children, besides ourselves, but our attendants are near 200. We are obliged to carry tents, furniture, cooking-utensils, and food, so that our train cannot consist of fewer persons. Besides, we have koolies to carry our baggage, lascars to attend to and pitch our tents, servants to dress our food, and hamauls for our palanquins. Having sent on the baggage and servants the preceding day, we embarked at the bunder in the fort of Bombay, and after a three hours sail we reached Panwell, situated two miles inland, on a branch of the sea, the entrance to which is marked rather than defended by the little ruinous fort of Bellapoor.'

After travelling two days, they were met by Mr. Russel, the British resident at Poonah, who came to meet them. Next day they reached Tulligong. The country,' says Mrs. Graham, presents melancholy traces of the ravages of war and famine. The camps of Scindia and Holkar are every where discernible, and the march of their soldiers is marked by ruined houses and temples, and drained tanks. Tulligong is just recovering from the effects of the dreadful famine of 1805-6. It is said that, in this town alone, 80,000 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 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.

'We visited the rajah, who is hereditary general of the Maratta forces, and his family held other great offices; but they are now superseded in the peishwa's favour, and the general has nothing of his former consequence but his name, and a huge state elephant which is kept at his palace-gate. He is the guardian of the pagoda; and by his permission we were furnished with excellent fish from the tank. The rajah is a plump stupid-looking man, but good-natured and hospitable. He begged our friends to let the children visit him, for he had never seen an European child, and the Marattas say proverbially, when they would praise beauty, "As lovely as a white child.”

On the following day, December 19, our fair traveller exclaims, I have just seen what I thought I should never have met with on this side of Tibet, namely, an alive god, called the deo of Chimchore, who is nothing less than Ganesa himself, incarnate in the person of a boy of 12 years old, the eighth of his family honoured as the vehicle of the deity's appearance on earth. The first was Maraba, a Gosseyn, whose piety was so exemplary, that Ganesa rewarded it by becoming incarnate in his person, at the same time committing to his care a sacred stone, and the guardianship of his own temple, promising the same favours to his descendants for seven generations. These are now passed away; but as the piety and superstition of the deo's neighbours has enriched the family by grants of lands, and town and villages, the holy Bramins have decreed, that the god is still incarnate in the family of Maraba; and to the objection that the promise was only to seven generations, they answer, that as the deity was able to grant that favour to the seven immediate descendants of the holy Gosseyn, it would be impious to doubt his power of continuing it to their posterity. The deo's palace, or bara, is an enormous pile of building, without any kind of elegance, near the river Mootha, on which the town stands. As we entered the court, we saw a number of persons engaged in the honourable and holy office of mixing the sacred cow-dung to be spread on the floors of the bara. The whole palace looked

dirty, and every window was crowded with sleek well-fed Bramins, who doubtless take great care of the deo's revenues. We found his little godship seated in a mean viranda, on a low wooden seat, not any way distinguished from other children, but 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 allowed to play with other boys, nor is he permitted to speak any language but Sanscrit, that he may not converse with any but Bramins. He received us

very politely, said he was always pleased to see English people; and after some conversation, which a Bramin interpreted, we took leave, and were presented by his divine hand with almonds and sugar-candy perfumed with asafoetida, and he received in return a handful of rupees.

From the bara we went to the tombs of the former deos, which are so many small temples inclosed in a well paved court, planted round with trees, communicating with the river by a handsome flight of steps. Here was going on all the business of worship. In one place were women pouring oil, milk, and water, over the figures of the gods; in another, children decking them with flowers; here devotees and pilgrims performing their ablutions, and there priests chanting portions of the vedas; yet all going on in a manner that might beseem the inhabitants of the Castle of Indolence. I returned to our tents, filled with reflections not very favourable to the dignity of human nature, after witnessing such a degrading instance of superstitious folly.

'Sungum Poonah, December 20.-We arrived here last night at five o'clock. The residency is two miles from Poonah, at the junction of the rivers Moolha and Mootha, on which account it is called the Sungum or junction.

The apartments are a group of bungalos, or garden-houses, placed in a most delightful garden, where the apple, the pear, and the peach, the orange, the almond, and the fig, overshadow the strawberry, and are hedged in by the rose, the myrtle, and the jasmine.

'We experienced some disappointment this morning, for we were to have seen and conversed with a Nusteek philosopher,

who sent word that he was too ill to come to us. These sages are abhorred by the Bramins, who call them atheists, because they assert that the soul can be assured of nothing but its own existence, and that therefore we cannot be certain whether there be a God or no. The books of this sect are proscribed, nor dare any Bramin give or lend them, or even discover where they may be found. The Vedantis are not so unfavourably thought of; they deny the existence of matter, and affirm that our life is the effect of Maya or delusion, produced by Brehm, the eternal energy.

But I must leave these eastern speculations, and return to objects of common sight and hearing. To-day, for the first time, I rode on an elephant; his motions are by no means unpleasant, and they are quick enough to keep a horse at a round trot to keep up with him. The animal we rode is 11 feet high; his forehead and ears are beautifully mottled; his tusks are very thick, and sawed off to a convenient length for him to kneel, while his riders mount. On his back an enormous pad is placed, and tightly girt with chains and cotton rope; upon this is placed the horda, a kind of box divided into two parts; the front containing a seat large enough for two or three persons, and the back a space for the servant who bears the umbrella. The driver sits astride on the animal's neck, and with one foot behind each ear he guides him as he pleases. On our return we saw him fed. As soon as the howda is taken off, he is led to the water, where he washes and drinks; he is then fastened by the heels to a peg in his stable, where he lies down to sleep for a few hours in the night only. His food is rice, grass, leaves, and young branches of trees, but he is most fond of bread and fruit, especially the plantain.

Dec. 21.---This morning the gentlemen of our party joined those of the residency in a fox-chase, a favourite amusement of the young Englishmen here, although the heat always obliges them to quit the field by nine o'clock. The great sport of the Marattas is ram-fighting. The animals are trained for the purpose, and some of them which we saw were really beautiful; but as these were not spectacles for ladies, we

dismissed them without a combat, much to the disappointment of their owners, whose fondness for these shews is only exceeded by their love of gambling, which so possesses the Hindoos, that they sometimes play away their wives and children, and even their own liberty.

"I am sorry the peishwa is now absent on a pilgrimage, as I should like to see a native prince. I am told that he is a man of little or no ability, a great sensualist, and very superstitious. His time is spent in making pilgrimages, or buried in his zenana. Hardly a week passes without some devout procession, on which he squanders immense sums, and consequently he is always poor.

Panwel, Dec. 26. We left Poonah on the 23d, at daybreak, and arrived here yesterday afternoon. As we were walking down the ghaut, or pass, we met several horsemen from Scind and Guzerat, on their road to Poonah, in search of military service. They were very handsomely dressed and accoutred, and were walking, while their horses, richly caparisoned, were led. Their arms are swords, shields, and spears, painted and gilt. One warrior had a bow and arrows; his bow hung by his side, in a case covered with tissue; his arrows were light and delicately made, the heads of various shapes, pointed, barbed, or cut into crescents, and his quiver, slung over his shoulder, glittered with gilding and foil.

Point de Galle, island of Ceylon, Feb. 16, 1810.---Having been very unwell for some time, I was advised to take a short voyage for the recovery of my health. This is a remedy which seldom fails in this climate, and is found particularly useful in the intermitting fevers of the country. Accordingly, as some of our friends were sailing for England, we thought we could not do better than accompany them thus far on their passage.

We came here in an 800 ton country-ship, where every thing is as new to me as if I had never been on board of a large vessel before. All the sailors are lascars, and the only Europeans are the captain, three officers, and the surgeon; the gunners and quarter-masters, of whom there are 10, are