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antiquity is believed by some to be greater than that of the Brahminical faith,' and to whose religion the Cave of Carli is dedicated,' because there is much better and more ample information to be obtained from the same source. She visits both these excavated temples, of which her descriptions and drawings convey clear and accurate notions. These labours of antiquity prove the justness of the following observation.

The temple of Elephanta, and other equally wonderful caverns in the neighbourhood, must have been the works of a people far advanced in the arts of civilized life, and possessed of wealth and power; but these were lodged in the hands of a crafty priesthood, who kept science, affluence and honour for their own fraternity, and, possessed of better ideas, preached a miserable and degrading superstition to the multitude. It would be curious to follow out the advancement and fall of the arts which produced such monuments; but not a trace of their history remains, and we are left to seek it in the national progress of a people subtle and ingenious, but depressed by superstition, and the utter impossibility of rising individually, by any virtues or any talents, to a higher rank in society than that occupied by their forefathers.'— (p. 58.)

The Cave of Carli is on the road to Poonah, the Mahratta capital, which was also visited by Miss Graham. The intervening country is described as rich, romantic and beautiful, the fields tolerably well cultivated, and the peasantry apparently comfortable. But in the shops, every artisan has his sword and spear by him while he works, and the cultivators plough with their arms girded on.' At present, however, Miss Graham thinks they are more useful to defend them against wild beasts, than against any human enemy, though this might not have been the case a few years ago.

Advancing towards Tulligong, the country began to present melancholy traces of the ravages of war and famine. Ruined houses and temples, aud drained tanks, every where marked the march of the soldiers of Scindea and Holkar; but the dreadful famine of 1805-6 completed the misery of the inhabitants of Tulligong.

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It is said that, in this town alone, eighty thousand persons perished; and one of my fellow travellers says, that when he was here last year, the bones strewed the fields around. The inhabitants of many towns and villages emigrated, hoping to find elsewhere that sustenance which failed at home; thousands perished on the road side, and many, at the very moment when they stretched forth their hands to receive the means of life which the charity of the British afforded, sunk to death ere the long wished-for morsel reached their lips. A mother with five children, on her way from Hydrabad to Bombay, had reached Salsette; there she was too weak to proceed, and, to preserve herself and four of her offspring, she sold the fifth for a little rice, but it was too late; she and her infants perished the next morning, and instances of the like were numerous. Yet such was the patience of the Hindoos, that they

saw

saw the waggons of rice sent by the English at Bombay to the relief of Poonah, pass through their villages without an attempt to stop them.' -(p. 69.)

At Chimcore Miss Graham sees an alive god,' who is nothing less than Ganesa himself, 'incarnate in the person of a boy twelve years old.' His palace was very dirty, but every window was crowded with sleek well-fed Brahmins who doubtless take good care of the Deo's revenues.' His little godship received her under a viranda, where he was squatted upon a low wooden seat; and he was only distinguished from other children by an anxious wildness of the eyes, said to be occasioned by the quantity of opium which he is daily made to swallow.' He is not permitted to play with other boys, nor to speak any language but Sanscrit. In one place were women pouring oil, water and milk over the figures of the dead deos; in another, children decking them with flowers; here were devotees and pilgrims performing their ablutions, and there, priests chaunting portions of the Vedas-these degrading works of superstitious folly and religious imposture put our fair traveller a little out of humour with the dignity of human nature.'

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We see nothing to detain us in the description of Poonah and the palace of the Peeshwa; and the history of Sevagee, by whom this city was raised from an inconsiderable village to the capital of the Mahratta empire, is much better told by Colonel Wilkes in his account of the Mysore kingdom.

In February 1810, Miss Graham takes a voyage by sea to Pointe de Galle, on Ceylon, for the benefit of her health. About twenty miles from this place is the village of Bellegam, in which is a temple containing a recumbant figure of Bhud, twenty-eight feet long, with a broad face, and hair curled like that of a negro; the walls are covered with painted figures resembling those of the Jines. The priests are clothed in yellow, and shave their heads entirely. Near this place is the figure of the Cotta Rajah, twelve feet high, sculptured,out of the fragment of a rock.

We meet with nothing in her excursion to Columbo that calls for notice. She travelled in a bandie, or gig, and stopped at the rest-houses, or stations for travellers, placed under the care of the Modeliar, or headman of the village, in which she found no furniture but tables and chairs. These rest-houses are decorated with festoons of white and coloured calicos intermixed with branches of trees and flowers. They are the work of women and children; an exaction of the government, as a mark of respect towards those who travel in its employ. Under the Dutch government, the inhabitants of the villages were required to furnish provisions, and koolis to carry the palankins and baggage; but the English pay punctually

VOL. VIII. NO. XVI.

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punctually and liberally for every thing of this kind. We are happy to find that the condition of the people is greatly improved since this magnificent island came into our possession. Several Chinese agriculturists have been introduced upon different parts of the coast, and the labours of this industrious people have been crowned with ample success. Schools for instructing children in English, Dutch and Cingalese, have been established in different parts of the island; the inferior offices of government are open to such as have been initiated by baptism into the protestant church. The families of these persons are observed to be more industrious than others. They build better houses, eat better food, and wear better clothes than their ancestors;' and the number who thus feel the benefit arising from knowledge and habits of industry, is said to be rapidly increasing.

From Columbo Miss Graham returns to Bombay; lands at Calicut, but finds no trace of its former grandeur and importance; visits the caves of Canary, which, like that of Carli, contain inscriptions in an unknown character; looks in vain for Grecian antiquities at Caliane; finds the provisions for the journey spoiled by the sun, but is consoled for this misfortune by listening to Mahratta jokes, which, however, she fears may appear dull to the wits of our Scotish Athens.'

In July she reaches Madras, the approach to which is described as remarkably striking. The low beach is crowded with people of all colours, whose busy motions' make the earth itself seem alive a hundred Dubashis push forward for employment, to interpret, to buy, to change money, provide servants, tradesinen, palankins-in short, to prevent a stranger from making use of any of his own faculties. At Madras every body lives in garden houses, which, with their virandas and tats, (a mat of Koosa grass, placed against the doors and windows, and constantly kept wet,) are made cool, refreshing and agreeable. The road, leading from Fort George to St. Thomas's mount, is the place of public resort. It is smooth and level as a bowling-green, and planted on each side with banian and yellow tulip trees. On this road is erected a cenotaph to the memory of Lord Cornwallis.

It is the fashion for all the gentlemen and ladies of Madras to repair, in their gayest equipages, to the mount road, and after driving furiously along, they loiter round and round the cenotaph for an hour, partly for exercise, and partly for the opportunity of flirting and displaying their fine clothes, after which they go home, to meet again every day in the year. But the greatest lounge at Madras is during the visiting hours, from nine o'clock till eleven, when the young men go from house to house to retail the news, ask commissions to town for the ladies, bring a bauble that has been newly set, or one which the

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lady has obliquely hinted, at a shopping party the day before, she would willingly purchase, but that her husband does not like her to spend so much, and which she thus obtains from some young man, one quarter of whose monthly salary is probably sacrificed to his gallantry. When all the visitors, who have any business, are gone to their offices, another troop of idlers appears, still more frivolous than the former, and remains till the tiffin, at two o'clock, when the real dinner is eaten, and wines and strong beer from England are freely drank. The ladies then retire, and for the most part undress, and lye down with a novel in their hands, over which they generally sleep: about five o'clock the master of the family returns from his office, the lady dresses herself for the mount road; returns, dresses, dines, and goes froin table to bed, unless there be a ball, when she dresses again and dances all night; and this, I assure you, is a fair, very fair account of the usual life of a Madras lady.'-(p. 130.)

There is an excellent and well regulated naval hospital at Madras; a male orphan asylum, where boys are brought up to different trades, and another for female orphans, where girls are instructed in all kinds of needle work, and put in a way of gaining a livelihood. The botanical garden, which the late Dr. Anderson kept up at a great expense, is now in a state of ruin; but some useful plants, which he was the means of introducing to this part of the coast, have survived its decay; among others the nopal (cactus) which, as an excellent anti-scorbutic, is supplied to all the king's ships on the station.

In September Miss Graham arrives in the Hoogley, whose dreary and desolate entrance is rendered more gloomy and terrific by the numerous sharks and crocodiles in the water, and the snakes and tigers that bask in the jungle of the low black island of Sangor, where all the vigilance of the British government can scarcely prevent the dreadful scenes of human sacrifices to Kali; and which were formerly offered up annually in thousands.

The temple is ruined, but the infatuated votaries of Kali plunge into the waves that separate the island from the continent in the spot where the blood-stained fane once stood, and, crowned with flowers and robed in scarlet, singing hymns to the goddess, they devote themselves to destruction; and he who reaches the opposite shore without being devoured by the sacred sharks, becomes a Pariah, and regards himself as a being detested by the gods. Possessed by this frenzy of superstition, mothers have thrown their infants into the jaws of the sea monsters, and furnished scenes too horrible for description; but the yearly assembly at Sangor is now attended by troops, in order to prevent these horrid practices.'-(p. 132)

In advancing beyond this dismal scene, the gloom is gradually brightened by the appearance of villages and pagodas, peeping DD 2

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through the trees. "The river was covered with boats of every shape; villas adorn its banks; the scene became enchanting; all cultivated, all busy, and we felt that we were approaching a great capital.' The general appearance of grandeur in all the buildings-the groups of columns, porticoes, domes and fine gateways, interspersed with trees, and the broad river crowded with shipping, made the whole picture magnificent.' The government-house erected by Lord Wellesley, is a most splendid pile of building. The town-house, the court-house, and two churches, the largest of which has a fine portico, the hospital and jail, Fort William, with its extensive and handsome barracks, the foundery, and the neighbouring dock-yards, are all appropriate to this large and wealthy capital of the east, peopled by inhabitants from every corner of the globe. Chinese and Frenchmen, Persians and Germans, Arabs and Spaniards, Americans and Portugueze, Jews and Dutchmen, are seen mixing with the Hindoos' and English, the original inhabitants and the actual possessors of the country.'

Miss Graham found the English society of Calcutta, as might be expected, of a more varied character, and enriched with a greater portion of intellectual refinement, than that of either of the other presidencies; but it does not seem that the conquerors of Hindostan have much intercourse with any of their motley subjects.Every Briton appears to pride himself on being outrageously a John Bull. This is certainly John Bull's weak side; but when an unrestricted intercourse shall have taken place between Great Britain and India; when others, besides the appendages of the sovereign directors, shall be permitted to settle in the latter country, national prejudices will rapidly give way, and self-interest, if no kindlier principle, will bring the most opposite together. That the principal Hindoos are disposed to be social, we may infer from the following invitation, addressed to Miss Graham.

Maha Rajah, Rajhissen Bahaudur presents his respectful compliments to Mrs. Gram, and requests the honor of his company to a nautch (being Doorga Poojah) on the 5th, 6th and 7th October, at nine o'clock in the evening.'--And to the nautch Miss Graham went. The room was a large square court covered in with red cloth, to which was fastened a profusion of white artificial flowers. Some hundreds of people were assembled on the occasion. The Rajah led them to the most commodious seats, presented them with bouquets of the mogue and the rose, perfumed them with ittur, with a golden spoon from a vase of the same metal, sprinkled them with rose water, and placed boys behind each, with fans of red silk and gold fringe. I was pleased,' says Miss Graham, with the attention the Rajah paid to his guests, whether Hindoos, Chris

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