 * This is the same in form as the old war-cry of the Sepoys : " Gunga jee, 
 kee jaee I" " Oh, Lady Ganges, give thy aid I" 
 
304 India. 
 
 believed that Lord Canning had resigned the post of Governor- 
 General. 
 
 About two o'clock we arrived at Futtehpoor Seekree, which 
 is twenty-four miles from Agra. It consists of a mass of forti- 
 fications, j^alaces, gateways, and other sj^lendid buildings, 
 situated on the summit and sides of a range of sandstone hills, 
 three miles long, which rises abruptly a hundred and fifty feet 
 above the alluvial plain. 
 
 The story of the foundation of this city is as follows. The 
 Emperor Akbur lost all his children in their infancy. Filled 
 with despair at this misfortune, and dreading the extinction 
 of his line, he undertook a pilgrimage to the shrine of a cele- 
 brated Moosulman saint in Ajmeer. The distance was three 
 hundred and fifty miles. The court and all the royal family 
 marched on foot with the Emperor. Kannats, or cloth walls, 
 were raised on each side of the road ; and a brick tower was 
 erected at the end of each day's journey, which was only four 
 miles. At Ajmeer the saint appeared to Akbur, and bade him 
 seek the prayers of a holy hermit, Suleem Cheestee, who lived 
 at Seekree. The Emperor did so, and to his great joy, a 
 child was soon afterwards born to him, who showed every 
 sign of a strong and long-lived constitution. This son was 
 named Suleem in honour of the holy man, and received the 
 additional title of Jehangeer, " Conqueror of the World," by 
 which he became known on ascending the throne. 
 
 To testify his gratitude Akbur built this magnificent city on 
 the hill where the saint resided. He said he wished to live 
 always near one whose prayers were so availing with heaven. 
 The new town was called FuttehjDoor Seekree, or " Seekree, 
 the City of Victory." 
 
 We passed through an arched gateway and ascended the 
 hill by a paved street, on each side of which were rows of red- 
 stone houses, once the residence of Akbur's lords. At length 
 we found ourselves on a plateau, which had been formed into a 
 great square. On one side was the massive palace of Akbur's 
 prime minister — on the other, that of the Emperor himself. 
 Both were of redstone, in the simple Saracenic ai'chitecture of 
 the period. Time seemed to have left them uninjured — every 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 305 
 
 angle was sharp, the most delicate sculpture was perfect, and 
 one could almost imagine the king and his court had gone 
 forth to hunt, and would return by evening to their homes. 
 
 We left our dhoolees in the courtyard, and having given 
 orders for dinner, at once set out to explore the place. 
 
 The first object was the tomb of San* Suleem. 
 
 It stands within a marble-paved quadrangle, four hundred 
 feet square, upon the very summit of the hill. A redstone 
 wall forty feet high, with arched battlements surrounds the 
 court, on the west side of w^hich is a great mosque, with 
 domes of white marble. The principal entrance is on the 
 south side. It is a magnificent gateway of redstone, inlaid 
 with marble. Its height is one hundred and twenty feet, and 
 its breadth nearly the same. From it a noble flight of red- 
 stone steps descends i^yramidally to the ground. On the 
 right side of the entrance are the follomng words in Arabic, 
 inlaid in the stone wall : — " Jesus, on whom be peace, has said : 
 this world is merely a bridge ; you are to pass over it, not 
 build your dwellings upon it." 
 
 The quadrangle is surrounded by a pillared cloister leaning 
 against the wall. On the east side, opposite the musjeed, is 
 a smaller entrance leading to the palace square. In the cen- 
 tre is a large tank and fountain. 
 
 The tomb is just north of the fountain. It is a small square 
 building, approached by steps on each side, surmounted by a 
 dome and surrounded by a closed verandah — the whole of the 
 purest white marble, polished. The interior is elaborately 
 decorated with carving, gilding, j^ainting, mosaic, and inlaid 
 work of mother-of-pesTl. The ornamentation has been man- 
 aged with so much skill, that notwithstanding its richness and 
 profusion, it does not interfere with the exquisite taste of the 
 architecture, or the simple purity of the white marble. 
 
 The body of the saint lies within this building, surrounded 
 by a screen of that delicate marble openwork, which looks as 
 Bayard Taylor says, " as if it had been woven in a loom." 
 
 * Mahommedan saints have tbe word "San" prefixed to their names in 
 India. 
 
3o6 India. 
 
 The quadrangle in which this tomb is contained, was con- 
 sidered by Bishop Heber so magnificent that " no quadrangle 
 either in Oxford or Cambridge, is fit to be compared with 
 it, in size or majestic proportions, or for beauty of architec- 
 ture." 
 
 The whole is said to have cost thirty-seven lakhs, (11,850,- 
 000),* w^hich, it is said, Avas all defrayed from the property 
 left by the saint, so that, although a hermit, he seems to have 
 been a considerable capitalist. 
 
 As we were leaving the quadrangle, we were met by the 
 old guide, who forthwith took us in hand to show us the other 
 sights. The old fellow was quite a character. Although then 
 over sixty-nine years old, and very infirm, he persisted in act- 
 ing as guide, which he had done for all strangers ever since 
 the place was first visited by Euroj)eans. Among his written 
 recommendations was one from Bishop Heber, and numerous 
 others from men whose names have become famous in India. 
 He suffered dreadfully from asthma, and it would have been 
 ludicrous, had it not been a serious matter, to see him drag- 
 ging his fat body up the steep staircases, at every few steps 
 stopping to get his wind, blowing and grunting out sentences 
 of the Koran in a deep and dissatisfied voice. 
 
 He is one of a number of the saint's descendants who live 
 at Futtehpoor, and who are supported by the rent of lands 
 left by the Emperor Akbur. The proceeds of the legacy are 
 punctually paid by the government, who also keep the tomb 
 of the saint in perfect rej^air. 
 
 We went with the old guide through the various courts, 
 rooms, and passages of the vast palace. Two pavilions were 
 pointed out to us as the separate residences of the Emperor's 
 chief wives — Mariam, who is supposed to have been a Por- 
 tuguese Christian ; and another, who was the daughter of the 
 Room-ee-Padshah, or Emperor of Rome, as the natives of 
 India call the Sultan of Turkey. The apartments of the latter 
 and, indeed, all the others in the palace, have stone walls 
 
 * In naming the cost of these buildings, the amount should be multiplied 
 by four to obtain the corresponding sum, at the present day, in England. 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 307 
 
 arched above, and covered with deep and elaborate carvhigs 
 of foliatce and animals. 
 
 What is called the " throne-room," is one of the strangest 
 things in the j^alace. It is a circular apartment with a dome- 
 shaped roof. From the centre of the floor rises a stone shaft 
 sixteen feet high, which supports a small platform from which 
 six stone radii diverge to the walls of the buifding. The 
 tradition is, that Akbur used to hold his council sitting upon 
 the capital of this column, while his ministers sat around him, 
 one on each of the radii. A very original idea, and not 
 altogether an improbable whim in a man so eccentric as 
 Akbur. 
 
 In the court-yard before this throne-room, there was a low 
 stone canopy, on a chubootra. Here, it is said, Akbur used to 
 practice magic rites — but it is j^robable that the charge arose 
 only fi'om his rejection of the Mahommedan faith, and the 
 general liberality of his religious views. 
 
 One court contained a large stone building known as the 
 ^' Panch Mahul," or " Five Palaces," It consists of five 
 stories rising pyramidally one above the other. Each story is 
 surrounded by a row of columns, and the whole reminded me 
 much of the style of Akbur's tomb. Its special use is not 
 known. 
 
 Another court-yard in the portion of the palace appropria- 
 ted to the Zenana, was paved with stone of various colours so 
 as to form a gigantic " tric-trac" board. Here the Emperor 
 used to play at j^acheesee, a native game resembling " tric- 
 trac," or " backgammon" — the girls of the Zenana acting as 
 " pieces," and going from one square to another as the " moves" 
 were made. Off this court there was a small stone apartment 
 divided into various recesses and alcoves. Here it is said the 
 ladies of the Zenana used to play " blind man's buff," and the 
 building would be certainly admirably adapted for the j^ur- 
 pose, although rather too small. But our guide described to 
 us the real nature of the game, the principal features of which 
 are altogether too disgusting even to be told, in this day and 
 country. 
 
 This great palace contains numerous other courts, vesti- 
 
3o8 India. 
 
 bules, and corridors, as well as a mint, Dewan Am, and all 
 the other accessories of an Indian Emperor's residence, inclu- 
 ding long ranges of stables, and apartments for servants ; but 
 we went through the rest of the building so hurriedly, that I 
 feel myself incompetent to describe it. A whole day, at least, 
 is necessary to see it thoroughly, and more than a day's study 
 would be required for a perfect description. 
 
 As evening was now falling we ascended a lofty point from 
 which we had an extensive view of the surrounding country. 
 The mist, which always rises at sunset in India, now covered 
 the level plains and gave them the appearance of a lake. In- 
 deed, in old times there used to be a lake at the foot of this 
 hill, and the dam can still be traced. The lake furnished 
 Avater for the use of the palace and town, and also for the 
 terraced gardens, with which the hill sides were covered. 
 After Futtehpoor was abandoned by the court, the lake dried 
 up, and the surrounding country became quite barren, from 
 the want of the irrigation which its waters afforded. Of late 
 years this has been remedied by government. The whole 
 country is every year overflowed by cutting through the banks 
 of a small river near Bhurtpoor, and the water is drawn off 
 below into the Jumna in time for the springing of the crops. 
 The ground is now, therefore, more fertile than ever. 
 
 Although Akbur went to the enormous expense of building 
 this splendid residence and capital, he did not long occupy it. 
 The saint found his devotions interfered with by the bustle of 
 the busy city, and the gaieties of the court. At last, when 
 the Emperor wished to surround the hill with a chain of mas- 
 sive fortifications, the holy man could no longer restrain himself. 
 He told his royal master that he had gone twenty times on 
 pilgrimages to Mecca, and never before had had his comfort 
 and quiet so much disturbed ; accordingly he said that either 
 the Emjoeror or he must depart. " If it be your Majesty's 
 will," replied the Emperor, " that one should go, let it be your 
 slave, I pray." 
 
 Akbur therefore built the city of Agra, upon what was then 
 an unpeopled waste. The court and the townspeople removed 
 thither, and Futtehpoor Seekree, with its massive palace, its 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 309 
 
 noble residences, and its deserted streets, remains to the pre- 
 sent day, a monument of the splendour and wealth of its 
 founder, and a testimony to the despotic power which a repu- 
 tation for sanctity has in all ages conferred. 
 
 When we returned to where we had left our palkees, the 
 sun was setting, and our old guide, who was a Moosulman of 
 the " straitest sect" — a class of which there are now but few 
 in India — spread his praying-carpet npon the ground, and sat 
 down on it, with his face to the west, for his devotions. 
 
 He began chaunting the Arabic prayers in a loud voice, and 
 apparently with entire abstraction. Soon, however, he was 
 interrupted. Our Hindoo bearers, who were standing around, 
 began to make jokes at him. Upon this he stopped and cursed 
 them roundly, and then turned again to his prayers. Delighted 
 that they had succeeded in annoying him, the Hindoos renewed 
 the attack with twofold vigour. The old fellow stood it for a 
 long time, but at length his patience was exhausted, and he 
 scared them with such strength of imprecations and lungs 
 that they walked away. 
 
 It was dark before we got dinner, which was served in one 
 of the rooms of the Prime Minister's palace, an apartment 
 arranged by Government for the reception of visiters. The 
 rooms were not large, but very lofty ; the walls were of red 
 stone, decorated with sculptures and arched niches. The 
 ceiling was a solicj dome of stone. The place and occasion 
 were rather romantic. That we, from the opposite side of the 
 world, members of the latest branch of that Christian race 
 which are hated and despised, and at one time were nearly 
 enslaved by the followers of Mahommed, should be dining in 
 a palace chamber of what was once the capital of one of the 
 mightiest Moosulman monarchs — and that, not by the invita- 
 tion of his descendants, but by the permission and favour of a 
 company of merchants, belonging to that same hated race, 
 who had appropriated all that monarch's power and glory, and 
 whose sway now extended over all that was once his domin- 
 ions, and over countries whither he and his descendants in 
 vain attempted to carry their arms and extend their power — 
 here was certainly food for reflection, and a text, the com- 
 
310 ladia. 
 
 ments upon which might, with good management, be made to 
 fill a book. 
 
 Before sitting doAvn to dinner, we dismiSvSed om* old guide 
 with a handsome bucksees. He recompensed us by imploring 
 the blessings of Heaven on our journey, praying that " we 
 might arrive, whither we would go, in safety, peace, and cool- 
 ness." The latter part of the prayer struck me as unseasona- 
 ble, as we were all sitting -with our over-coats on, and it was 
 almost freezing out of doors ; but as the old man stood with 
 upturned eyes and hands raised in supplication, his fine figure 
 and long grey beard, with the really earnest expression of his 
 countenance, formed a noble and impressive picture. How- 
 ever, I believe that the same scene, with variations in the 
 words to suit occasions, is got up for any party who will give 
 him four rupees for an afternoon's work, as we did. We bade 
 him good-bye, and shook his hand ; he retreated backward, 
 with salams, from our presence. As he walked away across 
 the court, we could hear him puffing and blowing for a long 
 way, and every now and then grunting out a verse of the 
 Koran, or the words "Allah! Allah Akbur!" in those same 
 indescribably wretched and guttural tones which we had heard 
 in the morning. At length the sturdy blows of his iron-shod 
 stick against the pavement became fainter and fainter, and 
 died away, and that was the last we saw or heard of Bishop 
 Heber's guide, the most original native I met in India. 
 
 At midnight we started for Bhurtpoor, and had a disagree- 
 able march, as the bearers lost their way and got into a j heel 
 (shallow lake), where they floundered about for half an hour, 
 to my great discomfort, as I was afraid the water would get 
 into my dhoolee. I did not find travelling by night in the 
 low plains at all pleasant, as there was always a mist, which 
 made the air very chilly, and frequently caused the kuhars to 
 lose their way. 
 
 We awoke next morning at Bhurtpoor, where we occupied 
 an empty bungalow belonging to the Rajah, and appropriated 
 by him to the accommodation of Europeans. 
 
 Bhurtpoor was the first place that I had visited in India 
 beyond the limits of the Company's " raj," or sway. We 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 311 
 
 were now passing beyond the Mahommedan part of India, 
 and coming to the Rajpootana states and other Hindoo 
 territories, which have always preserved a sort _of indepen- 
 dence, both of the Mogul power and the Company's Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The territory of Bhurti^oor is inhabited by Jats — a Hindoo 
 tribe from the banks of the Indus, near Mooltan. They come 
 of the same stock as tlie Seekhs, and will still intermarry v^^ith 
 them. In settling in this part of the country, the Jats began 
 as cultivators and robbers on a small scale. Becoming enriched 
 by this trade, they ventured to plunder the tributes as they 
 were being conveyed to the imperial capital. At length they 
 rose to making war on the neighbouring states, and before the 
 death of Aurungzeeb, in the beginning of the last century, 
 they declared and maintained their independence, which they 
 retain to this day. The independence of these native states 
 is, in general, merely nominal, as they are entirely at the 
 mercy of the Honourable Company, and the advice of the 
 resident ambassador becomes, in fact, a command. Such a 
 government is, of course, not so good as that in the English 
 territories, but is infinitely preferable to the unlimited despo- 
 tism of native rulers. The independent chieftains, who are 
 almost numberless, are now compelled to live in peace with 
 each other, whereas formerly they were engaged in endless 
 wars, rebellions, and free-booting expeditions. Taking the do- 
 minions of this one rajah alone as a sj)ecimen, we find that 
 "the thick belt of jungul, three miles w^ide, with which the 
 chiefs of Bhurtpoor used to surround their fortress while they 
 were free-booters. has been fast diminishing since the capture 
 of the place by the English troops in 1826, and will very soon 
 disappear altogether, and give place to rich sheets of cultiva- 
 tion and happy little village communities." '" In fact, the 
 change spoken of in the above sentence, which was written 
 fourteen years ago, has already taken place. The people, no 
 longer dreading the warlike incursions of neighbouring rajahs, 
 and secured against fl.agrant oppression by the watchful super- 
 
 * Colonel Sleeman's •' Rambles and Recollections of an Indian OflScial." 
 
312 India. 
 
 vision of the English Residents,* are every year extending the 
 cultivation of the soil, reclaiming waste land, and more and 
 more turning their attention to agriculture and useful indus- 
 try, instead of war and robbery — two pursuits which formerly 
 gave constant occupation to a large number of the population. 
 The first effect has always been to occasion great discontent 
 among a large and powerful class, namely, the predatory chief- 
 tains and their feudal followers ; but in a few years these mur- 
 murs cease, and general peace, plenty, and prosperity, with a 
 rise in the value of property, resulting from the security of its 
 tenure, testify to the good effects of the change. 
 
 In the afternoon we walked into the town, which, although 
 very populous, is a mere collection of mud-hovels, traversed 
 by narrow and dirty streets. The fort, contaming the palace, 
 is situated on one side of the town, upon an elevation of 
 ground. It is a very extensive and exceedingly strong for- 
 tification. The moat is broad and deep, the walls thick and 
 lofty. There are two lines of defence, formed of stone and 
 earth respectively. 
 
 This place sustained two sieges from the Enghsh — the first 
 in 1804, under Lord Lake, the second in 1826, under Lord 
 Cambermere. The attack by Lord Lake was occasioned by 
 the Rajah having taken side with the Maharattas, who took 
 refuge in this place. Lord Cambermere's attack was in behalf 
 of the Rajah, who had become an ally of the British, and 
 whose throne had been usurped by one of his relations. 
 
 In both sieges, the defences of earth proved a most formi- 
 dable obstacle. Cannon were found wholly ineffective against 
 them, as the balls buried themselves without doing injury; 
 and tedious mining operations had to be resorted to before 
 the place was taken. The garrison resisted vigourously, espe- 
 cially during the first siege, when the loss of life was so great, 
 in storming the walls, that the British army was almost re- 
 pulsed. The earthworks are now in great want of repair, but 
 enough remains perfect to show how formidable they must 
 once have been. 
 
 * " Residents" — the title of the Enghsh Agents of the Honourable Com- 
 pany at the courts of native princes. 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 313 
 
 The Rajah's palace, situated within the fort, is of redstone, 
 whitewashed. It possesses no architectural merit, being 
 merely a great square building, four or five stories high, with 
 marble pavilions on the roof. We were not allowed to enter, 
 but did not much regret our exclusion. There are in the city- 
 one or two other palaces of similar construction, inhabited by 
 the Rajah's relatives. 
 
 We walked around the walls of the fort, admiring the 
 beauty of the country, which is principally owing to the fine 
 groves of old trees ; and the very great fertifity of the soil, 
 which is all alluvial, and overflowed every year, as I have 
 described when speaking of Futtehpoor Seekree. 
 
 The fortifications were dismantled, but there were still a 
 few cannon remaming. They were of immense size, but of 
 ridiculously small bore. 
 
 When we had made the circuit of the fort, we descended, 
 and passed out of one of the gateways, which had bronze 
 doors of great size, and very finely decorated with carved 
 work. 
 
 Crossing the bridge over the moat, we returned to the 
 bungalow, first going over several large mud fortifications, 
 now deserted, but showing, like the large fort, that there were 
 Todlebens in Central India, before Sebastopol was thought of. 
 
 We had intended to make an excursion to Deeg, a j^lace 
 twenty miles distant, which is the summer residence of the 
 Bhurtpoor Rajahs. It contains several fine buildings; and 
 gardens, which; with the pavilions they contain are, I should 
 fancy, the finest in India. However, finding that we could 
 get no conveyances but camels, and that it would delay us at 
 least a day, we gave it up. 
 
 Deeg was the scene of a great battle, in 1804, between the 
 English and Maharattas. The loss of the English was two- 
 ninths'*^ of their whole force — a very large proportion, but not 
 greater than that sustained by them in many other engage- 
 ments in India. These great losses are not to be attributed 
 to what is called " a hard-fought field," but to the habit of the 
 
 * Even in the battle of "Waterloo, the English loss was only one in six ; 
 and that is a very large proportion for a European battle. 
 
 14 
 
314 India. 
 
 English soldiers of dashing up to the enemies' batteries, in the 
 face of a deadly and rapid fire, (for natives are among the 
 best artilleiymen in the world,) and carrying the guns at the 
 point of the bayonet, thus finishing the battle at a single 
 stroke ; for the natives do not long resist after their guns 
 are taken, and generally disperse as soon as they are brought 
 to close quarters. . 
 
 N'ot being able to go to Deeg, we spent an hour or so of 
 the morning at the Rajah's menagerie, where there were a 
 number of animals, among others, two giraffes, m large bam- 
 boo cages. We could not learn were these came from. A 
 number of game-cocks and fighting quails were kept in the* 
 menagerie, the combats of these birds being a favourite amuse- 
 ment of native princes. The keejDers set some of the quails at 
 each other, without spurs, but it seemed poor sport, as one of 
 the combatants y,^as sure to' run away after the first en- 
 counter. 
 
 We also got up wrestling and boxing-matches among the 
 boys, by offering rewards for the best performers. The 
 Avrestling was exceedingly good, as it is everywhere a favour- 
 ite exercise among the supple Hindoos ; but the boxing did 
 not succeed. The first blow in the face made the receiver 
 whimper, and the " set-to" was so evidently a sham, that we 
 withheld the promised reward. 
 
 We dined at eight in the evening, and started at midnight 
 for Bosawur, thirty-seven miles to the westward. 
 
 On awaking, the next morning, we got out of our dhoolees, 
 and walked eight or nine miles. The country generally ap- 
 peared fertile and well cultivated, and the path by which we 
 were travelling (for we had left the road, in order to make a 
 short cut,) was bordered by well-tilled fields, and orchards of 
 trees, bearing a fruit like the plum. Although this was the 
 general character of the country, yet we passed through sev- 
 eral miles of jungul, upon which we saw a very large herd of 
 deer. They were, like all wild animals in India, not at all shy, 
 and let us approach quite near, but not near enough to be 
 within range of our smooth-bore guns. 
 
 During this journey we often regretted not having a rifle 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. 3i_j 
 
 in the party, as we might without any trouble have shot 
 a deer ahnost every day, which would have been no bad 
 thing in a country where chicken and goat's flesh is the only 
 meat procurable ; and even that not always to be had. 
 
 Before reaching Bosawur, we came in sight of some hills, 
 the view of which, although they were distant, was a great 
 relief after the monotonous dead-level of Northern India. In 
 fact, we were now entering a hilly region, in wiiich we may 
 be said to have continued all the way down to Bombay, for 
 although we frequently marched for days together over broad 
 and perfectly leA^el plains, yet, even there, there was almost 
 always a mountain or range of hills visible upon the horizon to 
 remind us of what we had come through, and of what we had 
 still to pass. 
 
 We arrived at Bosawur dak-bungalow at two in the after- 
 noon, and ordered hreahfast^ to the great astonishment of 
 Khansahma??-, who had never heard of taking that meal in the 
 afternoon. 
 
 After breakfast, we took a walk in the town of Bosawur, 
 w^hich is small and dirty. The houses are almost all mere 
 mud-huts, and the streets narrow, unpaved, and filthy. How- 
 ever, having nothing better to do, we wandered all over the 
 place, and finally came upon a native distillery, a very rude 
 establishment under a thatched shed. A crowd of natives 
 accompanied us in our walk, and we treated them to as much 
 liquor as they could drink. The liquor is a kind of whiskey 
 made of wheat, and is only used by the poorer classes. They 
 drink it unmixed with water, and in incredible quantities. 
 The price is fabulously low. 
 
 We- got dinner about half-past nine, and left at m'idnight for 
 Manpoor, distant four-and-twenty miles. 
 
 Our walk on the morning of the i8th was again interesting. 
 The country was hilly, and perfectly barren. jSTumerous 
 travellers passed us on foot, on camels, on horseback, or in 
 bullock-carts. They all treated us with the greatest respect, 
 and saluted us with courteous salams. 
 
 Just before arriving at Manpoor, we crossed a broad sandy 
 nitllah^ or river's bed. A little wav off v>'e saw a herd of sev- 
 
2i6 India. 
 
 eral hundred antelopes. They let us approach until we got 
 within a hundred and twenty yards, and then trotted slowly 
 off. I fired, notwithstanding, but with no other effect than 
 causing them all to leap up eight or ten feet into the air, and 
 then make off at full gallop. 
 
 We reached the bungalow at noon, and after breakfast 
 walked into Manpoor, which is a walled village, though very 
 small. 
 
 This was the first walled village we had met, but from this 
 point, almost every place which we saw, however insignificant, 
 was defended by mud walls and ditches. Until within a few 
 years, such defences were absolutely necessary. They wei'e 
 used to protect the inhabitants, sometimes against invading 
 armies, sometimes against organized bands of robbers, but 
 oftener against the freebooting incursions of neighbouring 
 rajahs, and not unfrequently against the agents of their own 
 ruler. The existence of these fortifications, so entirely dis- 
 proportionate to the size of the places which they protect, is a 
 striking proof of the perfect lawlessness which must have pre- 
 vailed in these countries until quite recent times. At the 
 present day, they are mostly falling gradually to ruin. In 
 fact, they are no longer needed. The omnipresent arm of the 
 East India Company protects the inhabitants in the enjoyment 
 of their fives and property, far better than any defences which 
 they can erect ; and peace and prosperity now reign where 
 marauding incursions, bloodshed, robbery, and devastation 
 were formerly matters of constant occurrence. 
 
 Within the walls, Manpoor was a wretched collection of 
 mud huts. We entered several Hindoo temples, the courts 
 of which were decorated on the inner side with fresco' repre- 
 sentations of mythological scenes, painted in very bright 
 colours. We were obliged to take off our shoes before enter- 
 ing these temples. 
 
 Another object of interest was a yogee^ or Hindoo religious 
 mendicant. He was a youth of about twenty years, entirely 
 naked, smeared with mud and cow-dung, and altogether one 
 of the most disgusting beings I ever set my eyes on ; still, the 
 inhabitants seemed to treat him with great veneration. 
 
Agra to Jalpoor. 017 
 
 We were followed in our walk by sixty or eighty boys and 
 young men, and when we left the village, the people crowded 
 along the ramparts to see us off; the great interest and cu- 
 riosity which our appearance excited showing evidently that 
 we had come to a country where Europeans are seldom seen. 
 
 We left Manpoor about midnight for Buranah, twenty-eight 
 miles off, and next morning, January 19th, after an early 
 breakfast on the road, of ham and eggs, biscuits and coffee, 
 we made our way through a barren and rocky tract of country 
 to Buranah dak-bungalow — which we reached at half-past two 
 in the afternoon. 
 
 Just before arriving, we passed a zemindar, making a j^il- 
 grimage to the shrine of Juggurnath, on the eastern coast of 
 India, south of Calcutta. He was travelling in a bailee, or 
 bullock-cart, shaded with a canopy of scarlet cloth. His train 
 was very numerous, and comprised several well-armed men, a 
 large number of servants and camels, horses and bullocks. 
 The zemindar was a fine-looking, fat old fellow, but being a 
 Hindoo, did not think it worth while to salam to us. 
 
 Arrived at the dak-bungalow, we did not get anything to 
 eat till four in the afternoon, and by the time we had finished 
 breakfast it was so late that we gave up our usual walk through 
 the village, and went out with a gun instead, to get some 
 breakfast for the next day. We succeeded in bagging some 
 ducks, pigeons, and a peacock. At ten in the evening, we 
 dined, and about midnight left for a thirty miles' march to 
 Jaipoor. 
 
 At eight on the following morning, we took breakfast out- 
 side a village, the whole public of which came out to look at 
 us, and squatted around our j^alkees in admiring circles. 
 While the bacon and eggs were being cooked by our servant 
 over a fire of sticks built on the road, we took our guns and 
 shot a great many pigeons, which afterwards did us good 
 service at Jaipoor, where we could get scarcely anything to 
 eat. 
 
 After breakfast we walked for about ten miles. The country 
 was again jungul, but we occasionally passed villages, around 
 which the ground was cultivated, and seemed productive. The 
 
3i8 India. 
 
 road was covered with people. We passed many travellers 
 with escorts, and bullock-carts conveying merchandize east- 
 ward. We now began to notice, what is a striking feature in 
 Rajpootana, namely, almost every man is armed with a sword, 
 and many with a shield and spear in addition. This custom, 
 which is common to all states under native rule, and is par- 
 ticularly noticeable in Oude, arises from the insufficient pro- 
 tection to life afforded by native governments. In the Com- 
 pany's dominions it has almost disappeared. 
 
 About ten o'clock we came in sight of a high range of hills, 
 beyond which the town of Jaipoor is situated. By one o'clock 
 we entered the pass, where the road is very good, and the 
 scenery exceedingly picturesque, as the sides of the pass are 
 steep and the hills well wooded and green. 
 
 We stopped the palkees near the entrance of the defile, and 
 visited a large Hindoo temple and gardens belonging to a 
 thakoor,^^ who has a country seat here. The buildings are 
 all of white marble and well worth a visit. 
 
 After walking for a quarter of a mile further, we came to a 
 country palace of the Rajah, which we entered, and saw the 
 gardens, and two large and handsome temples of Parbutee, 
 who is represented by a hideous black doll, with a necklace of 
 bleeding heads. The whole establishment is very extensive, 
 reaching, with the gardens, more than half a mile on each 
 side of the road. Free use had been made of the beautiful 
 white marble for which Jaipoor is so famous, and which was 
 conveyed on carts from this place to Agra and Delhi, for the 
 construction of the Taj, and other architectural monuments 
 of those cities. 
 
 The road led for about half a mile further through the pass, 
 and soon after emerging upon the plain we came in sight of 
 Jaipoor, the extent and beauty of which much surprised us. 
 
 The city of Jaipoor, which was built by Kajah Jai Singh, 
 less than one hundred and fifty years ago, is situated in the 
 midst of a beautiful plain, eight or ten miles broad, and com- 
 pletely enclosed by lofty hills, the crests of which are crowned 
 
 * ThaJcoor, a name given in Eajpootana to the great vassals ; elsewhere 
 called jagheerdars, or zemindars. 
 
Agra to Jaipoor. ^IQ 
 
 by a long fortilied wall, with tovrers at intervals. The town 
 is more than a mile square, and surrounded by lofty walls of 
 red sandstone, above which appear the marble v/alls of the 
 palace, several domes, and a tall, square minar. Outside the 
 walls are fine groves which give shelter to caravans of travel- 
 lers, and on two sides the suburbs extend for some distance 
 beyond the limits of the city proper. The situation of Jaipoor 
 far surpassed in picturesqueness and beauty that of any other 
 city which I saw in India. 
 
 About five o'clock we arrived at the dak-bungalow, which 
 is about a mile from the town. In the evening vre had a call 
 from a young lieutenant in the Bombay army, stationed at 
 Jaipoor in command of a company of Bombay sepoys, who 
 formed the Resident's guard. The Resident himself was ab- 
 sent, but this gentleman promised to get us elephants for the 
 next day. 
 
CHAPTEE XXYII. 
 
 J A I P E. 
 
 Elephants— Beauty of the City — A Beautiful Temple — The Zenana and Palace — Its 
 Kooms — Novel Stairways — View from Eoof— A Court — Eevenue Department — The 
 English Eesident sitting Cross-legged on the Floor — Dewan Khas — Sitringees — 
 Native Furniture— Curtain-ladies — A Lovely Character — Palace Gardens — His 
 Highness' Toys — " Composite Architecture " — Native College — Marriage Nach — 
 Observatory — Palace in Lake — Palaces of Ummeer — Splendid Yiew — Tiffin in the Ee- 
 ception Court — Bishop Ileber's Praises of the Palace — BazAr of Jaipoor — History of 
 Jaipoor. 
 
 The following morning two fine elephants with howdahs^ 
 scarlet jhools, or trappings, and several attendants and sjDear- 
 men, took lis to view the sights of the place. On entering the 
 gate we were surprised Iby the breadth and splendour of the 
 principal street, used as a bazar, and extending in a straight 
 line through the town from gate to gate. It is crossed in the 
 centre by another similar street, dividing the city in the oppo- 
 site direction. At the point of junction is a broad square, 
 having in the centre a marble tank. One side of this square 
 is occupied by the Rajah's palace, which, with its gardens and 
 courts, occupies one-sixth of the town. 
 
 Jaipoor, having been all built by one man, presents a regu- 
 larity and uniformity of design unusual in Indian cities. The 
 houses are generally two stories high, but those on the two 
 great streets have three and even four stories. The material 
 is commonly white-washed pukka, the style of architecture 
 quite Moosulman, and the houses are decorated in front with 
 ornamental windows and stone balconies, which are often finely 
 carved. The whole population of Jaipoor must be nearly a 
 hundred thousand, almost exclusively Hindoos. 
 
 The first object visited by us was a small but very rich tem- 
 ple in a side street. It was entirely buUt of white and beauti- 
 fully polished marble, the interior being richly decorated with 
 
Jaipoor. ^21 
 
 bright colours and gilding. Under a graceful and elaborately 
 carved marble canopy was the idol, a diminutive black doll, in a 
 long dress of rich brocade. This was Parbutee, the incarnation 
 of all the most inhuman and barbarous qualities of the Hindoo 
 gods. Throughout the Rajpoot states, her worship seems 
 largely to have supplanted the Phallic worship) of her consort 
 SecAva, who is the most popular deity in the rest of India. 
 
 Leaving the temple, we went through one of the principal 
 streets before described, along the wall of the zenana, which 
 extends for half a mile from the palace. In one of the courts 
 of the zenana rises a lofty square minar of stone, used, I be- 
 lieve, as a watch-tower, and being one of the most conspicuous 
 objects in the city, as it is visible from every part of the plain 
 around the town. 
 
 At the end of the zenana we came to the palace, which pre- 
 sents to the square a lofty front, sevei) or eight stories high, 
 flanked by two towers wdiich rise above the roof, and are 
 topped by marble kiosks. The architecture, like that of the 
 city, is impure Moosulman, the arches being flattened and 
 cusped. 
 
 Within the palace we were led through numerous apart- 
 ments, which, like those of all other Indian palaces, were very 
 small, though much decorated. The walls of one of the rooms 
 were entirely covered with little looking-glasses, embedded in 
 a sort of cement, which at a distance looked like frosted silver. 
 The whole reminded me of the " Sheesh Maliul " in the fort 
 of Agra. Our guide, one of the Rajah's servants, evidently 
 considered this room the gem of the palace, and asked us if 
 there w^ere such another in Europe ; to which question we 
 answered, much to his satisfaction, that' there was not. 
 
 The difierent stories of this palace were approached, not b} 
 stairs, but by inclined planes, similar to those by which the 
 visitor ascends to the roof of St. Peter's church at Rome. 
 
 From the top of the palace, or rather from one of the mar- 
 ble pavilions upon the roof, we had a magnificent view of the 
 city, with its numerous palaces, temples and domes, the slender 
 minars of a mosque, and the rows of fine buildings on the 
 great streets, all of the purest white. The square and bazars 
 
 14^ 
 
322 India. 
 
 were filled with busy and f)ictiiresquely-dressed crowds ; be- 
 yond the walls we could see the suburbs, and the broad groves 
 which surround the city ; further off were lakes, with palaces 
 upon islands in their midst, and the scene was bounded by the 
 circle of hills, and the long lines of defensible walls. The 
 whole yiew was so striking that we remained gazing for half 
 an hour, and only descended because we were pressed foi* 
 time. 
 
 Having descended from the roof, we were led through sev- 
 eral low and dark passages, and finally reached an open court, 
 one half of which was occupied by a marble portico, raised 
 uj^on a chubootra of the same material. This was used as a 
 cutchurree,^ or court. The judge sat upon a carpet close to 
 the wall, and was undistinguished from the crowds of natives 
 squatted around him, except that he was smoking a hookah, 
 which is, in Indian courts of justice, a privilege conceded only 
 to the sitting magistrate. The open space below the chuboo- 
 tra was crowded with a motley throng of suitors and spectators. 
 
 The next court which we saw was larger, but similarly ar- 
 ranged. The portico was appropriated to the revenue depart-* 
 ment, and the floor was occupied by over fifty clerks, writing 
 upon narrow shps of paperf which they rested on one knee. 
 Several of the older oflicials in these courts wore the old Raj- 
 poot j)ugree (turban), which is narrow, high, and bent back 
 from the head. It is now but little used, most of the inhabi- 
 tants wearing the small low jaunty turban of Hindoostan. 
 
 From this court we proceeded to the Dewan Khas, or hall of 
 private audience, where the Maharajah is accustomed to hold 
 Durbar, and receive his high functionaries and vassals. On 
 these occasions the Resident is accommodated Tvith a seat on 
 
 * This designation is also applied to the courts of the European magistrates 
 in the Company's dominions, and is generally spelt cutcherry. 
 
 f Native paper (kaghuz) is very thick and brittle, made, I believe, of some 
 woody fibre. It is very expensive. The ink is merely soot and water thick- 
 ened with gum. It can be easily washed off— a circumstance often taken ad- 
 vantage of in inconvenient treaties or contracts. The pen (kullum cf. 
 calamus) is made of a sort of reed, and writes very well, being stronger and 
 more durable than a quUl, though not so fine. 
 
Jaipoor. 323 
 
 the floor, since the Rajah has not, like many of the other na- 
 tive princes, become so Anglicized as to use chairs/^ 
 
 The D ewan Khas consists of a marble platform raised five 
 steps from the pavement of the com*t. It is covered vnih a 
 roof of polished white marble, supported by columns and 
 arches of the same material. It is about eighty feet square 
 and open on all sides to the court, which is of considerable 
 size, paved, and surrounded by the buildings of the palace, 
 which are five stories hio-h and of red sandstone. On two 
 sides of the court the palace front has on every story broad 
 verandahs, arched in front, and lined with white marble. 
 
 We went through one of these buildings, the rooms of 
 which, like those of the other j^alace, were all small but richly 
 decorated. The windows were formed by small panes of 
 stained glass, said to be Venetian, inserted in slabs of marble 
 openwork. As in all native apartments, there was no furni- 
 ture, but several of the rooms contained sitringees, or quilts 
 of scarlet cotton cloth wadded, which are spread over the floor 
 for the guests to sit on when the rooms are used. These form 
 the whole furniture of a native sitting-room, there being no 
 tables or chairs. The bed-rooms contain only a low puUun, 
 or bedstead, which is taken out during the day into a court. 
 These peculiarities of native habits make the rooms in all the 
 palaces look as desolate and deserted as the abandoned palaces 
 of Agra and Futtehpoor Seekree. 
 
 * Chinese sit on chairs, but natives of India never do, except when they 
 have acquired the habit from Europeans. "When they sit on the ground, they 
 squat in such a way that the legs are doubled, the soles of the feet are flat on 
 the groiind, and the knees touch the chin. In fact they sit upon their heels. 
 This position is quite impossible to a white man, but is very favourite with the 
 supple Hindoos. The lower classes are particularly fond of perching in this 
 way upon a wall, when they look exactly like monkeys. The upper classes, 
 or those who sit on carpets, often cross their legs like Turks, but more gener- 
 ally kneel down, and sit upon the ground with the legs slightly spread and 
 bent backwards. This position, also, is impossible for a white man. But 
 perhaps the most common position is to kneel down, and sit upon the lower 
 part of the legs, the insteps touching the ground. The only substitutes for 
 chairs ever used by the natives are very low stools, which they sit upon in 
 the mode above described. A few ^Mahommedan piinces had thrones, wl^ch 
 were always very high, and intended to be used in the same way. 
 
324 India. 
 
 Each suite of apartments is entered by a strong and heavy 
 wooden door, with a massive lock of the rudest construction, 
 looking as if it had been copied from a prison-door of the Mid- 
 dle ages. The arched jjassages between the separate apart- 
 ments of the suite are, however, closed only by a purdah, or 
 wadded curtain, or sometimes by a cliih^ a sort of blind of 
 bamboo shreds, so arranged that those loithin can see out, 
 whereas those on the outside cannot see in. From this cus- 
 tom comes the expression applied to the ladies of the zenana, 
 '' purdah ke undur," within the purdah, i. e. on the inside of 
 the curtain which separates the zenana from the public apart- 
 ments ; and hence, also, women of rank are called purdah-bee- 
 bia?i, or curtain-ladies. 
 
 We were particularly struck with one room in this part of tlie 
 palace. Its walls were of v/hite marble, decorated with car- 
 ving, gilding and painting, in a style elaborate beyond belief. 
 Some of the panels contained paintings of various deities, and 
 among them one of Bhowanee, the patroness of the Thugs, 
 She is the same as Parbutee, two of whose temples I have 
 described. Bhowanee was represented as a naked black 
 female figure, wearing around her neck a necklace of human 
 heads, bleeding. She had ten arms, with two of which she 
 was tearing a baby in j^ieces. In another hand she held half 
 of a man's body. The other half she had eaten, and her jaws 
 dripped with the blood. A fourth hand was bearing an ele- 
 phant and its rider to her liuge red mouth, glittering with a 
 row of sharp, projecting tusks. This amiable character is 
 supposed to smile a thousand years at the death of a single 
 man slain in her honor. She is the patroness, and receives 
 the homage of the Thugs and Dukoits, classes of professional 
 robbers and murderers, who look upon the crimes which they 
 commit as a religious duty, and who were fearfully numerous 
 throughout India, until the great and successful efforts made 
 during the present century by the Honourable Company for 
 their suppression. 
 
 This room overlooked the Gardens, to which we next de- 
 scended, after swinging for a few minutes in a swing with a 
 cushioned seat suspended by silken cords from the roof of one 
 of the verandahs. 
 
Jaipoor. 325 
 
 The gardens were extensive, laid out in Italian style, and 
 well cared for. The alleys were paved with marble, and bor- 
 dered by rows of trees. In the middle of the pavement was a 
 marble canal, down which a stream of water, recruited at in- 
 tervals by fountains, ran, to irrigate the various beds and 
 grass-plots. There were several marble fish-ponds, and jets 
 dPecm^ and graceful pavilions, terraces, and kiosks of white 
 marble were distributed through the grounds. 
 
 Having now seen all that we were allowed to, and a great 
 deal more than we could have seen had not the Rajah been 
 absent at one of his country residences, we prepared to leave 
 the palace. Before doing so, however, we stopped in a sort 
 of lumber room on the ground floor. Here we found a collec- 
 tion of the most curious and dissimilar things that can be 
 imagined. A model steam engine, an electric machine, a go- 
 cart, saddles, old guns — in short, all the broken and used up 
 toys of the Rajah. A native, seated by a table was repairing 
 a French musical box, and upon the same table lay half a 
 dozen valuable watches of English and Genevan construction, 
 some of them enamelled, and all of them, as the workman said, 
 the property of the Sircar,* who had been i^leased to break 
 them. 
 
 "We next went to see a new palace which is building for the 
 Rajah, next door to the old one. The new building is of red- 
 stone, and will be of great size, but was only completed as far 
 as the first story. It was designed by a pundit high in the 
 Rajah's service, who undertook to gratify a desire of his master 
 for a residence " in the English style." Accordingly he read 
 up some English works on architecture, and selected whatever 
 he considered desirable. The full efiect of the result of his 
 studies could not be seen in the building itself on account of 
 its incomplete state, but we were shown a plaster model, pre- 
 senting the most extraordinary combination of the Grecian, 
 Roman, and Gothic styles. When finished it will look as Mr. 
 Russell, the " Tbnes' " correspondent says of the Martiniere 
 
 * Sircar — i. e. Sovereign. In Calcutta, the upper servant, wiio makes the 
 purchases, is so called. 
 
326 India. 
 
 at LucknoWj " as if it were the result of a competitive exam- 
 ination of mad architects." 
 
 We now again mounted the elephant and went through the 
 streets of the town, passing many fine houses belonging to 
 thakoors and other great men. 
 
 Keturning to the principal square, we visited the college, a 
 large building opposite the palace. "We were too late to see 
 the students, but went through the lecture-rooms, the walls 
 of which were hung with good maps and mathematical dia- 
 grams, published in England, but having the names of the 
 countries and other words and letters in Sanscrit characters. 
 The back part of the college is devoted to a temple, which is 
 a feature in all palaces and large edifices of Hindoo construc- 
 tion. 
 
 After visiting the college, we went home on the elephants, 
 passing a large menagerie of tigers and leopards belonging to 
 the Rajah, to whom also belonged a number of animals of the 
 deer kind, that we saw in enclosures around the city. On the 
 way home we stojDped for a few minutes to see a marriage-nach 
 in the open air. The young couple were laden with finery, 
 and sat upon a carpet. The relatives and friends of the family 
 in their best dresses squatted around, forming a circle about 
 the nach girls. Outside stood the general public. As soon as 
 the nach girls saw that we stopped, they turned round and 
 began singing a song in our honour — a proceeding that very 
 much disgusted the bridal party. Making the girls a present 
 of two rupees, and receiving their low salams, we took our 
 departure and returned to the dak-bungalow, where we dined 
 and passed the night. 
 
 The next day, we again mounted the elephants and went to 
 a place called Ummeer, three miles from Jaipoor, at one end of 
 the valley in which the latter city is situated. TJmmeer was 
 formerly the capital of this raj, until Jai Sing built the present 
 city called after his name, and transferred to it his capital, 
 about 130 years ago. 
 
 In order to take the Ummeer road we had to pass through 
 the town, and, in so doing, stopped at the palace to see the 
 observatory connected with it, which we had omitted to visit 
 
Jaipoor. 327 
 
 on the previous day. The observatory is a large establishment, 
 contained in a vast unpaved court, but does not merit a 
 description here, being very similar to those at Benares and 
 Delhi — all these having been founded by Jai Singh. 
 
 The road to Ummeer was very interesting, being bordered 
 on each side by a succession of groves, country-houses, and 
 beautiful gardens containing pavilions of redstone and white 
 marble. 
 
 About a mile from Jaipoor, we passed a large lake, upon an 
 artificial island in the midst of which, was built a white mar- 
 ble palace, surrounded by gardens and terraces — the whole 
 much larger and more beautiful than the famous " Isola Bella" 
 in the Lago Maggiore. 
 
 Ummeer is situated in a narrow gorge, at the head of the 
 valley. A lake occupies the lowest ground, and around it are 
 the ruins of the city, which must have been once a large place. 
 The only perfect buildings which remain, are several temples 
 of a hard grey stone, very elaborately sculptured. But the 
 principal objects are the palaces and fort, three immense lines of 
 buildings on the steep side of the hill. The lowest of the three 
 was four hundred feet above the lake. The fort, which is the 
 oldest and strongest, was perched on the very crest of the 
 hill, and the third palace was half way between the other two. 
 
 We were not allowed to visit the two higher forts, on the 
 usual i^lea of there being a zenana there, but the lower palace, 
 over which we were conducted, surprised us greatly by its 
 extent and beauty. The architecture and general arrange- 
 ment were similar to those of most of the palaces Avhich I 
 saw. There were the same broad courts of reception, the 
 same long ranges of small, but elaborately decorated rooms, 
 the same beautiful little garden courts with marble fountains 
 and arched marble porticoes, the same delicately carved balco- 
 nies ; but from these latter we got such a view as I did not sec 
 elsewhere in India. The valley is here narrow and dark, the 
 hills are steep, rugged, and thickly wooded ; at the bottom 
 lies the lake surrounded by gardens and temples. Where the 
 valley closes on the left, are the solemn grey ruins of the old 
 city ; its opening on the right shows you the green valley of 
 
328 
 
 India. 
 
 Jaipoor, the lake and palaces ; and far in the distance the city 
 itself, with its minar and domes, shines white over the dark- 
 green groves which surround it. 
 
 The view was intrinsically striking and picturesque ; the 
 romance of the locality and its architectural features gave it 
 an additional charm ; but no one who has not travelled as 
 we had for months, over the bare dead level of northern 
 India, can appreciate the unalloyed enjoyment with which we 
 gazed upon the scene. 
 
 The Dewan Am is one of the most striking features of the 
 building. It is a very large square platform of white marble, 
 open on one side to a great court, and on the other looking 
 out upon the valley. It is covered by a heavy white marble 
 roof, supported on low square pillars, without arches ; the 
 absence of which, and the massiveness of the roof, gave the 
 architecture a very Hindoo air. We found a sitringee in the 
 building, and sitting down upon it, took lunch and a bottle of 
 beer, after which one of the party read aloud Bishop Heber's 
 description of the building, in the laudations of which we all 
 concurred. It concludes thus : — " The carving in stone and 
 marble, and the inlaid flowers and ornaments in some of these 
 apartments, are equal to those at Delhi and Agra, and only 
 surpassed by the beauties of the Taj Mahul. My companions, 
 none of whom had visited TJmmeer before, all declared that, as 
 a whole, it was superior to the Castle at Delhi. For myself, I 
 have seen many royal palaces containing larger and more 
 stately rooms, many, the architecture of which is in finer 
 taste, and some which cover a greater extent of ground, 
 (though in this^ if the fortress on the hill be included, TJmmeer 
 will rank, I think, above Windsor,) but for varied and pic- 
 turesque effect, for richness of carving, for wild beauty of 
 situation, for the number and romantic singularity of its 
 apartments, and the strangeness of finding such a building in 
 such a 23lace and country, I am able to compare nothing with 
 Ummeer. " 
 
 After our tiffin we visited a small and dirty temj^le, the floor 
 of which was stained with the blood of sacrificed goats. Three 
 or four dirty Brahmuns, who were squatted on the ground. 
 
Jalpoor. 329 
 
 humming their poorans* in a monotonous voice, scowled at 
 us as we entered. We found there was nothing to see, and 
 as this was the last sight of the palace, we went out of the 
 gate and descended the hill by a steep carriage road paved 
 with blocks of redstone. The road passes under two large 
 archways belonging to two separate lines of fortification for 
 the protection of the palace. 
 
 At the bottom of the hill we found our elephants, and re- 
 turned upon them to Jaipoor. The road varied slightly from 
 the one by which we had come, and passed through a grove, 
 the trees of which were perfectly full of monkeys. There are 
 plenty of these animals and peacocks in all the country about 
 Jaipoor, but in this place it really seemed as if there were not 
 room for one more. 
 
 On our return to Jaipoor we walked through the bazar to 
 make a few purchases, preceded by the spearmen and other 
 servants, and followed by our elephants and a large miscella- 
 neous and admiring public. We noticed in the streets several 
 tame leo^^ards tied to bed-posts, to accustom them to the sight 
 of men. They were not chained or muzzled, and played like 
 cats with their keepers. 
 
 We returned to the dak-bungalow late in the evening, and 
 getting through dinner about midnight, started at one o'clock 
 in the morning for Bugroo. 
 
 A few jDarticulars with regard to the history of Jaipoor may 
 not be out of place here. The Kajahs of Jaipoor were once the 
 wealthiest and most powerful of all the rulers of Rajasthan, or 
 Rajpootana. Their revenue was a cror of rupees, or a mihion 
 of pounds sterling annually. Although nominally subjects of 
 the court of Delhi, their position and power always enabled 
 them to maintain a virtual independence. Their prosperity 
 
 * Foorans. — A word derived from the Hindee poorana, signifying old. It 
 is applied to all the sacred writings of the Hindoos ; but in a narrower sense 
 is sometimes confined to the later writings. Although these last were writ- 
 ten between the eighth and sixteenth centuries of our era, and are a mass of 
 as absurd, incredible and contradictory fables as were ever got together, yet 
 they are now regarded by the Brahmuns as of equal age and authenticity with 
 the Yedas, and are almost exclusively studied. 
 
330 India. 
 
 may be judged of from the great works executed by Jai 
 Singh,: the four observatories, the palaces, and the city. This 
 prosperity was blighted by the conquests of the Maharattas. 
 The thakoors took advantage of the disturbances to revolt, and 
 were continually engaged in feuds and in predatory excursions 
 which stripped the unfortunate inhabitants of the little left 
 them by the bands of Pindarrees, a nation of robbers wlio 
 devastated the country as each year came round. The power 
 of the Rajah was almost extinct, and his revenue was reduced 
 to almost nothing. In his despair he applied to the British, 
 who reinstated him in his dominions and restored order. 
 After his death, one of his wives assumed the government, 
 and administered it so badly, rejecting the authority and 
 counsel of the English Resident, that when Bishop Hebei* 
 visited the place, she had nearly lost all authority over the 
 thakoors, who were resuming their old practices, and tlie 
 country was fast relapsing into a state of anarchy which would 
 encourage a renewed invasion of Maharattas. Subsequently, 
 however, British influence again became predominant, public 
 confidence and prosperity were restored, peace at home and 
 security against foreign invasion were guaranteed by their 
 power, and when I visited Jaipoor the authority of the Rajah's 
 government was recognized throughout his territories and his 
 revenue was steadily growing to something like its old pro- 
 portions. 
 
CHAPTEE XXYIIL 
 
 RAJPOOTANA — "THE COUNTRY OF PRINCES.'' 
 
 Bugroo — Peacock Shooting — Tliakoor's House — Dhoodoo — Superstition about Wells — 
 Jain Tenijile — Kisliinghur — Visit from Baboo — Ilajah's Palace — Excitement of the 
 Public — A Dancing Elephant — Iload to Ajmeer — Scenery — Dress and Manners of 
 Eajpoots — A Providential Rencontre — Fort of Ajmeer — Shrine of the Saint — Euins 
 of a Hindoo Palace — Xusseerabad — Bombay Sepoys — The Shop of a Fire-worshi[)per 
 — Bunai — Hindoo Cooking — The Fortress — A Native Huntsman — Dablali — Filial 
 Grief — Bunaira — Eemarkable Castle — Eoad to Ummeerghur — Cheap Meat — The Day 
 ofEest. 
 
 On the morning of January 230!. we arrived at Bugroo dak- 
 bungalow. It is situated on a vast and barren plain with 
 nothing in sight but a garden of large trees a quarter of a mile 
 behind the bungalow. After breakfast we went out and shot 
 a good many pigeons, as well as some peacocks which we 
 found in the trees of the garden. The latter are easy to kill, 
 and looked like meteors as they caine tumbling down to earth 
 through the leaves and branches of the trees. 
 
 In the afternoon we took a Avalk through the village, which 
 is about half a mile behind the garden. We found it a mere 
 collection of mud huts, the inliabitants of which looked sut- 
 liciently dirty and wretched. In the centre is the residence 
 of the thakoor, surrounded by a moat and fortifications. Tiie 
 town also is surrounded by a high and broad wall of earth. 
 We learned that this thakoor has to pay a tribute of three 
 lakhs ($150,000), in return for which he has the absolute gov- 
 ernment of a largo tract, and rents to probably double that 
 amount. 
 
 The following day we stopped at Dhoodoo, twenty-three 
 miles from Bugroo. This place was also on a plain, with hills 
 
332 India. 
 
 visible on the horizoii. The village was about a quarter of a 
 mile off, surrounded by mud walls, above which was seen the 
 thakoor's residence, a large white building. After breakfast 
 we walked uito the village, which was, like the others, a col- 
 lection of miserable hovels. In the centre was an nnpaved 
 square containing the thakoor's house, which was defended 
 by stone walls and bastions. On the walk back to the bunga- 
 low we passed a fine well going to ruin, and which 'will never 
 again be used, as the water was defiled by a man falling into 
 it and being drowned.^' The country around the village was 
 all cultivated in cotton and tobacco. We saw some deer, and 
 heard of plenty more, but there was no getting a shot at them 
 as our guns were all smooth-bored. In the afternoon we went 
 out to shoot some wild ducks in a pond near by, but the ducks 
 were too wild, and we had to be contented with getting some 
 pigeons. 
 
 Towards evening I walked again into the village with Gib- 
 son and visited a temple of the Jains, a sect which sprang 
 from among the Indian Boodhists when they were persecuted 
 by the Brahmuus. They practised their religion secretly for 
 a long time. ISTow they are quite numerous in some parts of 
 India, and count among their ranks many wealthy men. 
 
 This temple was built of white marble, and consisted of a 
 small court, at one end of which was an arched portico, where 
 were the idols, three in number, under a finely carved canopy. 
 I could see no resemblance in the figures to the statues of 
 Boodh in China. 
 
 At ten in the evening we dined, and at one o'clock the next 
 morning we left Dhoodoo. 
 
 Daylight found us on a desert and rocky plain, with hills 
 not far off, and plenty of deer in sight. We breakfasted be- 
 side a well, and walked to Kishinghur, which was about two 
 
 * A remarkable illustration of this Hindoo prejudice was afforded during 
 the siege of the English and faithful native regiments in the Lucknow Resi- 
 dency. One of the garrison was killed while drawing water, and his body 
 tumbled into the well. From that time the Sepoys of the garrison refused to 
 drink the water, although what could be procured from other sources was in- 
 ferior in quality and uncertain in supply. 
 
Rajpootana. 333 
 
 miles off. The town of Kishinghur is the capital of an inde- 
 pendent native state. It is situated on the banks of a small 
 lake, surrounded by rugged hills, and is fortified by high and 
 strong stone walls. 
 
 In the centre of the town there is a hill about two hundred 
 feet high, on which the Rajah's castle is built. It is surrounded 
 by fortifications, and the space between the foot of the hill 
 and the shore of the lake is laid out as a garden. 
 
 We entered Kishinghur through a very large gate, and 
 walking through the long bazar, passed out on the other side 
 of the town, and found a garden of pomegranate trees beyond 
 the wall, where it is customary for European travellers to put 
 up. In the garden was a stone pavilion where we took up our 
 quarters. A baboo in the Rajah's service soon paid us a visit. 
 He said that his Highness sent his salam and wished to know 
 if he could serve us. We expressed a desire for some provi- 
 sions, and wood for cooking, and also a wish to see the Rajah, 
 They afterward sent us what we had asked for, except meat, 
 which was not procurable ; at the same time we were informed 
 that his Hi2:hnes3 lamented that he would be unable to receive 
 us on account of an indisposition (attributable no doubt to our 
 not being in the Honourable Company's service). The rajah, 
 however, sent us two of his elephants, upon which we visited 
 the town and castle. The latter is quite extensive, and the 
 defences are strong. We were not allowed to enter the pal- 
 ace, which is situated within, so after a w^alk around the ram- 
 parts, from which the view is very picturesque, we descended 
 to the gardens near the lake. These were not well cared for, 
 and after a short walk we got tired of them and crossed in a 
 boat to an island in the lake, on which there were two small 
 summer-houses or pavilions of white marble, very pretty and 
 graceful. 
 
 We afterwards went through the principal streets of the 
 town, w^hich seemed well built, and contained several very 
 fine stone houses. A crowd of at least a hundred idlers and 
 boys followed us all through the town, yelling and shouting, 
 as the street boys of New York would do if a Hindoo Rajah 
 were to drive up Broadway in a sulky. 
 
334 India. 
 
 On our return to our quarters in the garden, we were in- 
 formed that one of the elephants danced and walked on his 
 hind 'legs. Accordingly, we gave orders to have him perform, 
 which he did to our entire satisfaction. The sight of the huge 
 beast walking toward us, with his forelegs in the air, and his 
 trunk raised perpendicularly, was one of those things that are 
 exactly on the boundary line between the sublime and the 
 ridiculous. 
 
 Soon after sunset it began raining very hard, so that it was 
 impossible to think of continuing our journey. "We had our 
 palkees and dhoolees set under the roof of the pavUion, and 
 slept in them that night. 
 
 ISText morning, January 26, the storm was over, and we 
 started at noon for Ajmeer — seventeen miles distant. We 
 walked three-quarters of the way, and found it very pleasant, 
 as there was a delightful breeze blowing. 
 
 The road, which was a mere wagon-track, led among wild 
 and rocky hills, many of which were croT^nied with forts and 
 castles, now deserted. We saw many sheep, and some 
 deer. 
 
 The travellers whom v/e passed were few in number. They 
 wore their beards shaven under the chin, and brushed back 
 towards the ears in the Rajpoot fashion. Their dress was the 
 dhotee, or cotton cloth wrapped around the waist and de- 
 scending in loose folds to the knees. The upper part of the 
 body was covered with a short and tight-fitting jacket. All 
 of them were armed, and had quite a martial look. As they 
 passed us, they did not deign to salute, but looked us full in 
 the face with an insolent stare, which would have been alone 
 sufficient to show us we were no longer in Hindoostan. 
 
 The women wore the old Hindoo dress, the dhotee below 
 the waist, and the saree, or vail, covering the upper part of 
 the body, and falling over the head.* 
 
 * In Hindoostan many of the women wear thick petticoats. The Moosul- 
 manee women wear tight trowsers, with or without a petticoat. As regards 
 man's dress, the pawjama, or trowsers, introduced by the Moosulmans, is 
 v>'om by all of that religion, and sometimes also by Hindoos. All over India 
 
Rajpootana. 335 
 
 We arrived at Ajmeer about eight o'clock in the evening, 
 and were at a loss where to put up, as there was no dak- 
 bungalow. Fortunately, we met the magistrate in a shi- 
 grara,* drawn by a pair of bullocks. He was kind enough 
 to conduct us to an empty bungaloY\% in the use of which, 
 he said, we should not be disturbed. Had we not met the 
 magistrate, I do not know how we could have managed, ex- 
 cept by sleeping in our palkees on the road, and giving up 
 dinner. 
 
 The town of Ajmeer, as well as Xusseerabad, fourteen 
 miles off, where there is a station of troops, belong to the 
 English, and are the first places in the Company's Rajf 
 that we had been in since leaving Futtehj^oor Seekree. 
 
 The bungalow that we occupied had np furniture, so we 
 had our palkees and dhoolees brought into the large central 
 apartment, to be used as beds. Fortunately, we found a table 
 and some chairs in the dining-room, and late at night our ser- 
 vant managed to get us some dinner. 
 
 Next morning we walked into town, a mile and a half. It 
 is situated on the gentle slope of a hill which rises behind the 
 town, steeply, to a great height, and is crowned by a large 
 and very strong fort, now deserted, as are all the hill-forts in 
 the British territories. 
 
 The native princes always fortified their towns and palaces, 
 and many of them, for greater security, built their castles on 
 almost inaccessible crags. This was necessary, not only for 
 protection against external enemies, but also against their 
 own vassals and subjects. This policy, however, was never 
 pursued by the English. Even in places where there were 
 forts of great strength, the English troops were stationed out- 
 side the towns in cantonments, which were not defended by 
 
 Hindoos and Moosulmans are distinguished by the v»^ay in which the double- 
 breasted jacket, or chupkun, is fastened. The Moosulmans invariably tie it 
 on the left side, the Hmdoos, and all other sects, on the right. 
 
 * Shigram. A two-wheeled, covered cart, much used by European ti'avel- 
 lers in the Bombay Presidency. 
 
 f Eaj, i. e., jurisdiction. It is the word from which Rajah, Rajpoot, &c., are 
 formed. 
 
336 India. 
 
 even a wall of earth. The old native strongholds were suf- 
 fered to go to ruin, with the exception of the fort of Delhi, 
 which was kept up by the titular Emperor from his allowance ; 
 and that at Agra, which was preserved and kept in repair, 
 principally as an arsenal, and also as an interesting archi- 
 tectural monument. The forts of Calcutta, Bombay, and 
 Madras, which were constructed by the English, stand on a 
 different footing, as they were intended principally for defence 
 against foreign nations. 
 
 The calm confidence of the English, in thus neglecting all 
 means of defence, produced a most powerful impression on 
 the natives, contrasting, as it did, with the conscious inse- 
 curity of former rulers, who immured themselves in their 
 castles, surrounded themselves with foreign troops, when they 
 could be obtained, and lived, as it were, with the sword always 
 drawn.* 
 
 Ajmeer is a considerable and well-built town, but possesses 
 few objects of interest. We went into a large and fine house, 
 belonging to a banker, in the court-yard of which we found 
 a number of Brahmun cooks preparing the dinner. There 
 were many other large residences, all, like the first, built 
 of stone, several stories high, and with flat roofs, like the 
 houses of Benares. We admired much the oriel windows, 
 which we here saw for the first tune. They were made of 
 elaborately-carved brown stone, and, in place of sashes, had 
 slabs of fine marble open-work. 
 
 Feeling tired and hot, we now hired a bailee, or bullock- 
 carriage, and went to see the tomb of a Moosulman saint, 
 which is an object of great veneration, and the resort of pil- 
 grims from all parts of India. It was to the tomb of this saint 
 that the Emperor Akbur made a pilgrimage, when in despair 
 on account of the premature death of all his children, and here 
 the saint appeared to him in a dream, and directed him to 
 
 * Some of the native prin3es used to have looking-glasses set in the front 
 of the hovy'dah, when they went oiit on an elephant, for fear the chattah- 
 burdar, or umbrella-bearer, who rode behind them, should stab them in the 
 back. 
 
Rajpootana. 337 
 
 San Suleem, at Seekree, by whose intercessions he obtained an 
 heir to his crown. 
 
 They would not let lis go within the enclosure without re- 
 moving our shoes, so we gave up the attempt, as what we 
 could see through the gate did not look very interesting. 
 
 On leaving: the shrine of the saint we visited the remains of 
 an old Hindoo palace, a little way up the hill. The ruins 
 were extensive, but the only part that remained at all perfect 
 was a lofty hall with a brown stone roof, supported on nume- 
 rous columns of the same material. The columns were slim in 
 proportion to their height, and each differed from every other 
 in shape; one would be square, one round, another hexagonal, 
 another fluted, and so on for all the others, but all were most 
 elaborately carved, as were also the deep panels of the ceiling, 
 each of which had a different design. This hall was used as a 
 mosque by the Moosulmans, who built a marble kibla in the 
 west wall, and a series of lofty brown stone arches in front of 
 the building. The arches are as large as those near the 
 Kootub at Delhi, and at least as remarkable, there being the 
 same beautifully sharp-cut inscriptions from the Koran in 
 front. The mosque, however, like the more ancient building 
 upon w^hich it was constructed, has long since fallen into dis- 
 use and ruin. 
 
 On the whole, onr expectations of Ajmeer were disap- 
 pointed ; since we expected to find it a very interesting place, 
 as it was once the capital of all the Rajpoot states. 
 
 Nusseerabad is only fourteen miles from Ajmeer, and we 
 arrived there at sun-rise on the 28th of January. The native 
 town is not large, and the j^lace derives its whole importance 
 from its being a large station of the Company's troops, whose 
 presence preserves order in all Rajpootana. When we were 
 in Nusseerabad the soldiers all belonged to the Bombay army 
 — " Ducks," as they used to be called in Bengal. The Bombay 
 sepoys are not nearly so soldierly in appearance as were the 
 soldiers of the Bengal army. The latter were the pick of the 
 Rajpoot race, the former were of all nations and castes. They 
 were much inferior in size to the Bengal troops, and had a 
 way of wearing their uniform when off duty, which a Bengal 
 
 15 
 
338 India. 
 
 sepoy never did, and which had two disadvantages. In the 
 first place, it spoiled the uniform for parade, and then it made the 
 men appear to disadvantage, for a native never looks so badly 
 as in European clothes. Notwithstanding this deficiency in 
 their appearance, the experience of last year has shown them 
 to be much the most faithful, and has stamped with approval 
 the system of indiscriminate enlistment which was about being 
 abandoned in Bombay in favour of the Bengal system of 
 receiving into the army only the members of one or two 
 favoured castes. 
 
 At Nusseerabad we made a few purchases, at the shop of a 
 Parsee. In the Bengal Presidency the stores of the stations 
 are all kept by Europeans, and contain large assortments in 
 which everything is of the best quality. The style of living 
 in the smaller Presidencies is, however, much less expensive, 
 and the shops are all kept by natives, generally Parsees, and 
 are much inferior in the variety and quality of what is sold in 
 them. 
 
 We left Kusseerabad at midnight, and at six o'clock on the 
 morning of the 29th arrived at Bunai dak-bungalow, which is 
 situated half a mile from a semicircle of high and bald hills, at 
 the foot of one of which the village is built, and on top of 
 another is the Castle. A short distance in front of the bunga- 
 low is a row of noble trees. As soon as we arrived, our 
 bearers as was always their custom, went into the village 
 bazar to buy food, which they afterwards cooked under the 
 shade of these trees. Cooking is, among the Hindoos, a long 
 and laborious operation, and each man has to cook his own 
 food, unless he be rich enough to hire a Brahmun to do so for 
 him. In the first place, a little mud-furnace, which can never 
 be used a second time, has to be bmlt. Then water must be 
 drawn, by each man for himself, and in his own lota, a brass 
 vessel of which every Hindoo possesses one, and which he 
 always takes with him when travelling. When the furnace is 
 buUt, the water drawn, and the fire, which is generally of dried 
 cow-dung, lighted, the man squats on the ground and draws a 
 circle which encloses himself and all these things. Cooking 
 then begins in the ordinary way, but each step of the process is 
 
Rajpootana. 339 
 
 accompanied by religious ceremonies, and the meal must all be 
 prepared and eaten within the magic circle. If anything un- 
 clean, such as a man of another caste or an ordinary fowl, 
 comes within the circle, the food has to be thrown away and 
 the operation begun anew. On this account whenever we 
 came near our bearers at their meals, they would at once cry 
 out, " Rotee khata. Sahib, rotee khata," " We are eating 
 bread, Sir," to drive us away. 
 
 If anything remains unconsumed from one meal, it cannot 
 be eaten the next day ; and if the laborious cooking operation 
 cannot be gone through, the Hindoo can eat nothing but 
 parched gram, a sort of pulse which tastes not unlike roasted 
 peanuts. I have seen sepoys, at sea, Hving for a week together 
 on this alone, and some of the higher castes will not eat even 
 the gram, instances having been known where they have 
 starved on shipboard rather than break the rules of caste. 
 
 The absurdly stringent ceremonies of cooking, with the 
 ablutions which precede, occupy a great length of time, and 
 Hindoos, therefore, eat only one meal a-day — still this custom 
 occasions an immense waste of time, and is one of the most 
 oppressive and injurious restrictions of that heavy chain of 
 caste-rules and prejudices which cramps every action of the 
 Hindoo. 
 
 In the afternoon we walked through the village, which has 
 heavy mud walls ; and climbed up the hill to the castle, which 
 is a massive structure on the very summit. From the foot of 
 its walls the rocky hill-sides descend almost perpendicularly 
 for a hundred feet, and the only approach is by a narrow 
 stairway cut in the stone. After toiling up the ascent we 
 were disappointed by finding the door closed, so we descended 
 and returned to the bungalow, where we found a shikarree, or 
 huntsman, who informed us that having heard of our illustri- 
 ous names, he had come to offer us his salam, and to lay at 
 our feet an antelope which he had shot. We accepted both, 
 and gave him a rupee, with which he was well satisfied. 
 
 The natives of India are remarkably good shots, but their 
 guns are of the rudest description. The barrel is very long, 
 and the stock straight. The charge is ignited by a match, 
 
340 India. 
 
 which is held over the pan of priming by a sort of " hammer.'* 
 When the aim is taken, the shooter presses upon a button, 
 below the stock of the gun. The button communicates with 
 the hammer, and brings it and the match down upon the 
 priming. 
 
 At half past eleven we left Bunai, and arrived at Dablah on 
 the morning of January 30th. The country around the bun- 
 galow is most uninteresting and level. The village is half 
 a mile on the left, and contains nothing of interest but a 
 Thakoor's Castle in ruins. 
 
 We were startled during the morning by hearing some loud 
 shrieks, and much weeping. We all sprang up at once, and 
 running out, found that all the noise was made by two young 
 women, who were walking slowly at a short distance from the 
 bungalow. As they went along they continued to cry, and 
 throw their arms about, with much apparent grief. Whenever 
 they met any other women, they embraced, throwing their 
 arms around each, one by one, and leaning their heads over 
 the shoulders of the woman whom they were embracing — 
 first to the right and then to the left. We were informed 
 that they were two young wives who were returning to their 
 husbands after a visit to their parents, and that it was con- 
 sidered only proper that they should thus testify their sorrow. 
 
 Our next stopping-place was Bunaira, where we arrived 
 very early, as it is only fourteen miles from Dablah. The 
 town of Bunaira was a mile from the dak-bungalow, so that 
 we did not visit it ; but we had a fine view of the castle, 
 which is a very large building situated on the crest of a hill 
 overhanging the town, and having all the appearance of a large 
 European fortification — even to the white palace, seen above 
 the battlements, which with the turret on its roof looked from 
 the distance very like a whitewashed chapel. 
 
 Having only done such a short distance the previous night, 
 we determined to push on, after getting breakfast. The dis- 
 tance to the next bungalow was twenty-four miles, and a hard 
 enough march it proved. We walked most of the way, to 
 relieve the bearers, who had been awake since midnight. 
 The country was mostly hilly and wooded jungul, in which 
 
Rajpootana. 341 
 
 the road was so badly marked, that we several times lost our 
 way. We, however, found some cultivation around the one 
 or two villages which we passed, and saw a field of poppies, 
 which showed that we were approaching Malwa, the great 
 opium country of Western India. The poppies were in flower, 
 and looked very beautiful, especially to me, who had not seen 
 any other flowers in India, except those used in the worship 
 of idols. 
 
 We did not arrive at Ummeerghur till after eight o'clock, 
 and got dinner at midnight. The next day we had to rest, as 
 our bearers were quite used up by the twenty hours' march of 
 the day before. We therefore spent the ist of February at 
 Ummeerghur, and treated our men to some goats, which cost 
 us eight anas, (24 cents,) apiece, and were, I suppose, bought 
 by the men for one-half or two-thirds of that money. 
 
 During the day, we walked out to the borders of a lake, 
 just outside the town. Its banks were shaded by parallel 
 lines of beautiful trees, in the shade of which we took our seat, 
 and watched the women washing clothes, and the Brahmuns 
 worshipping a shapeless stone, which they painted red, and 
 decorated with silver ornaments. They could not venture to 
 do the latter further north, as some sacrilegious Moosulman 
 would be sure to walk off with the idol's jewelry. 
 
 Towards evening, we walked into the town. It is of mode- 
 rate size, walled, and built at the foot of a hill, on the summit 
 of which is a ruined stone castle. The only objects of interest 
 in the town were three very regular and handsome Hindoo 
 temj^les, built in a row. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 COUNTRY OF THE MAHARATTAS. 
 
 Arrival at Chittor— The Town — Eemarkable Situation of the Fortress— Seven Miles of 
 Kuins— Tank — The Moon Lady — The Great Temple — Hindoo Eeligious Architec- 
 ture — The Great Tower — Antiquity of Hindoo Euins — Eeligious Pic-nic — Enter the 
 Maharatta Territories—" Zubburdustee" — " The Good Old Eule" — Poppy -fields— 
 Neemuch — Noble Banyan Tree — Irrigation — Mundissoor — A Pleasant Eesting-place 
 — Jowra — ^Nawab's English Palace— Khachrod — New Style of Architecture — Wrest- 
 ling — The Soobah's Politeness — Oojen— The City — Temple of Kunaia — The God's 
 Carriage — Indian "Punch" — The Maharattas — A Native Government — Professional 
 Eobbing— Spread of the Maharatta Power — Nature of their Government — Their 
 Subjugation by the English — Gwalior States — The Police— Indirect Utility of Native 
 Misrule. 
 
 We left Ummeergliur on the evening of February ist, and 
 next morning I awoke on a jungul, separated from the other 
 palkees, my "bearers having taken a short cut which compelled 
 us to go a mile down the river for a ford, so that I arrived at 
 the dak -bungalow of Chittor at eight o'clock, half an horn- 
 after the others. The march was twenty-two miles. 
 
 After breakfast, we went out to see the place, which had 
 much excited our curiosity, as well from Bishop Heber's glow- 
 ing description, as from the view of the minars and other 
 prominent buildings which were visible from the dak-bun- 
 galow. 
 
 We had a very hot walk of a mile, over a bare and sandy 
 plain, and then, crossing by a fine stone bridge over a river 
 which is a tributary of the Jumna, we entered the town 
 through a gateway in the stone wall which surrounds it. 
 
 It is a place of about five thousand inhabitants, and was 
 once the capital of an independent raj. We stopped in the 
 bazar to eat some cocoa-nuts, and while we were so engaged, 
 two chowkeedars, or native policemen, armed with sword and 
 
Maharatta Country. 343 
 
 shield, came up with the kamdar's salam,* and said that they 
 had directions to accompany us to see all the objects of inter- 
 est, and that the kamdar regretted having no elephants to 
 offer us. 
 
 The fortress is situated on the level summit of a hill, rising 
 behind the town, and extending for some distance on each 
 side of it. The line of fortifications extends for ten or twelve 
 miles around the edge of the hill, the sides of which are 
 naturally precij)itous, or have been artificially scarped, so that 
 it presents on all sides a perpendicular wall of rock, from 
 eighty to a hundred and fifty feet in height. Lower down, 
 the hill-side slopes more gradually to the plain on which the 
 town is built. 
 
 The only approach is by a road, beginning in the town, and 
 winding along the side of the hill. It is broad enough for a 
 wagon, well paved, wdth a stone wall on the outside, and five 
 fine gateways, now in ruins, but anciently capable of defence. 
 
 The summit of the hill is nearly level, and comj^rises within 
 the fortifications a space 6f six or seven square miles, full of 
 palaces, temples, tanks, minars, and the remains of many 
 dwelling-houses. The latter were quite ruinous, but many of 
 the other buildings were in good preservation, and some of 
 the temples still in use. 
 
 We first W' ent down into a deep tank, cut in the solid rock. 
 The tank is supplied by a fine spring, which gushes out of a 
 marble temple richly carved. On the other side is a large 
 pavilion of brown s tone, with steps descending into the water. 
 The place was delightfully cool and shady, the trees which 
 grew on the bank above, leaned over the pool, and kept away 
 the scorching beams of the sun ; and their boughs hung down 
 almost to the w^ater's surface. We found it so pleasant a 
 resting-place, after our hot and tiresome walk, that we could 
 not persuade ourselves to quit it, and sat for a good hour on 
 the steps of the pavilion, with our feet in the cool water of 
 the tank. Our guide occupied the time by telling us of a 
 great and powerful princess, the Chan.d Beebee, or Moon 
 
 * The kamdax's salam, i. e., the compliments of the mayor. 
 
344 India. 
 
 Lady, who once held her court here. The Emperor Akbur, 
 he said, asked her in marriage, and when she refused, he 
 besieged the fortress for seven years. At the end of that 
 time, the place yielded to the assault, and Pudda Mahoot, (for 
 that was the real name of the princess, and Chand Beebee was 
 only a title,) collected all her women and treasure in a little 
 house built upon a lake above, and there, rather than fall into 
 her captor's hands, set fire to her place of refuge, and was 
 burned up, with all her treasures, women, and children — a 
 voluntary Joar, or human sacrifice to Bhowanee. This was 
 the substance of what he said, freed from the decorations and 
 inconsistencies, which were many, as he told it. How much 
 truth there is in the story, I do not know. Something like it 
 happened, as Bishop Heber says, at Oudipoor, and I heard 
 nearly the same legend at several other places. The name of 
 the Chand Beebee certainly appears in history as one of the 
 most powerful and obstinate opponents who resisted the con- 
 quest of the Dekkun by the Emperor Akbur. She sustained 
 a long siege from his forces, in the fort of Ahmudnuggur, and 
 was finally slain by a revolt of her own soldiery, during a 
 second siege of the same place, conducted by Akbur in 
 person. 
 
 When we were sufficiently rested, w^e visited a deserted 
 temple, immediately above the tank. It was very remarkable, 
 not only for the elaborate carvings of dancing women, and 
 other figures upon the outside, but for the curious idol in the 
 interior. This was a colossal bas-relief of a head, eight feet 
 high, quite unlike anything else which I saw in India, and 
 looking as if it had come from Egypt. 
 
 We had next a walk of half a mile in the sun, through the 
 ruins of palaces and other buildings, which would no doubt 
 have repaid examination, if we had had the time. We also 
 passed several large tanks, hollowed out of the rock, and 
 having stone pavilions on their banks, or sometimes upon arti- 
 ficial islands in the water. 
 
 At length we arrived at the largest temple, which is built 
 entirely of white marble, very elaborately and deeply carved. 
 Its form is the same as that of all Hindoo temples — the essen- 
 
Maharatta Country. 345 
 
 tial part of which, the shrine, is everywhere a little dark 
 apartment, over which rises the pyramidal spire which is a 
 universal characteristic. This is the type of all mundras in 
 India, the only variations being in the details and decorations. 
 The approach to the shrine is by open porticoes, the roofs of 
 which are supported by columns, and each of which rises a 
 few stej)s higher than the last. The whole is situated within 
 a court. 
 
 The colonnades, or porticoes, and the court, are both non- 
 essential features, and not often seen. In a few instances the 
 roofs of the porticoes are supported by double or even triple 
 rows of columns, and in one or two cases the courts which 
 enclose the temple are very large, in one instance as much as 
 four miles square ; but however extensive such accessory fea- 
 tures may be, the shrine is always very small, massively built, 
 and lighted only by a low door. 
 
 This temple had two open porticoes, and was built in the 
 midst of a court, perhaps a hundred and fifty feet square. The 
 material of every part was pure white marble, elaborately 
 sculptured. The goddess worshipped was Bhowanee, repre- 
 sented by a hideous black figure, with her hands full of wea- 
 pons and instruments of torture, her mouth smeared with 
 blood, and her neck circled by a chaplet of skulls. There 
 were three or four Brahmuns in the temple, who clamoured 
 for bucksees, and when we refused it became very insolent. 
 After we left the temple they brought water and washed the 
 whole place, to free it from the defilement which it had con- 
 tracted from our presence. The trouble which we had caused 
 them did not cause us the slightest compunction ; on the con- 
 trary, we were pleased by finding that we had been the means 
 of interrupting their habitual laziness. One of our native 
 guides considered it a most excellent joke ; but the other 
 looked upon it in,a serious light, and seemed to be afraid of the 
 revenge of the Brahmuns, though whether their anger would 
 afiect his spiritual or temporal prosperity we could not quite 
 understand. 
 
 A little beyond this temple was the largest tank, upon the 
 banks of which was a considerable palace of brown stone, and 
 
 15* 
 
346 India. 
 
 in the centre another similar building upon an artificial island. 
 The latter is assigned by tradition as the spot where the 
 Chand Beebee and her ladies burned themselves to death. 
 
 The ruins extended for some distance further, but we had 
 no time to make more extensive explorations. 
 
 On the way back we visited the minar, which is almost a 
 unique object, there being but one similar building in India, 
 and that is in this same place, about a mile off. The minar is 
 a rectangular tower, 120 feet high, and about 25 feet square 
 at the base. It is built with two walls, one inside the other ; 
 the inner wall enclosing the stairway, and the outer wall 
 forming an open verandah at each of the nine stories. The 
 two upper stories project considerably beyond the hne of the 
 buildmg, and the whole is surmounted by a cupola, which 
 looks like a late addition. The whole is built of the finest 
 white marble, and almost every part of its surface, inside and 
 out, is decorated with the most elaborate and intricate de- 
 signs, representing either the exploits of Seewa, or naked 
 nien and women celebrating the phallic orgies of his worship. 
 The building itself typifies the Lingam* — the form under 
 which Seewa is always adored. From the top of the minar 
 we got a fine view of the table land on which all these ruins 
 are situated, the town at the foot of the hill, the river flowing 
 eastward to unite its waters with the Jumna, and the broad 
 level plain, stretching with almost unbroken uniformity to the 
 foot of the distant hills. 
 
 The minar is in the most excellent preservation, even the 
 most delicate sculptures being almost perfect throughout. 
 It is said by the natives to be five hundred years old, but that 
 is probably an exaggeration. In fact, nothing in India disap- 
 points the traveller so much as the age of the monuments. 
 Almost all the buildings of great architectural pretensions 
 were erected by the Mahommedans, and veiy few are more 
 than 300 years old. The most ancient of these buildings is 
 the Kootub at Delhi, which was completed about the year 
 
 * JOingam — a wide-spread religious emblenij called by the Greeks ^allogj 
 and by the Latins, Priapus. 
 
Maharatta Country. 347 
 
 1 200, although it probably was begun earlier. The Hindoo 
 remains are very few, and a very small proportion of them 
 are at all remarkable for size or grandeur. The most ancient 
 of them are undoubtedly the cave temples, but even these are 
 now proved to be not more than a thousand years old, and 
 many persons attribute to them a much later date. Of the 
 other remains, but two or three temples are as old as the 
 thirteenth century, and most of them would be modern when 
 compared with the age of European cathedrals. 
 
 As we were leaving the top of the hill we went into a court- 
 yard containing two small temples. Here we found about two 
 hundred people from a neighbouring village, who had come to 
 celebrate poojah for three days at this shrine — a sort of re- 
 ligious pic-nic. The peoj)le in this part of the country are a 
 much more open, manly race, than those in Northern India. 
 They at once asked us to have something to eat, and seemed 
 much pleased when we consented. They brought us some 
 bread, muraba, or sweetmeats, and dhal, which is a kind of 
 pulse, eaten as a stew. The latter they served to us on broad 
 green leaves, plaited into a kind of bowl. The bread was 
 coarse, but well baked, and the dhal we found quite savory, 
 especially as we were very hungry. It was a great satifaction 
 to know that the food was certainly clean, as the religion of 
 the Hindoos obliges them to observe the most scrupulous clean- 
 liness in cooking. 
 
 The sweetmeats which I have described above are an article 
 of food of which the natives are immoderately fond ; and many 
 of those who can afford it, eat scarcely anything else. They 
 are made of the ordinary soft brown sugar,'* and have its 
 characteristic taste. 
 
 After thanking our entertainers, and rewarding them with 
 a present, we returned to the dak-bungalow, took dinner, and 
 at ten in the evening started for Neemuch, thirty-eight miles off. 
 
 * Sugar is commonly used by the natives in its raw state. They call it 
 sukJcur, a Sanscrit word from which all European names of sugar are evi- 
 dently derived. The only process of refining practised is by crystallization ; 
 the result of which is called khand — the same word as candy. When pre- 
 pared for use by pulverization the khand is called misree. 
 
348 India. 
 
 This was the last day's march in the Rajpoot states, Nee- 
 much being in a tract which belongs to the Rajah of Gwalior, 
 or Sindia,* as he is more generally called. In fact, for the 
 next three hundred miles the road led through a great many 
 different independent states, many of them so small that they 
 are quite surrounded by the dominions of other princes ; and 
 we were scarcely ever for twenty miles together in the terri- 
 tories of the same Rajah. 
 
 On the morning of February 3d we awoke in a desert 
 looking country, and soon stopped at a village for breakfast. 
 Our kuhars commenced stealing the wood of the villagers to 
 make their fires, a proceeding which we at once stopped — but 
 we never could cure them of stealing and taking by force 
 anything that they fancied from the villagers, and they used 
 even to compel the peasants to accompany them by night, 
 without reward, as guides. Such acts are called in India 
 " zubburdustee," a term which means " by force," and is a 
 short condensation of that great law which is the only rule 
 universally recognized and acted upon by natives : 
 
 "The good old rule, the simple plan 
 That they should take who have the power 
 And they should keep who can." 
 
 We applied to the kotwal, or head-man of the village, for 
 provisions, but could only get some maida, a coarse kind of 
 flour, and a little ghee, or boiled butter. We asked for fowls ; 
 but the kotwal said that the villagers were aU Rajpoots, and 
 could not eat them, so that there were only three or four 
 fowls in the place, which were kept in case the Maharatta 
 governor should come that way, for the Maharattas, being low 
 caste men, can eat fowls. 
 
 After breakfast we kept on our way through a country the 
 greater part of which was barren, but around the villages 
 
 * The three great Maharatta princes are each known by an hereditary title. 
 The Eajah of G-walior is called Sindia ; the Rajah of Indor, Holkar ; and the 
 Rajah of Baroda has the title of the Gaikwar. These appellations are some- 
 times spelt Scindeah or Sindheeah, Holcar, and Guicowar or Gykwar, and in 
 other ways also. 
 
Maharatta Country. 349 
 
 were patches of maize and poppies. About half a mile from 
 Neemiich we were overtaken by a very violent rain storm, 
 which obliged ns to take shelter under a banyan tree. The 
 delay which this caused, and the length of the march pre- 
 vented us from getting to Neemuch before evening. On 
 arriving, we found that there was no dak-bungalow, so w^e 
 hired a bungalow from a Parsee merchant, and rested there 
 the next day. 
 
 Neemuch is a station of the Company's troops, and looks 
 exactly like all the stations that we had seen in the north of 
 India. 
 
 The native town is a small place, and belongs to Sindia, 
 the Honourable Company owning only the ground actually 
 within the limits of the cantonments. 
 
 The bungalow which we occupied was in the next com- 
 pound to the mess-house of one of the regiments. We took 
 advantage of this to procure a good dinner from the mess- 
 khausahma^z, a Bombay Parsee. He got us up a splendid meal, 
 the best part of which was the English bread, which was the 
 first (except what we had at Nusseerabad) that we had tasted 
 since leaving Agra. We had been compelled to subsist on 
 chupattees, a sort of pan-cake, made of flour (atta) and water, 
 much used by natives as a substitute for bread. During the 
 day one of the ofiicers of the place called, and was kind 
 enough to enquire whether he could be of use, and to offer 
 his services and those of the rest of the mess. 
 
 We left Neemuch on the evening of February 4th, and 
 found ourselves the next morning in a beautiful and highly 
 cultivated country. After a short walk, we came to a mag- 
 nificent banyan tree, which covered nearly two acres of 
 ground. This was the finest tree I saw, though there ai-e 
 many of them in that part of the country, and the baolees 
 are often placed under their shade. These are very large and 
 deep wells, the water in which is approached by a flight of 
 steps. The water is used both for drinking, cooking, and irri- 
 gation. When needed for the former purposes, each person 
 must descend the steps and draw it in his own lota. The 
 water for irrigation, however, is drawn up in a very large 
 
350 India. 
 
 leather bucket. The power used is supplied by a pair of bul- 
 locks and a single pulley. The rope which draws up the 
 bucket (or as it might be better called, bag,) is so arranged as 
 to empty the water when it arrives at the top of the well into 
 the main channel, from which it is conveyed by a thousand 
 ever-subdividing arteries to every part of the field. The 
 whole method is as rude as possible, and much inferior to the 
 " Persian wheel" used in Egypt, and the chain pumps which 
 I saw in China; though I am doubtful whether the latter 
 could be used where the water has to be raised to so great a 
 height, as from these baolees. 
 
 At about ten o'clock we arrived at Mundissoor, a large 
 town on the banks of the Chumbul, which flows into the 
 Jumna a hundred miles below Agra. Just outside the town 
 we met the jumatdar, the highest police officer of the place. 
 He was a very fine-looking and light-complexioned old man, 
 handsomely dressed, and riding on a white horse, surrounded 
 by eighteen or twenty chowkeedars. After an interchange of 
 salutations, and a short conversation, he conducted us to a 
 garden on the further bank of the river. We found there a 
 stone pavilion, in which we took up our quarters, and the 
 jumatdar soon sent us some provisions from the bazar. During 
 the day the old man paid us another visit, bringing with him 
 a very pretty boy, his grandson, who wished to pay his re- 
 spects to the foreign gentlemen (Bulattee Sahib-I6g). 
 
 The garden contained many large and fine trees, under the 
 shade of which we passed the day, even more comfortably 
 than in a dak-bungalow. The ford across the river presented 
 a most lively scene. Men, women, and teams were constantly 
 crossing in both directions, and throughout the day the water 
 was filled with people, bathing and washing their clothes. 
 
 On the further bank rose the city, upon a slight inclination, 
 but although it contained several buildings that looked as if 
 they might be worth seeing, the weather was so warm that 
 we could not muster courage to leave the shade of the friendly 
 trees. 
 
 At seven o'clock in the evening, after an early dinner, we 
 left for Jowra, distant twenty-eight miles, and arrived there at 
 
Maharatta Country. 3^1 
 
 eight o'clock on the morning of February 6th. We put up in 
 an empty bungalow, in a garden outside of the town. It be- 
 longed to the Nawab, and was a rickety affair, appropriated to 
 the temporary accommodation of Europeans. The day was 
 too hot to allow us to think of walking to the town, which 
 was distant more than a mile, but one of our number sent for 
 bearers, and went thither in his palkee. On his return he re- 
 ported it as not worth seeing. 
 
 About eight in the evening we left Jowra, stopping, as we 
 passed through the town, to have a moonlight view of the 
 Kawab's Palace, or rather of his " English Palace," for the 
 natives told us that he had eight in all, and kept one of his 
 eight >vives in each. The " EngHsh Palace," which we saw, is 
 an exact copy of an English country residence of the last cen- 
 tury. 
 
 The night's march was to Khachrdd, twenty-three miles. 
 We awoke on Saturday morning just outside the town, and 
 having passed through it, took up our quarters in a large top 
 of fine mango trees, where we were much amused during the 
 day by the boys from the town, who got up wrestling matches 
 for our entertainment. 
 
 Towards evening we walked into town, which had quite a 
 different appearance from any that we had seen before, the 
 architecture being that which distinguishes the south-western 
 part of India. The houses were generally three stories high, 
 and built with wooden frames, painted black, and filled in be- 
 tween the frame-work with white-washed pukka. The houses 
 in the bazar were built over the side-walk, and supported upon 
 arches, forming arcades, similar to those in London and Paris. 
 As we were walking through the streets about dusk, we met 
 the Soobah, or Governor of this district, which forms part of 
 Sindia's dominions. The Soobah was mounted on a splendidly 
 caparisoned horse, and surrounded by a large retinue of cav- 
 
 * Mahommedan princes are called Nawabs, the feminine of which is Be- 
 goom. Rajah is a Hindoo title, the feminine being Ranee. The title Nawdb 
 was corrupted by the English into Nabob, which is really the French spelling 
 of the Oordoo "word. 
 
352 India. 
 
 ally, armed footmen and torch-bearers. We took off our hats 
 as he passed, and, in return for this civility, he sent six of his 
 attendants after us, to deliver his salam, and see that we 
 wanted nothing. On returning to our camp, we found six 
 chokeedars, or armed policemen, keeping watch with spear 
 and shield. They also had been sent by the Soobah. 
 
 The next morning we breakfasted in a t6p of banyan-trees, 
 on the banks of a little stream, just outside a small village. 
 Leaving our palkees under the t6p, we crossed the stream on 
 our bearer's shoulders, and went into the village to buy the 
 materials for our breakfast. The place was a miserable collec- 
 tion of mud hovels, but fortified by high and thick walls of 
 earth. We could buy nothing but some coarse flour, ghee, 
 and a little milk. However, with these materials our servant 
 made some chupattees, and with a cup of coffee, and some 
 fried slices of bacon, (which we had brought in tins from 
 Agra), we made a hearty meal. 
 
 After breakfast we marched on again through a country 
 made beautiful by banyan-tops and fields of poppies in bloom, 
 and, having fine baolees near the road side at short distances 
 from each other. 
 
 The whole march was forty-three miles. By dark we 
 arrived at the branch of the Chumbul on which the city of 
 Oojen is situated. This branch of the river is much larger 
 than that which we saw at Mundissoor, and our dhoolees 
 almost touched the water as they were carried over the ford. 
 After crossing, we found a fine ghat, and, passing up a street 
 bordered by large and substantial stone buildings, we entered 
 the town, and traversing its streets for over a mile, j^assed out 
 through a gate on the further side. The dak-bungalow is a 
 mile from the town. We arrived there at eight in the eve- 
 ning, having been over twenty hours on the march. We found 
 the bungalow a large and fine one, with a Delhi Moosulman 
 for khansahma?^, who got us up an excellent dinner. 
 
 The next morning, on application to the Nana Sahib,* an 
 
 * Kana SaTiib. This is not a name, but a title, or agnomen, meaning 
 "the Lord Grandfather." Such titles are often assumed by natives of high 
 
Maharatta Couutry. 353 
 
 elderly relation of Sindia, who governed this part of his do- 
 minions, we obtained an elephant to view the city. Only one 
 elephant was furnished us, the excuse being that all the others 
 were at Gwalior, Sindia's capital. We afterwards found this 
 to be a lie. The elephants were a great acquisition, as a walk 
 of a mile to the town in the sun would have been rather a 
 severe task. 
 
 On the way to the town we passed a considerable sheet of 
 water, upon the banks of which were several stone pavilions. 
 The walls of the Oojen are of redstone — about forty feet high. 
 The principal streets are broad, but rather winding. The 
 houses upon them are large, several stories high, and built 
 with frames of black wood like those of Khachrod. We were 
 shown the outside of two palaces, belonging to a female rela- 
 tive of Sindia, who was allowed by him to appropriate the 
 revenues of this part of his territory. They were both large 
 pukka buildings stuccoed on the exterior. The only sight 
 which we visited was a large and fine white marble temple, 
 dedicated to Kunaia. The door of the shrine was decorated 
 with richly-worked silver plates, worth, we were told, some 
 thousands of pounds. Within the portico of the temple was 
 a car, all overlaid with silver plates. This, we were informed, 
 was the carriage of the " Moort Bahadur," (his Highness, 
 the Idol,) in which he took the air, on great festivals. 
 
 We afterward rode on the elephant through the principal 
 streets and bazars, and then returned to the dak-bungalow. 
 This was all I saw of the city, but one of our party, who 
 became disgusted with riding four on an elephant, got a horse 
 from the Nana Sahib, and visited a fine palace and gardens 
 upon the banks of a lake some miles from the town. 
 
 During the afternoon we were much amused by a native 
 puppet-show, representing a Durbar, or state-reception at the 
 
 position, to prevent their real names becoming known to sorcerers, or evil 
 disposed persons, who might use them in charms. "Chand Beebee," already 
 spoken of, is an instance of this kind. These titles are not confined to the 
 natives, but are often given to Europeans — for instance, Mr. Skinner at Delhi, 
 was always called by the natives, "Sekundur Sahib," or, "the Lord Alexan- 
 der" — Alexander being hia first name. 
 
354 India. 
 
 Court of the Rajah of Jaipoor. The whole e;chibition was 
 exceedingly well managed, and included a fight of wild ani- 
 mals and some judicial proceedings. The latter were quite 
 characteristic. An itenerant trader complains to an inferior 
 officer of his goods having been stolen just outside the palace. 
 This official promises him redress on condition that the recov- 
 ered property shall be equally divided between them " ada 
 mera, ada tera" — half mine, half thine — as he says. The un- 
 fortunate man accepts these terms, but finds that he has to 
 make a similar compromise with so many other officials, that 
 when the money is actually recovered from the thief, the 
 rightful owner gets little or nothing of it. The puppets were 
 all well dressed, and had moveable arms and legs, which gave 
 them a very natural appearance. They spoke in exactly the 
 tone of " Punch,'^ and their conversation had all his wit. 
 
 The city Oojen is, as I have said, one of the chief towns in 
 Sindia's dominions. This Rajah is the most powerful of the 
 Maharatta princes. The dominions of his ancestors extended 
 over all Western and l^orthern India, including the greater 
 part of what was once the empire of the Moguls. It was 
 from them, and not from the Mahommedan emperor that the 
 East India Company conquered the Empire of Hindoostan. 
 The description, therefore, of the territory still subject to their 
 rule, may not be uninteresting, as it will show not only what 
 is the practical working of a native government, but also what 
 would have been the condition of the most fertile provinces 
 of India, if they were not protected by the power of the 
 English. In the description, I have borrowed largely the lan- 
 guage of Colonel Sleeman, not only because he was one of the 
 best-informed men in India, but also because, from the nature 
 of his family relations, and from the intimacy in which he 
 lived with natives of all ranks, he will be allowed not only to 
 have been an unbiassed observer, but even to have been in some 
 respects prejudiced in favour of native rulers and native 
 society. 
 
 The Maharatta princes were robbers by profession and by 
 caste. They conquered the countries which they governed, 
 and ruled them as robbers might be expected to do. They 
 
Maharatta Country. 3_jj; 
 
 never made a pretence of protecting the lives and property of 
 their subjects — the whole administration consisting of revenue- 
 officers, whose duty was to squeeze out of the inhabitants 
 every farthing that could be obtained. 
 
 Kobbing, is, in India, a regular profession. It is also here- 
 ditary. A man is born a robber, just as he is born a Brahmun. 
 It is a caste recognised by the constitution of Indian society, 
 and having its place in the religious system and its tutelary 
 deities in the Hindoo Pantheon. All robbers take the field in 
 the month of November, whether they are sovereigns of great 
 states, or leaders of little bands from an obscure village. They 
 all invoke the protection of Heaven, and take the auspices in the 
 same way — asking and expecting the protection of the Deity, 
 with as much confidence as those who are engaged in any 
 other occupation. ISTor is the robber regarded as less respec- 
 table than the soldier by the circle in which he lives, provided 
 he spends his income as liberally, and discharges his social du- 
 ties as well, and this he generally does to secure the good-will 
 of his neighbours, whatever may be his depredations upon other 
 and distant communities. In any other part Of the world 
 such a state of things would be impossible ; but in India, 
 under the weak and disorganized native governments, the 
 system had spread to an incredible extent. There was scarcely 
 a village that was not yearly subject to an incursion of one of 
 the bands of plunderers. If they were weak, they prevented 
 the interference of the authorities by dividing with them the 
 spoils ; if they were strong they overrode the governments 
 and became territorial conquerors. 
 
 Of the latter class were the Maharatta princes. Every year 
 they set out with their armies to rob and plunder the territo- 
 ries of their neighbours. Every year saw their territories 
 broader than the last, until, in 1760, their frontier on the north 
 extended to the Indus and Himalayas, and on the south nearly 
 to the extremity of the Indian Peninsula. They had a large 
 and well-trained army, officered to a great extent by Euro- 
 peans. When the English conquest began, this vast extent of 
 country was groaning beneath their intolerable yoke. The 
 Emperor of Delhjl was a prisoner in their hands, with an allow- 
 
356 India. 
 
 ance so penurious that he and his family were in want of the 
 absolute necessaries of life. The wretched inhabitants of these 
 countries were subjected to organized and unsparing extor- 
 tion, compared with which the exactions of their Moosulman 
 rulers were just and liberal. The government cannot be said 
 to have been oppressive, for there was really no government 
 at all except the revenue administration. No pretence of ad- 
 ministering justice was made. The country was left in a State 
 of the most complete anarchy, and, beside all the disorders 
 that naturally attend such a condition, the feuds of small 
 princes, and the unrestrained excesses of lawless classes, they 
 were subjected to periodical invasions of another robber nation, 
 the Pindarrees, who only differed from the Maharattas in being 
 even more ruthless and unsparing ; since, as they did not aim 
 at territorial acquisition, it was not worth their while to leave 
 a "nest egg,^^ and, accordingly, they carried off whatever they 
 could, and destroyed and burnt up what was not portable. 
 
 These hordes of robbers were overcome by the Enghsh, and 
 confined within the hmits of their early possessions in Central 
 India, Here for many years they chafed in impatient restric- 
 tion, losing no opportunity for a quarrel which promised to 
 unite them all in an effort to shake off the paramount influence 
 of the English. They felt and still feel that they could easily 
 extend their depredations if that power was withdrawn ; and 
 they know no other road to wealth and glory "but such suc- 
 cessful depredations. Their ancestors rose by them, their 
 states were formed by them, and their armies were main- 
 tained by them. They look back upon them for all that seems 
 honourable in the history of their families. Their bards sing 
 of them in all their marriage and funeral processions ; and, as 
 their imaginations kindle at the recollection, they detest the 
 arm that is extended to defend the wealth and industry of 
 surrounding territories from their grasp. As the industrious 
 classes acquire and display their wealth in the territories 
 around, during a long peace, and under the protection of a 
 strong and settled government, these native chiefs, with their 
 little disorderly armies, feel precisely as an English country 
 gentleman would feel with a pack of fox hounds in a country 
 
Maharatta Country. 3_J7 
 
 swarming with foxes, if he were denied the privilege of hunt- 
 ing them. 
 
 In 1835, Colonel Sleeman paid a visit to Gwalior. He found 
 the road a mere footpath, unimproved and unadorned ; and, 
 except the path, and a small police station, there was abso- 
 lutely no sign to indicate the dominion or even the presence 
 of man. And yet it was the highroad between two capitals, 
 scarcely a hundred miles apart, one occupied by one of the 
 most ancient, and the other by one of the most powerful na- 
 tive sovereigns of India. The cultivation was every where 
 wretched. Scarcely a tree was to be seen, as all were swept 
 away to be made into gun-carriages — a proceeding which 
 showed a most philosophical disregard of the comforts of the 
 living, the rejjose of the dead (who planted them with a view 
 to a comfortable berth in the next world), and the will of the 
 gods to whom they were dedicated. There was nothing left 
 upon the land of animal or vegetable life to animate or enrich 
 it. The cultivation was of the sort that looks to one crop for 
 its entire return. There were no manufactures, no trade or 
 commerce, save the transport of the rude produce of the land 
 upon the backs of bullocks, for want of even a cart-road. No 
 one lived in the villages but those whose labour was absolutely 
 necessary to the rudest tillage. 
 
 The colonel met twelve men wounded and bleeding. They 
 told him that they had just been robbed outside the town near 
 which they were. They had at once applied to the native 
 governor. His answer was characteristic. " Look after your 
 own affairs," said he. " Am I here to take care of merchants 
 and travellers, or to collect the revenues of the Prince ?" 
 Upon this the colonel remarks, " l!^either he, nor the prince 
 himself, nor any other public officer, ever dreamed that it was 
 their duty to protect the life, property, or character of travel- 
 lers, or indeed of any other human beings, save the members 
 of then* own families. In this pithy answer was described the 
 nature and character of the government. All the revenues of 
 Sindia's immense dominions are spent entirely in the main- 
 tenance of the court and camp of the prince ; and every officer 
 considers his duties to be limited to the collection of the rev- 
 
358 India. 
 
 enue. Protected from all external enemies by our forces, 
 which surround him on every side, his whole army is left to 
 him for purposes of parade and display ; and having, accor- 
 ding to his notions, no use for them elsewhere, he concentrates 
 them around his capital, where he lives among them in the 
 j)erpetual dread of mutiny and assassination.* He has no- 
 where any police, or any establfshment for the protection of 
 the life and property of his subjects. As a citizen of the world 
 I could not help thinking that it would be an immense bless- 
 ing to a large portion of our species if an earthquake were to 
 swallow up this court of Gwalior and the army that surrounds 
 it. Nothing worse could possibly succeed ; and something 
 better might. 
 
 " The misrule of such states, situated in the midst of our 
 dominions, is not without its use. There is, as Gibbon ob- 
 serves, ' a strong propensity in human nature to deprecate the 
 advantages, and magnify the evil of present times ;' and if the 
 people had not before their eyes such specimens of native rule 
 to contrast with ours, they would think more highly than they 
 do of their past Mahommedan and Hindoo sovereigns, and be 
 much less disposed than they are fairly to estimate the advan- 
 tages of being under our government. The native govern- 
 ments of the present day are fair specimens of what they have 
 always been — grinding military despotisms ; and their whole 
 history is that of * Saul who killed his thousands, and David 
 his tens of thousands,' as if rulers were made only to slay, and 
 the ruled to be slain. In politics, as in landscape, * 'Tis distance 
 lends enchantment to the view,' and the past might be all 
 couleuT de rose in the imagination of the people, were it not 
 reproduced in these ill-governed states, where the ' lucky acci- 
 dent' of a good governor is not to be expected in a century, 
 and where the secret of the responsibility of ministers to the 
 people has not yet been discovered." 
 
 Since this description was written the administration of 
 government has somewhat improved under the influence of 
 
 * Another traveller, who saw the Rajah of Gwalior at a nach, describes him 
 as sitting with a drawn sword in one hand and a naked dagger in the other. 
 
Maharatta Country. ^^g 
 
 the English Residents ; but in many of its features the picture 
 is true even to the present day. Wherever there has been 
 improvement it has been wholly through British influence, and 
 this vivid sketch of a native government, without that influ- 
 ence, enables us to reahze the condition in which India would 
 be at the present day if it had never been conquered by the 
 English ; and the state into which it would at once relapse were 
 their supremacy withdrawn. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 TO ELLOEA. 
 
 March of Sir E. Hamilton— Indor— The Eajah's Palace— Strike into the Mail-road— Ee- 
 yolt of Kuhars — Cavalcade — Origin of the present Eajah — Mhow — Goojree — ^Kur- 
 rumpoora — A Stray "White Man — Manners of Natives — Sindwar — Fortress in Euins 
 — Sirpoorah — Peculiar Police Eegulation — Old Venetian Coins — Enter the British 
 Dominions — Dhoolia — Native Town — Evidences of having entered British Territory 
 — Malligaum— Cantonments— Native Town — The Fort— Parallel Defences— Nand- 
 ga,on — Camp in a Grove — Sakigaoji — Put up in a Temple — Enter the Dekkun — Phy- 
 sical Geography — The Nizam — " Might makes Eight." 
 
 We left Oojen on the evening of February 9th, for Indor, 
 distant thirty-eight miles. The next morning we breakfasted 
 by the roadside, just outside a village, where were pitched the 
 tents of Sir R. Hamilton, the Resident at Indor, who was 
 marching from that place to Mehidpoor. During the break- 
 fast, parties of soldiers ; ladies and gentlemen on horseback, in 
 carriages, or in shigrams ; elephants, camels, and hackurees 
 belonging to his train, were constantly coming in ; and all day 
 long we were passing people belonging to the camp, on foot, 
 or variously mounted. 
 
 Marching is a most delightful mode of travelling. You go 
 into tents, taking with you all your furniture and attendants, 
 and in this way may travel any distance with all the comforts 
 of home. The march, which is generally from twelve to 
 eighteen miles, is made in the early morning, on horseback, or 
 in a carriage. On arriving at the camping-ground, you find a 
 breakfast-tent already pitched, and breakfast ready. During 
 the discussion of the meal, the large tents and attendants come 
 up, and a most comfortable home for the day is arranged in 
 an inconceivably short time. 
 
 Indor is a large town strongly walled, and the residence of 
 Holkar, one of the great Maharatta princes. The Rajah's 
 
To Ellora. 361 
 
 palace fronts on an open square, in which we found a great 
 mela, or fair, going on. The j^alace is over three hundred 
 feet square, and six stories high. Its style of architecture is 
 impure Saracenic. Within, there is a court surrounded by 
 tall pillars of black wood. We were not admitted into the in- 
 terior of the palace. 
 
 The town seemed thriving, and the streets were filled with 
 people. The houses were generally high, and built with 
 frames of dark wood. 
 
 At Indor, we struck the mail-road between Agra and Bom- 
 bay, and consequently got along much more easily, as our 
 bearers could do the same distance in shorter time, and the 
 bungalows were at regular intervals on the road. All the 
 way from Agra we had hardly seen anything better than a 
 mere wagon track, and for part of the way there was not 
 even that. Most of the merchandize we saw on the road 
 was being conveyed on the backs of bullocks, of which we 
 sometimes met droves of five or six hundred. After leaving 
 Indor, we used to see the mail-cart every day, which reminded 
 us that we Avere not entirely out of the reach of civilization ; 
 but in the country in which we had been, the only mails were 
 those for the few places in which English ofiicers were sta- 
 tioned, and they were easily carried by a running hurkaru, 
 or postman. 
 
 We were detained a day at Indor, by a revolt of our ku- 
 hars, who refused to go on, unless they were paid some 
 demands for demurrage. We were finally obliged to call in 
 the aid of the law, in the shape of a police jumatdar, who read 
 them the ekranama, or Persian agreement which they had 
 signed before leaving Agra ; and soon brought them to rea- 
 son by threatening them with imprisonment in case of non- 
 compliance with our requisitions. These men had been dis- 
 satisfied for a long time, but were too wise to make a com- 
 plaint in the native territories through which we had been 
 passing, knowing, as they did, that however right they might 
 be, they would stand no chance of justice from a native judge. 
 They chose Indor as the scene of the revolt, because they 
 expected that the case would come before Sir R. Hamilton, or 
 
 16 
 
362 India. 
 
 an English magistrate. Luckily, however, they were alJ 
 absent, and the jumatdar arranged matters, without giving us 
 any trouble, for the small reward of two rui^ees. He even 
 promised to have some of the mutineers flogged, if we liked. 
 
 On one of our walks to the town, we met a long cavalcade 
 of chobdars, (men with silver maces,) couriers, native cavalry, 
 and sepoys ; the latter of whom wore the Rajah's uniform of 
 dark green, made in the English fashion. They were escort- 
 ing one of the Rajah's young relations, (I believe a brother,) 
 who had been visiting a garden near the city. He was a 
 little boy, not over eight years of age, very splendidly dressed, 
 and riding a large white horse, richly caparisoned. The Ra- 
 jah himself was quite young, and was originally a poor shep- 
 herd boy. On the death of the last Rajah, without descen- 
 dants, the Company might easily have annexed his territories, 
 but instead of doing so, they at last discovered this distant 
 relative, and raised him from his humble position to a seat on 
 the Musnud. 
 
 We left Indor on the 1 2th of February for Mhow, distant 
 thirteen miles, which is a station of the Honourable Company's 
 troops. From Mhow we marched the next day to Goojree — 
 twenty-seven miles — arriving there on the 14th. The follow- 
 ing day's march was to Kurrumpoora, twenty-five miles. On 
 the way, we crossed the famous and sacred river Kurbudda ; 
 but we did not see much of it, as it was three o'clock in the 
 morning when we reached it, and the night was very dark. 
 We had now left the great plain of I^orthern India, the 
 waters of which flow into the Ganges. Even at Indor there 
 is a branch of the Chumbul which eventually flows into that 
 great stream. But after leaving Mhow, the slope of the coun- 
 try was to the westward, and the road descended to the coast 
 over successive plateaux, separated by ridges of hills, high to 
 the westward, but low to the eastward. 
 
 Kurrumpoora is situated in a barren and hilly country ; the 
 village is small, and composed of mud huts, but contains a 
 fine large sural, or open court for the accommodation of tra- 
 vellers. It is built at the foot of a low, but steep hill, on the 
 top of which is the dak-bungalow. During the day, as we 
 
To Ellora. 363 
 
 were sitting talking within the bungalow, one of our servants 
 announced that the jumatdar of the village craved an audience. 
 He was accordingly admitted, and after profuse salams, and a 
 great deal of circumlocution, informed us that he had caught 
 a stray " gora," and had come to ask what he should do with 
 him. We supposed he meant " ghora" — a horse ; and were 
 surprised that he should find any difficulty in disposing of the 
 animal, if it had come into his possession. He said his men 
 had caught it wandering about the country, a week before ; 
 that since that time he had kept it in a cage, and was now de- 
 sirous of getting rid of it, as he found its feeding expensive. 
 Finally, we told him to bring it up for our inspection. In a 
 few minutes he returned, followed by a crowd of nearly naked 
 blacks, with swords and spears, surrounding a white man. 
 The mystery was now all explained, and we recollected that 
 " gora" is the native word for a white man, a term, however, 
 scarcely ever heard, as it is not applied to any person of re- 
 spectability, who is always called sahib — a lord. The " gora" 
 proved to be a poor German sailor, who had a relation at 
 Agra, and had started to walk from Bombay to that place. 
 He was very pale and thin, and said that he had been treated 
 hardly by the natives, all the way up. He could not speak a 
 word of English, or any native, language, and might have re- 
 mained a month in the cage if the jumatdar had not luckily 
 thought of applying to us. His feeding, he said, could not 
 have cost much, as they gave him only coarse bread, and 
 short rations of that. We recommended him to turn back, as 
 he was likely to receive even worse treatment further up the 
 country ; but as he persisted in his original design, we sup- 
 plied him with some funds, and dismissed him and his late 
 jailors. This little anecdote, although uninteresting in itself, 
 shows the light in which a poor white man is looked upon by 
 natives, and the amount of consideration and kindness which 
 he may expect. They regard such persons, in fact, very much 
 as the blacks of the Southern States do the " poor whitefolk." 
 We had frequently experienced the same thing ourselves, 
 when we had walked far ahead of our bearers. The natives 
 know that the consideration which they will receive depends 
 
364 India. 
 
 entirely on their rank, and therefore surround themselves on 
 all occasions with all the evidences of their position. All who 
 can afford it go on horseback, and if possible, have with them 
 at least one follower, and as many more as they can command. 
 We, of course, did not mind such fictitious honours, and 
 therefore used often to walk some distance ahead of our train, 
 clad, frequently, in merely a shirt and trowsers. The puzzled 
 or insolent demeanour of those whom we met only amused us, 
 but, at the same time, we saw enough to show that a pedes- 
 trian tour through India would not be the most agreeable 
 way of seeing the country, although it might give an accurate 
 knowledge of the real character of the inhabitants. 
 
 The next day's march was thirty miles to Sindwar. The 
 bungalow was unfit for a stable, and showed clearly that we 
 had left the limits of Bengal influence. The village was a 
 miserable huddle of mud huts, but near it was a large stone 
 fortress on the plain. It is now in ruins, but contains the 
 remains of a fine palace and tank, and must once have been a 
 place of considerable strength and importance. 
 
 From Sindwar we marched thirty miles to Sirporah, where 
 we arrived on the morning of February 17th. In Sirporah 
 bungalow we fell in with the first traveller that we had seen 
 since leaving Agra. He proved to be Lieutenant Black of the 
 Bombay service, who was going by mail-cart to Bombay from 
 Agra. He had held a civil appointment in Oude, and was 
 well acquainted with Captain Hayes of Lucknow, and some 
 others whom I had known there. We invited him to join 
 our breakfast, and found his company and conversation very 
 pleasant, as he was almost the first Englishman that we had 
 spoken to since leaving Agra. After breakfast, we saw Lieu- 
 tenant Black off; and in the afternoon we walked into the 
 village, which is of large size, but exclusively composed of 
 mud huts, and surrounded by a mud wall. 
 
 Outside the town were a number of baskets, about six feet 
 long and three feet high. Each stood on a little raised plat- 
 form of earth, and was sheltered by a thatched roof. One 
 end was open and used as an entrance, but could be closed by 
 a frame of basket-work which fitted into the aperture. We, 
 
To EUora. 365 
 
 lit first, could not understand the use of these remarkable 
 structures, but discovered that they were the residences of 
 certain women, who, in this part of India, are not allowed to 
 enter the villages. The specimens which we saw were dressed 
 in gaudy cotton, and were by no means seductive in appear- 
 ance. One part of their ornamentation, however, was curious, 
 and, indeed, inexplicable to us. They were strings of old 
 European gold and silver coins, which they wore suspended 
 from their ears and noses. The women said the coins were 
 not really gold, but were copied from real coins by the soonar 
 (goldsmith). How he got hold of the originals I cannot 
 imagine, unless they were relics of the Indian trade carried 
 on in ancient times by the Venetians. 
 
 Sirporah is in the Bombay Presidency, and we were now 
 again fairly in the British possessions, within which we con- 
 tinued for the next 130 miles. 
 
 From Sirporah Ave went to Dhoolia, thirty-two miles. The 
 next morning we awoke on a great barren plain; and, after 
 walking a few miles, descended a ghat (step), as these hills 
 are called, and found the town of Dhoolia in the valley below. 
 
 In the afternoon we walked through the station, where 
 there were then no troops, but the bungalows of a few Euro- 
 pean ofiicials. The native town is of some size, and apparently 
 a place of considerable activity. There were no walls or 
 other defences : a peculiarity which was alone sufficient to 
 show that we had now left the territories of native princes. 
 
 Dhoolia contains a large jail,* the convicts in which are 
 employed in the manufacture of cotton goods. The bridge, 
 over a tributary of the Taptee, is a very fine structure, high, 
 long, and substantially built. It was another evidence that 
 we had passed the limits of native rule. 
 
 As we walked into the town we met troops of boys, return- 
 ing from one of the Company's schools. Like the other 
 inhabitants of the place they Avore the extraordinary head- 
 dresses peculiar to the Bombay Presidency. They are im- 
 
 * Jails are institutions unknown to the native governments of India. The 
 punishments prescribed by the Koran and Hindoo codes are fines, floggmg, 
 the bastinado, mutilation, or death in various forms. 
 
366 India. 
 
 mense turbans, of various rich colours and grotesque shapes — 
 the particular form being determined by the nationality or 
 caste of the wearer. As much as fifteen yards of heavy 
 muslin are often employed in their formation — rather a for- 
 midable burden for the head of a boy of eight or ten. In the 
 north of India the turbans are small, and consist of about ten 
 or twelve yards of fine and narrow muslin, which the wearer 
 winds round his head each morning afresh, and mil often re- 
 arrange during the day. But the turban of Bombay is so 
 comj)licated a structure that it has to be made up by a pro- 
 fessor of the art, and when once formed is not unwound for 
 a month or more. 
 
 We left Dhoolia on the evening of the 1 8th, and the next 
 morning arrived at Malligaum, thirty-two miles distant. Like 
 Dhoolia it is situated in a plain at the foot of a hill. The 
 country around is quite barren and jungly, as was all that we 
 saw after leaving Indor. However, we really did not see 
 much of it, as the road was so excellent after entering the 
 Bombay Presidency that our bearers completed each night's 
 march, before we awoke. 
 
 Before arriving at the dak-bungalow we had to cross a 
 long and fine stone bridge, even larger than that at Sirporah, 
 and, like it, of English shape and construction. From the 
 bridge the native town and its castle were visible, a short 
 distance dowTi the river. 
 
 Malligaum is a considerable station. We walked through 
 the cantonments, and listened to the band, which, like aU the 
 other bands of the Bombay army that I heard, was far inferior 
 to those in the Bengal service, where they were carefully trained 
 under European band-masters. The cantonments' chm*ch was 
 very pretty, being a neat edifice of rough hewn grey stone, in 
 the early pointed style — showing far more taste and knowl- 
 ege of ecclesiastical architecture than most of the chapels in 
 India, in which, indeed, those quaUties could hardly have been 
 expected, as they were mostly designed and built by the 
 Company's engineer officers. 
 
 We also visited the native town, which, although a consider- 
 able place, had no walls. The only object of interest was the 
 
To Ellora. 367 
 
 fort, biiilt at a bend of the river. It was once a place of some 
 strength, but is now in ruins. The defences consist of three 
 parallel walls, one within the other, an arrangement rarely 
 seen in India. The walls are of grey stone, at least fifteen feet 
 thick. We found the fort entirely deserted, except that in 
 one of the courts there was an encampment of Bheel troops. 
 
 Since entering the Bombay Presidency we had had an 
 excellent road and good bungalows, but we were now again 
 to leave these comforts and strike off from the direct Bombay 
 road, in order to visit the caves of Ellora which are in the 
 Nizam's dominions, about sixty miles from Malligamn. 
 
 Leaving Malligaum on the 20th of February, we found our- 
 selves next morning on a villainous cross-country road. The 
 country was hilly and very rugged, in some places covered 
 with bushes or trees. Before arriving at N"andgao/^* we saw 
 several wild hogs in the jungul. 
 
 The village of Nandgao^i is built upon the banks of a little 
 stream, and the country for some distance around it was well 
 cultivated. Crossing the stream, we found what they called 
 a " bagheechi" — a fine grove of tall trees, under the shade of 
 which we passed the day very comfortably. 
 
 The next morning we awoke near a small village, in a very 
 barren country. As there was not a tree or any other shelter 
 to be seen, we had to push on to a somewhat larger and mud- 
 walled village called Sakigao?i, twenty-four miles from Nand- 
 gn.071. At this place, also, there were but few trees, but out- 
 side the gate we found a mud temple, dedicated to Gunesi 
 and Hooniman — the Elephant and Ape gods. In this we 
 took up our quarters for the day. The idols were rude and 
 hideous representations of these two animals. During the 
 day we were several times disturbed by the priests' coming in 
 to paint them, and to make poojah, which consisted in walk- 
 ing many times round the idol, and pouring over it the sacred 
 water of the ISTurbudda ; at the same time bowing and touch- 
 
 * Nandgao?^. — The final syllable in this word, gaow, moans a village, and 
 is the same as the last syllable of Malligaum, the spelling of which is corrupt. 
 It should be Maligaow, meaning "The gardener's village." 
 
368 India. 
 
 ing their foreheads with their hands joined in the attitude of 
 prayer. 
 
 Between Israndgao?2 and Sakigaon we had crossed the range 
 of hills which divides the valleys of the Taptee and Godaveri. 
 IsTorth of the hills all the waters flow westwardly, but the 
 country in which we now were is drained by the Godaveri 
 and Kistna, rivers that empty into the Bay of Bengal. We 
 were now, therefore, fairly in the Dekkun, a term that is by 
 some confined to those parts of the Indian Peninsula which 
 are south of the Nurbudda valley and drained by eastward- 
 flowing rivers, but which, as generally used, includes all the 
 country south of the Yindya chain. 
 
 We had also entered the territories of another native prince, 
 the Nizam, as he is styled. His capital is Hydurabad, and his 
 dominions are almost four times as large as was the kingdom 
 of Oude, or three times as large as Ireland, with twice its 
 population. The founder of this dynasty was a Soobahdar, or 
 governor, imder the Mogul Emperor. During the distur- 
 bances that accompanied the decay of the Delhi empire, he 
 asserted his independence, which was afterwards recognised 
 and confirmed by the English. Unfortunately, there is no 
 treaty which gives the English the power of interfering in the 
 internal management of the Nizam's territories, and although 
 a Resident is stationed at the capital he can do little but 
 remonstrate whenever an act of more than usual folly or 
 oppression occurs. The country is therefore misgoverned, 
 Right and Justice are set at naught, the power of the Nizam 
 is in many places defied, the whole country is a nest of rob- 
 bers and a secm-e resort for Thugs, and the Company's officials 
 can do nothing to remedy this state of things; what is worse, 
 they are compelled by their treaty obligations to sustain the 
 corrupt and powerless government, the inefficiency of which 
 occasions all this disorder, and which, without their support, 
 would soon be supplanted. 
 
 During the day that we remained at Sakigao?^ our kuhars 
 went into the village to buy materials for their food. When 
 they came out again they were followed by the village buni- 
 ahs, who with many tears and gToans declared that the bear- 
 
To Ellora. ^69 
 
 ers had not hall' paid for the food which they had taken. This 
 accusation was rendered only too probable by their whole 
 conduct since leaving Agra, and on investigation we dis- 
 covered it to be true, and compelled them to pay the whole 
 value of the flour. In this case, therefore, the unfortunate 
 villagers were righted, but we had good reason to believe 
 that such occurrences often took place without our knowledge, 
 and that those who were imposed on hesitated to complain for 
 fear that we should side with our followers, in which case the 
 latter would be sure to take revenge. 
 
 This was another instance of that " Zubburdustee" — the law 
 of " Might makes Right" — which is so universally recognised 
 in India. He who has the power takes, and he who is wronged 
 gives up without question. Rarely is complaint made to the 
 officers of justice, who, even in the Company's territories,* are 
 looked upon with fear and distrust. In fact a native regards 
 a resort to the courts and police very much as we do the con- 
 duct of the doves in the old fable, who called upon the hawk 
 to defend them from the kite, and were subsequently eaten up 
 by their champion. 
 
 * It will be remembered that the officials of the Honourable Company's 
 poUce, and their judges in the courts of first resort, are all natives, who, fi-om 
 the very shght supervision that can be exercised over them by their European 
 superiors, are scarcely less venal and tyrannous than in native states. 
 
 16* 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE CAVE TEMPLES OF ELLORA. 
 
 General Description of the Temples — Khailas — Fine Sculptures — " The Work of Gods or 
 Devils ?"— Other Caves— A Heavenly Carpenter — A Disorderly Household— View 
 from Hill — Saint's Tomb — Eoza — Aurungzeeb's Tomb — His Character — Splendour 
 and Power — Decay of the Mogul Empire — A Night in Paradise — Indra Sabha — 
 Sonorous Obelisks — The Doorma Lena — Architectural Ornaments of the Caves — 
 Hindoo Keligious Mendicants — Peasantry — Their Complexions. 
 
 On the morning of February 23, we arrived at the caA^es of 
 Ellora, which are fourteen miles from Sakigao^z. They are 
 the most perfect, and best known of the rock temples which 
 abomid in this part of India, and it was therefore with no 
 little interest that we got out of our palkees and began to 
 explore them. The caves are hoUowed out of the rock, at 
 the foot of a ghat, or range of hills, which rise steeply from 
 the plain to the height of six hundred feet. Their name, 
 Ellora, is a corruption of Weroola, the name of a small village 
 about a mUe distant. The caves extend for three miles along: 
 the foot of the hill. They are of various ages, the most 
 northern, and the southern caves being of Boodhist origin, 
 while those in the middle are Brahmunical, and about nine 
 hundred years old, or even less. 
 
 We first visited the cave called Khailas, or Paradise, which, 
 although one of the most modern, is at once the largest and 
 most elaborate of the series. It is a quarry-fike excavation — 
 of which the depth is 250 feet, and the breadth 133 feet. 
 There is a wall of solid rock, separating the enclosure from 
 the plain. The interior of the quarry is occupied in the centre 
 by the temple. This is of the usual form, consisting of the 
 shrine with its pyramidal dome, and several piUared porticoes 
 and halls. The sides of the quarry are steep, and hollowed 
 
The Cave Temples of EUora. 371 
 
 out into successive stories of halls and galleries, into wMcb 
 light is admitted by open colonnades. All these buildings, 
 the great temple, its porticoes and galleries, as well as the 
 other apartments and the massive wall which divides the 
 whole from the valley, are carved and quarried out of the 
 solid rock. 
 
 The temple is about eighty-five feet high to the top of the 
 pyramidal spire over the shrine. Its length, including the 
 porticoes which are connected with it by hanging galleries of 
 stone, is not less than 150 feet, and the greatest breadth is 
 about ninety feet. The largest apartment is sixty-six feet by 
 fifty-five. Its ceiling, which is supported by heavy square 
 columns, is not more than twelve feet high, and carved to 
 represent rafters. At the end of this apartment is a low door, 
 opening into the shrine, which is a small and dark room, con- 
 taining only a gigantic Mahadeo, four feet high. The columns 
 and walls of the apartment were most elaborately carved, as 
 was also the whole exterior of the building, the designs of 
 which represent the exploits of Ram in Lunka or Ceylon, 
 where, with the assistance of the monkey-god Hooniman, and 
 his army of apes, he delivered his wife Seeta from the cap- 
 tivity of a demon. The chambers and galleries in the sides 
 of the quarry were similarly decorated. Sometimes the de- 
 vices are uncouth, as is the case in one of the apartments, the 
 roof of which is supported by huge stone lions and elephants 
 fighting with each other. In the enclosure between the tem- 
 ple and the gateway are two obelisks, seventy-five or eighty 
 feet high, supported on the backs of elephants. Like all the 
 other buildings and accessories, they are carved from the 
 solid rock. On coming out we met two Hindoo devotees, or 
 Sooniasees, and asked them who had built the temple. " How 
 do I know," one of them replied, " whether it was a god or a 
 devil ?" — implying that it was beyond the power of men. 
 
 After seeing the Khailas, we paid a hurried visit to the caves 
 which lie to the south of it. They are mostly square apart- 
 ments, about a hundred feet deep, cut into the steep face of 
 the chfl", and approached by a terrace running along the hill- 
 side. The roofs were generally twelve or fifteen feet high, 
 
372 India. 
 
 and supported by many solid columns. Some were approached 
 from court-yards, excavated in the hill-sides, and others con- 
 sisted of several separate apartments, joined by corridors. 
 There was, however, a great uniformity of design, the most 
 remarkable exception being a cave known as the " Carpenter's 
 Cabin," which is not open in front hke the others, but has 
 only a small door for entrance. The interior is oblong in 
 form, about fifty feet long and twenty-five broad. The end 
 opposite the door is apsidal, and the roof is ribbed, and pointed 
 with a perfect Gothic arch. Altogether, it would do remark- 
 ably well for a Christian church. This cave is singularly plain, 
 the only figure of any kind being the colossal statue of the 
 "Carpenter," or architect, as the word maistree would be 
 better translated. This statue is situated in the apse, and 
 represents the maistree as sitting cross-legged, with one hand 
 on each knee. The natives told us that he was a son of 
 Seewa — that he excavated all these caves, and finally died 
 from a cut in the finger, wounded by an ill-directed blow of 
 the chisel. In fact, one of his hands was represented in the 
 statue as bleeding. This must have been a late legend, as this 
 cave, and the others near it, are of Boodhist construction. 
 
 We now ascended the ghat, which proved a hot and fa- 
 tiguing business, as it was nearly eleven o'clock and we had had 
 no breakfast. On the top of the hill we came upon a broad plain, 
 upon which there were several large stone tombs of Moosul- 
 man architecture. One of these, we found, was used as a bun- 
 galow by the officers of the Aurungabad mess, and was com- 
 pletely fitted up with a table, chairs, and cotton carpet. Here 
 we ventured to take up our quarters, and wrote off to the 
 commandant of Aurungabad for permission to remain all 
 night. Opposite the tomb was a bungalow belonging to a 
 retired English officer, who was a hundred years old, the na- 
 tives said. He sent us over some mutton and vegetables, and 
 offered to assist us in any way in his power. We thanked 
 him for his kindness, in a note, and asked leave to call upon 
 him ; from this, however, he excused himself on the ground 
 of illness and the fatigue of dressing. However, we found 
 out afterwards that the real reason for objecting to our visit, 
 
The Cave Temples of EUora. ono. 
 
 was that the old gentleman's house was all zenana, and over- 
 run with old and new favourites, whose number, as we were 
 told by the bungalow-kbansahma?z, was " beyond account." 
 
 The heat was so great that we remained indoors nearly 
 all day. Towards evening we ascended the hill behind the 
 tomb, from the top of which we got an extensive vicAv. In 
 the valley below us was the town of Roza, almost buried in 
 trees. In the distance rose a steep mountain, crowned with 
 the fortress of Dowlutabad. On the right, in the valley, was 
 the pretty village of Weroola, and behind us was the table- 
 land upon which was situated the tomb where we had passed 
 the day, and several others which we visited on descending 
 from the hill. 
 
 One of these was quite an elaborate structure, in a fine court, 
 surrounded by splendid trees. It is the burial place of a dis- 
 ciple of Nizam ood Deen, a saint whose tomb I saw at Delhi. 
 The mausoleum of the disciple was larger than that of his 
 master, if not so handsome, and the number of pilgrims en- 
 camped under the shade of the trees seemed quite considerable. 
 
 After seeing these mausoleums we walked on to the city of 
 Roza, a walled town built byAurungzeeb during his residence 
 in the Dekkun. The architecture of the buildings, therefore, 
 and general appearance of the town, precisely resemble those 
 of the cities built by the Mahommedans in Northern India. 
 Here, for the first time since leaving Jaipoor, we saw the 
 minars of a musjeed. 
 
 Roza, though well fortified and when first built doubtless a 
 pretty city, has now a most decayed look. Many of the 
 buildings are quite unoccupied, and the stuccoed exteriors of 
 all were black with dirt and mould. The population are 
 nearly all Moosulmans, and have a most shabby appearance. 
 The fact is that this city, like many other towns in India, was 
 built to satisfy the whim of a tyrant, who ordered the build- 
 ing of a city without regard to anything but his own pleasure, 
 and when it was built transplanted inhabitants into it by 
 force. 
 
 The principal sight of Roza, the name of which signifies a 
 tomb, is the grave of the Emperor Aurungzeeb. It is covered 
 
374 India. 
 
 only with a white marble slab, which is protected by a canopy 
 of wood. A cloth of white silk, strewn with fresh flowers, 
 was spread over the grave — a usual mark of respect shown to 
 the graves of all Mahommedans who have left a fund to pay 
 for it. The plainness and simplicity of the Emperor's grave 
 contrasted very much with the elaborate splendour of several 
 marble mausoleums which were contained within the same 
 court. The moollahs in charge told us that the tomb had 
 been prepared, in accordance with his own directions, before 
 he died, which is quite possible, as he was rather given to as- 
 ceticism. 
 
 Here, then, lie the remains of Aurungzeeb, the third in de- 
 scent from Akbur, and the last, as Akbur was the first of the 
 great Emperors of Hindoostan. He ruled an empire of immense 
 extent, which had never been well consolidated, and which, 
 during his reign, was distracted by formidable rebellions in 
 various directions, some of them even led by his own sons ; 
 and yet he not only j)reserved in great measure the integrity 
 of his dominions, but he even ventured to enforce upon the 
 Hindoos odious taxes, prescribed by the Koran indeed, but 
 which none of his ancestors had dared to maintain. He set at 
 naught the rehgious prejudices of the great body of his subjects ; 
 forbade the public celebration of Hindoo festivals ; demolished 
 temples and built mosques where they had stood, and refused 
 to admit Hindoos to any government situation of honour and 
 responsibihty. His zeal for religion was shown not only by 
 these acts, but by the simplicity of his dress, the abstemious- 
 ness of his diet, and his habit of constantly perusing and ex- 
 pounding the Koran. At the same time his religion never 
 interfered with measures of state. He made his way to the 
 throne by deposing and imprisoning his father, and putting to 
 death his three brothers and all their sons, and during his 
 whole reign no scruples prevented the perpetration of any 
 crime that was requisite for the gratification of his ambition. 
 
 Although abstemious in his private life, the splendours of his 
 court and camp almost exceed behef. His army was composed 
 of thousands of cavalry, infantry and artillery, the soldiers of 
 which were drawn not only from all the provinces of his vast 
 
The Cave Temples of Ellora. 375 
 
 emj^ire, but from other Asiatic countries, and even to same ex 
 tent from Europe. A long train of war elephants, and a numer- 
 ous stud of magnificently-caparisoned horses, for the Emperor's 
 use, always accompanied his camp. A menagerie, also, was 
 taken wherever he went, from which the rarest animals in the 
 world were frequently brought forth and exhibited by their 
 keej^ers before the Emj)eror and his court ; while hawks, 
 hounds, hunting-tigers, trained elephants, and eveiy accompani- 
 ment used for field sports, swelled the j^omp of the prodigious 
 retinue. 
 
 The walls of cloth which encompassed the royal tents 
 formed a circumference of twelve hundred yards, and con- 
 tained every species of apartment found in the most spacious 
 palace. There were halls of audience for public assemblies and 
 private councils, with all the courts and cabinets attached to 
 them, each hall magnificently adorned, and having in it a raised 
 seat or throne for the Emperor, surrounded with gilded pillars, 
 with cano]Dies of velvet richly fringed and superbly embroi- 
 dered ; separate tents for mosques and oratories ; baths and 
 galleries for archery and gymnastic exercises ; and a zenana as 
 remarkable for luxury and privacy as that of Delhi. Persian 
 carpets, damasks and tapestries ; European velvets, satins and 
 broadcloths ; Chinese silks of every description, muslins, and 
 cloths of gold were used in the utmost profusion and arranged 
 for the greatest effect. Gilded balls and cupolas surmounted 
 the tops of the royal tents. Besides all these there were 
 separate tents for the household and servants, for the stable, 
 the armoury and the kitchen ; and every tent of the whole 
 camp had its exact duplicate, which was sent on in advance 
 to be prepared for the Emperor's arrival. His march was a 
 grand procession, and when he entered his pavilion a salvo 
 from fifty pieces of ordnance announced the event. In all 
 places and circumstances he assumed and maintained every 
 form and ceremony observed at the established residences of 
 the imperial court. 
 
 The last twenty-two years of Aurungzeeb's life were spent 
 in the Dekkun, in vain endeavours to overcome the rising 
 power of the Maharattas. Yet, notwithstanding his absence 
 
376 India. 
 
 from the seat of government ; his being engaged in a vast and 
 costly war, never successful, and at last purely defensive ; the 
 continued rebellions of different nations under his rule, and 
 the treacheiy of his own family, he maintained his supremacy 
 to the last ; enforced the taxes necessary for his vast projects 
 and expenses, and even, as before mentioned, carried into 
 ojDcration a series of acts calculated to offend the dearest 
 rights of the great mass of his subjects. He did all this by his 
 great natural abiUties, never-sleeping vigilance, and minute 
 personal supervision of every department of his government. 
 In person " he planned campaigns, and issued instructions du- 
 ring their progress ; drawings of forts were sent to him to fix 
 on the points of attack. His letters embrace measures for 
 keeping open the roads in the Afghan country, for quelling 
 disturbances at Mooltan and Agra, and even for recovering 
 Candahar ; and at the same time there is scarcely a detach- 
 ment marching, or a convoy moving in the Dekkun without 
 some orders from his own hand. The appointment of the 
 lowest revenue officer of a district, or the selection of a clerk 
 in an office, is not beneath his attention, and the conduct of all 
 these functionaries is watched by means of spies and of prying 
 enquiries from all comers ; and they are constantly kept on 
 the alert by admonitions founded on such information."* 
 
 Aurungzeeb died in 1707, at the city of Ahmudnuggur, 
 after a disastrous retreat from the Maharattas. On account 
 of his splendour, power, and abiUties, and the zeal which he 
 showed for the Mahommedan religion, he is looked upon by 
 the Indian Moosulmans as the greatest of all their monarchs. 
 After his death, the Empire, which had no homogeneity, and 
 no real elements of strength or unity, and which had been 
 only held together during his reign by his extraordinary and 
 commanding talents, underwent a speedy decay and gradual 
 dismemberment. The governors of provinces revolted and 
 founded new dynasties; the Maharattas, whom it had been 
 the task of his life to hold in check, spread, and conquered, 
 until nearly all his dominions fell into their hands, and the 
 
 * Elphinstone'a History of India. 
 
The Cave Temples of Ellora. 377 
 
 occupant of his throne was their prisoner and puppet ; lastly, 
 a power, feebler in its beginnings than either of these, which, 
 during his reign, had secured a precarious footing on both 
 sides of India, accomplished that which Aurungzeeb, with all 
 his Avealth and power, had never been able to effect. They 
 subdued the Maharattas, who had grown to be a great and 
 powerful nation ; reduced the revolted governors to order and 
 dependence on the central power ; reinstated the Emperor in 
 his position and rank ; and having spread their conquests be- 
 yond what were the farthest limits of India, established a 
 government the most liberal, and at the same time the most 
 united and powerful that India has ever known, and the first 
 which ever secured the unquestioned respect and obedience of 
 all its different nations and rulers. 
 
 We took dinner in the " bungalow-tomb," and were after- 
 wards preparing to go to bed, when our messenger returned 
 from Aurungabad, announcing that we could not occupy the 
 tomb, as it had been previously engaged by an officer who 
 would arrive late that night. This was rather annoying in- 
 telligence, as it was past ten o'clock. However, we called up 
 our kuhars, and marched down the hill to the Khailas cave, 
 where we slept in our palkees. 
 
 The next morning, as soon as we awoke, we went to visit 
 the caves which we had not seen on the previous day. The 
 first which we saw was the most northern of the series, about 
 a mile from the Khailas, and known as Indra Sabha, since it 
 contains a colossal statue of the god Indra, and his wife In- 
 dranee. This cave, which is one of the finest, consists of a 
 series of chambers, each about fifty feet square, hollowed out 
 of the sides of a quarried court. On each side of the court is 
 a tall stone pillar, one of which has the remarkable property 
 of ringing when struck, and is, in consequence, worshipped by 
 the natives. The rooms have the same general appearance as 
 those of the other caves, and are decorated with the same 
 taste. The court is entered through a wall and gateway of 
 solid stone, on one side of which is a monolithic column, and 
 on the other a colossal elephant of stone. 
 
 Leaving the cave of Indra, we passed through numerous 
 
378 India. 
 
 others of minor note, and finally visited the Doorma Lena, 
 which contains the largest single room of any one of the 
 caves. This is one hundred and thirty feet in width, and of 
 nearly the same depth. Besides the large apartment, there 
 were numerous smaller rooms arranged in suites. One of 
 these had a colonnade opening upon the precipitous side of a 
 deep and wild ravine, at the upper end of which was a pretty 
 water-fall. Besides the usual sculptured ornaments, the Doorma 
 Lena contained many images of Seewa and his wife Parbutee, 
 the latter of whom was represented in the congenial occupa- 
 tion of impaling a baby. 
 
 Whatever may be the size of the chambers in these apart- 
 ments, the roofs are always very low, and the columns which 
 sup23ort them broad and heavy. The latter are usually divided 
 into about equal heights of capital, shaft, and base, the decora- 
 tions of each being remarkably similar to the acanthus-leaf 
 designs of Grecian architecture, and quite different from any- 
 thing that I had seen elsewhere in India. In fact, these might 
 be supposed to be the first rude attempts of art seeking for the 
 perfect grace of the Corinthian capital, did we not know that 
 the choragic monument of Lysicrates at Athens was completed 
 twelve hundred years before these caves were excavated. 
 
 These caves are supposed to have been originally dug by 
 the Boodhists, and subsequently altered by the Brahmuns to 
 suit their worship. In some of them the alterations have been 
 much more important than in others, but in almost all there are 
 greater or less traces of a Boodhist origin. The figures of the 
 gods, and the carvings which represent the obscene rites of 
 Seewa's worship, are evidently late additions. The interiors 
 were once decorated with paintings in very bright and durable 
 colours, as the similar caves at Ajunteh are to the present day, 
 but those in the caves of EUora were all defaced and removed 
 by that great iconoclast, Aurungzeeb. 
 
 After breakfast, we all went into the Khailas again, and oc- 
 cupied ourselves until two o'clock in sketching some of the 
 ornaments and cai)itals of the columns. While thus engaged, 
 we were accosted by two yogees,* who had come from 
 * Togee, a Hindoo fukheer, or religious mendicant. 
 
The Cave Temples of EUora. 379 
 
 Hurdwar, the origin of the Ganges Canal. One of these 
 fukheers had made his hair of a dirty tow colour by keeping 
 ashes and lime on it. He asked whether one of our party, 
 whose locks were somewhat of the same hue, had made 
 them so by the same means. In another of the caves we saw 
 one of these same gentry, who was sitting gathered up in a 
 heap, and had occupied the same position for a year without 
 speaking, having taken a vow to do so for the remainder of 
 his life, as his servant told us. • 
 
 While going through the temples in the morning, Ave saw a 
 great many peasants, who had come from Weroola, where a 
 fair was going on. They were going through the sights under 
 the guidance of a Brahraun, who narrated the various legends 
 connected with the gods represented, and demanded a contri- 
 bution of money after each story. The peasants were mostly 
 Maharatta girls, and very fine-looking. They were generally 
 tall, stout, and well-made. They were clad in a saree, or veil, 
 and a dhotee, tightly girt up around the loins, as is the cus- 
 tom near Bombay. These clothes were made of blue cotton, 
 and their arrangement was well adapted to show the graceful 
 forms of the wearers. The complexions of these girls were 
 light, and their foreheads were marked with a cherry red spot 
 of paint. All the natives in this part of the country had very 
 light complexions, some scarcely darker than a Spaniard, and 
 none so dark as the Bengalees, who are sometimes as black as 
 any African. Even in Northern India I seldom saw the skin 
 so light as the usual colour in the Bombay Presidency. What 
 is a strange thing, the Portugueses^ as they are called, or the 
 half-caste descendants of Portuguese, as they are really, who 
 form a large class in Bombay, are often much darker than na- 
 tives of unmixed blood, and are even occasionally as black as 
 a Bengalee. 
 
 * The population of India, of Portuguese descent, is reckoned at one mil- 
 lion, wliile the number of the EngHsh in India, until the recent revolt, did not 
 exceed fifty thousand, including the soldiers. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 TO BOMBAY. 
 
 Eoad to Dowlutabad— " The City of Eiches"— A Stronghold— The " Master of the Plain" 
 — Meet " the Moon-Lady" again — Aurungahad — A Magician — ^Tomb of Aiirungzeeb's 
 Daughter — Another Eevolt — Separation of our Forces — Toka — The Godavei-i — 
 Brahmuns — A hungry God — Eope-and-boat Bridge — Imampoor — Ahmudnuggur — 
 Meet our Friends — The Fort — The Kingdom of Ahmudnuggur — The Largest Brass 
 Cannon in the World — Duelling among Natives of India — Chand Beebee again — 
 Death of Aurungzeeb — Bombay Kuhars — Seroor — Kondapoora — The Eiver Kistna — 
 Poonah — Dismiss our Kuhars— Good-bye to Dhoolee-travelling — Irregular Cavalry. 
 
 About two o'clock we left the caves, in order to arrive at 
 Dowlutabad, six miles off, in time to see its castle by day- 
 light. We again ascended the Ghat, and passed through 
 Roza. The road was very bad, in fact merely a path leading 
 through a wild, hilly, and deserted country, so we did not 
 reach our destination until five o'clock, and consequently were 
 obliged to see the celebrated fortress rather hurriedly, Dow- 
 lutabad, the " City of Riches," is a walled town built on a 
 level plain which is surrounded by hills. The town is a consi- 
 derable one, and entirely in the Moosulman style of architec- 
 ture, halving been rebuilt by Aurungzeeb. It contains several 
 gardens of trees, and a tall, but now rather ruinous, minar 
 erected by the Moosulmans to commemorate the taking of the 
 place. In the centre of the city rises a very steep and rocky 
 hill, about 700 feet high, upon the summit of which is the 
 castle, considered by natives the strongest fortress in the 
 world. It was built by the Emperor Mohummud Toghluk, 
 who had a fancy for making this place his capital, and twice 
 compelled all the inhabitants of Delhi to remove hither. Both 
 migrations were attended with great suffering, but in the last 
 a large proportion of the people died of starvation, as a famine 
 prevailed at the time. 
 
 The ascent to the fortress is alternately by a steep road and 
 
To Bombay. 381 
 
 flights of stone steps. At intervals there are lines of strong 
 defences surrounding the hill. The rocky summit of the hill, 
 for a height of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet, is 
 scarped perpendicularly, and is further defended by a deep 
 ditch filled with water. From this point the only approach 
 to the castle is by a subterranean passage, with steps hollowed 
 out of the rock. The top of the hill is entirely occupied by 
 the castle, which has very strong walls, and contains various 
 tiers of fortified ramparts. We were led through the apart- 
 ments of the zenana, and one or two small garden-courts. 
 The whole pile is quite extensive. On top of the highest 
 tower we found a great cannon, twenty feet long, called 
 "Maidan ka Malik" or "Master of the Plain." Close beside 
 it, the standard of the Nizam, a triangular flag of tattered 
 blue cotton, floated from a flag-staflf. This fortress is said by 
 the natives to have been besieged twelve years, by Aurung- 
 zeeb, to obtain the hand of a princess, the " Chand Beebee" 
 — a not very probable story, as the Chand Beebee died fifty 
 years before his reign began. 
 
 The fortress of Dowlutabad must have been quite impreg- 
 nable before bombs were used in warfare ; and even they 
 would not do the garrison much injury so extensive are the 
 subterranean passages and apartments. Still, like most of the 
 other fortresses of India, it is valueless to the English, as it 
 commands nothing, and is only adapted for the stronghold of 
 a robber-prince. It is, therefore, left in the hands of the 
 Nizam, and garrisoned by a few of his sepoys, who are as 
 miserable excuses for soldiers as I ever saw. 
 
 Dowlutabad is famous for its grapes, which are very large, 
 and resemble those produced in our hot-houses. Before leaving, 
 we laid in a good supply of them to eat in our palkees. About 
 eleven in the evening we arrived at the dak-bungalow of 
 Aurungabad, seven miles from Dowlutabad. We found that 
 it would be impossible to get dinner, and were obliged to go 
 to bed fasting, although we had had nothing but a cup of 
 coftee and a biscuit during the day. However, we had been 
 getting gradually used to irregularity of meals, and bore it 
 like men. 
 
382 India. 
 
 It was on the evening of February 24th that we arrived at 
 Aurungabad. The next day was very warm, so we remained 
 indoors eating the excellent grapes, oranges, and figs of this 
 region, and witnessing the performances of some jugglers, 
 which were by far the most wonderful feats of the kind I have 
 ever seen, particularly as they were performed upon the' 
 gravel road, and without the least preparations. One of the 
 tricks consisted in wrapping a boy in a net so tightly that he 
 could neither move his feet nor his arms, which were folded 
 across his chest. The net was then tied by a firm knot 
 behind. The boy thus bound was placed in a basket only just 
 large enough to hold him, and the basket, which lay on the 
 ground, was covered with a cloth. After some ceremonies, 
 the magician assured us that the boy had gone to the bazar, 
 to prove which he called him, and was answered by a childish 
 voice far in the distance. Whether this was effected by ven- 
 triloquism or a confederate, I do not know. He then ap- 
 proached the basket, and, to further prove that it was empty, 
 thrust a spear through it in all directions. This part of the 
 performance was quite incomprehensible, as the basket was so 
 small that the boy could hardly be crammed in, in the first 
 place ; and it, as well as the spear, were submitted for our in- 
 spection, to show that there were no false bottoms, or other 
 similar devices employed by European stage-jugglers. A few 
 more ceremonies recalled the boy, who jumped out of the 
 basket, unembarrassed by the net, which was rolled up and 
 held in his hand. 
 
 Toward evening we walked into the city, which is two 
 miles from the cantonments where the bungalow is situated. 
 Outside the walls is a tomb of one of Aurungzeeb's daughters, 
 which is said to be a model of the Taj at Agra. It is, indeed, 
 a good deal like it, but not nearly so large, and, moreover, 
 built of pukka instead of marble. From the top of one of the 
 minars we had a view of the whole city, which is a place of 
 much greater extent than I had supposed. It was built by 
 Aurungzeeb, as its name implies, and is, like Roza and Dowlu- 
 tabad, purely in the Moosulman style. 
 
 On returning to the dak-bungalow we informed our kuhars. 
 
To Bombay. 383 
 
 as usual, that we should start after dinner, and Avere surprised 
 by their refusing to go en until some demands for an advance 
 of wages were satisfied. This we had previously refused, as 
 well from principle as from necessity — the ready money of the 
 party being almost exhausted. We could, of course, do noth- 
 ing that night, but determined to a23ply to the authorities next 
 day. In this, however, we were forestalled by the bearers. 
 
 Although Aurungabad is in the Nizam's territories, and the 
 cantonments are occupied by his troops, yet the magistrate is 
 English, as are many of the other officers in the Nizam's service. 
 This accounts for the revolt being made at Aurungabad, as the 
 previous one had been at Indor. 
 
 As we were breakfasting next morning we were surprised 
 by the arrival of a peon,* with a summons to appear before 
 the commandant and answer to a complaint of our kuhars. 
 When breakfast was finished, two of our party accordingly 
 proceeded to that officer's house. He caused our Persian and 
 English agreements to be translated, and as it appeared from 
 them that we were entirely in the right, he ordered our men 
 to go on quietly under pain of losing all the wages due to 
 them, and of being imprisoned if disorderly. 
 
 We supposed that this would prevent further difficulty, and 
 after dinner were prepared to start, when the bearers of one 
 of the party refused to move. As this was becoming intoler- 
 able, he gave the mate and several others a beating, upon 
 which all his men took to their heels and ran away. The 
 other bearers, however, professed their readiness to go on, so 
 my two American friends left us for Ahmudnuggur. I re- 
 mained, although my men were quite ready to proceed, as I 
 was afraid that the kuhars who were beaten might cause trouble. 
 We, however, heard nothing more of the mate and six of the 
 number, but toward evening five of those who had deserted 
 returned and proffered their services, with whom, and eleven 
 new bearers obtained at Aurungabad, we started on the even- 
 ing of February 27th. 
 
 * Peon — A native attendant on a court of justice. The word is Spanish, 
 and is also used in India to designate a class of servants employed for 
 errands and to oversee work. 
 
384 India. 
 
 On awaking next morning we found ourselves at Toka dak- 
 bungalow, twenty-nine miles from Aurungabad. The bungalow 
 is situated on the right bank of the Godaveri, which here forms 
 the boundary between the Nizam's territories and the Bombay 
 Presidency. On the opposite bank is the town of Toka, at the 
 junction of another river with the Godaveri, and there are 
 two other towns in sight, one on each of the points of land 
 formed by the junction of the two rivers. During the afternoon 
 we walked through two of these towns, which, though not 
 large, we found well built of stone, wdth large high houses and a 
 beautiful stone ghat along one part of the river's bank. One 
 of the towns seemed a place of some sanctity, and contained 
 four very handsome temples, around which there were a large 
 number of Brahmuns idling, who at once assailed us with de- 
 mands for eenam, as they call in the Dekkun what is known 
 as bucksees in Northern India. We amused ourselves by pre- 
 tending that we had no money, and asked alms of them, pre- 
 tending that we were poor travellers — an assertion well borne 
 out by our scanty and tattered attire. They would not at 
 first believe us, but when they had once swallowed the story 
 they became so insolent that it required all our self-command 
 to restrain the avenging hand. Luckily, we remembered the 
 danger that there is in striking a god, and prudently retired. 
 The Brahmuns are, I think, the most disgusting and presuming 
 wretches I ever met. One day while we were resting under 
 a grove, a great dirty fellow, smeared with cow-dung and 
 wearing the sacred thread over his shoulder, with no clothing 
 but a rag six inches wide, marched boldly up to us and asked 
 for paisa (farthings). I, being paymaster, w^anted to know 
 " what for ?" when he answered as coolly as possible, " because 
 I am a god and am hungry." If I could have mustered Hin- 
 doostanee enough, I would have told him that if his divine 
 character could not protect him from hunger it certainly 
 should not secure him unmerited charity. As it was, I could 
 only recommend him, in terse and vigourous language, to re- 
 move himself, as speedily as possible, beyond the reach of 
 personal chastisement. 
 
 There is a rope-and-boat bridge across the river at Toka, on 
 
To Bombay. 385 
 
 a principle which I have seen applied in France and Minnesota. 
 The waters of the river were considerably shrunken from the 
 long drought, and a regular bazar had been established on the 
 sandy bed which was left dry. Here we laid in a fresh supply 
 of the fine grapes of the country. Outside of the bazar were 
 a number of those little basket houses, some of which we had 
 seen at Sirporah. 
 
 The next morning we arrived at Imampoor bungalow, which 
 consists of an old Moosulman tomb, repaired and fitted up for 
 the reception of travellers. It is built at the top of a steep 
 hill, and the country around is utterly barren, although the 
 enclosure of the bunsjalow contains some fine trees. 
 
 From Toka to Imampoor is twenty-six miles, but after break- 
 fast we determined to proceed to Ahmudnuggur, twelve miles 
 further, where we hoped to overtake the two members of our 
 party who had separated from us at Aurungabad. We ac- 
 cordingly started at three in the afternoon, and walked into 
 Nuggur^^ by seven, where we found our friends at dinner. 
 We were all very glad to meet again, and passed the evening 
 in recounting our adventures since separating. 
 
 The next day was so warm that it was afternoon before we 
 ventured out of doors. We found Ahmudnuggur to be a 
 considerable station, but the native town, although of some 
 importance, has nothing worth seeing but its fort. This is of 
 large size, but has been entirely modernized and the interior 
 cleared of the mass of buildings which always encumber a na- 
 tive stronghold. The fort is now garrisoned and used as an 
 arsenal. 
 
 Ahmudnuggur was once the capital of a large and powerful 
 kingdom, under a Moosulman dynasty, which arose on the 
 dissolution of the Bahmunee empire in the Dekkun. The 
 founder of this dynasty was Ahmud, after whom the city 
 was called, its name signifying " The City of Ahmud." He 
 was originally a slave, but having attained a position of influ- 
 ence under the Bahmunee Emperor, succeeded in founding 
 
 * Although tho real name of the city is Ahmudnuggur, it is usually caUe^ 
 simply Nugg-ur, both by the inhabitants and by others. 
 
 17 
 
386 India. 
 
 an independent kingdom for himself and his descendants. The 
 throne was occupied by members of his family from 1490 to 
 1637. These sovereigns ruled over a great extent of country, 
 and it would appear that they possessed powerful armaments, 
 not ouly from the long resistance which they offered to the Mo- 
 gul Emperors, but also from the fact narrated in the history of 
 Furishta, that in one campaign they lost six hundred cannon. 
 Many of these were doubtless mere swivels, to be fired from 
 the backs of camels, but one at least was of immense size. It 
 is still in existence, and is four feet eight inches in diameter at 
 the muzzle and fifteen feet long. Its calibre is two feet four 
 inches, and its weight forty tons, being probably the largest 
 piece of brass ordnance known. 
 
 Furishta mentions the prevalence under this dynasty of 
 duelhng, a custom almost unknown in Asia. Duels were oc- 
 casioned by the most trifling disputes, and it was considered 
 dishonourable to decline a challenge. ISTo blame was attached 
 to the death of one of the parties, provided the combat was 
 fair. These duels w^ere always fought with sabres. 
 
 It was during the wars carried on against this kingdom by 
 Akbur, that the Chand Beebee or Chand Sooltana, as she is 
 often called, displayed that heroic character which has made 
 her name famous throughout Western India. Her most cele- 
 brated exploit was the defence of the Ahmudnuggur fort, 
 during which she fought with her own hands in the breach, 
 and finally compelled the Hindoostanee forces to come to 
 terms. The common tradition among the natives is, that du- 
 ring the siege, after the supply of cannon balls was exhausted, 
 she loaded her guns successively with copper, with silver, and 
 gold coins, and did not consent to make terms until the only 
 missiles remaining were her jewels. She died about the 
 year 1600, murdered during a mutiny of her soldiers. Her 
 infant nephew, for whom she had been acting as regent, was 
 confined in the fort at Gwahor by the Mogul Emperor, and 
 soon died. In 1637, under Shah Jehan, the dynasty was 
 finally extinguished, and its territories were added to the ag- 
 glomeration of conquered countries which formed the empire 
 of the Mogul sovereigns. 
 
To Bombay. 387 
 
 It was in Ahmudnuggtn* that the Emperor Aurungzeeb, ex- 
 hausted with twenty years of ceaseless and disastrous warfare, 
 at length found in death that repose which the activity and 
 energy of his character, and the continual fear and suspicion 
 in which he lived, never allowed him to enjoy during life. 
 Even on his death-bed he would not j^ermit the presence of 
 his sons, for fear that some treachery on their part should 
 curtail the few hours of existence which he knew were all 
 that remained to him. He had waded to the throne throusrh 
 the blood of his relations, and during his whole life he was tor- 
 mented by a not ill-grounded apprehension that the same fate, 
 by which almost all his ancestors and family had perished, 
 would in the end overtake himself. 
 
 About five in the evening we walked to the parade-ground 
 to hear the music, which was tolerably good for a Bombay 
 band. Only a few of the officers and ladies of the station 
 were present. Afterwards we returned to the bungalow and 
 dined. In the evenmg we started for Seroor, forty miles 
 distant. Gibson here dismissed the bearers whom he had 
 hired at Aurungabad, and proceeded in a " nuggur-cart" — a 
 conveyance resembling the garrhees on the Grand Trunk 
 road, except that it is mounted on two wheels only, and 
 drawn by a pair of bullocks. The five or six of his original 
 set of bearers who had remained faithful, accompanied us as 
 supplementaries as far as Poonah, where we received a supply 
 of money and paid them all off. Gibson's men were appa- 
 rently glad to get rid of the Aurungabad kuhars, who did not 
 seem to fraternize at all. They had a different step, a differ- 
 ent grunt (three notes instead of two"^), and would neither eat 
 nor smoke with the Agra bearers. 
 
 We arrived at Seroor bungalow on the morning of March 
 3d. It is situated in the midst of an utterly barren and deso- 
 late country. As far as the eye can see around there is no 
 evidence of vegetable or animal life, except the pariah dogs, 
 looking like mangy wolves, and the flocks of kites and solitary 
 vultures which form a feature in every Indian landscape. 
 
 * A better distinction would be to say " three neighs instead of two grunts." 
 
388 India. 
 
 Dreary as this picture is, it is not an exaggerated description 
 of mucli of the country in India. 
 
 The next day we passed at the dak-bungalo\7 of Konda- 
 poora, forty-six miles from Seroor. Between the two places 
 we crossed several rivers, branches of the Kistna which emp- 
 ties into the Bay of Bengal. Indeed all the rivers of this part 
 of India, even those which rise within thirty miles of the 
 western coast, flow eastwardly and pour their waters into the 
 sea which washes the Coromandel Coast, 
 
 Kondapoora is in the midst of that desolate and jungly 
 scenery which wearied our eyes from the time that we left 
 Indor. 
 
 The following day, March 5th, we arrived at the dak-bungalow 
 of Poonah, one of the largest stations m the Bombay Presi- 
 dency, and within 120 miles of that city. At this point we 
 paid off our bearers, and bade adieu to dhoolee travelling. 
 Since leaving Agra we had come nine hundred and sixty-six 
 miles on men's shoulders, and were getting heartily tired of 
 that mode of locomotion. At the same time, on looking back, 
 I must say that there is not a more agreeable conveyance than 
 the dhoolee in use anywhere (except it be the garrhee of 
 Bengal), especially where, as in India, most of the travelling 
 is done by night. 
 
 Settling the accounts of our bearers, and dismissing them, 
 occupied a whole day. The next day we were detained in- 
 doors examining and purchasing some of the various fancy 
 articles manufactured at Poonah. 
 
 When we were at Poonah the number of troops in the 
 station was considerably reduced by the Persian war. Among 
 those still remaining was a regiment of irregular cavalry who 
 had encamped opposite the dak-bungalow. The irregular 
 cavalry in the various Presidencies are volunteers in the ful- 
 lest sense of the term. They find their own horses, enlist and 
 retire from the service when they please, and each man is 
 allowed to choose his own costume and arms. In this last 
 respect, however, they do not avail themselves of their liberty, 
 but wear a uniform native dress, and procure their arras 
 through the colonel of the regiment. One of the best points 
 
To Bombay. 389 
 
 in the equipment is the retaining of the native saddle, a cloth 
 pad, which gives a much softer and firmer seat than the 
 European "pig skin." Each regiment has only three Euro- 
 jDean officers, who, like their men, wear the native costume. 
 The discipline in these regiments is even less rigid than in the 
 regular army ; and they answer a very useful purpose by 
 giving employment to that large class of natives, mostly 
 Moosulmans, who have been deprived of occupation by the 
 Company's government, and who, being too proud to work, 
 would become dangerous and disorderly were not some such 
 career offered to them. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 Khandala — The Ghat Mountains — Cave Temples — The Eailway — Obstacles to its Con- 
 struction-^Sitaationof Bomhay — The Fort — Natiye Town — Eesidences of Europeans 
 — Growth of Eastern Cities — Commercial Ability of Natives — Commerce of Bombay 
 and Calcutta — Variety of Nationalities represented in Bombay — Parsees — Their 
 Costume, Eeligion, and Customs — Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy — Other Native Inhabi- 
 tants — Hindooism in Bombay — B6horas and Portuguese — Peculiarities of English — 
 Degeneracy of all other Nations in the East — The Hoolee — Nach at the House of 
 Juggurnathj«e Sunkurset — Anglomania in India — Old Hindoo Costume — Cave Tem- 
 I)le of Elephanta. 
 
 On the afternoon of March. 6th we left Poonah in a phaeton, 
 and arrived at eight o'clock at the dak-bungalow of Khandala, 
 a place situated on the summit of the ghat of the same name. 
 During the drive we saw constant marks of the railway which 
 is being built to connect Bombay with the interior of the 
 country. 
 
 The next morning we walked down the Khandala Ghat, 
 which is three thousand feet high. It is one of that chaia of 
 mountains which runs parallel to the western shore of India, 
 and separates the narrow strip of land known as the Malabar 
 Coast, from the lofty table-land of the Dekkun. This whole 
 range is called by Europeans the Western Ghaut Mountains. 
 ISTear the southern extremity of the Peninsula they unite with 
 another range, the Eastern Ghauts, which form the eastern 
 boundary of the Dekkun, and separate it from the low plains 
 of the Carnatic and the Coromandel Coast. 
 
 The scenery of the Khandala Ghat is very picturesque, and 
 in many places the soft rock has been excavated into cave 
 temples similar to those at ERora. These, however, have long 
 been abandoned as places of worship, and were occupied as 
 
Bombay. 351 
 
 tem23oraiy abodes by the workmen employed ujDon the rail- 
 way, which is being conducted up the hill by a series of in- 
 clined planes and tunnels. The hill-side was entirely covered 
 by the workmen employed in this undertaking, but the work 
 was on so gigantic a scale that it was doubtful when it would 
 be completed. Meanwhile they were going on with the line 
 on the table-land above, and many additional miles were soon 
 to be opened. This railway forms one of that series which 
 has been planned, and is now being carried out, to connect all 
 the principal coast towns of India with each other and the 
 interior of the country. The progress in the construction of 
 these roads has, however, been slow, the chief obstacle, as I 
 understood, being that which is so universal a complaint in 
 India, viz., the difficulty of obtaining efficient and honest 
 overseers. It is therefore impossible to say vrhen this vast 
 scheme, which will have so important an effect on the produc- 
 tiveness of India, will be carried into practical ojoeration. 
 
 At the foot of the hiU we found the railway terminus, and 
 getting on the train at two o'clock arrived in Bombay at seven 
 — a distance of seventy miles. This may seem slow travelling, 
 but appeared fast enough to us who had been used to doing 
 the same distance in three days, by palkee. 
 
 Bombay, the capital of the smallest Enghsh Presidency, is a 
 city of nearly 500,000 inhabitants. It is built upon an island, 
 which is separated by a shallow strait from the larger island 
 of Salsette. An arm of the sea, running north and south, 
 separates both these islands, on their eastern side, from the 
 mainland of India, but on the north the lines of water which 
 divide them from each other, and from the continent, are so 
 small that they might better be taken together and described 
 as a triangular promontory projecting from the coast line of 
 the continent. 
 
 The extremity of the island is occupied by the city proper, 
 which is only about three quarters of a mile square, and being 
 strongly fortified, is known as " Fort St. George." This was 
 formerly the residence of the Europeans, but of late years they 
 have preferred to occupy bungalows in the country, and the 
 whole island is therefore covered with country seats, belong- 
 
392 India. 
 
 ing to wealthy Europeans and natives. Even the Governor 
 now lives in a house at Parell, a place several miles from the 
 town. The houses in the fort, which were once occupied as 
 residences, are novv^ used almost entirely as places of business, 
 and the greater part of the inhabitants of " the Fort" are 
 natives. But the native town proper is built outside the walls 
 of the fort, and contains much the largest part of the popula- 
 tion of the island. The houses are generally very large and 
 high, built either of pukka, or else with wooden frames filled 
 In with brick-work, and faced with white stucco, in such a way 
 as to leave the black wooden beams in si^ht. 
 
 Between the native town and the fort is a large and level 
 plain, washed on two sides by the waters of the harbour. This 
 is kept open and used as a parade-ground, and also for the 
 evening drive of the Europeans and wealthy natives. 
 
 The country around Bombay, where are the residences of 
 the Europeans, is very beautiful ; the ground is well planted 
 with trees, and the foHage has that rich tro^ncal character of 
 which one hears so much before going to India, and sees so 
 Httle when he gets there. 
 
 The growth of Bombay is entirely due to its commerce, and 
 has been marked by the same extraordinary increase which is 
 seen in Calcutta. A century ago there were not fifty thou- 
 sand inhabitants ; now there are over half a milhon, and the 
 population is still on the increase, having doubled in the last 
 ten years. Calcutta, which was a mere village a hundred 
 years ago, is now even much larger than Bombay. These in- 
 stances of growth, which almost equal anything even in Amer- 
 ica, show with what rapidity an immense j^opulation will 
 gather, in India, around any centre of trade and commerce. 
 Indeed, the natives of India are naturally among the most 
 acute and sagacious traders in the world, and yield to no 
 other nation in their fondness for wealth. 
 
 The power of the " almighty dollar" in America, and the 
 reverence shown to " pounds, shillings, and pence" in England, 
 are bywords among the nations of the European continent, 
 whose feelinojs are embodied in the sneerins; lang-uao-e of 
 IRapoleon, who called the Enghsh a nation of shopkeeiDcrs. 
 
Bombay. 393 
 
 The Frenchman twits the Englishman with belonging to a 
 nation of shopkeepers. The Englishman believes the Amer- 
 ican to be a slave of the " almighty dollar." But French, 
 English, Americans, and, indeed, all European nations, unite 
 in despising the Jew as the embodiment of the lowest and 
 most absorbing form of avarice, as a man who would over- 
 reach his father in a bargain, and in dealing wdth whom the 
 shrewdest Christian will probably find more than his match. 
 And yet w^hen brought into competition with the native of 
 India, the Jew is absolutely "nowhere." In every depart- 
 ment of business, great or small, high or low, legal or illegal, 
 he is completely beaten out of the field, and it would be ad- 
 mitted in India that a Jew is as much at the mercy of the 
 Hindoo bazar merchants, as a green Yankee is likely to be an 
 easy prey of " my peoplesh" in Chatham street. If the Hin- 
 doo and other native traders had as much regard for their 
 recantation as they have of other business qualities, no other 
 nation could contend with them on their own ground, and 
 trade with foreign countries would be entirely carried on by 
 native houses. Even now, most of the European business is 
 done vrith native capital, although largely managed by Eu- 
 ropean firms. In Bombay, this is especially the case. Al- 
 most the whole w^ealth of the place is in the hands of natives, 
 particularly Parsees ; and of the business establishments much 
 the larger part are conducted by natives, and many of the 
 rest rely principally on native capital. 
 
 The foreign commerce of Bombay amounted, in the year 
 1853-54, to eight milhon four hundred and forty thousand pounds 
 sterling of imports, and nine millions and a half exports. In the 
 same year the foreign commerce of Calcutta amounted to seven 
 million seven hundred thousand pounds sterling imports, and 
 eleven milhons and a half exports.^ These figures show the 
 remarkable fact that the business done in Bombay is but little 
 inferior to that of Calcutta, and also that the discrepancy is 
 chiefly in the amount of exports, Bombay taking nearly the 
 same amount of foreign produce as Calcutta. It w^ill be no- 
 ticed that in both cases the exports much exceed the imports, 
 * These figures are from M. Do Valbezeu's work on India. 
 
394 
 
 India. 
 
 which accounts for the constant drain of silver in the direction 
 of India. The trade of Bombay with England amounted, in 
 the above-named year, to only three millions one hundred and 
 fifty thousand pounds sterhng of imports, and two millions six 
 hundred thousand pounds sterling of exports. The remainder, 
 or almost two-thirds of the whole commerce, was with other 
 oriental countries, such as China and Arabia. 
 
 This commerce with oriental countries attracts to Bombay 
 merchants of all the Eastern nations, and makes it the most 
 cosmopohtan city of India. The streets are filled with Per- 
 sians, Arabs, Copts, Afghans, Abyssinians and other Africans, 
 Chinese, Jews, and members of almost every nation in India. 
 The study of the characteristic peculiarities of these different 
 nations adds not a little to a stranger's interest in Bombay, 
 and makes it, for a traveller, much the most instructive city 
 in India. 
 
 Of the native inhabitants, the Parsees, who number about 
 twenty-five thousand, are the most remarkable class. Their 
 name, which is merely the Hindoostanee word for " a Persian," 
 indicates their origin. They are in fact the descendants of 
 the old fire-worshippers of Persia, who were driven out of 
 that country in the seventh century by the Mahommedan 
 invasion, and taking refuge in India established their nation 
 as a peculiar people, who, to the present day foUow the pre- 
 cepts of Zoroaster and worship the eternal fire as Cyrus did. 
 They still preserve their national characteristics, and have 
 regular, and often finely-formed features, and complexions 
 nearly as fair as those of Europeans. 
 
 Since this people have been in India they have adopted the 
 Hindoo dress, altering it somewhat, as is customary with dif- 
 ferent nations and classes. They wear a high, flat turban of 
 brown chintz, which looks so much like a mitre that some per- 
 sons have supposed that it is the old Persian cap, or tiara, 
 mentioned by Herodotus and Xenophon. This, however, is 
 not the case — it is merely one of the many extraordinary forms 
 which the turban assumes in Bombay. The present Persian 
 head-covering, a very high, brimless hat of felt, in exactly the 
 shape of a pointed sugar-loaf, is much more probably a con- 
 
Bombay. 395 
 
 tiimation of the old tiara, and answers nearly to the descrip- 
 tion of it in the Greek writers. The Parsees are as particular 
 about caste, as any other natives of India. It is not a part 
 of their original system, but has been borrowed by them from 
 the Hindoos, as also by the Moosulmans. Being fire-worship- 
 pers, they have a great reverence for that element, and will 
 never employ it, except on necessary occasions, as in cooking 
 food — however, the culinary operation is, I believe, with them, 
 as with the Hindoos, a sort of sacramental act. For this reason, 
 the Parsees never smoke, nor will they allow smoking in their 
 presence. To this rule, however, there are exceptions, in the 
 case of some of their merchants, who will allow Enghsh and 
 Americans to puff cheroots in their countijig-houses, and will 
 even light a lucifer for them on occasion. It is said that, when 
 a Parsee is dying, his relatives place him in an out-house sur- 
 rounded by a wall of stones, and leave him there without food 
 or drink until he dies. Mrs. Mackenzie tells an instance of 
 this, where an English physician found one of his Parsee pa- 
 tients thus walled up, and only managed to get him out by 
 threatening to enter a charge . of murder against the whole 
 family. He succeeded in restormg his patient, who Uved for 
 some weeks afterward. This strange people do not bury their 
 dead, but expose the corpses in open stone towers, where the 
 bodies are eaten by birds. Another of their peculiarities is a 
 superstitious regard for dogs, a feeling which they carry to 
 such an extent that, when the city government of Bombay, 
 some years ago, ordered all stray dogs to be killed, the Par- 
 sees made such a riot that the military had to be caUed out to 
 restore order. The Parsee women are kept in a retirement 
 more strict than that of the Moosulman and Hindoo women. 
 If any accidents occur, notwithstanding these precautions, the 
 fair and frail one is brought before a council of five (pan- 
 chayut), which is in India the general resort for settling all 
 difiiculties. If she is found guilty, she disappears. Of late 
 years, however, there has been a disposition to admit the 
 women to more public society, and now it is even sometimes 
 customary to take them abroad in carriages, the blinds of 
 which, however, are always drawn. This change, if made, 
 
396 India. 
 
 will be an imitation of English custom, for the Parsees are the 
 greatest Anglo-maniacs in India, and affect English usages as 
 far as possible, some of them even wearing English trowsers 
 and boots. 
 
 The Parsees are more enterprising, and generally much 
 better informed, than any other class of natives. They carry 
 on business, not only with England, but also with China and 
 other Eastern ports, in all of which are found representatives 
 of then* nation. One of their number, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeb- 
 hoy, has obtained a world-wide reputation by his extensive 
 charities. His property, v/hich is now estimated at three crors 
 of rupees (115,000,000), was accumulated entirely by his own 
 exertions during a long life of nearly eighty years. His ex- 
 tensive and most useful charities, amounting to over a million 
 and a half of dollars, obtained for him the honour of knight- 
 hood, and a subsequent elevation to the baronetcy. Both re- 
 wards were well deserved, and were most highly valued by 
 himself and his whole nation, especially as it was the first in- 
 stance of such a dignity being conferred upon a subject of her 
 Majesty's Indian dominions. 
 
 Besides the Parsees, the native inhabitants of Bombay are 
 composed of the Hindoos and various classes of Moosulmans. 
 The former are a finer looking race than the natives of ISTorth- 
 ern India. I do not know whether they are taller, but they 
 appeared stouter and more compact, and had much lighter 
 skins. Their manners are also much more manly and inde- 
 pendent than those of the Hindoostanee and Bengalee, and 
 they do not use in conversation those phrases and attitudes of 
 servile humility which prevail where the Moosulman influence 
 has been predominant. Their dress is substantially the same 
 that is seen elsewhere in India, but the chupkun is made 
 short-waisted, and, on occasions of ceremony, is worn with an 
 immensely full skirt, descending to the heels, and giving the 
 wearer a decidedly womanish appearance. The turbans are gen- 
 erally very large, and made with great care, in various odd, and 
 not always graceful shapes, which distinguish the different castes 
 and trades. On the whole, I think there are a much larger 
 number of Hindoos well and carefully dressed in Bombay than 
 
Bombay. 397 
 
 in any other city of India which I saw ; and the style of cos- 
 tume, if not so gay and jaunty as in Northern India, is more 
 eifective and picturesque. The lower classes of Hindoos, of 
 course, as elsewhere, have almost no clothmg. In Bombay, 
 the drapery is often limited to a strip of cotton, six inches 
 wide, passing between the legs, and fastened in front and be- 
 hind to a string tied around the waist. 
 
 It is a strange fact, that the Hindoo religion is much more 
 powerful and vigourous in this part of India than in the ISTorth, 
 which was its earhest cradle and still contains by far the great- 
 est proportion of Brahmuns and high-caste people. In the 
 Bombay Presidency, the temples are larger, finer, and more 
 frequented than in the ISTorth. Almost every Hindoo is painted 
 on his forehead with the mark of his god, a thing that is com- 
 paratively rare at the North ; and, although they are great 
 Anglo-maniacs in Bombay, and in many respects break through 
 old native customs, yet there is not the least sign of such in- 
 fidelity as is spreading in Calcutta, and no such disregard of 
 their caste and religious rules as is fashionable among the 
 wealthy Hmdoos of that city. 
 
 Among the various sects of Moosulmans in Bombay, the 
 only one which merits notice are the Bohoras, a caste almost 
 peculiar to that city. Their clothes are generally white, or of 
 a shade between fight yellow and drab, and they wear a raw- 
 silk turban. They will not smoke, and are the only Indian 
 Moosulmans who will engage in trade, or any other occupation 
 than public or private service. 
 
 The Portuguese, as they are called, form another large class 
 in Bombay. They come from Goa, and are darker in com- 
 plexion than most of the natives. What little Portuguese 
 blood there is left in tlieir veins seems only to deteriorate the 
 qualities which they derived from their native mothers, and 
 their only occupation is as servants or small shoj^keepers. 
 
 This one peculiarity distinguishes the English settlers abroad 
 from all other nations. ^ The English keep themselves separate 
 and aloof from the natives. They preserve their old habits, 
 manners, and morals, and consequently their character re- 
 mains unchanged, and their pristine vigour uninq^aired. In 
 
398 India. 
 
 this way fifty thousand English have conquered and held in 
 united strength an empire composed of 180,000,000 of men of 
 all sorts of nations and languages. The Portuguese, on the 
 other hand, and the French, seemed at once to coalesce with 
 the natives whom they conquered. They assumed native 
 dress and habits, married native wives, and eventually became 
 degraded to the level of natives, and were absorbed by their 
 overwhehning numbers. This metamoi'phosis is even more 
 marked in the case of the Mahommedan conquerors of India, 
 who, in a few years, became changed from brave and hardy 
 Tartars or Afghans, into the weak, cringing, idle and luxu- 
 rious Moosulmans of Hindoostan. At the present day they are 
 scarcely at all distinguishable from Hindoos ; they have uni- 
 versally adoj^ted the Hindoo custom of caste, and in many 
 places have almost lost their old faith and become idolaters. 
 In fact, at the present time, they are inferior to many of the 
 Hindoos in physical advantages ; and as regards their mental 
 qualities, are sunk even below the level of other natives. I 
 have spoken before of the deterioration of the Portuguese in 
 China, which is also a case in point. In fact, that very pecu- 
 liarity of the English, which, I have heard said by Frenchmen 
 and others, disqualified them from governing foreign countries, 
 by shutting them ofi" from all sympathy and common feeling 
 with their subjects, is, I believe, the quahty to which is to be 
 attributed their unexampled success in India, where French 
 and Portuguese in equal or greater numbers failed almost 
 from the beginning, and where the Mahommedans, though 
 more than a hundred times as numerous, never got so sure a 
 footing, so united an empire, and so submissive an obedience. 
 During our stay at Bombay occurred the festival of the 
 Hoolee, or Hindoo ISTew-Year, which is celebrated throughout 
 India, but more particularly in those parts that are thoroughly 
 Hindoo. Besides the religious ceremonies observed, there are 
 entertainments in the residences of the richer classes, and it is 
 customary for the natives to pelt one another with red balls 
 or a red liquid that stains the clothes and makes them look as 
 if they were covered with blood. In some of the native 
 courts elephants are trained to eject this liquid from their 
 
Bombay. 3gg 
 
 trunks. The aid of modem science has even been called in, and 
 fire-engines are used to squirt the red liquid from the palace 
 wall upon the Rajah's subjects below. 
 
 By the Idndness of some Parsee friends we were invited to 
 two of the largest entertainments given during the festival. 
 The first was at the house of a wealthy Hindoo, Juggurnathjeo 
 Sunkurset. His residence is a large mansion, built and fur- 
 nished in the English style. The rooms were hghted during 
 the evening and thrown open for the inspection of visitors. 
 The nach, however, was given in a temporary building of 
 bamboo and canvass, erected for the occasion in the court- 
 yard. The bamboo building formed one large room, about 
 a hundred feet long by sixty broad ; and the canvass walls 
 were painted to represent Italian frescoes. On the floor was 
 a Persian carpet, and along each side were parallel rows of 
 sofas crow^ded with rich Hindoos and Parsees. At the U23per 
 end was a dais, on which sat our host and his more honoured 
 guests, among whom were the Admiral of the Company's 
 Navy and liis family. At the lower end of the room were the 
 nach girls, who were but little different from those of Delhi, 
 excej^t that they wore less voluminous dresses. At our en- 
 trance our entertainer rose to meet us, and sprinkled us with 
 rose-water from a silver bottle, having a top perforated like a 
 pepper-castor. We were also served with " pans," which are 
 some slices of areca-nut and fine chunam (lime) wrapped in a 
 betel-leaf. These are much used for chewing by all classes of 
 natives, and are always served to guests as coffee and pipes are 
 in Ottoman countries. The taste is aromatic, and slightly as- 
 tringent ; and the juice, which is swallowed, is said to have a 
 tonic effect on the stomach. The guests all sat on the sofas as 
 naturally as possible, and also wore their shoes, w^hich is an 
 excess of Anglicism to which natives in Xorthern India have 
 not yet attained. I heard in Calcutta that a few members of 
 " Young Bengal" had attempted to wear their shoes at the 
 Governor General's receptions, but his lordship told them de- 
 cidedly that they must show some sign of respect either by 
 uncovering the head as Europeans do, or by removing the 
 shoes, as is the native custom. 
 
400 India. 
 
 We afterwards went to another nacli at the house of a Hin- 
 doo physician. This entertainment was much smaller than 
 the other, and those present all sat on the carpet in the native 
 fashion. The doctor was a graduate of the University of 
 Bombay, and had, as we understood, obtained a high position 
 in his profession. He spoke excellent Enghsh, and was at 
 great j)ains to entertain us. His dress was a chupkun, of the 
 old fashion, with a skirt descending to the ankle, and formed 
 of an infinite quantity of the finest white muslin gathered into 
 an immense number of folds at the waist. On the following 
 day, however, when we called on him, we found him without 
 any clothing at all above the hips, which I fancy is his usual 
 costume, at least when in the house. 
 
 The Hoolee lasted for several days, and during the whole 
 time, these naches continued, and the streets were filled with 
 gaily-dressed natives whose white dresses were liberally stained 
 with the crimson marks of the season. At night the streets 
 were brilliantly lighted, and even more crowded than during 
 the day. 
 
 The greatest sight of Bombay is the cave temple in the 
 island of Elephanta, which we visited in company with a mem- 
 ber of the Parsee house of Dossabhoy, Merwanjee & Co., who 
 were unremitting in their attentions during our stay. 
 
 "We embarked in a "bunder-boat," a small native craft 
 with a cabin, and sailed the seven miles to the island in about 
 an hom-'s time, the wind being light. Long before reaching 
 the shore our boat grounded, as the water is very shallow, 
 and we were obhged to mount on the shoulders of some of the 
 boatmen, who waded ashore with us on their backs. 
 
 The island is high, and richly covered with tropical trees 
 and plants. A stone path, with several series of steps, leads 
 up to the temple, which is over half a mile from the landing- 
 place. 
 
 The temple is a large square room with a flat roof about 
 twenty feet high, supported by several rows of massive pillars. 
 The whole is carved out of the solid rock like the caves of 
 Ellora, and in form and decorations much resembles some of 
 them. At the further end is the principal idol, which is a co- 
 
Bombay. ^oi 
 
 lossal bust with three heads. This has been supposed to rep- 
 resent the Trimoortee, or Hindoo Trinity, but there are 
 objections to this theory, and to all the other hypotheses 
 which have been invented to explain its meaning. Several 
 other statues decorate this apartment, and on each side is a 
 smaller chamber, oj^ening into the larger one, and also con- 
 taining idols. 
 
 The antiquity of this temple has long furnished a subject of 
 wonder for visitors to Bombay ; and their fancy has had almost 
 unlimited ground for conjecture as there is no insciiption or 
 other sign by which the antiquarian would be enabled to fix 
 the age exactly. Late investigations, however, and particu- 
 larly a comparison with similar caves the age of which is known, 
 have combined to attribute to it a date more modern than the 
 year 900 of our era. "What adds to the probability of this 
 conclusion is the fact that during the short time that it has 
 been known to Europeans, although every care for its preser- 
 vation has been taken by the authorities, it has sustained great 
 injury from the weather, which makes it extremely improbable 
 that so perishable a material as the soft stone from which it is 
 excavated, could resist the power of the elements for many 
 centuries. 
 
 The island of Elephanta was so named by the Portuguese. 
 Its native name is Shahpooree. The Portuguese name is de- 
 rived from a gigantic stone elephant, three times the size of 
 life, which stands a short distance from the cave. This figure, 
 however, hke the cave itself, is very much defaced by the action 
 of the weather, and the form of an animal, which it bears on 
 its back, is noAV so disfigured that its disthictive peculiarities 
 cannot be distinguished. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 BOMBAY TO CAIRO. 
 
 The "Ganges" — Our Fellow-passengers — The Crew — Life on the Steamer — Aden — Its 
 Appearance — " Hell with the fires put out " — An Original Head-dress — Arahs — The 
 Cantonments — The Fortifications — Importance of the City — Free Trade — A Foot- 
 print of Civilization— The " Gate of Tears "—The Eed Sea— Its Heat— Suez— Transit 
 across the Desert — Its Appearance — The Eoad — The Pyramids — The " City of Vic- 
 tory " — A Eecommendation for Indian Travel. 
 
 We remained at Bombay over a fortnight. On the eigh- 
 teenth of March we bade good-bye to one of om- party, 
 Mr. Gibson, the English enguieer, who went to England by 
 ship. The rest of us took passages to Cairo, and on the eve- 
 ning of the nineteenth we went on board the Peninsular and 
 Oriental Company's steamer Ganges, a vessel of 1200 tons, 
 propelled by paddle-wheels. As these steamers are intended 
 mostly for passengers, their accommodations are ample and 
 very comfortable. Every provision is made for hot weather, 
 and there are even punkahs over the tables. 
 
 Early on the morning of the twentieth we steamed out of 
 the " beautiful bay,"'^ and by noon we had lost sight of land. 
 Our fellow-passengers, who proved most agreeable compan- 
 ions, were about fifty in number. They were mostly officers 
 of the army, from the Bombay and Madras Presidencies, al- 
 though some of them had come from the Punjab and extreme 
 ISTorth West, from which part of India the easiest way to reach 
 England is by way of Mooltan, as there is a line of steamers 
 between Kurrachee and Bombay, and steamboats run regu- 
 larly on the Indus from Mooltan to Kurracbee. Among the 
 passengers were eight or ten ladies and twice that number of 
 children. The presence of the latter detracted almost as 
 
 * The name Bombay was given by the Portuguese, and is corrupted from 
 two words in their language meaning "good bay." 
 
Bombay to Cairo. 403 
 
 much from om: comfort as the society of the former added to 
 it. The children were almost all attended by their native 
 nurses, and few of them spoke any other language than Hin- 
 doostanee. 
 
 The crew were Lascars, except the secunnies, or steersmen, 
 who were from Manilla. The duty of steering the ship was 
 shared by the Chinese crew of the captain's gig. The ser- 
 vants were Parsees or Moosulmans, and the stokers were 
 stalwart negroes from the African coast, the only men who 
 can bear to work in the intense heat of the engine rooms, 
 where the Scotch and English engineers sicken and often die, 
 although they have no manual work to do, and are only re- 
 quired to expose themselves for a few hours each day. The 
 officers were, of course, all British, and were most obligmg 
 and gentlemanly men. This great variety of nationalities gave 
 the quarter-deck a very picturesque appearance on Sunday 
 mornings when all hands were mustered, and api^eared washed 
 clean for the week, and each dressed in his national costume. 
 
 On Sunday we had divme service in the cabin, attended by 
 all the Europeans. The natives, whose work was made as light 
 as possible on that day, gathered around the deck in groups, 
 listenins: to one of their number who read the Koran or some 
 other book, and mending then* tattered clothes. 
 
 On week-days, the regular amusement was single-stick for 
 the officers and passengers, but it was generally so hot that 
 most of us prefen-ed to sit quietly and read or converse. 
 
 Most of the jDassengers slept on deck at night, as the state- 
 rooms below were too hot for comfortable repose. The only 
 objection to this plan was that we were waked up soon after 
 four o'clock by the washing and holystoning of the decks. 
 
 On the 27th of March we arrived at Aden,^ which is situ- 
 ated on the southernmost point of Arabia the Happy, about 11 
 hundred miles east of the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, and j^er- 
 haps a hundred and fifty miles from Mocha, which is within 
 the straits. Aden is under the j\msdiction of the East India 
 
 * The accent of this word is on the last syllable, and it is pronounced ex- 
 actly as the two English words a den. 
 
404 
 
 [ndia. 
 
 Company, and is strongly fortified and garrisoned. It is con- 
 sidered one of the most important naval stations in the Eastern 
 seas, from wliich circumstance, and its great strength, it has. 
 been called the " Gibraltar of the East." 
 
 If the rest of Araby the Blest looks like the country around 
 Aden, the name must have been given in the bitterest irony. 
 A more desolate scene it would be hard to fiftd than that 
 which met our eyes on awaking m the harbour. The shore 
 was sand and rocks, the hills were steep ragged masses of 
 cinders and scoriae. Truly, as a former traveller has said, it 
 looks like the " Region of the Demon of Desolation '* in a 
 melodrama. Another tourist declares, with scarcely less truth, 
 that it is " Hell with the fires put out." At the harbour is 
 the coaling station of the P. and O. Company. There is also 
 an hotel where we took lunch, and some bungalows, the resi- 
 dences of officials connected with the Steamship Comj^any, 
 and of a few traders, among whom is an American who does 
 quite a large business with the Arab and African ports. 
 
 The inhabitants are Sumalees and Arabs. The former are a 
 wretched, half-starved and ill-formed race. Theii* skins are 
 almost black, and they have a habit of covering the head with 
 a thick coating of mud, which they keep wet as^ a protection 
 against the heat. It is certainly an original head-covering, 
 and converts the hair into a mass of tangled red bristles, the 
 contrast of which, with their black skins, is considered by 
 themselves as one of the most beautiful features in their ap- 
 pearance. They wear little or no clothing. The Arabs whom 
 I saw were very dark-coloured, and quite an inferior race to 
 those who live further north. They are all turned out of the 
 town before night, a measure which is necessary to the safety 
 of the place, and has been found considerably to reduce the 
 number of murders and other crimes which were formerly of 
 frequent occurrence. The defences of Aden are so strong as 
 to afford entire protection from the surrounding tribes of 
 Arabs, who are all hostile. Still it is not considered safe to 
 venture many miles into the interior even in the daytime, and 
 at night great vigilance has to be observed by the garrison. 
 
 As soon as breakfast was over, we all landed, and, mounting 
 
Bombay to Cairo. 405 
 
 upon horses or donkeys, proceeded to the cantonments, as the 
 fortified town is called. The road was well macadamized, and 
 ■ led for a couple of miles along the beach. Then we tm-ned 
 inland, toward the steep hills, which the road ascended. We 
 passed the ridge through an artificial cut, strougly defended by 
 two massive gateways of great strength, which form part of 
 the line of fortifications surrounding the town. Here we 
 found on guard some Indian sepoys, several regiments of 
 whom, and one of English soldiers, formed the garrison. 
 
 Further on, w^e came to the city, which has almost wholly 
 sprung up since the occupation of this place by the British. 
 It is now a town of over twenty thousand inhabitants, but 
 contains no remarkable buildings. The larger part of the 
 trade of Mocha and other Arab ports now centres in Aden, a 
 result which is to be attributed not only to the greater secu- 
 rity for life and projDcrty under the English rule, but is also 
 largely due to its being a free port, so that the Arab merchant 
 escapes the onerous duties of the Turkish Government, and 
 the extortions of the customs' officials. 
 
 We remained but a short time at cantonments, where we 
 found only a badly kept Parsee hotel. The landlord informed 
 us that the only articles of food to be had in the vicinity are 
 fish and oysters. Every thing else must be imj^orted, and 
 even the water has to be brought in boats for some distance, 
 as that found in the place is scarcely drinkable. 
 
 The fortifications of Aden are of great extent, and have 
 been perfected at an enormous expense. Bayard Taylor says 
 of them : " The skill and genius exhibited in their design im- 
 pressed me far more than the massive strength of Gibraltar. 
 I never felt more forcibly the power of that civilization v/hich 
 follows the Anglo-Saxon race in all its conquests, and takes 
 root in w^hatever corner of the earth that race sets foot. Here, 
 on the furthest Arabian shore, facing the most savage and in- 
 hospitable regions of Africa, were law, order, security, free- 
 dom of conscience and of speech, and all the material advan- 
 tages which are inseparable from them. Herein consists the 
 true power and -grandeur of the race, and the assurance of its 
 final supremacy." I have taken the liberty of quoting these 
 
4o6 India. 
 
 words, because they express so truly my feelings, and what I be- 
 lieve ought to be the feelings of every member of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race, as he looks upon the progress of that mighty power' 
 which is spreading our laws, our liberty, our civilization, and 
 our religion into the furthest bounds of the habitable world. 
 
 In the harbour of Aden were several English and Arab 
 ships, filled with pilgims going to Mecca from Bombay, or on 
 the homeward passage. 
 
 We went on board the Ganges at five o'clock, after taking 
 dinner and playing a few games of billiards at the hotel near 
 the harbour. 
 
 Before we arose next morning we had passed through the 
 Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, the " Gate of Tears," and were with- 
 in the Red Sea. 
 
 We were five days running up the Red Sea. The land was 
 seldom in sight, but a few islands which we saw were perfectly 
 barren, and j)i'esented the appearance of volcanic rocks and 
 ashes. The weather was comfortable, as there was a slight 
 breeze ahead during the whole time. This was a most delight- 
 ful disappointment, as we had been much frightened by what 
 we had heard in India of the heat in the Red Sea, where the 
 weather is so intensely hot at certain seasons that many ladies 
 faint from its efiects, and not a few invalids, returning from 
 India with enfeebled constitutions, die from exhaustion. 
 
 Late on the evening of April ist, we arrived at Suez, and 
 bade good-bye with regret to the good ship Ganges, and her 
 popular commander, Captain Bowen. The passage was as 
 pleasant as any I ever made. We had had no rough weather, 
 and no rain ; the heat had not been excessive ; every com- 
 fort and luxury was provided on the vessel ; our fellow passen- 
 gers formed a most agreeable society ; and, altogether, I do 
 not know that I ever passed ten days more pleasantly than on 
 the steamer " Ganges." 
 
 We went ashore in boats, and as it was dark, of course saw 
 nothing of the town. The hotel is a large but uncomfortable 
 estabhshment. The first thing we noticed, on entering the 
 sitting-room, was the want of the punkah, which hangs from 
 the ceiling of every room in India. 
 
Bombay to Cairo. 407 
 
 From Suez to Cairo the distance is eighty-live miles across 
 the desert. The transit is now effected by railway, but at 
 that time j)assengers were carried in vcms^ which are two- 
 wheeled omnibusses, each holding six persons rather closely 
 packed, l^ot more than five vans start together. If there are 
 more passengers, a second and a thu'd batch are desj^atched at 
 intervals of four hours. The baggage and freight are all car- 
 ried on fast camels. 
 
 The preference of seats in these vehicles is determined by 
 lot, on board the steamer. By good luck, our party got in 
 the first batch, which is an advantage, as the horses are fresh- 
 er, and it allows more time in Cairo. 
 
 At midnight we started, at the full speed of four fine Arab 
 horses. We were in the first van, which was much the most 
 comfortably fitted up, and which, from its position, escaped 
 the dust which annoyed the passengers in the vans behind. 
 
 At four o'clock we stopped for twenty minutes at a square 
 stone building, where we found a supper spread out. We 
 were all, however, too sleepy to partake of it, though iow of 
 us had succeeded in actually sleeping, the jolting was so intol- 
 erable. 
 
 At eight next morning we stopped for another meal, and 
 then mounting again in our close hot van advanced at a gallop 
 toward Cairo. 
 
 The desert is sandy and rocky ; but the surface is every- 
 where broken, and there are occasionally ravines of some 
 depth. The vegetation consists solely of scrub bushes, but on 
 the whole it looks quite as green and luxuriant as much of the 
 country which I saw in Xorthern India ; though the soil is in 
 the one case arid sand, and in the other very fertile, and sus- 
 ceptible of high cultivation. 
 
 The road was broad, and had been once well macadamized, 
 but when we crossed, it was suffered to fall into disrepair, on 
 account of the building of the railway, and was gradually 
 being obhterated by the drifting of the sand. 
 
 Every four hours we stopped for some time at a refresh- 
 ment station, where we eat Englisli dishes and drank Nile- 
 
4o8 India. 
 
 water — all brought from Cairo ; from wiiich place all the food 
 has to be carried even to Suez. 
 
 Once or twice during the day we saw the mirage, which 
 did not deceive my eyes, but several of our party insisted that 
 it was water, and would not be convinced of their error till 
 we arrived at Cairo. 
 
 About two o'clock we came in sight of the dark green val- 
 ley of the Nile. Soon afterwards some of us spied out the 
 pyramids far to the left. Then we saw, in the low ground 
 before us, the city of Victory, "Al Kahireh," its minarets 
 rising above the masses of the trees. Soon we passed a very 
 large white buUding which we were told was a new barrack 
 for the Pasha's troops, and then passing abruptly from the 
 white sands of the desert to the rich green plains of the river, 
 the road wound among fertile fields and beautiful gardens. 
 The houses, at first sparse, became thicker and thicker, the 
 road was crowded with Arabs and other natives, occasionally 
 we passed a European carriage, with fine blood horses, then 
 (last evidence of approaching civilization) we met numbers of 
 English people on donkeys, and finally, at four o'clock, we 
 were set down in front of Shepherd's hotel, which looks on a 
 large public garden. 
 
 This ends my travels in the East. I had to hurry on to Eu- 
 rope, and in three days more was steaming out of Alexandria 
 in the Pera, having seen neither the pyramids nor any other 
 sight at Cairo. This loss I hope to make up some day, but 
 India I shall probably never see again. In fact, few countries 
 repay a second visit, and India least of aU. But I can 
 confidently recommend it to that large and increasing class 
 who are at a loss for a field in which to exercise the travelling 
 propensities of our race. Europe has almost become cockney ; 
 Egypt and the Holy Land are fast descending to the same level. 
 Everywhere you meet with peoj^le speaking your own lan- 
 guage, which is of itself disagreeable ; and what is worse, they 
 are often not at all the sort of people you want to see. It is 
 a bore to be disturbed, in a fit of enthusiasm over some rem- 
 nant of antiquity, by a troop of ladies dressed in the last Paris 
 fashions, and accompanied by papa, wearing a brown shooting 
 
Bombay to Cairo. 409 
 
 jacket, and carrying in one hand a foot rule, in the other the 
 ubiqiiitons " Murray." In fact, it may be set down for an 
 axiom, that the moment Murray pubhshes a guide-book on a 
 country, that country is no place for the truly enterprising 
 traveller. He flies, like the Indian of America, from the haunts 
 of the pale face. 
 
 To such a one India furnishes a refuge. There are so few 
 English that all one need know of them are the comforts and 
 conveniences which their government provides for his journey. 
 The distance is nothing in these days of steam. One may go 
 from America to Bombay in six weeks, and within a few 
 years New York and Delhi will be not more than forty days 
 apart. I have been that time in coming from Liverpool to 
 New York. In India one can travel more luxuriously than in 
 Europe, throCigh countries where a white man's face is scarcely 
 ever seen. The safety is far greater than in the streets of a 
 great European or American city ; and the expense will not 
 exceed the cost of the same length of time spent in European 
 travel. 
 
 18 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 CLIMATE AND HISTOEY OF INDIA 
 
 Size of the Country— Not Thickly Settled— Eainy Season— Cold Season— Hot Season- 
 Unfit for a Eesidence of Europeans — Effect on their Health — Origin of the Present 
 Inhabitants of India — The Hindoo Conquest — Eemnants of the Aborigines — The 
 Four Castes — Changes in Them — Arguments in Favour of this Hypothesis — Ma- 
 hommedan Invasions — Tamerlane — Foundation of Mogul Empire by Babur — Akbur 
 — Shah Jehan — Aurungzeeb — Decay of the Empire — Eevolts — Maharattas — Eaj- 
 poots— Death of Aurungzeeb — The Seekhs— Utter Disorganization— Nadur Shah's 
 Invasion — Else of the English — Conduct of the Company toward Conquered Princes 
 — Annexation Contrary to the Company's Policy — Character of Native Dynasties — 
 Government of Dependent States, 
 
 The greater part of India is an immense plain. The whole 
 extent of country, including all the dominions of the East 
 India Company, is 1,457,000 square miles, of which more than 
 one half is directly under English government, and the 
 remainder is more or less subject to British influence. India 
 is, therefore, as extensive as all the United States, not inclu- 
 ding the Territories. The population of India is now reckoned 
 at 180,000,000, which gives 123 inhabitants to the square- mile. 
 It cannot, therefore, be considered a thickly settled country, 
 while England supports over three hundred inhabitants to the 
 square mile, and some states of Europe even more. 
 
 The climate is very hot, and the year is not divided, as in 
 the temperate zones, into four seasons, but into three periods, 
 each of which has its peculiar characteristics. The "rainy 
 season," or monsoon, includes the months of June, July, 
 August, and September. It is the season of production, and 
 the yield of the land depends upon its regularity, and the 
 amount of rain which falls. The quantity of rain is greatest 
 and most equable upon the coast, and especially in the west ; 
 but in the great valley of the Ganges, and in the Dekkun, it 
 happens sometimes that the rains are so slight as to bo in- 
 
Climate and Hiltory of India. 411 
 
 sufficient for the vegetation of the crops. Great droiiQ;hts 
 and famines were thus not of rare occurrence, particularly in 
 the valley of the Ganges. The construction of the Ganges 
 Canal by the East India Company, has, however, done much 
 to remedy the uncertainty of the seasons, by providing for a 
 vast system of artificial irrigation, which insures the produc- 
 tiveness of many millions of acres of land, the yield of which 
 was formerly fearfully precarious. The disastrous results of a 
 famine, or short crop, are much greater in India than in any 
 other country, as the great mass of the people have no savings 
 to rely ujoon ; but, on the contrary, have usually pledged in 
 advance the yield of each year, as security for money bor- 
 rowed at the beginning of the season. The consideration 
 of this fact places in very strong light the benefits conferred 
 upon India by the Comj^any in the construction of this canal 
 and other great works of irrigation. 
 
 The " cold season" follows the rains, and continues during 
 the months of October, November, December, January, and 
 February. It is never very cold, to our ideas, since the mean 
 temperature^' of January in Calcutta is (i"]"^ \ in Madras, ']']° \ 
 and in Bombay, 78°. On the highlands in the southern part 
 of India, and in Hindoostan, the. average would be lower at 
 this season, and for two or three months it generally freezes in 
 the night. No rain falls during the cold season, or the hot 
 weather which follows it. 
 
 The " hot season" begins toward the end of February, and 
 lasts until the beginning of the rains in June. The average of 
 the thermometer, in the month of May, when the heat is the 
 greatest, is about 85° in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras; while 
 in ISTew York, Philadelphia, and Boston, the mean temj^erature 
 does not exceed 70° during the month of July, which is with 
 us the hottest part of the year. The " rainy season" is also 
 hot, but the heat is not so extreme as during the prevalence 
 of the dry, hot winds from the desert, which blow during the 
 hot season, properly so called. 
 
 As India extends over two thousand mxiles of latitude, the 
 
 * That is the mean of the temperature by day and night. 
 
412 The Indian Empire. 
 
 seasons, of course, vary somewhat. In the north, the cold 
 weather lasts longer. On the western coast, the rains are 
 more severe. In the south, the hot season occupies a greater 
 part of the year. Still, the climate throughout India, except 
 upon the mountain ranges, would unfit it for the permanent 
 residence of a white race, even were the fevers of the country, 
 which depend more on the soil than the climate, put out of 
 consideration. Functional derangements of the liver attack 
 almost every European resident; and abscess of that vital 
 organ sweeps away large numbers of them yearly. ISTo course 
 of regimen, or precautions, however stringent, are found to 
 give immunity from this disease, although over-indulgence in 
 ardent spirits — a vice lamentably prevalent among the Euro- 
 pean soldiers, and principally occasioned by the monotony of 
 their lives — certainly favours the development of this malady. 
 On the other hand, total abstinence from stimulants so debili- 
 tates the constitution as to render it peculiarly liable to the 
 fevers of the country, which are almost equaUy dangerous. 
 The following facts appear by a table of the mortality among 
 the European soldiers and officers in India, taken from official 
 documents. 
 
 It is estimated that there are always, on the average, 129 
 men out of 1,000 in the hospital, and that the name of each 
 soldier appears three times a year on the sick-list. As to the 
 raortahty, which is in England i| per cent., it is in Bengal 7 
 per cent. Those regiments, however, are fortunate, whose 
 mortality remains within these limits, for there are others 
 which see their entire force renewed within a few years. 
 Thus, the 98th regiment, the effective force of which, on dis- 
 embarkation, was as high as 718 men, had only 109 men of the 
 original force remaining, after eight years' residence. Fright- 
 ful as these figures are, they cannot be compared to the mor- 
 tahty among the children, of whom entire generations disap- 
 pear, leaving only here and there a puny survivor.' The 
 following table, borrowed from official documents, and giving 
 the mean of twenty years, will convey a tolerably exact idea 
 of the annual mortality among the army of the three Presi- 
 dencies. 
 
Climate and Hiitory of India. 413 
 
 
 BEXGAL. 
 
 MADRAS. 
 
 BOMBAY. 
 
 European Officers, 
 
 29 per mille. 
 
 
 
 " Soldiers, 
 
 74 " " 
 
 39 per mille. 
 
 51 per mille. 
 
 Native Sepoys, 
 
 18 " " 
 
 21 " " 
 
 13 " « 
 
 It will be seeii by this table that the Presidency of Madras 
 is that in which Euroj)ean soldiers are least tried by the cli- 
 mate. In general, ifc is calculated that to replace the losses by 
 natural causes alone, European soldiers in India must be 
 recruited at the rate of i o j^er cent, per annum. 
 
 The above figures give as accurate information as can be 
 obtained with respect to the effect of the climate on Euro- 
 peans ; and they are even below the mark, since the European 
 soldier is carefully looked after, and guarded from unnecessary 
 exposure to the sun or weather ; and when enfeebled by long 
 residence on the plains, is removed to one of the sanitaria on 
 the mountains, where the bracing aii' soon strengthens his 
 constitution, and brings back to his cheek the ruddy glow of 
 health. The best commentary upon the influence of the cli- 
 mate on Europeans is found in the fact that there is no such 
 thmg known as a third generation of Europeans horn in 
 India^ and this fact alone would prove that India can never 
 become extensively and permanently colonized by the English, 
 but can only be, at best, a temporary sphere of action for their 
 energy and enterprise. 
 
 The origin of the present inhabitants of India is involved in 
 much obscurity. There is almost no authentic history before 
 the time of the first Moosulman invasion, about a. d. 950. 
 The natives of India diffei* too much in aU respects, in the 
 various parts of the country, for us to suppose that they have 
 a common descent, while, at the same time, the universal difi 
 fusion of the Hindoo religion, and the Sanscrit element in most 
 of the languages, would seem, at first sight, according to the 
 principles of ethnography, to point to such a common origin. 
 The theory which at present finds most favour among those 
 who have given attention to the subject, is, that at a remote 
 period, there was a great invasion from the North West, of a 
 white, Sanscrit-speaking, Hindoo race, who found India peo- 
 pled by various independent nations of blacks, speaking differ- 
 
414 The Indian Empire. 
 
 ent languages, and having diiFerent religions. It is alsc 
 believed that the barbarous races of the Bheels, Khonds, 
 Kholees, &c., are the descendants of the original races, who 
 have continued to the present day unmixed with Hindoo 
 blood, and unaffected by Hindoo customs or religion. They 
 are in a most degraded state, believe in a low form of pagan- 
 ism, and it is with the greatest difficulty that human sacrifices 
 have been at length abolished among them by the exertions 
 of the Company's agents. 
 
 The Hindoo or Caucasian conquerors were, it is supposed, 
 divided into three castes; the Brahmuns, or Priests; the 
 Kshatrias, or Warriors ; and the Vaishyas, or Traders. After 
 the subjugation of the country, the enslaved populations were 
 formed into a fourth caste, the Soodras, or Slaves. The whole 
 population was in subjection to the Brahmuns, for whose use 
 and behoof, according to the Hindoo system, all things exist. 
 The mass of the people, must (if the Institutes of Menoo are 
 allowed to be the code then in force) have been in a state of 
 abject slaveiy, in comparison with which even the Mahom- 
 medan tyranny was freedom. By some means or other, in 
 course of time, the two intermediate castes of Kshatrias and 
 Vaishyas disappeared, and the Soodras came to play a much 
 more important part in the political system; while at the 
 same time the relative position of the Brahmuns was lowered, 
 probably chiefly on account of intermarriage with lower castes. 
 In fact, such an iron desi30tism as that described in the Insti- 
 tutes of Menoo, could hardly have been supposed to continue 
 unmitigated for the two thousand years during which the 
 Hindoo system was probably in force. To support this theory, 
 the following arguments are produced: First, the Sanscrit 
 language puts it beyond doubt that some of the inhabitants of 
 India must have come from the original seat of the Iranian 
 races ; but on the other hand the great number of races now 
 found in India, the black skin, and other distinguishing marks 
 of race, show equally clearly that the mass of the present 
 population had not such an origin — while the debased and 
 barbarous tribes of Khonds, &c., seem to present a type of 
 the original people at the time of the invasion. Again, the 
 
Climate and Hiftory of India. 413 
 
 number of distinct languages in India is, I think, thirteen. Of 
 these, three or four, at least, are of different origin, one from 
 the other, and their resemblance to Sanscrit is only on the 
 surface — showing that the people who spoke them must have 
 been of races distinct in their origin, and also pointing clearly, 
 by the intermixture of Sanscrit, to the influence of the tongue 
 si^oken by the conquering people. Another very strong argu- 
 ment is, the great and universal corruption of the Hindoo 
 religion, which, as expounded in the ancient Vedas, was com- 
 paratively pure, and, as some say, a monotheism. It is now 
 a system of utter idolatry, and the deities who are worshipped 
 are not such as would spring from the development or corrup- 
 tion of the original religion, but are, in many instances, evi- 
 dently introduced from without. The vitality of the aboriginal 
 religions, asserting their supremacy over the Brahmunical 
 systems, is seen even more in the services by which these new 
 gods are worshipped, and in the different classes of men whose 
 privilege it is, in many parts of the country, to officiate in the 
 temples — a privilege which, by the very essence of true Hin- 
 dooisra, is confined to the Brahmuns. So far have these 
 changes been carried that, over a large part of India, but 
 little of the early Hindoo religious system remains, excepting 
 the general respect shown to Brahmuns, the Sanscrit services, 
 and the institution of castes. Perhaps the strongest argument 
 of all, however, is the degraded position which the Soodras, 
 the mass of the population, occupied in the original Hindoo 
 system. Their situation was one of such abject, utter degra- 
 dation and slavery, that the only reasonable explanation of it 
 we can give, is that it was imposed upon them by an irresisti- 
 ble force from witlfbut. In other words, that the present 
 inhabitants of India, or at least the Hindoo portion of them, 
 are not Caucasians, but the descendants of a number of black, 
 aboriginal races who were overcome and reduced to bondage 
 by the original Hindoo or Caucasian invaders; that these 
 invaders were in numbers much inferior to the conquered 
 races, and have, in time, become almost swallowed up in them 
 — ^but not before the Brahmunical laws, worship and language 
 
41 6 The Indian Empire. 
 
 had, if not supplanted, at least produced an ineffaceable im- 
 pression upon the institutions of the country. 
 
 If the original conquerors of India were men of courage 
 and patriotism, their numbers were so small that they failed 
 to imj^ress these characteristics upon the nation with which 
 they eventually became amalgamated; and if under them 
 India was united in one government, it certainly soon became 
 broken uj) into a number of separate kingdoms, the want of 
 union among which, added to the absence of national sympa- 
 thy, and the cowardly character of the natives, made an inva- 
 sion a matter of but little difficulty. Accordingly, from the 
 time of the first establishment of Mahommedanism in Arabia 
 and Persia, we find one force after another sweeping down 
 upon the fertile plains of India, devastating, pillaging, and 
 laying waste — and generally returning thereafter to the place 
 whence they came. The first permanent establishment of the 
 Moosulman supremacy was in the year 1206, under Kootub 
 ood Deen. From this time forward various Mahommedan 
 dynasties succeeded each other upon the throne of Delhi. 
 The j)ower of the Emperors was more or less extended accor- 
 ding to their energy, and much of their time was occupied in 
 crushing the rebellions of their own subordinates in distant 
 provinces. Few of them died quietly in their beds ; and 
 usurpation was their general title to the imperial power. The 
 most remarkable Mahommedan invasion was that of Tamer- 
 lane, A. D. 1398. He was a Mogul Tartar chieftain, who sub- 
 dued Persia, and finally extended his conquests to India. 
 After stripping that country of all the treasures and jewels he 
 could find, massacreing hundreds of thousands in cold blood, 
 burning Delhi under circumstances of the greatest cruelty and 
 treachery, and overthrowing the existing Moosulman dynasty, 
 he suddenly returned to Persia. His return was marked by 
 the taking of Meeruth, on which occasion he j)ut " every soul 
 within it to the sword." His course homeward was distin- 
 guished by similar ravages ; " he marked his way with fire and 
 sword, leaving anarchy, famine and pestilence behind him." 
 
 After Tamerlane's invasion, there was no fixed government 
 until, in 1 5 26, Babur, his descendant of the sixth generation, 
 
Climate and Hiitory of India. 417 
 
 who was the Sooltan of Cabool, again invaded India, and 
 founded the dynasty which has been ever since on the throne. 
 Under the Emj^eror Akbur, who ruled from 1556 to 1605, the 
 Moosuhnan Empire in India reached its greatest extent. Ak- 
 bur's sway extended over all that we now call India, and durinc; 
 his reign even the most remote provinces were submissive to 
 the central authority at Delhi. Under the grandson of Akbur, 
 Shah Jehan, whose reign began in 1627, the Empire attained 
 its greatest glory, and it was by this monarch that many of 
 the principal architectural remains of India were erected. Still 
 the reign of Shah Jehan was far from peaceful and undisturbed. 
 The fabric of Mahommedan supremacy gave evident tokens 
 of how slight a foundation it possessed. The usual precautions 
 which the Emperor had taken, on ascending the throne, by 
 putting to death his brother and all the other members of the 
 imperial family, except his own descendants, di^l not suffice to 
 prevent attempts at usurpation. He j^assed several years in 
 endeavouring to subdue conflicting rebelUons organized by his 
 sons, whom he had made viceroys. The third son, Aurung- 
 zeeb, after a double treachery to his father and to one of his 
 revolted brothers, whose rebellion he had sworn to su^Dj^ort, at 
 length obtained the throne in 1658, and confined his father in 
 a prison, where he dragged out the last years of his life. Au- 
 rungzeeb's reign lasted fifty years. Under him, the Empire, 
 although outwardly as splendid as ever, became thoroughly 
 pervaded by that incurable decay which, after his death, de- 
 stroyed in a few years the vast and blood-cemented fabric of 
 the Mogul power in India. Even during his lifetime disorgani- 
 zation was prevented only by 4iis constant vigilance and the 
 commanding power of his master-mind. After seizing the im- 
 perial power, Aurungzeeb was for some time annoyed by his 
 brothers, who continued to support by arms their pretensions 
 to the Musnud. Finally, however, he overcame all ojDposition, 
 and rid himself of his troublesome relatives by summary exe- 
 cutions. 
 
 It is during the reign of Aurungzeeb that we first hear of 
 the Maharattas, who were then a warlike tribe of Hindoos 
 dwelling in the highlands of the west of India, south of the 
 
 18* 
 
41 8 The Indian Empire. 
 
 ^N'urbudda. Under the able command of a chieftain called 
 Seewajee, they began that com^se which finally ended in the 
 conquest of almost the whole of India, and the total prostration 
 of the Mogul 230wer. But the Maharattas were not the only 
 enemies who troubled the peace of Aurungzeeb's reign. The 
 Afghans revolted, set up a king, and coined money in his 
 name. The Kajpoots, too, a nation of warriors occupying the 
 country between the Jumna and N^urbudda, and that region 
 which was afterwards erected by the British into the kingdom 
 of Oude, organized a formidable insurrection. And to crown 
 the misfortunes of the Emperor, his youngest son, Akbur, took 
 advantage of the absence of his father from the capital, to as- 
 sume the reins of government, and caused himself to be pro- 
 claimed sovereign. The young prince, however, did not long 
 hold out, and was forced to take refuge among the Maharattas. 
 The Rajpoot war, also, was concluded after some years. But 
 the Maharatta j)ower kept assuming more and more formidable 
 proportions. Their original and ablest chieftam had died, his 
 successor had been tortured and murdered at Delhi, but they 
 found other leaders, and renewed their attacks in larger num- 
 bers and with greater strength. The government of Aurung- 
 zeeb had long lost much control over the Dekkun and southern 
 India, which had consequently been broken up into numerous 
 petty principahties. These became an easy prey to the Maha- 
 rattas, whose power now assumed such threatening dimensions 
 that the Emperor himself took the field against them, -with an 
 army, which, with its attendants, is said greatly to have ex- 
 ceeded one milhon of souls. The imperial force was, however, 
 everywhere unfortunate, and the anxieties of Aurungzeeb were 
 increased by renewed hostilities from the Kajpoots, and the 
 revolt of a Hindoo tribe called Jats. The successes of the 
 Maharattas continued in the Dekkun, into which country the 
 Emperor had advanced to meet them, and the last act of 
 Aurungzeeb's life was the successful conduct of a dangerous 
 retreat to the city of Aurungabad, in what are now the ter- 
 ritories of the Nizam. In the twelve years succeeding Au- 
 rungzeeb's death, five sovereigns held, one after another, the 
 imperial power, now everywhere broken by the dissensions 
 
Climate and Hitlory of India. 410 
 
 among the Maliommedan rulers, by the greatly extended 
 ravages of the Maharattas, and by the rise, in the vicinity of 
 Labor, of a new and formidable tribe, that of the Seekhs. 
 The formation of this body is due to a rehgious enthusiast 
 called Xanik, who pretended to have received a new revela- 
 tion, but the Seekhs first received a definite political system, 
 and were expanded into the proportions of a nation, under a 
 leader known as Gooroo Govind. Among them all distinc- 
 tions of caste were abolished, and Moosulmans were placed 
 in an equal position Tvith Hindoos. All Seekhs were com- 
 pelled constantly to go armed ; they were not allowed to cut 
 or shave the hair on the head or body, and were prohibited 
 from wearing on the head any article which had been sewed. 
 ThesLiperiority of the Brahmuns was still, however, preserved, 
 and the cow retained all the sanctity attributed under the 
 Hindoo system to that animal. The incursions of the Seekhs 
 were marked by greater barbarity than even those of the 
 Maharattas. The only object of the latter was booty. They 
 tortured the inhabitants of cities to obtain a knowledge of 
 their secret hiding places for property, and committed other 
 ravages only that they might force the conquered countries to" 
 submit to their demand of the chout, or fourth part of the 
 revenue. As long as this was punctually j^aid, it insured im- 
 munity. The Seekhs, however, never made any such com- 
 promises. Elphinstone says, " They destroyed the mosques, 
 and butchered the moollahs ; their rage was not restrained by 
 any considerations of religion, or by any mercy for age or sex : 
 whole towns were massacred with wanton barbarity ; and even 
 the bodies of the dead were dug up and thrown out to the 
 beasts and birds of prey." 
 
 While the Empire was m this distracted condition, a new 
 and more terrible invasion from without came to draw away 
 men's attention from their internal difficulties, and to complete 
 the destruction of the Mogul power. 
 
 Nadur Shah, one of the princes of Persia, had usurped the 
 throne of that country, and put out the eyes of the former 
 sovereign. He now directed his attention to India, and in 
 1738 began his march upon Delhi. The broken power of the 
 
420 The Indian Empire. 
 
 Emperor offered but slight opposition, and the imperial city 
 was again in the hands of a foreign invader. His occupation 
 of Delhi was attended by a general massacre of the inhabi- 
 tants. The rich were put to torture to obtain their money, 
 and the world-renowned treasures of the Mogul court were 
 plundered and carried away by the conqueror. His stay was 
 less than two months, and the amount of property which he 
 took away with him is estimated at from £32,000,000 to 
 £125,000,000. 
 
 The Mogul power was now completely broken. The subse- 
 que'nt history of India is one scene of invasions, revolts, and 
 contests between the Afghans and the various warlike tribes 
 whose origin has been spoken of above. The deputies and 
 viceroys of the Emperor generally proclaimed their indepen- 
 dence. The Maharattas were more than ever powerful, and 
 extended their conquests over Hindoostan. All law and order 
 disappeared, and the condition of the mass of the population 
 must have been most wretched. 
 
 Affairs were in this condition when the British first ap- 
 peared upon the field of action. Their conquests were direc- 
 ted against these revolted dependants of the Emperor; against 
 robber chieftains who had made themselves the kings of a day j 
 and against marauding bands like the Pindarrees, who came 
 and were gone, not attempting to establish any government, 
 but leaving smoking ruins, death and devastation wherever 
 they had. passed. 
 
 The throne of Delhi was entirely prostrate, and but for the 
 efforts of the British would no doubt soon have been perma- 
 nently abolished. It was, however, found more convenient to 
 use the Emperor's name. For the advantage which that gave 
 them, the Company must be allowed to have made an ample 
 return in the restoration of the imperial dignity, and the 
 enormous pension of £150,000 sterling, per annum, which has 
 ever since been punctually paid. 
 
 The substantial power of the Padshah was never restored ; 
 in fact, such an act would have been equivalent to again 
 plunging the unhappy countries over which his nominal rule 
 extended, into all the miseries from which they had just es- 
 caped. 
 
Climate and Hiilory of India. 421 
 
 The power of the revolted wuzeers, and of the chieftains of 
 the Maharattas and other tribes, was, however, confirmed by 
 the Company. The Wuzeer of Oude, who had profited by the 
 weakness of the last Emperors to proclaim his mdependence, 
 imder the title of Nawab, was raised by the English to the 
 royal dignity, with the view of oj^posing a strong and inde- 
 pendent power against any attempts that might be made by 
 the Emperor of Delhi to regain the position of supremacy once 
 held by his house. The course of the Company in this in- 
 stance is an example of what has always been their policy. 
 Annexation, as being costly, hazardous, and likely to occasion 
 protracted and expensive wars, has always been shunned. 
 The Company has avoided war, when possible, knowing that 
 peace is, in a commercial point of view, more desirable than 
 any extension of their possessions. "When, however, m the 
 course of events, hostilities became necessary, either for self 
 preservation, or fou the i^rotection of their territories and sub- 
 jects, no greater exhibition of force was resorted to than the 
 necessities of each case absolutely required. Whenever if 
 was possible, the ruler of a conquered country was left on the 
 guddee^ and his j^ower was put on a much firmer base than it 
 had ever previously rested on. In many instances the rank 
 and authority of conquered princes were raised and extended 
 by the Honourable Company with a view of securmg powerful 
 allies against other nati^'e rulers, and at the same time avoid- 
 ing the trouble, expense, and responsibility of administering 
 the newly-conquered country. These princes, it should be re- 
 membered, were seldom of old dynasties. They were mostly 
 adventurers, or the sons of adventurers.^' They had attained 
 their position by fraud and violence, and were liable at any 
 moment to be deposed by similar means. When, therefore, 
 their power became vested in the Company by the right of 
 conquest, it would have been perfectly just and equitable had 
 
 * Like Hydur Ali, who was a common soldier ; the original Gaikwar, who 
 was a cow-herd ; the first Peshwa, who was of equally humble origin ; and 
 those two powei-fiil princes known as Sindia and Holkar, who were robber- 
 chieftains of the Maharattas. 
 
422 The Indian Empire. 
 
 they been absolutely deposed and their country annexed to 
 the other British dominions. This course would also have 
 been much the most advantageous for the conquered coun- 
 tries, and has been, in fact, the recent policy of the Indian 
 government. In the earlier years of the Company's rule, how- 
 ever, they were not aware of their own power, and sought, by 
 a consistent course of concession, and the enlistment on their 
 side of native interest, to strengthen a series of conquests so 
 extensive and so rapid as to be bewildering. An additional 
 motive agamst annexation was, that before the real relations 
 between a native ruler and his subjects were understood, the 
 latter were supposed to entertain toward their princes some 
 sentiments of affection and loyalty, which, as well as their feel- 
 ings of patriotism, would, it was thought, be shocked by a vio- 
 lent transfer of the sceptre. The wonderful success of the Eng- 
 lish, and the consolidation of their power which is the result 
 of a wise and uniform administration, have, removed the first 
 objections to annexation. The discovery that a native prince 
 governs as a brutal master tyrannising over cringing slaves, 
 has dispelled any dread of opposition from the fidelity of the 
 native population to their old masters ; while the great devel- 
 oi^ment of those jjarts of the country which have been an- 
 nexed, the rise in the value of property, the peace and pros- 
 perity which the subjects of the Company have enjoyed, when 
 contrasted with the insecurity, anarchy, and misrule of all the 
 native territories, point out annexation as the most profitable, 
 if not the only truly lenient and benevolent policy. 
 
 A great deal of nonsense has been talked about these native 
 princes, who have been treated with only too great clemency 
 and consideration by the Honourable Company. In cases 
 where it was deemed imprudent to intrust them. with the 
 management of their old dominions, they were always pen- 
 sioned with the greatest liberality, and left at perfect liberty 
 to live where and how they pleased, within certain limits of 
 country — a treatment widely different from the trampling to 
 death by elephants, the tortures, or the confinement in an iron 
 cage which would have been their lot had their conquerors 
 been natives. In cases where the old ruler was left in power, 
 
 1 
 
Climate and Hiftory of India. 423 
 
 he was usually placed in an independent position. Tributes 
 were sometimes imposed ; sometimes not. The Company's 
 government only retained the privilege of regulating the suc- 
 cession to the throne (a power whicli was generally exercised 
 only to interfere in behalf of the regular successor against an 
 attempted usurpation) ; and merely required that the native 
 sovereign should govern with some justice, and maintain a 
 certain amount of order ; to secure which, and keep him in 
 mind of his position, a British resident Agent, usually called 
 simply " the Resident," was maintained at every native court. 
 This officer had no power but such as resulted from his per- 
 sonal character and mfluence. The subject princes were also 
 required to keep up a certain army, which was to be partly 
 officered by Englishmen, and to the services of which the 
 Company were, under certain circumstances, entitled. No 
 terms could be more liberal than these, and they were always 
 scrupulously observed by the Company. The right, whicli 
 was of course inherent in the Honourable Company, to resume 
 the sovereign power which had been once in their hands, in 
 case of the non-performance by the native princes of their part 
 of the agreement, was never enforced, except where, as m the 
 case of Oude, the degradation of the court, the lawlessness of 
 the capital, and the anarchy which prevailed throughout the 
 country, were not only ruining the subject state itself, but 
 threatened the peace and security of the adjacent territories 
 of the Company. Even in such cases, the deposed monarchs 
 were treated with a lavish hberality to which their previous 
 merits gave them very little claim. 
 
 Never has there been a conquest more un^\allingly made 
 than was that of the English in India. The Company was at first 
 exclusively mercantile, and trade was their only object. Every 
 war was costly, diminished their revenue, and lowered their 
 dividends. Accordingly we find the Board of Directors again 
 and agjain commanding: the Governors in India not to allow 
 themselves to be dragged into war, and to endure anything 
 in preference to taking up arms. But their wishes were over- 
 ruled by Providence. The Indian government was forced^' 
 
 * The wai'S in Afghanistan and Sindh, if exceptions to this rule, cannot be 
 
4-24 The Indian Empire. 
 
 into one contest after another, until, in less than one hundred 
 years from then- first great battle, under Lord Clive, at Plas- 
 sey, they found themselves masters of the land from Cape 
 Comorin to the Himalayas, and from Burmah to Afghanistan. 
 Henceforth India is delivered from tyranny, anarchy, and 
 devastating invasions. The degrading sway of the Brahmuns, 
 and the desjootism of the Mahommedan rulers, are alike abol- 
 ished. It is to be hoped that a few years will see the remains 
 of the last native governments wiped away, and that India 
 will be governed entirely by the beneficent rule of a Christian 
 people ; under whom alone civilization can be introduced, the 
 immense resom'ces of the country developed, and the Hindoos 
 enjoy that peace and freedom to which they are entitled by 
 centuries of oppression and sufiering. 
 
 laid at the door of the Company. Like the annexation of Oude, they were 
 forced upon the East India Company by the British Ministry through the 
 Board of Control, and were entirely acts of the Home Government, although 
 conducted in the name of the Company, and at its expense. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 ENaLISH aOYERNMENT IN INDIA. 
 
 Abolition of Company's Trading Privileges — Board of Control— Government of India 
 Nominally in the Hands of the Directors, but really under the Control of the Min- 
 istry — Civil Servants Ajjpointed by Examination — Objections to this System — Unfit- 
 ness of Natives for Government Employ — Government in India — District Magistrates 
 — Salaries — Character of the Civil Service — Native Employees — Uncovenanted Ser- 
 vice — Universal Lying — Instances from Eeal Life — Kules of Testimony — Civil Law 
 of India — Mild Criminal Code — Thugs — Dukoitee — Religious Murderers and Robbers 
 — Infanticide and other Crimes — Suttee and Human Sacrifices — Poisoners — Pecu- 
 liarities of Crime in India — Thieves — Stealing a Sheet from under a Man Sleeping — 
 Precautions — Disregard of Capital Punishment — Black Water — Blowing from Guns 
 — Model Prisons — Caste in Jail — Smoking — Licentiousness — Discourteous Manners 
 of English to Native Gentlemen — What is a Gentleman? — Diftlculties of Magistrates 
 —Native Police — Their Corruption and Tyranny — Torture in India — Bribery and 
 Corruption — The Remedy — Causes of the Moral Degradation of the Hindoos. 
 
 Up to 1833 the East India Company had contiuued to be a 
 commercial company, ruling India in the name of the Great 
 Mogul. At that time the Company's commercial power was 
 taken away by the English Parliament, on the occasion of the 
 renewal of their charter/^ This measure was, commercially, 
 of the greatest advantage to India, but conferred upon that 
 country even greater benefits indirectly, by leaving the Com- 
 pany's servants free to devote their entire attention to gov- 
 
 * Under the charter of 1193, the first provision was made for private 
 enterprise, and the Company were obhged to provide 6,000 tons of shipping 
 every year for the accommodation of private traders. At the next renewal 
 of the charter in 1814, the Company lost the monopoly of the Eastern trade, 
 except that of tea. The unrestricted competition of private capital in the 
 India trade soon took most of the business out of the hands of the Company, 
 while the whole amount of business done was, by it, largely increased, as 
 appears by tliis table : 
 
 Exports by Company. By Private Traders. Total. 
 
 1814. £826,658 £1,048,132 £1,874,690 
 
 1832. £149,193 £3,601,093 ' £3,750,286 
 
426 The Indian Empire. 
 
 ei'Dment, the development of the resources of the country, and 
 internal improvements. The latter had been so much neglected 
 that, in 1825, it is said, there did not exist twenty miles of 
 carriage road in Bengal. 
 
 In the year 1833 the government of India was in fact taken 
 out of the hands of the East India Company ; or rather they 
 remained ,the agents for its administration, but all the higher 
 attributes of sovereignty were withdrawn from them. The 
 royal Government assumed the responsibihty of defraying 
 the interest on the capital stock, guaranteeing to all stock- 
 holders I oj- j)er cent, annual dividend, and retaining the privi- 
 lege of buying up all the stock, or what portions they pleased, 
 at the rate of £200 for every £100 of stock. 
 
 In return for this assumption of responsibility, the king's 
 Government exercised a controlling influence in the affair^ 
 of the Company. As early as 1784 a royal supervision had 
 been exercised over the Indian government by means of a 
 Board of Control. This Board has since acquired a supreme 
 influence in all more important matters. The Board of Con- 
 trol consists of six members, appointed by the Crown, wdth a 
 President, who is always a member of the Cabinet, and dis- 
 charges the duties of Secretary of State for India. Every 
 resolution or despatch of the Board of Directors must go for 
 approval before the Board of Control, who have the power 
 of sending the orders to India, or withholding them at will. 
 In cases where the Board of Control and the Directors dis- 
 agree as to what course it is proper to take under certain cir- 
 cumstances, it is the former who decide. In fact, the only 
 unrestricted power left to the Directors by the last amend- 
 ment to their charter in 1853, is that of appointing cadets to 
 the army and a few of the higher officers of government in 
 India. All orders and despatches continue to be in the name 
 of the Board of Directors, but, in reality, for many years, the 
 entire direction and responsibility of Indian policy has been 
 in the hands of Parliament, by means of the Ministry, of 
 whom the President of the Board of Control is one.* The 
 
 * The Ministry may send to India any despatch or order that they please, 
 either in the name of the Board of Directors or of its Secret Committee. In 
 
Engliili Government in India. 427 
 
 details of administration always, however, have continued to be 
 principally entrusted to the Board of Directors, at least so far as 
 they were matters for the consideration of the home authorities. 
 
 The whole appointment of the civil servants for India was 
 formerly vested ii^ the Directors, but this valuable privilege 
 was taken away by the last charter, and they are now chosen 
 according to the result of competitive examinations, to which 
 all British subjects are admissible. The new system is an 
 experiment, Avith respect to the success of which those who 
 are best informed about India are most distrustful. Under 
 the new system many men must be appointed whose antece- 
 dents are not well known, and who, when they arrive in India, 
 and are placed in charge of large districts, far removed from 
 all supervision and control, may fall a prey to those numerous 
 temptations by which the Indian official is surrounded. 
 Against these the most powerful barrier was the honour of 
 his family, which every civilian appointed under the old system 
 feels to be dependent on his conduct in a service, in the ranks 
 of w^hich he probably has more than one relation, and to many 
 of the other members of which he is personally known. 
 
 Another great objection to the new arrangement is, that 
 under it natives are eUgible to high civil employs ; and will 
 probably obtain them, as they have generally quite ability 
 enough to prepare themselves for passing any examination 
 which may be appointed. It is a sad fact that the natives 
 are wholly unfit for any position of responsibility in which 
 they are not under constant European supervision. In con- 
 nection with this I cannot express my own views, and those 
 of all well-informed persons with whom I have conversed, 
 more clearly than in the ^vords of M. De Valbezen. After 
 remarking upon the apparent injustice and abuse of power, in 
 the systematic exclusion of natives from all high employs, he 
 goes on to say : " Besides, the injustice is more apparent than 
 
 the former case the Directors must have seen the despatch or order, but cannot 
 veto it ; in the latter they need not even have seen it. By means of this extra- 
 ordinary system, the Company has been made responsible to pubhc opinion 
 for many acts done in their name, but which were entirely opposed to their 
 wishes and pohcy. 
 
428 The Indian Empire. 
 
 real : except infinitesimal exceptions, it must be acknowledged 
 that it TTonld be impossible to find natives capable of worthily 
 filling the higher employs. Even had they the energy, the in- 
 tellectual powers which are necessary, they would be destitute 
 of that love of truth, that high respect for^duty, that deUcate 
 sentiment of honour, which are as necessary to the magistrate 
 as to the military officer. Whoever has the least experience 
 of their character will grant this without hesitation." An 
 American missionary, well known in another capacity among 
 the religious community of this city, and whose views are in 
 every way entitled to the highest respect, expresses even 
 stronger opinions when speaking of the capacity of the Hin- 
 doos for self-government, and, by implication, of their fitness 
 for being entrusted with the government of others. He says : 
 " They are an ignorant, depraved, and heathen people ; and 
 yet both English and American writers speak of them as if 
 they could be governed in the same way as British subjects or 
 American citizens. A greater mistake it would be difficult to 
 make ; and our meaning will be clearer to most of our read- 
 ers when we say that the coloured people of this country, 
 free and bond, are a hundred-fold better prepared for self- 
 government than are the great mass of the Hindoos." 
 
 At the head of the government in India is the Governor 
 Genera], whose residence is at Calcutta, and who has the com- 
 plete control of the whole administration. He is assisted 
 by a council of four members, who compose, with him, the In- 
 dian Legislature. All their acts, however, are subject to the 
 royal approval. Under the Governor General are the Lieuten- 
 ant Governor of Bengal, the Lieutenant Governor of the ISTorth 
 Western Provinces, who lives at Agra, and the Commissioners 
 of the Punjab and Oude. The Governors of Madras and 
 Bombay, though possessing legislative powers for their resi^ec- 
 tive Presidencies, are aliso inferior to the Governor General. 
 
 The subordinate administrative duties are in the hands of 
 the Magistrate and Collector of each district. In Bengal each 
 magistrate has under his charge a district of three thousand 
 two hundred square miles, and one million of souls, on the 
 average. Within this district he has the entire care of the 
 
Englifli Government in India. 429 
 
 police, roads, &c., and also limited judicial powers. As this is 
 quite as mucli as one man can attend to, he is assisted by a 
 Collector, who regulates all the financial business of govern- 
 ment, determines the assessment of land, restrains exactions 
 of zemindars, and has the general fiscal charge of the district. 
 In the smaller Presidencies, the duties of collector are exercised 
 by the magistrate. Besides these officials, there are the judges, 
 of whom there are, on the average, two to every three dis- 
 tricts. Their principal occupation is to hear appeals from the 
 native judicial officers, whose powers have lately been so much 
 extended that almost all suits come before them in the first 
 instance. 
 
 Both magistrates and collectors are aided by European 
 deputies and assistants. The judges, however, except in Bom- 
 bay, have only native subordinates. In addition to these 
 officers, the civil service also comprehends the special depart- 
 ments of the customs, the salt excise, and the opium mono- 
 poly, which give employment to many Europeans. 
 
 The whole number of European employees of all sorts, in 
 the civil service, properly so called, is under nine hundred. 
 Their pay is on the most liberal scale. The salaries of magis- 
 trates and collectors range from $6,000 to $19,000 per annum, 
 and those of the judges average |i 5,000. These amounts are 
 found, however, not to be too large, and very few fortunes 
 are made in the Company's service. In the earliest days of 
 the British rule in India, the salaries were very low, and the 
 Company's servants were too often tempted to neglect the 
 interests of their masters for private speculations, by which 
 immense fortunes were amassed, and to accept bribes in the 
 discharge of the governmental duties with which they were 
 entrusted. The Company soon, however, found it their inter- 
 est to attract men of a higher class to their service, and, at the 
 same time, to put them out of the reach of these temptation?, 
 by ample salaries. Accordingly, the salaries were fixed on a 
 liberal scale, toward the end of the last century, and have 
 continued almost the same since that time. The present civil 
 servants are men of liberal education and high character ; 
 their labours arc onerous and irksome ; the difficulties they 
 
430 The Indian Empire. 
 
 meet with in doing justice, almost insnrmountable ; the temp- 
 tations to which they are exposed, great and continual ; but 
 since the time when the service was placed on its present foot- 
 ing, and men of standing were attracted into its ranks, proba- 
 bly no body of government oificials in the world have ever 
 been so entirely free from every taint of bribery or dishonour- 
 able conduct. The best testimony to the character of the 
 European agents of government is found in the opinions of 
 the natives themselves, who look upon an Englishman as a 
 paragon of almost impossible uprightness and probity, and 
 among whom a common expression for absolute truth is, " Un- 
 gleeze kee bat" — an Englishman's word. As their opinions, 
 however, cannot be presented here, I take much pleasure in 
 quoting the words of M. De Valbezen, who was intimately 
 acquainted with his subject, and whose expressions are the 
 more valuable, as the policy of England is, in many cases, far 
 from meeting his approval. After remarking upon the very 
 different life led by the present officials in India, from that 
 luxurious existence enjoyed by their " old Indian" predeces- 
 sors, he goes on to account for the fact, that, even with their 
 present moderate style of living, their apparently ample sala- 
 ries scarcely cover their expenses. He attributes this to the 
 fact that now-a-days one of the first aims of every civilian is 
 to get married, and that the great expenses of a family in In- 
 dia, the necessity for sending his wife and children to the 
 Himalayas during the hot weather, the expense of sending the 
 children to England to be educated, and the large establish- 
 ment which a man of family has to keep up, amount to more 
 than the sums which were formerly s]3ent in costly wines, lux- 
 urious dinners, and gambhng. He then goes on to say : — 
 " The high salaries* of India, which have occasioned so many 
 attacks, and caused so much envy, furnish doubtless the means 
 of providing comfortably for the expenses of a family, but 
 nothing beyond. They are, besides, the price of severe and 
 incessant labour, and if all those who cry out against the am- 
 
 * The average salaries of the nine hundred civil servants are £1,000 per 
 annum. This does not include the salaiy of the Governor General, or a few 
 other of the highest magistrates. 
 
Englifli Government in India. 431 
 
 pie pay of the civil service could see, close at hand, the life 
 of the exile in an unhealthy climate, with its profound ennu% 
 their envy for those who w^ear these gilded but heavy chains 
 would doubtless be considerably dmiinished. We are not so 
 extreme in our admiration of the Honourable Company's civil 
 service, that we can see in it no defects. We do not doubt 
 that its education can be made more perfect ; that some of its 
 members have given sad examples of corruption and incapa- 
 city, and that others affect the extravagant airs of the Grand 
 Mogul. We only say, on the average, as a body, it is equal 
 to its lofty mission ; that never have more upright magistrates, 
 more disinterested collectors, more independent judges presi- 
 ded over the destiny of the native population ; that, in one 
 word, the very great majority of the civil servants worthily 
 represent in India one of those nations which march in the 
 van of European civilization." 
 
 Beside the European civil servants, there are an immense 
 number of native officials in the employ of the Honourable 
 Company. They do pretty well as long as they are under the 
 immediate eye of their European superiors, but unfortunately 
 cannot be trusted further than they can be overlooked. As, 
 however, it is impossible for the very limited number of Eu- 
 ropean civilians to oversee all the minutiae of administration, 
 the natives have very considerable opportunities of oppres- 
 sion, extortion, and receiving bribes, and do not neglect 
 them. 
 
 The total want of character among the native officials has 
 caused the employment by government of numerous Euro- 
 peans, mostly sprung from the humbler ranks, and many of 
 them taken from the English troops in India. This branch of 
 the administration is known as the ".uncovenanted service," 
 in opposition to the regular civil service described above, 
 which is called the " covenanted service" on account of the 
 regular agreement existing between each member of it and 
 the government. The members of the uncovenanted service 
 are generally employed to oversee the construction of the 
 public works, inspect the roads, and superintend native con- 
 tractors and workmen. Thev are a body daily growing in 
 
432 The Indian Empire. 
 
 importance. Their pay is not regular, but each man makes 
 the best bargain he can for himself. 
 
 The difficulties which the magistrates meet with in the ad- 
 ministration of the government, from the unrehability of their 
 native subordinates, are almost incredible ; and the numerous 
 acts of injustice, cruelty, and oppression committed in their 
 name, which they know to exist, but can seldom redress, are a 
 constant source of painful reflection. 
 
 The administration of justice meets with even greater obsta- 
 cles from that total disregard of truth which characterises the 
 native. In India, no disgrace attaches to untruth, and it is 
 not uncommon to hear a man say, "I was lying," without 
 ever suspecting that such an admission at all impUcated his 
 honour. In the courts of law, the most sacred oaths, on the 
 Koran, Ganges water, or in whatever form they were sup- 
 posed to be most binding on the conscience of the deponent, 
 having proved totally ineffectual in securing the least regard 
 to veracity, have been all abolished ; which has this advan- 
 tage, that it is now possible for witnesses to give testimony 
 without peijuring themselves. In every bazar in the country, 
 any number of men may be hired to testify to anything, for 
 the small charge of two anas, (6 cents) ; and I was told by a 
 magistrate who had held office for over fifteen years, that in 
 all that time he did not believe he had ever heard a single 
 deposition which was entirely true^ and that such depositions 
 as contained any large admixture of truth were the few excep- 
 tions in the great mass of evidence, which was entirely false. 
 I was much amused by a conversation I had at Agra, with a 
 high- caste Brahmun, whose occupation was that of moonshee, 
 or native clerk understanding English. He was a very well 
 informed person, and had most gentlemanly manners. We 
 had been talking about the reverence shown to the cow in the 
 Hindoo system, and he had been explaining to me by what 
 process of reasoning he came to look upon the cow as his 
 mother, and to regard the butchery of that animal as some- 
 thing worse than matricide. We then went on to speak of 
 the native character generally, and I mentioned the habit of 
 lying as, in my opinion, the " original sin," from which most 
 
Englifli Government in India. 433 
 
 of their other defects sprang. He denied that untruthfulness 
 was as general as I supposed it to be. Whereupon, I asked 
 him if there was any one whom he would believe rather than 
 his father. He said there was not. On my inquiring which 
 was the most sacred oath among the Hindoos, he said, an oath 
 given with the hand in Ganges water. I then said, " Xow 
 suppose, Moonshee, your own father were to swear, with his 
 hand in Ganges water, that a certain statement was true, 
 with regard to which you knew it was his mterest to deceive 
 you, would you believe him ?" The moonshee at first equivo- 
 cated, and would not give a direct reply. On my pressing 
 him, however, for a straightforward answer, he at last said : 
 "I think, sir, I should wish for corroborative testimony." 
 The following occurrence was brought to light in the Suddur 
 Adawlut Court in Calcutta. "A darogah (native chief of po- 
 lice) had given mformation of a crime to the district magis- 
 trate, adding, that the most active researches had failed in 
 putting him on the track of the perpetrators of the offence. 
 The magistrate, who suspected the probity of his subordinate, 
 announced to him that if in ten days the criminals were not 
 discovered, he should be suspended from his functions. Ko 
 result having been obtained after the fixed delay, the threat 
 was put in execution, and the darogah was temporarily 
 replaced by an inferior ofiicer, whose zeal was stimulated by 
 the promise of the late darogah's situation if he succeeded in 
 discovering the guilty j^arties. The new functionary was not 
 more lucky than his predecessor ; but, rather than renounce 
 the place promised to his ambition, he caused a reward of a 
 hundred rupees (850) to be ofiered to whoever would avow 
 himself guilty of the murder in question. Two beings, in ap- 
 pearance human — in truth, I cannot call them two men — 
 presented themselves to accept the terms offered ; but, on ac- 
 count of the competition, the reward was diminished one-half 
 Hereupon, the police ofiicer invented a narrative in harmony 
 with the testimony of the witnesses. The two individuals 
 made their avowals before the most considerable inhabitants 
 of the village, and the report of the inquest was sent, together 
 with the accused, before the magistrate, who in recompense 
 
 19 
 
434 The Indian Empire. 
 
 appointed his faithless subordinate to the post of the deposed 
 darogah. As it had been agreed, in the conditions of the bar- 
 gain, that the accused should renew their confession before 
 the magistrate, they related to him fliithfuUy, anew, all the 
 details of their imaginary crime ; then, believing themselves 
 to have honourably fulfilled all the terms of the contract, 
 they retracted all their previous testimony, when examined 
 before the district judge, denied their previous confessions, 
 and declared that all they had done was to sign certain 
 papers written by the head-man of the village, and that 
 numerous witnesses could testify to their ignorance of the 
 contents of the papers signed by them. These witnesses, 
 whose favourable testimony had, no doubt, been bought by 
 the accused beforehand, were summoned to the assizes ; but, 
 whether they were bribed or intimidated by the darogah, 
 they only confirmed the facts elicited on the inquest ; adding, 
 that they had heard the avowal of the crime from the mouth 
 of the accused. A condemnation to death terminated the 
 trial. It was only then that the convicts avowed their agree- 
 ment with the darogah, and were able, luckily for themselves, 
 to bring witnesses to prove that they were in the district jail 
 when the crime was committed." Agam : " Some years ago, a 
 rich farmer of the Dooab was accused of having killed a native 
 in a quarrel. Twenty-five witnesses swore, in open court, that 
 they had seen the accused strike the fatal blow; thirty others 
 swore that at the time when the murder was committed, they 
 had seen the accused at a village twenty-five miles off. So 
 far, there is nothing extraordinary in the story — the same 
 thing occurs every day, in every court in India. The amusing 
 part of the occurrence was, that on both sides there was an 
 equal amount of perjury and lying. The farmer had not 
 committed the murder, but, on the other hand, he was not, at 
 the time of its commission, in the village twenty-five miles off, 
 but in his own dwelling, a few steps from the theatre of the 
 ciime." I forget the details of numerous other and similar 
 occurrences which I heard of in India. Almost any one who 
 has lived in that country has had many such cases brought to 
 his notice, and he is lucky, indeed, if he is not made the victim 
 
Englilli Government in India. 43c 
 
 of the hired perjurers whom the natives do not hesitate to 
 employ in their legal affairs. 
 
 Notwithstanding this state of public morality, the rules of 
 evidence in the courts of law are the same as in Eno-laod, viz : 
 that all testimony 7nust he presumed true^ until iwoved false. 
 The principal hardship of this rule is experienced when an 
 Englishman is sued by a native, since the latter will bring as 
 many witnesses as are necessary to prove his case, while the 
 former is deprived of such facilities by conscientious scruples. 
 The rigour of the English rule of testimony is, however, much 
 modified by the discretionary power assumed by the magis- 
 trate, ^dthout wdiich he would find it difiicult to extract the 
 few grains of truth from the mass of conflicting evidence daily 
 2:»resented to his notice. 
 
 The civil law has been left nearly as it was found at the 
 conquest. The Koran is the rule for the Moosulmans; the 
 Institutes of Menoo form the ground-work of the Hindoo 
 common law. The position of the other native communities, 
 as Parsees and native Christians, has been recently settled, 
 and they are subject to the English law only. The only 
 changes of importance that have been made in the native civil 
 law^, are the following : First, a provision that a change in 
 religion shall not affect a man's civil standing. By the old 
 Hindoo law, a man lost caste on conversion to Mahommedan- 
 ism or Christianity, and became civilly dead, his property 
 going to his heirs. Second, the abolition of slavery, as a 
 social status, recognised by the courts. Third, permission 
 given to widows to marry. By the old Brahmunical law, a 
 widow, though she might be (and many of them were) not 
 over nine years old, could never marry again, but remained 
 with her parents, the drudge of the household, a burden to 
 the family, and treated contemptuously by all. A very large 
 number of them became prostitutes. The evil of the old law 
 can hardly be aj^preciated unless we remember that in India 
 marriage is not an excej^tional state, but every tnan is married, 
 generally when a child ; that a large proportion of these boy- 
 husbands naturally die, leaving their widows virgins; and 
 that there is not the same restraint, wdiich in this and other 
 
43^ The Indian Empire. 
 
 Christian countries operates by religion and public opinion to 
 curb the indulgence of passion. The fourth, and last great 
 change, is a late law forbidding native princes to adopt heirs 
 to their dominions, where no natural heirs exist. This is one 
 of the greatest measures of Lord Dalhousie's administration, 
 and one which has called down the most reprehension in 
 England. It must, however, be considered a great triumph 
 of the highest principles of justice — since no one can contend 
 that the feelings of an individual should be weighed for a 
 moment against the substantial good of millions of human 
 beings, who, as the law formerly stood, would have been 
 handed over, on the demise of the last scion of one line, to a 
 new generation of despots, and a fresh lease of misrule. All 
 these changes were opposed to the principles of Hindooism, 
 and have met with even more opposition in England than in 
 India. Several of them have been the subjects of severe 
 attacks by eminent members of Parliament. Still they are 
 among the greatest benefits conferred by the English upon 
 India, and a verdict upon them may be left with confidence 
 to any number of well-informed philanthropic and Christian 
 men, whose views are not biased by sitting on the " composition 
 benches." 
 
 The criminal code is based upon the " Regulations" pub- 
 lished by Lord Cornwallis in 1793. The punishments pre- 
 scribed are very mild. Sixteen years of prison is the heaviest 
 penalty for Dukoitee (burglary), forgery, perjury, and counter- 
 feiting. Murder is punished by transportation or death, and 
 is the only capital crime. Every capital condemnation has to 
 be forwarded to the Supreme Court for approval. 
 
 The evidence demanded by the English rules was found to 
 interfere with the detection and punishment of the Thugs, as 
 the witnesses, whose testimony was necessary for the convic- 
 tion, were often living at points thousands of miles distant 
 from the scene of the trial. This resulted from the habit 
 which distinguished the Thugs, of never remaining long in 
 one place; and also from most of their victims being travellers. 
 It was, therefore, found necessary to establish a special depart- 
 ment for the suppression of Thuggee. This department has 
 
Englifli Government in India. 437 
 
 agents all over India, employed to take the testimony of all 
 essential witnesses wherever they may be found. The Thug- 
 gee department is also charged with the suppression of 
 Dukoitee, a crime which consists in the robbinfr and burnino: 
 of villages by armed bodies of men. 
 
 Both these crimes are fearfully common in India, and the 
 former was conducted with so much secrecy that it was years 
 before the British discovered the existence of a society w^hose 
 whole occupation consisted in systematic murder, in honour 
 of the detestable goddess Bhowanee, to whose service they had 
 devoted themselves. After the appointment of the Thuggee 
 Commission, 1,562 Thugs were arrested, tried, and condemned 
 in one year. One of these murderers, Feringhee (who has 
 been made an actor 'in Dumas' novel, "The Wandering Jew"), 
 confessed having committed 779 murders, and regretted that 
 a confinement of twelve years in prison had j^revented his 
 completing the thousand, which his ambition had led him to 
 hope for. 
 
 The crime of Dukoitee, w^hich has been mentioned above, is 
 also very prevalent. It is also committed under the protec- 
 tion of Bhowanee, and, as in the case of Thuggee, religious 
 services precede the commission of the crime. The Dukoits 
 usually go in large bands, and attack a village. Their habit 
 is to torture the principal inhabitants, until they confess the 
 hiding places of their money. The tortures they employ are 
 very various; but although there are several more severe, 
 the most common, because the most convenient, is to tie the 
 sufferer's hands together wnth tow soaked in oil, which is then 
 lighted, and the fire fed with fresh oil until confession is ex- 
 torted. After the village is robbed, it is not unusual to kill 
 all the inhabitants and burn the houses. It is now a well 
 ascertained fact that there is a caste of hereditary Dukoits. 
 Still the profession is by no means confined to them, but is 
 practised by a large number of amateurs — mostly Moosul- 
 mans. 
 
 Another crime, which is much commoner than has been 
 supposed, is human sacrifice, which is practised among some 
 of the aboriofinal tribes. Dr. Allen states that in one small 
 
438 The Indian Empire. 
 
 section of country, between three and four hundred victims 
 were sacrificed in one year. 
 
 The powerful arm of government has done much for the 
 repression of these three offences ; and has entirely aboHshed 
 the practice of Suttee, and other forms of voluntary religious 
 suicide. There is one other offence, however, which, though 
 it is kno\\Ti to be extensively prevalent, is yet practised so 
 secretly, and is so entirely in consonance with the public 
 opinion of the communities among whom it prevails, that all 
 means of repression have hitherto been found ineffectual. I 
 mean the crime of female infanticide, which prevails not only 
 among the Khonds, and other aboriginal tribes who practise 
 human sacrifice, but is also habitual among the Rajpoots — 
 perhaps the finest Indian race. 
 
 All the public roads in India are infested by poisoners. 
 They generally do business on a smaller scale than the Thugs, 
 and are contented with less profit in proportion to the risks. 
 Several times it has appeared, in judicial nivestigations, that 
 whole families were poisoned for the sake of a few shillings, 
 and Colonel Sleeman tells of one case where a man and his 
 son were poisoned to obtain a coverlet worth twelve anas 
 (thirty-six cents). 
 
 I have noticed these offences particularly, because some of. 
 them are j)eculiar to India, and all of them are practised as a 
 regular business by certain classes in the community. The 
 other crimes, which are also found in Euroj)e, flourish under 
 the Indian sun, and private enterprise is by no means driver, 
 out of the field by the competition of these organised bodies. 
 
 Several marked peculiarities distinguish crimes in the East 
 from the same oflences elsewhere. The first is, that, like 
 other occupations, murder, robbery, stealing, and the like of- 
 fences are hereditary in certain castes. The second is, the 
 great cruelty which is often shoT\m in the commission of 
 crimes ; but this is not so wonderful among a people whose 
 very school punishments are tortures. A third peculiarity is 
 the extreme youth of many of the malefactors. For instance, 
 among the capital condemnations, we find the merest children 
 who murdered their playmates for the sake of their gold and 
 
Engliih Governnient in India. 439 
 
 silver bangles. But the most remai-kable feature of all, is the 
 rehgious sanction which is given to some of the most detesta- 
 ble crimes. To quote the words of Lord Macaulay : " Through 
 the whole Hindoo Pantheon you will look in vain for those 
 beautiful and majestic forms which stood in the shrines of 
 ancient Greece. All is hideous, grotesque, and ignoble. As 
 this superstition is of all superstitions the most irrational, and 
 of all superstitions the most inelegant, so is it of all super- 
 stitions the most immoral. Emblems of vice are the objects 
 of public worshij). Acts of vice ai-e acts of public w^orship. 
 The courtesans are as much a part of the establishment of the 
 temple, as much ministers of the god, as are the priests. 
 Crimes against life, and crimes against property, are not only 
 permitted, but enjoined, by this odious theology. But for our 
 interference, human victims w^ould still be ofi'ered to the 
 Ganges, and the widow would still be laid on the pile by the 
 corpse of her husband, and burned alive by her children. It 
 is by the command, and under the special protection, of one 
 of the most powerful goddesses that the Thugs join them- 
 selves to the unsuspecting traveller, make friends with him, 
 slip the noose round his neck, plunge their knives mto his 
 eyes, hide him in the earth, and divide liis money and bag- 
 gage. I have read many examinations of the Thugs, and I 
 remember particularly an altercation which took place between 
 two of these wretches in the presence of an English officer. 
 One Thug reproached the other with having been so irreligi- 
 ous as to si^are the life of a traveller when the omens indicated 
 that their patroness required a victim. ' How could you let 
 him go ? How can you expect the goddess to protect us, if 
 we disobey her commands? That is one of your North- 
 Country heresies.' " 
 
 Thieving, as distinguished from robbery, is very common all 
 over India, and is often practised upon Europeans. The Thugs 
 and Dukoits, on the contrary, never venture to attack the 
 English, for fear of occasioning disastrous investigations. The 
 skill of the Indian thieves is almost incredible. My friend, 
 Colonel Mo watt, told me of one instance within his know- 
 ledge, where an old resident of India made a bet with a re- 
 
440 The Indian Empire. 
 
 cently arrived officer, that he would jDroduce a man who, 
 within a month, would steal from the latter the sheet on 
 which he was sleeping. The bet was concluded — the only- 
 stipulations being that a month's time should be given for the 
 performance of the feat, in order to prevent any extraordinary 
 vigilance on the part of the officer, and that the latter should 
 agree to take no more precautions than are usual in the way 
 of locking his doors, &g. The end of the matter was that the 
 officer woke up one morning and found no sheet under him. 
 The mode in which the abstraction was accomplished was then 
 explained. The thief entered the bedroom after the officer 
 had retired, and concealed himself under the bed until he 
 made sure, from the gentleman's breathing, that he was sound 
 asleep. He then came out, and rolled up the sheet on each 
 side of the sleeper, so that there remained only a narrow strip 
 on which he lay. This done, he fanned the officer, that his 
 rest might be perfectly sound, and then tickled him slightly 
 on one cheek. The sleeper, of course, supposed the annoy- 
 ance to arise from an insect, and attempted to brush it away 
 with his hand. A constant repetition of this process, however, 
 at last made him turn over in bed, leaving the sheet free. It 
 now only remained for the thief to fan his unconscious victim 
 into sound repose, to secure his booty, and make his exit as 
 noiselessly as he had entered. 
 
 I heard afterwards, from another officer, of an equally au- 
 thentic exploit, where a sheet was stolen from under two Eu- 
 ropeans who were sleeping side by side. In this case, the 
 thief actually lay down in the bed, between the two, and hav- 
 ing, as before, put them into a sound sleep by fanning, he 
 began to work them off the sheet by pushing against them 
 alternately. Each of the officers supposed it to be the other, 
 and moved a little to give him more room, until at length 
 they were both entirely off the sheet, which the thief had, as 
 in the previous case, rolled up close to their sides, so as to 
 cover as little space as possible. 
 
 Indian thieves generally practise their trade stripped en- 
 tirely naked, and having their bodies rubbed with oil, so that, 
 even if detected, it is almost impossible to hold them. They 
 
Englifli Government in India. 441 
 
 dislike violence, but always have a naked knife in one hand, 
 which they use with unerring certainty if their other precau- 
 tions and great agility and suppleness fail in securing for them 
 a safe retreat. 
 
 The precautions taken against discovery form one of the 
 most remarkable features of crime in the East. It would 
 seem that, as in Sparta, detection is considered the real 
 offence. The Thugs, Dukoits, and Murderers, will wait pa» 
 tiently from month to month, and the former track their vic- 
 tims from place to place, until an opportunity arrives to per- 
 petrate the crime in perfect safety. The booty is almost 
 always buried or otherwise concealed, and they will suffer 
 years to elapse, and all memory of the crime to disappear, 
 before they enjoy the profits by disinterring the stolen arti- 
 cles. They are not, however, faithful to one another like the 
 Chinese, w^ho will not suffer the greatest torments to force 
 from them the names of their accomplices. An Indian convict, 
 when once condemned, show^s the greatest alacrity in " peach- 
 ing" upon his previous comrades. It was by taking advantage 
 of this trait in their character that the "Thuggee Commis- 
 sion" made such rapid progress in suppressing that fearful as- 
 sociation. A Thus: would be detected and competed in Hin- 
 doostan, and would then generally volunteer an account of 
 himself, his exploits, and the gang to which he had belonged. 
 They showed the most frightfully accurate recollection of de- 
 tails, and the Thuggee Committees found no difficulty in iden- 
 tifying the spots where murdered travellers had been buried, 
 and the hiding places where their booty was concealed, from 
 the indications forwarded to them by letter, though the locali- 
 ties might be in the Dekkun, a thousand miles from the part 
 of the country w^here the Thug who gave the evidence had 
 perhaps resided for years. A curious story is told of the way 
 in which a band of thieves prevented the identification of one 
 of their number. An attemj^t was made to rob the tent of an 
 officer. He awoke, and succeeded in seizing the thief by his 
 legs as he was creeping under the tent. A brief struggle 
 then ensued, but the officer finally dragged his captive back, 
 and was much shocked by discovering that the head of tlie 
 
 19* 
 
442 The Indian Empire. 
 
 unfortunate thief had been neatly amputated by his " pals" 
 outside, to avoid the chance of recognition. These precau- 
 tions, and the secrecy and mystery which surround all crimes, 
 are among the principal obstacles to their detection and pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 I have already sjDoken of the penalties of crime when treat- 
 ing of the courts. A few details, however, may place the 
 penal system in a clearer light. The death penalty is only 
 used in case of murder, and is even then but rarely enforced, 
 both on account of the necessity of the sentence behig con- 
 firmed by the Supreme Court, and because the gallows is not 
 an object of much dread to the native*. It has not unfre- 
 quently happened that criminals have gone to the scaifold 
 with flowers and music, surrounded by admiring friends, ad- 
 justed the noose with their own hands, and voluntarily taken 
 the fatal leap. This was princi|3ally seen in the case of Moo- 
 sulmans, whose execution by Kaffurs (infidels) was looked upon 
 by the faithful as a martyrdom, who wore upon the scafibld 
 the green dress of a martyr, and whose remains were wor- 
 shipped as such by the Mahommedans. This latter abuse has, 
 however, been stopped by a general order of government, re- 
 quiring that the bodies of all executed convicts should be 
 burned and their ashes scattered — a regulation as satisfactory 
 to the Hindoos as it was distasteful to the Mahommedans. A 
 penalty regarded in such a light could not of course prove 
 very effectual in suppressing crime, and it has therefore hap- 
 pened that the severest punishment generally employed is trans- 
 portation to one of the Company's convict establishments at 
 Singapore, Moolmen, or Penang. To the Moosulman, trans- 
 portation does not possess greater terrors than to the Chris- 
 tian, but it deprives him of the eclat attending a death upon 
 the gallows. The penalty of transportation has, however, this 
 advantage in the case of Hindoos, that it touches them in the 
 only point in which they seem to feel punishment — their caste. 
 Kala panee, or *' black water," as deportation beyond the seas 
 is called among the natives, takes away all caste not only from 
 the criminals themselves, but also from their families, for seve- 
 ral generations in ascending and descending lines. Blowing 
 
Englifli Government in India. 443 
 
 away from guns is the only form of the death penalty which 
 has the same ejffect. It was a not unusual punishment under 
 the old dynasties, but from its apparent barbarity was disused 
 by tlie Enghsh government until the recent atrocities called 
 for some speedy and efficacious means of discipline. I say its 
 apparent barbarity ; for of course the suffering is no greater 
 than, or not so great as, in hanging, or execution by the mili- 
 tary plan of shooting. 
 
 The lowest form of punishment is confinement in prison — 
 all corporal penalties, as flogging or mutilation, which are pre- 
 scribed by the old laws, having been abohshed. The objection 
 made to the " Model Prison," at Pentonville, that the prison- 
 ers were made more comfortable than they would be out of 
 jail, used to apply with great force to the Indian prisons. So 
 great regard was formerly paid to the feelings of the prison- 
 ers, that they were allowed to purchase and cook their own 
 food ; and a proposal to make them eat at a common table ex- 
 cited the greatest outcry among that class of j^ersons who 
 think the prejudices of the native are matters of so great im- 
 portance that they should be suffered to interfere with the 
 well-deserved punishment of the horrible crimes which they 
 commit. Fortunately, however, economical considerations 
 counterbalanced the opposition alluded to, and the food of the 
 prisoners is now all cooked and seiwed out to them in com- 
 mon. Smoking, too, which was formerly allowed, has been 
 lately abolished. It may now be hoped that the prisons of 
 India, while they continue to afford the convict every reasona- 
 ble comfort, will be a " terror to evil doers" from the destruc- 
 tion of caste incurred by entering them, and from the depri- 
 vation of his habitual luxury, the hookah, to which the prisoner 
 will henceforth be subjected.'" 
 
 * It would appear from what Dr. Duff says, that the provisions above al- 
 luded to have not been thoroughly carried out. He gives an instance where 
 an English clergyman visited one of the large jails about a year ago. "In 
 one of the rooms was a large circular platform made of wood. On this plat- 
 form two men were busily engaged in kneading bread. A little girl, one of 
 the party, accidentally iouclied this platform luith her foot. She did not touch 
 the meal, or go vi'ithin a yard of the men. But they at once became insolent, 
 
444 The Indian Empire. 
 
 I have now spoken of offences against life and property, and 
 of one crime against morality, namely, lying. With respect 
 to other offences against morality, and, in particular, the awful 
 forms of licentiousness which are common, I cannot speak. 
 They are such horrors as pollute the mind of him who only 
 hears them mentioned. Bayard Taylor says of the Chinese : 
 " Forms of vice which, in other countries, are barely named, 
 are, in China, so common that they excite no comment among 
 the natives. They constitute the surface-level, and below 
 them there are deeps on deeps of depravity so shocking and 
 horrible that their character cannot even be hinted. There 
 are some dark shadows in human nature which we naturally 
 shrink from penetrating, and I made no attempt to collect in- 
 formation of this kind, but there was enough in the things 
 which I could not avoid seeing and hearing — which are brought 
 almost daily to the notice of every Chinese resident — to inspire 
 me with a powerful aversion to the Chinese race. Their touch 
 is pollution," &c. From this Mr. Taylor concludes that " the 
 Chinese are morally the most debased people on the face of 
 the earth." Had he remained stationary as long in India as 
 he did in China, he might have found reason to modify his 
 opinion, and he would, no doubt, without " attempting to col- 
 lect information," have become aware of facts which would 
 have induced him to give to the natives of India the evil pre- 
 eminence which he attributes to the Chinese, and he might 
 even have concluded, as I did, that the Chinese were a moral 
 race in comparison. It is quite impossible, without utter vio- 
 lation of decency, to give a full idea of the enormities which 
 are common in India. If the reader can suppose the horrors 
 of Sodom to be magnified and perfected by thousands of 
 years during which they have been practised ; if he can im- 
 agine that putrifying sore not to have been utterly consumed 
 by the hot fires of an offended God, but to have been per- 
 mitted by His long-suffering to pollute the earth, and to have 
 gone on rotting and festering to the present time, then he may 
 
 refused to prepare the bread, and complained to the governor of the Jail. The 
 governor ordered all the meal to be thrown away and fresh to be given." 
 
Englifli Government in India. 445 
 
 form some conception of the fearful excesses now daily prac- 
 tised in India.* 
 
 Officials in India are blamed for the tone assumed by them 
 toward natives of education and position. It is alleged that 
 too little consideration, too little respect is shown them. 
 This allegation is unfounded. So far as regards courtesy in 
 public, not only the orders of the government, but the gen- 
 tlemanly feelings of the officers themselves, induce them to 
 treat with every attention those natives of standing — native 
 gentlemen they are called — with whom they are brought into 
 connection, either officially or socially. But English officers 
 cannot look upon these natives with any respect; they can- 
 not look upon them as in any sense their equals, or worthy 
 to mix in the society of themselves, and especially of 
 their wives and families ; and it is not very wonderful that 
 the disgust, which courtesy forbids them to show in public, 
 should be occasionally visible in the coldness of their manners, 
 and that the utter contempt which the rough-mannered but 
 honourable soldier feels for these whited sepulchres, these po- 
 lished villains, should find an open and frequent expression in 
 private. In fact, what a perversion of terms is it to apply 
 to such men the name of gentleman — a term of which we 
 are so justly proud, because no other language has for it an 
 equivalent. What do we mean by a gentleman ? We mean, 
 in the first place, a man of position and of polished manners — • 
 these are possessed to the highest extent by those natives to 
 whom the term is applied. But do we not mean something 
 more ? Do we not associate with the word the possession of 
 those higher qualities, the respect for which has descended to 
 us from the age of chivalry? Must not a gentleman be a 
 man of ho7ioiii\ of truth^ of courage f Must he not have a 
 certain respect for what is weak and helpless ; a detestation 
 of all unfair advantage, a chivalrous respect for women ; and 
 must he not shrink from all that is mean, low, cowardly, and 
 
 * The lower classes, the mass of the population ia India, are not, I thinlc, 
 as licentious as the same class in China, This frightful depravity is found de- 
 veloped in the higher orders, and especially among the Mahommodans, nearly 
 all of whom, in all ranks, are more or loss liable to the charge above named. 
 
44^ The Indian Empire. 
 
 degrading ? In jBne, must not every gentleman be a man in 
 the fullest and highest sense of the term ? and will any amount 
 of wealth, power, or refined manners, make up for the utter 
 absence of truth, honour, and every ennobling moral quality? 
 'Now, when we consider that, in addition to all this treachery, 
 lying, moral cowardice, and degradation, a native gentleman 
 lives in the habitual practice of crimes so loathsome that no 
 convict in our prisons would not shrink from the charge of 
 them if made against himself, I am sure it will be a subject 
 of wonder, not that all who know their character should de- 
 spise them, but that any man who respects himself should be 
 willing to mingle with them in society on terms of equality. 
 
 In ending this examination of crimes and their punishment, 
 which is necessary to a right understanding of the native char- 
 acter, I must allude to the remarkable fact that convictions 
 for various offences have undergone a progressive increase 
 under the Company's government. In Bengal, for instance, 
 there were in 1838 twenty-six thousand convictions, while in 
 1844 there were forty-five thousand. The only reasonable 
 explanation is to be found in the greater perfection of the 
 machinery of justice, which brought to light crimes that 
 otherwise would have gone unpunished, and classes of oflen- 
 ders whose existence had not been suspected. Enghsh magis- 
 trates had administered justice for fifty years in India before 
 they became aware of the wide-spread system of Thiiggee, 
 and it was only in 1 842 that a large caste were found to be 
 devoted by birth to the crime of Dukoitee. There is, unfor- 
 tunately, in India, a wall of mystery, ruse, lying, and indiffer- 
 ence to good and evil, which surrounds all the details of the 
 inner fife among native communities, and defies every effort 
 made by the most active and intelligent magistrates. To this 
 great obstacle may be added the unreliable and corrupt char- 
 acter of the native police, whose exactions and oppressions are 
 so great as to deter the sufferers from applying to the au- 
 thorities for protection. . This last difiiculty is the most for- 
 midable obstacle which the magistrate meets with in the dis- 
 charge of his duty ; and, what is worse, it is a difficulty to 
 which no efficient remedy can be applied so long as the 
 
Engliili Government in India. 447 
 
 administnition of justice involves the employment of native 
 subordinates. 
 
 Of all the machinery of the Indian government, the police 
 system certainly works worst. The police are of two kinds. 
 First, the village police. This is an institution which has ex- 
 isted in India from time immemorial, under all sorts of gov- 
 ernments, and has never been abolished by the Company. 
 This is an indubitably native institution, and has existed from 
 all time ; and yet it is one of the most fatal curses that blight 
 the prosperity of this unhappy country. The village police 
 are the obedient and ready tools of every zemindar or rich 
 native who will pay for their services. For money they will 
 plunder the j)Oor, will torture the obstinate, and will turn a 
 blind eye to every offence, or will aid in the commission of any 
 crime however atrocious. The outrages which they daily 
 commit under the nominal authority of the law, either for 
 their OAvn purposes or in the interest of wealthy natives, are 
 enough to draw down the execrations of the nation on any 
 government, however well intentioned, which lends them the 
 protection of their authority. 
 
 This is the first class, the old native police of the country, a 
 thoroughly Hindoo institution. Besides these there are the 
 government police, who number only about one-thirtieth of 
 the first class. They are immediately under the authority of 
 the magistrate, and are supposed to aid him in the adminis- 
 tration of justice. In reality, however, they are but little 
 better than the village police, and serve only to defeat the 
 ends of justice, and protect the guilty, if rich. 
 
 The police connive at all sorts of villainy, and share the 
 proceeds of the most horrible crimes. They take advantage 
 of their position to blind the eyes of the European magistrate 
 and divert his suspicions. When the crime of Thuggee was 
 discovered, it was also found out that the police everywhere 
 had long been aware of the existence of this crime, that in 
 many places they were accomplices,-.and, in particular, the 
 chief police magistrate of Delhi was actually a regular mem- 
 ber of a band of Thugs. The same thing is true of Dukoitee 
 and other crimes. 
 
448 The Indian Empire. 
 
 As for extortion, corrupting of witnesses, and intimidating 
 prosecutors, their power in these respects is almost unlimited, 
 and they have not hesitated in some instances to employ even 
 torture to gain their ends. It is only of late years that the ex- 
 istence of "torture " under the Enghsh government has been 
 discovered, though it has undoubtedly been continuously 
 practised in secret, as it was the general and open custom of 
 native governments, and remains in use in those native states 
 which still exist. So much was this the case, that it has be- 
 come recognised by the universal rule of right, namely, ma- 
 mool (custom). A ryut once said to Mr. Lushington, an able 
 servant of the Company : " I brought the money for my rent, 
 but as no violence was used I did not pay it ;" and it is well 
 known that the villagers will often bring the whole amount 
 of their dues, wrapped up in the folds of their clothing, and 
 only pay as much as they are compelled to. A native looks 
 upon all demands for money, whether just or unjust, in much 
 the same hght, and will generally only pay if he is forced to. 
 This state of things would excuse torture in the eyes of the 
 most enlightened and merciful native rulers, but would form 
 no excuse for its employment under an English government. 
 Accordingly, in the very thorough investigation which took 
 place in India a few years ago, not one Englishman was im- 
 pUcated directly or indirectly. All the instances were found 
 in places remote from the residences of European officials. In 
 a few cases only it would appear that complaint had been 
 made to the Enghsh magistrates. In most of such instances 
 the offender had been summarily punished. The great mass 
 of the magistrates had never even suspected the existence of 
 such doings by their subordinates. The whole investigation 
 proved two things. First, how entirely unreliable are native 
 officials, and how unscrupulous they are in the employment of 
 any means for their own advantage ; secondly, how utterly 
 insufficient is the number of European officials to exercise the 
 necessary supervision over the actions of their subordinates. 
 In Bengal, as I have said, each magistrate with his deputies, has, 
 on the average, jurisdiction over a million of men. In Madras, 
 where the abuses spoken of are the greatest, there is a district 
 
Englifli Government in India. 449 
 
 where there is only one European official to half a million of 
 souls, and four other districts where the j^opulation averages 
 over 300,000. How is it possible for a European to exercise an 
 adequate supervision over so vast a territory ? Even had he 
 the most honest and efficient subordinates, it would be almost 
 impossible to oversee their acts. But the case is infinitely 
 worse, where, as in India, the magistrate is surrounded by 
 subordinates universally venal, tyrannical, and directly inter- 
 ested hi misgovernment, and in concealing the truth from 
 their superior. With such agents as those, who can wonder 
 if he fails in the government of a million of people, prone to 
 vice, given to crimes unknown in Europe, and with powers of 
 lying and deception which are absolutely unfathomable. Be- 
 sides the executive government of this multitude, he is ex- 
 pected to administer justice in a foreign language, and accor- 
 ding to codes the most various and contradictory, and the 
 provisions of which are often absurd and unintelligible ; and 
 that too with a set of assistants who are every one of them 
 venal rascals, from the door-keeper, who will exclude a 
 witness for a bribe, and always demands a fee to admit a 
 petitioner, to the magistrate's clerk, who takes down depo- 
 sitions and alters them as he is paid for it, or the interpreters 
 of native law, who vary the readings for a consideration. 
 Everybody bribes in these courts : those who are in the 
 wrong that they may appear right ; and those who are right, 
 lest they should be made to appear wi'ong. 
 
 The magistrates are aware of this state of things, but they 
 can do nothing. The work is such that they must have na- 
 tive assistants, and one man of this class is as bad as another. 
 Bribing is the universal rule all over India. It is mamool — 
 recognised custom ; and if one set of corrupt subordinates are 
 discharged, their successors will certainly be as bad, and may 
 be worse. The only possible remedy is in a great increase of 
 European officials. It is not too much to say that it would 
 require a hundred men to perform thoroughly the work now 
 assigned to a single magistrate. At present, the English 
 government, though the magistrates are men of the highest 
 character, and actuated by the best intentions, is quite inade- 
 
450 The Indian Empire. 
 
 quate to the thorougli administration of justice and prevention 
 of the abuses which spring up in fiightful profusion and viru- 
 lence wherever natives are left without supervision or control. 
 The small quantity of European energy is lost in the immensity 
 of native indifference and apathy, and the purity of the magis- 
 trate can do but little to remedy the corruption of his thousand 
 abandoned subordinates. 
 
 If such is the state of things under English rule, one may 
 imagine what it is under a native government, where the 
 abuses of the inferiors. are surpassed by the cruelty and extor- 
 tion of the highest magistrates, where shameless bribery 
 extends to all, and where truth and justice are systematically 
 ignored, and any improvement is impossible, from the absolute 
 corruption of the whole body politic, from the weakest mem- 
 ber np to the very head itself. 
 
 In looking for an explanation of the low morality of the 
 Hindoo character, we find its causes, first, in their religion, next 
 in their education. The influence of the horrible superstitions 
 of India has already been dwelt upon, and diffuses itself 
 throuo:hout the whole education of the child. As to the 
 education, it is not only in the schools, where the ordinary 
 reading-books are obscene legends of the various Hindoo 
 deities, but much more in the family that the character is 
 formed. Now what can be expected of a man, brought up 
 from his youth to join in the foul ceremonies of the Hindoo 
 religion ; Avhose tongue was taught to lisp, as its first utter- 
 ances, the impure hymns sung in the worship of the gods ; who 
 sees his mother considered as an upper servant, of infinitely 
 less importance than himself; whose mind, from his earliest 
 youth, was bent into the most abject reliance upon the Brah- 
 muns, about whom it is said, " respect is due to a wicked 
 Brahmun, but not to a Soodra, even if virtuous ; is not a 
 vicious cow better than an amiable cat ?" and who practises 
 as his religious devotions, the worship of the lowest animals 
 — nay, even of the bench he sits on, or the spade with which 
 he digs ? 
 
CHAPTER XXXYII. ' 
 
 THE ARMY OF INDIA. 
 
 Its Streugtli — Difforout Classes of Troops — English ami Native Officers — Enlistment 
 purely Voluntary — Pay — Madras Army — Bombay Army — Low-Caste Men — An 
 Army of Gentlemen— Truckling to Caste— Tame Tigers— Salaries of Officers— Staff- 
 Service. 
 
 The army of India comprises troops of three classes : Mrst, 
 the Queen's army, consisting of royal regiments stationed in 
 India, and paid, while there, by the Honourable Company. 
 Secondly^ the Company's European troops, comprising three 
 regiments of infantry, and the European artillery. The whole 
 Euroj^ean force probably never exceeded 30,000 men. Thirdly^ 
 the native soldiers, or sepoys, who were divided into three 
 armies, belonging respectively to the three Presidencies, and 
 having independent, though similar organizations. There is a 
 commander-in-chief over the army of each Presidency ; but 
 the supreme command of the whole mihtary force in India 
 is vested in the commander-in-chief of the Bengal army, who 
 must always be a general in the Queen's service. The entire 
 strength of the native armies may be reckoned at 270,000, 
 two-thirds of which belonged to the Presidency of Bengal. 
 The aggregate number of troops in India, was, therefore, 
 before the recent great mutmy, probably about 300,000. 
 
 The European troops were under English officers exclusively; 
 but the sei^oy forces were commanded partly by English 
 officers, partly by natives. The colonel, lieutenant colonel, 
 major, six captains, ten lieutenants, and five ensigns, com- 
 pose the full complement of European officers for each sepoy 
 regiment. The native commissioned officers are, ten soobah- 
 dars, and ten jemadars, who rank with captains and Heuten- 
 
452 • The Indian Empire. 
 
 ants respectively. All the non-commissioned officers are, of 
 course, natives. Their titles are havilclar and naik, answering 
 to sergeant and corporal. 
 
 The army is recruited entirely by voluntary enlistment, and 
 the advantages which it presents are so great that there has 
 never been any necessity for estabhshing recruiting stations, or 
 using any of the means found necessary, in England and this 
 country, to encourage enlistment. 
 
 The pay of the sepoys varies from 7 to 9 rupees a month. 
 Against this must be set off the cost of the imiform, and 
 their food, both of which are furnished by government at 
 fixed rates. These expenses amount on the average to about 
 four rupees a month, so that most of the soldiers save thirty-six 
 rupees a year, which they remit to their families through the 
 hands of government. After fifteen years of seiwice the se- 
 poys retire with pensions of from four rupees upwards. The 
 pay of the native officers is — the naik 1 2 rupees ; the havildar 
 14 rupees; the jemadar, 40 rupees ; the soobahdar, 60 rupees 
 per month. The eagerness which the natives show to enter 
 the Company's service is easily understood when we reflect 
 that the lowest pay of a sepoy is nearly double what the same 
 man could make at other occupations, and that, in the army, 
 he is put beyond the reach of bad seasons, want of work, or 
 any of the other eventualities which diminish or render uncer- 
 tain the small wages of three or four rupees a month which 
 is all that most kinds of labour can earn in India. 
 
 The Madras army is recruited among the inhabitants of that 
 Presidency, and admits men of all castes, as does also the Bom- 
 bay army. The soldiers for the latter, were, however, j^artly 
 obtained in Oude, by means of recruiting agents. These 
 low-caste men make much the best soldiers. Their caste does 
 not prevent their serving beyond the seas ; they can eat, if 
 necessary, the food left cold from the day before ; and they 
 will not refuse any reasonable task. The only drawback is 
 theii' appearance and height, which are not equal to those of 
 the high-caste Rajpoots, who formed the Bengal army. 
 
 The army 'of Bengal was, in appearance, by far the best of 
 the three : superior in stature, and equal in drill to most of 
 
The Army of India. . 453 
 
 the European services. The average height of the men is 
 said to have been two inches greater than that of the British 
 army ten years ago. They were exckisively composed of men 
 of high caste, and many of the soldiers in each regiment were 
 related to each other, as it was customary for the sepoys, 
 when they visited their homes on leave, to bring back with 
 them some of their brothers or cousins as recruits. The 
 sepoys of the Bengal army always looked with the greatest 
 disdain upon those of the two other Presidencies ; and this 
 pride was unfortunately encouraged by their officers and the 
 government, W'lio yielded to their wishes in forbidding the 
 enlistment of low-caste men. The compliance with one de- 
 mand occasioned others. They could not wear certam articles 
 of clothing : the government changed the regulation uniform. 
 They were of too noble birth to be flogged: flogging was 
 abolished, and with it discipline gradually disapj^eared. They 
 would not eat food jn'epared by others, or which remained from 
 their yesterday's meal : ample time was allowed them each day 
 to cook, and no officer could go near to inspect them dnring that 
 operation. Their caste w^ould be lost if they went on board ship : 
 and after almost exciting a mutiny, the government yielded 
 to this demand also, and sent to China and Burmah sepoys 
 of the Madras army, at greatly increased expense, for those 
 purposes. The cavalry were too fine gentlemen to groom 
 their own horses, and the mfantry thought it beneath them to 
 pitch their own tents : the government went so far as to prd^- 
 vide them w^ith servants for these purposes. Lastly, they dis- 
 covered that manual labour w^as degrading ; and white soldiers 
 w^ere actually made to do their work in the trenches under the 
 deadly rays of an Indian sun. The result of all this w^as, that 
 w^hile in the armies of the smaller Presidencies discipline was 
 thoroughly kept up, in the Bengal army there was, during late 
 years, the greatest want of it. The only substantial punish- 
 ment which the officers could inflict, w^as dismissal from the 
 service. The men became every day more arrogant and 
 assuming ; the officers, more compliant and yielding f' until, 
 
 * An extraordinarv instance of truckling to caste has lately occurred. Du- 
 
454 The Indian Empire. 
 
 having had then* pride, self-conceit, and opinion of their own 
 importance raised to the highest point by the acts of the 
 government, they became fit tools for 'the crafty agitators 
 who worked upon their superstitious prejudices to bring about 
 the recent terrible mutiny. 
 
 The English Government have now learned what they will 
 never forget, that an Oriental is a very useful animal so long 
 as you keep a tight rein, and let him see that you are the 
 master ; but that they are incapable of aiDpreciating generosity 
 or indulgence — qualities which they consider symptoms of 
 weakness, and rej)ay by ingratitude and treachery. In many 
 towns of India, leopards may be seen, tied to bed-posts, in the 
 open streets. They are perfectly harmless, tame, and docile, 
 being kept so by the fear of a certain iron rod. I used often 
 to think that each of these animals was a parable. 
 
 Promotion in the Indian army, whether among the native 
 or European officers, is entirely by seniority. The former, 
 (the native officers,) are no better than the men whom they 
 command. They are mostly ignorant of reading and writing, 
 without other education, and do not seem to be at all socially 
 raised, in the estimation of the sej)oys, by possessing a com- 
 mission. Although, by the regulations of the army, they rank 
 with the English captains and lieutenants, their duties are 
 practically those of non-commissioned officers, and their only 
 superiority over the common sepoys consists in their greater 
 
 ring the mutiny, the 'TOth regiment, stationed at Barraekpoor, were only kept 
 fi'om open revolt by the presence of British troops. At length, they conde- 
 scended to proceed to China, in compUance with the request of government. 
 Before they went on board ship, a commission of European ofi&cials was de- 
 puted to inspect the ship personally, and report whether the water-tanks and 
 other arrangements were in accordance with the rules and usages of caste. 
 On the way to Singapore, the scoundrels became noisy and impudent, and at 
 length carried their insolence so far, that they requested, in the most offen- 
 sive terms, that the dinner should not le carried aft for the officers^ as the stearni 
 or gravy from the dishes might touch them, and so take aioay their caste. The 
 commander of the transport, a bluff English sailor, expected to see such inso- 
 lence at once put down with a strong hand. The officers of the regiment, 
 however, temporized v*^ith their men, and soothed them ; and actually asked 
 the captain if the difiiculty could not be remedied. 
 
The Army of India. 4^^ 
 
 age, and their higher pay. The salaries of the European offi- 
 cers, which range from 200 rupees per month for the ensi«-n, 
 to 1,000 rupees for the colonel, are not found to be more than 
 sufficient for the comfortable support of the officer, especially 
 if he is married — so great are the necessary expenses of livino- 
 in India ; and it is rare to find an officer who lives upon his 
 salary, and who has not involved himself more or less deeply 
 in debt. 
 
 On account of the great difficulty, w^hich has already been 
 dwelt upon, of obtaining honest and able servants in the ex- 
 ecutive departments of government, the Company have been 
 compelled to increase their administrative force at the expense 
 of the army, by appointing officers to various civil employs. 
 It is calculated that one quarter of the officers of the Bengal 
 army were thus removed from their regiments. All these 
 staff employs conferred a very considerable augmentation of 
 pay, and did not remove the appointee from the line of pro- 
 motion hi his regiment, so that they became prizes eagerly 
 sought after by the officers. Every " griffin" (cadet) on join- 
 ing his regiment, set himself down to the task of acquiring 
 the requisite amount of Persian and Hindoostanee, or what- 
 ever was required to pass the staff examination ; and in this 
 way the system did a great deal to improve the general 
 character of the officers, by inducing them to spend their 
 leisure hours in studying Persian and engineering, instead of 
 idling away the day at billiards or whist. The system of con- 
 ferring staff employs upon military men had the great dis- 
 advantage of removing tlie older officers from the regiment, 
 and leaving the soldiers under the care of the younger and 
 less experienced men. But on the whole, it probably did 
 more good than harm, even in the regiments ; and when con- 
 sidered with reference to the whole public service, it was per- 
 haps the only expedient that could be adopted to remedy 
 the great want of suitable administrative officials. 
 
CHAPTER XXXYIII. 
 
 WEALTH AND REYENUE OF INDIA. 
 
 Undeveloped Condition of the Eesonrces of India — Cotton — Obstacles to Development- 
 Small Agriculturalists— Caste — "Want of Capital among Agricultural Classes — Infe- 
 riority of Native Labour — Want of Eoads — Eaihvays — Ganges Canal — Want of Euro- 
 pean Capital and Energy — Obstacles to the Supply of this — Land-tax under Native 
 Governments — Under the English — Lord Cornwallis's " Settlement" — The Madras 
 System — The " Village System" — Its Advantages — To be made still more Liberal — 
 Eevenue and Expenses of the Indian Government — Low Taxation — India a Poor 
 Country — Misapprehensions that have prevailed with regard to the Wealth of Ori- 
 ental Nations. 
 
 The resources of India are iu a wholly undeveloped con- 
 dition. Yast tracts of fertile and valuable land are uncul- 
 tivated ; and even where cultivation exists, it is so rude, and 
 the means of preparing the produce for market are so inferior, 
 that many of the Indian products cannot compete in Europe 
 with those which are also produced in other countries. The 
 chmate and soil of almost every part of India are adapted 
 to the cultivation of some valuable crop. Cotton, rice, sugar, 
 silk, and tea could all be grown in quantities sufficient to sup- 
 ply the native demand, and to take a yqvj large, if not the 
 largest place in the foreign consumption. Thus far, however, 
 the fertile soil and cheap labour of India have not enabled it 
 to compete successfully in these articles with the productions 
 of other countries. For instance, that most important staple, 
 cotton, which was first grown to any considerable extent in 
 India, of which it has been calculated that three billions of 
 pounds are still yearly raised, and with which India once sup- 
 plied the markets of England and America, occupies in the 
 English market a vastly inferior position compared with 
 Ameiican cotton, and would scarcely be imported at all were 
 it not for the limits of the supply derived from this country ; 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 457 
 
 while manufactured cottons now hardly form an item in the 
 list of exports from India, being entirely driven out of the 
 market by the cheapness and excellent quality of the fabrics 
 manufactured in England, which are now exported to India to 
 the amount of over four millions and a half sterhng yearly. 
 
 When we read that the cotton-plant is indigenous to India, 
 and grows wild in many parts of the country ; when we learn 
 from the reports of American planters what immense tracts of 
 land there are in India adapted by nature in every way for 
 the growth of the best qualities of cotton ; and when we hear 
 that, four hundred miles from Bombay, cottons in no respect 
 inferior to the finest grown in America^ can be bought in the 
 market for from 3 to 4 cents the pound, we are naturally at a 
 loss to account lor the fact that India does so little toward 
 sU2:)plying the immense and increasing demand for this most 
 important article of commerce. 
 
 It is true that the cotton of India, at least the largest part 
 of it, and the whole of what is exported, is very inferior in 
 length of staple to the American article. But this will by no 
 means prove a satisfactory answer, when we reflect upon the 
 greatly increased demand, far outrunning the means of supply ; 
 when we remember that even if inferior to American, the In- 
 dian cotton is still much the cheapest, and of great value to the 
 manufacturer, and that supposing the article now produced in 
 India were intrinsically useless, still the soil would offer every 
 inducement to a planter who would bring with him American 
 plants or seeds. 
 
 The real exj^lanation of the undeveloped state of this and 
 the other enormous productive powers of India, is to be found 
 in a consideration of the following obstacles. In the first place, 
 almost the whole agriculture of the country is in the hands of 
 natives, each of whom cultivates only a small patch of land. 
 This is of itself a most formidable check upon increased and 
 improved cultivation, as no great improvements can be carried 
 into operation without large tracts of land and considerable 
 capital. Then, from those peculiar caste-prejudices which are 
 
 * U. De Yalbezen. 
 20 
 
458 The Indian Empire. 
 
 the bane of India, agriculture is despised as a degrading occu- 
 pation, and is left to the lowest class of the population who 
 are too ignorant to be taught improvements and too stupid to 
 put them in practice, and who, even if they could be persuaded 
 to deviate from the system of cultivation which has come 
 down to them unchanged since the days of ]S"oah, are so far 
 from possessing the smallest capital that most of them are 
 mere slaves of the village bankers, to whom they are irretrie- 
 vably in debt. The state of hopeless indebtedness of by far 
 the larger part of the inhabitants of India, is not the least 
 curious feature of that country. The ryut' has no capital of 
 his own, but receives advances from the banker or the zemin- 
 dar, as the case may be, to plant his crops. For these ad- 
 vances he pays an exorbitant rate of interest, and to secure 
 repayment hypothecates the crop. Besides the advances at 
 the beginning of each season, he also has to borrow sums of 
 money on the occasions of marriages, funerals, or lawsuits, 
 which soon amount to so much that the profits of his whole 
 crop each year are barely more than sufficient to repay the in- 
 terest on his debts, and perhaps also those of his father, which 
 have descended to him. Again, native labour is vastly infe- 
 rior to that of Europeans or even of Chinese. For instance, 
 a Lascar crew always has three or four times as many men in 
 it as would be required if they were European sailors ; and at 
 Calcutta, where native skilled labour comes in competition 
 with that of Chinese and Europeans, a native artisan does not 
 earn more than from five to ten rupees a month, while his 
 Chinese competitor will get as high as thirty or forty, and a 
 European can obtain eighty or ninety at the same trade. I 
 was told by the manager of one of the Company's large tea 
 plantations that they found it quite impossible to entrust the 
 picking of the tea-leaves or the manufacturing processes to 
 natives, as they either had not enough skill or would not ex- 
 ercise the requisite care. They therefore found it necessary 
 to employ Chinese labour, which was exceedingly expensive, 
 as the Chinese would not come without their wives and fami- 
 lies. Such, then, is the first great obstacle to the develop- 
 ment of India-— the intrinsic inferiority of native labour, and 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 459 
 
 the want of capital embarked in agriculture. The next hin- 
 drance to development is found in the want of communication 
 with the coast. Under the old native governments, India had 
 not a single road by y.'hich goods could be conveyed from the 
 interior to the sea-ports ; the only medium of communication 
 was by the dangerous and uncertain navigation of the rivers, 
 or the slower conveyance by camels, rough carts, or bullocks- 
 of-burden. Roads are not that matter of j^rimary necessity in 
 India which they are in other countries, since during the dry 
 season the level plains are traversable by carts and armies ; 
 and during the rains, no communication between different 
 parts of the country used to be attempted. This state of 
 things remained almost unchanged in the earlier years of 
 British rule, while their sway was still limited, their tenure of 
 the country precarious, and their attention constantly occupied 
 by commerce on the one hand and incessant wars on the other. 
 Since the power of the English has been thoroughly estab- 
 lished, a vast system of internal improvements has been begun, 
 which includes roads and railways enough to open the whole 
 country to commerce, and place every important point in 
 ready communication with the coast. The most important 
 road so far built is the Grand Trunk road from Calcutta to 
 Peshawur, which will be fifteen hundred miles long when 
 completed, and will probably cost £900,000. It is already 
 finished for three-quarters of its whole length, and has proved 
 of immense benefit to the vast and fertile valley of the Ganges 
 through which it extends. The whole of the Grand Trunk 
 road is built and kept up as well as any highway in Europe, 
 and there are beside over 2000 miles of similar first-class road 
 either comj^leted or under construction in Northern India 
 alone. Besides these macadamized roads, four thousand miles 
 of railway are now being constructed ; only four hundred are 
 complete, but 1861 is the latest date fixed for the completion 
 of the remainder. In no respect, perhaps, has the Company 
 been more blamed lately than for not hurrying the comple- 
 tion of these railw^ays. As matters have turned out, that 
 blame comes with the greatest weight, since there can be no 
 doubt that many fives would have been saved and the dura- 
 
460 The Indian Empire. 
 
 tion of the mutiny mucli shortened by the convenience for 
 sending troops up-country which they would have afforded. 
 Still the benefits which would have been derived from them 
 are probably exaggerated, as the first act of the mutineers 
 would no doubt have been to tear up the rails. Again, it 
 must be remembered that neither the Company, nor any of 
 its agents, excei^t Sir Charles Napier and one or two others, 
 had any expectation of a general revolt, or the least suspicion 
 of the possibility of such a movement. With regard to Sir 
 Charles, his writings certainly read now very much like pro- 
 phecies, but when they were written did not derive nearly as 
 much support from facts as do now the disunion threats and 
 prognostications made, not by one man, but by whole States 
 in the southern part of our country ; and yet no one here 
 thinks it worth while to prepare for the eventuality of a disso- 
 lution of the Union. On the other hand, the Indian govern- 
 ment have all along done everything to further the building 
 of railways, except to take them actually into their own hands. 
 They had no funds to spare for these gigantic undertakings, 
 and preferred that they should be carried on by private capi- 
 tal ; to encourage the investment of which they guaranteed a 
 dividend of five per cent, besides offering other inducements. 
 There is plenty of money among the native bankers and tra- 
 ders, but they have been found unwilling to divert their capital 
 from its accustomed employment in money lending, to the un- 
 tried field of vast enterprises such as railways. This the gov- 
 ernment could not foresee when they decided that it was bet- 
 ter for the country that the railroads should be constructed 
 by private enterprise and capital cheaply and rapidly (as it 
 was supposed they would be), than that India should be bur- 
 dened with a new debt, and the building of the roads left alto- 
 gether in the hands of government agents, who would be 
 probably as dilatory and as fond of jobs as the same class else- 
 where. 
 
 So much for roads and railways, the want of which has 
 heretofore proved so great an obstacle to the development of 
 India. It is proper here to mention that the Ganges Canal 
 will, when completed, play no small part in internal com- 
 
\ 
 
 Revenue and Wealth of India. 461 
 
 munication, as it is eighty feet wide, and, with its branches, 
 nine hundred miles in length. When these roads, railways, 
 and canals, are completed, they will do all that can be desired 
 toward opening out the country, will remove what we have 
 described as the second great obstacle to development, and 
 will constitute, perhaps, the grandest series of internal im- 
 provements ever undertaken. 
 
 The third and last obstacle which we will consider, is the 
 want of European settlers and cultivators. It is hardly too 
 much to assert that the introduction of Europeans is abso- 
 lutely necessary to the full development of a country where 
 there is no capital among the ryuts — no agricultural enterprise 
 among the native capitalists. Many things, however, have 
 heretofore combined to prevent any extensive settlement by 
 Europeans. The obstacles which we have already considered 
 apply to them, as well as to natives. The inferiority of native 
 labour, the unreliable character of the native subordinates 
 which they must employ, and the tenure of land, which does 
 not admit of freehold estates, are formidable impediments, 
 but might be overcome by a man of capital, energy, and per- 
 severance, were it not for the climate. This, apart from the 
 numerous and fatal diseases to which it exposes the foreign 
 settler, actually prevents his going into the open field during 
 the daytime for a large part of the year, so that, however en- 
 ergetic he may be, he finds himself physically hindered from 
 exercising that constant supervision so essential to the success 
 of any enterprise, more particularly in India. This last obsta- 
 cle, the great difiiculties in the way of constant European 
 superintendence, has had, I may here remark, the most un- 
 fortunate influence on every great undertaking in India, espe- 
 cially the government public works. Their progress has been 
 delayed, and the perfection of their construction interfered 
 with to an extent incredible to any one who does not appre- 
 ciate the entire unreliabihty of native subordinates and con- 
 tractors, and the absolute necessity for a constant, energetic, 
 and minute supervision of whatever they do. 
 
 Having examined, to a small extent, the question of the 
 development of India, we will now take a brief view of the 
 
462 The Indian Empire. 
 
 land-tenure — a matter so iinportant that it may be said to un- 
 derlie the whole subject of agricultural improvement. 
 
 In India all land belongs to the government, to which the 
 cultivators pay yearly a certain share of the crops, in lieu of 
 all demands for rent and taxes. This has always been the case, 
 the fee never having been alienated from the sovereign. The 
 land-tax in India has always been very heavy, perhaps because 
 the lower classes who cultivate the soil have always been in so 
 utter a state of slavery to conquerors. In Turkey and Persia, 
 where the same system prevails, the land-tax is said to vary 
 from one-tenth to one-fifth of the crops. In India, it was fixed 
 by the Hindoo law at one-sixth, exclusive of the tithes for the 
 support of religion, which were no doubt oppressive. Under 
 the Moosulman Emperors, the general principle obtained that 
 all the property of infidels is forfeited to true believers, and 
 the only limit to their rapacity was the fear of killing the 
 goose which laid the golden eggs. Although this statement 
 would seem to show that the ryuts were better off under the 
 Hindoo law than when subject to the Mahommedan domina- 
 tion, yet it should be remembered that what they would gain 
 by the moderation of the legal demand, they would lose by 
 the rapacity of those charged with the execution of the law, 
 so that their real situation was probably in both cases much 
 the same. The Emperor Akbur, whose character was so much 
 superior to that of the other Moosulman rulers, and whose 
 philanthropic efibrts form so bright an episode in the long tale 
 of Mahommedan misrule, tried to introduce great and impor- 
 tant reforms into the land assessment. The principle which 
 he established was to take one-third of the average gross 
 crops, as determined by a careful survey of the land. It is 
 doubtful whether the benevolent intentions of the Emperor 
 were of any advantage to the ryuts, since any diminution of 
 the imperial demand would probably be a gain only to the 
 collector of taxes. At any rate, Akbur's system perished with 
 the fall of the Mogul Empire, and its division into numerous 
 independent states, which occurred before the arrival of the 
 English. 
 
 For a long time after the Company's power became estab- 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 463 
 
 lished, they did not at all interfere with the native adminis- 
 tration of the government and revenue system; but in 1793 
 Lord Cornwallis, who perceived with concern the oppressive 
 exactions of those charged with the collection of the revenue, 
 and who appreciated the great disadvantages of the system 
 which subdivided all arable land among very small holders, 
 devised a remedial system, which, after careful examination 
 and much discussion, was applied to Lower Bengal. Under 
 the new regulations, the zemindars, who had been previously 
 merely collectors of revenue, were erected into proprietors, 
 the Company divesting itself in their favour of the fee vested 
 in it, on condition of their paying yearly the same amount of 
 revenue which they had previously furnished as tax-collectors, 
 provided that, in case of failure in the payment, the land 
 should revert to the Company. This was the only restriction 
 on the arrangement, which has, .therefore, been known as the 
 " perpetual settlement." The hopes and expectations of Lord 
 Cornwallis were, that the zemindars, being thus erected into 
 great and independent landholders similar to those in England, 
 would find it their interest to give their chief attention to the 
 improvement and development of their property, and that the 
 condition of the ryuts would thus be bettered more expedi- 
 tiously and effectually than could be done directly, while, at 
 the same time, the zemindars, being a numerous and wealthy 
 body, with a great stake in public tranquillity, would be an 
 important defence to the British power. Never were plans 
 more hopelessly disappointed. Lord Cornwallis and his advi- 
 sers had not taken into account the narrow-minded avarice of 
 the native character, and were mortified by finding that 
 zemindars continued, as before, mere tax-gatherers and usurers, 
 the only change in their position being that they had now 
 acquired unlimitecl power of extortion, while the ryut was 
 now without protection, or power of appeal, against those 
 who had been elevated from tax-gatherers into landlords. 
 This settlement, as before remarked, was, by its terms, per- 
 petual, and, therefore, continues to the present day in opera- 
 tion in Bengal. The amehorations which have been introduced 
 are not very numerous, from the fact of government having 
 
464 The Indian Empire. 
 
 so entirely divested itself of control over the zemindars. The 
 principal provisions are, to secure the careful education of all 
 zemindars, wards of government, during minority ; to require 
 every landlord to give each ryut a written agreement, speci- 
 fying the amount of rent and conditions of tenure, and to 
 make these agreements legally binding. The Bengal Zemin- 
 daree system must, however, be confessed a failure, and its 
 worst feature is its permanent character. In all the later set- 
 tlements of land, it has been taken, not as a guide, but as a 
 warning. How much it is inferior to the system now em- 
 ployed in other parts of the country, appears from the fact 
 that, when Cuttak, which is in Bengal, but was not included 
 in the " permanent settlement," was lately surveyed, and its 
 land-tenure arranged on the " Village System," the value of the 
 land at once rose from twenty-five to fifty per cent. 
 
 We have now described the Zemindaree system. We next 
 come to the Byutwaree system, introduced into Madras sub- 
 sequently to the " permanent settlement " in Bengal. Sir 
 Thomas Munro, its author, had been much struck with the 
 wretched condition of the ryuts in Bengal, ground down by 
 an unrestrained landlord who came between the actual culti- 
 vators and the government, and reaped all the profits of the 
 arrangement. He therefore devised the Madras system, 
 which allows of no middlemen. Under it the cultivator hires 
 his land, each year, directly from government, jDaying accor- 
 ding to the value of the soil, which was determined by a most 
 careful survey, and fixed, in an ascending scale, from yd to 70 
 shillings an acre per annum. Under this system, the actual 
 cultivator, and not a great landlord, is looked upon as the 
 proprietor of the soil, subject to the payment of his yearly 
 tax. In the words of the last report of the Madras goveni- 
 ment, ''- the ryut has all the benefits of a j)e»petual lease, Avith- 
 out its responsibilities, inasmuch as he can, at any moment, 
 throw up his lands, but cannot be ejected so long as he pays 
 his dues." The great evil of this system was the want of any 
 permanence in the arrangement between the ryut and govern- 
 ment, and the great intricacy and complexity of the plan for 
 determining the annual rent. In the administration of it, aU 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 465 
 
 the details must be entrusted to native officials, since they are 
 too numerous for the attention of any European collector; 
 and the Ryutwaree system, in addition to its other disadvan- 
 tages, is therefore peculiarly liable to all those abuses which 
 prevail wherever native agency has to be employed. The 
 principal improvements are the following : in the first years 
 of the arrangement the rent of land was raised in proportion 
 to the value of the crop cultivated ; but since 1837 no increase 
 of the rent is allowed, but the ryut reaps the full benefit of 
 any more valuable crop than that provided for in his original 
 rent w^hich his land will produce. Formerly all improve- 
 ments, such as wells, or irrigating machines, increased the rent 
 after a certain number of years, during which the advantages 
 derived from their use were calculated to repay the cost of 
 construction. Now, the ryut has the undivided benefit of all 
 his improvements. The last and greatest amelioration in the 
 condition of the Madras ryuts, is the great reduction which 
 has taken place in the rents. And this reduction, far from 
 proving a sacrifice to government, has resulted in their advan- 
 tage, from the impulse and extension it has given to agri- 
 culture. 
 
 Both of these systems, the Zemindaree, and the Ryutwaree, 
 have their great disadvantages ; they were both crude experi- 
 ments, made by men with the best intentions, but ignorant of 
 the customs of the people for whom they were legislating. It 
 remains for us to discuss the " Village System," a modified 
 form of which has always been the tenure in the Bombay 
 Presidency, and w^hich has been universally introduced into 
 all the lately-acquired territory, the North Western Provinces, 
 the Punjab, and Sind. The Zemindaree tenure assumed the 
 proprietorship to be vested in the zemindars, subject to gov- 
 ernment taxation ; the Ryutwaree system assumed the same 
 thing for the ryut. Longer experience, and a more careful 
 study of native customs, showed both these views to be in- 
 correct, and that the property in the soil throughout the 
 greater part of India, resides neither in the zemindar nor in 
 the ryut, but in the village cominunity. The village commu- 
 nities all possess a regular organization, with hereditary muni- 
 
 20* 
 
466 The Indian Empire. 
 
 cipal officers. They may be said to be the only Hindoo insti- 
 tion now existing, and have remained, probably, much in 
 their present condition for hundreds, if not thousands of years. 
 The surveys, preparatory to the settlement of the North 
 Western Provinces, occupied ten years, ending in 1844, and 
 cost £500,000 sterling. It is much the best system for col- 
 lecting the land rent that has been tried, not only because it 
 is the natural plan, and consonant with the policy of Hindoo 
 law and the customs of the natives ; but because in its admin- 
 istration a much broader view has been taken of the real advan- 
 tages to government than that which prevailed at the time when 
 the other land-tenures were fixed ; and the policy followed in 
 this assessment is to encourage cultivation by liberahty, rather 
 than to hinder the extension of agriculture by heavy rents. 
 The practical operation of the " Village System " is as follows : 
 the village, through its head men, makes a bargain with the gov- 
 ernment collector for a certain amount of land, which is subse- 
 quently subdivided among the several cultivators living in the 
 village. The collector is assisted in determining the rent by the 
 records of the survey, before mentioned, which includes the 
 quality of the soil, &c. From these statistics, and the best in- 
 formation he can derive from the cultivators and on the spot, 
 he fixes the average yield of the land. He then deducts from 
 the average gross yield an amount representing the expenses 
 of cultivation and the wages of the cultivators ; or, in other 
 words, allows for the capital and. labour bestowed by the vil- 
 lagers upon the land. The remainder, or net yield of the 
 land, gives what would be a fair rent to government, and may 
 be stated at one quarter of the gross produce, being thus less 
 than the amount fixed by the Emperor Akbur, which was 
 considered a very low standard. When the net yield of the 
 land is determined as above, two-thirds of it are fixed as the 
 government demand for rent and taxes. The remaining third 
 is a premium on extended cultivation . The land-tax is thus 
 equal to about one-sixth of the produce of the soil — being 
 lower than it ever was under any previous government. The 
 assessment once fixed continues for thirty years. At the ex- 
 piration of that time, if the net produce is found to have in- 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 467 
 
 creased, the rent is raised, but in a proportion inferior to the 
 ratio of increase in the value of the crops. This system is 
 found to work most admirably. The condition of the ryuts, 
 and the cultivation of the soil is improving, and a revenue of 
 £4,000,000 sterling is collected without delay, and rarely by 
 coercive processes. If any one is dissatisfied with the Com- 
 jDany's government, and thinks it inferior to that of native 
 princes, let him compare the condition of the j^eople in the 
 North Western Provinces with that of the inhabitants of the 
 kuigdom of Oude, which is the garden of India as regards 
 natural advantages, but has been ruined by the misrule of ig- 
 norant, tyi'annical, and profligate piiuces. 
 
 So great was the success of the village system in the North 
 Western Provinces, that it was introduced into the Punjab 
 immediately after the conquest of that territory. The main 
 features of the original plan were left unchanged, but the 
 details were carried out with somewhat more liberality, so 
 that the proportion of the crops paid to government may be 
 placed at from one-ninth to one-sixth of the gross jdeld. The 
 whole amount of the land revenue has been diminished twenty- 
 five per cent, since the Punjab came into the hands of the 
 British, although the number of cultivators has increased ; and 
 the advantages arising to the ryuts from this change of 
 masters, will be even more aj^parent when we consider the 
 immense extortions which were practised upon them by the 
 subordinates, charged with the collection of the revenue, 
 under the former governments. The good results of this 
 system are even more remarkable in the Punjab than else- 
 where. This province now enjoys peace and security, instead 
 of perpetual anarchy and war. A rapid increase has taken 
 place in cultivation and production. Although a new territory, 
 only acquired in 1 849, and inhabited by the most warlike race 
 in India, which formerly cherished the fiercest enmity against 
 the British, yet so great was the general feehng of content, 
 that the Punjab became the base of operations for the reco- 
 very of Hindoostan ; and the Seekhs, so long and so lately in 
 arms against the English, made an important part of the force 
 employed in subduing the mutinous army of Bengal. 
 
468 The Indian Empire. 
 
 To sum up the comparison of the old native land-tenure, 
 with the improved system in force under the Enghsh : it ap- 
 •|)ears that, under the native governments, the rents were 
 oppressive and variable, all improvements were overcharged 
 in re-assessing the land, and the greatest extortion was exer- 
 cised in the collection of the tax ; under the new system, all 
 rights and tenures are perfectly defined, the leases are suffi- 
 ciently long to encourage improvements, which are not reckoned 
 at their full value in re-assessment, and m every instance where 
 large outstanding balances and increased difficulty of realiza- 
 tion showed the rents to be excessive, they have been lowered. 
 For a long time the oppressive taxes imposed by the former 
 native rulers, remained unchanged under the Company's 
 government ; but experience showed the disadvantage of any 
 tax so heavy as to check production, and the land-rents have, 
 for years, been everywhere progressively diminished where 
 they were formerly too large, within the older possessions of 
 the Company. In the new territories, the village system has 
 been everywhere introduced, the liberal features of which have 
 been dwelt upon above. Moderate as is the demand of 
 government under this system, it has been still further re- 
 duced lately, and in all territory, the land-tenure of which 
 shall be hereafter settled, government will require only one 
 half of the net produce, an amount equal on the average to 
 one-eighth of the gross produce. 
 
 In reading this account of the various land-tenures in India, 
 it may strike some persons that it would be advantageous if 
 the fee of the soil were transferred to the actual cultivators. 
 This plan, however, would be utterly impracticable. In the 
 first place, the whole capital of the country is in the hands of 
 the bankers, who would soon become proprietors of ail the 
 soil, and make infinitely worse landlords than any government. 
 Secondly, even it' this certain evil could be avoided, such a 
 transfer would reduce the production of the country by 
 diminishing those incentives to labour, which even now ope- 
 rate but feebly upon the indolent native of India. 
 
 The revenue of India is about twenty-four millions and a 
 half sterling. Of this sum more than one half is drawn from 
 
Revenue and Wealth of India. 469 
 
 the land-tax. The rest is raised by the customs, opium mono- 
 poly, and by the imposts on salt, tobacco, spirituous liquors, 
 and other articles of luxury. The net product of the opium 
 monopoly is two millions and a half sterling per annum. This 
 may be considered a tax upon the Chinese, and so much 
 gained by the Indian tax-payers. 
 
 The expenses of the government, m time of peace, nearly 
 balance the receipts, but the wars into which the Comj^any 
 has been constantly forced, have necessitated repeated loans, 
 the payment of the interest on which absorbs one-eighth of 
 the revenue, and occasions a constant deficit in the budget. 
 
 The amount of the revenue, above mentioned, when divided 
 by the number of inhabitants, gives only eighty-four cents for 
 each person. This appears very light taxation, and will appear 
 still lighter when it is recollected that more than one half of 
 this sum represents, not taxes j^roper, but the rent of land, 
 which, in any other country, would go into the pockets of 
 private individuals. Yet the taxes are probably nearly as 
 heavy as the country could bear under any other system ; for 
 India is a poor country ^ ^''poorer^'^ in the words of Lord 
 Macaulay, " than the poorest countries in Europe.^'' Notwith- 
 standing the old, and almost inveterate, belief in the wealth 
 of the Indies, it is well for us at the present day to recognise 
 this fact. The mass of the population have no property at all. 
 The soil is all in the hands of the sovereign ; the disposable 
 capital is held by a limited number of bankers and tradesmen. 
 This concentration of all capital in the hands of a few persons 
 enables them to make a show quite disproportioned to the 
 general wealth of the country, and from this are derived the 
 very erroneous impressions that have so extensively prevailed 
 with regard to the great wealth of oriental nations. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE REVOLT. 
 
 Indian Eebellion not a matter of Surprise — Eevolutions and Eebellions common under 
 Native Governments — Eebellion did not originate among the People — Character of 
 the old Native Governments — Nature of the English Conquest, and Character of 
 their Eule — Evidence that the Eebellion was not a Movement of the People — The 
 Eebellion was not in its Origin a Military Mutiny — The real Instigators were the 
 Moosulman Princes — It was the dying Effort of Islamism — Character of the Mahom- 
 medan Population of India — Favourable Circumstances for the Eebel Leaders — 
 Abortive Attempts of the Eebels to arouse the Mass of the Population — The 
 Moosulman Character of the Movement evident in its Development — Atrocities — 
 Noble Stand of the English — The Eevolt in Oude — Sympathies of the Population of 
 India — The Disaffected Classes — The probable Eesult of the Eebellion if it had not 
 been restrained. 
 
 A EEVOLUTiON IS no new thing in India. The whole history 
 of that country under its native princes, before the establish- 
 ment of the English power, is a narrative of usurpations, 
 revolts and rebellions. The Enghsh government is the only 
 power that has ever ruled for a hundred years without such 
 attempts being made against its existence, and the fact of a 
 rebelhon having finally broken out against it, should not, 
 therefore, be taken a priori as a proof of the injustice of its 
 policy, or the tyranny of its administration. The student of 
 Indian history wiU rather wonder that fifty thousand men, 
 from a country situated on the other side of the world, should 
 by any course of government, or any rule however wise, have 
 maintained, for so long a time, an order before unknown, and 
 exacted a imiversal obedience never before given to any sove- 
 reign in India ; that they should have maintained this order 
 and exacted this obedience from one hundred and eighty 
 millions of people, differing from them and each other in 
 language, religion, and every bond of sympathy, and com- 
 prising nations and classes whose whole employment and 
 
The Revolt. 
 
 471 
 
 aggrandizement had, before their time, been derived from 
 public conquest or private pillage. 
 
 The rebellion, however, is a fact, and as it has been consid- 
 ered in Europe, however unjustly, the eoi'perhnentu'tn crucis 
 of English policy in India, it is interesting to investigate what 
 were the real objects and aims of the movement. Befoie 
 doing so, however, it will be well briefly to examine some 
 opinions that have generally obtained credence, both in 
 England and this country. 
 
 In the first place we are met by a theory that the revolt 
 was a popular revolution, like the great movement wdiich in 
 the end of the last century, overthrew the Bourbon dynasty 
 in France, or like the universal uprising in America which 
 delivered our nation from transatlantic domination. 
 
 This theory, then, represents the rebellion as an attempt, on 
 the part of the downtrodden masses, to throw ofl" the op- 
 pressive and hated yoke of the stranger. That this should be 
 believed, was, perhaps not unnatural, and yet this very belief 
 shows what entire ignorance prevails with regard to India and 
 its inhabitants. Any one who has read Indian history, knows 
 that the natives have always been " under the yoke of the 
 stranger ;" that when it was heaviest, it never excited a mur- 
 mur ; and that no popular resistance has ever been called 
 forth, even by the most grinding tyranny. The " rights of 
 man" are abstractions which the oriental mind has never 
 grasped. It looks upon tyranny as the normal manifestation 
 of power, and the best evidence of a strength which it is dan- 
 gerous to resist. 
 
 The people of India, then, the masses of the population, 
 never could or would rebel ; but even supposing that they had 
 that consciousness of their rights, and that disposition to resist 
 infringements upon them, which, even in Europe, only prevail 
 in a very difierent condition of society, it is quite incredible 
 that they should rebel under the English government, when 
 they had endured, uncomplainingly, centuries of oppression 
 from other rulers. 
 
 Some people, however, imagine that the real grievance has 
 been annexation, and the substitution of the Company's 
 
472 The Indian Empire. 
 
 government in place of native princes, for, say they, " After 
 all the English are foreigners, and their rule, even if more 
 lenient, must be as distasteful to the people, as foreign rulers 
 always are. There can never be towards them the same sym- 
 pathy as exists with native governments, which, even if 
 harsher, are yet composed of men of the same race, who have 
 ruled the country for centuries, and secured that popular alle- 
 giance which is never paid to any but an ancient dynasty." 
 
 This argument, which is advanced by the members of an in- 
 fluential party, proceeds upon assumptions quite as false as 
 the first, though entirely different. The ancient native dy- 
 nasties, ruling peacefully over millions of attached subjects, are 
 a complete myth. India has always been a prey to adven- 
 turers of one kind or another, of whom the most successful 
 occupied for the time, the seat of authority. Violence was 
 their passport to the capital ; violence, the policy of their 
 government ; and by violence, they were overthrown to give 
 place to some other, who gained and abused his power in the 
 same way.'^ The position of a native prince was thus very 
 similar to that of the priest of Diana, at Aricia : 
 
 " The Priest who slew the slayer 
 And shall himself be slain." 
 
 * I may here cite an instance of this state of things from very recent his- 
 tory of the Punjab, a territory that has since, fortunately for itself, been an- 
 nexed by the English. "When Runjeet Singh died, he was succeeded by his 
 son, Khurruk Singh, who was imbecile and poisoned by his son, Nao Mhal 
 Singh, who, returning from his father's funeral pyre, was grievously, if not 
 mortally wounded by a beam which fell upon him, perhaps by chance, in 
 passing under a lofty gateway. When wounded, he was taken care of by the 
 two Eajpoot brothers, whom that old tyrant Runjeet Singh had fallen in love 
 with, and bought when they were slaves — Groolab Singh and Dhyan Singh. 
 They suffered no one to enter his chamber until he was dead — a consumma- 
 tion in which they are supposed to have assisted. His mother, Ranee Kour 
 Chand, then claimed the supreme power, which was contested by Sheer Singh 
 a pseudo-son of Runjeet. The Ranee was beaten to death by her slave girls, 
 who threw her body out of the window. Sheer Singh then became king, but 
 was assassinated at a review by Sirdar Ajeet Singh, at the instigation of Dhyan 
 Singh. His little son was also sought out and murdered. The two conspir- 
 ators returned to the city together in a carriage, and Ajeet, having ' ' his hand 
 
The Revolt. 
 
 473 
 
 It thus happened that almost all the native princes of India 
 were different in nation ahty, and many of them in reUgion 
 also, from the people whom they governed. Their rule was 
 invariably tyrannous, oppressive, and extortionate. They 
 treated their subjects as prisoners of war, and never expected 
 any return of gratitude or devotion. A change of dynasty 
 never excited the sympathy of the people, far less did it call 
 forth any active efforts. They stood patient and motionless, 
 and beheld one tyrant succeed another, without emotion and 
 without interest. 
 
 When the East India Company commenced their career of 
 conquest, they found the whole country under the control of 
 the Maharattas, a nation of robbers, who had subjugated all 
 India, and subdued the governors of the country, who were 
 themselves mostly rebels against the once paramount au- 
 thority of the Mogul Emperor, who, in turn, derived his 
 power from the right of conquest only. 
 
 The efforts of the English were against the Maharattas, and 
 when they had delivered the country from them, no one could 
 expect that they would restore the booty to the j)revious set 
 of robbers who had held it ; and none would be more unwil- 
 ling to consent to such an arrangement than the Hindoo 
 population, who, while they had not the ability to govern 
 themselves, or the resolution and pluck to choose and support 
 any one set of masters, must still be supposed to have a pre- 
 ference for that government under which there was the least 
 oppression and extortion. And this was actually the character 
 of the Enghsh conquest of India. They took the sovereign 
 power not from the people, or from a popular government, but 
 from upstart tyrants who were mostly foreign to the soil 
 
 in," stabbed Dhyan Singh, as they passed under a gateway. He was pur- 
 sued and killed by Hira Singh, the son of Dhyan. Kanee Chanda now 
 brought forward Dhuleep Singh, as a son of Eunjeet, but her brother, having 
 caused the only real son of Runjeet then Hving, Peshora Singh, to be cut in 
 pieces and cast down a wall at Attok, the troops became enraged and ordered 
 him to come to a review. In vain he scattered gold and bangles among them, 
 and entreated them to spare his life, in vain the Ranee accompanied hkn, and 
 joined in his prayers ; one volley missed him, the second brought him down. 
 
474 The Indian Empire. 
 
 whicli they governed. They gave the people what they had 
 never before possessed ; a permanent government which re- 
 spected hfe and property ; officials free from extortion and 
 corruption, and untrained to oppression; and a mild and 
 impartial system of law and taxation. They scrupulously 
 respected national religion, and even went so far as to support, 
 in a few instances, the idolatrous worship of its subjects. The 
 civil laws of the country founded on the religious codes, were 
 left unchanged, although in every respect conflicting and 
 unwieldly, in order not to offend national prejudice. The 
 criminal code was so modified as to become simple in ad- 
 ministration, and lenient, instead of ferociously cruel in its 
 punishments. Every effort, every sacrifice was made to 
 secure the attachment of the people, and the policy of the 
 Company was to develope peacefully the resources of the 
 country, and thus indirectly benefit themselves, rather than to 
 seek aggrandizement and wealth by an indiscriminate system 
 of cruel extortion and oppression, as had been the custom of 
 all previous conquerors. 
 
 The native does not ask for liberty, or desire it. He has no 
 spirit of independence, and when without a master will vol- 
 untarily choose one. All that he asks of government is, that 
 they should respect his religious prejudices, that justice should 
 be equally administered, and the taxes not oppressive. It is, 
 perhaps, too much to say that this is what they ask / for they 
 do not ask or expect anything but that he who has the power 
 will use it to the uttermost for his advantage, as any one of 
 themselves would do in his place. But the whole amount of 
 what they pray for is, that they should be respected in then- 
 superstitions, and, if possible, in their property also. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the English government was de- 
 spotic and oppressive. It was despotic, because the people 
 can be ruled in no other way. It was oppressive, because 
 there was a necessity for employing native subordinates who 
 cannot be prevented from abusing the power with which they 
 are entrusted. But it was incomparably better in every re- 
 spect than any previous rule. India is no longer desolated by 
 the Maharattas laying waste towns and villages with fire and 
 
The Revolt. 475 
 
 sword. The natives are no longer ruined by the systematic 
 and grinding oppression of their Moosulman rulers. The villa- 
 gers are no longer exposed to murder and pillage by periodical 
 inroads of robber bands, as they were under the old system of 
 anarchy and misrule. Every man's head is now safe on his 
 shoulders, and every man's property is secure from the violence 
 of government or individuals. 
 
 It might thus be concluded, purely from a priori rea- 
 soning : 
 
 (1st.) That, judging from the whole past history of India, 
 no conceivable tyranny or disregard of their rights could 
 arouse resistance, or excite an insurrection among the culti- 
 vators of the soil and other industrious classes, who form 
 by iar the greatest mass of the population ; and therefore 
 that a popular rebellion^ in the proper sense of the ^vords, 
 would be in the highest degree improbable, if not impos- 
 sible. 
 
 (2d.) That, even granting that circumstances might arise 
 which would cause a general popular rising, there were no 
 such causes to account for this rebellion. 
 
 So much for the a priori reasoning, which, after all, is always 
 more or less liable to error. But when we come to the a pos- 
 teriori proof it is no longer possible to doubt. If it was a 
 popular movement, why did it extend over only one-third of 
 India ? Why did it arise in that very part of the country 
 where the administration was most perfect, and why was the 
 Madras Presidency, the worst governed part of the British 
 dominions, the most tranquil throughout the disturbances ? 
 If the movement was occasioned by annexation, why were 
 ISTagpoor, and the Punjab, with its warlike inhabitants, tranquU, 
 while Oude was in flames ? Why has nearly the whole revenue 
 been paid punctually, when there was no power to enforce it ? 
 and why have the EngHsh army, wherever they went, been as 
 well provided with transport and provisions as if they were 
 in a settled and peaceful country ? 
 
 In all its outward manifestations, and especially at the be- 
 ginning, the revolt has been purely military. When we heard 
 of an outbreak, it was not the revolt of a district, but the mu- 
 
47^ The Indian Empire. 
 
 tiny of a regiment. "When the mutineers departed, all was 
 again quiet and orderly. The enemies which the English 
 troops have had to fight had been regularly-organized regi- 
 ments, many of them dressed in the English uniform, not vast 
 and ill-disciplined bodies of populace. The mutineers, where- 
 ever they passed, have robbed the property of the shop-keepers 
 and rich men, and mercilessly levied contributions on the 
 miserable cultivators. The disturbed districts were the mili- 
 tary stations, and wherever there were no mutinous soldiers 
 things went on as if nothing was occurring elsewhere. 
 
 As for the assertion that, although the revolt was purely 
 military, it was yet a real popular movement, since the army 
 was the only body that had the power to offer resistance to 
 government, and in doing so they were representatives of 
 the nation at large ; such an explanation is quite inadmissible, 
 as the mutiny was confined to the Bengal army, and did not 
 extend to the troops of Bombay or Madras, or to the Punjab 
 forces, which were all certainly quite as much representatives 
 of their respective parts of the country. Besides which, we 
 should in such a case expect to find the populace sympathising 
 openly with their valiant defenders ; and it shows an entire 
 misconception of the sepoy character to suppose that they 
 care for any rights, privileges, and interests, except their own. 
 
 Was the revolt, then, purely military, that is, did it origi- 
 nate in the army ? and has it been entirely confined to them ? 
 This has been the view of many persons, though not in India, 
 and is quite as wrong as the theory that the rebellion origi- 
 nated among the people, though it is not so absurd, and does 
 not show such ignorance of the country. In the first place, it 
 is quite clear that the revolt has not been confined to those 
 who were soldiers of the Company when the disturbances 
 began. 'New levies have been raised to supply the losses of 
 war, and have been disciplined and organized into regiments 
 on the European plan. This, to be sure, does not divest the 
 mutiny of its military character, as the new recruits came 
 from the same soldier castes that furnished the original re- 
 volters, and were brothers and friends of the mutinous 
 sepoys. This explanation, however, will not reach the case 
 
The Revolt. 
 
 477 
 
 of Oude and other districts, where the feudal chiefs have 
 risen with their followers and gone to swell the ranks of the 
 rebels. Moreover, it is not to be concealed that India is filled 
 with classes discontented mth British rule, and lono-insf for a 
 restoration of the anarchy on which they or their ancestors 
 grew fat, and if the rebelUon had been a little more successful 
 in the beginning, it is probable that the whole peninsula 
 would, before now, have been jDlunged in universal revolt. 
 Still, it is quite clear that all these movements on the part of 
 the non-military classes did not precede, but followed the 
 mutiny of the army, which was their cause and occasion. The 
 first part of the question is, therefore, still unanswered — did 
 the rebellion originate in the army ? To this we may now 
 answer certainly, no ; the developments and disclosures that 
 have lately taken place have shown that the real instigators 
 and ringleaders were not in the ranks of the army, but were the 
 same individuals upon whom public suspicion in India has all 
 along been fixed. All who knew the character of the sepoys 
 felt sure that they never could have conceived, or carried out 
 unitedly, so vast a scheme. They were too ignorant, too inac- 
 tive, too submissive, and too distrustful of each other. Beside 
 which, they were nearly the only class in all India who had iio 
 reasonable pretext for discontent. In fact, they had been 
 ruined by too much pay and petting. The whole Bengal 
 army was demoralized. They were in a fit condition to lend 
 themselves readily to the plots of their seducers, who pro- 
 mised them as large pay, and as luxurious living, as those of 
 their English officers and governors. 
 
 There is now no doubt that the rebellion was set on foot by 
 the deposed Mahommedan princes, pensioners on the Com- 
 pany's bounty, and the movement may be looked on as the 
 expiring efibrt of Islamism to regain its lost supremacy in 
 India. The evidence given on the trial of the King of Delhi 
 shows that the rebellion was a concerted movement of the 
 Moosulman princes ; that the plan was communicated to the 
 Shah of Persia, and perhaps also to the Sultan of Turkey; 
 and that the occupation of Herat by the former, an act 
 which occasioned the Persian war, was really only a feint 
 
478 The Indian Empire. 
 
 to draw away British troops from India, the scene of the main 
 action. In this plot nearly all the Moosulman princes were 
 implicated, and especially Ali Nakhi Khan, the prime minis- 
 ter of the late King of Oude, is pointed out as having taken a 
 most active part, and is by many suspected of being the origi- 
 nator of the whole thing. With such consummate skill, how- 
 ever, has he woven the threads and meshes of the plot that 
 not a trace remains to mark where he has passed. Almost 
 the same may be said of many of the other conspirators. 
 Though the evidence against them amounts to a moral cer- 
 tainty, it is to be feared that it will not be sufficient to secure 
 any legal punishment. There is too much secrecy around 
 every action of a native for the true details of the conspiracy 
 and the real agents ever to become thoroughly known. So 
 little confidence have natives in each other that it is probable 
 that the real extent and aims of the movement, and even the 
 day on which it was to break out, were, until the last mo- 
 ment, known only to a very few, if they were not concealed 
 in the breast of a single individual. 
 
 This rebellion, originated by Mahommedan princes, called 
 out the religious and natural sympathies of all the Moosulman s 
 in India. They are a very numerous class, forming from one- 
 twelfth to one-tenth of the population, and numbering, there- 
 fore, from 15 to 18 millions. They had been for centuries the 
 dominant race, masters of the soil and people, and naturally 
 felt disgusted at being placed by the English on a level with 
 the despised Hindoo. They have always hoped and prayed 
 for the restoration of Islam, and the recovery of that position 
 of superiority of which they had been so largely deprived. 
 As to theii" origin, they are mostly descendants of the off- 
 scouring and camp-followers of the various invading armies 
 that have at different times ravaged and depopulated India. 
 They do not, however, retain any of the manly qualities of 
 their Afghan or Tartar ancestors, but by constant inter-mar- 
 riages with the Hindoos have assimilated to them in all re- 
 spects, even adopting the absurd and burdensome restrictions 
 of caste. Low as is the moral character of the Hindoos, that 
 of the Moosulmans is still lower. They are more licentious, 
 
The Revolt. 479 
 
 if possible more treacherous, and possess besides indomitable 
 pride of nationality and unreasoning fanaticism — two qualities 
 not found in the Hindoo. The Mahommedans in India have 
 always looked upon themselves as a superior race. They call 
 themselves the sipahee-log, or warrior people, and hold that 
 the Empire should be in their hands by the right of descent 
 and religion. Their pride prevents their earning a livelihood 
 by manual labour, and consequently the only means of sup- 
 port open to them are private service, enlistment in the army, 
 or situations under government. The last employment has 
 always been considered the best, both as being the most hon- 
 ourable and as giving great opportunities of extortion and 
 plunder, though in this respect their gains were diminished by 
 the vigilance of their English superiors. 
 
 The diminution of the number of government servants, 
 which took place under English rule ; the appointment of 
 great numbers of Hindoos to office ; and the general preva- 
 lence of peace, and disbanding of the irregular soldiery which 
 had sprung up under the anarchy of native rule, threw out of 
 employment a large number of this proud, lazy, fawning, un- 
 scrupulous and crafty population; and the mutiny of the Ben- 
 gal army was a grand scheme to turn the military establish- 
 ment of the English against themselves, and to restore the 
 supremacy of the Mahommedan religion and the Moosulman 
 nation. In this scheme the indolent and simple sepoys w^ere 
 merely the catspaws of others, and would have been dis- 
 carded when no longer needed. 
 
 No circumstances could appear more favourable for the rebel 
 leaders than the condition of India at the time of the outbreak. 
 The whole Mahommedan population would certainly lend 
 theu' sympathies and most of them would give active coopera- 
 tion. The sepoy army of Bengal, with their tremendous pride 
 of caste, and the opinion of their own power, exalted by years 
 of petting and indulgence, and the disuse of all punishment, 
 furnished a ready and powerful means of begmning the dis- 
 turbance. Besides them there were immense classes, such as 
 the predatory chiefs, the warlike tribes, and the robber castes 
 of India, who had been dormant under EngUsh rule, but 
 
480 The Indian Empire. 
 
 would at once emerge into activity when order was disturbed, 
 and thus indirectly aid the plans of the Moosulman agitators 
 by diverting the efforts of their opponents. 
 
 To resist all these immensely powerful and numerous ene- 
 mies, there were not over twenty thousand English soldiers, 
 and those not concentrated upon any one point, but scattered 
 here and there in little bodies over thousands of miles, each 
 separate company in the midst of thousands of the mutinous 
 or disaffected classes. With such odds it is not wonderful 
 that the mutiny spread as it did. The only matter of surprise 
 is that a single Englishman was left alive in all the North- 
 country ; and if the population could only have been induced 
 to join, it would have been impossible for one man to escape. 
 
 The plan employed by the Moosulman leaders for exciting 
 the army to mutiny, was also used by them with the view of 
 arousing the sympathies of the general population. In both 
 cases they appealed to the only sentiment of the Hindoo, on 
 which they could rely for the purpose — namely, the prejudices 
 of caste. In the case of the army, who were only looking for 
 an excuse to revolt, this device succeeded perfectly. With 
 the people, who ask for nothing but quiet, it totally failed. 
 The proclamations of the rebel leaders are certainly remark- 
 able productions ; but the most curious feature of them is that 
 they never say one word about the injustice of annexation, or 
 the misgovernment of the English, knowing that such charges, 
 even if true, would have no effect on the native population, 
 who would look on such acts as the most natural way of 
 using power. The whole tenor of the proclamations, where- 
 ever issued, consists of appeals to religion and caste, and the 
 only charges against the English are based upon assumed in- 
 tentions to interfere with these institutions. 
 
 In the explosion of the mutiny, its Moosulman charactejr 
 became clearly manifest. The plan was to exterminate the 
 English at every station, and then unite all the rebel forces at 
 Delhi, the sacred city of Indian Mahommedans, and the seat 
 of the old Mogul Emperors, the last descendant of whom was 
 recognized as the new sovereign. In the fearful atrocities* 
 * The fiendish acts committed by the mutineers perhaps excited even more 
 
The Revolt. 481 
 
 which accompanied the work of extermination, the Mahom- 
 medan cavahy, who had for years been a by-word and jest 
 for their arrant cowardice, showed themselves the cruellest 
 and most merciless. Wherever there was a Moosulraan city, 
 there the spirit of revolt was most virulent. Even in places 
 beyond the actual circle of revolt, like the city of Poonah, in 
 the Dekkun, this feeling was unmistakeably evident. On the 
 other hand, the mass of the population who are Hindoos, and 
 the Hindoo rajahs, over two hundred in number, were faithful 
 almost to a man. Too much stress, however, must not be laid 
 on this fidelity of the rajahs, as it may be attributed more to a 
 dislike of a Moosulman sovereign than to any loyalty to the 
 English ; and if the Moosulmans had succeeded in overcoming 
 the English, the Hindoo princes would probably have begun 
 war on their own account. 
 
 There is no prouder page in the History of England than 
 the subjugation of this rebellion. The English were a mere 
 handful of men in comparison with the hordes of mutineers 
 and the millions of disaffected classes by whom they were sur- 
 rounded. They were far away from all help ; while their ad- 
 versaries were on their own ground, abundantly supplied with 
 
 astonishment than horror in Europe. People could not believe that such un- 
 sparing cruelty and brutal capacity for enjoying the tortures of their enemies, 
 existed at the present day, in any members of the human family, however 
 degraded. They seem to have forgotten that the sepoys were heathens, of 
 whom it is said that " their tender mercies are cruel;" and that they are quite 
 ignorant of those mitigations which Christianity alone has introduced into 
 war. In fact, cruelty and torture have always been features of Oriental war- 
 fare, and atrocities even greater than those of Meeruth, Delhi and Cawnpoor, 
 were daily occurrences in the revenue- collections of native states ; and have 
 always been practised in the predatory excursions of the feudal chiefs and 
 robber-tribes. Even in Bengal such outrages were ordinary accompaniments 
 of a dukoitee robbery. It is scarce three hundred years since Rome was 
 taken by Bourbon, when the inhabitants were treated with nearly as much 
 brutality. The pillage of the "chateaux" during the French revolution will 
 furnish cases of almost as much horror, and the sack of various cities by the 
 Israehtes, as narrated in the Bible, shows the same pitiless extermination of 
 old and young, though I believe no mention is made of tortures. If such 
 things could be done by Jews and Christians, we should at least not be sur- 
 prised at them in heathens. 
 
 21 
 
 I 
 
482 The Indian Empire. 
 
 arms and ammunition, and defended by fortifications of great 
 strength ; and yet they did not even stand upon the defensive, 
 but at once began an aggressive warfare. They not only 
 met unshaken the overwhehning tide of revolt, but actually 
 drove it back ; and before a single British soldier could come 
 to the rescue from England they had checked the insurrection at 
 its head, had taken the Imperial city, captured the rebel Em- 
 peror, and saved India from a general rebellion ; for there can 
 be little doubt that had the movement succeeded in the north, 
 the whole Pepinsula would soon have been in flames. 
 
 From Delhi the mutineers retreated to Lucknow, which is 
 tlie second great Mahommedan city of India, where their 
 forces were swelled by fresh levies, and their strength in- 
 creased by the assistance of the Talookdars, Zemindars, and 
 other feudal chieftains. 
 
 The conduct of these men is a type of what would have 
 been the course of the whole class to which they belong, if 
 more success had attended the first rising. The Talookdars 
 and Zemindars of Oude were feudal chieftains, who had grown 
 rich by the anarchy v>diich prevailed during the old govern- 
 ment. Their estates were obtained by violence and fraud ; 
 they lived by plunder and cruelty ; acknowledged no law or 
 authority, and never paid taxes to the king without standing a 
 regular siege. To maintain this life they were surrounded by 
 armed followers, who v>^ere generally the greatest rascals in 
 the country. Indeed, a usual method of recruiting was to 
 break open the nearest jail and enlist the convicts. The of- 
 fence of the English government in tlie eyes of these barons, 
 was not the abstract wrong of annexing Oude, for few people 
 care less for wrong or right, abstract or concrete ; but that 
 they had introduced a system which did not recognize their 
 usurped titles to land, which established order and extinguished 
 violence, and under which the tax-gatherer could not safely 
 be resisted. 
 
 I^ow the class to which these zgmindars belong exists all 
 over India, and they have everywhere the same grievance. In 
 other parts of the country they have been so long reduced to 
 order and compelled to live respectable lives that their svrords 
 
The Revolt. 483 
 
 have gro^ni rusty ; but if there had been any probability of 
 success attending their efforts, they would have risen from 
 one end of India to the other, and would have found no diffi- 
 culty in obtaining followers among the dangerous^ that is, the 
 unemployed classes, who form so large a part of the native 
 population. 
 
 The only class who have sympathized with the English du- 
 rmg the disturbances are the bankers and capitalists, who 
 would dread nothing so much as a restoration of native rule. 
 The great mass of the population have been decidedly neutral, 
 as they always have been under all changes. On the other 
 hand all the disorderly classes have been inimical to the Eng- 
 lish — some of them ojDcnly, like the zemindars of Oude, and 
 the immense numbers of convicts whom it was the first care 
 of the mutineers to release from jail ; others secretly, among 
 whom have been all the Moosulmans, most of the native princes, 
 the old feudal chieftains, the predatory tribes generally, and 
 all the robbers, murderers and thieves, whether by caste or 
 profession. 
 
 If there had been force enough to crush the mutiny at 
 Delhi, we should probably never have heard any more of it. 
 If, on the other hand, there had not been force enough to 
 check it there, all these classes would at once have broken 
 into insurrection. What would have been evolved out of the 
 chaos it is hard to see, but certainly it is very unlikely that 
 the result would have been a restoration of the Mahommedan 
 empire. The Indian Moosulmans are not what their ancestors 
 were when they planted their feet so easily on the necks of 
 the Hindoos. The Maharattas tore down the green flag of 
 Islamism once, and would not see it again unfurled without a 
 struggle for supremacy. The larger part of the military 
 classes of India are Hindoos, and they would not be likely 
 now to submit to a Mahommedan yoke which their fathers 
 always wore uneasily and often resisted successfully. The end 
 would probably have been the establishment of a great num- 
 ber of small sovereigns ; not the old hereditary dynasties, for 
 they are all effete and would soon disappear in the confusion. 
 An era ^f anarchy would then be inauo-urated, such as existed 
 
484 The Indian Empire. 
 
 when the country was first conquered by the English, and 
 India would be again thrown back a century in her infinitely 
 slow progress toward civilization, and would again be ripe for 
 another name to be added to the long list of those who have 
 conquered her. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 ^^Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now!" 
 
 PERSIAN SONG OF THE NACH GIRLS. 
 
 Opening Chorus. 
 
 {Transposed from Bh.) 
 
 
 1. Sing - er, be - gin your sweetest lay, Ev - er and ev - er 
 
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 fresh and gay ; Bring me the joy - in - spu' - ing wine, 
 
486 
 
 Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now !" 
 
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 Ev er and ev - er fresh and fine, Ev - er and ev - er 
 
 Verse. 
 
 :]v: 
 
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 fresh and fine. Here, with a heart - al - lur - ing lass, 
 
 S 
 
 
 
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 ^7 
 
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 ?5=|V=3i 
 
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 Mer - ri - ly let the moments pass, Kissing her red lips 
 
"^ Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now I " 
 
 487 
 
 3^-^U^^ 
 
 1^E=S: 
 
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 yf\n\Q I may, Ev - er and ev - er fresh and gay. 
 
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 ^t-j-^ 
 
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 H 9 t 
 
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 ■w- 
 
 *=S: 
 
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 Chorus. 
 
 ^ l^ ^ \ U I 
 
 Sing me, oh sing, your sweetest lay, Ev - er and ev - er 
 
 t=^ 
 
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 r-r 
 
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 r r \ ^ ^-^ 
 
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 fresh and gay ; Bring me the joy - in - spir - ing -vrine, 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 -j ^i— I 
 
 5: » -iJ. 
 
 % 
 
 m 
 
 ^ 
 
 « — m — m — m- 
 
 ^^ 
 
 $ 
 
488 
 
 " Tazu ba tazu, Now ba now ! " 
 
 m 
 
 -|J>— 
 
 
 :f=^ 
 
 <al dsi — d — 'tBi- '■#' id r— 
 
 f 
 
 atz^ 
 
 Ev-er and ev - er fresh and fine, Ev-er and ev - er fresh and fine. 
 
 -f9-a>-fit—f9 — 10—1 — ! — rP-H — I — f™*""^ i N-i 
 
 ^d=i& 
 
 m 
 
 I 
 
 B. 
 
 <p| g| tf^ g|. 
 
 "3i: 
 
 ■9-9^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ■s. 
 
 Lost is my heart, oh lady fair, 
 Lost in your jet black locks of hair, 
 Heavy with perfume, as is meet, 
 Ever and ever new and sweet. 
 Chorus. Sing me, &c. 
 
 3. 
 
 Still will I drink the cup I love, 
 Happier here than saints above ; 
 The blessed- in heaven long for wine 
 Ever and ever fresh and fine. 
 Chorus. Sing me, &c. 
 
 4. 
 
 Listen, oh breezes ! as you move 
 Close by the dwelling of my love, 
 Softly my words and song repeat, 
 Ever and ever new and sweet. 
 Chorus. Sing me, &c. 
 
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D. Appleton & Company's List of Jfew Works. 
 
 4 00 
 25 
 
 1 00 
 75 
 ■55 
 87 
 25 
 
 1 13 
 50 
 
 1 00 
 
 1 00 
 75 
 50 
 
 2 00 
 2 50 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 2 50 
 
 1 00 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 38 
 
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 75 
 
 2 00 
 2 00 
 
 06 
 
 Bradley's Family and ParUh. Sermons, . . 2 00 
 .Cotter's Ma«s and Rubrics, .... 38 
 
 Coil's Puritanism, 1 00 
 
 Evans' Rectory of Valehead, .... 50 
 Grayson's Tnie Theory of Christianity, . . 1 00 
 Gresley on Preaching, , . . . . 1 25 
 Griffin's Gospel its Ovvn Advocate, . . . 1 00 
 Hecker's Book of the Soul, . . 
 Hooker's Complete Works. 2 vols. 
 
 James' Happiness, 
 
 Junes on the Nature of EvO, . . . 
 
 Jarvis' Rerply to Milner, .... 
 
 Kingsley's Sacred Choir, 
 
 Keble'a Christian Year, .... 
 
 Layman's Letters to a Bishop, 
 
 Logan's Sermons and Expository Lectures, 
 
 Lyra ApostoUea, ..... 
 
 Marshall's Notes on Episcopacy, 
 
 Newman's Sermons and Subjects of the Day, 
 
 " Essay on Christian Doctrine, . 
 Ogilby on Lay Baptism, .... 
 Pearson on the Creed, .... 
 Pulpit Cyclopaedia and Mmisters' Companion, 
 SeweU's Reading Preparatory to Confirmation, 
 Southard's Mystery of Godliness, ? 
 Sketches and Skeletons of Sermons, 
 Spencer's Christian Instructed, 
 Sherlock's Practical Christian, 
 Sutton's Disce Vivere — Learn to Live, 
 Swartz's Letters to my Godchild, . 
 Trench's Notes on the Parables, . 
 
 " Notes on the ISIiracles. 
 Taylor's Holy Living and Dj'ing, . _ . 
 
 " Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained, 
 Tyng's Family Commentary, ... 
 Walker's Sermons on Practical Subjects, 
 Watson on Confirmation, .... 
 Wilberforce's Manual for Communicants, 
 Wilson's Lectures on Colossians, . 
 Wyatt's Christian Altar, .... 
 
 Voyages and iTravels. 
 
 Africa and the American Flag, 
 
 Applet-jns' Southern and Western Gr.i<i.«, 
 " Northern and Eastern Guide, 
 
 " Complete U. S. Guide Book, . 
 " N.Y. City Map, . 
 
 Bartlett's New IMexico, &c. 2 vols. Illustrated 
 
 Bumet'a N. Western Territory, 
 
 Bryant's What I Saw in CaliS^mia, 
 
 Coggeshall'a Voyages. 2 vol*. 
 
 Dix's Winter in Madeira, -. 
 
 Hue's Travels in Tariary and Thibet. 2 vols, 
 
 Layard's Nineveh. 1 vol. 8vo. 
 
 Notes of a Theological Student. 12mo, 
 
 Oliphant's Journey to Katmundu, . 
 
 Parkyns' Abyasima. 2 vols. . . 
 
 Russia as it Is. By Gurowski, 
 " By Count de CueMne, . . 
 
 Squier's Nicaragua. 2 vols. 
 
 Tappan's Step from the New World to the Old, 1 75 
 
 Wanderings and Fortunes <>f Germ. Emigi-ants, 75 
 
 Williams' lethmus of Tehuaniepec. 2 vols. 8vo. 3 50 
 
 Works of Fiction. 
 
 GRACE AGUILAR's "WORKS. 
 
 Tie Days of Bruce. 2 vols. 12rao. . . . 1 50 
 
 Home Scenes and Heart Studies. 12mo. . 75 
 
 The Mother's Recompense. 12mo. . . 75 
 
 Woman's Friendship. 12mo 75 
 
 Women of Israel. 2 vols. ISmo. . . . 1 50 
 
 Basil. A Story of Modem Life. 12mo. . . 75 
 
 Brace's Fawn of the Pale Faces. 12mo, . 75 
 
 Busy Moments of an Idle Woman. . . 75 
 
 Chestnut W^ood. A Tale. 2 vols. . . . 1 75 
 
 Don Qutxotte, Translated. Illustrated, . . 1 25 
 
 Drury (A. H ). Light and Shade, ... 75 
 
 Dupuy (A. E.). The Conspirator, . . . 75 
 
 Elt«n Parry ; or, Trials of the Heart, . . 63 
 
 . 1 
 
 25 
 
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 on 
 
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 . 1 
 
 25 
 
 5 
 
 00 
 
 MRS. ELLIS WORKS. 
 
 Hearts and Homes ; or. Social Distinction*, 
 Prevention Better than Cure, . . 
 Women of England 
 
 1 »} 
 
 75 
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 1 25 
 1 »0 
 
 U 
 
 7J 
 75 
 76 
 75 
 75 
 i 50 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 1 50 
 
 1 50 
 
 75 
 
 75 
 
 1 00 
 
 75 
 
 50 
 
 75 
 
 1 25 
 
 75 
 
 Emmanuel Phillibert, By Dumas, ; . 
 Farmingdale. By Caroline Thomas, 
 Fullerton (Lady G.). Ellen Middleton, 
 
 " " Grantley Manor. 1 vol. 
 
 12mo. 
 
 « " Lady Bird. 1 voL 12mo. 
 
 The Foresters. By Alex. Dumas, . 
 Gore (airs.). The Dean's Daughter. 1 vol. 12mo. 
 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. 12mo. 
 Gil Bias. With 500 Engravings. Cloth, gt. 
 Harry Muir. A Tale of Scottish Life, . 
 Hearts Unveiled ; or, I Knew You Would Like 
 
 Him, 
 
 Heartsease ; or. My Brother's Wife. 2 vols. 
 Heir of Redelyfie. 2 vols, cloth, 
 Heloise ; or, The Unrevealed Secret. 12rao. 
 Hobson. My Uncle and I. 12mo. . . 
 Holmes' Tempest and Sunihine. 12mo. . 
 Home is Home. A Domestic Story, 
 Howitt (Mary). The Heir of West Wayland, 
 lo. A Tale of the Ancient Fane. 12mo. 
 The Iron Cousin. By Mary Cowden Clarke. 
 James (Q. P. R.). Adrian ; or. Clouds of th< 
 
 Mind, 
 
 John ; or, la a Cousin in tho Hand Worth Two 
 
 in the Bush 
 
 JULLA KAVANAGh'Si WORKS. 
 
 Nathalie. A Tale. 12mo. . . 1 00 
 
 Madeline. 12mo. . . . . 75 
 
 Daisy Bums. 12mo. . . ... 1 CO 
 
 Life's Discipline. A Tale of Hungary, . , 63 
 Lone Dove (The). A Legend, .... 75 
 Linny Lockwood, By Catherine Crowe, . 60 
 
 MISS Mcintosh's works. 
 
 Two Lives; or, To Seem and To Be. 12mo. 78 
 
 Aunt ICitty's Tales. 12mo 75 
 
 Charms and Counter-Charms. 12mo. . . 1 00 
 
 Evenings at Donaldson Manor, ... 75 
 
 The Lofty and the Lowly. 2 vols. . . . 1 50 
 
 Margaret's Home. By Cousin Alice, . . 
 
 Marie Louise ; or, The Opposite Neighbors, . 50 
 
 Maiden Aunt (The). A Story, ... 75 
 Manzoni. The Betrothed Lovers. 2 vols. . 1 60 
 
 Margaret Cecil ; or, I Can Because 1 Ought, . 75 
 
 Morton Montague ; or, The Christian's Choice, 75 
 
 Norman Leslie. By G. C. H 75 
 
 Prismatics. Tales and Poems. By Haywarde, 1 25 
 
 Roe (A. S.). James Montjoy. 12mo. . . 75 
 
 " To Love and to Be Loved. 12mo. 74 
 
 " Time and Tide. .2mo. . 75 
 
 Reuben Medlicott ; or, The Coming Man, . 75 
 
 Rose Douglass. By S. R. W 75 
 
 MISS sewell's works. 
 
 Amy Herbert. A Tale. 12mo. ... 75 
 
 Experience of Life. 12mo 75 ' 
 
 Gertrude. A Tale. 12mo 75 , 
 
 Katherine Aahton. 2 vols. 12mo. . . . 1 50 
 
 Laneton Parsonage. A Tale, 3 vols. 12mo. . 2 9S I 
 
 Margaret Percival. 2 vols 1 60 , 
 
 Walter Lorimer, and Other Tales. 12mo. . 75 ' 
 
 A Journal Kept for Children of a Village School, 1 iW 
 
 Sunbeams and Shadows. Cloth, ... 76 
 
 Thorpe's Hive of the Bee Hunter, . . . J 00 
 
 Thaclceray's Works. 6 vols. 12mo. . 6 00 
 
 The Virginia Comedians. 2 vols. 12mo, . 1 60 
 
 Use of Sunshine. By S. M. 12mo. . . . 15 
 
 Wight's Romance of Abelard & HeloiM. lieao, 1» 
 
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