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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT    LOS  ANGELES 


u  LI  N  rut,  nupungg  Qp  CONNAl"^'-^  "^l'-  STRATHEARN 

AINTING  BY  FR  :_: 


Hn.ICO.tUXP  LBKERi:i?^ 


BOMBA.Y 


AVD 


WESTEEN    INDIA 


A   SIERTES   OF  STRAY   PAPERS 


BY 

JAMES   DOUGLAS 


'THE   CITY    wmmi    RV    GOns     KSSISTANfE    I<    IVTEVDEH   TO    BE   nUILT. 

— G.  Annffi(r,  16i<. 


VOLUME  II. 


LONDON 

SAMPSON  LOW,   MAESTOX  it   COMPANY, 

I.IMITE/) 

S't   fi)uiii^t<in's'  V>.o»^t 
Fetter    Lane,   Flkkt    Stueet,   E.C. 

1893 


LONDON  : 

PMNrjiD  BY   WILLIAM   CLOWES  ASD  SONS,    LIMITED, 

STAUfOKD  STREET   iVND  CII^VSING   0EOS5 


7 

/ 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  II. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

A  Forgotten  Goveenob  of  Bombay. 

Sir  Williaiii  Me.lows — Bombayof  1789 — Antecedents — -.Jovial  Times  atl'arel — 
— Harris  and  Medows — Seringapatam — Brothers  in  Arms       Pagea     1-8 

CHAPTER  XXXV 1. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  in  BoMn.\Y. 

A  Love  Passage — The  Duke's  Nose — The  Duke  of  Wellington  in  Bombay 
and  Western  India — The  Duke  in  India — The  Bombay  of  his  Period — 
A  Great  Dearth  of  Materials  —  The  Duke's  'i'riumiihal  Entry  into 
Bombay — The  Condition  of  tlie  People — Why  was  Arthur  Wellesley 
here — His  Celebrated  March  to  Poona — Duel;  Discipline  at  Nagar — 
Native  Opinion  of  the  Duke — Traits — Two  Notabilia — Was  the  Duke 
at  Matheran  ? — Tho  Duke  of  Wellington's  Bombay  Residence  9-30 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

Sib  James  Mackintosh,  oe  Bombay  1804  to  1812. 

Bombay  a  Dull  Place — The  Diary  and  Letters  of  Mackintosh — He  did  Good 
Work  in  Bombay — A  Quiet  Day  at  Parel — A  Noisy  Day  at  Tarala — 
Calls — On  the  .Jud;.;nient  Seat — An  Unspoken  Bombay  Serinun — -Mac- 
kintosh and  Wilson        ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ,.         31-45 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

MOUNTSTOABT   ElPHINSTONE. 

Items — His  Popularity — Purtrait— Political — Eccentricities — His  IHslory  of 
India — Governors  of  Bombay — Keligious  Character  and  Accomplish- 
ments— ^Biographical        ..  ..  ..  ..  4G-58 


357124 


IV  CONTENTS. 

CHAl'TEK    XX  XIX. 

Sir  John  Malcolm. 

rrelimiuary — Call'  Country — ^The  Soldiers'  Ketum — lu  Paris — A  Big  Day — 
Dinner  to  the  Ettiick  Shepherd — Governor  ol'  l'oiuba3' — Kcduciio  ad 
Ab^urduui — Vi  et  Armis — Person — Conclusion  ..         Pages     6'J-7t> 

CHAPTER  XL. 

Sir  Cuables  Jailes  Naweb,  G.C.B. 

Napier  a  Bombay  man — Portrait — llard  Hiding — Wellington  and  I\ai)icr — 
"  Shailau-ka-bliai " — McMurdo  of  the  Bloody  Hand — Acquisition  of 
Sind — Hard  Tmies — Fame  and  Fortune — ^A  Good  Hater — His  Contem- 
poraries— "  Sweari:ig  at  I..argc  " — Cardinal  Points — Exit  Carol  us     77-94 

CUAPTEK  XLl. 

l5iu  James  Outbam,  tue  Bayakd  of  tue  East. 

Sir  James  Outram  in  Bombay — Opposition — Sliikari — Escapes — Ways  aud 
Means — His  Furlough  iu  18i0 — Smokhig — Personal  'J5-10S 

CHAPIEK  XLII. 
Dk.  JouK  WiLsoK 109-124 

CHAPTEK   XLIll. 

The  Bombay  Aumy. 

War  Correspondents — The  Art  of  War — Services  of  tlie  Army  tu  Bombay — 
Its  Commanders  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..      lli.")-133 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

BlJATUU. 

Mcailovvs  Taylor — The  Accommodation — Tombs — Doves — Sheep  and  Dogs — 
Famine — The  Country  about  Bijapur — Glohe-trolters  ..     134-146 

CHAPTER  XLV. 

Basseix  akd  the  Portuguese. 

Portuguese  Dominion  in  India — Xaviir — Bassein  History — Tombs     147-150 


CONTENTS.  V 

CHAPTEK  XLVI. 

Sn'AJi's  Forts  :  I. — The  Fokt  ov  Kaigaiui. 

liaygarh  Ho! — ^'ie\v  of  Nagotlma  Creek  from  Bombay — Pacliad  and  the 
Staircase  — rosition — Descriptive — Architecture — A  View  from  Itaygarh 
— Wliy  Sivaji  Chose  Kiiygarh — -The  Euglish  Embassy — Xil  Desperau- 
dum — The  Burat  of  the  Monsoon — The  Coronation — Portrait — How 
they  Spent  the  Time — A  Transaction  in  Piece  Goods — Sivaji  and  the 
Engliah — ^Its  Memories  ..  ..  ..    Pages    157-180 

CHAPTEK  XL VII. 
SiVAJi's  Forts  :  II.— Torka  181-18G 

CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

SiVAJi's  FoBTs :  III. — The  Fort  of  Eajmachi,  near  Kuakdala. 

The  Bombay  Fort — ^The  Koad  to  it — ^The  Look-out — Condition  of  the 
People — The  Execution  of  Ghasi  Ram — Streams       ..  ..      187-197 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

The  Cave  Temples  oir  Western  India.  ' 

Visitors  in  past  times — Karli — Elephanta,  etc. — Monks — Manner  of  Life— 
Kailas — ^How  Caves  disappear — Decay  of  Ancient  Beliefs      ..     198-20'J 

CHAPTEK    L. 

Elephanta. 

Cloacae  Maximai — ^Big  snake  at  Elephanta — ^Tiger  at  Mazagon — Who  made 
Elephanta  V — Decay — Henry  Salt — Gibbon  and  Robertson — Death  of 
General  Pimble 210-221 

CHAPTER   LL 

Bombay  Castle. 

Area — Weighing  Book — Dr.  Willa's  amour — Captain  Crabb — Dungeons — Big , 
bell  222-229 

CHAPTER    LII. 

Malabar  Hill. 

Walkeshwar — Lord  of  Sand — Old  Temple — Stone  of  Regeneration — The  Hill 
in  18-12 — Pilgrims  in  the  Oldeii  Time — Lady  Falkland — View  from 
Caix;  Bombaim 230-2-11 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  LIII. 

The  Bombay  Cathedral. 

Oxiiulen'.s  Design — Child's  Malversation — Opeuiug  day,  1718 — "Skiiliiio;  tlie 
Bangor" — Associations — Tombs — Laus  Deo    ..  ..    Payes    242-254 

CHAPTER    LTV. 

Bombay  Harbour. 

Sagargadh  —  Kulaba  Fort  —  Chaul  —  Francis  Xavier  —  The  Prongs — Old 
Woman's  Island — Commodore  James — Butcher's  Island — Hog  Island — 
Sion's  desolation — Basscin — The  Bombay  Islands       ..  ..     255-266 

CHAPTER  LV. 

Matheban. 

First  View— The  "  Daisy  of  the  Hills  ''—The  Golden  Beetle — A  Quiet  Place 
—The  Dhangars— Geology        267-279 

CHAPTER  LVI. 

The  Valley  of  the  Tansa. 

The  Visitors  of  1770 — Vajrabai  Hot  Spring — The  Journey — In  a  Bullock- 
Gari— The  Place— Pilgrimage 280-298 

CHAPTER  LVII. 

VlJATANAGAR. 

The  Hindu  Kingdom — Site  of  the  City — Narasimha — Former  Trade — 
Greatness— Doom  299-309 

CHAPTER  LVIII. 

OuK  Coins. 

The  Rupee — Sir  Richard  Temple — India  a  Sink  of  Precious  Metals— Gold 
Mines  in  India — Ancient  Indian  Coins — Forgeries — The  Famine  of 
1876  310-319 

CHAPTER  LIX. 

Obme  the  Historian. 

Orme's  History — His  Advantages — Position — Clive — His  Honesty — Daulata- 
bad— Wise  Saws 320-329 


CONTENTS.  VII 

CHAPTER  LX. 

The  Red  Sea. 

The  Red  Sea  Disliked — The  Overland  route— Red  Sea  Ships — Scares — Old 
Skippers  —  Steam  in  Infancy  —  Colour — Sunsets  —  The  Arab  —  Two 
Heroes Pages     330-339 

CHAFrBR  LXI. 

Longevity  in  India. 

Old  Ladies — Patriarchs — Bernadotte  of  Sweden — Service  in  India — Sir  Walter 
Scott — Xavier — Nationalities — Tribute  of  Young  Lives — Untimely  ends 

340-350 

CHAFTER  LXIL 

Cannibal  and  Oqbb. 

A  Ghastly  Subject — Herodotus — The  MardiciU'a — Cannibalism — Thevenot — 
The  Agori  and  Girnar 351-362 

CHAPTER  LXIII. 

Anglo-Indian  Ghosts. 

Lord  Brougham — Henry  Salt — Warren  Hastings — Probable  Ghosts  at  Surat 
— The  Dapuri  Ghost — Colonel  Wallace's  Ghost — Bombay  Mint  Ghost — 
Spirits  from  the  Vasty  Deep      ..  ..  ..  ..  ..     363-370 

CHAPTER  LXIV. 
CONCLUBION 371-37-1 

APPENDIX. 

Governors  of  Bombay 375-380 

Index 381-414 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  VOLUME  II. 


TAGS 

U.K. II.  TUE  Duchess  of  Connaught.     (From  a   Portrait  by  Frank 

Brooks)     {Gravure)    ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  Frontispiece 

Louu  Harris,  G.C.B.,  of   Seringapatam  and   Bei.mont.     From  an 

Kiigraving  by  T.  A.  Dean)     {Gravure)        ..  ..  ..facing        1 

Lord  C'OBKWALLis.    (After  an  engraving  by  James  Ward)       ..  ..         o 

General  Sir  Abthdr  Wellesley,  K.r.,  1803.    (After  a  Painting  by 

Piobert  Home)     {Gravure)     ..  ..  ..  ..  ..facing        9 

The   Old    Court    House,   Bombay.     (Pbotograph  presented  by  Mr. 

S.  D.  Sassoou)  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..       lu 

The  Duke's  Tree  at  Aumadsagar.    (Pbotograpli  presented  by  3Ir. 

M.  H.  Scott,  C.S.) 30 

Aldourie  Castle.     (Photograpli  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Scorgie)  ..       31 

Sib  James  Mackintosh.    (After  a  Painting  by  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence) 

{Gravure)        facing      32 

Tub  Honourable  Jonathan  Dunxan   ..  ..  ..  ..  34 

Cumbernauld  House.     (Pliotograpb  iircsented  by  Mr.  J!.  V.  Eeid)    ..       46 
Mountstuart  Elpuinstone.     (After  a  Painting  by  H.  W.  Pickersgill, 

K.A.)    {Gravure) facing      48 

Sib  JosiAU  Child.     (From  an  Engraving  in  the  Britisli  Museum)     ..       53 
BuBNFOOT.     (From  a  Watercolour  of  1825)        ..  ..  ,.  ..       59 

Mrs.  Malcolm.     (From  tiie  Portrait  by  llaeburu)        ..  ..  ..       Gl 

Sib  John  Malcolm.    (From  engraved  Portrait  in  his  Life,  after  G. 

Hayter)  03 

Henry    Martyn.      (From   the  Portrait   in   the   Church   Missionary 

Society's  rooms)  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..       66 

Sir  John  Malcolm.    (Statue  by  Chantrey  in  Westminster  Abbey)  ..       74 
Monument  to  Sir  John   Malcolm  at   Langholm    Hill.    (Photo- 
graph by  C.  Carrutliers  and  Sous)     . .  . .  . .  . ,  . .       76 

Charles  J.  Napier,  at   the  age   of   16.     (From  a  miniature   by 

W.  H.  Egleton)  77 

Sib  Charles  J.  Napier.     (From  a  jxjsthumous  bust  by  G.  Adams)  ..       84 
General  Mabston.     (Photograpli  by  G.  Dowues,  Bedford)     ..  ..       89 

Napier's  Order   to   Storm  Amarkot.     (From  origiual  in  Bombay 

Secretariat)      ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..  ..       94 

Udny  Castle.     (Photograph  presented  by  Mr.  J.  Scorgie)      ..  ..       95 

Statue  of  Sir  James  Outham,  Calcutta      .,  ..  ..  ..     1117 

Db.  John  Wilson,  F.K.S.  (After  a  Pholograi^h  by  Molfatt)  (Gravure) 

facing     100 
VOL.   II.  b 


X  LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGB 

Lauder:  Bibthplace  of  De.  J.  Wilson.  (From  a  Photograph)  ..  110 
Sir  Egbert  Grakt,  G.C.B.,  Governor  of  Bombay,  1835-38.    (From 

au  Engraving  by  G.  C.  Lewis — Grillon  series)        ..          ..          ..  11.5 

The  Wilson  College,  Bombay  ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  124 

The    Great    Gun    at    Bijapur.     (Photograph   by   the   Honourable 

Justice  Parsons,  C.S.)             ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  134 

Meadows  Taylor.     (From  a  Photograph)         ..          ..          ..          ..  136 

Adansonia  Gigantea.    (Photograph  by  Mr.  H.  Littledale,  Baroda)  . .  144 

Bassein  Cathedral.  (Photograph  by  tlje  Hon'ble  Justice  Parsons,  C.S.)  148 

Xavier's  Tomb  at  Goa   ..         ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  152 

Eaygarh  Twin  Towers  and  Gangasagar  Task.      (By  Mr.   h.  P. 

Winter,  C.S.); 157 

Rajgarh.     (From  a  Sketch  by  Sir  E.  Temple  in  Proceedings  of  the 

Moijcd  Geographical  Society)  ..          ..           ..          ..           ..           ..  166 

Pratapgarh  and  Afzhl  Khan's  Tomb.     (Ibid.)        ..          ..          ..  167 

SiVAJi  on  Horseback.     (From  Tnde,  par  De  Jancigny  ct  Eaymond)  174 

The  Cenotaph  of  Sivaji  at  Eaygarh           180 

The  Waghnakh  or  Tiger's  Claw.  (Grant  Duft''s  History )  . .  181 
James  Fekgusson,  F.E.S.  (From  Illustrated  London  Netvs) ..  ..  203 
Stone  Elephant  at  Elephanta,  cir.  1790.  {Oriental  Annual,  1836)  211 
Bombay  Castle  :  the  old  Bbab  tree.  (From  a  Photograph  pre- 
sented by  Dr.  Sydney  Smith)            222 

Wai.keshwar  Temple.     (Photograph  by  Mr.  J.  Buclian)       ..          ..  230 

Lady  Falkland    ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  238 

Plan  of  Bombay  Cathedral,  1718.    (Cobbe's  Z/js<o?-«/)       ..          ..  246 

Elizabeth  Eivett.      (After  a  Painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds) 

(Gravure)        ^      " 249 

Bombay  Harbour,  1790.     (Oriental  Annual,  183G)   ..          ..          ..  256 

Bombay  Harbour,  1765.     (Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs)          ..          ..  259 

Sib  Henry  Morland.  (By  permission  of  Mr.  D.  Murray  Lyon)  ..  264 
Louisa   Point,   Matheran.     (Photograph  presented  by  Dr.  Sydney 

Smith) 267 

Bawamalano,  or  "  Cathedral    Eocks."    (Photograph  by  Mr.  H. 

Cousens)           ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  278 

Mahuli 280 

Ruined  Gateway  at  A'ijayanagar.     (Photogra]*h  by  Kicholas  and 

Co.) ' 299 

Boulders  at  Vijayanagar.    (Ibid.)     ..          ..         ..         ..         ..  302" 

Bombay  Eupee  of  1678.     (From  original  in   british  Museum)         ..  310 

Bust  of  Eobert  Orme,  the  Historian.    (From  Orme's  Fragments)  320 

Body  of  St.  Francis  Xavier  at  Goa            ..          ..          ..          ..  345 

Mount  Girnar  IN  Katiiiawab.    (From  a  Photograph)         ..         ..  351 

Girnar  Peaks.     (ToA's  Travels) 360 

Finis  Coronat  Opus.     (Photograph  by  Mr.  H.  Cousens)        ..          ..  374 


BEI.MONT 


-*jft-;i:N  LW  «-■> 


HlUXStKPLUtrKC; 


BOMBAY   AND  WESTERN    INDIA. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

A  Forgotten  Goveknok  of  Bojibay. 

It  is  not  easy  to  write  a  sketch  of  an  undistinguished  man — 
or  of  one  who  seldom,  if  ever,  rises  above  mediocrity,  who  passes 
througli  life  without  one  brilliant  episode,  whose  name  exists  in 
no  biographical  dictionary,  and  to  whom  no  niche  has  been 
assigned  in  the  temple  of  fame.*  It  is  not  thus  with  him  of 
Plassey  or  the  hero  of  Assaye,  or  even  his  viceregal  brother  the 
Marquis  of  Wellesley,  of  whom  men  spoke  on  his  death  in  this 
maguiloquent  language : — 

"  Euro]ie  and  Asia,  saved  by  thee,  proclaim 
Invincible  in  war  thy  deathless  fame." 

Though  General  Sir  William  Medows  served  his  king  and 
country  well  in  Europe,  Asia  and  America,  there  is  not  one 
vestige  to  recall  his  memory,  except  that  well-known  thorough- 
fare in  Bombay  whicli  bears  the  name  of  Medows  Street,  and 
even  it  is  supposed  by  many  people  to  have  some  reference  to 
the  green  fields  which  once  surrounded  the  Castle  and  Fort  of 
Bombay.  That  he  did  good  work  seems  evident  enough,  for 
work  may  be  good  though  it  is  not  conspicuous.  Here  is  an 
instance.     One    day    in    1788t    as    Medows  was    saunteruig 


•  The  interest  of  this  sketch  is  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  Lord  Harris, 
great-grandson  of  the  first  of  the  name,  came  out  to  Bombay  as  its  Governor 
in  1890. 

t  "  Downing  Street,  Aug.  17,  1787. 

"  Gentlemen, — In  our  conversation  a  few  days  ago,  I  thought  it  my  duty 
to  suggest  to  you  tlie  great  importance  (as  it  appears  to  me  on  a  variety  of 

VOL.  II.  n 


2  A  FORGOTTEN  GOVERNOR  OF  BOMBAY. 

leisurely  dovm  St.  James'  Street  he  met  by  the  merest  accident 
an  officer  who  had  served  under  him  in  America.  That  officer 
was  in  veiy  low  spirits,  as  officers  sometimes  are,  and  he  had 
sold  his  commission.  "  Have  you  actually  received  the 
money  ? "  "  No,"  was  the  reply,  "  there  is  a  delay  of  one  day 
owing  to  the  death  of  the  Princess  Amelia."  "Then,"  said 
Jledows,  "  you  go  and  stop  the  sale,  and  come  with  me  as  my 
Secretary  and  Aide-de-camp,  for  I  am  appointed  Governor  of 
Bombay."  The  sale  was  stopped,  and  Medows,  in  conjunction 
Nvith  his  brother  Earl  Manvers,  insured  the  dejected  man's  life 
for  £4000  for  the  benefit  of  his  wife  and  family,  and  they  came 
out  to  Bombay  in  the  same  ship,  all  which  facts  are  set  down 
duly  in  tlie  life  of  General  Lord  Harris. 

The  incident  constitutes  a  notable  link  in  a  chain  of  unfore- 
seen causes,  for  witliout  the  touch  of  Medows,  we  are  safe  in 
saying  Harris  would  never  have  become  Lord  of  Seringapatam. 
But  more  than  this,  and  wliich  fact  our  readers  will  do  well  to 
bear  in  mind,  it  was  Harris  who,  at  the  same  gTcat  siege,  gave 
Arthur  Wellesley  his  first  command,  and  which  was  virtually 
the  commencement  of  that  long  career  of  glory  which  surrounds 
the  name  of  tlie  Duke  of  Wellington.  Harris  waited  for  one 
day,  but — 

"  A  day  may  lie  a  destiny,  for  life  lives  in  but  little. 
And  that  little  teems  with  some  one  jot,  the  balance  of  all  time." 

The  eighteen  months  of  Medows'  Governorship  of  Bombay  were 
uneventful. 

The  Bombay  of  1789  contained  about  160,000  inhabitants  ; 
the  great  native  town  was  only  beginning  to  spread  over  the 
space  it  now  covers,  nor  did  Malabar  Hill  or  Breach  Candy 


accounts)  of  sending  some  person  of  eminence  and  particularly  a  military 
man  as  Governor  and  Commander-in-Chief  to  Bombay,  and  I  was  induced 
jiarticularly  to  call  your  attention  to  General  Medows,  whose  character  and 
services  seem  peculiarly  to  qualify  him  for  that  most  imjwrtant  post.  As 
you  expressed  a  wish  to  have  those  sentiments  in  writing,  I  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  stating  them  to  you,  leaving  it  to  you  to  make  what  use  of  them  you 
think  proper  ...  I  have  the  honour  to  be.  Gentlemen, 

"  Your  most  obedient,  faithful  Servant, 

"  W.  Pitt." 
"  Chairman  and  Deputy-Chairman  of  The  East  India  Company." 


JOHN   BEST.  6 

exist  as  places  of  residence.  The  (iDveiiinr  lived  at  Parel,  and 
sometimes  at  tlie  Government  House  in  Apollo  Street.  His 
income  was  Es.  10,000  sicca  per  month,  for,  though  the  salaries 
of  every  European  official  and  non-official  in  "Western  India 
have  been  trebled  or  quadrupled  since  that  time,  no  change  has 
been  made  in  the  emoluments  of  this  high  ofi&ce,  wliich  remain 
as  they  did  one  hundred  years  ago.  The  rise  in  the  wages  of 
lal)Our  and  the  price  of  subsistence  have  not  enhanced  in  any 
degree  tlie  silver  money  value  of  this  appointment.  There  is  a 
story  told  by  Mr.  Lushington,  Lord  Harris's  Private  Secretary, 
and  afterwards  Clovernor  of  Madras,  for  the  authenticity  of 
■which  he  vouches.  Sir  William  iledows  arrived  in  Bombay  in 
the  end  of  1788,  and  in  1790  assumed  the  Governorship  of 
Madras,  from  Mliich  he  finally  retired  in  August  1792,*  complet- 
ing less  than  four  years  service  in  India.  Major  Hari'is,  who  in 
addition  to  his  duties  as  Secretary  and  Aide-de-camp,  managed 
the  Governor's  money  matters  both  in  Bombay  and  Madras, 
then  handed  him  over,  after  settling  every  liability,  the  sum  of 
£•40,000.  On  some  one  expressing  surprise  at  the  amount,  the 
Governor  replied,  "  Harris  knows  how  he  scraped  it  together,  I 
don't."  Neither  do  we.  The  money  was  no  doubt  honestly 
come  by.  It  only  shows  what  lucrative  appointments  there 
were  in  those  days  with  perquisites  attached  to  them,  for  con- 
sidering its  purchasing  power  of  almost  every  commodity  that 
would  be  named  by  the  political  economist,  the  value  of 
£40,000  then  was  equal  to  £100,000  of  our  money  now. 

When  Major  Harris  came  out  to  Bombay  he  brought  with 
him  a  valet  by  name  John  Best,  or  as  Medows  called  him  the 
"  best  of  Johns."  John  was  something  of  a  liero,  for  he  was  one  of 
(and  though  bowled  over  by  an  accident,  cheered  on,)  the  forlorn 
hope  at  the  gi-eat  siege  of  Seringapatam  in  1798,  and  when 
Medows  died  in  1813,  lie  bequeathed  a  sword  to  this  old  and 
trusty  servant.  It  illustrates  the  manner  of  the  time  that  Jlrs. 
Harris,  who  remained  in  England,  fearing  that  her  husband 
might  not  find  time  to  write  l)y  every  opportunity,  com- 
missioned John  to  drop  her  a  few  lines  occasionally.  One  of 
these  letters  has  been  preserved,  and  we  give  our  readers  the 


For  some  account  of  Medows,  .see  Memoirs  of  a  FieM-Officer. — B. 


4  A   FOKGOTTEN    GOVERNOR    OF   BOMBAY. 

benefit  of  it,*  as  it  lets  in  a  stream  of  daylight  on  the  mode  of 
life  at  Parel,  and  the  gay  doings  there,  which  we  will  seek  for 
in  vain  in  the  larger  liistories  of  the  time.  No  man  is  a  hero  to 
his  valet,  but  our  readers  will  see  from  this  naive  Bombay  pro- 
duction of  1789,  that  Major  Harris  was  an  exception  to  the 
proverb.  We  may  fancy  John  Best  and  possibly  his  master 
taking  a  stroll  along  the  sliores  of  Backliay,  some  Sunday  after- 
noon in  the  December  of  1788,  and  scrutinising  those  grave 
stones,  which  have  been  recently  exhumed  in  the  Marine 
Lines,  before  the  sea  sand  had  shut  them  out  from  the  light 
of  day,  and  possibly  also  like  om-selves  reading  tlie  inscription 


*  "  Bombay,  Jamtary  9,  1789. 

"  Madam, — -It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  inform  you,  by  the  ship  '  Prince 
William  Henry,'  which  is  thought  to  be  the  first  ship  to  London  from  this 
coast,  and  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  my  master  is  in  perfect  good  health, 
and  in  a  very  comfortable  healthy  situation  at  present,  and  I  hope  you  will 
receive  this  in  good  health  and  prosperity.  And  ever  since  we  left  London, 
Madam,  there  has  been  a  great  many  pleasant  aflairs  past,  which  did  give  me 
the  greatest  comfort  in  the  world ;  for  to  see  concerning  my  master  on  board 
the  '  Winterton ' — we  had  not  been  long  on  board  before  they  all  see'd,  from 
my  master's  good  pleasant  looks  and  civil  behaviour,  that  he  was  the 
sensiblest  man  on  board,  and  in  a  short  time  they  all  became  so  very  much 
pleased  with  him,  that  they  did  ask  his  advice  at  all  times,  for  he  perfectly 
at  last  gained  all  their  favours;  and  if  he  had  wanted  any  favour,  or  asked 
the  captain  to  forgive  any  man  when  he  was  angry,  it  was  always  granted. 
And  when  we  landed  at  Bombay,  in  two  days  all  was  ready  to  entertain  the 
gentlemen  when  they  came  to  dine  with  the  Governor,  for  every  day  there  is 
twelve  or  twenty  different  men  at  least  every  da^',  and  they  do  make  very 
free  and  pass  the  time  cheerfully,  which  is  very  pleasant  to  see  ;  for  I  have 
often  thought  in  my  breast,  if  you  did  see  how  my  master  makes  all  the 
gentlemen  so  happy,  it  wou'd  in  the  first  place,  it  would  surprise  any  person 
for  to  see,  it  is  so  well  carried  on.  And  my  master  sits  at  the  head  of  the 
table,  and  the  General  at  the  side,  for  he  gives  all  tlie  care  to  my  master,  and 
he  gives  the  gentlemen  many  broad  hints  that  it  is  all  Col.  Harris's,  which 
makes  it  appear  very  pleasant  to  me  for  to  see  them  at  all  times  like  two 
brothers.  The  Governor  very  often  tells  the  gentlemen  some  good  story 
concerning  Col.  Harris,  and  they  both  agree  in  the  same  in  such  good  nature, 
that  it  makes  it  very  pleasant ;  and  my  master  always  drinks  a  glass  of  wine 
with  every  strange  gentleman  at  table,  and  sometimes  a  great  many,  to  the 
great  pleasure  of  all  the  people  at  table ;  it  looks  so  well,  that  when  any 
strange  gentleman  comes  to  dine  the  first  time,  they  seem  quite  sur])rised, 
and  all  the  time  keep  their  eyes  lixed  upon  my  master  ;  so,  I  tliiuk,  the  best 
comparison  1  can  make  is,  they  look  as  if  they  were  all  his  own  children. 
But  I  am  sorry  to  see  the  gentlemen  live  so  fast;  but,  to  my  great  comfort, 
my  master  is  as  careful  as  ever  lie  was  at  home,  and  in  every  particular 
careful  of  his  self.  And  this  wine,  you  must  know,  that  he  drinks,  is  three 
parts  water.  If  you  will  jiut  two  glasses  of  water  and  one  of  madeira,  and 
then  a  little  claret,  you  will  not  perceive  any  difference,  and  the  claret,  one 


LORD    COKNWAILIS.  5 

"  Bell  Carlton,  Senior  Merchant,"  *  and  asking  inwardly,  Who 
was  he  ? 

Medows,  Harris,  and  perliaps  John  Best  were  very  likely  tiie 
most  notable  men  in  Bombay  in  tlie  year  1789.     'J'liey  were  all 


LORD    COKNWALLIS. 

Bombay  men  in  tliis  sense,  thongh  their  constant  residence  did 
not  extend  over  a  period  of  eighteen  months. 
Medows  must  have  been  a  man  of  ability,  or  he  could  never 

glass  of  water  to  one  glass  of  claret.  This  I  always  mind  myself,  and  give 
him,  when  he  calls  for  madeira  or  claret.  I  hope,  Sladam,  you  will  forgive 
me  for  giving  myself  the  ^reat  honour  of  writing  to  you. 

"  1  am  with  respect,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

"John  Best." 

This  letter,  in  its  original  spelling,  would  liave  been  more  amusing  and 
natural,  but  the  copy  in  Mrs.  Dyer's  handwriting  is  alone  I'orthcoming. 

Men  lived  very  fast  in  those  days,  as  is  sufficiently  evident  from  this  and 
the  note  on  p.  G.  John  knew  what  would  please  his  mistress,  so  he  dashes 
the  claret  with  a  good  deal  of  water. 

*  Bell  Carlton,  a  civilian,  arrived  in  India,  17G9. 


6  A    FOKGOTTEX   GOVERNOR    OF    BOMBAY. 

have  held  the  appointments  which  he  did.  It  is  quite  true  that 
Lord  Cornwallis  superseded  liim  in  the  first  Mysore  War,  but  it 
was  the  same  Lord  Cornwallis,  who,  on  resigning  the  viceroyalty 
of  Ireland  in  1801,  appointed  Medows  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  forces  there  at  one  of  the  most  important  junctures  in  Irish 
history,  an  office  which  he  held  for  two  years. 

Men  do  not — cannot — always  succeed  and,  though  General 
Medows  took  the  wrong  side  of  a  hedge  at  tlie  first  siege  of 
Seringapatam  and  exposed  Cornwallis  to  imminent  jeopardy  in 
the  darkness  of  the  night,  liis  superior  officer  did  not  set  it  down 
as  an  unpardonable  sin,  that  could  never  be  atoned  for  by  any 
gallant  act  past  or  future.  Xo  man  felt  the  wound  of  an  un- 
successful exploit  more  than  Medows,  for  even  the  incident  to 
which  we  allude  made  him  lose  his  head.  Wlien  the  salute 
was  being  tired  on  the  capitulation  of  Seringapatam  he  was  so 
stung  to  the  quick  that  he  very  nearly  put  an  end  to  his 
existence  !  *  Was  he  brave  ?  As  brave  as  any  soldier  that  ever 
lived.  In  the  American  war  he  was  knocked  off  Ms  horse,  the 
ball  passing  through  his  back,  and  he  did  not  shrink  from  ex- 
posing himself  to  the  hottest  fire,  and  could  not  see  danger,  until 
some  friend  would  jump  up  beside  him  with  a  "  If  you,  sir,  think 
it  right  to  remain  here,  it  is  my  duty  to  stand  by  you,"  and  he 
would  then  descend  somewliat  reluctantly  from  his  perilous 
position.  Was  he  a  good  man  ?  All  I  know  is  that  General 
Harris  was  one  of  the  best  of  men,  and  if  Medows  had  not  been 
a  man  of  worth,  he  would  never  have  been  liis  bosom  friend. 
The  friendship  which  subsisted  between  ]Medows  and  Harris  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  in  military  history,  or  in  any  history. 
It  is  strange  that  so  few  novelists  have  treated  of  such  attach- 
ments, for  surely  the  story  of  a  fast  friendship  such  as  this  has 
abundant  materials  to  rouse  tlie  imagination  of  the  writer  and 
engage  the  attention  of  the  reader.     Of  love  and  murder  nowa- 


*  "  When  Cornwallis  saw  him  in  the  morning  he  said  to  him  in  a  sharp 
interrogatory,  'Where  had  General  Medows  been  disposing  of  himself'?' 
This  stung  him  to  the  heart,  and  shortly  after  he  tired  a  pistol  at  himself  and 
lodged  three  slugs  in  his  body  which  were  extracted.  He  expressed  himself 
sincerely  penitent,  and  afterwards  could  be  even  facetious  on  the  event. 
'  Mr.  Medows  had  had  a  misunderstanding  with  General  Medows  that 
had  terminated  in  a  duel  in  which  matters  had  been  adjusted.'" — Price's 
Memorials,  1839. 


GENERAX    MEDOWS    AND    LORD    HARRIS.  7 

days  we  have  in  all  conscience  more  than  enough,  aye,  usque  ad 
nauseam.  Why  don't  they  change  and  give  us  something 
"  passing  the  love  of  women  " — not  our  love  for  them  but  their 
love  for  us  ?  A  friendship  of  fifty  years  in  many  lands  and 
under  varied  circumstances  is  not  an  everyday  occurrence. 

It  is  not  always  that  men  remember  to  speak  well  of  their 
early  patrons.  Change  of  affection,  interest  or  position,  the 
violence  of  party  or  political  hate,  the  pronunciamento  of  some 
religious  doctrine  by  the  one  not  held  l)y  the  other,  these  are 
some  of  the  thousand  and  one  causes  which  lead  on  to  estrange- 
ment and  inevitable  alienation  never  to  be  recalled.  It  was  not 
thus  with  Harris  and  Medows.  Distance  could  not  impair  it 
nor  time  wither  it,  nor  altered  position — the  breath  of  en\'y — 
the  voice  of  calumny  could  not  sully  a  friendship  so  pure  and 
disinterested. 

It  began  when  Harris  was  seventeen  and  Medows  twenty- 
four,  some  boyish  duel  that  Harris  had  with  a  friend  of  Medows 
bringing  them  together.  This  was  in  1762,  and  until  1793  they 
seemed  to  have  been  constantly  together.  They  had  fought  the 
Americans  on  the  Delaware  and  drove  them  into  theii*  works, — 
on  Long  Island, — they  tumbled  over  a  gateway,  littered  it  witli 
straw  and  slept  together  within  the  eighth  mdestoue  from  New 
York. 

They  fought  and  beat  the  French  at  the  Vigie  in  the  West 
Indies,  as  you  may  .still  read  in  military  annals,  and  together  in 
the  East  Indies  they  stormed  Bangalor  and  Seringapatani. 

Fanny  was  the  wife  of  Medows,  and  Harris  rejoiced  in  his 
Nancy,  and  when  wounded  and  unable  to  stretch  a  hand  or 
move  a  limb,  "  It's  lucky  that  Fanny  does  not  know  this,"  or 
"  I  wish  I  were  with  Nancy,"  were  the  only  words  that  escaped 
from  their  lips.  And  here  they  are  at  Parel,*  on  this  Christmas 
day  of  1788,  as  John  Best  hath  it,  "  like  two  brothers,"  the 
Secretary  in  the  seat  of  honour  at  the  liead  of  the  table  and  the 
Governor  at  the  side  more  honourable  than  ever.  The  dinner 
is  good.  "  Yes,  but  it's  all  Harris,"  says  the  President,  and  so 
the  joke  goes  round,  and  as  the  night  advances,  mirth  loud 


*  llijih  up,  out-side  tho   dining-room,   and  which  was   the  chapel   when 
I'arcl  belonged  to  the  Jesuits,  is  a  plaque  on  which  is  printed — 

"  Built  by  Honourable  Hornby,  1771."     (Copied,  Nov.  2,  1887.) 


8  A  FORGOTTEN  GOVERNOR  OF  BOMBAY. 

enough  to  shake  the  walls  of  the  old  convent — you  might  hear 
it  at  Belvidere.  I  do  not  wonder  that  Medows  exercised  a  great 
dominion  over  Harris. 

Kaye  may  tell  me  that  Medows  was  not  the  accomplished 
General,  another  that  he  was  careless  of  his  afJiiirs,  and  a  third 
that  he  was  idle  and  incompetent,  but  he  must  have  had  a  soul 
of  goodness  in  him,  and  I  cease  to  marvel  that  Harris  yielded 
up  his  heart — surrendered  at  discretiou,  would  have  gone  between 
liim  and  a  cannon  ball,  as  he  said  himself,  if  he  only  knew  it 
was  coming.  Ctood  man  Medows,  when  you  were  Commander- 
in-Chief  in  Ireland,  if  all  stories  are  true,  you  visited  the  sick 
soldier,  and  saw  that  his  food  and  bedding  \were  as  they  ought 
to  be.  And  so,  reader,  it  came  to  pass  that  the  man  whose 
name  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  dictionary  of  biography  was 
never  forgotten  by  the  Lord  Harris  of  Belmont  and  the  Mysore 
in  the  Peerage  of  England,  nay  even  after  his  praises  had  been 
sounded  by  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  for  at  the  age  of  three 
score  years  and  ten,  in  a  document  intended  for  the  eyes  of 
posterity,  Harris  wrote  down,  "  I  owe  all  my  fame  and  fortune 
to  Medows."  No  sketch  of  the  one  can  be  -written  without 
reference  to  the  other ;  if  you  wish  Medows  you  must  go  to 
Harris,  for  they  were  linked  together  in  the  bonds  of  an  indis- 
soluble friendship  that  moulded  the  framework  of  their  lives. 
Brethren  in  arms  !  In  arms  did  we  say  ?  Yea,  in  everything 
comprehended  in  the  holy  name  of  brotherhood,  compared  with 
which  the  proudest  honours  in  the  roll  of  fame,  or  the  diamonds 
in  his  coronet,  were  as  the  small  dust  in  the  balance.  Their 
love  was  like  that  of  Da\'id  and  Jonathan,  and  tlie  words  of 
Burns  on  his  early  patron  express  the  affection  which  Harris 
bore  to  tliis  now  forgotten  Governor  of  Bombay : — 

"  But  I'll  remember  thee,  Glencaim, 
And  a'  that  thou  hast  done  for  me."  * 


•  For  several  details  in  this  sketch  we  are  indebted  to  Colonel  Konnan,  C.B., 
whose  familiarity  with  every  detail  of  Bombay  history  is  beyond  all  praise, 
and  all  the  more  creditable,  as  his  long  service  has  been  in  the  Korth  or 
North- West  of  India.  Kow  General  Norman,  in  command  of  the  Bengal 
contiDgent  in  Burma. 


SIR  ARTHUR  WELLESLEY,  K,P  1803 


(     9     ) 


CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

The  JJuke  of  Wellington  in  Bombay. 

*' 1  am  nimnmhwaUa,  as  we  say  iu  the  East,  that  is,  I  have  ate  of  ihe 
Kings  salt,  and  therefore  I  conceive  it  to  be  my  duty  to  serve  with  unhesita- 
ting zeal  and  cheerfulness  when  or  wherever  the  Kiug  or  his  Government  may 
think  iH'oper  to  employ  me." — Ileply  of  the  Duke  of  Wellinijtoi),  on  afritnd 
remarking  to  him  that  he  had  been  reduced  from  his  hiijh  rank  to  the 
command  of  a  brigade  of  infantry.     Hastings,  September,  1805. 

"  I  was  feasted  out  of  Bombay,  and  I  was  feasted  into  it." 

Duke  of  Wellington's  Despatches. 

A   LOVE-PASSAGE. 

"  I  THANK  you  for  the  picture,  of  wliicli,  however,  I  must 
observe,  with  my  friends  here,  that  the  two  or  three  glances 
which  you  mention  made  very  little  impression  on  the  fair 
artist,  as  the  picture  is  as  like  anybody  else,  as  it  is  of  the 
person  for  whom  it  is  intended.  I  sliall  write  to  her,  never- 
theless, and  I  propose  to  tell  her  that  I  am  glad  tliat  those  few 
glances  made  an  impression  upon  her  memory  so  exceedingly 
favourable  ;  and  I  have  employed  a  gentleman  here  to  draw  the 
picture  of  a  damsel  in  the  character  of  a' shepherdess,  which  I 
shall  also  present  as  tlie  effect  of  the  impression  made  upon  my 
memory  by  tlie  fair  artist. 

"  Arthur  Wellesley. 
"  Seriugapatam,  Nov.  6th,  1801." 

This  passage  is  crystallized  in  one  of  tlie  Duke's  despatches — 
shall  we  say  like  a  gem  in  a  lot  of  rubbish  ?  It  is  addressed  to 
Jonathan  Duncan,  Governor  of  ISombay,  and  tolls  the  old,  old 
story  of  romance,  love,  and  ilirtation.     I'oor  girl  ! 

When  the  Duke  was  a  gay  young  aide-de-camp  at  the  Irish 
Court  he  was  engaged  to  Lady  Calluaiue  Pakenliam.     While 

VOL.  II.  c: 


10  THE  DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON  IN  BOMBAY. 

he  was  in  ludia  she  liad  been  attacked  by  small-pox,  and 
shortly  after  he  left  England  she  wrote  to  tell  him  her  beauty 
was  gone,  and  that  he  was  a  free  man.* 

How  could  a  young  lady,  living  in  Bombay,  be  expected  to 
know  all  this  in  those  days,  when  betrothals  were  not  proclauned 
from  the  house-tops  ? 

The  Duke  was  thirty-two  and  an  uncommonly  handsome 
man,  and  we  do  not  need  his  portrait  by  Lawrence  to  tell  us 
this.  He  is  described  by  Mouutstuart  Elphinstone,  in  his 
Bombay  and  Pooua  days,  as  almost  at  times  boyish  in  his 
manners.  We  need  not  therefore  wonder  that  a  Bombay 
young  lady  fell  in  love  with  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  There 
were  dozens  more  no  doubt. 

"  Huw  liappy  could  I  be  witli  either, 
Were  t'  other  dear  charmer  away!"    " 

The  wonder  to  us  is  that  the  Duke  ever  got  out  of  the  place. 
Who  this  lady  was  we  shall  never  know.  Mis.  Hougli,t  who 
was  with  us  until  the  other  day,  could  have  told  us  all  about  it. 
There  were  some  good  sketchers  among  the  Boml)ay  ladies  of 
this  period,  and  Mrs.  Ashburner,  the  friend  of  -Sir  James 
Mackiutfish  and  Amelia  Opie,  has  left  us  a  beautiful  vignette  in 
Basil  Hall's  travels.  But,  painter  or  lover,  there  is  nothing  to 
be  ashamed  of  It  was  a  pure,  a  tender,  and  a  loity  passion  on 
her  part. 

"  As  in  the  bosom  of  the  stream 

The  moonbeam  dwells  at  dewy  e'en, 

So  trembling  pure  was  tender  love 

Within  the  breast  o'  bonny  Jean.'' 

And  we  may  well  believe  that  .she  never  told  her  love  except 
on  this  occasion,  when  she  confided  the  great  secret  to  that 


"  lUit  he  rotiiiucd  to  claim  her  hand,  and  her  hand  was  freelj'  given, 
April  mth,  1806. 

t  "  Mrs.  Housh  died  on  June  2!th,  1873,  aged  eidity-eiglit,  and  had  danced 
with  the  Uuke  in  Honibay.  Widow  of  the  late  Col.  II.  II.  Hough,  Military 
A>idit(ir-G(Mcial,  Bombay.  Mr.s.  Ilou'jh  was  married  in  Calcutta  in  1800. 
In  18(il)  she  Uiounted  to  the  top  of  the  Sanitary  Commissioner's  Office  in 
Dhobi  Talao,  five  stories  up." — Dr.  Hewlett,  Kov.  1, 1887. 


PORTRAIT.  1 1 

"  Brahiiianised  Scotsman,"  *  Jonatliau  Duncan.  His  ear  was 
never  deaf  to  the  cry  of  suffering  linmanity,  as  we  may  still  see 
from  the  bas-reliefs  on  his  tomb  in  the  Bombay  Cathedral. 
'•  Infanticide  abolished  in  Benares  and  Kattywar,"  in  capital 
letters,  proclaims  liim  tlie  great  law-giver,  full  of  mercy  as  well 
as  justice.  What  wonder,  then,  if  lie  turned  away  his  attention 
from  tlie  contemplation  of  the  sickening  land  tenures  of 
Salsette  to  the  bright  eyes  and  tenures  that  bound  him  to  the 
softer  sex  ?     And  the  Duke — 

"Ave  Maria,  maiden  mild, 
Listen  to  a  maiden's  prayer." 

The  Genius  of  Flirtation  came  to  liis  aid  in  this  great  extremity. 

"  I  cannot  all  day  be  neglecting  Madras, 
Or  sligliting  Bombay,  for  the  sake  of  a  Lass."  f 

Happy  thought.  "  I  shall  wTite  to  her,  nevertheless." 
Reciprocate  her  affection  ?  No,  not  exactly ;  pay  her  back  in 
her  own  coin  ;  do  to  her  as  she  hath  done  to  me,  send  her  lier 
own  portrait  as  she  hath  sent  me  mine.     0  thou  Iron  Duke  ' 

A  glorious  picture  this!  Old  bachelor f  acting  black-foot^ 
to  a  distressed  damsel,  and  the  hero  to  be  of  a  "  hundred  fights  " 
with  one  more  fyghte  added  to  the  number. 

The  Duke  indicates  that  the  picture  was  that  of  "  anybody." 
There  was  one  distinguishing  feature  in  the  Duke's  [)hysiognomy 
that  made  lum  differ  from  most  men.  1  wonder  she  did  not 
manage  to  paint  his  nose.  I  have  lialf  a  doubt  that  the  Duke 
eliminated  this  portion  of  his  features  in  his  hasty  estimate  of 
the  portrait,  and  that  at  that  particular  moment  tlie  (jaiius  loci, 
a  la  Pepper's  ghost  in  the  shape  of  Lady  Pakenham,  was 
looking  over  his  riglit  shoulder. 

There  is  a  bungalow  at  Khandala,  erected  by  Mountstuart 
Elphinstone  (Governor,  1819-27),  where  he  very  often  resided 
It  is  situated  on  a  knoll  overhanging  a  great  precipice,  down 


•  Mackintosh  tlms  designates  liim. 

t  Lord  Miicaulay. 

X  .Ktat.  45. 

§  Gu-bctivccn  in  match-miking. 


12  THE    DUKK    OF    WELLINGTON    IN    BOMBAY. 

which  a  water-fall  tumbles  1200  feet  in  four  successive  falls. 
What  if,  \\hen  the  snows  of  age  had  descended  on  the  fair 
shepherdess,  at  some  point  near  this,  she  drew  from  her  album 
the  picture  which  Wellesley  had  sent  her  ere  his  brow  had  been 
laurcUed  bj'  one  single  victory  ?  You  may  rest  assm-ed  that  it 
was  brought  forth  from  its  hiding-place  neither  in  pain,  nor  in 
sorrow,  nor  in  anger,  but  to  a  delighted  family  and  friends, 
herself  more  delighted  than  all  the  rest.     And  tlien  there  was 

THE   duke's   nose. 

If  he  never  saw  his  own  nose  nor  the  nose  in  the  picture 
which  was  gifted  to  him  in  1801,  nor  any  of  the  hundred 
duke's  noses  scattered  over  the  world,  it  is  certain — and  who 
can  paint  lilvc  Nature  ? — that  he  saw  this  one,  near  Khaudala. 

The  Duke  was  very  reticent  on  the  subject  of  the  ladies  of 
Bombay  or  the  Dekhan.  In  all  the  volumes  of  his  Indian 
despatches,  one  and  only  one,  comes  in  for  a  share  of  panegyric. 
Of  one  he  says ;  "  She  is  very  fair  and  very  handsome,  and  well 
deserves  to  be  the  object  of  a  treaty."  He  wrote  this  at 
Panwel  The  lady  was  a  widow,  but  the  treaty  alluded  to  had 
nothing  to  do  with  matrimony.  I  think  it  was  tout  au 
contraire — to  give  the  lady  a  tlovernment  pension  of  Es.  1200 
per  mensem  if  she  did  not  marry.* 

THE   DUKE   IN   INDI.V. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  was  about  eight  years  in  India 
(1797  to  1805).  He  resided  in  Bombay  in  March  and  April, 
1801,  when  he  came  to  hurry  off  Sir  David  Baird's  expedition 
to  Egypt  to  meet  the  Great  Napoleon ;  and  again  from  Slarch  to 
Ma\%  1804,  after  the  battle  of  Assaye.f     But  from  March,  1803, 


*  Tbe  widow  of  Nana  Fadnavis. 

t  Leyden's  lines  on  Assaye  maybe  given  here  : — 

"  Shout,  Britons,  for  the  battle  of  Asfaye, 
For  that  was  a  day 
AVlien  we  stood  in  our  array, 
Like  the  Lion's  miglit  at  hay ; 
And  our  battle-word  was  Conquer  or  Die. 


LEYDEN    ON    ASSAYE.  13 

to  July,  1804,  ho  was  in  or  about  the  Bombay  Presidency,  and 
Iris  two  great  victories  of  Assaye  and  Argaum  *  were  gained  in 
our  neighbourhood,  within  200  miles  of  Bombay.t  Bombay 
may  therefore  claim  to  have  some  part  in  the  military  education 
of  tliis  illustrious  hero,  for  Assaye  and  Argaum  are  the  first  in 
the  long  roll  of  liis  conquests  \vhicli  history  records,  and  it  was 
on  the  burning  plains  of  the  Uekhan  that  Arthur  Wellesley  first 
tried  his  'prentice  hand  at  the  art  of  war. 

THE   BOMBAY   OF   HIS   PERIOD 

was  not  like  the  Bombay  of  to-day,  except  in  its  topographical 
surroundings,  and  even  these  have  been  modified  by  land  re- 
clamation from  the  sea.  It  was  "  a  city  fortified,"  and  its  walls 
enclosed  a  population  of  about  100,000,  with  as  many  outside. 

Rouse,  rouse  the  cruel  leopard  from  his  lair. 

With  his  j'ell  the  mountain  rings; 

And  his  red  eye  round  he  flings. 

As  arrow-like  lie  springs. 
And  sjireads  his  clutching  paw  to  rend  and  tear. 

There  first  arrayed  in  battle  we  saw. 

Far  as  the  eye  could  glance, 

The  Mahratta  banners  dance, 

O'er  the  desolate  expanse. 
And  their  standard  was  the  leopard  of  Malw;i. 

liiit  when  we  first  encountered,  man  to  man. 
Sucli  odds  came  never  on 
Against  Greece  at  Marathon 
When  they  shook  the  Persian  throne, 

'Mid  the  old  barbaric  pomp  of  Ispahan. 

No  number'd  might  of  living  men  could  tame 
Our  gallant  band  that  broke 
Tlirough  tlie  bursting  clouds  of  smoke. 
When  the  vollied  thunder  six)ke, 

From  a  thousand  (s)mouldering  mouths  of  lurid  flame. 

*  *  ♦  «  « 

Shout,  Britons,  for  the  battle  of  Assaye; 

Ye  who  perished  in  your  prime, 

Yoiu'  hallowed  names  sublime. 

Shall  live  to  ceaseless  time, 
Your  heroic  worth  and  fame  shall  never  die." 

— Norton's  Early  Letters  of  Thomas  CarJyle,  vol.  i.,  |i.  8. 

*  Assaye,  September  23rd,  1803  ;  Argaum,  Novenaber  "iSth,  1803. 
t  "  Your  victories  have    taken   place  in   o\u   neighbourhuod."-  Bombay 
Address,  1801. 


14  THE    DUKE    OF    ■WELLINGTON    IN    BOMBAY. 

The  walls  were  tlieu  in  as  great  a  state  of  perfection  as  they 
ever  had  been.  For  a  hundred  years  men  had  been  stumbling 
over  half-hewn  stones  and  heaps  of  unslaked  lime.  There  were 
no  houses  on  Jlalabar  Hill.  Our  venerable*  citizen,  Mr.  Man- 
akjee  Cursetjee.f  has  pointed  out  to  us  the  site  of  the  house 
where  the  Duke  resided.  The  walls  of  the  stable  only  now 
remain,  and  the  site  is  on  your  right  opposite  the  wood-wharf 
as  you  ascend  the  steep  Siri  road,  now  much  availed  of  by 
foot-passengers  as  a  short  cut  to  Malabar  Hill  and  the  Ladies' 
Gymkhana. 
There  is 

A  GREAT  DEARTH  OF  MATERIALS 

out  of  which  to  frame  the  story  of  the  Duke  in  Bombay 
The  fluctuating  nature  of  the  English  population  here  forbids 
anything  like  continuous  tradition  handed  down  from  age  to 
age,  as  we  have  in  Europe.  Moreover,  our  subject  was  just 
then  emerging  into  fame.  Somebody  said  lately  that  it  was  a 
pity  Mrs.  Hough  burned  her  diary.  Perhaps.  There  are  diaries 
and  diaries.  We  are  certain,  however,  of  this,  that  it  is  a  real 
calamity  that  the  diary  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh  covers  none 
of  Wellington's  history  in  Bombay,  nor,  indeed,  in  this  presi- 
dency. Strange  to  say,  the  Dxdvc  had  left  a  week  before  he 
arrived,  and  was  already  writing  multitudinous  despatches 
under  the  shadow  of  that  great  battlement  of  trap  and  laterite 
wliich  we  now  call  Chauk  Point  when  Mackintosh  was  sailing 
over  the  Fifty  Fathom  Flat  within  sight  of  the  promised  lanrl 
of  Hindustan.  Had  it  been  otlierwise  we  should  certainly  have 
had  many  notes  from  a  profound  observer  and  most  accomplished 
scholar  on  Arthur  Wellesley.  All  memory  of  the  man  has  now 
died  out,  and  we  venture  to  state  that  there  is  not  a  single  man 
aUve  who  recollects  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  India.  Even 
His  Highness  Aga  Khan  Meliilati,  the  descendant  of  the  Old 
Man  of  the  Mountain,  tiie  hereditary  chief  and  unrevealed  Imam 
of  the  Ismailis,  upon  whom  sat  so  lightly  the  burden  of  four 
score   monsoons,  remembered  him  not; J — so   is   it   with   the 


*  Mr.  Maiiakjee  possessed  a  gold  locket  with  the  Duke's  hair  in  it,  and 
a  letter  from  the  present  Duke,  authenticating  the  same. 
t  Died  December  Otli,  1887,  in  the  81st  year  of  his  age. 
t  H.  H.  Aga  Khan  died  iu  Bombay  on  the  night  of  tlie  12tli  April,  1881. 


HIS    ENTRY   INTO    BOMBAY.  15 

Honourable  Niisserwaujee  Framjee,  the  Nestor  of  the  Parsis.* 
Ten  years  ago  the  case  was  different,  but  the  "  Blind  Fury  with 
the  abhorred  shears  "  has  cut  the  last  link.  Jadavrao,  of  Male- 
ganw,  came  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere  in  18G7,  and  pointing  to  the 
battlefield  of  Khirki,  said,  "  The  place  is  much  changed  since  I 
was  liere  fifty  years  ago."  He  Ijore  arms  when  the  Duke  was 
in  I'oona,  in  1803.  There  is  thus  no  option  to  us  except  to 
deliver  ourselves  over  to  conjecture,  or  be  content  with  such 
things  as  we  have,  in  the  shape  of  the  miscellaneous  scraps 
which  are  furnished  to  us  by  the  despatches  and  letters  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington. 


THE   DUKES   TRIUMl'IIAL    EXTRY   INTO    BOMBAY. 

Be  it  known,  then,  that  the  Duke  of  AVellington,  otlierwise 
Major-General  Wellesley,  entered  Bombay  on  the  13th  March, 
1804.  He  came  fresh  from  the  victories  of  Assaye  and  Argaum, 
and  Bomba}^  did  him  all  honour.  The  route  by  which  he 
entered  the  city  is  still  visible  to  us,  and  very  much  the  same 
as  it  was  then,  except  that  a  structure  here  and  there — 

"Battered  and  decayed 
Lets  in  new  light  through  chinks  wliich  Time  has  made."' 

It  stretched  from  the  Dock-gate  oi)pos)te  the  old  Cnurt  House 
to  the  old  Secretariat,  then  known  as  (Joverument  House.  The 
course  of  the  procession  was  thus  tlie  Dock-head  to  ApoUtJ 
Street,  which  was  lined  from  end  to  end  by  all  tlie  troops  then 
in  the  garrison,  and  packed  by  a  dense  mass  of  human  beings, 
a  sea  of  turbans,  with  a  sprinkling  of  European  and  Parsi  topis, 
far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  until  it  terminated  at  the  Cathedral 
and  Bombay  Green.  The  old  Court  House  f  had  once  (1776-84) 
been  the  residence  of  Governor  Hornby,  and  was  for  its  time  a 
palatial-looking  building.  The  porch  is  a  lofty  colonnade  sur- 
mounted by  a  balcony,  which  afforded  a  splendid  coign  of 
vantage,  as  it  directly  faced  the  Dock  archway,  and  enabled  itt 


*  Seth  Nasirwanji  Framji  Patil,  died  2l8t  March,  1892,  aged  88  years; 
ante,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  218,  216. 

t  Now  the  "  Great  Western  Hotel,"  anle,  Vol.  I.,  p.  430 ;  and  in/ra,  p.  42. 


16 


THE    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTON    IN    BOMBAY, 


occupauts  to  catcli,  as  he  emerged,  a  first  glimpse  of  the  iUus- 
trious  stranger,  the  hero  of  Assaye.  We  need  scarcely  ask  if 
this  v(!randah,  on  a  day  such  as  this,  was  cliockfuU  of  the  youth, 
beauty,  and  fair  hair  of  England.     So,  he  looking  at  them  and 


OLD   COURT    HOUSE,    BOMBAY. 


they  at  liiui,  the  Duke,  amid  the  roar  of  cannon  and  tlie  blare 
of  trumpets,  made  his  way  to  Government  House. 

Great  preparations  had  been  made  for  his  reception,  for  it  had 
been  known  for  days  that  he  was  to  arrive  from  Panwel  in  the 


DISASTEKS  OF  1799-1803.  17 

Governor's  yacht.  The  Chamber  of  Commerce  was  then  in- 
choate, and  the  Town  Council  and  Corporation  without  form 
and  void.  Nevertheless  a  ilr.  Henshaw  *  was  voted  to  the  chair, 
and  commissioned  to  present  an  address  signed  by  123  non- 
official  Englislmien,  we  iiresumo.  The  last  tableaux  are  the 
Duke,  Jonathan  Duncan,  and  Mr.  Henshaw.  eacli  rising  in 
succession  to  speak  on  the  great  question  of  the  day,  all 
very  hot,  and  tiiough  enjoying  themselves,  glad  when  the 
whole  business  was  terminated  and  gave  way  to  a  series  of 
dinners,  balls,  and  theatrical  representations.  We  may  here 
observe  that  the  Duke  was  a  close-shaven  man,  as  were  all 
his  contemporaries,  Xelson,  Lake,  Abercromby,  Mackintosh, 
and  Malcolm. t  The  reign  of  the  long-haired  savages  came 
in  with  Sir  Chai-les  Napier,  "  the  bearded  vision  of  Sind." 

It  was  a  big  day — a  hara-d'ni.  Bombay,  with  one  bound, 
seemed  to  burst  away  from  the  clouds  of  misfortune  which  had 
enveloped  her;  and  it  was  no  wonder  she  sought  relief,  for 
storm  and  fire  and  famine  had  done  their  worst,  and  her  cup  of 
mi.sery  liad  been  well-nigh  fdled  to  the  brim.  Five  years  had 
passed — and  such  five  years.  The  elements  of  nature  seemed 
to  conspii-e  with  the  violence  of  man,  and  the  century  had 
dawned  amid  gloom  and  disaster  to  the  settlement.  There  had 
been  a  great  storm  at  the  close  of  the  monsoon  of  1799,  in  which 
M.MS.  "  Eesolution,"  1000  native  craft,  and  400  lives  were  lost 
in  the  harbour.  Then  a  fire  broke  out  in  1803,  which  destroyed 
three-fourths  of  the  Bazaar,  Barracks,  Custom  House,  and  many 
jjublic  buildings.  In  1802-3,  the  clouds  having  refused  to  give 
their  rain,  a  famine  raged  %  only  equalled  in  intensity  by  that 
of  1812,  and  in  1802  a  domestic  incident  threw  the  whole 
colony  into  mourning,  the  Persian  ambassador  having  been  shot 
dead  by  one  of  our  own  sepoys  in  the  public  streets.§ 


*  Landed  in  India,  17G4. 

t  Munro  also  as  well  as  Sir  Barry  Close  and  General  Lawrence  of  a 
former  generation. —  Vide  portraits  in  Historical  Becords  lit  Madras 
European  Regiment,  1843. 

X  "  Kice  was  imixirted  into  Bombay  to  the  value  of  50  lakhs,  by  which 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  lives  of  50,000  human  beings  were  saved." — 
Mackintosh. 

§  "  They  patched  up  such  affairs  easily  in  these  days.  One  lakli  in  presents, 
Hs.  50,000  in  pensions,  and  the  body  sent  in  a  ship  of  war  to  Kerbela.     It 


18  THE    UUKK    OF    WKLLINGTOX    IN    BOMBAY. 

Tlu'  period  liail  been  thus  one  uf  inteusest  anxiety,  fears 
within  and  fightings  without.  Had  not  Nelson  written  Governor 
Duncan  that  if  Napoleon  was  successful  in  Egj'pt,  Bombay 
would  come  next  ?  As  each  day  dawned  the  flagstaff  on 
Malabar  Point  was  narrowly  watched  and  the  liorizon  seawards 
eagerly  scanned.  It  will  be  remembered  that  Thana  was  then 
the  outpost  of  British  dominion,  and  the  o\xtlook  across  the 
creek  was  black  and  dismal,  and  blacker  and  dismaller  on  the 
great  plains  of  the  Dekhan  beyond  tlie  Western  Ghats.  The 
farther  you  went  the  worse  it  became.  There  was  a  court  at 
Poona  and  a  court  at  Haidarabad.  Baji  Eao  sits  on  the  verandah 
of  the  Somwar  Palace  and  hears  with  delight  the  yells  of  the 
brother  of  Holkar'  as  he  is  being  trampled  to  death  by  an  ele- 
phant,* and  Holkar's  vicegerent,  Amritrao,  by  way  of  reprisal, 
threatens  to  give  over  Poona  to  plunder  and  burn  it  to  ashes. 

Sydenham,  the  Picsident  at  the  court  of  the  Nizam,  considers 
it  as  "  a  sort  of  experiment  to  determine  with  how  little  morality 
men  can  associate  together,  and  seems  to  think  that  the  most 
atrocious  ruffians  from  the  brothels  and  massacres  of  Paris  might 
here  be  teachers,  and  even  models,  of  virtue.  Holkar  had  become 
so  besotted  a  drunkard  as  almost  to  have  lost  his  senses ;  after 
an  excessive  dose  of  cherry-brandy  he  plucks  the  turbans  from 
the  heads  of  his  chiefs  and  beats  them  like  the  lowest  slaves ; "  t 
and  Sindia  was  so  bad  that  the  Duke  of  "Wellington,  on  31st 
January,  1804,  almost  driven  to  desperation  by  his  conduct, 
■\vr(.)te  Malcolm,  thou  at  his  camp,  "  It  will  not  be  a  bad  i)lan  to 
bribe  the  prince  as  well  as  his  ministers." 

This  represents  the  rulers  of  the  wide  area  of  ]\Iaratha 
dominion,  but  Peshwah,  Sindia,  Holkar,  and  Nizam,  it  was  all 
the  same.     But  we  must  not  ignore 

•I'liE  coxDrriox  of  the  vkople. 

And  our  witnesses  shall  be  two  men  of  European  reputation 
wlio  had  singular  opportunities  of  extending  their  observations 


was  afterwards   remarked   in    the   Shiraz  bazar  that  we  might  have   teu 
ambassadors  if  w-e  paid  for  them  at  the  same  pnce." — Malcohn. 

*  1801.  t  Mackintosh. 


OPINION    OF    MARATHA    G0VEEN3IENT.  10 

in  the  Dekhan  and  Konkan  at  this  period,  ^\'e  premise  lliat 
their  report  will  not  be  a  one-sided  one,  neither  biassed  by 
senseless  prejndice  nor  overweening  indulgence.  Neither  of 
them  disliked  the  natives  of  this  country.  When  Hormasjee 
gave  a  masque  ball,  ilackintosh  was  among  the  revellers.  Whe.n 
Dady  was  dying,  he  handed  over  to  Mackintosh  the  care  of  his 
two  sous,  who  afterwards  became  merchants  in  Bomliay.  "  I 
have  offered  you  peace,  and  you  have  chosen  war,"  said  the 
groat  Duke,  and  the  words  were  uttered  by  the  same  man  who, 
on  the  field  of  Assaye,  sent  for  a  havildar  of  the  4th  Cavalry, 
wlio  had  dashed  among  the  enemy's  horse  and  bore  away  the 
standard,  and  then  with  a  gentle  pat  on  the  back  said,  achha, 
hamldar-jamadnr.  And  a  jamadar  he  was  made.  There  was 
no  collu.sion,  as  Wellington  and  Mackintosh  never  met  nor 
corresponded  in  India.  Indeed,  they  were  jiolitical  opponents 
during  their  lives. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  did  not  disguise  from  himself  or  the 
public  the  means  he  had  acquired,  or  the  capacity  with  which 
lie  was  gifted,  for  writing  on  the  condition  of  the  people  of 
Western  India. 

"  No  man,"  he  says,  "  has  ever  had  so  many  opportunities  of 
contemplating  the  subject  in  all  its  parts,  and  possibly  no  man 
lias  ever  adverted  to  it. 

"  There  is  not  one  of  them  that  can  be  implicitly  trusted. 

"  Famine  rages  in  the  Dekhan.  Habits  of  industry  are  out 
of  the  question,  and  men  must  plunder  for  subsistence,  be 
destroyed,  or  starve;  no  law,  no  Civil  Government,  and  no 
army  to  keep  plunderers  in  order — and  no  revenue  can  be 
collected  ;  indeed,  no  inhabitant  can  or  will  remain  to  cultivate, 
unless  he  is  protected  by  an  armed  force  stationed  in  his 
village. 

"  Five  miles  from  I'oona,  a  dreary  waste  overrun  by  thieves. 

"  The  only  system  of  the  Peshwah's  (iovernment  is  that  of  a 
rob])er. 

"The  Peshwah  is  callous  to  everything,  but  nioui'v  and 
revenge." 

And  on  the  march  to  I'oona, — "  except  in  one  village,  not  a 
human  being  was  left  for  a  distance  of  125  miles  from  Miraj  to 
I'oona." 


20  THE    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTON    IN    BOMBAY. 

So  much  for  Wellinj^ton  :  uow  for  Mackintosh.  "  Xo  police, 
no  administration  of  justice,  except  such  as  the  village  system 
<jf  India  supjjlies.  It  would  be  difficult  to  say  for  what  tax  is 
paid,  except  it  be  to  bribe  the  sovereign  not  to  murder  or  rob 
the  inliabitauts. 

"  Carli  to  Tulligaum.  The  country  is  bare  and  little  culti- 
vated, the  road  is  lonely,  and  the  whole  district  seems  un- 
peopled. 

"  JelliuU  to  Bejapore.  For  fourteen  miles  the  only  living 
(;reatures  that  we  saw  were  some  pretty  parroquets,  a  partridge, 
a  hare,  and  a  herd  of  deer.  Yet  our  road  was  through  a 
country  that  had  been  universally  cultivated,  and  within  a  few 
miles  of  what  had  been  once  one  of  the  most  superb  capitals  of 
the  East. 

"  The  number  of  women  enslaved  and  condemned  to 
perpetual  imprisonment  in  such  loathsome  dungeons,  without 
occupation  or  amusement,  witliout  knowledge  or  accomplish- 
ment, without  the  possibility  of  a  good  quality  wliich  could  rise 
so  high  as  to  deserve  the  name  of  virtue,  is,  perhaps,  the 
strongest  instance  of  low  or  depraved  tyranny  that  the  world 
exhibits. 

"  The  insecurity  of  this  country  is  not  occasional  or  tem- 
porary, but  its  usual  anil  probably  perpetual  state. 

"  In  the  dominions  of  the  I'eshwah,  Nizam,  &c.,  they  in  reality 
exercise  no  functions  of  Government  except  that  of  collecting 
the  revenue.  In  every  other  respect  they  throw  the  reins  on 
the  horse's  neck.  In  their  dominions  there  is  no  police,  no 
administration  of  justice ;    sovereignty  is  to    them  a   perfect 


smecure 


I-.."* 


This   is   what   the  people  and  country  had  come  to.     The 
question  uow   arises,  why   did   we   not   leave   these   besotted 


*  "  The  Maliratta  Government  from  its  foundation  has  been  one  of  the 
most  destructive  that  ever  existed  in  India.  It  never  relinquished  the  pre- 
datory spirit  of  its  founder  Sliivajee.  That  spirit  grew  with  its  power,  and 
when  its  empire  extended  from  the  Ganges  to  the  Kaveri,  tliis  nation  was 
little  better  than  a  horde  of  imperial  thieves.  All  other  Hindu  tribes  took  a 
pride  in  the  improvement  of  the  country  and  in  the  construction  of  temples, 
ponds,  canals,  .and  other  [lublic  works.  The  Mahrattas  have  done  nothing  of 
this  kind ;  their  work  has  been  chiefly  desolation.  They  did  not  seek  tlieir 
revenue  in  the  improvement  of  the  country,  but  in  the  exaction  of  an  estab- 


UIXAY    OF    NATIVE    OOVERNMENTS.  21 

Governments  to  work  out  tlieir  own  destruction  ?  And  this 
brings  us  to  a  second  question, 

WHY  WAS  AKTHUK  WELLESLEY  HERE  ? 

Tlie  answer  is  easy  enough  to  both  these  questions.  The 
holders  of  the  masnads  of  Western  India  were  at  this  time 
brewing  a  sharp  poison  for  us  to  drink.  AVhen  the  treaty  of 
Bassein,  restoring  the  Peshwah  to  Poona,  in  1802,  was  signed, 
Holkar  held  up  his  hands  and  said,  "  You  have  taken  away  my 
turban."  It  was  to  prevent  probable  combinations  among  the 
Maratha  powers,  the  end  of  wliich  would  have  been  to  ha\e 
Iriven  the  English  into  the  sea.  That  was  the  reason  why  the 
Duke  was  here  and  that  Bombay  was  filled  with  joy  and 
rejoicing  in  Marcli  1804.  The  answer  to  the  first  question  is 
that  we  did  not  arrest  the  decay  of  these  Governments :  they 
literally  died  from  the  contempt  of  the  native  populations. 
Conceive  any  man  wishing  to  gc;t  back  to  sucli  times !  The 
Duke,  in  February,  1803,  was  told  by  the  Viceroy  that  his  pre- 
sence was  wanted  at  Poona.     This  brings  us  to 

HIS  CELEBRATED  MARCH   TO  POOXA.* 

And  the  Duke  shall  be  his  own  historian.     "  We  marched  to 

lished  tribute  from  their  neighbour.s,  and  in  jueiatory  excur.sioiis  to  levy  more 
tribute.  Tliough  now  fortunately  obliged  to  relinqui.sh  tbeir  claims,  the  wish 
to  revive  them  will  never  cease,  but  ■vi\i\\  the  extinction  of  their  ]X)wer.  A 
government  so  hostile  in  its  principles  to  improvement  and  tranquillity  oui^hr, 
if  possible,  to  be  completely  overthrown." — hir  Thomas  Munro  to  Governor- 
General,  2Sth  November,  1817. 

•  We  are  indebted  to  an  eminent  Bombay  civilian  for  the  followin<;, 
which  clears  up  the  topography  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington's  famous  march 
of  GO  mill's  in  32  hours,  from  Baramati  to  Poona,  on  10th-20tb  April,  180;3. 
With  a  force  of  10,617  men,  of  whom  170!)  were  cavalry,  he  left  General 
Stuart's  Headquarters  at  Harihar  on  0th  March,  and  cro.ssed  the  Tungabbadra 
on  12th  March.  He  reached  Miraj  on  3rd  April,  and  appears  to  have 
marched  stiadily  thence  towards  Poona.  Hearing  on  the  l!)th  that  Amrit 
Rao  was  still  near  Po<jna,  and  that  he  was  snijjwstd  to  be  about  to  burn  the 
town,  he  marched  on  with  his  cavalry — 412  Euro]ieans  and  1297  natives. 
The  infantry  followed,  reaching  Poona  on  22nd.  The  route  was  by  the 
"  Little  lior  Ghat,"  a  route  often  mentioned  in  the  annals  of  1800  to  1820. 
The  (ihat  is  near  the  eastern  end  of  the  chuin  which  runs  eastward  from 
Singarh  and  Boleshwar,  and  before  the  construction  of  the  Dewa  Bajxlev  and 
Katraj  Ghat  was  the  only  practicable  road  across  that  range  of  hills. 
Though  superseded  by  the  I'apdev  and  Dewa  Ghats  for  traflic  to  Poona  by 
road  the  Ghat  is  still  kept  u)i,  as  it  is  on  the  line  ol  communication  between 
the  XJroti  railway  station  and  Saswad,  Jejuri,  and  other  places  on  the  line  of 
the  old  Satara  road. 


22  THE    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTON   IN    BOMBAY. 

Poena  from  Seringapatam,  the  distance  being  nearly  six  hundred 
miles,  in  the  worst  season  of  the  year,  tiirough  a  country  which, 
had  been  destroyed  by  Holkar's  army,  and  witli  heavy  guns  at 
the  rate,  upon  an  average,  of  tiiirteen-and-a-half  miles  a  day ; 
and  halting  twelve  days  for  orders,  we  arrived  at  Poona  in  two 
months  from  the  time  we  marched.  On  this  march  we  lost  no 
draught  cattle.  I  remained  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Poona,  in 
a  country  which  deserves  the  name  of  a  desert,  for  six  weeks, 
and  then  marched  ■with  the  train  in  the  same  state.  .  .  It  has 
frequently  been  necessary  for  the  troops  to  march,  for  many  days 
together,  a  distance  of  fifteen  to  twenty  mUes  daily.  The  heavy 
artillery  always  accompanied  them.  Upon  one  occasion  I  found 
it  necessary  to  march  a  detachment  sixty  miles  in  thirty  hours, 
and  the  ordnance  and  provision  carriages,  drawn  by  the 
Company's  bullocks,  accompanied  them.  .  .  *     The  number  of 


*  Great  Marches : — "  I  once  marched  in  India  seventy  miles  in  wliat  I 
may  call  one  march;  it  was  afier  Assaye  to  the  borders  of  the  Nizam's 
territory  against  a  body  of  predatory  natives,  whom  by  this  extraordinary 
march  I  surprised  in  their  camj).  I  moved  one  morning;  about  tour  o'clock 
and  marched  till  noon,  when  I  hail  a  rest  till  about  eitjht  in  the  evening, 
when  I  set  out  and  did  not  stop  till  about  twelve  mid-day — seventy  miles 
from  my  first  point.  I  had  bt'fore  Assaye  made  another  forced  march  which 
saved  Poona,  but  it  was  not  so  far,  hardly  sixty  niihs,  and  I  took  more  time 
to  do  it,  but  it  was  a  surprising  march." — H.  W.  Croker's  Papers,  188i, 
Duke  of  Wellington  Joquitur. 

The  Kussian  marcli  of  about  a  month  from  Kinderley  on  the  Caspian  to 
the  Sea  of  Aral,  Apiil-May,  1873,  was  "one  of  the  most  remaikahk-  made 
by  any  army  in  anj'  time.  The  di>tanee  was  great;  the  road  lay  through 
a  desolate  desert  in  which  there  was  scarcely  a  well,  and  the  means  of 
transport  were  utterly  disproportionate." — M'Gahan,  Campaiyuing  on  the 
Oru.%  1874. 

"Henry  V.'s  march  to  Agincourt,  Gtli  to  21th  October,  1415.  Three 
hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  eighteen  days,  a  rate  surj)assing  any  continuous 
marching  recorded  of  late  years." — The  Art  of  War  in  the  Middle  Ayes,  by 
0.  VV.  0.  Oman,  1885. 

"  In  180'J,  the  tiooi)S  under  General  Puibt.  Crawford  marched  to  Talavera, 
a  distance  of  sixty-two  Ea^lish  miles  in  twenty-six  hours  in  the  hottest 
season  of  the  year,  each  man  carrying  from  fifty  to  sixty  pounds  weiijiit. 
'Had  the  historian  Gibbon  known  oi  such  an  efibrt,  he  would  have  spared  his 
sneer  about  the  delicacy  of  modern  soldiers." — -Datths  and  Sieges  in  the 
Feninsula,  by  Sir  Wilbam  Napier,  K.C.H.,  1855. 

'i'hc  Corps  of  Guides : — " '  I  am  making,'  said  Henry  Daly,  then  Com- 
mander, as  lie  started  wit  alacrity  on  his  honourable  mission,  'a  d  I  intend 
to  make  the  best  march  that  has  been  heard  of  ui  India.'  And  he  was  as 
good  as  his  word.     In  twenty-two  days  at  the  very  hottest  season  of  tlic  year 


(IREAT    MAKCII.  23 

ciiUle  which  have  died  are  really  not  greater  than  it  would  have 
been  at  the  grazing  ground." 

He  is  now  on  the  march  to  ^Vhmaduagar,  Assaye,  and  Argaum, 
with  the  caiic  Uunrlie  wliicli  was  given  to  him  by  his  brother, 


lie  niiide  a  forced  niarcli  of  five  hundred  and  eighty  miles,  from  Peshawar  to 
Delili,  and  his  men  came  into  camp,  as  they  were  described  by  an  eye- 
witness, 'as  tirm  and  liiht  of  step  as  if  they  had  marched  only  a  mile.'" 

"It  was  on  the  morning  of  June  9,  1857,  that  the  Guides  arrived  before 
Dchli.  They  had  accomplished  a  distance  of  five  hundred  and  eighty  miles 
in  twcnty-lvvo  days,  and  that  too  at  the  vtry  hottest  se.ison  of  the  year. 
Tliere  had  been  but  three  halts  during  the  wliole  march,  and  those  onl}'  by 
s])ecial  order.  It  was  a  march  hitherto  unequalled  in  India,  aud  in  point  ot 
speed — an  average  of  twenty-seven  miles  a  day — it  is,  I  believe,  unequalled 
still." — Bosworth  Smith's  Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,  1883. 

17C7. — "  Alter  Plassey,  C'oote  with  troops  Irom  Ra'jaraahol  to  Patna,  eleven 
days  and  a  half,  measured  by  a  perambulator  two  hundred  and  one  miles  in 
July." — Orme's  Hislvry,  vol.  ii.,  192. 

"  In  Prinsep's  Ameer  Khan  Lord  Luke  is  said  to  have  marched  sixty 
miles  iu  twenty-four  hours.  Orme,  I  think,  calls  the  twenty-four  hours' 
walk,  iuchidiiig  pursuit,  seventy-two  miles." — Life  if  Lord  Ljawrcnce,  188-1. 

Throuf/h  Masai  Land,  ]).  101,  1887.  Joseph  Thomson  did  forty-five 
geographical  miles  in  a  straight  line,  i.e.,  fifty-three  English  miles — in  serpen- 
tine course  seventy  miles  walk — in  twenty-two  hours. 

With  reference  to  the  allusion  made  by  the  Viceroy  in  his  speech  at  the 
luncheon  on  his  visit  to  the  Contingent  Mess  at  Bolaram,  to  one  of  its 
cavalry  regiments  having  performed  one  of  the  most  remarkable  achievements 
recoriled,  he  believed,  in  military  history,  in  covering  nearly  si.\  hundred 
miles  in  thirtj'-ono  days,  and  which  has  been  received  with  a  great  deal  of 
scepticism,  the  following  extract  from  the  Field  .Services  of  the  Ilaidarabad 
Contingent  shows  that  his  Excellency  was  well  within  the  boimdsof  historical 
record : — 

"  The  head-quarters,  4th  Cavalry,  under  connnand  of  Captain  Byam, 
marched  from  Bolaram  on  the  oih  October,  1831),  in  the  direction  of  Gumsur, 
for  the  purpose  ol'  co-operating  with  the  Company's  troops  in  suppres.>.iiig  the 
rebellion  in  that  district,  and  in  oriler  to  join  the  Ibrce  before  tlie  commence- 
ment of  hostilities,  Captain  Byam  marched  to  Guinsur,  a  distnnce  of  five 
hundred  and  ei.;hty-eight  miles,  in  thirty-one  days,  and  brought  in  his  horses 
fresh  for  action.  This  ollioer  received  the  favourable  notice  of  the  Madras 
Government  (aide  Proce<din(/s,  dated  29th  November,  1830). 

On  the  arrival  of  this  detachment  at  Bolaram  on  the  20th  March,  1837, 
the  Kcsiilent  was  pleised  to  re-publish  the  following  extract  frnin  genera! 
orders  by  the  Itight  Honomable  the  Governor  in  Council,  dated  Fort  Saint 
George,  the  Ith  March,  1837 : — 

"The  parly  of  His  Highness  the  Nizam's  IIor.se  under  Captain  Byam  like- 
wi.se  merits  special  notice.  In  order  that  he  might  be  in  time  to  j^in  belore 
the  connnenceinent  of  hostilities.  Captain  Byam  made  a  march  of  five 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  miles  in  thirty-one  days,  and  brought  his  men  and 
horses  to  the  frontier  of  Gumsur  fresh  and  perfectly  efncient ;  his  services  and 
theirs  were,  during  the  time  they  were  employed,  fatiguing  and  incessant,  but 
were  performed  with  unwearied  zeal  and  alacrity,  greatly  to  their  own  credit 
and  to  the  benefit  of  the  public  interests." 


24  THK    DUKE    OF    WELtlNGTOX    IN    BOJIBAY. 

the  Viceroy,  to  do,  in  fact,  anything  he  pleased,  either  offensive 
or  defensive,  the  how  and  when  being  left  entirely  to  himself 
Would  any  of  these  victories  have  been  won  if  tlie  telegraph 
had  tlien  been  in  operation  ?  We  may  be  certain  that  more 
cattle  would  have  died. 


DUEL  ;   DISCIPLINE   AT    NAGAK. 

Wellington  was  glad  to  take  the  78th  Eegiment  of  High- 
landers with  him.  Malcolm's  feeling  was  that  their  Gaelic  dress 
would  have  an  excellent  effect  on  the  enemy !  Our  readers  will 
recollect  that  this  was  the  regiment  whose  pipers  enlivened 
Pooua  in  1879,  and  we  may  add  also  the  Scots  dinner  of  that 
year.  The  following  incident  occurred  before  the  storm  and 
capture  of  Ahmadnagar  on  12th  August,  1803.  Captain  Grant, 
a  young  officer  of  the  78th,  gave  a  party  to  his  friends  in  camp, 
and  asked  Captain  Brown's  piper  to  amuse  them,  so  that  they 
might  listen  to  the  pibrochs  and  dance  to  the  reels.  Captain 
Brown  was  an  old  man  and  an  Englishman,  and  it  would  have 
been  no  compliment  to  have  asked  him.  Nevertheless,  his  piper 
having  been  asked  without  his  knowledge,  he  took  umbrage  at 
this,  and  at  evening  parade  addressed  Grant.  Grant  replied 
that  he  would  send  for  the  piper  as  often  as  he  pleased.  "  Sir, 
you  are  but  a  '1)0}^,  and  nobody  but  a  boy  would  tell  me  so." 
Then  came  the  de/wticmcnt.  A  friend  was  called  in,  who 
recommended  a  challenge,  which  was  accepted,  and  in  the  duel 
Brown  fell  dead.  General  AVellesley  turned  the  friend  out  of 
camp,  "  that  such  a  wretch  might  not  liave  tlie  opportunity  of 
sharing  in  the  honours  of  an  army  which  he  had  thus  dis- 


This  was  followed  by  a  letter  ironi  the  Governor-General  in  Council, 
expressing  satisfaction  at  the  testimony  borne  to  the  efKcieacy  of  the  detach- 
ment, and  remarking  that  "  the  conduct  of  the  body  recently  employed  in 
Gumsur  reflects  great  credit  upon  themselves  and  their  commanding  oflicer, 
Captain  Byam,  to  whom  the  Kesident  was  requested  to  communicate  the 
approljation  of  his  lordship  in  Council." 

A  correspondent  writes  : — "  The  Haidarabad  Contingent's  famous  march  of 
over  forty  years  ago,  alluded  to  by  the  Viceroy,  is  nothing  as  comjiared  with 
the  march  of  the  2nd  Cavalry  H.  C.  from  Morainabad  to  Aurangabad,  a 
distance  of  one  hundred  and  seventeen  njilcs  in  two  days,  in  1857,  under 
Captain,  now  General,  Abbott.'' 


KNOWLEDGE    OF    BUSINESS.  25 

graced."  *  Poor  Grant  was  in  a  terrible  state  at  the  storm,  and 
under  arrest  as  he  was,  and  iinarmed,  he  rushed  off — the  first 
man  at  the  top  of  the  ladder,  from  which  he  fell  a  corpse,  t 


NATIVE   OPINION    OF   THE   DUKE. 

Gokhla,  a  Maratha  residing  in  camp  with  a  body  of  horse, 
wTote  thxis  to  his  friends  : — 

"These  English  are  a  strange  people  and  their  General  a 
wonderful  man ;  they  came  here  in  the  morning,  looked  at  the 
Peta  wall,  walked  over  it,  killed  all  the  garrison,  and  returned 
to  breakfast.     What  can  withstand  them  ?  " 


TRAITS. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  in  Western  India  was  the  soldier  only,  or  that  he 
merely  changed  the  soldier's  garb  for  that  of  the  diplomatist  to 
write  on  mighty  themes.  We  have  seen  that  the  condition-of- 
the-people  question  was  not  beneath  his  notice.  He,  possibly, 
was  the  first  man  who  wrote  on  the  philosophy  of  an  Indian 
famine ;  and  it  would  astonish  some  of  our  administrators  now- 
adays to  find  that  their  pet  schemes  and  original  ideas  have 
been  anticipated  by  him.  He  contributed  something  to  banking 
by  his  celebrated  saying  that  "  high  interest  means  bail 
security."  We  iiave  no  comments  of  his  on  foreign  exchange, 
and  we  suspect  that  trade  in  Bombay  during  these  years  was  so 
harried  that  sterling  bills  were  driven  out  of  sight.  But  no 
cambist  or  inland  banker  in  the  matter  of  coins  or  Imndis 
could  catch  him  asleep.  An  unfortunate  military  man  in  Poona, 
relegated  to  conduct  the  iinances,  received  such  a  castigation 
that  he  must  have  remembered  it  to  the  day  of  his  death.  "  It 
is  useless  to  write  any  more  on  the  subject.  Should  bills  be 
again  drawn  at  roona,the  Government  of  Bombay  will  furnish  you 


*  "  The  Duke  of  Wellinston  fought  a  duel  with  the  Earl  of  Winchilsea  in 
1829."— Part  Mall  Gaz'tte,  .Tuly  20tli,  1888. 
t  Abridged  from  Maxwell's  WclUnrjton. 
VOL.   II.  D 


26  THE  DUKE  OF  WELLINGTON  IN  BOHBAY. 

with  an  account  of  the  rates  of  exchange  at  which  they  draw 
their  bills  and  you  can  regulate  your  rates  accordingly."  On 
the  receipt  of  this  the  Poena  snukars  became  cliup  and  their 
countenances  fell.  He  could  thus  be  pleasant  and  unpleasant ; 
"  lofty  and  sour  to  those  who  loved  him  not,  to  those  that  loved 
liim  sweet  as  summer."     But  not  always. 

"  Wlien  in  Bombay  I  had  much  conversation  with  mercantile 
gentlemen  there."  Yes,  he  did  not  think  this  beneath  him ; 
not  a  ceremonious  or  "  how  d'ye  do  "  acquaintance,  but  redolent, 
as  in  Charles  Forbes's  case,  with  much  talk  about  money,  wine, 
and  horses.  He  had  a  great  regard  for  Forbes.  The  house  had 
been  established  some  twenty  years  previously.  "  Forbes,"  he 
says,  "  is  a  bad  judge  of  horses."  But  Forbes  had  money,  and 
this  was  what  the  Government  at  this  particular  time  stood  in 
much  need  of.  The  Government  had  sandalwood  in  a  growing 
state,  trees  we  mean ;  in  fact,  what  Charles  II.  roughly  termed 
"  an  excrescence  of  the  earth  provided  by  God  for  the  payment 
of  debts,"  which  was  evidently  the  ^^ew  taken  of  them  by  the 
Government.  Forbes  could  pay  the  money  now — five  lakhs, 
ten  lakhs, — it  was  all  the  same  to  him — and  he  did  pay  it,  and 
cut  the  wood  on  the  Mangalor  coast  afterwards.  So  we  find 
in  the  last  letter  which  the  Duke  vn-ote  to  Jonathan  Duncan, 
Governor  of  Bombay,  before  leaving  India,  the  very  words  we 
were  prepared  to  expect :  "  27th  February,  1805.  ]\Ir.  Forbes's 
sandalwood  business  will  be  settled  to  his  satisfaction."  He 
had  time  to  note  when  in  Bombay  that  it  excelled  all  other 
places  in  India  for  making  cartwheels,  to  which  the  late 
Qandahar  campaign  bore  witness.  He  had  time  to  attend  a 
garden-party  at  Manakjee  Cursetjee's  father's  house,  which  you 
can  still  see.  He  had  time  to  groan  over  his  lumbago,  and  fear 
that  he  "  would  walk  like  old  Pomeroy  during  the  remainder  of 
my  life."  He  went  into  convulsions  over  the  jokes,  written, 
spoken,  or  practical,  of  "  mad  ]\Ialcolm ; "  and  we  can  solemnly 
aver  that  there  is  a  tamarind-tree  at  the  foot  of  the  Siri  road 
under  which  he  cursed  the  Bombay  Government,  for  doing 
which  he  feared  he  might  be  burned  iu  effigy  on  the  Bombay 
Green.  "We  are  bound  to  believe  that  he  clomb  the  Siri 
(ladder)  and  gave  an  obolus  to  the  Jogi,  imago  mortis,  and  was 
rewarded  by  a  glorious  view  from  Jlalabar  Hill,  minus  steamers, 


nEGIMEN.  27 

cotton-mills,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  Such  was  Wellington 
in  all  his  phases.*  To  one  he  \vrites,  "  Give  hun  a  hint  that  I 
am  in  the  habit  of  hanging."  To  another,  "  I  shall  send  to  Mrs. 
Stevenson  in  two  days  some  cabbages  and  celery-plants,  and  in 
about  a  week  her  rose-trees." 


"  So  various  he, 
In  .ill  Ills  i)arts  the  world's  epitome.' 


IIEKE   AliE   TWO    XOTAUILI.V. 

»  "  I  know  but  one  receipt  for  good  health  in  this  country,  and 
that  is  to  live  moderately,  to  drink  little  or  no  wine,  to  use 
exercise,  to  keep  the  mind  employed,  and,  if  possible,  to  keep  in 
good  humour  with  the  world ; "  and  he  adds,  "  the  last  is  the 
most  difficult,  for,  as  you  have  often  observed,  there  is  scarcely 
a  good-tempered  man  in  India." 

When  the  clouds  of  tlie  monsoon  of  1804  were  be"iunin"  to 
form  he  found  that  5000  of  the  soldiers  would  be  in  racfs  durms 

o  o 

the  monsoon.  He  solved  the  difficulty  by  giving'every  man  his 
piece  of  cloth  and  making  each  his  own  tailor. 


•  The  late  Sir  Joseph  Arnould,  (b.  1815,  d.  at  Naples,  1888),  Judge  of 
Bombay  High  Court,  1859  to  1869.  Croker  thus  notices  j'oung  Arnould's 
appearance  at  Oxford  when  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  installed  Chancellor  of 
the  University,  June  11,  1834  : — "Then  began  imitations,  Greek,  Latin,  and 
English.  A  Air.  Arnould  (scholar  of  Wadhani  ColleL;e)  repeated  some  very  good 
ver.ses  on  the  Uuapice  of  St.  Bernard ;  and  after  alluding  to  Buonajiarte's 
passage  of  the  Alps,  and  praisin<;  his  genius,  iVc.,  and  recounting  all  his 
triumphs,  he  suddenly  apostrojihised  the  Duke  and  said  something  equivalent 
to — invincible  till  he  met  you.  At  that  word  begun  a  scene  of  enthusiasm 
such  as  I  never  saw ;  some  people  aiipeared  to  me  to  go  out  of  their  senses — 
literally  to  go  mad.  The  whole  assembly  started  up,  and  the  ladies  and  the 
gr.ave  semi-circle  of  doctors  became  as  much  excited  as  the  boys  in  the  gallery 
and  the  men  in  the  pit.  Such  peids  of  shouts  I  never  heard  ;  such  waving 
of  bats,  handkerchiefs  and  caps  I  never  saw;  such  extravagant  stamping  and 
clapping,  so  that  at  last  the  air  became  clouded  with  dust.  During  all  this 
the  Duke  sat  like  a  statue  ;  at  last  he  took  some  notice,  took  oil'  his  cap 
lightly,  and  pointed  to  the  reciter  to  go  on  :  but  tliis  only  increased  the 
cnthu.xiiisni,  and  at  last  it  ended  only  from  the  mere  exhaustion  of  our  .animal 
powers." — tVo'.cr's  Papers,  vol.  ii.,  p.  228. 

D   2 


28  THE    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTON   IX    BOMBAY. 

AVAS   THE   DUKE   AT   MATHERAN  ? 

We  are  afraid  not ;  at  his  "  camp  at  Chowke  "  he  devoured 
much  foolscap,  aud  several  lengthy  despatches  of  great  moment 
are  thus  dated. 

The  question  becomes  this — -n-hether  a  man  in  full  power  of 
body  and  mind,  aud  embued  with  a  strong  love  of  scenery  such 
as  Killarney,  could  have  resisted  paying  it  a  visit  when  it  was, 
as  it  were,  at  his  very  elbow.  It  can  be  argued  on  both  sides. 
It  was  the  month  of  May  :  that  was  bad  or  good  ;  a  stiffer  pull 
then  than  in  any  other  month,  but  Matheran  has  then  a  cooler 
climate  and  offers  a  greater  contrast  to  the  heated  plains  below. 
One  of  two  things  is  certain  :  if  he  went,  he  destroyed  a  j^air  of 
Wellington  boots ;  if  he  remained  at  Chauk,  he  had  a  hot  night 
of  it  on  18th  May.  We  could  forgive  his  staying  away  if  he 
had  only  squelched  the  maternal  progenitor  of  that  scoundrel  at 
the  mention  of  whose  name  the  world  still  grows  pale,  and  who 
must  have  in  1804  been  making  mud  pies  somewhere  about 
Chauk.* 

There  was  no  want  of  roads.  There  was  the  old  Chauk 
road,  up  wliich  fifty  years  afterwards  an  elephant  carried  Lord 
Elpliinstone  from  the  Eambagh  to  the  summit,  and  there  was 
the  breakneck  ascent  at  One  Tree  Hill,  where  he  could  have 
stuck  his  feet  into  the  notches  cut  out  of  the  rock  (he  was  not 
a  stout  party)  and  been  rewarded  by  a  glorious  view  from  the 
summit. 

He  would  have  seen  a  plain  as  big  as  Esdraelon,  bounded 
by  the  Ghats,  and  at  his  feet  the  innumerable  tents  of  which 
his  camp  consisted,  outside  one  of  which  were  picquetted  his 
two  horses,  Pat  and  Diomedf  quietly  munching  tlieir  gram. 
He  would  have  heard  the  bulbid  and  the  golden  oriole,  and  seen 
the  so-called  bird  of  paradise  with  its  long  tail,  flitting  like  a 
gleam  of  sunlight  from  glade  to  glade.  And  lie  would  have 
drunk  I'rour  those  perennial  fountains  that  bubble  up  from  the 
stony  valley  of  the  Band.  He  would  have  seen  the  Dhangar 
wending  liis  way  slowly  into  umbrageous  depths  to  sacrifice  a 


*  Kana  Saliib. 

t  DiuiucJ  "  kicked  "  at  Assaye,  but  Malcolm  fell  in  with  him  afterwards 
and  bought  him  fur  the  Duke  at  Ks.  250. 


ISliSIUKNCE.  29 

cock  at    the   black  sLuuc  which    he  believes  came  duwn  from 

heaven.* 

In  vaia  with  lavish  kiiuhiess 
The  gifts  of  God  arc  strewn, 
Tlie  heathen  in  his  bhniincss 
Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone — 

Yesterday,  to-day,  but  iKjt  lor  ever.  And  it'  he  had  remained 
long  enough,  he  might  have  bid  a  final  adieu  to  the  lumbago  in 
his  back  and  Dr.  Inverarity. 


XOTE   OS    THli    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTONS   BOMB.W    IIESIDKXCE. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  "  Bombay  Gazette." 

SiK, — Tlie  writer  of  a  note  in  your  issue  of  Saturday  anent  the  site  of  the 
house  in  which  the  illustrious  Duke  of  WelUngton  resided  while  iu  Bombay 
has  awakened  in  me  some  dormant  memories  of  bygone  days. 

Upwards  of  six-and-tliirty  years  ago  I  had  tlie  honour  of  being  an 
occupant  of  the  same  liouse.  My  landlord  was  Mr.  Cursetjee  Manakjee,  now 
long  deceased,  who  was  the  father  of  our  worthy  townsman,  Mr.  Manekji 
Kharsedji.  (You  will  jJease  note  that,  in  compliance  with  the  require- 
ments of  modern  scientific  literature,  I  am  compelled  to  spell  the  son's  name 
secu7i(!>tm  artem.) 

For  the  benefit  of  the  curious  in  such  matters  and  historians  in  general, 
Ijermit  me  further  to  relate  that  the  house,  which  was  called  Surrey  Cottage, 
stood  at  about  half-way  up  the  now  non-existent  eastern  brow  of  Malabar 
Hill.  The  excavated  debris  of  that  part  of  the  hill,  as  many  of  your  readi  rs 
are  aware,  was  utilized  some  years  ago  for  the  pvuposcs  of  the  Back  B.iy 
reclamatiiju.  The  house  comprised  a  somewhat  spacious  and  lofty  hall,  with 
wings  and  long  verandahs  at  the  sides  and  back  part.  In  front  there  was  a 
jiorch,  to  which  led  two  caiTiage-ways  from  dilferent  directions  of  the  large 
comjwimd.  One  of  them  passed  by  the  still-cxistiug  stable  near  the  Siri. 
Your  correspondent  remarks  that  its  walls  are  standing.  lie  might  have 
added  that  it  has  a  roof,  and  that  it  continues  to  be  used  as  a  stable. 

The  hall  commanded  a  nice  view  of  Back  Bay  and  a  portion  of  Girgaum, 
also  the  Esplanade  and  the  Fort.  The  Duke,  with  his  eagle  eye,  must  have 
more  than  once,  I  presume,  scanned  the  scene  with  some  interest.  Of  an 
evening  one  of  the  most  striking  sights  that  met  the  eyes  of  my.self  and  my 
friends,  as  we  sat  on  the  landing  of  the  tall  (light  of  stone  stejis  which  led  up 


*  Ur.  Wilson  used  to  remark  that  there  were  some  grounds  for  their 
belief.  His  opinion  was  that  both  this  and  the  Black  Stone  of  Mecca  were 
originally  meteoric  stones. 


30 


THE    DUKE    OF    WELLINGTON    IN    BOMBAY. 


to  the  hall  from  the  porch,  was  the  long  line  of  lugubrious  flaring  fires  which 
burned  at  the  Hindu  cremation-ground,  then  not  screened,  as  now,  by  the 
high  wall  on  the  west,  or  sea  face. 

Cholera  was  frequently  rampant  in  those  times  ...  A  good  many  years 
had  to  elapse  before  he  (Arthur  Crawford)  and  his  sanitary  army  invaded  the 
quondam  stinking  lanes  and  alleys  and  bazars  of  this  city,  and  cleared  away 
the  feculent  accumulations  of  ages,  thus  removing  the  fertile  sources  of 
manifold  dire  diseases. 

Mr.  Cursetjee  Manakjee  knew  the  Duke  personally,  and  had  supplied  his 
army  with  provisions — principally  rice,  if  I  am  not  oblivious  of  what  he  told 
me.  He  always  spoke  to  me  most  enthusiastically  of  tlie  Duke,  whom  he 
regarded  as  a  perfect  hero.  But  poor  old  Cursetjee  had  his  troubles,  and  they 
were  multitudinous.  Out  of  his  transactions  with  the  lodian  Government 
there  arose  a  mighty  lawsuit  brought  by  him  against  the  Honourable  East 
India  Company.  In  the  midst  of  his  eulogies  of  the  Duke  he  could  not  help 
bitterly  reverting  to  his  case  and  his  grievances.  He  had  fortified  himself 
Nvith  the  opinions  of  great  lawyers,  one  of  whom  was  the  eminent  advocate 
(Jhitty.  All  of  them  were  in  his  favour.  Equity  and  right  upheld  his  claims, 
but  alas !  he  could  not  succeed  against  powerful  John  Company,  who, 
however,  oftered  him  a  liberal  compromise.  But  Cursetjee  had  something  of 
the  Iron  Duke's  nature  in  him.  He  would  not  give  in,  and  was  game  to  the 
Idsr.  F. 

Dec.  la. 


THE   DUKES   TRKE    .\T    AIIMADXAGAR    UNDER    WHICH    HE    UKEAKFASTED. 


(    -n    ) 


ALIriirulE    C'ASTI.K. 

"  I  was  born  at  Aklourio  on  tlie  banks  of  Loch  Ness." 
CHAlTEi;    XXWII. 


Sii;  James  Mackintosh;  oi;,  Bombay  1804  to  1812. 

Between'  1804  ami  1812  four  mcii  apjieaivd  in  Bombay  who 
ultimately  attained  the  higliest  object  of  human  ambition  in  ^ 
war,  in  politics,  and  in  literature.  There  were  giants  in  those 
days,  and  we  have  seen  wliat  of  Pjoinbay  interest  centres  in  one 
of  them,  the  greatest  of  them  all.  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  - 
was  the  second.  He  was  twice  offered  by  different  aihiiinistra- 
tions  the  (iovernor-Generalship  of  India.  Jolm  JMakohu,  the 
tliird,  fought  his  way  iiuui  tlie  cot  of  Burnfoot,  in  E.skdale,  to 
the  portals  of  Parel,  became  tlie  life-long  friend,  the  bosom 
friend,  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  Tiiese  were  the  three 
miglity  men  who,  by  tlie  sword  and  diplomacy,  extended  and 
preserved  the  Ijoundaries  of  British  dominion ;  but  it  was 
reserved  for  a  fourth  to  keep  alive  the  flame  of  liberty  witlun 
them,  and  illustrate  by  his  genius  the  realms  which  they  had 
either  sulidued  or  defended.  That  man  was  Sir  James  ~. 
Mackintosh.     He  still  appears  the  most  splendid  character  in 


32         SIK    JAMES    mackintosh;     ok,    BOMBAY    1804    TO    1812. 

the  whole  range  of  Bombay  liistory — made  to  love  and  to 
be  beloved,  with  a  transparent  intellect  that  shed  an  electric 
light  on  everything  it  touched,  and  an  imagination  that  soared 
far  above  the  conmion  level  of  mortals.  He  stands  on  a 
pedestal  peculiarly  his  own,  and  lie  is  more  identified  with 
Bombay  by  a  long  residence  in  it.  Indeed,  so  important  does 
this  appear  to  his  biographer  that  he  devotes  five  hundred  out 
of  the  thousand  pages  of  his  life  to  the  Bombay  portion  of  it. 
He  arrived  in  Bombay  in  May,  1804,  and  left  it  in  November, 
1812.  "  The  cares  and  duties  of  a  family  oblige  me  to  provide 
for  them  in  other  climates."  His  mother  died  in  1779,  when 
he  was  fourteen  years  of  age.  In  more  senses  than  one  he  was 
a  Scottish  orphan.  When  he  was  IJecorder  of  Bombay  he 
wrote — "  In  her  last  letter  my  mother  sent  me  two  Scotch 
bank-notes,  of  one  pound  each,  wliich  seemed  at  that  time 
an  inexhaustible  fortune." 


BOMBAY   A   DULL   PLACE. 

"  The  neighbourhood  is  beautiful ;  but  what  avails  all  this  in 
a  cursed  country  where  you  cannot  ramble  amid  these  scenes  ? 
As  for  society  the  back-room  of  a  London  book-seller's  shop 
i  s  Ijetter.  There  is  a  languor  and  a  lethargy  in  the  society  here 
to  which  I  never  elsewhere  saw  any  approach.  It  is  all  a  cheat." 
he  exclaims.  "  If  ever  I  rise  from  the  dead  (he  means,  no  doubt, 
getting  out  of  the  Bombay  grave-clothes)  I  shall  be  very  glad  to 
travel  for  the  sake  of  seeing  clever  men  and  beautiful  countries." 
And  again,  "  Our  climate  may  be  endured,  but  I  feel,  by  its 
constant  and  silent  operation,  existence  is  rendered  less  joyous, 
and  even  less  comfortable.  I  see  around  me  no  extraordinary 
prevalence  of  disease,  but  I  see  no  vigorous,  cheerful  health." 
All  quite  true  from  his  own  standpoint,  and  equally  untrue  from 
the  standpoint  of  others,  for  the  I'.ombay  of  the  period  under 
review,  to  an  ordinary  mortal,  could  not  have  been  a  very  dull 
place.  There  were,  no  doubt,  at  that  time  dull  and  heavy  men 
in  Bombay.  "We  have  more  tlian  a  suspicion  that  Jonathan 
Dimcan  was  a  dull  man.  He  was  the  natui-al  leader  of  society, 
and  his  influence  must  have  made  itself  cverywlu're  apparent 
A  man  cannot   live  thirty-nine  years  in  India  without  being 


AACIN' 


HIS  rnEviocs  lifk.  33 

somewhat   flabby,   leaden,  or   let].ai-ic-6mAm«7m«/,  tliat   is 
Mackintosh  .s  word  in  describing  Duncan.     Hence  we  fancy  that 
•  lonathan  Duncan  was  as  dead  as  a  door-nail  to  the  brilliancy  of 
wit  or  the  pathos  of  sentiment.     He  was  too  far  gone  even  for 
the  surgical  operation  proverbial  for  Scotsmen,  and  would  sit 
pei-fectly  helpless  amid  the  subtle  flaslies  of  wit  that  fell  flat 
and  pointless  on  his   Forlarshire  understanding.     Mackinto.sli 
may  have  resented  this,  found  the  verandahs  of  the  old  Govern- 
ment House  in  Apollo  Street  mucli  too  narrow  for  hin.  took 
Irench-leave  and  sauntered  into  tlie  Bombay  ( U-een  to  seek  for  the 
Southern  Cross  or  soar  in  regions  of  transcendental  philosophy 
And  the  inost   likely   of  ail   times  would   be   tliat   in  whid,' 
Arthur  Wellesley  said  that  Jonathan  Duncan  had  lost  his  head 
Lut  there  was  another,  and  a  much  more  cogent  reason,  why 
Mackmtosli   foun.l   Bombay   a  dull  place,  and  one  special  to 
lumself   and   apart    altogether  from   individuals,   and   havino 
notlung  to  ,lo  with  the  gloom  wliich  we  have  seen  overspread 
Bombay  m  1804.     It  was  two  years  l,efore  Mackintosh  cleared 
lus   expenses   and   establislied   himself  in   Bombay.     He  was  • 
tlurty-e.glit  years  of  age  when  he  arrived,  and  had  already  Hved 
one  life  in  London.     Xot  a  life  in  a  garret,  for  though  he  had 
made  a  fruitless  start  with  his  Edinburgh  M.D.  at  Weymouth 
to  practise  as  a  physician,  he  soon  found  his  way  to  Lon.lon' 
and   made    the   ac.p.aintance   and    friendship   of    some   most 
eminent  and  gilted  men.     He  had  attended  the  trial  of  Warren 
Hastings,  had  obtained  great  distinction  by  the  publication  of 
Unrhcuc  GalUccr    had   been    the   guest  of  Burke  the  aged  at 
I>ea  onsfie Id,  and  the  friend  of  Charles  James  Fox,  of  whom 
••'.ke  .said   that  lie  was  the  most  accomplished   and  brilliant 
'lobater  that  the  world  ever  saw.     He  had  founded  in  his  own 
muse  the  "King  of  Clubs,"  consisting  of  twenty-five  celebrated 

Z    f  V,°     T  ?"""""  *°  ^"''"^'^^'  '"'^^  ^•^■'^"y  like  coming  to  a 
city  oi  the  dead,  a  copy  of  the  gi-eatest  change,  as  sayetli  the 
l-miclier,  from  ceiled  roofs  to  thatched  bungalows,  from  livin^. 
I'ke  gods  to  dying  like  men. 
He  found  Jonathan  Duncan  in  place  of  Henry  Brougham 
mjles  lorbesfor  Mr.  Bicardo,  and  Dr.  Keir,  Civif  Surgeon, lb 
1  -11am  the  hLstonan.     His  spirit   sank  within  him,  and   he 
uttered  those  words  of  despair.     In  those  days  steamers  were 


34  SIU  JAMES    MACKINTOSH  ;     OK.    IIOMIJAV    1804    TO    1812. 

unknown,  and  it  was  a  very  "  long  cry  to  Loch  Awe."  *  But  it 
is  not  given  to  every  man  to  be  a  Eicardo,  and  it  may  have  been 
well  for  Mackintosh  and  well  for  posterity  that  eight  years  of 
affluent  ease  and  leisure  were  afforded  him  to  gather  up  his 
intellectual  wares  in  the  city  of  Bombay.     Besides,  dulness  is  a 


•iHL';  hiixcuhiahle  joxathan  duncax, 

(iOVERNOR   OF   BOMBAY    ITiliVlHll. 

comparative  term,  and  happiness  a  measure  of  the  capacity  of 
the  individual  for  enjoying  it.  "  I'eebles  for  pleasure,"  said  an 
honest  Scotsman  on  his  return  from  that  London  after  whicli 
Sir  James  JIackintosh  sighed  in  tlie  bitterness  of  his  heart : 
and  we  daresay  that  Mr.  Heushaw,  the  voluble  mouth-piece  of 


*  The  Englisli  news  was  often  ei^lit  inontlis  in  findin;:  its  way  to  Bombay. 


HIS    DAILY    LIFE.  35 

the  Wellington  entertainments,  and  of  whom  history  records  the 
vox  et  2yreterca  nihil,  was  in  the  seventh  heaven  of  delight,  while 
our  modern  Prometheus  lay  chained  to  the  rock  of  Mazagon, 
plus  mosquitoes  and  prickly  heat.  We  cannot,  therefore,  agree 
that  Bombay  was  a  bad  place  for  Mackintosh.  William  Erskine 
came  out  with  him  and  became  his  son-in-law,  and,  if  we  mis- 
take not,  has  given  to  Bombay  two  generations  of  Civil  Servants. 
One  morning  a  young  man  called  upon  him  with  a  letter  of 
introduction  from  Eobert  Hall.  He  also  became  his  son-in-law, 
Babylonian  Kich,  the  afterwards  Kesident  at  Baghdad. 


THE   DI.ARV   A\D   LETTERS    OE   MACKINTOSH 

let  in  much  light  on  tlie  pjombay  society,  1804  to  1812,  and 
unconsciously  on  himself.  At  first  we  seem  to  look  backwards 
across  the  haze  of  seventy  years,  and  see  looming  in  the  dis- 
tance, at  the  end  of  a  long  avenue,  the  shadow  of  a  great  man 
under  the  portals  of  Parel.  But  gradually  tlie  intervening  cross- 
lights  disappear,  and  by  the  aid  of  what  he  has  left  us  he  comes 
forth  from  the  region  of  shadow  and  dubiety,  and  walks  the 
earth  again  with  a  character  not  dim  or  tarnished  by  time,  and 
witii  an  intellect  as  lofty  as  ever  animated  the  sons  of  men. 

The  feeblest  effort  of  imagination  can  thus  picture  Mackintosh 
as  he  once  lived  among  us — on  the  judgment-seat — moving  amid 
Ms  fellow-citizens,  or  in  the  bosom  of  his  family.  His  face  and 
form,  his  daily  amusements  and  avocations  are  famOiar  to  us. 
Parel  has  been  given  to  him  as  his  residence  by  Jonathan 
Duncan,  who  is  a  bachelor  and  does  not  need  it.  His  wife  is'- 
the  first  lady  in  the  island,  and  witli  five  daughters  constitutes 
the  household.  The  dining  and  billiard-rooms  are  almost  the 
same  now  as  they  were  tlien.  Tlie  rooms  are  spacious,  and  the 
verandahs  long  and  wide. 

HE    DID    GOOD    WOUK    IN    BoMHAV. 

His  accomplishments  were  versatile.  He  wrote  observations 
on  tlie  finances  of  Salsette  for  the  Governor,  which  were  gladly 
availed  of  by  him.  At  Duncan's  request  he  wrote  the  funeral 
sermon  on  the  Viceroy,  the  Marquis  Gornwallis  !  He  ^vl•ote  to 
the  newspapers.     The  man  who  in  after  years  was  asked  by  the 


3t5         SIR    JAMES    mackintosh;     or,    BOMBAY    1804    TO    1812. 

noblemen  and  gentlemen  who  were  then  the  leaders  of  the 
Whig  party  to  write  an  epitaph  for  Fox's  tomb  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  on  hearing  of  his  death,  did  not  disdain  to  send  his  pane- 
gyric to  the  Bombay  Cuurier*  He  founded,  ere  he  had  been 
many  months  here,  the  Bombay  Literary  Society,  which  has 
grown  into  the  Bombay  Branch  of  the  Eoyal  Asiatic  Society, 
and  he  sent  out  the  books  which  constitute  the  foundation  of  the 
noble  library  which  adorns  it.  Of  that  Society  he  was  the  first 
president,  Charles  Forlies,  treasurer,  and  William  Erskine, 
secretary.  But  above  all,  and  what  was  not  known  until  after 
his  death,  and  the  value  of  which  increases  with  the  -lapse  of 
years,  he  brought  his  comprehensive  intellect  to  bear  upon  those 
social  questions  which  underlie  all  Government,  and  in  liis 
dehneation  of  the  Dekhan  in  1805  answers  for  us,  and  those  who 
come  after  us,  the  question  whether  our  Ijeing  liere  now  is  a 
good  to  the  natives  of  India. 

He  had  the  wisdom  of  the  seer  and  wrote  for  posterity ; — 
where  there  is  no  vision  the  people  perish.  As  long,  therefore, 
as  the  written  letter  remains,  so  long  will  Jlackuitosh  continue 
to  be  a  most  powerful  ally  of  the  British  Government.! 

This  will  do  for 

A    i.iriET    DAY    AT    P.A.EEL. 

Our  host  sends  a  man  to  rouse  us  before  daylight.  SaJicb ! 
saheb  !  Those  dreadful  words  still  linger  in  our  ears,  uttered  by 
the  hamal  to  the  sleeping  Chri.stian.  O  thou  merciless  heathen  ! 
But  there  is  no  rest  for  the  wicked.  So,  quick  as  thought,  we 
hurry  into  our  clothes,  with  not  a  glance  to  spare  for  the 
■•iilhouette  of  Charles  James  Fox  in  our  dressing-room,  rush  along 
the  corridors,  stumbling  over  the  domestics,  who  litter  the 
place  like  the  sheeted  dead,  descend  the  noble  flight  of  stairs, 
gi'eet  our  friend  and  master  in  his  leather  breeches  and  top- 
boots,  his  .Scotch  terrier  "Tartar"  meanwhile  giving  tongue, 
mount  our  Arabs — he  on  Sir  Charles  (irey,  I  on  "  Bobbery- 


*  "John  Lawrence  in  1845  wrote  some  excellent  letters  to  the  Delhi 
Gazette." — Boswortli  Smith's  Lif<;  of  Lord  Latrmncr,  1883.  Sir  Herbert 
ICdwardes  also  under  the  nom  deplume  of  "  lirahaniiuy  Bull." 

t  We  have  made  large  drafts  on  this  subject  from  his  writings  in  other 
papers. 


A    MORNING    RAMBLE.  37 

walah  " — and  with  one  long  canter  are  in  Mahini  woods.  Tlie 
false  dawn  is  past,  and  already  the  sun's  first  rays  dart  through 
the  trees  their  silvery  sheen. 

Here  we  draw  breath.  We  are  told  that  this  noble  forest  is 
noted  in  our  oldest  maps,  and  certes  it  is  a  goodly  sight.*  Such 
palms  !  date,  diim,  fan,  cocoa,  betel,  and  the  acacia, 

"  Bending 
To  earth  their  Icaf-crown'd  heads, 
Liije  youthful  maids  when  sleep  de.scenriini; 
Warns  them  to  their  downy  beds." 

Our  talk  is  miscellaneous — Aldourie,  Kellaclue,  and  spearing 
salmon  on  the  Don,  with  a  sprinkling  of  European  politics  and 
Bombay  police  bills.  On  and  on,  until  in  Salsette  a  new  glory 
bursts  upon  us  in  the  i^a^n-.s  tree,  called  the  flame  of  the  woods, 
setting,  as  it  were,  with  its  scarlet  flowers,  the  very  forest  on 
fire ;  and  we  are  told  that  it  gives  its  name  to  the  battle-field  of 
Plassey.  And  yet  another  Avonder,  the  silk-cotton  tree,  a 
marvel  of  floral  magnificence,  decked  in  wool  and  scarlet,  like 
the  bride  of  King  Solomon.  Neither  gidmor  nor  hougainvilloc 
adorn  the  scene.!  We  return.  After  a  bath  we  are  more 
buoyant  than  if  we  had  emerged  from  a  hammam  in  Cairo  or 
Damascus ;  pass  into  the  verandah,  and  exchange  greetings  with 
a  number  of  young  faces,  their  hair  waving  in  the  morning  breeze, 
and  some  of  whom  have  never  yet  set  eyes  on  poker  and  tongs. 

The  library  table  groans  with  new  books,  a  most  refresliing 
sight  to  a  now  comer.  Edinhurglt,  Review  in  blue  and  buff 
livery ;  Scott's  novels  and  lays  ;  Burns  (the  Kilmarnock  edition) ; 
and  a  curiosity  which  Elphinstone  found  at  Peshawar,  a  book 
printed  by  Gassendi  in  Paris,  164G,  and  presented  by  him  to 
his  pupil  Bernier,  the  great  Indian  traveller,  with  Bernier's 
name  written  by  himself  on  it.J 


*  Lady  Burton  was  greatly  fascinated  by  the  Malum  Woods. 

t  "  Fonciana  I}ef/in,  a  native  of  Madasascar,  introduced  into  India  within 
the  last  sixty  years." — Brand'.s  Flora  of  India.  1874.  BowiainvlUie,  so 
called  after  a  French  botanist,  and  also  a  comparatively  late  introduction. 

X  See  Constable's  Bernier,  pp.  xx.,  1.  Elphinstone's  love  of  old  books 
which  had  a  history  is  exemplified  in  the  copy  of  Dante  in  vellum  which 
he  presented  to  the  Bombay  Asiatic  Library.  It  is  dated  1321,  or  20  years 
only  after  his  death,  and  Sir  George  Birdwood  estimates  its  value  at  a  lakh 
of  rupees.     In  excellent  condition. — September  30th,  1890. 


357124 


38      sm  JAMES  mackintosh;   ok,  bombay  1804  to  1812. 

But  hush !  Mackintosh  reads  prayers ;  he  did  so  on  board 
all  the  way  out,  and  a  fell  *  reader  he  is.  Breakfast  comes  on 
the  scene,  which  we  proceed  to  demolish.  Sir  James  busy  at 
his  khichri,  two  boiled  eggs,  three  cups  of  tea,  and  two  of 
coffee.  Padre  Martyn  from  Calcutta,  vulgarly  called  "  the 
Saint,"  has  come  in,  who  afterwards  died  in  Tokat.t  and  whose 
praise  is  now  in  all  the  churches ;  so  we  had  the  novelty  of 
grace  before  and  after  meat,  all  standing.  Much  discussion  on 
grammar  and  metaphysics ;  we  read,  lounge,  write,  and  loiter 
away  in  the  beautiful  apartments  that  contain  the  library.  Dine 
at  four.  From  half-past  five  to  seven  walk  on  the  terrace  and 
walks  of  tliis  noble  house  and  garden  ;  drink  tea  at  seven ;  and 
from  half-past  seven  to  ten,  bed-time,  our  host  reads  to  his  wife 
and  children  aloud  in  his  light  vest  and  white  jacket.  Addison 
and  Milton  are  his  favourites.  But  Tasso  also  and  novels,  for 
Scott  has  just  burst  upon  the  scene,  and  Madame  de  Stiiel  comes 
in  by  turns.  The  German  governess  is  gone — married,  we 
suppose — but  the  girls  are  not  without  education,  and  their 
father  helps  them  in  their  study  of  German,  Italian,  and  French, 
— of  the  last  being  such  a  master  that  he  could  coiTespond  with 
a  French  statesman,  or  debate  in  French  in  a  court  of  law. 

A  NOISY  D.4.Y  AT  TAKALA. 

I  happened  to  be  in  Bombay  in  January,  1811.  Sir  James 
was  then  living  at  Tarala,  Mazagon.  It  was  not  so  ornate  a 
house  as  Parel,  but  it  was  roomy  and  had  a  fine  view :  Parel 
had  noue.  Lady  Mackintosh  had  gone  home.  It  was  the  time 
of  the  races,  and  a  good  deal  of  fun  was  going  on.  The  races 
were  then  in  the  morning.  We  drove  to  the  Grand  Stand, 
BycuUa,  and  there  met  Lady  Ouseley.  Sir  James  was  clothed 
in  white  vest,  breeches,  and  a  frock-coat  of  green  silk,J  and 
Lady  Ouseley  resplendent  in  Genoa  velvet,  with  three  ostrich 


*  "  '  Fell,' — .icute  hot-biting." — Jamieson.  "  His  voice  was  nasal." — 
Sydney  Smith. 

t  October  12th,  1812.     Sue  p.  64. 

X  "  In  the  portrait  of  Jonathan  Duncan  possessed  by  Mr.  .J.  D.  Inverarity, 
the  Governor  is  painted  in  a  greuu  coat  and  Nankin  vest." — J.  D.  Inveraritv, 
Oct.  1st.,  1890. 


A  DiNNia;  IN  1811.  39 

plumes  towering  overhead  aud  iioddiug  in  the  breeze.  1  never 
saw  such  roads — they  were  as  finely  macadamised  as  those  now 
in  England,  and  long  before  the  name  of  that  celebrated  lugli- 
wayman  was  ever  heard  of.*  The  Flats  were  a  caution. 
Eickard's  horse  won,  and  he  was  in  ecstacies.  Tyler  of  the 
Indian  Na\y  pointed  out  the  horses,  aud  knew  all  about  them. 
The  Arab  horses,  of  course,  did  not  run  so  quick  as  the  English 
horses  at  Newmarket.  That  evening  forty  sat  down  to  dinner 
in  the  strictest  etiquette.  Being  left  out  in  the  cold,  I  had  no 
lady  to  take  in.  I  was  amused  afterwards  by  a  married  lady 
asking  me  if  I  had  been  "  shipwrecked."  I  had  never  heard 
the  word  before  in  this  sense,  and  imagined  it  referred  to  the 
voyage  out. 

I  never  saw  men  eat  so  little.  Coming  from  the  laud  where 
Lord  Braxfield  had  said  that  a  turkey  was  an  awkward  beast  to 
eat — too  much  for  one,  and  too  little  for  two — I  know  that  my 
father's  retainers  would  have  been  thankful  for,  and  made  short 
work  of,  the  ghost  of  the  feast,  wliich  must  have  been  quite  as 
bulky  as  when  we  sat  down.  Every  dish  was  put  on  the  table, 
and  the  air  was  heavy  and  overpowering.  I  remember  that  the 
party  was  stiff  until  the  cliampague  passed  round.  The  men 
drank  fairly  well :  Sir  James  only  cold  water.  We  had  been 
drinking  Shiraz,  the  finest  wine  of  Persia  ;  but  no  sooner  was  it 
discussed  than  Malcolm  set  the  table  in  a  roar  by  his  adventures 
at  the  Court  of  Sindia.  It  was  the  story  wliich  he  had  told 
Wellington,  and  which  Wellington  sent  on  to  his  brother  the 
Viceroy,  the  Earl  of  Mornington.  During  a  darbar  in  the  tent 
of  Sindia  the  rain  came  down,  filling  a  corner  of  the  fiap  with 
half  a  ton  of  water,  and  the  solemnity  of  the  darbar  was  suddenly 
arrested  by  tlie  falling  cataract, "  Oh,  Jasus  !  "  and  a  hideous  yell 
from  an  Irish  officer  named  Pepper,  who  had  been  suddenly  sub- 
merged, at  which  the  grim  countenance  even  of  Sindia  relaxed. 
Malcolm  was  a  perfect  Ju] liter  Tonans,  six  feet  and  a  half  higli, 
and  as  strong  as  au  ox.  Had  he  not  carried  for  a  few  feet  grain 
in  sacks  on  his  back  to  the  weight  of  830  lbs.,  and  a  pipe  of 
M'iiie  up  tlie  stairs  of  the  Eesidency  at  Bushir  ?  It  was  long 
before   the  toast  of  the  "  outward  bound  "  was  given,  for  the 


•  Captain  Ba^il  Hall. 


40  SIK    JAMES    MACKINTOSH  ;     OR,    BOMBAY    1304    TO    1812. 

ladies  were  made  much  of,  and  song  and  sentiment  fuUowed 
each  other  in  quick  succession.  "  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine 
eyes,"  and  a  Scotsman  out  of  compliment  to  the  host  gave  "  The 
Lass  of  Inverness.'"  We  lingered  long  over  the  Madeira.  Lady 
Ouseley  played  beautifully  on  the  piano.  A  lot  went  in  for 
billiards.  ]\Ialeolm,  who  was  an  adept  at  cards,  made  up  several 
parties.*  I  happened  to  join  Elphinstone  with  two  lady  part- 
ners at  whist — it  was  long  whist,  and  a  capital  game  we  had. 
My  partner  gave  me  a  pinch  of  snnfP  from  her  box :  we 
were  still  in  the  age  of  "snuffy  Charlotte."  1  never  saw  a  man 
play  a  better  game  than  Elphinstone,  and  so  cool,  for  he  was 
well  tried.  We  had  not  been  long  seated  before  his  eye  caught 
sight  of  his  secretary,  standing  like  an  apparition  between 
the  pillars  of  the  verandah.  He  had  just  arrived  from  Poena 
mth  ])ad  news,  and  we  knew  it,  for  he  had  a  tell-tale  face,  and 
you  might  ha\e  led  him  with  a  straw.  But  Elphinstone  never 
tlinched,  changed  countenance,  revoked,  nor  played  a  wrong 
card  ;  and  as  he  claimed  the  victorj- — cifilit,  nine,  ten,  he  quietly 
rose,  after  giving  the  secretary  a  terrible  qiuirt  iVheiirc.  He 
then  saw  the  ladies  into  their  palanquins,  wished  them  good- 
night, and  turning  round  to  the  secretary  with  a  "good-even- 
ing," heard  all  he  had  got  to  say.f     Everybody  was  in  great 

glee.     Mr. ,  glorious,  chasing  Mrs. round  the  library  to 

obtain  a  kiss.  I  looked  into  the  smoking  room,  a  portion  of 
the  dining-room  extemporised  for  this  purpose  :  ten  Englishmen 
squatted  on  their  Persian  rugs  a  I'Arabc,  and  as  many  hukahtt 
"oinjj,  with  so  much  gurgle-gurgle  and  hubble-bubble,  as  if 
there  had  been  so  many  stones  in  their  throats.  You  could  not 
hear  the  sound  of  your  own  voice,  or  distinguish  one  face  from 
another,  as  the  smoke  through  ten  pair  of  nostrils  filled  the 
room  to  suffocation.  The  floor  was  covered  with  cross-legged 
men  and  narr/hilehs,  the  twisted  coils  of  which  appeared  like 


*  "  Malcolm  in  his  youth  was  very  fond  of  cards.  '  I  have  l)een  in  my 
very  early  ycurs  the  victim  of  such  habits,  and  was  only  saved  by  the 
combined  workings  of  distress  fiom  debt,  and  a  strong  call  from  men  of 
whose  regard  I  was  proud,  and  who  added  to  the  respect  I  owed  them  as 
superiors  all  the  claims  of  friendship.'"— Kaye's  J.i/e  of  Malcolm. 

t  We  think  the  locale  of  this  incident  was  Poona ;  but  it  does  not 
matter  much. 


VISITING.  41 

suakes  in  many  a  fold.  It  was  a  mercy  there  were  no  curtains. 
I  rememljer  nothing  afterwards.  I  had  often  heard  of  "  a 
Malcolm  row,"  and  a  "  Bobbery  dinner,"  but  I  did  not  see  one 
the  whole  time  I  was  in  Bomljay. 


CALLS. 

I  made  a  number  of  calls  one  afternoon  with  Mackintosh. 
ISTobody  then  ever  dreamed  of  forenoon  calls.  Some  of  the 
bungalows  were  near  Belvidere  and  Belmont,  for  example.* 
The  Eickardses  were  in  Beh-idere,  as  the  Drapers  had  been 
forty  years  before  them,  and  I  heard  much  of  Eliza,t  and  how 
she  had  turned  the  heads  of  everybody  except  James  Forbes, 
who  merely  viewed  the  creation  of  so  much  beauty  and  accom- 
plishments as  a  philosophical  study.  At  Love  Grove  we  met 
Maria  Graham,  the  author  of  the  charming  letters,  and  she  told 
us  the  sad  story  of  its  name :  of  the  young  lover  who,  in  en- 
deavouring to  save  his  sweetheart,  shared  her  grave ;  both  were 
drowned,  and  their  bodies  washed  ashore,  one  at  each  of  the 
promontories  which  abut  from  the  Vellard ;  and  how  a  temple 
was  reared  on  each  for  the  offerings  of  the  love-sick  and  the 
delectation  of  the  faqirs.  At  Breach  Candy  Mackintosh  pointed 
out  the  whereabouts  of  the  only  battle  ever  fought  Ijy  the  French 
and  English  on  the  western  seas  of  India,|  and  in  which,  if  I 
understand  the  matter  rightly,  we  were  "  confoundedly  licked," 
said  the  author  of  Vindicim  Gallicce,  by  that  gallant  nation, 
though  our  men  fought  bravely  enough.  In  this  way  we  pay 
pleasant  \'isits  at  the  Moimt,  Eandall  Lodge,  Nonpareil  (Mal- 
colm's), and  Surrey  Cottage.  The  people  were  so  many  that 
I  have  but  a  confused  recollection  of  their  names :  Lushington, 
Money,  Forbes,  Abercromby,  Erskine,  Warden,  and  Salt.  Old 
Duncan  was  so  ill  that  we  could  not  see  him ;  indeed,  a  few 


*  "  Belvidere  stood  at  Mazagon  until  a  few  months  ago." — Dr.  A.  Leitli's 
Sanitary  Report,  1864.  "  Mr.  Glover,  the  contractor,  while  removing  the  hill 
and  casting  it  into  the  sea,  lived  in  Belvidere,  and  I  remember  hearing  it 
was  used  for  years  as  the  P.  &  0.  Club." — .Geo.  E.  Ormiston,  May  5th,  1888. 

t  Fur  further  information  on  Eliza  see  Chap.  XXXI.,  Vol.  I.,  p.  416/.,  and 
Sterne's  Life,  Thackeray's  Humourists,  and  Abbe  IJaynal. 

X  The  "  Apollo"  and  "  Anson  "  engagement,  1747. 

VOL.   II.  E 


42         Sm    JAMES    MACKreTOSH;     OR,    BOMBAY    1804    TO    1812. 

days  afterwards  Dr.  Keii'  sent  iis  a  notice  of  his  death.  And 
short  as  the  distance  was  between  his  house  and  the  Cathedral, 
we  all  got  dreadful  headaches  at  the  funeral,  by  walking  in  the 
sun  witliout  our  hats  at  four  in  the  afternoon.  Then  the  story 
of  steam  navigation  in  America  reached  us,  and  how  a  passage 
had  been  made  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  in  thirty-two 
houi's  from  New  York  to  Albany.  Mackintosli  was  in  ecstasies. 
"  This,"  he  said,  "  would  ensure  a  passage  from  Portsmouth  to 
Bombay  in  about  a  hundred  daj's."  He  exclaimed,  "  Wlay  were 
we  not  born  a  century  later ! "  Sir  James  was  born  in  1765. 
In  1865  the  passage  was  made  in  twenty-one  days. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Lord  Cornwallis  Sir  James 
preached  by  proxy  in  Bombay  Cathedral.  He  had  been  asked 
hj  the  Governor  to  write  the  funeral  sermon,  and  he  did  so,  and 
it  was  preached  by  the  senior  chaplain.*  We  all  went,  of  course, 
Mackintosli  included,  and  it  was  most  amusing,  if  such  a  word 
can  be  used  in  connection  with  a  funeral  sermon.  The  preacher 
stuttered  over  some  of  the  finest  passages  and  read  others  per- 
functorily, and  with  unconcern ;  took  a  pinch  of  snuff,  and 
sneezed  in  the  middle  of  the  peroration  so  loud  as  to  shake  some 
monumental  medallions  on  the  walls.  There  was  little  of  death, 
I  assure  you,  in  om-  heads  when  we  came  out,  and  the  laughing 
was  continued  at  intervals  during  the  following  day ;  at  all 
events,  I  can  vouch  for  myself. 


ON   THE  JUDGMENT-SKA.T. 

Before  he  delivers  his  address  to  the  Grand  Jury,  of  which 
W.  T.  Money  was  the  foreman,  and  to  give  a  composed  dignity 
to  it,  he  reads  the  1st  vol.  of  Eobertson's  History  of  Scotland. 
The  statement  seems  theatrical,  but  it  is  perfectly  sincere.  At 
half-past  five,  it  being  then  almost  dark,  and  within  the  old 
Court  House,!  on  the  afternoon  of  Monday  the  16th  of  July, 
1811,  Sir  James  Mackintosh  rises  from  the  judgment-seat.  He 
assumes  the  black-cap  and  pronounces  sentence  of  death  on 


*  "  Printed  and  published  with  the  Senior  Chaplain's  name." — Mackintosh's 
Life. 

t  Now  tlie  Great  Western  Hotel,  ante,  p.  15. 


CRIMINAL   SENTENCES.  43 

James  Estelow,  an  English  soldier,  for  the  murder  of  a  mean 
Hindu  at  Goa.  From  his  diary  we  learn  that  he  never  signed 
a  paper  with  more  tranquillity  than  he  did  the  death-warrant. 
But  he  is  now  pale  and  emaciated,  and  liis  voice  falters  as 
he  pronounces  tlie  words  of  doom.  The  circumstances  were 
peculiar.  Mackintosh  had  never  done  the  same  before,  and  will 
never  do  it  again.  In  a  judicial  administration  extending  over 
seven  years,  a  population  of  200,000  had  been  governed  without 
a  capital  punishment,  and  without  increase  of  crimes.  On 
Saturday  morning  at  five  minutes  past  nine  the  procession  from 
the  gaol  to  the  Esplanade  passes  his  own  residence  at  Tarala, 
Mazagon.  He  sees  it.  Patten,  the  gaoler,  in  front  in  a  small 
carriage.  James  Estelow  follows,  dressed  in  black,  handcuffed, 
and  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  with  the  hangman  in  a  large 
car,  surrounded  by  a  guard  of  the  sheriff's  peons.  See  in  tliis, 
O !  my  Aryan  brother,  the  even-handed  justice  of  the  Sarkar ; 
for  what  does  his  white  face  avail  Mm  now  ?  The  scene  closes 
amid  great  excitement.  Nothing  like  it  since  the  Malays,  who 
murdered  Lord  Nelson's  brother,  were  hanged  on  (iibbet  Island. 
Fifty  thousand  natives  were  on  the  Esplanade,  and  most  of  the 
European  inhabitants  were  present.* 

AN   UNSPOKEN   BOMBAY   SERMON. 

"  I  have  just  glanced  over  Jeremy  Taylor  on  tlie  beatitudes. 
The  selection  is  made  in  the  most  sublime  spirit  of  virtue.  For 
their  transcendent  excellence  I  can  find  no  words  to  express  my 


•  "Two  incidents  may  be  mentioned  of  his  judicial  administration  in 
Bombay.  He  liad  a  great  abliorrence  of  perjury,  and  sentenced  a  woman  to 
five  years  imiirisonracnt,  during  which  jjcriod  she  liad  to  stand  ouce  a  year  in 
the  pillory,  in  front  of  the  Court  House,  with  labels  on  her  breast  and  back 
explanatory  of  the  crime  of  which  she  had  been  guilty. 

"  Five  prisoners,  ex])ecting  to  receive  sentence  of  death,  liad  ])rovided  them- 
selves witii  knives  to  assassinate  the  judge  and  then  commit  suicide  on  them- 
selves. The  project  was  discovered,  but  Sir  James  did  not  increase  the 
sentence  beyond  what  he  had  intended — twelve  months  imprisonment.  He 
said:  'If  that  murderous  project  had  been  executed  I  should  have  been  the 
first  British  Magistrate  who  ever  stained  with  his  blood  the  bench  on  which 
he  sat  to  administer  justice.  But  I  could  never  have  died  better  than  in 
the  discharge  of  my  duty.  When  I  accepted  the  ofiice  of  a  minister  of 
justice,  1  knew  that  I  ou^ht  to  despise  tmpopularity,  and  slander,  and  even 
ileath  itself.     Thank  God  I  do  despise  them.'" — Lives  of  Englishmen,  1837. 

E  2 


44         SIR    JAMES    MACKINTOSH  ;     OR,    BOMBAY    1804    TO    1812. 

admiration  and  reverence.  '  Blessed  are  the  merciful,  for  they 
shall  obtain  mercy.'  '  Put  on  as  the  elect  of  God  bowels  of 
mercy.'  At  last  the  divine  speaker  rises  to  the  summit  of  moral 
sublimity :  '  Blessed  are  they  who  are  persecuted  for  rigliteous- 
ness'  sake.'  For  a  moment,  '  0 !  Teacher  Blessed,'  I  taste  the 
unspeakable  delight  of  feeling  myself  to  be  better."  Tiiis  is 
akin  to  a  meditation  of  Dr.  Chalmers.* 


MACKINTOSH   AND   WILSON. 

As  we  draw  this  paper  to  a  close  we  feel  the  touch  of  a 
vanished  hand.  A  name  rises  that  must  be  still  fresh  and  green 
in  the  memory  of  our  readers,  the  Missionary,  Philanthropist, 
and  late  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  University  of  Bombay.  Though 
"  their  graves  are  severed  far  and  wide  by  mount,  and  stream, 
and  sea,"  by  force  of  contrast,  by  force  of  comparison,  by  the 
like  and  the  unlike,  these  are  Bombay  brothers  that  cannot  be 
divided.  Though  living  at  different  periods,  Mackintosh  f  and 
John  Wilson  are  knit  together  by  a  two-fold  bond,  an  intense 
love  of  literature  and  a  deep  and  abiding  devotion  in  the  serxice 
of  the  Almighty,  not  Abdallah  the  slave  of  God,  but  the  willing 
and  intelligent  instruments  of  His  high  behests.J  Caledonia, 
stern  and  wild,  was  the  nurse  of  these  gentle  and  loving  natures. 
No  two  men  in  Bombay  ever  had  such  troops  of  friends,  the  one 
in  his  Spartan  simplicity  on  the  Cliff,  the  other  at  Parel.  They 
had  great  gifts,  but  great  as  they  were,  greater  than  the  gold  and 
frankincense  of  India,  true  wise  men  of  the  East,  they  laid  them 
at  the  feet  of  their  Master.  Memory  in  the  one,§  imagination 
and  memory  in  the  other — towers  of  strength,  enabling  Wilson 
to  grasp  all  Oriental  lore,  and  Mackintosh  to  soar  in  the  em- 
pyrean of  Philosophy  and  History,  without  a  single  compeer  in 
the  land  of  their  adoption,  and  very  few  in  the  land  that  gave 
them  birth.     Both  mingled  freely  with  the  natives,  both  were 


*  Clialmers  was  the  personal  friend  of  both  Mackintosh  and  Wilson. 

t  July,  1889. — Last  month  tlie  English  papers  recorded  the  death  of  a 
daughter  of  Sir  James  Slackintosh,  aged  89,  not  Mrs.  Rich  or  Mrs.  Erskine. 

J  "  When  Sir  James  Mackintosh  was  dying  a  friend  saw  his  lips  move,  and 
when  the  car  was  put  down  it  caught  the  whisper,  '  God — love — the  very 
same.'  " — Life  of  James  Itohertson,  of  Neu'ington,  p.  347,  1887. 

§  We  believe  that  in  Dr.  Wilson's  library  there  was  not  a  single  novel. 


AIM    I\    LIFE.  "  45 

most  tolerant  of  other  men's  opinions,  both  were  brilliant  con- 
versationalists, and  both  were  easyj^oing  and  careless  of  their 
own  money  to  a  degree.     What  shall  we  say  more  ?     That  they 
never  stooped  to  anything  mean  or  mercenary,  tliat  they  never 
debased  their  great  gifts  to  the  service  of  sin,  that  they  con- 
quered their  position  by  the  hardest  industry  that  ever  issued 
from  liighland  or  Lowland  home,  that  tliey  never  bartered  away 
their  principles  to  the  powers  that  be  for  a  piece  of  bread,  and 
that  at  last  they  seemed  to  reach  "  that  maturity  of  moral  stature 
in  which  the  conflict  between  inclination  and  duty  is  over,  and 
virtue  and  self-indulgence  are  the  same."  *     Mackintosh  was  a 
great  jiatriot,  great  on  the  freedom  of  the  slave  and  tlie  liberty 
of  man, — on  Wallace,  on  Tell,  and   Kosciusko;  but   Wilson's 
ideal  transcends  the  dreams  of  philosophy,  and  argues  a  virtue 
beyond  that  of  tlie  purest  patriotism.     It  is  not  every  man  wlio 
can  refuse  a  comfortable  settlement  at  home  when  within  his 
reach.     It  is  not  every  man  who  would  divert  away  a  gift  from 
himself,  to  even  the  noblest  purposes  of  the  University. •)"     Otlier 
men  than  Warren  Hastings  have  had  their  Daylesfords.     Wilson 
had  none  to  look  forward  to  in  tliis  world,  except  six  square 
feet  of  earth  in  tlie  Marine  Lines,  of  wliich  he  was  at  lengtli,  full 
of  yeai's  and  of  lionours,  duly  inl'efted.     Tlie  valedictory  clieer 
at  the  Apollo  Bandar  wliich  awaits  the  warrior  and  the  states- 
man had  no  charm  for  him,  and  he  did  not  covet  it.     It  is  this 
that  endears  Wilson  to  tliousaiids  of  his  adopted  countrymen, 
and  will  do  so,  we  venture  to  say,  for  generations  to  come  ;  for 
to  him  was  reserved  this  .supreme  distinction,  that  lie,  and  he 
alone  of  all  the  conspicuous  cliaracters  that  adorn  the  history  of 
Western  India,  Mackintosh  included,  elected  of  his  own  free 
will,  when  he  was  young  and  vigorous,  to  live  and  die  in  India 
for  tlie  benefit  of  its  people.     To  this  his  life  was  consecrated, 
and  fur  tliis  he  died. 


*  "  1831. — Ou  Saturday  saw  Sir  James  Mackintosh  (at  Jeffrey's).  A 
broadish,  niiddlc-.size(l,  grey-lieaJed  man,  well  dressed,  and  with  a  jJain 
courteous  bearing:  prey,  intelligent  (unhealtliy,  yellow  whity)  eyes,  iu 
which  ]ilays  a  dash  of  cautious  vivacity  (uncertain  whether  fear  or  latent  ire), 
triangul.ar  unmeaning  nose,  business  mouth  and  cliin,  on  the  whole  a  sensible 
official  air." — Thomas  Carlyle. 

t  Head  the  history  of  tlie  foundation  of  the  Wilson  Philological  Lecture, 
with  which  we  had  something  to  do. 


(     40     ) 


CUMBERNAULD   HOUSE. 

■  Write  me, my  dear  mother,ab()ut  everybody  and  everything  in  Cumbernauld." 


CHArxEi;  XXXVIII. 

MOUNTSTUART   ElPHIXSTOXE. 

IN  ISGl  Sir  Edward  Colebrooke  presented  a  memoir  of  Mouut- 
stuart  Elpliinstone  to  the  Asiatic  Society  in  London,  and  in  1860 
Dr.  Wilson  read  a  paper  on  the  same  subject  to  the  Asiatic 
Society  in  Bombay,  to  both  of  whicli  we  are  indebted  for  most 
of  the  information  we  at  present  (1883)  possess  of  the  life  and 
labours  of  this  illustrious  man.  We  may  add  also  Grant  Duff's 
ffiston/  of  the  Mahralias  and  the  masterly  minutes  which 
Elpliinstone  wrote  in  India,  and  his  paper  in  1831  on  Indian 
Policy,  which  attracted  universal  attention.  Colebrooke  knew 
Elpliinstone  intimately  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life, 
and  is  well  fitted  for  the  task ;  so  we  have  every  reason  to 
believe  that,  in  his  forthcoming  biography,  we  will  obtain  a  just 
estimate  of  the  character  and  career  of  one  whose  name  is  known 
and  revered  tln'ou'diout  the  whole  of  Western  India.* 


Publishefl  in  2  vo'p.  1884. 


MOUNTST0ART    ELPHINSTONE.  47 

His  will,  we  understand,  debars  the  jmblication  of  his  diary, 
but  Sir  John  Kaye  has  already  given  us  a  few  quotations  i'roiu 
it.  Why  do  people  not  burn  their  diaries,  if  they  object  to 
theii-  ijublicatiou  ?  This  was  Mrs.  Hough's  plan,  and  she  <lid 
right. 

The  great  outcry  of  biogi-aphers  nowadays  is  "  no  letters." 
But  in  his  case  the  letters  are  voluminous,  for  Elphinstone  was 
a  man  who  lived  before  the  age  of  telegrams  and  penny  posts, 
and  kept  up  the  habit  of  lengthy  correspondence  to  the  last 
days  of  his  life  on  all  sorts  of  subjects,  principally  Indian  and 
political,  from  which  we  may  now  fairly  claim  a  full  exhibition 
of  the  opinions  and  principles  by  ^vllich  he  was  guided  during  a 
long  and  most  eventful  period  in  the  history  of  British  India. 

ITEMS. 

The  fourth  son  of  Lord  Elphinstone,  some  time  Governor  of 
Edinburgh  Castle,  Mountstuart  Elphinstone  was  born  in  1779.* 
His  cousin  tells  us  he  was  an  idle  dog  in  his  youth. 

Principally  under  tutors,  some  time  at  the  High  School  of 
Edinburgh,  he  sailed  for  Bengal  in  1795.  Placed  in  the 
iliplouiatic  service  under  Barry  Close  at  Poena,  1801.  With 
Arthur  Wellesley,  1803.  Commissioner  in  Berar,  1804.  In 
1808-10  he  was  with  the  Embassy  to  Kabul;  1810-17, 
Kesident  at  Poena ;  1817-19  Commissioner ;  and  1819-27 
Governor  of  Bombay.  He  spent  the  rest  of  his  time  travelling, 
Imt  mostly  in  retirement,  in  England,  and  died  on  the  20tli 
November,  18o9. 

PORTR.\IT. 

j\Ir.  Elphinstone  was  in  the  forty-first  year  of  his  age  when 
in  1820  he  became  Governor  of  Bombay,  and  being  a  man  of 
temperate  and  active  habits,  and  fine  natural  constitution,  was 
in  the  very  prime  of  manhood,  and  in  the  fullest  vigour  and 
healtli.     He  was  close  on  six  feet  high,  but  a  slight  .stoop  nuidi'. 


*  C.illed  no  doubt  "  Mountsluarl"  iil'ter  tlie  suat  of  the  Jl.irqiiis  of  Hastings 
in  Bute,  who,  aliuut  tliis  tinie,  was  rewarded  by  a  lVcra<;e  for  liis  .services  in 
tlie  American  War,  and  afteiw.ards  became  Govcrnor-Ucaeral  of  India. 


48  MOUNTSTUAKT    ELPHINSIONE. 

him  appear  somewhat  less  tall  than  he  was.  With  this  trivial 
imperfection  as  an  exception,  his  figure  was  a  noble  one ;  his 
countenance,  as  immortalized  by  the  chisel  of  Chantrey,  was  in 
nature's  most  pleasing  moulil.*  It  was  oval  and  somewhat  thin ; 
the  lofty  forehead  and  deep-seated,  calm,  reflective  eye  marking 
the  man  of  talent.  His  nose  was  prominent,  and  slightly 
aquiline :  it  was  thin,  as  were  the  cheeks  and  lips ;  his  colour 
inclining  to  pale  ;  his  skin  pure  and  transparent ;  his  hair  was 
light,  soft,  and  silky.  His  usual  expression  was  that  of 
sweetness,  benevolence,  placidity,  and  repose.  When  excited 
his  whole  countenance  lighted  up  with  a  glow  of  warmth,  his 
bright  eye  gleamed  out,  and  his  thin  lips  becoming  compressed, 
showed,  though  placid,  he  was  far  from  inanimate — though 
unusually  tranquil,  how  easily  he  could  be  awakened  into 
energy  and  fire.  His  hands  were  soft,  white,  and  beautifully 
delicate.  He  was,  indeed,  the  most  distinguished  and  the  most 
popular  of  the  Governors  of  Bombay,  and  one  of  the  most  able 
and  upright  statesmen  of  modern  times.  This,  we  believe,  is 
Dr.  Buist's  pen-and-ink  sketch.  It  is  that  of  a  man  of  gentle 
blood,  built  up  by  ages  of  ease  and  ciiltivation.  Tliis  is  not  tlie 
burly  form  of  Malcolm,  the  farmer's  son,  nor  these  the  rugged 
features  and  gnarled  and  warped  forehead  of  Colin  Campbell. 


POLITICAL. 

Elphinstone  was  one  of  a  noble  band  whom  Edinburgh  sent 
forth  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  there  were  Horner, 
Murray,  Brougham,  Jeffrey,  Mackintosh,  and  Elpliinstone. 
Tliese  three  last  were  hot  Eepublicans  in  their  teens, — a  garb 
soon  to  be  exchanged  for  more  sober  livery,  the  blue  and  buff 
of  the  Edinburfjli  Bevievj.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  doubt 
in  the  king's  mind,  when  Mackintosh  in  1804,  who  was  then  38, 
was  being  sent  out  as  Kecorder  of  Bombay,!  that  the  opinions  of 
the  author  of  Vindicim  Gallicce  were  too  pronoimced,  but,  on 


*  The  portrait  in  this  volume  is  from  the  jiainting  by  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence. 

t  llackintosh  had  been  designated  in  1801  to  go  out  to  Calcutta  as  chief 
of  an  educational  Institution. — Scott's  ii/e  (ed.  183'j),  vol.  ii.,  pp.  70,  74.— B. 


[w^  -r-  -•."!if,fi^l!L-.-;iari-rir^.-'f~-^-~:yr-.'-- 


LPH  IN  STONE 


-riEK&C*  PARIS 


HIS   POLITICS.  49 

being  assured  on  this  point,  he  shrewdly  observed  :  "  A  man 
may  be  allowed  to  change  his  opinions  ;  his  principles  never." 
Elphinstone,  when  a  boy,  sung  Qa  Ira  and  the  Marseillaise,  and 
his  young  friends  in  India  on  his  arrival — by  way  of  burlesque, 
we  suppose — presented  him  with  a  tricolor  cockade  and  cap  of 
liberty.  "  He  had  no  stereotyped  prejudices,"  *  but  the  early 
views  which  he  imbibed,  thougli  e.xperiencing  many  modifica- 
tions, never  left  him,  and  the  Whig  peeps  out  at  intervals  to 
the  end  of  his  life. 

By  his  accidental  meeting  with  Mackintosh  in  Bomljay  in 
1811  and  afterwards,  Elphinstone,  thougli  a  man  of  independent 
thought  and  action,  must  have  been  brought  to  some  extent 
under  the  sway  of  his  intellect,  which  was  irresistible  and 
dominated  all  ^\•ithi^  its  reach.  He  it  was  who  urged  upon  him 
to  come  before  the  world  and  publish  his  book  on  Kabul.  But 
under  this  head,  and  as  illustrative  of  the  .strength  of  Elphin- 
stone's  mind,  or  the  tenacity  of  early  convictions,  it  is  a  curious 
fact  to  note  that,  living  in  so  close  proximity  with  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  and  sharing  with  him  an  entire  campaign,  at  the 
very  outset  of  his  career,  and  with  a  mind  apparently  so  flexible, 
the  pupil  did  not,  like  Malcolm,  fall  in  with  the  Conservative 
views  of  the  great  captain.  He  did  not  do  so,  and  did  not  sufler 
by  it.  It  was  George  Canning,  the  author  of  the  Antijacohin, 
who  in  1819  recommended  him  to  the  post  of  l>ombay  Governor, 
and  it  was  Lord  EUenborough's  Government  that  offered  him 
the  Viceroyalty  in  1834.  And  when  he  became  the  Nestor  of 
Indian  politics,  two  (Jovernors-General  of  different  shades  of 
politics  sought  his  society  before  proceeding  to  their  Govern- 
ment, as  the  greatest  authority  for  the  East. 

ECCENTRICITIES. 

If  El])hinstone  had  lived  in  the  l\Iiddlu  Ages,  he  would  at 
one  time  of  his  life  have  been  imprisoned  like  Iloger  Bacon,  or 
burned  for  heresy  or  witchcraft.  There  was  something  eene 
about  him — what  the  world  or  tiie  vuhjus  of  it  considers  ini- 
caniiy.     Once  he  lived  a  gloomy  and  a  solitary  life.     Of  women 


•  Dr.  Wilson. 


50  MOUNTSTUART    ELPHINSTONE. 

he  seldom  or  never  speaks,  and  neither  he  nor  his  nephew  Lord 
Elphinstone,  Governor  (1853-59),  were  marrying  men.  "Wine 
was  poison  to  him,  and  he  may  be  claimed  as  nearly  a  total 
abstainer.  He  discarded  all  superfluous  articles  of  dress,  and 
all  superfluous  articles  of  food.  Instead  of  a  siesta,  which 
Mackintosh  carried  with  him  to  the  sofas  of  England,  he  merely 
rested  his  head  on  his  hands,  closed  his  eyes,  and  with  liis 
elbows  on  the  table,  slept  the  sleep  of  the  just.  He  gave  up 
the  use  of  beds.  It  was  preposterous  in  a  grown-up  man  in 
full  jjossession  of  his  faculties,  mental  and  physical,  to  lay 
himself  down  prone  in  inglorious  slumber  like  the  beasts  of 
the  stall.*  He  shook  himself  out  of  his  chair  at  the  unearthly 
hour  of  4  a.m.  to  read  the  Antiijonc  of  Sophocles,  when  Malcolm, 
with  the  "  Deil's  picture  bulks  "  before  him  at  Nonfarcl,  was 
not  even  wondering  whether  it  was  time  for  his  guests  to  go  or 
stay.  He  delighted  to  walk  on  dizzy  precipices,  with  the  sound 
of  falling  water  beneath  him,  and  watch  the  perturbation  of 
the  aides-de-camp  in  following  his  example.!  He  delighted  to 
investigate  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  natives,  by  roaming 
incog,  during  the  night,  like  the  Duke  of  Sutherland,  through 
the  bazaars  and  Fort  of  Bombay ;  and  once,  an.xious  to 
experience  a  new  sensation,  he  was  seen  on  camel-back  at 
midnight,  bobbing  up  and  down  in  the  darkness,— an  experience 
which  Albert  Smith  describes  "  like  sitting  in  an  arm-chair  on 
the  top  of  a  hansom  cab." 


HIS   HISTORY   OF   INDIA 

is  his  magnum  opus.  While  everyone  admii-es  the  zeal  which 
enabled  him  with  much  care,  research,  and  accuracy  to  bring 
totrether  so  great  an  amount  of  information  in  a  form  so  con- 
tinuous  and  compact,  it  is  a  subject  of  universal  regret  that  he 
did  not  prosecute  the  history  of  British  India.     This  book  can 


*  Many  years  after  this  he  was  asked  by  a  frieud  the  reason  why.  He 
promptly  replied,  "  Because  I  was  a  fool." 

t  There  is  a  tradition  at  the  foot  of  Torna  that  a  late  muscular  Governor 
who  ascended  it,  found  himself  on  the  tup  without  .any  companions.  Dis- 
cretion, however,  is  sometimes  the  better  part  of  valcur,  and  his  ibllowers 
need  not  be  ashamed  "Where  braver  hearts  have  failed." 


THE    mSTOKY    OF    INDIA.  51 

only  be  looked  upon  as  an  instalment  of  a  great  work  which  liis 
mind  foreshadowed,*  but  which  failing  health,  a  sense  of  weari- 
ness, or  languor,  the  advice  of  friends,  or  the  callousness  of  critics 
— for  though  he  was  indifferent,  he  was  not  insensiljle  to  human 
applause — prevented  him  completing.  Or  was  it  the  glamour 
which  the  appearance  of  Macaulay's  essays  on  Clive  and  Hastings 
(wherein  he  marshals  these  heroes  on  a  field  of  the  cloth  of  gold) 
threw  over  all  tluxt  generation  ?t  Whatever  the  cause,  he  was 
bowled  away  from  the  subject,  and  never  returned  to  it  again  ; 
and  the  loss  is  irreparable.  For  wherein  lies  the  significance  of 
all  his  labour,  if  it  is  not  to  antedate  our  times  and  prepare  the 
reader  for  the  coming  day  when  English  rule  should  put  all 
authority  under  its  feet?  What  is  tlie  history  of  India  to  us 
if  it  has  no  connection  with  Europe  ?  And  you  may  go  back, 
if  you  like,  to  the  expedition  of  iUexander  the  Great.  So  when 
we  read  of  Tuglilak  and  Mahmud  Bigarah,  or  wade  through  the 
annals  of  Timur  or  Baber,  they  seem  to  us  no  more  than  the 
fights  of  the  kites  and  the  crows,  compared  with  the  acts  and 
deeds  of  the  race  which  rescued  India  from  their  oppression. 

GOVERNORS   OF  BOMBAY. 

There  is  not  a  Governor  of  Bombay  but  some  evil  thing  has 
been  said  of  liim.J     Sir  John  Child  §  was  the  brother  of  Josiah 


*  "  His  decision  to  wriie  the  History  of  India  ami  to  jmblish  it,  was  finally 
made  when  Lord  .Jeffrey  advised  him  to  do  so." — Life,  1884. 

t  This  quustion  asked  in  1881  is  answered  in  tlie  aflirmative  by  El|ihin- 
stone  himself.  What  was  guessed  at  is  m.ide  abundantly  manifest  in  his 
di.iry  and  letters,  1839—10,  published  in  his  Life  by  Colebrooke,  1884. 

t  "  A  Governor  of  Bombay  must  always  be  hated." — K.  Colebrooke's 
M.  KIphinstone,  vol.  i.,  p.  .'347. 

§  Sir  John  Child  was  educated  at  Eajapur  in  Ratnajiri  from  the  age 
of  10  to  18,  with  his  uncle  Mr.  Goodshaw,  Cliief  of  that  Kactory,  and  being 
a  smart  bfiy,  discovered  that  he  carried  on  private  trade  with  the  funds  of  the 
('om|iany,  and  informed  upon  him!  Goodshaw  was  cashiered,  and  he  at  24 
"w.is  laird  himself,"  that  is,  chief  of  the  .'-aid  factory.  He  was  created  a 
Ixironct  iu  1G84,  but  tlie  title  became  e.xtinct  in  17oy.  His  arms  were : — 
vert  two  bars  engrailed  between  three  leopards'  faces  or;  crest — a  lion's 
face  or,  between  two  laurel  branches  proper;  motto- — Spesalit.  His  brother's 
family  in  England  became  not  only  rich,  but  allied  with  noble  houses;  and  it 
is  on  record  that  Josiah  Child's  widow — -he  who  was  Chairman  of  the  East  hjdia 
Company — survived  until  173.5.  This  wjis  the  ucine  of  the  Child  family,  for 
eleven  dukea  and  duchesses  used  to  ask  her  blessing,  dear  old  Iodic  \  and,  il 
was  reckoned,  fifty  great  families  would  go  into  mourning  for  her.     Hear 


52  MOUNTSTUABT    ELPHINSTONE. 

Child,  the  Chairmau  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  he  was 
accused  of  malversation  of  the  Cathedral  funds.*  Vaux  was  a 
traitor.  Bartholomew  Harris  and  Thomas  Hodges  were  in  league 
with  astrologers.!  Of  Hornby,  whom  we  liave  always  considered 
a  fine  old  fellow,  we  have  seen  accusations  of  greed,  lust  of  gain, 
and  that  he  was  anything  but  a  gentleman.^  Jonathan  Duncan 
was  a  Scotsman  :  no  harder  thing  could  be  said  of  a  man  in 
India  in  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  for  a  Scotsman  was 
branded,  and,  like  Cain,  wandered  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 
But  he  was  more :  a  Brahmanised  Scotsman,  whatever  tliat  may 
mean,  an  old  "  havering  bodie  "  who  had  lost  his  head.§  Even 
Nepean  was  a  nip-cheese  and  had  l>een  a  purser  in  the  Xa\y, 
and  the  more  credit  to  him.||  Malcolm  was  a  fool ;  but  not  such 
a  fool.     Sir  Eobert  Grant  1  immortalised  Love  Grove  by  making 


thai !  .and  this  also — that  no  man  can  tell  where  Sir  John  Ctild's  grave  is. 
The  when  he  died  was  1C90,  hut  I  have  not  discovered  his  place  of  sepulture 
in  India.  Probably  it  was  one  of  the  fine  mausolca  which  were  demolished 
at  Mendhaui's  buryiug-ground  near  the  Cooperage  on  the  eve  of  the  opening 
of  Sonapur  in  17C0.  "When  Sir  John  Cliild  died  the  Cathedral  walls  were 
standing  fifteen  feet  high,  thougli  a  la  Ivnm;  heurc  he  conld  not  go  there. 
The  Bombay  Cathedral  was  not  for  this  Child.  His  brother,  Sir  Josiah 
Child,  born  in  1G30,  died  June  1690,  was  made  a  baronet  in  1678,  .and  bis 
second  son,  Sir  Eichard  Child,  was  raised  to  the  Irish  peerage  in  1718  as 
Viscount  Castlemaine,  and  in  1731  was  made  Earl  Tylney.  The  title 
became  extinct  with  his  son's  death  in  1784.  The  heiress.  Lady  Emma 
Child,  married  Sir  Robert  Long  of  Dr.ayton,  Bart.,  and  her  descendant, 
Catherine  Tylney  Long,  carried  the  fortune  of  the  Chikls  to  William  Pole- 
Tylney-Loug-Wellesley,  afterwards  fourth  Earl  of  Mornington,  died  1857. 
(BurUe's  Peerage,  and  Hedges'  Diary,  ii.,  112.) 

Sir  Josiah  Child  in  a  great  degree  dominated  the  Company  at  home  as  his 
brother  Sir  John  did  in  India.  He  seems  to  have  dictated  most  of  the 
Company's  correspondence,  and  to  him  is  probably  due  the  following 
remark.i'ble  ptassage: — To  Fort  St.  Gevri/e,  12th  Dec.  1087:  "  That  which 
we  promise  ourselves  in  a  most  especiall  n)anner  from  our  new  President  and 
Council  is  that  they  in'/l  estuhlish  such  a  I'olitie  of  civ  ill  and  military  power, 
and  create  and  secure  svch  a  large  revtnne  to  muintaine  both  at  that  place,  as 
may  be  thejoiindation  of  a  large,  well-grounded,  sure  Ekglish  Dominion  in 
Indi.\  for  all  time  to  come."  (Hedges'  Diary,  ii.,  117.) — B. 
*  Hamilton. 

t  Ovin2ton  and  James  Forbes. 
j  Donald  Campbell,  1783. 
§   Wellington  Despatches. 
II  Stocqueler. 

•J  "  Mr.  Robert  Grant  in  1830  first  brought  forward  a  bill  to  enable  Jews  to 
sit  in  Parliament."— /.(/e  of  the  Earl  of  Shaftesbury,  1887,  p.  387.  "  Kobcrt 
Grant  who  rather  failed  a  fortnight  ago,  recovered  his  power  and  most 
vigorously  excited  it,  in  an  answer  to  North.     Both  were  somewliat  floored 


GOVERNORS   OF   BOMBAY. 


53 


the  sluices  and  main  drains  *  and  singing  his  liynuis  on  the 
battlements  of  Purandhar.  Never  mind ;  his  hymns  will  be 
sung  in  Anglican  cathedral  and  Methodist  meeting-house  when 
you  and  I  are  forgotten.     Even  Gerald  Aungier,  the  first  and 


SIR   JOSIAH    ClIlLli. 


greatest  of  our  conscript  fathers,  the  almost  impeccable  Aungier, 
is  taken  to  task  by  the  Kev.  ]\Ir.  Anderson  of  Kolaba  as  if  his 
religious  phraseology  savoured  of  insincerity.  0  thou  Aungier, 
be  not  rigliteous  overmucli.f 


on  this  occasion;  Grant  was  the  most  argumentative  if  not  quite  so  orderly 
and  magnificent  as  his  antagonist." — Sir  James  Mackintosh,  March  8,  1831. 

*   Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  1838,  and  see  infra,  p.  114. 

t  Anderson's  Western  India,  202.  "  Rev.  Philip  Anderson,  buried  in 
Kolalia  Churchyard,  1854,  'very  high  church.'" — Dr.  Hewlett,  Sanitary 
CommissiuiiLT,  wlm  knew  liiiu  (1887). 


54  MOUNT8T0AKT    ELPHINSTONE. 


RELIGIOUS. 


Now  though  Elphinstone  was  not  charged  with  any  of  these 
things,  he  was  not  allowed  to  leave  Bombay  unscathed.  And 
it  must  be  confessed  that  there  was  something  about  his  clear, 
mirror-like  mind  that  attracted  the  basilisk  eye  and  breath  of 
detraction. 

"  A  breatli  may  make  it  as  a  breath  hath  made." 

So  one  fine  morning,  when  his  sky  seemed  perfectly  un- 
clouded, a  little  speck,  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,  appeared 
on  the  horizon,  and  the  words  "  doubter,  sceptic,  and  unbeliever  " 
were  whispered  by  a  field  officer — and  printed.  It  so  happened 
that  in  1825,  shortly  before  his  death,  Bishop  _Heber  was  guest, 
in  Bombay  for  two  months,  of  Mountstuart  Elphinstone.  He 
it  was  who  sang — 

"  From  many  an  ancient  river, 
From  many  a  palmy  plain, 
They  call  us  to  deliver 
The  land  from  error's  chain." 

And  this  was  one  of  the  errors  he  sought  to  deliver  the  land 
from.  He  left  on  record  that  in  all  essential  points  Elphin- 
stone's  views  were  doctrinally  correct,  and  that  he  had  done 
more  for  Christianity  than  any  other  GoA'ernor  had  ever  at- 
tempted. It  was  of  little  avail  where  most  needed.  Thirty- 
three  years  after  this,  when  Elphinstone  died,  an  eminent 
journalist  *  in  London  wrote :  "  His  life  closed  in  philosophic 
beauty  and  Christian  repose."  The  editor  of  the  journal  in 
which  it  appeared  was  taken  to  task,  and  the  whole  question 
had  to  be  gone  into  de  novo.  There  is  an  Apostolical  succession, 
and  though  Bishop  Heber  was  dead.  Dr.  Wilson  was  alive ;  and 
when  in  1860  he  appeared  before  the  Asiatic  Society  in  Bombay 
with  a  paper  on  Elphinstone  and  his  services,  he  took  good  care 
to  tell  his  hearers  that  Elphinstone's  respect  for  religion  Avas 
exactly  as  intimated  by  Bishop  Heber.t  and  mentioned  by  the 


*  William  Jerdan. 

t  April  ly,  1827. — "I  have  a  Church  Bible  which  I  can  read  at  night,  and 
•  lo  read  with  jileasure." 

April  2C,  1827. — "  I  find  I  can  read  my  Bible  by  candlelight,  which  is  an 
immense  point  gained."     Extracts  from  his  Diary. — Life,  vol.  ii.,  p.  197. 


HIS   CHARACTER.  55 

■way  that  he  had  been  a  contributor  to  the  Bible  Society,  was  a 
friend  to  the  Scottish  Mission,  and  on  several  occasions  had 
granted  plots  of  laud  to  the  Americans — the  Doctor  adds — "  as 
shown  in  their  annual  reports."  But  why  do  we  speak  of  such 
things  ?  Were  not  the  same  tactics  employed  by  a  coterie  in 
Edinburgh  in  1868,  in  the  case  of  the  removal  of  a  renowned 
principal  from  Poena,  and  when  the  appeal  was  made  to  Bombay, 
wisdom  was  justified  of  her  children  ?  And  did  not  the  same 
old  man  whose  bones  now  lie  in  our  Scotch  kirkyard  again 
raise  his  right  arm,  and  by  one  telegram  silence  for  ever  the 
tongues  of  the  malefactors,  and  vindicate  the  cause  of  truth 
and  righteousness  ?  * 


CIIAEACTER   AND   ACCOMPLISHMENTS. 

If  Elpliinstoue  had  been  a  Eoman,  he  would  have  been  the 
Marcus  Aurelius  of  our  school  days,  sometliing  of  the  soldier, 
mucli  of  the  student,  and  a  great  deal  of  the  stoic.  Did  not  the 
Duke  of  Wellington,  after  witnessing  his  bearing  at  the  battle 
of  Assaye,  tell  liun  that  he  had  mistaken  liis  profession  and 
ought  to  have  been  a  soldier  ?  When  Baji  Eao,  from  his  palace 
window  at  Parbati,  saw  the  last  of  the  Marathas  disappear  behind 
the  hills  of  Ganesh  Khind,  he  knew  whose  was  the  hand  that 
caused  their  disappearance.  No  one  could  guess  that  under 
such  a  mild  exterior  there  was  concealed  so  much  firmness  and 
determination.  But  it  was  there.  When  Commissioner  at  Poona, 
a  conspiracy  was  detected,  consisting  of  Brahmaus  and  the  most 
desperate  of  the  military  class.  Elphinstone  immediately  blew 
away  the  ringleaders  from  the  guns.  Sir  Evan  Nepean  was 
then  Governor  of  Bombay,  and,  alarmed  at  his  hardihood, 
advised  him  strongly  to  ask  the  Governor- General  for  an  Act  of 
Indemnity,  which  he  indignantly  rejected.  "  If  I  have  done 
wrong  I  ought  to  be  punished ;  if  I  have  done  right,  I  don't 
want  any  Acts  of  Indemnity."  He  had  some  terrible  nights  at 
Poona — the  memory  of  one  still  remains.     And  we  have  tlie 


*  Sir  Alcxaiiik'r  Grant,  late  Principal  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  ilied 
December  2ud,  1884. — Sec  Quasi  Cursores.     (Edin.  1885). — B. 


56  MOUNTSTUAKT   ELPHINSTONE. 

words  of  tlio  great  CanDinj,'  that,  where  other  master-minds 
failed,  he  foUed  the  chicanery  and  macliinations  of  ]>aji  Bao  at 
every  hand. 

When  he  arrived  in  England,  he  tells  us  with  characteristic 
humility  that,  when  in  conversation  with  the  men  of  his  day,  he 
in\'arial3ly  soon  found  himself  out  of  his  depth,  and  to  remedy 
this  he  would  retire  for  several  months  at  a  time  to  a  roadside 
inn  and  pursue  his  studies  with  all  the  ardour  and  perseverance 
of  a  }'oung  scholar.  Long  ere  this  he  was  familiar  with  Persian 
and  Hindustani,  French  and  Italian,  and  with  Latin,  and  when 
over  fifty  he  perfected  himself  in  Greek. 

One  fact  ought  not  to  be  omitted  in  his  Indian  days  :  his 
devotion  to  horsemanship  and  the  chase.  He  had  but  one  pace, 
and  that  was  a  hand  gaUop,  and,  like  some  other  Governors, 
had  a  bad  fall  and  broke  his  collar-bone.  He  became  an  active 
member  of  the  Poena  Hunt,  and  was  often  seen  among  a  group 
of  eager  sportsmen  in  the  grey  of  the  morning  after  the  jackal. 
But  pig  was  his  delight.  The  wild  boar  of  Scotland  had  been 
displayed  on  the  armorial  bearings  *  of  the  Elphinstones  ages 
before  the  name  of  India  had  been  heard  in  the  Caledonian 
forests.  So  his  ancestors  having  sworn  a  feud  against  the  grue- 
some beast,  he  transferred  it  from  the  banks  of  the  Carron  to 
the  Muta  Mula,  and  went  at  him  witli  a  will. 

"The  bristly  boar 

In  infant  gore 
Wallows  beneath  the  thorny  sliade."' 

He  had  always  a  native  shikaree  in  his  camp,  and  whenever 
he  brought  khahar  Elphinstone  proclaimed  a  holiday,  and  it  was 
not  his  fault  if  he  had  not  the  first  spear.  A  young  dragoon — 
Cooper — was  much  chagrined  that  he  could  not  take  a  spear. 
Elphinstone  mounted  him  on  one  of  his  best  horses,  which  laid 
the  young  soldier  alongside  the  hog,  and  he  delivered  his  spear. 
"  You  have  won  your  spurs  nobly,"  said  Elphinstone,  and  made 
him  a  present  of  the  horse.  And  we  have  seen  somewhere  that 
in  old  age  at  Hookwood,  when  liis  eye  was  dim  and  liis  natural 


*  Argent,  a  chevron  sable,  between  three  boars'  heads,  erased  gules,  armed 
of  the  field,  and  langued  azure. — ^B. 


HIS   CAREEH.  57 

force  abatc'il,  the  presence  of  a  friend  from  India  would  kindle 
hiiu  into  animation  over  some  old,  old  story  of  "  the  boar, 
the  boar,  the  mighty  boar."  In  Bombay  we  are  told  that  though 
he  was  surrounded  by  young  men  he  never  suffered  the  slightest 
indecorum,  and  if  any  one  after  dinner  indulged  in  a  dnuhle 
entendre  he  would  not  say  anything,  but  pushing  back  his  chair, 
broke  up  the  party.  He  left  the  bulk  of  his  moderate  fortune 
to  his  nephew,  Lord  Elphinstone,  who  survived  him  only  a  few 
months.     They  were  Ijoth  buried  at  Limpsfield  in  Surrey. 

r.i(ii;ii.\i'iiiiAi.. 

Ko  man  has  so  peculiarly  identitied  himself,  and  for  so  long 
a  time,  with  the  history  of  Western  India.  Elphinstone  was  in 
I'oona  in  1802,  the  year  after  Eaji  Rao  put  to  death  Vitlioji,  the 
brother  of  Holkar,  by  dragging  him  at  the  foot  of  an  elephant, 
and  he  was  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties  when  in  1858  he 
heard  from  his  nej)liew.  Lord  Elphinstone,  an  account  of  the 
Indian  Mutiny.  He  was  present  at  Basseiu  in  1802  at  the 
signing  of  the  famous  treaty.*  He  went  through  the  whole 
campaign  of  180P.  with  the  Duke  :  Ahmadnagar,  Gawilgarh, 
Argaum,  and  Assaye.  He  it  was  in  1808  who  first  brought 
to  Europe  the  knowledge  of  Afghanistan — that  country  which 
has  twice  during  the  last  forty  years  shrouded  so  many  families 
in  gloom  and  sorrow.  As  Commissioner  in  Poona  (1810  to 
1817),  he  foiled  the  machinations  of  Baji  Kao,  and  where 
Malcolm  was  hoodwinked,  tore  away  the  mask  and  revealed 
the  enemy  of  England.  He  was  not  terrified  by  seeing  his 
house,  the  English  Eesidency  at  the  Sangam,  in  flames,  his 
lil)rary  and  ever3'thing  he  had  except  the  clothes  on  his  back 
burned  to  ashes.  He  emerged  a  hero  from  the  glare  of  the  con- 
flagration, and  history  has  blazoned  the  name  of  Khirki  on  his 
shield  of  arms.  He  settled  the  Deklian.  When  he  first  came 
to  Poona  the  province  was  overrun  by  lianditti,  and  tiie  land 
around  its  suburbs  could  nut  be  let  for  rent.  Look  at  it  miw. 
In  1821  the  President  was  able  to.  write  of  his  Government : 


•  "  Shortly  thereafter  he   jwid  a  visit  to   Belvidere,  Bombay,  in  1802." — 
Colebrooke's  Elphinsloi-c,  188-1. 

VOL.  n.  F 


58  MOUNTSTUART    ELPHINSTONE. 

"  It  has  repelled  predatory  iuvasiou,  restrained  intestine  dis- 
order, administered  equal  and  impartial  justice,  and  has  almost 
extirpated  every  branch  of  exaction  and  oppression."  *  His 
Government  of  Bombay  (1819  to  1827)  was  nearly  faultless; 
his  efforts  for  the  education  of  the  natives  can  never  be  for- 
gotten, for  even  should  the  two  great  structures  which  bear  his 
name  in  Bombay  crumble  to  dust  by  the  decay  of  time  or  by 
human  or  elemental  violence,  his  name  will  remain  as  that  of 
a  great,  a  just,  and  a  true  Governor,  who  was  content  to  do  the 
work  of  a  part,  when  the  Government  of  the  whole  of  India  lay 
before  him,  and  who,  with  the  peerage  of  England  within  his 
reach,  preferred  to  live  and  die  an  untitled  scion  of  the  nobility 
of  Scotland.!  His  statue  is  placed  in  St.  Paul's,  where  lie  the 
bones  of  his  great  friend  and  master,  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 


*  Minute  on  Khandesh. 

t  On  one  occasion  Carlyle  dined  with  us  to  meet  Mountstuart  Elphinstone, 
and  it  was  inteiestiug  to  note  bow  two  men  of  sucli  difl'ereut  antecedents 
fraternised  on  the  (^pot,  eacli  recognising  the  noble  qualities  of  the  other. 
Carlyle  spoke  the  broadest  Annandale  dialect  and  was  very  blunt  in  manner. 
His  laugh  was  quite  infectious,  it  was  such  a  gen  al  roar.  Mr.  Elphinstone 
told  Carlyle  the  story  of  Mahmud  of  Ghazui,  paying  the  famous  poet 
Ferdausi  lor  the  labour  of  thirty  years  in  writing  the  Shah  Nameh,  with  a 
sackful  of  coppers.  Carlyle  expressed  vehement  contempt,  laughed  heartily 
at  his  own  wrath,  and  then  asked — "Is  this  Ferdausi  dead?  '—Mrs.  Colin 
Mackenzie,  Storms  and  Sunshine  of  a  Soldier's  Life,  1884. 


(    59     ) 


EU8SF00T. 


CHAPTER     XXXIX. 


Sir  John  Malcolm. 


PRELIMINARY. 


The  time  has  now  come  when  the  fame  of  Sir  John  Malcolm 
must  rest  upon  books,  either  books  written  by  himself  or  the 
records  that  remain  of  his  life  and  doings.  There  may  be  still 
men  in  Bombay  who  remember  him,  and  the  sough  of  him  may 
still  be  heard.*  But  tradition  is  an  uncertain  monitor,  and 
must  soon  give  up  the  ghost,  leaving  us  to  fall  back  on  the 
written  letter  tliat  remaineth.  At  Mahabaleshwar,  the  loved 
names   of  Charlotte,   Amelia,   Kate   and   Olympia,   wife   and 


*  Mr.  S.  S.  Benj;allee,  C.I.E.,  relates  that  it  is  still  a  custom  for  peo]>le  in 
Bombay  from  up-country,  to  tie  a  string  round  the  arm  of  their  child  to 
ward  off  evil  spirits.    This  thread  is  called  "  Malcolm  Dora." — Aus.  14th,  1890, 

F  2 


60  SIR    JOHN    MALCOLM. 

daugliters,  have  been  written  by  Malcolm  on  the  everlasting 
hills,  and  his  noble  statue  still  looks  down  upon  us  as  we  enter 
the  portals  of  the  Asiatic  Society.  But  these  memorials  are 
local  and  perishable.  Chantrey  deals  with  the  outer  framework 
of  the  man,  and  a  magnificent  framework  it  is,  leaving  un- 
touched the  story  of  his  life.  Where  Chantrey  ends  History 
begins,  and  the  divine  chisel  shapes  the  block  from  Burnfoot 
into  a  glorious  body,  not  indeed  without  spot  or  wrinkle,  but 
beyond  the  power  of  marble  to  express  or  delineate. 


CALF   COUNTRY. 

"  Noo,  Jock,  my  man,  be  sure  whan  you're  awa,  ye  kaim  yer 
held  and  keip  yer  face  clean.  If  ye  dinna,  ye'll  jist  be  sent 
back  agen."  Thus  moralised  his  old  nurse,  wliile  combing  his 
hair  for  the  last  time  ere  he  left  Burnfoot.*  He  remembered 
the  words,  didn't  he  ? — aye  for  many  a  day  retailed  at  camp 
fires,  from  Madras  to  Isfahan,  where  "  the  laugh  was  ready 
chorus."  There  is  a  world  of  hard  philosophy  in  the  old  crone's 
observations,  and  it  is  not  for  nothing  the  Scot's  "hame 
coming "  is  here  shorn  of  its  attractions.  To  George  and 
Margaret  Malcolm  ten  sons  f  and  seven  daughters  were  born. 
The  young  birds  were  in  fact  kicking  each  other  over  the  nest, 
and  an  additional  one  was  given  by  the  old  nurse,  beyond 
anything  all  the  schools  could  hammer  into  him,  to  wit,  that 
his  days  of  neivcing  trouts  in  the  Esk  wei'e  at  an  end,  and  he 
must  now  go  and  do  for  himself.  And  she  combed  his  hair  to 
some  purpose.  It  is  out  of  such  rough  schooling  that  many 
Scotch  heroes  in  India  have  been  manufactured.     Bear  witness 


*  "  Burnfoot  is  tlie  name  of  a  farm-liouse  on  the  Buccleuch  estate,  not  far 
from  Lanfjholm,  where  the  late  Sir  John  M.nlcolm  and  liis  distinguished 
brotliers  were  born.  Their  grandi'allicr  had,  I  beUeve,  found  refujie  there 
after  forfeiting  a  good  estate  and  an  anciint  baronetcy  in  the  affair  of  171.'). 
A  monument  to  the  g.allant  General's  nieraor}'  has  recently  been  erected  near 
the  spot  of  his  birth." — Lockhart  in  his  Life  of  Scott,  v.  2;'.. 

f  or  these,  four  became  Knichts,  Ouiiles,  John,  Peregrine  and  Pulteney, 
and  tliey  all  met  together  once  in  India.  John  was  barely  fourteen  years  of 
a^e  when  apiiointcd  to  India,  April  17G3. 

"There  died,  not  many  years  since,  a  small  sheep-farmer  in  Dumfries- 
shire, who  lived  to  see  his  three  sons,  a  general,  an  admiral,  and  an  am- 
bassador, and  all  luiights,  seated  around  liis  table." — World,  April  8,  1885. 


SCHOOLING. 


6i 


Baird,*  Monro,  and  last  but  not  least  Colin  Campbell  of  Clyde. 
( ;ash,  douce,  prudent  woman,  may  your  race  be  long  continued, 


MRS.    MAI.roi.M 


for^God  pity  the  country,  when  our  Indian  heroes  are  in  the 
position  of — "  Story  I  have  none  to  tell,  sir."     Jock  was  the 

•  "  Baird,  on  tlie  failure  ol  Colonel  Wcllcsley  on  the  night  attack  on 
Seringapatani,  wlun  offered  the  next  day  the  command  of  the  attack  on  the 
Tope,  agreed  with  Lord  Harris,  tlie  Commander-in-Chief,  that  it  would  be 
Init  fair  to  give  the  Colonel  another  trial.  He  got  it,  and  Buccecded." — 
Alison's  J/istury,  vol.  vii.,  cap.  49. 


62  SIR    JOHN   MALCOLM. 

worst  boy  in  the  school,  and  there  never  was  a  row  but  the 
teacher  observed,  "Jock's  at  the  bottom  of  it."  Malcolm  re- 
membered this,  and  the  story  goes  that  when  he  published  his 
history  of  Persia,  he  sent  a  copy  to  his  old  teacher,  Archibald 
Graham,  writing  on  the  fly  leaf,  "  Jock's  at  the  bottom  of  it !  " 
A  portrait  of  Malcolm's  mother  in  the  Eoyal  Academy  a  few 
years  ago  attracted  much  attention,  and  according  to  the  Times' 
Art  Critic  she  looked  in  every  way  a  mother  of  heroes. 

THE   soldiers'    RETURN. 

I  have  seen  a  story  of  the  return  of  two  of  the  brothers  to 
Burnfoot  after  they  had  made  a  name  in  the  world.  It  was  a 
fine  summer  afternoon,  and  they  were  posting  hard  down  the 
rough  Langholm  road.  Suddenly  a  glimpse  reveals  to  them 
their  old  home,  with  two  elderly  sisters  sitting  at  the  gate 
and  knitting  their  stocking  in  the  drowsy  sunshine.  A  river 
lay  between  them,  and  it  was  a  mile  to  the  bridge.  Heavily 
accoutred  as  they  were,  they  dashed  through  the  stream  and 
were  soon  hugging  their  sisters. 


"'00-' 


"  Oh  gear  will  buy  me  rigs  and  land. 
Oh  gear  will  buy  me  sheep  and  kye. 
But  the  tender  heart  o'  leesome  love 
The  gowd  and  siller  canna  buy." 

Malcolm  "  did  not  wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve  for  daws  to 
peck  at,"  and  did  not  tell  this  story  to  every  one,  but  he  had 
another  favourite  which  will  rejoice  the  heart  of  the  Anglo- 
Indian  and  is  worthy  of  Dean  Kamsay.  A  brother-officer  came 
back  to  Edinburgh  after  twenty  years'  service  in  India.  His 
arrival  was  unexpected,  so  mounting  to  the  residence  of  his 
aunts,  a  fiat,  he  introduced  himself  sans  ceremonic,  and  found 
the  two  at  a  game  of  draughts,  just  as  he  had  left  them  on  his 
departure,  to  whom  liis  first  greeting  was — "  Wliat !  Have  you 
not  finished  that  game  yet  ?  " 

He  was  thus  a  man  of  infinite  humour,  and  brimful  of  gaiety 
and  anecdote,  liis  company  greatly  sought  after,  and  the  life  and 
soul  of  every  social  gathering.  In  early  life  he  drank  fairly 
well,  but  he  is  no  example  in  this  to  the  present  generation,  as 


MIRTHTtJLNESS. 


63 


he  was  of  prodigious  size,  not  corpulent,  but  capable  of  stowing 
away  drinks  of  sorts  with  impunity.  "NMiat  liis  favourite  drink 
was  in  early  manhood  in  Bombay  I  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
This  I  can  aver,  tliat  Cape  and  Madeira  were  extensively  used. 


SIR   JUHN   HAIiCOLH. 


and  whisky  was  unknown.  That  he  was  merry,  rollicking, 
even  boisterous,  we  gather  from  Mackintosh,  and  a  "  Malcolm 
row  "  was  not  uncommon.  This  wa=;  in  Bombay  ;  but  even  in 
I'aris  he  himself  writes,  "  I  was  tipsy."     This  we  don't  believe. 


•64  SIR    JOHN    MALCOLU. 

and  are  rather  inclined  to  think  that  it  is  conclusive  ovidencu 
against  the  assertion.     It  is  no  doubt  a  case 

"We  are  na  fou,  we  are  na  fou, 
But  just  a  drappie  in  oor  ee."' 

He  was  "  na  fou,  but  just  had  plenty."  However,  Malcolm  was 
a  man  that  did  not  need  drink  to  make  him  merry.  In  the 
Cent  and  field,  when  floored  with  fatigue  or  half-smothered  with 
the  stour  and  grime  of  battle,  or  amid  burning  heat,  cholera, 
and  other  depressing  influences,  beleaguering  Asirgarh,  a  quiet 
joke  or  vigorous  sally  from  him  would  raise  the  drooping  spirits 
of  his  companions  in  arms,  and  make  them  cheerful  for  the  day 
or  night.  With  Malcolm  existence  in  India  was  not  only 
endurable  but  delightful,  and  men  soon  began  to  find  this  out. 
The  Duke  of  Wellington  averred  that  tliere  was  scarcely  a  good- 
tempered  man  in  India.  It  was  "  the  cloimate,"  no  doubt  of  it, 
and  we  presume  he  excepted  himself.  So  it  was  thus  that 
among  a  lot  of  atrabilious  men  at  Seringapatam  he  soon  dis- 
covered that  Malcolm  could  put  to  flight  the  demon  of  dulness. 
Humanly  speaking,  it  is  the  one  thing  needful  in  India  to 
soldier  and  civilian  alike.  Even  the  medico  and  padre  are  not 
exempt,  for  they  are  nothing  unless  they  brighten  this  world  or 
the  next.  The  jocular  may  co-exist  with  the  serious,  and  if 
Norman  Macleod  had  been  a  soldier  he  would  have  been  a 
Malcolm.  Here  is  an  illustration  :  Henry  ilartyn,  the 
missionary,  came  to  Bombay  in  1811.  Though  he  was  vulgarly 
called  "  the  saint,"  he  was  not  allowed  to  pass  through  the  city 
unnoticed  to  death  or  martyrdom.  Instead  of  being  relegated 
to  the  back  slums  to  munch  chapatis  in  solitude,  his  conver- 
sations with  Mackintosh  and  Elphinstone,  such  of  them  as 
have  been  preserved,  furnish  most  pregnant  material  for 
thought.  Malcolm,  amid  all  his  work,  had  time  to  write  a 
letter  of  introduction  for  him  to  Sii-  Gore  Ouseley,  our  ambas- 
sador at  the  Court  of  Persia.  It  says  little,  but  head  and  heart, 
Malcolm  and  ^lissionary,  are  equally  honoured  thereby.* 


*  Letter  dated  February,  ISll. — "  I  am  satisfied  that  if  you  ever  see  liim 
you  will  be  jileased  with  him.  He  will  yive  you  grace  before  and  after 
dinner,  and  admonish  such  of  your  party  as  take  the  Lord's  name  in  vain, 
but  his  <;ood  scn.se  and  great  learning  will  delight  you,  whilst  his  constant 
cheerfulness  will  add  to  the  hihuity  ol  your  jiarty."     {Aute,  p.  38). 


WITH    WELUNGTOX    l.N    I'AUl- 


IN    PARIS. 


^lalcolm  went  to  Paris  in  1815  by  invitation  of  the  Duke  of 
A\'ullingtou.  IIq  knew  him  and  did  not  require  the  invitation  : 
in  fact,  Malcolm  introduced  his  friends  to  the  Duke.     Emperors 


in;Ni;Y   mautyn. 
(From  lite  I'urlntit  behiiKjiiKj  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society.') 


were  thick  as  blackberries,  and  Malcolm  was  in  his  glory.  He 
was  then  44,  so  that  it  was  not  exactly  a  case  of  "  Youth  in  tlie 
prow  and  pleasure  at  the  lielni."     lie  had  two  niontiis  of  reviews 


66  SIR   JOHN    MALCOLM. 

(150,000  men),  balls,  operas,  concerbs.  Bougc  et  noire  mulcted 
him  eight  napoleons  at  one  sitting.  Next  night  he  lost  nothing. 
We  had  thought  that  Belvidere  and  Non-Parel  had  finished 
his  card  fancies.  But  the  old  Bombay  Adam  breaks  out  in 
Paris. 

The  Duke :  "  Ah  !  Malcolm,  delighted  to  see  you,"  voice  and 
manner,  everything  the  same.  He  dined  about  a  dozen  times 
with  the  Duke,  and  sometimes  sat  next  him  talking  of  "  battle, 
murder,  and  sudden  death."  "  It  was  hard  pounding  on  both 
sides,  and  we  pounded  the  hardest,"  said  the  Duke.  He  drove 
mth  the  Duke  in  his  gig.  Like  the  Prince  of  Wales  in  Bombay, 
the  Duke  was  the  fastest  driver  in  Paris.  No  necks  were  broken. 
A  few  Hindustani  words  would  occasionally  creep  into  the  con- 
versation after  dinner,  and  Malcolm  would  jocularly  ask  the 
Duke  if  he  was  a  Lutiwala,  or,  comparing  notes  on  Talleyrand, 
find  a  resemblance  to  some  old  scoundrel  or  killadar  in  Dekhani 
fort,  which  set  them  a-laughing.  "  Not  nearly  so  clever,"  said 
the  Duke.  At  first  Malcolm  found  himself  deficient  in  French, 
but  by  the  assistance  of  a  master  every  morning  he,  in  ten  days, 
to  use  his  own  words,  "  became  quite  fluent  in  French  after  a 
bottle  and  a  half  of  champagne,  and  was  able  to  recount  as 
many  anecdotes  as  any  of  them."  This  was  among  the  French 
and  Continentals.  How  the  Scotch  stories  fared  at  his  hands 
in  the  process  of  translation  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
We  trust  that  no  dark  grey  man  hailing  from  tlie  north,  but 
hirsute  and  in  Parisian  garments — as  in  Dr.  Chalmers's  case 
when  he  had  just  emerged  a  full-blown  member  of  the  Insti- 
tute of  France,  and  was  airing  his  elo([uence — fired  across  tlie 
table  d'hote — "  I  think,  sir,  if  ye  jist  speik  in  braid  Scotch,  we'll 
a'  understan  ye  a  wee  better."  But  joking  apart,  his  powers  of 
application  were  prodigious.  How  it  came  to  pass  that  a  Scotch 
farmer's  son  in  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  left 
school  at  the  age  of  11,  with  some  eighteen  months  uf  academy 
in  London  afterwards,  should  be  able  to  fit  liiuiself  out  in  ten 
days  to  hold  philosophical  conversations  in  French  with  Hum- 
boldt, Volney,  Denon,  and  Silvestre  de  Sacy,  is  more  than  we 
can  comprehend.  The  secret,  perhaps,  lies  in  one  sentence  ui  his 
Life  of  Clive,  where  he  speaks  of  that  self-ed^ication  which  after 
all  is  of  all  educations  the  most  important.    Sir  Walter  Scott  *  and 


DEPOSITION    OF    BAJI    BAO.  67 

Sir  James  Mackintosh  were  in  Paris  at  tliis  time :  the  latter 
spoke  French  uncommonly  well.  We  may  add  that  the  high 
living  in  Paris  had  its  usual  effect  on  Malcolm.  He  became 
plethoric  and  required  to  be  bled. 


A   BIG   DAY. 

But  leaving  balls  and  pleasure-houses,  let  us  contemplate 
Malcolm  in  a  different  aspect  and  with  different  surroundings, 
and  on  a  day,  as  the  saying  is,  "  big  with  the  fate  of  nations." 
JIalcolm  had  many  red-letter  days,  but  this  was  one  that  brought 
out  the  supreme  character  of  the  man,  and  roused  into  action  its 
latent  wisdom  and  courage.  He  always  set  great  store  on  tlus 
day,  and  the  memory  of  it  was  sweet  to  him  in  after  years,  for 
he  was  brought  face  to  face  with  a  great  difficulty  with  which 
he  had  to  wrestle  without  reference  to  his  superiors.  That  day 
was  the  2nd  June,  1818,  a  natal  day  for  Western  India,  and  on 
which  she  may  well  set  up  the  white  stone  of  her  liberties.  He 
was  then  at  Kheri  Ghat,  about  thirty  miles  from  Asirgarh. 

Events  had  been  hurrying  on  with  unexampled  rapidity, 
and  the  Maratha  Empire  was  in  the  throes  of  dissolution. 
That  Empire  had  been  founded  by  the  indomitable  pluck  of 
Sivaji,  and  its  limits  extended  far  and  wide,  so  that  a  successor 
made  the  boast  that  he  had  watered  the  horses  of  the  Dekhan 
in  the  Hugli.  And  it  was  no  idle  boast.  But  corruption  had 
long  ago  settled  down  upon  it.  And  had  one-tenth  of  the 
energy  of  Sivaji  been  displayed  in  defending  them,  the  forts  of 
the  Deklian  would  not  have  fallen  l:)efore  us  like  the  walls  of 
Jericho,tand  a  new  chapter  been  added  to  the  History  of  India. 
Baji  Eao,  the  last  of  the  Peshwas,  for  twenty  years  had  been 
wearying  out  the  lives  of  our  great  generals  and  statesmen  by 
endless  intrigue  and  duplicity.  He  had  wearied  Wellington, 
and  he  had  wearied   Elphinstone   and   Malcolm.     He  was  to 


*  Malcolm  introduced  Scott  to  Wellinijton  at  this  time.  See  Lockhart's 
Life  of  Scott  (ed.  1839),  vol.  v,  p.  82.— B. 

t  "Thirty  lortresscs,  each  of  which,  with  a  Sivaji  as  a  master,  would  have 
defied  the  whole  Indian  Army,  fell  unresistingly  in  a  few  weeks." — Lake's 
Sieges  of  the  Madras  Army,  1825. 


68 


SIR    JOHN    MALCOLM. 


weary  us  no  more.  A  mandate  issued  from  the  camp  of 
Malcolm,  that  he  was  to  resign  for  himself  and  his  successors 
for  ever  all  rij;lit  and  title  to  the  government  of  Poona,  in  one 
day  leave  for  Hindustan,  and  that  if  in  twenty-four  hours  he  did 
not  present  himself  in  the  camp  of  Malcolm,  he  and  his  followers 
in  arms  would  lie  put  to  the  edge  of  the  sword.* 

He  came,  and  we  all  know  the  rest.  It  would  be  no  compli- 
ment to  the  understanding  of  our  readers  if  we  sat  down  and 
leisurely  detailediwhat  Baji  Eao's  Government  was  in  181S,  and 
what  the  state  of  the  country  now  is  in  1891.  He  who  runs 
may  read,  and  he  who  sits  still  may  read  also,  if  he  is  of  a 
doubting  mind,  in  the  Eatnagiri  section  of  I\Ir.  Campbell's  Bom- 
hay  Gazetteer,  a  chapter  illustrating  the  infamies  of  Baji  Kao's 
rural  administration.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  as  soon  as  he  left 
for  Benares,  Deklian  and  Konkan  Itreathed  freely  almost  for  the 
first  time  in  their  history,  and  the  country  set  out  like  a  giant 
in  a  new  race  of  existence.  The  land  rested  from  the  torments 
of  tyranny  and  oppression.  Life  and  property  became  clothed 
with  the  habiliments  of  respect — we  mean  the  respect  that  a 
man  hath  for  himself,  and  that  which  he  oweth  to  his  neighbour, 
instead  of  making  him  a  mark  for  robbery  or  murder.  Hence- 
forward the  jialhway  of  Western  India  was  to  be  no  longer 
through  the  jungle,  on  the  track  of  wild  beasts  and  wilder 
men,  but  on  the  broad  highway  which  leads  to  security  and 
civilisation.f 

DINNER  TO   THE  ETTRICK   SHEPHERD. 

In  1832  a  dinner  was  given  in  Edinburgh  Freemasons'  Ilall,  and 
200  persons  were  present.  Again  Malcolm  is  on  the  crest  of  the 
wave  and  takes  the  chair.  It  was  a  great  night  for  Scotland. 
The  sons  of  Burns  were  there,  Lockhart,  son-in-law  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  Gait  the  novelist,  Basil  Hall,  Lord  Mahon,  Vice-Chancellor 


*  Grant  Duff's  History,  iii,  \\  475f. ;  Blackcr's  Memoir  of  the  Maratha 
War,  p.  366.— B. 

t  "  It  is  a  proud  phrase  to  use,  but  it  is  a  true  one,  that  we  have  bestowed 
blessings  upon  millions.  The  ploughman  is  again  in  every  quarter,  turnin^;; 
up  a  soil  whicli  for  many  seasons  liad  never  been  stirred  except  by  the  hoofs 
of  predatory  cavalry." — Lord  Hastings,  February,  1819. 


GOVEKNOR    OF    BOMBAY.  69 

Sir  John  Stewart,  and,  a  greater  than  he,  Brougham,  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  England.  Everything  passed  off  magnificently  without 
a  hitch.  The  Shepherd  was  seen  late  i'.i  the  evening  in  liis 
element  ladling  out  whisky  toddy  to  all  and  sundry  fVoni  Burns' 
Punch  Bowl,  lent  for  the  occasion  by  Mr.  Hastie,  member  for 
Paisley. 

GOVERXOK    OF   BOJIB.-VY. 

In  1828  Sir  Joiin  Malcolm  became  Governor  of  Bombay,  and 
the  question  arises,  why  did  he  accept  the  office  ?  He  was 
worthy  of  it,  and  Bombay  was  proud  to  have  him.  He  it  was 
that  thought  that  the  Bay  of  Naples  in  natural  beauty  was  not 
so  striking  as  the  harbour  of  Bombay,  and  that  it  vied  with 
Corfu  and  the  Albanian  hills.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that 
Malcolm  was  now  59  years  of  age.  Men  have  no  doubt  done 
wonderful  tilings  after  59 :  witness  Napier  at  Miani,  and  Colin 
Campbell  leading  the  final  assault  on  Lucknow.*  These  sons 
of  Mars  were  in  their  element,  and  Malcolm  in  Bombay  in 
1828  we  have  come  to  think  was  a  little  out  of  it.  "  I  was  a 
fool  for  coming  to  India,  and  this  I  have  showed  every  day  since 
I  landed."  So  he  did,  and  it  is  with  a  feeling  of  pain  that  we 
read  in  Sir  John  Kaye's  memoir  of  him,  that  he  accepted  the 
Bombay  post  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  Viceroyalty  of  India. f 

There  is  a  tradition  that  on  one  of  the  outlying  boulders  wliich 
jut  into  Loch  Lomond,  a  Highland  laird,  with  rod,  line,  and 
clip,  managed  to  land  in  one  morning  ninety-nine  salmon,  and 
that  though  he  fished  all  day  and  far  into  the  evening  he  could 
not  make  up  the  even  number. 

It  is  the  evening  of  a  long  day,  and  Malcolm  still  threshes 
the  water  after  having  filled  the  creel  of  a  giant.  So  he  comes 
to  Bombay — not  the  old  Bombay  of  Wclliuglon  and  Mackintosli, 
I  ween,  but  a  Bombay  full  of  judges,  writs  of  Habeas  Corpus, 
and  worries  of  all  sorts  :  tear  ami  wear  of  body  and  brain,  for 
though  both  were  framed  on  a  gigantic  model,  the  drafts  made 
on  them  were  unusual  and  incessant,  and  not  to  be  recouped  by 
any  amount  of  pig-sticking  or  riding  cross  country  in  Kaclili 


*  Pompey  at  58  fought  and  lost  the  Battle  of  Pharsalia. 

t  I  am  quite  unaware  of  Kaye's  authority  for  this  statement. 


70  SIR   JOHN    MALCOLM. 

and  Kathiawar.  There  was  no  longer  the  sound  of  revelry  at 
Parel,  but  an  endless  decoction  of  tea  and  coffee  administered 
six  days  in  the  week  to  a  discerning  public.  For  one  thing,  he 
had  to  do  ^vith  a  most  disagreeable  subject,  the  reduction  of 
salaries.  A  man  that  takes  retrenchment  in  hand  has  not  his 
sorrows  to  seek. 

"  I  drink  no  wine,"  -WTites  he.*  Melancholy  admission,  the 
days  of  liigh  jinks  are  gone,  wit  banished  and  mirth  nowhere ; 
nothing  but  an  endless  caterwauling  which  followed  him  to 
Panwel,  up  the  Ghats,  past  Poona,  beyond  Wai,  till  the  nether- 
most summit  of  Mahabaleshwar  was  reached,  where  a  statue 
of  retrenchment  in  the  shape  of  some  attenuated  official  ogled 
him  at  the  gate  of  his  bungalow.  How  could  he  drink  wine 
under  such  circumstances  ?  The  wonder  is  that  he  survived 
the  ordeal,  and  we  are  certainly  not  surprised  to  find  one 
fine  morning  ere  his  tenure  of  office  is  half  expired  that  he 
chucks  up  the  whole  affaii-.  Better  for  himself  that  he  had 
never  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 

There  is  an  illustration  ready  to  our  hand  as  to  how  this 
Bombay  Governorship  was  dealt  with  by  Mountstuart  Elphin- 
stone,  the  immediate  predecessor  of  Malcolm. 

He  was  not  inferior  to  Malcolm  in  intellect,  not  second  to 
him  in  administrative  ability,  and  yet  he  refused  twice  the 
Viceroyalty  of  India.  Did  he  suffer  by  the  refusal  ?  On  the 
contrary,  the  story  adds  fresh  lustre  to  his  fame  and  grows 
brighter  by  repetition.  No  feverish  ambition  or  restless 
anxiety  darkened  the  brow  of  Elphinstone. 

"  Silent  he  moves,  majesticilly  slow, 
Like  elibing  Nile  or  Ganges  in  his  flow." 

Greater  in   this  than  Malcolm,  greatest  if  you  will  of  aU  the 
Bombay   Governors,   but    measured  even    by  a  wider  scale 


*  In  the  Advocate's  Library,  Edinburgh,  there  is  a  book  of  poems  by  Sir 
John  Malcolm,  jirinted  in  1828,  Scenes  of  War  and  other  Poems,  by  Sir  John 
Malcolm ;  and  on  the  title  page  is  inscribed  this  suggestive  verse : — 

"I  gave  my  harp  to  sorrow's  hand 
And  sho  hath  ruled  the  chords  so  long 
They  will  not  speak  at  my  command. 
They  warble  only  to  her  song." — Montgomery. 


RETRENCHMENTS.  71 

Elphinstone  stands  single  and  alone  among  the  most  illustrious 
Indian  statesmen  as  the  one  man  whom  Viceroyalty,  the  Peer- 
age, and  Parliamentary  honours  solicited  in  vain.  His  resolute 
modesty  mocks  the  courage  of  worldly  ambition,  and  the  feeble 
health  which  is  said  to  have  dictated  it,  enabled  him  by  care, 
contentment,  and  patience  to  live  to  a  patriarchal  age,  for  lie 
came  to  his  grave  like  a  shock  of  corn  fully  ripe,  ere  a  single 
ear  had  been  withered  by  the  touch  of  time  or  the  blighting 
curse  of  envy.* 

REDUCTIO   AD   ABSURDUM. 

This  was  the  era  of  economy  and  retrenchment  in  Bombay, 
and  to  everybody  connected  with  Government  it  must  have  been 
a  dreadful  time,  for  there  was  no  discharge  in  that  warfare. 
The  measures  were  necessary,  and  doubtless  JIalcolm  had  his 
instructions,  but  I  have  never  heard  that  he  was  a  man  of 
figures,  or  had  any  special  aptitude  that  way.  Clearly  Mal- 
colm's vocation  was  to  deal  with  men  of  increasing  not  decreas- 
ing incomes.  It  turns  his  fine  spirits  into  gall.  In  the  clippLug 
process  his  sliears  were  co-extensive  with  the  Presidency,  and 
he  took  a  hard  grip  of  every  man  in  it,  so  much  so  that  he 
actually  left  Bombay  under  the  idea  that  he  had  saved  it  forty 
lakhs  during  his  three  years'  tenure  of  office.  From  the 
resumption  of  salaries  that  took  j)lace  after  his  departure,  we 
do  not  doubt  that  he  was  merely  pumping  water  out  of  one 
part  of  the  ship  and  that  it  was  coming  or  would  come  back 
somewhere  else.  There  seems  to  liavc  been  too  much  of  the 
square  and  rule  about  this  business,  as  is  generally  the  case  of 
statistical  surveys  of  what  the  lives  and  bodies  of  men  can  be 
furnished  at.  In  this  roughshod  way  you  can  get  over  a  good 
deal  of  ground,  but  the  question  arises,  does  it  pay  in  the  long 


•  "  I  have  always  looked  on  Munro  and  Metcalfe  as  our  best  men.  Perhaps 
I  wrong  Elphinstone,  but  1  liave  never  understood  why  he  stauds  so  high  as 
he  does,  though,  undoubtedly,  he  too  is  an  able  fellow.  I  hope  you  will  turn 
out  Malcolm  a  proper  fellow,  but  1  have  been  accustomed  to  consider  liiin  a 
clever  fortunate  humbug.  lie  must  have  been  more,  or  ho  would  not  have 
held  the  place  he  did  with  Wellesley,  Wellington,  Miuiro  and  other  great 
men." — Sir  Ueury  Lawieuce  (1854),/u7tti7iac  Idler  to  ISir  Julin  Kaije. 


t'Z  SIR    JOHN"    MALCOLM. 

run  ?  Had  be  confined  himself  to  reduction  of  forces  in  the 
field  so  lately,  or  in  rectifying  glaring  abuses,  the  howl  of  indig- 
nation would  not  have  been  so  marked.  But  when  European 
officers  were  asked  to  give  up  half  their  tent  allowance,  estimate 
lis.  70,000,  and  the  three  members  of  the  Medical  Board  each 
Us.  9,.570,  Medical  Storekeeper  Es.  6,000,  it  became  beyond  a 
joke.  He  was  a  great  advocate  apparently  of  the  Scotch  pro- 
verb that  "every  little  maks  a  mickle,"  for  he  actually  em- 
bodies in  the  list  of  items  which  swell  up  the  amount  of  forty 
lakhs,  and  which  was  transmitted  to  the  Governor-General,  a 
reduction  in  the  gram  rations  of  the  mules  in  Kachh  from  7^  lbs. 
— their  daily  allowance — to  5  lbs.,  Es.  10,000  saved  out  of 
dliidy-bearers  and  camel-drivers,  and  two  peons  at  Sion  Cause- 
way, whose  united  earnings  now  eliminated  effect  an  increment 
of  Es.  140  per  annum !  Some  of  his  reductions  were  no  doubt 
perfectly  proper,  i.e.,  that  of  Inspector  of  Dekhani  Forts, 
though  we  can  testify  that  the  office  is  a  most  laborious  one ; 
sending  the  elephants  back  to  Bengal  where  they  came  from ; 
10  copies  subscription,  substituted  for  20  of  the  Bomhmi 
Sammacliar. 

The  Town  Hall  at  this  time  being  nearly  finished  was  a  per- 
fect God-send  to  him.  Lath  and  plaster  soon  dry  in  this  coun- 
try, and  great  was  the  evacuation  of  Government  servants  from 
their  bungalows  into  those  new  quarters.  All  no  doubt  most 
wise  and  proper,  but  when  we  read  that  Grafton  and  Jervis' 
survey  of  the  Dekhan  and  the  Southern  Konkan  was  discon- 
tinued, that  the  Lunatic  Asylum  figures  for  Rs.  600,  that  by 
giving  up  sword  exercise  and  blank  cartridge  at  annual  reviews 
(this  statement  is  supported  by  the  Commander-in-Chief)  a 
saving  is  effected  of  Es.  35,000,  and  finally  that  the  Govern- 
ment allowance  for  turf  plates  to  be  run  by  country  horses  in 
Gujarat  and  the  Uekhan  is  abolished,  "our  notions  of  vice  and 
virtue  are  shaken  to  their  foundations,  and  our  reliance  upon 
truth  and  duty  at  an  end  for  ever."  Ko  wonder  there  was 
a  dinner  once  a  month  only  at  Parel  during  these  very  cold 
seasons,  of  which  it  could  not  be  said — 

"  'Twas  merry  iti  tlic  liall. 
And  the  beards  wagg'd  all," 


SIR    J.    PETEU    GRANT.  1 3 

for  the  baked  meats  not  seldom  fui'iiished  the  funeral  rites  of 
some  unfortunate,  and  the  guests  over  whose  heads  the  wand  of 
retrenchment  had  passed  no  louyer  saw  in  the  Knight  of  Bnrn- 
fool  the  joyous  reveller  of  lSii4-ll,  but  a  gryphon,  stern  and  in- 
exorable, standing  with  a  mil  uf  the  names  of  those  whose  blood 
had  been  shed  between  his  teeth.  It  would  have  been  well  for 
Malcolm  and  well  for  posterity  if  he  had  initiated  Ids  econo- 
mical notions  somewhat  earlier  in  the  day,  say  at  Kheri  Gliat, 
when  he  committed  the  Government  to  make  Baji  Eao  an 
annual  payment  of  800,000  Sicca  Eupees,  which  at  the  then 
exchange  of  2s.  od.  amounted  to  £100,000  sterling.* 

VI  ET  ARMIS. 

In  addition  to  these  measures,  wliich  affected  so  injuriously 
the  condition  of  man  and  beast,  a  strange  epidemic  seized  the 
Governor  and  judges  of  the  island :  whether  it  was  imported 
from  Scotland  or  indigenous  is  unknown.  It  was  only  skin- 
deep  and  cutaneous  at  first,  but  broke  out  into  such  an  astonish- 
ing degree  of  inflammation  as  to  defy  the  wisest  doctors  of  the 
State.  It  killed  two  judges  in  two  months — Sir  Edward  West 
and  Sir  Charles  Chambers.  It  closed  the  doors  of  the  High 
Court  of  Bombay  for  two  months.  Justice  is  blind :  she  then 
became  deaf  and  dumb,  though  there  never  was  so  much  to  hear 
or  talk  about  in  Bombay,  and  it  was  then  the  naughty  girl  threw 
away  her  scales.  It  was  all  about  a  little  boy  at  Poena — Moro 
Kaghunath.  The  judges  wanted  Mm  in  Bombay — to  try  Sir 
John  Malcohn's  new  road  down  the  Ghats.  The  Governor 
would  not  have  this,  and  the  more  the  judges  said  yes,  he  said 
no.  Let  him  alone.  He  was  good  for  fancy  balls,  and  that 
sort  of  thing.  So  they  set  at  it  hammer  and  tongs.  At  first 
the  tourney  between  the  two  Scotch  knights — Sir  John  Mal- 
colm and  Sir  John  Peter  Grant — was  amusing,  but  after  the 
words  "  witliin  these  walls  we  own  no  equal  and  no  superior 
but  God  and  the   King "  were  uttered,  the  ladies  in  opposite 


*  "Malcolm  is  now  always  sneered  at  for  the  liberality  of  his  terms  to  Baji 
Bao,  but  Munro,  ignorant  of  all  particulars,  thought  ho  was  quite  right.  And 
80  ho  was,  if,  as  is  likely,  the  capitulation  saved  a  siege  of  Asirgarh  or 
another  occasicju  of  predatory  war." — Sir  Uenry  Lawrence  to  Sir  John  Kaye, 
1854. 

VOL.   11.  O 


74 


SIR   JOHN   MAIiOOLM. 


phalanxes  ceased  to  bow  to  each  other.  After  this  the  deluge. 
It  was  in  vain  that  Malcolm  wandered  among  the  ruins  of 
Bijapur,  or  fled  to  Mahabaleshwar  to  write  letters  to  vSir  Walter 
Scott.  No  amount  of  legendary  lore  would  do  away  with  it. 
In  vain  Lord  Ellenborough  wi'ote  : — "  I  am  sending  you  a  new 


sill    JOUN    MALCOLM. 

{From  the  statue  hy  Chantrey,  in  Westminster  AVbey.) 


Ijishop."  A  new  bishop  ?  The  Pope  of  Eome  could  not  settle 
it.  The  only  cure  was  to  scatter  the  byke.  So  a  few  months 
afterwards  we  find  Sir  John  IMalcolm  ploughing  his  way  up  the 
Eed  Sea,  in  the  "  Hugh  Lindsay,"  that  pioneer  of  steam  na\iga- 


PERSONAL.  75 

tion  in  these  waters,  writing  enormous  despatches  to  prove  that 
he  was  right  and  everybody  was  wrong.  And  Sir  John  Peter 
Grant  went  to  Calcutta.* 

So  ends  the  story  of  "  The  Barrin  of  oor  door,  wed  !  " 

PERSON. 

Sir  John  Malcolm  when  in  his  prime  was  the  finest  looking 
man  in  Bombay.  He  was  nearly  six  feet  and  a  half  in  height, 
proportionate  and  well  built,  and  so  muscular  as  to  astonish 
some  of  the  most  powerful  cariying  natives  of  Bushir  when  he 
took  a  pipe  of  wine  on  his  back  up  the  stairs  of  the  Eesidency. 
At  sixty  he  was  good  at  the  spear,  and  I  observe  thirty-two  hogs 
fell  to  his  party  in  two  days  in  Gujarat.  He  liad  a  fine  frank 
open  countenance  and  Shakesi^erean  forehead,  and  his  manner 
in  youth  and  early  manhood  was  exceedingly  genial.f  His  wife 
also  was  fine  looking.  They  were  indeed  a  splendid  couple. 
When  he  took  Lady  Malcolm  to  the  Langholm  district — 
happening  to  be  in  an  hostelrie,  the  landlady,  some  old  acquain- 
tance of  the  Burnfoot  family,  whispered  cpiietly  into  his  ear, 
"  Weel,  Sir  John,  ye've  got  a  top  hizzie."  But  rus  aut  urhs  it 
was  all  the  same.  William  Jerdan  tells  us  the  beauty  of  Lady 
Malcolm  struck  the  eye  of  tlie  beholder  in  Hyde  Park,  and  in- 
spired some  of  the  sparkling  verses  of  Praed. 

CONCLUSION. 

Malcolm  is  now  near  the  end  of  his  journey.  He  goes  home 
in  1830,  writes  books,  and  the  Duke  tells  him  that  though  he 
were  an  angel  from  heaven,  nobody  will  listen  to  him.  And 
yet — I  will  arise  and  go  to  my  native  boroughs,  solicit  their 
suffrages  and  represent  them  in  Parliament.   The  native  boroughs. 


*  "  On  le.".ving  Bombay  his  carnage  was  drawn  by  tlie  natives.  He  died 
on  his  way  home  from  Calcutta,  and  was  buried  at  sea,  May  17th,  1848.  His 
jrortrait,  taken  in  Calcutta  and  subscribed  for  in  Bombay,  now  liangs  in  the 
High  Court  of  Bombay.  It  was  refused  a  jilace  by  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
day,  and  after  lying  iu  the  hands  of  the  family  of  the  late  Jijibhai  Dadabhai, 
lias  now  been  presented  by  his  grandson  after  fifty  years." — Boinhwj  UazMe, 
May  27th,  1885. 

t  Canning  dubbed  hica  Bahadur  Jah,  and  Sir  Walter  Scott  follows  suit  iu 
his  Journal,  vol.  i.,  p.  308. 

G   2 


76 


SIU    JOHN    MALCOLM. 


Dumfries,  Aunan,  and  the  like,  would  have  none  of  him,  no 
Conservative,  no  friend  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington. 

The  same  event  liajipens  every  day,  the  same  experience 
followed  by  the  same  result,  lessons  on  the  vanity  of  human 
wishes  written  on  the  sands  of  time,  and  of  which  the  lives  of 
great  men  all  remind  us. 

It  is  the  pace  that  kills,  and  it  is  thus  tliat  we  see,  during  the 
last  six  years  of  his  life,  Malcolm  the  unconscious  instrument 
of  his  own  destruction. 

He  died  on  the  30th  May,  1833,*  at  tiie  age  of  sixty-four, 
and  on  the  same  day  liis  liouse  of  Warfield  was  completed  and 
ready  for  occupation. 


>.*  See  Sir  W.  Scott's  Juuntal,  ii.,  423. 


MOSLTMEST   TO   SIR   JOHIJ    M.\LCOLM, 
©.■^    LANGHOLM    HILL. 


(     77     ) 


AT    THE   AGE    OF    10. 


CHAPTER  XL. 

Sir  Charles  James  Napier,  G.C.E. 

"Draw   me  not  without  cause — sheathe  me   not  without  honour." — In- 
scriptionon  his  father's  siuord,  u'hich  he  u-ore  at  the  Bombay  Banquet,  1851.* 

There  is  no  presumption  surely  in  endeavouring  to  keep  alive 
the   spirit   and   acts   of  a  great  man  who  won  distinction  in 


*  "  This  very  day  fifty-seven  years  ago  I  received  my  commission  as  an 
ensign  and  girded  on  this  sword,  my  father's  sword,  which  has  for  these  long 
ycirs  hung  at  my  side." — SjKcch  at  Bombay  Banquet  in  1851.  Sir  Erskine 
Perry  and  Sir  William  Yardley  presided. 


78  SIR    CHARLES    JAMES    NAPIEK,    G.C.B. 

Western  India.  We  claim  Sir  Charles  Napier  as  a  Bombay 
man.  When  he  came  to  India  he  landed  at  Bombaj',  and  when 
he  took  his  final  departure  it  was  from  Bombay  he  sailed  away. 
Moreover,  he  commanded  a  Bombay  army  in  Poona.  In  Sind 
he  said,  "  I  am  a  Bombay  general  commanding  Bombay  troops ; " 
and  again,  "  I  feel  fearless  of  an  enemy  at  the  head  of  Bombay 
troops ; "  and  again,  "  With  the  Bombay  soldiers  of  Miani  and 
Hyderabad  I  could  walk  through  all  lands.  They  are  active, 
daring,  hardy  chaps,  worthy  of  Sivaji  himself."  Nor  need  we 
feel  embarrassed  because  of  the  mighty  bickerings  which  once 
gathered  round  the  name  of  Napier  in  Bombay.  All  memory 
of  them  has  died  away,  and  they  are  nearly  a  sealed  book  to  the 
present  generation.  Time  is  a  great  purifier,  for  we  feel  as  if 
we  had  no  concern  with  the  actors  in  these  fierce  hostilities. 

It  is  sufficient  for  us  that  Sir  Charles  Napier  has  long  since 
emerged  from  the  dross  of  dismal  contentions,  in  full  panoply,  the 
first  warrior  of  his  age  and  the  deliverer  of  Sind.  He  was  born 
at  Whitehall,  London,  1782,a  grandson  by  the  mother's  side  of  the 
Duke  of  Eichraond,  fought  the  battle  of  JNIiani,  17th  February, 
1843,  and  died  1853.  His  last  public  appearance  was  at  the 
funeral  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  where  he  was  a  pall-bearer. 
He  there  caught  a  cold,  from  which  he  never  recovered.*  He 
was  a  small  bodied  man,  in  height,  girth,  and  weight,  but  wiry 
and  so  muscular  that  in  early  life  he  could  hold  out  a  musket 
at  arm's  length  by  the  muzzle.  He  wore  his  hair  long.  He 
had  dark  lustrous  eyes  ;  was  short-sighted,  in  India  used  goggles ; 
and  was  exceedingly  afraid  of  lilindness  coming  upon  him,  and 
owing  to  his  weakness  of  vision  found  himself,  especially  in 
action,  at  a  terrible  disadvantage.  He  describes  himself  as  thin, 
sharp,  and  black,  which  is  all  true.  On  leaving  India  he  said, 
"  I  hope  I  may  not  be  among  the  ghosts  of  the  Eed  Sea  ;  as  I 
am  so  like  Moses,  Pharaoh  would  shout,  '  We  have  him  at  last,' 
and  fall  on  me  tooth  and  nail."  In  his  last  days  he  writes, 
'•'  Tell  the  lady  who  wants  so  much  to  see  me  that  she  must 
catch  a  mouse,  let  it  look  out  of  an  oakum  bag,  and  she  has  my 


*  "  Low  voices  were  heard  to  say  at  the  funeral, '  The  uext  in  genius  stood 
by  the  bier';  'That  eagle  face,  that  bold  strong  eye,'  and  felt  that  there  was 
still  a  mighty  man  of  battle  before  them." — Times,  1853. 


LONG    RIDES.  79 

portrait."  *  This  i.s  capital  caricature.  You  could  scarcely  see 
his  face  for  hair,  from  which  Ids  dark  eyes  peered  out ;  and  lie 
had  very  few  grey  hairs  even  at  seventy.  His  powers  of 
endurance  Avere  wonderful.  Bear  in  mind  that  the  feats  per- 
formed by  him,  selected  by  us  at  random,  were  done  wlien  he 
was  over  sbcty,  under  the  burning  sun  of  Sind  or  the  Dekhan. 
"  At  Poona  I  knocked  off  fifty-four  miles  in  the  heat ....  I 
sliall  make  a  ride  of  forty-two  miles  after  sundown  to-night, 
which  will  make  fifty-five  miles  for  my  day."  ^Etat.  62.  "  Came 
here  last  night  very  tired  after  a  seventy-mile  ride,  but  wrote 
my  despatch  before  lying  down.  I  rode  from  daybreak  to  day- 
break, and  falling  asleep  on  my  horse,  I  was  awoke  by  his 
stopping."  jEt.  63.  "  I  have  been  on  horseback  from  four  in  the 
morning  till  two  in  the  afternoon  ;  slept  thirteen  hours  without 
turning  a  hair  ....  Our  marcli  of  twenty-two  miles  ended  at 
midday ;  I  then  slept  under  a  tree,  waiting  baggage,  and  had 
breakfast  at  2  p.m.  Up  at  four ;  rode  ten  miles ;  breakfast  at 
seven  ;  loriU,  u-ritc,  %oritc  till  five,  wlien  horse  waits  ibr  me  to  re- 
view two  regiments."  ^t.  68.  "  In  1845  I  rode  a  camel  seventy- 
five  miles  without  a  halt,  and  I  was  fifteen  hours  a  day  on  horse- 
back for  five  days,  with  a  flux  upon  me,  in  Koliat."  In  a  wild 
devil-may-care  letter  which  he  writes  to  his  motlier,  when  a 
young  man,  he  paints  himself  black  enough  :  "  Abusing  the  army, 
pulling  off  my  breeches,  cursing  creditors,  and  putting  out  the 
candle,  all  in  a  minute,  I  jumped  into  bed  and  lay  there  blas- 
pheming, praying,  and  perspiring  for  two  hours  until  sleep  came." 
And,  again,  he  says,  "  Xow  for  a  dose  of  opium,"  a  small  one  we 
presume,  and  not  De  Quincey's  daily  ration  of  80UO  drops  of 
laudanum.     IJut  he  left  all  these  habits  behind  him  in  Eusland 


•  In  this  connection  tlio  following;,  told  us  by  an  officer  of  tlie  Eoyal 
Engineers,  liimself  an  excellent  painter  and  connoisseur  ol'  the  fine  arts,  lias 
an  amusint;  incident.  This  ollicer  iiad  a  havildar  who  was  long  with  Su- 
Charles  Napier,  and  who  almost  worshipped  him  ;  and  on  seeing  a  very  line 
painting  of  ISir  Charles  he  naturally  thought  it  would  gratify  the  havildar  to 
have  a  look  at  the  likeness  of  his  old  master.  So  ho  sent  it  to  him,  without 
telling  him  who  it  was.  The  havildar,  failing  to  see  in  it  the  resemblance 
ti)  anything  human,  asked  on  returning  it,  "  Is  that  the  incture  of  a  cat?" 
The  likeness  was  a  fine  one,  but  the  havildar,  a  most  intelligent  native, 
had  failed  to  perceive  it!  Mouse  or  luouser,  no  one,  we  may  bo  sure,  would 
have  listened  to  this  story  with  greater  relish  tlian  Sir  Charles  Napier 
himself. 


80  SIR    CHAKLES    JAMES   NAPIEK,    G.O.B. 

— except  the  praying  and  the  perspiration,  which  lie  brought 
faithfully  out  to  India,  as  we  shall  see  further  on. 
A  Scotch  ditty  runs — 

"Napier  is  a  Peer,  but  nae  Peer  is  he, 
Napier  is  a  Peer,  but  how  can  that  be?" 

Everybody  knows  that  Wellington  and  Napier  were  two  very 
different  men.  So,  for  that  matter,  were  their  prototypes  in  a 
way,  Agamemnon  and  Achilles;  the  one  famous  for  dignity, 
power,  and  majesty,  the  other  for  chivalrous  spirit,  bravery,  and 
unrelenting  hatred.  Wellington  and  Napier  were  different  in 
the  accident  of  their  birth,  their  education,  and  the  means  by 
which  each  attained  to  the  j)inuacle  of  fame.  The  one  by  slow 
and  painful  steps  reached  it,  and  Wellington  towers  far  above 
Napier,  and  indeed  all  his  contemporaries.  Wellington  was 
thirty-four  at  Assaye,  Napier  sixty  at  Miani.  The  one  was  a 
Conservative,  the  other  a  Eadical  in  theory,  but  practically  a 
monarchist  in  politics :  the  one  unpopular,  the  other  poptdar  in 
the  army.  That  Wellington  considered  Napier  the  next  best 
soldier  to  himself  is  evidenced  by  his  words  when  Sir  Charles 
was  still  hesitating  about  going  to  India  in  1849 — "  If  you  don't, 
I  must " — which  settled  the  question  ;  and  what  is  known  to  all 
the  world  is  this,  that  Wellington  was  a  great  political  power 
in  the  State:  he  "stood  four  square  to  all  the  winds  that 
blew ; "  whereas  Napier  held  a  secondary  position  in  politics,  if 
any  at  all. 

But  the  points  of  resemljlance  are  more  numerous  than  the 
points  of  contrast.  Both  were  of  Irish  descent,  and  both  spent 
their  earlier  years  on  the  banks  of  the  Lifiey.  Both  were  men 
of  war  from  their  youtli  uj).  Both  wore  eight  years  in  India. 
Both  were  kind  and  merciful  to  the  natives,  and  the  beasts  of 
burden  did  not  suffer  at  their  hands.  Both  were  severe  dis- 
ciplinarians, but  Wellington  was  the  severer.  "What  is  law 
for  you  is  law  for  me ; "  and  by  this  maxim  the  Duke  abode  ; 
but  in  his  later  life  the  majesty  of  Napier  could  brook  no  sub- 
mission unless  it  suited  his  purpose ;  and  it  Avas  upon  this  very 
question  of  insubordination  to  the  Governor-General  that  a  link 
in  the  chain  was  broken  that  bound  him  to  authority,  and  he 
drifted  away  from  the  Duke  and  from  India.     The  distinction 


CHAKACTERISTICS.  81 

in  this  respect  between  these  two  men,  though  a  supreme  one, 
is  not  worth  discussing  here,  for  Napier  was  altogether  sui 
generis,  a  man  not  to  be  measured  by  other  men.  Tiie  God- 
given  instincts  of  his  nature  had  produced  in  him  a  form  as 
complete  of  its  kind  as  ever  existed,  and  had  he  wanted  these 
he  would  not  have  been  Charles  Xapier.  But  to  continue. 
Both  were  down  upon  the  press,  and  with  reason,  for  in  the 
Bombay  press,  particularly  in  Napier's  time,  there  was  too  much 
of  the  liberty  of  unlicensed  printing.  Both  commanded  in 
Poona,  and  both  received  magnificent  banquets  in  Bombay  on 
the  eve  of  their  departure,  though  each  in  his  own  time  had 
once,  if  not  oftener,  used  bad  words  on  the  Bombay  Govern- 
ment, and  had  a  good  chance  of  being  burned  in  effigy  in  Bom- 
bay itself.  And  here  it  may  be  observed  that  their  action  was 
entirely  unfettered — to  make  peace  or  wage  war  in  such  manner 
as  seemed  best  unto  them  ;  and  it  is  curious  to  note  that  Wel- 
lington trausmitted  to  Napier  nearly  the  same  words  which  the 
Marquis  of  Wellesley,  his  brother,  the  then  Governor-General  of 
India,  had  despatched  to  himself  forty  years  before, — leaving  liim 
very  much  to  act  according  to  his  own  discretion.  No  divided 
command  therefore  *  damped  tlie  ardour  or  confounded  the 
purposes  of  either ;  no  alternative  authority  ending  in  disgrace 
or  abortive  attempt  to  retrieve  disaster,  as  in  tlie  history  of 
the  Afghan,  and  at  least  in  one  episode  of  the  Crimean  warfare. 
Napier's  character  is  altogether  unique ;  for  dash,  for  pluck, 
for  endurance,  for  self-denial,  for  coui'age,  for  a  kind  of  ubiquity, 
he  has  never  been  surpassed  by  mortal  man,  and  no  king  or 
crusader  that  ever  stood  sword  in  hand  at  the  gates  of  Jerusalem 
hath  ever  excelled  him.  Long  may  such  qualities  be  admired 
and  possessed  Ijy  us  as  a  people,  for  it  will  be  a  woeful  day  for 
England  and  for  India  when  men  are  not  to  be  found  to  confront 
danger  in  the  hour  of  need,  exercise  self-denial,  or  be  bold  and 
quickwitted  enough  to  seize  an  emergency  in  tlie  art  of  war, 
and  convert  e^•en  the  numbers  of  an  en^my  into  the  instrument 
of  its  own  defeat  or  destnxction.  The  chairman  of  the  Bombay 
banquet  recalled  to  the  memory  of  his  hearers  great  names — 
Conde,  Turenne,  and  I\Iarlborough — but  ere  Napier's  fame  had 


Wellington's  Despatches  and  Napier's  Life. 


82  SIR    CHARLES   JAMES    N.APIER,    G.C.B. 

reached  its  meridian  it  seemed  as  if  history  were  incapable  of 
furnishing  material  enough  for  comparison,  and  the  field  of 
animated  nature  was  made  to  do  duty  with  all  tlie  imagery  of 
Oriental  hyperbole.  His  goings  forth  were  described  as  comely 
as  the  greyhound's,  and  in  ambush  he  was  as  wily  as  the  pard. 
Napier  Singh  was  a  lion,  and  his  mother  the  mother  of  lions. 
He  was  an  eagle,  sometimes  chained,  too  often,  it  must  be 
admitted,  for  his  own  aspiration,  but  anon,  when  at  liberty, 
swooping  down  with  unerring  aim  on  his  victuu.  He  was  the 
war-horse  of  Scripture,  pawing  the  valley,  swallowing  the  ground 
in  his  rage,  and  saying  Ha !  Ha !  as  the  sound  of  the  trumpet 
broke  upon  his  ear ;  *  and  in  fine,  to  the  Baluch  and  Pathan  he 
was  the  brother  of  the  devil,  who  could  be  at  two  places  at  one 
and  the  same  time,  to  all  of  which  he  soliloquizes,  "  Charles 
Napier,  Charles  Napier,  take  heed  of  your  ambition.  Get  thee 
behind  me,  Satan."  But  we  may  dismiss  trope  and  metaphor 
with  the  fact  that  with  2000  men  he  defeated  35,000. 

It  is  recorded  that  his  future  son-in-law,  Montagu  Mc]\Iurdo,t 
returning  from  a  single  combat  in  which  he  had  been  engaged, 
presented  himself  to  the  commander  of  the  forces.     His  hands 


*  "  Here  is  a  note  of  exultation.  The  feeling — that  when  battle  comes  on 
like  a  storm  thousands  of  brave  men  are  rushin^;  to  meet  it,  confident  in  your 
skill  to  direct  them — is  indescribable ;  it  is  greater  than  the  feeling  of  gladness 
after  victory.  Oh,  there  is  no  pleasure  in  a  battle  beyond  rejoicing  that  we 
have  escaped  being  slain !  But  when  tho  columns  bear  upon  an  enemy  as  the 
line  of  battle  forms,  as  it  moves  majestically  onwards  to  conquer  or  die,  as  the 
booming  of  the  cannon  rolls  loud  and  long  amidst  pealing  shouts  and 
musketry,  then  a  man  feels  able  for  his  work,  and  confident  in  his  gifts,  and 
his  movements  tell  upon  the  enemy.  There  is  no  feeling  equal  to  that 
exultation  which  makes  men  seek  to  become  conquerors,  if  religion  does 
not  aid  reason  in  holdhig  it  in  check." — Life,  vol.  iii.,  185  (1857). 

"  Some  Afl'redees  had  gathered  on  a  sugarloaf  rock  terminating  a  spur  of  the 
precipitous  hills  on  our  Sank ;  this  rock  beiug  close  to  the  road,  barred  our 
progress.  On  the  summit  a  warrior  stood  like  Fuseli's  picture  of  Satan,  with 
legs  wide  apart,  and  arm  high  in  air.  Waving  a  sword  and  shaking  a  shield, 
he  shouted  and  defied  us.  A  young  Artillery  officer,  Jlaister,  laid  his  gun 
with  a  shell,  and  the  flying  death  whizzing  through  tho  air,  burst  at  the 
moment  it  struck  the  brave  AflVeedee  ;  his  head,  his  legs,  his  armg  flew  like 
radii  from  a  centre,  and  a  shout  of  exultation  burst  from  the  troops.  The 
amusements  of  a  field  of  battle  are  grim.  Condemn  not  that  shout.  Life  was 
played  for  in  a  rough  game,  and  they  who  won  naturally  rejoiced;  it  is, 
however,  a  painful  remembrance." — lb.,  231. 

t  General  Sir  William  Montagu  Scott  McMurdo,  K.C.B.,  son  of  Col.  A. 
McMurdo,  of  Lotus,  Galloway,  N.B.,  born  1819.  Present  at  the  unveiling  of 
the  Sir  Bartle  Frere  statue  on  the  Thames  Embankment,  June  1888. 


CONQUEST   OF   SDfD.  83 

were  all  dabbled  with  humau  gore,  and  his  body  laid  open  from 
the  shoulder  to  the  navel — absolutely  ripped  up — the  style  is 
forcible,  but  it  is  Xapier's — but  luckily  for  him  he  had  cleft  the 
skull  of  his  BalucM  antagonist.  Napier,  as  has  been  related  to 
us  by  one  now  dead,  constituting  liimself  Knight  of  the 
Tourney,  said,  "  Henceforth  you  are  to  be  known  as  McMurdo 
of  the  bloody  hand  " — which  looks  like  a  piece  clipped  from  a 
page  of  Froissart.  And  his  brother  tells  us  in  Ms  lAfe  that 
alone  and  at  midnight,  when  the  army  was  asleep,  he  strode  out 
in  the  field  of  Jliani  and  amidst  heaps  of  tlie  piled  dead  (he  had 
seen  nothing  like  it  since  Hugomont),  and  the  veteran  warrior 
invoked  the  Deity  to  absolve  him.  "  So  let  all  tliine  enemies 
perish,  0  Lord.     And  the  land  had  rest  for  forty  years." 

The  story  of  the  acquisition  of  Sind  is  the  same  story  so  often 
told  us.  It  was  the  same  here  as  -with  the  otlier  States  the 
Government  of  which  we  supplanted  in  Western  India,  witii 
this  difference,  that  the  Talpurs  were  a  modern  race,  the  creation 
of  the  Duranis  of  Afghanistan,  and  had  nothing  by  way  of  pre- 
scriptive right  to  boast  of.  Compared  with  the  I'eshwalis  they 
were  but  of  yesterday.  We  gave  Sind  a  settled  Government 
instead  of  a  system  of  tyranny  and  oppression.  It  was  a  system 
where  the  people  dared  not  lift  up  their  heads,  where  to  acquii-e 
money  or  property  by  trade  or  industry  was  tantamount  to  a 
crime,  and  wliere  the  exercise  of  an  honest  calling  had  long 
ceased  to  be  a  virtue.  What  are  the  people  to  us  ?  was  the 
constant  cry  of  the  Amirs.  But  why  do  we  raise  the  question  ? 
Has  not  the  land  rested  for  forty  years  ?  Let  any  man  nowa- 
days travel  through  Sind  and  contrast  it  with  the  days  of  Balucli 
ruffians  and  the  squalid  and  debauched  Amirs  who  reigned  in 
Haidarabad.  Wliat  are  the  million  tons  of  produce  which  now 
reach  Karachi  but  proofs  of  the  justice  of  its  acquisition,  and  of 
the  debt  we  owe  to  him  who  gave  it  to  us.  Sir  Charles  Napier  \ 
And  to  this  may  be  added  that  whatever  were  the  obstacles 
thrown  in  the  way  of  that  acquisition,  whether  by  newspaper 
men  or  by  individual  members  of  the  Government,  or  by  the 
Bombay  Government  itself,  ample  reparation  was  made  to  Sir 
Charles  Napier  and  to  the  justice  of  his  cause  by  the  city  of 
Bombay  before  he  took  his  final  departure  from  India,  in  a 
splendid  banquet  where  a  hundred  of  our  leading  citizens  did 


84 


SIR    CHARLES   JAMES   NAPIEK,    G.C.B. 


liim  honour  and  anticipated  the  judgment  of  history.  Nay 
more,  we  make  bold  to  say  that  had  Napier  been  forty  years  of 
age  instead  of  sixty  when  he  was  made  Governor  of  Sind,  and 


been  vested  in  its  administration  for  one  decade,  he  would,  not- 
v>'ithstanding  the  progress  it  has  since  made  without  him,  have 
effected  a  wonderful  transformation,  and  made  the  wilderness  to 
blossom  as  the  rose.     Sind  has  been  named  Young  Egj'pt,  and 


PECUKIAKY   MATTEES.  85 

under  his  guiding  band,  you  may  depend  upon  it,  the  Indus  in 
its  progress  woukl  have  scattered  its  fertility  like  the  Nile 
through  scenes  of  ancient  renown.  Armed  with  despotic 
autiiority  he  would  have  turned  the  waters  of  the  Indus  *  by 
irrigation  on  that  vast  square  of  a  hundred  miles,  now  only 
covered  by  the  milk  bush  and  the  camel  thorn  which  meets  the 
eye  of  the  traveller  from  the  liills  of  Baluchistan.  Everything 
will  gi-ow  in  Sind  if  you  get  water,  and  what  ]\Iuhammad  AK  did 
for  Egypt  Napier  would  have  done  for  Sind.  Despotism  goes 
straight  to  the  mark,  and  Napier  was  nothing  if  not  a  despot. 

It  was  long  ere  fame  and  fortune  came  to  Sir  Charles  Napier. 
It  will  scarcely  be  believed  that  if  when  he  arrived  in  Bombay 
in  1841,  being  fifty-nine  years  of  age,  he  had  then  died,  he 
could  not  have  left  a  single  sixpence  to  wife  or  children.  He  paid 
the  last  £500  that  he  had  to  the  Purser  in  Bombay  Harbour  for 
passage-money  from  Suez.  He,  good  easy  man,  had  gone  to 
insure  his  life  before  leaving  England,  but  the  Insurance 
Companies  would  not  take  him.  It  is  superfluous  to  say  he  was 
a  bad  risk,  as  for  thirty-six  years  he  had  never  breathed  freely 
owing  to  a  wound  in  his  head.  The  fact  that  he  was  a  general 
in  the  North  of  England  on  £1000  a  year  does  not  count  for 
much.  He  found,  like  so  many  other  generals  at  home,  that 
the  bunch  of  feathers  in  his  hat  made  him  suffer  considerably  in 
his  purse.  He  had  been  trying  at  this  time  to  eke  out  his 
means  by  writing,  and  he  gave  Colbourn  his  Lights  and  Shadows 
of  Military  Life,  for  which  he  received  £50.  Nobody  believes 
that  he  spent  money  uselessly,  and  at  twenty-one  he  vowed  that 
he  would  never  be  a  slave  to  his  tailor.  But  he  started  life 
without  a  penny,  except  his  pay  of  four  shillings  and  eight 
pence  a  day,  and  a  heavy  drain  was  on  it  in  his  youthful  years, 
which  no  human  being  knew,  not  even  the  recipient  of  it.  In 
1844  he  had  invested  as  much  as  would  yield  his  wife  and 
daughters  £120  a  year  each,  but  this  must  have  disappeared, 
and  it  was  only  in  Poena  that  he  was  able  to  say,  "  Hard  times, 
come  again  no  more."  The  first  thing  he  did  when  lie  came  to 
money  was  to  hand  over  £5000  to  a  deaf  and  dumb  sou  of  his 


*  "Old  Indus  is  a  devil  when  he  takes  a  freak  into  liis  litad,  and  there  is 
nothiog  left  but  to  float  on  his  back." — C.  N. 


86  SIR   CHARLES  JAMES   NAPIER,   G.O.B. 

brother  Sir  William  Napier,  and  this  hefore  he  knew  of  the 
Haidarabad  prize-money,  wliich,  we  have  seen  somewhere, 
amounted  to  £50,000.  When  he  arrived  at  Oaklands,  where  he 
died,  his  life  was  a  continued  role  of  beneficence  to  all  who 
stood  in  need  of  it  within  his  reach,  worthy  and  imworthy  some- 
times also,  for  they  were  aU  God's  creatures  to  Charles  Napier.* 
A  man  like  this  who  had  been  so  much  in  the  field,  and  seen 
so  much  warfare,  one  would  suppose  to  have  surrounded  himself 
with  a  hard  and  a  dry  atmosphere.  But  it  was  not  so.  In 
early  life  he  felt  "  the  friendly  glow  and  softer  flame,"  and  of 
him  it  could  not  be  said  that  "  thoughtless  follies  laid  him  low, 
and  stained  his  name."  An  enemy  of  all  wildness  and  licence,  he 
strove  to  put  down  the  beer-swilling  propensities  of  the  officers 
and  men  of  his  time,  and,  when  in  the  East,  anathematised 
those  young  gentlemen  who  rode  helter-skelter  through  the 
bazaars  of  Sakkar  or  Shikarpur  in  defiance  of  human  life.f  He 
was  extremely  temperate,  and  when  forty  officers  and  men  died 
in  three  hours  from  coup  de  soldi,  he  attributed  his  survival  to 
the  fact  that  he  alone  of  the  number  attacked  was  a  water- 
drinker.  But  he  did  not  on  that  account  forswear  tlie  convivial 
table.  "  I  was  never  drunk  in  my  life,"  says  he.  Happy  man  ! 
But  like  Walter  Scott,  like  Malcolm,  or  Mackintosh,  "  a  head  " 
sometimes  supervened ;  and  on  the  following  morning  they  all 
vowed  they  would  never  do  it  again.  Alas  !  alas  !  It  were  a 
poor  world  this,  if  men  cannot  take  out  of  it  the  happiness  that 


*  "  I  believe  Sir  Charles  Napier  did  in  Sind  wonderfully  well ;  perhaps  as 
well,  if  not  better  than  any  one  under  similar  difficulties  could  have  done." — 
John  Lawrence  to  Lord  Dalhousie,  March  31st,  1850. 

t  Order  at  Sakkar,  1843  : — "  Gentlemen,  as  well  as  beggars,  may,  if  they 
like,  ride  to  the  devil  when  they  get  on  horseback;  but  neither  gentlemen 
nor  beggars  have  a  right  to  send  other  people  there,  ■which  will  be  the  case  if 
furious  riding  be  allowed  in  camp  or  bazaar.  The  Major-General  calls  the 
attention  of  all  the  camp  to  the  orders  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  Wallace,  18th 
ultimo,  and  begs  to  add  that  he  has  placed  a  detachment  of  horse  at  Captain 
Pope's  orders,  who  will  arrest  offenders,  and  Captain  Pope  will  inflict  such  a 
fine  or  other  punishment  as  the  Bazaar  regulations  permit.  This  order  is  to 
be  published  through  the  cantonments  by  beat  of  drum  for  three  successive 
days,  and  Captain  Pojie  is  not  allowed  to  let  any  one  ofl'  jiunishment, 
because,  when  orders  have  been  repeated  and  not  obeyed,  it  is  time  to  enforce 
them ;  without  obedience  an  army  becomes  a  mob,  a  cantonment  a  bear- 
garden. The  enforcement  of  obedience  is  like  physic — not  agreeable,  but  at 
times  vsry  necessary." 


LITERAEY   ABILITY.  87 

God  hath  given  them,  as  long  as  it  is  innocent  enjoyment.  And 
so  we  find  him  again  and  again  relaxing  from  grave  thoughts  to 
fun  and  liumour,  for  his  mind  was  not  of  that  mighty  cast  that 
found  no  delight  in  tlie  turn  of  a  M'ord  or  the  play  of  some 
lively  or  even  idle  expression.  Hence  he  was  not  everlastingly 
sensible  after  dinner,  and  if  any  one  expected  a  dissertation  on 
the  Battle  of  Thrasymenus  or  the  Eetreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand, 
he  would  come  away  disappointed ;  but  he  never  i)layed  the 
fool. 

He  sometimes  wrote  poetry,*  and  it  was  much  better  than 
that  of  either  Warren  Hastings  or  John  Malcolm.  Had  he  not 
hated  Macaulay  he  M'ould,  like  Sir  John  La^Tl■ence,  have  loved 
dearly  his  Lays  of  Ancient  Rome,  which  were  quite  suited  to  Iiis 
dashing  and  martial  disposition.  He  wrote  prose,  and  though 
he  does  not  rival  his  brother  Sir  William,  who  has  nearly  made 
himself  immortal  by  his  History  of  the  Peninsular  War,  he 
shows  the  stuff  that  was  in  him  in  the  story  of  the  battle  of 
CoruSa,  which  he  put  together  for  his  children.  Sir  llobert  Peel 
put  his  Despatches  on  a  level  with  Wellington's. 

In  his  hatred  he  was  fierce  and  implacable  : 

"  Give  rae  the  avowed,  tbe  erect,  the  manly  foe 
Whom  I  can  face,  or  else  avert  the  blow." 

It  is  easier  to  number  his  friends  than  his  foes.  He  verified 
the  Duke  of  Wellington's  aphorism  that  there  was  hardly  a  good- 
tempered  man  in  India.  It  would  scarcely  be  too  much  to  say 
that  he  quarrelled  \vith  everylsody.  Lord  Ellenborough  wTote 
out  that  Sir  John  Peter  Grant  was  a  wild  elephant  tliat  only 
required  two  tame  elephants   to    subdue    him.     Five — ten — 


'  Come  on.  Stout  Beja,  to  the  strife ! 
Nor  you  nor  I  will  epiire  a  life  I 
Unhonoured  war  I  of  mercy  reft ! 
And  hopes  alono  in  victory  left! 
Barbarians,  whom  no  ])ity  ties  I 
The  victor  kills,  tlie  beateu  dies ! 
So  be  it,  Beja  I  stand  or  run, 
We  sha'n't  both  see  the  settin?  sun ! 
If  you  beat  me  a  corpse  I'll  lie, 
If  I  take  you  111  bang  you  high! 
For  you  shall  be  no  burial  rites. 

Swinging  in  air  you'll  feed  the  kites." — Written   when 
expecting  Beja  to  como  down  upon  him,  1815. 


88  SIR    CH.VULES   JAMES    NAPIER,    G.C.B. 

twenty  tame  elephants  would  not  have  taken  the  mustiness 
(when  it  was  on  him)  out  of  this  Shaitan-ha-hhai.  Even  the 
friends  he  loved  he  came  to  hate.  "  I  once  called  Outram  the 
Bayard  of  India,  sans  peur,  sans  reproche,  but  then  I  did  not 
know  him  ;  sans  pcur  de  reproche  would  be  better."  He  begins 
by  saying, "  I  like  Dalhousie  so  much,"  and  ends  by  calling  him 
"  a  weasel "  and  "  the  Laird  o'  Cockpen ; "  Dr.  Buist  "  the 
blatant  beast  "  and  an  "  unfrocked  jmest  from  St.  Andrew's."  * 
Sir  Frederick  Currie  ought  to  have  the  last  syllable  of  his  name 
excised.  Sir  James  Weir  Hogg  was  sus  horridus  and  ought  to 
read  the  sacred  books  of  the  Sikhs  called  the  Grunth ;  and  what 
he  says  of  Jlessrs.  Eeid  and  WiLloughby,  members  of  the  Bombay 
Council,  is  similar  Billingsgate.  "WTiom  then  did  he  love  ?  John 
Kennedy,  his  old  friend  in  Cephalonia  ?  No.  They  had  a 
dispute,  it  seems,  about  the  gradient  of  a  road,  a-making,  and 
John  was  condemned  to  walk  up  the  burning  marie  at  an  angle 
of  45°  carrying  a  Cephalonia  mule  on  his  back,  or  something 
like  tliis.  No  man  escaped,  not  even  the  Duke  ;  for  even  after 
the  tomb  had  closed  upon  them  their  ghosts  came  out  like  two 
gigantic  marionettes  and  clashed  their  swords  together,  a  terror 
to  gods  and  men — in  their  posthumous  papers.  I  think  he  was 
not  very  much  in  love  with  any  one,  and  possibly  his  wife  and 
children  engaged  the  most  of  his  affections,  his  grandchildren 
also,  specially  the  one,  a  little  girl  about  a  foot  and  a  half  high, 
a  veritable  chip  of  the  old  block,  who  one  day  rushed  like  a  fury 
out  of  the  tent  with  a  bamboo,  and  threatened  to  belabour  a  big 
elephant.  "  I  came  to  thrash  thoo,  thoo  very  naughty 
elephant ! "  Whereat  elcphas  gigantcus  curled  up  his  trunk, 
looking  down  on  the  mite  with  majestic  serenity  and  com- 
posure ;  Charles  Napier,  grandfather,  meanwhUe  sitting  like 
Abraham,  at  the  tent  door  with  a  contemplative  grin,  completing 
the  picture.  Strange  it  is,  yet  nevertheless  true,  that  the  only 
individual  out  of  his  famUy  circle  who  won  his  respect — we  can 
scarcely  call  it  affection — was  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Bartle  Frere. 
"  Mr.  Frere  with  a  proper  spuit  has  completed  the  jMole  at 
Kmi-achee ; "  and  again,  "  Mr.  Frere  is  an  honourable  man." 


*  Nothing  of  the  sort,  any  more  than  Adam  Smith  or  Thomas  Carlyle, 
who  studied  for  the  Church,  hut  did  not  follow  it  up. 


GENERAL    MAESTOS.  89 

Alter  lliL-  pen-and-ink  portraits  which  he  has  lel'c  of  his  con- 
temporaries it  is  surely  something  to  rememher  that  one  man  at 
least  "  fetched  "  Sir  Charles  Napier  in  Sind.  What  soothing 
emollient  Sir  Bartle  appUed  to  his  adamantine  heart  is  un- 
known, but  the  fact  remains  that  he,  in  the  eyes  of  his  great 
master,  was  like  Milton's  Abdiel — 

"  Faithful  only  he  among  the  faithless  fouinl." 

Of  the  men  of  those  days   that  we   can   remenil)er   at   the 
moment :    Sir    Bartle    Frere, 

died    June   1884 ;    Governor  v^^^  ^ 

Falkland    (1848-1S53),    died  ^:-^Wfc^x* 

March    1884;   but    Marston,  y 

who  saved  Napier's  life  by 
the  General's  own  admission, 
is  a  general  himself,  in  com- 
fort and  happiness,  llou  rishing  ''  ^ 
like  the  green  bay-tree,  the 
veteran  of  Sind,  and  delighted 
when  anyone  calls  on  him  to 
fight  his  buttles  over  again  ; 
his  home  like  a  museum 
hung  witli  tlie  trophies  of  war 
and  tlie  cliase.*  Aga  Khan, 
the  Old   I\tan    of   tlie  Moun- 


V- 


GEXERAL    MARSTON. 


*  Here  is  the  account  of  this  Paladin  which  he  seut  to  his  brother  General 
\V.  Napier  in  18-15.  "  Remember  in  yom-  work  to  mention  Lieutenant 
Marston,  25th  Native  Infantry,  at  Miani.  I  was  alone  in  front  of  his 
regiment,  when  a  Belooch  came  over  the  edge  of  the  bank  ten  paces  IVoin 
me ;  he  looked  round  wildly,  but  seeing  me,  came  on — not  fast,  but  with 
long  strides.  My  hand  having  been  broken  I  could  not  cope  with  such  a 
customer,  but  held  half  my  reins  in  great  torture  in  the  broken  hand, 
designing  to  give  lied  Hover  a  chuck  that  should  jiut  his  head  between  me 
and  the  coming  blow.  The  Belooch  was  only  four  paces  from  me  when 
Marston  on  foot  passed  my  right  side,  and  received  the  swordsman's  blow  on 
his  shoulder  strap.  It  went  deep  into  the  brass  scales  and  the  Beloocli 
caught  the  counterblow  on  his  shield  which  was  beaten  down ;  the  next 
instant  the  bayonet  of  a  soldier  went  nearly  to  the  hilt  in  his  side,  and  my 
attention  to  the  general  fight  engrossed  me  too  much  for  further  observation. 
I  miglit  have  defended  myself,  but  crippled  as  I  was,  I  believe  Marston 
saved  my  life.  Ho  slew  three  other  men  that  day,  but  not  this  man ;  nt 
least  the  bayonet  shared  witli  his  sword.  Mention  him,  for  the  man  who 
saves  his  general's  life  in  battle  has  a  claim  to  notice  in  history." — (January, 
1891— still  living). 

VOL.  II.  H 


90  sm   CHAELES   JAMES    NAPIER,    G.C.B. 

tain,*  whom  he  calls  "  his  crony — "  his  face  was  familiar  to  us 
until  1883 ;  and  of  Muracl  Khan  on  the  Hiibb,  who  organised 
his  camel  corps,  none  who  have  ever  experienced  his  hospitality, 
which  was  wide  and  unstinted,  can  forget  it.  He  was  certainly 
the  finest  and  most  complete  ilusalman  gentleman  of  his  day.t 

Socially  Sir  Charles  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  His  motto 
was,  "  Eeady,  aye  ready ! "  Shortly  after  he  came  home,  at  one 
of  the  numerous  parties  he  was  at,  it  fell  to  his  lot  to  take  down 
to  dinner  a  daughter  of  Sir  James  Weir  Hogg,  his  arch-enemy. 
He  was  never  more  agreeable,  and  said  afterwards  that  a  pretty 
face  and  lively  conversation  were  better  than  all  the  dainties  of 
the  menu.  Some  of  us  remember  tlie  two  towels  and  the  piece  of 
soap,  his  overland  kit,  which  has  almost  passed  into  a  proverb, 
and  how  gentle  and  simple  stood  grinning  with  delight  at  the 
shop  windows  of  the  book-sellers  when  the  cartoon  came  out  in 
Punch,  of  J^apier  riding  on  a  camel  across  the  desert  in  sight  of 
the  pyramids  of  Egypt.  A  friend,  now  a  general,  has  told  us 
that  when,  a  subaltern,  he  lauded  in  Sind,  he  reconnoitred  on 
the  Kiamari  road  an  old  man  on  a  dilapidated  steed.  Being 
belated  he  asked  the  way,  and  found  this  strange  individual 
wonderfully  communicative  in  answering  all  his  questions  re- 
garding the  place  and  its  inhabitants.  He  learned  next  day 
that  this  was  the  Governor  of  Sind.  With  his  tattered  and 
frayed  trowsers  he  looked  a  Don  Quixote,  the  burlesque  rather 
than  the  reality  of  chivalry. 

Another  veteran  now  in  Bombay,  who  travelled  out  with  him 
in  1841,  informs  us  that  when  he  arrived,  an  aide-de-camp  of  the 
Governor  or  senior  member  of  Council  acting,  came  on  board  the 
"  Berenice  "  to  ask  him  to  Parel,  which  has  sheltered  and  enter- 
tained Wellington  and  so  many  other  distinguished  warriors  and 
statesmen.     The  Redoubtable,  at  the  moment  the  message  was 


*  "The  Chief  of  the  Assassins,  terrible  ouly  in  name."  "So  good  and 
brave  a  soldier."  "  A  wise  Persian  Politician."  "  Paid  by  me  £2,000  a. 
year."  "  He  is  a  god,  his  income  is  immense,  lets  none  of  his  sect  kiss  his 
hand  under  twenty  rnpees."  "  Have  sent  the  Persian  Prince  on  a  mission  to 
.Terrick,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Indus,  where  his  influence  is  great,"  &c. — 
Conf.  Yule's  Marco  Polo,  i.,  153. 

t  John  Connon  (vol.  1,  p.  237)  was  said  to  have  carried  on  a  friendly 
correspondence  with  ^^ir  Charles,  and  to  have  stood  high  in  his  favour.  This 
must  belong  to  the  period  1849-51. 


ANECDOTES.  91 

ilelivered,  had  just  commenced  the  process  of  shaving,  an  art 
which  he  believed  incumbent  on  him  to  practise,  now  that  he 
was  about  to  go  ashore.  "  Tell  him  I'm  ready,"  said  he,  rubbing 
luirriedly  with  a  towel  the  soap-suds  from  his  upper  lip  and 
proljoscis.  And  ready  he  was — in  a  way — on  every  occasion. 
Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  who  loses  no  opportunity  in  doing  the 
honours  of  the  State  on  every  momentous  occasion,  issued  a 
command  for  him  to  appear  at  dinner.  The  invitation  was 
necessarily  a  hurried  one,  as  he  was  about  to  embark  for  India. 
He  was  discovered  by  a  friend  at  his  own  door  setting  out  in  a 
drab-coloured  waistcoat,  who  told  him  it  would  never  do.  His 
valet  Nicholas  was  a  dandy,  so  he  borrowed  his,  and  went  with 
it  to  the  dinner  party  I 

The  following  may  be  ben  trovato,  but  Napier  enjoyed  it 
exceedingly.  Captain  Mainwaring  was  a  man  of  humour, 
and  when  in  Bombay  was  placed  at  a  cUnner  party  next  to 
Dr.  l!uist,  who  very  nervously  spoke  thus — "  Captain  Main- 
waring,  I  suppose  you  dislike  me.  I  am  Dr.  Buist,  of  the 
Bombay  Times."  "  Why  should  1  dislike  you,  my  friend :  I 
never  read  your  paper." 

He  was  a  bit  of  an  archaeologist,  but  for  obvious  reasons  con- 
fined himself  to  investigating  Alexander  the  Great's  expedition 
to  India ;  and  in  the  house  at  Clifton,  Karachi,  tlie  internal 
economy  of  which  we  knew  so  well,  he  amused  himself  study- 
ing Arrian,  noting  for  his  amusement  the  various  stations  of 
the  army  until  it  met  the  fleet  of  Nearchus.  The  bungalow  is, 
or  was,  situated  three  miles  from  Karachi,  twenty  feet  above 
sea-level  and  within  twenty  yards  of  tlie  Indian  Ocean,  here 
i'ringed  by  a  long  belt  of  sandy  beach,  on  which  on  moon- 
light nights  the  turtle  could  be  seen  disporting  itself.  It  was 
here  he  thought  and  wrote  of  Alexander  wliile,  as  he  tells  us, 
the  sands  of  the  Gedrosian  desert  fell  upon  the  paper,  and 
blurred  the  ink  which  flowed  from  his  pen. 

Lilie  most  men  of  his  day,  he  was  superstitious,  in  dreams,  in 
the  recurrence  of  dates  *  fatal  or  fortunate,  and  in  numbers. 
■'  Two  is  my  number — two  wives,  two  daughters,  two  sons  (in- 

•  Croniwell's  Day,  the  3id  September,  was  a  great  day  witli  liim  ;  but 
lie  seems  to  have  forgolteu  Carlyle's  remiuder,  "  2nd  September  means  12th 
by  qjir  calendar." 

H  2 


92  Sm   CHABLES   JAMES    NAPIER,    G.C.B. 

law),  two  victories,  aud  two  deaths.  I  died  at  Corufia,  and  now 
the  grim  old  Aillain  approaches  again." 

Some  of  his  characteristics  are  worth  observing.  Our  men 
swore  dreadfully  in  Flanders.  So  did  Lord  Lake  aud  Colin 
Campbell  in  India,  and  Charles  Napier  was  not  one  whit  behind 
them.  Latterly  he  condensed  all  the  expletives  which  he  had 
heretofore  used  in  one  mighty  oath,  "  By  Jupiter  Ammon,"  * 
which  is  harmless,  and  contains  no  incandescent  material.  But 
it  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  he  went  about  bullying 
everybody,  swearing  at  large  as  the  saying  is.  His  doctrine  on 
this  subject  is  clearly  and  explicitly  laid  down  in  his  book  of 
instructions  which  he  composed  for  the  edification  of  military 
men,  and  with  which  his  own  practice  is  found  in  the  main  to 
agree.  "  Scolding,"  he  says,  "  is  weak  and  contemptible ;  an 
occasional  touch-up  is  invigorating — only  let  it  come  out  at 
once  like  the  devil,  hail,  rain,  thunder,  and  lightning."  The 
Duke  wanted  to  see  his  diary,  but  his  brother  said  there  were 
some  queer  things  in  it.  "  It  is  just  for  these  Cj^ueer  things  that 
I  wish  to  see  it,"  said  the  Duke. 

That  he  considered  the  fact  of  your  being  a  Napier  made  you, 
ceteris  paribus,  better  than  any  other  man  is  known  to  all  the 
world.  That  he  read  his  Bible,  as  he  says,  "  like  other  virtuous 
men."  That  his  heaven  was  a  kind  of  Valhalla  where  he  ex- 
pected to  meet  Hannibal,  Augustus  Caesar,  and  Napoleon. f  That 
he  initiated  the  modern  Volunteer  movement  in  England,  and 
though  it  was  frowned  upon  for  years,  it  was  destined  that  his 
son-in-law  should  become  Inspector-General  of  the  force  when, 
after  1859,  it  numbered  100,000  men.  That  he  offered  to  send 
il,000  tons  of  wheat  to  avert  the  consequence  of  famine  in 
Ireland,  at  £3  per  ton,  which  was  refused.  That  had  he  been 
appointed  Dictator  of  Ireland  he  would  have  gone  farther  than 


"  "  Alexander  the  Great  was  accustomed  to  swear  by  Jupiter  Ammon." — 
Plutarch's  Lives. 

t  This  is  not  Scotch,  and  could  not  have  come  down  to  him  from  old 
Napier  of  Merehistoun,  the  inventor  of  Logarithms,  from  wliom  he  believed 
he  was  descended ;  for  we  never  yet  have  heard  a  Scotsman  say  he  expected 
to  meet  Hannibal  in  the  next  world.  Rather  let  us  class  it  as  an  outcome 
of  tho  ingeniaia  per/ervidu7H  Hiherniorum.  While  on  this  religious  phase 
of  his  character  it  would  be  a  crime  to  suppress  the  other,  that  he  felt 
himself  responsible  in  all  his  acts  to  a  higher  power.  "  I  am  a  child  in  the 
hands  of  God,"  he  says  again  and  again. 


CHAKACTERISTICS.  93 

Mr.  Gladstone,  and  banished  the  whole  of  the  Bishops  "as  by 
law  established  "  to  New  Zealand,  "  there  to  be  eaten  iip  by  the 
cannibals."  Tliat  he  was  keen  and  quick  to  resent  injury  and 
insiilt — real  or  apparent,  did  not  much  matter  to  him — and  was 
oftentimes  on  the  verge  of  a  duel,  and  indeed  may  have  fonght 
one  for  anything  we  know  to  the  contrary.  That  in  conjunction 
with  Lord  Byron,  witli  whom  he  was  intimate,  he  was  on  tlie 
very  ace  of  heading  an  armed  insurrection  in  Greece.  .  That  he 
scorned  to  be  a  suii])liant  or  Imw  the  knee.  That  like  his  enemy 
Macaulay  he  had  nothing  to  acknowledge  which  was  inconsistent 
with  rectitude  of  intention  and  independence  of  spirit.  That 
he  sometimes  set  at  naught  all  power  and  all  authority,  until 
his  friends  trembled  even  at  the  very  mention  of  his  name  :  and 
that  it  was  better  to  die  honest  with  a  crust  of  bread  than 
otherwise  M'ith  great  i>ossessions.  Such  were  some  of  the  cardinal 
points  in  the  creed,  conduct,  and  character  of  Charles  James 
Napier.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  when  his  life  drew  to  a  close 
that  he  laid  himself  down  on  a  naked  camp  bedstead  with  the 
fresh  breeze  of  England  playing  upon  his  coimteuance,  and  over 
him  the  old  tattered  colours  which  had  been  borne  at  Miani  and 
liaidarabad.  He  was  buried  in  an  obscure  grave  near  Ports- 
moutli  amid  the  tears  of  50,000  spectators.* 

SIC  EXIT   C.\ROLUS  NAPIERUS. 

Xapier  wrote  a  fine,  clear,  quick,  flowing,  readable  hand,  and 
many  of  his  words  ai'e  underscored,  marking  the  man  of  energetic 
action. t     He  could  be  voluminous  when  necessary ;  but  some 

*  Statues  have  been  erected  to  his  memory  in  St,  Paul's  Cathedral  aii'l 
Trafal.:;ar  J'quare. 

t  "  The  kindness  of  a  General  Officer  whose  identity  any  old  '  9th '  man 
will  recognize,"  says  the  Army  and  Navy  Gazette,  "  has  enabled  us  to  give  our 
readers  in  jirint  a  copy  of  a  letter  wliich  speaks  for  itself  in  every  line  in  tlie 
intense  power  and  originality  of  one  of  the  greatest  captains  of  the  century. 
'J'hijse  who  do  not  know  what  Charles  Napier  was  and  did,  may  as  well  set 
about  the  study  of  his  share  in  the  work  of  empire-making  to  see  whether 
he  is  entitled  to  the  place  we  have  assigned  him  or  not.  Those  who  are 
acquainted  with  his  character  and  acts  will  not  question  the  correctness  of 
i)\ir  descri])tion.  There  is  a  very  interesting  insight  into  the  strange 
attachment  of  the  An:^lo-Indian  soldier  to  the  family  relation  to  a  small 
Irish  village  in  the  letter,  which  may  explain  some  way  the  'odic  force'  of 
the  man  in  the  allusion  to  the  boyish  memories  of  Colbridge  which  would 
be  received  with  enthusiastic  pleasure  in  the  Green  Isle,  in  times  gone  by." — 


94 


SIK    CHAKLES    JAMES    NAPIER,    G.C.B. 


•/■■ 


of  his  laconics  are  dreadful,  like  round-shot.     'V\Tien  the  Amirs 
forbade  him  to  cut  wood  on  the  banks  of  the  Indus  for  steamer 

fuel,  he  wrote  : — "  If 

£  -V-^=^'X±:„.*:f-^tw^       I  <^o  ^ot    burn   your 

wood  I  will  burn 
Haidarabad."  Fcccavi 
may  belong  to  Punch, 
but  if  he  wrote  it,  it 
is  shorter  than  vcni, 
vidi,  vici.  This  we 
can  aver:  that  his 
fiat  to  storm  Amarkot 
(this  he  did  finally 
himself,  but  it  does  not 
matter),  the  birthplace  of  Akbar,  the  greatest  and  wisest  of  Indian 
sovereigns,  was  written  on  a  piece  of  paper  smaller  than  the  one- 
half  of  a  five-rupee  note.  Probably  it  M-as  despatched  in  a  quill,  as 
he  records  that  many  of  his  messages  were  received  in  this  way. 


Napier's  order  to  storm  amakkot. 


"  KURRACHEE,  Fth.  1.,  1844. 

"  Private  James  Neart,- — I  received  youi-  letter  dated  January  12  ;  you 
tell  me  that  you  give  satisfaction  to  your  officers,  which  is  just  what  you 
ought  to  do.  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it,  because  I  have  a  regard  for  every 
one  reared  at  Castletown,  for  I  was  reared  there  myself.  However,  as  I  and 
all  belonging  to  me  have  left  that  part  of  the  coimtry  for  more  than  twenty 
years,  I  neither  know  who  Mr.  Tom  Kelly  is,  nor  do  I  know  your  father,  but 
I  know  that  I  would  go  far  any  day  in  the  year  to  serve  a  Colbrid<:e  man, 
or  any  man  from  the  Barony  of  Salt,  in  which  Colbridge  stands,  that  is  to 
say,  if  such  a  man  behaves  himself  like  a  good  soldier,  and  not  hke  a  d — d 

drunken  son  of  a  b h  hke  James  Johnston,  whom  you  know  very  well  if 

you  are  a  Castletown  man.  Kow,  llr.  James  Xeary,  as  I  am  sure  you  are 
and  must  be  a  remarkably  sober  man,  as  I  am  myself,  or  I  should  not  have 
got  on  so  well  in  the  world  as  I  ha%'e  done,  1  say,  as  you  are  a  remarkably 
sober  man,  I  desire  you  to  take  this  letter  to  your  Captain,  and  ask  him  to 
show  it  to  your  Lieutenant-Colonel,  and  to  ask  the  said  Lieutenant-Colonel, 
with  my  best  compliments,  to  have  you  in  his  memory,  and  if  you  are  a 
remarkably  sober  man,  mind  that,  James  Neary,  if  you  are  a  remarkably 
sober  man  like  I  am,  and  in  all  other  ways  fit  to  be  a  Lance-Corporal,  I  will 
be  very  much  obliged  to  him  to  promote  you  now  and  hereafter,  but  if  you 
are  like  James  Johnston,  then  I  sincerely  hope  he  will  give  you  a  double 
quantity  of  punishment,  as  you  will  in  that  case  well  deserve  for  taking  up 
my  time,  which  I  am  always  ready  to  spare  for  a  good  soldier,  but  not  for  a 
bad  one.  Now,  if  j'ou  behave  well,  this  letter  will  give  you  a  fair  start  in 
life,  and  if  you  behave  well,  I  hupe  soon  to  hear  that  you  are  a  Corporal. 
Mind  what  you  are  about,  and  believe  me  to  be  your  well-wisher, 

"  Charles  Napier, 

"  Major-General  and  Governor  of  Scinde,  because  I  have  always  been^  a 
remarkably  sober  man." 


*.     yo     ) 


''^".'',"'      :  <.--.':.  it's 


^'Wm, 


sit.    -..'  ■■■■V  i\  IQ^x^S     '.hyr^.- ■■^^^, 


UDSTY    CASTLE. 


CHAPTER  XIJ. 
SiK  James  Outkam,  the  Bayakd  of  the  F.ast. 

"  Gentlemen, — I  have  toUl  you  that  there  are  only  to  be  two  toasts 
lirunk  this  evening ;  one,  that  of  a  lady  (the  Queen)  you  have  already  re- 
sponded to,  the  other  shall  be  for  a  goutleman.  But  before  I  proceed  any 
further  I  must  tell  you  a  story.  In  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  in  the 
French  Army  a  knight  renowned  for  deeds  of  gallantry  in  war,  and  wisdom 
in  council ;  indeed,  so  deservedly  famous  was  he,  that  by  general  acclama- 
tion he  was  called  the  knight  sans  peur  et  sans  reprocJie.  The  name  of  this 
kni;^ht,  you  may  all  know,  was  the  Chevalier  Bayard.  Gentlemen,  1  give  you 
the  Bayard  of  India,  sans  iKur  et  sans  reproche,  Major  James  Outram  of  the 
Bombay  Army." — Upecch  at  Sakkar  of  Sir  Charles  James  Kupier,  Nov.  5, 1842. 

It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  Sir  James  Outraui  is  less  remem- 
bered in  Bombay,  with  which  he  ^^•as  so  closely  associated 
for  well-nigh  fort}-  years,  than  he  is  in  Calcutta,  where  there  is 
a  niagniticent  eiiucstrian  statue  and  one  institution  at  least  to 
commemorate  his  name.  A  prophet  has  no  honour  in  his  own 
country.  He  was  a  stranger  and  they  took  him  in.  He  was 
loo  near  perhaps  for  us  to  see  him  well.  When  a  man  dies  in  or 
leaves  Bombay,  two  courses  are  open  to  perpetuate  his  lame. 
He  gets  a  statue,  or  a  scholarship  is  founded,  or  he  has  a  street 
or  a  bridge  named  after  him.     Uutrani  has  neither.     There  is 


96  SIE   JAMES    OUTRAM,    THE   BAYARD    OF    THE   EAST. 

not  even  a  back  lane  or  a  drinkmg-shop  consecrated  to  his 
memory.  Not  tliat  Bombay  was  blind  to  his  excellences  or 
slow  in  recognising  tlie  heroism  of  the  man.  On  the  contrary, 
Bombay  was  the  first  by  public  act  or  deed  to  do  so,  for  so  early 
as  1842  a  great  dinner  was  given  in  his  hononr  attended  by  150 
citizens,  and  presided  over  by  Mr.  Fawcett,  of  Eemington  and 
Co.,  when  a  sword  of  the  value  of  300  guineas  (511  subscribers) 
was  presented  to  him ;  and  nearly  the  last  votive  offering  he 
received  was  from  the  Bombay  public,  in  18(33,  the  "  Outram 
Shield"  of  silver,  which  has  since  taken  a  liigh  place  as  a 
national  work  of  art.  Bombay  saw  his  beginnings,  and  was 
conspicuous  at  the  close  of  his  career,  for  he  might,  if  so 
disposed,  have  been  carried  to  his  final  abode,  like  a  Eajput 
warrior  of  old  armed  at  all  points,  with  his  shield  of  silver  by 
his  side.  Alas !  that  it  should  ever  be  said  of  Outram,  in 
Western  India — 

"His  memory  and  Ms  name  is  gone, 
Alike  unknowing  and  unknown." 

or  a  la  YergUius,  "  England  was  my  birthplace.  Bombay  was 
my  habitation.  The  monsoon  winds  carried  me  away.  Calciitta 
holds  me  now."  And  yet,  if  there  ever  was  a  man  that  Bombay 
may  fairly  claim  as  her  own,  it  was  Outram.  Every  corner  of 
this  Presidency  has  seen  him,  and  some  places  bear  the  mark  of 
his  footsteps,  not  cut  like  those  of  Buddha  on  the  rock  but  on 
the  fleshly  tablets  of  the  heart.  Witness  among  the  Bluls, 
where  his  memory  still  lingers,  shrouded  b)-  a  semi-di\ine  halo. 
Satara  knew  him  well,  so  did  IMahabaleshwar ;  Poona  and  Nagar 
also,  though  he  despised  their  gaieties ;  Khaira,  Kajputana, 
Ahmadabad,  and  Baroda  vcrij  well ;  and  our  city  was  no  stranger 
to  him.  Here  he  first  landed  at  the  age  of  sixteen.  Here  he 
was  married.  Here  he  was  offered  the  command  of  the  Poona 
Horse.  It  was  from  this  port  he  embarked  to  win  his  laurels 
in  those  great  expeditions,  of  so  momentous  issues — to  Persia,  to 
Sind,  to  Afghanistan,  and  to  his  last  heroic  work  in  the  Nortli- 
West.  No  mere  wayfarer  for  the  night  was  he,  for  every 
feature  of  our  city  was  familiar  to  him.  He  had  been  in  it  in 
1819,  1822,  1824,  1825,  1835,  1838,  1839,  1842,  1843,  three 
timesiin  1844-1847,  twice  in  1850,  twice  in  1851,  twice  in  1854- 


OPPOSITION   IN    1851.  ,  '.)? 

1X56,  and  twice  in  1857.  Nor  did  he  ever  forget  her.  Bombay- 
was  his  first,  his  last,  his  only  love,  for  even  on  his  way  to  the 
relief  of  Lucknow  he  writes — the  date  is  6th  August,  1857,  and 
it  was  on  25th  September  that,  dabbled  in  gore,  he  dismounted 
at  the  gates  of  the  Eesidency — "  You  may  rely  on  my  doing  my 
best  to  uphold  the  honour  of  a  Bombay  officer."  And  this  in 
spite  of  all  the  kicks  and  cutis  he  had  received. 

The  life  of  Outram  is  a  series  of  magnificent  surprises,  like 
that  of  some  fabled  knight  of  antiquity  or  mediaval  romance. 
AVith  him  it  is  the  unexpected  that  always  happens.  As  the 
curtain  descends  upon  each  successive  tableau,  we  invariably 
exclaim,  "  What  next  ?  "  for  who  can  tell  in  what  new  character 
he  will  invest  himself.  One  thing  is  certain,  he  will  neitlier 
stultify  himself  nor  his  friends. 

Outram  spent  the  Christmas  of  1851  in  Bombay — and  it  was 
a  dull  Cln-istmas.  I  daresay  Bombay  had  never  appeared  so 
unlovable  to  him  before. 

As  his  pattimar  in  a  luff  of  the  wind  rounds  Walkeshwar,  he 
catches  a  glimpse  of  that  City  of  I'alms  which  had  been  to  him 
tlie  scene  of  so  many  joys  and  sorrows,  since  he  first  set  foot  in 
it  thirty  years  before.  He  had  come  upon  it  often  before — from 
Sion,  from  Panwel,  from  Vingorla,  from  Europe,  but  never 
before  had  he  approached  Bombay  with  such  a  heavy  heart.  As 
he  cleared  the  I'rongs,  scudding  liefore  the  wind,  the  harbour 
lay  before  him  in  all  its  glory,  but  though  it  was  still  girdled 
by  its  barrier  of  everlasting  hills,  it  had  somehow  now  for  him, 
and  for  the  first  time,  lost  all  its  magnificence.  "  Willoughby  * 
is  gone  to  England.  My  earliest  friend — last  tie  to  India 
severed." 

And  when  lie  arrived  he  found  tliat  Lord  Ealkhuul,  tlie 
Governor,  declined  to  see  him,  and  that  every  man  was  working 
himself  to  death  in  the  preparation  of  a  grand  impeachment  that 
should  go  home  to  England  and  effect  his  ruin.  Tiie  place  where 
the  conspii'acy  was  being  hatched  was  the  Secretariat,  the  old 
Secretariat  which  once,  as  Government  House,  had  sheltered 
W'ellesley  in  days  of  obscurity,  been  to  Slackintosh  as  the 
shadow  of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land — where  Duncan  breathed 


Afterwards  Sir  John  Pollard  AVilloughby. 


98  Sm    JAMES    OUTRAM,    THE    BAYARD    OF   THE    EAST. 

liis  last,  and  ]\Iountstuart  Elpliinstone  had  quafted  the  first 
goblet  of  his  coming  fame.  The  story  of  this  business  is  a  long 
one  and  would  weary  the  reader ;  but  if  I  understand  the  matter 
rightly,  Outram's  great  crime  ^\'as  the  onslaught  he  had  made  on 
bribery,  "  that  golden  chalice,"  which  from  time  immemorial,  to 
quote  Burke's  invective,  had  been  "  held  out  by  the  gorgeous 
Eastern  harlot,  and  which  so  many  of  the  people,  so  many  of 
our  nobles,  liad  drained  to  the  very  dregs."  A  man  has  not  his 
sorrows  to  seek  when  he  tackles  bribery  and  corruption  in  India. 
However,  in  this  case  the  Gujaratis  were  the  sinners.  Hence 
Baroda  had  cursed  him  and  tried  to  poison  him — her  %\'ay  of 
getting  rid  of  people  both  before  and  after  this  time — laughed  at 
his  calamity  when  he  was  dismissed  the  Eesidency,  Imt  it  was 
the  laughter  of  those  who  know  not  what  they  do.  And  Outram, 
not  choosing  his  words  with  discretion,  chafed  and  goaded  as 
he  was  beyond  measure,  spoke  upon  paper  no  doubt  unin- 
tentionally, but  so  it  was  construed,  words  of  disrespect  to,  and 
of,  the  Powers  that  be.  Thus  it  was  that  Bombay  had  never 
before  appeared  so  unbeautiful  to  Outram.  The  days  he  passed 
here  were  days  of  gloom.  Innumerable  cheroots  were  consumed, 
but  he  did  not  take  kindly  to  them  as  he  used  to  do,  and  such 
words  would  escape  his  lips  as  he  threw  the  burning  embers 
away,  "  The  last  two  years  have  aged  me  more  than  ten  ;  "  and 
again  in  disgust,  "  I  am  not  sorry  to  get  away  from  this  sink  of 
iniquity,"  meaning  the  Baroda  Ijusiness.  Pacing  the  verandah 
of  one  of  those  old  Mazagon  bungalows,  Belvidere  or  the  Mount, 
his  eye  wandered  dreamily  tlu-ough  a  haze  of  tobacco  smoke, 
across  the  harbour  to  those  long  reaches  of  Uran,  which,  dim 
and  distant  in  the  sunset,  seemed  ever  to  end  the  per.spective  in 
the  blackness  of  darkness  and  despair — 

"  The  sky  is  changed,  and  such  a  change,  0  night 
And  storm  and  darkness,  ye  are  wond'rous  strong.'' 

But  not  so  strong  as  the  righteous  decrees  of  Providence.* 

Three  years  hence,  this  very  month  in  December  1854,  James 
Outram,  the  puny  lad  who  once  wandered  unknown  on  tlie 
braes   of    Uduy,t  enters  Lucknow  with  barbaric  pomp    and 


*  This  is  the  age  of  progress,  and  all  these  are  things  of  the  past  (1891). 
t  Udny,  a  small  village  fifteen  miles  from  Aberdeen,  where  he  was  educated. 


HUNTING.  99 

Asiatic  splendour,  accompanied  by  a  train  of  three  hundred 
elephants.  A  king  is  now  at  his  feet,  ruler  of  five  millions  of 
people,  turban  in  hand ;  titles,  genealogy,  dynasty,  worthless 
and  of  no  account,  as  tliis  Proconsul,  in  burning  words,  spells 
out  his  doom,  amid  a  wild  wail  of  passionate  grief  from  the 
Royal  suppliant,  as  he  sees  throne  and  kingdom  of  Oudh 
disappear  from  his  \aew. 

That  same  night  (it  is  almost  a  certainty)  he  was  seen 
watching  the  dying  bed  of  a  faithful  servant,  the  Portuguese 
boy  who  had  accompanied  him  in  his  many  wanderings  at  home 
and  abroad. 

SHIKARI. 

Outran!  became  a  mighty  hunter.  Had  he  not  the  dictum  of 
Sir  Jolm  Malcolm  and  Sir  Lionel  Smith,  and  they  spoke  with 
authority,  that  they  never  knew  a  good  sportsman  who  was  not 
a  good  soldier  ?  Tliough  he  fleshed  liis  maiden  spear  at  Guligaum 
near  Sii'ur  in  November  1819,  had  much  shikar  at  Itajkot,  and 
saw  sport  with  the  Poona  Hunt,  it  was  in  the  happy  hunting- 
grounds  around  Ahmadabad  that  he  became  fascinated  with  the 
glories  of  the  cliase.  Here  witli  the  boar's  head  and  bison  horns, 
"  Great  is  Diana  of  the  Ephesians."  For  any  man,  not  even  a 
sportsman,  tliis  part  of  India,  especially  in  the  cold  weather,  has 
great  attractions.  There  are  never-ending  wonders  here  for  the 
new-comer,  for  Gujarat  is  a  great  field  of  animated  nature,  and 
offers  a  miglity  contrast  to  the  death-like  silence  whicli  per\-ades 
the  forests  of  the  Dekhan,  or  the  jungles  round  Mahabaleshwar 
or  Matheran.  Every  object  arrests  attention.  The  pendent 
bird-nests,  the  gigantic  saras  stalking  familiarly  across  the  plain, 
the  flight  of  birds  as  they  wing  their  way  in  wedge-like  column 
cleaving  the  midnight  air  with  hoarse  dissonance,  the  wild  pea- 
cock with  its  goodly  wings,  tlie  great  army  of  monkeys,  the 
startled  chinkara  turning  round  to  have  a  good  look  at  you  full 
in  the  face  with  its  big  liquid  eyes,  lustrous  in  the  morning  light ; 
the  sudden  rush  of  a  sounder  to  the  nearest  cover,  helter-skelter 
across  the  brake,  and  liually  out  of  view  down  some  steep  place 
like  the  demon-possessed  herd  of  Gadara;  the  black  buck  with 
a  huge  drove,  anon  licking  the  salt  on  parched  plain,  or  bounding 
into  the  air  with  the  elasticity  of  an  india-rubber  ball  as  it  hears 


100  SIR    JAMES    OUTRAM,.  THE    BAYAKD    OF   THE    EAST. 

its  death-summons  in  the  first  shot,  or  peraclventure,  escaping 
scot-free,  with  astounding  leaps  clearing  magnificent  distances  ; 
the  lonely  magar  lying  lazily  in  his  tank,  watchful  and  wary 
with  one  eye  only  ahove  the  surface,  scanning  the  intruder 
obliquely  over  the  waste  of  water ;  the  lofty  tamarind  tree, 
green,  bosky,  and  of  impervious  shade,  and  the  deep  wells,  their 
mouths  choked  with  vegetation  and  ruin,  to  carry  the  mind 
back  to  the  days  of  the  makers  thereof,  when  Sarkej  was  in  its 
glory,  and  the  \iolence  of  the  elements  had  not  touched  the 
"  Shaking  Minarets  "  of  Ahmadabad.  Add  to  this  the  \iew  from 
an  elevation  on  a  clear  day  of  park-like  scenery,  green  and  um- 
brageous, and  compare  it  if  you  like  with  the  stretch  of  country 
twenty  miles  to  Windsor,  which  the  eye  takes  in  from  Eichmond 
Hill. 

Now  Outram  cared  for  none  of  these  things.  As  for  scenery 
or  antiquities,  he  neither  liked  them  nor  disliked  them.  In  the 
nine  hundred  pages  of  his  biography  there  is  not  a  single  sentence 
to  show  his  appreciation  of  either,  and  very  miich  the  reverse ; 
and  in  this  he  is  so  different  from  Henry  Lawrence.  He  rode 
half  way  iip  the  Lelianon  from  Beyrut,  came  back,  and  left 
Baalbek,  half  a  day's  journey  from  him,  unvisited  !  At  a  temple 
in  Thebes,  evidently  cogitating  a  military  problem,  he  exclaimed 
in  a  burst  of  rapture,  "  What  a  splendid  position !  "  and,  by  way 
of  parenthesis,  "  I  like  that  stick.  Do  you  know  I  once  took  a 
lull  fort  with  it  ? "  Colonel — we  beg  his  pardon — General  Brine 
asked  of  our  Cathedral  if  it  had  ever  been  used  as  a  powder- 
magazine  !  As  for  killing  small  game,  you  could  hardly  accuse 
Outram  of  .-i  greater  crime.  The  friend  who  shot  a  pigeon  on 
the  Xile  and  had  it  cooked  for  dinner  paid  for  his  temerity. 
Its  appearance  jtroduced  "  a  scunner,"  and  he  sent  it  away  from 
the  table.  At  a  dish  of  ortolans,  all  open  mouthed  with  their 
claws  in  the  air,  he  would  have  gone  demented.  The  man  who 
could  deliljerately  in  cold  blood  take  aim  with  intent  at  quail, 
snipe,  painted  partridge,  or  florican,  yea  even  hckri  chinkara,  or 
barking  deer  was  to  be  avoided.  "  War,  my  boys,  war,  that's 
the  game  for  me ; "  so  he  waged  Avar  with  the  beasts  of  prey 
which  do  violence  to  the  lives  and  property  of  men,  against  whose 
strength,  cruelty,  and  cunning  he  pitted  himself,  and  through  the 
blessingof  Providence  and  his  own  ri"ht  arm  he  came  off  victorious. 


HUNTING.  101 

Outran!  was  a  niiglity  huuter,  but  only  of  big  game.  The 
tiger,  the  leopard,  the  boar,  the  hyena,  the  bear,  the  bison,  and 
wolf  were  lus  quarry.  He  had  made  a  vow  never  to  shoot 
a  bird,  and  never  to  fire  except  with  ball,  and  ho  kept  it. 
Hence  he  and  his  restless  Bhils  in  Khandesh  and  Mewar 
were  perpetually  on  the  move,  waging  incessant  war  with 
the  enemies  of  mankind.  To  begin  with  boar.  In  two  years, 
1823-24,  he  took  seventy-foui-  "  first  spears  out  of  123,"  and 
at  the  Nagar  Hunt,  in  1829,  he  took  twelve  first  spears,  all 
contested. 

The  gi-eat  period  of  his  tiger  slaughter  was  from  1825  to  1834 
inclusive.  This  was  his  ten  years'  conflict.  In  that  time  he 
was  actually  present  at  the  deaths  of  191  tigers,  fifteen  leopards, 
twenty-five  bears,  and  twelve  buffaloes.  Ex  uno  discc  omnes  ? 
No ;  every  raid  had  its  own  story  of  adventure.  Once  he  killed 
a  tiger  with  his  pistol ;  and,  hear  this,  once  he  followed  up  a  tiger 
on  foot,  and  speared  him  to  death,  an  act  which,  as  affirmed,  was 
never  done  before  or  since  in  Khandesh.*  See  him  then  like 
the  lioman  gladiator,  spear  in  hand,  M'aiting  for  the  wild  beast 
to  issue  from  its  lair.  Outram  in  cxcelsis.  Once  at  an  expected 
charge  lie  was  supported  by  three  Sepoys  with  fixed  bayonets, 
and  again  when  liis  naik  was  done  to  death,  he  made  a  vow, 
which  he  kept,  neither  to  eat  nor  drink  until  that  tiger  liit 
the  dust. 

Suspended  in  mid-air  irum  the  branch  of  a  tree,  by  the  turbans 
and  kamarbands  of  his  followers  tied  round  his  chest,  he  gave 
another  tiger  its  mittimus.  But  whether  on  elephant,  on  horse,  or 
afoot,  or  dangling  in  the  air,  or,  as  once,  lying  prone  in  the  moutli 
of  a  dark  and  wet  natural  tunnel,  he  caught  sight — "  Oh  !  what 
a  surprise  !  "gleaming  like  two  globules  of  luminous  phos])horus 
in  tlie  dark, — lie  was  seldom  satisfied  till  his  work  was  done.  It 
was  in  1825  that  he  slew  his  first  tiger,  and  he  killed  his  last 
(it  was  a  man-eater)  in  1837  in  a  jungle  near  Khaira.  Nor  did 
he  come  out  of  all  this  unscathed.  He  had  several  heavy  falls, 
and  was  once  in  the  clutches  of  the  devouring  enemy.     He  was 


*  "  General  Hall  makes  mention  ofail/eAr  inflicting  a  deadly  woimd  witli  a 
bword  on  a  ti;;er.  The  natives  found  the  bodies  of  man  and  tiger  lying 
together  dead,  close  to  each  otlier." — Utory  of  Mairwara,  18GS. 


102  Sra    JAMES    OUTRAM,    THE    BAYARD    OF    THE    EAST. 

wounded  iu  the  foot  by  a  cheetah,  and  the  deep  scars  on  his 
head,  where  he  had  been  clawed  in  a  great  tussle,  were  con- 
spicuous enough  when  he  was  in  Egypt  in  1850.  So  much  for 
himself.  Now  comes  the  skeleton  at  the  feast.  When  the 
reckoning  was  made  up,  it  was  found  that,  from  1825-34,  five 
native  shikaris  with  liis  party  were  killed  and  four  wounded, 
and  of  his  party  of  five,  1825-26,  two  English  gentlemen  died 
of  jungle  fever.* 

HIS  ESCAPES. 

Outram's  life  in  India  is  a  marvel,  and,  view  it  as  you  may, 
a  perpetual  miracle.  His  escapes  from  wild  beasts  and  wilder 
men,  the  attempts  to  poison  him  at  Baroda  (1849)  and  Lucknow 
(1855),  the  plot  to  murder  him  at  Haidarabad  (1843),  fever, 
boils,  small-pox,  twice  given  up  in  cholera,  leading  the  forlorn 
hope  at  Panala  (1844),  the  defence  of  the  Eesideucy  at  Haidara- 
bad (1843),  and  the  two  great  events,  Lucknow  and  the  Alam- 
bagh  (1857),  his  reinforcements  with  clothes  on  their  backs 
which  few  of  them  had  put  off  for  forty  days ;  his  two  desert 
rides  from  Sakkar  to  Quetta  in  burning  heat,  255  miles  done  in 
five  days  (1841-42) ;  his  ride  from  Khelat  to  Sonmiani  (1839) 
dressed  as  an  Afghan,  without  a  saddle,  through  355  miles  of 
an  unexplored  country,  done  in  eight  days  ;  the  worry  about  his 
wife  and  son  at  the  outbreak  of  the  ilutiny  before  he  learned  of 
their  escape  from  Aligarh ;  the  hissing  of  EUenljorough,  and  still 
louder  hissing  of  the  great  dragon  of  hhalpat — any  one  of  wliicli 
woidd  have  killed  an  ordinary  man.  Strange  to  say,  he  seems 
to  have  thriven  on  them  all,  and  the  more  he  was  afliicted  the 
more  he  grew.  In  1822  he  had  come  down  from  Baroda  with 
jungle  fever  to  recruit  in  Bombay.  He  set  out  to  return  in  a 
native  boat  and  was  blown  up  with  gunpowder  in  Bombay 
harbour,  picked  up  floating  "a  hardly  animate  mass  of  blackened 
Immanity."  There  were  public  rejoicings  that  night,  and  he 
had  taken  pyrotechnics  with  him  to  be  let  off  for  the  delectation 
of  the  lieges.  He  took  a  month  to  recover,  re-embarked,  and, 
after  two  days'  tossing  in  the  open  sea  with  his  servants,  horses, 


*  There  is  a  tradition  in  Western  India  that  he  had  a  tent  made  entirely 
out  of  tiger  skins. 


FORTUNES.  103 

and  kit,  again  landed  like  another  Jonah  flyinf;  from  Xineveh, 
tliis  time  on  the  northern  end  of  the  island,  from  whence  he 
made  his  way  to  Ahmadabad,  joining  his  regiment  after  being 
six  weeks  on  the  road  ! 

After  this  double  baptism  of  fire  and  water,  we  are  quite 
prepared  to  hear  anything.  Jungle  and  bilious  fever  give  him 
the  brawny  shoulder.s  of  a  Highlander ;  small-pox  with  its  first 
ugly  marks  disappears,  leaving  us  the  exceedingly  handsome 
face,  which  has  been  handed  down  to  us  in  the  daguerreoty^JS  of 
Claudet.  No  wonder,  after  this,  that  Pope  Pius  IX.  presented 
him  with  a  gold  medal ;  that  Bishop  Carr,  whose  recumbent 
effigy  we  behold  in  our  Cathedral,  gave  him  a  Bible  with  the 
words  on  it,  "  Thou  hast  covered  my  head  in  the  day  of  battle ; " 
and  that  he  held  friendly  correspondence  with  Dr.  Dufl',  the 
Presbyterian  Missionary  in  Calcutta.  He  was  another  Paul, 
had  been  a  day  and  a  night  in  the  deep,  and  fought  w-itli  wild 
beasts.  But,  in  truth,  his  whole  life  and  character  is  a  perpetual 
paradox.  Born  in  England,  educated  in  Scotland,  the  puny  lad 
of  Aberdeen  thrashes  the  biggest  boy  in  the  school ;  destined 
for  the  church,  he  takes  to  soldiering ;  the  smallest  officer  in 
the  Indian  Army,  5  ft.  1  in.,  he  grows  to  5  ft.  8  in. ;  with  no 
education,  except  what  he  had  up  to  sixteen  years  of  age,  he 
lives  to  correspond  with  eminent  men  of  the  day.  Stiff  enough 
clay  this,  to  begin  with,  and  even  Darwin  the  Potter  could  not 
have  seen  any  indication  here  of  a  vessel  of  honour.  Modest, 
yet  ambitious  to  a  degree,  he  would  not  rise  at  another's  dis- 
advantage ;  cautious,  yet  vigilant,  and  with  a  dash  about  him, 
this  man  who  could  weep  over  a  dying  bird,  wrote  these  lines : 
"  Proclaim  at  Cawnpore,  and  cause  to  be  known  to  the  leaders 
of  the  enemy's  forces  at  Lucknow,  that  for  every  Christian 
woman  or  child  maltreated  at  Lucknow,  an  Oudh  noble  shall  be 
hanged." 

■WAYS   AND   MEANS, 

which  are  the  serious  business  of  most  men's  lives,  did  not  trouble 
him  much.  In  a  private  memorandum.  Lord  John  Eussell 
says :  "  I  have  been  a  poor  man  all  my  life,  but  I  never  knew 
what  it  was  to  be  in  debt  till  I  became  a  Secretary  of  State." 
So  James  Outram,  on  the  eve  of  sitting  do^vn  to  a  public  dinner 


104  SIR    JAMES    ODTKAM,    THE    BAYARD    OF    THE    EAST. 

given  in  his  honour  by  the  elite  of  Calcutta,  writes :  "  For  the 
first  time  in  my  life  I  am  absohitely  in  debt,  beyond  the  means 
of  repaying  in  case  of  sudden  death,"  after  tliirty-four  years' 
service.  Money  began  to  come  in  all  riglit  after  this,  but  his 
wife  had  a  liard  time  of  it  to  manage  her  household  on  meagre 
finances,  and  tliis  for  some  years.  He  would  not  touch  the 
Haidarabad  prize  money,  about  Es.  30,000,  but  gave  the  amount 
away  in  charities — and  none  of  them  "  began  at  home." 

Napier  had  no  such  scruples,  but  Outram  was  against  the 
Sind  war.  His  resigning  in  favour  of  Havelock,  the  noblest  act 
of  his  life,  besides  depriving  liim  of  "  honour  and  glory," 
deprived  him  of  making  the  means  of  provision  for  age.  Baroda 
was  a  virtual  fine  of  £6,000. 

Besides,  he  was  perpetually  refusing  an  appointment,  because 
he  considered  some  one  else  to  have  a  better  claim  to  it,  or 
reducing  the  salary  offered,  because  he  did  not  consider  the 
Government  had  "  value  received."  I  would  like  to  know  how 
many  men  trouble  themselves  with  these  things.  High,  very 
very  high,  morals,  no  doubt.  Gordon  had  them,  and  I  suppose 
it's  all  right ;  but  Gordon  was  an  unmarried  man,  and  could 
halve  his  salary  with  impunity,  whicli  Outram  could  not. 
Gordon  broke  his  medals,  Outram  didn't ;  so  in  this  high  domain 
of  ethics  the  hero  of  Khartum  has  the  advantage. 

outkam's  fuklough  in  1849 

was  devoted  almost  entirely  to  an  examination  of  the  military 
resources  and  defences  of  Egypt.  It  was  in  the  Suez  Desert 
that  Outram  and  Henry  Lawrence  met  for  the  first  time. 
There  was  then  a  shaking  of  the  dry  bones,  even  whisperings  of 
a  railway  and  canal,  and  it  did  not  require  the  eye  of  a  prophet 
to  see  that  Egypt  would  soon  bulk  big  in  the  politics  of  Europe. 
But  it  was  theu  the  basest  of  kingdoms,  its  soldiers  marionettes, 
its  statesmen  renegades,  its  Pasha  a  small  Tiberius,  who  shut 
lumself  up  in  a  gloomy  palace  of  Mount  Sinai,  and,  like 
Tiberius,  was  poisoned  or  smothered  by  his  dependants.  The 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Egyptian  Army  was  Sulaiman 
Pasha,  whose  history  reads  like  a  romance.  He  had  been  a 
soldier  of  the  First  Napoleon,  and  when  his  armies  were  broken 


CII.    AUGUSTUS    MUKKAV.  105 

up  on  the  Continent,  Colonel  Seve — for  that  was  his  name  came 
to  Trieste,  fought  a  duel,  killed  his  antagonist,  iied  in  terror  to 
the  harbour,  took  to  an  open  boat,  and  made  for  the  sea,  hailed 
a  ship  outward  bound,  held  up  a  purse  of  money,  and  was  taken 
on  board.  The  vessel  chanced  to  be  sailing  for  Alexandria. 
There  he  rose  from  the  ranks,  and  he  was  in  command  of  the 
Egyptian  Contingent  in  the  Crimea.  As  each  successive  birth- 
day of  the  Great  Napoleon  came  round,  Sulaiman  Pasha  decked 
a  little  statuette  which  he  had,  with  immortelles.  The  leading 
Englishman  in  Egyi)t  (184G-50)  was  Mr.  Murray,  the  Consul- 
General,  and  Colonel  Outram  was  destined  to  meet  him  again 
(1857)  at  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  he  then  having  with- 
drawn from  Teheran,  where  he  was  English  ambassador(1854-59), 
to  Baghdad,  the  subject  of  our  sketch  being  in  command  of 
the  Persian  expedition. 

Mr.  Murray  (born  180G),  son  of  the  fifth  Earl  of  Dunmons, 
re-appeared  in  1887  in  Egypt,  revisiting  the  theatre  of  his 
former  administration.  Venerable  as  he  was,  he  could  have  had 
no  difficulty  in  realising  the  fact  of  the  English  Army  of  Occu- 
pation, and  the  signs  broadcast  before  his  eyes  of  the  immense 
changes  that  had  accrued  from  the  time  when  Colonel  Outram 
came  in  the  guise  of  a  tourist  to  spy  out  the  land  of  Egypt  from 
Thebes  to  Kossir,  on  the  Red  Sea,  or  tho.se  Pelusian  marshes, 
which  now  constitute  the  Mediterranean  outlet  of  the  Suez 
Canal.  Mr.  Murray  (1850)  married  Miss  Elizabeth  Wadswortli, 
of  Genesco,  New  York — a  niece,  I  think,  of  Lougfellow^a  lady 
who  was  beloved  by  all.  Sad  to  say,  she  died  in  Cairo  within 
one  year  of  her  marriage  day.  She  had  requested  her  body  to 
be  taken  to  his  family  vault  at  Uunmore,  in  Scotland,  a  wish — 
we  need  scarcely  add — sacredly  carried  out  to  the  very  letter 
by  her  husband,  amid  great  difficulties.  The  Eight  Hon. 
Charles  Augustus  Murray,  when  in  America,  in  early  life  had 
written  a  novel,  Tlie  Prairie  Bird,  of  which  this  lady  was  the 
heroine.     Her  son  was,  in  1880-83,  M.P.  for  Hastings. 

Fortified  by  this  Levantine  experience,  Outram  would  have 
been  useful  in  the  Crimean  War.  And  Lord  Clarendon  wrote 
to  him  (1853)  to  await  instructions  at  Alexaiulria.  But  nothing 
came  of  it,  which  was  one  great  disappointment  of  his  life. 
Another  was  that  he  diil  not  get  the  Victoria  Cross. 

VOL.    II.  I 


106  SIK    JAMES    0UTUA3I,    THE    BAYARD    OF    THE    EAST. 


SMOKING. 

Sir  James  Oiitram,  like  Xorman  Macleod,  was  a  great  smoker, 
and  has  left  ns  an  example  that  we  should  not  follow,  for  Sir 
Joseph  Fayrer  has  put  it  on  record  that  it  interfered  with  his 
digestion,  and  most  probably  affected  his  nervous  system.  Sir 
Joseph  adds  that  he  was  the  greatest  smoker  he  ever  knew,  and 
that,  in  fact,  the  cigar  was  never  out  of  his  moutli.  It  is  with 
a  fellow-feeling  that  I  approach  this  subject,  for  vain  are  all  the 
expostulations  of  man,  warnings  from  the  pulpit,  the  tears  of 
friends,  or  the  deepest  menaces  of  enemies.  Outram  continued 
to  smoke,  and  one  of  the  most  affecting  letters  this  eminent 
physician  ever  received  was  from  him,  deploring  the  evil  which, 
he  said,  he  could  not  relinquish.  I  fancy  he  would  have 
scorned  the  cigarette  of  the  last  twenty  years  as  eminently 
futile.  Not  so  the  liukah,  a  much  more  serious  amusement, 
which  demands  the  action  of  the  chest,  and  which  he  sometimes 
affected.  He  had  a  pet  bear  which  he  had  taught  to  smoke  the 
hukah.  A  few  whiffs  would  suffice,  when  young  Bruin  would 
roll  over  in  a  helpless  state  of  intoxication,  to  his  great  amuse- 
ment!  "Take  care  of  yourself,  Outram,  you  are  no  chicken," 
said  old  Khabardar  (Colin  Campbell),  justifying  his  sobriquet, 
as  he  left  him  at  the  Alambagh.  But  who  can  tell  ?  Smoking 
may  have  saved  his  life  in  malarious  districts,  or  served  to 
beguile  many  a  weary  hour  in  battered  entrenchment.  What 
the  result  was  on  Lady  Outram's  curtains  at  home  we  have  no 
means  of  knowing.  Though  he  was  perpetually  handing  out 
cheroots  to  gentle  and  simple,  even  when  they  were  selUng  at 
(5s.  each,  he,  no  doubt,  discouraged  the  practice  of  smoking. 
Good  advice,  with  the  words  of  Burns : — 

"  But  may  ye  better  reck  the  rede 
Than  ever  did  the  adviser." 

PERSONAL. 

James  Outram  had  a  mother,  and  she  was  "  a  fell  one,"*  a 
mother  of  heroes  ;  for  Francis  Outram,  another  son,  did  a  most 

*  " '  Fell ' Hot,  biting,  clever,  capable  of  great  endurance." — Jamieson. 


HIS    MOTHEU. 


107 


heroic  action  iu  that  he  took  a  second-class  passage  round  the 
Cape,  and  gave  the  difierence,  in  presents,  to  his  mother  and 
sisters.  She  was  the  only  lady,  except  Jeauie  Deans,  who  ever 
made  a  pilgrimage  from  Scotland  to  London  to  see  the  Prime 
Minister.  In  this  instance  Lord  Melville,  and  she  got  what  she 
wanted,  a  small  pension  on  account  of  her  father's  services  to 


c~. 


STATDK   OF   SUt    JAMKS   OUTRAM,    CALCUTTA. 


Government.  But  she  had  a  hard  time  of  it  before  this  for  her 
husband  had  died,  leaving  her  with  five  small  cliildreii  unpro- 
vided for.  James  remomhered  this,  like  Mackintosli  and  "  Tlio 
One  Pound  Note."  "  When  I  see  how  many  privations  you  had 
to  put  up  witli,  r  tliiiik  you  made  wonderful  sacrifices  for  your 

I  2 


108  SIR    JAMES    OUTliAM,    THE    BAYARD    OF    TUE    EAST. 

children,  whose  duty  it  is  to  make  you  as  comfortable  as  they 
possibly  can."  This  is  better  than  bearing  the  name  of  Bayard. 
And  he  did  do  so.  Lord  Dalhousie  was  proud  to  number  her 
among  his  friends,  for  slie  lived  to  eighty-three,  and  was  present 
at  a  banquet  given  to  the  78th,  in  Edinburgh,  in  the  year  1860. 

Sir  James  Outram  was  a  small  man,  with  dark  hair  and 
moustache,  and  the  eye  of  a  falcon — his  mother's  hazel  eye — 
covered  by  a  shaggy  eye -brow;  his  forehead  was  broad,  massive, 
and  sagacious.  Thickset  and  round  shouldered,  liis  speech  was 
marked  by  a  slight  hesitation,  and  gentleman  and  soldier 
stamped  in  every  feature.  He  cherished  no  vindictive  feeling, 
even  towards  Sir  Charles  Napier,  for  on  opening  a  soldier's 
certiiicate  in  1858,  and  seeing  his  name,  "  Ah  !  poor  Charlie,  he 
could  appreciate  a  good  soldier."  He  was  not  so  "  pronounced  " 
as  Havelock  or  Henry  Lawrence,  but  not  less  sincere,  and  calcu- 
lated to  impress  some  minds  more  than  either  of  them.  He  was 
most  averse  to  people  professing  infidel  views. 

Someone  in  Lucknow,  passing  his  room  at  midnight,  saw  by 
the  dim  light  of  the  oil  lati  *  a  figure  in  a  supplicating  attitude. 
It  was  that  of  Outram  entreating  the  Great  God  to  have  mercy 
on  them  in  their  affliction. f 


*  Lamp,  night-ligbt. 

t  This  sketch  is  principally   taken   from  Oufram's  Life,  by   Sir  F.  J. 
Goldsmid,  1880.    For  the  additional  matter  the  writer  alone  is  responsible. 


u:ssio:^ARV 


'  »RSTO«  ft  C"  LTIX 


KKROCR  &C<F  PAftlS 


(    lui)    ) 


CHAITER   XLII. 

Dn.  Wilson. 

"  India  lias  not  seen  an  abler  or  wiser  friend  and  benefactor,  or  Christianity 
itself  a  more  loving  and  judicious  representative." — Dr.  Bhau  DnjPs  speech  in 
Town  Ball,  18G9. 

Seven  years  have  passed  away  siuce  the  death  of  Dr.  "Wilson.* 
That  space  lias  been  crowded  with  stirring  events,  Ijut  tliey 
have  not  dimmed  his  memory.  He  now  stands  far  away 
from  us,  like  a  lonely  hill.  The  light  is  clearer  on  it  after 
sunset,  and  its  boundaries  well  defmed.  We  can  see  that  the 
shadows  are  softened,  the  inequalities  smoothed  down,  and  the 
mists  having  cleared  away,  the  bulk,  proportion,  and  contour 
lie  before  us.  We  cannot  know  him  better  or  love  him  bettei', 
but  we  may  correct  our  views  or  sober  our  judgment,  and  so 
command  a  better  observation  than  when  he  was  alive ;  for 
distance  not  only  lends  enchantment  to  the  view,  but  sometimes 
contributes  accuracy  to  the  vision. 

This  intervening  space  has  added  notliing  to  his  story ;  for 
not  one  item  cropped  up  after  Dr.  Wilson's  death  that  we  did 
not  know  during  his  life.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  the  vultures 
of  Biograjjhy  would  soon  have  been  down  upon  him,  and  had  he 
ill-used  his  wife  or  denied  the  faith,  we  would  soon  have  heard 
of  it. 

But  he  was  too  transparent  for  this  sort  of  thing ;  his 
character  was  like  his  own  bungalow — char  darwaza  kola — open 
to  the  four  winds  of  heaven.  We  may  also  look  forward  and 
form  a  kind  of  judgment  how  Time,  that  gi'cat  ai'biter,  is  likely 
to  deal  with  him,  and  whether  the  reputation  he  earned  during 
his  life  is  going  to  be  confirmed  by  posterity,  or  fade  away  like 


•  Born  at  Lauder,  December  11th,  1804 ;  died  at  Bombay,  December  1st, 
187,5.— Sec  Life  of  Dr.  Wihm^,  by  Dr.  Geo.  Smith  (Murray,  1878). 


110 


DR.    WILSON. 


SO  many  indistinct  Indian  reputations.  We  hear  of  jubilee 
missionary  meetings  at  which  his  name  is  not  mentioned,  we 
see  in  tlie  libraries  dust  lying  thick  on  his  book  upon  Caste, 
whUe  his  magnum  opus — The  Lands  of  the  Bible,  has  long  ago 
been  superseded  by  Palestine  Exploration. 

But  with  Galileo  we  cry,  II  muovc  ! — still  it  moves.  Labour 
so  continuous  and  unflagging,  and  prosecuted  with  faculties  un- 
impaired, from  the  day  he  read  Ins  first  thesis  to  that  in  which 
his  sun  set — 

"  Not  as  in  nortberu  lauds,  obscurely  brigbt, 
But  one  uuclouded  blaze  of  living  light." 


r.OTTEN    now,    I.ACDKl;.- 


raakes  us  believe  that  as  he  left  his  mark  on  the  age  in  w  liich 
lie  lived,  so  his  works  wUl  follow  him  to  future  generations. 
Tliere  is  one  guarantee  that  Dr.  Wilson's  name  wUl  not  readily 
perish.*  It  is  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  Specially 
is  it  a  heritage  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  our  schools  and 
colleges,  who  will  not  willingly  let  it  die.f     It  rests,  therefore. 


*   The  Wilson  Mission  College  is  called  after  him. 

t   May  17th,  1888. — Prenichand  Eaichand,  one  of  his  scholars,  said  to-day, 

Dr.  ^^■ilson  was  the  best  man  ever  was  in  Bombay." 


HIS   INDtJSTRy.  1  1 1 

on  a  sure  foundation  ;  for  he  gave  himself  and  all  that  he  had 
to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  men  and  women  of  India. 
And  in  this  respect  he  was  imlike  any  one  of  the  conspicuous 
men  who  have  added  to  tlie  renown  of  our  Bombay  common- 
wealth ;  for  the  greatest  of  them  all  were  birds  of  passage,  here 
to-day,  there  to-morrow. 

Jolin  Wilson  was  a  monument  of  Scotch  education.  That 
system  owes  its  origin  to  John  Knox  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
It  still  exists  in  the  School  Board,  modified  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  age ;  but  there  is  nothing  about  it  special  to  any  age  or 
country,  for  you  may  assert,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  place  education  witliin  the  reach  of 
all.  lie  was  gifted  by  nature  with  uncommon  powers  of  menior}-, 
indeed  it  was  averred  by  some  tliat  this  was  liis  strong  forte,  and 
that  herein  lay  all  the  difference  between  him  and  other  men,  at 
all  events  a  sine  qua  non  for  the  linguist.  But  he  had  also  un- 
common powers  of  observation  and  apprehension.  "  I  looked, 
but  did  not  see,"  was  not  his  motto  ;  rather,  like  White  of  Sel- 
borne,  the  smallest  fact  did  not  escape  his  observation.  To 
this  was  added  intense  powers  of  ajjplication,  for  lie  often  sat  up 
whole  iiiglits,  until  the  spear-like  sliafts  of  the  Eastern  sun 
smote  him  at  dawn  of  day.  He  took  twice  the  work  out  of  the 
twenty-lour  hours  that  most  men  did,  and  he  soon  out-distanced 
all  competitors.  And  so  lie  toiled  on  wntil,  on  the  long  hill  up 
to  JIahabaleshwar  which  seems  to  have  no  ending,  he  met  the 
presage  that  Ids  work  was  done.  It  was  in  vain  that  Sir  Bartle 
Frere  came  to  liim  and  asked  him  to  accept  from  the  Prince  of 
Wales  his  deepest  sympathy  and  regard. 

lie  only  uttered,  "  Vain  is  the  help  of  man."  Dean  Swift 
says  of  someljody,  "  He  had  been  a  screen  between  me  and 
deatli."     That  screen  was  now  to  be  taken  away. 

His  sermons  by  most  men  were  considered  ijrolix ;  the  lieat 
and  languor  of  the  Indian  climate  make  people  intolerant  of 
what  would  be  not  merely  endurable,  but  delectable,  in  a 
northern  latitude ;  but  we  can  voucli  from  our  own  experience 
that  Ids  most  public  utterances — for  example,  his  lectures  on 
the  Eastern  Churches  in  the  Music  Hall  of  Edinburgh  in  1844, 
his  addresses  as  Moderator  of  tlie  Free  Church  in  1870,  and  his 
prelections  as  Vice-Chancellor  of  the  Bombay  University,  were 


112  DR.    WILSON. 

spoken  to  attentive  and  crowded  audiences,  and  that  there  was 
no  weariness  of  the  flesh  while  he  poured  forth  in  all  their 
exuberance  the  richest  stores  of  Eastern  learning.  His  prayers 
were  models  of  devotional  propriety,  couched  in  language  full  of 
Hebrew  diction  worthy  of  Carstairs  and  the  days  of  old,  a 
phi-aseology  which  now  seems  anti(|ue  in  these  times  of  fervid 
Evangelicalism  ;  and  though  he  scorned  the  theology  of  Blair 
and  Eobertson,  he  had  caught  something  of  their  stateliness,  for 
he  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  men  who  were  their  friends  or 
pupils.  One  of  his  professors  had  been  tutor  to  a  Scotch 
nobleman,  as  he  was  wont  to  relate,  and  in  his  travels  found 
himself  at  Lausanne.  When  there  he  called  on  Gibbon,  and  in 
conversation  imprudently  deplored  the  infidelity  of  the  modern 
historians — which  was,  no  douljt,  true  enough  ;  but  time  and 
place  for  everything.  Gibbon  coloiured,  walked  to  his  book- 
case, and  throwing  a  volume  on  the  table  exclaimed,  "  Do  you 
call  that  the  work  of  an  infidel  ?  "  It  was  Robertson's  Historif 
of  America. 

It  would  be  a  lamentable  exhibition  of  the  little  we  had 
profited  by  the  friendship  with  which  Dr.  Wilson  honoured  us, 
if  we  attempted  any  analysis,  far  less  an  estimate,  of  his  scholar- 
ship and  labours  in  the  wide  field  of  Oriental  research.  A  jury 
empanelled  from  the  most  eminent  Orientalists  in  Europe  would 
alone  suftice  for  the  task.  But  we  may  be  permitted  to  say, 
while  skimming  thus  on  the  surface,  that  the  gifts  of  one  were 
the  inheritance  of  many,  and  that  he  scattered  broadcast  on  the 
earth,  among  his  fellow-men  of  every  race,  the  seeds  which  God 
and  his  own  right  arm  had  placed  in  his  disposal.  It  was  well 
known  to  Dr.  Wilson's  friends  that  shortly  before  his  death  he 
had  expressed  a  desire  to  live.  It  was  decreed  otherwise,  and 
he  was  quite  resigned.  But  in  trutli  there  was  mucli  in  his 
position  to  make  life  attractive  to  him.  His  books,  his  coins, 
his  troops  of  friends,  his  correspondence,  the  \-iew  he  had  from 
his  house,  and,  above  all,  the  holy  work  in  \^-hich  he  was 
engaged,  with  the  many  schemes  incidental  to  it,  left  no  idle 
moments. 

Bombay  was  his  home,  and  it  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  witli 
the  men  of  Edinburgh  that  Dr.  Wilson  was  making  a  great 
sacrifice  when  he  came  out  for  the  last  time.     The  bitterness  of 


HIS    POSITION.  113 

expatriation,  if  he  ever  felt  it,  was  all  past  when  he  first  laid 
down  his  life  and  work  for  India,  and  he  came  out  to  end  his 
days  where  he  had  spent  the  most  of  his  life  in  congenial  woi-k. 
It  is  true  he  had  his  trials,  but  he  boi'e  them  with  fortitude  and 
equanimity.  His  righteous  soul  must  have  been  vexed  from 
day  to  day  by  proteges  who  not  only  fell  short  of  what  he 
expected,  but  disappointed  and  absolutely  cheated  him,  and 
converted  his  philanthropy  in  many  instances  into  a  barren 
conquest.  The  number  of  subjects  unworthy  of  his  charity  and 
righteous  designs  was  known  only  to  himself,  for  no  murmur 
escaped  his  lips.  Sometimes,  also,  his  motives  were  misinter- 
preted and  his  acts  mismiderstooci ;  but  he  outlived  them  all. 
It  was  not  without  reason  that  his  hand  shook  in  liis  later  years, 
as  if  with  incipient  paralysis,  for  he  passed  tln?ough  some  fiery 
trials. 

Two  of  his  first  mfe's  sisters  were  accidentally  dro\\ned,  a 
third  was  buried  at  sea.  His  wife  also  died — a  few  years  only 
in  India — his  Memoir  of  whom  was  a  great  favourite  of  the 
ladies  of  a  past  generation.  And  now  came  his  crowning  act 
of  self-denial,  when  he  gave  up  his  State  emoluments  and  with- 
drew from  the  Church  of  Scotland,  casting  himself  on  the  bounty 
of  the  Scotch  people.  The  deed  of  demission  of  the  Free 
Church  rang  throughout  Europe  in  1843,  but  the  sacrifice  was 
greater,  at  all  events  the  courage  which  dictated  the  sacrifice 
was  greater,  when  men  who  were  placed  as  Dr.  Wilson  was 
placed,  among  races  of  alien  religions,  threw  away  tlieir  means 
of  subsistence. 

It  might  be  sujiposed  tliat  having  forfeited  State  support, 
he  would  forfeit  the  friendshiji  of  the  Governors  of  India.  But 
he  did  not  do  so,  for  Governor  after  Governor  and  Viceroy 
after  Viceroy  paid  him  court,  and  he  was  seen  at  midnight  in 
the  autumn  of  1857  walking  unprotected  through  streets 
suspected  of  hatching  rebellion,  when  all  men  were  quaking, 
except  per]ia[)S  Lord  Elphinstone,  Forjett,  and  himself,  in  the 
blank  amazement  of  a  great  fear.  And  thus  it  was  when  any 
treasonable  document  re(|uired  to  be  deciphered,  when  a  new 
heir  was  wanted  to  the  r/adi  in  Earoda,  or  an  Abyssinian 
expedition  )>rqjected,  Dr.  Wilson  was  called  in  by  Government, 
for  even  Sir  Ilobert  Napier  found  something  to  interest  him 


114  DR.    WILSON. 

about  Magdala  ere  he  dreamed  that  this  "  awful  mouthful  of  a 
word,"  as  he  expressed  it  in  after  years,  would  become  the  badge 
of  his  distinguished  name. 

We  cannot  suppose  that  any  man  in  our  generation  will  take 
up  the  position  of  Dr.  AVilson.     It  was  unique  in  its  duration 
and  unic|iie  in   this — that   lie   had   piled  iip  a  great   heap  of 
multifarious  knowledge    on   Western    India  subjects   such   as 
probably  few  men  will  ever  do  again.     This  knowledge  he  did 
not  keep  for   himself,    but   scattered  wherever  and  whenever 
opportunity  offered ;  and  his  intellectual  capital  was  in  ready  / 
money.     To  every  question  of  "  Do  you  know  ? "  he  had  but 
one  answer,  "  Yes."     And  forth  came  the  gushing  well-spring  , 
to  refresh  the  tliirsty  soul.     That  the  man  who  on  three  several  I 
occasions,  delivering  his  blows  one  after  the   other   in   quick  1 
succession,   brought   down   his   sledge-hammer   on   Hinduism, 
Muhammadanism,  and  Zoroastrianism  should  have  made  friends  ! 
among  and  been  courted  by  the  leading  representatives  of  them 
all,  is  the  most  brilliant  spectacle  that  has  ever  been  offered  to 
the  world  of  the  missionary  in  heathen  lands.     And  it  is  a 
lesson  that  need  never  grow  old,  for  grace,  human  and  divine, 
is  always  worth  the  possessing ;  and  he  was  endowed  with  both 
to  a  very  large  extent. 

To  many  people  who  did  not  know  him,  or  knew  him  Ijut 
little,  Dr.  Wilson  appeared  a  bundle  of  contradictions.  To  one 
he  was  garrulous,  to  another  taciturn,  to  another  he  talked  of 
big  friends  and  acquaintances.  He  was  a  minister  of  religion, 
and  yet  lie  refused  to  be  called  "  the  Eeverend."  He  was  a  ^ 
voluntary  in  practice,  but  in  theory  for  a  Church  established  by 
law.  He  liked  a  good  "  hard  psalm,"  but  he  was  very  fond  of 
Sir  Eobert  Grant's  hymns,  which  all  Bombay  men  are  glad  to  see 
have  found  a  place  in  Palmer's  Buok  of  Frai'ic*     He  managed 


*  yl)((c,  Vol.  I.,  p.  18'J,  ami  Vul.  Il.,p.u3.  Sir  Kobert  Giant,  after  whom  the 
Grant  Medical  College  in  Bombay  is  named,  was  the  second  son  of  Sir  Charles 
Grant  (born  at  Aldourie,  1746,  died  1823),  who  served  with  distinction  in 
Bengal  17G7-70  and  1772-1790;  was  elected  a  director  of  the  East  India 
Company,  1794;  author  of  Observations  on  the  State  of  Society  among  the 
Asiatic  Suhjects  of  Great  Britain  ;  a  jilea  for  toleration  in  answer  to  the 
arguments  of  Major  Scott  Waring  and  Sidney  Smith.  Sir  Kobert's  elder 
brother,  the  Eight  lion.  Charles  Grant,  1778-186G,  was  M.P.  for  Montrose, 


\.rX' 


clx^^'^S.,;^^ 


SUl   llOUKKT    GltANT,    O.C.II. 

Governor  of  liomhmj,  1835-38. 


116  DIJ.    WILSON. 

to  piill  well  with  liis  own  denomination,  though,  perhaps  an 
exception  may  be  found  to  this,  as  also  with  other  denominations 
of  Christians ;  and  it  is  sometimes  more  difficult  to  do  this  than 
to  take  common  ground  of  action  in  philanthropic  schemes  with  ' 
the  disciples  of  the  old  creeds  of  India.  He  asked  the  Bishop  /\)  ff-^^^Cc  ■ 
of  Bombay  to  join  the  Bible  Society,  which  the  Bishop  de- 
clined to  do ;  but  he  wrote  him  on  his  death-bed  a  letter 
which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired,  and  still  sheds  its  fra- 
grance over  the  grave  of  tliis  good  man  as  he  sleeps  under 
the  shadow  of  the  great  Eock  of  Weem.  As  a  student  he  had 
seen  Sir  Walter  Scott  walking,  or  rather  limping,  on  the 
streets  of  Edinburgh,  yet  he  cared  nothing  for  the  Waverley 
Novels. 

Of  course  everybody  knew  that  he  abjured  instrumental 
music  in  church,  and  thought  a  sermon  ought  to  be  at  least  half 
an  hour  in  length  ;  but  it  is  not  so  well  known,  and  will  surprise 
many  to  learn,  that  Dr.  Wilson  was  a  man  of  humour.  He  had 
not  the  ionhomic  of  Norman  Macleod,  nor  the  incisive  wit  and 
satirical  jest  of  Archdeacon  Jeffreys,  who  was  a  kind  of  Bombaj* 
Sydney  Smith,  though  he  delighted  to  relate  the  latter's  brusque 
reply  to  the  lady  who  asked  if  there  was  any  choice  of  climate 
in  this  Presidency.  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  you  may  be  stewed  in 
Bombay,  or  grilled  in  the  Dekhan."  "  There's  a  stane  in  my 
fit,  my  lord  "  *  tickled,  we  had  almost  said  put  many  a  mess  in 


1807-18,  and  for  Inverness-shire,  1818-35,  when  he  was  raised  to  the  Peerage 
as  Lord  Glenelg.  Sir  Robert,  like  his  brother,  was  born  iu  India,  1779,  was 
elected  M.P.  for  Elgin  burglis,  1818,  for  Inverness  burghs,  182G,  for  Norwich, 
1830, 1831,  and  for  Finsbury,  1832.  He  espoused  the  movement  for  the  repeal 
of  the  Jewish  civil  disabilities  (1830-34),  was  appointed  Governor  of  Bombay 
in  June  1 834,  and  entered  on  the  office  in  March  1835.  He  died  at  Dapuri,  9th 
July,  1838,  and  was  buried  at  St.  Mary's  Church,  Poona.  He  was  author  of  a 
Sketch  of  the  Ilistorij  of  the  East  India  Coiapanij  from  its  first  Foundation. 
to  1773,  and  other  works;  his  sacred  poems  were  collected  and  published  in 
a  small  volume  by  his  brother  in  183t»,  and  again  in  1844  and  ISIJS  :  several 
of  them  have  Ibund  their  way  into  most  hymnals,  and  in  Palmer's  Boo/c  of 
Praise,  Nos.  21,  fi8,  107  and  398  are  from  among  them.  His  eldest  son.  Sir 
Charles  Grant,  K.C.S.I.,  is  a  distinguished  member  of  the  Indian  Civil 
Service,  and  the  second  Sir  Robert  is  in  the  Royal  Engineers. — B. 

*  '"  Theke's  a  Stane  in  my  Fit,  my  Loud.' — Jemmy,  a  half-witted  body, 
had  long  harboured  a  dislike  to  the  steward  on  the  property,  which  he  paid 
off  in  the  following  manner  : — Lord  Lauderdale  and  Sir  Anthony  used  to  take 
him  out  shooting,  and  one  day  Lord  Maitland  (ho  was  then)  on  having  to 


UAVID    MACCULLOCH.  117 

a  roar  twenty  years  before  the  first  edition  of  Dean  Eamsai/ 
saw  the  light,  and  as  it  liails  from  Lauder,  is,  no  doubt,  the 
Doctor's  own  story.  But  as  he  got  older  he  became  more  chary 
of  his  best,  and  even  his  old  friend  Colonel  Day  could  not 
extort  from  him  more  than  one  recherche  tit-bit  of  Eobin  Gray, 
Slalcolm's  proteije,  and  whilom  Police  Magistrate  of  Bombay. 
He  sometimes  tickled  Ids  audience  in  the  Town  Hall  with  a 
touch  of  sly  humour,  as,  for  instance,  speaking  in  succession 
to  ]Mr.  (n(jw  Sir  AVilliam)  Wedderburn,  he  alluded  to  his 
grandfather's  cai'eer  in  Gujarat,  and  said  he  had  a  most 
exact  knowledge  of  the  science  of  finance  and  figures,  "men 
of  this  kind  being  a  great  desideratum  just  at  present."  It  so 
happened  the  news  had  just  arrived  of  some  arithmetical 
miscalculation  in  Budget  or  other  returns  not  uncommon  in 
Calcutta,  adding,  as  it  were,  the  "  year  of  our  Lord "  to  the 
pounds  column* ;  and  the  remark  was  received  witli  great 
laughter. 

John  Smith,  of  Smith,  Fleming  and  Co.,  accompanied  him 
in  1843  throughout  his  long  wanderings  in  the  Sinai  Peninsula 
and  Syria,  but  one  ol'  his  fastest  friends,  and  one  for  whom  he 
also  entertained  the  greatest  respect,  was  David  MacCulloch. 
He  was  a  man  for  whom  John  Connon  had  an  unbounded 
admiration ;  and  Sir  Erskine  Perry,  addressing  a  jury,  uttered 
this  eulogium  from  the  judgment  seat,  "We  all  know  and 
respect  David  MacCulloch."  David  was  the  scion  of  a  small, 
but  ancient,  estate  which  had  been  held  in  Galloway  by  tlie 


cross  the  Leader  said :  '  Now,  Jemmy,  you  will  carry  me  tlirough  the 
water' — which  Jemmy  duly  did.  Bowmaker,  Lord  Lauderdale's  steward, 
who  was  shooting  with  them,  said,  '  Now,  Jemmy,  you  must  carry  me  over. 
'  Vera  wcel,'  said  Jeramj'.  He  took  the  steward  on  his  hack,  and  when  he 
had  carried  liim  half-way  across  the  river  he  ilropped  him  quietly  into  the 
water." — Dean  Eamsay. 

The  other  story  was  that  Jemmy,  with  his  lordship  on  his  back,  halted  in 
the  middle  of  tlie  stream,  and  pulling  up  his  leg,  said,  "  There's  a  sfane,"  &c. 
His  lordship  offered  liim  a  sixi)ence  if  Jemmy  would  land  him  on  the 
opposite  bank.  "  Na,"  said  Jemmy,  "  the  factor  has  given  mc  a  half-crown 
to  let  ye  doon  in  the  water." 

*  "A  successful  merchant  in  the  north  having  at  the  end  of  the  year 
entrusted  his  assistant  to  balance  Ids  bonks,  was  so  overjoyed  at  the  result 
when  announced  to  him,  that  he  summoned  his  friends  and  noifhbours  and 
held  a  gaudcaraus  in  celebration  thereof.  Next  morning  lie  discovered  that 
his  profits  had  been  swelled  out  by  an  error  of  £1800."     Aly  ccrle,  &c.,  &c. 


118  DR.    WILSON. 

MacCullochs  of  Ardwall  for  generations.*  "  Indeed,  we  believe 
that,  for  a  verj'  short  time  before  his  death  he  was  actually 
"  laird  "  himself,  though  he  never  entered  upon  possession.  He 
died  in  1858,  and  was  buried  in  the  Scotch  burying-ground, 
where  his  tomb  may  be  seen  to  this  day.  He  was  very 
charitable;  among  other  benefactions  he  gave  Es.  30,000  to 
tlie  building  fund  of  the  Free  Church,  and,  being  a  bachelor  and 
a  man  of  means,  had  much  money  to  dispose  of  in  this  way, 
and  the  will  to  do  it. 

Our  readers  will  recollect  a  scene  in  the  closing  days  of  the 
poet  Biirns,  and  which  is  given  by  most  of  his  biographers. 
The  poet  was  then  in  low  water  in  Dumfries,  say  in  1792,  when 
MacCulloch  of  Ardwall,  who  knew  him  well,  recognised  him 
sauntering  on  the  shady  side  of  Queensberry  Square,  and  rallied 
liim  to  go  and  join  the  general  throng  on  the  other  side  of  the 
street,  who  were  then  discussing  a  county  ball  to  be  given  that 
evening  in  Dumfiies.  The  poet  repeated  the  verse  of  a  ballad, 
a  melancholy  refrain,  indicjiting  that  his  dancing  days  were 
over.  This  friend  of  Burns  was  the  father  of  David  MacCulloch. 
David,  in  Bombay,  lived  what  seems  a  gloomy  and  solitary  life. 
He  kept  geese  and  canary  birds,  and  was  careless  about  Ms 
dress,  and  to  his  other  eccentricities  added  the  harmless  one  of 
taking  one  long  walk  in  the  year.  The  place  was  Thana  and 
back,  and  the  day  he  chose  for  this  was  New  Year's  Day,  the 
coolest  time  of  our  Bombay  season.f 

It  was  on  one  of  these  excursions  that  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Wilson 


*  Ardwall  is  in  the  parish  of  Anwoth.  The  MacCullochs  were  descended 
from  Bertram  de  Myretoun,  whose  name  appears  in  the  Bagman's  Soil,  129G. 
Sir  Walter  Scott  owed  much  of  his  knowledge  of  Galloway  to  his  brother 
Thomas,  who  was  married  to  an  aunt  of  Mr.  David  MacCulloch ;  and  to  this 
connection  was  due  his  choosing  Bertram  as  the  name  of  the  hero  of  (Ju>/ 
Mannerintj.  David's  younger  brother,  Walter  MacCulloch,  W.  S.  (born 
1807),  a  somewhat  notable  man,  succeeded  to  Ardwall  on  D.ivid's  death. 
He  died  25th  March,  1892,  leaving  no  relatives  except  an  unmarried  sister 
and  three  nieces — one  of  whom  is  wife  of  Sheriff  Jameson  (^Scotsman, 
March  31,  1892).— B. 

t  May,  1889. — Mr.  Verjivandas  Madliavdas  tells  me  he  used  to  walk 
often  from  the  Fort  where  he  lived  to  Mahim  and  back,  and  occasionally 
called  at  Mr.  V.  M.'s  house  at  Worli,  Love  Grove,  on  his  way. 

Mr.  S.  S.  BengaUee,  CLE.,  states  that  it  was  David  MacCulloch,  and 
Mr.  W.  Graham,  who  in  1843-4  contributed  most  of  the  money  to  build  the 
Free  Church  on  the  Esplanade. 


REV.    JAMES   GRAY.  110 

met  David  in  Tliaua,  and  while  there  accompanied  them  to  a 
silk  manufactory,  for  wliich,  in  mediivval  times,  Thana  was  so 
famous.  While  there  Mi-s.  Wilson  gently  reminded  Mr. 
MacCulloch,  on  looking  over  the  silks,  that  he  might  profit  by 
his  opportunity  and  invest  in  a  silk  dress,  which  he  could 
present  to  the  lady  highest  in  his  estimation.  David  yielded 
— consented  also  to  give  up  the  latter  half  of  liis  walk,  and  to 
accompany  them  in  tlu'ir  carriage  to  Bombay.  They  saw 
nothing  of  Da\'id  for  several  weeks,  but  one  evening,  on  coming 
in  from  their  drive,  they  observed  a  bulky  parcel  on  the  lobby 
table.  It  was  addressed  "  To  Mrs.  Wilson,  with  D.  MacCiilloch's 
best  compliments." 

On  another  occasion  the  Doctor  met  David  coming  through 
the  Bombay  Green,  carrying  with  him  a  small  spade  and  a  dead 
canary  bird  in  a  paper  bag.  In  ans^\■er  to  the  Doctor's  enquiry 
as  to  where  he  was  going,  he  told  him  he  was  going  to  dig  a 
grave  and  bury  liis  pet  bii-d.  Dr.  Wilson  must  have  smiled  an 
incredulous  smile,  as  Da\'id  quickly  added,  "  May  be  that  wee 
bird  will  be  the  first  to  welcome  me  into  Paradise." 

Dr.  Wilson  was  early  enough  in  India  to  know  Graj%  a 
missionary  of  the  Ciiurch  of  England,  buried  at  Bhuj,*  and  we 
tliink  he  was  content  to  finish  that  translation  of  the  new 
Testament  into  vernacular,  which  Gray  begun.  Gray  was  no 
mean  poet,  for  he  is  commemorated  by  Hogg  in  the  Qurenx  Wake. 
He  had  been  the  friend  of  Burns,  and  the  tutor  of  his  cliildren, 
and  his  letters  furnish  the  most  valuable  account  we  possess  of 
Burns'  family  life  wliile  he  dwelt  in  the  three-storeyed  house  in 
Bank  Street,  Dumfries.  By  the  time  Wilson  knew  iiim.  Gray 
had  worn  away  the  vain  asperities  of  youth,  and  Wilson  has 
placed  on  record  that  he  was  not  only  a  man  of  talent,  but  a 
good  man.  This  is  one  link  that  connects  Burns  with  India, 
but  there  are  others  which  we  may  state  without  travelling 
much  from  our  subject.  The  first  statue,  perhaps,  that  was  ever 
erected  of  Burns  is  in  the  National  Gallery  of  Edinburgh,  and 
bears  on  its  pedestal  that  the  mo^  ement  which  ended  in  its 
erection  was  initiated  by  a  group  of  Bombay  merchants.  A 
grandchild  of  the  poet  Burns  lies  buried  at  Kaladgi,  and  the 


•  See  ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  179. 


120  l)K.    WILSON. 

wife  of  one  of  the  poet's  sons  (Colonel  James  Gleucairn  Burns) 
at  Jhansi,  facts  recorded  on  the  Burns'  Mausoleum  at  Dumfries. 

It  would  be  vain  to  cite  any  man  in  Western  India  so  accom- 
plished aU  round  as  Dr.  Wilson.     Other   men  may  be  found 
more  skilled  in  special  branches  of  knowledge,  but  none  of 
such  universal  attainments.     Men  were  attracted  to  liim  like 
steel  filings  to  a  magnet ;  but  whatever  the  motive  that  brought 
them  to  his  presence,  each  went  his  way,  warmed  and  filled 
with  the  bread  that  does  not  perish  in  the  using.     He  had  no 
favourite  race,  and  he  rose  to  the  height  of  his  great  vocation 
when  he  asserted  that  as  regards  aptitude  of  receiving  informa- 
tion,  there  was   no   difference  between  the  Hiudu,  the  Parsi, 
and  the  Muslim  ;  that  all  were  the  same  in  tliis  respect,  Aryan 
and  non-Aryan,  Jew  and  Greek,  bond  or  free.     Though  he  was 
among   the   first  to  cast  in  his  lot  ^vith  the  Free  Cliurch,  he 
considered  it  no  part  of  his  duty  to  anathematise    the   State 
Churches  of  Great  Britaiu,  and  though  he  was  not  called  upon 
to   enter  the   vexed   sea   of    politics,   the   British    name    and 
authority    in    India    had    no    more   ardent,    enlightened,    or 
judicious  supporter  than  Dr.  Wilson.     When  Lord  Mayo  laid 
the  foundation-stone  of  the  University,  the  Governor  of  the  day,     r 
Sir  Seymour  Fitzgerald,  uttered  these  words :  "  There  is  a  name     ' 
on  that  stone,  that  of  John  Wilson.     That  name  will  endure     { 
long  after  all  memory  of  my  transitory  dominion  has  passed     ', 
away," — words  wliich  reflect  as  much  honour  on  tlie  speaker  as      I 
they  do  upon  the  subject  of  his  eulogium. 

We  have  spoken  of  his  versatility.  To  one  friend  he  would 
discom-se  on  the  Arsacidae,  and  show  him  on  the  Parthian  coin 
the  effigy  of  the  man  who  defeated  Crassus ;  to  another  he  would 
talk  of  the  botany  of  Arabia,  and  assert  that  it  had  made  little 
or  no  progress  since  Forskal's  time;  to  a  third,  the  leading 
physician  of  the  day,  who,  in  describing  tlie  ailment  of  a 
common  friend,  had  liazarded  the  remark  that  he  could  proceed 
no  further  without  using  technical  language,  "You  need  not 
fear,"  said  the  white  Brahman,  "'  I  spent  two  years  at  the  medical  I 
classes."  A  snake  would  be  killed,  the  name  and  qualities  ' 
were  soon  forthcoming ;  and  this  would  give  occasion  for  him  to 
dilate  on  the  wonderful  concentric  rings  in  tlie  skeleton,  to  be 
jn'oduced  by  boiling  it  down  (destroy  the  chatty  afterwards). 


AND    DR.    LIVINGSTONE.  121 

And  he  added,  "  Some  of  the  aborigines  would  consider  this  a 
honnc  houche." 

Or  David  Livingstone  *  would  drop  in.  "  Were  I  ten  years 
younger  I  would  go  with  y(ju  to  Africa,  and  see  the  Fountains 
of  the  Sun."  And  he  would  have  done  it,  for  he  was  a  great 
and  an  unwearying  pedestrian. 

"  From  Ahmed's  Moslem  fanes  and  regal  bowers. 
To  towns  far  distant  on  the  Konkan  shores." 

But  he  had  drunk  of  another  fountain.  The  day  he  received 
a  letter  from  him  by  the  hands  of  Stanley  was  a  memorable 
one.  Five  years  had  passed  away.  And  it  was  a  picture  to  see 
the  old  man  reading  over  the  faded  manuscript,  written  on 
thick  foolscap  with  a  reed,  in  which  he  denounced  some  of  the 
Nasik  boys  as  committing  every  crime  under  heaven.  "  lie- 
member  me  to  dear  Mrs.  Wilson,"  he  faltered  out,  the  tears 
dropping  from  his  eyes.     Mrs.  Wilson  had  been  dead  for  years. 

It  has  been  said  that  Dr.  Wilson  had  no  imagination.  The 
first  Mrs.  Wilson  had.  She  was  a  woman  whose  nerves  were 
finely  strung,  and  sometimes  burst  into  song ;  and  her  gifted 
son  Andrew  Wilson  t  inherited  all  her  genius  in  this  respect. 
He  it  was  who  ten  years  ago  wrote  the  Songs  after  Sunset : 

"  Again  the  scene  shifts.     Ten  years  hence  I  see 
A  city  grand  and  pleasant  to  the  eye, 
Bombay,  as  it  will  doubtless  one  day  be 
Freed  from  caste  jircjiidicc  and  rivalry  ; 
Broad  roads  to  view,  and  noble  buildings  fair, 
Green  shaded  walks  beneath  umbrageous  trees, 
With  fountains  playing  'neath  the  sunny  blue. 
Tempered  and  softened  by  a  cool  sea-breeze." 

Dr.  Wilson  lived  more  than  forty  years  in  India.     "  Can  a 


•  See  ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  231. 

t  "I  read  aloud  The  Abode  of  Snoiv,  at  Rickmansworth,  to  our  mutual 
delight,  and  we  are  both  very  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  handsome  preseut. 
But  what  an  ama'/.ing  creature  is  this  Andrew  Wilson  to  have  kept  pluck  for 
such  travelling  while  his  body  was  miserably  ailing.  One  would  say  that  be 
had  more  of  the  average  spirit  of  liardy  men  to  have  persevered  even  in  good 
health  after  a  little  taste  ol  the  difliculties  he  describes." — Oeorge  EliuCs  Life, 
vol.  iii.,  p.  2(15  (188")). 

Andrew  Wilson  died  in  Westmoreland,  June  8th,  1881. 

VOL.   II.  K 


122  DR.    WILSOX. 

European  live  as  long  here  as  at  home  ? "  "  Yes,"  he  would 
reply,  and  after  a  pause :  "  I  woidd  advise  him  to  go  out  of 
Bombay  two  months  every  year."  And  so  he  generally  con- 
trived to  do,  and  in  early  life  hardened  his  frame  by  pedestrian 
excursions  and  seasons  of  innocent  relaxation.  He  was  always  I 
a  welcome  guest,  and  he  never  could  have  obtained  the  reputa- 
tion he  had  in  Bombay,  even  with  all  his  gifts,  unless  he  had 
had  a  most  winning  and  gracious  presence.  He  had  wonderful 
tact  in  adapting  himself  to  the  age,  sex,  or  position  of  a  chance 
companion.  It  was  all  the  same,  Viceroy,  or  the  last  arrival 
beginning  a  Governmental  or  mercantile  career. 

Though  imbued,  as  few  other  men  have  been,  with  the 
dignity  and  responsibility  of  his  office,  he  was  able  to  extract 
such  materials  as  lightened  for  himself  and  others  the  burden 
and  heat  of  the  day,  and  cheered  them  on  in  the  journey  of  life. 
He  served  God  with  his  mirth  as  much  as  some  men  do  by  their 
sadness.  It  was  averred  that  his  auditors  required  to  be  good 
listeners,  or  they  felt  a  sense  of  weariness  ;  but  that  was  their 
affair,  and  possibly  due  to  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  or  the  heat 
of  the  climate,  neither  of  which  tended  much  to  allay  the  vigour 
of  his  spirits.  There  is  a  tradition,  founded  on  fact,  that  Lord 
Magdala  actually  fell  asleep  all  unobserved  by  his  guest,  who 
sat  beside  him,  and  to  the  great  amusement  of  the  party,  who 
were  much  profited  and  instructed  by  the  largeness  of  the  dis- 
course. He  lived  in  Spartan  simplicity,  never  drove  in  anything 
but  a  one-horse  shighram,  and  a  bottle  of  cold  tea  was  his 
meridian.  Not  that  he  abjured  drink ;  when  he  returned  from 
the  ovation  given  to  him  in  the  Town  Hall  by  the  Governor  and 
his  fellow-citizens,  he  drank  of  the  wine  that  maketh  glad  the 
heart  of  man,  and  rose  like  a  giant  refreshed.  Not  without  a 
touch  of  gay  humour  was  Sir  Seymour  Fitzgerald's  remark, 
looking  at  the  figure  of  Wilson,  whose  coat  had  been  exquisitely 
cut  in  bas-relief  on  the  silver  salver  presented  to  him.  "  Tell 
him,"  said  he,  "  with  my  compliments,  that  Terry  has  made  the 
best  coat  I  ever  saw  him  wear."  That  message,  we  need 
scarcely  add,  was  not  delivered. 

He  was  very  proud  of  his  membership  of  the  Eoyal  Society. 
Consciously  or  unconsciously  he  wrote  for  posterity,  and,  like 
Mackintosh  and  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  from  habits  of  deep 


THE    S.VLVATION    OF    INDIA.  123 

thought  and  close  observation,  and  making  it  his  study  to  note 
dates  antl  references  ^vith  accuracy,  his  works  will  ever  reward 
the  student  of  India's  religions  and  history. 

His  memory  remained  intact,     A  day  or  two  before  he  died  a 
friend  repeated  the  line — 

"  They  also  serve  wLo  only  stand  and  wait ; " 

and  added,  "  Cowpcr  ? "  "  Milton — on  his  blindness,"  was  the 
quick  reply.  And  he  could  be  solemn  enough  on  occasion. 
One  racked  by  pain  and  fever,  and  half  demented,  told  him  that 
for  three  days  and  nights  he  had  been  so  bad  that  lie  could 
neither  read  his  Bible  nor  say  his  prayers.  "  HE  knows  that," 
jxiinting  with  his  finger  to  the  sky. 

It  must  he  remembered  that  liis  attainments  and  the  rewards 
which  accompanied  them,  however  lofty  in  themselves  and 
worthy  of  human  ambition,  did  not  bring  Dr.  Wilson  to  India. 
They  were  means  to  an  end.  That  end  was  the  salvation  of 
India,  a  word  much  abused  in  recent  times.  It  was  no  word 
with  a  vague  meaning  to  Dr.  Wilson.  The  salvation  of  India 
meant  to  him  security  of  life  and  property  to  the  natives  thereof 
in  tliis  world,  and  the  hope  of  an  immortality  in  the  next. 
A^'hat  had  Dr.  Wilson  to  do  with  life  and  pi'operty  in  India  ? 
some  may  say.  We  reply  that  the  effort  of  his  life  was  to 
complete  the  work  commenced  and  carried  on  by  Duncan  and 
Walker  for  the  abolition  of  infanticide.  Had  that  nothing  to 
do  with  the  preservation  of  life  ?  And  everything  he  wrote 
was  in  the  interest  of  good  government,  which,  if  it  means 
anything  at  all,  means  protection  to  life  and  property. 

What  he  began,  he  strove  to  complete,  for  he  could  not  rest 
contented  until  the  coin  was  deciphered,  the  flower  classified,  or 
the  word  harked  back  to  its  parent  root.  But  some  things  he 
finished,  and  some  tilings  he  could  not  finish,  and  as  the  end 
drew  near  he  bewailed  that  his  performances  had  borne  such  a 
feeble  proportion  to  the  magnitude  of  his  conceptions.  Had 
John  Wilson  lived  a  hundred  years  it  would  have  been  all  the 
same.  There  would  still  be  absurdities  in  men  and  things  to 
demolish,  something  to  add  to  his  Ijook  on  Caste,  or  some  new 
conquest  to  effect  in  the  wide  field  he  had  mapped  out  for  him- 
self.    He  would  still  be  getting  himself  stung  by  bees  in  the 

K  2 


124 


DR.    WILSOX. 


Koukan,  or  poring  over  the  rocks  of  Giruar,  or  dipping  into 
Joseph's  Well  for  another  lost  Bible,  or  holding  confabulations 
over  the  mysteries  of  religion  with  a  new  generation  of  Jejee- 
Ijhoys  or  Sassoons,  or  interrogating  another  Eabbi  Duncan  at 
Pesth,  until  Duncan  was  forced  to  exclaim  with  the  Queen  of 
Sheba  that  half  even  of  the  wisdom  of  this  modern  Solomon 
had  not  been  told  him. 

But  not  until  the  rocks  of  Petra  and  Asoka*  had  yielded  up  to 
him  their  last  lithographic  secret,  not  until  John  Knox's  great 
ideal  was  realised  in  India,  not  until  the  gospel  had  been  preached 
to  every  creature,  would  he  have  seen  of  the  travail  of  his  soul 
and  been  satisfied.  For  him  there  was  always  something  to  do 
or  suffer,  or  something  to  complete,  even  on  that  day  when  he 
bid  adieu  for  the  last  time  to  that  fair  scene  from  the  Cliff,  over 
which  the  eye  of  the  missionary  and  philantliropist  had  so  often 
wandered,  those  boundless  fields  consecrated  to  him  for  evermore. 


*  "The  first  transcript  of  the  Gu'iiar  Inscription  of  Asoka  was  made  and 
given  to  the  world  by  Dr.  John  Wilson." — Dr.  Peterson,  in  Journal  of  ihn 
Bombay  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  1887  ;  see  also  Dr.  G.  Smith's 
Life  of  John  Wilson  (Sliirray),  p.  3251". 


3m 


THE    WILSON   MISSION   COLLEGE,   BOMBAY. 


(  l--^''  ) 


C  H  A  r  T  E  E     X  L  1 1 1. 
The  Bombay  Army. 

"  And  do  you  know,  iny  little  man,  that  liis  Koyal  Highness  the  Duke  cf 
Connauabt,  the  Queen's  son,  has  been  apjxjinted  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Bombay  Army  ?  His  name  is  Arthur,  and  he  was  called  Arthur  after  the 
great  Duke  of  Wellington." — Extract  from  letter  from  a  mother  to  her  son  in 
England,  dated  Bombay,  December  14tb,  18S6. 

We  have  no  intention  of  writing  a  history  of  tlie  Bombay  army. 
If  Cameron  had  been  spared  to  return  to  Bombay  he  miglit 
have  worthily  occupied  his  leisure  hours  on  this  great  subject, 
for  he  was  an  extraordinary  instance  of  a  man,  having  nothing 
previously  to  do  with  tlie  army,  in  a  very  short  time  grasping 
all  the  details  of  it.  Nature  had  gifted  him  with  a  hardy  con- 
stitution, great  powers  of  endurance,  and  a  constant  flow  of 
animal  spirits.  He  had  a  keen  thirst  for  information  on  military 
matters  and  a  wonderful  faculty  of  acipiiring  it.  Thougli  Forbes 
had  been  at  one  time  in  the  army,  Cameron  ran  him  very  close 
in  the  special  gifts,  mental  and  physical,  of  a  war  correspondent, 
and  Forljes  has  chivalrously  declared  tliat  his  abilities  in  tliis 
department  were  quite  exceptional,  if  not  unrivalled. 

I  told  Cameron  at  the  outset  of  his  career  that  there  was 
nothing  to  hinder  him  becoming  a  Forbes.  And  once  he  had 
put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  or  rather  to  the  carbine,  his  friends 
soon  saw  that  this  was  a  foregone  conclu.sion. 

It  was  curious  and  interesting  to  note,  as  soon  as  he  liad 
shaped  his  designs  for  embarking  in  this  line  of  life,  the  deter- 
mination witli  which  he  set  to  work  to  accomplish  them. 
Throwing  all  else  aside,  everytliiug  was  laiil  under  contributidu, 
men  and  books,  and  if  an  officer  was  at  his  elbow,  lie  was  not 
long  in  leading  up  to  a  conversation  and  discussion  on  military 
tactics,  liy  day  or  niglit  liis  voice  was  still  for  w;ir.  If  lie 
never  saw  a  body  of  ten  thousand  horse  advancing  on  full  gallop 


126  THE    BOMBAY    AKMT. 

altogether,  I  am  sure  lie  must  have  dreamed  of  this  tremendous 
spectacle,  or  like  the  youug  cadet  in  his  sleep,  after  a  hard  ex- 
amination, "Yes,  yes,  it  was  the  great  Frederick,  the  great 
Frederick,"  for  at  this  time  he  seemed  fairly  possessed  with  the 
spirit  of  embattled  hosts.  Sufiice  it  to  say  that  in  a  few  days 
he  could  have  given  you  the  exact  strength  of  every  Native  State 
in  India,  how  many  old  rusty  guns  were  in  Haidarabad,  why 
the  Kolaba  barracks  were  unhealthy  (1879),  and  how  the 
murderous  fire  of  a  square  of  infantry  was  far  more  effective  than 
a  charge  of  cavalry.  His  graphic  and  telegraphic  sententious- 
ness  grew  by  what  it  fed  on,  and  was  a  plant  of  slower  growth. 

"Stranger,  tell  it  at  Laced;emon  that  we  died  here  in  obedience 
to  her  orders."  So  lies  Cameron  with  many  others  in  the 
Sudan,  and  some  of  us  are  beginning  to  think  that  they  were 
foolish  orders  which  sent  them  there.  Be  that  as  it  may,  a 
grateful  country,  in  whose  service  his  life  was  offered  up,  has 
placed  a  tablet  to  his  memory  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.* 

Orme,  who  is  unquestionably  the  greatest  writer  on  military 
affairs  in  India  (1745  to  1761),  was  not  an  army  man,  but  a 
member  of  the  Civil  Service.  But  he  had  very  great  advantages. 
He  was  the  friend  of  Clive.  Think  of  the  long  tuition  he  had 
on  that  nine  months'  voyage  when  they  came  home  together 
(1753),  night  after  night,  or  from  morn  to  dusk,  from  dawn  to 
dewy  eve,  under  two  hemispheres,  discussing  attack  and  defence, 
siege  and  sap. 

Frederick  tlie  Great,  we  are  told  by  General  Briggs  (1828), 
was  greatly  captivated  by  his  graphic  narrative  of  the  exploits 
of  the  Sepoys  under  French  or  English  officers.  His  descrip- 
tions of  the  external  and  internal  defences  of  an  Indian  fort  are 
done  with  pre-Eaphaelite  minuteness,  and  there  is  not  a  nook  or 
cranny  that  his  genius  does  not  penetrate.  We  seem  to  know 
actually  more  than  if  we  had  personally  inspected  the  strong- 
hold or  been  among  the  combatants. 

When  Corochoile,  the  great  sheep  farmer  from  Fort  William 
in  Scotland,  met  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  he  asked  him  in  a 
jocular  kind  of  way  if  he  could  drive  100,000  sheep  to  the  great 
Tryst  at  Falkirk  ?     The  Duke   shook   his   head,  and  j'et  Sir 


Died  January  I'Jth,  188o,  at  Abu  Klea. 


THE    ART    OF    WAR.  127 

Cliailes  Dilke  seems  to  have  no  difficulty  whn lever  in  bringing 
100,000  men  to  London — in  the  Fortnightly  Review. 

We  are  glad,  therefore,  to  know  that  sometliing  is  going  to 
be  done  for  the  Bombay  troops  liy  one  of  tliemselves.  We  iiope 
that  Colonel  F.  W.  Graham,  lately  of  the  Eoyal  Dublin  Fusiliers, 
Poona,  will  not  confine  himself  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
regimental  history,  but  give  us  the  doings  of  the  Boml)ay  army, 
for  it  will  be  a  deplorable  circumstance  if  this  body  is  to  cease 
as  a  distinctive  force,  without  leaving  a  complete  record  of  the 
brilliant  actions  by  which  its  long  career  has  been  distinguished. 

Adam  Smith  declares  that  the  art  of  war  is  the  noblest  of  all 
arts,  but  the  modern  school  of  Political  Economy  relegates  the 
soldier  to  the  unproductive  classes.  Did  Marathon  produce 
notliing  ?  Or  Assaye,  wliicli  .Tohn  Leyden's  rattling  lines, 
recently  dug  up,*  compare  to  Marathon  : — 

"  But  when  we  first  encountorod  man  to  man, 
Such  odds  came  never  on 
Against  Greece  at  Marathon 
When  they  shook  the  Persian  throne, 
Slid  the  old  barbaric  pomp  of  Isfahan." 

Even  when  he  is  idle  in  his  barracks,  as  one  might  suppose, 
the  soldier  is  not  unproductive,  that  is,  he  maintains  by  his 
existence  a  condition  of  things  Avitliont  which  all  production  of 
the  industrial  arts  or  otherwise  could  not  go  on  with  security  to 
the  maker  or  consumer.  Of  what  good  are  the  Volunteers  if, 
in  time  of  peace,  soldiers  are  of  no  use  ?  0  yes,  the  soldier  has 
his  place  in  the  Providential  Government  of  the  world  !  Even 
a  defeat  has  its  uses,  for  it  rouses  to  heroic  purpose.  The  hurri- 
cane is  better  than  the  pestilence, — whether  defeat  is  owing  to 
bad  generalship  or  the  weakness  of  the  raw  material.  We  have 
only  two  in  tlie  whole  range  of  our  recorded  annals,  separated 
l)y  an  exact  interval  of  one  hundred  years,  and,  strange  to  say, 
tliey  both  illustrate  the  truth  that  a  defeat  need  not  be  an 
unmitigated  evil.  There  stand  out  for  example  Wargaum  and 
Maiwan  in  bold  relief  to  darken  tlie  page  of  Bombay  History. 
Sinister  enough  events  both  of  them,  yet  they  made  us  gird  up 
our  loins  for  the  conflict,  and  buckle  on  our  armour  to  do  or  die. 


Ante,  Vol.  II.,  p.  12. 


128  THE   BOMBAY    ARMY. 

They  are  written  in  letters  of  fire,  amid  a  great  gloom,  and 
for  our  benefit.  But  we  were  not  utterly  cast  down  by  them, 
for  when  the  Seer  on  Helmand  shouted,  "  Watchman,  what  of 
the  night  ? "  General  Eoberts  answered,  "  The  morning  cometh," 
and  it  came  in  the  battle  of  Qandahar  (1880).  So  was  it  vnth. 
Wargaum.  On  hearing  that  our  colours  were  in  the  mud, 
General  Goddard  replied  by  marching  across  the  continent  from 
sea  to  sea,*  and  planting  the  British  standard  on  tlie  citadel  of 
Ahmadabad  (1780).  The  work  was  the  same,  and  the  lesson 
was  the  same,  not  that  everything  comes  to  the  man  who  waits, 
but,  in  war,  to  him  who  moves  with  alacrity. 

They  wei'e  two  Bengal  officers,  no  doubt,  but  our  readers  do 
not  require  to  be  reminded  that  in  the  hour  of  danger  the  Indian 
army  is  one  and  indivisible,  and  Bombay  has  never  been  back- 
ward in  the  exigencies  of  service. 

Or  coming  to  illustrations  from  individual  instances,  do  you 
think  Clive  or  Kirkpatrick  were  the  worse  for  that  dies  ircc  in 
1751,  when  their  troops  turned  back  in  panic  and  disorder  at 
Volkondat  between  Arcot  and  Trichinapoly,  and  when  Abdul 
Wahab  Khan,  whose  men  had  stood  their  ground,  upbraided 
them  for  their  cowardice  ? 

Or  that  Ai'thur  Wellesley's  (the  hero  of  a  hundred  fights  to 
be)  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  after  his  failure  at  Seringapatam,  the 
first  duty  he  was  entrusted  with,  did  him  any  harm  ?  These 
men  soon  chased  the  clouds  away.  There  was  to  be  for  them  a 
new  Arcot  and  a  new  Seringapatam  emblazoned  on  their  shields 
of  arms  long  before  either  of  them — 

"  Fame's  steepest  heights  assail'd, 
Or  walked  Ambition's  diamond  ridge. 
Where  bravest  hearts  have  failed." 

It  is  thus  that  brave  men  are  taught  by  adversity,  i.e.,  the 
mistakes  of  their  own  or  those  of  otliers,  and  to  fling  them  back 


*  Take  up  Rennell's  map  of  India  of  this  period.  It  is  suggestive  of  the 
duties  of  a  tiuarter-niaster  General  in  those  days,  throujih  a  comparatively 
unknown  country.  Goddard  was  about  the  first  that  ever  burst  through 
this  great  wilderness  of  jungle  ere  the  Marble  Rocks  had  been  exiwsed  to  the 
gaze  of  the  Saxon. 

t  Now  Volkonlapuratn  or  Valikondapuram  (not  in  Hunter's  Gazetteer), 
■38  miles  N.N.E.  from  Trichinapoly;  see  Jnd.  Antiquary,  iv.,  'I'l'l. — B. 


ITS    SERVICES.  12i) 

with  the  strong  arm  of  virtue  and  resolve.     We  need  never, 
tlierefore,  wish,  in  the  poet's  words — 

"From  fatc"s  d;irk   book  a  leaf  been  torn, 
And  Flod'len  liad  been  B.iunockbuin."' 

The  travellers  %vho  come  to  Bombay  nowadays  do  not  inquire 
much.  To  do  Bombay,  a  day  and  a  half  is  enough.  So  they 
visit  Elephanta,  and  then  go  away.  They  look  at  the  city, 
but  do  not  ask  who  were  the  makers  thereof.  The  makers  of 
Bombay  were  the  Bomliay  army.  It  was  they  who  made  our 
docks  and  mills,  churches  and  schools,  built  our  law  courts  and 
Government  offices,  and  established  our  banks  and  merchants. 
It  was  they  who  pierced  our  mountains  with  tunnels,  and  sj)anned 
our  valleys  with  bridges.  There  is  not  a  letter  reaches  us,  but 
in  virtue  of  something  the  Bombay  army  has  done.  There  is 
not  a  Bombay  sermon  or  a  Bombay  newspaper,  liut  owes  its 
e.xistence,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  Bombay  army.  The  ground- 
plan  of  this  Western  Presidency  was  not  cleared  in  a  day, 
nor  did  Bombay  rise  like  Chicago  with  tlie  suddenness  of  a 
dream. 

What  befell  was  this.  Though  we  got  the  ground  for 
nothing,  w^e  had  to  send  an  army  to  receive  it,  and  when  that 
army  sickened  and  died,  we.  had  to  send  another,  and  so  on.  I 
find  from  a  standard  authority,*  that  the  Bombay  arm\-  dates 
from  the  reading  of  the  Mutiny  Act  in  1754.  But  we  are  the 
oldest  army  of  the  three  I'residencies,  for  we  were  training  and 
drilling  topcwises  f  on  the  Bombay  Green,  in  the  end  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  before  Calcutta  liad  any  existence.  That  was 
our  Black  Watch.  I  make  bold  to  say  that  the  first  man  of  us 
who  jumped  ashore  in  1666  was  a  Bombay  soldier. 

He  may  nt)t  have  held  a  field-marshal's  baton  in  his  knaji- 
sack,  but,  nevertheless,  lie  was  the  nucleus  of  the  IJombay  army. 
Our  fight  for  existence  was  long  over  and  done  before  1754,  for 
in  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  we  stood  on  the 


*  Bonibay  Quarterly  Scvicw,  vol.  v.,  1857. 

t  Topaz,  Toiias.s,  &c.  Mill  definus  as  "  Indo-Portuguese,  cither  the  mixed 
protUice  of  Portuguese  and  Indian  jiarents,  or  convcrls  to  the  Portuguese." 
Generally  it  is  ai)plicd  to  soldiers  of  this  class. — B. 


]30  THE    BOMBAY    ARMY. 

defensi\'e,  with  mighty  kings  thimderiag  at  our  doors.  You 
may  still  see  the  marks  they  left  ou  the  gates  of  Bombay  Castle. 
If  we  had  not  a  Bombay  army  then,  we  never  had.  We  went 
by  rapid  strides  afterwards.  There  was  a  young  man,  Douglas 
by  name,  in  Thaua  in  the  year  1808.  That  was  then  the  frontier 
of  British  dominion,  and  he  lived  to  see  it  extended  to  Peshawar, 
a  distance  of  a  thousand  miles  as  the  crow  flies. 

The  Bombay  army  is  composed  of  all  sects  and  castes,  Muham- 
madans,  Hindus,  Jews,  Christians,  Eajputs,  Kulis,  Bohras,  and 
Marathas.  "  Does  the  Brahman  refuse  to  stand  by  the  side  of 
the  outcaste  in  the  ranks  of  the  Bombay  army  ? "  asks  Sir 
Herbert  Edwardes.  He  himself  answers  "  No."  *  Hence  they 
will  go  anj'where.  The  Oxus  or  Kcdapani  has  no  terrors  for 
them,  and  they  are  content  with  little.  Sivaji  only  gaN'e  liis 
Marathas  a  rag  and  a  morsel  of  bread  at  their  spear  end. 
"  Where  is  the  best  nursery  for  soldiers  in  India  ? "  somebody 
asked  General  Goddard.  His  reply  was,  Gujarat  and  the  region 
about  Ahmadabad. 

It  was  said  of  a  lloman  conqueror,  Solitudincm  facit ,  2Mcem 
appellat — "  He  makes  a  desert  and  calls  it  peace."  Who  of  us 
can  say  that  any  of  our  Indian  soldiers  have  done  this  ?  If  tliis 
were  so,  the  army  w^ould  indeed  be  an  evil.  The  land  we  live 
in,  does  it  look  like  a  desert  ?  Over  all  its  1,400,000  square 
miles,  the  reign  of  justice  is  supreme,  and  the  labourer  goeth 
forth  in  the  morning,  strong  in  the  consciousness  that  not  one 
coivric  t  of  his  honest  wages  can  be  wrested  from  him.  There 
are  goats  browsing  on  the  Balahilla  of  Torna,  and  fatted  kine 
within  Sivaji's  battlements  of  Eaygarh.  Has  India  ever  seen 
this  before  ?  Search  Kaye,  Grant  Dull,  Orme,  and  the  Indian 
historians  themselves,  you  may  go  back  even  to  the  twelfth 
edict  of  Asoka,  and  you  will  find  nothing  but  the  tramp  of 
armed  men,  and  a  record  of  Avar  and  ])lunder,  smoke  and  flame. 


*  "The  annals  of  the  armies  of  the  sister  PresiJencies  show  that  the 
highest  caste  men  are  not  in  reality  polluted  in  their  estimation  by  standing 
shoulder  to  shoulder  with  men  of  inferior  degrees.  It  is  in  the  ISengal  Army 
alone  where  this  groundless  and  arrogant,  pretension  has  been  tolerated. 
Abolish  it." — Sir  James  Outram,  Lucknow,  18r)7. 

t  Kauri  or  Kuvudi,  the  small  white  shell  Cyprxa  moneta,  used  &i  small- 
change,  about  eighty  going  to  the  aim. — B. 


WELLINGTON.  131 

But  never  more.  JsTever  more  is  the  sword  to  be  uplifted  in 
vengeance  or  bathed  in  blood,  never  more  to  be  used  except  to 
emancipate  immortal  man  from  the  kon  grasp  of  superstition 
and  misnile. 

India  has  already  had  her  Armageddon,  and  now  the  meek- 
eyed  goddess — 

"  Waviug  wide  her  myrtle  waud, 
Slie  strikes  a  universal  peace  through  sea  and  land." 

Manakjee  Cursetjee,  who  died  lately,  had  seen  a  good  deal. 
We  all  know  that  he  was  among  the  first  to  meet  Dr.  Wilson  on 
his  arrival,  which  he  did  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Eobert  Money 
(1829),  that  he  attendetl  Jacquemont's  funeral  at  Souapur  (1832), 
and  he  told  us  that  on  the  1st  November,  1827,  he  witnessed 
from  the  opposite  side  of  the  street  Mountstuart  Elphiustone 
receiving  the  new  Governor,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  at  the  top  of 
those  stairs  of  the  old  Government  House  in  ApoUo  Street, 
which  are  now  (April,  1888)  being  ruthlessly  dismantled  by  that 
great  iconoclast,  Abdul  Huq.  That  meeting  would  have  been  a 
scene  for  a  painter.  His  father,  born  1763,  died  1845,  had  en- 
tertained Arthur  Wellesley  *  at  a  garden  party,  and  the  Ijunga- 
low  which  Colonel  Gordon,  then  commanding  in  Bombay, 
occui)ied,  whose  name,  I  daresay,  you  may  see  in  the  Wellington 
Despatches,  1801,  was  rented  from  his  father,  who  had  a  vivid 
recollection  of  seeing  the  Duke  and  Colonel  Gordon  sitting  of  an 
evening  in  a  summer-house  or  pavilion,  which  overlooked  the 
Siri  lload  and  Back  Bay,  no  doubt  holding  high  converse  on 
the  Expedition  to  Egypt  or  on  lighter  subjects ;  for  example,  the 
beauty  of  the  young  lady  who  was  engaged  to  Captain  Hough, 
or  of  that  other  Bombay  demoiselle,  whose  name  no  man  knoweth, 
who  sent  Arthur  Wellesley  hi.s  own  portrait,  and  received  from 
him  one  of  her  own  in  return. 

•  Mentions  taking  sulphur  baths  ia  Bombay. — Despatches.  "  But,  sir, 
were  you  not  very  ill  at  the  time  of  the  Expedition  to  the  Red  Sea?  "  "  Yes, 
but  1  was  not  confined  to  my  bed.  What  I  had  then  was  the  Malabar  itch, 
a  much  worse  kind  oi  itch  than  ours — it  would  not  yield  to  brimstone.  I 
caught  it  on  shipboard  at  Madras — in  a  man's  bed  that  was  given  up  to  me. 
Dr.  Scott,  the  same  who  invented  nitric  acid,  cured  niu  at  lust  by  baths  of 
the  nitric  acid ;  they  were  so  strong  that  the  towels  which  dried  me  on 
coming  out  were  quite  burnt." — Oct.  IGth,  lbu7,  Stanhope's  Conversations 
with  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  1888. 


I 


132  THE    BOMBAY    ARMY. 

Manakjee  acted  ou  Solomon's  precept — "  Thy  father's  friend  do 
not  forsake  " — and,  introduced  to  the  second  Duke  of  Wellington, 
when  in  London,  he  found  that  he  also  was  animated  Ijy  the 
same  time-honoured  maxim.  What  followed  I  must  now  give 
in  his  own  words,  or  as  near  as  I  can  recollect  them :  "  When  I 
was  coming  away  and  taking  leave  of  his  Grace  at  the  foot  of 
the  grand  staircase  of  Apsley  House,  the  Duke  asked  me  if  there 
was  anything  I  would  like  as  a  memorial  of  his  father's  Bombay 
friendship,  that  I  was  welcome  to  it.  At  the  moment  he  uttered 
these  words,  I  happened  to  be  looking  at  a  curious  inkstand 
which  had  been  placed  between  the  forefeet  of  an  equestrian 
statue,  life-size,  which  stood  in  the  great  corridor,  and  which  I 
had  been  admiring.  '  Ah  ! '  said  the  Duke,  '  I  will  send  you  a 
far  more  valuable  memorial  of  my  father  than  the  hoof  of  Copen- 
hagen,' for  such  the  inkstand  really  was,  and  the  statue  in 
bronze  was  of  that  celebrated  horse  which  had  borne  his  father 
at  Waterloo.  In  due  time  I  received  a  letter  from  the  Duke 
with  a  lock  of  his  father's  hair." 

What  the  hair  of  the  Prophet's  beard  is  to  the  devout  Muslim 
of  Bijapur,  or  the  splinters  of  Buddha's  begging  bowl  to  his 
zealous  worshipper  in  Ceylon,  that  was  the  Duke's  hair  to 
ilanakjee,  for  he  preserved  it  with  a  jealous  care.  Like  tlie 
Supara  relics,  one  casket  was  not  enough,  for  lie  had  a  nest  of 
boxes  which  he  opened  one  after  the  otlier  in  solemn  silence, 
when  he  at  length  displayed  from  the  innermost  one  and  its 
faded  envelope,  the  snow  white  lock  which  had  once  adorned 
the  head  of  the  Great  Duke  of  Wellington,  of  whom,  it  may  be 
said,  in  his  old  age — 

"  To  things  immortal,  time  can  do  no  wrong. 
And  tliat  wliicb  never  is  to  die,  for  ever  must  be  j'oung." 

No  notice  of  the  Duke  in  Bombay  is  complete  without  a 
reference  to  Mrs.  Hough,  his  only  contemporary  who  lived  to 
our  own  times.  She  was  a  lady  of  surprising  activity,  and  at 
eighty  could  breast  four  pairs  of  stairs  with  ease,  or  even  Ele- 
phanta  without  drawing  a  very  long  breath.  A  great  adept  in 
Government  Paper,  for  she  did  not  touch  shares,  I  think,  in  the 
wild  excitement  of  1864,  she  M'ould  make  her  appearance 
suddenly  in  her  shighram,  under  the  big  tree  on  Hornby  Row, 


ITS    COMMANDERS.  133 

some  of  us  remember  so  well,  ami  there  from  the  window,  amid 
a  seething  crowd  of  stock-brokers  and  "  budmashes  "  of  sorts, 
disjilay  a  piece  of  faded  paper  of  the  five-aud-a-half  per  cents 
of  those  days,  written  within  and  without  with  names  like  the 
Prophet's  Roll  (for  the  next  hokler,  lamentation,  mourning,  and 
woe),  for  she  would,  when  the  market  had  reached  a  culminating 
point,  say  116,  judiciously  dispose  of  the  same.  Once  of  great 
personal  attractions,  successive  Governors  paid  her  much  atten- 
tion in  public  assemblies,  and  Frere  and  Fitz  (forgive  the  brevity) 
were  proud  to  lead  this  august  lady  into  drawing  or  ball  room, 
for  had  she  not  leaned  in  the  giddy  dance  on  the  arm  of  the 
young  Arthur  Wellesley  ?  "  I  belong  to  the  Bombay  Ai-my," — a 
worthy  figlia  del  reggimento,  in  the  truest  sense  of  the  words, 
she  had  something  to  be  proud  of  Finally,  she  did  not  eat  the 
bread  of  idleness,  and,  like  the  virtuous  woman  of  Solomon,  she 
clothed  all  her  household  in  scarlet. 

But  what  more  can  we  say  of  the  Bombay  Army  ?  Si  monu- 
mentum  queris  circumspice.  There  can  never  come  a  time  in 
our  history  when  there  will  be  no  need  of  examples  from  the 
past,  and  we  do  well  to  remember  that  some  of  the  greatest 
waiTiors  of  modern  times  have  dwelt  among  us  and  found  fame 
and  fortune  on  the  tented  fields  of  Western  India,  and  left  our 
shores  with  loud  acclaim.  You  may  change  the  name  of  every 
regiment  iu  it,  and  extinguish  it  by  merging  it  in  the  Indian 
Army,  but  the  records  of  its  valour  can  never  perish,  and  the 
memory  of  Korigaum  (1818)  and  Honor  (1784)  will  live  as  long 
as  our  annals,  or  as  long  as  there  are  pens  to  record  them  or 
hearts  to  beat  in  unison  with  the  gi-eat  deeds  of  chivalry. 

When  this  generation  has  ceased  to  exist,  there  will  doubtless 
still  be  men  to  remember  what  the  Bombay  Army  did,  and  what 
the  gi-eat  men  of  the  days  of  old  thought  of  it.  That  Clive  was 
content  to  command  a  Bomliay  force  at  Geria,  and  that  Bombay 
soldiers  shared  with  him  the  glory  of  Plassey ;  that  it  was  the 
army  of  the  Dekhan  which  Wellington  led  to  victory  at  Assaye ; 
that  Charles  James  Napier's  proudest  boast  was  that  he  was  a 
Bombay  General  commanding  Bombay  troops ;  and  last,  but  not 
least,  that  he,  the  Chevalier  of  modern  times — the  illustrious — 
of  all  in  his  own  way  beyond  compare — Outram,  sans  petir,  sans 
reproche, — was  a  soldier  of  the  Bombay  Army. 


(     134     ) 


THE   GREAT    GDN    AT   BIJAPUB. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 


BiJAPUR. 

"  I  felt  nothing  of  the  usual  sentiments  inspired  hy  ruins  in  contemplating 
those  of  Bijapur.  We  in  general,  on  such  occasions,  feel  a  reverential 
melancholy,  and  are  lifted  above  the  present  time  and  circumstances.  But 
these  sentiments  are  produced  by  ruined  cities  which  were  the  scenes  of 
what  is  venerable  or  interesting  to  us.  With  these  feelings  we  consider 
Athens  or  Kome.  But  here  we  see  the  triumph  of  force,  and  the  buildings 
of  which  we  behold  the  ruins  were  never  the  scenes  of  any  other  qualities 
than  those  of  treachery,  debauchery,  and  cruelty,  of  war  without  science,  or 
generous  humanity  without  elegance  or  love." — Sir  James  Mackintosh,  1808. 

These  lines  were  written  seventy-four  years  ago,  and  in  the 
main  are  as  true  as  on  the  day  they  were  wi-itten,  and,  like 
everything  by  Mackintosh,  are  entitled  to  the  deepest  con- 
sideration. But  they  may  be  applied  by  the  European  to  every 
ruined  city  in  Asia,  and,  we  may  add,  also  to  a  good  many  in 
Europe.  We  cannot  absolutely  say  that  war  was  witliout 
science  amid  such  stupendous  fortifications  as  exist  in  Bijapur. 
It  seems  as  good  as  anything  going  at  the  time  in  this  part  of 


BUILDINGS    OF    BIJAPUR.  135 

the  world.  Elsewhere  lie  says  that  war  was  witliout  heroism  * 
and  love  without  romance,  and  an  answer  to  this  may  be  found 
in  Meadows  Taylor's  novels.  The  truth  seems  to  be,  that  public 
intelligence  has  drifted  towards  tlie  subject  of  this  article  during 
the  nineteenth  century  in  a  way  that  Sir  James  Mackintosh, 
nor  any  other  man  in  his  day,  had  little  or  no  conception  of. 
That  they  had  plenty  of  science  in  Eijapur  of  a  particular  kind 
is  patent  enough  from  tlie  fact  that  we  are  only  now  beginning 
to  find  out  how  the  ancient  builders  and  architects  of  this  city 
were  able  to  do  things  that  we  conld  not  do  oui'selves.  Tlie  big 
dome,  we  are  told,  is  a  wonder  of  constructive  skill ;  and  the 
roof  in  the  Eauza  Mausoleum,  hanging  as  it  were  in  the  air,  was 
a  mystery  which  is  now  only  explained  by  tlieir  method  of 
using  concrete.  These  are  Fergusson's  words,  and  he  says 
further  that  nine  builders  out  of  ten  will  tell  you  that  such  a 
flat  roof  as  that  in  the  Ibraliim  Eauza  will  not  stand.  It  has 
stood,  however,  for  a  couple  of  hundred  years,  and  may  hold 
together  for  as  many  more.  The  era  in  wliich  the  work  was 
done  requires  also  to  be  taken  into  account,  and  the  place.  We 
must  not  forget  that  tlie  glory  of  Bijapur  had  all  passed  away 
before  a  single  Englishman  had  set  foot  in  Bombay,  and  that 
]\Iahmud  liad  placed  the  gilded  crescent  on  his  sepulchre  before 
half  the  domes  now  in  Europe  were  thought  of  The  big  gun 
Malik-i-Maidan  surely  was  a  contribution  to  the  science  of  war. 
'  Mons  Meg,'  at  Edinburgh  Castle,  is  nothing  to  it ;  f  and  how  it 
was  jdaced  in  its  present  position  is  a  question  that  no  man  yet 
has  been  able  satisfactorily  to  answer. 


MEADOWS   TAYLOR 

had  the  best  of  all  opportunities  for  writing  on    the   people 
and  history  of  the  Dekhan.     He  had  indomitable  perseverance, 


•  This  l(X)ks  lieroic: — A  Rajput  who  had  made  what  he  thought  a  prudent 
retreat  I'rom  battle,  when  lie  sat  himself  down  in  his  house,  was  served  at  his 
meat  by  his  wife  with  a  brass  ladle.  On  asking  for  a  reason,  she  replied, 
"Lest  the  sight  of  iron  should  turn  your  stomach  from  your  victuals,  as  it 
had  done  from  fi^diting." — Frj'er. 

t  Measurements  of  the  big  gun — diameter  at  breech,  4  ft.  10  in. ;  diameter 
at  muzzle,  5  ft.  2  in.;  diameter  of  bore,  2  ft.  41  in.  ;  lengtli,  14  ft.  .T  in. 
Cast  at  Ahmadnagar,  1548. 


136 


BIJAPUR. 


and  he  who  was  once  an  apprentice  in  a  grocer's  shop  in  Bombay 
in  1824  is  now  no  mean  authority  on  the  history  of  the  Dekhan, 
and  Ms  novels  are  in  the  hands  of  aU.  He  admits  himself  that 
he  owes  much  in  the  way  of  legendary  lore  to  William  Palmer. 
It  is  a  matter  of  history  that  AVilliam  Palmer  was  allowed  to 


MEADOWS   TAYLOR. 


establish  a  house  of  business  at  Haidarabad  in  the  Dekhan  in 
1814,  and  came  down  in  the  Calcutta  crash  of  1829-32. 

Sir  John  Kaye  gives  the  whole  story  in  his  life  of  IMetcalfe, 
and  we  gather  from  his  account  that  the  commercial  relations  of 
the  Nizam  with  this  house  were  so  enormous  that  at  one  time 
the  Government  of  India  found  it  necessary  to  pay  off  the 


MEADOWS   TAYLOR.  137 

liabilities  of  the  firm  to  the  extent  of  a  million  sterling,  and 
that  bullion  was  sent  to  this  amount  from  Calcutta.  It  did  no 
good  to  Palmer  and  Company,  but  rather  precipitated  the  crisis. 
Our  impression  is  that  the  existence  of  Palmer  and  Company, 
with  their  then  relations  to  the  Nizam,  was  a  standing  menace 
to  the  British  Go\-ernment,  and  the  sooner  the  firm,  as  then 
conducted,  was  ended  the  better. 

ileadows  Taylor  will  now  tell  liis  own  story.  "In  1830  llr. 
Palmer's  house  continued  to  be  my  chief  resort.  There  was  a 
fascination  about  him  quite  irresistible  to  me,  his  knowledge 
was  so  varied,  classical,  historical,  and  political.  His  father, 
who  had  been  Secretary  to  Warren  Hastings,  had  taken  part  in 
almost  all  the  eventful  scenes  of  early  Anglo-Indian  history,  and 
had  married,  as  was  very  usual  then  among  Englisli  gentlemen, 
a  lady  of  high  rank,  one  of  the  Princesses  of  the  Eoyal  House  of 
Dehli,  and  his  fund  of  knowledge  and  great  store  of  anecdote 
made  him  a  delightful  and  improving  companion.  On  the  25th 
August,  1832,  I  was  married  to  Mary  Palmer,  daughter  of 
William  Palmer,  Esq.,  at  Sikandarabad." 

It  was  in  1839  he  became  acquainted  with  Christopher  Nortli 
(Professor  Wilson,  the  editor  of  Bluchwood's  Magazine),  who 
urged  him  to  write  his  Indian  tales.  North  was  no  mean  judge, 
and  a  life  of  rambling  over  every  part  of  the  Dekhan  for  thirty 
years,  and  his  marriage,  fitted  Meadows  Taylor  to  pourtray 
every  department  of  Maratha  life,  military,  social,  and  domestic, 
in  each  of  which  he  now  stands  unrivalled. 

WITH    TllF,  .VCCOMMODATION 

provided  for  us  in  Bijapur  we  had  no  need  to  grumble.  It  was 
the  mosque  of  tlie  Ibrahim  Kauza — notliiug  equal  to  it,  we  are 
told,  out  of  Seville  or  Cordova.  It  was  a  big  bed-room,  the 
curtains  of  which  were  groined  arches.  You  could  not  sleep  in 
anything  larger  except  under  the  canopy  of  heaven,  which  may 
be  tried  Ijy  any  one  who  likes,  with  perfect  impunity,  on  the 
Dekhan  Hills  at  this  season  of  the  year.*  Aurangzeb  slept  here 
verging  on  three  score  years  and  ten — a  heavy  weight  of  clay  ! 
He  had  just  captured  the  city  and  wept  over  it.     0  !  thou  old 


•  Tried  it  at  Mahuli,  December  25th,  1890.     No  barni. 
VOL.    II.  L 


138  BIJAPUR. 

hypocrite  and  fratricide  !  He  was  then  worth  forty  millions  a 
year :  Gemelli  Careri  says  eighty  millions  sterling,  but  let  us 
take  the  smaller  sum :  and  that  without  either  license-tax  or 
opium  to  swell  his  revenue.  I  wonder  if  the  people  grumbled 
in  those  days. 

Tliere  must  have  been  a  soul  of  goodness  about  the  man,  for 
he  it  was  who  invented  dah  bungalows,  and  built  them  from 
Kabul  to  Travancore.  He  also  took  a  scunner  (Scottice  for 
"  loathing  ")  at  big  tombs,  very  lUvely  at  Bijapur.  Avaunt  all 
sycophants  and  mummers ! 

"  Go  to  your  sculptured  tombs,  ye  great, 
In  a'  the  tinsel  trash  o'  state ! " 

Khafi  Khan  gives  us  his  exact  words  before  his  death  : — 
"  Carry  this  creature  of  the  dust  quickly  to  the  first  burial-place, 
and  consign  him  to  the  earth  without  any  useless  coffin."  So 
no  useless  coffin  enclosed  his  breast,  for  he  laid  himself  down, 
aetat.  ninety,  at  another  Eauza,  on  that  steep  hiU  above  KaUas 
and  Elura,  in  a  plot  of  ground  a  man  might  have  bought  for 
ten  rupees,  which  you  may  still  see  with  a  tulsi  plant  and  some 
jessamine  covering  all  that  remains  of  the  Lord  of  the  World. 
He  made  his  tomb,  after  the  injunction  of  the  Prophet,  not  more 
than  two  feet  high,  and  open  to  the  dews  of  heaven.* 

No  man  will  disturb  him ;  whereas  in  Bijapur  rust  doth 
corrupt,  and  thieves  break  through  and  steal. 

TOMBS. 

What  Canopus  was  to  ancient  Alexandria  that  was  Torwe  t 
to  Bijapur,  a  magnificent  suburb  for  garden  parties  and  fetes 


*  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  357. 

t  "  There  are  said  to  be  453  wells  in  the  to^vn,  but  the  principal  water 
.supply  in  the  diiys  when  the  city  was  teeming  with  a  population,  if  tradition 
is  to  be  believed,  exceeding  that  of  Bombay,  was  brought  into  it  by  the 
Torwe  aqueduct,  which  is  said  to  have  been  constructed  by  Afzul  Khan." — 
T.  S.  Heidett,  Acting  Sanitary  Commissioner,  October  17th,  1875. 

"  The  tunnelling  is  at  one  jilace  sixty-five  and  a  half  feet  underground, 
but  on  a  re-examination  in  1S8G,  Colonel  Goodfellow,  R.  E.,  and  ]\Ir.  Heinhuld 
came  to  the  conclusion  that  any  attempted  restoration  of  them  would  be 
futile,  and  that  the  game  would  not  be  worth  the  candle." — Bijaimr  Sanitary 
Reports,  J  887. 


MAUSOLEA.  139 

champetres  of  sorts.  Though  there  was  no  afteruoou  tea  in 
those  days,  they  amused  themselves  with  sherbet  and  other 
cooling  drinks,  among  fountains  and  within  the  sound  of 
rippling  water.  Of  a  truth  the  dead  were  well  remembered  in 
Torwe,  for  here,  as  in  Bijapur,  there  seems  nothing  else  than 
tombs.  We  wandered  a  whole  morning  until  the  sun  was  high 
in  the  heavens ;  and  there  was  nothing  but  tombs.  The  tall 
crop  oijawwri  grew  superincumbent  on  the  ruined  sites  of  the 
palaces  of  the  living,  but  the  mausoleums  of  the  dead  seemed  to 
shoot  up  their  bulbous  domes  everywhere.  You  walk  in  all 
directions,  but  the  beginning  and  end  of  all  is  the  inevitable. 
"  0  vanity  of  men  whose  memorials  are  as  vain  as  themselves, 
whicli  in  a  few  short  years  perish,  and  that  which  lasts  longest 
lasts  no  longer  than  the  world ! "  Every  man  seems  to  have 
prepai-ed  liis  own  sepidchre  during  liis  life — an  old  custom. 
Sometimes  the  work  was  cut  short.  There  is  a  great  mau- 
soleum, half  finished,  that  was  to  have  surpassed  the  dome 
of  Mahmud  as  much  as  that  dome  now  surpasses  all  other 
buildings.  But  when  the  first  storey  was  raised,  its  author  and 
intended  occupant,  Ibrahim  'Adil  Shah  I.,  was  cut  off  by 
assassination.  The  workman  threw  down  liLs  tools,  and  the 
cooly  liis  last  basketfid  of  earth  into  the  ditcli.  And  now  there 
remains  something  like  the  niins  of  Melrose  Abbey,  with  this 
difference,  that  the  rest  on  which  the  arch  is  built,  stone  and 
not  wood  as  in  our  modern  times,  remains  inside  the  arch. 
They  have  never  been  taken  down.  The  people  here,  as  soon 
as  they  arrived  at  the  age  of  consciousness,  seem  to  have  be- 
thought themselves  of  dying — no,  not  exactly  of  dying,  but  of 
wliat  design  and  structm-e  should  be  the  habitation  of  then- 
carcases.  They  had  no  notion  of  the  narrow  house  ajipointed 
for  all  living,  for  Mahmud  now  sleeps  in  an  acreage,  over  which 
is  suspended  a  dome  as  big  as  that  of  the  Pantheon. 

"Some  village  Hampdca  that,  with  dauntless  breast, 
The  little  tyrant  of  his  lields  withstood," 

muttered  the  words  "  Six  feet  will  hold  him  yet."  It  was  an 
idle  imjirecation.  Six  feet !  Why,  sixty  feet  was  not  enough 
for  the  Patil  or  Mamlutdar.  If  the  ghosts  of  these  old 
Bijapureaus  could  only  now  revisit  the  glimpses  of  the  moon, 

L  2 


140  BIJAPDR. 

they  would  be  astoimded  at  the  condition  of  their  own 
sepulchres. 

The  stronger  they  were  fastened  down  -with  stone  and  clamp 
the  gi-eater  oliject  were  they  of  cupidity  to  those  who  came  after 
them.  Size,  strength,  durability,  and  ornamentation,  all 
increased  the  desire  to  see  what  was  in  them,  and  so  Pagan, 
Frank,  and  Tartar,  full  of  the  idea  of  the  gold  with  which  the 
kings  and  counsellors  of  the  earth  buried  themselves,  have 
wrenched  the  granite  asunder,  hammered  to  pieces  the  polished 
basalt,  and  scattered  the  contents  at  the  grave's  mouth. 
Out  of  one  arched  window,  tomb  of  Afzul  Khan  if  you  wiH, 
within  its  mullioned  frame,  stood  peering  out,  and  shaking  its 
ears,  of  all  things  in  the  world,  a  live  donkey !  A  mongoose 
hastily  scuttled  down  to  the  vaults  of  another  charnel  house  on 
our  approach.  At  the  door  of  a  third  lay  some  porcupine 
(pidls ;  and  a  fourth,  levelled  with  the  earth,  bore  high,  in  fruit 
and  foliage,  our  old  friend  the  custard-apple.    Vanity  of  vanities ! 

Hence  Bijapur  is  the  biggest  ghost  of  past  times  in  the 
Dekhan.  Even  during  its  palmy  days,  say  of  Tara  or 
Afzul  Khan,  the  dead  were  more  carefully  looked  after  than  the 
living.  Every  man  had  his  coffin,  so  to  speak,  in  his  own 
cupboard,  and  of  course  there  was  a  skeleton  in  every  house. 
The  only  trade  for  a  century  seems  to  have  been  building 
mausoleums,  and  the  only  commerce  carrj-ing  stones  to  them. 
You  can  scarcely  move  without  breaking  your  sliins  against  a 
gravestone.  The  moral  of  Bijapur  seems  to  be  that  men  had 
better  look  after  their  own  reputation  durmg  theii"  lives,  and 
leave  nothing  to  posterity,  for  posterity  has  done  nothing  for 
them  but  rifle  their  tombs  and  scatter  their  ashes  to  the  \\duds 
of  heaven,  tliough  they  did  everything  in  their  power  to  prevent 
this  consummation. 

DOVES 

seem  to  affect  mosques  all  over  the  East :  *  witness  the  mosque 


*  Celebrated  convents  of  the  East  and  in  the  West  also,  and  as  far  North 
as  Solovetsk  on  the  White  Sea.  "  Pigeons  have  a  good  place  in  the  Convent," 
says  the  Father  at  my  side.  "  You  see  we  never  touch  them  ;  doves  being 
sacred  in  our  eyes  on  account  of  that  scene  on  the  Jordan,  when  the  Holy 
Ghost  came  down  to  our  Lord  in  the  form  of  a  dove." — Hepworth  Dixon's 
Free  liussia,  1870. 


THE    DOVES.  141 

of  Omar;  and  you  remember  the  sacred  pigeons  of  Mecca 
wliieh  have  been  noticed  by  every  traveller,  from  Vertomannus 
to  Biuton.  15urckhardt  tells  us  (1814)  that  nobody  dares  to 
kill  them,  and  that  they  are  called  the  sacred  pigeons  of 
Baitnllak,  the  house  of  God,  and  another  (1503)  that  they  are 
believed  to  be  the  progeny  of  the  dove  that  spake  in  the  ear  of 
Muhammad,  in  the  likeness  of  tlie  Holy  Ghost.  Witness  also 
the  two  wliite  doves  on  the  body  of  Hasan  at  the  Muliarram. 
Here  in  Bijapur,  as  in  Mecca,  or,  for  that  matter,  before  the 
Bombay  Custom  House,  a  man  comes  daily  with  food  for 
the  pigeons.  I  watched  these  wliite  messengers  descending 
from  the  sky  on  Christmas  Day,  our  only  visitors — emblems  of 
its  peace  and  purity. 

There  is  no  smoke  in  Bijapur  to  soil  their  wings.  See 
Cromwell's  favourite  Psalm  of  David  : — 

"Like  doves  ye  shall  appear, 
Whose  wings  with  silver,  and  with  gold 
Whose  feathers,  cover'd  are." 

And  the  "  Thougli  ye  have  lain  among  the  i)ots  "  by  way  of 
empliasLs. 

'I'he  sky  here  is  very  blue  and  transparent,  and  throws  tlie  out- 
lines of  fretted  cornice  and  graceful  minaret  in  sharply-cut  and 
delicate  relief.  Tlie  doves  alighted  with  noiseless  foot  ou  the 
great  flat  pavement  tliat  spreads  out  in  one  stony  sheet  between 
the  Mosque  and  Mausoleum  of  Ibrahim.  As  they  stood 
between  the  living  and  the  dead,  on  that  space  where  thousands 
of  worshippers  had  once  bent  tiie  knee  with  their  faces  to  the 
west,  invoking  the  one  God  and  the  one  Prophet,  they  seemed 
to  read  a  lesson  of  peace  and  good-will  to  men. 

The  voice  of  war  is  now  hushed  over  all  India.  Long  may  it 
be  so !  The  doves  of  the  Ibrahim  Eauza  have  come  here  for 
generations,  and  will  doubtless  do  so  for  generations  to  come. 
There  was  one  day,  however,  you  may  be  sure,  they  did  not 
come.  That  day  was  the  15th  October,  1686,  when  Aurangzeb, 
amid  the  hurly-burly  of  war,  stumbled  from  his  scarlet-curtained 
palanquin,  and,  drunk  with  tlie  lust  of  ambition,  piled  his 
bloody  garments  in  the  sanctuary  of  tlie  Rauza. 


142  BIJAPUK. 


SHEEP    AND    DOGS. 


Why  do  black  sheep  eat  more  than  white  ones  in  India  ? 
Because  there  are  more  of  them.  The  conundrum  is  attributed 
to  Archbisliop  Wliately.  Very  much  the  case  on  the  way  to 
Bijapur,  where  black  sheep  abound.  There  are  some  sheep  dogs 
too.  Marvellously  like  the  Scotch  colley,  and  they  look  quite 
as  astute  and  sagacious. 

"  His  breast  was  white,  his  touzy  back 
AVeel  clad  in  coat  o'  glossy  black." 

Tliis  is  his  sitting  portrait :  with  his  tongue  out  of  his  mouth, 
palpitating,  with  his  eye  on,  and  much  exercised  about  liis 
flock,  more  touzy  than  himself.  He  .^links  away,  however,  on 
our  approach,  with  his  tail  between  his  legs,  and  in  this  faUs 
miserably  as  the  counterpart  of  Burns'  next  two  lines  on  the 
"  Twa  Dogs  " : 

"  His  gaucie  tail,  wi'  upward  curl, 
Him^  ower  his  hurdles  wi'  a  swirl." 


FAMINE. 

No  one,  in  travelling  from  Sholapur  to  Bijapur,  could  believe 
that  this  country  so  lately  had  been  so  mercilessly  struck  down 
by  famine.  You  can  see  nothing  of  it,  everything  seems  gay 
and  prosperous.  Jau-ari  and  other  crops  are  abundant  until 
within  a  dozen  miles  of  Bijapur,  when  the  country  partakes  of 
the  character  of  the  English  downs.  Some  of  the  men  seemed 
to  want  filling  iip  between  the  ribs  sadly,  but  no  doubt  this 
year's  crop  will  supply  the  deficiency. 

We  saw  one  man,  but  only  one,  a  relic  of  the  famine  days, 
and  apparently  beyond  all  remeid,  a  veritable  Death-and-Doctoi- 
Hornbook  business : — 

"  Its  stature  seemed  lang  Scotch  ells  twa. 
The  queerest  shape  that  e'er  I  saw 
For  feint  a  wame  it  had  ava ; 

And  then  its  shanks. 
They  were  as  thin,  as  sharp  and  sma' 

As  cheeks  o'  branks." 


THE    ADANSONIA    TREES.  143 


THE  COUNTRY    ABOUT   BIJAPUR, 


far  from  being  a  desert,  seems  capable  of  extended  cultiva- 
tion, and  in  its  palmy  days,  with  its  garden-houses  of  the 
nobility,  must  have  been  a  mass  of  greenery.  The  surrounding 
country,  covered  with  coarse  grass,  presents  a  brown  and  tame 
appearance  ;  s^o  the  city  itself  must  have  been,  seen  from  afar,  a 
green  Emerald,  like  Damascus.  There  is  plenty  of  water,  from 
wells  and  otherwise,  and  in  ancient  times,  like  the  Damascus  of 
to-day,  it  ran  down  the  sides  of  every  street,  for  an  aqueduct 
conveyed  water  for  twenty  miles.  The  Adansonia-trees  are 
African,  and  of  enormous  girth  ;*  and  we  allude  to  them  because 
if  they  are  weighted  M'ith  a  thousand  years,  they  point  to  remote 
times,  when  the  Habshi  made  Ms  first  appearance  in  the 
Dekhan.  The  big  dome  has  been  painted  white,  by  whom  we 
Icnow  not ;  but  the  colour  at  some  distance,  and  even  near  at 
liand,  detracts  from  its  bulk,  and  it  is  only  when  the  side  next 
the  spectator  is  thrown  in  shadow  that  its  great  size  is  realised. 
St.  Peter's  looks  brown  from  the  sea,  the  tombs  of  the  Klialifs 
at  Cairo  are  as  grey  as  the  desert,  and  all  other  domes,  east  and 
west,  are  either  gilded,  or  painted  black.  Viewed  from  a 
distance  of  twenty  miles  tlie  sense  of  colour  is  lost,  and  it 
cleaves  the  horizon  without  a  single  object  to  compete  with  it 
in  the  view,  either  natural  or  artificial,  a  great  hemisphere  on 
the  sky-line. 

GLOBE-TUOTTEKS. 

The  first  globe-trotter  who  came  to  Western  India  was  Tom 
Coryat.t  Taylor,  the  Water-poet,  thus  eulogises  him,  and 
]ierhaps  gives  us  the  germs  of  the  word  : — 

"Let  poets  write  their  best  and  trotters  rim. 
They  ne'er  shall  write  or  run  as  thou  hast  done." 

The  time  will  arrive  when  a  number  of  men  and  women  from 
Europe  and  America,  bla^e  with  Greece  and  the  Nile,  will  come 


*  CSorahh  hriK,  Adiinsonia. — Enormous  trees  under  which  iiialcfactors 
were  beheaded.  William  Taylor  of  I'atiia,  when  liere,  was  iu  .search  ol  big 
trees,  and  ou^lit  to  liave  .seen  these.  Tliey  are  stumpy,  but  ia  girth  and 
lonsisting  of  oidy  one  trunk  must  beat  anything  out  of  California. 

t  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  31;-). 


144 


BIJAPUR. 


to  Bijapur.  The  big  dome  and  the  Kailas  of  Elura  will  take  their 
places  as  the  two  great  wonders  of  Western  India.  We  shall, 
no  doubt,  in  due  time,  hear  much  that  is  novel  and  interesting 
about  Bijapur.  It  belioves  our  Government  to  see  that  no  so- 
called  improvement  mars  the  antique  grandeur  and  simplicity 


ADA.NSi  MA    i.lGAMKA. 


of  these  exquisite  monuments  of  antiquity,  and  that  in  our  zeal 
for  tlieir  utilization,  we  do  not  accelerate  their  decay,  or  the 
decay  of  that  which  is  most  noble  and  bcaxitiful  (we  will  not 
say  venerable — with  Mackintosh's  words  before  us)  about  them. 
Time  is  a  ruthless  destroyer,  but  not  half  so  ruthless  as  that 


SCULPTURED    ORNAMENT.  145 

zeal  which,  under  the  pretence  of  repair,  effects  only  to  destroy, 
and  we  must  beware  of  tliis  kind  of  renovation,  and  see  that 
the  iconoclasts  do  not  proceed  from  ourselves.*  Tlie  greatest 
living  authority  on  architecture  has  declared  that  these  buildings 
are  wortiiy  of  all  tlie  care  we  can  bestow  upon  their  preservation. 
Our  first  great  duty  is  tlierefore  to  protect  them  from  ourselves, 
and  our  second  from  tlie  liands  of  our  neighbour. 

There  are  pieces  of  sculpture  in  the  Mos([ue  and  Eauza  of 
Ibraliim  which,  we  venture  to  say,  as  sculptured  ornaments 
througliout  the  world,  are  unique,  and  if  destroyed  or  taken 
away,  to  use  a  mikl  word,  could  never  be  replaced.  We  mean 
the  stone  chains,  the  links  of  which,  cut  out  of  one  block,  dangle 
from  the  cornice  and  hang  gracefully  between  each  arch.  They 
are  thirty  or  forty  feet  overhead,  and  far  beyond  ordinary  reach ; 
but  they  are  not  beyond  the  avarice  and  ingenuity  of  the  stone 
collector,  who  could  soon  devise  ways  and  means  to  attain  them. 
We  all  know  what  has  been  done  in  this  way  in  Upper  Egypt., 
For  preservation,  therefore,  and  in  view  of  an  influx  of  sight- 
seers, we  would  recommend  the  discontinuance  of  the  Ifauza  as 
a  hostelry.  The  Dome  of  Malnnud  and  the  Mostpie  t  and 
Mausoleum  nf  Ibrahim  Eauza,  in  fact,  require  each  a  keeper  to 
watch  these  buildings,  so  that  travellers  may  be  taken  over 
them,  as  they  are  in  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  or  any  of  the  great 
sight  buildings  in  the  world. 

The  student  who  may  n(jw  find  his  way  from  Western  India 
to  any  of  the  Universities  of  Europe,  need  not  be  ashamed  of 
his  country.  It  is  a  great  country,  and  great  in  its  memorials 
of  ancient  times.  What  India  has  given  to  Europe  is  at  present 
an  unknown  quantity.  In  race  and  language,  in  physics  and 
metaphysics,  in  religion — and  this  is  a  very  unknown  quantity, 
and  possibly  very  small — in  commerce  and  trade,  in  astronomy 


*  The  last  Eaja  of  Satara,  in  wlmse  kingdom  Bijapur  was,  when  on  a 
visit  amused  himself  with  ])icking  out  the  gilding,  arabesque,  and  lacquered 
work  witli  the  point  of  his  sword.  It  is  said  that  the  Bombay  Oovenimcnt 
have  already  spent  .£80,000  on  repairs  and  restorations,  so  we  cannot  bo 
accused  of  want  of  interest  in  Bijapur. 

t  181)0. — Abandoned  lor  a  travellers'  bungalow,  near  the  railway  station, 
while  many  of  the  ruined  buildings  have  now  been  converted  into  public 
ofiBces  and  residences. 


146  BiJAriTR. 

and  medicine,  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  pliilnsopliei's  continue  to 
investigate  and  grope  their  way. 

One  day  it  is  found  tliat  Sanskrit  is  the  basis  of  all  P^uropean 
languages ;  another,  that  the  germs  of  municipal  institutions 
exist  in  the  village  community  in  India  ;  and  an  American  has 
just  made  out  that  India  built  Palmyra,  Tyre,  and  Alexandria, 
and  that  the  world  is  indebted  to  her  for  the  discovery  of 
America.  Columbus  was  only  thinking  of  India  and  the.  way 
thither  when  his  vessels  were  driven  against  the  New  World. 
If  the  student  is  taunted  with  the  statement  that  India  exported 
in  ancient  times  only  apes  and  peacocks,  he  can  tell  them  that 
the  first  iron,*  the  first  silk,  and  the  first  cotton  came  to  Europe 
from  India ;  that  before  Sir  Christoplier  Wren,  the  architect  of 
St.  Paid's,  M'as  born,  Mahmud  had  hung  in  the  air  a  dome,  with 
a  larger  area  than  that  of  the  Pantheon  at  Piome ;  f  that  when 
Catholics  were  being  burned  at  Smithfield,  and  Protestants  at 
Goa,  Christians  were  tolerated  at  Naldurg  and  Eaichor,  and 
received  firmans,  which  still  exist,  from  the  Sultans  of  Bijapur ; 
and  that  courtes)'  itself  is  indigenous  to  India,  and  sprang 
unaided  by  either  the  chivalry  or  the  Crusades  of  Europe. 
Truly,  as  the  poet  hath  it,  the  pathwaj^  of  human  progress  has 
been  from  the  East. 

"Westward  the  coui'se  of  Empire  takes  its  waj': 
The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day; 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  its  last." 


*  "The  supply  of  iron  in  India,  as  early  as  the  lourlh  and  tifth  centuries, 
seems  to  have  been  unlimited.  In  the  temples  of  Orissa  iron  was  used  in 
large  masses,  as  beams  or  girders  in  roof  work  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
India  well  repaid  any  advantages  which  she  may  have  derived  from  the  early 
civilised  communities  of  the  AVest  if  she  were  the  first  to  supjily  them  with 
iron  and  steel." — (Sir  Johji  Hawk-Shaw's  opening  address,  British  Association 
meetinr),  JSristol,  1875.  The  authenticity  of  the  Book  of  Ezekiel  has  never 
been  ini])eached  and  "  bright  iron  and  steel "  are  mentioned  by  him  as  items 
in  his  great  display  of  ancient  oriental  commerce. 

"The  Hindus  were  especially  skilled  in  the  art  of  making  steel,  and, 
indeed,  they  are  to  this  day;  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  tools  with  which 
the  Egyptians  covered  their  obelisks  and  temples  of  porphyry  and  syenite 
with  hieroglyphics  were  made  of  steel,  as  probably  no  other  metal  was 
capable  of  executing  such  work." — Smiles,  Industrial  Biography — Iron  and 
Tool  Workers,  1884. 

t  Ante,  Vol.  1.,  p.  28. 


(     147     ) 


CHAriER  XLV. 

Basseix  and  the  Portuguese. 

The  absolute  doiuiuion  of  Portugal  in  India  has  always  been 
a  very  small  dominion.  With  Diu  and  Daman  it  does  not 
cover  as  much  ground  as  the  county  of  Perth  in  Scotland  (23G5 
against  28.35  square  miles),  and  even  in  its  palmy  days  Salsette 
and  the  Konkan  did  not  add  to  it  more  than  the  shire  of 
Inverness.  The  Western  Ghats,  M'hich  run  like  a  herring-l)one 
down  the  map,  have  been  their  Grampians,  beyond  which,  like 
the  Romans,  their  conquests  did  not  extend.  But  though  small, 
it  is  the  oldest  European  dominion  in  India,  and,  having  held 
its  ground  for  the  long  period  of  380  years,  can  boast  of  a 
liistorj'  nearly  twice  as  long  as  either  Calcutta,  Madras  or 
I'ombay.  Small  as  it  is,  it  has  made  a  great  noise  in  the  world, 
and,  albcnt  there  is  much  sound  and  fury  in  its  early  history,  it 
is  undeniable  that  the  various  men  who  won  it  for  Portugal  hav(^ 
given  it  an  undying,  one  miglit  say  even  a  classic,  interest.  Its 
fame  has  nothing  to  do  with  its  size,  for  little  countries,  as  we 
all  know,  may  be  great.  But  whether  its  fame  is  beyond  its 
merits  or  not,  the  fact  remains  that  the  Poituguese  were  the 
ILrst  that  ever  burst  into  a  sea  which  was  silent  until  made 
vocal  by  the  genius  of  Camoens  and  the  fleets  of  Da  Gama  and 
Albiu[U(>rqiic. 

When  the  Portuguese  came  north  IVom  Goa  (a  place  at  the 
time  of  no  historical  note  whatever),  they  took  possession  of  a 
territory  of  uncommon  interest  in  Bassein,  Tliana,  Salsette,  and 
what  is  now  Bombay.  Place  one  foot  of  a  pair  of  compasses 
on  Thana  on  your  map,  and  with  a  radius  of  twenty  miles 
describe  a  circle,  and  you  will  enclose  a  spot  of  gi'ound  M'hich, 
for  associations  of  its  kinJ,  has  no  equal  in  tlie  wide  world. 
Here  there  are  gi-eat  memories,  the  land  is  brimful  of  history, 
and  contains  in  its  story  a  microcosm  of  the  three  great  religions 


148 


BASSEIN    AND    THE    PORTUGUESE. 


which  have  held  mankind  in  lee  for  three  thousand  years.  It 
is  a  terra  sancta  of  them  all.  Every  one  of  them  has  passed 
like  a  great  wave  over  its  soil  and  left  small  trace  of  its 
existence.     Of  tlie  Battle  of  the  Nile  you  now  find  only  a  few 


H 


IIA.SSEIN    CA'illElJUAl.. 


])its  of  crusted  wood  on  the  beach  ;  in  other  words,  a  casket  of 
relics,  an  inscribed  stone,  and  the  potsherds  of  the  earth.  When 
the  Portuguese  came  they  could  not  find  a  single  Christian, 
when  the  English  came  they  could  not  find  a  single  Buddhist, 


THE    NEIGHBOUBING   TOWNS.  149 

and  yet  here  in  India  Christianity  had  its  first  martyr  (A.D. 
1821),  and  here  Buddha  had  liis  second  birthplace.  Supara, 
three  miles  from  Bassein,  is  a  notable  place :  hitlier  came 
Xavier,  canonised  amongst  the  saints,  Heber  also,  and  read  his 
title  in  the  skies. 

We  make  no  account  of  Fryer  (1G75)  that  the  greatest  Musal- 
man  ruins  in  the  Dekhau  existed  at  Kal)'an.  We  now  ask  the 
question :  Why  should  religion  through  all  the  ages  have  found 
a  home  in  these  parts  ?  Simply  because  men  were  here, 
clustered  in  communities,  buj'ing  and  selling,  carrying  on  the 
business  of  the  world — manufactures  in  its  original  sense  and 
trading  relations  with  distant  nations  :  and  religion  follows  in 
the  wake  of  commerce.  The  history  of  the  commerce  of  Western 
India  is  greatly  comprised  within  cities  in  the  district  we  have 
marked  oft'.  Begin  with  Supara.  It  may  be  mentioned  in  the 
Mahahharata  (B.C.  1400) ;  it  certainly  e.\ists  on  Ptolemy's  map 
(A.D.  139),  and  is  pronounced  by  a  native  now-a-days  exactly 
as  it  is  spelled.  But  sooner  or  later  Supara  as  a  commercial 
emporium  holds  the  first  place.  Nepal  and  the  Himalayas 
poured  gold  into  it,  and  Gujarat  was  and  is  the  land  of  "  apes 
and  peacocks."  Kalyan  with  its  Greek  commerce  comes  next. 
"  Where  pepper  grows  there  are  Christians,"  quoth  Cosmas 
(A.D.  521).  Then  comes  Thana,  with  visions  of  Marco  Polo 
(1254—1324),  and  on  its  decline  Bassein  takes  xip  the  thread  of 
the  story,  and  the  sequence  is  complete  when,  on  the  18th 
February,  1665,  an  Englishman  picks  up  the  "  earth  and  stones  " 
of  Bondiay  Castle  in  the  presence  of  Antonia  Fonseca,  Notary 
Public  of  Bassein,  and  writes  the  initial  letter  of  a  page  of 
lustory  with  which  most  of  us  are  familiar.  The  earth  itself  is 
full  of  the  bones  of  Buddhists,  monks,  faqirs,  pirs,  aposthis,  holy 
men,  heretics  and  heresiarchs,  soldiers  of  tlie  cross  and  of  the 
devil,  in  one  burial  blent, 

Elephanta  is  still  regarded  as  a  wonder  of  the  world  by  the 
European  and  American  tourist.  If  he  would  take  the  trouble 
to  go  to  Kanheri  he  would  find  caves  much  more  attractive. 
The  rocks  throughout  the  district  are  literally  honeycombed 
with  caves,  and  the  ground  studded  witli  the  ruins  of  Portuguese 
churches — their  names  would  only  distract  the  reader — wliile 
Ambaruath,  an  almost  perfect  temple  of  the  Silahara  dynasty 


o 


150  BA.SSEIN   AND    THE    PORTUGUESK. 

(810-1240),  still  blazons  in  the  light  of  the  nineteenth  century 
Kali  and  her  necklace  of  human  skulls  and  other  elements  of 
au  impure  worsliip  which  then  defiled  the  Konkan.  The  old 
temple  of  Walkeshwar  on  its  sea-beaten  promontory  was  another 
of  the  same,  but,  thanks  to  the  Portuguese  and  the  early 
Governors  of  Bombay,  it  has  disappeared.  The  caves  and  their 
great  number  in  such  a  limited  area  have  long  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  savans,  and  Dr.  W.  Robertson  (^Ancient  India, 
1791),  though  he  had  never  been  in  India,  sitting  in  his  room, 
No.  67,  Prince's  Street,  Edinburgh,  evolved  a  theory  which, 
with  the  wider  and  more  exact  knowledge  we  have  gathered 
dui-iug  the  hundred  years  since  he  wrote,  we  think  wiU  commend 
itself  to  the  reader.  The  time  necessary  to  execute  such  works, 
he  said,  argued  a  large  population  and  a  regular  continuous 
government.  The  existence  of  the  centres  of  commerce  which 
we  have  named  was  not  known  to  this  philosopher  as  they  are 
now  known  to  us,  and  seem  to  intlicate  that  from  time  im- 
memorial down  indeed  to  the  dawn  of  history,  a  much  larger 
population  inhabited  the  gi'ound  we  have  marked  out  than  has 
since  obtained  in  this  part  of  the  Konkan.* 

No  suspicion  of  a  compliment  to  Bombay,  a  town  when  he 
wrote  of  150,000  inhabitants,  needbe  entertained ;  and  Bombay's 
place  as  a  factor  in  great  religious  movements  such  as  we  have 
described  is  yet  to  come  and  may  come.  It  was  too  obscure 
then  to  engage  the  attention  of  the  men  of  that  generation. 
Johnson  met  Eyre  Coote  at  Fort  Augustus,  and  Sir  Archibald 
Campbell,  Governor  of  Madi'as,  met  Boswell ;  but  the  only 
allusion  we  can  find  to  Bombay  is  that  "  bumaloes  "  t  were  an 
industry  in  that  neighbourhood. 

Bassein. 

The  crying  evil  of  Bassein  (it  was  the  same  with  Goa)  was 
intolerance,  and  for  this  wanton  offence  which  she  offered  to  free 
inquiry  and  private  judgment,  one  of  the  most  sacred  instiacts 
of  our  nature,  she  has  suffered  a  terrible  retribution.  That  sin 
of  intolerance  never  goes  unpunished.  It  was  against  Nature, 
and  Nature  in  another  form  has  had  her  revenge. 


Infra,  \K  220.  f  -^nte,  \'ol.  1.,  p.  68,  note* 


XAVIER.  151 

You  can  easily  recall  a  gala  day  in  Bassein.  You  have  only 
to  step  into  a  church  in  Goa  to  see  what  her  catliedral  was  like 
in  those  distant  times  ;  a  mass  of  gilding,  paintings  in  galore, 
lighted  candles,  and  a  redundancy  of  ecclesiastical  furniture. 
The  Hidalgos  of  Bassein  are  there  witli  their  ladies  in  rich  and 
gay  attire,  concealed  in  Eastern  seclusion.  I  can  see  one,  never- 
theless, as  she  steps  from  her  palanquin,  and  with  dainty  feet  in 
sandals  treads  with  measured  step  that  passage  wliich  has  been 
constructed  to  veil  her  beauty  from  the  vulgar  gaze  as  she  enters 
the  cathedral.  Now  she  is  seated,  clad  in  silk  and  kinlchah, 
floating  in  the  muslin  of  the  East ;  notliing  is  wanting — ostrich 
feathers  from  Arabia  and  diamonds  from  Golkonda.  She  kneels, 
and  the  air  is  heavy  with  frankincense.  As  she  rises  from  her 
knees  a  monk  in  a  grey  cloak,  tall,  of  a  ruddy  countenance  and 
chiselled  features,  enters  the  pulpit  with  a  buoyant  step.  It  is 
a  great  day  for  Bassein,  for  this  is  the  apostle  of  the  Indies, 
come  from  ^Malacca. 

I  dare  not  describe  Xavier,  but  his  voice  still  rings  down  the 
centuries  calling  all  men  to  repentance,  "  preaching  humility 
to  tyrants,"  as  Mackintosh  hath  it,  and  "  benevolence  to 
savages."  Everybody  is  here — Dominicans  in  black  cloak  and 
cassock,  Franciscan  friars  of  orders  grej',  girded  witli  a  cord, 
in  grey  cloak  and  cowl  as  becometh.  He  prays,  wrestles  in 
agony,  pours  forth  his  impassioned  eloquence,  reproves,  exhorts, 
entreats  and  grapples  with  their  morals — debased  enough,  pre- 
venient  grace  excepted,  to  render  them  one  day  the  outcasts  of 
Asia.  Dona  Slaria  thrills  under  the  eloquence  of  the  great 
Jesuit.  He  pauses  as  if  to  gather  breatii  and  strength  for  a 
final  appeal,  and  in  this  momentary  lull  I  can  hear  the 
twittering  of  the  mainas  and  the  warbling  of  the  bulbuls,  see 
them  even  as  they  hop  amid  the  rustling  leaves  of  the  tamarind 
and  mango  trees. 

Not  now  nor  again,  I  am  sure,  did  Xavier,  with  his  clear 
blue  eyes  uplifted  to  heaven,  ever  dream  of  such  a  destiny  as 
awaited  this  building.  Not  now  nor  again  could  anyone 
present  imagine  that  a  new  enemy,  more  inexorable  than 
Mughal  or  Maratlia,  and  more  relentless  tlian  he  of  Vijayaiiagar, 
of  whom  Xavier  had  ample  experience,  was  to  spring  from  tiie 
earth  beneath  and  around  them  and  lay  waste  this  house  of  the 


152 


BASSEIN    AND    THE    PORTDiiUESE. 


Lord  and  all  its  magnificence.  And  among  his  hearers,  as  they 
looked  from  ceiled  roof  to  marble  pavement,  from  groin  to  aisle 
and  chancel,  from  cloister  to  clerestory  and  mullioned  window, 
who  among  them  all  on  this  memorable  day  in  1548  could  ever 
dream  of  an  enemy  of  such  stealthy  approach,  concealed  in  the 


bosom  of  the  earth,  siirer  than  sap  or  mine ;  an  enemy  endowed 
with  the  vigour  of  perpetual  youth,  slow,  silent  and  unceasing 
in  its  movement,  one  that  never  sleeps  day  or  night,  in  summer 
sun  or  winter  storm  ?  That  enemy  was  tropical  vegetation.  We 
have  all  seen  pictures  of  Cambodia  and  Yucatan.      Such  is 


CAPTAix  m'cluer.  153 

r>as>eiii.  A  rank  vegetation  has  clambered  up  lier  walls,  invaded 
her  sanctuaries,  pidled  down  her  pulpits  and  clutched  every 
Ijuilding  in  its  deadly  embrace.  By  the  exclusion  from  her 
gates  of  all  who  differed  from  her  creed,  Bassein  merits  the  doom 
wliich  has  befallen  her.  Her  seven  churches  are  as  desolate  as 
those  of  Asia.  Xot  one  worshipper  now  wends  his  way  to  the 
door  of  her  cathedral ;  not  one  candle  with  flickering  light  is 
left  to  gUmmer  on  her  deserted  altars ;  not  one  matin,  vesper  or 

holy  hymn. 

"  Oh  here  no  Sabbath  bell 
Awakes  the  Sabbath  morn  !  " 

Devotion  has  fled.  Her  holy  places  are  defiled,  and  her  altars 
cast  down  to  the  ground ;  and,  as  if  in  mockery  of  her  intolerant 
pretensions,  the  only  temple  within  her  walls  which  attracts  the 
worshipper  is  of  that  religion  which  she  proscribed  and  sought 
so  industriously  to  destroy.  The  sacred  bull  Nandi  and  the 
monkey  god  Hamiman  now  triumph  over  the  symbol  of  the 
Cross. 

Captain  M'Cluer,  of  the  Indian  Navy,  about  1775  sketched 
Bassein  from  the  sea,  and  his  view  shows  little  change  in  the 
sea  walls  and  bastions,  notwithstanding  the  battering  of  General 
Goddard  in  1780.  None  of  us  remember  1802,  but  young  M. 
Elphinstone  (cdat.  23)  spent  his  Christmas  holidays  between 
this  place  and  Belvidere,  a  bungalow  wliich  in  its  day  sheltered 
many  notabilities.  It  was  under  these  walls  that  Baji  Kao  and 
Barry  Close  concluded  that  treaty  of  Bassein  (1802)  whicli 
Elphinstone  witnessed.  M'Cluer  was  a  bad  man :  that  is,  lie 
was  unscrupulous  and  licentious.  There  have  always  been  one 
or  two  such  men,  the  maggots  and  butterflies  of  Intlian  existence, 
and  they  always  have  had  troops  of  friends.  He  lapsed  into 
the  vices  of  the  Portuguese,  who  became  the  curse  of  social  life 
in  the  East.  If  all  our  men  in  Western  India  had  been  Jl'Cluers, 
Bomliay  would  now  be  what  Goa  is,  or  say  Panjim  in  1890. 

M'Cluer  was  not  an  ordinaiy  man — very  much  the  reverse,  for 
a  glamour  is  round  his  name.  You  may  find  "  M'Cluer's  inlet " 
in  the  Royal  Atlas,  somewhere  in  the  Indian  Archipelago.  The 
great  seadog,  like  Italph  the  Eover,  scoured  the  sea  for  many  a 
day,  till  at  length,  in  a  ship  of  his  own  and  making  his  way 
from  Beukulin  to  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  he  was  never  heard  of. 

VOL.    II.  M 


154  BASSEIN    ANT)   THE    PORTUGUESE. 

TIic  claimants  of  his  money,  for  he  left  a  will,  were  scarcliinc; 
for  his  gravestone  in  188*J.  They  might  have  searched  till 
Doomsday,  for  it  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  and  his  will  might 
have  gone  with  him,  for  it  has  tortured  the  minds  of  solicitors, 
administrators-general,  and  possible  relatives  in  Galloway  and 
Inverness  for  a  hundred  years.  A  recent  writer  (Lowe's  Indian 
Navii)  compares  him  to  Cajjtain  Cook.  He  provided  lilierally 
for  his  women  and  his  children.  There  was  Its.  50,000,  now 
grown  into  several  lakhs.  The  will  was  proved.  In  it  he  states 
in  regard  to  his  slaves  :  "As  I  am  in  a  land  of  liberty,  I  don't 
consider  them  as  slaves  but  servants  "  {Masonic  Hccord,  1867. 
Pro  hono  2>Mieo).  The  residue  he  left  to  "the  illegitimate 
children  of  master  masons." 

It  v\il\  thus  be  seen  that  Jl'Cluer  was,  lilve  Burns's  devil, 
neither  "  lag  nor  lame ; "  and  in  liis  morals  we  have  seen  also 
that  he  was  not  "  blate  nor  scaur."  {Anglice :  neither  lazy  nor 
lame,  nor  modest  nor  scared). 

Apropos  of  the  slave  trade  the  following  excerpt  *  from  a 
(!oa  letter  of  31st  December,  1804,  is  of  interest: — 

"  Insure  Es.  8000  on  91  Catfres  from  Goa  to  Colombo.  They 
are  very  fine  fellows,  and  you  wiU  doubtless  be  highly  pleased 
with  the  transaction.     I  have  left  a  dozen  weak  ones  in  Goa." 

The  letter  is  written  in  a  fine  bold  hand  on  cream  laid  gilt- 
edged  paper,  and  the  skipper's  signature  is  W.  Clarke.  These 
slaves  were  destined  for  sale  as  recruits  to  the  Ceylon 
Government. 

HISTORY. 

I 
The  Portuguese  held  Bassein  from  1533  to  1739,  when  it 

was  taken  from  them  by  the  Marathas,  who  possessed  it  until 

1780,  when  they  were  finally  driven  out  by  the  English.     It  is 

curious  to  note  that  the  same  arguments  which  tlie  I'ortuguese 

now  advance  for  their  aggressions  in  Africa  were  put  forward 

by  them  in  1774.     I  mean  their  right  to  have  Bassein  and 

Salsette  because  they  had  held  them  before.     Here  is  how  the 

astute  Hornby  deals  willi  tliis  flimsy  ]irotonce: — 

*  Bruce  and  Fawcctt's  M^S. 


GOA.  1/J5 

"  Tlie  English  attack  the  Maratha  dominions  wherever  they 
judge  an  impression  may  he  made  with  most  advantage  to 
themselves  or  injury  to  the  enemy ;  and  when  their  armies  come 
before  the  walls  of  a  fortress  where  tlie  Maratha  colours  are 
flying,  they  are  under  no  necessity  to  consult  history  before  the 
liatterics  are  opened  to  discover  the  ancient  possessor,  or  to 
deliberate  whether  any  of  them  may  not  liave  possibly  an 
intention  again  to  attempt  the  conquest  at  some  future  period. 
The  Portuguese  acquired  most  of  their  territoi-ies  in  India  by 
conquest  and  the  force  of  arras.  In  the  same  manner  they  \vere 
deprived  of  what  they  term  the  Province  of  the  Xortli,  and  their 
right  consetpieutly  expired  on  the  same  principle  that  it 
originated." 

TOMBS. 

The  churches  in  Goa,  from  the  entrance  up  to  the  altar,  are 
literally  paved  with  toml)stones.  Slabs  cover  the  whole  aren. 
The  inscriptions  are  in  Portuguese  or  in  Latin,  in  wonderful 
preservation,  and  most  of  them  are  legible.  The  stone  is  cal- 
cidated  to  endure,  and  the  engraved  letters  are  cut  deep  into  it. 
Moreover,  tlie  Portuguese,  in  church  hereabouts  and  in  early 
times  in  their  own  houses,  did  not  wear  shoes,  at  least  sucli 
Iiobnailed  shoes  as  in  Europe  speedily  obliterate  the  most  sacred 
cjiitaphs  on  the  iloors  of  our  cathedrals.  Tlie  congregations 
which  assembled  century  after  century  were  mostly  native 
converts,  and  barefoot. 

The  history  of  Portugal  bulks  big  as  you  walk  over  the  graves 
of  twelve  generations — warriors,  priests  and  men  of  letters,  and 
some  ladies  (there  is  a  Dona  here  and  there)  who  no  doubt  in 
their  day  shed  a  lustre  on  the  social  circle,  and  tempered  the 
violence  of  the  times  in  this  new  Lisbon  set  down  on  the  shores 
of  Asia.  Most  of  the  nobility  of  Goa  have  their  death  and  birth 
date  recorded — biography  iituUiim  in  imvvo — and  some  have 
their  arras  emblazoned  ;  one  notably  significant  quarters  scallop 
shell  and  battle-axe,  in  which  you  may  read  tlie  ])hilosop]iy  of 
L'ortuguese  conquest  in  Asia.  The  portraits  of  the  old  Viceroys, 
too,  help  one  to  make  dead  men  live  again.  They  are  fierce 
and  indomitable,  not  the  smooth  faces  we  sec  around  us,  but 
iron-visaged  men,  born  ou  the  northern  side  of  the  Mediterranean. 

w  2 


156  BASSEDf   AND   THE   POKTUGUESE. 

In  Bassein  there  are  but  few  tombs  in  situ :  most  of  them 
have  been  torn  rutlilessly  up,  and  the  slabs  broken  and  tossed 
about  the  church  interiors.  One  can  see  what  a  make-believe 
the  buildings  are  now  that  the  plaster  has  fallen  down  and 
revealed  the  nakedness  of  the  land.  Tlie  veneering  gone,  there 
is  nothing  left  but  the  coarsest  rubble,  so  held  together  only  by 
lime  or  concrete,  that  you  will  break  the  stones  before  you  are 
able  to  separate  them  the  one  from  the  other.  The  arches  are  built 
of  good  cut  stones,  deftly  pieced  together :  door-posts  and  window- 
facings  ditto.  The  remark  of  Francis  Pyrard,  who  was  here  in 
1607,  that  he  never  "saw  pillars  or  columns  of  stone  so  large  as 
in  this  place,"  could  never  have  had  any  foundation  in  fact 
except  on  one  supposition — that  he  had  seen  very  little. 

From  Bijapur  to  Bassein,  not  to  speak  of  Vijayanagar,  you 
come  from  the  land  of  the  giants  to  that  of  the  pygmies.  The 
guava,  custard  apple,  fig  and  papaya  trees  of  the  old  gardens  of 
Bassein  still  blo.ssom,  but  now  cast  their  untimely  fruit  to  the 
ground.  I  did  not  come  across  the  vine  or  orange.  There  are 
of  course  no  casuarina  nor  Ghdmor, — exotics  of  a  later  introduc- 
tion, but  the  banyan,  pipal,  palms  of  sorts,  some  with  funereal 
tresses  sighing  in  the  wind,  cocoanut,  palmyra,  neem,  cotton  tree 
in  scarlet  blossom,  and  a  huge  baobab  or  adansonia,  in  a  gloomy 
corner,  ripe  of  memories  of  the  Goralch  Imlis  of  Bijapur,  lay 
prostrate,  fallen  from  sheer  age  and  the  weight  of  centuries — a 
mighty  skeleton  with  roots  upturned. 

Some  of  the  churches  hereabout  have  had  a  strange  fate.  The 
site  of  one  is  a  slaughter-house,  another  is  or  was  a  sugar  factory, 
and  a  third  (church  and  college)  lies  beneath  the  Viliar  Lake. 
AMien  Hugh  Miller  pointed  out  a  burying  ground  under 
Compensation  Pond,  the  citizens  of  Edinburgh  felt  a  bad  taste 
in  their  mouths  for  some  days. 


lo7    ) 


t  /  ' 

'  '•-' '  c5 

f  , 

r 

TIIK    TWIN    TuWliliS   AKD   GANGASiGAR   TAXK 
AT    RAYGARH. 


CHAriER    XLVI. 

SivAJi's  Forts. 

I. — THE   FORT   OF   RAYGARH. 

"  Adieu  thou  palace,  rarely  entered, 
Adieu  ye  uiaiision.s,  where  I've  ventured, 
Adieu  ye  cursed  streets  of  stairs 
How  surely  he  who  mounts  them  swears." 

Byron's  Adieu. 

Raygarii  is  a  lonely  liill.  No  one  cares  to  go  to  it,  for  it  is 
rather  out  of  the  way  and  difficult  of  access.  One  English  lady 
has  ascended  it,  and  (U-ll,  of  pedestrian  fame,  in  his  sevcn- 
leagued  boots.     From  l!(jmbay  the  journey  is — 

"  Splash,  splash,  across  the  sea, 
Tramp,  tramp,  across  the  main."  * 

The  splashing  ends  at  Nagothna,  where  we  e.xchangc  the  howling 
of  tlie  handar-hoat  men  for  the  tender  mercies  of  the  "  messman." 


*  "  Tramp,  tramp,  along  the  land  they  rode, 
Splash,  splash,  aloog  the  sea." — Scott. 


158  sn-AJi's  roRTS. 

A  much-abused  man  in  India  is  the  mcssman,  and  yet  v,e  could 
not  get  ou  well  without  him.  Let  us,  therefore,  talk  of  him 
lovingly  as  we  swoop  down  upon  him  at  the  unearthly  hour  of 
4  a.m.  He  rises  uncomplainingly — it  is  tnie  with  something 
like  a  grunt — hut  I  am  sure,  if  I  were  a  messman,  I  should  be 
inclined  to  say  "  Get  out !  "  But  he  is  the  afflicted  man's  com- 
panion, he  strokes  him  with  the  hair,  and  sends  him  gently  away 
ill  his  tanga  at  peace  with  all  the  Morld.  lorgive  Iiim,  then 
if  he  sings  a  shrill  requiem  to  himself  on  our  departure.  "  A 
fair  wind  to  him.  ]\Iay  he  never  come  back  again."  The 
morning  is  cold.  There  is  much  fog  as  we  emerge  from  this 
creek  town,  so  the  driver  blows  his  horn  lustily  with  a  "  clear 
the  road"  twang,  which  rouses  drowsy  men  and  beasts  of  burden, 
for  we  can  bear  and  partially  see  them,  in  the  gray  daylight, 
Imstling  and  scuffling  out  of  the  way.  It  was  there  I  saw  what 
would  have  sent  away  that  great  wood  engraver,  Thomas  Bewick, 
crazy  with  delight,  a  dead  hursc,  and  which  (I  am  not  sure) 
figures  in  one  of  his  tail  pieces.  The  horse  lay  with  extended 
legs,  thrown  out  from  it,  its  last  kick,  in  the  attitude  in  which 
death  had  overtaken  it,  a  picture  of  weary  abandon  and  utter 
thowlessness,  so  diflicult  for  the  painter  to  delineate.  There,  too, 
was  the  dog  on  its  haunches,  with  closed  jaws,  riving  with  might 
and  main  at  the  undismembered  carcass.  Our  driver  seems  up 
to  his  work.  At  all  events  we  have  no  need  to  imitate  Arch- 
bishop Sharpe  on  Magus  IMoor  and  shout  to  the  postilion, 
"Drive,  drive,  drive,"  for  the  people  are  inoffensive,  and  the 
tempers  of  Dekhany  man  and  beast  seem  to  fit  each  other  to  a 
T,  and  they  go  at  their  work  as  if  they  meant  it.  We  bowl 
along,  up  bill  and  down  dale,  sending  stones  and  dirt  spinning 
right  and  left,  taxing  wheels  and  thews  to  the  utmost,  until  we 
feel  that  we  are  within  an  inch  of  our  lives  :  .specially  so  in  those 
long  sweeps,  as  it  were  in  a  chariot  of  doom,  thundering  down 
hill  to  the  foot  of  a  nala,  full  of  boulders  and  projecting  stones, 
on  which  we  bump,  thump,  and  crash — happily  not  to  our 
destruction. 

\-IEW   OK  NAGOTIISA  CKEEK  FROM  BOSIBAY. 

We  are  now  on  consecrated  ground — consecrated  we  mean  to 
us  by  many  a  bright  vision  from  Malabar  and  Kambala  Hills, 


SCENEUY.  1 59 

for  in  the  early  clays  of  the  monsoon  we  have  wonderful  \<vo- 
spects  from  Bombay.  It  is  tbcu  that  distance  leads  cncliaut- 
ment  to  the  vie\v.  Sometimes  the  curtain  lifts,  and  the  clouds 
clear  away  from  the  island  of  Karanja,  the  high  land  of  Thai, 
and  the  broad  lagoon  which  intersects  them.  There,  across  the 
harbour,  lies  in  all  its  glory  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth — a 
place  of  broad  streams  and  rivers,  fretted  with  the  gold  and 
islands  of  the  blest — a  vision  to  satisfy  the  weary  soul  at  sun- 
rise, vexed  with  tlie  miseries  of  a  restless  night.  One  solitary 
palm  tree  stands  on  the  extreme  verge  of  the  horizon,  like  a 
lonely  sentinel  on  the  confines  of  the  world  beyond.  What  that 
world  is  we  now  know.  No  longer  mcvo  ;/lamour  or  chiaroscuro, 
blotted  out  of  being  by  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun,  but  a 
beautiful  country  well-cultivated,  though  prosaic,  well-watered 
and  well-wooded,  filled  with  a  prosperous  people  whose  f/dms 
and  farm  steadings  dot  the  landscape.  Tiffin  and  a  night's 
lodging  at  Dasgam,  in  traveller's  bungalow,  whence  a  shore 
morning's  drive  alongside  the  creek  takes  us  to  Mahad.  The 
estuary  is  narrow,  but  seen  in  its  windings  and  in  the  long 
shadows  of  early  daylight,  offers  some  tempting  bits  of  scenery 
to  the  artist,  water  being  always  a  pleasing  and  grateful  adjunct 
to  Indian  scenery.  The  tuft  of  bulrush,  and  heron  on  one  leg 
was  not  a-wanting.     Burns  in  "  The  wicked  town  of  Ayr  "  hits 

off  Mahad,— 

"  Low  in  a  sandy  valley  .spread 
An  ancient  biiigh  rears  its  head." 

"  Wiien  I  was  at  Goa  I  saw  iu  a  principal  market-place  an 
engine  with  stoppings  to  go  upon,  called  a  strapado,  which  un- 
hinges a  man's  joints."  *  E.vactly.  This  is  the  engine  to  which 
you  are  transferred  at  Mahad  yclept  a  bullock  (jari.  The  distance 
to  be  done  is  ten  miles,  and  we  do  it  in  seven  hours,  and  can 
assure  the  reader  that  had  we  been  the  stifl'est-necked  heretic 
that  ever  existed  we  could  not  have  been  more  severely  punished. 
It  is  not  only  a  knock-kneed  existence,  but  the  head  comes  in 
for  a  fair  share  of  beetling.  You  arc  culled  on  one  side,  and 
then,  by  way  of  average  adjiKtmiMit,  on  the  other,  until  you  are 


'.Dr.  Fiycr,  1G7-1. 


160  SIVAJi's    FORTS. 

black  and  blue,  and  the  only  rest  yon  get  is  when  the  brutes 
shamble  into  some  nala  full  of  water  and  boulders,  leaving  you 
like  Lord  Ullin's  daughter  in  the  midst  thereof.  There  is  great 
virtue,  however,  in  an  Indian  tiffin  under  a  tree.  An  addition 
of  "  a  stannin  di-ink  like  the  coo  o'  Forfar,"  and  a  rough  walk  of 
two  miles  take  us  to  Pachad. 


PACHAD   AND   THE   STAIECASE. 

At  Pachad  we  spent  a  very  quiet  night  in  the  Eamswami 
temple.  Au  owl  hooted  ;  and  a  young  jackal  threaded  its  way 
among  the  recumbent  bodies.  There  were  once  10,000  horse- 
men stationed  here,  yet  we  did  not  hear  the  sound  of  bit  or 
bridle. 

Pachad  is  the  ancient  2^cth  of  the  fort.  Somewhat  like  the 
grange  attached  to  baron's  keep  and  castle,  the  ^)t'^/i  was  the 
depot  of  supplies  brought  in  from  the  surrounding  country  for 
the  use  of  the  garrison :  a  strong  place  to  keep  watch  and  ward, 
and  summon  all  visitors,  friendly  or  otherwise,  to  parley.  The 
ordeal  by  touch  at  Pachad  sent  a  tremor  right  up  to  the  bastions 
of  Piaygarh.  An  early  start  is  the  best,  so  we  breast  the  hill  at 
3  a.m.  This  enables  us  to  see  the  sun  rise  when  we  arrive  at 
our  destination;  but  I  am  not  sure  but  that  all  the  Dekhan 
hills  are  best  to  be  done  in  this  way.  A  light  to  your  path  is 
all  you  want.  The  precipices  and  gulfs  profound  are  better  in 
shadow,  otherwise  the  pedestrian,  whose  nerves  are  weak  or 
physical  education  neglected,  may  be  the  subject  of  groggy  and 
uneasy  sensations ;  so  the  fine  scenery  and  elixir  of  the  cragsman 
may  become  man-traps  to  catch  or  murder-holes  to  eugulph  the 
unwary.  I  must  say,  however,  that  Piaygarh  is  a  noble  hill, 
and  does  not  resort  to  mean  shifts.  Besides,  in  the  afternoon, 
the  western  sun  blazes  fierce  on  the  exposed  pathway  all  the 
way  up. 

"\yiien  Sivaji  luiilt  Eaygarh  he  counted  the  cost,  and  it  took 
him  years  to  accomplish.  He  ran  a  stair  up  the  side  of  Piay- 
garh. In  the  level  places  it  was  not  wanted,  but  deflections,  up 
or  down,  were  covered  by  it  as  it  sidled  or  zig-zagged  up  the  hill. 
The  transverse  blocks  were  laid  down  or  cut  out  of  the  living 
roclx,  and  a  throughgate  cleared  away  in  the  rock,  where  needed, 


KAYGAKH.  161 

by  fi:iinpo\vder.  The  horse,  the  camel,  nay  even  the  elephant, 
were  no  strangers  to  the  stair  of  Eaygarh.  Near  the  summit 
the  staircase  is  nearly  perfect,  and  the  topmost  tiers  as  entire  as 
the  day  they  were  cut.  But  time  and  the  elemental  strife  of 
two  hundred  years,  to  which  must  be  added  General  Prother's 
gunpowder  in  1818,  have  done  tliuir  work  upon  it. 

Tile  monsoon  deals  death  to  masoncraft  on  the  hillside,  and, 
like  the  preacher,  writes  "  Vanity  of  vanities  "  on  the  strongest 
works  of  man.  Every  inch  in  its  downward  progress  a  monsoon 
torrent  increases  in  strength,  volume,  and  fury,  until  to-day  we 
see  the  path  of  the  destroyer  marked  liy  avalanches  of  debris 
and  loose  stones,  spread  out  like  a  fan  to  tlie  plain  below,  where 
all  trace  of  the  staircase  is  lost.  Any  person  in  good  healtli 
may  ascend  Eaygarh.  Tliere  is,  of  course,  a  good  deal  of  climl)- 
ing  as  well  as  walking,  and  breaking  of  shins  in  Matheran  cooly- 
path  work.  The  foothold  of  a  heavy  man  sometimes  gives  way, 
but  a  lighter  one  will  scramble  up  the  hill  in  half  the  time  we 
have  done. 

POSITION. 

Eaygarh  is  not  Majgarlt,  whicii  is  seen  from  the  door  of  St. 
Mary's  Church,  Poena.  They  both,  however,  mean  Eoyal  Palace.* 
Eaygarh  is  in  lat.  18°  12'  K,  long.  73°  38'  E.  Draw  a  straight 
line  on  the  map  from  Janjira  due  east,  and  it  will  bisect  Eay- 
garh twenty  miles  from  the  coast.  It  has  been  called  the 
<  Gibraltar  of  the  East :  f  and  of  all  the  hill  forts  in  the  ]]ombay 
Presidency  it  is  the  most  interesting.  It  was  built  and  fortified 
by  Sivaji  and  became  his  abode.  In  other  parts  he  was  merely 
a  wayfaring  man  for  the  night ;  but  here  for  sixteen  years  he 
gatliered  around  him  wives  and  children,  Brahman  statesmen 
such  as  they  M'ere,  gods  and  their  (furus,  goods  and  chattels,  the 
miglity  plunder  he   levied   from   cities,  kafilas,  and   caravels 


*  Toroa  and  IJajgarh  are  in  the  I'iint  of  Bor's  territory.      riayf;arh   is 
British  in  the  Kulaija  Collectorate. 

t  Not  the  Gibraltar  of  Mattliew  Arnold,  in  those  beautiful  lines  composed 
in  memory  of  his  brothiT,  wlio  died  there  on  his  way  from  India  : — 
"The  murmur  of  this  midland  deep 
Is  heard  to-iii},'lit  around  thy  grave, 
'J'herc,  wliure  (jlihraltar's  euunon'd  steep 
O'crfrowns  the  wave." — April  'J,  lb59. 


162  siv,\.n's  FORTS. 

Whatever  -wild  raids  he  wns  engaged  in,  tliey  all  had  one  natural 
termination,  which  was  when  lie  sat  down  on  this  mountain-to]) 
and  counted  up  his  gains ;  and  his  endless  acquisition  of  plunder, 
which  was  his  meat  and  drink,  never  knew  respite  except  when 
its  massive  gates  %\erc  closed  upon  him.  I^  ever  he  slept  soundly, 
it  was  in  Eaygarh.  Here  he  was  crowned,  and  through  its  two- 
leaved  gates,  borne  upon  a  litter,  came  from  liis  bloody  raid  at 
Jalna  this  restless  scion  of  humanity,  for  the  last  time,  with  his 
battered  body,  to  lay  him  down  and  die.  Ea3-garh  rises  from 
the  Konkan,  and  not  from  tlie  1  )ekhan,  and  in  this  respect  and 
in  height  resembles  Mathcran  or  I'rabhal.  Its  area  is  about  a 
mile-and-a-half  long  by  one  mile  broad,  tapering  away, — a  wedge 
like  Gharljat  Point  on  Jlatheran.  In  superficies,  shape  and 
levels  the  entire  hill  resembles  an  isolated  Gharbat,  but  though 
there  are  trees  upon  it,  it  has  not  the  dense  wood  of  Matheran. 

DESCRIPTIVE. 

There  are  three  gates  to  llaygarh.  The  first  is  300  or  400 
feet  li-om  the  summit,  flanked  by  bastions  30  feet  high,  from 
which  the  ramparts  diverge  on  either  side.  The  decay  of  Mara- 
tha  power  is  written  on  their  fort  gates.  Eaygarh  stands  wide 
open  day  and  night ;  you  can  pick  tlie  lock  of  Torna  with  a  pen- 
knife (but  don't  do  it),  and  a  Birmingham  padlock  marked 
"  patent "  dangles  idly  in  the  wind  on  the  door-posts  of  Prataji- 
garh.  Another  gate  is  j^assed,  and  we  stumble  on  the  brow  of 
Eaygarh.  Two  polygonal  towers  stand  here,  vaulted,  bomb- 
proof, and  with  pointed  wimlows,  Imt  ■without  muUions  :  archi- 
tecture, partly  Hindu,  partly  JMuslini.  They  are  two-storeyed 
and  30  feet  high.  Externally  much  ornamented  with  projecting 
masses  of  masonry,  standing  at  right  angles  from  the  wall. 
Pleasure  liouses  or  watcli  towers  we  Icnow  not.  On  this  limited 
plateau  is  the  largest  tank  on  the  hill,  and  a  goodly  number  of 
trees,  among  which  some  liuffaloes  are  wandering  i)romisciunisly. 

Wc  now  enter  the  JUilakilhi.  The  entrance  is  by  a  gateway 
and  staircase,  on  either  side  of  which  rise  high  walls,  well  built 
and  in  perfect  condition,  and  which  may  have  been  covered  or 
arciied  over — a  covered  way.  We  are  now  within  tlie  inner 
cincture,  where  everything  Avas  kept  tliat  was  worth  keeping : 


MABATHA   AKClilTECTtrRE.  163 

kingly  crovni,  holy  books,  with  the  gold  and  -women  of  the 
sovereign.  We  will  speak  of  the  last  first.  There  are  seven 
jcf/irs ;  each  wife  had  her  own  quarter.  They  are  walled  en- 
closures as  large  as  a  Scotch  kirkyard  and  as  gloomy,  with  a 
suggestive  precipice  beyond.  Historically  the  number  scten  is 
an  error,  for  Sivaji  had  only  four  wives.*  Some  architectural 
forethought,  no  doubt,  contingent  upon  his  connubial  dotage, 
"  We  are  seven."  Then  come  a  congeries  of  buildings,  the 
walls  of  which  only  are  now  standing,  residences  of  cliiefs  and 
gentry  of  sorts. 

ARCniTECTCEE. 

The  buildings  (such  as  they  are)  are  the  best  of  all  Sivaji's 
handiwork,  for  he  was  a  bad  mason.  He  had  too  much  on  hand 
to  busy  himself  entirely  with  stones  and  mortar.  When  we 
compare  even  this,  which  is  Sivaji's  best,  with  Isagarh  and  Sin- 
garh  forts,  wliich  were  built  before  he  existed,  the  difference  is 
apparent.  As  for  Torna  and  I'ratapgarh,  forts  constructed  by 
Sivaji :  they  are  slip.shod  work.  The  grass  grows  green  or  brown 
between  every  single  stone,  while  you  can  barely  put  a  jienknife 
blade  between  the  stones  of  Isagarh,  where  the  length  of  the 
walls  (a  thousand  yards  or  more)  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
bastions  surprise  as  much  even  an  unpractised  eye  as  do  their 
finish  and  execution.  There  is  a  strong  Saracenic  element  in 
the  earlier  fort  architecture  of  the  Dekhan.  Take  the  Eajgarh 
and  Torna  arches  for  example.  The  gateways  remind  one  of 
Cairo  or  Damascus,  and  carry  us  back  to  those  dim  and  early 
times  when  the  Arabs  first  carried  their  conquests  and  civilisa- 
tion into  Western  India.  Tlie  Hindu  modified  wliat  the  Arab 
began,  but  the  disciple  in  tlie  Dekhan  was  not  worthy  of  his 
master. 

It  may  assist  us,  in  filling  in  the  picture,  to  remember  that  in 
Sivaji's  time  there  were  300  stone- houses  here  ;  accommodation 
for  a  gaiTison  of  2000  men ;  offices  for  the  administration  and 
disbursement  of  his  revenue,  and  for  the  custody  of  the  archives 
of  the  kingdom,  a  mint  which  coined  not  only  copper  coins  but 


•  "Ti>  have  the  queens  equal  in  number  to  tlic  days  of  the  week  is  uot 
unusual." — Tod's  Rajast'han,  Annals  of  Mewar,  1821). 


164  SIVAJi's   FORTS. 

golden  pagodas  ;  a  bazaar  also  consisting  of  a  street  nearly  a  mile 
long,  the  sides  of  which  you  can  still  see  plinth  high,  and  a  sign- 
board to  describe  each  quarter,  standing  at  corners  like  a  huge 
inverted  slate,  six  feet  high  and  two  broad.  Eaygarh  contains 
one  building  which  we  take  to  be  Sivaji's,  and  which  out-distances 
in  architectural  beauty  and  workmanship  anything  we  have  seen 
in  the  forts  of  the  Deklian.  It  is  a  stone  arch  which,  no  doubt, 
constituted  the  great  gateway  or  entrance  to  Ms  palace,  court,  or 
darbar, — apparently  a  copy  of  the  one  at  Bijapur.  Comparing 
Eaygarh  to  Gharbat,  the  arch  would  be  the  hotel,  and  Sivaji's 
cenotaph  the  temple  at  Gharbat  Point.  It  is  larger  than  tlie 
arch  of  Titus  at  Eome,  without  posterns,  very  like  it,  and  is  the 
entrance  to  a  court  as  big  as  Solomon's  temple.*  The  arch,  of 
regal  magnificence,  is  seen  from  afar,  and  must  have  been  a  fine 
picture  when  the  black  eagle  of  Junnar  flapped  liis  mighty  wings 
over  Dekhan  and  Konkan  plaui,  which  he  had  learned  to  strip 
so  bare.  It  has  an  inside  staircase,  a  most  workmanL'ke  struc- 
ture, almost  as  perfect  as  the  day  it  was  constructed,  save  that 
stalactites,  finger  length,  hang  from  the  roof,  showing  that  two 
hundred  monsoons  have  forced  some  moisture  into  hidden 
craunies.f     We  creep  up  in  the  dark  to  have 

A   VIEW   FKOM   liAYGAlill. 

The  sun  is  just  rising  behind  Torna.  There  is  nothing  but 
hills  to  be  seen  north,  south,  east,  and  west.  At  our  feet  is 
Mahad,  where  Sivaji  spent  so  many  of  liis  youthful  days.  Here 
is  Singarh,  and  there  Mahabaleshwar.J  and  to  the  south-east  the 


*  "  Solomon's  Temple,  120  leet  loug,  35  bruad." — Sjjeaker's  Commentary. 
t  Until  tho  tape  and  measui-ing  line  of  the  archittct  comes  to  Eaygarh, 
we  leave  on  record  the  foot  or  "  rule  o'  thumb"  measurements: — 
Height  of  arch  .....        GO  feet. 

Span        .......         S    ,. 

Sides  of  arch    .  .  .  .  .  .       12     „     broad. 

Length  of  passage  through  .  .  .       24   „ 

Length  of  court  .....     150   „ 

Breadth 70   „ 

It  Wad  an  open  court,  and  there  was  a  well  iu  the  middle  of  it,  now  tilled  up 
with  stones  and  rubbish. 

J  Kovember  2nd,  1792. — "  The  village  of  Mah.abaleshwar,  at  the  source  of 
the  Krishna,  l.i)'  on  tlie  eastern  slope  of  the  mountaiu ;  and  was  barely  visible 
when  iminted  out  by  one  acquainted  with  the  sjwt,  and  one  large  pagoda 
was  clearly  iislinguished  through  a  telescope." — IVice's  Memorials. 


CHOICE    OF    EAYGARir.  165 

fort  of  Kangori,  where  two  Euglislimen  were  imprisoned  by  the 
hist  I'esliwah  with  much  cruelty.  When  we  bombarded  Wasote 
(to  which  they  had  been  removed)  sixty  years  ago,  Cornets 
Hunter  and  Morrison  crept  out  witli  grizzly  beards  and  un- 
bleached calico,  not  much  the  worse  for  their  durance  vile.  The 
best  view  of  Eaygarh  is  from  a  place  that  not  one  man  in  a 
million  will  ever  go  to  see — we  mean  the  summit  of  Torna.  It 
is  tliere  that  its  massive  bulk  and  steep  walls  of  rock  heave  their 
everlasting  proportions  on  the  eye.  As  you  cross  the  Nagothna 
plain,  Kaygarh  has  little  appearance,  and  the  nearer  we  get  to 
it,  the  less  we  see  of  it,  until  we  arrive  at  the  top,  when  its  ex- 
ternal appearance  is  lost  to  us.  We  tried  in  vain  to  make  it 
out  from  the  IMahabaleshwar  points,  and  caught  merely  a  make- 
believe  shadow  of  it  from  the  cuup  d'oeil  at  Wara  *  on  the  Par 
Ghat,  and  from  Pratapgarh. 

Sivaji  had  a  quick  ear,  and  heard  further  than  we  can  see. 
One  night  when  he  w^as  fast  asleep  in  Eaygarh  he  suddenly 
awoke  and  said  some  misfortune  had  befallen  Danda  Eajpuri 
near  Janjira.  It  was  too  true.  It  was  the  bursting  of  a  powder 
magazine  which  he  heard,  and  his  fort  was  taken.  Eajpui'i  was 
twenty  miles  ofi'. 

WUY   SIVAJI   CHOSE  liAYGARH. 

Eaygarh  was  neither  gifted  to  him  nor  inherited  by  him  like  the 
jagirs  of  Poena  and  Supa,  but  came  to  him  by  right  of  conquest. 
The  time  was  probably  about  1G62  to  1GG4,  when  Sivaji  looking 
around  him  for  a  uest,  and  taking  the  measure  of  events  and 
his  own  position  among  them,  his  eye  was  arrested  by  this 
great  quadrangular  block.  He  was  then  occupying  Eajgarh,  a 
strong  furt  4000  feet  above  sea-level,  four  miles  from  Torna,  and 
about  thirty-five  miles  south-west  of  Poona.  Eajgarh  and 
Torna  are  both  hills  of  a  breakneck  character  and  well  suited 
for  the  abode  of  the  youthful  chief  of  a  turbulent  and  imsettled 
country.  But  he  was  now  looking  for  something  else.  Circum- 
stances were  driving  him,  or  he  was  driving  circumstances,  to  a 


*  Waba. — ^The  traveller's  bungalow  here  is  a  Gothic  building  like  a 
Swiss  clialet  among  the  mountains.  Wo  can  recommend  a  short  sojourn  in 
this  deliglitful  sfjo'. 


166 


SIVAJIS   FORTS. 


position  where  a  broader  platform  would  be  necessary  upon 
which  to  exploit.  His  success  was  unw  in  a  manner  assured. 
He  had  many  forts ;  in  fact,  he  left  150  fortified  places  when 
he  died,  and  among  them  were  some  built  before  his  day  and  in 
splendid  condition  to  choose  from.  But  Eaiii,  as  it  was  then 
called,  offered  him  such  advantages,  that  though  its  works,  out 
and  in,  were  perliaps  the  feeblest  of  them  all,  and  its  area  un- 
built ui)on,  lie  resolved 
to  fortify  it,  and  con- 
struct upon  it  a  palace 
and  buildings  suitable 
for  his  government.  His 
reasons  for  doing  so  we 
will  endeavour  to  pre- 
sent to  the  reader.  At 
first  sight  Eaygarh  seems 
an  out-of-the-way  place 
— a  lonely  hill ;  but  it 
m\ist  be  borne  in  mind 
tliat  Bombay,  with  its 
population  of  60,000, 
had  not  then  the  pre- 
ponderating weight  in 
the  commonwealth  it 
has  since  obtained.  A 
glance  at  the  map  shows 
that  Eaygarh  is  nearly 
equidistant  from  Bom- 
bay, Poona,  and  Satara. 
KAjGAitH.  Moreover,  it  was  only  a 

few  miles  from  Mahad, 
a  shallow  seaport,  it  is  true,  but  a  base  of  operations  whence 
supplies  were  always  available,  and  in  communication  with  the 
chain  of  durgs  or  sea-forts  which  he  had  established  along  the 
coast,  and  to  which,  should  the  worst  come  to  the  worst — and 
this  was  no  doubt  among  his  calculations — ^lie  could  resort.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  empii-e  of  India  was  then  ruled 
from  Dehli,  and  that  Aurangzeb  in  person  was  hurlmg  masses 
of  men  into  the  Dekhan  to  crush  the  nascent  energies  of  the 


'r'<\ 


DEFENSn'E    POSITIONS. 


167 


^[arathas,  of  whom  Sivaji  was  the  representative.  The  first 
!,'reat  wave  had  ah-eady  broken,  and  Daiihitabad,  Junnar,  Chakan, 
I'oona,  and  Siipa  liad  already  fallen  a  prey  to  the  Muslim. 
Singarh  and  Piirandliar  might  come  next  (as  they  did),  and  the 
deluge  would  be  upon  him.  So  he  step]ied  back,  not  reluctantly 
or  cowardly,  but  as  a  matter  of  stratagem.  Looking  from 
llaygarh  to  the  north-east,  in  the  direction  of  I'oona,  the  sky- 
line is  bounded  by  a  huge  breastwork  of  nature's  making,  thirty 
miles  away,  scarps  4000  feet  above  sea-level,  crowned  by  the 
bastions   of  Eajgarli  and   Torna;   as   long   as   they   remained 


PRATArOARII    AND    AK/.II.    KHAN's   TOMU. 


intact  he  was  safe.  They  were  his  natural  defence,  Ins 
munition  of  rocks,  between  him  and  the  Mughal  enemy;  and 
Lhey  did  remain  so  during  his  life,  for,  so  far  as  we  know, 
they  were  never  surrendered  to  force  or  by  treaty  or  stratagem. 
They  were  to  stand  and  fall  together.  Such  are  some  of  tlie 
political  and  military  reasons  which  may  have  induced  Sivaji  to 
pitch  upon  the  rock  of  llairi.  As  far  as  we  know  it  was 
unstained  by  human  blood.  The  same  could  not  be  said  of 
Singarh,  I'urandhar,  Logarh  and,  least  of  all,  of  Pratapgarh, 
under  whose  flagstones  lay  the  gory  head  of  Afzul  Khan.   Here, 


loo  SIVAJIS    FORTS. 

at  all  events,  he  could  stand  on  his  own  threshold  and  worshi]) 
the  tuhl  plant,  without  being  confronted  with  the  evidence  of 
his  guilt  or  the  witnesses  of  his  crimes.*  Eeasons  also  of  a 
]ihysical  and  topographical  character :  Eaygarli  is  a  great 
wedge-shaped  block,  split  off  from  the  Western  Ghats,  inacces- 
sible on  three  sides,  and  wanting  only  fortifications  on  the  fomth, 
where  a  gate  flanked  by  towers  and  ramparts  made  it  impregna- 
ble to  his  enemies,  while  it  was  of  easy  access  to  liis  friends. 
The  avenues  leading  to  it  were  most  difficult  of  access,  and  the 
country  round  about,  being  a  theatre  of  mountains,  has  been 
described  by  a  contemporary  of  Sivaji,  who  travelled  over  it,  "as 
a  specimen  of  hell,"  which,  a  la  Dante  or  Hilton,  represents 
the  long  and  toilsome  march  of  a  thirsty  traveller  among  cactus 
bushes,  thorns  of  sorts,  and  dry  water-courses,  until  the  Muslim 
saw  the  precipices  beetling  above  bis  head,  which  encii'cled  the 
home  of  this  troublesome  idolater. 

"  Black  he  stood  as  night. 
Fierce  as  ten  furies — terrible  as  hell." 


THE   ENGLISH  EMBASSY. 

Dming  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  when  General  Aungier 
was  Governor  of  Bombay,  an  Embassy  was  sent  to  Raygarh 
to  assist  at  the  coronation  of  Sivaji.  It  consisted  of  Henry 
Oxinden  and  two  English  factors.  Henry  Oxinden  was  of 
good  family  ;  his  father  was  a  Knight  of  England. f  Bombay 
sent  the  best  man  she  had,  next  to  the  Governor.  He  had  been 
chief  of  Karwar,  which  place  had  been  taken  by  Sivaji,  and 
presumably  he  knew  a  good  deal  of  the  politics  of  those  countries 
on  the  western  coast  of  India.  He  became  Deputy-Governor  of 
Bombay  in  1676.  He  was  about  fifty-six  years  of  age  when  he 
ascended  Raygarh.      The  party  went  in  a  balloon  (not   aerial 

*  All  this  was  changed  by  Sambhaji,  the  son  and  successor  of  Sivaji.  The 
moment  he  passed  the  gate  of  Raygarh,  says  Grant  Duff,  he  displayed  the 
liarbarity  of  his  disposition  by  ]mtting  his  step-mother,  the  wife  of  Sivaji,  to 
a  cruel  and  lingering  death,  imprisoning  her  son  and  Sivaji's  prime  minister, 
confiscating  his  property,  and  beheading  or  hurling  from  the  precipices  of 
the  rock  of  Kaygarh  the  Slaratha  oflicers  who  were  attached  to  her  cause. 

t  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  4, 12,  &c. 


THE    ENGLISH    EMBASSY.  169 

navigation,  but) — a  small  sail  boat — to  Chaul,  and  arrived  at 
I'achad  six  days  after  leaving  Bombay. 

NIL  DESPERANDUM. 

Tliroughoiit  the  early  history  of  Bombay  there  is  nothing  so 
striking  or  worthy  of  admiration  as  the  attitude  of  conscious 
strength  disijluyed  by  the  men  who  upheld  the  government  of 
the  infant  colony.  One  would  say  that  the  Great  Powers  at 
that  time  could  easily  have  crushed  Bombay,  and  that  they  did 
not  do  it  because  they  could  not  do  it  in  justice  to  their  own 
selfish  interests.  At  all  events  Bombay  did  not  blanch  or  fear 
either  within  or  without  her  bastions.  The  men  who  con- 
stituted the  Embassy  went  on  this  expedition  as  on  a  holiday 
excursion,  or  a  tour  in  the  districts  to  collect  the  cocoanut 
revenue  of  Matuuga  or  Sion.  They  had  heard  stories  of  Sivaji's 
treachery,  cruelty,  and  lustful  ambition — stories  too  well 
founded.  One  of  Sivaji's  forts  he  called  Singarh,  the  lion's  den. 
It  still  frowns  in  lofty  grandeur  over  tlie  vaUey  of  the  Nu-a 
and  the  Lake  of  Kliadakw;isla.  But  in  truth  they  were  all 
lion's  dens,  with  the  footmarks  inward.  *  Was  not  the  deed  of 
Afzul  Khan  still  ringing  in  their  ears  ?  So,  to  many  a  Bombay 
household,  Sivaji  was  a  Black  Douglas,  an  old  Man  of  the 
Jlountaiu,  or  Giant  Despair,  and  the  caves  of  Eaygarh— the 
hole  in  the  hill,  from  the  door  of  which  Mercy  came  trembling 
away. 

And  yet  not  one  word  betraying  doubt,  hesitation  or  fear 
exists  in  their  narrative.  Gerald  Aungier  had  blotted  these 
words  out  of  the  dictionary. 

]ioml)ay  was  not  at  war  with  Sivaji.  Nevertheless,  it 
redounds  greatly  to  the  credit  of  both  parties.  Sivaji  was  not 
afraid  to  have  the  Embassy  in  liis  fort,  and  they  were  not 
frightened  to  go  into  it  and  remain  there.  The  Eaygarh  of  the 
seventeenth  century  was  not  the  Kabul  of  the  niueteentli 
century. 

THE  BURST   OF  THE  MONSOON. 

Let  us  try  and  picture  this  grey-haired  and  grizzly  Puritan  on 

*  "  Vestigia  nuUa  retrorsum."    Fox  to  Lion. — Horace. 
VOL.    U.  N 


170  SIYAJl's   FOKTS. 

the  heights  of  Eaygarh.  It  need  not  be  a  difficult  task,  for  we 
have  only  to  ask  ourselves  what  are  now  the  precursors  of  the 
monsoon  on  any  hill  in  Western  India  to  know  what  they  were 
then  and  there.  The  atmosphere  weighs  down  everything,  man, 
beast,  and  bird : — 

"  There's  not  a  bird  with  lonely  nest, 
In  pathless  wood  or  mountain  crest," 

but  drops  the  eye  or  folds  the  wing,  and  the  very  foliage  seems 
to  hang  limp  and  lifeless  amid  the  oppressive  and  universal 
stillness.  *     As  day  succeeds  day  his  troubles  accumulate. 

I  doubt  not  that  Henry  Oxinden  prayed  long  and  fervently 
(when  the  insects  would  let  him),  for  rain,  and  for  wind  too  ; 
not  "thesoughin'  winnin'  wind,"  but  "the  rantin'  tearm'  -wind  " 
of  the  Scotch  minister,  one  blast  to  shake  his  house  and  the 
very  bed  he  lay  on.  For  long  ere  this,  you  may  be  sure,  had 
come  hunger  and  tliirst  for  the  unattainable,  the  feverish  pulse, 
throbbing  temples  and  bloodshot  eyes,  for  which  there  was  now 
little  left  to  look  at,  but  a  weird  and  lurid  landscape  of  sand- 
devils,  chasing  each  other  on  the  plains  below  him,  or,  per- 
adventure,  the  mirage  of  his  own  spectre  on  the  neighbouring 
hill,  to  mock  or  confound  him  with  the  delusions  of  witchcraft.f 
That  he  cursed  the  day  he  left  Bombay  Castle  or  his  native  Kent 
is  not  recorded ;  but  recorded  or  not,  with  or  ■\\-ithout  evidence, 
we  take  it  for  granted  that  Henry  O.^inden,  in  consonance  with 
Saxon  human  nature  in  Hindustan,  threw  his  wasted  body  on  a 


*  JtTKE,  1821. — "  The  sky  became  of  that  transparent  blue  which  dazzles 
the  eye  to  look  at.  Throughout  the  day  and  night  there  was  not  a  zephyr 
even  to  stir  a  leaf — but  the  rejxjse  and  stillness  of  death.  The  thermometer 
was  104°  in  the  tent,  and  the  agitation  of  the  punkah  produced  only  a  more 
suffocating  air,  from  which  I  have  fled,  with  a  sensation  bordering  on  mad- 
ness, to  the  gardens  at  the  base  of  the  embankment  of  the  lake.  But  the 
shade  even  of  the  tamarind  or  the  pijial  was  still  less  supportable.  The 
feathered  tribe  with  their  beaks  open,  their  wings  flapping  or  hanging 
listlessly  down,  and  panting  for  breath  like  ourselves,  sought  in  vain  a  cool 
retreat.  The  horses  stooil  with  heads  droojiing  before  their  unta.^ted  pro- 
vender. Amid  this  universal  stagnation  of  life  the  only  sound  which  broke 
upon  the  horrid  stillness  was  the  note  of  the  cuckoo  for  about  an  hour  at 
two  o'clock,  the  period  of  greatest  heat." — Tott's  Bajasthan. 

t  We  have  never  seen  the  spectre  of  the  Brocken  in  the  Dekhan,  but  this 
display  of  the  mirage  is  vouched  for  by  Dr.  J.  Y.  Smith  in  the  last  edition 
of  his  book  on  Matheran. 


HENKY  OXDfDEN  AT  EAYGAKII.  171 

charpai,  and  muttered  in  accents,  not  loud  Ijut  deep  : — "  It  is  a 
weariness  of  the  flesh ;  when  will  it  be  over  ?  "  "I  have  seen 
your  naclica,  your  prize  climbing  of  precipices,  your  cock- 
tigliting,  kite-flying,  hawking,  archery,  spear  and  tahvar  exercise, 
performing  goats  and  monkeys  ;  what  are  they  to  me  ?  What 
boots  it  that  Sivaji  weigli-s  himself  against  gold,  feeds  daily  a 
crowd  of  hungry  Brahmans,  or  flashes  his  sword  of  Bhavani  in 
the  morning  sun  ?  The  Jlountain  Eat !  *  His  mother  dies- 
Who  cares  ?  Or  whether  he  marries  a  fourth  or  a  fortieth  wife  ? 
Am  I  to  die  and  have  the  earth  of  Eaygarh  shovelled  on  me, 
that  the  Honourable  Company  trading  in  the  East  Indies  may 
live,  or  be  spared,  merely  to  exist  on  goat's  flesh,  f  while, 
forsooth,  the  fat  factors  of  Bombay  fare  sumptuously  every  day 
on  prawn  and  pomfret,  or  royster  over-night  on  their  Bomljay 
punch  ?  X  Give  me  the  hurricane  rather  than  the  pestilence,  for 
I  would  rather  see  the  rack  of  the  monsoon  on  Eaygarh  than 
the  coronation  of  ten  Sivajis.  Woe !  worth  the  hour !  Woe  ! 
worth  the  day !  "  He  rises — gropes  his  way  to  the  nearest  loop- 
hole in  Ills  dormitory.  His  face  is  dashed  with  a  whirlwind  of 
dust  and  leaves  swept  up  the  naked  surface  of  the  ramparts ; 
half-blinded  he  peers  into  the  darkness  of  the  night,  when  lo ! 
a  flash  from  heaven  pours  a  blaze  of  light  over  half  the  kingdom 
of  Sivaji,  and  reveals  the  blackened  sides  of  Torna,  seamed  and 


*  The  name  which  Aurangzeb  gave  him  (a  pim;  rat,  c7i«/(a  =  Sivaji). — 
James  M.  Campl^oll,  r,L.D. 

t  A  Musliiii  biitchiT  at  the  foot  of  tlie  hill  supplied  them  with  half  a  j;oat 
everyday.  At  the  end  of  weeks  he  began  to  be  surprised  and  desirous  of 
seeing  the  7Je?aitiW/7a/js  who  had  consumed  as  much  as  Sivaji's  hordes  had 
done  in  as  many  years,  so  he  tottered  up  the  hill  to  have  a  look  at  his 
customers.  He  had  not  seen  so  many  animals  slaughtered  since  he  had  been 
at  Mecca.  As  for  Oxindcn  and  his  companinn  they  had  nothing  else  to  eat 
for  three  mortal  months,  neither  fish,  ticsh  nor  fowl,  nor  good  red  herring — 

"  Gent  young.  Goat  old. 
Goat  hot,  (ioat  cold, 
Goat  lean.  Goat  tough, 
TUunk  God,  we've  had  enough." 

X  Punch  and  toddij  arc  both  inventions  of  Western  India.  Panch,  five — 
the  five  ingredients  Ijeing  lime-juice,  rose-water,  sugar,  arak,  and  water. 
Tom  Coryat,  writing  in  India  before  1017,  says  ho  is  drinking  his  friend's 
health  in  Tmli.  Scotsmen  have  taken  kindly  to  the  word.  'J'lie  Bombay 
Presidency  has  much  to  answer  for,  if  wo  are  prepared  to  accept  this  state- 
ment, that  it  lias  given  birth  to  the  names  of  the  national  drink  both  of 
England  and  Scotland. 

N   2 


172  SIVAJi's   FORTS. 

ribbed  -with  the  white  cataracts  of  the  monsoon.  Blessed 
relief:  never-to-be-forgotten  vision. 

The  day  dawns.  The  thunder  has  cleared  the  air.  After  a 
wild  and  tempestuous  night  of  splashing  rain,  the  misty  curtain 
slowly  rises  from  a  panorama  of  endless  hills ;  rift  and  corrie, 
peak  and  precipice,  in  sharp  relief.  A  glint  of  sunshine  anon 
flashes  into  being,  here  and  there  a  knoll  or  slope  covered  by 
the  magic  of  a  night's  rain  with  a  mantle  of  transparent  green. 
Eaygarh  is  decked  with  the  same  delicate  hue,  a  carpet  or  rather 
a  gauzy  robe,  thin  as  Dacca  muslin. 

Tanks  are  filling,  frogs  croaking,  and  land  crabs  scuttling  out 
of  their  hybernation,  and  myriads  of  insect  life  abroad.  Wild 
thyme  scents  the  morning  au-.  The  cobra-lily  peeps  out  in  the 
dells,  the  orchid  blossoms  apple-like  on  a  leafless  trunk,  and 
the  wild  plantain  with  its  spiked  sheath  of  green  and  glistering 
leaves  biu'sts  its  filaments  amid  earth  and  stones,  overlapping 
the  sere  and  rustling  fragments  of  last  season's  vegetation. 
Amid  these  heralds  of  a  new  era  a  Jamadar  announces 
Sivaji's  coronation.  But  we  give  the  account  in  the  Embassy's 
own  words,  capitals  and  all. 

THE   CORONATION. 

"  Accordingly  next  morning  he  and  his  retinue  went  to 
Court  and  fovmd  the  Eaja  seated  on  a  Magnificent  Throne,  and 
all  his  Nobles  waiting  upon  him  in  Kich  Attii-e ;  his  son 
Sambhaji  Eaja,  Peshwah,  Mora  Pandit,  and  a  Brahman  of  great 
Eminence,  seated  on  an  Ascent  imder  the  Throne,  the  rest,  as 
well  Officers  of  the  Army  as  others,  standing  with  great 
respect.  The  English  made  their  Obeisance  at  a  distance,  and 
Narun  Sinai  held  up  the  Diamond  Eing  that  was  to  be  pre- 
sented him.  He  presently  took  notice  of  it,  and  ordered  theii' 
coming  nearer,  even  to  the  Foot  of  the  Thi-one,  where  being 
Vested,  they  were  desired  to  retire,  which  they  did  not  so  soon, 
but  they  took  notice  on  each  side  of  the  Throne.  There  being 
(according  to  the  floor's  manner)  on  heads  of  gilded  Lances 
many  Emblems  of  Dominion  and  Government,  as  on  the  Eight 
hand  were  two  great  Fish's  Heads  of  Gold,  with  very  large 
Teeth,  on  the  Left  several  Horse's  Tails,  a  pair  of  Gold  Scales 


SIVAJi's   PERSON.  173 

on  a  very  high  Lance's  head,  equally  poised,  an  Emblem  of 
Justice;  and  as  they  returned  at  the  Palace  Gate,  stood  two 
small  Elephants  on  each  side  and  two  fair  Horses,  with  Gold 
trappings,  Bridles  and  Kich  Furniture,  which  made  them 
achnire  liow  they  brought  them  up  the  Hill,  tlie  Passage  being 
both  difficult  and  hazardous."  * 

It  was  the  6th  of  June  1674.  The  distance  from  their  house 
to  the  palace  was  about  a  mile.  The  e<[uestrian  sentry  at  the 
gate  was  doubtless  the  t3'pical  Maratha  horseman  in  his  shirt  of 
mail  or  case  of  iron  network,  his  helmet  covering  the  ears  and 
falling  on  tlie  shoulders.  Tlic  man  wlio  crowned  him  was 
(lagabhat,  a  Brahman  Shastri  from  Benares. 

Sivaji's  titles  were  Kshattriya  Kulavotamsa,  Sri  Raja  Siva, 
tlie  head  ornament  of  the  Kshattriya  race,  bis  Jlajesty,  lord  o 
the  lioyal  umbrella.  In  other  words,  as  loud  as  trumpet,  concli, 
or  tomtom  could  proclaim, — Great  is  Sivaji,  King  of  the 
Marathas,  greater  than  the  gold  against  which  be  was  weighed 
or  the  diamonds  that  saved  his  life  at  Delili. 

Sivaji's  standard  Bhagwa-Jlmnda  was  swallow-tailed  and  of 
a  deej)  orange  colour,  but  on  a  big  day  like  this  the  Jurl-putl-n, 
or  golden  streamer,  the  national  ensign  of  the  Marathas,  no 
doubt  waved  from  the  great  arch  which  still  crowns  the  highest 
plateau  of  I'aygarh. 

PORTKAIT. 

The  man  wlio  was  the  subject  of  tliis  ovation  was  forty-seven 
years  of  age  and  of  a  handsome  and  intelligent  countenance. 
No  portrait  of  him  has  come  down  to  us  in  an  English  work 
except  the  one  in  Orme's  Hi'ftori/,  evidently  from  an  oval  on 
glass  liy  some  Delili  painter.f  and  most  probably  picked  up  by 
Orme  or  his  father  f  in  their  wanderings  along  the  coast  of 
"Western  India  in  the  early  jiart  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
Their  pro.ximity  to  Sivaji's  own  time  is  a  partial  guarantee  of 
its  faithfulness.  A  keen  eye,  a  long  aquiline  and  somewhat 
drooping   nose,  a   neat  trim    ml    beard    and  small  nioustuclio 


*  Dr.  Fryer;  conf.  Oraut  Diilfs  llisturij,  i.,  201. 

t  Given  mttc,  Vol.  I.,  p.  .'131.     The  accompanying  cut  is  from  De  Janciguy 
and  X.  Haymond's  Iridt  (Firniin  Didot  fr.,  1845). — B. 
%  Landed  an  adventurer  in  Western  India,  1706. 


174 


SIVAJI  S    FORTS. 


make  up  for  us  a  face,  stolid,  feliue,  and  fair  for  a  Maratha — 
soniewliat  inelauclioly  but  a  wonderful  face,  in  which,  knowing 
even   less   than  we   now  know,  we  could  descry  ability  and 


SIVAJI   ox    HORSEBACK. 


cunning,  and  the  hardihood  and  daring  of  a  conspirator  against 
the  rights  of  man — one  not  easily  cowed  or  alarmed,  with  a 
strong  faith  in  himself,  and  a  gift  to  measure  his  own  capacities, 
and  those  of  the  men  who  were  to  be  his  helpers  in  his  cai-eer 


HINDU    THEATRE.  175 

of  aggrandisement.  Well  worth  looking  at  this  man  among 
men ;  sash  across  his  breast,  himself  a  Star  of  India,  baleful 
enough,  kingly  cowl  with  its  tassel  of  pearls  and  feathers.  No 
need  of  a  tiara  of  tlie  diamonds  of  Golkonda  for  this  man,  for 
his  eagle  eye  (on  which  all  contemporaries  are  as  much  agreed 
as  on  the  eye  of  lUirns)  outshines  them  all,  and,  by  the  skinny 
fingers  he  beckons  to  the  English  Embassy,  he  proclaims 
himself  the  undisjmted  ruler  of  dusky  millions. 


JiOW    TIIEY    SPKND   THE   TIME. 

There  was  the  legitimate  Hindu  drama  in  which  Ganpati 
displayed  liis  histrionic  powers,  amid  battles  of  the  gods,  and 
much  sound,  fury,  and  blazing  explosions  as  of  a  thousand 
devils.  Xational  [lecidiarities  were  hit  off  by  the  stage-player 
to  the  life :  the  Arab  mercenary  black  in  the  face  and  brist- 
ling with  arms  ;  the  Muslim  hajji  with  ochry  beard  redolent  of 
musk  and  Mecca  ;  the  I'ortuguese  sailor,  gallcna  del  Marc  (bens 
of  the  sea) ;  the  Parsi  with  hat  so  big  that  it  toppled  over  amid 
roars  of  laughter;  the  Siudi,  alio  tassa  or  the  father  of  the 
frying-  pan ;  the  hatted  man  par  excellence,  one  of  ourselves 
with  veritable  swagger,  flourislung  his  cane  with  much  non- 
chalance and  calling  for  drink  as  if  his  stomach  was  an  unslaked 
lime-kiln,  and  his  sun  topi  dinted  and  as  greasy  and  ancient  as 
if  it  had  been  worn  by  Tom  Coryat,  whereat  the  English 
laughed  much.  There  were  kathas.  Sivaji  was  great  at  htt/uis ; 
a  mixture  of  recitation,  song  and  anecdote,  with  a  little  acting 
as  by-play,  like  ^Ir.  Matthew's  or  David  Kennedy's  entertain- 
ments of  a  later  date.  There  was  music.  Sivaji  was  passion- 
ately fond  of  it.  He  was  in  Dehli  about  the  time  that  the 
Emperor  denounced  music,  and  may  have  originated  or  assisted 
in  the  tremendous  piece  of  waggery  it  called  forth. 

"  Public  proclamation  was  made  prohibiting  singing  and 
dancing.  It  is  said  that  one  day  a  crowd  of  singers  and  dancers 
were  gathered  together  with  great  cries,  and  having  fitted  up  a 
bier  with  a  good  deal  of  display,  round  which  were  groujjed  the 
jniblic  wailers,  tliey  passed  under  the  Emperor's  jharok/ut-i- 
darsan,  or  interview  window,  ^\•hen  he  enquired  what  was 
intended  by  the  bier  and  the  show.     The  minstrels  said  that 


176  SIVAOn's    FOKTS. 

Music  was  dead,  and  they  were  carrying  his  corpse  to  the 
burial."  * 

Sivaji  knew  the  Eamayana  and  was  perpetually  singing 
snatches  of  it.  It  would  have  been  a  shame  to  him  if  he  had 
not,  as  Valmiki,  the  Indian  Homer — so  says  the  legend — was 
born  at  his  very  doors.  You  can  see  his  birthplace  near 
Jejuri  and  the  Nira  Ijridge  nestling  in  the  valley  beneath,  as 
you  look  down  from  the  battlements  of  Purandhar.  The  Eama- 
yana contains  20,000  verses.  There  is  no  need  to  translate  the 
whole  of  it ;  but  the  following,  done  to  our  hand  into  English 
by  Dr.  Wilson,  if  ever  sung  by  Sivaji,  must  have  been  squeaked 
out  by  liim  in  a  very  low  key  : — 

"  Truth  is  the  foundation  of  piety ; 
In  the  world  the  root  of  religion  is  truth ; 
Truth  is  the  supreme  principle  in  the  world ; 
Truth  is  tlie  most  excellent  of  all  things; 
Therefore  let  truth  be  glorious." 

Above  all  there  was  the  newsman.  Henry  Oxinden  stands 
convicted  of  having  bribed  the  press.  But,  indeed,  everybody 
was  bribed,  from  the  sweeper  up  to  the  prime  minister,  nay, 
even  the  ]\Iaharaja  himself.  In  diamonds  and  shawls  they  must 
have  paid  the  expenses  of  the  Embassy  twice  over.  They  were 
told  not  to  come  empty-handed,  and  paying  for  early  news  was 
surely  the  most  venial  of  sins,  for  if  you  wish  news  even  when 
the  truth  is  economised  you  must  pay  for  it.  The  name  of  this 
supple  courtier  and  public  intelligencer  was  Petaji  Pandit.f  The 
Embassy  at  once  recognised  his  genius  and  utility  by  a  bonus,  a 
diamond  worth  Es.  125,  which  meant  sometliing  more  in  1674. 
News  or  not  news,  straw  or  not  straw,  he  had  to  furnish  liis 
daily  tale.  That  this  man  was  a  most  adroit  liar  we  have  the 
amplest  evidence.  He  killed  Sivaji  several  times,  and  the 
obituary  notice  was  sure  to  be  followed  by  some  instance  of 
daring  activity.  The  dead  man  generally  came  to  life  a  hundred 
miles  ofi".  So,  when  he  was  waylaying  Surat,  the  Sibylline 
leaves   had   liim    in    ('haul,    or   chewing  betelnut   at   Bassein 


*  Khafi  Khan. 

t  "  Akhbariiawis,  or  news-writer." — Tod's  Raja!itha7i.     "  Akbar's  news- 
writer  was  styled  Waqi'ahiiawis." — Life  of  Akhar,  1890. 


SETTLEMENT    OP   A    CLADr.  177 

when  he  was  scrambling  like  a  wild  cat  up  the  scarps  of 
Ilarischandragadh. 

It  is  curious  to  stumble  upon 

A  TRANSACTION  IN  PIECE-GOODS 

on  the  top  of  Ilaygarh.  It  illustrates  Sivaji  as  a  man  of 
business  when  brought  face  to  face  with  the  representatives  of 
the  English  nation.  We  had  a  little  bill  to  settle  with  him,  and 
had  dunned  him  before  without  success.  The  amount  was 
pagodas  10,000,  or  Ks.  45,000,  and  it  stood  at  his  debit  in  the 
Bombay  ledger,  for  damage  and  loss  sustained  from  his  troops 
by  our  factories  at  the  sack  of  Hubli  and  llajapur.  The  factors 
had  been  taken  away  also,  but  we  had  no  claim  on  account  of 
them.  Poor  bodies  !  Kow,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  certainty 
that,  if  the  subject  of  one  nation  is  dealing  with  the  sovereign  of 
another,  the  subject  will  come  off  second  best,  and  if  that 
sovereign  is  a  Maratha,  so  much  the  worse.  Henry  Oxinden 
was  a  guest,  and  it  was  no  doubt  an  inopportune  moment  to 
trouble  Sivaji  in  this  way  on  the  eve  of  liis  coronation  and 
marriage.  We  have  evidence  that  he  chafed  over  it.  You 
cannot  drive  a  hard  bargain  with  a  man  when  you  are  his  guest. 
The  ambassador  doubtless  imagined  that  at  such  a  joyful 
moment  he  would  concede  everything.  But  in  this,  good,  easy 
man,  he  was  mistaken ;  for  though  Sivaji  had  a  mint  of  money 
and  an  unlimited  abru,  or  credit,  there  was  nothing  he  dislUvcd 
more  than  to  part  with  hard  cash.  Lut  in  the  shape  of  piece- 
goods  was  dillerent.  With  these  he  was  well  supplied,  whether 
it  wa.s  sakluth,  the  broadcloth  of  hmgland,  or  the  painted  calicoes 
of  India,  destined  for  the  beds  and  curtains  of  English  matrons  : 
Baygarh  was  full  of  them. 

Now  for  the  facts.  The  settlement  of  this  claim  is  a  marvel 
of  ingenuity.  Sivaji  sold  the  Englishman  piece-goods — tl^e 
market  value  at  the  time  being  pagodas  15,000 — at  half  price. 
Noble  and  generous  merchant  prince  of  Eaygarh  ! 

The  goods  were  deliverable  in  three  years,  a  long  contract,  but 
never  mind  ;  time  was  of  little  value  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
This  would  liquidate  p.agodas  7500  and  leave  a  balance  of  2500, 
which  His  Highness  agreed  should  be  wiped  out  by  absolving 
us  from  custom  duties  on  our  resuming  business  at  llajapur 


178  SIVAJI'S    FORTS. 

until  those  amounted  to  the  equivalent.  Most  wise !  Most 
lair  I  The  historian  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  these  par- 
ticulars says : — "  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  English  ever 
received  what  was  settled  by  the  treaty."  *  At  all  events  we 
hear  no  more  of  the  treaty  of  Eaygarh.  It  lies  on  the  page  of 
history,  a  mere  expression  of  amity  between  Sivaji  and  the 
English  nation,  and  of  course  has  no  place  in  Aitchison's 
Treaties  and  Sunnuds  of  India. 

SIVAJI   AND   THE  ENGLISH. 

Whatever  miseries  were  inflicted  on  the  natives  of  Western 
India,  and  they  were  not  a  few,  by  Sivaji,  the  English  had  no 
reason  to  complain.  He  did  not  injure  them.  Not  one  hair  of 
their  head  suffered.  Even  when  he  was  pillaging  Surat  he 
exchanged  civilities  with  Bombay.  I  fancy  he  knew  the  power 
and  mettle  of  the  English  too  well  to  meddle  with  them. 
Every  cowrie  he  took  in  the  sack  of  their  factories  at  Hubli 
and  Eajapur  he  repaid  in  his  own  way,  on  the  curious  principles 
of  JMaratha  arithmetic.  He  agreed  to  restore  them  their  wrecks 
cast  from  time  to  time  on  his  coasts,  an  inalienable  privilege 
maintained  by  native  powers  from  age  to  age.  Native  powers  ! 
We  asked  what  we  ourselves  had  not  then  the  ability  to  grant 
in  our  own  kingdoms  of  England,  Scotland,  or  France,  the 
boasted  homes  of  civilisation.  He  agreed  to  take  our  money  at 
the  money's  worth.  After  showing  poor  Mr.  Smith  in  his  camp 
at  Surat  two  or  three  heads  and  hands  chopped  off,  he  was 
mercifully  restored  to  his  friends,  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind. 
The  two  EugUshmen  taken  from  llajapur  and  confined  in  a  hill 
fort  by  him  were  imprisoned  on  grounds  of  accusation,  of  wliich 
there  was  some  reasonable  suspicion,  and  afterwards  released  on 
paying  a  ransom.  Some  small  men,  such  as  his  Subahdar  at 
Xagothna,  may  have  bullied  a  stray  English  shikari  on  the 
coasts  of  Karauja.  His  entertainment,  however,  of  the  Embassy, 
such  as  it  was,  for  three  months  on  liaygarh,  proves  his  respect 
lor  the  English.  That  respect  may  have  been  heightened,  nay 
even  created,  by  the  attitude  and  magnanimous  bearing  of  his 


Grant  Du£f's  Eistory,  i.,  205. 


MEMORIES    OF    RAYGARH.  179 

great  contemporary,  Gerald  Aungier.  Sivaji  may  liave  scowled, 
fumed  and  gnashed  his  teeth.  Fryer  tells  us  that  lie  cast  daily 
in  our  faces  that  the  very  ground  we  stood  on  in  Bombay  had 
not  been  obtained  by  valour  but  by  compact,  and  that  we  were 
fitter  to  live  by  merchandise  than  by  arms — carpet  soldiers  in 
fact.  True,  0  King,  in  part !  Xot  by  tlie  sword  these  lands 
were  obtained,  but  with  the  sword  they  were  defended.* 

ITS  MEMORIES. 

Eaygarh  occupies  a  large    space  in  the    liistory  of   Sivaji. 

SuflBce  it  to  say  that  the  wealth  of  Golkonda  Howed  into  it — the 

plunder  of  Surat  and  twenty  other  cities  besides ;  that  he  passed 

out  of  its  gates  to  Uehli,  and  tlirough  its  gates  did  the  fugitive 

return  again,     Here  on  a  dark  night  lie  despatched  across  the 

jungle  1000  of  his  Mawalis  un  their  famous  raid  and  capture 

of  Singarh — 

"The  den  is  taken  but  the  lion  is  .slain." 

Here  his  heart  for  once  failed  hun,  and  he  reluctantly  resolved 
to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Purandliar,  by  which  he  forfeited  twenty 
forts  to  the  great  Mughal.  It  was  from  this  place  that  he  set 
out  at  the  head  of  his  memorable  expedition  to  the  Karnatic 
with  70,000  men,  levying  chuuth  as  far  as  Madras.  Here  he 
heard  of  his  father's  death.  Here  his  mother  died.  Here  he 
was  crowned,  married,  died  and  burned  to  ashes  with  a  holo- 
caust of  his  wives,  elephants,  and  camels.  His  mausoleum  is  on 
yonder  knoll,  its  interior  a  mass  of  weeds,  trees  growing  up 
through  the  pavement  of  its  dharmasala ;  its  temple  foul  and 
disiionoured,  and  its  god  cast  down  to  the  ground. f 

Xo  man  now  cares  for  Sivaji.  Over  all  those  wide  'domains, 
whicli  once  owned  him  lord  and  master,  acquired  by  so  much 
blood  and  treasure,  and  whicii  he  handed  down  with  care  to  the 


*  We  are  sorry  to  impeach  the  veracity  of  Fryer,  a  most  invahiable  writer 
on  this  period.  'J'he  juilgment  of  Mackintosh  comes  up  against  him.  He 
liail  gone  to  Kalyan  to  see  some  grand  ruins  described  by  I''rycr  and  did  not 
find  them.  This  is  most  unlike  the  meek  Mackintosh.  "  We  all  agreed  that 
Dr.  Fryer,  whoso  hook  induced  me  to  go  to  Kalyan,  ought  to  have  been 
lianged." — Mackintosh's  Life. 

t  The  sacred  bull  (Nandi)  liad  toppled  over  and  was  lying  on  its  back. 
Something  similar  elicited  a  capital  ban  mot  from  Dr.  Wilson — Sic  transit 
gloria  Sandi. 


180 


SIVAJIS    FORTS. 


Section      ihroijah    AJi.CJ) 


Eajas  of  Kolapur,  the  Bbonsles  of  Satara,  and  their  Peshwahs  in 
Poona,  not  one  man  now  contributes  a  rupee  to  keep  or  repair 
the  tomb  of  the  founder  of  the  Maratha  Empire.* 

That  palace  which  re-sounded  with  acclamation  at  the  installa- 
tion of  Sivaji,  King  of  the 
Fl^.Elc^ra.tion^nd  S<:chon  Marathas,  was  de,stmed  to  wit- 
ness a  complete  revolution  in 
then-  afiairs.  A  strange  inci- 
dent is  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  tlieir  final  overthrow.  Their 
dominion  had  lasted  one  hun- 
dred and  forty-four  years.  It 
is  a  long  story,  but  we  now 
approach  the  end  of  it.  When 
the  clouds  began  to  gather 
round  the  last  days  of  the 
Peshwah,  his  Eani  was  sent  to 
Raygarh.  It  was  bombarded 
by  the  English  and  committed 
to  the  flames.  On  the  10th 
]\Iay,  1818,  Colonel  Prother 
ascended  the  hill.  Somebody, 
on  looking  into  the  ruins  of 
the  palace,  observed  a  native 
lady  crouching  amid  the  em- 
bers of  the  conflagration — the 
hunted  hare  of  the  Poet,  or 
Lucia  di  Lammermoor  of  Ro- 
mance, woe-begone  and  mocking  at  fate.  This  was  the  wife 
of  Baji  Rao,  the  last  of  the  Peshwahs,  and  with  her  Raygarh 
and  the  Marathas  disappear  from  the  page  of  history.  As 
in  the  last  chapter  of  Ancient  History,  graven  deep  on  the 
coin  of  Vespasian,  it  ends  with  the  figure  of  a  woman  sitting 
low  in  the  dust  under  a  palm  tree. 


THE   CENOTAPH    OF    KAJA    SIVAJI. 


*  The  British  Government  conserves  the  architectural  remains  of  Tudor 
and  Stuart.  Will  not  the  Bombay  Government  do  as  much  for  the  tomb,  the 
tem]ile,  and  the  arch  of  Sivaji  ?  A  few  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  archaeolo- 
gical bureau  would  suffice  to  keep  in  rejiair  memorials  of  a  dashing  aud  most 
romantic  period.  Lord  Keay,  sliortly  after  he  came  out  as  Governor  in  1885, 
ga^-e  instructions  to  have  Sivaji's  tomb  ou  Kaygarh  repaired,  which  was  done. 


(     181 


CHAPTER    XLVII. 

SivAJi's  Forts. 

II. — TORNA. 

"  Her  ancient  weed  was  russet  gray, 
And  wrinkled  was  her  brow." 

ToRNA    is  about  37  miles  from  Poena.     Yon  can  see  it  from 

the  Library  door  overlooking  the  end  of  Singarh,  to  the  right. 

You  can  ride  and  walk  to  Peth,  the  village  at  the  foot  of  the 

Iiill,  in  a  day,  ascend  next  morning, 

and  do  Piajgarh,  which  is  three  miles 

from  it,  on  the  same  day.     We  did 

not  count  on  the  roughness  of  the 

way   to   it,   for   when   we    left   our 

carriage  at  Gora,  two  miles  from  the 

junction    or    the    bmgarli    road    at 

Khadakwiisla,  we  purposed  doing  the  rest  on  a  Dekhany  tattu, 

to  the  foot  of  the  hill.     AVe  soon,  however,  found  out  that  for 

the  greater  part  of  the  way  our  "  slianks  "  was  the  only  possible 

mode  of  locomotion.     Night  found  us  on  the  slopes  of  the  Bor 

Ghat,  the  range  of  wavy  hiUs  which   tlie  traveller  sees  from 

Singarh — 

"  Ribbed  as  the  shifting  sand  you  see ;  " 

and  below,  the  valley  of  Kanind,  which  divides  us  from  the 
Torna  and  the  Eajgarh  range.  We  had  sent  on  our  coolies  a 
day  ahead,  and  missed  them  among  the  hills,  and  had  made  uj) 
our  mind  to  remain  where  we  were  until  daylight.  But  our 
men  were  capital  "  night  howlers,"  and  shouted  continually 
their  long-drawn  Rama  Ho  Taima-a-a,  a  cry  so  well-known  in 
the  mountain  regions  of  the  Deklian  that  its  echoes  and  the 
waving  of  our  lights  attracted  the  attention  of  some  drowsy 
Uhangars,  who  eventually  came  to  our  relief  Grass-torches 
were  lighted,  which  were  fed  continuously,  and  blazed  high  a 


182  SIVAJl's    FOUTS. 

lurid  light  above  our  heads,  and  so  we  were  piloted  from  ledge 
to  ledge,  among  boulders  aud  loose  stones,  the  dry  bed  of  a 
monsoon  torrent — a  four-mile  track — to  our  destination.  I  am 
sure  that  if  Bunyan  in  his  Pilr/rim's  Progress  had  "  aliglited  " 
upon  such  a  place,  he  would  never  have  seen  the  Xew 
Jerusalem.  Visions  of  General  Wade,  Burns's  "  riddlings  of 
Creation,"  the  "  Auld  Wives'  Lift,"  Adam's  Tomb  at  Tobermory, 
with  a  free  coup  in  the  Niuestane  Burn,  came  before  us.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  uttered  three  groans  in  this  Presidency. 
The  first  was  when  he  received  quinine  instead  of  iron,  the 
second  was  when  he  wished  to  God  he  had  never  had  anything 
to  do  with  the  Bombay  Government,  and  the  third  was  when  he 
was  detained  six  hours  in  the  dark  in  this  Bor  Ghat  (a 
topographical  mistake,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  paper  on 
Wellington)  *  among  cactus  bushes,  twenty  miles  from  Poona, 
when  he  was  hurrying  on,  in  his  celebrated  forced  march,  to 
save  that  city  from  the  fire  and  sword  of  Amritrao,  in  1803. 

He  says,  Poona,  20th  April,  1803,  "  I  made  a  forced  march  of 
above  forty  miles  last  night  with  the  cavalry  (1700)  and  a 
battalion,  and  I  was  detained  about  six  hours  in  the  Bor  Ghat." 

Snatching  a  few  hours'  repose  in  a  Eamaswami  temple,  we 
were  awake  at  three,  and  soon  on  our  road.  It  was  a  beautiful 
moonlight  morning,  and,  in  a  four  miles  walk  up  the  Kanind 
Valley,  the  only  sound  we  heard  was  the  cry  of  the  owl.  The 
drowsy  watchers  of  the  green  crops — human  scarecrows,  in  their 
thatched  habitations — could  not  make  out  our  somewhat 
unearthly  visitation. 

Looking  up  in  the  wan  moonlight,  the  bastions  of  Torna  were 
frowning  abo\'e  our  heads  : — • 

"  In  lonely  .ylens  yc  like  to  stray, 
Or  where  auld  ruined  castles  gray 

Nod  to  the  moon." 

This  was  Burns's  "  address  to  the  Deil,"  but  for  the  moment  we 
accept  it.  At  Peth  we  obtained  guides  to  go  up  the  hill.  It 
took  three  hours  walking,  climbing,  and  scrambling  to  attain 
(lur  object.  The  long  tliglit  of  almost  perpendicular  steps  for 
about  three  hundred  feet,  worn  antl  much  displaced  ;  or  holes 

*  Aide,  p.  21. 


TOENA.  183 

cut  in  the  rock,  indurated  by  use,  time,  and  the  elements,  were 
at  length  surmounted,  and  at  7  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  New 
Year's  Day,  1880,  we  were  battering  at  the  gates  of  Tovna,  Jirst 
foot,  at  all  events,  in  this  region.  But  the  withered  hag  was  as 
deaf  as  Ailsa  Craig.  We  may  add  that,  owing  to  the  angle  of 
ascent,  the  gateway  was  quite  invisilile  to  the  eye  until  we  were 
\\'ithiii  a  few  feet  of  it,  and  that  in  one  instance  the  rock  jutted 
out  sheer  over  our  heads. 

An  event  here  transpu-ed  that  we  did  not  anticipate.  The 
great  gate  was  shut — barred — and  there  was  no  reply.  We 
had  thus  time  to  sit  down  M-ith  a  feelini^  of  relief,  and  "  rest  and 
be  thankful,"  and  leisurely  survey  the  spot  on  which  we  were 
perched.  The  folding  spiked  doors  were  enclosed  by  a  fine 
piece  of  arched  masonry,  a  veritable  "  strength  of  stone,"  or 
munition  of  rocks. 

It  was  a  curious  recess,  formed  by  nature  between  two 
scarped  rocks.  At  some  geologic  period  the  crest  of  Torna  had 
been  rent  asunder,  leaving  this  cleft,  "  tlie  door  of  Torna,"  in  the 
rock.  Or  had  the  elements  of  wind  and  water  been  doing  their 
work  ? 

"  Who  was  it  scooped  these  stony  waves. 

Or  scalp'd  the  brow  of  old  Cairngorm, 
And  dug  these  ever-.)'a\vning  caves  ? 

'Twas  I,  the  spirit  of  the  Storm." 

We  did  get  an  entrance  eventually ;  I13'  neither  storm,  escalade, 
nor  capitulation.*  It  led,  however,  to  a  correspondence  Ijetweeii 
the  Panth  of  lior  and  the  British  Government,  but  the  matter 
was  amicably  adjusted.  So  we  made  our  M-ay  to  the  second 
gate,  which  enclosed  the  Bcda-Mlla,  or  upper  fort,  where  the 
beleaguered  could  retire  in  case  of  need. 

Here  our  shouts  were  heard,  and  a  fine-looking  youth  opened 
the  bars  and  let  us  in,  and  led  us  to  a  hut  on  tlie  snnnnit  of  the 
hill.  His  fatlier,  an  old  man,  was  at  the  door,  evidently 
offering  up  his  orisons  to  the  Tuki  jdant.     But  when  he  caught 


*  An  o]iening  was  made  by  a  clasp  knife,  cutting  away  two  half-moon 
segments  from  the  two-leaved  door  large  enough  for  an  arm  to  get  through, 
and  push  aside  tlie  iron  bar  which  held  it  i'ast  in  the  inside.  Beliold  the 
decay  of  the  Maratha  power!  what  was  one  of  their  strongest  furls  in  1G80, 
opened  by  a  penknife  iu  1680 !     Verily  we  were  guilty  above  all  other  men. 


184  SIVAJi's    FORTS. 

sight  of  us,  he  threw  down  his  Jcamli,  or  blanket,  and  staggered 
into  his  dwelling.  It  was  Elymas  the  sorcerer,  struck  witli 
blindness  in  tlie  cai'toon  of  Eapliael.  You  might  have  led  liim 
with  a  straw.  How  two  European  hadmashas — one  with  a 
fowling-piece — could  liave  reached  his  door,  was  more  than  he 
could  comprehend.  By  our  mild  persuasive  speech,  he,  how- 
ever, recovered  himself,  and  eventually  came  out  with  a  dignified 
salaam,  clothed,  and  in  his  right  mind.  He  was  an  old  man, 
weather-beaten  by  innumerable  monsoons,  but  as  ruddy  as  a 
winter  apple.  He  told  us  that  His  Excellency  the  Governor  had 
been  there,  and  showed  us  where  he  had  sat.  His  Highness,  the 
Panth  of  Bor,  in  whose  territories  Torna  is,  had  come  to  the 
foot  of  the  liill,  looked  up,  shook  his  head,  and  departed.  We 
did  not  see  beast  or  bird,  tame  or  wild  (crow  or  sparrow),  except 
a  diminutive  cat,  licking  itself  smaller  and  smaller  to  inevitable 
death,  when  the  fauna  and  ferae  of  Torna  will  be  utterly 
extinct.  We  did  not  see  Sivaji.  He  had  been  once  here,  dug 
up  a  marvellous  amount  of  Venetian  sec[uins,  gold  bars,  and 
sycee  silver,  and  a  more  unlikely  place  to  find  such  things  we 
cannot  imagine.  He  took  this  place  when  he  was  a  lad  of 
nineteen,  and  it  was  well  he  did  so  when  his  bones  were  suppjle, 
and  his  climbing  powers  were  at  the  best.  Had  he  waited  until 
his  fifty-third,  when  he  had  that  bad  swelling  in  the  knee-joint 
which  ultimately  carried  him  off'  at  Eaygarh,  he  never  woidd 
have  done  it.  We  were  two  centuries  too  late  to  see  him, 
otherwise  we  might  have  interviewed  him  in  the  language  of 
the  Scotch  ballad,  with  the  alteration  of  two  words  only  : — 

"As  I  was  walking  all  alane 

Atween  a  castle  and  a  wa', 
0  there  I  met  a  wee,  wee  man. 

And  lie  was  the  least  I  ever  saw. 
His  legs  were  half  an  ellwand  laug. 

And  thick  and  thimbre  was  his  thie, 
Atween  his  brows  there  was  a  span, 

And  atween  his  shouthers  there  was  three. 
He  took  up  a  muckle  stane. 

And  flang  't  as  far  as  I  could  see ; 
Though  I  had  been  a  giant  born, 

I  could  na  lift  it  to  my  knee. 
O  wee,  wee  man,  ye're  wouner  strong." 


TORNA.  185 

r>iit  leaving  romance,  we  must  pull  a  long  face  as  we  approach 
the  domain  of  history. 

Torna  is  a  spot  of  sui-passing  interest.  It  was  Sivaji's  first 
conquest,  the  nucleus  around  which  all  the  others  clustered, 
making  it  vii-tually  the  cradle  of  that  Maratha  empire  which 
shook  the  throne  of  the  Great  Mughal.  It  has  been  the  scene 
of  many  bloody  conflicts.  On  one  occasion  it  was  escaladed 
during  the  night,  and  carried  sword  in  hand.  This  was  in  1701. 
It  is  specially  mentioned  that  this  fort  was  strengthened  and 
repaired  by  Sivaji,  and  we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he 
was  not  a  great  builder.  The  stone  and  lime  in  many  places 
are  not  well  put  together,  which  may  be  very  easily  accounted 
for  by  the  troublous  times  in  which  he  lived.  Nehemiah's 
re-building  the  walls  of  Jerusalem,  as  described  by  a  Scots 
preacher — "  A  whinger  in  the  ae  hand,  and  a  theeking  spurtle 
in  the  ither " — is  an  exact,  though  coarse,  picture  of  the 
situation  of  Sivaji.  Torna,  therefore,  does  not  rival  the  great 
works  of  his  predecessors,  for  there  are  piles  of  mason  work 
in  the  Dekhan  which  equal  in  grandeur  the  hoary  ruins  of 
Tantallon  or  Dunottar.  Hence  everytliing  is  going  to  ruin : 
piles  of  teak  heaped  together,  masses  of  stones  confusedly  lying 
about,  half  filled  tanks,  moss-grown  barracks,  make  up  a  picture 
of  desolation. 

The  Dunjermal,  a  long  spur  fortified  in  some  places,  only  a 
few  feet  wide,  like  a  very  long  canoe  in  appearance  from  the 
])arapet,  is  very  striking,  but  not  the  only  one  of  its  kind 
among  the  Dekhan  forts.  The  aneroid  barometer  shows  we  are 
4350  ft.  above  sea-level.  There  is,  therefore,  a  great  and 
glorious  panorama  around  us.  If  Singarh  is  the  Lion's  Den, 
Torna  is  the  Earjlc's  A'cst.  From  our  eyrie  we  may  descry  St. 
Mary's  Churcii  at  Poona,  the  bishop's  bungalow  on  Mount 
Malcolm,  and  John  Sand's  Ijomb-proof  hospice  on  the  crest  of 
I'urandhar,  with  the  JcalajMni  visible  at  sunset.  To  one  who 
has  never  seen  them,  the  Mahabaleshwar  range  and  the 
enormous  block  of  Eaygarh,  the  scene  of  Sivaji's  coronation  and 
death,  are  novel  and  interesting.  The  natives  of  this  country 
are  our  masters  in  the  art  of  climbing.  We  envy  them  their 
endurance,  but  still  more  their  machinery  of  heart  and  lungs. 
They  do  not  know  what  it  is  to  be  "  out  of  breath,"  or ''  pumped 

VOL.   i[.  0 


186  SrVAJl's   FORTS. 

out."  As  we  came  to  the  gate  by  which  we  entered,  a  police- 
man made  his  appearance.  His  long  pull  upstairs  did  not  seem 
to  bother  him,  and  he  was  perfectly  unruffled  in  speech  and 
behaviour,  as  he  politely  proffered  his  services  to  us.  He  left 
the  gate  ajar,  and  from  the  little  platform  inside  where  we 
stood,  we  caught  a  peep  of  what  was  before  us.  The  vignette 
was  very  lovely — the  ground-floor  of  the  world,  or  a  map  of 
Asia  IMinor — but  we  begged  him  to  shut  out  the  vision  for  a 
minute,  as  we  would  have  enough  of  it. 

Some  one  has  written  that  "  Torna  is  perfectly  safe  to  those 
whose  nerves  are  not  affected  by  a  precipice  above  and  a  gorge 
below."  So  with  this  soothing  emoUient  we  proceed.  The 
Bedawins  do  not  use  chairs,  and  we  have  heard  them  say  that 
as  we  are  ultimately  to  go  into  the  earth,  we  may  as  well  sit  on 
it  occasionally — in  fact,  make  use  of  it,  by  way  of  accustoming 
ourselves  to  it  Our  proclivities  being  earthwards,  we  there- 
fore sit  down,  as  inert  a  mass  of  clay  as  we  can  make  of 
ourselves  in  this  sentient  breathing  universe,  and  paddle  our 
own  canoe  down  the  notched  rapids.*  There  are  some  very 
nasty  bits,  but,  as  the  Governor  did  not  complain,  we  are  not 
going  to  do  so.  The  risks  are :  stumbles,  false  footings,  slips, 
stepping  on  loose  stones  or  grass  waving  above  nonentity, 
lurches  outwards,  gi-asping  tufts  or  twigs  that  come  away  in  the 
hand,  and  a  tendency  in  stout  parties  to  roU  over  and  over,  of 
wliich  there  could  be  onlj'  one  termination.  Then  there  are 
slopes,  slides,  devil's  elbows,  with  slanting  declinations  down- 
wards. All  roads  lead  to  Eome,  and  these  are  of  them  phis 
gi-avitation.  So  we  get  up  and  advise  all  those  who  have  legs 
to  use  them  in  the  laudable  and  muscular  effort  of  keei>ing  body 
and  soul  together,  by  planting  their  feet  and  hands  in  such 
places  as  art  or  instinct  dictates ;  and  so  by  grappling  rock  or 
bush,  and  always  "  making  an  efl'ort,"  and  avoiding  whisky, 
they  will  soon  find  theii"  way  to  a  good  breakfast  by  midday  at 
tlie  foot  of  Torna.  Eichard  Burton,  when  in  Bombay,  suggested 
the  formation  of  an  Alpine  Club.  There  is  plenty  of  scope  in 
the  Ghats  and  Dekhan. 


See  Bome  of  Whymper's  admiraWe  Alpine  sketches  to  illustrate  this. 


(    187    ) 


CHAPTER  XLVIII. 

SivAJi's  Forts. 

III. — TUE   TOUT   OF   KAJMACIII    NEAR   KHAXDALA. 

The  Bombay  Forts  were  founded  on  violence.  Many  of  them 
were  built  as  fastnesses  by  the  first  Arab  or  IMughal  invaders. 
They  were  not  built  like  the  great  structures,  for  example, 
on  the  Esplanade  which  we  have  seen  rising  year  after 
year,  and  wliere  the  \\orkmen  received  a  fair  day's  wages  for  a 
fair  day's  work.  We  have  no  building  constructed  by  forced 
labour  in  the  Island  of  Bombay.  Our  oldest  building,  the 
Cathedra],  was  built  by  subscription,  and  the  list  lies  before  us, 
a  few  jottings  from  which  we  give  in  a  foot-note.*     This  was 


•  "  Some  of  tlie  entries  in  the  list  of  subscriptions  to  the  new  Church  show 
the  liberality  of  the  donors,  and  others  are  curious  as  illustrating  the  manners 
of  the  age.  The  Company's  contribution  was  Rs.  10,000 ;  Guveruor  Boone, 
who  succeeded  Mr.  Aislabie,  gave  in  various  sums  Es.  3918,  and  Mr.  Cobbe, 
the  clergyman,  Rs.  14li7 — subscriptions  more  in  proportion  to  tlio  profits 
which  they  made  by  jtrivale  transactions  than  to  the  limited  amount  of  their 
salaries.  Amom:  other  entries  are,  '  a  fine  ujxjn  Bhundarries  Rs.  18,  and  a 
line  inflicted  on  Joseph  liornall  for  a  misdemeanour;  given  bj- the  GrOveruor"s 
order.'  The  average  amount  of  the  sacramental  colltctious  made  every  montli 
was  about  Rs.  29,  of  tliose  made  on  Cliristmas  Day  Rs.  72,  on  Easter  Day 
Rs.  39, and  on  Whitsunday  Rs.  34.  '  A  commutation  for  penance  corporal' 
at  Surat  was  Rs.  150.  Cornelius  Sodington  gives  'for  my  wife  when  I  have 
her,  Rs.  20;'  and  Mr.  Richard  Waters,  Rs.  11,  which  were  allowed  him  by 
Air.  Cobbe  for  |)erformitig  divine  services  when  the  said  cha|ilain  was  on  a  visit 
to  tsurat.  The  names  on  the  list  of  those  wortliy  of  remark  are  Mr.  George 
Bowchcr,  who  gave  Rs.  200  in  addition  to  what  he  had  contributed  about 
thirty  years  before  in  Sir  John  Child's  days :  Alexander  Hamilton,  to  whom 
we  arc  so  much  indebted  for  our  acquaintance  with  his  times,  and  who  gave 
Rs.  80  for  himself,  and  Hs.  50  on  account  of  his  ship  the  '  Morning  Star  ' ; 
and  of  Cunsha  and  Chungua,  Chinamen,  the  one  of  whom  subscribed  Rs.  150, 
the  other  Rs.  90.  The  total  amount  collected  was  Rs.  43,992,  or  £5499  (good 
remitting  exchange  in  those  days).  Mr.  Boone  gave  the  handsome  bell  which 
still  tolls  its  summons  to  the  Christians  of  the  neighbourhood." — Bombay 
Quarterly  Review,  vol.  iii. 

0   2 


188  SIVAJi's   FORTS. 

nearly  two  centuries  ago,  and  it  has  been  the  same  ever  since. 
Whether  by  subscription  or  the  State,  the  workman  has  been 
paid  his  wages ;  and  as  these  buildings  were  not  founded  on 
violence,  we  can  aver  that  their  walls  have  not  been  stained 
with  blood  or  crime.  Crime  is  a  fearful  factor  in  the  tradition 
and  histoiy  of  old  buildings.  Witness  our  own  Tower  of 
London,  and  Holyrood,  where  the  blood  of  Eizzio  still  cries  for 
vengeance  and  half-crowns.  But  in  Bombay  you  cannot  point 
to  a  single  building  where  a  martyr,  political  or  religious,  has 
been  immured,  or  a  Hindu  or  a  Muslim  put  to  death.  Now 
the  forts  of  the  Dekhan,  and  we  are  bold  to  say  the  splendours 
of  Bijapur,*  owe  their  existence  to  forced  labour,  to  the  labour 
exacted  nolens  volcns  by  the  Lord  Paramount,  be  he  king  or 
kUladar.  Nowadays  you  can  either  work  or  stay  away.  But 
there  were  no  industries  in  those  olden  times  which  a  man 
could  fall  back  upon  from  the  violence  of  the  oppressor.  The 
people  were  thiiied  to  their  masters,  and  their  "  meal  and  malt " 
gi-oimd  out  of  them  until  the  lust  or  ambition  of  their  governors 
was  satisiied.  If  a  man  in  those  days  were  a  skilful  workman, 
the  fact  was  soon  found  out,  the  wages  of  mere  subsistence  were 
doled  out  to  him,  and  his  surplus  earrdngs  pounced  upon  by  the 
ruler.  There  is  not  a  single  fort  in  the  entire  Dekhan  which, 
if  its  history  is  looked  into,  will  not  be  found  to  be  stained  with 
blood  and  crime.     They  were  all  busy  weaving  the  crimson  web 

of  war. 

"  See  tlie  grisly  texture  grow, 
'Tis  of  human  entrails  made, 
And  the  weights  that  play  below 
Each  a  grasping  warrior's  head." 

There  is  a  tradition  that  the  fort  of  Satara  was  founded  on 
human  sacrifice,  and  the  place  is  shown  where  a  son  and 
daughter  of  the  chief  Mahar  were  built  under  the  wall.  This 
may  be  true  or  untrue.  But  it  is  within  the  domain  of  history 
that  the  man  from  wliom  the  then  Peshwah  received  investiture. 
Raja  of  Satara  as  he  was,  and  great-grandson  of  Sivaji  liimself, 


*  "  The  Ibrahim  Eauza  cost  £528,150  sterling,  6533  workmen  were  em- 
ployed ;  time  occupied  in  construction  thirty-six  years,  eleven  mouths  and 
eleven  days." — From  inscription  quoted  in  Architecture  of  Bijapur,  by 
Meadows  Taylor  and  James  Fergusson,  ISGG. 


R.1JMACHI.  189 

was  kept  in  a  dungeon  of  it  for  eleven  years  and  fed  on  bread 
and  water.  It  is  ^nthin  tlic  domain  of  history  that  tlie  Angrias 
sewed  up  members  of  their  family  in  sacks  and  threw  them 
down  the  steep  cliffs  of  Sagargarh,  and  everybody  who  has  read 
Tara  or  been  at  Mahabalcshwar  knows  of  Pratapgarh  and  the 
gory  head  of  Afzul  Khan.  But  tlie  list  is  endless ;  Asirgarh, 
Daulatabad,  Raygarh,  and  Singarh,  ad  infinitum. 

THE   KOAD    TO    IT. 

Eajmachi  was  once  taken  and  held  by  Sivaji  (1648),  after  lie 
liad  seized  a  great  hit  from  a  Government  katila  near  Kalyan, 
on  its  way  to  Bijapur.  Tliis  was  the  first  blow  he  struck  at  the 
majesty  of  Empire  ;  and  when  one  wanders  for  days  among  the 
ruins,  still  enormous  in  magnitude  and  extent,  of  the  capital, 
one  is  confounded  ^vith  the  audacity  which  prompted  a  single 
individual  to  measure  his  strength  with  the  resources  of  such  a 
kingdom  as  Bijapur.  It  was  the  comliat  of  Achilles  witli 
Hector ;  and  the  swift-footed  Sivaji  in  the  end  gained  the  day. 
His  dwelling  was  among  the  rocks,  and  his  strength  the  ever- 
lasting hills.  It  was  then  that  the  Dekhani  forts  made  their 
great  name  in  history.  Called  into  existence  in  a  semi- 
barbarous  age,  when  men  felt  secure  only  on  the  tops  of  the 
liighest  mountains,  in  the  hands  of  the  hardy  Mawalis  of  Sivaji, 
they  probed  Bijapur  on  the  one  hand,  and  DehU  on  the  other, 
tortile  quick.  Every  wild  foray  seemed  to  add  to  their  prestige, 
and  when  brought  to  bay,  as  they  were  occasionally,  the  cry 

was — 

"  Come  one,  come  all !    This  rock  shall  fly 
From  its  firm  base  as  soon  as  I." 

At  length  in  the  course  of  time  they  found  themselves 
masters,  and  Maratha  dominion  added  a  new  chapter  to  histor}'. 
But  it  was  the  old  story.  Conquest  precedes  luxury,  and  luxury 
precedes  decline.  The  ISrahman  in  Poena  was  not  a  whit 
wiser  than  the  Muslim  in  Bijapur.  The  experience  by  whicli 
he  might  have  profited  was  a  dead  letter  to  him,  for  that 
history  which  teacheth  by  examples  had  come  and  gone  ere 
Poena  became  the  capital  of  the  ]\Iaratha  Empire.  The  'Adil 
Shahi  dynasty  was  an  old-wives'  fable  to  him,  and  unwarned  by 


190  SIVAJl's   FORTS. 

its  doom,  the  Peshwabs  prosecuted  the  same  career  of  vice  and 
debtiuchery  without  a  tittle  of  its  elegance  or  refinement — for 
the  master-buiklers  of  Bijapur  have  left  beliind  them  miles  of 
majestic  memorials  which  stiU  engage  the  attention  of  the 
connoisseur.  The  game,  however,  went  on,  and  we  know  the 
termination  of  these  things. 

"  The  gates  of  hell  are  open  night  and  day : 
Smooth  the  descent  and  easy  is  the  way." 

The  traveller  who  proceeds  to  Poona  by  raU,  as  he  nears 
Karjat,  must  have  observed  a  high  hill  on  his  left  crowned  with 
bastions  and  encircled  with  lines  of  circumvallation.  He  will 
see  more  of  it  as  he  emerges  from  the  tunnel  where  the  great 
Khandala  gorge  bursts  conspicuously  on  his  view ;  and  where 
the  carriages  seem  to  creep  along  the  edge  of  dizzy  precipices, 
this  giant  again  meets  the  eye  of  the  spectator.  It  is  now 
observalile  that  there  are  two  hUls,  and  if  the  day  is  clear, 
bastion  and  curtain  are  quite  visible  to  the  naked  eye  on  either 
of  them. 

This  is  the  fort  of  Eajniaclii,  which,  though  not  much  noticed 
in  history,  is  more  familiar  to  the  eye  of  dwellers  in  these  parts 
than  any  other  fort  in  the  Bombay  Presidency,  and  will  doubt- 
less continue  to  be  so.  The  scenery  here  is  sometimes  one  of 
marvellous  beauty,  and  in  the  grey  dawn  of  early  morn,  so 
familiar  to  us,  presents  shifting  pictures,  as  grand  and  beautiful 
as  Gleucoe  or  Killiecrankie.  The  best  place  from  which  the 
tourist  can  attack  this  fort  is  Khandala.  He  can  "  do  "  it  in 
one  day,  but  it  will  be  a  long  day,  from  dawn  to  dewy  eve.  A 
better  way  would  lie  to  take  a  razal  and  plaid,  and  sleep  in  the 
open  all  night,  and  rise  refreshed  for  the  work  of  inspecting  lioth 
forts  by  sunrise.*  We  did  it  in  one  day,  but  it  is  too  much  for 
the  ordinary  pleasure-seeker  to  demand  of  him  a  start  at  day- 
light, a  tramp  over  roughish  ground  for  twelve  miles,  and  then 
half-an-hour  of  tough  work  in  which  all  his  sinews  will  be 
exercised  and  put  to  proof,  and  then  to  beat  a  retreat  to 
Khandala,  when  he  will  be  fortunate  if  he  is  not  belated.     If  it 


*  Slept  all  Christmas  night  of  1890  in  the  open,  on  a  slope  of  Mahuli,  a 
Scotch  plaid  for  coverlet,  and  was  nothing  the  worse. 


BAJMACHI.  191 

becomes  dark  or  moonliglit— for  even  the  moou  projects 
distances  to  whicli  the  eye  and  foot  are  unused — the  difficulties 
increase  tenfold,  and  stumbling  among  rocks  and  thorny  bushes, 
even  under  the  guidance  of  experienced  coolies,  brings  out 
infirmities  in  body  and  mind  that  are  quite  astonishing.  The 
place  is  well  worth  seeing ;  besides  the  healthful  exercise  tlie 
trip  affords,  the  path  to  it  is  simply  charming.  For  a  part 
of  the  way  you  creep  along  a  monkey  path  fringing  the 
phiteau  which  faces  you  when  in  the  railway  train,  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  abyss.  By-and-by  you  skirt  the  foot  of 
immense  walls  of  rock,  tliose  great  sheets  of  trap  rising  perpen- 
dicidarly  three  liundred  feet  high  which  constitute  the  barriers 
of  the  Dekhan,  and  its  waterslied. 

Aljout  five  miles  from  Khandala  there  is  a  splendid  place  for 
a  picnic,  and  as  tats  can  do  most  of  this  distance,  it  is  all  easy 
work,  and  to  those  who  enjoy  fine  scenery  and  bracing  air,  a 
morning  in  December  or  January  in  that  qiiarter  will  not  easily 
be  forgotten.  There  is  a  considerable  amount  of  cidtivated 
ground  at  the  foot  of  the  cone  of  Eajmachi,  which  is  walled 
round  ;  the  enclosure  constituting  the  2xttah,  or  what  we  should 
call  the  grange  land  of  the  baron's  castle,  whence  the  inmates 
derived  their  supplies :  forage  for  horses  aud  cattle,  food  for 
man,  and  fuel.  The  walls,  we  are  told  on  the  best  authority, 
extend  5258  yards  in  length,  or  three  miles.  They  are  there- 
fore as  extensive  as  those  round  the  great  Tort  of  Daulataljad. 
As  we  round  tlie  base  of  the  block  on  which  the  main  fort  is 
built,  and  look  up  the  view  is  bizarre  and  extraordinary,  and 
must  have  impressed  the  lieholder  with  much  awe  and  sinking 
of  spirit.  The  rock  here,  in  colour  as  black  as  night,  rises  sixty 
feet  or  more,  sheer,  when  it  bellies  outward  in  an  abrupt  over- 
hanging corporation,  ending  two  or  three  hundred  feet  from  the 
ground  where  we  stand,  on  the  ramparts,  winch  are  so  budt  as 
to  meet  the  edge  of  the  scarp.  You  cannot  tell  where  the 
precipice  ends  and  the  bastion  begins,  but  one  or  two  loo})holes, 
all  the  world  like  the  mouth  and  eyes  of  some  pictured 
demon,  reveal  to  us  this  ancient  habitation  of  Sivaji  and  the 
Aii'^ria.  When  you  do  get  into  it  there  is  not  much ;  so 
llajmacld — 

"  Like  a  tall  bully,  lifts  its  head  aud  lies. 


192  Sn'AJi's    FORTS. 

But  we  are  not  there  yet.  As  we  round  the  cone,  the  diffi- 
culties begin.  We  know  well  enough  wliat  broken-up  stair- 
cases are  when  a  hundred  feet  of  them  are  converted  into 
avalanches  of  rubbish  and  loose  stones  shot  down  a  hill-face  at 
an  angle  of  35°.  You  have  plenty  of  that  on  Eaygarh  and 
Torna.  Here  you  have  the  stone  stairs  kicked  about  in  the 
\\'ildest  confusion,  loose  and  movable,  their  interstices  a  mass 
of  yielding  grit.  On  this  blasted  peak  we  foimd  a  grass,  or 
straw,  or  cane,  in  great  profusion.  What  had  been  forced  into 
maturity  by  the  wild  lashing  rains  of  the  monsoon,  now  lay  in 
\vithered  swathes  (kindly  placed  for  us  on  those  moving  masses 
of  whinstone  rhomboids  resting  on  a  basis  of  grit),  as  smooth  as 
the  Cliina  matting  of  the  Byculla  Club.  There  was  no  danger 
to  life,  but  very  much  to  limb ;  so  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion induced  each  man  to  "gang  his  ain  gait,"  and  so  not 
commit  murder  on  the  man  that  was  beneath  him.  Once  we 
got  fairly  wedged  in  the  hollow  of  a  double  wall,  for  in  some 
places  there  is  a  triple  belt  round  the  hill,  and  were  advised  by 
a  native — there  are  natives  here  who,  like  oysters,  stick  to  the 
rock — to  clamber  cat-like  along  the  crumbling  parapet.  But 
it  was  too  shifting  a  material  on  which  to  trust  oxir  corpora- 
tions ;*  so  what  with  hard  pulling  and  tumbling,  climbing  and 
.scrambling,  we  at  length  found  ourselves,  not,  as  the  reader 
will  have  seen,  "  without  impediment,"  in  "  the  bowels  "  of 
Eajmachi.  Here  are  rock-cut  cisterns  and  plenty  of  the  purest 
water. 

THE   LOOK-OUT. 

We  are  now  2730  feet  above  sea-level  (about  the  height  of 
Matheran),   lower    fort    2540.      Eajmachi   means    the    Eoyal 


*  Dakger  from  Loose  Walls. — The  ruins  of  Montpezer  arc  six  miles  from 
Bassein.  "  From  tlie  wall  of  the  hermitage  Mr.  J.  I'orbes  met  his  death  'a 
few  years  ago.  He,  it  seems,  imprudently  climbed  the  wall  at  a  corner  with 
his  boots  on,  where  the  roots  of  a  pipal-tree  served  as  a  ladder.  He  got 
safely  to  the  top,  and  after  sitting  for  a  while  on  the  wall  admiring  the 
surrounding  prospect,  in  the  act  of  rising,  it  is  supposed,  part  of  the  crumbling 
wnU  giving  way  under  his  feet,  he  slipped  and  was  precipitated  into  the 
court  of  the  temple  below,  a  height  of  between  sixty  and  seventy  feet.  He 
never  spoke  afterwards,  but  was  carried  home  to  Bomliay,  senseless,  and  died 
the  same  evening." — Vaupell  in  1838,  quoted  in  Dr.  Da  Cunha's  Chaul  and 
Bassein,  1876. 


VIEW    FROM    RAJMACHI.  193 

terrace.     It  looks  down  upon  the  Konkan.     The  ancients  of 
this  place,  in  their  sliirts  of  mail,  could  look  down  and  see  all 
that  was  going  on  in  the  plains  below.     The  Bor  Ghat  was  the 
same  then  as  it  is  now,  not  only  in  physical  contour  and  con- 
formation, but  absolutely  the  only  pass  through  which  all  the 
commerce  of  the  Bombay  Harbour  passed  to  the  Dekhan.     The 
railway  makes    no    difference    in  this   respect ;   commerce   is 
friendly,  but  war  is  unfriendly,  so  sometimes  an  enemy  came, 
and  IJajmachi  kept  an  outlook  on  him.     Kotligarh  stood  guard 
below,  but  Eajmachi  was  the  great  bull's-eye  lantern  held  in 
the  face  of  friend  or  foe,  and  flashed  upon  every  man  who  came 
irom  those  lower  Konkan  regions.     "  Who's  there  ?  "  was  the 
watchword  of   Eajmachi.     God    keep    the  country,   when  its 
vigilance  committee  is  perched  up  in  places  like  this.     We  can 
verify  the  fact  that  a  great  extent  of  landscape  can  be  seen  from 
Eajmachi.     But  the  following  are  the  places  that  on  a  clear 
day  may  he  easily  descried.     As  for  the  Duke's  Nose,  ]\Iatheran, 
Bawamalang,  Prabhal,   and   Karnala:  they  are   barely  worth 
mentioning — the  mere  kernel  of  a  grand  panorama.     Our  guide 
sung   out  to   us   Tung,    Tikona,    Logarh.     But   even   they  are 
nothing  when  Bhimashaukar  is  in  view ;  and  Harischandragad, 
where  you  may  lie  on  the  edge  of  the  precipice,  drop  a  stone, 
and  hud  it  takes  eleven  seconds  to  strike  the  bottom ;  Nagotlina  ; 
our  old  friend  of  sewing-up-in-sacks  notoriety  Sagargarh,  with 
the   sun   setting  at  Alibagh  ;   and   there  is   Tungar   and  the 
Salsette  Hills ;   and,  across  the    flat    sow-backed    Prabhal,  the 
harbour,  island,  and  city  of  Bombay.     The  upper  fort  is  called 
Shrivardhan,  which  means,  we  understand,  "  increase  of  pros- 
perity;" the  lower  fort,   in  like   manner,   Mauranjan,  "mind 
pleasing."     The  first  commands  the  second,  which  is  as  it  shouhl 
be,  for  without  prosperity  either  of  body  or  soul  there  can  be  no 
permanent  pleasure  of  the  mind  whatever.     We  looked  round 
ibr  a  seat,  but  the  killadar  was  dead,  and  we  had  no  Collector  to 
send  us  a  chair  and  a  table  as  we  had  at  Eaygarh  last  new 

year. 

"  Laird  o'  Bucklyvie, 
May  the  devil  rive  ye 
For  biggin  sic  a  toua 

Where  there's  neither  a  table 
Nor  a  chair,  nor  a  stulc  to  sit  doun." 


194  SIVAJl's   FORTS. 

And  with  this  irreverent  snatch  we  bid  good-bye  to  Eajmachi. 
This  fort  was  taken  by  Colonel  Prother  on  the  (Jth  March, 
1818. 

CONDITION   OF   THE   PEOPLE. 

Under  this  head  we  will  select  two  dates.  The  first  is  the 
period  of  the  Kohlc  Queen  Chaud  Bibi,  at  the  close  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  ileadows  Taylor  cannot  be  accused,  with 
all  his  gorgeous  descriptions  of  the  bravery  of  those  times,  of 
overstating  the  violence  to  which  Ufe  and  property  were 
exposed.     The  neighbourhood  is  Gulbarga. 

"  The  place  had  an  evil  reputation  for  robbers  at  all  times.  There  were  not 
only  the  ordinary  cutpurses  and  pick-pockets,  pilchers,  and  night  prowlers  of 
such  gatherings,  but  there  were  Thugs  from  the  neighbouring  country  of 
Aland,  Gangutti  and  Kalhavi,  as  well  as  those  that  lived  in  the  city  itself, 
carrying  on  apparently  honest  trades  and  occupations,  who  marked  parties 
for  plunder,  joined  with  them  as  they  departed  liomewards,  and  slew  them 
when  they  had  gone  a  little  distance  with  them.  For  miles,  indeed,  in  every 
direction,  were  the  unhallowed  graves  of  hundreds  and  thousands,  perhaps,  of 
those  who  had  been  decoyed  or  destroyed.  There  were,  too,  dacoits  who 
attacked  the  lodgings  of  pilgrims,  or  waylaid  them  on  the  high  roads,  and 
plundered  with  liitle  regard  to  consequences.  Among  the  latter  ^vere  many 
Jatts  and  Kaikaris,  peaceful-looking  people  by  day,  but  terrible  by  night."' 


GHASI   EAM. 

Our  next  author  is  Grant  Duff,  the  place  is  Poona,  the  time 
is  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  the  man  described  is 
the  Police  Superintendent  of  that  city. 

'•Xo  instance  of  greater  neglect  on  the  part  of  an  administration,  or  of 
more  extraordinary  criminality  in  a  subordinate  officer,  is  recorded  in  the 
annals  of  any  State  than  in  the  case  of  Gasseu  Kam,  Kotwal,  or  Police 
Superintendent  of  the  city  of  Pooni.  This  man,  a  Brahman,  native  of 
Hindoostau,  employed  the  power  with  which  he  was  vested  in  perpetrating 
the  most  dreadful  murders.  People  di-sappeared  and  no  trace  of  tlieui  could 
be  found.  Gassee  Ram  was  suspected,  but  Kana  Furnuwees  refused  to  listen 
to  complaints,  ajjparently  absurd  from  their  unexampled  atrocity.  At  last, 
it  being  suspected  that  Gassee  Kam  was  starving  a  resi)ectable  Brahmin  to 
death,  Manajee  Phakray  headed  a  party  of  the  people,  broke  open  the  prison, 
and  rescued  the  unfortunate  Brahmin,  which  led  to  the  detection  of  the 
monster's  crimes,  and  he  fell  a  victim  to  the  vengeance  of  the  exasperated 
populace,  by  whom  he  was  stoned  to  d(ath." 


GHASI   KAM.  1195 

All  intelligent  Poona  correspondent,  in  tlie  Bombay  Gazette, 
has  given  some  particulars  respecting  the  event  mentioned  by 
Grant  Dull'  which  have  come  down  by  tradition.  The  account 
which  we  give  in  a  footnote  is  by  Sir  Charles  Malet,  who  was 
resident  in  Poona  at  the  time — 1791.  It  is  more  circumstantial 
than  either  that  of  the  Historian  of  the  Marathas,  or  the 
account  of  the  Poona  correspondent.  It  diflers  from  them  in 
several  important  particulars,  but  may  be  regarded,  we  think, 
as  the  more  correct  version,  as  ]\Ialet  was  living  in  Poona  at 
the  time,  and  familiar,  no  doubt,  with  all  the  circumstances  of 
the  great  tragedy.* 


*  Ghasi  Ham. — Communicated  to  me  by  Sir  Charles  Malet,  as  a  most 
extraordinary  event  which  happened  during  his  embassy,  at  the  Maratha 
Court.  "On  Aug.  29,  1791,  thirty-four  men  of  the  caste  of  Tehnga 
Brahnians  having  been  confined  in  a  chauki  or  close  room  by  the  officers  ol 
the  kotwal,  the  head  magistrate  of  pohce  at  Poona,  twenty-one  were  taken 
out  dead  next  morning,  and  the  remaining  thirteen  were  with  difficulty 
restored  to  life.  In  the  evening  tlie  popular  clamom-  became  violent  against 
the  kotwal,  who  was  a  Gaur  Brahman,  named  Gaunseram,  a  native  of 
Aurangabad,  and  whose  office  in  a  city  where  the  most  rigorous  police  is 
established,  necessarily  rendered  him  an  obnoxious  character.  The  Peshwali, 
improperly  yielding  to  the  furious  mob,  delivered  up  the  kotwal,  who  was 
tied  backwards  on  an  elephant,  and  in  that  manner  conveyed  to  a  prison 
without  the  town,  amidst  the  scofl's  and  insults  of  the  i>opulace,  while  guards 
were  sent  to  seize  his  family,  dependants,  and  properly.  Tlie  day  following 
the  clamour  grew  more  violent,  being  encouraged  by  many  persons  desirous 
of  mortifying  the  ruling  minister,  tlirougli  the  ignominy  of  his  kotwal,  his 
dependant.  The  uidiappy  man  was  tied  backwards  on  a  camel,  and  in  that 
disgraceful  manner  reconducted  into  the  city  amidst  the  reproaches  of  the 
people.  Here  he  was  made  to  alight,  and  his  head  having  been  publicly 
shaved,  he  was  again  placed  in  the  same  manner  on  the  camel,  and  having 
been  carried  through  the  principal  streets  of  Poona,  escorted  by  a  strong 
guard,  he  was  for  the  last  time  led  to  a  spot  about  a  mile  from  the  city,  and 
there  ordered  to  dismount.  One  of  his  hands  was  then  strongly  fastened  to 
the  end  of  a  turban  between  twenty  and  thirty  feet  long,  and  the  other  end 
committed  to  some  Halalkhors,  the  lowest  outcastes  of  the  Hindu  tribes, 
who  contaminate  all  other  castes  by  their  touch.  It  was  then  made  known 
to  the  Telinga  Brahmans  that  the  kotwal  was  delivered  u|)  entirely  to  their 
disposal,  either  as  a  sacrifice  to  their  vengeance,  or  an  object  for  their 
mercy :  on  which  twelve  Brahmans  of  that  tribe  in  the  most  savage  manner 
immediately  attacked  tlie  fallen  magistrate  with  large  stones.  The  Halal- 
khors, who  held  the  turban  by  straightening  it,  kept  him  at  full  leugtli 
running  in  a  circle,  i)ursued  by  his  relentless  inurdereis,  who  at  length,  by 
repeated  blows  on  the  head  and  breast,  brought  him  to  the  ground ;  and 
then  with  an  eagerness  disgraceful  to  humanity,  though  merciful  to  the 
prostrate  object  of  their  cruelty,  the  Biahmanieal  murderers  dispatched 
him  by  a  succession  of  large  stones  thrown  violently  on  his  head  and 
breast." 


196  SIVAJi's   FOETS. 

Behold  in  these  extracts  from  the  historian  and  novelist  how 
people  lived  for  two  linndred  years  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Dekhani  forts. 

STREAMS. 

As  we  neared  our  home,  we  crossed  a  stream  with  a  rocky 
bed.  It  is  a  stream  which,  after  this,  leaps  from  shelf  to  shelf 
until  it  makes  that  final  plunge  which  we  see  in  all  its  frothy 
,i;randeur  during  the  monsoon  from  the  railway  as  it  thunders 
down  the  whinstone  precipice  at  Khandala  to  the  great  ravine 
of  the  Ulas,  where  it  buries  itself,  as  may  be  said,  in  sundry 
places — 

"Where  Deucalion  hurled  his  mother's  entrails  on  the  desert  world." 

Where  we  made  the  passage  all  was  quiet  in  the  moonlight, 
with  nothing  but  the  sound  of  rippling  water,  so  delightful  to 
the  sun-burnt  soul  in  Hindustan.  The  stream  was  wooded  to 
the  water-edge  with  scrub  and  bush.  A  bard  in  another  land 
has  pourtrayed  something  similar,  and,  like  everything  he 
touched  in  nature,  with  a  master-hand.  Minus  the  hazel,  it 
will  do  very  well  for  this  : — 

"  Whyles  owre  a  linn  the  burnie  plays. 
As  through  the  glen  it  wimpl't; 
Whyles  round  a  rocky  scaur  it  strays, 
Whyles  in  a  weil  it  dimpl't; 
Whyles  glitter'd  to  the  nightly  rays 
Wi'  bickering,  dancing  dazzle ; 
Whyles  cookit  underneath  the  braes 
Below  the  spreading  hazel. 
Unseen  that  night." 

The  great  difference  between  the  Dekhan  and  Konkan 
streams  is  in  their  clearness.  Abana  and  Pharpar  are  nothing 
to  them.  On  the  road  to  Bijapur  there  are  no  streams  so 
clear,  from  the  Bhima  itself  down  to  the  smallest  rivulet.  In 
the  Island  of  Arran  the  streams,  rushing  down  from  the 
granite  clefts  in  Goatfell,  become  transformed  in  the  plain 
to  apocalyptic  visions,  clear  rivers  of  the  water  of  life,  pure  as 


KOXKAN    STREAMS. 


197 


crystal.  This  is  the  great  want  in  our  Konkan  scenery.  Clear 
sand  and  water-worn  pebbles,  iii  lieu  of  the  leprous  margin  of 
the  Bassein  and  Ealyan  creeks,  these  lovely  scenes  by  moon- 
light, or  tlio  chiaroscuro  of  early  dawn,  would  transform  them 
into  the  beauties  of  Como  or  Loch  Lomond.  The  romance  is 
sadly  dispelled  when  one  jumps  ashore  ankle-deep  in  mud. 


(  19«  ) 


CHAPTEE  XLIX. 

The  Cave  Temples  of  Western  India. 

In  A.D.  130C,  when  Abu  Suba,  of  Gujarat,  halteil  to  refresh  his  army  two 
(lays  among  the  mountains,  some  of  his  troops,  without  leave,  to  the  nmnber 
of  three  hundred,  went  from  the  camp  to  see  a  famous  mountain  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Deogire,  from  which  city  he  was  then  not  far  distant. — 
Ferisbta,  quoted  by  Dow,  1795. 

The  number  of  strangers  from  Europe  and  America  who  have 
visited  the  most  famous  of  the  caves  of  Western  India  during 
the  last  few  years  is,  we  believe,  beyond  all  precedent.  And 
this  influx  is  likely  to  continue.  Something  of  this  may  be 
attributed  to  the  spirit  of  travel  and  adventurous  research, 
which  is  now  so  common,  and  something  to  the  interest  which 
has  been  aroused  by  the  labours  of  such  men  as  Drs.  Fergusson 
and  Burgess.  Those  who  come,  however,  are  not  all  smitten 
with  Cave  Literature,  and  most  of  them,  like  ourselves,  are  con- 
tent with  a  cursory  survey  of  these  interesting  monuments  of 
antiquity.  These  savans  have  made  the  subject  aU  their  own. 
Our  capital  stock  is  very  large,  for  we  are  told  that  the  geographi- 
cal distribution  of  the  CEives  is  somewhat  singular,  more  than 
nine-tenths  of  those  now  known  being  found  witliin  the  limits  of 
the  Bombay  Presidency.  The  interest  manifested  in  the  caves  is 
not  new,  but  is  one  of  the  earliest  facts  of  their  history.  Great 
is  their  attraction.  Major  Gill,  the  father  of  Captain  Gill, 
murdered  in  Arabia,  could  not  be  dragged  out  of  Ajanta,  for  he 
lived  thirty  years  there,  and  died  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  and,  we 
lielieve,  the  father  of  Dr.  Bhau  Daji  Ijecame  an  eremite  at 
Elephanta.  *  Fah  Hian,  a  Chinese  Buddhist,  as  early  as  a.d. 
■410,  visited  some  of  them  (which  of  them  it  does  not  matter 
much),  and  has  left  us  his  account ;    and  a  great  number  of 

•  Bhau  used  to  pay  an  annual  visit  to  his  father  when  he  was  at  Elephanta. 


■WHO    MADE   THE   CAVE   TEMPLES  ?  199 

Parsis  from  Iran,  under  dates  a.d.  1009  and  1021,  inscribed 
their  names  in  one  of  the  Kanheri  Caves  in  Pahluvi — an  earlier 
date  this,  we  think,  than  is  generally  attributed  to  tlie  appearance 
of  our  Zoroastrian  friends  in  this  part  of  the  Konkan.  It  is 
curious  to  note  the  reasons  why  each  pilgrim  came,  and  wliat 
impressed  him  most  on  his  visiting  the  caves  of  "Western  India. 
AMiat  each  sees  is  as  diverse  as  the  one  man  is  from  the  other, 
and  depends  verj^  much  on  the  spectacles  he  puts  on.  Old 
Pyke,  for  examjde,  com])lains,  in  1712,  that  he  could  make  no 
money  at  Elephauta.  But  people  do  not  go  to  Elephanta  to 
make  money.  Grose,  who  had  been  reading  his  Bil)le,  found, 
in  1750,  the  Judgment  of  Solomon  depicted  on  its  walls.  Dr. 
Claudius  Buchanan,  in  1808,  discovered  in  the  triform  god  a 
representation  of  the  Trinity,  and  for  tliis  reason  considered 
Elephanta  as  gi-eat  a  wonder  as  the  pyramids  of  Egypt.  And 
Jacquemont,  poor  Jacquemont !  whose  bones  we  saw  sifted  out 
of  the  sand  of  Sonapur  for  the  French  nation,*  pronounced  in 
1832  that  Elui-a,  in  its  glory,  was  a  den  of  fools,  cheats,  and 
knaves  who  battened  on  the  credulity  of  the  peoples  of  Central 
Asia,  and  probably  he  was  not  very  far  wrong.  But  the  most 
remarkable  statement  we  have  seen  is  the  confession  of  a  Thas 
to  Sleeman  that  Elura  contains  all  the  mysteries  of  his  pro- 
fession, and  that  there  is  depicted  on  its  walls  every  particular 
of  the  bloody  work  of  Thagi,  from  the  first  moment  the  intended 
victim  is  marked  do\vn,  throughout  the  murderous  track,  until 
he  is  buried  out  of  sight.  Speculations,  also,  as  to  who  made 
the  caves, — this,  also,  is  a  subject  of  much  confusion.  After 
reading  the  memoirs,  you  may  as  well  ask — Who  made  the 
Aden  Tanks  or  the  Circle  of  Stonehenge  ?  The  general  opinion 
of  the  common  people  is  that  they  "  growed."  Some  say  the 
giants  made  them ;  some,  the  Chinese  ;  and  some,  the  Panda vas. 
Then,  again,  they  are  the  work  of  magicians  or  of  the  Devil,  of 
Solomon  or  Alexander  the  Great.  Some  attribute  their 
construction  to  the  Deity.     Take  Nikitin,  the  Russian,  in  1470, 

•  "  La  nation  franpaise  n'oublie  \m  ses  enfanfs  cdlfebres,  memo  lorsqu'ils 
sonts  morts  h  I'dtranger." — Inscription  on  Claudo  Lorraine's  tomb,  in  the 
Church  of  Triaitik  dei  Monti,  in  Rome.  Jacquemont's  remains  weruexliumed 
from  Sonapur,  Feb.  26,  18S1,  and  sent  to  France  in  a  French  war  vessel. 
Ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  Iti'd,  and  iii/ra,  p.  214. 


200  THE    CAVE    TEMPLES    OF    WESTERN    INDIA. 

on  Junnar— "  No  human  hand  made  it.  God  made  the  town  " 
— which  is  also  the  theory  of  the  Thags,  but  thai  isn't 
mucli,  as 

"  Devils  they  adored  for  Deities." 

It  only  adds  to  our  perplexity  to  be  told  that  they  were  made  by 
the  Eashtrakutas  or  the  Cholas  ;  for,  not  to  make  light  of  the 
labours  of  Drs.  Fergusson  and  Burgess,  life  is  too  short  for  this 
sort  of  tlung.  Better  to  allow  these  extinct  dynasties  to  rest  in 
their  graves  till  the  resurrection.  They  only  serve  to  increase 
our  confusion,  like  rotten  sticks  shining  in  the  dark,  until  we  are 
forced  to  exclaim  — Asoka  we  know,  Porus  we  know,  but  who 
are  ye?  To  the  English  sailor  on  the  night  of  the  JMuharram, 
tlie  venerated  names  of  Hasan  and  Husain  become  Hobson  and 
Jobson.* 

There  is  a  moral  here,  and  it  is  this,  that  writers  on  the 
past  ought  to  recollect  that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  human 
memory.  Short  accounts  make  long  friends.  You  say  that 
the  Buddhist  monks  made  most  of  the  caves.  Agreed.  This  is 
certain,  that  the  monks  of  the  East  and  the  West  always 
affected  the  best  localities.  Show  me  an  old  abbey  or  monastery 
in  Europe,  and  I  will  show  you  a  favourite  place.  As  a  rule, 
the  land  was  fertile,  the  ground  healthy,  and  there  was  a  good 
supply  of  pure  water.  We  will  not  speak  of  salmon,  for  we  are 
in  India.  To  sum  up,  monks'  land  was  fat  land.  It  was  so  in 
India.  Take,  for  example,  the  Temple  of  Karli,  one  of  the 
most  ancient  and  perfect  abodes  of  the  Eastern  monks  which  exist. 
I  cannot,  indeed,  show  you  here  the  garden  of  the  world,  but  I 
can  show  you  a  plain  which  has  great  natural  resources,  as  old 
as  the  hills,  or  the  moonsoon  wliich  bursts  yearly  upon  them. 
Here  is  a  great  plain — you  know  where  we  are — beyond 
Lanawli,  rich  in  allunal  deposits  brought  down  by  tlie  upper 
streams  of  the  Krishna  from  the  watershed  of  the  Western 
Ghats.  This  plain  during  the  monsoon  is  a  sheet  of  water  for 
miles,  which  remains  for  months  and  soaks  into  the  earth  like  a 
sponge,  storing  up  the  elements  of  production  and  fertility.  It 
stretches  all  the  way  to  Poona,  though  with  diminished  powers 
and  a  lighter  soil.     But  here  it  seems  to  possess  a  never-failing 


*  Perpetuated  by  Sir  Henry  Yule,  in  the  name  of  his  invaluable  Dictionary. 


BEAUTirUL    SITUATIONS.  201 

supply  of  moisture,  with  two  crops  in  the  year,  and  requiring 
very  little  labour  on  the;  part  of  the  husbandman  ;  this  valley 
must  liave  been  in  all  ages,  and  could  yet  be  made  productive 
enough  to  feed  thousands  of  people.  It  is,  we  may  add,  miles 
in  width.  On  eitlicr  side  ri.se  holy  places.  On  the  one  side 
Karli,  boasting  of  an  antiquity  old  as  the  Christian  era,  and,  on 
the  other  side,  of  a  date  even  beyond  the  Christian  era,  are  the 
Cave  Temph's  of  Bhaja,  .scooped  out  of  one  of  the  .spurs  of 
Isagarh,  which  being  interpreted  means  "  Hill  of  God."  A 
favourite  dwelling-place,  this,  of  men,  for  many  generations.  Or 
for  beauty  of  situation,  take  Kanheri ;  where  will  you  find  a 
more  lovely  coign  of  vantage  for  the  spectator,  or  a  richer  or 
more  diversified  view  of  wood  and  watei-,  of  which  lie  will 
never  tire  ?  No  wonder  men  became  Buddhists  when  they  had 
such  a  place  to  go  to,  and  "  no  bills  to  pay."  Or  Elephanta, 
with  its  sea  and  sky  ?  Or  Ajanta,  with  its  bubbling  streams, 
perhaps  the  finest  of  them  all  ?  Or  Elura  ?  I  do  not  wonder 
that  Aurangzel>,  Lord  of  tlie  World,  though  he  died  at  Nagar, 
sixty  miles  away,  chose  this  as  his  last  resting-place ;  for  the 
brow  of  the  hill,  out  of  which  Elura  has  been  excavated,  near 
the  Eauza  where  he  sleeps,  overlooks  a  vast  plain,  strewn  with 
the  memorials  of  an  older  world — Deogiri  before  the  Mughal  liad 
set  foot  in  India,  Tagara  of  the  days  and  map  of  Ptolemy,  and 
Aurangabad  fragrant  with  the  roses  of  Damascus,  and  some 
fruits  and  flowers  that  Damascus  never  knew.  Take  any  of  the 
groups  you  like,  it  is  all  the  same,  and  begin  at  daylight  and  go 
over  them  scrialim,  and  you  will  soon  get  quit  of  your  super- 
fluous energy.  The  chances  are  ten  to  one  that  ere  midday  the 
pilgrim,  you — 

"  A  silly  man  in  simple  weeds  forworn, 
And  soil'd  with  dust  of  the  long-dried  M'ay  " 

— will  be  found,  say,  in  the  last  unfinished  cave  of  Lena  at 
Nasik,  where  the  workman  had  hastily  thrown  ilowu  his  tools 
at  the  first  blast  of  some  invasion.  A  recumbent  boily,  a  stone 
jiillow,  a  pilgrim's  staff,  lying  beside  him, — here  rests  one  (if  the 
Seven  Sleepers  of  Asia,  oblivious  of  the  march  of  tiiae  or  the 
jirogrcss  of  ci\'ilisation. 

What  was  the  manner  of  life  of  tlie   Buddhist  monks  at 
VOL.  n.  V 


202  THE    CAVE    TEMPLES    OF    WESTERN    INDIA. 

Kanheii  ?  Mr.  Campbell  answers  this  question  in  the  four- 
teenth volume  of  the  IJomba//  Gaseiker.  The  reailer  will  fiml 
there,  in  "  Life  at  Kanheri,"  a  splendid  monograph,  around 
which  the  author  throws  the  halo  of  romance,  while  his  narra- 
tion at  the  same  time  bears  the  stamp  of  truth  and  authenticity. 
Here  we  lind  how  the  monks  "  put  in  the  time,"  as  we  should 
say,  from  morn  to  dewy  eve.  It  seems  to  our  energetic  and 
matter-of-fact  age  a  dnll  and  drowsy  existence.  Most  devoted 
men,  no  doubt,  but  with  all  their  devotion  these  monks  must 
have  been  a  sad  set — "  the  lazy  loons  and  masterful  beggars  "  of 
a  Scots  Act  of  Parliament.  They  have  left  us  nothing  but  the 
caves,  if  they  actually  executed  them.  But  we  have  our  doubts 
alxnit  it.  Query,  did  the  Buddhist  monk,  like  the  hermit  crab 
of  marine  zoology,  merely  walk  in  and  take  possession  when  the 
original  owner  and  maker  of  the  shell  was  out  of  his  domicile, 
and  defy  all  comers  afterwards  ?  They  seem  to  have  had  nuns 
among  them,  so  in  this  they  differed  from  the  monks  of  Mount 
Athos.  Some  of  their  abodes  were  most  difficult  of  access,  as 
for  example,  those  near  Junnar,  which  must  have  required  a 
basket  such  as  is  used  by  the  inmates  of  the  convents  of 
Marsaba  or  Mount  Sinai,  when  they  wish  to  communicate  with 
the  outer  world.  If  they  clamliered  up  and  down  on  their 
"  shanks,"  they  must  have  had  more  agility  tlian  we  give  them 
credit  for. 

Sir  Walter  Scott  tells  his  readers,  in  beautiful  poetry,  that  if 
they  wish  to  see  Melrose  Abbey,  they  ought  to  see  it  by  moon- 
light. If  you  wish  to  see  the  Kailas  of  Elura  in  perfection,  go 
and  do  likewise,  and  you  will  see  something  to  dream  about. 
Kailas  means  "  heaven,"  and  you  will  then  see  a  heaven  under 
heaven,  and  give  it  and  its  architect,  whoever  he  was,  all  the 
importance  to  which  they  are  entitled.  This  monolithic  temple 
of  Elura  is  unquestionably  a  world's  wonder,  a  stone  literally 
cut  out  of  a  mountain.  It  is  a  world's  wonder  in  this  respect 
that  it  is  unique,  for  the  one  or  two  monolithic  temples  in  the 
Madras  Presidency  are  only  half  finished.  A  native  of  St. 
Kilda,  one  of  the  outermost  islands  of  the  Hebrides,  once  paid 
a  visit  to  Britain.  They  had  no  stone  dwellings  in  St.  Kilda  in 
those  days,  whatever  they  may  have  now.  He  was  shown  a 
cathedral,  and  as  soon  as  he  saw  it,  he  exclaimed — "  And  cut 


KAILAS    ROCK    TEMPLE. 


203 


out  of  one  stone  '  "  His  crude  imaginings  become  realities  in 
Kailas.  No  painting  or  photograph  can  do  it  justice.  The 
only  means  would  be  a  model,  such  as  that  of  Paris  seen  many 
years  ago  in  the  Great  Diorama  in  London ;  and  in  this  way 
you  might  get  an  idea  of  the  exterior.  Kailas  is  164  feet  long, 
109  feet  wide,  and  96  feet  high.    There  is  a  building  in  Bombay 


JA8.    FKEGUSSOX,    F.R.S.,    D.C.L.,    LI,.D.,    CLE. 

The  historian  of  Indian  and  Eastern  Architecture.* 


about  this  size — a  few  feet  either  way  does  not  matter  mucli : 
we  mean  tlie  Convocation  Hall ;  and  we  are  safe  in  saying  that 
Kailas  has  si.x  times  the  amount  of  exterior  ornamentation. 
Dr.  Fergusson  allows  thirty -five  to  fifty  years  as  the  probable 

*  Born  in  Ayrshire,  ItiOH,  died  in  Loudon  Jan.  Uth,  IPSB. 

r  2 


204  THE    CAVE    TEMPLES    OF    WESTERN   INDIA. 

time  occupied  in  the  execution  of  Kailas.  The  Bombay  Hall 
took  five  years  in  building,  and  yet  Fergusson  tells  us,  and  it  is 
in  reference  to  Kailas  that  he  speaks,  tliat  "  in  reality,  however, 
it  is  considerably  easier,  and  less  expensive,  to  excavate  a 
temple  than  to  build  one."  *  It  may  be  that  we  "  speak 
leasing,"  but  we  cannot  see  Kailas  thrown  overboard  in  this 
way.  Is  it  easier  or  less  expensive,  we  ask  notwithstanding 
Dr.  Fergusson's  affirmation  ?  Had  Fergusson  spoken  of  the 
Madras  temples,  where  there  are  no  finished  interiors,  we  might 
have  been  inclined  to  peld  to  his  dictum.  We  will  not  ask 
such  feeble  questions  as — Is  it  easier  to  sculpture  a  statue  than 
to  mould  one  ;  is  it  easier  to  carve  a  drawing  room  table,  say  of 
Bombay  blaekwood,  with  an  ornamented  pedestal  and  deep 
fringe,  out  of  one  solid  block,  than  to  put  together  piecemeal  a 
table  of  the  same  size  and  configuration  ?  Though  these 
questions  bear  on  the  subject,  they  are  not  exactly  on  the  same 
line.  Well,  then.  Given  a  section  of  Nauroji  Hill,  or  any 
softer  stone,  if  you  think  we  are  too  hard  on  you  :  would  it  have 
been  easier,  and  less  expensive,  to  cut  your  Convocation  Hall 
out  of  Nauroji  Hill,  exterior  and  interior,  than  to  have  biult  it 
of  hewn  stones  and  mason  work,  as  it  now  is  ?  In  building,  if 
you  spoil  one  stone,  you  can  substitute  another.  But  in  exca- 
vating you  cannot  do  it  either  in  the  sculpture  or  carving  of  a 
rock-hewn  temple,  without,  to  that  extent,  destroying  the  inte- 
grity of  the  whole.  In  selecting  a  block  \\ithout  flaws,  to  begin 
with,  great  care  and  skill  are  necessary,  and  great  care  and  skill 


*  "  Had  the  Kailas  been  an  edifice  of  masonry  situated  on  the  plain,  it  would 
scarcely  have  attracted  the  attention  of  European  travellers.  In  reality, 
however,  it  is  considerably  easier,  and  less  expensive,  to  excavate  a  temple 
than  to  build  one.  Take,  for  instance,  the  Kailas,  the  most  wonderful  of  all 
this  class.  To  excavate  the  area  on  which  it  stands  would  require  the  removal 
of  about  one  hundred  thousand  cubic  yards  of  rock,  but  as  the  base  of  the 
temple  is  soli'l,  and  the  superstructure  massive,  it  occupies,  in  round  numbers, 
about  one-lialr  of  the  excavated  area ;  so  that  the  question  is  simply  this — 
whether  it  is  easier  to  chop  away  fifty  thousand  yards  of  rock  and  shoot  it  to 
spoil  (to  borrow  a  railway  term)  down  a  hillside,  or  to  quarry  fifty  thousand 
yards  of  ston<-,  removing  it,  ])robably,  a  mile  at  least  to  the  place  where  the 
temple  is  to  be  built,  and  then  to  raise  and  set  it.  The  excavating;  process 
would  piobably  cost  about  one-tenth  of  the  other.  The  sculpture  and  ornament 
would  lie  the  same  in  both  instances,  more  especially  in  India,  where  buildings 
are  always  set  up  in  block  and  the  carving  executed  in  situ." — History  of 
Indian  and  Eastern  Architecture,  by  James  Fergusson,  D.C.L.,  1876,  p.  338. 


DECAY  OP  THE  ROCK  TEMPLES.  205 

ill  cuttiiit;  aiul  carving  afterwards.  Care  means  time,  and  wliat 
you  get  done  in  five  years  you  shall  take  fifty  to  complete  your 
work  in ;  and  Fergusson  ailmits  that  it  must  have  probalaly 
taken  fifty  years  to  make  the  KaUas. 

The  decline  and  fall  of  Buddhism  in  "Western  India  meant 
the  clearing  out  of  the  inmates  of  these  temple  caves.  Then 
came  the  work  of  demolition,  liut  also,  strange  to  say,  of 
preservation.  As  soon  as  the  caves  were  left  to  themselves,  to 
speak  childishly,  Xature  began  to  assert  her  supremacy.  The 
rain  fell  at  first  with  gentle  patter,  and  then  with  the  full  burst 
of  the  monsoon.  Silently  it  soaked  into  the  superincumbent 
earth  and  carried  down  the  mud  and  debris  with  which  it  was 
charged,  until  it  choked  up  the  entrance  of  some  of  the  greatest 
caves.  The  wind  came,  howled,  and  blew  the  dust,  gravel,  and 
decayed  vegetation  into  them.  Year  after  year  anil  century 
after  century  the  tide  of  earth  rose.  You  can  still  see  the  limit 
of  the  tide  mark  where  the  debris  has  been  cleared  away  on  the 
legs  of  the  colossi,  stamped  indelibly.  Where  the  earth  ^\■as 
deep  enough,  trees  grew.  Eut,  unlike  the  works  of  masoncraft, 
the  sides  of  the  temple  caves  and  the  monolithic;  structure  defied 
the  power  of  vegetation  to  destroy,  for  no  pijial  tree,  as  in 
Bassein,  can  twist  its  roots  or  find  a  matrix  in  the  crannies  of 
Kailas.  In  some  of  the  courts  the  earth  stood  fifteen  feet  thick. 
Bhaja  was  enveloped  in  an  earthy  curtain  and  had  disappeared, 
until  its  beautiful  capitals  and  sculpture,  as  clear  and  perfect  as 
tlie  day  they  left  the  ^\■orknu^n's  chisel,  were  laid  bare  by  the 
hand  of  man.  The  cutting  of  some  of  the  masses  of  accumidated 
debi-is,  looks  like  the  geological  sections  in  a  picture-book.  No 
relic,  coin,  or  tool,  if  we  except  a  rude  cliisel  and  hammer,  has 
been  found  in  the  clearing  away  of  this  detritus.  Nor  could 
such  be  expected,  for  the  masses  which  had  to  be  excavated 
consisted  not  of  the  chips  and  fragments  of  the  work  when  it 
was  being  hewed  out,  but  of  the  debris  whicli  had  accunmlated 
after  the  caves  were  deserted.  In  this  respect  they  were  unlike 
the  kitchen  middens  of  the  North,  which  have  yielded  such 
valuable  finds  of  Hint  and  bone  to  reward  the  labours  of  the 
arclueologist.  They  contained  the  implements  of  the  time  when 
these  middens  were  in  course  of  formation,  and  which  had  been 
either  worn  out  and  thrown  away  as  useless,  or  lost  among  the 


206  THE    CAVE    TEMPLES    OF    WESTERN    INDIA. 

iiibbisli  and  oflal.  We  need  scarcely  add  that  the  Supara  relics* 
were  found,  not  in  a  cave,  but  in  a  Buddhist  tope. 

"  On  Tintock  tap  there  is  a  mist, 
And  in  the  mist  tliere  is  a  Ivist, 
And  in  the  liist  there  is  a  caup, 
And  in  the  caup  there  is  a  drap." 

Thanks  to  Mr.  Campbell  and  his  coadjutors,  they  have  dissipated 
the  mist  and  laid  bare  tlie  contents  of  the  kist  to  the  eyes  of 
the  world. 

Some  people  imagine  that  the  scribbling  of  their  names  by 
travellers  on  ancient  monuments  is  a  modern  vice.  But  it  is 
not  confined  to  any  age  or  nation.  Here  on  the  leg  of  one  of 
the  colossal  figures  of  Buddha,  twenty-five  feet  high,  which 
.stand  sentinel  at  the  gate  of  the  so-called  Cathedral  Cave  of 
Kanheri,  are  deeply  indented  the  names  of  one  English  lady  and 
three  Englishmen — Ann  Butfer,  K.  Bates,  John  Butfer,  and 
John  Shaw — and  the  date,  1678- — all  unknown  to  fame.  But 
these  names  tell  us  how  soon — we  had  only  arrived  in  Bombay 
about  a  dozen  years  before — we  began  to  look  about  us,  and  give 
ourselves  time  to  loiter  among  the  curious  in  art  and  in  nature. 
Not  all  work  and  no  play  in  the  Bombay  of  1G78.  The  country 
was  quiet  when  an  English  lady  was  able  to  come  here,  and  the 
Portuguese  could  not  have  been  our  very  stark  enemies.  It  is 
not  to  these  kinds  of  inscriptions  that  we  object.  They  are 
suggestive,  teach  us  something,  and  are  not  of  the  "  Bill  Sykes 
his  mark  "  or  "  Warren's  Blacking  "  pattern  which  stare  us  in 
the  face  at  the  base  of  I'ompey's  Pillar.  The  name  of  Volney 
on  Baalbek  and  the  sign-manual  of  Belzoni  on  the  Pyramids 
are  interesting  mementoes.  So,  in  like  manner,  when  we  meet 
with  the  great  name  of  Hadrian  deeply  engraven  on  those  high 
walls  of  rock  called  the  Iron  Gates,  which  overlook  the  Danube 
where  it  cleaves  the  Cnr]Kithian  Mountains,  and  find  it  again 

*  Supara  relics  were  enclii.sed  in  (l)gold;  (2)  crystal;  (.'!)  stone;  (-1)  silver; 
(.'))  topper;  (6)  stone;  (7)  bricks  and  earth.  According  to  Hliagwanlal 
ludraji  seven  coverings  were  the  proper  numliers ;  in  tlie  same  way  as  there  are 
seven  stages  or  divisions  of  a  roof  of  a  Buddhist  monastery,  including  the 
umbrella  at  the  top. 

Tlioth  wrote  a  wonderful  book,  and  enclosed  it  in  a  box  of  gold,  in  one  of 
silver,  in  one  of  ivory  and  ebony,  in  one  of  bronze,  in  one  of  brass,  in  one  of 
iron.^G.  Kawlinson's  E<jyi't,  1887. 


KANHERI.  207 

"writ  large"  by  the  same  hand  on  the  gigantic  Memnon  of 
Thebes,  our  attention  is  ibrthwitli  called  to  the  fact  tliat  this 
man's  inHuence  extended  from 

"  Farthest  soutli, 
Sj'ene,  and  wliere  the  shadow  botli  way  falls, 
Meroe,  Nilotick  Isle," 

tn  the  far  North,  yea,  even  to  the  utmost  limits  of  Paunonia. 

Two  maxims  were  once  current  in  the  J'-ast.     A\'ork  not,  said 
(-iautama.     Work  while  it  is  called  to-day,  said 

"  He  whose  converse  thrilling 
Honoured  Emmaiis  that  old  evcn-tido."' 

But  what  is  to  be  done  withtlie  votary  of  idleness  and  beggary  ^ 
Leave  him  alone ;  he  will  work  out,  at  all  events,  his  own 
destruction.  A  stronger  tlian  lie  shall  come  upon  him.  The 
doom  of  Kanheri  was  accomiilished  on  tliat  night  in  1532,  which 
has  been  sung  by  Camoens,  wjien  I  )a  ( 'unha  entered  the  city  of 
Ba-ssein.  Henceforth  tlie  idlers  and  beggars  of  Kanheri  became 
hewers  of  wood  and  drawers  of  water  to  the  Portuguese.  Their 
candle  was  literally  put  out.  The  Buddhists  had  a  long  tenure 
of  it,  and  it  seemed  as  if  their  reign  was  never  to  end.  But 
retributive  justice  came  at  last.  From  the  most  ancient  times 
known  among  men,  tlie  natives  of  Salsette  had  beheld  witli  awe 
tliose  sombre  precipices  towering  overhead,  honeycombed  witli 
the  liabilations  of  the  living  and  the  sej)ulchres  of  the  dead. 
From  the  most  ancient  times  their  eyes  had  feasted  on  daily 
scenes  of  Ijrilliant  displaj^  streamers  flying,  and  gay  festoons  of 
jasiiiiiie  suspended  from  one  architrave  to  another,  with  groujis 
iif  yellow-robe<l  priests  ascending,  amid  clouds  of  incense,  those 
flights  of  stairs  W'hich  led  to  the  cells  of  tlie  monks.  But  mark 
the  change.  A  way-worn  traveller  comes  to  ICanheri.  There, 
on  the  stone  floor,  crouclies  a  miserable  yo(ji,  with  downcast 
eyes,  in  sackclotli  and  ashes,  muttering  his  mumbo  jumbo.  His 
stick  witli  its  iron  ring  lies  beside  him  ;  his  alms  bowl  also,  the 
eniljlem  oi  his  religion,  and,  like  it,  turned  upside  down.  Some 
people  seem  to  talk  of  tlie  religions  of  the  East  as  if  they  were 
immutable,  and  from  their  very  antiquity  possessed  a  prescrij)- 
tive  right  to  dominate  over  tlie  intellect  of  men  to  the  remotest 


208  THE    CAVE    TEMPLES    OF    WESTERN    INDIA. 

times.  But  we  must  not  be  led  away  in  this  manner.  Doubt- 
less the  same  ideas  passed  current  when  Elura  and  Elephanta 
were  in  all  their  glory,  and  their  high-priests  were,  in  their  own 
estimation,  the  invincible  and  the  unshakable.  All  things 
continue  as  they  were.  Do  they  ?  Tlie  gates  of  Baalbek, 
Karnak,  Karli,  and  Ajanta  are  open  night  and  day,  and  who 
enter  in  ?  Some  stray  European  or  American.  Xot  one 
worshipper  treads  their  silent  courts,  not  one  devotee  of  the 
mighty  religions  which  once  swayed  over  Asia  ;  and  of  all  the 
millions  who  bowed  the  knee  in  those  chosen  shrines  of 
antiquity,  not  one  representative  could  now  be  found  within  a 
radius  of  a  hundred  miles  who  would  give  a  day's  wages  for  the 
.splendid  rituals  for  the  living  or  the  dead,  or  for  all  the  pomp 
or  circumstance  of  Kailas  or  HeliopoUs. 

A  few  painters,  such  as  Alma  Tadema  or  Griffiths,  cull  from 
tlieir  imagination,  or  from  the  relics  that  have  come  down  to 
them,  and  paint  beautiful  pictures  which  delight  the  eye  and 
the  mind  of  the  spectator ;  a  few  archseologists,  such  as 
Fergusson  and  Burgess,  reap  renown  by  illustrating  their 
architecture,  or  deciphering  or  collating  inscriptions  in  strange 
alphabets  which  have  been  forgotten  time  out  of  mind  among 
men.  The  monuments  remain,  but  tlieir  worship  has  passed 
into  oblivion. 

There  was  a  time,  however,  and  it  is  well  to  remember  this, 
when  the  religion  of  the  cave  temples,  venerable  as  it  seems  in 
our  eyes,  was  new.  History  enables  us  to  travel  backwards  to 
a  period  ere  the  first  stroke  of  the  chisel  had  been  delivered, 
or  the  mallet  had  resounded  through  the  solitudes  of  Karli 
or  Elephanta. 

And  in  these  older  times,  when  the  world  was  young,  if  we 
are  to  believe  the  voice  of  History,  there  was  no  caste,  and 
there  was  no  sail,  for  tlie  remarriage  of  the  widow  was  not 
prohibited,  and  we  believe  that  infant  marriages  were  unknown. 
The  vermUion  stain  of  infanticide  had  not  then  been  pourtrayed 
on  her  chambers  of  imagery,  and  the  countless  forms  of  self- 
immolation — Jauliar,  Traga,  Samadh,  Dharna,  and  so  forth — 
were  unknown.  "  Practices  morally  wrong  cannot  be  theologi- 
cally right ;  when  practices  wliicli  sap  the  very  foundation  of 
morality,  and  which  involve  a  violation  of  the  eternal   and 


THE    OLD    WORSHIP    GONE.  209 

immutable  laws  of  Eitjht,  are  establislied  in  the  name  and  under 
the  sanction  of  Eeligion,  they  ought  for  the  common  \\elfare  of 
society  and  in  the  interests  of  humanity  itself,  to  be  publicly 
denounced  and  exposed."* 

Is  it  nothing,  do  you  think,  that  the  British  Government, 
not  alone  by  counsel,  but  by  the  strong  arm  of  authority,  has 
cleared  away  these  cruel  and  bloody  rites  from  the  social 
platform,  and  paved  the  way  for  the  labours  of  the  philan- 
thropist ?  And,  in  doing  so,  has  she  not  given  back  to  us 
and  her  cliildren  something  of  the  India  of  the  days  of  old  ? 


Sir  Joseph  Arnould,  1852. 


nr- 


(     -'10     ) 


CHAPTER  L. 

Elephanta. 

I  NEVER  think  of  Elephanta  without  recollecting  the  .story  of  a 
voung  American  *  who  wrote  A  Boy's  Travels  round  the  World. 
AVhen  in  Bombay  he  took  his  grandmother  to  Elephanta.  lu 
those  days  there  was  no  pier,  and  you  landed  from  the  bandar- 
boat  in  a  tony.  The  tony-  capsized,  leaving  youth  in  the  prow 
and  grandmother,  not  at  the  helm,  but  in  the  waves,  which 
were  fortunately  not  big.  With  tlie  calm  and  unimpassioned 
countenance  of  his  race,  this  young  man  sung  out,  "  Grand- 
mother, have  you  touched  land  yet  ?  "  "  No,"  says  she,  "  it's 
only  mud,"  as  she  hung  on  by  the  edge  of  the  tony,  bobbing  up 
and  down,  in  four  feet  of  water.     But  we  are  off.f 


*  Master  Field. 

+  Hamilton's  Account  of  the  East  Indies,  chapter  xx.,  page  3i9  : — "  Twu 
leagues  from  the  Castle  is  a  small  island  belonging  to  the  Company,  called 
Butcher's  Island ;  it  is  of  no  use,  besides  haiiUng  ships  ashore  to  clean,  and 
grazing  a  few  cattle.  And  a  league  from  thence  is  another  larger  called 
Elephanta,  belonging  to  the  Tortuguese,  and  serves  only  to  feed  cattle.  I 
believe  it  took  its  name  from  an  elephant  carved  out  of  a  great  black  stone, 
about  seven  feet  in  height.  It  is  so  like  a  living  elephant  that  at  two  hundred 
yards'  distance  a  sharp  eye  might  be  deceived  by  the  similitude.  A  little 
way  from  that  stands  a  horse  cut  out  of  a  stone,  but  not  so  proportionable  or 
well-shai>cd  as  the  elephant.  There  is  a  pretty  high  mountain  stands  in  the 
middle  of  the  island,  shaped  like  a  blunt  pyramid,  and  about  the  half  of  the 
way  to  the  toi)  is  a  large  cave  that  has  two  large  inlets  which  serve  both  for 
pas'sase  into  it  and  light.  The  mountain  above  it  rests  on  large  pillars  hewn 
out  of  a  solid  rock,  pillars  curiously  carved.  Some  have  the  figures  of  men 
about  eight  feet  high  in  several  jxjstures,  but  exceedingly  weU-proportioned  and 
cut.  Tliere  is  one  that  has  a  giant  with  four  heads  joined,  and  their  faces 
looking  from  each  other.  He  is  in  a  sitting  posture,  \\ith  his  legs  and  feet 
under  his  body.  His  right  hand  is  above  twenty  inches  long.  There  are 
several  dark  rooms  hewn  out  of  the  rock,  and  a  spring  of  sweet  water  comes 
out  of  one  room,  and  runs  through  the  cave  out  of  one  of  the  inlets.  I  fired 
a  fusee  into  one  of  the  rooms,  but  I  never  heard  cannon  or  thunder  make  such 
a  dreadful  noise,  which  continued  alx)ut  half  a  minute,  and  the  mountain 


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212  ELEPHANTA. 

As  we  leave  tlie  Apollo-bandar  aud  look  behind  us  we  are 
reminded  of  the  words  in  the  old  Gazetteer :  "  Bombay  is  a  low- 
lying  place,"  but  you  must  not  emphasize  the  words,  or  you 
\\ill  run  into  inevitable  mendacity.  It  is  high  tide,  and  we 
seem  almost  to  stand  on  tip-toe  to  get  a  look  at  it,  or,  like 
MUton's  sun,  "  pillow  our  chin  upon  an  Orient  wave." 
Visions  of  Paidhoni  and  the  feet-washing  there  in  olden  days 
(for  our  readers  will  recollect  that  at  high  tide  a  great  portion 
of  the  native  town  is  under  sea-level)  come  across  us :  so  the 
proverbial  tidal  wave  would  make  short  work  of  it.  So,  no 
doubt,  would  an  earthquake.  But  tliere  have  been  no  earth- 
quakes in  Bombay  during  the  historic  period,  as  Dr.  Wilson 
informed  us,  and  we  believe  him,  albeit  we  read  under  date  of 
Bombay,  27th  May,  1648,  of  "a  hellish  hurricane  so  called  by 
Portuguese  writers,  accompanied  by  an  earthquake."  The 
earthquake  at  Matheran  some  ten  years  since  was  a  very 
juvenile  effort,  as  it  merely  rumbled  under  the  beds  of  the 
sleepers,  though  it  shook  tent-poles  at  Thana  as  it  passed  away. 
The  view  of  the  cloacce  maximcc  of  Bombay,  as  they  disgorge 
themselves  into  the  sea,  carrying  towards  us  a  loud  perfume,  is 
not  inspii-itiug  in  the  early  morning.  Yes ;  "  Bombay,  thy 
towers  gleam  bright  across  the  dark  blue  sea,"  but  your  drains 
are  malodorous.  I  am  afraid  you  cannot  drain  the  most  of 
Bombay  owing  to  its  low  level ;  but  not  being  an  engineer,  I 
must  not  dogmatise  on  this  subject,  or  even  advocate  dry 
sewerage.  Will  not  the  sea  refuse  to  have  your  offal  on  any 
terms,  and  spew  it  out  again  on  the  littoral  ?  This  is  a  question 
that  any  man  may  ask,  and  a  great  variety  of  answers  wUl  be 
given  to  it.  But  whatever  the  answers,  the  interests  of  the  city 
demand  that  a  large  and  comprehensive  system,  &c.,  &c., — you 
know  the  rest.  In  Venice  they  say  the  earth  is  the  mother  of 
death,  so  they  try  to  shut  it  out  wherever  they  can,  with  bolts 
and  bars  and  flag-stones  hermetically  sealed  together,  so  as  to 
defy  the  emission  of  all  pestilential  gases.     Sir  Bartle  Prere 


seemed  to  shake.  As  soon  as  the  noise  was  over,  a  large  serpent  appeared, 
which  made  us  take  to  our  heels,  and  got  out  of  the  cave  at  one  door,  and  he 
in  great  haste  went  out  at  the  other.  I  judge  him  about  fifteen  feet  long  and 
two  foot  about.  And  tliese  were  all  that  I  saw  worth  observation  in  that 
Island."  See  also  Ovington's  Voijage  to  Sural,  p.  158,  and  Capt.  Hamilton's 
New  Account  of  the  East  Indies,  vol.  i.,  241. 


ISLANDS    KOUND    BOMBAY.  213 

thought  that  Trombay,  from  its  liilly  nature,  was  a  proper  site 
for  a  city.  And  so  it  had  been  found  out  before,  for  we  read 
that  about  the  ninth  century  of  our  era,  the  period  of  the 
excavation  of  Elephanta,  the  city  of  Chemul  or  Saimur  with  a 
great  population  had  its  site  here. 

We  may  now  take  a  look  at  Bombay  Castle  from  the  sea. 
Every  time  we  see  it  its  surroundings  become  more  piebald  and 
amorphous.  A  huge  dyke  of  rubble  now  runs  along  one  of  the 
curtains,  anil  sliuts  out  tlio  daylight.  We  are  assured,  however, 
by  the  liighest  authority  that  no  sacrilegious  hand  shall  ever 
touch  the  main  building,  which  is  so  interwoven  with  our 
domestic  history  that  it  seems  meet  that  it  should  remain  until 
the  prophecy  of  Magduri  Saheb  be  fulfilled  and  Bombay  be  no 
more.*  The  islands  of  Bombay  harbour  are  now  before  us,  and 
they  have  a  liistory,  and  a  very  pleasing  one  it  is.  From  the  ■ 
earliest  times  that  England  had  anything  to  do  with  these 
islands  she  made  them,  not  a  battle-ground,  but  the  scenes  of 
scientific  investigation  and  pleasure  excursion.  Xo  blood  has 
been  shed  on  any  of  these  islands.  A  few  pirates  on  Gibbet 
Island  were  hanged  for  murder,  and  a  number  of  Chinese 
desperadoes  suffered  in  a  like  manner  some  five-and-twenty 
years  ago  on  the  Island  of  Elephanta. 

Salsette  was  a  kind  of  happy  hunting-ground.  Every  year 
about  Christmas,  Du  Perron  tells  us  in  1701,  the  Governor 
went  there  for  a  few  days  with  a  large  pleasure  party  to  hunt 
the  tiger.  This  beast  was  not  uncommon  in  the  last  century, 
and  even   in   this.     Some   time   in   November,   1829,  a   tiger 


•  "  The  name  of  the  celebrated  person  thus  enshrined  was  Mngdooree  Saheb, 
a  devotee,  who  added  tlie  gift  of  prophecy  to  his  other  hi^h  qualifications,  and 
amon'^st  other  lliings  has  predicti'd  that  when  the  town  shall  join  the  wood, 
Bombay  shall  be  no  more.  The  accomplishment  of  what  in  his  days  must 
have  .ippearc  I  very  unlikely  ever  to  lake  place — namely,  the  junction  of 
inhaliited  dwellings  with  the  trees  of  Mahim — seems  to  be  in  rapid  course  of 
fulfi.ment;  tlie  land  has  been  dr.ained,  many  poriions,  formerly  impassable, 
filled  up  and  rendered  solid  ground,  while  the  houses  are  cxtendiu-  so  fast 
that  the  Bara  Bazar  will  in  no  very  long  period  in  all  probaliility  extend  to 
Mahini.  Thosi-  who  attach  some  faith  to  the  prophecy,  yet  ate  unwilling  to 
believe  that  evil  and  notwnd  will  befall  the  'ri.sirjg  Presidency,'  are  of  opinion 
that  some  change  of  name  will  take  place  when  it  shall  be  made  the  seat  of 
the  Supreme  Government:  thus  the  saint's  credit  will  be  saved,  and  no 
mislortune  happen  to  the  good  town  of  Bombay." — Roberts's  Overland 
Journey,  18-14. 


2 14  ELEPHANTA. 

landed  in  ^Iaza2;on,  having  swam  from  the  opposite  shore,  and 
was  killed  in  Mr.  Heushaw's  garden,  where  it  had  taken  refuge  ; 
and,  within  the  memory  of  man,  a  tiger  was  knocked  on  tlie 
head  while  swimming  in  Bombay  Harbour.  A  traveller  (was 
it  Silk  Buckingham  ?)  in  Salsette  was  suddenly  surprised  by  his 
palkee  being  dropped  and  the  coolies  bolting.  The  palkee  was 
closed,  and  he  soon  felt  outside  the  jhil7ni/s  something  of  a  fee- 
fcur-fum  character.  Stripes  was  wide  awake,  and  the  coolies, 
up  a  tree,  were  wide  awake  also.  He  didn't  sleep  much  himself 
that  night,  I  tell  you. 

Niebuhr  went  three  times  to  Elephanta  when  he  was  here  in 
1764,*  but  the  most  formidable  party  was  in  1812.  Basil 
Hall,  William  Erskine,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ashburner,  and  several 
other  ladies  and  gentlemen,  with  camp  requisites,  protracted  their 
picnic  for  ten  days :  and  we  do  not  read  that  time  hung  heavily  on 
their  hands,  or  that  they  dined  up  a  tree  \vith  Eobinson  Crusoe. 

In  1850  sounds  of  wassail  were  heard  at  many  oyster  feasts 
(that  was  what  they  called  tlieni  then)  in  Uran  and  Karanja. 
Sometimes  there  was  danger  from  pirates.  In  1718  Alexander 
Hamilton,  the  skipper,  fired  a  gun  in  one  of  the  caves,  and  a 
serpent  fifteen  feet  long  gave  him  chase.  Sometimes  death 
came  suddenly  enough.  Foi'bes  was  precipitated  from  the  ruins 
of  Moutpezir.  Wales,  whose  daughter  married  Sir  Charles 
Malet,  died  while  taking  sketches  of  the  caves'  in  Salsette ;  and 
Jaciiuemont  caught  malaria  while  botanising  there,  and  died 
thereof  in  the  Marine  Lines  in  1832. 

But  hush !  we  are  now  at  the  portals  of  Elephanta.  The 
elephant  from  which  it  took  its  name  (amoug  Europeans  only, 
however)  is  now  doing  duty  in  Bombay  as  a  rockery.  There 
was  a  stone  horse  also  here,  partly  statue,  as  you  may  see  in  au 


•  Carsten  Niebuhr  was  the  father  of  the  historian.  Here  is  wh.it  the 
sreatest  .authority  on  Modern  Arabia  say.s  of  him,  being  William  Giftord 
Palgrave's  dedication  of  his  book  on  Central  and  Eastern  Arabia — 

TO   THE   MEMORY 

OF 

CARSTEN   NIEBUHK, 

IN     HOKO0R     OF     THAT 

INTELLIGENCE    AND   COURAGE   WHICH   FIRST   OPENED    ARABIA   TO    EUEOPE, 

I   RESPECTFULLY   DEDICATE 

THE     RESULTS     OF     A     JOURNEY 

ITSELF    INSrUiED   BY    THAT   GREAT    MEMORY. 


BY    WHOM    EXCAVATED?  215 

old  picture  of  Pyke's  in  the  Archceologia.  The  body  of  the 
horse,  a  statue  hewn  out  of  tlie  solid  rock.  The  question  may 
now  be  asked,  who  made  Elephanta  I  But  the  oracle  is  dumb, 
as  the  stone  on  which  it  is  presumed  that  all  this  was  inscribed 
was  sent  to  the  king  of  Portugal  by  his  A'iceroy  as  far  back  as 
1650.  "We  need  not  very  much  regret  it,  as  there  ii  every 
probability  it  recorded  the  fact  that  it  was  the  gift  of  a 
merchant,  some  millionaire  of  Supara,  or  Chemul  in  adjacent 
Trombay.  A  merchant  1  ^\'hy  not  ?  Did  not  merchants  con- 
struct most  of  the  Kanheri  caves,  as  we  learn  from  the  Bombay 
Gazetteer,  from  inscriptions  which  liave  been  lately  deciphered  ? 
The  same  holds  good  in  Syria  and  Ephesus,  where  vast  ruins  of 
magnificent  buildings  still  attest  the  munificence  of  tlie  mer- 
cantile body.  I  dare  not  speculate  on  this  subject,  though  I 
have  a  strong  belief  that  the  colossal  Trimurti  itself  represents- 
the  profits  of  transactions  in  the  gum,  silk,  or  frankincense  of 
India,  and  other  staples  which  made  Sir  George  Birdwood 
declare  the  trade  of  these  parts  was  like  that  of  the  Babylon  of 
the  Eevelation.  In  Bombay,  it  was  a  merchant  who  founded  our 
greatest  school,  another  mercliant  our  greatest  hospital ;  and 
our  oldest  and  most  historic  Church  or  Cathedral  was  erected  by 
a  company  of  merchants.*  So  that  we  have  the  incontestable 
proofs  before  our  eyes  that  charity  never  faileth — never  faileth, 
tliough  thet  ougues  and  prophets  of  the  Brahmauical  confederacy 
about  A.D.  800,  of  which  Elephanta  is  the  symbol,  liave  long 
since  vanished  away. 

1  hear  many  people  nowadays  declare  that  Elephanta  is  an 
imposture.  The  imposition  is  that  which  they  have  practised 
on  themselves  ;  for  the  same  thing,  when  people  are  buoyed  up 
witli  false  expectations,  may  be  said  of  the  Pyi-amids,  Pompeii, 
nay  even  of  Eome  itself.  One  thing  is  quite  clear  ;  if  we  are 
to  believe  all  we  hear  and  see,  we  should  soon  have  no  Elephanta 
at  all.  The  water  wluch  percolates  into  chinks  and  crevices 
silently  works  day  and  night  and  year  after  year,  and  is  rapidly 
disintegrating  it,  and  bit  by  bit  Elephanta  will  soon  go  to  pieces, 
like  the  stone  elephant  which  gave  to  it  its  name.     Nay  more, 

*  It  was  also  a  Lohana  merchant,  Kiirainsi  l\:uiiiial,  who  constructed  the 
modern  paved  ascent  ujj  to  tlie  Eleiihanta  Cave  in  1853-54,  at  an  expense  of 
lis.  12,000. — Burgess's  Hock  Teirqilcs  of  J'Jicjilianla,  1871. 


216  ELEPHANTA. 

we  are  told  that  this  is  sufficient  to  account  for  all  its  decay, 
and  that  Portuguese  iconoclasts  *  and  English  seamen  did  it  no 
violence  ■whatever.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  in  Ahniadabad, 
where  the  Portuguese  never  were,  you  will  find  as  fresh  and 
fair  as  the  day  they  left  the  workman's  hands,  carving  and 
tracery,  down  to  the  ground,  against  which  the  blind  beggar 
leans,  which  were  executed  before  Columbus  had  discovered 
America.  It  is,  possibly,  a  harder  stone  than  that  of  Ele- 
phanta.  Still  the  preservation  of  such  delicate  work  is  a  perfect 
marvel ;  and  I  suppose  that  the  buildmgs  there  are  more 
exposed  to  be  knocked  about  than  in  any  other  city  in  the 
world,  many  of  them  ha\'ing  no  protection  or  fence  of  any  kind 
whatever.  Certainly  the  people  there  are  as  little  destructive 
as  in  any  place  of  the  globe.  Something,  too,  may  perhaps  be 
set  down  to  the  ligliter  rainfall,  as  this  district  has  not  the 
violence  of  the  monsoon  to  contend  vrith. 

When  Anqitetil  du  Perron  was  in  Elephanta  in  1761  he  did 
not  know  that  he  was  standing  in  a  Brahman  temple.  He 
did  not  know  that  he  was  in  a  Buddhist  one  at  Karli,  know- 
ledge which  a  few  lessons  may  now  give  to  every  schoolboy. 
Altogether  our  knowledge  of  India  has  been  very  much  a 
progressive  science.  There  was  published  in  Berlin  in  178G, 
by  Jean  Bernoulli,  a  great  work  which  exhibits  to  us  in  these 
days  the  most  exact  information  which  w^as  then  available  in 
Europe  on  the  subject  of  India.f  It  was  the  joint  production  of 
three  master-minds  who  had  made  India  their  study,  and  they 
had  all  lived  many  years  in  the  country.  Tliis  book  contains 
only  one  line  on  Elephanta.  The  map  of  Eennell  in  it 
may  stiU  be  said  to  be  the  backbone  of  our  geographical 
knowledge  of  India,  for  all  after-information  of  this  kind  has 
only  clustered  round  it.  AVill  it  be  believed,  then,  that  all  that 
tract  of  country  in  the  Berars  east  of  Xagpur,  Amarawati,  and 
Akola,  and  wliich  lies  between  the  Narmada  and  the  Godavari, 
is  a  complete  blank,  and  unexplored  to  that  extent  that  Eennell 


*  See  De  Coiito,  Da  Asia  (1003),  vii.,  251,  258,  as  quoted  in  Burgess's 
Elephanta,  p.  48. 

t  Les  kecherches  Tlistoriques  et  Qeographiqnes  sur  VInde,  par  Le  Pfere 
.Joseph  Tiefl'eiithaler,  M.  Auquctil  du  Perron  et  51.  Jacques  Eennell.  Berlin, 
1786.     3  vols.     4to. 


BUDDHISM.  217 

has  written  across  it  the  ominous  Avords/  "  Little  known  to 
Europeans."  and  the  "  Pirate  coast,"  in  capitals,  still  dominates 
the  Malabar  Coast,  south  from  the  mouth  of  Bombay  Harbour  ? 
It  was  tlie  same  with  the  geology,  botany,  and  zoology  of  India : 
for  of  each  of  them  might  have  been  written,  "  little  known  to 
Europeans."  Nature  was  loth  to  give  up  her  secrets,  and  from 
liistory  itself  it  was  long  before  the  veil  was  lifted  up ;  while 
the  genii  of  the  cave  temples,  like  the  serpent  which  cliased 
Hamilton,  would  suffer  no  intrusion.  In  1805  Sir  James 
^lackintosh  asks  if  Buddliism  be  a  Brahman  sect. 

In  nothing,  however,  has  the  march  of  events  made  such 
progress  as  in  cave  literature.  For  a  long  time  the  caves  them- 
selves were  literally  overgrown  with  jungle  and  held  in  fee  by 
wild  beasts ;  and  it  took  a  much  longer  time  to  find  out  who 
made  the  caves  than  it  did  to  make  them.  For  two  hundred 
years  men  groped  about,  looked  up,  took  sketclies,  and  went 
away.  There  are  English,  Dutch,  French,  Portuguese,  Italians: 
some  write  down  their  impressions ;  and  so  they  come  and  go. 
But  among  all  the  train  of  these  travellers  and  philosophers 
from  Europe  who  visited  the  caves  of  Western  India,  not  one  of 
them  all  seems  to  have  detected  the  Buddhist  element  in  the 
construction  of  any  one  of  them,  or  divincnl  what  is  now  one  of 
the  established  facts  of  history,  that  Buddhism  had  been  once 
the  religion  of  India  for  a  period  of  a  thousand  years,  and  still 
holds  in  thrall  many  millions  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  globe.* 

It  was  in  vain  that  men  interrogated  the  past.  The  history  of 
India  seemed  to  have  been  written  on  sand,  and  the  successive 
waves  of  invasion  had  washed  it  all  away.  Everything  that 
men  could  not  understand  was  relegated  to  Alexander  or  the 
Egyptians ;  and  when,  baffled  at  all  points,  they  appealed  to  the 
natives  for  a  solution  of  tlie  cave  problem,  they  were  referred  to 
the  jins,  devils,  and  gods  of  their  mythology,  as  if  the  Creator 
himself  had  come  down  with  hammer  and  chisel  to  carve  out 
Kailas,  so  that  they  might  have  something  M'onderful  and 
beautiful  to  look  at  for  their  delectation.  Somebody  was  found, 
no  doubt,  soon  to  make  the  discovery,  for  the  tree  of  knowledge 
was  growing  apace,  and  yielding  fruit  which  would  soon  be  ripe 

*  "  Tlie  luimber  of  Buddhists  can  scarcely  be  calculated  at  less  than  one 
hundred  millions." — Sir  Muuier  Williams,  Jiuddhism,  1889. 

VOL,   II.  Q 


218  ELEPHANTA. 

and  ready  to  be  picked  by  the  first  comer.  Indeed,  there  were 
two  men  M-ho  had  almost  uncousciausly  stumbled  on  the 
Buddhist  origin  of  most  of  the  caves.  In  1550  Garcia  d'Orta 
and  in  1583  Linschoten  attribute  their  origin  to  the  Chinese, 
and  there  is  more  in  this  than  one  would  at  first  sight  imagine, 
for  China  had  been  made  Buddhist  by  India  in  the  first 
century  of  our  era  ;  and  all  through  the  dark  ages,  as  we  would 
call  them,  which  followed,  the  Chinese  had  a  wonderful 
mercantile  traffic  with  India.  And  though  these  writers  did 
not  say  so,  it  is  evident  they  thought  that  China  (Buddhist)  had 
something  to  do  with  the  making  of  the  caves. 

As  far  as  we  know,  the  man  who  first  spotted  the  religion  of 
Buddha  in  tlie  caves  of  Kanheri  and  Karli  was  Henry  Salt. 
He  came  out  to  India  with  Lord  Valentia,  and  was  in  Bonibaj' 
the  guest  of  Mackintosh.     He  visited  Elephanta  and  Kanheri, 
the  latter  ixnder  great  difficidties,  the  coolies  having  literally  to 
cut  a  pathway  for  him  through  the  jungle.     But  his  genius  was 
rewarded.     On  liis  voyage  homeward, — no  doubt  in  one  of  the 
buggalows  or  Indian  crafts  (such  as  Sir  Bartle  Frere  came  to 
Bombay  in)  of  those  days, — on  his  way  to  Suez,  happening  to 
have  with  him  some  drawings  of  Ceylon  by  Harrington,  his  eye 
alighted  upon  a  dahgoba  and  a  statue  of  Buddha  in  Ids  usual 
sitting  posture,  and  his    mind  at  once   reverted   to   Kanheri. 
Here  was  the  fruit,  and  the  hand  to  pluck  it.     So  he  wrote  in 
1805    from   Suez   to   the   Bombay   Literary   Society   that  the 
Kanheri  caves  were  Buddhist,  and  owed  their  existence  to  the 
devotees  of  the  Buddhist  religion.     So  in  1813,  when  William 
Erskine  walks  through  these  chambers  of  imagery,  and  dilates 
upon  them  which  are  Buddhist  and  which  are  Brahman,  we  feel 
that  the  master-key  has  been  already  put  into  his  possession,  as 
well  as  that  of  his  meanest  disciple,  by  Heury  Salt ;  and  thougli 
he  and  all  of  us  now  play  with  the  golden  coin,  it  was  Salt  who 
first  jmt  it  in  circulation  and  made  it  the  standard  of  value  on 
this  subject  for  all  future  ages. 

The  career  of  Henry  Salt  after  tliis  was  by  no  means  incon- 
spicuous. As  we  have  said,  he  left  Bombay,  visiting  Abyssinia 
on  his  way  home,  and  on  his  return  was  sent  on  an  embassy  to 
tlie  King  of  that  country,  after  which  he  was  made  our  first 
Coasul-General  in  Egypt,  where  he  died  in  the  year  1827.     The 


SALT,    GIBBON,    AND    ROBEKTSON.  219 

second  time  tliat  Salt  was  in  IJomliay,  he  was  the  guest  of  the 
Governor  and  Mackintosli.  Tliis  was  in  1810,  and  he  was  then 
the  bearer  of  a  letter  from  the  King  of  Tigre  to  George  111. 
Tigre,  as  we  are  now  becoming  aware,  borders  on  the  Sudan 
and  Base  country.  Strange  as  it  now  appears  to  us,  when 
Salt  arrived  in  England  there  was  not  a  man  to  be  found  in 
the  British  dominions  capable  of  translating  that  document, 
and  almost  in  despair,  he  suggested  to  the  Marquis  of  Wellesley 
to  write  to  a  young  man  in  Scotland,  who  had  been  editing 
Bruce's  Travels,  and  he  at  once  returned  him  a  translation  of  it. 
The  letter  was  in  Geez,  the  written,  as  Amharic  is  the  spoken, 
language  of  Abyssinia.  The  young  man — Alexander  Murray — 
who  thus  distinguished  himself,  had  been  herding  sheep  a  few 
years  before  this.  He  died  young — shortly  after  he  had  been 
appointed  Professor  of  Oriental  languages  in  the  University  of 
Edinburgh.  Salt  lies  buried  in  an  old  cemetery  in  Alexandria 
(far  from  the  modern  one)  near  Pompey's  Pillar  Gate,  and  the 
spot  is  so  obscure  that  you  may  live  for  years  in  the  city  and 
yet  not  see  the  tomb  of  one  wdio  added  so  much  to  our  know- 
ledge of  the  origin  of  the  cave  temples  of  Western  India. 

Gibbon's  Decline  and  Fall  discourses  on  some  of  the  greatest 
religious  movements  of  Asia,  yet  we  do  not  expect  to  find  in  it 
any  notice  of  Buddhism,  for  it  exercised  no  manner  of  influence 
whatever  on  the  fate  of  the  lloman  Empire.  But  in  liobertson 
the  historian's  Disquisition  on  Ancient  India  in  1791,  where 
one  would  naturally  look  for  some  reference  to  it,  there  is  not 
a  single  allusion  to  Buddha  or  the  Buddhist  religion.  Such 
being  the  case,  this  book  is  evidence  in  itself  that  Buddhism, 
as  an  integral  portion  of  the  history  of  India,  was  not  then 
recognised  in  Europe.  It  is  true  that  in  his  reflections  on  these 
Caves  of  Elephanta  (he  also  speaks  of  Kanheri  and  Karli) 
Iiobertson  remarks  that  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  some  learned 
Europeans  have  imagined  that  the  figures  sculptured  within 
them  represent  the  rites  of  a  religion  more  ancient  than  that 
now  established  in  Hindustan.  Here  it  seems  to  us  that  h"?  is 
on  the  right  track,  but  he  does  not  follow  it  up,  his  great 
intellect,  as  it  were,  groping  blindfold  in  an  unseen  world.  How 
could  it,  under  the  circumstances,  be  otherwise  ?  Su))posc,  for 
example,  that  the  Supara  relics  had  been  unearthed  in  these 

Q  2 


220  ELEPHANTA. 

early  times,  Cui  bono  ?  There  was  not  science,  we  may  be  sui'e, 
in  the  civilised  world  to  have  then  rendered  any  intelligent 
account  of  them  whatever ;  for  with  Burma,  Siam,  and  China 
our  acquaintance  was  much  too  circumscribed  to  enable  us  to 
deduce  conclusions  from  the  Buddhist  religion  there.  Where 
would  have  been  your  long  train  of  investigators,  Boone, 
Anquetil  du  Perron,  Niebuhr,  par  cxemple,  nay  even,  in  the 
next  generation  before  Salt  appears  on  the  scene,  the  illustrious 
trio  itself,  of  Mackintosh,  Malcolm,  and  Elphinstone,  in  the 
presence  of  these  old-world  memorials  ?  So  true  is  it  that  there 
is,  even  in  regard  to  waifs  like  these,  an  eternal  fitness  in  the 
ordering  of  things ;  for  the  decrees  of  Providence  vindicate 
themselves  in  their  discovery  at  a  time  when  there  is  wisdom 
enough  to  comprehend  their  meaning,  and  appreciate  the  light 
they  are  calculated  to  reiiect  on  the  history  of  India. 

Eobertson  makes  one  other  remark  that  has  something  to  do 
with  the  harbour  of  Bombay.     It  seems  now  to  be  recognised 
as   an  almost   indubitable  truth  that  an  immense  population 
clustered  round  these  shores,  busily  engaged  for  many  centuries 
prosecuting  various  industries  and  a  great  commerce  East  and 
West,  of  which  Bombay  is  the  consincuous  revival.     This  truth, 
we  believe,  was  first  elucidated  by  Mr.  James  M.  Campbell,  and 
it  is  to  him  we  owe  it,  as  well  as  the  painstaking  researches  in 
the  Bombay  Gazetteer,  which  led  him  up  to  the  conclusion  ;  and 
if  we  now  adduce  the  testimony  of  the  rocks  it  is  not  to  prove 
his  position,  but  to  show  that  the  truth  had    dawned    on  a 
philosophic  mind  in  the  j'ear  1791.*     Eobertson's  observation  is 
worthy  of  more  than  a  passing  glance.     He  speaks  of  the  cave 
temples  of  Elephanta,  and  also  of  Salsette,  which  makes  the 
argument  all  the  stronger,  these  caves  being  at  no  great  distance 
from  each  other,  constituting  in  themselves  sufficient  justifica- 
tion of  a  large  population  under  some  settled  form  of  govern- 
ment or  other.    "  It  is  only,"  he  says,  "  in  States  of  considerable 
extent  and  long  habituated  to  subordination,  and  to  act  with 
concert,  that  the  idea  of  magnificent  works  is  conceived  or  the 
])ower  of  accomplishing  them  can  be  found  " — a  scrap  of  the 
Philosophy  of  History  applied  to  the  ancient  state  of  Bombay 
Harbour  by  one  eminent  in  the  world  of  letters,  and  wlio  is  still 

*  Ante,  p.  150. 


GENERAL  PIMBLe's  ORDERS.  221 

regarded  as  au  authority  wliicli  we  accept,  to  the  credit  of  the 
populoiisness  of  the  then  Bomljay  Tshinds  and  Arcliipelago. 

To  relieve  the  tedium  of  dry  researches  on  Elephanta  we  add 
a  story  of  Bombay  Harbour  which  we  borrow  from  the  memoirs 
of  a  serving-man,  Macdonald  by  name,  a  cadet  of  the  family  of 
Keppoch — the  one  solitary  witness,  as  our  readers  will  recollect, 
of  the  death  of  Sterne  the  novelist.  There  is  a  moral  in  it,  but 
we  must  give  the  story  in  Macdonald's  own  words.  It  belongs 
to  the  year  1770: — "In  December  Commodore  Sir  John 
Lindsay  arrived  at  Bombay,  with  the  king's  ships  of  war  under 

his  command According  to  custom,  at  Christmas    the 

Governor  gave  a  dinner  to  all  the  gentlemen  in  the  island, 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  same  on  the  first  day  of 
the  new  year,  and  all  we  English  servants  waited,  for  there 
were  a  great  many  in  Sir  John  Lindsay's  fleet.     We  all  dined 

together,  and  each  had  two  bottles  of  wine  allowed At 

tliis  time  an  evil  thought  came  into  the  mind  of  General  Pimble, 
I  believe  for  himself  as  well  as  for  others — lie  wanted  all  the 
officers  to  wear  boots  on  duty.  It  was  against  the  caste  or 
religion  of  the  Gentoos  officers  to  eat  beef,  or  wear  their  skins, 
even  calf  or  sheep.  Some  of  the  principal  officers  waited  on  the 
General  to  tell  him  they  could  not  possibly  comply  with  liis 
order  to  wear  boots  that  were  made  of  the  skins  of  those 
creatures  which  were  entirely  against  their  caste  or  religion  ;  if 
they  did,  they  would  lose  their  caste  and  be  deprived  of  the 
company  of  their  relations.  The  General  insisted  that  they 
should  wear  the  boots,  or  give  up  their  commissions.  They  got 
three  days  to  consult  with  their  friends,  and  return  an  answer. 
They  put  up  prayers  to  God;  and  hoped  that  C!od  of  his  good- 
ness wouhl  not  impute  the  sin  to  them  or  their  children,  but  to 
the  person  who  was  the  cause  of  their-  wearing  boots  of  skins  of 
those  beasts,  which  was  entirely  against  their  religion.  The 
prayers  were  put  up  in  the  pagodas  at  Bombay.  They  told  him 
they  had  determined  to  wear  the  boots  according  to  his  desire. 
Since,  said  they,  (Jod  has  sent  you  from  Europe  to  give  us 
disturbance  concerning  our  religious  principles  and  to  deprive 
us  of  our  friends  and  company,  and  the  benefits  of  our  religion, 
we  will  submit  to  God  and  your  E.xeellency.  So  they  took 
leave  and  went  home.  In  three  weeks  the  General  was  smitten 
with  dropsy,  and  never  recovered." 


•7'^'? 


C  H  A  P  T  E  R     L  I. 

PiiiMBAY  Castle. 


,iM% 


Though  we  have  already  written  on 
tlie  Arsenal,  a  second  visit,  this  time 
under  the  guidance  of  Major  Spring, 
Chief  of  the  Ordnance  Department, 
to  whom  we  are  indehted  for  much 
information,  furnishes  us  with  some 
fresh  material  which  may  be  of  in- 
terest to  our  readers.  The  area  of 
the  Castle  proper  is  about  20,903 
square  yards,  while  that  which  is 
outside  near  the  Town  Hall  is  about 
-8,319  srpiare  yards. 


BOMBAY   CASTI.E  :   THE   OLD   BRAB   TRKE. 

Among  the  interesting  memorials  within    the  Castle  walls 
there  is  still  preserved,  in  what  was  formerly  the  Governor's 


JONATHAN    DUNCAN.  223 

House,  a  book  rejoicing  in  tlie  name  of  the  Grand  Arsenal 
IViujhinij  Book,  in  wliicli  the  names  of  a  great  many  Bombay 
men,  long  dead  and  gone,  flit  before  us,  and  many  of  them 
attest  their  weights  by  theii*  signatures.  This  weigliing  custom 
is  an  old  one  in  India.  It  was  a  favourite  diversion  with  tlie 
Mughal  Emperors  and  Eajas  of  Hindustan,  liotli  Jaliaiigirand 
Sivaji  weighed  themselves  against  gold,  and  distributed  the 
])roceeds  among  the  poor:  a  most  ])ious  and  praiseworthy 
e.xample  to  all  people  similarly  situated.*  The  custom  obtains 
also  at  our  clubs  and  other  places  of  resort. 

The  weighing  machine  at  the  Arsenal  seems  to  have  been  tlie 
first  of  its  kind  in  Bombay,  and  the  records  commence  in  1808, 
or  seventy-five  years  ago.  Tlie  weight  is  given  in  stones  and 
pounds  a\oirdupois.  In  these  days  they  appear  to  have 
managed  matters  soraeliow  as  we  do  ourselves.  Our  tiftin, 
however,  was  their  dinner,  and  they  seem  to  have  done  little 
work  after  dinner.  At  sunset  our  citizens,  with  their  wives  and 
daughters,  strolled  on  the  Flag  Stafl'  Bastion  to  "eat  the  air" 
and  talk  over  the  events  of  the  day ;  and  on  coming  away  tlie 
weighing  machine  turned  up  as  a  pleasant  surprise  and 
agreeable  diversion  for  them. 

The  first  notable  man  who  makes  his  appearance  is  Jonathan 
Duncan,  Governor  ;  and  I  confess  to  a  feeling  of  shame  in  imf 
having  the  ghost  of  an  idea  whether  he  was  either  big  or  little. 
On  the  13th  January,  1811,  he  weighed  exactly  8-10,  good 
riding  weight.  Poor  man,  he  was  not  to  last  long  after  this ; 
ohit  11th  August,  1811.  Here  he  is,  however,  after  a  protracted 
sojourn  (jf  thirty-nine  years  in  the  country  ;  and  a  wee,  wizened 
body  he  is,  this  destroyer  of  infanticide.  As  five  names  are 
here  clustered  together,  it  would  seem  as  if  a  party  on  this 
Januarj'  evening  had  sauntered  out  with  the  Governor  from  his 
house  in  Apollo  Street,  as  immediately  below  his  name  come 
our  Ambassador  from  Persia,  Ilis  Excellency  Sir  (\o\\\  Ouselcy, 
and  his  brother  Sii'  William,  the  Orientalist. 

Then  follows  Dr.  Inverarity,  closely  associated  with  llie 
Governor,  his  friend  and  medical  attendant.     He  is  now  11-10, 

•  "  I  remember  Itao  iSaliib  Visvauiitli  Naniyaii  Mamllik,  (.'.S.I.,  telliu;;  mo 
Duly  a  few  years  ago  that  lie  liatl  lately  done  the  sa-iie  thing  as  a  g(jod  act,  ou 
recovering  Irom  a  bad  illness." — Dr.  Codringtoii,  April  13lh,  1890. 


224  BOMBAY   CASTLE. 

at  his  best  probably, — for  men  after  the  meridian  of  life  often 
take  a  slide  downward  in  weight ;  so  we  find  liim  on  loth  Sej)- 
tember,  1817,  covering  only  11-3,  adding,  that  there  may  be  no 
mistake,  "  With  coat  and  boots." 

Charles  Forbes  is  an  inveterate  weigher  of  himself.  Yon  will 
not  prevent  a  man  after  a  strong  fever  getting  weighed.  He  is 
sure  to  want  to  know  how  much  has  been  burned  out  of  Iiim. 
But  in  hot  weather,  weighing  machines,  thermometers,  and  even 
looking-glasses  are  better  out  of  sight  of  sickly  man.  "  '\^'here 
ignorance  is  bliss,"  &c. 

Forbes  comes  in  evidently  alone  on  the  3rd  April,  1810,  and 
quietly  registers  his  name  and  weight,  11-12,  adding  below  the 
figures, "  After  sickness,"  But  resiirgam.  So  on  23rd  January, 
1811,  this  time  under  better  auspices,  and  no  doubt  with  a 
feeling  of  self-satisfaction,  he  takes  his  seat  and  awaits  the 
soldier's  call  of  13-2,  which  he  forthwith  writes  down  in  a  bold, 
steady  hand,  with  that  fine  signature  of  liis,  so  familiar  to  us, 
and  to  which  tliis  and  many  of  liis  letters  testify. 

On  January  16,  1812,  two  men  come  in,  after  a  long  talk,  it 
may  be,  on  Persia  or  liistory.  General  Malcolm,  great  in  every- 
thing, need  not  try  to  squeeze  himself  into  anything  inconsider- 
able. He  turns  the  beam  at  15-10.  Not  ungainly  by  any 
mciins,  for  he  has  si.x;  feet  and  a  half  of  height,  and  a  jo^ial 
presence,  and  forty-three  years  of  age,  which  all  help  him  to 
carry  with  grace  this  ponderous  weight,  a  buirdly  representative 
of  Eskdale,  and  knight  (to  be)  of  Burnfoot. 

The  Honourable  Mr.  P21phinstone,  his  bosom  friend,  is  with 
him,  and  he  gets  weighed  also.  Elphinstone  preserves  an  equi- 
librium in  this,  as  he  does  in  everything  else.  He  is  10-10 — 
neither  greater  nor  less  than  we  expected.  But  stop  !  we  have 
made  a  mistake  in  giving  Malcolm  the  priority,  which  we  liave 
been  led  into  by  his  bulk  and  right  of  primogeniture.  Pmt  the 
disciple  is  not  above  his  master,  and  Malcolm  and  the  Book  of 
Precedence  (an  unwritten  code  in  those  days)  say,  "  Elphinstone, 
you  go  in  first." 

They  are  both,  liowever,  "  men  of  weiclit,"' — a  substantive 
phrase  well  known  to  these  Caledonians.  They  have  been  also 
weighed  in  auotlier  balance  (by  Wellington  first  and  the  public 
afterwards),  and  not  found  wanting. 


WEIGHING    BOOK.  225 

lint  time  fails  us,  and  we  must  hurry  on.  Suffice  it  to  say 
limt  there  are  in  this  book  "Weilderhuriis,  Malets,  Kcrrs,  Ash- 
burners,  Abercrombys,  Grants,  Kemballs,  Hornbys,  Leckies, 
Ponsonbys,  Houners ;  so  that,  if  iiny  man  wants  to  know  the 
weight  of  his  granilfather,  let  him  come  here.  Men  of  sixteen 
stone  are  as  thick  as  blackberries ;  there  are  even  some 
"  whoppers "  of  eighteen,  which  make  us  almost  believe  that 
the  breed  is  degenerating,  liut  what  about  the  ladies  ?  Yes, 
there  are  ladies  here  also.  Sir  Evan  Nepean,  the  Governor, 
brings  in  Lady  Nightingale,  and  Miss  Vaupell  follows :  tone 
petite  dcmoi/scUc  of  2-10. 

Master  Thomas  Briggs,  sou  of  JJr.  Briggs,  is  also  throwu  into 
the  scale,  and  a  very  fine  walloping  child  he  is,  of  29  lbs.  4  oz., 
fresh  from  the  hands  of  his  ayah,  whom  it  requires  not  the 
■\'ision  of  a  seer  to  picture  in  white  sari  and  nutbrown  visage, 
leaning  over  and  singing  Tula  hajao  to  the  squalling  Baba 
Tommy,  who  is  never  more  to  be  weighed  while  she  has  a  Mem 
Sakcb  to  bless  herself  with. 

Several  small  jokers  record  their  observations.  For  example, 
somebody  writes,  by  way  of  satirical  parenthesis,  and  in  a 
scratchy  hand,  as  if  he  had  noted  down  the  words  and  imme- 
diatelj'  run  away,  "  A  mere  shadow."  N.B. — This  is  under  an 
18-stoiie-walah.  Some  make  frantic  exertions  to  bring  out  tiieir 
net  weight,  by  ilivesting  themselves  of  sunthy  articles  of  clothing. 
It  is  no  doubt  after  dinner  all  this  byplay  takes  place,  when 
every  one  is  in  excellent  liumour.  So  one  adds  to  his  name, 
"  Without  jacket ; "  anil  another,  not  to  be  outdone,  is  "  in  a 
sleeve  waistcoat  and  without  boots ; "  a  third  proclaims  to  the 
world,  •' without  vest  and  watc;h ; "  while  a  fourth  outdoes 
them  all,  by  relieving  himself  of  liis  clulhes  in  ioto,  as  if  about 
to  take  a  header,  adding  after  his  name  the  unequivocal  word 
"  naked."  The  force  of  nature  can  no  furtlier  go,  unless 
indeed  he  could  realise  Sithu'v  Smith's  hot  weatiier  aspiration 
— take  off  his  flesh  and  sit  in  his  liones. 


■rill',  riMsox. 

There  are  dungeons  in  IJombay  Castle,  and  we  are  now  about 
to  make  an  inspection  of  them.     On  a  former  occasion  we  had 


226 


BOMBAY   CASTLE. 


given  a  fugitive  glance  at  two  big  suspicious-looking  doors  with 
padlocks  on  tliem.  AYe  now  need  a  candle,  and  the  hamal  wlio 
brings  it  is  evidently  not  in  love  with  this  business  of  exploring. 
It  is  tlie  (lid  story — snakes — and  no  wonder,  for  if  you  pass  a 
locked  door  daily  for  3'ears  you  begin  to  have  an  uncanny 
feeling,  as  if  all  was  not  right  within.  But  hon  cmu'cu/c !  We 
pass  into  darkness  and  a  close  atmosphere,  and  we  find  nothing 
but  vacuity  and  a  few  bushels  of  old  gun-flints,  which  liave 
been,  no  doubt,  shovelled  in  here  when  newer  appliances  were 
resorted  to  in  the  art  of  war.  The  place  is  a  long  vault,  high 
enough  for  a  man  to  stand  in  upright.  It  is  a  jierforatioii  of 
some  twenty  feet  in  length,  ending  in  a  dead  wall ;  and  there 
are  no  air-holes,  or  light  admitted  except  by  tlie  door  we  enter. 
If  this  was  the  dungeon  of  Bombay  Castle,  the  jirisoners  must 
have  heard  the  sea  moaning  outside  as  in  those  dreamy  and  sub- 
marine places  under  the  Doge's  palace  at  Venice,  where  you  are 
told  to  listen  to  the  waves  of  the  Adriatic. 

I  have  a  great  belief  in  the  innate  feeling  of  mercy  in  the 
British  bosom,  and  am  loth  to  resort  to  any  other  idea  than  that 
this  was  only  used  for  the  most  outrageous  and  hardened  crimi- 
nals. We  are  a  merciful,  forgiving,  and  tender-hearted  race. 
So  we  are  ;  but  a  Ijook  giving  a  gentleman's  experience  of  prison 
life  and  punishment  in  Bombay  Castle  in  the  year  1748  does 
sometliing  to  disturb  this  idea.  Dr.  IMUs,  a  surgeon  on  board 
the  "  Durington,"  East  Indiaman,  Ca^jtain  Grabb,  lay  a  prisoner 
in  Bombay  Castle  for  some  time.  In  coming  out  to  Bombay, 
unfortunate!}',  as  we  should  say  for  liim,  there  was  a  lady  of 
great  personal  attractions  on  board,  witli  whom  Captain  Crabb 
and  the  Dc;ctor  fell  violently  in  love,  which  \vas  awkward  enougli 
for  all  three.  We  do  not  think  the  Doctor  could  be  tried  for 
tliis,  for  falling  in  love  has  never  been  held  to  be  a  crime,  unless 
it  lead  to  idterior  consequences  that  come  within  the  range  of 
the  law ;  but  we  observe  the  crime  laid  to  liis  (;liarge  was  "  Shift 
and  Mutinous  expressions."  Tried  he  was  in  the  house  of 
Captain  Lane,  Marine  Paymaster,  by  a  jury  of  intelligent  sea 
captains,  of  whicli  ( 'aptain  Crabb  was  one — hear  that,  ye  lovers 
of  the  olden  times — and  sentenced  to  be  "  disgraced  by  the 
hangman  holding  a  common  halter  round  his  neck,  and  for  ever 
discharged  liom  the  Company's  service ;  to  be  carried  alongside 


GOOD   OLD    TIMES.  227 

every  ship  in  the  Hiirbour,  and  then  remanded  to  the  said  prison 
in  Bombay  Castle." 

There  is  not  mncli  more  to  be  said.  WUls  was  conducted  to 
the  Castle  gate,  where  he  was  met  by  the  hangman,  who  in  these 
days  was  a  Negro;  and  offering  some  feeble  resistance,  this 
functionary  knocked  oft'  his  hat  and  wig,  and  forcibly  adjusting 
the  noose  round  his  neck,  dragged  him  through  the  principal 
streets  in  the  Fort,  giving  the  halter  an  occasional  jerk,  as  you 
have  seen  a  refractory  colt  tamed  into  submission.  The  Doctor 
was  followed  by  an  unruly  crowd  of  European  and  native  sym- 
pathisers, and  rowed  bare-headed  in  the  blazing  sun  of  November 
to  every  ship  in  the  harbour,  until  he  came  to  the  "  Durington." 
Here,  still  with  the  halter  round  his  neck,  Captain  Crabb  reads 
to  hun  aloud,  with  the  ship's  company  in  the  shrouds,  his  crime 
and  punishment,  which  will  teach  you,  William  Wills,  for  the 
rest  of  your  days,  that  you  are  not  to  fall  in  love  with  the  same 
lady  that  I  do. 

Tliis  is  a  digression  we  have  been  led  into  by  the  hole  in  the 
wall  in  the  Bombay  Arsenal,  and  indicates  the  existence  of 
liarsher  features  of  naval  discipline  in  those  so-called  "good 
old  tunes  "  than  we  were  prepared  to  find,  scattered  as  they 
are  through  a  volume  of  experiences  and  love-letters,  which 
are  (|uite  as  interesting  as  Sterne's  and  Eliza's,  and  not  nearly 
so  silly. 

TIIK    liKI.I.. 

It  was  (111  this  visit  (February  188:'.)  that  we  cojjied  an  in- 
scription on  an  old  bell,  which  is — we  must  now  write  was — 
Iving  witii  its  mouth  downwards  M'ithiu  the  "atewav.  It  ha 
now  gone  to  Dabul,  to  its  former  owners,  the  I'ortuguese 
Catholics,  and  I  am  not  inclined  to  go  to  war  witli  (!ua  mi 
account  of  this  bell,  as  tlic  Pisans  and  Florentines  did  for  tlie 
Pandcds  of  Justinian. 

We  cannot  even  say  peace  be  with  it,  for  it  was  too  much  at 
jieace  here,  and  lay  flat  on  the  ground,  with  its  tongue  tacked. 
•  )n  the  contrary,  we  join  its  new  owners  in  wisliing  it  a  noisy 
career,  and  sweet  melodies  wherever  it  may  be  erected. 

"  When  I  linjt,  Goil'.s  ])iais(s  sing; 
Wlicii  I  towle,  i>iaj'  heart  and  toul." 


228  BOMBAY    CASTLE. 

But  to  the  inscription.  Facing  you,  and  high  up  on  the  cope 
of  the  bell,  is  a  cross,  on  the  centre  of  which  is  the  monogram 
I.  H.  S.,  and  below  is  the  date  1074.  Round  the  mouth  or  out- 
side rim  of  the  bell  ran  the  rede — which  Bishop  Meurin'has 
kindly  translated  for  us — 

"  Quis  mihi  det  ut  ej;o  moriar  et  cognoscant  te  omnes  fines  terra; ;  " 

and   we    are   now   enabled    to   read   the   lioly   aspirations   of 
St.  Bernard  and  the  Psalmist  David  in  the  vulgar  tongue. 

"Who  will  give  to  me  that  I  could  die  for  Thee,  and  that  all  nations  of 
the  earth  would  recognise  Thee  '?  " 

Ofes  Hu-am  Tavarres  Bocarro  seems  to  be  the  name  of  the 
founder  of  the  bell.  The  first  word  is  perhaps  ofcx,  an  abbrevia- 
tion of  opifcx,  the  "maker"  Bocarro  is  perhaps  the  frequent 
Portuguese  name  Boccarro.  Hiram  is  probably  Hiron,  an  ab- 
breviation of  Hierouymo.  For  this  explanation,  also,  we  are 
indebted  to  the  Bishop's  courtesy.* 

The  bell  was  thus,  it  appears,  not  a  Protestant  but  a  Eoman 
Catholic,  i.e.,  Portuguese,  one.  What  its  history  has  been  we 
know  not.  It  is  a  big  bell,  say  10  cwt.,  and  may  have  hung 
in  the  great  tower  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Joseph,  now 
dismantled,  at  Bassein. 

You  may  recollect  that  when  in  17o9  f  the  Portuguese  were 
hard  pressed  by  the  Marathas,  they  wanted  a  loan  from  us, 
and  that  we  asked  them  what  security  they  had  to  ofler  us. 
They  replied  church  plate  and  brass  guns ;  and  we  gave  them 
Es.  15,000  on  this  strange  collateral  security.  I  think  we 
ought  either  to  have  refused  the  loan,  or  refrained  from 
touching  the  vessels  of  the  sanctuary.  The  duty  of  the 
Portuguese  was  equally  plain.  They  ought  to  have  died  in  the 
last  ditch  rather  than  alienate  one  of  the  sacred  utensils.  The 
brass  guns,  for  anything  we  kitow,  indeed  we  think  it  is  highly 
probable,  are  among  those  now  in  the  compound  of  the  Arsenal. 


*  Boccarro  and  Hieronyiuo  are  often  met  with  on  the  Bassein  inscriptions. 

t  Professor  Macmillan  in  his  ascent  of  Bhimashankar  in  1884  found  a 
Christian  Bell  in  the  Hindu  Temple  there.  It  had  ihe  symbol  of  the  cross 
on  it.  The  temple  is  on  the  direct  road  from  Bassein  to  I'oona,  and  the  bell 
was  doubtless  left  there  as  a  native  oft'ering  by  the  marauders  who  had 
carried  it  off  among  the  plunder  from  Bassein,  probably  in  the  sack  of  IT.'ii). 


THE    OLD    BELL.  220 

But  the  church  plate !  The  idea  tliat  it  was  sold,  &c.,  &c.,  seems 
almost  sacrilegious.  "Wc  fear  Bassein  was  not  strong  enough  to 
take  up  any  loans  after  this.  We  have  no  complete  inventory 
of  the  articles  sent  in  to  the  Bombay  Government  in  17:^)9,  but 
we  consider  it  very  probable  this  bell  was  among  tlicni.  In  lieu 
of  non-payment  we  seem  to  have  taken  some  work  out  of  tliis 
bell,  for  there  are  people  ^^■ho  recollect  when  it  hung  outside  the 
wall  of  the  f  "atliedral  <m  the  right  of  the  main  door  as  you  enter, 
a  little  way  round  the  corner  of  the  building.  Wliether  it  was 
rickety,  or  dangerous  from  its  weight  and  proximity  to  the 
heads  of  the  ]iassors-by,  we  do  not  know,  but  it  was  taken  down 
from  its  elevation  some  twenty  years  ago,  and  lay  in  the  Cathe- 
dral compound  until  1869,  when  it  was  handed  over  to  the 
Bombay  Government  by  the  Cathedral  trustees,  for  safe  custody, 
and  was  placed  in  the  Arsenal,  where  it  remained  until  its 
translation  in  April  1883. 

When  the  Cathedral  trustees  handed  the  bell  to  Government, 
we  understand  they  mentioned  that  it  had  been  originally  a 
gift  of  the  Bombay  Government  to  the  Protestant  community 
worshipping  within  the  walls  of  what  is  now  our  Cathedral. 

Our  present  Cathedral  bell,  though  a  smaller  one,  has  done 
duty  continuously  since  1719 — Governor  Boone's  time  ;  so  this 
Portuguese  bell,  the  subject  of  our  remarks,  could  have;  been 
little  else  than  supernumerary  any  time  since  tlie  year  1719. 

Having  now  exhausted  bell,  book,  and  candle,  we  beat  a 
retreat. 

We  take  a  glance  at  the  avenue  of  trees  leading  down  to  the 
wharf  gate,  where  many  a  Cleopatra  received  her  Antony  after 
the  wars ;  a  look  and  measure  of  the  dividing  walls  of  the 
Governor's  House  also, — seven  feet  and  a  half  thick,  under 
bomb-proof  vault,  making  this  place  a  building  of  uncommon 
strength,  which  it  behoved  to  be,  as  for  a  hundred  years  it  was 
the  heart  of  tlie  Bombay  Government.  Farewell,  Bombay 
Castle — 

"Thy  pristine  vigour  age  has  overthrown, 
But  left  the  glory  of  the  past  thine  own." 

There  is  one  consolation,  that  whatever  fate  liefalls  it,  it  can 
never  be  burned  to  the  ground. 


(     230      ) 


I 


WAI.CKESHWAIt    TEMPI.K. 


CHAPTEE    LII. 

]\Ialabar  Hill. 

The  Arabs  have  a  sa}nng  that  all  Europeans  wlio  come  abroad 
for  purposes  of  travel  or  research  are  doomed,  by  the  curse 
of  God,  in  the  following  way  to  expiate  the  crimes  they 
may  have  committed  : — 

To  collect  Howers  and  weeds,  and  by  a  jjainful  process  to 
subject  them  to  classification ;  to  chip  stones  with  a  hammer, 
and  carry  away  specimens  of  every  rock  duly  labelled  and 
packed  in  boxes ;  to  gather  together  all  the  spiders  and  beetles 
wliich  crawl  over  the  surface  of  a  countryside, — are  some  of  the 
methods  of  Divine  punisliment.  But  the  worst  fate  of  all  is 
reserved  for  him,  who,  an  exile  from  his  father's  house,  his 
country,  and  his  gods,  is  doomed  to  wander  and  mope  among 
the  tombs,  desolated  temples,  and  ruined  cities  of  the  children 
of  men,  and  become,  like  the  Bedawiu  of  Uz,  a  companion  of 
the  dragon  and  the  owl. 


MALABAK    HILL.  231 

^lalabar  Hill  is  not  a  new  name.  "What  i.s  now  called 
Kaiiiliala  Hill,  in  the  last  century  was  included  in  the  same 
name,  and  is  merely  an  ui>heaval  of  the  same  chain. 

The  earliest  notice  we  have  of  Malabar  Hill  under  this  name 
is  by  Fryer  in  1673,  i.e.,  eleven  years  only  after  we  put  in  an 
appearance  on  the  Island  of  Bombay.  But  why  Malabar  { 
The  coast  of  Malalmr  does  not  begin  until  you  proceed  as  far 
south  as  Kurg.  We  suspect  that  Fryer  himself  gives  us  its 
derivation  in  describing  the  tank  at  the  end  of  it,  when  he  says 
that  it  was  to  bathe  in  it  "  the  ]\Ialabars  visit  it  most  for,"  a 
place  of  pilgrimage  in  fact,  to  wliich  came  people  of  the  coasts 
south  of  Bombay,  who  were  aU  then  lumped  together  under  the 
generic  name  of  "Malabars."  Hence  Malabar  Hill.  Not  quite 
satisfactory,  you  say  ?  Of  all  things  the  most  perplexing  is  the 
origin  of  names. 

The  old  lady  in  our  Cathedral  had  no  such  perplexity.  On 
seeing  the  tomb  of  General  Carnac,  and  knowing  well  what  a 
power  the  name  of  Carnac  had  been  in  Western  India  for  the 
last  liundred  years — "  Dear  me,"  she  exclaimed,  "  then  that's 
the  origin  of  the  word  Carnatic  !  " 

Malabar  Hill  seems,  like  Clive  and  Carnac,  born  to  command. 
On  looking  at  the  map,  you  will  find  that  it  juts  out  like  a  beak 
into  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  seems  the  most  conspicuous  headland 
on  the  sea-coast  of  Western  India  for  a  distance  of  fifteen 
hundre<l  miles.  It  early  attracted  tlie  attention  of  geograjjliers, 
and  in  a  map  representing  the  knowledge  of  these  coasts  in  1583, 
we  find  it  named  Cape  Bombaim.  Its  oldest  name,  however, 
is  Walukeshwar,  whicli  means  Lord  of  Sand.  A  story  goes^that 
Kama,  an  ancient  Indian  divinity,  came  here  in  search  of  his 
wife  :  she  being  the  first  gra.ss-widow  recorded  in  these  parts — 
and  learning  tliat  she  liad  taken  her  passage  on  to  Ceylon,  he 
sat  down,  wearied,  on  this  then  nameless  promontory,  when  a 
great  tlui-st  fell  upoji  him.  There  was  water,  water  everywhere, 
but  not  a  drop  to  drink:  so  Kama  pierced  the  earth  with  an 
arrow,  and  forthwith  the  water  gushed  out.  Such  is  the  legend 
of  the  sacred  tank  and  its  holy  associations.  Here  we  may 
observe,  however,  that  Lord  of  Sand  savours  suspiciously  of 
Back  Bay,  for  Malabar  Point  is  rather  a  rocky  place,  and 
conspicuous  by  the  absence  of  sand.    There  is  a  large  deposit  of 


232  MALABAU    HILL. 

sand  left  by  the  modern  sea  in  Back  Bay,  and  a  still  larger  one, 
sliall  we  say,  left  by  the  ancient  sea  on  wliicli  most  of  our 
palatial  buildings  are  erected.  But  in  any  place  between 
Chaupaty  and  the  Sailors'  Home,  if  you  drive  your  spear  deep 
enough  down,  you  will  come  to  drinkable  water. 

Every  man,  therefore,  may  become  a  Eama,  and  every  spear 
a  divining-rod.  At  all  events,  Bombay  had  no  other  water 
than  what  was  obtained  in  tliis  way  until  the  Vihar  Lake  was 
opened. 

Fryer  also  mentions  that  when  he  was  here  in  1673,  there 
were  on  the  end  of  Malabar  Point  "  the  remains  of  a  stupendous 
pagoda."  Fryer  at  times  talks  big :  for  which  see  his  remarks 
on  Kalyan ;  for  you  have  only  to  walk  across  the  narrow  space 
which  divides  "  the  two  seas,"  when  you  will  soon  recognise  the 
abiding  truth  that  nothing  "  stupendous  "  could  be  constructed 
thereon.  The  fact,  however,  to  which  we  wish  to  direct  atten- 
tion is  clearly  stated,  and  when  the  English  arrived  in  Bombay, 
there  was  nothing  but  a  heap  of  ruins  to  mark  tlie  place  where 
stood  the  ancient  temple  of  Walukeshwar.  We  had,  therefore 
nothing  to  do  with  the  destruction  of  it.  The  fragments  wliich 
lay  about  the  place  even  in  Moor's  time  (Hindoo  Pantheon, 
1810),  he  tells  us,  bespoke  a  building  of  rather  an  elegant 
description.  The  site  of  this  temple  is  now  occupied  by  the 
Governor's  bungalow.  The  tank,  whose  legendary  origin  we 
have  given,  was  a  small  one  (its  position  in  the  hollow,  near  the 
spot  where  the  big  guns  are  now  placed),  and  it  continued  to  be 
used  by  pilgrims,  as  a  bathing-place,  long  after  Fryer's  time. 

Besides  these  two  objects,  IMalabar  Point  had  another  attrac- 
tion. On  the  jagged  crust  of  trap  which  divided  this  tank  from 
the  sea,  the  stranger  looking  towards  Bandara — for  it  is  often 
erroneously  supposed  to  have  been  on  the  Back  Bay  side — was 
shown,  until  recent  times,  a  cleft  in  the  rocks  called  the  Yoni 
or  Stone  of  liegeneration,  up  which,  head  foremost,  ardent 
enthusiasts,  if  not  too  stout  (and  if  stout  all  the  more  meri- 
torious, provided  only  they  got  through),  forced  themselves; 
and  so  emerging  indicated  to  the  world  their  title  to  be  "twice 
born,"  and  among  the  number  of  the  regenerate  ol  mankind. 

This  was  one  of  the  things  that  the  restless  Sivaji  was  sure  to 
be  at.     Thin  and  wiry,  no  man  needed  regeneration  more  than 


WALKEBHWAIt.  233 

Sivaji:  provided  it  was  of  the  right  kind  ;  so  one  night,  in  the 
(Uirk  lialf  of  the  moon  as  they  say  in  the  Maratlia  country, 
when  he  Ivnew,  no  doubt,  that  much  Bombay  puncli  was  being 
consumed  in  the  Dhangari  Killa  and  Modi  Khana,  Sivaji,  witli  a 
small  band  of  armed  followers,  landed  stealthily,  and  getting 
under  the  black  spout,  he  wriggled  through,  and  made  a 
triumphant  exit.  I  have  never  learned  that  it  did  him  any 
good.  If  Lady  Macbeth  had  one,  he  had  many  a  "  damned  spot  " 
that  would  not  come  "  out "  in  the  washing.  Or  did  it  rouse 
him  to  the  commission  of  some  new  crime  ?  Crime !  The  word 
wa.s  not  in  his  dictionary,  of  anything  he  was  act  or  part.  But 
the  stone  was  put  to  other  uses.  People  who  go  to  "  kissing," 
"  Avishing "  or  "  blarney "  stones  generally,  do  so  ibr  their 
amusement,  and  we  gather  from  Moor's  account,  in  his  time, 
that  the  English  residents,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  at  picnics  here, 
had  a  good  deal  of  amusement  out  of  it,  and  much  fun  and 
merriment  as  each  tried  the  experiment.  It  was  no  joke,  you 
may  depend  on  it,  to  Sivaji.  He  was  far  too  serious  and  grim 
for  this  sort  of  thing ;  and  if  anyone  had  ventured  to  tickle  his 
soles,  when  he  hung  like  Muliaiumad's  cofTin  between  heaven  and 
earth,  woe  betide  him,  for  his  Ijones  would  very  soon  thereafter 
have  whitened  the  steep  cliffs  of  some  of  his  Bala-Killas  in  the 
Dekhan. 

There  was  in  1883,  at  Walkeshwar,  an  old  man,  the  last  of 
the  dusky  regenerates,  who  in  liis  youth  passed  tlirough  the 
Yoni,  and  was  even  then  looked  upon  as  a  wonder  in  the 
odour  of  sanctity. 

The  oldest  road  on  Malabar  Hill  is  without  doubt  the  Siri 
Eoad,  which  now  leads  from  the  "Wood  Wharf  up  to  the  Ladies' 
Gymkhana :  Siri,  i.e.,  ladder  or  staircase.  It  may  date  back 
to  primaeval  times,  that  is,  to  times  before  either  the  PortugaU 
or  the  Englisher  had  set  foot  in  India.  It  is,  no  doubt,  con- 
temporaneous with  the  first  temiile  of  Walkeshwar,  for  as  soon 
as  it  was  opened  and  a  place  of  pilgrimage,  the  Siri  Eoad  woidd 
become  a  well-beaten  trade. 

To  create  a  picture  of  Malabar  Hill  in  the  olden  time  you 
must  blot  out  all  the  bungalows  and  all  the  carriage  roads  from 
the  canvas.  Tiie  carriage  roads  are  ccrtaiidy  within  the  century. 
Mr.  W.  W.  Cargill,  when  here  some  time  ago,  mentioned  that 

VOL.    II.  R 


•v 


234  lIAiABAli    HILL. 

when  he  lived  on  Malabar  Hill  in  1842  there  were  only  four 
bungalows./  The  topographical  features  are  as  they  were  in  the 
clays  of  Marco  Polo,  and  we  do  not  forget  the  fine  Victoria  Eoad, 
which  has  been  claimed  or  reclaimed  from  the  dominion  of  the 
sea.  In  the  pre-Portuguese  days  the  pilgrims,  i.e.,  "  the  Mala- 
bars,"  would  land  at  Mazagon,  or  at  a  small  haven  near  our 
Castle  which  the  English  on  their  arrival  called  Sandy  Bay,  or, 
in  the  fair  season,  at  what  is  our  present  Wood  Wharf  in  Back 
Bay,  convenient  enough  and  right  opposite  the  steep  ascent. 

Here  buggalow  and  pattamar  would  discharge  their  cargo  of 
"  Live  lumber  "  or  faithful  devotees,  as  you  are  disposed  to  view 
them.  Now  they  proceed  to  breast  the  "  Siri,"  halting,  no  doubt, 
at  the  Halfway  House,  where  the  Jogi  would  give  them  a  drink 
from  his  holy  well.  Here  tliey  would  have  time  to  draw  their 
breath,  chew  betelnut,  or  say  their  prayers.  Thence,  refreshed, 
to  the  summit,  and  now  along  a  footpath  studded  with  palmyra 
palms,  sentinels  by  sea  and  land  on  the  ridge,  and  very  much 
on  the  track  of  the  present  carriage  road,  they  make  their  way  to 
those  old  pipal  trees  at  our  "  Reversing  Station,"  old  enough 
in  all  conscience  to  have  sheltered  Gerald  Aungier  and  the 
conscript  fathers  of  the  city  from  the  heat  of  the  noonday  sun, 
and  how  much  older  we  know  not. 

And  now  they  descend  the  brow  of  the  hill,  pass  the  site  of 
the  present  Walkeshwar  temple,  past  the  twisted  trees  in  the 
Government  House  compound, — of  the  existence  of  which  we 
have  indubitable  evidence  as  far  back  at  least  as  1750. 

And  here  we  may  remark  that  the  Malabar  Hill  of  these  days 
was  much  more  wooded  than  at  present.  When  land  is  left  to 
itself,  everything  grows  to  wood.  It  is  so  in  Eui-ope,  and  it  is 
so  here,  as  we  can  see  with  our  eyes  in  that  magnificent  belt  of 
natural  jungle  whicli  clothes  the  slopes  down  to  the  water's  edge 
of  Back  Bay  (and  which  reminds  one  of  the  Trossachs  on  an  ex- 
ceedingly small  scale),  where,  among  crags  and  huge  boulders, 
the  leafy  mango  and  the  feathery  palm  assert  themselves  out  of 
a  wild  luxuriance  of  thick-set  creepers  glowing  with  flowers  of 
many  colours.  The  hare,  the  jungle  fowl,  and  the  monkey  were 
doubtless  no  strangers  to  these  bosky  retreats.  At  length  the 
temple,  ornate  with  many  a  frieze  and  statue,  bursts  upon  the 
view  amid  a  mass  of  greenery.     Black  it  is,  for  the  Bombay 


'0^ 


',/ 


.  tr , 


THE   OLD   TEMPLE.  235 

trap  becomes  by  exposure  to  innumerable  monsoons  like  the 
Hindu  pagodas  among  the  orange  groves  of  Poona.  And  now, 
tlie  journey  ended,  tlie  white-robed  pilgrims,  and  some  forsooth 
sky-clad  in  tbe  garb  of  nature,  bow  their  faces  to  the  earth,  amid 
jessamine  flowers,  in  tlie  ol<l  temple  of  Walkeshwar,  on  its 
storm-beaten  promontory,  with  no  sound  on  the  ear  save  the 
cry  of  the  sea-eagle,  or  the  thud  of  the  waves  as  they  dash 
eternally  on  the  beaeli. 

The  stranger  visiting  IMalabar  Point  about  ]  883  would  find 
that  one  plinth  or  pedestal  of  a  pillar  was  all  that  remained  of  this 
ancient  temple.  There  are  a  few  other  stones  lying  near  the 
site,  and  there  are,  we  daresay,  many  built  into  erections  and 
walls,  or  lying  in  odd  corners  in  and  about  Walkeshwar.  A 
recumbent  life-size  statue  on  your  left  as  you  descend  near  the 
gate  of  the  present  temple,  and  a  stone  with  a  'frimurti  on  it — 
that  figure  which  you  see  in  colossal  proportions  at  Elephanta — 
is  now  in  the  Indian  Museum.  This  last  was  forwarded  by 
Dr.  Moor,  who  tells  us  that  when  lie  wrote  (iu  the  beginning  of 
the  century)  many  of  the  stones  were  being  taken  away  to 
furnish  materials  for  the  new  buildings  at  Walkeshwar. 

Dr.  Burgess  and  Pandit  Bhagvanlal  Indraji,  Ph.D.*  (so  dis- 
tinguished for  his  antiquarian  researches,  and  a  resident  at 
Walkeshwar),  were  good  enough  to  accompany  us  on  a  visit,  and 
we  are  indebted  to  tliem  botli  for  much  valuable  information. 
Of  the  ancient  temple,  we  have  seen  that  little  remains,  yet 
from  these  fragmentary  memorials  Dr.  Burgess  is  inclined  to 
reconstruct  a  temple  of  the  size,  style,  and,  most  probably,  of 
the  age  of  Amarnath.  Thus  Professor  Owen  from  a  single  bone 
builds  up  some  inhabitant  of  the  ancient  world.  Amarnath  is 
87  ft.  long  by  50  feet  high,  and  was  jirobably  built  by  one  of 
the  Silahara  kings  of  the  Konkan  (a.d.  810  to  1260),  whose  im- 
moral proclivities  and  cloven  foot  remain  graven  on  its  walls 
with  a  pen  of  iron.  Built  by  Silahara  or  Balhara  does  not 
matter  much,  for  it  is  more  to  the  point  to  know  and  believe 
that  the  form  of  religion  embodied  in  Amarnatli  has  vanished 
from  the  Maratha  country — Dr.  Wilson  is  our  autliority — and 
if  Walkeshwar  was   like  unlo  it,  Me    tliink  tlie    Jlusliin    and 

*  The  latter  died  at  Walkesliwar  March  IGth,  1838. 

B  2 


236  MALABAR    HILL. 

T.usitaiiiau  were  right  in  pulling  it  to  jjieces.*  You  have  heard 
of  Muliauimad  Bigarah,  of  Ahmadabad, 

"  whose  daily  food 
Was  asp,  and  basilisk,  and  toad," 

according  to  Hudihras — a  saint  compared  with  the  Iniilder  of 
Aniarnath,  and  whieli,  no  doultt,  accounts  for  the  demolition  of 
its  congener. 

Sir  Evan  Nepean  (Governor  1812  to  lSl',i)f  had  a  small  room 
at  Malabar  Point,  and  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  when  Governor 
(1819  to  1827),  built  a  bimgalow  on  the  site  of  the  temple,  and 
someone,  not  so  long  ago,  filled  up  the  tank  and  broke  the  Stone 
of  Eegeneration  in  piieces,  which  looks  rather  like  a  desecration 
of  what  was  once  one  of  the  holiest  places  in  Western  India. 
It  seems  from  this,  at  first  sight,  that  in  these  times  there  was 
less  deference  paid  to  the  religious  susceptibilities  of  the  natives. 

No  doubt  these  Governors  knew  their  own  powers  and  asked 
no  questions,  and  the  governed  w"ere  not  so  squeamish  as  to  cry 
out  before  they  were  hurt.  Besides,  old  Walkesliwar,  as  we 
have  said,  was  an  obsolete  thing,  and  the  natives  well  knew  that 
the  English  could  both  give  and  take.  I  suppose  that  a  burying- 
ground  is  a  holy  place — at  least,  a  place  which  gathers  round  it 
sacred  associations.  Well,  the  English  had  such  a  place  in 
Bombay,  Mendham's  burying-ground,  and  their  only  one  for  a 
hundred  years  ;  and  yet  when  the  exigencies  of  the  city  demanded 
it,  they  gave  it  up  without  a  murmur.  This  was  in  1760,'^and 
ynu  could  not  to-day,  without  a  map,  tell  where  it  stood,  so 
utterly  has  it  been  swept  away.  So,  on  the  other  hand,'the  old 
temple  of  Mumbadevi  liad  to  go  to  the  wall  and  find  a  new  site. 
Its  sacred  tank  now  does  duty  as  a  work-a-day  washing-place  in 
the  Dhobi-talao.  The  answer  is  the  same  in  all  these  cases. 
The  sermon  in  stones  is  that  duty  is  more  than  sentiment,  and 
there  are  times  when  we  must  give  up  our  cherished  associations 
for  the  general  good. 


*  "  I  contemplated  the  elaborate  sculptured  ruins  of  the  ancient  Hindoo 
Temple  near  the  Point  which  had  been  brutally  demolished  by  the  bigotry 
of  Portu>;uei-e  zeal." — Price's  Memorials,  1831). 

•f  Malabar  Point,  "The  Governor's  (General  Medows)  occasional  retreat, 
1789.''— Price's  Memorials,  1839. 


LADY    I'.M.KLAND.  237 

Lady  Falklaiul,  wife  of  Viscount  Falkland  (Governor  1848  to 
18"»3),  loved  Malabar  Point  dearly,  and,  if  Me  mistake  not,  she 
spent  one  or  two  hot  seasons  liere.  She  came  out  here  when 
Europe  was  in  the  throes  of  revolution,  and  found  this  place  a 
little  Goshen.  She  was  a  clever,  witty  woman,  wrote  in  a 
sparkling  feminine  way,  and  has  left  us  in  Chow-chow  graphic 
d&scriptions  of  all  the  phenomena — torrid  heat,  sand  storm,  and 
burst  of  the  monsoon. 

She  could  wander  about,  or  sit  sketching  Walkeshwar  I'agoda 
jind  its  tank  for  hours  together.  She  had  a  great  deal  of  tin; 
animal  spirits  of  her  mother,  Jlrs.  Jordan,  who  had  been  in  her 
<lay  one  of  the  gi-catest  actresses.  Her  father  had  been  King  of 
England.  She  it  was  who,  on  sitting  down  to  tlinner,  asked 
Mrs.  Harding,  the  Bishop's  wife,  if  she  liad  ever  been  in  a  hack- 
buggy  :  and  if  hack-buggies  were  as  dirty  in  '48  as  they  are 
now,  I  do  not  wonder  that  she  replied  in  a  decideil  negative. 
"  ^\'ell,  I  have.  Wlien  I  arrived  in  Bombay  nobody  expected 
me ;  I  jumped  into  a  hack-buggy  and  drove  to  Parel.  The 
.sepoys  would  not  allow  me  to  come  iu.  I  soon  showed  them 
the  way,  and  arrived  at  Parel  in  a  hack-buggy." 

Malabar  Hill  is,  no  doubt,  the  part  par  excellence  of  Bombay 
which  Sir  John  ^lalcolm  had  in  his  eye  when  he  com])ared  oiu' 
harbour  to  the  Bay  of  Naples. 

Ah !  my  friends,  this  soaring  vision  of  Parthenope  will  not 
do  : — Capri,  Sorrento,  Castellamare,  Vesuvius  !  And  yet  thonL;]i 
no  two  faces  are  alike,  look  at  this  Malabar  Hill  as  you  please 
iroiii  the  bandstand, — and  was  there  ever  such  a  marvellous  like- 
ness ?  An  exact  counterpart,  it  siicms  to  be,  of  Xaples  for  three 
miles  from  the  Castle  of  St.  Elmo  to  Virgil's  tomb  on  the  Pro- 
montory of  Pusilippo,  and  which  any  man  may  verify  at  liis 
leisure  from  the  deck  of  the  steamer  when  he  comes  to  liis 
voyage  end  in  the  Bay  of  Naples. 

You  cannot  institute  any  comparison  between  tlii;  \\(irl<  <loue 
here  and  the  work  done  lliere,  for  men  in  Naples  have  been 
piling  up  architecture  for  a  thousand  years.  It  is  the  ridge  we 
sjjeak  of — the  right  arm  of  IkjiIi  cities — and  though  Naples  has 
more  bulk,  the  symmetry  is  the  same  in  liolli  cases. 

Tlie  view  of  the  l'"ort,  to  which  the  new  liuildings  on  the 
Esplanade  add  so  jnneh  beauty,  is  exquisite,  but  it  is  scp  familiar 


238 


MAXABAK    HILL. 


l.VI'Y    lALKLANi 


ANGKIA's    PUNISltMENTS.  239 

to  eveiybody,  and  has  lieeu  tlie  subject  of  so  many  descriptions, 
paintings,  yea,  even  poems,  tliat  we  merely  allude  to  it.  Across 
the  harbour  you  can  see  in  dim  persiiective  those  lands  from 
Nagothna  to  Thai — higldand  and  island — and  which  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, in  volume  xi.  of  tlie  Bumhaij  Gazetteer,'^  tells  ii.s  belonged 
to  the  Angria  family  till  1840.  Yes,  so  late  as  1840,  so  that  it 
does  not  require  a  very  old  man  to  remember  these  times :  and 
you  may  see  the  territory  from  your  own  doors.  Wc  sometimes 
hear  of  the  advantages  of  the  old  Governments  of  India — Pesh- 
wahs,  for  example — to  the  working  man,  from  Sir  W.  W.  Hunter 
and  others.  "Well,  here  was  a  native  Government  which  sur- 
vived to  our  own  times,  and  had  all  the  advantages  of  proximity 
to  a  great  city  full  of  life  and  activity.  Was  it  bad  or  good  ? 
You  know  Kheneri  lighthouse.  Well,  if  the  day  is  clear,  if  you 
look  to  the  left  of  it,  you  may  descry  something  like  a  floating 
island  on  the  hori/on.  This  is  Heneri  Island,  a  dim  ])oint  at 
night,  on  which  Klieneri  glimmers  a  weird  and  uncertain  light. 
When  we  came  into  possession  of  tliis  country  in  1840,  we 
searched  this  island,  and  on  it  we  found  a  low,  dark  dungeon 
12  feet  in  diameter  by  7  feet  lugli.  A  flight  of  steps  liid  by  a 
trap-door  led  underground  to  a  strong  door  at  its  entrance,  out 
of  which  we  took  two  prisoners  loaded  with  chains.  They  were 
covered  with  vermin — a  loathsome  spectacle — and  one  of  them 
had  become  blind  of  an  eye  for  want  of  light.  There  were 
originally  fifteen,  but  thirteen  of  them  had  gone  raving  mad 
for  want  of  liglit  and  water,  given  u[)  the  ghost  before  our 
arrival,  thus  giving  a  chance  of  existence  to  the  other  two  :  for 
Death  and  the  Sarkar  were  running  a  hard  race  which  should 
get  them  first.  Their  sentences  had  been  various^iive,  ten, 
fifteen,  and  twenty  years'  imprisonment ;  and  for  what  ?  Gang- 
robbery  and  dacoity ;  and  they  would  never  have  been  there  but 
they  were  poor  and  had  not  the  means  of  bribing  tiieir  jailors. 
Mr.  Campbell  adds,  "  As  their  sufferings  were  disproportionate 
to  the  vague  and  unrecorded  charges  against  them,  the  Political 
Superintendent  set  them  free." 

We  were  concluding  without  a  word  on  the  modern  temple  of 
Walkeshwar.     All  we  know  about  it  is,  that  it  was  built  liy  a 


Bombay  Gazetteer.     Kulalm  and  Janjira,  1883. 


240  MALABAR    HILL. 

wealthy  Hindu,  Eama  Kamath,  about  the  year  1715 ;  and  this 
man  was  the  only  influential  native  who  was  present  at  the 
laying  of  the  corner-stone  of  St.  Thomas's  Cathedral.*  It  is 
curious  to  note,  on  Malabar  Hill,  that  what  has  become  the 
latest  and,  in  some  respects,  the  most  favourite  abode  of  our 
citizens,  appears  to  liave  been  the  very  first  site  chosen  by  man 
on  our  island.  And  it  is  still  equal  for  the  accommodation  of 
any  amount  of  progressive  population,  and  that  without  Back 
Bay  or   other   reclamation.     "  I   will   engage,"  said  the  elder 


*  Dr.  (la  Cunha. — "  I  may  note  as  connected  with  this  subject,  that  in  a 
retired,  shady  vale,  on  that  beautiful  part  of  the  beautiful  island  of  Bombay, 
called  by  the  Kuglish  Malabar  Uill — I  know  not  by  what  name  by  natives — 
is  a  fine  tank,  surrounded  by  temjiles  and  terraces,  and  trees  and  buildings, 
constituting  a  villaje ;'  if  I  ever  knew  its  name  I  have  forgotten  it.  There 
resided,  in  my  earlier  days,  Brahmans  and  contemplative  Hindus,  many  of 
whom  had  never  in  their  lives  been  in  the  city  or  fort  of  Bombay,  tliough 
only  three  or  four  miles  distant.  And  many  more  of  the  English  living 
there  had  never,  I  daresay,  visited  or  heard  of  this  cool,  quiet  happy 
'  ]5rahman  village ' — its  usual  designation  when  spoken  of.  It  was  a  favourite 
resort  of  mine;  and  I  became  tolerably  well  known  to  some  of  its  sober 
philosophers — and  I  have  sometimes,  when  tired  of  the  heat  and  turmoil, 
and  vexations  and  excesses  of  business  and  society,  been  more  than  half 
disposed  to  envy  the  peaceful  inhabitants  of  '  that  shady  blest  retreat,'  the 
life  they  there  led,  and  seemed  to  love. 

"Since  the  time  of  wbich  I  speak,  this  village,  then  unapproachable  except 
on  foot,  is  probably  no  longer  secluded,  or  inhabited  by  the  same  description 
of  people.  The  Hill  lias  become  studded  with  villas — tlie  Point,  a  bold  sea- 
chafed  promontory,  where  the  fine  temple  once  stood,  Irom  the  blasted  and 
ruined  foundations  of  which  I  dug  out  and  bmught  to  England,  the  ponderous 
triune  bust  represented  in  the  cubic  pedestal  of  my  mystical  Frontispiece — - 
tljc  Point  has  become  the  marine  residence  of  the  Governor — roads  lor  horses 
and  carriages  intersect  the  Hill — and  ere  as  many  more  years  elapse  as  have 
passed  into  the  ocean  of  eternity  since  I  first  wandered,  and  chased  the 
hooded  snake  over  it,  steam  coaches  may,  for  aught  I  know,  traverse  it  on 
iron  roads. 

"I  have  not  had  an  opportunity  of  examining  Dr.  Borlase's  Cornwall.  I 
shall  expect,  if  he  is  circun)stantial,  to  find  considerable  similarity  between 
the  British  and  Indian  su]ierstitions  in  this  p.articular.  Of  those  of  India  I 
will  here  observe  that  the  lithic  Yoni  at  Malabar  Point,  ]?ombay,  is  used  both 
by  women  and  men — as  is  at  some  length  described  in  the  Hindu  Pantheon. 
The  fatuous  Brahman  liagboba,  the  father  of  the  last  of  the  Maratha 
Peshwas,  when  at  liombay,  passed  through  it  frequently — and  it  is  said  that 
the  great  Sivaji  jeopardised  his  liberty  and  life  for  the  advantages  of  such 
regeneration.  The  said  Raghoba  sent  two  Brahman  ambassadors  to  England. 
On  their  return  they  require<i  jiurification  from  having  pissed  through,  and 
lived  in,  debasing  countries.  They  were  regenerated  by  a  transit  through 
a  golden  Yoiu,  made  cxjiressly  for  the  purpose — and  of  course  with  other 
presents  to  an  immense  amount,  given  to  the  Brahmans." — Moor's  Oriental 
Fragments,  1834. 

Por  Kama  Kamath,  see  ante,  Vol.  I.,  ]i.  !I5. 


EYESORES.  241 

( irmiston,  "  to  house  a  luillion  of  inhabitants  on  Malabar  Hill 
aloue."  Something  ought,  however,  to  be  done  to  repress  the 
temptation  that  every  man  is  led  into  to  build  according  to  liis 
own  caprice.  Tlie  space  that  we  are  so  anxious  to  guard  witli 
jealous  care  is  of  coiirse  the  cou])  d'ccil  or  frontispiece  of  Malabar 
Hill  as  it  is  seen  from  any  of  the  shores  of  Back  Bay.  You 
cannot  have  your  own  way  in  everything,  and  no  Coniinittee  of . 
Taste,  say  in  Nai)les,  M-ould  allow  some  recent  instances  to 
appear  and  offend  the  eye.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  beauty  and 
harmony  of  form  ;  and  if  every  man  is  to  be  permitted  to  erect 
anything  he  pleases,  then  we  may  bid  adieu  to  the  inheritance 
of  beauty  that  has  come  down  to  us  in  Malabar  Hill,  blessed 
with  the  poetry  of  Nature,  but  deficient  in  the  poetry  of  Art. 

There  is  one  gleam  of  light  wliich  has  come  to  us.  Somebody 
has  proposed  to  terrace  and  plant  with  shrubs  and  flowers  that 
ugly  scar  on  the  face  of  the  Hill — the  remains  of  Back  Bay  e.\- 
cavatiou  work,  and  which  lias  been  au  eyesore  for  nearly  twenty 
years  to  not  only  all  dwellers  in  the  Fort  and  Kolaba,  but  even 
to  "  Malabars  "  themselves,  when  driving  homewards.  The  man 
who  suggested  this  deserves  a  vote  of  thanks,  and  when  tarried 
out,  a  testimonial  from  the  citizens  of  Bombay,  even  though  the 
terraces  should  not  rival  tlie  Hanging  Gardens  of  Babylon. 


CHAPTEi:  LIII. 

The  Bombay  Cathedral. 

The  English  church,  now  the  Cathedral,  has  been  more  fortunate 
than  the  Roman  Catholic  one.  Bishop  Meurin,  to  whom  we 
are  under  obligations,  writes  us  that  the  Eoman  Catholic 
Cathedral  was  taken  down  in  1804,  when  Government  formed 
the  Esplanade  for  protecting  the  Fort  by  its  guns  within  a 
circle  of  a  tliousand  yards,  and  that  a  cross  indicated  where 
the  Cathedral  stood,  its  site  being'  where  the  stairs  of  the 
Elphinstone  High  School  are  now,  and  that  tliis  cross  was 
removed  only  when  that  building  was  erected.  He  says, 
"  In  compensation  for  the  place  taken  from  us  in  1804, 
we  got  the  ground  in  Kalbadevi  where  our  Cathedral  is  now 
standing,  and  a  grant  of  money  for  building  a  new  church." 

The  English  church  being  within  the  walls  of  the  Fort  was  a 
mere  accident,  and  not  owing  to  any  forethought,  we  presume, 
on  the  part  of  our  Protestant  ancestors.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it 
is  a  great  matter  that  we  are  still  able  to  look  upon  a  building, 
the  foundations  of  which,  at  least,  are  coeval  witli  the  earliest 
events  of  our  Bombay  history  ;  for  had  the  English  church 
been  built  outside  the  walls  of  the  Fort,  the  same  fate  would 
have  inevitably  befallen  it. 

The  design  of  this  church  was  not  the  work  of  Aislabie 
(Governor  1708  to  1715),  nor  of  Boone  (1716  to  1720),  nor  of 
Cobbe  the  Chaplain,  who  has  the  merit  of  raising  the  sub- 
scriptions in  1715,  aud  seeing  to  the  completion  of  the  edifice. 
That  outline — for  the  walls  were  perfectly  good  as  far  as  they 
were  built — upon  which  the  present  superstructure  is  raised  was 
the  design  of  Sir  George  Oxinden : 


BOMBAY    CATHKDRAL.  243 

Iiisulas  Bombayensis  Gubeinator, — 

Vut 
Sanguinis  splendore,  reiuni  usu 
Fortitudine,  prudentia,  probitate, 
rereminentissmus.* 

This  was  tlio  man  wlmse  wisiluia  ami  prescieiico  grasped  tlie 
religious  requirements  of  the  future  of  liis  Church  in  Bombaj'  : 
for  it  may  be  said  with  truth  tliat  the  conception  of  the 
sevent-ecnth  century  does  no  disgrace  whatever  to  tlie  archi- 
tectural ideas  or  exigencies  of  the  nineteenth.  He  either  did  it 
consciously  or  unconsciously  ;  if  conscious,  he  was  tlie  wisest 
man  of  his  generation;  if  not,  it  was  a  most  happy  accident. 
For  wlio  in  1669,  let  us  ask,  could  tell  what  Englishmen  or  the 
English  (/hurch  might  come  to  require,  or  what  kind  of  a  city, 
if  any  at  all,  would  ultimately  grow  out  of  the  handful  of 
Englishmen  wlio  had  come  here,  and  the  ten  thousaml  i>f  the 
riff-raff  of  Asia  ? 

Had  a  prophetic  roll  of  the  History  of  Bombay  been 
unfolded  before  his  eyes,  Oxindeu  could  not  have  designed  a 
building  better  suited  to  the  wants  of  the  English  then,  and  as 
these  wants  have  developed  themselves  from  age  to  age.  But 
lvf>me  was  not  built  in  a  day ;  neither  was  the  Bombay 
Cathedral.  Oxinden  died  in  1669.  Then  came  Aungier,  a 
man  of  a  kindred  spirit,  and  no  doubt  he  did  his  duty  to  it.  At 
his  death  in  1677  began  tlie  great  interregnum,  during  part  of 
whicli  Child  held  office  (1681  to  1690)  ;  and  Child  is  the  hete 
noir  of  the  Cathedral.  It  was  then,  the  historian  sayeth,  "piety 
grew  sick," — very  sick;  nearly  untu  de;ith.t 


•  From  his  tomb  at  Sural. 

t  Tho  cliar^e  of  the  misappropriation  by  Sir  Jolin  Child  of  tlie  Cathedral 
funds,  £,")000,  it  is  only  fair  to  add,  rests  on  the  unsupported  evidence  alone 
of  Alexander  Hamilton.  liut,  as  far  as  we  know,  it  has  never  been  denied. 
Hamilton  was  a  man  of  violent  likes  and  dislikes — a  good  hater  in  fact ;  and 
the  man  lie  hated  most  of  all  was  Child,  and  he  had,  no  doubt,  a  personal 
grievance ;  but  living  as  he  did  in,  or  on,  the  shores  of  India  fur  forty  years 
after  1U88,  he  had  every  opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  the 
circumstances,  and  he  would  not  have  dared  to  publish  in  IJrilaiu  what  could 
so  easily  have  been  contradicted  by  so  powerful  a  family  as  the  Childs. 
Cobbe  is  of  a  later  date,  and,  as  we  might  naturally  expect,  in  his  sermon  in 
1715,  frames  no  specific  charge  against  any  individual  by  name.  What  he 
states  is  this,  that  the  original  sum  destined  for  the  building  of  the  church 


244  THE    BOMBAY    CATHEDRAL. 

For  thirty  years  the  walls,  five  feet  high,  stared  everybody  in 
the  face,  a  riiin  and  a  reproach,  at  which  the  passer-by  wagged 
his  head,  cursed  C'liild,  and  doomed  this  remnant  of  his  church 
to  the  dogs,  bendicoots,  and  badmashas  of  all  sorts  and  sexes, 
%\lio  prowled  about  this  corner  of  the  Bombay  Green.* 

By  day  men  looked  askance  at  it,  and  by  night  as  the  solitary 
citizen  was  wending  his  way  homeward  from  the  rattle  of  the 
dicebox  and  the  orgy  of  Bombay  punch,  the  shriek  of  the  jackal 
from  this  gloomy  enclosure  would  startle  his  drowsy  in- 
telligence. It  had  come  even  to  this  of  it,  that  it  was  con- 
sidered to  have  a  baneful  influence  on  the  lives  and  fortunes  of 
men,  one  of  those  huge  e%-il  eyes  of  the  East  that  blast  all 
human  intents  and  purposes ;  and  at  last  it  began  to  be 
believed  that  it  was  really  of  very  little  use  trying  to  make 
money  in  Bombay  as  long  as  this  work  remained  unfinished, 
for  the  curse  of  God  on  tliis  score  verily  rested  on  the  whole 
place. 

Thus  I  think  that  it  was  a  masterful  stroke  in  Cobbe's 
sermon  announcing  his  project  of  rebuilding  the  edifice,  when 
he  asked,  "  Hath  there  any  one  yet  returned  home  from  this 
place  in  peace  to  enjoy  the  blessing  of  his  native  land,  and  the 
fruits  of  his  labours,  since  the  time  that  the  House  of  God  hath 
lain  waste  ? "  It  was  too  true ;  the  cardamoms  had  turned 
out  bad,  the  pepper  tasteless,  and  the  diamonds  had  become 
dim — more  particularly  since  the  death  of  Charles  II. — and 
there  was  nothing  to  remember  but  a  weary  tale  of  commercial 
woe  and  disaster,  and  cleanness  of  teeth  from  one  year's  end  to 


had  disappeared  by  the  fraud  and  collusion  of  ihe  ix-rsons  entrusted  with  its 
administration.  It  must  lie  borne  in  mind  that  a  part  of  the  intervening 
perial  had  been  one  of  great  trouble  and  confusion.  In  the  ambitious  projects 
of  Hir  Josiah  Child,  Chairman  of  the  East  India  Company,  of  which  his 
brother  was  the  tool,  and  worker  out  of  that  which  ultimately  became  his 
ruin,  the  Sidi  was  brought  to  our  doors  with  20,000  men.  This  event  to  the 
men  of  Cobbe's  day  was  what  the  Indian  Mutiny  is  to  lis,  and  people  in  1715 
talked  about  it  as  the  antediluvians  are  beginning  to  do  now — the  men  wlio 
have  lived  before  that  great  flood  of  popular  commotion  and  disturbance.  It 
is  in  such  periods — we  mean  of  invasion  or  mutiny — tliat  the  characters  as 
well  as  the  lives  of  men  are  so  often  dtished  to  pieces,     .iiite,  p.  51. 

*  "  By  another  authority  we  are  enabled  to  discover  that  above  the 
masonry,  woodwork  was  raised,  so  as  to  afford  a  comfortable  covered 
building  fur  the  performance  of  public  worship." — The  Monthly  Miscellany  of 
Western  India,  1850 


OPENING.  245 

another  in  all  our  borders.  You  may  depend  upon  it  that  in 
that  upper  room  in  the  Castle  some  of  the  thirty -year-wallahs 
shook  in  their  shoes  as  these  words  were  uttered. 

There  is  no  denying  it — Cobbe's  expostulations  gained  tlio 
day ;  and  the  rest  is  easily  foreseen.  'Wlien  his  hearers  got 
home,  tliere  was  a  creaking  of  the  hinges  of  ancient  almirahs,  a 
fumbling  among  old  stockings,  the  improvised  banks  of  our  be- 
wigged  and  queued  ancestors,  and  a  withdrawal  of  gold-mohars 
old  as  the  days  of  Akbar  or  Shalijahau,  and  a  mighty  jiuglin" 
of  huns  and  xeraphins  into  the  coffers  of  the  joint  treasurers. 
Huiidis  were  quickly  manufactured  at  Calicut,  and  old  Cieome 
Bowcher  of  Surat,* — who  had  contributed  thirty  years  before  to 
the  fund  which  had  been  so  grievously  misappropriated,  and 
put  his  money  into  a  bag  of  holes, — sends  two  hundred  new 
Surat  rupees,  with  the  mint  sauce  still  fresh  upon  them,  accom- 
panied by  these  wary  words  of  counsel  and  reminder  gatliered 
from  past  experience : — "  I  wish  you  better  success  than  your 
predecessor,  who  built  little,  raised  and  destroyed  abundance  of 
mouej'  to  no  purpose.  He  had  finished  a  stately  organ,  wliich 
I  saw  in  the  Fort.     What  has  become  of  it  God  knows."  f 

It  wiis  a  great  day  for  Bombay,  the  Ciiristmas  of  1718.  The 
church  was  going  to  be  opened.  Xot  the  church  as  we  see  it 
to-day,  black  and  comely,  but  spick  and  span  like  our  grand 
Eajabai  tower  of  1883,  its  fapade  decked  with  palms  and 
plantains,  and  all  festooned  inside  from  pUlar  to  pillar  with 
Howers  and  evergi-eens.  I  can  see  the  Governor  and  his  Council 
wending  their  way  from  the  Castle  across  the  Bombay  Green, 
preceded  by  the  halberdiers  in  scarlet;  and  as  they  enter  the 
gateway,  the  Gloria  I'ldri  and  the  Hosannahs  of  the  24th 
Psalm  burst  upon  the  ear.  Then  a  mite  is  carried  into  the 
church  and  baptised  by  the  name  of  Susanna — Mary  Crnmmelin 
and  Mary  Parker  standing  gossips.^  The  church  is  crowded,  as 
we  may  well  believe,  and  every  social  section  is  relegated  to  the 


*  Tliis  was  the  man  who  sent  to  England  the  Zoroastiian  manuscripts,  a 
copy  of  one  of  which  was  the  first  thing  to  stinmkto  tlio  zeal  o(  Auqiiotil  du 
I'erron,  and  lay  the  foundation  of  his  magnificeat  acquisitions  in  Tarsi 
Literature. 

t  Some  of  these  men  saw  a  clergyman  but  seldom.  In  1717  Mr.  Adams  in 
Calicut  writes  tliat  he  had  setn  no  ilivine  since  Sir  .John  (iayer's  time  in  1G93. 

X  lion.  C.  Crommelin  was  Governor  1760  to  1707  ;  ante.  Vol.  I.,  pp.  9,  1G3. 


246 


THE   BOMBAY   CATHEDRAL. 


AKKANOEMENT.  2-17 

exact  place  destined  for  it  in  future  ages  in  this  ecclesiastical 
edifice. 

The  Governor  sits  opposite  the  pulpit  and  reading-desk,  witli 
a  bevy  of  the  wives  of  councillors,  or  the  wives  of  those  who 
had  been  councillors,  on  his  right.  The  Council  are  on  his  left. 
Opposite  the  council  ladies  are  the  senior  merchants'  wives,  the 
supercargoes'  wives,  the  free  merchants'  wives.  Behind  thorn  sit 
trembling  the  "  inferior  women  "  (the  name  in  the  original  })lan 
of  1718,  now  before  us),  clad  in  the  former  bravery  of  their 
mistresses.  Behind  the  council  ladies  sits  the  gunner's  wife, 
the  ladies  thus  forming  a  band  of  bright  colour  between  the 
altar  rail  and  the  congregation.  There  are  writers  here,  and 
physicians  there,  and  the  captains  of  grabs  in  their  rough  jackets. 
The  strangers  take  their  seats  with  becoming  modesty  on 
entering  the  north  door.  Every  available  space  outside  this 
is  packed  by  Kanijis  and  Bapujis  and  other  proselytes  of  the 
gate,  relieved  by  an  inside  fringe  of  blue  and  scarlet,  consisting 
of  soldiers,  troop  guard,  corporal  and  sergeants,  gun-room  crew, 
and  sea-lions  of  sorts.  The  font,  the  vestry,  and  the  library 
are  all  in  the  places  you  see  them  to-day,  and  it  is  the  same 
bell  now  which  then  awakened  the  echoes  of  Churchgate. 
You  may  be  sure  Mr.  Cobbe  preached  his  best,  with  fervour  and 
unction,  as  he  witnessed  such  an  auspicious  termination  to  his 
labours.* 

After  service  there  was  an  adjournment.  The  Governor, 
Coimcil,  and  the  ladies  proceeded  to  the  vestry  and  drank  a 
glass  of  sack  f  to  the  success  of  the  new  church.  And  to  show 
that  there  was  to  be  no  bad  feeling  on  such  a  memorable 
occasion,  tlie  Governor  asked  every  man,  woman,  and  child  of 
Anglo-Sa.xon  blood  in  Bombay  to  a  great  feast  in  the  Castle, 
where  there  was  as  much  meat  and   (h'ink  provided  as  they 


•  Cobbe  was  susijended  in  1719  for  sedition  and  other  weaknesses ;  went 
home;  and  in  1766,  lilty-tvvo  years  after  he  had  been  appointed  chajilain, 
published  tlie  aecount  of  the  biiiUilu^  of  the  church,  a  perusal  of  wliicli  we 
have  been  favoureil  with.  His  son  was  clia|la:n  to  Admiral  Watson  in  1757, 
and  was  much  esteemed.  We  believe  that  a  son  of  tliis  last  was  \uuji.  Political 
Agitnt  aiMursliidabad;  and  again,  in  the  fouilh  gem  ratinn,  General  Cobbe, 
who  relired  from  tlie  Bini;al  Army  .sumcwlicre  about  lb77,  cuutiuued  this 
most  iiitere>tin;  genealogical  succession. 

t  I'robably  liuinhay  punch,  with  a  mingling  of  Burgundy. 


248  THE  BOMBA.Y  CATHEDRAL. 

could  set  their  face  to,  their  ears  beiug  meanwliile  regaled  witli 
most  exquisite  music, — we  mean  exquisite  for  1718.  A  salute 
of  21  guns  from  the  Castle  was  answered  by  every  ship  in  the 
harbour ;  and  so  ended  the  biggest  Bombay  ^day  of  that 
generation. 

What  the  Presbyterians  of  Bombay  did  on  this  important 
day  I  have  no  means  of  knowing.  All  Scotsmen  in  India  at 
this  period  had  a  hard  time  of  it.  But  the  more  they  were 
afflicted,  the  more  they  midtipUed  and  grew.  Our  Scotch  friend, 
the  skipper  Hamilton,  about  1700,  says  of  Calcutta:  "All 
religions  are  freely  tolerated  but  the  Presbyterian,  and  that  they 
browbeat."  It  would  be  very  much  the  same  in  Bombay.  The 
kirk  was  then  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  a  kind  of 
church  in  the  catacombs ;  and  its  great  triumplis  in  India  had 
not  even  dawned  yet,  but  were  still  to  come,  for  it  M'as  not 
until  1815  that  William  Erskine,  the  son-in-law  of  Mackintosh, 
welcomed  the  first  settled  Presbyterian  minister  on  the  shores 
of  Bombay.* 

It  would  be  an  insult  to  oixr  readers  to  attempt  any  descrip- 
tion of  the  moniiments  in  our  Catliedral,  for  to  many  of  them 
the  inscriptions  must  be  familiar  in  their  mouths  as  household 
words.  But  the  sculptured  forms  in  marble  awaken  many 
associations,  and  call  up  some  most  memorable  scenes  in 
Bombay  history.  Not  all  war,  nor  the  piercing  asunder  of  that 
big  Maratha  cloud  which  hung  over  Bombay  for  a  century,  but 
conquests  as  real,  as  permanent,  and  as  noble  over  ignorance 
and  vice.  The  godly  life  and  the  heroic  death  are  here  por- 
trayed and  point  the  way  to  the  regeneration  of  mankind. 
Every  man,  whatever  be  the  sect  or  creed  that  claims  him, 
must  feel  as  he  enters  these  walls  that  he  is  in  presence  of  the 
illustrious  dead — illustrious  so  far  to  us  that  they  have  shed  a 
glory  round  our  island. 

But  we  do  well  also  to  remember  tliat  men  have  been  here, 
and  on  tliis  very  spot,  who  have  widely  extended  the  margin  of 


*  December,  1815,  Scotch  Service  first  held  in  Courthouse. — Bombay 
Courier,  1815.  'i'lie  Bombiy  Tract  Society  was  founded  in  the  vestry  of  St. 
Andrew's  Church  in  18-7. — Statement  of  Agent,  Bombay  Tract  Society  in 
St.  Andrew's  Church,  December  4,  1887.  First  missionaries  (American) 
lauded  1813,  were  threatened  with  expulsion. — Ibid. 


1^ 


ELI2.V    PIVETT.  249 

history  ami  the  hounds  of  pliilusophic  researcli.  As  we  tread 
these  silent  aisles  we  seem  to  hear  voices  coming  back  from 
the  ancient  days,  for  you  need  not  doubt  that  Clive  and  Nelson 
and  "Wellington  have  all  liecn  here,  though  history  records  it 
not.*  So,  nothing  doubting,  we  in  our  own  way  hll  up  the 
gap.  Yes,  here  Arthur  Wellesley  on  bended  knees  with 
Aungier's  silver  chalice  at  his  lips  may  have  thanked  Almighty 
God  for  liis  great  deliverances  at  Argauni  and  Assaye  from 
battle,  murder,  and  sudden  death.  Here  Mackintosh  may  have 
breathed  the  words  wliich  he  afterwards  jienned  at  Tarala  :  "  I 
feel,  as  in  the  days  of  my  youth,  tliat  liunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness  wliich  long  habits  of  infirmity  and  the  low  concerns 
of  the  world  have  contributed  to  extinguish."  t  Or  Napier  may 
have  stammered  out,  "  I  have  ctmquered  Sind,  liut  I  have  not 
conquered  myself"  J 

Long  ere  this  some  of  the  noblest  and  the  fairest  in  our  little 
colony  had  been  gathered  into  this  granary.  One  notably  so, 
Eliza  Kivett  by  name,§  of  the  days  of  Clive — she  who  had  been 
the  wife  of  hira,  a  second  only  to  Clive  himself  at  the  great 
Battle  of  rhissey.ll  That  slie  was  a  celebrated  court  beauty  of 
England   in   the  days  of  George   III. ;    that  her  portrait  was 


*  The  dates  they  were  in  Bomliay  are:  Clive,  175G;  Nelson,  1775: 
Wellesley,  1804.  On  one  occasion  when  the  Duke  was  in  Bombay,  an  officer 
at  dinner  impugned  the  evidences  of  our  religion.  The  Duke  asked  quietly  if 
he  h.id  ever  re.id  Paley's  Eviiltnces.  He  said  he  had  not.  "  Then  you  had 
better  do  so,"  said  the  Duke.  lie  did  so,  and  with  the  most  satisfactory 
results. 

Upon  the  first  publication  of  his  Despatches,  one  of  his  friends  said  to  him 
ou  reading  the  record  of  his  Indian  Campaigns,  "  It  seems,  Duke,  that  your 
first  business  was  to  procure  rice  and  bullocks."  "And  so  it  was,"  s.iid 
Wellington, "  for  if  I  had  rice  and  bullocks  I  had  men,  and  if  I  had  men  I 
knew  1  could  beat  the  enemy." 

t  Life  of  Sir  James  Mackintosh. 

t  Life  of  Sir  Charles  Napier. 

§  "  1799.  Mrs.  I'ivelt  gave  colours  to  the  volunteers." — Bombay  Courier. 
(Aug.  10,  1889).     Ante,  Vol.  !.,  p.  lOG,  note. 

II  This  was  tlie  acceptable  version  in  Bombay,  but  surely  F.yro  Coote  and 
Kirkpatrick  were  (Olive's  suconds-in-coramand.  Jn  Orme's  History  of  Mili- 
tary affairain  I/indostan,  ii.,  108, 176  f.,  there  is  no  mention  of  tJarnac's  name. 
It  embraces  1715  to  17G1  (1200  pa  ;es),  and  cntaius  a  full  account  of  the  Battle 
<;f  Plassey,  no  doubt  taken  from  Clive's  own  lips. 

John  Carnac's  name,  alone  with  Clive,  is  signed  to  the  Allahabad  Treaty 
of  August  Ititii,  1705. — J!:us(  India  Company,  Facsindlc,  July,  1890,  by  Sir 
Geo.  C.  M.  Birdwood. 

VOL.   II.  S 


250  THE    BOMBAY    CATHEDRAL. 

painted  by  Sir  Joshua  Eeynolds ;  that  it  is  now  in  tlie 
possession  of  Sir  Eichard  WaUace,  and  that  she  died  in  Bonil:)ay 
in  1780,  at  the  early  age  of  twenty-eight,  are  facts  for  whicli  we 
are  indebted  to  Colonel  Eivett-Carnac,  a  representative  of  the 
family.  She  sleeps  in  a  gi-ave  within  the  pale  of  the  altar,  on 
the  right  hand  as  yon  proceed  up  to  it. 

Outside  the  church  lie  the  representatives  of  many  Bombay 
families :  Warden,  Lodwick,  Willoughby,  Perry,  Awdry, 
Wigram,  Crawford,  Hadow,  Pollexfen,  Willis,  all  of  this  century  ; 
and  Mrs.  Eawson  Hart  Boddam  (Boddam  was  Governor  1784 
to  1788)  and  Henry  Moore,  of  the  last,  two  names  gi-eat  in 
their  day,  but  now  nearly  unknown.  These  are  exclusively 
EngUsh  or  Irish  names  ;  but  Scotland  also  can  claim  her  dust, 
now  so  widely  scattered  on  every  region  of  the  earth.  Under 
the  green  waving  branches  of  the  "  goldmohur-tree  "  *  sleep 
together  side  by  side  four  young  men  who  all  died  in  their 
prime — Stewart,  two  Forbeses,  and  Finlay,  the  scions  of 
families  which  were  well  known  in  Bombay  in  a  past  genera- 
tion, and  not  unknown  in  this,  and  all  hailing  from  the  braes  of 
the  far  North.t     So  true  it  is — 


*  "  A  vulgar  corruption  of  OuJmor  (H.),  the  '  Peacock  flower,'  Cxsalpina 
jmlcherrima." — Yule. 

t  Their  names  are  : — Eohert  Finlay,  son  of  Mr.  Kirkman  Finlay,  Castle 
Towart,  a  member,  so  says  the  inscriiitiou,  of  the  firm  of  Ritchie  Finlay,  Esq., 
died  in  1830,  aged  28 ;  John  Forbes,  Boyndlie,  of  Forbes  and  Company,  died 
December  29th,  1829,  aged  34;  George  Forbes,  of  Forbes  and  Company, 
died  1828,  aged  28 ;  Cbai-les  Edward  Stewart,  son  of  John  Stewart,  Esq.,  of 
Belladrum,  died  1840,  aged  23.  J.  Forbes  was  accidentally  killed  by  falling 
from  a  ruined  wall  at  Montpezir.  Kirkman  Finlay,  senior,  was  a  man  of  note, 
M.P.  and  Lord  Provost  of  Glasgow.  The  firm  of  James  Finlay  and  Companj- 
there,  of  which  he  was  the  head,  is  now  more  than  a  century  old.  On  the 
Indian  trade  being  thrown  open,  James  Finlay  and  Company  despatched  the 
first  ship  direct  from  Scotland  to  India.  This  was  in  181G.  James  Taylor, 
late  secretary  of  the  Chamber  of  Conunorce  of  Bombay,  delighted  to  tell  that 
Kirkn:an  Finlay  in  his  day  was  the  progenitor  of  five  Indian  houses  : — 
Finlay,  Hodgson  and  Company,  London;  Kitchie  Steuart  and  Company; 
Finlay,  Scott  and  Company;  Finlay,  Clark  and  Company;  and  Campbell, 
Mitchell  and  Company,  Bombay.  Tliere  is  a  story  i)reserved  which  is  worthy 
of  Dian  liamsiy.  Mr.  K.  F.  was  entertaining  a  number  of  electors  of  an 
ancient  borough  while  on  a  canvassing  tour.  The  meeting  was  a  jovial  one ; 
some  of  them  were  rough-and-ready  fellows,  and  "  the  nicht  drave  on  wi' 
sang  and  clatter,"  when  suddenly  the  chainnan  was  interrupted  by  a  voice  in 
an  e.X[iostulatory  tone  coming  from  the  foot  of  the  tabic.  "  Kirky,  I  say 
Kirky,  they're  no  drinking  fair  here."     On  hearing  which  Mr.  Kirkman 


MONUMENTS.  251 

"Man  knows  where  first  lie  ships  himself,  but  ho 
Xevtr  can  tell  where  shall  his  landing  be."* 

But  yet  another  inemento  more.  In  Dean  Lane,  a  lunidred 
yards  from  the  Cathedral,  there  is  lying  while  we  write,  in  the 
gutter,  a  block  of  wliinstone,  two  feet  long,  and  on  which  i,s 
deeply  engraven : — "  Erected  by  order  of  Adnairal  Sir  Edward 
Hughes,  1783."  Here  the  inscription  ends,  for  there  are 
evidently  wanting  a  piece  or  pieces,  but  you  can  fancy  any- 
thing you  like — "  in  memory  of "  officers  or  men  drowned  or 
slain  on  the  Indian  Ocean.  Sir  Edward  Hughes  was  the  man 
in  a  ship  of  whose  squadron  Nelson  leai-ned  the  art  of  war,  and 
gained  his  Indian  experience  as  a  midshipmen;  who  fought  a 
great  seafight  with  Suffrein,  and  on  four  several  occasions  gave 
a  good  account  of  the  French  fleet.  Has  this  stoue  crept  out  of 
the  Cathedial  compound  ?  It  has  evidently  been  used  to  grind 
curry  stuffs  on,  and — more  recently — as  a  door-step  ! 

Tlie  reason  why  we  have  so  few  tombs  in  our  Cathedral 
between  1609  and  1760,t  we  suspect,  is  the  fact  tliat  during 
tliis  period  Mendham's  constituted  the  sole  burying-ground  of 
the  English.  We  had  not  been  long  here,  we  are  told,  before 
the  tombs  in  Mendham's  made  "  a  goodly  show  "  from  the 
harbour.  But  they  were  all  swept  away  in  1760,  for  fear  that 
they  should  alfoi-d  cover  to  the  enemy  ;  and  we  fancy  that  those 
nameless  mausolea  on  the  left  as  you  enter  Sonapur  cover  a 
mighty  heap  of  bones  gathered  from  the  earlier  charnel-house.| 
But  from  Commodore  Watson,  wlio  was  killed  at  the  siege 
of  Thana  (1774),  to  General  Ballard,  who  laid  himself  down 
to  sleep  in  1880  on  the  plains  of  Thermopyla',  be  it  tomb  or 


Finlay  with  a  genial  smile,  beckoning  to  the  company,  entreated  them  in  a 
kindly  but  earnest  way  to  take  off  their  glasses.  "  Na,  na,  Sir,"  was  the 
reply  from  the  same  quarter,  "that's  no  it.  There's  a  man  here  taking  aft" 
twa  glasses  fur  my  ane." 

•  Thom.is  Hodges,  Governor  17G7  to  1771,  was  no  exception  to  this.  A 
wizard  told  him  he  should  die  in  India,  and  he  believed  it.  We  know  for 
certain  that  ho  was  buried  in  this  church,  but  all  trace  of  his  resting-place 
has  disappeared. 

t  "  The  Cathedral  burial  records  go  back  as  far  as  1763,  Byculla  to  1830, 
the  Scotch  burying  ground  to  1820." — Crawford  and  Bucldand,  Solicitors, 
Bombay,  June  'isth,  1888. 

X  Some  workmen  digging  foundations  about  the  Sailors'  Home,  wo  learn, 
came  upon  human  remains. 

S  2 


2-")2  THE    BOMBAY    CATHEDRAL. 

cenotaph,*  our  readers  will  see  bow  limited  is  the  period  upon 
wliich  we  are  now  called  to  expatiate. 

The  original  steeple  ended  in  a  kind  of  laulL'ru,  as  we  see  in 
(irose's  print.  The  upper  portion  of  the  present  clock-tower 
dates  only  from  about  1838.  The  bell  of  St.  Thomas's,  lialf-way 
up  the  steeple,  was  the  gift  of  Governor  Eoone,  and  is  a  most 
interesting  memorial.  It  was  cast  in  Bombay,  and  a  very  fine 
bell  it  is,  cou.sidering  that  it  lias  been  in  constant  use  f(U'  164 
years.  The  inscription  on  it  is  now  almost  undecipherable,  and 
cannot  be  read  without  a  considerable  craning  of  the  neck. 
Laus  Deo.  In  tisum  Ucclcs.  Anglu,  Bomh.,  An.  Domi.  1719. 
Sine  charitatc  facti  sumua  velut  ces  sonans. 

There  is  a  silver  chalice  in  the  vestry ,t  on  which  these  words 
are  legibly  inscribed  : — "  The  gift  of  the  Greenland  merchants  of 
the  Cittie  of  Yorke.  1032."  We  do  not  know  how  this  vessel 
found  its  way  to  Bombay.  We  know  that  York  was  an  early 
seat  of  the  whale-fisldng  industry,  and  can  merely  guess  that 
some  sea-captain  who  had  been  the  original  recipient  of  it,  gifted 
it  away  to  the  Protestant  community  here  a  great  many  years 
afterwards.  It  was  not  uncommon  about  this  tinu;  for  men  wlio 
had  been  in  the  Xorth  Seas  to  come  away  out  to  India,  and  two 
of  our  most  illustrious  Arctic  navigators,  Baifin  and  Davis,  ended 
their  careers  in  Eastern  waters. 

The  church  of  Arthur  AVellesley's  time,  some  of  our  readers 


*  "  To  the  Glory  of  God,  and  in  Memory  of  General  John  Archibald 
Ballard,  C.B.,  LL.D.,  Royal  (bte  Bombay)  Engineers.  lie  distinguished 
himsell  greatly  in  the  Kussian  \Var  of  18.54-50.  In  the  defence  of  Silistria, 
at  the  Battle  of  Giurgevo,  and  in  the  advance  to  Bucharest ;  also  at  the 
Battle  of  Eupatoria,  at  the  siege  of  SebastoiJol,  at  the  occupation  of  Kertch, 
and  in  Omar  I'acha's  campaign  in  Mingrelia,  including  tlie  Battle  of  the 
Ingour,  where  he  commanded  a  Turkish  brigade.  When  only  a  Subaltern  of 
Engineers  he  received  the  honorary  rank  of  Lieuienant-Colonel  in  the 
Turkish  Army,  the  luilitary  Companionship  of  the  Order  of  the  Bath,  and 
the  third  class  of  the  Order  of  the  Medjidie.  In  1850-57  he  served  as 
Assistant  Quartermaster-General  with  the  Persian  Expeditionary  Force,  and 
in  1857-58  during  the  Indian  Mutiny  he  held  the  same  post  with  the 
ilajputana  Field  Force,  and  Malwa  Divisinn  of  the  Indian  Ar;;iy.  In  1861 
he  was  ap|)ointcd  Mint  Master  at  Bomba}^,  and  subsci|uently,  in  addition, 
Chairman  of  the  Bombay  Port  Trust.  The  former  post  he  lield  until  his 
retirement  from  the  service  in  1879.  He  was  born  on  ihe  "iOth  June,  1829, 
and  died  suddenly  at  Molos,  near  the  Battlefield  of  Tliernvpyla',  in  Greece, 
on  the  2nd  April,  1880,  and  is  buried  at  Athens.  This  brjss  is  inserted  by 
his  brother-officers  of  the  corps  of  Koyal  Engineers." 

t  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  78. 


THE    MONDMENTS.  253 

will  be  surprised  to  learn,  was  floored  with  cow-dung,  acd 
lighted  witii  panes  of  the  pearl  oyster-shell  instead  of  glass. 
We  give  in  a  note  a  curious  piece  of  fossil  conservatism.*  The 
trellised  windows  of  the  Taj  or  Ibrahim  Rauza  are  specially 
adapted  for  tempering  the  rays  of  the  Indian  sun,  but  oyster- 
sliells,  who  e\er  could  imagine  that  they  would  have  defenders  ?  f 
No  further  record  is  left  of  discussions  on  these  mighty  themes, 
and  perhaps  it  is  as  well.  The  addition  to  the  chancel,  begun 
in  18G5,  necessitated  the  temporary  removal  of  some  monuments 
and  marble  tablets.  Those  of  the  Carnacs,  w^hich,  if  we  under- 
stand Mackintosh  correctly,  were  on  your  right  as  you  faced  the 
altar  where  Jonathan  Duncan  was  buried,  have  been  moved  by 
the  reverential  hands  of  their  collateral  descendants,  Sir  llichard 
Temple  and  Colonel  llivett-Carnac,  to  the  (|uite  opposite  end  ol' 
the  church  riglit  and  left  over  the  main  door.  The  General 
died  at  Mangalor  in  180(t,  aged  84,  and  Mr.  Rivett,  his  wife's 
brother  and  a  member  of  the  Bombay  Council,  taking  the  name 
of  Carnac,  inherited  the  General's  property,  which  was  of  a  very 
considerable  amount.     He  died  in  1803,|  and  it  is  on  record 


*  Bombay :  change  of  fashions  (1810) : — "  This  pleasant  and  salutary 
article  (cow-dung)  is  falling  into  disuse  with  the  English,  who  in  their 
habitations  and  habits,  are  departuig  more  and  more  from  the  sober  dictates 
of  nature,  and  the  obedient  usages  of  the  natives.  We  now,  for  instance, 
build  lofty  rooms  admitting  insufferable  glare  and  heat  through  lung  glazid 
windows  fronting  the  sun,  retleclid  by  marble  or  polished  floors;  douiestiu 
comfort  is  sacrificed  to  exterior  decoration.  No  man  of  taste  would  now 
build  a  low  sun-excluding  verandah,  nor  mitigate  the  intensity  of  the  heat  by 
a  ciiw-dung  flooring.  lu  I'umbay  the  delectahle  light  that,  twenty  or  thirty 
years  ago,  was  so  commonly  admitted  through  thin,  semi-transparent  panes, 
composed  of  oyster-shell.s,  is  no  longer  known  among  the  English  escejit  in 
the  church  ;  and  these,  perhaps,  will,  when  the  iiresent  worthy  clergyman 
shall  vacate  his  cure,  give  way  to  the  sujierior  transparency  of  glass.  The 
church  will  then  be  like  our  new  houses,  insufferably  hot,  and  the  adaptation 
of  jiiuihta,  monstrous  lans,  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  and  more  feet  long,  suspended 
from  the  ceiling  of  sitting-rooms,  and  moved  to  and  fro  by  men  outside  by 
means  of  ropes  and  i)ulleys,  will  be  necessary.  These  i)aiikas,  it  must  bo 
admitted,  are  articles  of  great  luxury  in  warm  weather  :  the  idea  is  taken 
from  the  natives." — Moor's  JJimiuo  Pantheon. 

"  At  NuMcomar's  trial  in  Calcutta,  1775,  punkahs  were  not  invented.  I 
have  somewhere  read  that  punkahs  were  invented  early  in  the  present  century. 
Lord  Miiito  mentions  them  in  1.S07  (^l.ord  Mhilu  in,  Litlia,  p.  27)."' — From 
Sir  James  Stephen's  Hloi-ij  of  Nuncomar,  1885. 

t  January,  18U1. — Plate  glass  has  just  appeared  in  shop  windows. 

X  "  Died  July  IGth,  180;!,  aged  43  years."— Tombstone  in  Cathedral.  See 
aiite,  Vol.  I.,  p.  UjtJ,  note. 


254 


THE    BOMBAY    CATHEDRAL. 


that  his  funeral  was  tlie  largest  that  had  ever  taken  place  in 
Bombay.  He  M'as  the  father  of  Sir  James  Eivett-Carnac 
(Governor,  1839  to  1841). 

It  has  been  pointeil  out  to  us  by  a  native  of  Forfar  that 
the  words  "  born  at  Wardhouse,"  on  Jonathan  Duncan's 
monument,  are  a  mistake.  The  register  of  his  birth  in  Leth- 
not  parish  is  as  follows: — "16th  May,  1756,  James  Duncan 
and  Jean  Meiky,  tenants  of  the  farm  of  Blairno,  had  a  son 
baptised,  named  Jonatlian."  His  parents  removed  to  Ward- 
house  afterwards,  and  the  error  may  have  arisen  from  the  fact 
that,  when  in  Bombay,  he  purchased  this  property  of  Wardhouse, 
on  which  he  spent  his  boyhood,  and  where  he  lioped,  after  his 
retirement  from  India,  to  spend  the  remainder  of  liis  days — a 
hope  which  we  know  was  not  fulfilled.*  But  we  have  left  our- 
selves no  time  to  speak  of  the  Bishops ;  so  we  conclude  with 
Pope,  "  Even  in  a  bishop  I  can  spy  desert."  Yes,  but  our 
readers  may  find  no  desert  in  us  if  we  write  on  subjects  of  which 
w^e  know  nothing,  and  less  if  we  did  not  thank  the  IJev.  Mr. 
Sharpin,  the  senior  Chaplain,  without  whose  aid  this  article 
could  not  have  been  written. 

*    J„ti;  )ip.  -.Vi,  34. 


p^!^^^^ 


(     255    ) 


CHAl'TKi;   J- IV. 

Bombay  Harbour. 

To  begin  a  sketch  of  Bombay  llaibour  by  (jiiietly  sailing'oiit  of 
it  is  barely  respectful  to  the  subject  or  the  reader.  And  yet  to 
get  a  good  view  of  anything,  and  know  what  it  is,  you  must  get 
outside  of  it.  So  here  we  are  at  Aliljagh.  It  were  a  1)ootless 
task  to  relate  the  \oyage  in  a  Ijandar-boat,  for  all  that  has  been 
often  done  before.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  we  started  at  ?>  a.m. 
from  our  boat,  and  reached  the  top  of  Sagargadh,  1800  feet  up, 
at  sunrise.  You  know  what  is  now  coming.  The  view  was 
splendid.  The  whole  coast-line  far  away  down  lay  at  our  feet, 
sometimes  indented  with  creeks  or  trending  away  in  sandy 
reaches,  or  anon  jutting  out  into  promontory  or  peninsula. 

We  could  almost  hear  the  murmur  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  and 
saw  its  green  flecked  with  white  where  it  touched  the  beach, — a 
kind  of  map  spread  out  before  our  eyes  to  look  at,  or  rather  a 
bright  and  golden  vision  to  live  in  the  memory  afterwards.  I 
could  see  the  island  fort  of  Kulaba,  and  further  to  the  south, 
standing  out  of  the  sea,  the  old  forts  of  Korli  and  Chaul,  not 
much  shorn  of  tlieir  ancient  grandeur.  Sagargadh  is  a  wild  and 
weird  place,  awfully  lonely,  higli  up  among  the  rocks,  built  of 
gi'eat  unhewn  boulders  whicli  the  Angrias  had  dragged  from  the 
sea-shore,  and  heaped  one  on  the  top  of  the  other,  until  they 
made  of  it  such  a  den  as  wild  animals  might  rear  to  protect 
themselves  and  their  quarry  from  invasion.  There  was  an  em- 
1)rasure  or  look-out,  into  which  I  crept,  and  lying  down  upon 
my  breast,  I  peered  over  the  battlements  which  are  here  perched 
on  a  mighty  wall  of  rock,  down  whicli  a  stone  let  loose  tliundered 
away  to  tlie  jungle. 

The  men  who  once  lived  here  luul  all  come  up  the  way  that 
I  came,  and  up  the  stony  track  which  I  had  traversed  for  niilea 


256 


BOMBAY    HABBOUR. 


angria's  kulaha.  257 

had  come  in  former  days  much  si)oil  and  plunder,  taken  out  of 
ships,  and  some  sailors  also,  wearing  their  last  pair  of  boots. 
Bags  of  Venetian  se(|iuns,  English  gniueas,  Arab  taffetas,  and 
Dacca  muslins,  all  were  fish  in  their  net.  They  wrecked  first, 
and  sung  afterwards,  sung  until  their  meat  and  drink  were  done, 
with  an  occasional  nudge  of  a  iirisoner  over  the  precipice  by 
way  of  variety ;  and  then  went  for  more.  Tiiese  lubber  fiends, 
the  Angrias,  were  made  to  destroy,  not  to  create ;  and  when 
necessity  compelled  tluau  to  make  anytliing  it  was  of  the  rudest 
fashion,  an  exhibition  of  mere  strength.  If  you  wish  to  see 
what  uncxiltivated  men  with  brute  force  at  their  command  can 
do,  you  will  come  here ;  and  if  you  wish  to  see  what  science  in 
arcliitecture  and  a  settled  Government  can  do  where  men  have 
a  thought  aliove  themselves,  however  bad  they  may  otherwise 
be,  you  will  go  to  Ahmadabad. 

Kulaba  is  an  island,  about  half  a  mile  long,  covered  by  a 
great  stronghold  of  the  Angrias,  now  mostly  in  ruins.  But  tiie 
gnjund  must  have  altered,  as  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  a  more 
imsuitable  place  for  a  harbour  and  dock.  There  is  a  mosque 
and  a  tank  which  is  green  and  slimy,  and  walls  built  up  of 
huge  bonlders  with  which  this  })art  of  the  seashore  abounds. 
At  liigh  tide  it  is  surrounded  by  water,  and  when  the  tide 
comes  in  it  swirls  round  the  miniature  isthmus  with  mucli 
sound  and  fury,  threatening  to  engidf  you  and  your  tony. 
But  it  is  a  mere  make-believe,  like  everything  about  it,  as 
Kulaba  is  now  tootliless,  and  grins  through  its  eyeless 
sockets  upon  a  great  sea  covered  with  the  peaceful  commerce 
of  nations. 

You  land  upon  rocks  about  llie  size  of  tramway  cars,  covered 
witli  seaweed  and  encr\isted  here  and  there  witli  white  shell- 
fish, as  slippery,  as  treacherous,  and  as  lethal  to  life  and  limb  as 
ever  the  Angrias  were.  Thorns  and  quickset  stuff  devour  its 
interior,  and  its  half-buried  cannon  stare  at  you,  their  mouths 
dioked  witli  rubbisii. 

The  tide  being  now  out,  you  walk  ashore  amid  soft  santl  and 
slime,  your  feet  often  sinking  in  tiie  sludge  to  the  ankles. 
Where  the  ground  is  hard  it  is  intersected  by  siiallow  runnels 
of  limpid  sea-water,  across  wliicli  you  leap  and  s])lash,  dirty  and 
bespattered,  to  your  bandar-boat. 


258  BOMBAY    HARBOUR. 

I  had  seen  Cliaul  before :  no  more  classic  ground  exists  in 
India. — 

Alfonso  D'Albuqucrime 1514 

Vasco  da  Gania 1524 

Francis  Xavier 1544 

These  are  the  names  of  "  three  mighty  men,"  and  the  dates,  so 
far  as  they  can  be  ascertained,  of  their  visit  to  Chaid.  C'amoens, 
tlie  greatest  genius  that  Portugal  has  ever  produced,  lias  sung 
their  praises.  The  poet  may  have  seen  "  the  lofty  towers  of 
Chale  "  in  vision,  but  the  priest  and  great  sea-warriors  must 
have  beheld  "  II  morro  di  Chiul "  very  much  as  we  can  see  it 
to-day,  for  it  is  nearly  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation,  and  its 
topographical  aspect  is  unchanged. 

The  water  battery  is  still  there,  though  the  bronze  lion  with 
the  inscription,  "  None  passes  me  but  tights,"  has  disapijeared, 
as  well  as  the  bronze  eagle  on  the  summit  of  the  "  Tower  of 
Eesistauce,"  "  Xoue  passes  me  but  flies."  You  may  still  see  on 
the  highest  plateau  the  socket,  worn  and  indurated  by  many 
ages  of  use,  in  which  was  planted  that  flagstaff,  "  the  mast  of 
some  great  ammiral,"  crowning  the  summit  of  the  liastions  of 
Korli,  and  which  Ijore  aloft  the  standard  which  told  the  \\orld 
of  the  proud  dominion  of  Portugal  by  sea  and  land. 

On  every  gate  is  inscribed  the  name  of  some  saint,  Philip, 
Peter,  James,  and  the  Apostle  Xavier.  Da  Gama  driven  in  here 
during  the  monsoon  on  his  way  to  Goa.  Xavier  en  route  to 
Bassein.  Albuquerque  on  liis  way  to  Aden.  Does  it  not  all 
look  like  a  chapter  of  yesterday  ?  You  may  see  there  also 
Xavier's  house — liis  body  is  at  Goa,  but  his  grave  was  dug  in 
Japan. 

An  Englishman  lately,  in  liis  wanderings  in  Nijjon,  saw  some- 
thing sticking  up,  wliich  turned  out  to  be  a  great  flat  slab,  and 
clearing  away  the  long  grass  from  it,  the  first  thing  he  discovered 
was  these  two  words — "  Francis  Xavier."  "  I  asked,"  says  he, 
"  some  Chinese  on  the  spot  what  they  knew."  "  Oh ! "  they 
said,  "  one  big  priest  makie  die  there  a  long  time  since ;  he  come 
from  another  country;  but  he  very  good  man."  There  is  a 
stone  in  the  museum  of  the  Asiatic  Society  in  Bombay  brought 
from^Chaul,  on  wliich  is  an  inscription  in  Portuguese,  "  Con- 
secrated to  Eternity.     1).  Joao   lY.  King  of  Portugal  in  the 


THE   LIGHTHOUSE.  259 

Cortes  wliich  he  assembled  in  the  year  1646,  made  tributory 
himself  and  his  kingdom  with  an  annual  pension  to  tlie  Im- 
maculate Conception  of  tlie  A'irgin  Lady,  and  under  a  public 
oath  promised  to  defend  tliat  the  same  Lady  the  elect  Patroness 
of  the  Empire  has  been  preserved  from  the  stain  of  Original  Sin. 
In  order  that  Portuguese  Piety  should  last,  he  conniiande<l  to 
carve  this  perpetual  memento  on  this  stone  in  the  1  "itli  year  of 
his  reign  and  the  year  of  Clirist  lO.'o.  This  work  was  done  in 
the  year  16.36." 

But  in  case  we  drift  into  the  History  of  Doctrines,  we  return 
to  Bombay  Harbour  and  take  a  view  of  the  Prongs.     lentil  the 


BOMBAY    IIARIIOUR,    1 765. 

new  lighthouse  was  erected  this  was  a  fatal  place  for  vessels  to 
be  sucked  in  or  driven  on  the  rocks,  notably  one,  the  "  ( 'astle- 
reagh,"  where  18-i  people  jierished.  You  can  walk  from  the 
mainland  at  low  tide  four  days  before  full  moon  and  four  days 
after  to  the  I'rongs  Lighthouse  ;  but  you  must  not  linger  too 
long  with  the  keeper,  or  you  will  be  isolated  for  twelve  hours. 
It  is  a  verj-  much  longer  journey  than  you  imagine,  and  picking 
your  steps  and  wriggling  from  one  smooth  and  wet  stone  to 
another  render  it  infinitely  troublesome.  If  any  man  walk  from 
the  Fort  to  the  Prongs  Lighthouse  and  back  within  five  liours, 
lie  will  ]ierform  a  feat  that  deserves  to  be  recorded. 

The  old  Kolaba  Liglithouse  has  a  liistory,  but  it  is  very  little 


l!CC<  BOMBAY    HAKCOUR. 

known.  Parsons  in  1771  notices  it.  Tliu  first  story  seems 
niiicli  older  than  the  upper  ones  and  may  lie  Portuguese,  and 
l)uilt  tor  a  watch-tower  liy  day  and  to  hold  a  watcli-fire  by  night. 
Our  Kolaba  is  a  curious  place,  having  a  lighthouse  without  a 
light  and,  since  the  Extramural  Act,  a  burial-ground  without 
a  burial.*  Some  people  fancy  there  is  always  a  great  noise 
as  of  Piedlam  about  this  spot,  but  I  am  sure  a  buggy waUa 
will  make  more  noise  haggling  for  his  fare  than  all  tliese 
irrational  creatures  in  the  Asylum.  Sometimes,  at  midnight, 
even  when  the  moon  is  at  the  full,  it  seems  as  if  tlie  wand  of  a 
magician  had  passed  over  the  whole  place.  "He  giveth  his 
beloved  sleep:"  and  there  is  not  a  sound  to  break  the  silence 
except  the  cry  of  some  sea-bird. 

When  Du  Perron  was  in  Bombay  in  1761,  he  notices  that 
one  of  the  Councillors  had  a  country  house  here,  where  he  ga\a 
afternoon  tea.  It  was,  no  douljt,  on  the  site  of  Morley  Hall, 
now  the  Gymnasium.  Bathing  is  now  made  easy  at  Kolaba, 
but  in  former  times  at  the  Point  it  was  a  matter  of  some 
difficulty  to  catch  the  water  at  a  sufficient  depth  in  those 
screened  enclosures  of  the  fishermen.  Once  afloat  in  the  water 
it  was  pleasant  enough  to  lie  and  watch  the  first  segment  of  the 
sun  making  its  appearance  above  the  horizon.  Wliile  thus 
cruising  partly  on  land  and  partly  on  water,  we  may  as  well 
notice,  in  the  distribution  of  tlie  two  elements,  a  resemblance 
between  Bombay  and  Alexandria.  That  it  is  not  altogether  fanci- 
ful any  one  may  judge  for  himself  by  placing  plans  of  the  two 
cities  before  him.  You  see  in  each  case  a  double-pronged  pro- 
montoi-y  running  out  to  the  sea,  with  a  shallow  and  useless  haven 
on  the  one  side,  and  a  great  harbour  on  the  other  side,  that  could 
shelter,  if  need  be,  the  navies  of  the  world.  Such  is  the  topo- 
grapliy  of  these  two  great  maritime  cities,  and  a  closer  inspec- 
tion \\  Ul  discover  several  other  features  of  resemblance  which 
have  been  noticed  in  Alexandria  f  by  Bombay  jieople,  though 
we  have  never  heard  who  was  the  Alexander  who  first  pointed 

•  Kolaba  churchyard  is  full  of  champak  trees.  The  champak  i3o\vers  all 
the  year  round,  the  blossoms  falling  on  the  graves  from  January  to  December. 
1m  the  Cruise  of  the  Marchcse,  1881,  this  is  noted,  and  the  fact  that  in  the 
Far  East  fur  this  reason  they  are  called  "  the  dead  inan'.s  flowers." 

t  The  filan  of  Alexandria  in  ancient  times  was  likened  to  a  Macedonian 
cloak,  which  in  its  turn  is  like  a  Me.\icau  I'oncho. 


COMMODORE    JAMES.  201 

out  the  site  of  Bombay.  Are  not  the  barren  rocks  round  Caesar's 
Camp  and  the  shifting  sands  of  Mareotis  and  the  Libyan  desert 
a  poor  apology  for  our  noble  background  of  everlasting  hills  ? 

I  am  glad  the  authorities  have  long  since  ceased  to  call  Kolaba 
"  Old  Woman's  Island."  *  We  have  ugly  names  enough  in 
Bombay  without  having  this  one  inflicted  on  us.  We  have 
Back  Bay,  Apollo  Street,  Hog  and  Butcher  and  Gibbet  Islands, 
with  Kennedy  Sea  Face  and  other  monstrosities ;  and  I  am  sure 
the  name  of  that  new  health  resort  which  was  being  extem- 
porised the  other  day  near  Lanauli  will  be  the  death  of  it  unless 
it  is  changed,  and  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  Mathei'an 
with  its  fine  name  is  superseded  by  the  new  comer. 

If  we  were  asked  to  cite  the  man  who  has  played  the  most 
conspicuous  part  in  Bombay  Harbour  during  the  olden  time 
we  should  say  Commodore  William  James,t  he  who  knocked 
Suvarnadm-g  to  pieces  and  endeavoured  to  pull  Sterne  the 
novelist  together — a  fruitless  labour  on  his  part.  For  twelve 
years,  1747  to  1759,  he  was  perpetually  in  or  about  the  Bombay 
Harbour,  looking  out  either  for  stjualls  or  for  pirates,  exercising 
his  talents  and  laying  tlie  foundation  of  that  great  fortune 
which  culminated  in  the  Chairmanship  of  the  East  India 
Company. 

Tiiere  is  in  Surat  a  mausoleum,  with  door  and  lock,  wherein 
all  that  remains  of  Brabazon  Ellis  lies  entombed,  and  over  him 
a  slab  of  black  jasper  on  which  is  engraven  his  encomium.  Wliile 
standing  here  lately  my  eye  alighted  upon  a  marble  tablet  in- 
serted in  the  wall  to  the  memory  of  Frances,  wife  of  Commodore 
James,  who  died  in  175G.  This  was  not  the  Lady  James  of 
Sterne's  annals,  but  a  previous  wife.  Frances  had  a  romantic 
history.  When  James  was  a  young  sailor  he  frequented  a 
])ublic  house  in  Wajjjjing  under  the  sign  of  the  "  Bed  Cow." 
She  was  the  pretty  barmaid.  He  married  her,  and  brought  her 
but,  poor  thing,  to  the  bagwigs  and  furbelows  of  Surat,  and  she 
died  there  in  the  year  that  witnessed  his  greatest  success — the 
capture  of  SuvarnaiUirg. 

I'.ut  we  are  off  to  Butcher's  Island.     We  observe  Niebuhr 


•  Grose  makes  a  curious  mistake,  from  the  pronunciation  no  doubt :  he 
calls  it  Coal  Harbour  ! 

t  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  117,  118  and  420. 


262  BOMBAY    HARBOUR. 

calls  it  by  this  name,  and  so  Joes  Hamilton,  who  goes  back  to 
within  twenty  years  of  our  occupation  of  Bombay,  and  he  adds 
that  it  is  used  for  grazing  cattle.  If  they  killed  them  there  the 
fact  may  account  for  its  name.  Butcher's  Island  is  a  kind  of 
microcosm,  for  there  is  everything  in  it  except  a  church  and  a 
hotel.  There  is  a  pier,  a  railway,  a  manufactory  of  destructibles, 
and  a  graveyard  where  every  turf  bcueath  }"our  feet  has  been  a 
soldier's  sepulchre.  There  are  he-goats  and  she-goats,  and  in- 
numerable swallows  which  darken  the  air  or  flit  overhead  like 
niusquitoes  in  a  sunbeam.  There  are  the  biggest  banyan  trees 
to  be  seen  anywhere  in  the  neighbom-hood  of  Bombay.  There 
is  long  grass,  now  lying  in  swathes,  but  which  during  the 
monsoon  will  overtop  your  head.  There  are  many  snakes  on 
the  island,  but  it  was  not  a  good  day  for  snakes  when  we  were 
there.  There  is  a  fort,  a  kind  of  martello  tower,  the  round 
nucleus  no  doubt  built  by  the  Portuguese,  and  buttressed  after- 
wards by  the  Anglo-Saxons.  Elephanta  had  once  a  fort  also. 
Butcher's  Island  was  formerly  a  sanitarium  of  the  Indian 
Navy,  also  a  state  prison  about  18G0  ;  *  it  is  now  considered 
unhealthy,  but  for  what  reason  we  are  at  a  loss  to  conceive. 

We  run  over  to  Hog  Island.  At  a  distance,  across  the  water, 
the  pillars  of  the  Hydraulic  Lift  look  for  all  the  world  like  the 
])illars  of  the  great  Temple  of  the  Sun  at  Baalbek.  I  see  that 
I  am  accredited  in  the  Bombay  Gazetteer  with  the  statement  that 
it  was  so  called  because  sliips  were  careened  or  "  hogged  "  there. 
This  will  do  until  some  better  reason  is  given.  The  Hydraulic 
Lift  does  not  enhance  this  view  of  the  subject,  aud  I  await  with 
patience  the  resumption  of  the  careening  business,  so  that  the 
truth  of  this  theory  may  be  substantiated,  as  from  present 
appearances  the  said  interpretation  of  the  name  of  Hog  Island 
is  rather  at  a  discount.  We  must  therefore  either  change  the 
name  or  resume  business. 

I  did  not  like  Uran.  There  is  too  great  a  smell  of  drink 
there.  Distilleries  abound  ;  and  it  is  possible  to  have  too  much 
of  alcohol.  By  driving  two  miles  in  a  bullock-(/ari  you  can 
get  quit  of  it,  and  breathe  freely  in  the  Collector's  bungalow 
which  stands  on  a  woody  knoll  that  commands  a  most  striking 


E.  Legget,  Karachi. 


BAOBAB    TREES.  263 

view  of  all  our  Bombay  neighlioui-liood.  We  can  here  see 
ourselves  as  others  see  us.  The  approach  to  tliis  bungalow  is 
unetiualled  in  Western  India,  for  it  is  through  an  avenue  of 
Adanso7iia  digitafa,  the  baobab  tree  of  Africa,  or  monkey  bread- 
fruit tree,  out  of  the  fruit  of  which  the  fishermen  of  our  western 
coasts  make  their  floats.  But  I  never  think  of  them  without 
remembering  the  big  trees  at  Bijapur,  under  which  the  victims 
of  that  power  in  ancient  days  were  decapitated.  Their  trunks 
are  ibrmed  like  a  cone,  and  their  branches  are  abortions  that 
end  in  nothing  but  a  few  green  leaves.  Formerly  they  were  the 
old  Parrs  of  the  Eastern  forest,  and  were  said  to  live  a  thousand 
year's — a  fact  deduced  fnjm  the  annual  rings  in  the  trunk.  But 
science  has  demonstrated  that  the  annual  deposits  of  cellular 
tissue  do  not  apply  to  a  few  trees,  and  this  is  one  of  them  ;  so 
BiyUutii.  is  now  shorn  of  its  hoary  anticjuity,  and  nobody  will 
insure  its  life  on  those  old  lines.  It  is  called  Imla  in  Western 
India,  and  T  had  a  theory  that  the  Habshis  had  brought  it  with 
them  from  Africa,  but  I  now  find  that  Khorasan  claims  it  from 
Africa  before  the  Dekhan  had  it. 

It  is  some  distance  to  Bassein  or  Wasai.  The  finest  view  of 
Bassein  is  from  the  railway  bridge  which  spans  the  creek.  In 
the  gi-ey  of  the  morning,  when  the  train  slows  after  thundering 
down  from  Gujarat  over  the  "  sleeping  shires  "  while  it  crosses 
the  viaduct,  if  the  traveller  has  time  to  look  from  the  carriane 
window  he  will  see  a  landscape  that  will  repay  him  for  the 
miseries  of  a  restless  night.  I  am  not  quite  sure  but  that  it  is 
even  better  than  a  personal  inspection  of  the  ruins,  for  after 
trudging  up  the  muddy  beach  there  is  much  breaking  of  shins 
over  stones  in  dismal  churches  and  charnel  houses.  The  grey 
and  sombre  towers  and  arches  of  Bassein  are  then  seen  to  stand 
out  finely  among  the  palm  woods  a  mile  or  two  across  the  water, 
and  are  positi\ely  lovel}'  when  touched  up  with  tliat  warmth  of 
colouring  which  the  first  rays  of  the  sun  always  impart  to  an 
Indian  scene.  But  not  all  of  Bassein  except  her  sun  is  set,  for 
the  sea  and  the  sky  and  the  palm  groves  are  as  brilliant  and 
picturesciue  as  they  ever  were  to  the  eyes  of  Xavier  or  Almeida. 

To  Sion  Fort  in  the  north  end  of  tlie  Island  of  Bombay  is  an 
afternoon  trip  by  rail.  The  ground,  as  one  can  see  from  the 
carriage  window,  rises  in   a    ridge,  on  which    is  visible    the 


2G4 


BOMBAY  HARBOUR. 


Catholic  Church,  ami  on  an  outlying  knob  a  watch-tower,  in  a 
corner  of  which  has  lived  for  many  years  a  witch  who,  in  this 
a.i;e  of  enlightenment,  professes  to  spae  fortunes  or  otherwise 
diagnose  the  future.  If  slie  had  predicted  tlie  fate  of  Sion  Fort, 
which   is   now,  in    this    month    of  March  1884,  being    con- 


summated before  our  eyes,  she  would  have  been  a  remarkably 
clever  woman,  and  have  saved  us  the  trouble  of  comment. 

Here  is  a  picturesque  old  fort.  You  cannot  see  it  from  the 
station,  but  it  is  discernible  far  and  near,  by  land  and  by  sea, 
crowning  with  its  battlements  this  projecting  woody  ridge  of 
Bombay  Island,  a  fort  iuterwoven  with  our  earliest  history  and 


SIR    HENRY    MORLAND.  265 

almost  coeval  with  the  arrival  of  the  English  race  in  this 
quarter,  now  being  levelled  with  the  dust.  The  fiat  has  gone 
forth,  and  already  the  work  of  demolition  has  commenced,  for 
the  iconoclasts  are  at  their  work  tearing  down  in  fury  what  their 
genius  will  never  be  able  to  put  together  again.  A  more  wanton 
piece  of  aggression  we  never  knew,  for  Sion  Fort  was  not  injuring 
anybody,  and  there  are  hundreds  of  acres  in  its  immediate 
neighbourhood — an  ample  space — unappropriated  by  anything 
except  toddy  trees  and  cactus  hedges,  on  which  to  build  a  leper 
hospital.  Are  eligible  sites  so  very  scarce  in  this  neighbour- 
hood that  this  choice  one  should  be  pounced  upon  for  a  re- 
ceptacle of  the  most  loathsome  disease  that  oppresses  humanity* 
What  need  we  care  ?  No  doubt.  But  there  arc  people  to  come 
after  us,  to  whom  also  the  grace  of  God  will  be  given  and  an  eye 
to  measure  the  picturesque  and  the  beautiful :  for  wisdom  will 
not  die  with  us.  The  pickaxe  and  the  basket  are  at  their  work, 
the  stones  from  keep  and  bartizan  are  rolling  down,  burying  our 
sixteen-pounders  in  their  debris  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley, 
and  Sion  wUl  soon  be  a  desolation.* 

BOMBAY   ISLANDS. 

For  the  following   list  we  are   indebted  to  the   courtesy  of 
Captain  Sir  H.  Morland :  f — 


•  The  scheme  of  converting  Sion  Fort  into  an  hospital,  we  believe,  has 
now  been  abandoned,  and  Trombay  substituted. 

t  Captain  Sir  Henry  Morland  w;w  provincial  Grand  Master  of  the  Royal 
(Masonic)  Order  of  Scotland  in  Western  India,  Past  Commander  of  the 
Mount  Zion  Encampment  of  Kni>;hts  Templars  (English  Constitution)  at 
Bombay,  and  a  member  of  the  Thirtieth  Degree  of  Ancient  and  Accepted 
Scottish  rite.  He  was  of  an  old  Westmoreland  family ;  born  1837,  lie  was 
educated  for  the  Indian  Navy,  which  he  entered  as  midshipman  in  1852,  and 
became  lieutenant  in  18G3.  Ho  served  at  the  blockade  on  the  north-east 
coast  of  Africa,  and  as  Prize  Master,  1851-5G,  at  the  occupation  of  Peram, 
18.57,  at  the  bombardment  of  Jiddali,  and  in  the  operations  against  the 
Waghirs  in  1859,  in  command  of  the  armed  boat  expedition  to  avenge  the 
murder  of  officers  and  crew  of  U.M.S.  "  Penguin,"  and  landed  as  hostage  for 
the  Sultan  of  Bandar  Muria,  N.E.  coast  of  Africa,  1802,  and  with  the 
Abyssinian  mission  at  Masawa  18(!l-5.  On  the  abolition  of  the  Indian 
Navy,  he  continued  in  the  service  of  Government,  and  was  made  captain  in 
the  Indian  Marine  1877,  when  he  was  also  appointed  Port  Oflicer  at  Bombay. 
He  was  knighted  1887,  and  died  July  28,  1891.— C'<«i/.  D.  Murray  Lj'on's 
History  of  the  Lodrje  of  Edinhiiri/h,  1873, — to  the  author  of  which  we  are  in- 
debted for  the  portrait ; — and  Debrett's  Baronetage,  Knightage,  &c.,  1891. — B. 

VOL.   II.  T 


266 


BOMBAY   HAEBOUR. 


English  Name. 
Butcher's  Island 
Cross  or  Gibbet  Island 
Elephanta     . 
Green  Island 
Gull  Island   . 
Hog  Island    . 
Henery    . 
Khenery . 
Middle  ground 
Oyster  Rock  . 


Native  Name. 
Divadiva   . 
Chinal  Tekri    . 
Gharapuri  . 
Namadevi  . 
Ghaul  Khavai. 
Kava  Siva . 
Vondari 
Khandari   . 
Salamuttah 
Kachchha 


Meaning. 
Light. 
A  little  hill. 
City  of  excavation. 
Name  of  a  goddess. 
A  place  for  eating  rice. 
New  frontier. 
An  island  like  a  mouse. 
Place  of  the  idol  Khandara. 
To  keep  safely :  to  preserve. 
Eesembling  a  turtle. 


We  conclude  with  the  words  of  one  who  had  a  fine  eye  for 
the  picturesque,  the  late  Dr.  Norman  Macleod : — "  The  Islands 
of  Bombay,  as  they  unfold  themselves,  with  their  masses  of 
verdure,  and  the  bays  and  the  vanishings  of  the  sea  into  distant 
river-like  reaches,  lost  in  a  soft,  bright  haze,  above  which 
singular  hills  rounded,  obelisked,  terraced,  lift  themselves, — all 
combine  to  for:n  a  comj^lete  picture,  framed  by  the  gleaming 
blue  sea  below  and  the  cloudless  sky  above,  full  of  intense  heat 
and  light  of  burnished  brightness.  Beyond,  the  ships  and 
masts,  white  houses  among  trees,  and  here  and  there  a  steeple 
indicating  the  long  line  of  the  Kolaba  Point,  tell  us  where  the 
famous  city  of  Bombay  lies  with  its  worshippers  of  iire  and  of 
fine  gold." 


(    267    ) 


--*.<-id* 

0^^^^ 

:^^^^^feiSS^BMB 

s. 

.^^fe^^pn 

Sc^i 

i^^bS^^^^^^s'^^^^^P 

i^ 

»J^^'^!^®^'^|M^0S 

ST^^ 

wi'      "* 

^sf^S^s^sj*^' "'••      ?^^^-  ~^i^-»' 

Vis)!^-- "             ...■ir,:>**^"^'~^-     .*t 

te_L/„'- 

LOL'ISA    POINT,    MATHER  AX. 


CHAPTER    LV. 


Matiiek.vn. 

It  may  be  your  lot  in  October  to  wander  up  the  hill  in  the 
dark,  and,  to  find  the  way  to  your  abode  with  difficulty,  through 
a  maze  of  entanglements  in  woody  lanes.  Niglit  lias  closed  in, 
we  will  suppose,  on  the  scene.  You  will  be  all  the  better  that 
the  first  view  of  Slatheran  bursts  upon  you  as  a  surprise,  and 
without  a  preparatory  view  of  any  kind.  If  you  have  walked 
up  you  will  sleep  the  sleep  of  the  just,  and  awake  as  soon  as 
you  can  see  your  finger  before  you,  to  look  out  on  a  new 
lieaven  and  a  new  earth.  I\Ien  call  this  view  Artist  Point  (it 
is  the  same  we  are  speaking  of),  but  who  can  paint  lilce 
Nature  ?  says  the  poet,  and  the  Prophet  and  angels  reply — 
"  Great  and  marvellous  are  Thy  M-orks,  Lord  God  Almighty. 
The  earth  is  full  of  Thy  glory."  But  IMatheran  can  be  great 
as  well  as  little,  and  tliese  celestial  visions  are  unfortunately 
few  and  far  Vietween.  You  have  seen  it  in  the  chiaroscuro  of 
morning  and  its  misty  twilight  when  everytiiing  looms  big, 
vague,   and   undefinable — your   hills   are  all  Alps   and  your 

T  2 


268  MATHEEAN. 

hoU(j\vs  Vallouibrosa.  Clouds  Lei])  to  make  scenery  and  your 
valley  of  illimitable  dimensions.  l!ut  when  the  Sun  comes  up 
— and  its  fiery  coursers  are  not  long  in  doing  so — when  he 
pours  from  the  zenith  the  fierce  light  of  his  efiidgence  on  sky 
and  tree,  and  bathes  everything  in  an  atmosphere  of  yellow 
ochre,  all  this  is  changed.  That  Ivonkan  which  you  lately  saw 
clad  in  verdure,  glorious  in  apparel,  with  its  silver  streams  and 
delectable  mountains,  seems  now  merely  a  raised  map,  or  some 
gigantic  toy  to  amuse  mankind,  and  the  Cathedral  Kocks 
themselves  appear  as  if  they  were  clipped  out  of  card-l>oard, 
with  a  fret-work  of  naked  and  barren  peaks  trailing  at  either 
end. 

Perspective  there  is  none  :  for  the  hills  now  appear  so  near, 
you  can  almost  touch  them  with  your  hands.  All  life,  all 
motion,  all  sound  is  banished,  sa^'e  the  rustling  of  a  lizard 
among  the  leaves.  Heat  shimmers  on  the  horizon,  so  that  you 
have  not  even  the  glimmer  of  the  clock-tower  in  Bombay  to 
remind  you  of  the  Ijusy  hum  of  men.  iSTature  has  converted 
your  glorious  mountains  into  a  skeleton — the  ribs  and  cross- 
bones  lie  below  you  in  the  plain — from  which  every  vestige  of 
the  picturesque  and  the  beautiful  has  fled,  and  your  new 
heaven  and  new  earth  seem  to  have  resolved  themselves  into  a 
white  heap  of  volcanic  dust  and  ashes. 

Wlieu  Solomon  buQt  the  House  of  the  Forest  of  Lebanon,  he 
began  the  first  of  hill  stations,  and  the  S2Kalrr's  Coinmcntarij 
tells  us  that  he  had  iced  drinks  there.*  But  whatever  were 
his  reasons — the  coolness  or  the  scenery,  or  both, — the  apprecia- 
tion of  fine  scenery  belongs  very  much  to  the  modern  world. 
At  all  events  the  Muslim  and  the  Maratha  did  not  know  it — 


•  "  As  the  cold  of  snow  in  the  time  of  harvest,  so  is  a  faithful  messonj^er 
to  them  that  send  him  :  for  he  refresheth  the  soul  of  his  master  "  (Proverbs 
XXV.  1.3).  Here  again  we  have  a  picture  of  the  growing  luxury  of  the 
Solomonic  period.  The  "  snow  in  harvest "  is  not  a  shower  of  snow  or  hail 
which  would  in  fact  come  as  terrifying  and  harmful  rather  than  refreshing; 
but  rather  the  snow  of  Lebanon  or  Hermon,  put  into  wine  to  make  it  more 
refreshing  in  the  scorching  heat  of  5Iay  or  June.  The  king's  summer  palace 
in  Lebanon  would  make  him  and  his  courtiers  familiar  with  a  luxury  which 
could  hardly  be  accessible  in  Jerusalem,  and  here  also  he  finds  a  parable ;  more 
reviving  even  than  the  iced  wine-cup  was  the  faithful  messenger.  That  the 
custom  above  referred  to  was  common  in  ancient  as  well  as  in  modern  times 
we  know  from  Xenophon  and  Pliny. — Bjieakcr's  Cummentary,  1873. 


M.    ELPHIXSTONE.  269 

<lo  not  know  it  now,  and  tlio  move's  tlie  iiity.  To  Tughlak  and 
liis  caterans  the  fastnesses  of  the  Dekhan  were  wliat  Loch  Tay 
and  the  wildernesses  of  Scliiehallion  were  to  General  Wade,  or 
the  Grampians  to  the  legions  of  Agricola.  That  fine  scene,  for 
example,  from  Wara  on  the  Par  Ghat,  upon  which  we  are  now 
so  much  disposed  to  expatiate,  Khafi  Klian  dismisses  as  "  a 
specimen  of  liell."  Tiiis  was  two  hunched  years  ago.  The 
reader  asks — Why  did  tlie  English  with  all  their  vaunted 
superiority  not  go  to  JIatheran  when  it  was  at  their  very  doors  ? 
Matlicran  has  been  only  thirty-five  years  an  English  settlement, 
and  we  have  been  here  buying  and  selling,  eating  and  drinking, 
marrying  or  giving  in  marriage,  for  two  hundred  and  twenty 
years,  and  there  was  not  a  day  during  that  time,  in  fair 
weather,  that  Matheran  did  not  stare  him  in  the  face,  as  the 
]5ombay  citizen,  wliether  in  cap  or  bob-wig,  looked  out  from  liis 
garret-window.  Eliza  saw  it  and,  we  may  be  sure,  did  not  like 
it — liked  London  or  Paris  better.  Mackintosh  also,  with  a 
glow  of  entliusiasm  from  Tarala ;  but  Tom-na-hurich — the 
Hill  of  the  Fairies — near  Inverness  had  more  attractions  for 
liim.  This  much,  however,  may  be  said  of  Elphinstone  the 
first,  that,  as  soon  as  was  practicable,  he  ran  up  a  wattle-and- 
daub  tenement— a  mandwa,  I  think,  they  call  it — on  tlie 
Khandala  cliff.  Tliey  went  elsewhere,  to  Bankot  for  example 
— "  a  fine  airy  situation  as  any  in  India,"  says  John  Mac- 
donald,  the  valet,  in  1771,  and  lie  adds : — "  People  are  sent 
tliere  just  as  gentlemen  are  sent  from  England  to  Lisbon,  or  the 
South  of  France,  for  the  benefit  of  their  healtli."  *  Sir  John 
Lindsay,  Commodore  Watson,  and  Colonel  Dow  about  this 
period  made  up  a  party  for  two  months  on  tlie  banks  of  the 
Tansa  at  the  hot  wells  there,  rejoicing  in  the  name  of 
Vajrabai,  little  dreaming  that  Bombay  would  one  day  get  her 
Mater  from  that  quarter. 

Why  did  we  not  cross  tlie  harbour  ?  The  answer  is  obvious. 
The  land  on  the  other  side  was  not  ours,  for  though  we  obtained 
Karanja  in  1775,  the  dominions  of  the  Peshwah  did  not  come  to 


*  Here  an  Austialian  interrupts  im — "Can  ye  not  go  to  tbat  place  by 
xv.itcr?" — meaning  Matheran.  1  trow  not,  anil  it  is  ptrluips  as  well,  for  there 
have  been  some  bad  acciilenis  by  water  to  that  lavourite  resort  ol  the  past, 
Bankot,  anions;  otlwrs  the  drowning  of  the  Malot  family. 


270  MATHERAN. 

xis  till  1817,  aud  Angria's  lapsed  only  in  1840,  and  it  was  as 
much  as  we  could  do — and  that  not  always — to  obtain  a  safe 
through-gate  from  Panwel  to  Poona.  To  fall  into  Angria's 
hands  was  no  joke — an  English  merchant  was  ten  years  in 
durance  vile  at  Giria.* 

You  require  to  know  Matheran  to  appreciate  it.  As  the 
daisy  is  among  flowi-rs,  so  is  Matheran  among  the  mountains — - 
the  "  Daisy  of  the  Hills,"  "wee  modest  crimson-tipped  flower.' 
All  the  hills  in  the  Deklian  have  some  tale  to  tell.  Matheran 
has  none.  She  is  dumb  and  speechless  as  to  her  past,  and  her 
simplicity  is  untouched  by  either  history,  tradition,  or  romance  ; 
so  much  so  indeed,  that  when  the  veil  was  lifted  from  this  part 
of  Western  India,  she  stood  forth  pure  and  uncontaminated  by 
the  hands  of  man.  She  does  not  vaunt  her  charm,  and  at  a 
distance  looks  the  most  commonplace  of  hills,  and  was  so 
hidden  in  obscurity  that  she  had  actually  to  be  "discovered" 
in  1850.  We  have  said  that  Matheran  has  no  history,  and 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  things  about  it  appears  to  be  that  no 
part  of  it  was  fortified.  If  the  Marathas  were  ever  here  they 
have  left  not  one  stone  upon  another  to  tell  the  tale,  neither 
cistern,  nor  ditch,  nor  counter-scarp.  It  does  not  require  much 
imagination  to  cover  the  long  neck  of  Panorama,  an  exact  fac- 
simile, on  a  smaller  scale,  of  Sagargadh,  with  draw-bridge, 
portcullis,  causeway  or  covered  passage  leading  up  to  the  don- 
jon or  lalaJcilla  on  the  storm-beaten  promontory.  Otherwise 
we  see  no  meaning  whatever  in  the  name  given  to  it — Gadacha 
Soud — Fort  Head.t  "  Stat  nominis  umbra."  From  this  very 
spot,  on  a  clear  day,  you  can  see  fifty  forts  within  a  radius  of 
half  as  many  miles,  and  on  some  of  the  most  unlikely  places, 
e.ff.,  the  Funnel  HiU,  Chanda  and  the  Cathedral  Eocks,  Peb 
(Vikatgadh),  with  only  a  nick  between — you  could  almost 
tlu-ow  a  stone  on  it;  and  over  the  way  Prabhal,^  the  twin 
sister  of  Matheran,  with  cistern,  bastion,  and  outwork.  The 
land  bristles  with  forts,  and  their  name  is  legion.     Xo,  there  is 


*  "  Mr.  Curgenven,  whose  widow  became  Countess  of  Sommerville." — Sir 
J.  Bland  Burgess's  3hmoirs,  and  ante.  Vol.  I.,  p.  122,  note. 

t  "  Gi)d  of  Forts."— Kinloch  Forbes. 

i  Prabhal  was  the  summer  residence  of  the  Muslim  chiefs  of  Kalyan  Ijefore 
the  time  of  Sivaji. 


SCENERY.  271 

not  a  haunted  chamber,  a  holy  -ni'll,  nor  a  hoary  rain  in 
Mathemn  ;  no  scene  consecrated  by  heroic  act,  or  desecrated  by 
violence.  We  are  within  the  Terra  Saucta  of  Cuddlusm,  and 
no  Cave  Temple  exists,  not  even  the  clumsy  attempts  to  begin 
one  which  we  see  in  other  places,  though  the  scarps  are 
magnificent.  We  are  well  assured  that  the  excavator's  mallet 
has  never  resounded  from  the  depths  of  the  primaeval  forest. 
Even  Brahmanism  is  at  a  discount,  and  the  crimson-stained 
figure  of  Maruti,  conspicuously  portrayed  on  the  rocks  as 
}ou  approach  IJaygarh  or  Isagarh,  is  wanting. 

Though  the  Hindus  who  accompanied  Baird's  expedition  bent 
the  knee  to  the  gods  of  Thebes,  we  may  venture  without  fear  of 
contradiction  to  assert  that  no  trace  of  Egyptian  art  appears  in 
the  Cave  Temj)les  of  India.  Had  they  ever  been  in  any  force  or 
held  dominion  in  Western  India,  that  blulf,  for  example,  at  the 
end  of  Louisa  Point  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  remain  en  bloc. 
Nature  had  already  done  half  their  work  in  shaping  a  human 
head  out  of  it ;  nay,  even  the  shoulders  are  dimly  scarped  in 
outUne.  But  had  the  chisel  of  Cheops  or  Cephrenes — "  architect 
of  either  I'yramid  that  bears  his  name  " — been  there,  we  should 
have  seen  to-day  something  tliat  would  have  outrivalled  the 
.Sphinx  and  dwarfed  colossal  Menmon  into  insignificance. 

But  if  Matheran  has  no  history  and  no  antiquities,  she  is  not 
deficient  in  objects  of  anotlier  kind.  I  bow  with  reverence  to 
the  dictum  of  Livingstone,  in  1865,  contained  in  the  words — 
"  I  don't  think  I  have  " — when  he  was  asked  by  a  friend  * 
who  accompanied  him  to  Panorama  Point  f  if  he  had  ever  seen 
anything  finer  in  the  course  of  his  travels  than  the  view  from 
it.  Another  traveller  of  great  reputation  a  few  years  later,  on 
the  self-same  spot,  on  hearing  this  conversation,  replied : — 
"  Li\angstone  had  not  seen  much  of  the  world.  He  had  seen 
Africa  and — Scotland  !  "  t  There  is  no  accounting  for  tastes. 
The  native  of  Malta  when  he  returned  from  England  to  his 
island  home  told  his  friends  that  the  glare  of  her  green  fields 
was  insufVcrable  to  his  eyes  ! 


*  Mr.  D.  E.  Owen,  now  nf  Liveipuol. 

t  Now,  April,  1890,  abbreviated  by  the  liamals  to  "Tan  Kara,"  quite  iu 
Iliiidustani  lutihiuii. 
t  Sir  1{.  liurtoii. 


272  MATHERAN. 

J.  A.  Cameron,  the  Standard's  correspondent,  loved  to  wander 
about  Matheran,  and  tried  bis  "  'prentice  liau'  "  in  writing  about 
it  in  the  Gazrtte,  and  a  few  days  after  he  had  been  there  on  a 
visit  I  stumbled  on  a  printed  passage  of  his,  gummed  by  some 
admiring  Land  on  the  trunk  of  a  great  tree  in  the  primeval 
forest. 

Poor  Cameron  !     He  now  sleeps  iu  the  sands  of  the  Sudan — 

"  Far  from  his  country  and  liis  liomc  removed, 
From  all  who  loved  him,  and  from  all  he  loved." 

AMll  no  one  write  over  him,  as  Warren  Hastings  wrote  over 
the  grave  of  Elliot  ?  * — 

'■  An  earlier  death  was  Cameron's  doom  ; 
I  saw  his  opening  virtues  bloom 
And  manly  sense  unfold. 
Too  soon  to  fade.     I  hade  the  stone 
Record  his  name  'midst  hordes  unkuowu, 
Unknowing  what  it  told." 

The  Covenanters  believed  that  their  mountains  would  follow 
them  to  the  Great  Day  of  Judgment.  I  have  heard  it  whispered 
that  old  Indians  at  home  are  haunted  by  the  spectres  of  the 
Indian  hills,  and  that  lonely  exiles  in  England,  driven  thither 
by  age,  indolence,  broken  health,  surplus  of  wealth,  or  mere 
love  of  change,  dream  of  Matheran  and  its  fair  scenery  in  the 
visions  of  the  night,  and  are  stunned  by  awakening  to  the  sad 
reality  of  a  Novemljer  fog — 

"  Xot  there — not  there,  my  child." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  tender  associations  spring  up  in 
Matlieran,  They  are  the  natural  growth  of  tlie  soil.  Every 
English  mother  takes  her  child  there,  as  the  little  children  were 


*  It  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  keep  tombs  in  rejiair  iu  tlio  Sudan.  Mr.  Melly, 
senior,  of  Melly,  Romilly,  and  Co.,  Liverpool,  about  thiity  years  ago  died  at 
Abu  Ilaniid  on  tlie  edge  of  tlie  Desert  of  Korosko.  His  family  subsidised  the 
Sliekh  of  that  place,  and  they  may  still  do  so,  to  watch  over  his  tomb.  We 
fear  the  unsettled  state  of  the  country  at  present  would  render  a  similar 
arrangement  much  more  diQicult  to  accomplish.  Cameron  has  now  got  a 
better  memorial — a  tablet  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral. 


THE   GOLDEN    BEETLE.  273 

taken  once  a  year  to  tin;  Temple  of  Jerusalem.  We  add  that 
Matheran  is  a  native  name  and  means  "  Wooded  Head."  Other 
associations  cluster  round  this  beautiful  spot  that  are  not 
dependent  for  their  existence  even  on  the  price  of  silver  or  the 
appreciation  of  gold,  for  tlie  fine  gold  becomes  dim  in  comparison 
thereof.  Attachmi'nts  are  formed,  pure  as  the  blossoms  of  the 
icarccs  tree,  and,  like  ilatlieraii  itself,  green  with  the  verdure  of 
an  eternal  summer.  A  strange  legend  e.xists  in  Spain,  that 
Cupid  was  born  at  Elora.  For  some  people  he  has  been  born 
at  Matheran,  and  they  could  not  have  their  Kailas  storied  in  a 
more  delightful  place.  But  every  coin  has  its  obverse,  and  ' 
there  have  been  sad  and  bitter  partings  at  Matheran.  Some- 
times Afghan  clouds  lower  on  the  horizou,  or  the  vultures  of 
Abyssinia  or  the  Sudan  hover  on  the  wing.  It  is  then  that  the 
words  of  Ossian  are  wrung  from  the  reluctant  breast  of  the 
soldier : — "  Eetire,  for  it  is  niglit,  my  love,  and  the  dark  winds 
sigh  in  thy  hair ;  retire  to  the  hall  of  thy  fathers  and  think  of 
the  times  that  are  gone,  for  I  will  not  return  until  the  storm  of 
war  be  past."     Tie  returns. 

IJut  let  us  talk  of  beetles  and  of  creeping  things.  The  golden  i 
beetle  (or  bug)  of  Elephanta  has  been  caught  on  the  wing  at  | 
Matheran.  Some  such  creature  as  this  was,  no  doubt,  the 
foundation  of  Edgar  Allan  Poe's  story  of  the  Golden  Bug.  You 
will  nut  find  much  about  it  in  Natural  History  books,  but 
Frank  liuckland  received  two  specimens  I'rom  this  quarter,  and 
pronounced  them  the  most  beautiful  insects  he  had  ever 
examined.*  When  the  locusts  were  in  the  Bombay  Presidency 
tliey  alighted  in  myriads  on  Chauk  I'oint,  and  every  green  thing 
was  covered  by  them.  The  trees  were  all  <if  a  bright  red  colour, 
their  branches  as  of  coral.  It  was  a  marvellous  sight.  Darwin 
noticed  this  same  red  appearance  on  the  I'ampas.     They  arose 


*  "  I  have  also  received  two  magnificent  specimcus  of  the  golden  beetle  from 
India.  It  is  about  the  size  of  a  very  large  ladybird,  and  certainly  the  most 
beautiful  insect  I  ever  examined.  Its  appearance  is  that  of  a  small  golden 
tortoise,  delicately  set  under  a  transparent  shieM  of  thin  horn  or  pale  tortoise- 
shell.  The  colours  are  a  most  beautiful  emerald  nnd  gold  mixed,  so  beautilul 
that  a  lady  has  boiTowcd  the  beetles  Irom  me  for  her  jeweller,  who  has  made 
an  enamel  model  of  them,  forming  most  lovely  ornaments." — Li/c  of  Frank 
Bucklan<f,  1885. 


274  MATHEEAN. 

at  our  approach  with  a  whirr — feeble  language  this  when  com- 
pared with  the  Prophet  Joel's  which  is  graphic  for  all  time — 
"  Like  the  noise  of  a  flame  of  fire  that  devoureth  the  stubble." 
In  this  respect  the  same  as  they  were  two  thousand  and  six 
hundred  years  ago.* 

Is  this  a  good  day  for  snakes  ?  said  an  American,  after 
surveying  the  "  Gothic  architecture  "  of  Tommy  Dodd.  There 
is  no  good  day  for  snakes  at  Matheran.  If  you  wish  to 
see  a  snake  you  won't,  and  when  you  don't  wish  you  may 
chance  to  find  one  in  your  bed,  or  your  boot,  or  in  your 
bath-room,  walloping  about.  They  meet  you  in  the  most 
unexpected  places  at  the  most  unexpected  times,  just  as  you  see 
on  the  frieze  of  Eosslyn  Chapel  after  the  twelve  apostles  in 
procession,  the  devil  looking  out  of  the  mouth  of  an  alligator. 
You  may  be  a  month  in  Matheran  and  not  see  one.  Still  there 
are  some  good  snake-stories — of  the  lady  who  took  one  up  in 
her  handkercliief;  of  Michael  Scott  (1864)  (a  ^vizard  name) 
taking  a  dead  one  out  of  his  pocket  which  he  had  squelched  on 
the  way  down  to  Narel ;  of  the  cobra  which  cliarged  Dr. 
Simpson  on  horseback  and  was  put  to  flight  by  a  blow  from  his 
riding-whip ;  of  Peel's  dinner-party,  where  a  snake  crept  out  of 
a  basket  of  flowers,  and  glided  across  the  tal)le,  to  the  conster- 
nation of  the  ladies  and  gentlemen.  This  is  the  best  story — has 
a  classical  air  about  it,  for  it  savours  of  Cleopatra's  asp  in  the 
basket  of  figs,  without  the  tragical  denouement.  It  was  after 
the  wine  and  the  walnuts,  and  the  reptile  was  knocked  on  the 
head  by  a  book — a  heavy  one  no  doubt — McCulloeh's  Dictionary, 
or  the  Penal  Code,  and  not  any  of  the  light  literature  of  the  day. 
Professor  Blackie  was  greatly  delighted  vd\h  tliis  story. 
"  Couldn't  you  kill  the  old  serpent  with  a  book  ?  "  said  he  to 
Dr.  Hanua,  the  eminent  divine,  adding  significantly  and  with 
a  half  serious  air,  "  But  then  where  would  be  the  use  of  your 
theology  ? " 

Of  all  the  places  of  worship  I  have  ever  sat  in,  Matheran 
English   Church  is   the  most   pleasant,  though  I    cannot  say 


*  Job  xxxix.  20,  New  Version, "  Hast  thou  maile  liira  (the  horse)  leap  as  a 
locust?"  Whoever  has  seen  a  locust  pulling  himself  together  will  appreciate 
this. 


THE    DHANGARS.  275 

the  most  profitable.  Even  when  the  service  is  perfunctorily 
rendered,  or  the  sermon  "  dry,"  the  air  is  amliient,  and  the  quiet 
rustle  of  a  leaf  or  the  twitter  of  a  bird,  those  "  purling  bird 
quavers,"  even  the  "  shard-borne  beetle  with  his  drowsy  hum," 
"  bidding  fair  to  dro\vn"  the  music  of  the  harmonium,  offer  no 
disturbance,  everything  seems  so  mucli  in  harmony  with  the 
worship  of  the  Almighty  One.  Of  course,  from  a  man  like  the 
late  Bisliop  Douglas,  upon  whom  the  mantle  of  Henry  Melville, 
tlie  Golden  Lecturer,  seemed  to  have  fallen,  the  thoughts  that 
breathe  and  words  that  burn  in  such  a  place,  breathe  and  burn 
for  ever.  It  is  a  quiet  resting-place,  and  has  a  simplicity  all 
its  own. 

If  you  wish  to  see  a  rude  church,  come  with  me  to  Pishamath 
^a  heap  of  stones  for  a  temple  and  a  boidder  for  a  god.  You 
will  hear  also  the  priest  chaffing  his  god,  as  the  priests  of  Baal 
were  told  to  do  on  the  stony  heights  of  Carmel  in  the  days  of 
Elijah.  As  the  Dhangars  are  in  the  scale  of  civilisation,  so  is 
their  worship  among  the  beliefs  of  man.  This  temple  is  in  one 
of  the  gloomiest  recesses  of  the  forest.  We  did  the  like  our- 
selves, or  histoiy  is  belied,  so  we  must  not  be  too  hard  on  them. 

I  wonder  if  there  are  any  Dissenters  among  the  I-)hangars,  and 
if  tlie  erring  member  is  brought  back  by  apostolic  blows  and 
knocks.  "  Hit  him  hard — he  is  a  Dissenter,"  no  doubt  prevails 
there,  as  in  other  parts. 

Matheran  is  essentially  a  quiet  place.  If  a  man  is  too  murh 
trouliled  with  noise,  he  will  find  perfect  peace  and  quietness 
there.  The  sounil  of  a  wheeled  carriage  is  unknown,  so  in  this 
respect  you  are  as  noiseless  as  in  Venice,  or  Jerusalem,  or 
Tangier.  There  may  be  lots  of  peoiile  there,  and  you  may  not 
see  them.  "  By  all  tlie  world  like  a  rabbit  warren,"  says  our 
Hibernian  friend,  "  yuu  know  the  rabl)its  are  there,  but  you  do 
not  see  them."  Indeed  when  the  sun  sets — which  everybody  in 
these  daj's  agi'ees  that  it  does  too  soon  if  you  are  in  a  solitaiy 
bungalow — the  feeling  is  rather  eerie. 

"  Shades  of  evening,  close  not  o'ei-  us." 

There  is  something  Iriste.evQn  in  llie  cicala's  grating  cry  kept 
up  to  all  hours,  the  gi'assh()p])er  l)e(oniing  a  burden  from  which 
there  is  no  escape,  and  the  clattering  of  Hying  foxes  does  little 


276  MATHERAN. 

to  break  the  monotony  or  allay  tlie  gloom,  as  they  hustle  one 
another  on  the  wild  fig-tree  for  the  best  stances,  or  to  speak 
more  coiTectly,  for  the  best  hanging-places  in  Academe  the 
Grove.* 

The  big  boom  of  the  Wanderu  monkey  comes  up  from  the 
valley  in  the  early  morning,  and  the  krok-krok  of  the  spur  fowl, 
so  identified  with  IMatheran  that  it  seems  part  and  parcel  of  the 
place,  and  almost  a  home  sound  to  welcome  one  back  on  return- 
ing after  a  lengthened  absence.  The  Bulbul  is  essentially  the 
.singing-bird  of  ^latheran,  and  this  "  wee  tappet-hen  "  (it  may 
be  the  male  congener,  but  never  mind)  chooses  the  topmost 
twig  to  pour  forth  her  orisons.  We  can  assure  our  readers  that 
the  pajier  bird  is  not  extinct,  but  in  secluded  places  still  skims 
along  with  a  snow-white  train,  the  grace  of  which  any  of  our 
Victorian  dames  might  en\y,  and  so  noiselessly  that  if  you  do 
not  see  it  you  will  not  hear  it.  But  though  birds  are  plentiful 
wherever  there  is  water,  be  it  tank  or  -nell,  or  rippling  runnel, 
the  dearth  of  animal  life  is  great,  and  in  some  places  appalling. 
Heave  a  block  of  stone  into  any  of  those  great  masses  of  jungle 
wliich  stretch  for  miles  beneath  you  in  the  Panorama  gorge. 
Xot  a  sound  of  any  kind  comes  up  from  the  valley — not  even  a 
chirrup  to  break  the  silence.  Darwin  says  that  where  monkeys 
abound  birds  are  scarce.  If  it  is  true  that  singing  birds  follow 
man,  they  ought  to  be  found  in  greater  numbers  as  population 
increases.! 

The  principal  objections  to  Matheran  are  Mrs.  McClartie's  in 
the  Cottagers  of  Glenhurmc,  "I  canna  be  fashed."  Then  there 
is  the  going  up  and  the  coming  down,  whicli  last  you  do  Avith  a 
kind  of  grudge.  The  time  it  takes  is  not  much.  Mr.  Piercy 
Benn  rode  up  to  Lynch's  in  thirty-five,  and  Mr.  J.  A.  Cassells 
to  Slalet's  bungalow  in  furty  minutes  from  Xarel. 

"  Ah,  had  you  seen  tliose  roads  hofure  they  were  made." 

Tiiis  is  seven  miles,  and  a  height  of  2500  feet,  Karel  being  only 


*  A  wild  boar  rushed  past  me  furiously  in  18tJ6  at  the  "  Devil's  Elbow," 
two  miles  from  Narel.  About  the  same  time  Mr.  AV.  A.  Baker  Barker  saw 
a  bear.  The  peacocks  there  introduced  seem  (1890)  extinct,  though  there  are 
(1891)  plenty  of  them  on  the  spurs  of  Mahuli. 

t  The  monsoon  rains  (300  inches)  must  extinguish  them. 


GRASS    JEWELRY.  277 

about  sLxty  feet  above  the  sea-level.  Then  there  are  the  dusty 
roads,  and  when  the  diy  winds  in  March  set  in,  the  days  and 
nights  are  a  caution.  You  feel  that  you  are  nearer  the  sun  than 
in  Bombay.  It  is  then  you  begin  to  blame  the  lanes  and  the 
trees  and  e\erytliiiig.  The  trees  are  so  closely  packed  you  can 
get  no  ventilation,  and  every  avenue  seems  specially  blocked  to 
prevent  the  free  circulation  of  the  air.  You  will  tiieu,  like 
Burton,  rail  at  the  very  finger-post.';,  "'  To  the  Church,"  as  if 
people  did  not  kno\v  that  already,  and  rec|uired  to  be  told  it  at 
every  corner ;  rail  at  the  sky  above  and  the  earth  beneath,  and 
your  tobacco  that  it  is  like  the  dust  of  the  earth  or  the  ashes  that 
remain  of  a  furnace.  Mi'.  Stirling,  the  blind  traveller,  who  came 
to  Matberan  for  a  few  weeks  in  1871,  was  not  long  in  finding 
out  the  denseness  of  the  jungle.  He  felt  it,  and  was  loud  in 
his  objurgations  that  he  could  not  get  a  breath  of  fresh  air 
e.xcept  at  the  Points,  all  of  which  he  visited. 

We  have  left  ourselves  little  space  to  speak  of  the  grass 
jewelry  made  by  the  Dhangars  and  Khatkaris.  Sir  George 
Birdwood  tells  us  all  about  it  in  his  Handbook  of  the  Paris  Liter- 
national  Exhibition  (f  l(S78,how  these  tribes  make  grass  collars, 
necklaces,  bracelets,  anklets,  and  girdles,  which  are  the  types  of 
a  distinctive  gold  jewelry  worn  all  over  India,  the  gold  collars 
being  identical  with  the  torques  (from  torqueo,  I  twist)  worn  by 
the  Gauls.  Tliis  theory  may  l)e  all  correct.  No  doubt  it  is, 
and  I  throw  in  my  contribution  in  support  of  it,  in  the  shape  of 
a  footnote,  which  .seems  to  shed  a  sidelight  on  this  most  inter- 
esting suliject  of  the  development  (jf  art  in  its  earlier  stages.* 

Matberan  and  Mahabaleshwar  each  have  their  votaries,  and 
who  shall  decide  between  them  ?  Mahalialeshwar  is  the  source 
of  five  rivers,  one  of  them  the  holy  Krishna,  which  flows  into 
the  Bay  of  Bengal,  and  its  temple  may  be  as  ancient  as  that  of 
Banias  at  the  source  of  the  Jordan.  The  Yena  is  finer  than  the 
Ulas.  Mahabaleshwar  is  a  liig  brother,  and  more  robust,  but 
his  characteristics  are  not  so  sharply  cut  or  well  defined. 
Nature  has  combed  him  down,  and  tliere  is  no  doubt  he  is 


*  Ptolemy  says  of  Massinissa,  King  of  Libya,  that  his  dishes  wore  all  made 
of  gold,  made  after  the  fashion  of  those  that  are  plaited  of  bulrushes  and  of 
ropes.     Athenoius  nourished  a.d.  228. 


278 


MATHEEAN. 


thorouglily  respectable  ;  Init  what  he  has  gained  in  the  smooth- 
ness of  his  face,  he  has  lost  in  that  nigged  contour  so  dear  to 
all  Caledonian  lovers  of  the  stern  and  vnld.  But  small  as  it  is, 
Matheran  has  been  more  broken  up  into  sections,  more  seamed 
and  ploughed  up  by  the  forces  of  Nature,  toi-mcnie — yes,  that  is 
the  word;*  every  portion  of  it,  except  what  has  been  cleared 
by  man,  or  the  violence  of  the  elements,  is  clothed  with  timber, 
for  the  laterite  holds  as  within  a  sponge  the  moisture  that  keeps 
it  ever  green.     It  is  observable  that  the  leaves  become  more 


^^jL  !>-'^^  *  or      *•  f 

^fe^^r 

figp''qj^W^'*    K. 

H^^ 

#^ 

^^^^JUj 

Hi 

1 

BAWAMALANG,   OK  THE   CATHEDRAL   ROCKS. 

glossy  before  the  burst  of  the  monsoon,  and  that,  \vhen  the 
plains  are  as  brown  as  the  Syrian  Desert,  Matheran  is  greener 
than  Damascus.  If  you  crumple  up  a  piece  of  coarse  paper  in 
your  hand  and  lay  it  on  tlie  talile,  it  will  open  up  very  lUvely 
into  a  miniature  Matheran — a  piece  of  Nature's  handiwork,  full 
of  steep  ravines  and  woody  defiles,  and  great  gulches,  up  which 
the  ancient  sea  must  have  rolled  tempestuously  on  monsoon 
nights. 


*  The  orography  of  this   fringe  of  the  Dekhan   is  exactly  that  of  the 
Barrancas  of  Mexico  pictured  in  Stanfield's  Compendium  of  Geography . 


GEOLOGIC    HISTORY.  279 

They  say  that  llatheran  and  Maliabaleshwar  were  once 
islands — of  the  blest,  whose  flowers  were  l)orn  to  blush  unseen 
— the  outlying  skerries  of  an  elder  world.*  The  geologists  tell 
us,  moreover,  that  you  can  still  see  the  ancient  sea-margins  on 
the  Dekhani  Hills,  never  more  to  be  washed  again  by  salt  sea- 
wave,  and  gi-eat  tunnels  scooped  in  the  hills  through  which  the 
seething  waves  lashed  tuumltuously,  brewing  their  foamy  yeast 
in  devil's  caldrons.  It  must  have  been  a  wild  night  when  the 
ancient  sea  forsook  its  limits,  and  rushed  down  those  steep 
decli^'ities  to  its  oozy  bed  of  the  Konkan.  That  night,  however, 
ushered  in  the  dawn  of  a  new  creation,  when  the  morning  stars 
sang  together,  and  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy,  for  as  the 
last  wave  broke  on  the  Sahyadri  Hills,  the  first  river  (Krishna 
or  some  other)  burst  away  joyously  from  the  Western  Ghats, 
and  formed  a  pathway  for  itself  which  the  \'ulture's  eye  had 
never  seen.  The  dry  land  became  earth,  and  through  many 
channels  the  rivers  poured  forth  their  abundance.  The  palmy 
plains  of  India  rose  in  all  their  magnificence,  destined  as  the 
abode  of  man  for  thousands  of  years. 


*  "As  yet  the  Western  Ghats  were  only  traceable  by  lines  of  palaeozoic 
islands,  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Deklian,  Kachh,  and  Gujarat  were  sea. 
What  existed  of  India  was  an  island  with  irregular  chains  of  islands, 
stretching  south  in  the  direction  of  Africa." — Edinburgh  Review,  April,  1875. 


(     280     ) 


■« 


V  - 


:    -i 


^S5iS^. 


CHAPTER  LVI. 


The  Valley  of  the  Tansa. 

"And  thus  my  Christmas  still  I  hold 
Where  my  great  grandsire  came  of  old. 
With  amber  head  and  flaxen  hair 
And  reverent  apostolic  air." — Marmion  (last  canto). 

There  is  a  story  how  four  gentlemen  of  Bombay  went  to 
Vajrabai,  on  the  Tansa  river,  during  the  hot  season  of  the  year 
1770, — duly  set  forth  in  a  book  published  in  London,  1790,  by 
John  Maedonald,  who  was  then  valet  to  one  of  them,  Colonel 
Dow.  The  book  is  scarce,  scurrilous  and  objectionable,  but  like 
Pepys'  Diary  in  this,  that  some  of  the  trifles  therein  rehated 
enable  us  to  undei'stand  the  manners  of  the  time  better  than  we 
do  in  the  more  dignified  tomes  of  history.  "  John  "  had  been  in 
fashionable  service,  that  of  earls  and  others  at  home,  and  had 
been  present  at  the  death  of  Sterne  the  novelist.  I  do  not 
think  we  can  impeach  either  the  authenticity  or  the  veracity  of 
the  narrative,  though  he  sometimes  calls  places  by  wi'ong  names, 


TUE    TANSA    V;VLLEY.  281 

"  Daboo  "  for  DuLiad  for  example,  which  is  not  to  be  wondered  at, 
writing  as  he  did  twenty  years  after  the  events  took  phice  whicli 
he  describes.  He  was  with  James  Forbes  at  Bankot  and  Alibagh, 
and  his  account  tallies  exactly  as  an  independent  narrative  with 
that  in  the  Orinikd  Memoirs.  No  man  is  a  hero  to  his  valet, 
and  Colonel  Dow  is  no  exception  to  tlie  proverb.  "  John  "  is  his 
own  hero,  and  had  little  need  to  put  up  the  prayer  :  "  Give  us  a 
guid  conceit  o'  oursels." 

The  details  of  this  sketch  are  taken  from  this  book,  but  we 
liave  not  scrupled  to  draw  on  other  sources  available  to  us  on  the 
subject. 

Vajrabai,  we  may  as  well  explain  at  the  outset,  with  its 
temples  and  hot  springs,  celebrated  for  ages  for  the  cure  of 
cutaneous  and  other  disorders,  lies  fifty  miles  north-east  of 
Bombay ;  and  a  new  interest  has  been  added  to  the  district,  that 
our  waterworks  are  being  constructed  in  that  neighbourho(xl. 

The  Tansa  river  rises  in  one  of  the  slopes  of  Mahuli,  called 
Mauli,  by  the  natives,  that  great  three-hatted  chimera  of  a 
niountain,  which  you  see  across  the  lagoon,  just  as  you  emerge 
from  the  tunnel  at  Deva,  a  little  beyond  Thana  on  the  railway, 
and  which  on  a  very  clear  day,  once  or  twice  in  the  season,  you 
can  descry  from  a  Bombay  elevation. 

The  lake  district  of  Tliaua  creates  a  gap  in  the  barrier  of  hills 
which  bounds  Bombay  on  this  side,  through  which,  to  tiie 
experienced  eye,  on  the  extreme  verge  of  the  horizon,  appears  a 
small  blue  cone  like  a  summer  cloud  or  exhalation.  This  is 
Maludi  "  enil  on "  to  the  Bombay  spectator.  Mountains  differ 
wonderfully  in  appearance,  from  whatever  direction  you 
approach  them.  Who  would  believe,  for  example,  that  the  great 
amorplious  mass  you  see  from  the  window  of  the  railway  carriage 
near  Kalyan  on  your  left  as  you  ajiproacli  Bombay  is  the 
symmetrical  Bawamalang  or  the  Cathctlral,  so  familiar  to  us  all 
from  Artist  and  other  Points  in  Matheran?  The  Tansa  joins  the 
Vaitarna  twenty  miles  below  the  hot  springs,  which  eight  miles 
lower  down  falls  into  the  Indian  Ocean,  fifty  miles  north  of 
Bombay.  This  exhausts  our  geography  of  the  sulyect.  Now 
for  history.  From  the  date  of  the  cession  of  Bombay  to  the 
English,  down  to  the  year  175G,  a  period  of  about  ninety  years, 
they   had   no   hot  weather  resort  out  of    their  own   island. 

VOL.   II,  u 


282  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

Bandara  was   foreign   territory   till    1774.     So   was   Karanja; 
Trombay  was  shut  ;  Eleplianta  a  dead-letter. 

True,  the  world  of  Bombay  was  all  before  them  where  to 
choose  their  place  of  rest.  A  climb  to  Walkesliwar,  a  ramble  to 
Matunga,  a  dip  at  IMahim,  a  lodge  in  its  vast  wilderness  of 
palms,  a  scenery  of  salt  marshes  and  the  enemy's  country  from 
Sion  Fort,  or  watching  the  angry  waves  tumbling  over  the 
stones  of  the  Kolaba  Prongs.  I  often  wonder  how  our  ancestors 
managed  to  keep  body  and  soul  together  without  ice,  their  only 
drinking  water  being  from  tlie  wells  in  the  Island.  Doubtless  a 
good  Providence  watched  over  them,  for  they  marched  on 
uncomplainingly,  sweltering  in  the  heat,  fulfilling  the  Divine 
behests.  Not  one  groan  or  murmur  has  come  down  to  us. 
"  Ye  had  need  of  patience,  0  my  fathers !     Yea,  verily !  " 

Wlien  Bankot  was  acquired  in  1756,  a  new  era  dawned  upon 
our  Island.  Men  called  it  then  Victoria,  little  deeming  that  a 
great  sovereign  of  that  name  would  rule  over  these  realms  for 
fifty  years.  Bankot  was  a  new  lung,  and  people  breathed  more 
freely.  The  mere  idea  that  you  could  get  anywhere,  anywhere 
out  of  tills  Bombay,  did  good ;  and  men  began  to  talk  as  if  they 
were  free  agents,  and  not  doomed  for  ever  to  Modi-Khana  or 
the  Dhangari  Killa.  There  was  an  hospital  (I  now  speak  of 
1770),  but  it  was  only  for  the  servants  of  the  East  India 
Company.  The  non-ofi&cial  or  "  interloper  "  had  no  part  or  lot 
in  this  inheritance,  unless  he  was  possessed  of  that  mighty  silver 
key  which  opens  so  many  doors.  And  let  the  truth  be  told,  the 
doctors  were  not  mealy-mouthed.*  Sonapur  claimed  a  moiety, 
and  the  sur\ivors  sliivered  their  way  in  ague  down  to  Bankot. 

By-and-by  there  came  a  great  scare  (this  was  in  1771)  at 
Bankot.  The  Governor  of  Bombay  and  the  Commander-in- 
Cliief  of  the  Forces  died  there.  Both  Hodges  and  Pimlile  were 
ailing  before  they  went,  but  the  astrologers  told  them  they 
would  die  there  ;  it  made  a  great  sensation,  and  a  black  funeral 
pall  for  some  time  hung  over  Bankot. 

It  was  about  this  time — but  I  must  be  particular  with  dates 


*  "  When  I  found  that  Dr.  Richardson  would  take  me  under  his  care,  I 
pent  him,  the  same  afternoon,  a  fashionable  silver  mug  tliat  cost  me  live 
pounds  in  St.  James's,  London." — Macdonald's  Travds. 


VISITORS  m  1770.  283 

it  ■was  early  in  the  year  1770),  for  I  am  now  no  longer  to  ileal 
with  Hodges  and  Pimble,  Imt  men  of  historical  repute — that  a 
group  of  four  of  the  leading  men  of  Bombay  might  have  been 
seen  one  afternoon  sauntering  on  the  Back  Bay  sands, — a  fine 
breezy  jilace  in  those  days,  in  no  way  intersected  as  it  is  now 
by  Lethe's  streams  struggling  seawards.  Admiral  Lindsay  was 
one  of  them, — but  we  may  as  well  explain  that  the  British  Fleet 
was  riding  at  anchor  in  the  harbour ;  in  fact,  you  could  see 
over  Mendham's  Point,  that  is  between  you  and  Karanja,  tiie 
masts  of  a  great  three-decker  tinged  with  the  Ijuruing  red  of 
the  setting  sun, — next  to  Warren  Hastings,  perhaps  the  most 
important  man  in  India.  Colonel  Dow*  was  a  second ;  he  had 
already  written  his  History  of  Hindostan,  but  he  is  now  pointing 
out  his  fortifications,  which  stretch  their  massive  proportions  in 
a  zigzag  way  from  Church  Clate  to  the  Apollo.  All  tliat  work 
is  mine  ;  no  doubt,  and  all  the  glory  of  it.  But  we  must  now 
make  a  draft  upon  Lord  Eosebery.  Some  years  ago,  unless  our 
memory  greatly  deceives  us,  he  mentioned  in  a  speech  an 
incident  which  has  a  moral  in  it  like  iEsop's  Fables.  Dow  was 
once  offered  the  government  of  a  Native  Principality  in  the 
East,  and  conning  the  matter  over,  said  to  himself,  "  What 
would  my  old  schoolfellows  think  of  this  ? "  and  declined  it. 
The  third  was  Commodore  John  Watson  of  the  Indian  Xavy — 
destined  to  perish  at  the  siege  of  Thana  in  1774 — killed  by  a 
small  stone  and  a  few  grains  of  sand,  testing  "  wooden  walls 
vcrsv.s  stone  walls,"  f  and  which  his  great  namesake,  Charles  the 
Admiral,  in  conjunction  with  Clive,  had  inaugurated  so  success- 
fully at  the  siege  and  capture  of  Giria  |  in  1756. 


•  Colonel  Alexander  Dow,  born  at  Crieff,  Scotland.  Quitted  Scotland 
owina;  to  a  duel.  Dow  died  177ii,  July  3Jst,  at  Bliagalpur.  H.  licvcTidge, 
(Calcutta  lieview,  January  1891),  who  saw  Lis  tomb,  presumes  it  is  of  the 
Translator  of  Perislita.  Sethona,  said  to  be  written  by  liim,  was  put  on  the 
stage  by  Garrick. — Stephen's  ISiofi.  Diet.,  1S89. 

Murray's  Guide  says  there  is  a  monument  to  Col.  Dow,  killed  at  the 
Siege  of  Thana  in  1771,  in  the  Bombay  Catliedral.  Dow's  monument  has 
been  discovered ;  the  inscription  is  wanting,  but  Clio  the  JIusc,  with  eye 
on  the  "  History  of  Hindostan"  carved  in  marble  enabled  us  to  identify  it. 
We  hope  that  it  may  soon  find  its  way  to  the  Cathedral. 

t  "  Blake  was  the  first  man  that  brouglit  ships  to  contemn  castles,  at 
Tunis,  1C55." — Clarendon. 

+  ^»,<c,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  118,119. 

U   2 


284  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

You  may  see  his  monument  in  our  Cathedral,  and  that  of 
"  Gheriah  "  Watson  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  fourth,  in  top- 
boots  and  knee  breeches,  and  M-ith  a  long  queue,  was  Andrew 
Kamsay.*  I  am  not  aware  of  what  family  he  was,  but  we  all 
know  that  the  name  of  Eamsay  has  been  distinguished  in 
Scotland  for  generations  by  a  poet,  a  painter,  philosophers  of 
note,  wliile  the  Dean's  reminiscences  still  lighten  up  all  social 
gatherings  of  Scotchmen  over  the  world.  It  was  a  Eamsay  who 
carried  the  Kohinur  diamond  to  the  Queen,  and  when  in 
Bombay  wore  it  next  his  heart  night  and  day;  it  gave  a 
Governor  to  Bombay  (our  liero  to  wit)  and  a  wife  of  gi-eat  grace 
and  accomplishment  to  another  Governor  \vhom  we  all  know, 
while  her  sister,  Lady  Susan  Georgiana  Broun,  survives  her; 
and  lastly,  it  gave  to  India  in  times  of  gi-eat  difficulty  (1847-56), 
the  father  of  both  these  ladies,  Lord  Dalhousie,  perhaps  the 
greatest  Yiceroy  of  modern  times. 

Andrew  Eamsay,  from  all  we  can  gather,  was  at  this  time  a 
wild,  rollicking  blade,  and  the  life  and  soul  of  all  con\T.vial 
parties, — a  man  of  a  most  excellent  constitution,  as  you  may 
still  perceive  in  a  kit-kat  portrait  taken  of  him  eighteen  years 
after  the  tune  we  are  speaking  of,  namely,  when  he  was 
Governor  in  1788.  Jolly  and  rubicund  of  couuteuauce,  of 
dignified  presence,  in  buff  and  scarlet,  a  noble  presentment — 
this  precious  heirloom  hangs  in  the  house  of  our  venerable 
citizen,  ]\Ir.  ilanakji  Cursetji.f 

These  four  men  were  discussing  how,  where  and  when  they 
should  spend  the  hot  weather  which  was  rapidly  approaching, 
and  the  lot  fell  upon  Yajrabai.  The  Admiral  had  seen  enough 
of  the  sea,  and  wanted  to  see  the  land  aud  ride  a  horse.  It  was 
in  the  Peshwah's  territory,  but  the  time  was  propitious,  and  any 
difiiculty  was  soon  removed  by  Colonel  Dow,  who  was  con- 
stituted Director-General  of  the  expedition.  Did  not  the  great 
Madhavrao  now  hold  sway  in  Poona,  and  he  would  soon  make 
all  square  ?  But  no  time  was  to  be  lost.  The  sun  is  vertical  in 
Bombay  at  midday  on  the  19th  May,  anil  two  weeks  after  this 
— any  da}' — "  the  deluge." 


•  Arrived  in  India,  1755. 

t  Presented  by  bis  beirs  to  Government. 


VOYAGE   TO   VAJRABAI.  285 

But  time  is  short — short  in  Kngland  and  long  in  India — 
when  men  are  waiting  for  a  lioliday ;  nevertlieless,  the  eventful 
day  of  departure  came  round,  and  five  palanquins  disburdened 
themselves  of  their  occupants  on  the  sea-margin.  The  place  is 
now  known  as  the  Customs  Bandar ;  it  was  then,  I  trow,  the 
Castle  Pier,  and  you  went  down  to  it  through  the  Wharf  Gate, 
wliich  you  can  see  to  this  day.  Dow  had  never  seen  an  Admiral 
in  a  bandar-lioat  before,  a  craft  of  twenty  tons  burden  fit  to 
navigate  the  shallow  waters  of  the  Bhiwandi  Creek,  and  gay 
with  any  amount  of  borrowed  bunting.  The  confusion  was 
great  and  tlie  gesticulations  wild.  Ultimately  the  saliebs,  their 
body  servants,  two  cooks  and  a  cook's  "  mate,"  and  "  John  "  were 
got  on  board  the  bandar  boat,  provisioned  for  two  days,  and  on 
board  a  second  craft,  laying  alongside,  the  imjKdimcnta  of 
palanquins,  kicking,  squealing  and  biting  horses,  syces,  gora- 
wallas,  peons  in  scarlet,  forty  hamals,  twelve  armed  sepoys,  and 
two  havildars  rigged  out  in  new  kapra  for  the  occasion,  and 
looking  mighty  fine  in  their  blue  and  red  turbans,  four  score 
persons  in  all,  besides  a  sleuth-hound  and  a  bull-terrier.  At 
the  last  moment  it  was  found  that  the  razdts  *  were  forgotten ; 
which  error  being  amendetl,  the  Xakoda  gave  the  liukam :  anchor 
up,  sails  spread,  penant  with  St.  George  and  tlie  Dragon 
streaming  in  the  lireeze,  they  set  sail,  leaving  tlie  bastions  of 
Bombay  Castle  behind  tliem.  It  was  the  lotli  of  April ;  every 
m<an  and  animal  was  excited,  except  the  horses,  which  proceeded 
at  once  with  tlieir  ears  back  to  munch  their  gram,  regardless  of 
Elephanta  or  the  islands  adjacent. 

The  natives  were  much  less  accustomed  to  tlie  siglit  of 
Europeans  than  in  our  day ;  so  on  either  shore,  Salsette  or 
Karanja,  as  they  found  themselves  by  sail  or  oai",  the  people 
came  down,  as  we  read  in  Captain  Cook's  voyages,  with 
offerings  of  milk  and  cocoa-nuts. 

There  was  a  block  at  Thana.  Xo  doubt  Marco  Polo  liad  the 
same.  Colonel  Dow  sends  his  native  head  servant  with  Ins 
salaams  to  his  Excellency  Ramaji  Pant,  the  Governor,  request- 
ing a  passport.  The  guns  were  open-mouthed,  and  had  they 
attempted  to  proceed  they  would  have  been  fired  at  doubtless 


•  Thick  quiltp,  mattresses. 


286  THB  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

from  one  or  other  of  thosu  loop-holed  aiul  rugged  fortalices 
which  dot  like  warts  the  margin  of  the  Thana  Creek  of  to-day. 
Ill  three  hours  the  passport  came.  They  theu  spread  their 
big  lateen  sail  to  the  breeze,  which  after  flapping  idly  about, 
bellied  out  in  the  wind,  and  now  with  a  strong  current  they  go 
whizzing  thi'ough  the  narrows,  people  coining  down  in  crowds 
to  have  a  peep  at  them  over  those  battlements  which  have  long- 
since  disappeared.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  the 
voyagers  arrived  at  that  now  most  thriving  and  energetic  sea- 
port of  Bhiwaiidi,  and  were  hospitably  entertained  in  the 
house  of  a  rich  Moor-man.  Everybody  who  has  explored  Thana 
Creeks  knows  the  difficulty  of  their  navigation,  in  tides, 
currents,  slioals  ;  in  waiting  for  -s^ind  that  never  comes  or 
comes  at  the  wrong  time.  They  had  however  passed  the  time 
tolerably  on  board,  eaten  and  drank  fairly  well,  had  slept  also 
a  troubled  sleep,  though  music,  song  and  sentiment  were  carried 
far  into  the  night,  Eamsay  giving  them  some  new  songs  from 
the  "  Evergreen "  that  they  had  never  heard  before.  Occa- 
sionally his  two  servants,  who  were  proficients  in  the  art, 
played  disjointed  fragments  on  the  French  horn,  "first  and 
second,"  whatever  that  may  mean  ;  but  it  was  too  dreadful,  and 
they  called  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  the  lascars  meanwhile  yelling 
and  gesticulating,  that  they  had  got  on  a  snag,  which  the 
Nakoda  swore  was  as  big  as  the  Chaul  Kadu,  and  it  might  have 
been  any  size,  for  it  was  pitch-dark  at  the  time.  Xobody  had 
walked  overboard,  fallen  down  the  hatchway  or  knocked  his 
head  against  the  mainmast,  and  thougli  "  John  "  was  "  as  sick 
as  a  dog,"  we  can  aver  the  Admiral  suffered  no  inconvenience. 
"  See  that  ye  fall  not  out  by  the  way,"  and  they  had  obeyed 
the  injunction  to  the  letter.  Mr.  Patterson,  the  Admiral's 
Secretary,  a  young  Scotchman  of  inchoate  habits,  had  thrown 
down  his  hand  in  disgust,  there  was  neither  trump  nor  picture-card 
in  it ;  they  played  dummy  afterwards,  the  young  man  mean- 
while amusing  himself  with  cutting  out  silhouette  caricatures  of 
his  friends  in  black  paper. 

Next  morning  they  arose  rather  exhausted  than  otherwise. 
The  mosciuitoes  of  the  Bhiwandi  creek  bite  bard,  and  they  had 
a  bad  night  of  it ;  but  the  hot  wells  were  at  hand,  and  they  did 
not  despair ;  the  gentlemen  of  the  party,   for  there  were   no 


JOHN    MACDONALD.  287 

ladies,  betook  themselves  to  their  palkies,  to  do  the  fifteen 
miles  ovedand.  Servants  on  horseback  was  now  the  order  of 
the  day,  and  Patterson,  of  course,  must  needs  mount  his  horse, 
without  his  imrjri,  in  the  bhizing  sun  of  April.  The  Moor- 
man unfolded  his  own,  one  fresh  and  spotless  from  Dacca  or 
Lahor,  and  gave  liim  half  of  it.  With  the  dust  flying  from  liis 
horse's  heels  he  left  the  benefactor  he  was  never  to  see  again, 
who,  waving  a  "  peace  be  with  you,"  proceeded  to  count  his  beads 
in  silence  and  repeat  the  ninty-nine  names  of  the  Almighty. 

The  ragged  regiment  had  not  gone  many  miles  on  the  road, 
when  the  syces  were  called  into  requisition  to  look  after  the 
property  of  their  masters,  and  a  riderless  horse  was  seen  flying 
over  the  country  in  the  direction  of  Vada,  on  tlie  frontier  of  the 
Jawar  State.  "  John  "  was  a  great  adept  in  horses,  and  had 
taken  in  hand  an  animal  of  great  beauty  and  ferocity,  that  had 
come  up  from  the  Straits,  called  "  Chilabhai,"  after  its  former 
owner,  a  Surat  nobleman,  and  "  Chilabhai  "  had  shook  him  off 
in  a  sheet  of  water,  which  now  gladdens  the  eye  of  the  traveller 
a  few  miles  from  Bliiwandi. 

"  John  "  had  given  the  brute  oiiium  to  strengthen  liim  for 
the  journey,  and  at  the  same  time  before  starting  had  fortified 
himself  with  a  goodly  supply  of  the  arah  of  the  country. 

The  immersion  cooled  him  and  sobered  him  down  con- 
siderably. "  John  "  had  been  "  sworn  in  at  Highgate,"  as  the 
saying  is,  but  nevertheless  and  notwithstanding,  for  reasons 
obvious  to  the  reader,  he  now  resolved  to  do  the  rest  of  the 
journey  on  his  shanks,  as  he  had  often  done  before  in  Keppoch 
or  the  wilds  of  Breadalbane.  He  was  tired,  but  it  could  not  Ijc 
helped  ;  his  salary  was  forty  guineas,  but  he  would  have  given 
twice  the  ainouut  over  to  have  been  in  "Bonnie  Scotland'' 
long  before  he  reached  liis  destination.  They  tiffed  under  the 
shadow  of  a  great  tamarind  tree,  on  the  margin  of  the  Dugad 
Tank,  and  talked  much  of  Johanna  and  Anjengo,  and  other 
subjects  beyond  our  ken.  They  then  passed  (Jomtaru  fort  on 
their  left,  and  on  their  right  Mahuli  with  a  thousand  men 
within  its  walls. 

At  length  towards  dusk,  on  the  evening  of  tlie  tliird 
day,  the  whole  cavalcade,  broken  into  segments,  put  in  an 
appearance  at  the  Hot  Springs  on  the   banks   of   t'.ie   Tansa 


288  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

Eiver.  They  were  all  singing  "  Good  night  and  joy  be  wi'  ye 
a',"  when  "  John  "  arrived  wayworn  and  dilapidated,  and  had 
his  feet  bathed  in  the  hot  water  made  ready  for  him  by  Dame 
Nature.  He  was  then  called  to  dress  his  master's  hair,  whicli 
took  him  an  hour's  hard  work,  but  no  one  could  do  tliis  except 
himself,  remarking  with  the  license  of  the  times  that  he  was 
indeed  a  "  towsie  tyke." 

They  lived  in  houses  constructed  of  the  branches  of  trees, 
each  house  costing  eighteen  half-crowns,  a  delightful  name  for 
the  rupee  which  they  had  in  those  days  of  Arcadian  bliss.  All 
our  rupees  were  then  half-crowns.  We  need  not  add,  they  had 
no  rent  nor  taxes  to  pay.  The  Mandwa  is  a  rude  arborous 
residence  and  may  be  of  rooms,  big  or  even  little,  and  perhaps 
in  sucli  a  one  Eve  may  have  stowed  away  the  sleeping  Cain, 
wrapped  in  a  plantain  leaf  in  memory  of  garden  of  Edeii  days ; 
and  through  their  leafy  interstices  the  harshness  of  the  morning 
sun  is  beautifully  tempered,  its  rays  falling  soft  as  from  fretted 
window  in  Taj  or  other  tomb,  and  may  indeed  be  the  origin 
and  design  of  the  tree-like  arabesques  in  the  august  windows  of 
Ahmadabad.  "  John  "  was  gTeatly  delighted  with  his  dormi- 
tory, and,  wrapping  himself  in  liis  Scotch  plaid  of  hodden  grey, 
he  littered  his  charpoy  with  the  long  grass  with  which  the 
country  abounds,  and  threw  himself  thereon,  a  veritable 
"Heather  Jock,"  listening  to  the  rustling  of  the  withered 
leaves  overhead  in  the  night  wind,  or  dreaming  of  Sally 
Percival  *  or  other  inamorata.  An  ambling  scorpion  which  lie 
discovered  in  the  morning  when  he  stepped  out  of  bed  tended 
somewhat  to  dissipate  the  illusion. 

Though  the  party  had  very  little  of  what  we  call  European 
stores,  they  were  not  to  be  pitied.  They  did  not  come  here  ex- 
pecting what  Bailie  Nicol  Jarvie  terms  "  the  comforts  of  the 
Saut  IMarket."  They  had  fish,  fowl,  hare,  mutton,  and  wild  boar 
in  abundance,  though  we  have  yet  to  learn  that  this  last  is  a 
treat ;  and  somewhat  out  of  season,  venison,  hard  and  dry  at  a 
pinch, "  and  all  j)ro\isions  were  remarkably  cheap."  They  were 
bound  to  have  a  good  cook,  and  they  had  the  best  man  in 
Bombay  for  serving  up  a  dinner.     They  had  no  wliisky,  that 


A  famous  Bombay  dame  of  this  p^riuil. 


BETUEN   JOURNEY.  289 

article  being  still  confined  to  the  Celtic  race  in  Ireland  and 
Scotland.  But  they  had  brandy,  Madeira,  and  Shiraz,  whicli 
none  of  them  ever  mistook  for  sherry.* 

Here  is  the  record  of  their  doings :  "  The  gentlemen  drank 
the  waters,  dined,  played  at  cards,  and  after  dinner  (1  o'clock) 
slept  an  liour  or  two,  then  in  tlie  afternoon  they  rode  out  on 
horseback  and  in  the  evening  played  cards  again." 

So  wagged  the  world  in  those  days,  a  hot  siesta  and  a  liot 
rubber  as  I  take  it.  Strange  to  say  none  of  the  party  were 
sliikaris,  though  this  was  a  centre  of  big  and  small  game  also. 
Neither  tiger  nor  bison  was  killed,  which  makes  me  a  believer 
in  the  veracity  of  this  journal  (of  some  portions  of  which  I  was 
rather  sceptical) — all  the  more  noticeable  as  Hove,  who  was  in 
these  parts  in  1785,  saw  five  tigers  in  one  day,  and  tells  us  that 
the  bison  is  the  mortal  enemy  of  the  European,  and  runs  him 
down  by  way  of  amusement.f 

Kunners  brought  them  letters  from  Bombay,  now  and  again, 
and  by  tliis  means  they  received  local  and  European  news.  It 
is  ditticult  to  imagine  what  was  the  reading,  even  the  light 
literature  of  a  Bombay  man  of  the  year  1770.  With  no  Burns, 
Byron  or  Scott,  there  was  little  to  fall  back  upon  except  Tom 
Junes,  the  Bamhlcr  or  Spectator,  unless  indeed  a  new  interest 
had  been  imparted  to  the  Sentimental  Journey,  by  Eliza,  whose 
husband  was  now  chief  of  Surat.  Strange,  isn't  it,  that "  John  " 
never  alludes  to  this  lady,  though  he  may  have  seen  her  in 
Bombay  and  in  London  also  ?  The  party  left  for  Bombay,  in 
the  enil  of  May,  no  doultt  travelling  by  moonlight,  when  the 
leafless  trees  in  the  Konkani  jungles  present  a  ghastly  and,  to 
the  European,  an  extraordinary  appearance  as  he  jogs  along, 
like  .so  many  tall  witches  and  lioligolilins  of  sorts,  hobnobliing 
to  each  other  on  the  way.  If  JMcWhirtcr  ever  tries  "  Tlie  Three 
Witches  "  (Eoyal  Academy,  1886)  again,  he  ought  to  come  to 
India.     Though  the  Leper  Tree  %  which  used  to  grow  near  the 


*  Sir  Walter  Scott  received  from  an  Indian  friend  a  present  of  Shiraz, 
On  asking  Sir  John  Malcolm's  opinion  of  it,  he  discovered  that  his  butler 
had  iiac<l  half  the  bin  as  sherry.  Scott  knew  no  difl'crencc  iu  wines;  he  only 
knew  whisky  toddy. 

t  liison  were  shot  in  this  district  until  lately,  but  have  now  disappeared. 

X  Frontispiece  in  Miss  Frere's  Deccan  Days. 


290  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

inaugo  plateau  on  the  road  to  Matlieran,  and  so  graphically 
described  by  Sir  George  Birdwood  *  "  stained  as  with  blood,  a 
ghastly  murderous  creature  to  meet  by  moonlight  alone,"  has 
now  disappeared,  he  may  still  find  plenty  of  its  congeners. 

They  had  made  a  promise  to  pay  their  respects  to  the  Governor 
of  Thana  on  their  return,  which  they  fulfilled,  when  the  Governor 
received  them  with  due  honour,  and  put  them  on  their  way  to 
the  Kauheri  Caves.  "  John  "  was  not  an  archaeologist,  and  we 
are  sorry  to  add  that  he  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity 
which  the  interview  afforded  to  fuddle  and  fritter  away  his 
time  in  a  Portuguese  drinking-shop,  talking  rubbish  on  the 
antitpiity  of  the  Hindu  religion  and  the  beauty  of  all  religions 
in  general.     There  we  leave  him. 

So  ends  this  peaceful  invasion  of  our  countrymen,  and  for  the 
next  ten  years  the  Valley  of  the  Tansa  disappears  from  the  page 
of  history.  Still  as  of  yore  in  the  gloaming,  the  hum  of  the 
cicala  grated  on  the  ear,  and  the  owl  hooted  from  the  wood 
above  the  pagoda  by  night,  and  the  partridge  called  to  its  mate 
in  the  early  morning,  and  the  crescent  moon,  month  by  month, 
like  a  fairy  scimitar,  shed  its  pale  light  on  rock  and  tree.  A 
great  tower  had  been  erected  alongside  the  pagoda  in  James 
Forbes's  time,  on  the  crested  battlement  of  which  a  mighty  lamp 
or  cresset  blazed  its  light  far  and  wide,  during  the  dark  half  of 
the  moon,  to  guide  the  weary  pilgrims  of  many  sorrows  up  this 
Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death.  War  broke  out  and  the  lamp 
was  extinguished. 

When  the  English  came  again — it  was  in  1780 — to  the  Tansa, 
it  was  to  very  different  surroundings  than  their  summer  quarters 
offered  them  in  1770.  Not  now  the  quiet  hand  at  -whist,  the 
refresher  of  Bombay  punch,  the  music  of  the  French  horn,  the 
afternoon  siesta,  the  gilded  sepoys,  or  the  ride  at  sundown  on 
gaily  bedizened  palfrey.  That  valley  was  now  to  see  another 
sight,  for  amid  the  stour  and  confusion  of  battle,  iron  sleet  of 
arrowy  shower  and  the  tramp  of  men  and  horses — a  huge  wave 
filling  it  from  bank  to  brae  of  20,000  ilarathas  came  pouring 
down  in  tumultuous  array.  They  had  come  by,  to  us  unknown, 
passes  in  the  Dekhani  hills,  to  the  relief  of  Bassein,  which  was 


Bombay  Saturday  Seview,  1866. 


ACCOMMODATION.  291 

tlieu  invested  by  General  Goddard,  and  Hartley,  determined 
they  should  not  get  there,  was  here  to  dispute  their  passage  and 
offer  case  of  battle.  With  2000  men  he  drove  them,  one  after 
another,  from  positions  in  which  they  were  strongly  wedged  and 
believed  to  be  impregnable,  and  scattered  them  like  the  withered 
leaves  and  straws  before  the  first  blast  of  the  monsoon.  This 
was  the  battle  of  Dugad. 

I  suppose  that  it  is  still  allowable  for  an  Englishman  to  say 
that  this  was  a  great  victory.*  In  military  language  the 
disgrace  of  Wargaum  was  retrieved,  in  political  language  Nana 
Fadnavis  was  brought  to  reason,  and  in  that  language  which  the 
meanest  can  understand,  there  was  now  the  chance  of  life  and 
property  being  secured,  and  a  day's  wages  for  a  day's  work.  It 
is  on  events  like  this  that,  humanly  speaking,  the  salvation  of 
men  and  nations  depend.  From  Mysore  to  Ilaidarabad,  from 
Haidarabad  to  Poona,  from  Poena  to  Malwa,  the  fairest  portions 
of  India  were  liable  to  be  made  a  desert  in  twenty-four  hours, 
the  whole  country  was  falling  into  anarchy,  and  the  lives  and 
liberties  of  the  people  were  becoming  the  prey  of  adventurers 
and  charlatans.  The  children  of  India  were  still  to  wander  in 
the  wilderness  for  forty  years  before  they  reached  the  pro- 
mised land.  Sir  Charles  IMalet,t  however,  was  appointed  in  1 785 
Resident  at  Poona,  wliich  was  really  the  beginning  of  the  end. 
This  is  not  so  long  ago. 

Bombay  to  Vajrabai  can  be  done  in  one  day.  To  Kalyan  by  an 
early  train  and  the  remainder  of  the  journey,  about  twenty  miles, 
by  bullock-^«ri  via  Bhiwandi.  I  arrived  at  Vajrabai  the 
night  before  Christmas,  and  slept  in  my  h\illock-mri  because 
I  could  get  no  other  accommodation.  (Jn  similar  excursions,  a 
temple,  a  tomb,  a  desecrated  mosi^ue,  the  dressing-room  of  a 
Hammam,  a  Buddhist  cave,  a  cart  shed,  or  an  Intlian  hill-sitle 
covered  ■with  brackens,  offered  me  commodious  lodging,  but  the 
people  here  were  churlish  and  inhospitable  like  Nabal.  Hover, 
the  Polish  traveller,  was  in  these  parts  in  1785,  and  it  is  curious 
to  note  that  the  manners  of  the  people  here  in  this  respect  have 


*  "  Hartley  relates  ote  of  the  most  gallant  feats  recorded  in  the  annals  of 
the  conquest  of  India  in  a  few  modest  lines." — Forrest's  Selections,  vol.  i., 
p.  23,  1885.     See  Grant  Dufl-s  History,  ii.,  420-129. 

t  Arrived  in  India  1770. 


292  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 

not  changed  one  iota  during  the  past  hundred  years.  "  On  my 
arrival,"  he  writes,  "  at  the  village  I  sent  my  interpreter  to  the 
patil  or  headman,  to  permit  me  to  take  shelter  under  one  of  the 
roofs  which  are  purposely  built  for  strangers,  but  that  he  posi- 
tively refused.  I  then  liad  recourse  to  the  bottle,  thinking  tliat 
he  scrupled  about  this,  which  he  likewise  rejected.  I  then 
repaired  to  my  palankin  in  which  I  impatiently  awaitetl  the 
break  of  day." 

Had  I  seen  this  extract  before  I  set  out,  I  should  doubtless 
have  made  other  arrangements.  I  had,  however,  made  up  my 
mind  to  rough  it,  and  take  the  people  as  I  found  them,  and  had 
not,  as  on  some  other  occasions,  asked  the  Sarkar  to  smooth  my 
way.  I  am  bound  to  say,  that  on  several  occasions  the  Sarkar 
has  gratuitously  done  a  good  deal  for  me,  and  this  I  mention  by 
way  of  thanks  to  Collectors  and  others  concerned.  Eaygarh 
specially,  and  on  the  top  and  at  the  foot  of  Bhimashankar,  a 
mandwa  was  erected  for  my  use,  with  guides  also  for  that  great 
ascent,  which  I  was  not  permitted  to  accomplish.  My  feelings 
on  abandoning  this  enterprise  have  been  described  by  an  eminent 
pen ;  we  can  afford  only  the  following — 

"0  thou  beastly  Bhimashankar, 
I  shall  never  see  thee  more, 
Catch  me  ever  being  monk  or 
Keeper  of  your  temple  door !  " 

But  we  will  now  treat  of  the  bullock-^a?-i.  A  bullock-(/«ri  is 
bad  and  good.  No  other  wheeled  conveyance  will  take  you 
over  a  rougli-and-tumble  country  like  this,  and  no  other  vehicle 
is  so  well  fitted  to  do  you  a  bodily  injury.  Two  conditions, 
however,  are  necessary  to  the  right  use  of  a  buUock-f/ari.  You 
must  be  its  only  occupant  and  have  the  free  use  of  your  arms. 
It  is  a  great  thing  to  have  elbow-room.  Livingstone  says,  with 
grim  humour,  "  If  I  am  buried  in  Africa,  I  will  have  plenty  of 
elbow-room."  Arms  are  made  to  hold  on  by,  but  also  for  the 
protection  of  heart  and  stomach,  but  even  "  the  dome  of  thought 
and  palace  of  the  soul "  is  but  a  poor  piece  of  quivering  mortality 
in  a  bullock-^«/-i  without  these  lirachial  buffers.  Alone,  and 
rmaided  by  your  arms,  you  would  be  soon  broken  to  pieces,  and 
fully  furnished  with   these  flapping   appendages,  the   dearest 


A   BULLOCK-GAKI.  293 

frieiiil  you  have,  if  he  were  so  foolisli  as  to  trust  hiuiself  to  your 
liospitality,  might  be  pouuded  to  death  or  fall  a  victim  to  au 
involuntary  lunge  or  an  elbow  in  the  dark. 

Tlie  marvel  is  how  "  the  machine "  holds  together,  for  our 
readers  know  full  well,  that  over  and  above  the  natural  in- 
equalities of  the  land  itself,  the  soil  is  gathei-ed  here  and  there 
into  great  ridges  or  divisions  to  satisfy  the  rights  of  property, 
the  exigencies  of  cultivation  or  revenue  survey.  You  are  either 
on  the  Hill  of  Evil  Council,  or  in  the  Slough  of  Despond,  and 
the  boulder  or  watercourse  must  be  dodged  or  faced,  for  there  is 
no  discharge  in  this  warfare.  On  you  must  go.  Occasionally 
the  wheels  get  wedged  in  rut  or  stony  crevice  as  in  a  mortise, 
and  the  brutes  twist  and  strain  like  some  strong  swimmer  in  his 
agony.  You  are  now  in  a  perilous  state,  having  descended  by 
successive  bumps  the  strata  leading  to  a  watercourse,  your  fore- 
wheels  hanging  over  a  shelf  thereof.  There  is  an  ominous  pause 
and  dead  silence,  as  if  something  were  impending,  suddenly 
broken  by  a  loud  crack  of  the  whip,  which  may  be  the  crack  of 
doom  as  far  as  you  are  concerned,  b\it  the  oxen  interpret  it  aright 
l)y  a  diagonal  movement,  and  holding  on  instinctively  like  grim 
death,  you  and  your  tabernacle  are  speedily  hurled  ■\\'ith  a  crash 
like  thujider  to  the  bottom.  All  is  not  lost.  Your  pipe,  friend 
of  youth  and  companion  of  age,  is  flying  in  fragments  as  black 
as  the  basalt  on  which  it  struck,  and  your  glasses  never  more 
to  be  filled  with  "  reaming  swats  that  drank  divinely."  You 
may,  however,  now  draw  a  long  breath ;  you  are  still  in  the 
land  of  the  Living. 

There  is  little  to  be  seen  on  the  way  to  Vajrabai.  About  the 
eighth  mile-stone  on  the  Vada  highway  you  jerk  into  cross- 
country work,  for  semblance  of  a  road  there  is  none,  as  you 
make  the  best  of  your  way  up  the  Valley  of  the  Tansa. 

The  only  noteworthy  objects  are  the  hybrid  trees,  which  are 
remarkable  enough  even  in  India.  Grafting  as  a  rule  applies  to 
trees  of  the  same  order,  but  this  is  not  without  exception.  But 
what  do  our  readers  think  of  a,  Jicus  with  a  palm,  which  as  a 
friend  observes  must  be  the  centaur  of  the  vegetable  world  ? 
Tlie  first  specimen  met  with  I  set  down  as  a  hisiis  naturss,  but 
farther  on  they  became  as  thick  as  blackberries. 

Take  one  of  the  pollard  \\illows  of  Oxfordshire,  or  a  tufted 


294  THE    VAIiLET    OF    THE   TAN8A. 

elm  from  Eichmond  Hill,  lop  its  head  off  twenty  feet  from  the 
ground,  and  j/'oift  r/?i  the  upmost  forty  feet  of  a  palmyra  palm, 
and  you  have  our  friend  of  the  Tansa  Valley.  Xot  weakly 
either,  hut  strong  and  ^-igorous  specimens  of  "  the  palm  tree 
flourishing."  AYe  were  told  that  these  trees  are  not  cultivated, 
and  the  line  of  contact  is  not  visible  to  the  naked  eye.  We 
throw  out  this  nut  to  crack  by  some  of  our  Bombay  botanists, 
or  others  interested  in  Indian  arboriculture. 

One  of  these  trees  would  have  been  a  small  fortune  to  the 
Forestry  Exhibition  which  was  held  in  Edinburgh  in  1884. 

We  arrived  at  our  destination  at  sundown,  and  strange  to  say, 
there  was  neither  patil  nor  Eamusi  in  Vajrabai,  the  usual  factors 
of  an  Indian  -village.  The  high  priest  of  the  temple  was  next 
appealed  to,  and  he  was  down  with  fever.  I  did  not  try  the 
bottle.  Being  now  pitch-dark  I  gave  the  hukam  to  drive  to  the 
maiclan, — all  my  attempts  to  find  shelter  for  the  night  being 
fruitless.  A  few  paces  brought  me  to  it,  and  I  tucked  myseK 
in  a  kind  of  way  for  the  night,  the  bullock-gari  being  a  bed 
shorter  than  a  man  could  stretch  himself  on,  slept  an  inter- 
mittent sleep,  being  mostly  awake,  and  at  3  a.m.  discovered  iny 
legs  dangling  over  the  edge  of  the  gari  with  a  cold  wind  and 
mist  blowing  in  from  the  estuary  of  the  Tansa.  It  was  from 
Supara,  but  I  condemned  Supara  and  Ptolemy,  who  had  mapped 
it,  to  merited  contempt  and  obli^'ion.  There  was  little,  I 
assure  you,  to  remind  me  of  Christmas,  except  the  stall-fed  oxen 
which  you  see  in  Eaphael's  picture  of  the  Nati\ity,  on  wliich 
light  and  shadow  played  discursively  from  a  fii'e  of  chips,  wliich 
kept  itself  alive  with  diflicvdty  in  the  foggy  atmosphere  of  the 
morning.  But  it  soon  went  out,  and  left  me  to  the  stars  and  a 
doubtful  vision  of  the  Southern  Cross.  "  Hark,  the  herald  angels 
sing,"  and,  true  as  1887  years  ago,  the  day  dawned,  but  the 
shadows  did  not  flee  away,  for  a  mighty  one  projected  itself 
over  the  gi-ound  on  which  I  had  passed  the  night,  being  nothing 
less  than  a  soddened  heap  of  dung,  the  accunmlated  filth  of  ages, 
loosely  compressed  together  and  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  the 
foot,  like  the  weedy  covering  of  those  quaking  bogs  at  home, 
the  resort  of  Willie-o'-the-Wisp,  and  other  nocturnal  evil  spuits. 
I  had  not  seen  it  on  my  arrival  owing  to  the  darkness.  As 
soon  as  there  was  more  daylight,  I  prosecuted  my  researches 


VAJRABAI.  295 

with  redoubled  ardour,  and  my  zeal  and  energy  were  rewarded. 
A  few  feet  from  my  dormitory,  I  could  have  thrown  a  pebble 
into  it — was  a  well,  a  veritable  mother  of  dead  dogs,  and 
having  just  asked  the  question  (like  Hove,  tlinnigh  my  inter- 
preter) whether  there  were  no  fixed  residents  in  the  village,  for 
they  were  mostly  strangers  that  put  in  an  appearance,  I  was  not 
in  the  least  surprised  at  the  answer,  that  tliey  had,  some  years 
back,  been  swept  off  by  cholera.  The  well  was  covered  by 
a  green  scum  (not  always,  we  may  observe,  a  test  of  impurity), 
and,  like  Spenser's  cave,  was  the  abode  of  everything  nauseous 
and  unclean.  A  bucketful  of  zymotic  diseases ;  ague,  cholera, 
croup,  diarrhoja,  dysentery,  erysipelas,  hydrophobia,  influenza, 
measles,  remittent  fever  whooping-cough, — we  give  them 
alphabetically  for  the  benefit  of  the  learned — might  have  been 
taken  from  a  corner  of  it  and  never  missed. 

A  cup  of  tea  was  speedily  made  ready,  into  which,  by 
preveuient  grace,  I  counted  twenty  drops  of  chlorodyne,  with 
much  deliberation,  and  as  much  acciu'acy,  as  the  grey  of  the 
morning  permitted  me ;  a  sample  of  something  stronger  was 
added  without  compunction,  and  I  quaffed  a  mLxture  worthy  of 
the  "  angel  of  the  darker  drink."  I  then  cleared  out  of  tliis  den 
of  pestilence,  and  strode  down  for  a  mile  to  "  the  river's  brink," 
where  I  found  the  hot  springs  on  the  edge  of  the  Tansa,  a  great 
river,  which,  though  now  partially  dry — as  is  the  hal)it  of  Indian 
rivers  at  this  season  of  the  year — in  the  full  Hood  of  the 
monsoon  must  be  "  as  broad  as  the  Thames  at  Westminster."  I 
could  see  that  the  high  banks  stood  up  perpendicularly  on  the 
opposite  side,  the  earth  scooped  out  and  swept  away  as  you  see 
where  the  Nile  cleaves  the  selvage  of  the  Libyan  Desert.  All 
beyond  was  dense  jungle.  I  dipped  my  fingers  into  the  heated 
marge  of  the  spring,  lapped  a  mouthful  of  the  water,  spat  it  out, 
and  watched  the  foamy  bubbles  mounting  from'  base  to  surface. 
Where  crops  might  have  waved,  there  was  nothing  but  a 
wilderness  of  weeds,  the  bounty  of  Nature  being  thus  tliwarted 
by  the  unrighteous  perversity  of  man.  I  then,  still  through 
weeds,  made  my  way  to  the  temple — black  and  sombre  it  was, 
and  old  enough  to  have  slieltered  Sivaji  Iiimself;  saw  the  stone- 
built  baths  or  troughs,  brimful  of  tepid  water ;  saw  a  naked  lazar, 
standing  up  to  the   middle  in  the  centre  of  one  of  them,  a 


296  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  XANSA. 

spectacle  for  gods  and  men,  when  my  eye  caught,  on  an  uncared- 
for  and  adjoining  pool,  a  poor  deserted  tarn,  sight  of  a  water- 
lily  blossom  of  deepest  crimson,  type  of  innocence  and  purity, 
fresh  from  its  Maker's  hands  and  rejoicing  in  the  morning  sim. 
There  it  lay,  iioating  on  the  surface,  its  glory  greater  than 
Solomon's,  yet"  not  dim  or  tarnished  by  centuries  of  human 
apathy  or  neglect.     Consider  the  lilies  how  they  grow.* 

I  now  emerged  on  a  i^lateau,  jjadded  with  swathes  of  long 
grass,  as  if  the  tide  had  passed  over  it — withered  and  doomed  to 
destruction,  to  be  trodden  under  foot  of  man  and  beast ;  and  here 
and  there,  dotted  over  this  park-like  surface,_there  towered  huge 
and  venerable  trees,  as  old  as,  if  not  older  than,  the  temple  itself. 
Can  this  be  the  "  delectable  "  spot  where  our  ancestors  rusticated 
in  1770  ?  God  keep  the  man,  I  said  to  myself,  who  had  no 
other  summer  quarters  to  come  to  than  this.  Lindsay,  Eamsay, 
Dow,  and  Patterson,  Scotchmen  all  of  you,  hard  times  these ! 
Necessity,  not  choice,  was  the  law  in  those  days  when  men  had 
to  content  themselves  with  such  things  as  they  had.  We  can 
well  believe  that  the  restlessness  and  love  of  change,  which 
have  become  almost  necessities  of  our  existence,  were  unknown 
to  these  men,  and  that  it  was  for  the  supposed  benefit  from  the 
wells  that  they  braved  the  heat  and  other  discomforts.  Our 
ancestors  were  not  so  ignorant  as  we  might  imagine.  They 
knew  as  well  as  we  do,  that  a  Konkan  vUlage  at  the  foot  of  a 
mountain  was  the  last  place  in  tlie  world  to  seek  for  health  in 
the  months  of  April  and  May.  So  did  every  intelligent  man, 
native  and  European,  in  that  age  and  long  before  it. 

"The  Mountayne  men  live  longer  many  a  yeare 
Than  those  in  vale,  in  playne  or  marish  soyle." 

Sivaji  knew  this.  For  him  the  plains  meant  plunder ;  but  his 
home,  where  he  had  his  wives  and  his  gods,  was  on  the  hills. 
His  pleasure  excursions  were  merely  from  one  mountain  to 
another.  "Wlien  the  English  Embassy  sought  him  on  Eaygarh, 
they  learned  that  he  was  worshipping  Bhawani  on  Pratapgarh. 
He,  however,  held  the  fee  simple  of  the  Dekhan,  and  a  good 


*  "  The  expanded  flower  of  the  lotus  reposing  on  a  calm  mirror-like  lake, 
is  a  fit  emblem  of  Nirvana."— Monier  Williams's  Buddhism,  1889. 


VAJKABAI.  297 

deal  of  the  Konkan  also :  not  Bombay — uo,  not  Bombay,  but 
otherwise  he  could  go  where  his  evil  si)irit  led  him.  "Welling- 
ton, when  in  Bombay,  deep  in  the  mysteries  of  lumbago  and 
sulphur  baths,  did  not  linger  long  at  Chauk  in  May,  nor  did 
Mackintosh  at  Khapawli,  and  they  both  breathed  freer  at 
Khandala. 

It  must  be  quite  apparent  to  the  reader  that  I  am  not  going 
to  "  run  "  Vajrabai  as  a  watering-place,  neither  am  I  prepared 
to  support  its  abolition,  except  by  the  gradual  progress  of  public 
opinion.  There  are  now  5  or  10,000  pUgrims  annually  to  it, 
and  the  sooner  tlie  imposture  is  seen  through  the  better.  We 
had  once  many  holy  wells  in  Scotland,  and  not  so  long  ago. 
Allan  Cunningham  relates  in  1826,  that  there  were  people  then 
alive  who  recollected  seeing  votive  offerings  placed  at  holy  wells 
by  mothers  for  the  recovery  of  sick  cliildren ;  and  farther  back 
there  existed  men  who  made  a  traffic  out  of  this  romantic 
superstition.  The  people  in  Scotland  now  put  their  money  in 
banks.  Some  years  ago  (it  was  the  bottle  that  effected  this 
confession,  but  never  mind — "  in  vino  Veritas  ")  the  then  priest^of 
Vajrabai  admitted  it  was  his  business,  and  the  more  the  merrier. 

Vajrabai,  "  the  Lady  of  the  Thunderbolt "  as  the  name  im- 
ports, is  not  a  useful  divinity.  We  have  abolished  some  minor 
divinities  in  Scotland  that  were  much  more  serviceable.  Here 
are  the  qualifications  of  Aiken  Drum,  for  example — no  "  lubber 
fiend"  was  he  : — 

"  I'll  loup  the  linn  when  ye  canna  wade, 
I'll  kirn  the  kiru  and  I'll  turn  the  bread. 
And  the  wildest  filly  that  ever  ran  rade, 
I'se  tame  it,  quo'  Aiken  Drum." 

Yet,  notwithstanding  these  proffers  of  servitude,  the  spirit  was 
exorcised,  though  a  more  useful  being  than  Aiken  Drum  it  is 
difficult  to  imagine. 

It  is  needless  to  remark  that  I  was  disappointed  with 
Vajrabai.  I  had  come  expecting  an  Arcadia  or  Happy  Valley 
of  Ilasselas,  where  the  people  lived  secluded  lives,  in  prim;eval 
innocence  and  simplicity,  their  every  want  supplied.  Led  away 
by  the  account  of  a  vulgar  author  I  had  myself  to  blame. 

"  This  was  the  pleasantest  place  I  ever  saw :  fine  large  old 

VOL     II.  X 


298 


THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  TANSA. 


trees  in  abundance,  and  many  rivulets  running  down  from  tlie 
mountains  all  around." 

"  I  was  greatly  delighted  and  thought  it  a  pleasant  thing  to 
live  under  the  East  India  Company."  Greatly  delighted ! 
Whoever  saw  rivulets  running  down  the  Konkani  hills  in 
May? 

As  Mackintosh  in  his  wildness  cursed  Fryer  at  Kalyan,  e\ea 
so  I  sincerely  wished  that  the  author  of  these  statements  were 
anywhere: — boUed  like  Lord  Soulis,  in  a  heated  caldron  (of 
Vajrabai),  or  comprehended  without  stint  in  the  unequivocal 
massacre  of  Glencoe. 

I  left  Vajrabai  with  a  malediction  on  my  lips,  but  soon 
emerging  from  Duhad,  all  disagreeables  were  forgotten,  when 
the  familiar  form  of  Bawamalang  came  in  sight,  awakening,  as 
it  always  does,  pleasant  recollections  of  Alatheran. 

"  I'll  gang  nae  mair  to  yon  toun." 


(     299    ), 


nUISED  GATEWAY    AT   VIJAYANACAIt. 


CHAPTER    LVII. 


VlJAYANAGAK. 


The  kingdom  of  Vijayanagar — Besnagar,  and  Narsinga  of 
medieval  travellers — modern  Hampe — was  the  greatest  in 
Southern  India  known  to  history,  and  occupied  from  sea  to  sea 
the  limits  of  the  Madras  Presidency.  It  did  not  last  long  (a.P. 
1336  to  1565).  Its  cai)ital,  of  the  same  name,  was  of  enormous 
extent,  and  \'ied  with  the  greatest  cities  of  antiquity — 

"tlie  three, 
Babylon,  Memphis,  and  Xineveh" — 

a  kind  of  Sevastopol,  which  drew  down  upon  it  the  wrath  of 
four  great  nations  who  waged  M-ar  with  it  and  not  in  vain.  Tlie 
city  for  a  century  had  accumulated  all  the  mythology,  all  the 

X  2 


300 


VIJAYANAGA-R. 


letters  and  all  the  poetry  of  Soutlieni  India,  until  it  came  to  be 
regarded  as  the  bulwark  of  Hinduism  against  Mughal  invasion 
from  the  north.  Entrenched  behind  seven  walls  of  enormous 
strength,  it  continued  to  defy  domestic  dissension  and  foreign 
aggression  for  ages,  ami  the  capital  was  never  overrun  until  the 
Empire  was  destroyed.  It  was  dui-ing  this  dominion  that  there 
took  place  one  of  the  greatest  events  in  the  history  of  mankind. 
1  mean  the  rounding  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  by  Vasco  da 
(iama.  When,  on  the  29th  August,  1498,  Da  Gama  sighted 
Mount  d'Eli,  a  block  of  sandstone  which  rises  850  feet  above 
sea-level,*  and  when  the  big  lateen  sails  of  his  carracks  were 
flapping  idly  in  the  wind,  he  little  knew  that  it  owed  allegiance 
to  Yijayauayar. 

But  it  so  came  about :  Vijayanagar  was  the  first  ally  in  India 
with  any  European  Power  since  Alexander  the  Great,  and  that 
power  was  Portugal.  The  place  lies  35  miles  X.E.  of  Belary  and 
about  400  miles  south  of  Pooua,  and  the  traveller  who  visits  it 
nowadays  wiU  not  be  disappointed. 

The  first  sight  of  a  great  city  leaves  an  impression  never  to 
be  effaced.  Jerusalem  from  the  ]Mount  of  Olives,  Edinbui'gh 
from  the  Castle,  Venice  from  the  BasQica,  and  Cairo  from  the 
citadel,  all  differ  from  each  other ;  but  all  are  alike  in  this,  that 
they  need  no  photograph  to  assist  the  memory.  Vijayanagar 
differs  from  them  all  in  this,  that,  apart  altogether  from  its 
architecture  or  history,  the  site  is  a  geological  wonder.  When 
the  traveller  on  the  Haspet  road  reaches  the  brow  of  the  hill 
which  overlooks  the  city,  or  what  remains  of  it,  and  gazes  across 
the  amphitheatre  which  lies  before  him  he  is  lost  in  amazement, 
and  looks,  like  stout  Cortez,  with  a  wild  surmise — 

"  Sileut  upon  a  peak  iu  Daricn." 

Far  as  tlie  eye  can  reach  for  ten  square  miles  there  is  nothing 
between  earth  and  heaven  but  boulders :  the  earth  is  paved  with 
them,  the  sky  is  pierced  with  them,  and  their  granite  particles 


*  Correa's  Three  Voyages,  p.  145.  Eli-mala,  written  by  the  Portuguese  a.s 
"  Monte  d'Eli,"  is  in  Lat.  12°  2'  N.  It  was  in  tlie  King  lorn  of  Eli  or  Hili 
mentioned  by  Marco  Polo  and  Iba  Batuta  : — Yule's  Marco  l'ulo,"\\.,  37-1 ;  Ibn 
Batuta,  iv.,  81.— B. 


GEOLOGIC   ACTION.  301 

glitter  and  scintillate  in  the  morning  sun — boulders  here,  there, 
everywliere.     This  is  the  "  City  of  Boulders." 

We  have  come  to  seek  ruins,  but  here,  I  ween,  are  those  of 
quite  another  kind — 

"...  confusedly  luul'd, 
The  ruins  of  an  earlier  world." 

At  some  stage  in  this  planet's  history  the  earth  here  has  been 
rent  into  fragments,  and  its  crust  broken  and  shattered  into 
contorted  blocks.  This  was  the  action  of  fire.  Then  came  the 
action  of  water,  when  the  waves  of  an  ancient  sea,  probably  for 
thousands  of  years,  spent  their  fury  in  rounding  and  polishing 
the  blocks  so  wild  and  weird  before  the  last  great  upheaval. 
Not  in  ones  or  twos  dropped  from  an  iceberg,  as  at  the  foot  of 
Goatfell  or  on  the  summit  of  Ben  Xevis,  not  on  a  plain  like 
Salisbury  or  Carnac  in  Brittany,  but  literally  in  thousands,  of 
all  sizes,  from  5  to  5000  tons — heaps  upon  heaps,  in  one  instance 
250  feet  in  height.  The  site  of  Vijayanagar  is  tlnis  the  rocky 
bed  of  an  ancient  sea,  and  I  daresay  if  we  could  look  into  it,  we 
could  see  many  such  places  at  the  bottom  of  the  existing  ocean. 

The  ruins  of  Vijayanagar  cover  ten  square  miles,  and  great 
Iiummocks  of  loose  stones  fill  up  much  of  the  space.  They  are 
single  blocks,  piled  on  each  other  by  Nature — irregular  heajDS. 
There  is  no  gravel  or  debris  between  them,  and  in  the  nalas  or 
glades  which  divide  them,  the  roads  or  tracks, — some  of  them 
ancient  bazaars, — wind  their  devious  way :  the  traveller  in 
bullock -^rtri,  but  oftener  on  foot,  plods  his  weary  way,  turning 
the  flank  of  huge  boulders  which  ever  and  anon  threaten  to  bar 
his  progress. 

One  of  these  natural  cairns  is  quite  a  study,  and  I  raiglit 
compare  it  to  a  cluster  of  Brobdinguagian  soap-bubbles  swaying 
in  the  wind,  or  a  buncli  of  potatoes  with  their  ganglionic  roots, 
or,  giving  Imagination  the  rein  and  the  bit  in  her  teeth,  to  tlie 
viscera  of  some  Titan,  monstrous  as  fable  e'er  has  feigned  or  fear 
conceived,  congealed  into  stone ;  but  these  offer  but  a  faint 
resemblance  to  the  bizarre  shape  of  such  congeries  of  rocks. 
The  boulders  with  which  Nature  has  built  these  rockeries  are  of 
all  sizes,  most  of  them  big,  round  or  rounded  oval,  oblong,  convex, 
all  acute  angles  rubbed  off,  thus  exliibitinji  their  water-worn 


302 


VIJAYANAGAR. 


descent.  They  have  been  kicked  about  here,  tossed  about  there, 
by  the  giant  forces  of  Nature  in  some  of  her  paroxysms,  and 
huddled  in  wild  and  fantastic  confusion,  or  shot  pell-mell, 
higgledy-piggledy  out  of  Xature's  big  basket  into  this  great 
"  Free  Coup  "  or  "  riddlings  of  creation,"  as  Burns  used  to  call 
his  farm  of  Ellisland ;  or,  with  A'^irgil,  scattered — 

"  On  sundry  places  where  Deucalion  hurled 
His  mother's  entrails  on  the  desert  world." 


BOULDERS   AT    VIJATANAGAR. 


The  boulders  lie  in  all  positions,  perpendicular,  horizontal, 
oblique,  propped  up,  wedged  between  each  other  like  the  key- 
stone of  an  arch,  aslant,  toppling  over;  the  leaning  Tower  of 
Pisa  is  a  trifle  to  some  of  the  superincumbent  blocks  beetling 
overhead.  Others  are  poised  in  mid-aii',  so  that  you  can  see  the 
light  all  round  except  at  the  one  pin  point  of  contact,  balanced 
to  a  hail-,  and  might  turn  out  a  rocking-stone  if  we  could  only 
get  up  to  it.  I  am  now  speaking  of  an  enormous  boulder,  the 
size  of  a  house,  and  not  of  "  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms." 


NAKA8IMHA.  303 

The  outsides  of  the  boulders  in  many  cases  are  decorated  with  a 
carved  fringe  of  lace- like  pattern,  spray-like  foliage  on  the  edges 
as  it  were  :  "  something  bonnie  to  look  at."  I  went  inside,  and 
where  had  been  deftly  scooped  out  of  the  living  rock — door, 
passage,  and  a  suite  of  roomsor  cells  for  some  Troglodyte  of 
the  Tungabhadra. 

Tlie  open  spaces  and  ground  floors,  whether  of  hall,  palace 
or  temple,  were  crisp  under  our  feet  with  bits  of  broken  quartz 
and  porphyry  where  it  was  not  ploughed  up  and  planted,  like 
Herod's  Theatre  at  Sebaste,  or  furzy  with  thistles  or  corn-flowers, 
as  at  the  pediments  of  the  Acropolis. 

Narasimha's  colossal  monolithic  statue  is  an  atrocious  object. 
Had  it  been  the  Vocal  Memnon,  however,  I  could  not  have  been 
more  eager  to  see  it,  and  I  was  conducted  to  it  by  the  guides, 
who  strongly  dissuaded  me  against  it,  for  the  place  is  surrounded 
by  sugarcanes,  and  at  this  season  flooded  by  water.  The  ground 
was  oozy  and  swashy,  the  canes  overtopped  our  heads  ;  but  we 
forced  our  way  over  the  intersecting  rivulets  wluch,  regardless 
of  wet  feet,  we  cleared  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and,  through  a  mass 
of  the  roughest  vegetation,  were  in  presence  of  the  monster 
before  we  knew  where  we  were.  "  Its  teeth  were  like  harrow 
teeth,  and  its  een  like  chopin  noggins,"  muttered  the  rustic  of 
the  Ettrick  Sliepherd  at  some  hobgoblin  of  the  North.  We  are 
out  on  a  lioliday,  so  here  goes  another  quotation,  correct  or  not, 
never  mind  : — 

"  On  his  deep  front  majestic  terror  rode, 
Wliich  swelled  in  conscious  pride  the  infernal  god, 
His  maJ'nins  eye,  whence  streaminL;  poison  ran; 
Glar'd  like  a  comet  threatening  woe  to  man. 
His  mouth  was  like  the  whirlpool  of  the  flood. 
Dark,  yawning,  deep,  and  filled  with  grumous  blood." 

What  Struck  us  most  of  all  perhaps  in  our  rambles  were  the 
majestic  tamarind  trees.  Here  and  there  one  of  enormous  girth 
stood  up  like  a  giant.  Some  were  hollowed  out  in  the  trunk 
and  would  have  held  a  dinner-party.  Hoary  with  a  great 
antiquity,  they  may  have  sheltered  from  the  heat  of  the  noonday 
sun  the  serried  hosts  of  Ram  Raja  when  they  mustered  their 
forces  to  fight,  ami  filed  tlicii'  way  to  the  ill-fated  iield  of 
Talikota. 

1 


304  VIJATANAGAR. 

It  was  in  this  place,  which  Newbold  compares  to  the  "Wilder- 
ness of  Sinai,  that  the  Kings  of  Southern  India  sat  down  to 
build  for  themselves  a  city.  No  such  site  for  a  city  had  ever 
been  chosen  before.  What  tempted  the  first  man  is  more  than 
we  can  tell.  Probably  it  was  chosen  for  purposes  of  defence :  a 
place  full  of  rocky  fastnesses,  which  the  defenders  could  hold 
against  all-comers  and  cause  havoc  to  the  ranks  of  an  invading 
army ;  gloomy  as  Glencoe,  and  more  suitable  for  the  ghouls 
of  Malebolge  than  a  dwelling-place  for  the  sons  of  men.  When 
the  genius  of  one  man,  however,  determined  upon  the  site,  you 
may  depend  upon  it  that  no  time  was  lost  in  availing  of  its 
advantages — every  nook,  cranny,  cliink  or  corner,  every  coign 
of  vantage,  or  knuckle  for  shrine,  plateaux  for  palace  or  mahal, 
knoll  for  temple,  valley  or  nala  for  garden  or  green  pasture. 

The  place  itself  was  a  quarry.  Nature  had  done  half  the  work, 
they  would  do  the  other.  They  had  only  to  hew  the  stones  and 
set  them  up.  But  they  did  more.  On  the  knobs  and  bosses  of 
tliis  great  shield  of  Eama  they  constructed  buUdings  which  with 
infinite  skUl,  taste  and  patience  they  decorated  with  sculptures 
which  for  boldness  and  expression  have  never  been  surpassed.* 
They  ransacked  the  neighbouring  mountains  for  marble,  white, 
pink,  blue  or  green,  and  black  jasper ;  and  from  the  clefts 
which  had  been  made  by  the  trail  of  Sita's  garments  the  in- 
lialjitants  looked  out  like  the  dwellers  in  Petra  or  Edom. 

The  first  great  necessity  of  a  city  is  pure  water,  and  Vijayanagar 
liad  it  in  abundance.  A  great  artificial  lake,  miles  in  cii'cum- 
ference,  meets  the  eye  of  the  traveller  as  he  approaches  the 
city,  and  the  fortifications  of  the  aqueduct  in  which  the  water 
fiowed  to  the  city  are  conspicuous  until  they  are  lost  in  the 
distance  of  the  landscape.  The  Tahsildar  tells  us  this  tank  never 
runs  dry.  A  canal  some  niUes  up  the  Tungabhadra  conducts  the 
water  of  that  river  to  it.  Abdur  Eazzak  tells  us  (1443)  that  on 
either  side  of  every  street  water  ran  in  conduits  of  hewn  and 
polished  stone.  You  may  see  some  of  them  still  in  use,  but  most 
of  them  have  fallen  down  :  one  at  the  Queen's  Baths  seems  in 
perfect  condition.  The  streets  must  have  presented  a  pleasing 
picture  in  this  dry  and  thirsty  land,  with  water  on  each  side, 


Fer?usson. 


HORSE   TRADE.  305 

not  stagnant  Imt  imrliug  and  bubbling  along,  as  in  Damascus, 
which  some  of  our  reaileis  may  have  seen,  the  gift  of  Abana 
and  Pharpar.  And,  like  Caii'o  and  Damascus,  Vijayanagar  hail 
its  streets  appropriated  to  certain  trades  and  handicrafts. 
Each  guild  had  its  own  locality — armourers,  harness-makers, 
confectioners — and  there  was  a  great  bazaar  for  flowers  :  fresh 
Huwers  every  day,  for  we  are  told  flowers  were  a  necessity  of 
the  people's  existence,  and  they  could  gather  tliem  at  their 
doors.  One  of  the  greatest  trades  in  Vijayauagar  was  in 
horses.  The  horse  was  not  indigenous,  and  required  to  be 
imported  from  Persia  and  Arabia.  They  had  20,000  cavalry 
and  reijuired  an  incessant  sujiply.  Ctesar  Frederick  (1567) 
travelling  hither  joined  a  caravan  of  300  horses.  Krishna  Deva 
(1508-42),  like  Charles  II.,  was  a  great  believer  in  horses. 
"  The  strength  of  insurrection  in  these  shires  consists  in  their 
horses."  So  w^ben  the  I'ortuguese  arrived  Krishna  had  a  dri-am 
that  unless  like  Solomon  he  multi])lied  his  horses  his  kingdom 
would  come  to  an  eiul;  and  like  Solomon  he  had  40,000  horses. 

The  first  alliance  therefore  with  Portugal  (1510),  offensive 
and  defensive,  had  for  its  basis  a  monopoly  of  the  horse  trade 
of  Arabia  and  Persia  to  the  kingdom  of  Vijayauagar.  Ormuz 
then  stood  out  as  the  port  of  debarkation.  Though  Bijapur 
and  Yijayanagar  are  only  separated  by  a  distance  of  200  miles, 
they  oiler  some  strange  and  startling  contrasts.  Their  time, 
place  and  monuments  were  all  different,  the  soil  was  difl'erent, 
and  the  religion  of  tlie  men  wlio  built  them  was  Idlally 
dilferent. 

The  dominion  of  Vijayauagar  was  fast  disappearing  \\lien 
Pijapur  came  to  the  front  and  estal)lished  herself  on  her  ruins. 
The  one  rose  as  the  other  fell.  Bijapur  was  only  an  arliUIa  or 
citadel  when  the  battle  of  Talikota  took  place.  The  walls  of 
Bijapur  were  built  out  of  the  spoils  of  Vijayauagar,  and  her 
linest  trophies  in  architecture  were  all  constructed  after  the 
dominion  of  A'ijaj'anagar  had  passed  away.  Bijapur  is  bare, 
barren  and  unfruitful,  a  W'aste  howling  wilderness,  but  the 
Tungabhadra,  which  sometimes  flows  into  the  temple's  inner- 
most recess,  carries  fertility  on  its  bosom.  The  one  was 
Muhamniadan,  the  other  Hindu.  Bijapur  contains  a  noble 
exhibition  of  Saracenic  architecture  which  carries  the  mind  to 


306 


VIJAYANAGAK. 


Cordova,  the  tombs  of  the  Mamluks  at  Cairo  and  the  beauties 
of  the  Bosporus.  Vijayanagar  is  an  embodiment  of  Hinduism 
iu  stone  and  lime,  and  contains  all  the  forms  of  Dravidian 
development :  anything  Muhammadan,  we  think,  must  have 
crept  in  and  overlapped  the  earlier  indigenous  architecture 
after  the  conquest  (15()5).  Witliin  the  walls  of  Bijapur,  as  far 
as  we  recollect,  there  is  nothing  but  sand  and  rubbish,  with 
scarcely  a  blade  of  vegetation ;  but  here  the  monoliths  often  rest 
in  mud  :  the  deep  rich  loam,  which  constitutes  the  wealth  of 
Western  India,  silts  up  the  edges  of  her  mighty  dolmens  and 
wraps  her  ruins  in  its  embrace.  The  land  even  now  between 
the  walls  is  covered  with  a  rich  vegetation  and  green  with  rice 
and  sugarcane.  Like  Pekiu  and  the  ancient  cities  of  Assyria, 
the  gardens  occupied  a  great  extent.  Bijapur  is  six  miles 
round  the  walls  :  Vijayanagar  twenty. 

The  man  who  comes  to  Vijayanagar  in  search  of  antiiiuities 
and  is  disappointed  must  be  a  glutton,  for  there  is  sufficient 
here  to  satisfy  the  most  voracious  appetite — walls,  roads,  baths, 
aqueducts,  mint,  diwan-khana,  arena,  stables,  bazaars,  gate- 
ways, temples,  palace,  colossus  and  throne  itself  in  greater 
profusion  than  even  "  where  Eome's  vast  ruins  darken  Tiber's 
waves."  The  sculptor's  cunning  hand  has  also  been  busy  at 
work,  not  only  on  gorgons,  chimeras,  furies  and  their  snakes, 
but  the  figures  of  men  and  horses  on  her  entablatures.  For 
verve  and  action  some  of  them  might  have  been  chiselled  in  the 
Eoyal  Academy.  Had  an  ancient  Egyptian  been  here  in  some 
far  distant  age  he  might  have  returned  the  compliment  before 
the  first  sti'oke  of  the  hammer  had  resounded  from  its  storied 
blocks.  For  him  the  possibilities  of  hewing,  hacking,  shaping 
and  moulding  would  have  been  infinite,  and  the  great  stones  of 
Vijayanagar  might  have  worthily  laid  the  foundations  of 
Solomon's  Temple  or  the  Cyclopean  walls  of  Baalbek.  A 
granite  trough  scooped  out  of  a  single  block  with  mathematical 
precision,  forty  feet  in  length,  or  a  monolithic  colossus  thirty- 
five  feet  in  height,  would  have  astonished  even  an  ancient 
Phoenician. 

There  is  nothing  like  a  personal  inspection  to  dissipate  de- 
lusions, and  a  tramp  of  five  miles  in  the  sun  (for  the  heat  which 
radiates  from  the  smooth  and  shining  boulders  is  a  caution),  is 


FORMER    GREATNESS.  307 

worth  days  in  the  India  Office  Library  or  weeks  in  the 
Britisli  Museum.  One  can  see  now  that,  for  a  city  of  sucli  vast 
extent  and  with  the  resources  of  a  nation  at  its  back,  fighting 
for  very  e.xistence, — one  can  see  now,  I  say,  how  easily  she  could 
put  100,000  men  in  the  field.  We  liave  maligned  old  Ferishta 
by  unworthy  suspicions  of  the  enormous  forces  he  musters  at 
Talikota,  and  Abdur  Kazzak's  (1443)  1000  elephants,  Var- 
thema's  (1503)  40,000  horse,  Barbosa's  (1514)  80,000  foot,  and 
Faria  de  Souza's  (1520)  12,000  water-carriers,  which  we  had 
at  one  time  relegated  to  the  region  of  fable  and  romance,  may 
for  us  be  unhesitatingly  placed  among  the  indubitable  facts 
of  history. 

The  Tungabhadra  is  the  boundary  of  the  city  on  one  side. 
It  forces  its  sluggish  waters  between  immense  round  smooth 
boulders.  I'eople  fish  here,  and  as  a  warning  to  fishers  I  note 
from  the  Tahsildar  that  every  year  a  man  loses  his  life — pulled 
in  by  the  fish  :  a  desperate  tug  on  the  slippery  stones — his  feet 
are  taken  from  him  and — he  disappears. 

The  greatest  works  must  be  ascribed  to  the  reign  of  Krishna 
Deva  (1508-1542),  but  it  is  no  part  of  our  intention  to  write 
the  history  or  archieology  of  Vijayanagar.  Dr.  L'arapljell  has 
done  its  history  efiectually  {Bomhay  Gazetteer,  Kanara),  and 
Mr.  Eea,  the  Madras  archaeological  surveyor,  tells  us  that  he  is 
engaged  on  an  extended  account  of  its  antic^uities.  We  are 
content  with  the  one,  and  await  with  pleasure  the  appearance 
of  the  otiier;  for  we  are  certain  tliat  every  item,  from  the 
smallest  shrine  to  the  temple  of  Vithoba  Swami,  the  gem  of 
the  whole  collection,  will  receive  its  due  meed  of  attention ;  and 
it  is  worthy  of  it.  It  was  once  a  great  city.  Its  King  had  his 
Viceroy  in  Seringapatani,  and  offered  his  sister  in  marriage  to 
the  Prince  of  Portugal.  It  was  great  in  diamonds.  Karnul  on 
the  Krishna  river  belonged  to  it,  where  the  Koliinur  was  said 
to  have  been  found  ere  it  pa.ssed  to  Baber  (152G).  Its  police 
were  12,000,  and  they  were  paid  £150,000  a  year  out  of  a  tax 
on  brothels. 

Vijayanagar,  like  Cairo  or  Kahira,  means  "City  of  ^'ictory." 
It  ought  rather  to  be  called  "  City  of  Despair,"  for  its  last 
days  exhibited  strange  incidents  of  the  reverses  of  fortune. 
When   the  combined  forces  of  Bijapur,  Bidar,  (Jolkonda  and 


308  VIJAYANAGAR. 

Ahmadnagar  met  Earn  Eaja,  its  last  sovereign,  and  awoke  for 
the  first  time  at  Talikota  on  the  banks  of  the  Krishna  the 
echoes  of  European  artillery,  he  was  captured  and  executed  on 
the  spot.  His  head,  carried  to  Nagar  and  smeared  with  red 
paint,  was  borne  in  triumph  for  ages  afterwards  on  every 
anniversary  of  the  battle,  and  its  effigy  was  perpetuated  in  stone 
almost  to  our  own  day  as  the  mouth  of  a  common  sewer  in  the 
walls  of  Bijapur,  while  the  tomb  of  the  elephant  Ghulam  Ali, 
which  assisted  at  his  capture,  may  still  be  seen  at  Ahmadnagar. 

There  is  only  one  circumstance  I  can  recall  to  its  credit,  and 
even  it  may  be  set  down  to  its  own  purposes  of  selfish  aggrand- 
isement. It  exhibited  toleration  in  an  age  when  toleration  was 
unknown  :  it  built  a  mosque  and  placed  a  copy  of  the  Quran 
on  a  rich  desk  before  the  throne,  and  it  once  had  a  Christian  for 
its  prime  minister.  Nicolo  Conti  (1520)  compared  it  to  Milan, 
but  Abdur  Eazzak,  the  ambassador  of  the  King  of  Persia,  who 
had  seen  many  strange  Eastern  cities,  writes :  "  Eye  has  not 
seen  nor  ear  heard  of  any  place  resembling  it  on  the  whole 
earth  " —  with  which  judgment  we  are  disposed  to  agree,  albeit 
none  of  us  have  seen  the  globe  in  its  entirety.  Ferishta  relates 
that  in  the  year  1366  Muhammad  Shah  Bahmani  of  Gulbarga 
gave  a  draft  payable  at  sight  on  the  King  of  Vijayanagar  to  a 
band  of  musicians.  The  man  who  presented  the  huncli  was  put 
on  an  ass,  with  his  face  to  the  tail,  and  led  out  of  the  city  amid 
the  jeers  of  the  multitude :  whereupon  IMuhammad  swore  a  great 
oath,  and  Eerishta  puts  a  sentence  into  his  mouth  worthy  of 
Tacitus :  "  Praise  be  to  God,  I  would  not  let  a  light  word  of  me 
be  recorded  in  history."  So  he  went  to  war  and  slew  100,000 
men  and  said  he  would  slay  twice  as  many  until  his  draft  was 
paid  to  the  musicians.  So  much  for  a  dishonoured  bill  and  its 
consequences  to  the  King  of  Vijayanagar. 

Vijayanagar  had  no  Eerishta,  and  her  chronicles  written  on 
palm-leaves  have  descended  to  oblivion.*  Of  history,  i)roperly 
speaking,  she  has  nothing  except  the  dry  bones  wliich  some 
Indian  Carlyle  may  yet  clothe  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of 
authenticity.     Any  records   that   have   come   down   to  us    are 


*  Mr.  Eastwick   is  said  to  have  lionowed   the  historical  papers  of  the 
Anegundi  family. — B. 


Doojr. 


309 


those  of  plunder  and  cruelty,  harrying  her  neighbours  and 
heaping  up  the  spoils  of  war.  There  is  no  cliivalry  to  rouse  tin; 
patriot, or  devotion  to  consecrate  the  martyr's  gra\e.  Her  doom 
was  written  in  letters  of  fii-e  long  before  her  swift  dromedaries 
carried  the  tidings  from  the  banks  of  the  Krishna  that  all  was 
lost.  She  had  her  day,  and,  from  all  we  can  learn,  it  was  a  day 
when  debauchery  reigned  supreme.  This  was  their  love,  and 
their  religion  was  the  worship  of  fierce  and  implacable  gods 
drinking  the  blood  of  their  mangled  victims.  Her  cup  was  full 
to  the  brim.  War,  famine,  and  pestilence  are  great  calamities, 
invasion  and  rebellion  are  great  calamities  ;  but  the  gi-eatest  of 
all  is  when  a  cancer  eats  into  a  nation's  \itals,  when  she  forfeits, 
by  her  own  acts,  her  right  to  existence  and  is  the  maker  of  her 
own  doom.  She  has  left  not  one  book,  not  one  invention,  not 
one  example  of  a  high  and  holy  life,  not  one  deed  of  charity  to 
cheer,  to  bless  or  guide  mankind.  The  jackal  howls  at  midnight 
from  her  seven  walls  of  granite :  impregnable  they  seemed  to 
be,  but  they  have  turned  out  no  better  than  spiders'  webs,  spun 
in  a  night — perished  in  a  day.  A  deep  awe  rests  on  her 
deserted  and  gi-ass-growu  streets  and  theu-  long  colonnades — 
those  bazaars  where  once  was  exposed  the  wealth  of  nations. 

Pompeii  was  less  impressive,  Canopus  less  forlorn  as  a 
spectacle  of  fallen  greatness  than  the  silence,  tlie  solitude  and 
the  desolation  that  fell  upon  me  as  I  lay  under  the  shadow  of  a 
great  rock  in  this  weary  land  of  Vijayanagar.* 


*  Colonel  Cherry,  from  Belary,  May  6th,  1890,  tells  me  that  none  of  the 
])eo]Je  from  Btlary  to  Uampe  and  Haspet,  or  thereabouts,  will  enlist  in  the 
Ikitish  Army. 


(     310     ) 


BOMBAY    RUPEE. 


CHAPTER  LVIII. 

Our  Coins. 

India  does  not  owe  everything  to  England.  She  had  bills  of 
exchange  before  the  Saxon  set  foot  in  Britain,  and  coined  money, 
both  gold  and  silver,  when  the  Scot  was  content  to  barter  his 
wares  for  the  flint  arrowheads  with  which  he  knocked  down  the 
dun  deer.  The  earliest  issue  of  currency  notes  recorded  in 
India  is  that  by  Muhammad  bin  Tughlaq  (1321-52),  him  of 
Daulatabad  notoriety. 

It  is  indubitable  that  Ciiiua  had  bank-notes  before  the  banks 
of  Venice  or  Amsterdam  were  established,  and  India  may  have 
had  them  also,  just  as  their  copper  cash  circulated  in  Madras 
and  Bombay  long  after  the  date  of  our  arrival. 

The  rupee  is  not  an  ancient  coin.  "We  read  with  childish 
simj)licity  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus  quoted  by  A^ans 
Kennedv  that  the  gods  settled  their  accounts  a  great  many 
thousands  of  years  ago  by  the  payment  of  hard  rupees. 

But  this  is  a  mere  figure  of  speech.  The  rupee  and  the  gold- 
luohar  *  are  both  Muslim  coins  and  were  first  coined  by  Sher 


*  For  the  benefit  of  the  sentimental  reader  we  give  John  Leyden's  lines  on 
the  Indian  gold-uaohar  taken  from  Remains  of  John  Leyden,  1819 : — 

"  For  thee,  for  thee,  vile  yellow  slave, 

I  left  a  heart  that  loved  me  true ; 
I  crossed  the  tedious  ocoau  wave. 

To  roam  in  climes  uukiiid  and  new. 
The  cold  wind  of  the  stranger  blew 

Chill  on  my  withered  heart ;  the  grave 
Dark  and  imtimely  met  mv  view, 

And  all  for  thee,  vile  yellow  slave." 


COINAGE.  311 

Shah  (1542),  the  conqueror  of  Delhi.  It  is  a  fact  that  in 
Bombay  in  1697  the  rupee  did  not  exist.  Then  coins  M^ere 
pagodas,  shahis,  and  xeraphins,  of  the  value  of  9s.,  4s.,  and  Is.  Gd. 
respectively  in  English  money.  The  pagoda  is  the  Portugiiese 
name  for  a  Hindu  gold  coin,  so  called  from  a  pyramidal  temple 
sometimes  depicted  on  one  side  of  it.  Hence  the  story  of  the 
extinct  "  pagoda  tree."  The  coin  is  the  size  of  an  ordinary  shirt- 
stud,  and  is  sometimes  called  a  hv.n,  which  is  the  old  Karnatic 
word  for  gold,  and  may  also  be  the  root  of  the  word  Imndi,  i.e. 
an  Indian  inland  bill  of  exchange.  The  pagoda  is  of  greater 
antiquity  tlian  the  rupee  or  the  gold-mohar,  but  the  copper 
coin  now  current — the  (juarter-anna  piece,  alias  the  'paisa — has 
established  its  claims  to  primogeniture  and  hereditary  descent 
as  far  back  as  the  Laws  of  Manu,  where  it  appears  as  the 
karshu,  which  the  philologists  tell  us  is  the  same  word  as  the 
cash  of  China,  a  word  introduced  by  us  into  England  from  that 
country.  Evpiya  means  silver,  and  mohar  a  seal,  and  no  doubt 
it  was  often  put  to  this  use.  The  rupee  is  not  so  venerable  as 
the  English  shilling,  but  the  gold-mohar  carries  us  centuries 
beyond  that  day  in  181G  when  for  the  first  time  the  English  sove- 
reign came  forth  resplendent  with  St.  George  and  the  Dragon. 

When  the  British  came  to  India  they  did  not  attempt  to 
impose  theii*  currency  on  the  natives.*  They  found  tlie  rupee, 
and  the  rupee  is  still  the  current  coin  of  the  realm.  There 
were  rupees  of  every  State  or  of  every  sovereign  who  had  gone 
before  us,  of  various  weights,  sweated,  clipped,  and  debased. 
The  reorganisation  of  the  coinage  was  the  work  of  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  and  John  Shore.  The  degraded  coins  were  called  in,  and 
the  intrinsic  value  paid  to  the  owners  for  them ;  and  in  1795  it 
was  decreed  that  no  contract  should  Ije  valid  unless  the 
payment  was  made  in  /S'zcea  f  rupees.  Tliis  lasted  until  1835, 
when  the  East  India  Company  rupee  was  ordered  to  take  its 
place,  and  it  is  now  the  current  coin. 

The  Sicca  rupee  was  about  eight  per  cent,  heavier  than  the 
new  Company's,  and  hereby  hangs  a  tale,  not  without  precedent 
as  we  shall  see.     Shall  Alam,  ]\Iughal  Emperor  (1759-86),  had 


*  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  71,  75. 

t  Hikha,  a  coiuiug  die — hence  "  fresh  coined,"  nut  worn. — B. 


312  OUR    COINS. 


c 


oiued  III  Murshidabad,  in  the  niueteenth  year  of  his  reign, 
rupees  which  were  great  favourites  with  the  money-changers. 
The  Bengal  Government  in  1793  coined  their  Sicca  rupees  in 
Calcutta,  thougli  they  bore  the  inscription  in  Persian,  "  coined 
at  Murshidabad  in  the  nineteenth  year  of  Shall  Alam,  his 
fortunate  reign."  Tughlaq  liad  done  the  same,  abolished  the 
use  of  his  own  name  on  the  pieces  and  coined  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Fatimite  Khalifs  of  Egypt — ^just  as  we  see  nowadays 
millions  of  dollars  thrown  off  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  with 
the  image  and  suiierscriptiou  of  Maria  Theresa — a  coin  which 
delighteth  all  dwellers  between  the  Nile  and  Zanzibar,  and  the 
coasts  north  and  south  of  that  region,  now  so  full  of  interest. 
You  will  iind  it  more  difficult  than  you  imagine  to  find  a  Sicca 
rupee,  as  they  have  been  out  of  circulation  in  British  territory 
during  the  last  fifty  years.  Here  and  there  a  solitary  specimen 
might  have  been  met  with  in  the  floating  mass  a  few  years  ago, 
sorely  the  worse  for  wear,  the  edges  clipped  off  to  bring  it  to 
the  weight  of  the  rupee  now  current ;  so  that  this  fact,  and  the 
other  we  have  mentioned,  to  wit,  the  white  lie  engraven  on  its 
surface,  uuide  of  it  a  hard  nut  for  the  coin  collector  to  crack.  His 
Excellency  the  Governor  is  paid  the  modern  equivalent  of  the 
salary  fixed  in  Sicca  rupees. 

We  do  not  touch  bimetallism,  and  we  note  what  the  late  Mr. 
Fawcett  says  below,  on  the  double  standard.*  On  the  intro- 
duction now  of  a  gold  currency  into  India — a  vexed  question — 


*  "  For  instance,  let  it  be  supjiosed  that  the  value  of  silver  is  reduced  iive 
per  cent,  in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  some  rich  silver  mines.  Let  it 
also  be  assumed  that  nothing  has  occurred  to  affect  the  value  of  gold  ;  con- 
sequently the  value  of  silver  estimated  in  gold  will  be  depreciated  five  per 
cent.,  or,  in  other  words,  an  ounce  of  gold  will  exchange  for  five  per  cent, 
more  silver  than  it  did  previous^ly.  Now  a  double  standard  implies  that  any 
person  who  has  a  payment  to  make  can  use  his  own  discretion  as  to  whether 
he  shall  make  the  payment  in  gcjld  or  silver.  If,  therefore,  the  case  wo  have 
supposed  should  arise,  and  the  value  of  silver  should  be  depreciated  five  i)er 
cent.,  it  is  manifest  that  every  |ierson  who  has  a  debt  to  discharge  would 
take  advantage  of  this  depreciation,  and  all  payments  would  be  made  in 
silver  instead  of  in  gold.  The  result  would  manifestly  be  that  the  amount  to 
be  paid  would  be  reduced  five  per  cent.,  and  the  amount  to  be  received  would 
consequently  in  every  case  be  diminished  by  a  similar  amount.  It  is  evident 
that  this  unfortunate  and  mischievous  disturbance  in  the  terms  of  monetary 
contracts  would  be  avoided  if  gold  was  the  only  standard  of  value." — 
Favvcett's  Political  Economy. 


THE    RUPEE.  313 

•111  wliicli  «>■  liiive  foitiiil  lliiiso  will  I  know  most  speak  the  least, 
\vc  sliall  follow  their  wise  example,  and  adopt  sub  sileniio  as 
iiur  motto,  even  though  no  credit  redoundeth  to  us  for  the  same. 
Wlien  Sir  llicliard  Temple  visited  the  Mint,  in  theal)sence  of  the 
Mint  blaster,  one  of  the  stafl' shower!  him  over  the  institution. 
•  How  is  it,"  said  Sir  liichard,  "  so  little  silver  is  imported  just 
now  ? "  "I  lielong  to  the  mechanical  department,  your  Ex- 
.ellency,"  was  the  reply.  Yes,  in  a  .sense,  we  all.  excejit  great 
)>olitical  economists,  belong  to  the  mechanical  department. 

Though  the  weight  of  the  rupee  which  we  are  daily  handling 
may  not  vary,  its  purchasing  power  varies  from  (hiy  to  day. 
Tliis  rupee  has  a  very  different  purchasing  power  from  that 
which  it  had  when  you  and  I  came  to  India.  Nine  rupees  and 
a  half  would  then  have  jmrchased  an  Englisli  sovereign.  Ft 
now  (Xoveniher,  188-4)  takes  twelve  and  a  half  to  do  the  same. 
In  other  words,  quoad  the  purchasing  power  of  gold,  one  thousand 
rui)ees  were  eipial  in  1864  to  several  hundreds  more  in  1 88-1.  Its 
pureliasing  power  of  labour,  or  of  the  fruits  of  labour,  or  of  tlie 
manufactures  which  are  made  by  labour  out  of  the  earth's  raw 
])nHlucts,  we  have  all  found  out  to  our  cost,  and  these  products 
cil'  labotir,  by  their  increase  and  diminution,  measure  the  value 
111'  yciur  rupee  more  than  your  rupee  measures  the  value  of  them. 

An  exception  was  formerly  taken  to  the  rupee  coin  as  a  work 
of  art.  It  was  said  by  those  Mdio  ought  to  know  tliat  the  sur- 
face of  the  field  is  wavy,  as  if  the  die  on  descending  had  oscil- 
lated on  tlie  matrix,  giving  a  twisted  appearance  to  tiio  reverse. 
Any  one  may  satisfy  himself  as  to  this  inequality,  liy  an  in- 
spection of  the  coinage  of  1862.  But  we  are  glad  to  see  that 
this  defect  has  been  removed  since  the  coinage  of  1881). 

Since  the  year  18o5,  when  the  Company's  or  jiresent  ruiiee 
was  first  coined,  rupees  to  the  value  of  two  hundred  millions 
sterling  have  been  coined  in  India.  What  has  become  <if  tliem  / 
Nay,  what  has  become  of  all  the  bullion  imports,  n<jt  only  since 
I8:ir),  but  as  far  back  as  our  era  extends,  wlu^u  the  soul  of  I'liny 
was  vexed  at  the  drain  of  silver  made  by  India  on  tlu'  Koinan 
Empire.  Tlie  burden  of  tiiis  financial  refrain  runs  tiirough  the 
wbole  recorded  history  of  India.  Barygaza  gives  place  to  Kalyan, 
Kalyan  to  Thana,  Than;i  to  Surat,  and  Surat  to  I'onibay  ;  and 
>lill  the  weiglitv  stream  comes  on — "without   o'erllnwing  full" 

VOL.  n.  Y 


314  ouu  COINS. 

— anil  very  little  of  it  seems  to  leave  the  country.  "  It  is  the 
gold  and  silver  of  the  world,"  says  Bernier  in  1G55,  "  conveyed 
to  Hindustan  which  is  there  swallowed  uj)  as  in  an  abyss  ; "  and 
a  few  years  later  Fryer  says  that  it  is  "  hoarded  "  by  king  and 
people,  and  "  hidden  for  eternity."  One  would  have  thought 
that,  after  1865,  India  would  have  said,  "  Hold,  enough  ! " 
I'louglishares,  cart-wheel  tires,  bedsteads,  state  carriages  were 
then  seen  of  solid  silver,  and  steamer  after  steamer  brought  a 
continuous  influx  of  the  precious  metal  to  our  shores.  But  no, 
the  drain  continues,  and  may  go  on  to  the  end  of  time,  and  for 
this  reason.  The  theory  is  McCulloch's,  and  deserves  more  than 
a  passing  consideration.  He  assumes  that  the  stock  of  gold  and 
silver,  coined  and  uncoined,  in  India  is  £400,000,000.  Is  this 
an  out-of-the-way  estimate  ?  'No,  we  think  not,  and  he  says 
this  being  the  case  we  require  an  annual  import  of  four  millions 
sterling  in  value  of  the  precious  metals  to  keep  the  stock  of 
bullion  where  it  is.  His  calculation  is  founded  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  there  is  a  loss  of  one  per  cent,  annually  on  the  stock 
which  we  hold  of  tlie  preciotis  metals,  by  reason  of  tear  and 
wear,  or  what  is  lost  or  dropped  in  rivers  beyond  recovery, 
destroyed  by  fires  or  inundations,  or  buried,  in  other  words, 
"  hidden  for  eternity."  Tear  and  wear  mean  a  good  deal  in 
India  over  and  above  what  obtains  in  other  countries,  when  we 
think  of  the  millions  of  bangles,  ear  and  nose-rings,  that  are 
worn  night  and  day  by  the  natives  of  this  country.  A\'hat  is 
deposited  in  banks  in  other  countries  is  put  on  the  person  in 
this  country. 
\  One  word  on  the  gold  mines  of  India  ;  n<i  item  of  revenue 

derived  from  a  single  gold  mine  in  India,  as  far  as  we  know, 
exists  in  the  accounts  of  any  of  the  JIughal  Emperors.  Dr. 
Fryer,  who  was  among  our  first  arrivals  here  in  1674,  and  was 
a  man  of  science,  expressly  tells  us  that  gold  is  not  a  product  of 
this  country.  Gold  was  no  doubt  worked  in  India,  as  gold  and 
silver  were  worked  in  Scotland  before  the  I'nion,  and  gave 
subsistence  to  a  number  of  poor  people.  So  also  in  Sutherland 
the  other  day :  mere  dilettantism  sometimes  also,  as  when  an 
Earl  of  Hopetoun  cm  his  marriage  put  a  ring  on  the  finger  of  his 
bride  made  out  of  gold  found  on  the  Hopetoun  estate.  Balier — 
not  the  Emperor,  but  Baber  the  civil  servant — is  satisfactory 


OLD    COINS.  olo 

enough  when  he  tells  us  of  the  diggiuf,'s  for  gold  fifty  years  ago 
in  tlie  Wvnaad.  Nobody  believed  in  the  gold  mines  of  Aus- 
tralia before  they  were  discovered.  But  herein,  as  a  friend 
remarks,  lies  the  difference.  Australia  was  new  when  India 
was  old.  Her  eartli  was  well  walked  over  and  riddled  by 
countless  generations  before  wo  came  to  it. 

Why  did  j'ou  not  tell  us  this  before,  says  the  reader  '.  We 
did  so  in  a  kind  of  way,  but  the  sovereignty  of  man  lies  hid  in 
knowledge,  and  we  still  know  very  little  of  wliat  may  be  in 
the  bowels  of  the  earth.  I'or  some  reasons  it  is  to  be  regi-etted 
that  a  great  cold  mine  was  not  discovered  in  India.  It  would 
liave  quickened  the  dry  l)ones  of  exchange  and  been  a  godsend 
to  remitters.  But  gold  and  silver  mines  do  not  necessarily  uild 
to  the  real  wealth  of  a  country.  They  have  made  some  Uiitions 
and  unmade  others.  Adam  Smith  has  some  impeiisliable  wcntls 
on  the  condition  of  two  of  them  in  his  day.  "  Spain  and  Por- 
tugal,"  he  says,  "  which  ])o.ssess  tlie  mines,  are,  after  I'oland,  the 
two  most  beggarly  nations  in  Europe." 

The  coins  of  the  extinct  dynasties  of  India  have  no  attraction 
for  us,  not  even  of  Bijapur  or  I'ersepolis,  nor  even  those  of  the 
Mint  of  llaygarh  since  we  have  come  to  know  Sivaji  so  well  ; 
and  a  sequin  taken  from  the  liair  of  ('hand  Bibi,  the  nolilc 
(pieen  lierself,  even  though  we  were  assured  it  was  nmdc  from 
gold  brouglit  from  Africa  by  the  caiavans  of  l)arrur  and  Kor- 
dofan,  could  not  tempt  us  for  more  llian  its  intrinsic  value. 
The  coins  tliat  are  liest  to  have  are  most  ditticult  to  keep.  Even 
Lord  Eawrence,  M'ho  "  lield  the  gorgeous  East  in  fee,"  on  his 
death  did  not  leave  a  single  ring  or  Jewel  that  could  be  given 
away  to  a  friend  as  a  ]iarting  memorial.  Your  life  would 
scarcely  be  worth  a  year's  i>urcliase  in  some  cpiarters  if  it  were 
known  you  were  the  possessor  of  a  200  gold-mohiir  ]ii('ce  of 
Shahjahan.  The  Spanish  proverb  was  "my  money  rolls  and 
is  not  Moorish : "  but,  round  or  square,  it  would  soon  roll  away 
from  you;  and  the  cry  of  lire  and  thieves  would  be  perpetually 
in  your  ear.  So  would  it  be  with  that  great  gold  jiiece  of  the 
Baktrian  Eukratides,  2."»llo  grains  in  weight,  another  bulky  ex- 
ponent of  empire  in  the  East.  It  is  this  that  makes  the  posses- 
sion and  retention  of  coins  in  liie  I]ast  a  matter  of  extreme 
diflicnltv. 

Y  2 


316  OUR    COINS. 

Men  are  so  tossed  about  with  tlieir  household  goils  that  it 
is  a  marvel  if  any  relic  sticks  by  them  till  the  finish.  Our 
museums  have  found  out  this  dearly  to  their  cost.  The 
wretches  wlio  j^et  hold  of  such  valuables  lose  little  time  in  con- 
signing them  to  the  melting-pot.  Still  with  the  chance  of  all 
these  dire  contingencies,  there  are  some  coins  for  -which  we  have 
a  sneaking  regard,  and  we  are  not  above  temptation : — a  gold- 
mohar  of  I^urmahal  coined  at  Ahmadabad,  on  that  one  day 
when  tlie  fortunes  of  Occidental  India  were  placed  at  her  dis- 
posal, witli  this  bright  inscription,  "  By  order  of  king  Jahangir 
gold  has  accpiired  a  hundred  degrees  of  excellence  on  receiving 
the  name  of  Xurjahan  ;  "  or  a  set  of  her  Zodiac  rupees  in  silver 
coined  at  Ahmadabad,  or,  still  better,  the  gold  ones  coined  at 
Agra,  would  not  find  our  eyes  closed  against  the  Light  of  the 
AVorld;  or  a  tetradrachm  of  Alexander  the  Great  picked  up  on 
the  banks  of  the  Indus,  the  Macedonian  heroic  head  rounded 
with  lion  skin  or  tusk  of  elephant.  But  mind  these  coins  must 
all  be  genuine ;  nay,  like  Cesar's  wife,  abo\'e  suspicion.  The 
story  goes  that  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  when  Commissioner  in  Sind, 
picked  up  a  big  gold  coin  of  Alexander  which  was  considered 
almost  unique.  He  sent  it  to  a  friend  in  England,  and  great 
was  the  joy  thereat.  Could  he  get  another  ?  He  sent  for  Bar 
Abbas.  This  sapient  son  of  the  soil  stroked  liis  beard,  and  ^^■itll 
shoeless  feet  salaamed  down  to  the  ground.  Could  ho  get 
another  ?  "  Perhaps,  0  lord  and  master,  but  it  will  take  some 
time."  The  arrant  scoundrel  had  manufactured  it,  and  was 
about  to  move  ofl'  to  make  another. 

The  forgery  of  an  anti(pie  is  a  greater  crime  than  the  forgery 
of  a  current  coin.  For  an  antique  you  may  secure  a  hundred 
times  its  intrinsic  value.  The  man  who  forges  an  antique  is  a 
liar  of  the  first  magnitude,  for  he  not  only  swindles  dead  men 
out  of  their  just  rights,  and  usurps  the  prerogative  of  Govern- 
ments which  have  passed  away  time  out  of  mind  and  are  with- 
out the  power  to  prosecute,  but  after  deceiving  his  own  genera- 
tion he  passes  on  his  impudent  fabrications  to  the  next,  and  per- 
]ietuates  his  imposture  to  generations  yet  unliorn. 

Carlyle  says  tliat  every  lie  has  sentence  of  death  passed  on  it 
at  its  birth ;  and  yet  this  must  be  an  exception,  or  it  is  "  gey 
laiitr  in  comint;,"  as  he  would  have  said  himself.     For  how  is  it 


SILVEIl.  317 

that  the  forger  tracks  our  steps  to  the  bazaars  of  JIultau,  to 
C't>i)tic  monasteries  on  the  Nile,  to  remote  villa,L;es  ou  the  shores 
of  tlie  I'ersiau  liulf,  yea  eveu  stands  guard,  ready  to  pounce 
upon  us  with  his  lying  wares  covered  with  verdigris  at  the  door 
of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  ? 

From  all  we  can  learn  lUrmingham  is  tlie  louutuiu-lie;id  of 
this  corruption,  but  dozens  of  quasi  antique  gohl-mohars  are 
the  work  of  the  Indian  iiondiciiht,  and  are  manufactTU'cd  at  our 
own  doors,  some  of  tliem  Akbar's,  which  would  have  made  his 
hair  turn  grey  in  a  single  night,  and  others  of  presentment  so 
exact  lliat  they  would,  if  possilile,  deceive  tlie  very  experts  of 
the  I'ritisli  Museum. 

The  value  of  the  ruppe  choi)s  aljuut  wonderfully,  but  it  is 
the  same  witli  tlie  shilling,  tlie  franc,  nay  eveu  the  almighty 
dollar,  and  when  peo^de  began  to  imiject  the  results  of  the 
discoveries  in  Australia,  King  (lold  himself  grew  pale,  though 
he  has  well-nigli  recovered  his  countenance  again.  .Viid  ii" 
our  rupee  is  attenuated  and  sickly  when  converted  into  English 
money,  Silver  can  conscientiously  say,  "  It  wasn't  I  that  did 
it."  Demonetised  in  (lermany,  melted  down  in  France,  and 
made  dirt-cheap  in  California,  persecuted  in  one  nation,  and 
made  to  liy  to  another,  silver  has  had  a  liard  lime  of  it.  It  is 
only  by  looking  back  some  decades  tliat  one  can  see  the  trans- 
formation scenes  in  tlie  iinancial  kaleidoscope,  in  all  of  which 
the  rupee  has  borne  a  most  conspicuous  part.  The  logic  of 
events  is  inexorable  and  makes  mincemeat  of  all  our  opinions, 
even  the  wisest  of  them  ;  so  that  the  wisdom  of  yesterday  be- 
comes the  foolishness  of  to-day,  ami  wliat  mc  utter  to-day  may 
become  a  foolisliness  to-morrow.  It  will  be  admitted  for  ex- 
amph^  that  the  wisest  of  our  economists  a  dozen  years  ago  held 
that  the  average  price  of  silver  was  60  J  pence,  and  would  revolve 
round  tliis  as  a  pivot.  To-day  (2L'nd  Noxembcr,  1S84)  it  is  49Jj, 
so  we  must  now  make  a  new  point  of  dejiarture.  Tlien  as  to  our 
cotton  trade,  who  would  have  dreamed  that  our  annual  export 
iii  1840  of  10fl,nfl0^shoul(l  have  grown  into  a  million  bales  ? 

Take  also  tht;  wlieat  trade,  a  new  tiling  in  the  world's  history. 
In  18.')()  .lohn  Counon,  representing  the  wisest  opinions  of  his 
day  in  tliis  city,  in  addressing  the  Viceroy  stated  that  the  cereals 
of  India  could  never  become  an  extensive  or  jirofitable  article  of 


318  OUK    COINS. 

export.*  Lurd  Dalliuusiu  had  just  uttered  a  pruphecy  that  with 
a  network  of  railways  India  could  supply  all  the  wants  of 
Kii,t,dand  at  twenty  shillings  a  sack.f  The  Suez  Canal  has  come 
to  his  aid  and  the  prophecy  is  fulfilled,  liut  no  prophet  could 
tell  us  in  1861,  when  the  name  of  Council  drafts  was  unknown 
as  a  factor  in  exchange,  that  they  should  crop  up  to  an  annual 
sum  of  fifteen  millions  sterling ;  and  when  at  an  important 
meeting  in  1865  we  were  told  by  a  high  authority  that  banking 
was  in  its  infancy,  we  were  not  prepared  for  the  fact  that  sixteen 
banks  with  a  paid-up  capital  of  fifteen  millions  sterling  should 
be  in  licpiidation  in  this  city  in  18G7. 

Tliese  are  some  of  the  chaotic  elements  through  which  the 
rupee  has  been  ploughing  its  way  during  the  last  fifty  years  :  and 
tills  without  taking  into  account  periods  of  war  and  famine.  It 
is  in  such  times  that  money  creeps  into  secret  hiding-places, 
securities  become  less  sure,  and  the  pillars  of  the  earth  seem  to 
tremble.  In  Pitt's  time  the  Three  per  Cents  went  down  to  48, 
and  before  Waterloo  to  54i  :  and  during  the  Mutiny  our  Indiim 
Four  per  Cents  fell  to  G9. 

In  1848  the  Irish  famine  and  the  Corn  Laws  together  raised 
the  price  of  wheat  to  lOOs.  per  quarter ;  and  we  all  remember 
in  1876,  during  our  East  Indian  famine,  how  the  most  ancient 
heirloouis  in  gold  and  silver  were  sent  to  the  Bombay  ]\Iiut  to 
be  converted  into  rupees.  All  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for 
Ills  life. 

Thrice  in  this  century  has  the  Indian  coinage  been  the 
subject  of  debate,  and  great  cluxuges  were  suggested  for  its 
reconstruction — in  1812,  in  1827,  and  again  in  1869,  v.]wn 
decimal  coinage  was  the  rage.  But  battered  and  decayed  by 
tnne  and  Council  drafts,  it  still  holds  on  its  career,  and  will  no 
doubt  continue  to  do  so  until  the  end  of  time,  or  such  time  as 
the  Colossus  of  the  North  may  please  to  appoint  for  the  reception 
of  the  kopecs  and  roubles  of  that  dread  sovereign.  Meantime 
we  may  fake  heart  of  grace  and  rejoice.  The  end  of  all  things 
is  not  at  hand,  and  the  world  is  not  yet  Cossack  or  Eepublican. 

The  rupee  is  still  the  medium  of  exchange,  and  constitutes  the 


*   Chamber  of  Commerce  Beport. 
f   l''a\vcett'.s  PoJiUcal  Kconoiny. 


THE    MEDIUM    OF    EXCHANGE.  319 

legal  money  in  which  all  payments  are  made  in  this  realm. 
Every  rupee  loan  whieli  the  tlovernment  of  India  contracts, 
and  every  currency  note  which  it  issues,  are  all  promises  to  pay 
the  owner  thereof  in  silver  rupees.  The  Viceroy  down  to  the 
lowest  menial  are  paid  in  rupees,  the  revenues  of  India  are 
received  in  the  same  coin,  and  again  disburse<l  broadcast  over 
the  hind  in  the  same  laiglit  and  shining  pieces  after  being 
weiglu'd,  like  the  [shekels  of  Abraham,  in  current  money  of  the 
mercliant. 


(    320    ) 


(HAPTEE  LIX; 

OltMK   THE    HiSTOKIAX. 


Okme's  Ilisfon/  (1704-1778),  which  the  writer  of  Amomj  'i,itf 
BooJcs  recalled  to  our  iiiemoi'ioslately,  though  now  nearly  cleatl, 

except  to  the 
student,  was  ;t 
popular  liook  in 
its  day.  Besides- 
its  being  a  work 
of  great  ability 
and  researcli. 
there  were  other 
reasons  for  this. 
Most  of  the  men 
he  writes  of  were 
alive.  Plassey 
and  Waniliwash 
were,  like  Alma 
and  Inkerman 
t(i  us,  fresh  in 
tlie  memory. 

India,  though 
old,  was  then  a 
new  country, 
like  Stanley's 
Africa  nowa- 
days. Its  his- 
tory was  a  region 
and  Auraugzeli, 
ii   a   spectre. 


ltlllli:ilT   OIOIK,    I.A.S..    TllK    JIISToniAN. 

25  ])uo.,  ITliS— 13  Jan.,  1801. 


of   cloudhind,    hazy    and 
mighty    shadows    stalkiii; 


indistinct. 
;    in    the 


Akbar 
jungle— 


Besides,  tliere  was  tlu;  interest  that  comes  to  nations  when  thev 


ORMES    HISTOKY. 


321 


are  graiiplin^  with  the  unkiidwn  I'utmi',  tor  tlii-n  Englaml  ami 
France  were  fairly  luatched ;  nulKxl y  uould  tell  which  would 
wiu^indeed  the  odds  were  soiuetiiues  against  us  for  the 
possession  of  this  great  country. 

Each  of  the  three  Presidencies  may  claim  an  interest  in  Ornie. 
He  was  nine  years  in  Calcutta,  seven  years  in  Madras,  and  born 
in  the  then  Eombay  Presidency ;  he  was  the  son  of  a  r>omliay 
surgeon  ;  he  helimgs  entirely  to  the  eighteenth  century,  and  his 
Histori/,  upon  which  his  reputation  rests,  embraces  only  the 
seventeen  years,  1745  to  1763.  That  period  he  has  made  all  his 
own,  and  no  man  shall  ever  nsnrji  dominion  over  it  now  or  here- 
after, lor  it  forms  the  backbone  of  all  investigation  on  the  subject. 
But  they  were  years  of  supreme  interest  to  us,  as  well  as  to  those 
who  lived  in  tlu^m,  for  the  Divinity  was  shaping  our  ends  amid 
nnich  rough  hewing,  and  the  rpiestion  was  solved  once  for  all 
whether  we  or  our  rivals  were  to  be  tlic  masters  of  India.  When 
Orine  passed  away  in  1801,  Napoleon  in  Egypt  was  trying  hard 
to  revive  that  f^uestion;  but  it  was  already  in  the  limbo  of  for- 
gotten things,  and  could  not  l)e  made  to  live  again,  Tipu  notwith- 
standing. Tiie  book  I  suppose  had  its  day.  JIacaulay  does 
not  damn  it  with  faint  praise,  for  he  says  it  is  well  written, 
though  tedious  ;  but  he  waded  through  it,  and  liuilt  out  of  its 
materials  a  good  deal  of  his  Essdif  upon  Clirc — history  in  court 
dress  instead  of  broadcloth.  Such  great  masters  as  Pobertson 
the  historian.  Sir  AVilliain  Jones  and  Dr.  Johnson,  if  we  can 
sujipose  him  much  interested  in  anything  Indian,  had  already 
given  it  due  commendation.  Colonel  Xewconie  "  read  it,"  the 
Great  Frederick  also — though  the  statement  apparently  escaped 
the  vigilance  of  Carlyle,  for  Frederick  is  reported  "  to  have  said 
after  reading  Ornie  that,  had  he  the  connuand  of  troops  who 
acted  like  the  sepoys  on  that  occasion  (Haidar  All's  affair)  he 
could  con(pier  all  Europe."*  Sii-  Joshua  lleynolds  was  not 
above  taking  a  hint  fron:  <  linic  in  folds  and  drapery.  Like 
Jame.s  Forbes  he  was  perpetually  dilating  on  the  friezes  of  the 
Parthenon,  finding  Greek  ideals  in  the  women  of  India.  In  one 
of  iiis  tracts  he  says  there  is  many  a  ^'enus  de  ^ledici,  but  not 
one  Apollo  Belvidere  in  India. 


*  Brigg's  LetierK,  1828. 


322  OUilE    THE    HISTORIAN. 

For  the  time  Ornie  treats  of  lie  had  the  greatest  advantages, 
for  he  was  iu  India  during  the  most  of  it: — "events  he  had 
seen"  is,  I  think,  the  phrase  Eobertson  uses.  He  was  an 
occasional  correspondent  of  Hastings ;  was  the  friend  of  Clive  ; 
was  asked  by  Bussy  to  his  chateau  in  France,  which  he 
accepted ;  was  asked  to  Edinburgh  by  Eobertson,  wliich  he  was 
not  able  to  accept,  to  the  great  disappointment  of  all  concerned  ; 
and  it  counts  for  something  that  he  was  a  friend  of  Boswell. 
He  was  not  only  in  India,  but  at  a  most  eventful  era  when 
great  interests  were  trembling  in  tlie  balance  ;  but  not  only  so, 
it  was  he  liimself  who  put  some  of  the  machinery  in  motion 
that  evolved  sucli  mighty  consequences  :  for  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  it  was  wlio  planned  the  expedition  which 
a\"enged  the  capture  of  Calcutta  by  Siraj-ad  Daulali  and  the 
atrocities  of  the  Black  Hole,  and  as  little  doubt  that  he  set 
Clive  at  the  head  of  it.  He  did  for  Clive  what  Harris  did  for 
Arthur  AVellesley — gave  him  a  great  and  manifest  opportunity 
of  distinguishing  himself. 

Without  other  sources  of  information  than  liis  Uistor// 
supplies,  it  is  impossible  to  judge  as  to  what  manner  of  man 
Orme  was.  I  have  doubts  whether  you  could  tell  whethei-  the 
author  of  the  three  volumes  had  ever  been  in  India.  The  book 
is  without  a  single  reference  of  authority  or  note  of  any  kind, 
without  a  single  classical  allusion,  never  refers  to  any  parallel 
case  in  either  ancient  or  modern  history,  never  betrays  any 
knowledge  of  current  events  in  Europe,  except  to  notice  a 
declaration  of  war  between  France  and  Great  Britain.  And  yet, 
strange  to  say,  when  we  examine  his  life  in  such  sources  as  are 
available  to  us,  we  find  all  our  ideas  completely  reversed.  Of 
his  authorities  2.31  volumes  of  ^IS.  bound  in  vellum  and  35 
volumes  of  maps  ai;d  plans  were  presented  on  his  death  to  the 
East  India  Company.  He  read  the  classics,  Latin  in  the  original, 
and  Greek  in  French  and  English  translations,  and  when  he 
was  over  forty  studied  Greek  so  that  he  might  perfect  himself 
in  the  language.  He  made  himself  conversant  with  French, 
Italian,  Dutch,  Spanish  and  Portuguese,  so  that  he  could 
consult  freely  the  authoiities  in  these  languages.  He  notes 
that  he  read  Virgil  "  with  attention,"  Livy  "  attentively," 
and   a   host    of  Latin    authors.      Herodotus,    Xenophon    and 


HIS    SELF-ABNEGATION.  323 

Tliiicydiduis  *   were   also  wuU    kudwii    lo    liiin — iiideecl  lie    has 
been  styled  the  "  Iiidiaa  Thucydides. " 

Tiiough  not  a  scrap  of  poetry  adorns  his  pages,  he  read 
the  poets  largely,  and  aimed  hiraseli'  to  scale  tlie  slopes  of 
Parnassus;  and  finally,  wlien  you  are  about  to  consign  Ornie 
in  iMrllhus,  you  find  to  your  satisfaction  that  he  was  a  religious 
man  and  a  devout  (Christian.  One  of  tlie  most  wonderful 
characteristics  of  Orme  is  his  abnegation  of  self.  I  am  not 
aware  that  historical  writing  furnishes  another  instance  of  an 
author  describing  events  of  which  he  was  sometimes  a  spectator, 
and  in  one  case  the  main  originator,  and  in  which  he  bore  an 
acknowledged  ]iart,  so  industriously  hiding  himself,  keeping 
himself  in  the  backgi-ound :  a  modesty  so  great  that  one  is  apt 
to  think  a  little  of  tlie  personal  would  have,  at  times,  added 
zest  and  interest  to  the  narrative.  But  he  scorns  the  ego  as 
altogether  beneath  the  dignity  of  history,  and  hides  himself 
in  the  garden  which  he  has  constructed  as  if  he  had  done  some 
great  wickedness.  Take  the  Ylth  Book,  in  which  he  rises  to 
the  height  of  his  great  argument,  and  which  Robertson  the 
liistorian  so  justly  eulogised.  The  period  is  early  in  1756 ; 
Calcutta  has  been  taken  from  us,  and  the  Black  Hole  tragedy 
consummated,  and  England  and  luiglishmen  in  Bengal  at  a 
very  poor  pass.  It  was  the  force  which  was  sent  from  ]\Iadras 
under  Admiral  Watson  and  Colonel  Clive  which  turned  the 
tide.  Who  sent  that  force?  You  say  the  Madras  Council. 
Yes,  but  the  Jfadras  Council  were  altogether  of  another  way 
of  thinking  until  Urnie  showed  them  the  road  and  the  way  to 
walk  in  it.  Herj  is  how  he  puts  it,  and  I  defy  any  man  to 
know  that  it  was  Orme  if  he  has  notliiiig  else  lliiin  what 
Orme's  lliatunj  affords — 

"  ]>ut  the  arguments  were  opposed  by  one  of  the  members  of 
Council  who,  having  resided  nine  years  in  the  Company's  service 
in  Calcutta,  knew  the  strength  and  insolence  of  the  Moorish 
Government  in  Bengal,  believed  tiiat  nothing  but  vigorous 
liostilities  would  induce  the  Xabob  to  make  peace  or  reparation," 


*  'J'hucydides  wa.s  not  so  reticent  in  his  Bisturi/  ah^nt  liiiM.><elf.  Ilo  tells 
us  how  he  Ii.id  the  plague,  anil  of  his  gold  mines  in  Thrace.  "  Tlincydidis, 
son  of  Oloros,  the  hi.stori.an  of  this  war,  who  was  at  Tliasos  rcijuesling  him  to 
come  to  their  aid."— 77iK<-»/(/('fcs. 


324  OliME    THE    HISTORIAN. 

ami  his  couusel  ))ruv;iilud.  lie  built  the  luidge  and  left  othei" 
men  to  carve  his  name  uikhi  it.  He  ignores  also  the  fact  that 
it  was  he  himself  wliu  nominated  Clive  as  the  head  of  the 
Exjiedition.  It  will  be  seen  that  Orme's  intimacy  with  Clive 
was  cemented  by  bis  ncmiination  to  so  distinguished  a  post. 
An  act  like  this  creates  a  new  bund  and  strengthens  an  old  one. 
Orme  did  mucli  fur  Clive  ;ind  knew  him  well.  He  bad  gone 
home  witli  him  in  tlie  same  sliiii  in  1753.  That  means  a  good 
deal  rnure  tlian  it  dues  nuw.  He  had  even  held  the  pen  for  him 
in  Luudun  (17ii4),  and  that  means  more  intimacy.  J!ut  a  cool- 
ness arose  between  them,  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it,  for  Orme's 
ways  were  not  Clive's  ways.  There  was  that  damning  question 
of"  the  red  letter  "  and  I'michand  :  the  one  black  spot  in  Clive's 
career,  and  Orme  was  not  tlie  man  to  fall  down  and  worship 
('live,  though  he  liad  come  to  lie  regarded  as  nearly  the  greatest 
man  in  England.  With  Orme  duty  and  honour  were  far  above 
Clive  and  the  East  India  Company,  though  Clive  was  its  greatest 
servant  and  he  its  paid  official.  Clive  came  home  finally  in 
1709  and  their  friendship  was  at  an  end.  And  in  (_)rme's  second 
volume,  published  in  1778,  are  recorded  in  one  pregnant  sentence 
these  words,  which  are  his  Alpha  and  Omega  on  the  Umichand 
business  : — "  The  two  crures  oi'  rupees  Umichand  expected  ought 
to  have  been  paiil  to  him,  and  he  left  to  enjoy  them  in  oblivion 
and  contempt." 

There  had  been  ripples  on  the  surface  at  an  early  stage 
of  their  intimacy.  In  the  first  edition  of  the  first  volume 
(1764)  is  recurded  under  date  30th  August,  1748,  the  attack 
oil  Poudicherry,  and  that  Clive  distinguished  himself,  and 
that  we  had  to  retreat  with  the  loss  of  1065  Europeans. 
The  paiticulars  of  this  disaster  as  given  by  Orme  had  to  be 
eliminated  by  him  in  the  second  edition  and  constitute  the 
single  note  of  his  history  which  we  had  forgotten  in  our  sweeping 
assertion.  Orme  admits  the  account  was  erroneous.  Xo  doubt 
it  was  Clive  put  him  right ;  but  there  must  have  been  angry 
words  before.  Orme  added  some  pages  at  the  end  of  the  volume 
tu  furnish  what  appears  to  us  a  compulsory  rectification  of  the 
narrative.  Again  lie  wiites  to  a  friend  in  17'J3  : — '"  I  tuld  Lord 
Clive  that  liad  I  heen  on  his  Council  when  he  entered  Mur- 
shidabad,  I  sliuuM  lia\c  moved  to  look  out  for  and  punish  the 


HIS  HONESxr.  325 

Janiadars  who  held  up  the  lijjhts  to  mixlv  Uk'  wretched  suflierers 
in  the  Bhuk  Hole."  Sn  dift'erent  it  is  to  iimke  liistoiy  ami 
write  history. 

You  may  be  sure  a  man  like  this,  who  did  not  scruide  to 
<1eclare  his  opinions  on  Clive,  the  friend  of  his  youth  and  nian- 
liood,  held  the  even  balance  of  his  judgment  on  lesser  men.  He 
kept  back  nothing  nor  set  down  aught  in  malice.  He  looked 
upon  history  as  a  mirror  of  tlie  age  in  wliieli  j'ou  were  to  see 
each  face  exactly,  neither  flattered  nor  distorted.  He  does  not 
spare  the  Englishmen  and  the  English  ships  which  deserted 
Calcutta  in  her  great  day  of  need.  It  was  all  tlie  same :  French- 
man, Englishman,  Hindu  or  Muslim.  Ih;  ])raisos  IJussy  when 
he  is  worthy  of  praise,  and  condemns  T-ally  when  he  is  worthy 
(which  he  generally  is)  of  condemnation.  "What  an  India  there 
would  have  been  for  the  Hindu  had  Lally  been  victorious:  yet 
he  sheds  a  tear  when  he  hears  he  has  been  led  to  llie  block  by 
his  own  countrymen.  Of  another  French  otiicer  he  says,  "  He 
was  a  gallant  and  worthy  man."  He  is  not  blind  to  Colonel 
Heron's  barbarities  at  Nelikota,  although  he  is  an  Englishman. 
He  is  superior  to  all  local  and  vulgar  prejudices  of  rresidency 
against  I'residency.  Bombay  in  IToG  is  "  still  possessed  by  their 
ancient  spirit  of  caution,"  and  in  1760,  when  occasion  demand.s, 
"these  exertions  did  honour  to  the  Bombay  Presidency." 

If  any  man  jiresumed  on  having  Ornie  as  his  friend,  he  must 
do  the  right  and  shame  the  devil.  If  Orme  is  not  a  gi'eat,  he  is 
an  honest  historian.  Xo  man  will  ever  be  able  to  describe  an 
Indian  fort,  and  the  means  taken  to  circumvent  ami  capture!  it, 
as  he  has  done,  for  the  reason  that  this  method  of  warfare  has 
utterly  passed  away.  It  was  in  full  swing  in  his  time.  He 
lived  in  the  times  he  describes;  he  had  been  in  nuuiy  forts;  he 
had  the  oral  and  written  narratives  of  the  soldiers  engaged  in 
tlie  sieges,  and  above  all  a  pen  so  descriptive  as  to  bring  vividly 
before  the  mind's  ej'e  every  outwork,  bastion,  redoubt  and 
cavalier,  parapet,  curtain  and  covered  way,  ditch  and  bridge, 
sap,  mine  and  countermine.  India  in  these  times  and  in  all 
previous  times  could  not  exist  without  forts.  Every  image  of 
solidity  and  endurance,  as  in  I'alestine  of  old,  was  borrowed, 
from  the  strength  of  hills  and  the  rock  of  ages.  Some  of  these 
forts  had  iield  in  awe  the  surrountling   countrv  tor   centuries. 


o 


o'26  OliME    THE    H1«T01!1AX. 

The  "  iiiexpiijiuable "  Daulatabatl  or  Deogir  takes  yoii  back 
to  the  Pcriplus ;  Giiia  the  Gibraltar  of  the  East;  Gingee,  with 
several  l<n(il>s  buttressed  to  Leaven,  the  liutje  stones  of  which 
had  been  piled  together  by  those  old  giants  the  kings  of  A'ijay- 
anagar ;  and  Chittapet  with  a  gateway  capable  of  containing  on 
its  terraces  500  men  drawn  up  under  arms.  Dekhau  and 
Karnatic,  the  country  was  tliickly  clothed  with  them,  and  on  a 
clear  day  from  a  liigli  hill  you  could  see  with  the  naked  eye  a 
hundred  fortified  plac(!s.  Sometimes  tlie  fate  of  siege  or  war 
depended  on  a  mere  trifle.  A  pet  dog,  unob.served  in  tiie  dark, 
accompanies  a  storming  party — yelps,  and  everything  is  lost ;  a 
bullock  slides  into  a  gutter  in  a  narrow  lane,  stops  those  behind, 
the  advance  knows  it  not — .slaughter  and  ruin.  Again,  unless 
an  officer  had  placed  a  fire-fly  on  his  compass,  his  party  would 
have  fallen  into  the  jaws  of  the  enemy.  The  Duke  at  Asssaye 
gauges  the  existence  of  a  ford  from  the  smoke  of  a  hut.  Fancy 
the  fate  of  a  battle  hingeing  on  the  bark  of  a  dog,  a  spavined 
bullock,  a  fire-fly,  or  the  smoke  from  a  fire  of  tiried  leaves. 

Tlie  simplest  form  of  an  Indian  fort  \^■as  a  rock  enclosed  by  a 
square  stout  wall  and  a  parapet  with  loopholes  to  fire  througli. 
A  watercourse  .serves  the  English  instead  of  a  trench.  They 
mount  the  breach,  are  driven  back,  rush  to  tlie  gate,  fire  up  to 
drive  the  defenders  from  the  ramparts,  recoil,  when  one  resolute 
Englishman,  jnounted  on  the  shoulders  of  a  sejtoy,  gets  hold  of 
some  of  the  carved  work  of  the  gateway,  haids  himself  up  and 
clambers  to  the  top,  while  those  below  hand  liim  the  coloui'S  of 
his  company,  which  he  plants  upon  the  parapet  amid  loud 
hurrahs.  lie  is  followed  by  twenty  others;  some  engage  the 
enemy,  others  drop  down  inside  the  rampart  and  open  the  gate, 
and  in  they  burst  and  on  they  rush,  at  the  jnish  of  tlie  bayonet, 
clattering  up  the  stony  stairs  amid  a  storm  of  hail  and  coals  of 
fire  which  scour  the  passages,  and  a  remnant  reaches  the  Bala- 
lUln  and  AVaikonda  is  taken. 

l)aulatabad  was  taken  in  a  different  manner  (1758).  Bussy 
asked  the  Governor  if  he  might  be  allowed  to  "  eat  the  air  "  and 
see  the  magnificent  view  from  the  summit  which  many  of  us 
have  done.  The  Killadar  asked  him  to  dinner,  and  Bussy  came 
with  300  Europeans.  He  came,  he  saw,  he  conquered  ;  but  he 
did  not  dine.    The  dinner  was  served  in  the  hall  of  the  Killadar's 


HIS    IXFOKilATIO.V.  327 

house  ill  the  upper  fort.  Willi  true  French  politeness  Bussy 
told  the  Governor  that  he  himself  must  be  excused  sitting  down 
to  dinner,  and  that  he  the  Governor  must  consider  himself  a 
prisoner.  Thus  the  baked  meats  furnished  the  funeral  feast  of 
Uaulatabad.  It  was  all  a  farce  of  Frencli  plaj',  as  treachery  had 
already  done  its  work. 

About  the  India  of  his  day  Orme  merely  gives  you  the  in- 
formation available  at  the  time.  Could  he  do  more  ?  A  smile 
of  incredulity  comes  over  us  when  we  read  that  Aurangabad  has 
a  population  of  a  million  and  a  half,  and  is,  next  to  Dehli,  the 
most  populous  and  wealthy  city  of  the  Empire.  The  difficulty 
of  knowing  about  places  in  the  Dekhan  and  Southern  Maratha 
country  wa.s  much  greater  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth 
than  in  that  of  the  seventeenth  century,  for  the  country  was 
ploughed  by  intestine  and  foreign  armies,  and  communication 
by  travellers  almost  impossible.  Take  Bijapur,  for  example,  so 
well  known  to  most  of  us.  "  Xor  do  we  know  of  any  person 
living  who  has  lieen  in  Bijapur."*  Where  do  you  think  Orme 
places  Itaygarh  ?  Midway  between  I'oona  and  Junnar,  instead 
of  its  proper  place  fifty  miles  south-west  of  Poona.  D'Anville 
and  the  geographers  of  Europe  a  hundred  years  ago  were  in  sucli 
a  hopeless  maze  about  Angrias  territory  on  the  opposite  side  of 
Bombay  Harbour  that  Orme  lays  down  on  his  map  two  rivers, 
the  Xagothna  and  Ten  (which  have  no  existence),  the  former 
flowing  into  the  Indian  Ocean. 

The  following  is  from  Boswell : — 

"  I  told  Dr.  . Johnson  that  I  had  been  informed  by  Mr.  Orme 
that  many  parts  of  the  East  Indies  were  better  mapped  tliau  tlio 
Highlands  of  Scotland." 

Jolmson  said  "that  a  country  may  be  majjjied,  it  must  be 
tr:i\elled  over." 

"  Xay,"  said  1,  meaning  to  laugli  witli  him  at  one  of  liis 
])rcjudices,  "  can't  you  say  it  is  not  woilh  mapping?" 

Mr.  Eastwick  t  mentions  that  (ieneral  Carnac,  M'ho  died  at 
Bangalore  a  very  old  man,  about  1801,  was  "  Olive's  .second-in- 
command   at   riassey."      Orme's    index,   copious    beyond   all 


Oriental  Fni;/menls,  180.5,  ji.  292 
t  Murrat/'s  Guide,  1857. 


l'>'2S  OliME    THE    HISTORIAN'. 

pieeedciiL  (120  pages),  does  not  contain  the  name.  I'live's 
second-in-command  was  Coote,  the  hero  of  Wandiwash,  snch  a 
hero  as  might  have  fonght  at  Otterburn,  for  he  did  not  hewail 
his  dead  enemy,  but  he  asked  Lally,  his  living  one,  to  dinner 
after  he  had  beaten  him  at  Pondicherry  (1751),  and  heaved  a 
sigh  over  the  captive  and  woe-l)egone  Grenadiers  of  Lorraine. 

My  great  quarrel  with  Mr.  Orme  is  that  lie  does  not  believe 
in  the  daughter  of  Aurangzel)  falling  in  love  with  Sivaji.  Dow 
(17tJ8-72)  liad  published  tlie  statement.*  Burke  and  Johnson 
discredited  Dow"s  Ilistorj-  in  Mo,  and  Orme  from  an  impartial 
translation  from  the  Persian,  made  by  a  neutral  party,  convinced 
tliem  both  of  its  autiienticity.  Yet,  nevertheless,  though  Dow 
knew  Persian  and  he  didn't,  Orme  is  sceptical  on  this  romantic 
episode,  and  wishes  us  to  believe  that  this  lady  could  not  fall 
in  love  with  Sivaji  for  the  following  preposterous  reason.  "  His 
figure,"  says  he,  "  though  very  compact,  is  not  elegant,  and  his 
physiognomy  though  significant  is  not  beautiful."  "  Of  an 
excellent  proportion,"  says  Escailot  to  Sir  Thomas  Browne, 
(Surat,  24th  January,  16()-1).  Of  how  many  men  could  this  be 
said  ?  Orme  himself,  if  we  may  judge  from  his  bust  by  Nollekens  ; 
and  yet  he  was  a  victim  of  the  tender  passion,  and  his  love  was 
reciprocated,  but  whether  by  nut-brown  maid  or  fair-liaired 
daughter  of  the  North  is  unknown.  This  is  how  lie  sings  of 
Chine  "  from  a  terrace  in  ^ladras  (1757)  "  : — 

"Stay,  silver  moon,  nor  hasten  do\Tii  tlie  .^kk-s: 
I  seek  the  hower  wliere  lovely  Chloe  lies." 

— a  new  aspect  in  which  to  consider  the  hard-headed  Orme ! 

Here  are  some  of  Orme's  wise  saws  on  the  Hindustan  of  his 
days,  which  may  interest  the  juvenile  diplomatist : — 

The  Indians,  never  influenced  by  a  principle  of  gratitude 
tliemselves,  do  not  e.xpect  it  in  others. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  every  Prince  in  India,  let  his  wealth  be  ever 
so  great,  to  keep  his  army  in  long  arrears  for  fear  they  sliould 
desert. 

Excess  of  courage,  however  desperately  or  absurdly  cm] iloyed, 
seldom  fails  to  interest  those  who  are  spectators  of  it,  and  often 


*  History  of  Eindustan,  iii.,  p.  368;  and  ante,  vol.  i.,  pp.  oid,  MIO. 


HIS  WISE  SAWS.  32y 

obliges  them  to  participate  uf  tlie  danger,  even  against  tlic 
convictions  of  their  reason. 

The  people  of  Hindustan  are  generally  so  niucli  oppressed 
that,  if  they  do  not  rejoice,  they  rarely  regret  the  loss  of  any  of 
their  rulers. 

In  despotic  States  the  so\'ereign  is  always  the  last  to  learn 
what  it  concerns  him  most  to  know. 

The  Princes  of  Hindustan  nevia-  join  the  standard  which 
doubts  of  success. 

There  is  no  Trinei!  in  Hindustan  who  does  not  try  every 
means  in  his  power  to  avoid  the  payment  of  money. 

There  is  no  country  in  which  tlie  slightest  mischances  and 
success  of  war  weigh  so  much  in  tlie  iipinion  of  lioth  friends  and 
enemies  as  in  Hindustan. 

,Vnd  here  is  "  a  notable,"  .Vnno  17'>o.  "  Who.soever  lias  seen 
a  body  of  ten  thousand  horse  advancing  on  the  full  gallop 
all  together  will  acknowledge  with  the  Mareschals  Villars  and 
Saxe,  that  their  appearance  is  tremendou.s,  be  their  discipline  or 
courage  what  it  may."  Those  were  the  Mysoreans,  Marathas 
and  French  defeated  by  Major  Lawrence. 

One  would  like  to  know  when  there  was  an  instance  of  this 
in  recent  times. 


vol.    11. 


(    330    ) 


CHAPTEIl    LX. 

The  Eed  Sea. 

I  NEVER  yet  met  a  person  who  liked  the  Eed  Sea.  Every- 
hody  saj's,  "  The  more  I  see  it  the  less  I  like  it,"  or  home'v^ard 
bound,  "  I  hope  I  shall  never  see  the  Eed  Sea  again  except  on 
the  map."  When  you  go  home  you  are  glad  to  get  quit  of  it, 
and  when  you  come  out  to  India  you  are  glad  to  get  (juit  of  it. 
Eed  Sea  heat  is  proverbial : — 

"Excess  of  licat  is  but  a  faWe, 
AVe  know  tlie  torrid  zone  is  now  found  liabitablc." 

So  says  Mr.  Cowley,  who  had  never  tried  it.  Given  a  sea  ex- 
tending far  and  wide,  as  smooth  as  sheets  of  plate-glass,  a  sun 
shining  on  it  with  imraitigated  fervour,  a  sky  like  a  molten 
looking-glass,  a  burial  every  alternate  day,  and  a  langiud 
frame :  I  don't  know  any  more  miserable  outlook  for  a  sick  man. 
Tell  me  not  of  "  Arabia's  crimson  sands,"  or  of  the  "  Araby 
maid  to  fly  with  the  Christian  knight."  Pharaoh  did  not  like 
the  Eed  Sea,  and  I  am  told  that  if  tliere  is  one  place  in  the 
world  more  than  another  a  ghost  dislikes,  it  is  the  Eed  Sea. 
Sir  ( 'harles  Xapier  knew  this  proverb,  that  it  was  a  good  place 
to  lay  a  ghost.  Strange  then,  is  it  not,  that  e\erybody  has  such 
a  strong  desire  to  see  it  ?  The  first  view  of  the  ]Mediterranean 
is  an  elixir,  whether  your  proclivities  are  sacred  or  profane,  and 
the  miseries  of  Marseilles  are  forgotten  in  a  first  glance  of  its 
liliie  waters. 

To  see  the  Eed  Sea  is,  however,  a  modern  auconiplishment. 
The  Mediterranean  is  old,  but  the  Eed  Sea  is  old  ««(/  new — 
new  in  tlus  respect,  that  in  the  first  decade  of  this  century 
the  number  of  Europeans  who  had  seen  it,  and  coidd  give  an 
intelligent  account   of  it,  might   be  counted   on   vour  fingers. 


THE    RED    SEA    ROUTE.  331 

J^Ditl  Clive  never  sa%v  the  Eed  Sea,  ntn-  AN'arien  Hastings,  nor 
Lord  Cornwallis,  nor  Sir  Wiliiani  Jones,  nor  Sir  James  Slack- 
intosh,  nor  Bishop  Heber,  not  even  ^lacaulay.  Hence  when 
such  daring  spirits  as  Niebulu-  and  Bruce  in  the  last  century, 
and  Burckhardt  and  Burton  in  tliis,  spread  their  sail  on  it  and 
wrote  a  book,  all  the  world  wondered.  Sir  Bartle  Frere  (1833) 
was  the  first  civil  servant  wiio  braved  a  buggalow  and  Bab-el- 
Mandeb ;  *  and  Lord  Clare  (1831),  the  first  Bombay  (Tovernor 
who  was  audacious  enougli  to  come  out  this  way  under  steam. 
He  it  was  to  whom  Lord  Byron  (1807)  addressed  those  beauti- 
ful lines  in  Thr  Hours  of  Idleness,  beginning  "Friend  of  my 
youtli,"  and  which  seem  without  speck  or  imperfection  of  any 
kind. 

So  you  see  we  have  changed  all  this,  and  people,  instead  of 
talking  of  such  mediocre  subjects  as  Table  ilountain  and  the 
Island  of  Johanna,  expatiate  now  on  the  Straits  of  Jubal 
or  Mount  Sinai.  It  is  well  also  to  remember  that  we  are 
not  the  only  ha])py  recipients  of  such  associations.  There  are 
other  men  beyond  the  seas,  and  thousands  of  them  come  by  the 
Bed  Sea,  who  never  see  India  at  all,  or,  if  they  do,  regard  it  as 
a  mere  half-way  house.  For  them  Bab-el-Mandeb,  instead  of 
being  the  Gate  of  Tears,  is  Bab-el-Kahira  or  the  Gate  of  Victory. 
I  sliall  never  forget  the  spectacle  of  a  vessel  of  the  Orient  Line 
slowly  emerging  from  the  Canal,  noiseless  as  a  Imge  piiantom 
ship,  its  vast  bulk  covered  in  every  part  by  hundreds  of 
passengers,  dense  as  mites  on  a  cheese.  There  was  to  be  seen  tlie 
gay  lady  shading  her  face  from  the  setting  sun,  which  still  shed 
a  red  glow  on  the  Arabian  hills,  and  the  poor  waif  hustled  for 
bread  to  the  world's  other  end.  lint  from  stem  to  stern,  from 
deck  to  cross-trees,  from  spar  and  s])anker  boom,  every  eye, 
whether  from  under  battered  wide-awake  or  satin  beaver,  from 
liim  who  lays  down  Ids  Darwin  to  the  infant  of  days  with  its 
Shorter  Catechism  on  its  knee — e\'ery  eye  was  strained  to  catch 
a  first  glimpse  of  the  Bed  Sea.     No  knotty  question,  you  may 


*  Mouut.stiiart  Kliihiiistonc  left  Bombay  in  the  "  Palinurus,"  sailin£;-sliii), 
Novumber  Ifjlli,  1827,  vid  Mocha  and  Kosir.  The  "  Hugh  Lindsay," 
ComniandtT  Wilson,  was  the  first  steamer  which  went  from  Bonihav  U>  Sncz. 
Left  Bombay  March  20tli,  1S30;  arrived  at  Suez  April  22ud,  1830." 

7    o 


332  THE    UED    SEA. 

depeud  on  it,  ever  dislurbed  tlieiii  us  lo  whether  the  crossing 
took  place  at  Suez  or  Kantara  :  for  the  Exodus — wherever  it  took 
phice — to  many  of  us  is  still  the  grandest  event  in  ancient 
history,  if  you  are  to  measure  an  event  by  the  influence  it  has 
had  on  tiie  destinies  of  man.  Sinai  and  Horeb  are  not  to  lie 
snuffed  out  by  a  philosopliical  treatise. 

r.T  ('i;tei;.v. 

The  greatest  dejith  of  the  I'ed  Seals  1054  fathoms;  this  is 
nearly  opposite  Suakini.  Tiie  "Chiltern"  picked  up  the 
broken  end  of  the  lied  Sea  cable  in  1875,  from  a  depth  of  a 
thousand  fathoms.  Lockyer,  the  well  known  astronomer,  on  a 
clear  and  perfectly  still  day,  saw  the  top  of  an  ascending  column 
of  smoke  from  an  approaching  steamer  at  a  distance  of  fort}- 
miles  with  a  telescope.  The  well  known  Jabal  Xaklius  or  Bell 
^lountain  lies  four  miles  from  the  beach  on  the  western  shore  of 
the  Gulf  of  Siiez.  You  will  see  the  name  on  the  map  not  far 
from  Tor.  Its  discovery  is  due  to  Lieut.  AVellsted,  of  the  Indian 
Navy  (1838).  It  is  a  rock  400  feet  high,  and  when  sand  is 
rolled  down  ou  its  sloping  surface  it  produces  sounds  like  an 
^Eolian  har]),  wliich  increase  to  that  of  the  fingers  on  a  moist 
glass.  Finally,  as  the  sand  reaches  the  base  the  reverberation 
is  like  distant  thunder  startling  into  flight  the  camels  of  the 
traveller.  Hugh  Miller  and  Sir  Da^•id  Brewster  laboured  hard 
to  explain  the  phenomenon,  and  Sir  John  Herschel  declared  it 
"  utterly  inexplicable."  He  could  weigli  Jupiter,  but  the  "  Bell 
Mountain  "  he  could  not  solve.  Palmer's  collectioii  of  birds 
from  the  Smai  Beninsida  was  exhibited  in  London  (1882),  and 
it  was  curious  to  note  how  almost  every  one  partook  of  the 
dusky  colour  of  the  desert.  The  same  remark  holds  good  witii 
regard  to  the  hawks  on  the  Bed  Sea,  some  fine  specimens  of 
which  often  settle  on  the  ships' rigging  during  tlie  night,  and  are 
easily  caught  in  the  grey  dawn. 

UED    SE.V    SHIPS. 

I  made  a  vigorous  search  in  the  P.ulaq  Museum  (May  1887) 
for   the  models  of   ancient  Egyptian  sliips,  seen  by  me  some 


DIFFICULTIES    OF    XAVKiATION'.  333 

"lUiUter  of  a  centuiv  ;igu,  bui  I'aik-d  to  iliscovor  them.  T  liail 
stated  that  they  were  modelled  like  our  own  buggalows,  and 
tlircw  some  hght  ou  the  obscure  origin  of  Indian  navigation. 
I  failed  in  discovering  them — they  were  of  silver,  and  may  have 
been  M.  Alariette's  personal  jiroperty :  hut  the  statement  made 
by  Laborde  (1839)  makes  thoir  existence  of  less  conseiiuence. 
Here  it  is : — 

"  The  spectacle  of  the  Eed  Sea  ships  reminded  me  strongly 
of  the  vessels  (models)  found  in  the  Egyptian  tombs,  and  jiar- 
ticularly  of  two  in  a  perfect  state  of  preservation  discovered 
during  the  excavations  which  were  carried  on  under  m\'  direc- 
tions for  five  montlis  at  the  foot  of  the  rvramids." 


SCAUF.S. 

J)r.  r.nist  (18r)4)  tells  us  that  .labal  Tir,  the  "  ilountain  of 
Birds,"  was  still  smoking  as  it  had  been  since  1774  when 
described  by  Bruce,  and  that  a  violent  eruption  of  short  contin- 
uance in  one  of  the  Zugar  Islands  took  place  in  184G,  which 
was  fortunately  seen  from  difterent  points  of  view  by  steamers 
jjassing  in  different  directions.  Wlien  the  lied  Sea  volcanoes, 
ages  ago,  were  belching  fire  in  full  activitv,  they  must  have  been 
a  fine  siglit ;  that  is,  provided  tiie  spectator  had  the  chance  of 
survival.  Look  at  a  large  chart  of  the  Eed  Sea,  and  observe 
liow  intricate  and  narrow  the  channel  is, — in  places  like  a  canal. 
Even  the  most  fortunate  and  efficient  commanders  have  occasion- 
ally a  scare  on  the  lied  Sea,  and  it  will  l>e  so  to  tlie  end  of 
time. 

I  sujipose  a  num  is  not  an  idiot  when  he  mistakes  a  mirage 
for  an  island,  or,  in  a  midnight  fog  or  ilust  haze  at  "  dead 
slow  "  as  he  i)aces  tiie  bridge,  descries  almost  under  his  bows 
^\'hat  he  supposes  are  the  spurs  of  some  Jabal.  Stop  the  ship  ; 
and  so  he  does,  but  not  before  he  runs  into  a  herd  of  (lows* 


*  Till  sixty  years  ago  this  wonl  was  uiittiu  Dun-;  Krapf  (18-14)  writes 
haiu  (Arabic  dao).  How  the  inili.il  '/  came  to  be  aspirated  would  be  hard 
to  say.  The  use  of  tlie  word  comes  iVoiii  the  Ited  Sea,  and  in  India  is  olteu 
interchanged  with  Utf/alu,  (vulgo  hiojyula,  biKjijatuw),  also  used  in  tlie  Ui-d 
Sea  (baqdla).  Sec  ICdjc's  technical  dcstii[itiun  in  Juiirnal  Jloi/ul  Asiulic 
■StKictij,  i.,  ii.  ;  and  Coulomb's  tihivc  Catihliifj.~~\'t. 


334 


THE    RED    SEA. 


hustled  together,  the  yells  of  tlie  crews  being  the  lirst  thing  that 
explains  his  position.  They  show  no  light,  and  are  right  in  the 
track  of  this  ocean  steamer.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
lateen  sails,  swaying  across  each  other,  bulk  big  athwart  the 
gloom,  and  appear  to  the  captain's  eye  in  the  dense  haze  as  so 
many  jagged  pinnacles  ?  Yes,  these  are  the  things  that  make 
men's  hair  grow  grey.  Eead  I'algrave's  story  of  the  green  sea 
in  tons  dashing  over  the  deck,  and  .you  will  realise  what  a 
wreck  is  on  the^  coast  of  Arabia,  and  to  what  dangers  the 
shipmaster  is  exposed.  The  shores  of  the  Eed  Sea  are  eloquent 
of  all  this.  M:\iij  a  skeleton  of  gallant  ship  dots  her  sea 
margin,  silent  monitors  bleached  by  the  waves — a  funnel  here, 
a  boiler  there  on  weary  headland  or  treacherous  shoal,  where 
skippers,  not  a  few,  have  eaten  the  bread  of  bitterness  and 
drunk  the  water  of  affliction.  Not  without  reason  did  the 
Ancient  Mariner  dread  these  parts,  and  Antiquity  has  written 
on  them  with  its  iron  pen  such  names  as  Bah-cl-Tarid,  the 
Banished  Man's  Gate,  and  Garda-fui,  the  Cape  of  Burial.  The 
Guide  Book  facetiously  observes,  "  There  are  no  good  hotels  at 
Perim." 

OLD    i^KIPPERS. 

Captain  Alexander  Hamilton  (1088-1723)  tried  hard  to  open 
up  a  trade  with  Suez.  His  book  has  been  a  perfect  mine  to 
writers  on  this  period,  as  he  was  a  man  full  of  Scotch  shrewd- 
ness, and  what  we  owe  to  him  has  been  generally  acknowledged. 
One  man,  a  Captain  Cope,  who  miglit  stand  cousin-german  to 
him  of  Prestonpans,  published  what  he  called  a  Kcv:  Jlistori/  of 
the.  Hast  Indies  (1754),  and  in  the  most  impudent  manner 
incorporated  entire  chapters  from  Hamilton  (1727)  as  if  tiiey 
were  liis  own,  even  down  to  his  imprisonment  in  Surat  and 
cruises  in  the  Bombay  Harbour  during  the  siege  (1089),  witiiout 
a  single  word  of  acknowledgment.  Put  your  own  name  on  the 
title-i3age  of  Livingstone's  Travels  and  publish  it  to  the  A\'orld, 
and  you  have  its  counterpart.  The  student  of  Bombay  Biblio- 
graphy is  hereby  warned  accordingly. 

I  am  sorry  I  cannot  go  back  to  Captain  M'Cluer,  177.")  to 
1795,  as  I  should  have  liked  to  have  known  the  man,  familiar 
in  Bombay  in  these  times  as  the  Tthangari  Killa  or  tlie  Modi- 


CAPTAIN    MORKSBY.  335 

Kliana,  for  I  tla-ii  should  have  been  able  to  tell  liis  birthplace 
without  asking  him,  and  this  is  what  is  wanted  to  enable  his 
natural  heirs  to  claim  a  bulky  sum  of  money  which  exists.* 
The  will  he  left  by  some  people  is  considered  very  eccentric. 
The  successful  claimants  will  not  think  so.  Captain  John 
M'Cluer  (for  the  benefit  of  all  concerned  wo  ijive  his  name  in 
full)  constructed  the  first  chart  of  Bombay  Harbour,  stamped 
his  name  on  "  ^I'Cluer's  Inlet "  in  the  Pelew  Islands,  and  accord- 
ing to  good  authorities  on  liydrography  ranks  as  a  discoverer 
second  only  to  Captain  Cook.  Lost  at  sea:  so  " none  o'er  his 
low  bed  may  weep."  Then  there  is  Lewis  of  the  "Iberia" 
(P.  and  0.  18S4)  immortalised  in  Thackeray's  famous  ballad 
"The  AVhiteS(inall:"— 

'■  Ami  louk"d  at  Captain  Lewis, 
Wlio  calmly  stood  and  blow  his 
Cigar  ill  all  the  bustle, 
And  scorn'd  the  tempest's  tussle  ; 
-Vnd  when  a  wreck  we  thought  her, 
And  doom'd  or.rselves  to  slaughter, 
How  gajlily  he  fought  her. 
And  thro\igh  the  hubbub  brought  her, 
And  as  the  tempest  caught  lier. 
Cried,  'George,  some  briiady  anil  water!"" 

P)Ul  the  man  to  whom  the  Eed  Sea  owes  most  is  Moresby. 
Before  his  time  the  lied  Sea  was  without  forni  and  voitl.  He 
cultivated  it,  trained  it  into  subjectidu  and  habits  of  obedience, 
and  l)rought  it  under  tlie  dominion  of  the  map  maker.  The 
Bed  Sea  fr<ilicked  before,  but  it  was  never  to  do  so  again,  for  he 
fixed,  on  Mercator's  Projection,  the  bounds  of  its  habitation. 
Xo  man  after  his  time  could  say  that  he  did  not  know  the 
"  Twelve  Apostles,"  or  was  guiltless  if  he  touched  the  Moklia 
Shoal  five  miles  from  land.  A  gentleman  in  every  act,  as 
became  one  bred  in  the  Indian  Navy,  of  fresh  complexion, 
somewhat  of  ap]ile-red  in  his  cheek  from  fresh  breezes  and  sea 
air,  I  can  still  sec^  him  as  he  stood  (ISoO).  He  at  this  time 
looked  a  man  of  fifty  years  of  age,  in  buttoned  surtout  blue  and 
gold,  cap  in   hand.     He  was  then  Commander  of  the  P.  and  O., 


•  August  1888;  sec  ante,  p.  153. 


;>30  THE    RED    SEA. 

and  the  late  Sir  Henry  Morland  informed  us  that  he  believed 
his  death  took  place  about — say  circa  1803. 

We  must  on  no  account  forget  Captain  Hyde,  whether  as 
"(ieorge,"  "Lord  Clarendon,"  or  the  "Magnificent,"  all  kindly 
names  of  brotherly  love.  His  memento  exists  in  the  Bomhty 
Punrh  of  the  troublous  year  186."),  where  you  will  see  also  that 
he  sung  the  "  Maid  of  Athens." 

Perrins  (1887)  shot  across  my  path  like  a  meteor  and  dis- 
appeared. "  My  name  is  Perrins,  and  I  had  the  honour  to 
bring  out  Lord  and  Lady  Dufferin  to  India,  since  which  during 
the  i^ast  two  years  I  have  been  in  Australian  waters."  This 
was  my  first  and  last  of  Perrins,  for  he  perLshed  three  weeks 
afterwards,  on  board  tlie  "  Tasmania."     Alas  !  alas  ' 

STEAM    IN    IN FANCY. 

Here  is  a  Bombay  opinion  of  steam  navigation  in  the  lied 
Sea,  when  we  were  in  a  state  of  transition.  It  is  taken  from 
the  Oriented  Christian  S/terfufor,  1833,  a  paper  edited  by  Dr. 
Wilson.  "  We  will  shortly  state  what  has  been  thus  settled, 
that  Cananore  can  never  be  the  starting-place  for  steamers  from 
the  western  coast  of  India ;  that  steamers  even  cannot  go  in  tlie 
S.W.  monsoon.  First,  liecause  they  could  not  go  themselves. 
Second,  no  one  would  go  in  tliem  at  that  peculiar,  unpleasant 
season  of  storm,  plague,  and  quarantine.  That  GOO-ton  steamers 
will  never  do  for  us  unless  we  could  find  Fortuuatus's  cap, 
or  get  a  scrul)  at  Aladdin's  \nm\>,  or  a  sight  of  Golkonda's  mine 
as  it  once  was.  They  woidd  do  great  execution,  no  doubt,  ou 
the  sea,  and  tear  furiously  u\>  to  Suez,  ])ut  for  the  Bombay 
Committee  to  patronise  them  would  be  as  bad  as  sending  a 
griffin  to  shoot  partridges  with  a  jingall,  or  buckling  on  tlu^ 
brow  of  some  young  cadet  the  lielmet  of  Utranto."  A  letter  in 
the  Bomljay  Chamber's  Report  of  1839  advises  travellers  to  avoid 
the  "  English  Society  "  which  P'gypt  affords.  Why  this  should  be 
so  we  know  not.  Egypt  was  by  no  means  perfect  in  those  days, 
l(ut  we  can  aver  that  she  was  a  Flora  compared  with  the  Virago 
siie  has  since  become :  for  Port  Saiil,  which  is  now  growing  into 
a  civilised  community,  had  not  tiien  the  semblance  of  existence. 
.Viid  our  own  people  too!     Why  liiis  invidious  distinction  ? 


A    WHITE    SEA. 


COLOUR. 


Tlie  lu'il  Si';i  can  lu^  alTsorls  of  colours,  a  perfect  eliaiiieleou ; 
and  like  the  chameleon  lie  is  very  black  when  he  is  angry. 
Thus  I  have  seen  him  a  dark  and  stormy  water  before  daylight 
under  the  frowning  limestone  clifis  of  the  Sinai  Peninsula.  I 
daresay  on  the  morning  of  llie  Exodus  he  looketl  tli3  same. 
At  Suez  his  normal  colour  is  indigo  blue,  by  way  of  contrast  to 
tlie  yellow  sands  grained  out  of  Qolzum  and  Arsiuoe.  At  Aden 
under  duststorm  and  lurid  cloud  "  as/ar  huwa  "  as  the  Arabs 
call  the  cholera — "  yellow  wind,"  he  copies  the  dirty  water  on 
the  streets.  At  Tor  it  was  seen  by  Ehrenberg  on  several 
occasions  in  1823,  as  red  as  blood  caused  by  floating  alg;e. 
For  this,  see  Udin.  Phil.  Journal,  vol.  x.,  1831.  O  tliou  evil 
Eed  Sea,  I  love,  thee  not;  I  do  not  love  tliee,  thou  fell  sea,  and 
the  reason  I  can  tell  very  well.  A  knock  at  my  caliin  door : 
it  is  in  the  small  hours.  I  stagger  iip  the  companion  like  a 
drunken  man,  when  lo  and  behold,  a  scene  meets  my  eye  in  the 
.silence  of  midnight.  The  lied  Sea  is  white  all  along  as  if  Xature 
had  donned  her  winding-sheet,  tumbling  its  white  waves,  from 
whose  broken  crests  a  fitful  wind  drives  tlie  spray  in  phosphor- 
escent fire — a  weird  and  ghastly  sight  worthy  of  ]\Iilton  or 
Dante.  My  blood  curdles  in  sympathy.  The  phenomenon  of 
the  milky  sea  has  been  repeatedly  described.  But  yet  another  : 
Aim  Zeyd,  an  ancient  mariner,  a.D.  920,  quoted  by  lienaud,  t'tth- 
mcr  en  effet  est  briimeuse  et  sujctte  a  des  exhalaisons  desayrmhlcs. 
0)1  ne  tfouvr  rioi  dc  hon  a  fond  dc  I'caic  ni  a  sa  sicrfacc.  No 
doubt  after  long  tacks  of  dead  calm,  some  ports  of  it  become 
stagnant,  and  emit  a  putrid  and  offensive  odour  from  floating 
ma.sses  of  seaweed  exposed  to  the  sun,  or  other  naiises. 

SU:^SETS. 

After  rain  and  in  cloudy  weather  the  .sunsets  in  the  lied  Sea 
are  marvellous.  The  deck  of  a  steamer  crowded  with  150  pas- 
sengers is  sometimes  hushed  into  mutest  admiration — we  had 
almost  said,  adoration — at  the  wonderful  creations  in  cloudlaiul, 
of  gold  and  of  i/recn  and  of  blue.  The  rudest  are  overawed — 
you   might  hear  a  pin  fall.     It  is  a  new    heavcTi    and  a  new 


nSS  THE    EED    SEA. 

CLXitli,  bill  an  cailli  etherealisetl,  built  up  out  of  the  fragments 
of  dreams,  solemn  temples  and  gorgeous  pinnacles,  with  rivers 
laving  silent  shores,  fretted  with  the  gold  of  these  Islands 
of  the  Blest,  and  no  galley  with  oars  or  gallant  ships  pass 
thereby. 

THE    ARAB. 

Tlie  Arali,  pure  and  simple,  is  a  splendid  type  of  humanity, 
(irandeur  of  mien  seems  to  exist  in  the  race.  Our  readers  have 
only  to  go  to  onr  horse  bazaar  — such  men — such  horses  are 
to  be  seen  for  a  thousand  miles  from  Oman  t(j  IVIograbeya. 
Do  you  mind  the  Darbar  given  by  Sir  Bartle  Prere  in  the 
Town  Hall  to  the  Imam  of  Maskat  when  the  denizens  of  the 
desert  strode  across  the  floor  in  sandalled  majesty  with  a  dignity 
that  kings  might  envy  ?  Where  were  your  Holkars  then  ?  * 
There  is  another  side  of  the  Arab  character,  and  which  does 
not  go  without  saying.  "When  Sir  Eichard  Burton  was  in 
Bombay  (187G)  people  observed  a  large  hollow  in  his  cheek 
and  wondered  how  it  came  to  pass.  It  fell  about  in  this  wise. 
At  2  a.m.  of  the  19th  April,  1855,  Burton,  Speke,  and  Stroyan, 
being  then  at  Berbera,  were  attacked  by  15U  Somalis.  Stroyan 
was  murdered,  Speke  wounded  in  several  places,  and  Burton 
wounded  by  a  spear  wliicli  passed  through  his  cheek  dividing 
the  palate.  Ample  vengeance  was  exacted.  This  is  merely  a 
sample  of  the  wild  Arab.     It  is  his  nature  so  to  do. 

TWO    IIEKOES. 

Two  men  breathed  their  last, — one  in  1882  at  the  heat!,  and 
the  other  in  1887  at  the  foot,  of  the  Eed  Sea.  Suez  and  Aden, 
entrance  and  exit,  each  has  its  guardian  spirit  beckoning  the 
men  of  this  and  otlier  generations  to  new  enterprise  in  the 
cause  of  chivaliy  and  philanthropy. 

Of  Palmer, 

"  In  Greece  a  Greek, 
In  Tyre  a  true  Phcenician,  in  the  waste 
Of  marbled  Tadmor,  an  Arabian  Sliekli 
All  would  have  tbought  him." 


*  "  1802.  Mr.  Elphinstone  told  me  that  his  (Holkar's)  appearance  was 
mean,  and  be  compared  him  to  a  Hindustani  Syce  or  groom." — Elphiustone's 
Life,  vol.  i.,  p.  232. 


PKOF.    PAI.MEU.    AX11    I.    K.    FALCOXER. 


539 


Bitth  in  succession  licld  the  chair  of  Lord  Almoner's  Professor 
of  Arabic  in  tlie  University  of  Cambridge,  and  clad  in  the 
panoply  of  Oriental  learning,  each  in  his  own  way  went  forth 
to  Arabia  and  flung  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  False  Prophet 
like  some  valiant  crusader  in  tlie  brave  days  of  old. 

But  steel  is  harder  than  brain,  and  force  and  fraud  may  undo 
all  the  cunning  of  the  schools.  Ynu  may  silence  the  tongue 
you  cannot  confute,  so  the  Xasarani  was  hurled  from  a  precipice 
a  few  miles  from  the  Wells  of  Moses  ;  you  can  almost  see  the 
spot  from  the  steamer's  deck,  his  mangled  remains  picked  up 
piecemeal,  or  what  could  be  found  of  them,  aud  laid  reverently 
in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  Tims  died  Edward  Henry  Palmer  at 
the  age  of  forty-two,  the  Shekli  Abdullah. 

Ion  Keith  Falconer  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-one  at  Aden,  at 
his  j)ost,  and  here  the  voice  of  criticism  is  hushed,  for  he — 

"  A  younger  biother  ha.s  roaclied  the  city  (if  the  Saintly, 
The  new  Jerusalem.'' 

An  earl's  son  by  birth,  he  was — by  instinct  ard  education, 
which  developed  into  enthusiasm  for  out?,  strange  to  say,  Ik;  had 
never  seen  but  only  read  about — a  veritable  pupil  and  disciple 
of  Dr.  John  Wilson,  of  Bombay,  for  his  whole  character  was 
moulded  on  the  framework  of  that  distinguislied  man,  justifying 
the  ways  of  Goil  to  men  in  this,  that  the  good  that  men  do  shall 
live  after  them.     Qum  amissa  saiva. 

Tlu!  sword  in  these  Egyptian  lands  nuty  undo  what  the  sword 
has  done,  but  not  even  arbitrary  power  or  superstition  can  w'ipe 
away  from  the  page  of  history  the  memory  of  these  bold  and 
reliant  s])irits.  Tsvo  s]ilendid  fellows.  Genius,  learning,  luxury 
(at  least  for  one  of  them),  home,  friends,  lountry,  life  itself, 
offered  up  without  a  whine  of  regret,  and  with  only  one  murmur 
of  recrimination  wlu;n  Palmer  cursed  his  murderers.  You  tell 
me  that  if  certain  things  liad  been  done  tlu^se  men  need  not 
have  lost  their  lives.  If  certain  things  were  done.  Iherc^  would 
be  an  end  of  all  courage,  and  of  all  heroism,  and  endurance,  and 
we  should  be  left  with  tlie  faith  that  falters,  anil  the  heart  that 
quails,  in  this  age  of  ours,  and  in  this  year  wiiich  I'acon  in  his 
day  called — Odorjcsimns  octnvus  annas  mimbills. 


5-10 


CHAPTER  LXI. 

Longevity  ix  Ixpia. 

"  Age  is  a  plain  and  palpable  quality  that  admits  of  no  dispute," 
says  Adam  Smith.  Otlier  men  may  dispute  about  our  aye,  but 
Avhen  we  get  old  there  can  be  no  dispute  about  the  fact.  If  you 
live  you  are  bound  to  get  old,  for  the  secret  of  perpetual  youth 
remains  to  be  discovered. 

Old  people  are  not  without  attractions.  They  are  lamhnarks 
— links  also  which  bind  together  succe.ssive  generations.  Tliere 
are  families  in  India,  for  example  the  Xormans,  whilom  of 
Calcutta,  which  nearly  bridge  the  whole  period  of  the  English 
occupation.  Place  mix  dames.  When  the  Prince  of  AVales  was 
at  Benares,  in  1875,  at  his  own  request  he  was  taken  toseelMrs. 
Kennedy.  That  lady  was  born  in  1787  and  died  at  ninety-seven 
years  of  age,  leaving  180  descendants.  Moreover,  she  had  seen 
Lord  Lake  before  he  left  India  in  1807.  Then  "  the  Puke  :  " 
he  also  went  to  see  old  people  in  Calcutta  in  1801,  and  visited 
Mrs.  Jenkinson,  the  progenitrix  of  the  Liverpool^  family  of 
nobles  and  the  last  survivor  of  the  Elack  Hole.  The  Duke 
himself  becomes  famous,  so  he  has  his  turn,  and  Mrs.  Hough, 
who  had  danced  witli  liim  in  Bombay  in  1803,  becomes  an  object 
of  attraction  ^born  1785,  died  1873),  so  that  successive  A'iceroys 
as  they  pass  that  way  in  the  sixties  and  seventies  are  introduced. 
Some,  perhaps  all,  of  these  ladies  were  born  in  the  country  and 
never  left  it.  Hill-stations  were  a  novelty  in  ]\Irs.  Kennedy's 
times  :  she  was  taken  ^■ery  ill  at  one  of  them  and  would  never 
go  back  again. 

The  age  of  ladies  is  a  ticklish  subject,  so  we  pass  on  to  Heber, 
who  was  entertained  "  right  royally "  at  Sikrol  near  Benares 
by  Brooke,  the  father  of  the  Bengal  Civil  Service,  fifty-six  years 
in  the  country.     Warden  sat  down  to  write  his  book  on  "  Land 

UdLo^   irc^Q^    C^JO 


PATRIARCHS.  341 

Tenures :"  this  was  in  India  in  1814,  and  he  had-joineil  the 
Bombay  Civil  Service  in  1760.  Great  is  the  delight  of  the 
traveller  in  India  to  meet  with  such  patriarelis  :  nor  is  the  feeling 
confined  to  Europeans  in  India.  Aurangzeb  at  ninety  [or  Nizam- 
ul-^Iulk  at  one  hundred  and  four  liad|hut  to  sliow  himself,  when 
tliere  was  a  burst  of  enthusiasm.  Maria  ( iraham  (ISd'J)  stumbles 
upon  a  General  ilacpherson,  who  had  fought  on  the  losing  side 
at  Culloden,  keejiing  watch  and  ward  on  a  lonely  little  fort  on 
an  inlet  of  the  Indian  Ocean — Sion — long  an  outpost  of  British 
supremacy,  which,  in  these  latter  days,  has  been  extended  to 
Quetta,  a  thousand  miles  from  ^lacpherson's  hold.  And  Andrew- 
Wilson  (Ahude  of  S nine,  1875)  thus  speaks  with  awe  : — "  I  met 
at  Srinagar  (Kashmir),  Colonel  Gardner,  a  soldier  of  fortune, 
ninety  years  of  age.  There  was  something  appalling  to  hear 
this  ancient  warrior  discourse  of  almost  prehistoric  times,  IJanjit 
Singh,  Shah  Shujah,  and  Dost  Muhammad."  Or  later  still 
(1875)  Sir  James  Caird  records  his  meeting  with  Mr.  Drummond, 
a  tea-planter  of  the  North- West,  "fifty  years  in  India,  now 
seventy-eight,  in  good  health  and  likes  the  country."  Then 
there  was  General  Dick  at  Dehra  Dun,  who  had  fought  under 
Lord  Lake  in  1805.     He  died  in  1875  (ninety).* 

But  whether  in  India  or  Europe,  old  Indians,  specially  if  they 
have  "  done  "  anything,  are  much  sought  after.  De  Boigne  died 
in  1830  at  eighty.  Tod  {Annc/s  of  Jlaja>ithan)  paid  him  a  visit 
at  Chambery.  He  had  an  old  Indian  servant  who  had  been 
witii  him  thirty  years.  The  mcnior}'  of  India  was  then  to  him 
that  of  a  long  hot  day.  To  the  conqueror  of  the  llajputs  the 
field  of  Mairta  "  appears  all  as  a  dream,"  or  with  Scott  "  like 
the  shadow  of  clouds  drifting  over  a  harvest-field." 

Then  there  was  Bernadotte,  the  King  of  Sweden,  the  grand- 
father of  Oscar,  who  entertained  the  Oriental  Congress  the  other 
year.     He  died  at  the  age  of  eighty,  but  when  a  young  man  he 


*  1S'J2,  May  7.  1  H.  Briilgman  died  in  Xortli-Wost  rrovince,  aged  93. 
In  l>5u.j  he  was  granted  60,000  acres  of  land  on  the  borders  of  Ne|>al,  wliich 
he  has  rescued  from  jungle  and  wild  beasts.  Survived  almost  all  his  sons 
and  grandsons.  Been  several  times  home.  Rode  on  horseback  until  a  year 
or  two  ago.  A  friend  saw  liim  twenty  years  ago.  He  was  tlien  dressed  in  a 
blue  swallow-tail  coat  with  brass  buttons,  the  inndc  when  he  arrived  in  India. 
He  was  rich  and  pleased  when  Sir  Auckland  Cclviti  came  from  a  distance  lo 
sec  him. 


342  LONGEVITY    IN    INUI.V. 

fought  with  the  l-'iench  ut  (luUlalur  (1783).  He  was  then  a 
sergeant,  wounded  and  taken  prisoner,  and  kindly  treated  by 
the  English  coinniandant  Wangenheim.  Man}-  years  after  this 
the  General  attended  the  levee  of  Bernadotte,  when  he  entered 
Hanover  in  triumph  as  a  conqueror.  "  You  have  served  in 
India  ? "  said  the  King.  "  Yes,  at  Cuddalur."  "  Have  you  any 
recollection  of  a  wounded  sergeant  you  took  under  your  protec- 
tion ? "  With  difficulty  Wangenheim  remembered  and  said  he 
did,  and  would  like  to  hear  of  his  welfare.  "  That  young 
sergeant  was  the  person  who  has  now  the  honour  to  address 
you,"  said  the  King,  "  and  I  am  happy  at  this  public  oppor- 
tunity to  acknowledge  the  obligation." 

Lord  Elphinstone,  successively  tioveruor  of  Madras  and 
Bombay,  tiled  in  18G0  at  the  age  of  fifty-two.  In  1885  James 
Faed  was  summoned  to  Balmoral  to  exhibit  his  picture  of  Lord 
Elphinstone.  Her  ilajesty,  who  has  a  wonderful  memory, 
suggested  that  the  eyes  were  too  far  ajiart.  The  artist  had 
been  working  from  busts,  photos,  and  the  hints  of  friends.  The 
photos  showed  the  eyes  close  to  each  other,  but  as  such  a 
feature  is  considered  l)y  artists  fatal  to  beauty,  and  as  Lord 
Elphinstone  was  considered  a  very  fine-looking  man,  Faed 
concluded  the  eyes  were  further  apart  than  appeared  in  the 
photos.  But  the  photos  and  her  INIajesty's  memory  Mere 
correct,  and  all  honour  to  her  Majesty  that  she  had  not  forgotten 
the  features  that  had  imjiressed  her  in  her  earl}''  youth. 

An  accidental  meeting  M-Juch  took  place  in  Bombay  in 
February  188G  is  worth  recording  and  would  be  a  fine  subject 
for  a  paintei-.  Sir  Henry  Eamsay,*  fifty  years  in  India,  with 
six  months'  furlough ;  General  Phayre,  of  Baroda-conspiracy 
memory — Mi;  iii  also,  where  a  bullet  passed  through  his  body — 
forty-six  yeais  with  six  mouths'  furlough  ;  and  a  third  who  had 
never  been  home,  labouring  all  his  thirty-eight  years  for  tlie 
good  of  others — Bowen,  he  of  the  falcon  eye — 

"  His  eye  e'en  tuiii'J  on  empty  space 
Ueam'd  keen  with  honour." 
Xoble  triumvirate  I 

*  Bom  181G,  entered  the  Indian  Army  1834,  terve<l  in  the  I'anjab  cam- 
paign 1818-49,  was  for  many  years  Commissioner  of  Ivumauu,  and  retired 
April  1892.— B. 


SERVICE   AND   AGE.  343 

or  till'  lueu  who  have  spent  consecutively  the  longest  uumher 
of  veais  in  India  a  few  names  must  suffice  :  J.  Lawrence  and 
Eliihinstone  (thirty-one),  Cok-lironke  (thirty-two),  Whitlock 
(tliirty-six),  Marshman  and  Metcalfe  (thirty-seven),  Jonathan 
Duncan  (thirty-nine),  T'owcn  (forty),  Claude  ^lartin  (forty-two), 
Schwartz  and  Ochterlony  (forty-eight),  Cheape  (fifty),  Kier- 
nander  and  I\Iark  Cubbon  (sixty). 

Of  service  in  India,  IJamsay  counts  fifty-eight,  Talnier 
fifty-three.  Casement  forty-seven.  Phayre  and  Sleenian  forty- 
six,  Carey  forty-two.  Dr.  John  Wilson  forty-four,  Munro  forty, 
Sir  Walter  Elliot  thirty-nine,  Briggs  thirty-three,  Warren 
Hastings  thirty-three.  Marston,  who  saved  the  life  of  Sir 
Charles  Xapier  in  Sind,  forty-six,  still  lives. 

Of  men  who  have  served  in  India  some  have  lived  to  a  great 
age.  Three  mighty  men  of  war  tower  far  above  their  fellows, 
one  from  each  of  tlie  three  kingdoms :  Combermerc  (ninety- 
two),  Tweeddale  (ninety),  Gougli  (ninety).  But  there  is  quite 
a  host  of  the  grand  old  men  of  India,  .sliglitly  under  this  age,  in 
arms,  in  arts,"  in  letters  and  philantliropy.*  Sir  tJeorge  Eussell 
Clark  (eighty-nine),  Kiernander  and  Jiennell  (eighty-eight), 
Warren  Hastings,  Bollock,  and  Briggs  (eighty-six),  Amherst, 
Harris,  Cheape,  and  Sir  Walter  Elliot  (eiglity-four),  Wellesley, 
Wellington,  and  Teignmouth  (eighty-three),  Ellenborough, 
David  I'.aird,  Strathnairn,  and  Marsden  (eighty-two),  M. 
Elphinstone  (eighty),  De  Boigne  and  Bishop  Wilson  (eighty). i 

Then  follow  the  septuagenarians :  Sir  T.  Hislo])  (seventy- 
nine).  Sir  riiilip  Francis,  Banald  Martin,  and  James  Fergus- 
son  (seventy-eight),  Impey,  Charles  Grant,  Mark  Cubbon, 
and  Molesworth  (seventy-seven),  Jonathan  Scott  and  Cliarles 
Forbes  (seventy-six),  tienerals  Stuart  and  Medows  (seventy- 
five),  Clyde  (seventy-four),  Carey,  Orme,  and  the  IMarquis  of 
Hastings  (seventy-three),  Harry  Smith,  John  Lawrence,  and 
Dr.  Dufi"  (seventy-two).  Silk  Buckingham,  Schwartz,  Harding, 
Sir  C.  J.  Napier,  Colebrooke,  and  Dr.  J.  Wilson  (seventy-one), 
James   Forbes,   Palmer,  and    Bowen    (seventy).      These    last 

*  Hrian  ]Ioii<;hti>n  Ho(lj;son,  D.C.L.,  born  February,  1800,  came  out  to 
India  in  18111;  brovight  to  light  tlie  Sanskrit  Huiidliist  literature  of  Nepal ; 
wrote  many  jiajicrs  on  Naliiral  History,  languages  of  aborii^inal  tribes, 
Buddhist  theories,  etc.;  retired  in  ISi'-i,  and  is  still  alive  (October  1892). — B. 


•^44  LOXUliVITY    IN    INDIA. 

reacheil  tlic  s]>aii  of  tlie  Psalmist's  three  score  years  and  t^ii. 
But  some  people  did  not  live  long  in  David's  time.  No  monarch 
after  David  except  Solomon  and  Manasseli  ever  exceeded  sixty. 
Our  Indian  septuagenarians  were  "  mere  boys  "  compared  with 
"  the  first  three  "  Nestors  ^ye  have  named. 

Strange,  is  it  not,  that  the  profession  of  the  soldier,  ^\■ith  \\-hich 
we  should  be  disposed  to  associate  everything  inimical  to  human 
life,  should  be  the  most  prolific  in  examples  of  longevity  ?  But 
every  mail  brings  us  tlie  news  of  Indian  officers,  men  who  have 
survived  to  as  great  an  age  as  any  we  have  named ;  and  among  a 
host  of  others,  ]\Ingdala  and  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson,  born  in  1810, 
and  General  Alexander  Cunningham,  born  in  1814,  still  flourish 
at  home  in  a  green  old  age. 

The  story  goes  that  when  Sir  Walter  Scott  was  in  London  he 
called  on  Allan  Cunningham,  and  on  asking  him  what  he  was 
going  to  do  with  liis  boys,  Allan  said,  "  I  ask  that  question 
often  at  my  own  heart  and  I  cannot  answer  it."  Scott  spoke  to 
Lord  Melville,  ilr.  John  Loch,  and  others,*  and  we  now  know 
the  result  in  the  Indian  career  of  three  of  them.  This  was  the 
way  friends  helped  each  other  in  the  olden  time. 

A\']ieu  Adam  Smith  wi-ote  a  hundred  years  ago  he  complained 
of  the  little  interest  the  "  nabob  "  of  his  time  had  in  India.  He 
says  that  "  it  was  perfectly  indifferent  to  him  the  day  after  he 
left  it  A^hether  the  whole  country  was  swallowed  up  by  an 
earthquake."  But  in  the  nineteenth  century  the  men  who  have 
taken  the  deepest  interest  in  India  are  those  who  have  lived 
longest  in  it.  Witness  such  lives  as  John  Shore,  Charles 
Grant,  !Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  or  Dr.  Duff.  Did  their  zeal 
for  India  evaporate  with  the  last  sight  of  tlie  Hugli  or  the 
Western  Ghats  '.  I  trow  not.  There  are  those  also  who  have 
fallen  in  the  strife  and  not  unwillingly  at  the  post  of  duty — 
men  wlio  consecrated  themselves  to  India  and  left  tlieir  bones 
in  ir  as  witnesses  for  the  ages  to  come.  Carey,  Coote,  Corn- 
Avallis,  Duncan,  Durand,  Elgin,  Heber,  and  Havelock,  Neill, 
Nicholson,  Mayo,  Jones  and  Kiernander,  Hi'nry  LaM-rence, 
]\Iunn),  Ochterlony,  Sale,  Schwartz,  and  the  two  Wilsons — • 
"  Tlieir  boues  are  scattered  far  and  wide, 
O'er  mount  and  stream  and  sea. 

*  Lockliiirt's  Life  of  Scott,  ix.,  246,  and  Journal,  ii.,  18-1. 


XA.VIEB,    JACQUEMOKT,    &C. 


345 


1. 


1 
"J- 


111  a  list  of  the  most  distiuguished  Europeans  who  have  acted 
a  part  in  India  since  the  Cape  passage  was  discovered,  of  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  names  taken  at  random,  forty-six  died  in 
India  or  adjacent  lands  and  seas.  Of  several  no  man  will  ever 
know  their  resting-place.  The  Conollys,  Coke,  Trouhridge,  all  we 
know  of  them  is  "  they  were  and  they  are  not."  Some  of  their 
bodies  have  undergone  strange  migrations.  Xavier,  from  Nipou 
to  Goa,  is  now  ensepulchred  in  silver  and  he  is  canonised  among 
the  saints;  Albuquer(iue  and  Vasco  da  Gama  to  Portugal. 
The  tomb  of  the  former  at  Goa  was 
long  worshipped  by  the  natives  as 
that  of  a  man  who  judged  them 
righteously.  Da  Gama's  cenotaph  at 
Cochin  is  like  the  grave  of  Moses  on 
Blount  Xebo.  You  may  seek  for  it 
but  will  not  find  it.  Jacquemont 
was  e.xhumcd  a  few  years  ago,  and  a 
handful  of  bones  and  ashes  (all  that 
was  left  of  him)  taken  to  France ;  * 
Coote's  body  to  Hampshire;  and 
Lord  Mayo's  to  Ireland ;  Mark  Cub- 
bon's  from  Suez  to  England  ;  Claude 
Martin's  remains  were  dug  up  by  the 
mutuieers  in  1857 ;  Skinner  was 
bm-ied  in  the  church  he  had  himself 
built  ill  Dehli;  Judson  and  John 
Peter  Grant  died  at  sea;  Elgin  sleeps 
well  under  an  oak  tree  in  the  cemetery 
of  Dharnisala,  in  Kaiigra.  A  strange 
request  was  made  by  the  Marquis  of 
Hastings  on  his  death-bed  (Malta 
1827) — that  his  right  Iiaiid  should  l>e 
cut  off  and  kept  until  the  death  of 
the  Marchioness,  which  was  done, 
when  it  was  put  into  her  coffin  and 
buried  with  lier. 

Here  we  retrograde — it  is  a  step  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 


BODY   OF   ST.    FKAKCIS 
XAVIEB   AT   GOA. 


•  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  183,  203. 


VOL.    n. 


34G  LONGEVITY    IN    INDIA. 

and  vice  versa.  There  are  among  the  one  hundred  and  thirteen 
names,  fifty-three  English,  thirty-one  Scotch,  eleven  Irish,  seven 
French,  tlnree  American,  three  Portuguese,  two  Swedish,  one 
German,  one  Dutcli,  and  one  Spanish.  These  one  hundred  and 
thirteen  are  a  selection,  as  we  said,  of  the  most  distinguished 
Europeans  in  the  history  of  modern  India.  So  much  for  their 
nationality. 

We  now   come  to    another    question:  Wliat   proportion    of 
married  men  are  in   this    one    hundred    and    thirteen  ?     The 
bachelors  are,  and  have  been,  a  strong  force  in  India.     Many 
after    having  held  out  have  ultimately  yielded  to  the   over- 
whelming fasciaations  of  the  fair  sex.     Here  are  several  who 
were  altogether  impervious :  Amherst,  Clyde,  Coote,  Macaulay, 
Schwartz,  the   two  Elpliinstones,  Jonathan  Duncan,  Metcalfe, 
James    Eergusson,    and    Ochterlony.     Nobody    expects    such 
wanderers  as  Waghorn  or  Coryat,  or  Jacc^uemont  or  Leydeu,  or 
Henry  Martyn  or  Sir  Alexander  Burnes,  or  Pottinger,  a  saint 
like  Xa%^er,    or   a    singer  Kke   Camoens   to   be  married  men. 
These  men   go  a   warfare   on   their   own   charges.     You   may 
add  also  Bowen,*  who  was  not  a  misogamist,  though  Schwartz 
maintained  that  celibacy  was  an  essential  of  the  missionary. 
Judson,  however,  paid  no  attention  to  this,  and  was  manied  three 
times,  and  so  was  Carey.     Judson's  wives  were  all  authoresses. 
We  have  named  over  twenty  unmarried  men,  but  it  would 
be  a  gi'cat  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  remainder  were  married. 
Who  can  tell,  for  example,  whether  James  Macrae,  Governor  of 
Madras,  was  a  married  man  ?    The  public  knew  not  that  Orme 
was  married  until  he  died.     But  making  allowance   for  such 
uncertainties,  the  Benedicts  are  greatly  in  excess  on  our  list. 
Of  the  fifty  names  of  men  over  seventy  years  of  age  forty-five 
of  them  were  married.    The  longest-lived,  therefore,  are  the  mar- 
ried men,  to  which  the  bachelors  of  to-day  will  retort  that  they 
married  because  they  were  long-lived,  and  were  not  long-lived 
because  they  were  married.     "  Under  which  king,  Bezonian  ? " 

Many  are  the  reflections  on  the  lives  of  Indian  heroes  on  old 
age.  "  I  am  getting  old,"  is  the  burden  of  many  a  sigh  and 
refrain,  even  with  Charles  Xapier,  who  kept  his  hard  and  well- 


•  Ante,  Vol.  I.,  p.  230. 


AGE.  347 

seasoned  frame  in  excellent  condition  far  beyond  the  limits 
assigned  to  most  men.  But  as  Holmes  says  :  "  A  cat  can't  be 
always  a  kitten." 

Hear  Muiiro  : — "  "When  I  rise  I  feel  as  if  I  had  tlie  staggers." 
"  I  soon  will  not  know  the  difference  between  a  breckan  and  a 
dokan  "  {anr/Iice,  fern  and  dock-leaf) :  and  again,  "  I  shall  be 
wac  when  I  leave  India."  Deafness  increases.  The  General  in 
Afghanistan  who  was  asked  by  the  Captain  why  his  field-pieces 
had  been  removed  during  the  night  and  replied  :  "  Yes,  as  I  have 
always  said,  it's  a  good  thing  to  wear  flannel  next  the  skin," — is 
a  ludicrous  example.  And,  sooth  to  say,  men  are  reminded  of 
their  age  sooner  than  they  like.  Outram  at  fifty-four  is  "  Auld 
Jamie"  among  the  78th  Highlandei's,  and  about  the  same  time 
Colin  Campbell,  Commander-in-Chief  ("  Khabardar "  himself 
being  then  sixty-five),  left  him  at  the  Alambagh  with  the  words  : 
"  Take  care  of  yourself,  for  mind,  James,  you  are  no  chicken." 

And  then  there  is  the  memory.  As  the  last  stage  approaches 
the  meanest  trifles  outlive  the  gi'catest  actions  of  their  livas. 
Tliat  the  Duke  had  the  itch  in  Bombay  and  that  he  wiped  it 
out  with  baths  of  sulphuric  acid  he  never  forgot,  as  also  the 
smoke  of  the  hut  at  Assaye  which  taught  him  where  there  was 
a  ford,  and  the  inevitable  boar-hunt.  There  must  be  a  wild 
fascination  about  a  boar-himt,  as  it  also  haiintcd  Elpliinstone  to 
his  dying  day. 

I  conclude  that  men  get  old  in  India  in  the  estimation  of 
theii"  fellows  at  an  earlier  date  than  in  England.  Seniority  is 
the  grave  of  emulation,  said  Henry  La^vrencc,  and  the  inevitable 
fifty-five  sends  us  to  the  Asia  IMinors.  A  crowd  of  young  men  are 
perpetually  dinning  it  into  our  ears,  until  we  begin  to  believe 
it :  "  You  are  tiie  oldest  man  in  the  station.  Go  home  and 
hear  Gladstone  talk  for  two  hours,  who  is  twenty  years  your 
senior,  and  you  will  he  satisfied  with  yourself  at  all  events." 
The  youngest-looking  old  man  that  ever  appeared  in  India  was 
certainly  Charles  James  Mathews  on  tlie  Prince  of  Wales's  visit 
in  1875.  Until  you  saw  his  face  you  had  only  before  you  a  man 
in  the  gay  exuberance  of  youth,  and  he  was  humorous  to  the 
last.  As  he  stepped  on  board  he  kept  jingling  in  his  hand  a  lot 
of  two-anna  pieces  which  he  had  received  as  change.  "  What 
shall  I  do  with  them  >.  "     His  eye  now  brightening :  "  Happy 

2  A  2 


348  LONGEVITY    IN    INDIA. 

thought,  I  shall  pass  them  off  as  three-penny  bits  ' "  Happy  the 
man  who  at  seventy-two  can  indulge  in  light  pleasantry  and  not 
neglect  the  weightier  duties  of  his  age. 

An  Englishman  who  has  lived  for  thirty  or  forty  years  in 
India  is  a  kind  of  miracle — accidents  on  flood  and  field,  sleep- 
ing with  open  doors,  poison,  miasma  and  wild  beasts,  accidents 
from  horse-flesh  and  rickety  houses,  sleeping  pointsmen  or 
drowsy  engineers,  swollen  rivers,  sunstroke,  sudden  alternations 
of  temperature,  cholera  and  fever,  not  to  speak  of  battle,  murder, 
or  sudden  death. 

England  pays  a  heavy  tribute  to  India  in  her  young  men. 
There  is  a  big  grist  from  the  mills  which  grind  exceedmgly 
sure,  and  sometimes  not  at  all  slow.  "  Lord  spare  the  green  and 
take  the  ripe."  But  the  green  do  not  spare  themselves.  Henry 
Martyn  (thirty-two),  Jacquemont  (thirty-one),  Pottinger  (thirty- 
two),  Stoliczka  (thirty-six),  Basevi  (thirty-eight),  Cameron  in 
the  Sudan,  or  him  of  whom  Warren  Hastmgs  wrote : — 

"An  earlier  death  was  Eliot's  doom, 
I  saw  his  opening  virtues  bloom ; " 

or  Leyden  (tliirty-six),  whom  Malcolm  bewailed — 

"  Where  sleep  the  brave  on  Java's  strand, 
Thy  ardent  spirit,  Leyden,  fled." 

The  Queen's  enemies  never  "  spare  the  green."  Burnes  (thirty- 
six),  the  Conollys  about  the  same  age,  Nicholson  (thirty-six) :  a 
legion  of  the  mighty  dead.  Emily  Eden,  a  spinster  of  uncertain 
age,  on  a  visit  to  an  Indian  cemetery  noted  that  the  tombs 
were  mostly  of  children  or  young  people.  Writing  to  her  sister 
she  adds  archly  enough :  "  You  need  not  therefore  be  at  all 
anxious  on  our  account ! " 

The  clergy,  as  a  rule,  in  India  have  been  long-lived :  this  is 
no  doubt  owing  to  their  temjierate  habits  and  peacefid  vocation. 
Jacobi,  E.  C.  Archbishop  of  Agra,  arrived  in  India  1841. 
Jubilee  celebrated  Feb.  1891.  However,  the  entire  series  of  the 
Bishops  of  Calcutta  since  the  establishment  of  the  Episcopate 
have  died  in  India,  always  excepting  the  present  incumbent, 
whom  God  preserve  :  Middleton  (fifty-four),  Heber  (forty-three). 
Turner  (fifty  ?),  Wilson  (eighty).  Cotton  (fifty-three),  Milman 
(sixty).     All  were  married  (of  MUman  I  am  uncertain). 


nUSHMEN   AND   SCOTSMEN.  349 

Some  of  the  missionaries  have  lived  goodly  lives,  and  exceed 
the  bishops:  Carey  (seventy-three),  Keirnander  (eighty-eight), 
Judson  (sixty-t\vo),  Marshnian  (fifty-nine),  Schwartz  (seventy- 
one).  Duff  (seventy-two),  Wilson  (seventy-one),  Bowen 
(seventy) ;  to  which  list  many  names  could  be  added. 

A  gi-eat  many  men  perish  from  overwork.  Xavier  (forty-six), 
and  Waghorn  (forty-nine),  are  extreme  cases.  Wliat  about 
Dalhousie  (forty-eight),  Elgin  (fifty-two),  Canning  (fifty),  and 
James  Wilson  (fifty-five),  tlie  ablest  financier  India  ever  had : 
he  certainly  died  from  overwork  and  coming  to  India  too  late 
in  life  ?  "  You  cannot  transplant  an  oak  at  fifty,"  quoth  Burke. 
Archbishop  Porter  (sixty- two),  "too  late,  too  late!"  "My 
mother,"  said  he  to  me,  "  was  born  in  Kirkcudbright,"  and  sure 
I  am  that  the  mantle  of  St.  Cuthbert  never  fell  on  a  more  loving 
or  genial  disciple. 

There  have  been  what  we  call  untimely  ends.  People  who 
observe  coincidences  have  Iseen  struck  with  the  strange  fatality 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Ambala  Conference  (18G9) — Mayo,  Durand, 
Donald  McLeod  and  Sher  Ali  himself.  Three  Military 
Secretaries  of  the  Viceroys  all  died  in  battle  or  carnage  within 
a  short  time  of  each  other ;  Colley  at  IMajulja,  Earle  on  the 
Nile,  and  Gordon  at  Khartum — all  in  Africa. 

Distinguished  Irishmen  in  India  are  few,  l)ut  they  are  in  the 
highest  realms  of  fame.  Wellington,  Wellesley,  Coote,  Charles 
Napier,  Wheeler,  Gough,  Mayo,  and  the  two  Lawrences  may  be 
claimed  as  Irishmen. 

In  this  roll  of  distinguished  men  we  have  said  there  are  thirty- 
one  Scotsmen.  A  further  analysis  brings  out  the  fact  that 
only  two  or  three  Ijelong  to  the  eighteenth  century.  For  Scots  • 
men,  therefore,  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  prospect  was  dull 
enough  in  India.  A  story  is  told  of  a  Scotsman  passing  the  old 
Secretariat  in  Calcutta  about  sunset.  He  coughed  out,  "  I  say 
Grant,"  when  about  a  dozen  heads  appeared  simultaneously  at 
the  windows  to  reconnoitre  the  speaker.  I  don't  think  this 
story  belongs  to  the  eighteenth  century :  it  evidently  harks 
back  only  to  1805-16,  M'hen  Charles  Grant  was  elected  thrice 
chairman  of  the  East  India  Company. 

Somebody  is  always  first,  and  the  English  nation,  by  pre- 
scription and  proximity,  were  first  to  establish  themselves  in 


350  LONGEVITY   IN    INDIA. 

luclia.  The  truth  is  the  faces  of  the  Scots  were  in  early  Jays 
turned  to  the  West  aud  not  to  the  East  Indies.  Paterson,  that 
eminent  Scotsman  who  founded  the  Bank  of  England,  led  them 
to  Darien,  and  even  when  Burns  sang,  "  "Will  ye  go  to  the 
Indies,  lassie  ? "  he  was  not  thinking  of  Hindustan  but  rather  of 
the  Oronoco,  or  even  A'irginia,  to  which  he  was  on  the  eve  of 
embarking  to  herd  cattle  in  the  prairies  of  the  West. 

Not  until  the  last  year  of  the  century  did  Sir  David  Baird 
appear,  but  it  was  "  persecution  dragged  him  into  fame."  Great 
Scot!  With  the  dawn  of  a  new  century  another  era  began.  El- 
phinstone,  Mackintosh,  and  Munro,  three  Scotsmen,  shaven  and 
temperate,  who  did  not  smoke,  and  who  read  their  Bibles  dailj-. 
Malcolm  follov^-ed  them.  After  a  long  lull,  for  India's  extremity 
was  Scotland's  opportunity,  the  cry  arose,  "  The  Campbells  -are 
coming,"  and  Dalhousie  beheld  Clyde,  sword  in  hand ;  and 
emerging  from  the  heat  of  a  gi-eat  conflagration  Elgin,  Hope 
Grant,  Neill,  Outram,  Eose  and  Magdala*  came  forth  as  it  were 
out  of  the  fire,  seven  times  purified.  It  was  Scotland's  turn 
now.  What  she  missed  in  the  eighteenth  century  she  fully 
made  up  in  the  nineteenth,  for  no  one  will  deny  that  she  has 
had  her  fair  share  of  honour  and  glory  and  the  highest  paid 
ofiices  of  the  State.  It  was  the  order  of  Providence  that  Sir 
William  Jones  should  come  before  Mackintosh,  Warren 
Hastings  before  Dalhousie,  Lake  before  Clyde,  Carey  and  Henry 
]\Iartyn  before  Dutf  and  Wilson.  But  for  one  Governor-General 
who  was  a  Scotsman  in  the  eighteenth  century  you  will  have 
five  filling  that  exalted  office  in  the  nineteenth ;  for  one  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Indian  Army  who  was  a  Scotsman  you 
will  have  five.  And  in  the  long  bead-roll  of  the  Governors  of 
Bombay  and  Madras  it  is  the  same  story  with  this  difference, 
seven  in  our  century  to  one  in  the  last.  Stands  Scotland  where 
it  did  ?  I  should  think  so,  and  much  better  llum  it  did.  St. 
Andrew  is  the  cry — 

"  Still  as  of  yore,  Queen  of  the  North ! 
Still  canst  thou  send  thy  children  forth." 


*  Sir  Eobert  C.  Napier,  lx)rn  in  Ceylon  (1810) ;  died  January  12th, 1890. 
"  I  have  always  felt  that  my  name  belonged  to  Scotland.'' — Speech  on  receiv- 
ing freedom  of  the  City  of  Edinburgh,  September  IGth,  1868. 


(     351     ) 


IIOONT   GIRNAR   IN    KATHIAWAR. 


CHAPTER  LXII. 


Cannibal  and  Ogke. 

"  This  is  a  ghastly  subject,"  said  Mrs.  (now  Lady)  Burton  to 
Dr.  Vandyke  Carter  as  they  sat  down  under  a  cloud  of  cigarette 
smoke  to  discuss  leprosy.  I  could  see  that  she  began  with  a 
.smiling  face  and  maintained  it  to  the  end. 

This  also  is  a  subject  so  gruesome  that  it  requires  absolutely 
to  be  relieved  by  some  diversion."  Even  Xavier  one  day  asked 
a  "praying  insect"  to  sing  a  canticle;  and  Bowen,  his  successor" 
in  these  latter  days  in  the  Konkan,  once  extracted  a  joke  out  of 
suicide.  "  Made  myself  such  a  fool  that  I  cannot  live,"  was 
found  scrawled  on  a  scrap  of  paper.  "  If  all  the  people  iu  the 
world  who  have  made  fools  of  themselves  were  to  go  and  do 
likewise  there  would  be  few  peo]ile  left."  Even  with  subjects 
that  are  not  dreadful  the  mind  chafes  under  the  strain.     Take 


352  CANNIBAL    AND    OGKE. 

Palestine,  for  example.  Probably  it  is  the  dream  of  your  life : 
four  weeks  of  sacred  scenes — a  Idnd  of  sacrament  which  binds 
earth  to  heaven.  '  Well  I  remember  one  day — we  had  got  as  far 
as  Coele-Syria,  with  our  human  nature  still  about  us — my 
exhausted  companion  throwing  himself  on  the  ground  with  a 
"  Well,  now  let  us  have  a  good  Scotch  story."  So  it  is  with 
these  cannibals  a  kind  of  Dante's  Inferno,  where  the  darkness  is 
very  visible :  but  we  must  try  and  rummage  some  skeletons  out 
of  the  cupboard,  for  it  is  good  to  be  merry  and  wise. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  cannibals — those  who  eat  their  enemies, 
and  those  ^^■ho  eat  their  friend.s. 

"  Why  do  you  not  kill  your  dogs  instead  of  your  elderly 
relatives  ?  "  "  Dog  catch  otter,"  was  the  reply  of  a  utilitarian 
Patagonian. 

"Mind,  I'm  to  have  the  first  slice,"  a  great  novelist  makes  the 
sailor  ejaculate,  as  he  sees  the  lot  which  had  been  cast  has  fallen 
upon  him.  And  there  is  a  touch  of  grim  humour  in  Sidney 
Smith's  answer  to  "  AVhat  shall  we  do  with  Ireland  ? "  "  Let 
her  eat  her  children,  and  then  you  will  have  the  philosopher's 
stone  of  Political  Economy.  You  will  increase  the  food-supply 
and  diminish  the  numljer  of  mouths  that  prey  on  the  capital 
stock." 

Then  there  is  a  story  of  Herodotus  that  "  Darius  sent  for  a 
certain  race  of  Indians  who  eat  their  fathers."  We  Indians  can 
swallow  a  good  deal,  but  are  inclined  to  make  faces  at  this  "piece 
de  resistance :  so  we  repeat  the  ditty  : — 

"  Herodotus,  Herodotus, 
Tfou  could  not  spell,  you  ancient  cuss; 
The  priests  of  Egypt  gammon'd  you, 
Which  was  not  very  hard  to  do. 
But  don't  you  think  you'll  gammon  us, 
Herodotus,  Herodotus ! " 

Possibly  far  down  in  tlie  substratum  of  our  social  history 
cannibalism  existed,- — 

"  For  not  the  Christian,  nor  the  Jew  alone. 
The  Persian  or  the  Turk  acknowledge  this. 
This  mystery  to  the  wild  Indian  known. 
And  to  the  cannibal  and  Tartar,  is  " — 


THE   MAEDICUEA.  353 

universal  ?  Xo,  not  universal :  that  would  have  soon  ended  in 
the  vision  of  Campbell's  Last  Man :  the  last  of  the  human  race 
as  Adam  saw  its  prime.  If  it  did  not  exist,  How  has  the  idea 
worked  itself  into  all  languages  ?  Are  these  forms  the  nodules 
of  an  extinct  world,  or  are  we  to  regard  them  as  mere  imagery, 
poets'  licence  or  extravaganza,  the  bellowings  of  revenge,  of 
boastful  indignation,  rather  tliau  idioms  wliich  have  Mtered 
through  the  ages  long  after  the  reality  has  disappeared  ?  I  dare 
not  touch  the  Ramaijana,  but  I  am  sure  it  is  there  in  abundance, 
reality  or  a  dream.  Homer  also  ;  Achilles  exclaims  in  his  fury 
that  he  would  like  to  eat  the  flesh  of  his  enemies.  David  also 
in  the  Psalms.     The  Scotch  version,  by  an  Englishman — 

'When  as  mine  enemies  and  foes, 

Most  wicked  persons  all, 
To  eat  my  flesh  against  me  rose, 
They  stumbled  and  did  fall." 

"  I'll  chaw  them  up,"  says  some  old  Xapier  or  Chamberlain 
on  Al'ghan  hill  or  Indian  plain. 

"  You  have  killed  me  with  kindness.  You  have  done  every- 
thing except  bury  me,"  says  U.  S.  Grant  as  he  leaves  our 
station.  This,  and  a  doting  mother  to  her  child,  "  I  could  eat 
you  \x\>,"  bring  us  to  quite  the  opposite  jjole  of  cannibalism. 

Tyrrell Leith  was  gi'cat  on  tliis  and  kindred  subjects:  our  dis- 
cussions, alas !  brought  to  a  close  by  his  early  death.  No  more 
shall  we  drive  before  Etesian  winds,  or  glide  quietly  into  some 
creek  of  Heptanesia  and  listen  to  the  flapping  of  the  great  lateen 
sail — 

"Now  thy  brow  is  cold, 
I  see  thee  in  the  days  of  old." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  laud  we  live  in — Western  India — 
has  had  an  evil  reputation,  and  that  for  a  very  long  time.  If 
you  spread  your  dredging  net  wide  enough  to  catch  the  Mardi- 
cura  or  man-eater  on  llie  shores  of  the  Caspian,  and  the  assassins 
(Hashisliin)  of  Alamut,  you  wiU  secure  some  fine  gregarious 
specimens  for  your  Cliamljer  of  Horrors.  None  of  them  for- 
timately  come  up  alive :  they  are  all  as  extinct  as  the  dodo  or 
the  megatherium. 

England  is  the  St.  George  tliat  has  slain  the  great  dragon  of 


354  CANNIBAL   AND    OGRE. 

infanticide  ■which  among  the  Jadhejas  ravaged  Kachh  and 
Kathiawar  and  made  them  a  scene  for  the  massacre  of  the 
innocents,  and  that  Cyclopean  monster  of  seK-immolation  which 
laid  waste  Rajpiitana  in  the  days  of  Akbar — Jauhar — which 
you  can  get  men  now  only  to  speak  of  with  bated  breath. 

The  Thags  are  nearly  as  extinct  as  the  ghouls  of  the  Arabian 
NigJits.  Thousands  of  ■victims  in  Malwa  and  far  beyond,  of  that 
accursed  gang — 

"Who  buried  them  deep, 
Their  bones  to  sleep, 
That  mortal  man  might  never  them  see," 

within  the  area  we  have  described,  have  come  and  gone, — the 
greatest  organisations  which  have  ever  existed  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  human  life. 

The  history  of  cannibalism  in  India  is  like  that  of  snakes  in 
Ireland : — "  There  are  no  snakes  in  Ireland."  Herodotus-began 
it  (e.g.  .446).  We  take  up  a  paper  and  find  it  at  Jajhpur,  Ka- 
tak  (Pioneer,  April  1890).  As  ■we  have  said  before,  sometimes 
they  eat  their  friends,  sometimes  their  relations,  sometimes  their 
enemies.  When  they  do  the  one  they  never  do  the  other. 
They  eat,  however,  and  seem  thankful.  Sometimes  they  fatten 
them  up  and  sometimes  they  make  them  lean,  or  wait  until  they 
are  attenuated  and  life  is  not  worth  living  for.  It  is  this  last 
Herodotus  affects,  and  he  is  very  circumstantial.  The  fasting 
man  on  the  thirtieth  day  would  have  been  of  no  use  to  them. 
The  ^ictim  must  be  ill,  but  not  too  ill.  Then,  says  he,  their 
flesh  would  be  spoiled  for  them.  The  picture  is  not  attractive, 
not  nearly  so  much  as  in  the  other  method.  {Arabian  Nifjhts) : 
"  I  ate  little  that  I  might  not  grow  fat,  and  every  one  of  my 
companions  who  became  fat  they  ate,  tmtil  I  and  that  man 
remained,  for  I  was  lean  and  he  was  ill."  There  is  a  rich  vein 
of  sentimentality  about  this.  Yes,  that  man  was  ill  and  I  was 
lean,  so  we  had  much  to  be  thankful  for.  This  was  clearly  not 
a  case  of  "  laugh  and  grow  fat."  The  etiquette  was  that  the 
men  ate  men  (inardicuru'),  the  women  women.  Nobody  could 
eat  the  other  sex.  It  was  a  compliment  to  the  other  sex  that 
the  one  would  not  eat  the  other.  In  all  this  there  was  great 
refinement,  and  cannibalism  was  deprived  of  its  repulsive 
features,  coaxed  into  cliivalry,  if  not  made  one  of  the  Fine  Arts. 


thevexot's  statement.  355 

After  Herodotus,  the  cannibal  in  India  is  by  no  means  a  l:)lank, 
for,  not  to  speak  of  Ktesias,  Aristotle,  .(Elian,  PHnj',  Philostratus, 
all  have  their  say  on  him.  "  On  2Mrle  de  cette  hitc,"  says  D'An- 
ville,  who  had  studied  the  subject  {Eclaircissements,  1753).  But 
what  we  wish  to  impress  on  the  reader  is  the  fact  that,  among 
Europeans,  Herodotus  was  the  first  tf)  paint  India  black  with 
cannibalism.  He  did  not  know  India  as  he  knew  Egypt.  He 
is  an  oracle  on  Egypt,  for  he  had  been  there  himself:  but  we 
all  know  India  better  than  Herodotus.  All  that  he  has  put 
together  he  has  gathered  by  hearsay.  He  was  never  nearer  to 
India  than  Babylon  on  the  Euphrates,  and  even  the  India  which 
he  knew  only  from  skippers  or  traders  down  the  Gulf,  or  pil- 
griras  to  the  black  stone  of  Jlecca,  was  a  limited  India — Sind 
(Hind),  Kachh  or  Gujarat.  Of  the  peninsula  of  India  he  knew 
notlung.  His  statements  on  our  subject  we  enthely  discredit, 
and  other  writers  we  have  named  have  simply  followed  in  his 
track. 

The  next  notice  we  produce  is  from  James  Forbes  (^Oriental 
Mimoirs),  and,  curious  enough,  tlie  i)art  of  India  he  deals  with 
is  that  from  which,  among  others,  Herodotus  may  be  supposed 
to  have  drawn  his  information.  "  On  leaving  Bharoch,  I  arrived 
at  1  )ebca,"  he  quotes  Jean  Thevenot.  "  The  inliabitauts  formerly 
anthrojiophagi,  and  it  is  not  many  years  since  man's  flesh  was 
there  sold  in  the  markets."  We  give  it  in  the  original :  "  Les 
habitants  de  cet  bourg  etoient  autrefois  de  ceux  qu'on  nommoit 
Merdicoura  ou  Antropofages,  mangeurs  d'hommes,  et  il  n'y  a 
pas  grand  nombre  d'annees  qu'on  y  vendoit  encore  de  la  chair 
huniaine  au  marche "  {Lcs  Voyages  dc  M,  de  Thevenot  cmx 
Tildes  Orientales,  1666). 

Dabka,  as  the  name  is  spelled  nowadays,  is  a  village  of 
2000  souls,  20  mUes  distant  from  Baroda  on  the  Mahi,  and 
not  unknown  to  sportsmen.  D'Anville,  in  commenting  on  this 
passage,  to  which  he  seems  to  give  implicit  belief,  tells  us  that 
Thevenot  is  a  veracious  traveller.  Sans  doute.  But  may  not 
he  and  Herodotus  have  been  imposed  upon  ?  The  only  shambles 
like  enough  to  a  butcher's  stalls,  which  have  been  seen  in  that 
quarter  from  time  immemorial,  is  wlien  a  dozen  carcasses  of 
black  buck  and  nilgai  are  suspended  from  the  trees — delight 
of  the  shikari,  and  the  luck  of  the  roaring  camp. 


356 


CANNIBAL    AND   OGRE. 


A  tliii'd  statement  closes  the  body  of  evidence  on  tliis  subject. 
In  the  year  1822  two  yonng  men,  by  name  Lieutenant  Prender- 
gast  and  Captain  Low  of  the  Madras  Army,  wandering  near  the 
sources  of  the  Narmada,  came  to  a  place  of  the  name  of  Amara- 
kanthak,  inhabited  by  Gonds  called  Bandarwars,  and  they  have 
left  on  record  the  following  extraordinary  statement : — "  We 
learned  after  much  trouble  that  they  kded  and  ate  the  delicate, 
aged  or  dying  of  their  relations."  * 

Here  is  Herodotus  rcdivivus.  But  not  content  they  add  this 
delicious  morsel:  "In  other  things  a  simple  race,  they  do  it  as 
an  act  acceptable  to  Kali,  a  mercy  to  their  relations  and  a 
Ijlessing  to  the  whole  race."  All  who  knew  Dr.  Wilson  will 
share  his  misgivings  where  he  says  on  this  startling  revelation 
(Caste,  1877) : — "  This  matter  deserves  to  be  inquired  into," 
which  we  are  now  doing  in  a  kind  of  way,  and  have  looked 
into  Hunter's  Gazetteer  in  vain  for  confirmation  of  the  assertion 
of  these  two  gentlemen. 

From  all  these  stories  one  would  infer  that  cannibalism  in 
India  was  a  national  institution,  and,  like  sati,  was  sanctioned 
by  the  laws  of  the  State  or  tribe  among  which  the  custom  was 
said  to  prevail :  but  the  real  truth  seems  to  be  that  cannibalism 
never  existed  in  India.  The  basis  and  gi'oundwork  of  all  the 
specidations  and  assertions  of  the  ancients  and  moderns  lie  in 
one  word,  and  that  word  is — famine.  They  have  not  been  able 
to  distinguish  between  men  driven  to  an  act  and  men  volun- 
teering an  act. 

India  has  been  no  more  guilty  of  cannibalism  than  Jerusalem, 
Samaria,  or  Saragossa,  the  beleaguered  cities,  the  castaway 
saUors  on  their  floating  rafts,  or  the  pilgrims  in  the  sandy 
desert — 

"  When  Mecca  mourns  her  missing  carav.in. 
And  Cairo  sickens  with  the  long  delay," 

driven  to  the  last  resource  of  human  woe. 

India  has  always  been  a  land  of  famines.  What  has  been 
recorded  we  know :  what  has  not  been  recorded  we  do  not 
know.     But  the  further  back  we  grope  the  blacker  the  picture 


Alexander's  East  India  Magazine,  1831,  p.  140. 


THE   AGHORI.  3o7 

until  uwv  steps  are  barred  by  the  blackness  of  darkness  itself  in 
the  Durga  De^^  famine  of  twelve  years  (1396-1407).  That 
was  an  event  beyond  which  the  history  of  famines  does  not 
take  us,  when  the  ground  for  miles  around  such  ancient  cities 
as  Gaur  Mandu,  Kanauj,  Kalyan  was  whitened  with  the  bones 
of  tiie  dead,  and  when  Kali  rode  forth  on  her  pale  horse, 
triumphant,  with  a  necklace  of  human  skulls,  and  Hades 
followed  after.  I  have  no  doubt  that  it  was  the  memory  of 
some  such  event  that  whiled  away  the  pen  of  Herodotus  by 
the  waters  of  Babylon,  and  the  tradition  of  Durga  Devi  itself 
that  met  Tlievenot  on  Ids  march  to  Ahmadabad  in  the  apocry- 
phal human  shambles  of  Dabka. 

Go  to  the  famine  of  17G9-70,  wlien  a  third  of  tlio  population 
of  Bengal  was  destroyed.  Go  to  Nasik  and  Nagar  (1802, 
Bombay  Gazetteer),  Baroda  and  the  Konkan  (1812),  Katliiawar 
(1813).  Read  Basil  Hall  and  Carnac,  Orissa  (1866-67),  read 
Hunter  and  the  records  of  oi;r  latest  famine  (1876-77),  and  you 
will  not  require  to  consult  Herodotus  or  Thevenot  for  examples 
of  this  most  appalling  human  frenzy.  Not  indigenous,  nor  of 
instinct,  nor  of  artifice,  nor  willingly,  nor  of  malice  prepense, 
but  poor  humanity  in  its  last  agony  and  struggle  for  existence, 
throwing  its  arms  wildly  about  in  a  whirlwind  of  despair. 
Did  any  Peshwah  ever  raise  his  little  finger  to  alleviate  or 
prevent  such  a  catastrophe  ?  The  rulers  of  this  land,  and  in 
those  times,  only  knew  one  thing,  and  that  was  how  to  take 
care  of  themselves. 

We  now  proceed  to  the  Aghori,  who  have  the  credit  of  being 
partly  cannibals.  Gliora  means  terrible  (Whitworth),  and  the 
word  "  ogre  "  may  be  derived  from  it  *  (Andrew  Wilson).  They 
are  in  every  rc^spect  the  ghoids  of  the  Arabian  Niyhts,  "  are  said 
to  haunt  burial-grounds  and  otlier  sequestered  spots,  to  feed  upon 
dead  liuman  bodies,  and  to  kill  and  devour  any  human  creature 
who  has  the  misfortune  to  fall  in  their  way  "  (Lane).  A  few- 
isolated  statements  of  travellers,  some,  indeed  most  of  them, 
unsupported  by  any  evidence  whatever,  have  appealed  to  tlie 
wild  and  weird  imagination  of  men  in  all  ages.  Such  is  the 
fascination  of  the  mysterious  and  the  horrible. 


Quito  as  likely  related  to  it^ra,  "  the  terrible,"  a  name  of  Eudra. — B. 


358  CANNIBAL    AND    OGRE. 

You  remember  the  story  of  Sitli  Xumau — the  Shekh  and  his 
beautiful  bride  ;  and  how  he  noticed  she  was  such  a  small  eater, 
rice — one  pickle  at  a  time  with  her  bodkin — picked  like  a 
bird ;  how  he  was  a  sound  sleeper.  But  one  night  by  chance 
he  awoke  and  missed  his  beautiful  Amin  from  his  side ;  how  he 
started  up  and  rushed  to  the  jalnscs,  peering  through  wliich  he 
was  just  in  time  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  "  the  woman  in  wliite  " 
vanishing  across  the  maidan,  her  muslin  ved  flying  in  the 
wind ;  how  he  opened  the  lattice,  stepped  out  into  the  cold 
moonlight,  and  followed  her  unobserved,  and  how  over  the 
garden  wall  of  the  cemetery  he  noticed,  to  his  horror,  that  she 
was  sitting  on  the  edge  of  a  new-made  grave  with  an  old  hag 
who  was  cutting  off  pieces  of  a  corpse,  &c.  But  we  must  not 
forget  the  moral.  Next  morning  he  charged  her  with  the 
crime,  when  she  converted  him  into  a  dog  and  sent  liim  howling 
out  of  the  room. 

Fable,  superstition  and  extravagance.  It  does  not  reqiiire 
such  monsters  to  exist,  for  the  genius  of  the  poet  in  all  ages  and 
countries  will  soon  create  them.  Even  Bm-ns  had  barely 
passed  the  limits  of  Tarbolton  when  he  sees  his  legions — 

"  Skim  the  moors  and  dizzy  crags 
Wi'  wicked  speed. 
And  in  kirkyards  renew  their  leagues 
Oure  howkit  dead." 

The  Katkaris  of  Matheran  do  not  eat  their  dead,  but  they 
dig  them  iip  a  fortnight  after  burial  and  burn  them  to  ashes 
amid  a  wild  orgy  of  drink  and  lamentation.  Our  great 
authority  on  the  Aghori  is  Tod,  "  the  worthy  and  genial  Colonel 
James  Tod  "  of  Dr.  Wilson.  Tod  died  at  the  early  age  of  fifty- 
three.  He  was  settling  some  business  ^vith  his  London  banker 
when  he  fell  down  in  a  fit  of  apoplexy.  This  was  in  1835. 
He  had  been  eighteen  years  in  Eajputana,  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  Williams,  the  Resident  of  Baroda,  and  from  him 
heard  of  the  Aghori.  Williams  only  knew  of  the  facts  here 
stated  as  they  were  given  to  liim  liy  hearsay,  and  Tod  knew 
nothing  of  his  own  knowledge. 

AVilliams — loquitur — "  One  of  the  Deora  Chiefs  told  me  that 
a  very  sliort  time  since,  when  conveying  the  body  of  Ids  brother 


GIENAK   AND   THE   AGHORI.  359 

to  be  burnt,  oue  of  these  monsters  crossed  the  path  of  the 
funeral  procession  and  begged  to  have  the  corpse,  saying  tliat 
it  would  make  excellent  chaini !  "  He  does  not  say  whether 
the  Chief  gave  the  corpse,  drove  away  the  Aghori  or  gave  him 
lakhshish.  Again  :  "  One  of  these  devils  came,  I  tliink,  in  1808 
to  Baroda,  and  actually  ate  the  arm  of  a  dead  child."  And 
then  comes  the  stor}'  of  the  Brahman  boy  who  was  stoned  to  be 
converted  into  food,  and  afterwards  rescued  half-dead — which 
has  been  well  harped  upon.  We  have  no  doubt  that  the  first 
case  was  to  extort  money,  and  that  the  second  was  an  incident 
of  some  big  famine.  A  man  writing  in  1835  of  what  another 
man  told  liim  in  1822  took  place  in  1808,  might  easily  give  the 
wrong  date  (which  may  have  been  1812,  a  year  of  famine). 
However,  the  curious  reader  may  consult  Tod's  book  (Travels 
in  Western  India,  1835).  These  details  made  a  deep  and 
abiding  impression  on  him,  as  we  shall  see,  and  awakened  a 
keen  interest  in  travellers  who  succeeded  him  in  this  region. 
Tod,  liowever,  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  with  an  Aghori 
on  Girnar :  and  the  picture  of  this  naked  ascetic  haunted  him  to 
Ids  dying  day.  It  followed  him  to  Eome,  and  the  impression 
it  made  on  him  was  so  great  that  in  England  he  could  never 
get  quit  of  it.  "  No  scene,"  he  says,  "  produced  such  sentiments 
as  I  experienced  on  the  summit  of  the  seven-peaked  Girnar,  the 
Aghori  heaving  forth  the  outpouring  of  the  spirit  before  the 
shrine  of  Gorakha,  in  the  presence  of  a  solitary  Frank,  on  the 
precipitous  side  of  Devakota,  with  the  ocean  lit  up  by  the  last 
raj's  of  the  setting  sun." 

The  next  instance  {Anglo-Ind.  Diet.,  1885)  :  "  An  Agliori  was 
lately  convicted  of  offering  an  indignity  to  a  human  corpse,  he 
having  disinterred  the  body  of  a  child  and  eaten  a  portion  of 
it ;  another  was  found  with  the  hand  and  foot  of  a  child  only 
partially  stripped  of  the  flesh."  As  these  seem  the  most 
circumstantial  cases,  it  is  a  pity  Mr.  Whitworth  has  given 
neither  date  nor  place,  which  we  think  must  be  obtain- 
al)le.  They  are  probaldy  the  "  damned  spots  "  in  the  famine 
of  1876,  and  we  are  confirmed  in  this  conviction  by  the 
Imperial  Gazetteer,  vol  vi.,  though  it  refers  to  another 
occm-rence: — "A  .small  party  of  Aghori  lately  established 
themselves   on   a   neighbouring    liill   (Ujjain)   and   committed 


360  CANNIBAL   AND   OGRE. 

depredations    Ijy    snatching    half-consumed   bodies    from    the 
funeral  pyre." 

Then  follows  a  statement  which  lets  in  a  stream  of  glorious 
sunlight  on  the  whole  business : — "  In  the  end  the  Mahraja's 
(Sindia's)  officer,  by  ensuring  a  regular  supply  of  food,  put  a 
stop  to  these  depredations,"  which  shows  that  they  were  driven 
to  the  dernier  ressort  by  laclc  of  food. 


Dhatar. 
Ofli/r  Sdra       r^      Raen  Mata. 


KaUta  Mata. 


Kheitgar'f  palace,  and  ciuittr 
of  ttnpla,  3,000  /tel  above 
the  pUtui. 


GIBXAR   PEAKS. 


The  region  to  which  the  reader  ^vill  now  accompany  us  is 
that  of  Kachh  and  Kathiawar,  the  fertile  parent  of  so  many 
prodigies.  Girnar,  near  Junagadh,  from  time  immemorial  has 
been  the  abode  of  the  Acrhori,  and  Tod  resolved  to  visit  the 
seven-peaked  mountain.  It  is  in  truth  a  wild  and  desolate 
region — wilder  and  weirder  by  the  gloomy  associations  with 
which  it  is  invested :  "  Antars  vast  and  deserts  idle.  Eough 
quarries,  rocks  and  liills  whose  heads  touch  heaven."  It  is  a 
stiff  climb  of  over  3000  feet,  but  lie  did  it  and  went  over  the 
Jain  temples.  The  peak  of  Kalka,  which  the  Aghori  are  said 
to  haunt,  is  separated  from  tlie  point  which  Tod  visited  by  a 


*  The  sketch  iu  the  cut  is  from  Tod's  Travels,  and  roughly  represents  the 
summits  of  Girnar.  The  Jaina  temples  are  at  an  elevation  of  about  2700 
feet ;  the  first  summit,  that  of  Amba  Mataji,  is  about  600  feet  above  them ; 
the  second,  of  Gorakhanath,  reaches  a  height  of  about  3450  feet ;  the  third,  of 
Dattatraya  or  Neminatha,  is  nearly  as  high ;  the  Ogliad  and  Renuka  peaks 
are  lower,  and  Kalka  or  KaUka  Mata  is  the  farthest. — B. 


GraNAE    AND   THE   AGHOBI.  361 

deep  valley — the  Valley  of  the  Sliadow  of  Death — and  I  am  not 
surprised  that  neither  Tod  (1822),  Dr.  Wilson  (1835),  Dr. 
Burcess  (1860),  Andrew  Wilson  (1875),  Dr.  Campbell  (1888), 
nor  Dr.  Codrington  (1890),  paid  it  a  visit.  There  are  limits  to 
human  endurance.  Tod  fevered  and  his  feet  failed  Mm;  Dr. 
Wilson  ^vas  too  anxious  to  get  down  to  the  stone  of  Asoka  :  he 
never  even  mentions  the  Aghori,  leaving  them  to  his  more 
imaginative  son,  who  was  never  very  good  about  the  legs ;  Dr. 
Codrington, — the  subject  completely  escaped  his  mind  when  'on 
Girnar;  and  Bui-gess,  stout  bill  climber  as  he  is,  reached  the 
Dattatra3'a  peak,  about  400  feet  above  the  Kamandala  Kunda, 
near  sunset,  too  late  to  go  farther,  and  has  left  on  record  the 
ominous  local  proverb : — "  If  three  set  out  two  may  be  expected 
to  return."  For  us  therefore  the  Aghori  and  Kalka  are  the 
vultures  on  their  eyrie  or  veritable  Tower  of  Silence  on  which 
the  foot  of  European  apparently  has  never  trod — an  uncanny 
spot  when  so  many  men  have  refrained  from  paying  it  a  visit. 
Ht'  who  furnishes  us  with  an  account  of  the  unexplored  Kalka 
will  deserve  honourable  mention. 

If  any  reader  has  had  the  patience,  and  we  may  add  the 
courage,  to  accompany  us  through  the  revolting  details  we  have 
placed  before  him,  he  will  come  to  the  only  conclusion  open  to 
us :  that  the  cannibal  and  the  Aghori  are  creations  of  acute 
famine,  and  that  in  the  primary  sense  of  the  words  or  their 
accepted  meanings  they  have  never  existed,  nor  do  exist  in 
India. 

I  am  confirmed  in  this  belief  in  the  Aghori  that  among 
their  abominable  practices  neither  Dr.  Wilson  {Caste,  1877)  nor 
Dr.  Sherring  {Hindu  Tribes  and  Castes,  1877)  ranks  that  of 
"  body-snatching."  Every  case  of  either  Aghori  or  supposed 
cannibalism  can  be,  as  I  take  it,  traced  to  one  cause,  and  one 
cause  only — except  such  as  are  founded  on  fable  and  imposture. 
Wliy  is  it  to-day  that  the  one  authority,  both  from  his  learning 
and  experience,  who  is  entitled  to  speak  on  this  subject — why  is 
it  that  he  is  now  able  to  write :  "  I  believe  no  Aghori  are  now 
to  be  found  in  Girnar.  I  have  heard  of  only  one  during  the 
last  ten  years  "  ?  Because  the  British  Government,  over  and 
above  the  lives  of  its  servants,  spent  ten  millions  sterling  in 
mitigating  the  horrors  of  the  last  great  famine  of  187G  :  and  no 

VOL.  IL  2  b 


362 


CANNIBAL    AND    OGEE. 


more  noble  or  unselfish  object  could  ever  awaken  the  energies 
of  a  nation. 

When  the  destinies  of  India  are  wound  up  she  may 
borrow,  and  not  irreverently,  the  words  of  the  greatest  and  best : 
"  When  I  was  hungry  ye  gave  me  meat,  when  I  was  athirst 
ye  gave  me  drink."  It  was  the  first  care  of  Him,  the  Saviour 
Himself,  to  feed  the  hungry  and  cast  out  devils  when  He 
dwelt  among  the  oleanders  of  Galilee.  He  also  had  the  same 
outcasts  to  deal  with,  loathsome  ascetics  dwelling  among  the 
tombs,  naked,  cutting  themselves  with  stones,  exceeding  fierce, 
and  howling  day  and  night ;  and  not  only  cured  them,  but  sent 
them  forth  to  the  world  with  His  divine  message  of  peace  and 
good-will  to  men  before  He  had  given  His  great  commission  to 
either  disciple  or  apostle. 


CHAPTER  LXIII. 

Anglo-Ixdian  Ghosts. 

We  are  not  goinc;  to  arguf  whether  there  are  ghosts  or  not, 
for  there  are  ghosts  indubitably  to  people  who  believe  in  them. 

AVhat  amount  of  t}ranii\-  they  exercised  on  our  forefathers 
will  never  be  known ;  and,  if  known,  would  not  be  believed. 
You  have  only  to  read  carefully  Forbes's  Oriental  Memoirs  to 
get  an  inkling  of  wliat  was  believed  and  what  he,  a  common- 
sense  man,  believed  liimself. 

Bombay  was  indeed  once  full  of  astrology  and  divination,  and 
witches  were  publicly  wdiipped  at  our  Cathedral  door,  but  a 
good  deal  of  the  fabric  of  this  old  superstition  came  down  with 
the  ramparts.     When  they  fell,  great  was  the  fall  thereof. 

The  ghosts  themselves  lingered  indeed  long  after  this,  but 
they  were  mere  attenuated  shadows — if  gliosts  have  shadows — 
and  not  those  astute  and  pretentious  beings  they  were  in 
Hornby's  time,  when  astrology  could  alter  the  day  of  the  East 
India  Company's  sale,  dictate  to  a  Governor  the  time  of  liis 
departure,  or  direct  a  General's  action  in  the  field. 

The  business  of  the  ghost  proper  in  former  times  seems  to 
have  been,  among  other  things,  to  convey  news  of  a  person's 
decease  to  his  friends  in  England. 

Having  come  into  existence  before  tlie  movements  of  tlie 
heavenly  bodies  were  known,  the  ghosts  proceeded  on  the  ohl 
lines,  that  the  earth  was  a  flat  surface  which  the  sun  lightened 
u]i  simultaneously. 

Tlie  ghosts  in  this  respect  were  out  of  their  reckoniug,  for  we 
iiuw  know  that  nine  o'clock  here  is  not  nine  o'clock  in  England ; 
l)ut  so  anxious  was  the  wraith  to  communic;ite  the  news  tliat 
not  only  was  tills  forgotten,  but,  as  we  sliall  see  faitlier  on,  the 
ghost  was  sometimes  in  sucli  a  hurrv  running  off  with  the 
news  before  the  breath  left  the  imlividual,  tliat  occasionally  the 

2  B  2 


364  ANGLO-INDIAN    GHOSTS. 

patient  cheated  both  ghost  ami  doctor  by  .survi\'ing  many  years 
afterwards. 

The  utility  of  these  ghostly  exhibitions  has  been  altogether 
superseded  by  the  introduction  of  the  electric  telegraph.  Fed 
and  nourished  by  the  nervous  excitement  about  friends  in  far-off 
countries,  from  whom  they  were  separated  by  stormy  oceans 
and  arid  deserts,  the  devotees  of  this  religion — for  it  was  a 
religion — gave  up  their  belief  as  soon  as  it  was  found  possible 
to  communicate  Avith  individuals  instantaneously  on  the  other 
side  of  the  world.  The  truth  is,  the  electric  telegraph  has 
flashed  this  class  of  spirits  out  of  existence.  And  in  corrobora- 
tion of  this  statement  we  venture  to  say  that  since  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  system  in  1865,  not  one  case  of  the  kind  represented 
by  our  illustrations  has  been  put  on  record  or  appeared  in  the 
public  prints.* 

The  first  message  that  reached  Bombay  from  Europe  was  in 
March  1865.  It  declared  that  peace  had  been  proclaimed 
between  the  North  and  South  States  of  America.  The  word 
"  peace,"  borne  on  angel's  wings  to  the  shepherds  of  Bethlehem, 
and  bequeathed  to  mankind  by  the  Saviour  himself,  was  the 
first  word  that  was  flashed  from  Europe  to  India.t 
Now  for  our  illustrations. 

The  earnestness,  sincerity,  and  simplicity  with  which  Lord 
Brougham  details  the  story  of  an  Indian  ghost  disarm  criticism. 
One  can  almost  see  the  twitching  of  his  nose,  for  it  had  a 
cartilasriuous  movement  of  its  own,  as  in  one  of  those  iireat 
orations  of  his  where  he  carried  everything  before  him  by  storm. 
For  you  there  is  left  nothing  but  absolute  belief. 

Ghost  or  no  ghost.  Brougham  saw  it.  That  Brougham's  most 
intimate  friend  was  a  fellow-student  in  Edinburgh ;  that  they 


*  "  Phantasms  of  the  Living,  1886,  No.  190.  Mrs.  L.,  a  most  vivid  and 
iatelligint  narrator,  tells  how,  on  September  21st,  187i,  wlien  in  India,  she 
had  a  dream  which  mnde  her  say  next  day  of  her  frirad  in  England,  'Mrs. 
Keed  is  dead.'  A  sister  with  her  on  tlie  same  day  sat  down  and  wrote  to  a 
lady  in  the  West  of  England  '  telling  her  exactly  what  I  had  said,'  and 
abkin2  particulars.  The  letter  was  at  once  answered,  ami  was  followed  by 
news  of  the  death  in  England  on  the  21st  (it  really  took  place  near  that  date). 
But  wliere  is  the  letter,  and  where  is  the  answer  ?  " — A.  Taylor  Innes,  In  the 
Nineteenth  Century,  August,  1887. 

t  No  doubt  some  wicked  person  will  say  that  this  telegram  produced 
anything  but  peace  and  good-will  to  men  within  our  city. 


LORD    brougham's    STORY.  365 

discussed  great  questions  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  that 
they  finally  resolved  to  sign  a  bond  that  the  one  who  died  first 
should  come  back  and  solve  the  doubts  of  his  living  brother ; 
that  a  bond  to  this  effect  was  written  out  and  signed  with  theii- 
own  blood  ;  that  they  parted  company  never  to  meet  again  on 
earth,  his  friend  to  an  appointment  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service, 
Brougham  to  work  out  that  marvellous  career  with  which  we 
are  all  so  familiar;  that  several  years  afterwards  Brougham, 
travelling  in  Norway,  arrived  at  an  inn  towards  midnight,  cold, 
hungry,  and  exhausted ;  that  he  had  just  been  in  a  hot  batli, 
when,  looking  at  the  chair  on  which  he  had  deposited  his  clotlies, 
he  saw  sitting  in  it  his  friend,  about  whom  he  had  not  previously 
been  thinking ;  that  the  face  looked  calmly  at  him  ;  that  he 
stumliled  out  of  his  bath — how  he  did  so  he  could  not  tell — and 
fell  on  the  floor,  when  the  apparition  disappeared  ;  that  tliis  was 
on  the  19tli  December,  1799,  on  which  date  he  made  the  record  ; 
that  on  his  arrival  in  Edinburgh,  some  months  after,  he  found 
that  his  friend  in  India  had  died  on  the  very  day  on  which  he 
had  seen  his  presentment ;  and  that  sixty  years  afterwards 
Brougham  records  that  all  this  is  true  and  of  verity.  All  these 
details  are  given  in  his  autobiography. 

We  only  add  that  Brougham  believed  in  tlie  immortality  of 
the  soul  on  higher  ground  than  that  furnished  by  this  narration. 

The  interest  of  the  next  story  is  increased  by  a  conversation 
with  the  ghost,  for  with  this  exception  and  another  most 
important  one,  the  narrative  of  Henry  Salt's  ghost  runs  in 
almost  parallel  lines  with  the  foregoing.  Salt  had  been  twice 
in  Bombay,  once  in  1805,  and  again  in  1810  for  several  month.s, 
visiting  all  sorts  of  places,  principally  in  our  Buddhist  Terra 
Sancta,  climbing  up  into  the  eyi'ies  among  the  caves  of  Kauheri, 
and  diving  down  into  the  depths  of  the  subterranean  Jogeshwari. 
lie  too  had  a  friend,  Ilalls,  who  ultimately  became  his  biographer. 
They  had  their  doubts,  and  they  resolved  to  settle  them  in 
exactly  the  same  manner,  and  a  bond  was  signed.*     The  year  is 


*  "  It  is  hereby  mutually  protiiised  by  the  undersigned  that  in  the  case  of  tlie 
death  of  either  of  the  parties  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  one  shall,  if  permitted, 
vi-^it  tlie  survivor,  and  relate  what  he  may  be  able  to  impart  of  his  situation. 

(Sd.)    "J.  J.  Halls;  Henry  Salt." 

"We   have  actually  heard  and  real  of  persons  profane  enough  to  make 


3GG  ANGLO-INDIAN    GHOSTS. 

181'J ;  HalLs  is  in  England,  Salt,  Lunsul-deneral  in  Egypt.  It 
is  Halls  that  now  speaks  : — 

"  I  fancied  that  I  was  lying  awake  in  ray  bed-room.  It  was 
liroad  daylight.  A  figure  glided  into  the  room  and  withdrew 
the  cnrtaius,  and  Salt  stood  before  me.  He  took  my  hand  in 
his,  which  felt  cold  and  lifeless,  and  looked  earnestly  in  my  face. 
His  countenance  was  calm  and  appeared  deadly  pale,  but  had  an 
uneartlrly  look  about  it.  '  Salt,  you  are  not  among  the  living,' 
said  I.  He  shook  his  head.  '  I  have  come  according  to  promise.' 
'  How  is  it  with  you  ? '  '  Better  than  might  have  been  expected.' 
And  the  vision  disappeared." 

Here,  too,  the  date,  the  5tli  of  May,  was  noted,  when  it  was 
found  that  Salt  had  been  dangerously  ill.  He  was  in  fact  "  better 
than  might  have  been  expected,"  and  lived  eight  years  afterwards.* 

Our  next  is  a  tale  of  the  Indian  ^Mutiny  and  is  related  by 
Andrew  Lang,  in  the  last  edition  of  the  Encyclopseil ia  Britannictt. 
It  happened  to  a  lady,  a  distant  relative  of  the  writer,  to  waken 
one  morning  in  Edinburgh,  and,  as  she  thought,  .she  saw  her 
father  standing  by  her  bed-side.  He  was  dressed  in  full  uniform 
as  a  General  in  the  East  India  Company's  army,  and  seemed  to 
her  to  press  his  hand  on  liis  side,  with  a  look  of  pain,  and  then 
to  disappear.  The  lady  mentioned  what  she  supposed  she  had 
seen  to  the  clergyman  with  whom  she  was  residing.  He  took  a 
note  of  the  date  of  the  occurrence,  which  happened  in  a  time,  as 
was  supposed,  of  profound  peace.  The  next  news  from  India 
brought  tidings  of  the  Mutiny,  and  that  the  lady's  father  had 
gone  out  in  full  uniform  to  address  his  native  troops  and  had 
been  shot  down  by  them. 

In  Calcutta  a  ghost  walked  into  the  Chamber  where  Warren 
Hastings  and  his  Council  were  sitting,  as  Tom  Killigrew  did 
with  Charles  II.  It  (that  is,  the  ghost)  wore  a  stove-pipe  hat, 
and,  though  it  immediately  vanished  into  thin  air,  it  was 
remembered  months  after,  when  Calcutta  was  fuU  of  such  hats, 


engagements  about  appearing  after  death.  The  determinatioa  to  attempt  it 
is  against  the  economy  of  God ;  and  if  in  any  instance  tlie  spectre  has  seemed 
to  fulfil  the  engagement,  there  can  be  no  dependence  on  it." — John  Foster. 

*  Goldsmid,  C.  S.,  died  in  1855  at  Cairo  (tablet  in  Byculla  Church),  aged 
forty-two;  was  .«et  down  as  having  an  evil  spirit  which  wasted  his  life.  He 
paid  the  station  (Dharwar,  I  think)  otT  at  a  dinner  party,  to  the  great  amuse- 
ment of  himself  and  everybody  except  the  guests. 


A   LOOSE   CHAIN.  367 

tliat  this  iHUsl  have  been  an  avant-courrier  that  tlauntless  stood 
ami  high,  clothed  in  the  liead-gear  of  tlie  next  generation,  long 
ere  the  first  of  the  hlack  hats  had  arrived  from  Eur()iH\  "Witli 
what  vagaries  do  ghosts  disport  themselves ! 

But  we  must  now  come  nearer  our  own  Presidency.  And 
here  tlie  fr/o  creeps  in,  sleeping  on  the  high  ground  yclept  llauza, 
above  Elura,  in  one  of  those  spacious  and  beautiful  Musalman 
toml)s  which  must  have  cost  a  lakli  of  rupees. 

I  was  awoke  at  midnight  by  a  dull  thud  or  deadened  knock, 
at  apparently  fixed  intervals,  as  of  some  avenging  spirit, 
possibly  that  of  him  who  slept  under  me,  who  had  business  to 
do,  and  nevertheless  was  in  no  great  hurry  to  do  it.  The  moon 
stole  through  the  delicate  arabesque  tracery  in  the  windo\\s, 
casting  its  wondrous  ashy  liglit  on  the  marble  sarcophagus  on 
which  I  lay  and  in  flaky  sheets  on  the  pavement  all  around. 
Who  art  thou?  Deternihu'd  to  find  out,  I  strode  forward,  and 
opening  cautiously  the  ponderous  gate  I  emerged  from  the  tomb 
quite  the  reverse  of  the  condition  of  the  demoniacs  in  the  New 
Testament.  Tlie  mystery  was  solved.  The  great  spiked  door 
had  a  lock  and  chain,  the  links  of  wliicli,  swaying  to  and  fro, 
dangled  in  the  wind  and  produced  the  unearthly  concussion. 
This  was  very  near  being  a  ghost. 

Western  India  is  full  of  places  suitable  for  ghosts.  Need  i 
name  them  '.  Ahmadaliad,  IJijapur,  and  many  a  ruined  fort, 
grim,  hoar,  and  full  of  legends  of  crime  and  lilood. 

Surat  ought  to  be  a  good  place  for  ghosts  in  the  dark  lialf  of 
tlic  moon.  No  thin  or  shadowy  sprites  or  fays  could  liud  a  fit 
resting-place  among  her  Brobdingnagian  tombs.  Mr.  Bellasis, 
C.S.,  18G9,  gives  a  good  account  of  these  tond)S.  His  father  was 
long  in  Bombay,  and  about  the  beginning  of  this  century  it  was 
his  habit  to  drive  from  his  house  in  Breach  Candy  to  the  Fort  in 
a  bullock-^a)'i.  Geo.  Ilutchins  Bellasis,  author  of  Vinos  of  Ht. 
Helnia,  1815,  was  apparently  a  brother :  I'rice  says  of  him,  "  son 
of  the  late  General  Bellasis  of  the  Bombay  Artillery,  and  grand- 
son of  the  historian  of  Dorsetshire." — I'rice's  Monoriah,  IS^'J. 

"Hop,  Mu[),  and  Draj)  so  clear, 
Tip,  aii<l  Trip,  ami  Skip  that  were 
To  Mab  tlieir  suvereigu  dear, 
Her  special  maids  of  houuiir." 


368  ANGIiO-INDIAX   GHOSTS. 

All  such  small  fry  of  fairy  mythology  the  reader  may  safely 
i'onsign  to  the  sunny  and  grassy  slopes  of  ]\latheran,  for  they 
could  not  hold  their  own  with  the  strong  and  lusty  spirits  of 
antiquity  we  might  meet  with  in  Surat.  John  Spencer  as  he 
stood  stern  and  immaculate  before  the  rising  fate  and  fortunes 
of  Clive.  Vaux,  with  the  traitor's  brand  on  Ms  lips  (of  course), 
a  spirit  from  the  depths  of  Swally.  Coryat  in  pilgrim's  garb 
drinking  the  "  bluid  red  wine ; "  Bigarah  twirling  his  mous- 
tachios  ;  Sivaji  something  like  "  a  kingly  crown  "  had  on. 

And  then  the  Tapti,  rolling  down  in  full  flood,  cruel  as  death, 
insatiate  as  the  grave,  like  the  weird  pandemonium  of  the 
Jacobite  ballad — 

"Where  "Whigs  poured  in  like  Kith  in  spate" — 

must  be  full  to  the   brim   of   brownies,  banshees,  and   water 
kelpies  under  equally  uncouth  names. 

Even  in  broad  daylight,  with  the  sun  shining  brightly,  and 
the  sound  of  the  pigeons  echoing  their  mournful  croon,  up  those 
big  trees  that  cast  their  mighty  shadows  over  Hope's  bungalow, 
our  drowsy  intelligence  would  suffer  no  eclipse  if  the  ghosts  of 
Eliza  Draper  and  Commodore  James*  (no  Daniel  come  to  judg- 
ment) should  appear  tripping  up  the  stairs  with  an  eighteenth 
century  curtsey  from  the  shades  of  the  past. 

"  Notably  gay,  a  lady  gay  was  she, 
For,  oil,  ber  mantle  was  made  of  silk,  and  it  hung  right  daintily." 

We  will  now  speak  of  the  Dapuri  t  ghost,  and  for  an  account 
of  this  apparition  we  are  intlebted  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere.  I  don't 
like  the  place  much  myself.  An  old  decaying  mansion,  its 
unfed  sides  and  widowed  raggedness  stare  you  in  the  face.  A 
broken  flowerpot,  and  in  it  tlie  last  rose  of  summer.  A  river 
black,  silent,  and  sluggish,  flowing  imperceptibly  amid  green 


*  Commodore  James's  granddaughter  married  in  August,  1824,  Jules 
Annand  Marie,  Prince  de  I'olignac,  Minister  of  Charles  X.  See  Vol.  I.,  pp. 
118,  420  f. 

t  Dapuri,  built  by  Captain  Ford,  an  assistant  of  Sir  Barry  Close,  Resident 
at  Poona  in  1812,  who  afterwards  took  service  with  the  Peshwah  and  com- 
manded a  brigade,  and  who  materially  contributed  to  our  success  at  Khirki. 
It  cost  him  a  lakh  and  Ks.  10,000.  It  was  bought  by  Sir  John  Malcohu 
for  Government  for  Ks.  10,000;  and  in  1864,  during  the  mania,  sold  to  Dr. 
Diver  for  o.V  lakhs.     Afterwards  a  brewery  here. 


SIKtJR    GHOST.  369 

slime,  in  which  the  coil  of  a  loathsome  water  snake  as  thick  as 
your  wrist  deftly  disappears  at  the  sound  of  your  footsteps  on 
the. gravel.  This  seems  just  the  ])laee  at  midnight  for  uneartldy 
creatures  to  roam  in,  and  wlicre,  if  yuu  did  not  hear  the  rustling 
of  silk  or  the  clunking  of  cliains,  yo>i  could  soon  invent  these 
sounds  by  the  sheer  force  of  listening  for  them,  and  the  power 
of  your  own  imagination. 

Tlie  ghost  that  appeared  here,  and  it  may  still  do  so,  is 
stated  to  be  that  of  Mouutstuart  Elphinstone,*  and  by  its 
protean  shapes  and  defiance  of  the  rules  of  Pythagoras  it  does 
wonderful  homage  to  the  versatility  of  this  great  man's 
character. 

Mount !j  puts  in  an  appearance  as  a  dog,  cat,  goat,  or  jackal. 

Tin's  is  a  distinct  manifestation  of  genius,  for  the  capacity  of 
this  spirit  seems  boundless  and  can  assume  any  form  it 
pleases. 

The  jackal  seems  awkward,  as  he  might  be  nm  down  by  the 
very  Poona  Hunt  of  which  he  was  a  member,  with  the  cry  of 
"  Do  ye  ken  John  Peel  in  the  morning  ?  " 

Sir  Bartle  merely  heard  of  it  by  accident,  but  for  many  years 
and  during  successive  administrations  the  sentries  on  duty  liad 
passed  on  the  word  from  one  to  another  that  when  the  ghost 
appeared  the  sentry  for  the  night  was  to  present  arms.  Tliis 
apparition  is  jiurely  a  creation  of  the  native  mind. 

Of  Colonel  Wallace's  ghost  at  Sirur  we  speak  with  respect, 
as  the  Colonel  is  much  revered  for  his  long  and  eminent  services 
in  the  Dekhan.  This  is  rather  a  peculiar  ghost,  a  kind  of 
stormy  petrel  in  its  way,  that  fights  shy  of  a  good  time  coming, 
and  gets  restless  and  uneasy  on  the  eve  of  impending  famine  or 
pestilence  or  indeed  any  great  calamity. 

It  is  then  that,  like  the  sea,  it  cannot  be  ipiiet,  and  the 
natives  gather  themselves  together  and  do  puja  at  his  tomb  to 
propitiate  the  ghost,  and  so  avert  the  plagues  that  are  likely  to 
fall  on  man  or  beast.  The  Poona  Horse  are  not  oblivious  of 
the  existence  of  this  ghost,  by  reason  of  theii"  long  residence^  in 


•  Sir  Robert  Grant,  Governor  of  liombay,  died  at  Dapuri,  July  Otb,  1838 
{ante.  Vol.  I.,  p.  189,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  53,  114);  and  the  fact  suggests  to  us  tiiat 
it  must  be  his  gliost.  Proof  is  unavaUablp,  liowovcr,  ou  this  shadowy 
subject,  nor  does  it  very  much  matter  whose  ghost  it  is. 


370  ANGLO-INDIAN    GHOSTS. 

tliiit  vicinity.*  It  is  idle  for  us  to  say  tliat  this  worship  at  his 
tomb  is  gross  superstition.  We  all  know  that  it  is  so.  At  the 
.-same  time,  this  custom  only  obtains  with  those  who  have  been 
kind  and  considerate  to  the  natives.  Sir  Thomas  Miinro  at 
Madras  and  Albuquerque  on  the  Malabar  Coast  are  instances — 
not  forgetting  the  marble  statue  of  the  Marquis  of  Cornwallis 
in  our  own  city,  whicli  often  receives  a  votive  offering  of  flowers. 

Some  years  ago  a  most  persistent  ghost  made  its  appearance 
at  the  Mint  and  near  the  ramparts  of  tlie  Bombay  Castle.  The 
sentries  on  duty  got  quite  accustomed  to  it,  but  a  new  man  said 
with  an  oath,  "  If  I  see  that  ghost  I  shall  shoot  myself."  And 
shoot  himself  he  did,  and  there  was  an  inquest  on  the  body.f 

But  we  must  now  bring  this  worthless  and  unprofitable 
investigation  to  a  close.  Bombay  is  not  a  good  place  for  ghosts. 
There  is  too  much  activity,  too  many  people,  and  too  great  an 
amount  of  gas  and  electric  light.  Ghosts  can  only  thrive  on  a 
substratum  of  solitude  and  darkness,  and  require  credence  in 
their  manufacture,  and  can  never  flourish  in  an  age  wlien  men 
disbelieve  everything,  and  this  includes  a  good  deal  that  people 
ought  to  believe.  In  the  place  where  we  are  just  now  ghosts 
could  not  exist.  There  is  no  cover  for  them,  otherwise  we  should 
not  object  to  meet  with,  for  example,  that  of  Governor  Duncan, 
the  reality  itself  in  180-5,  depicted  by  Colonel  Welsh,  being  that 
of  a  wee,  wee  man  in  white-silk  stockings,  coloured  breeches,  and 
brown  coat,  liis  hair  dressed  and  powdered  after  the  fashion  of 
1780.  This  would  make  a  capital  ghost.  Or  what  do  you 
think  of  old  Wedderburn  at  the  Financial  Bureau,  Forjett  in 
the  Detective  Department  of  the  Police,  Henry  Martyn  in  the 
Cathedral,  or  the  voice  of  the  great  Arthur  himself  crying  in 
the  wilderness  of  Wanawri  ? 

You  may  call  these  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep,  but  the 
question  is,  will  they  come  ? 

*  "  This  ghost  disapiiearcil  with  tlie  advent  ot  tlie  American  Missionaries. 
Poena  Horse  have  been  stationed  here  since  1817."— General  La  Touche, 
August  L'9th,  1888. 

t  In  llalcolm's  time  a  grand  Darbar  was  held  by  Sindia;  some  thousands 
had  assembled  under  a  shumiana.  Ituring  an  interval  in  the  proceedings  a 
crow  flew  in  at  one  side  over  the  heads  of  the  people,  and  out  at  the  other. 
All  eyes  were  turned  on  Sindia  lor  an  explanation  of  this  piece  of  bad  luck. 
iSindia,  "  You  need  not  look  at  me ;  it  cannot  refer  to  me  as  my  fortunes  are 
already  at  the  lowest  ebb." 


(     371     ) 


CHAPTER  LXIV. 

Conclusion, 

Wiiv  do  men,  after  a  long  residence  in  a  foreign  country,  set 
such  store  on  tlieir  place  of  abode  ?     The  answer  is : 

Patria  est  uhicxtnqvr  bene  est* 

The  more  we  know  of  the  past  of  India,  the  more  we  shall  value 
the  present ;  we  cannot  estimate  aright  the  present  unless  we 
know  the  conditions  \nider  which  men  lived  and  died  before  lis. 
ISombay,  and  many  other  cities,  have  flourished  and  continue  to 
do  so,  while  the  mighty  ruins  which  now  lie  broadcast  over  the 
plains  of  India,  more  in  extent  than  all  those  of  Egypt  and 
.Assyria  put  together,  attest  the  unfailing  issue — for  it  has  no 
exception — of  all  misgovernment,  and  that  there  is  nothing 
]iermanent  unless  it  is  founded  on  Right  and  Justice. 

Spain  discovered  America,  and  Egypt  built  the  Pyramids. 
The  nineteenth  century  is  now  drawing  to  a  close ;  and  when 
the  twentieth  century  has  dawned  on  the  world,  if  only  true  to 
lierself,  India,  we  venture  to  anticipate,  will  have  a  very  different 
story  to  tell  than  either  of  these  nations. 

She  is  now,  in  the  sublime  language  of  Milton,  "  rousing 
herself  like  a  strong  man  after  sleep,  and  shaking  her  invincible 
locks ;  metliinks  I  see  her  as  an  eagle  mewing  her  mighty  youth, 
and  kindling  her  undazzled  eyes  at  the  full  midday  beam." 

The  traveller  from  Matheran,  or  Mahabaleshwar,  emerging  in 
the  darkness  from  these  bosky  retreats,  sometimes  discovers  light 
breaking  around  him,  which  he  mistakes  for  the  dawn  of  day. 
A  murky  sky  has  been  suddenly  transfused  into  one  of  slatey 
grey,  and  anon  waves  of  liluish  light  flash  from  the  eastern 
horizon  on  his  troubled  vision.  The  owl  ceases  to  hoot,  and 
there  is  a  chirrup  in  the  jungle. 

•  Cicero,  Tusc.  Dis.,  v.  37,  108. 


372  CONCLUSIOX. 

But  again  darkness  settles  down  on  the  landscape,  and  the 
curtain  of  night  wiaps  him  in  her  gloomy  mantle.  The  false 
dawn  precedeth,  and  could  not  exist  but  for,  the  true  one — and 
the  true  light  cometh.  So  nothing  doubting,  he  sits  down  on 
some  "  coign  of  vantage,"  with  the  morning  mists  and  rolling 
clouds  of  an  undiscovered  country  before  him — - 

"  To  watch  the  moruing  ray, 
Purpling  the  Orient  till  it  breaks  away, 
And  burns  and  blazes  into  glorious  day." 

The  time  in  which  we  live  seems  to  bridge  two  vast  eras,  and 
we  stand  midway  between  the  old  and  the  new.  We  have 
witnessed  the  end  of  one  era,  and  are  now  the  spectators  of 
another,  the  era  of  steamers,  railways,  and  telegTaphs,  and  have 
seen  what  no  generation  has  seen  before,  nor  will  ever  see 
again. 

It  is  at  sych  a  time  that  one  sits  down  to  remember  that 
Bombay  has  a  history  before  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
and  I  have  written  to  little  purpose  if  these  essays  fail  in 
conveying  to  the  reader  an  exhibition  of  moral  strength  and  a 
tenacity  of  purpose  unexampled  in  the  History  of  Colonis- 
ation. 

The  spectacle  of  this  lone  and  isolated  community,  battling 
for  existence  for  a  hundred  years,  and  upholding  the  banner 
and  the  honour  of  England,  is  a  noble  one,  and  not  devoid  of 
moral  grandeur.  Strange  to  say,  it  attracted  little  or  no  attention 
at  home. 

In  the  Diary  of  John  Evelyn,  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
men  of  his  day,  and  who  was  in  the  thick  of  politics,  1660  to 
1705,  that  is,  diiring  the  reigns  of  Chaiies  II.,  James  II.,  and 
William  III.,  and  which  embraces  every  notable  event  of  his 
time,  there  is  no  mention  of  Bombay,  and  yet  this  was  the  time 
during  which  were  laid  the  foundations  of  our  dominion  in 
Western  India. 

One  word  more.  The  writer  has  kept  steadily  before  him  tlie 
condition  of  the  people.  Are  the  subject-peoples  better  or 
worse  off  than  they  were  under  the  former  native  governments 
of  Western  India  ?  A  question  of  much  import,  and  of  more 
import  to  the  native  populations  of  tliese  countries,  than  it  is 


CONCLUSION.  373 

even  111  tliu  niliiii;-  class.  The  answw-  which  is  contained  in 
these  jiapers  is  this,  tliat  the  Governments  we  supphmted  in 
Western  India  were  unetiual  to  the  tasiv  of  guaranteeing  life 
and  property  to  their  subjects  ;  that  they  were  out  of  the  path- 
way of  human  progi-ess,  and  did  not  assist  in  any  way  tlie 
onward  march  of  civilisation.  This  is  not  an  I'^nglish  view  of 
the  subject,  but  is  and  must  be  the  view  of  every  man  who  can 
distinguish  right  from  wrong,  or  the  difference  l)etween  a  good 
government  and  a  bad  government.  It  thus  resolves  itself  into 
a  matter  of  fact,  not  a  matter  of  conjectui-e.  The  writer  has  no 
interested  motive  to  serve  in  these  essays.  He  is  not  a  servant 
of  tlie  Government  of  India. 

According  to  the  verdict  of  History  it  was  perfectly  open  to 
him  in  view  of  the  facts  to  write  either  one  way  or  the  other. 

The  facts  left  no  other  course  open  to  him  than  to  denounce 
these  Governments  as  the  enemies  of  mankind. 

What  destiny  is  reserved  for  tliis  great  communit}-  of 
Bombay,  G-od  only  knows.  I'opulation  and  opulence  Iiave 
increased,  and  may  increase  with  giant  strides,  but  we  can 
scarcely  imagine  a  time  when  the  story  of  its  early  history  will 
cease  to  interest,  or  its  example  be  without  effect  upon  future 
generations. 


(     375     ) 


APPENDIX. 
GOVERNOES  OP  BOMBAY. 

The  fdllowinj;  list  may  be  fmind  useful  to  tlir  readers  of  tliese  volumes  for 
ri-rerence  as  to  the  (iovernors  who  held  rule  at  dill'ereiit  dates.  It  is  takeu  from  a 
Bombay  (iovemmont  official  letter  of  20th  November,  1877,  and  brmight  up  to  ilate. 


No. 


Name. 


Assumed 

charf^e  of 

Office. 


Made  over 
Charge. 


Kt-marks. 


Tile  Honourable  Sir 
Abraham  Shipman. 


A)ipointfid  "  General  and 
(governor  "  on  the  I'Jth 
March,  ICOiJ,  was  ]jro- 
vented  from  landing  In 
Bombay  by  the  Portu- 
guese, and  died  on  thi' 
Island  of  Anjidiva  (N". 
Lat.  14°  45';  E.  Lon- 
74°  10')  in  October. 
1604. 


2  Mr.  Hunifrey  Cooke*  Secretary  to  Sir  Abraham 
Shipnian,  succeeded 
liim  in  command,  came 
to  Bombay  as  Governor 
in  February,  1GG5.  lU' 
remained  in  power  tilli 
the  5th  Novembei-, 
1G6C.  I 


The  first  four  Governors  held 
Bombay  for  the  Crown. 
The  island  was  handed  over 
to  the  Company  on  the  2'ii-d 
September.  ICilS.  For  tlu^ 
next  nineteen  years  (KKiS- 
l(i87),  except  for  occasional 
visits  and  during  three  years 
;l(;72-lii7."))  of  Governor 
Aungier's  rule,  the  Gover- 
nors of  Bombay  spent  almost 
the  whole  of  their  time  in 
Surat,  of  whose  factory  they 
were  Presidents.  During 
this  time  Bomliay  was  acl- 
mini.stei-ed  by  an  ollieer 
btyled  Deputy  Govenior. 
The  transfer,  in  1US7,  of  the 
headquarters  of  the  Com- 
pany's ])ower  to  Bombay,  to 
a  great  extent  diil  away 
with  the  need  of  a  Deputy 
(iovernor.  But,  in  spite  lif 
the  change,  the  title  con- 
tinued for  many  years  to  be 
borue  by  the  second  Mem- 
ber of  Council.  It  wcmld 
seem  to  have  fallen  into  ilis- 
use  some  time  between  1720 
and  iTJS. 


The  Honourable  Sir 
Gervose  Lucas. 


Dth  Nov., 
lOUC. 


Died  21st 
May,  1007. 


Appointed  Governor  while  in  India 


37(^ 


GOVEUNOUS    OF    BOMBAY, 


Ko. 


Kame. 


Assumed 

charfie  of 

Ofliie. 


Made  over 
Charge. 


Remarks. 


4      CiiptainHcniv  2'ind  Miiv,  '  "iSrd  Sept., 
Gaiey.*                '  1067.  '  1668. 

."i     The  Honourable  Sir  23rd  Sept. 
George  Oxiudeu.*  ItiGS. 


6     TlieHouourablc-      Htli.Iuly. 
Gerald  Aungier.*  H'lC'.i. ' 


7  The       Houomahle  yoth  June,     27tl)  Oct.. 

Thomas  Kolte.*  1G77.  1681. 

8  The  Honourable  Sir  27th  Oct.,  i 

John  Child,  Bart.*  1681. 


if  ■  Tl;e  Honourable  Bar-     4th  Feb., 
tholomew  Harris.*  1690. 


10  :  The  Honourable 
Daniel  Annesley.* 


10th  Mav. 
1694.  ■ 


17th  Jlay, 
1694. 


11  The  Honourable  Sir  ,  17tli  May,    Nov.,  1704. 

John  Gayer.  ,        1694. 

12  The  Honourable  Sir    Nov.,  1701.    Sept.,  1708. 
]      Nicholas  Waite.* 


Deputy  Governor ;  officiated  as 
Governor. 

Except  during  January  1669, 
Sir  George  Oxindeu  spent 
all  his  time  in  Surat,  wliore 
he  died  on  the  14th  July, 
1669. 

Mr.  Aungier  spent  the  greater 
part  of  1673,  1674  and  1675, 
in  Bombay.  He  died  in 
Surat  on  the  30th  June,  1677. 


Child  was  Governor  Geneial 
with  his  htad-quarters  in 
Bombay,  where  ho  moved 
from  Surat  on  the  2nd  May, 
1687,  and  where  he  died  on 
the  4th  February,  1690.  In 
the  year  1683,  Bombay  was 
the  scene  of  a  revolt  against 
the  Company's  authority. 
The  head  of  the  rebellion 
was  Captain  Eiohard  Keig- 
win,  the  third  Member  of 
Council.  Placing  the  De- 
puty Governor  under  arrest, 
Keigwin  ruled  Bombay  in 
the  King's  name  from  the 
27th  December,  1683,  to  the 
19th  November,  1684,  when, 
on  promise  of  pardon,  he 
handed  over  the  Island  to 
Admiral  Sir  Thomas  Gran- 
tham. 

Died  in  Surat  on  the  10th 
May,  1694. 

Deputy  Governor ;  officiated  as 
Governor. 

Under  Gayer,  Waite  and  Ais- 
labie — that  is  from  1694  to 
1715  —  Bombay  Governors 
held  the  title  of  General. 
During  the  last  three  years 


Appointed  Governors  while  in  India. 


GOVERNORS   OF   BOMBAY. 


Nu. 

>'ame. 

A-Miiin'.l 

c-ll(t^^e  of 

Office. 

Ma.le  ..ver 

1                          Kemarks. 

1 

13 

The  Honourable 
William  Aislabie.* 

Sept.,  1708. 

1715. 

(1701-1701)  of  his  nominal 
command,  Ciaycr  was  in  con- 
finement in  Surat. 

14 

The  Honourable 
Stupheu  Strutt.* 

1715. 

171G. 

Deputy  Governor :  officiated  as 
Governor. 

15 

The  Honourable 
Charles  Boone. 

171G. 

1720. 

16 

Tho  Honourable 
William  Phipps. 

1720. 

1728. 

17 

Tho  Honourable 
Uobert  Cowan. 

1728. 

1731. 

Mr.  Cowan  was  dismissed  the 
service  of  Governnieut. 

18 

The  Honourable 
John  Home.* 

22ud  Sept., 
1731. 

7th  April, 
1739. 

19 

The  Honourable 
Stephen  Law. 

7tli  April, 
1739. 

loth  Nov., 
1742.t 

Returned  to  England. 

20 

Tlie  Honourable 
John  Geekie.* 

15th  Nov., 
1712. 

2Gth  Nov., 
1712. 

Senior  Member  of  Council : 
oflSeiated  as  Governor. 

21 

The  Honourable 
William  Wake. 

26th  Nor., 
1712. 

17th  Nov., 
1750.t 

22 

The  Hnnour.ible  Ri- 
chard Bourchier.* 

17th  Nov.. 
1750. 

28th  Feb., 
176U.t 

23 

Tho  Honourable 
Charles   Cromme- 
lin.* 

28th  Feb, 
1760. 

27th  Jan., 
17(;7.t 

21 

Tho  Honourable 
Thomas  Hodges.* 

27th  .Till)., 
17U7. 

Died  23rd  February.  1771. 

25 

The  Honourable 
William  Uuruby.* 

2Gth  Feb., 
1771. 

1st  Jan., 

1781.t 

2G 

The  Honourable 
Kawson          Hart 
Boddam.* 

1st  Jan, 

1781. 

9th  Jan., 

1788.t 

27 

The  Honourable 
Andrew  Ramsay.* 

9th  Jan., 

1788. 

Gth  Sept., 
1788. 

Senior  Member  of  Council ; 
officiated  as  Governoi-. 

28 

Tho  Honourable 

Major-Gcncrnl  Sir 
William  Medows, 
KB. 

Cth  Sept., 

1788. 

21st  Jan., 
1790. 

Landed  Cth  September,  1788. 

*  Appointed  Governors  while  in  India. 
VOL.   U. 


t  Embarked  for  England  on  same  dates. 

2  c 


I 


378 


GOVERNORS    OF   BOMBAY. 


29  The  Honourable  M«- 
joi-Geiienil  Sir  Ko- 
bert  Abwcroinby, 
K.I!. 


30  The  Honourable 
George  Dick.* 

31  The  Honourable 

John  Griflith.* 

32  The  Honourable 

I     Jonathan  Duncan.* 

33  The  Honourable 

George  Brown.* 


34 


35 


3G 


3S 


The  Eight  Honour- 
able Sir  Evan  Ne- 
pean,  Bart. 

The  Honourable 
Mouutstuart  El- 
jiliinstone.* 

Major-General  the 
Honourable  Sir 
John  Malcolm, 
G.C.B..  K.L.S. 

Lieutenant-  General 
I       the     Honourable 
Sir   Thomas   Sid- 
ney B  e  0  k  w  i  t  h, 
K.C.B. 
I 
Tiie  Honourable 
John  liomer.* 


39  i  The  Eight  Honour- 
'       able  John  Eiirl  of 
Clare. 


40 


41 


The  Right  Honour- 
able Sir  Robert 
(Jiant,  G  C.H. 

The  H  o  n  0  u  r  a  b  I  e 
James  Parish.* 


A  ssumed 

charge  of 

Office. 


2Ut  Jan., 
1790. 


Ist  Nov., 
1793. 

3rd  Sept., 
1795. 

27th  Dec., 
179."). 

lltli  Aug., 
1811. 

12th  Aug., 
1S12. 


1st  Nov., 
1819. 


1st  Nov., 
1827. 


1st  Dec., 
1830. 


17th  Jan., 
1831. 

21st  Mar., 
1831. 


17th  Mar.. 
1835. 


1 1th  July, 
1838.  ■ 


JIade  over. 
Charge. 


3rd  Sept., 
1795. 

27th  Dec, 
1795. 


12th  Aug., 
1812. 

1st.  Nov., 
1819. 


1st.  Nov., 
1827. 


1st  Dec, 
1830. 


Remarks. 


21st  Mar., 
1831. 

17th  Mar., 
1835.t 


3lBt  May, 
1839.' 


Proceeded  to  Madras  on  duty 
in  August,  1793,  and  thence 
joined  the  Council  of  the 
Governor-General  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief in. India  on 
the  28tli  October,  1793. 

Senior  Member  of  Council ; 
ofliciated  as  Governor. 

Senior  Member  of  Council; 
otfieiated  as  Governor. 

Died  in  Bombay  on  the  11th 
August,  1811. 

Senior  Member  of  Council; 
officiated  as  Governor. 

Landed  12th  August,  1812. 


Died  20lh  Nov.,  1859. 


Died  30th  May,  1833. 


Died   on   the    15th   January, 
1831. 


Senior  INIemher    of   Council ; 
otlieiated  as  Governor. 

Landed  in  Bombay  20th  Mar., 
1831. 


Died  at  Dapuri,  near  Poona, 
on  the  9tli  July,  1838. 


Senior  Member    of   Council ; 
officiated  as  Governor. 


•  Appointed  Governors  while  in  India.        t  Embarked  for  England  on  same  dates. 


GOVERNORS   OF   BOMBAY. 


379 


Name. 


42 


43 


44 


4.5 


46 


47 


48 


49 


50 


51 


Assumed 

charge  of 

Office. 


.Made  over 
Cbarge. 


The  Honourable  Sir      31st  May, 
James  Eivott-Car-  1839. 

nac,  Bart.* 

Sir     WUllam     Hay 
Macnaghton,  Bart. 


The  Honourable     28tli  April, 
George     AVilliara  j       1841. 
Anderson.* 


The  Honourable  Sir 
George  A  r  t  h  u  r, 
Bart.,  K.C.H. 


9th  .Tunc, 
1842. 


ThcHon Durable  i    Utli  Aug., 
Lestock  Robert  l.SKi. 

Keid.* 


The  Honourable  Sir 
George  Kussell 
Clerk. 


23rJ  Jan., 
1847. 


The  Bight  Honour-       1st  May, 
able  Lucius  Ben-  1848. 

t  i  n  c  k.   Viscount 
Falkland. 


Tlio  Right  Honour- 
able John  Lord  El- 
phiustone,  (r.C.B., 
G.C.H. 

The  Honourable  Sir 
Guorgu  Russell 
Clerk,  K.C.B. 

The  Eight  Honour- 
able Sir  Henry 
Bartle  E  d  w  a  r  d 
V  r  0  r  e.  Bar  t., 
Iv.C.B.,  G.C.S.L 

The  Riglit  Honour- 
able Sir  AVilliam 
Robert  Seymour 
Veseyl-'itzGerald, 
G.C.S.L 


20tli  Dec., 
1853. 


mil  May, 
1800. 


24th  April, 
18(;2. 


(iili  Mar., 
IStiT. 


27th  April, 
1841.t      I 


W;is  appointed  Governor  of 
Bombay  by  tlie  Honourable 
tbe  Court  of  Directors  on  the 
4th  August,  1841.  AVus  as- 
sassinated in  (j'abul  on  the 
25th  December,  1841. 

aih  .Tune,     Senior  Member   of    Council ; 
1842.  officiated  as  Governor. 


5th  Aug.,  ,  Landed  8tb  June,  1842. 
184C.t      ! 


23rd  Jan.,     Senior   Member   of   Council ; 
1847.       ,      officiated  as  Governor. 


1st  May,      Loft   for  England    Uth   May, 
1848.       ;       1848. 


2Gth  Uee.,     Landed  28th  April,  1848 ;  left 
1853.       I      29th  December,  185.3.     Died 
1871. 


11th  May,     Landed  25th  December.  1853; 
18G0.  embarked  for  England  13th 

May,  ISUO.     Died  1800. 


24th  April, 
1862. 


0th  Mar., 
1807. 


Gth  May, 
1872.t 


Died  July  1889,  aged  89. 


Died  29th  May,  1884. 


Landed  20th  F.bnmrv,  18G7. 
Died  Juue  28th,  188j. 


Appointed  Governors  while  in  India. 


t  Embarked  for  England  on  same  dates. 
2  0  2 


380 


GOVERNORS    OP    BOMBAY. 


No. 


53 


51 


oG 


Xame. 


Assumed 

cliarge  of 

Office. 


Made  over 
Charge. 


The  Honourable  Sir      Gth  May,      30tli  April,    Landeil  Ist  May,  1873.     DieS 


Philij)  E  d  in  c  n  d 
W  o  d  8  h  o  u  s  6, 
K.C.B.,  G.C.S.I. 


1872. 


The  Honourable  Sir    30th  April, 
Kichard    Temple,  I       1877. 
Bart.,  K.C.S.I.* 


1877.t 


13th  Mar., 
1880  .t 


The  Honourable  Sir 
James  Fergusson. 

The  Eight  Honour- 
able Lord  Keay. 


28th  April,     27th  Mar., 
1880.  1885.t 

27th  Mar.    Jlar.,  1890.t 
1885. 


The  Right  Honour-    Mar.,  1890. 
able  Lord  Harris. 


1887,  aged  7G. 


Airived  in  Bombay  2Gth  April, 
1877. 


*  Appointed  Governor  while  in  India. 
t  Embarked  for  England  on  same  date. 


INDEX 


A. 
Abbot's  (Gen.)  march  of  117  miles  in 

two  days.  ii.  24  n. 
Abilul  Wahab  Khan  at  Volkondn,ii.  128 
AbUur  Razziik,   traveller,    i.  307 ;   ii. 

:i01,  307,  30-! 
Abereromby,  Major-Gcueral  Sir  Robert, 
GoTcrnor  of  Bombay    (1790-1793), 
i.  1C7,  4G0,  4G3  ;  ii.  378  I 

,  Mr.,  ii.  17,  41 

Abkari,  or  excise  revenue,  i.  97  n. 

Abni, — credit,  ii.  177 

Abu,  Mount,  in  Eajputana,  i.  2.')2 

Abukir,  battle,  i.  392,  400 

Abu  Klea,  battle,  ii.  12G 

Abu  laem, — "  father  of  the  liat,"  a  Siu- 

dian,  ii.  17.") 
Abu  Zeid,  Arab  traveller,  ii.  337 
Abyssinia,  i.  337;  expedition  to,  466, 

ii.  113;  218 
Achilles  "  eating  "  his  enemies,  ii.  353 
Acland,  Wm.,  i.  191 
Adams,  Mr.,  ii.  245  ". 
Adamson,  Alex.,  i.  169,  242 
Adansonia  digitiita,  Haobab,  or  Garakh 
Iroli  trees,  i.  126,  ii.  143  and?;.,  144, 
156,203 
Aden,  ii.  .'JSS,  339  ;  tank-S  199 
'Adil  Shahi  dynasty  of  IJijapur,  i.  273, 

3GG,  ii.  1S9 
.^ian,  referred  to,  ii.  355 
Afghanistan,  ii.  57 
Afghans,  "Offgoons,"  i.  160 
Afzul  Khan,  murdered  by  Sivaji,i.  108, 
341,  342,363,  368,  ii."l38-140,  167, 
169,  189 
Ago  Khan  Mehilati,  chief  of  the  Ismaili 
sect  of  Muhnmmadans,  ii.  14, 89,90  n. 


Agency  Houses  in  Bombay,  i.  401 
Aghuri, — devourers  of  human  flesh,  ii. 

357-361 
Agra,  i.  104,  299,  317,  328;  coinage, 

ii.  316 
Ahmadabad  :  architecture,  i.  104 ;  289, 
298,  299. 302,  306, 307,  310, 313,  350 ; 
shaking  niinarets,  40S;  -145  n.,  448: 
ii.  96,  99,  100,  103  ;  taken  in  1780, 
ii.  12S,  130  ;  preservation  of  building-^ 
at,  216;  257,  316,  367 
Ahmadnngar  Nizam  Shahi  dynasty,  i. 
273 

or  Nagar,   i.   80,   104,   269-271. 

276,  350,  379,  ii.  24,  25,  57,  135  n., 
201,307,308;   famine,  357 
Ahmad  Sliiih  of  (Jujarat,  i.  302 
Aislabie,  William,  (iovernor  of  Bombay, 

1708  to  1715,  ii.  187  ».,  377 
Ajanta  lianddha  Cave  Temples,  ii.  198, 

201,  208 
Ajmer  in  Rajputana,  i.  150,  289,  290, 

299,  315,  317,  319,  321,  329 
Aklxir,  Kmperor,  1556-1(:05,  i.  24,  37  n. 
276,  277;    his   laud  administration, 
280;  286  ;  invasion  of  Gujarat,  288, 
291,  293;  his  tomb,  :!00;   304,  361. 
ii.  94,  176)1.,  24.5,  317,  320,  3.54 
Aklib(ir7iau-ig, — ncwswritor,  ii.  176  ii. 
Akola,  in  Berai-,  ii.  216 
Alanibagh,  near  Lucknow,  ii.  102,  106, 

347 
Alamgir  or  Aurangzeb,  Emperor,  1658- 
1707,  i.   76,  349,   352-354,  368;    r. 
Aurangzeb 
Alnmut,  fortress  of   the  Assassins,  ii. 
j       353 
I   Aland,  near  Voona.  ii.  194 


382 


INDEX. 


Albuijuerqne.   HoS-l.")!,"!,  i.    '20,    111; 

ii.  147,  •2:,8.  315,  370 
Aldourie,  Jlackintosh's  bh'thi>laee,  ii. 

31,  37 
Aleppo  or  Haleb,  in  Syria,  i.  IGl,  317, 

391 
Alexander  the  Great,  i.  20.  ii.  51,  1)1, 

92«.,  199,  217;  coin  of,  310 
Alexamlretla  in  Syria,  i.  391 
Alexandria  :  wells  made  before  the  city, 

i.  373;  plan,  ii.  260  ». 
'Ali 'Adil  Shah  of  Bijapiir.  i.  271  «. 
Alibasrh  in  Kulaba,  i.  125,  ii.  193,  255. 

2sf 
Aligarh,  X.  \V.  Trovs..  ii.  102 
Aliwal,  battle  of.  i.  193 
AUahabad,  i.  337.  3G9  ;  treaty.  219  «. 
Alma,  battle,  ii.  320 
Almuda,  ii.  263 

Aloes  Sokotriua,  Al.  Hypatica,  i.  380 
Alpine  Club,  ii.  180 
Amarakanthak :   story  of  cannibalism 

at.  ii.  356 
Amarawati,  in  Cent.  Provs.,  ii.  210 
Amarkot  in  Sind  :  Napier's  order  to 

storm,  ii.  91 
Amarnath  or  .\mbarnath,  near  KalyaD, 

ii.  1-19,  150.  235,  236 
Ambala  conference,  ii.  349 
Amber,  old  city  near  Jaypur,  i.  300,  364 
Amboyna,  5Iolucca  Is.,  i.  10 
Amelia.  Princess,  ii.  2 
Amharic  language,  ii.  219 
Amherst,  Lord  (1773-1S57).    ii.   343, 

346 
Amritrao, — Holkar's  vicegerent,  ii.  18, 

21  n. 
Amucl:  i.  307  and  ii. 
Amnrath  II.  of  Constantinople  (1422- 

1451),  i.  273 
Anandabai,  wife  of  Raghuji  -Vngria, 

i.  124 
Anandrao's  capture  of  an  English  officer, 

i.  123 
Anderson,  Geo.  Wm.,  Acting-Governor 

of  Hombay,  1841-42.  ii.  .379 

,  Kev.  Philip,  ii.  53  and  ii. 

Andrcwes,  Mr.,  Fresitlent  of  Surat,  i. 

384 
Angariih; — the  planet  JIars,  i.  125 


Angarwadi,  birthplace  of  Angria,  i.  Ill 
Angrias  of  Kulaba,  i.  Ill ;  cruelties  of 

the  pirates,   i.    122;   the  first,  127; 

his  dock,    128;  his  fleet,    133;  134, 

161,   174;    their   cruelties,  ii.  189; 

191,  255,  257 ;  their  dominions  lapsed 

to  the   English,  ii.   270;    territory, 

327 
Anjengo,  in  Travaukor,  i.  57,  S3  and  »!., 

136,  153  n.,  417-419,  ii.  287 
Anjidiva  Island,  i.  46,  50,  GO ;  ii.  375 
Annealcy,  Daniel,  Acting-Governor  of 

Bombay,  1094.  370 
Anstey,  fhos.  Chisholm,  i.  227,  233 
"  Apollo  "  and  "  Anson  "  8ca6ght,  ii.  41 
Apollo,  Pulla  or  Palwa  bandar,  i.  55, 

93  n.,   144,    214,   215,   393,   411,    ii. 

45,  212 
Arabia,  area  of,  i.  462  n. 
Arab  physique,  ii.  338 
Arabian  yiiihtf,  i.  459  ;  and  cannibals, 

ii.  354 ;  stories  from,  357,  358 
Aral:  or  'araq, — spirit  distilled  from  the 

palm,  i.  55,  135 
Architecture,  Maratha,  i.  103  ;  ii.  1G3 
-Vrcot,  in  Madras  Presidency,  ii.  128 
Ardwall,  in  (ialloway,  ii.  118 
.Vrgaum,  battle,  i.  444,  445,  ii.   13,  15, 

57,  249 
Arjnmand  Banu  Begam,  proper  name 

of  M  umtaz  Mahal,  wife  of  Shahjahan, 

i.  310  n.,  311 
.\rmageddoii,  ii.  131 
Army  -  subaltern,     i.    257  ;    Bombay, 

Army,  ii.  125  f. 
Amould,  Sir  Joseph,  ii.  27  n.,  209 
Arsacidic,   Parthian    kings  from  25.9 

B.C.,  ii.  120 
Arsenal  of  Bombay,  i.  138,  222,  223, 

227,  229 
.\rsinoe  on  the  Eed  Sea,  i.  459 ;  ii.  337 
-Vrthur,  Sir  (Jeorge,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay ( 1842-1840),  i.  193  ;  ii.  379 
Asad"  Beg,  i.  272,  277 
Asaf  Khan,  brother  of  Mumtaz  Malial, 

i.  313 
-Vshburner,  Wm.,  i.  170,425;  Mrs.,  ii. 

10,  214 
Asirgarh  or  Asirgadh,  fort  in   Klian- 

desh,i.  311,301,  ii.  01,  GO,  189 


IXDEX. 


383 


A^kilon  in  Palestine,  i.  319 

Asoka,  emperor  of  India,  B.C.  2C3- 
225 :  Iiis  inscription^s,  ii.  121,  130, 
200 

A3S,  the  Willi,  i.  290 

Assassins  or  llaMliishin,  ii.  353 

Assaye.  battle,  i.  251,  444,  4G9,  ii.  1 ; 
Leyden's  lines  on,  ii.  12;  13,  15,  16, 
10,  22  H.,  28  n.,  55,  57,  80,  127,  133, 
240,  32C,  347 

Astrabail  iu  N.  Persia,  birthplace  of 
Fcrishta,  i.  2U9 

Astrakhan,  i.  100 

.Vtli<u3,  ii.  252  H. 

Athole,  Lord,  i.  31G  n. 

Attr  or  Attar  of  roses,  i.  309 

Aungicr,  Gerald,  Governor  of  Bombay 
(1G09-1G77),  i.  5,  31,  49,  58-61, 
65,  72  f. ;  his  chalice,  78,  and  ii. 
249 ;  his  convention,  i.  85  f. ;  88, 
138,  139,  150,  190,  313  n.,  371  f. ; 
death,  374 ;  his  extension  of  Bombay, 
376 ;  378,  381 ;  proposal  to  remove 
the  seat  of  Government  to  Bombay, 
382;  384-386,  u.  53,  169,  179,  234, 
243,  376 

,  Lord,  d.  1G78,  i.  5 

Anraiigabad  city,  Aurangzib's  capital 
in  tlie  Dckhan,  i.  104,  327,  379,  ii. 
24  H.,  195  n. 

Aurangzeb  (t>.  Alamgir)  ;  his  revenue, 
i.  13;  30,51,58,59;  birth,  104;  US- 
Til,  272,  301,  311,  313;  his  daughter 
and  Sivaji,  336,  and  ii.  32S;  i.  .336, 
316,  349;  at  Brabniapnri,  347  f. ;  at 
Galgala,  .'!17;  his  wives,  ;!52;  ap- 
pearance, 355 ;  career,  3.")7 ;  3G1-3G4, 
367,  368,  467  n.,  ii.  137;  revenue, 
138;  tomb,  138  and  201;  141,  166, 
171,320;  age,  341 

Anrea  Chersonosus,  i.  16,  20 

Australian  gold,  ii.  315,  317 

Auto  da  fu  at  Goa,  i.  33  n. 

Avonue  of  twisted  trees  at  Jlula1)ar 
Point,  i.  223 

Avory,  a  ])irate,  i.  384  n. 

Aw.lry,  3Ir.,  ii.  250 

Atjiih — an  Indian  nurse  or  fiinale 
attrudant,  i.  174 

Ayrlon,  Kl.  Hon.  A.  S.,  i.  191 


B. 

Baalbek  in  Syria,  ii.  100,  206,  306 
Bab-el-Kahira — "gate  of  victory,"  ii. 

331 
Babel-Mandcb— "  gate  of  tears,"  ii.  331 
Bab-el-Tarid.  ii.  334 
Baber,  Muf,'lml  emperor,  1491-1531,  i. 

276,  281-283,  301,  306  ;  ii.  51.  307 

,  Mr.,  ii.  314 

Babul  tree.  Acacia  Arnhica,  i.  413 

Babylon,  ii.  241,  3.i5 

Back  Bay,  Bombay,  ii.  261 

Bacon,  Roger,  ii.  49 

Bu'l-miifh,   a    plunderer,  i.  225  ».;   ii. 

1,33,184 
BafHn,  Capt.  Wm.,  killed  1621,  i.  166; 

ii.  252 
Bagala,  buggalow,  &c., — a  largo  boat, 

i.  G8,  ii.  218,331,  333  )i. 
Baghdad,  i.  161,  390;  ii.  105 
"  Bahadur  .Tali," — a  nickname  of  Sir 

John  Jtalcolm,  ii.  75  «. 
Bahadur  81iah,  king  of  Gujarat,  1526- 

1536,  i.  284,  30.3,  304 
Bahlol  Lodi,    Sultan    of   Hindustan, 

14.51-1489,1.  273 
Bahrkundi,  i.  286 
Baird,  General  Sir D.T.,  i.  460, 4(!G.  ii.  1 2, 

61  n ;  expedition  to  Egypt,  271,  343 
Baji  Rao   Peslnvab,  i.  102.   116;  chal- 
lenged by  a  Rani,  148;  his  agent  in 

England,  148;  442,  450,454,  ii.  18, 

,55-57,  67,  68,  73,  153  ;  his  wife,  180 
Bake,  Colonel,  i.  77 
Balaghat,  king  of,  i.  28 
Balaji  Bajirao,  Peshwah,  i.  103,  108 
Balaji  Visliwauath  Bliat,  Aither  of  Baji 

Rao,  i.  116 
Bula-Killa — "upper  f'ort,"i.  82,  ii.  I;j0, 

162,  18:'.,  326 
Baldajus,  Dutch  author,  i.  U5 
B.ilharas — supreme  kings,  ii.  2.35 
Balkh  in  Central  Asia,  i.  350,  357 
Ball  in  Bombay  in  1772,  i.  428 
Ballard,  (ieneral  J.  A.,ii.  251,  2.')2  n. 
Balloon  or  Baloun — a  kind  of  baige, 

ii.  168 
Bandar   Abbas   ('  Abas  see  ')   formerly 

Gombroon,  i.  157  ii.,  164  ii. 


384 


INDEX. 


Bandar  boat, — passage  boat,  i.  Ill,  ii. 

157,  iX),  2.)7,  28") 
Bandara,  village  near  Bombay,  i.  24. 

65,  66,  68, 133. 190  ;  coded  to  Britain 

in  1774,  ii.  282 ;  378,  37it 
Bandarins,  Bandaricns,  a  local  militia, 

i.  7.5,  434 
Bandar  Muria,  ii.  26.i 
Bandarwars,  a  Gond  tribe,  ii.  3.")6 
Bandicoot,  the  pig  rat  or  Jlalabar  rat 

(Tel.  pandilioh-kiO,  i.  405 
Bangla,  or  "  bungalow,"  a  house,  i.  190, 

411,  ii.  159,  165  n. 
Bangalor,  ii.  7 
Banian  or  Banyan  tree,  i.  80 ;  great  one 

near  Bharocli.  403  ;  ii.  262 
Banias  Castle  in  Syria,  i.  361 
Bankot,  creeli  and  village  in  Eatnagiri : 

hotspring,  i.  10 ;  112,  117,  127,  246, 

399, 403, 436,  440,  455  and  n.,  ii.  269, 

281,  282 
Bantam,  in  Java,  i.  10 
Banya,  a  caste,  i.  31,  35,  76,  77,  115 ; 

character  of,  150 ;  in  Bombay,  372 ; 

Aimgier'd  comi^act  with   tliem,  383 

and  n. 
Baobab,  Adausonia  tree.  g.r. 
Bapdeo  Ghat,  ii.  21  n. 
Baramati  River,  ii.  21  ». 
Barkalur,  i.  343 
Baroda,  Gaikwars'  capital,  i.  293,  295, 

297  ;   Tytliagoreans  of,  40(i ;    ii.  96, 

98,   102,   104,   113,    355,   357,  359; 

famine,  i.  52 
Barrow,  Major,  i.  212 
Bursal — rain,  i.  152 
Barselor  sacked,  i.  113 
Barygaza,  name  used  by  Greek  aulliors 

for  Bliaroch,  ii.  313 
Base' country,  ii.  219 
Basevi,  Capt.,  ii.  348 
Basrah,  "  Bassorah,"  on  the  Persian 

Gulf,  i.  158,  1G3,  164,  387,  391 
Basaeiu  or  Wasai,  N.  from  Bombay, 
i.  20,  24,  37,  42,  47;  treaty  of,  47; 
57,86,  96;  fall  of,  in  1739,  133;  444; 
treaty,  ii.  21,  .57,  153;  and  tlio  Por- 
tuguese, 147  f. ;  cathedral,  148, 1,53  ; 
ruined  churches,  149;  intolerance 
at.   I."i0  ;  gala  day  at,  151;  history. 


154;  tombs,  1.55,  15G;  176,  197,  207 

228  ;i.,  229,  263,  280 
Battle  Abbey,  i.  448 
Bawamalang  or  "  Catliedral   Eocka," 

i.  18,  133,  446;  ii.  193,268,270,278, 

281,  298 
Biiyard,  ii.  108 

Bazar  Gate  of  Bombay,  i.  142,  216 
Beckwith,  Gen.  Sir   Thomas  Sydney, 

Governor  of  Bombay,  1830,  ii.  378 
Bee  Hive,  a  residence,  i.  174 
Beer  in  India,  i.  64, 65,  86;  drinking,  176 
Beetle,  golden,  of  Elephauta,  i.  406 ; 

ii.  273 
Begampur,  on  the  Bhima,  i.  104,  336  «., 

349,  352 
Beilan  Pass,  i.  317 

Beja,  Lines  to,  by  Sir  C.  Napier,  ii.  87  ». 
Bekri  Chinkara. — barking  deer,  ii.  100 
Belary,  ii.  300,  309  n. 
Bclafi-imhis, — foreigners,  ii.  171  )i. 
Bell,  A.,  i.  203,  208 

Bell  of  the  Cathedral,  ii.  187  n. ;  an- 
other, 227,  228 
Bellasis,  G.  T.,  i.  10 

,  General,  ii.  367 

,  General  Hutch  ins,  ii.  367 

Belvedere  or  JMazagon  Houee,  i.    177, 

431 ;  ii.  S,  41,  65,  98 
Benares,  i.  338,  369 
Benkukn,  ii.  153 
Bentiuck,  Et.  Hon.  W.,  i.  250 
Berbci-a,  ii.  338 
Beri-beri,  a  disease,  i.  56,  137 
Berkeley,  Mr.,  railway  engineer,  i.  102 
Bernadotte,  King  of  Sweden,  anecdote 

of,  ii.  341,  342 
Bernier,   French  traveller,  i.  62,  150, 

3G3;  ii.  37,  314 
Bernoulli,  Jean,  ii.  216 
Best,  J.,  murdered,  i.  57  h. 
,  John,  valet  lo  Major  Harris,  ii. 

3-5,  7 ;  letter  to  Mrs.  Harris,  4  »i. 
Bewick,  Th.  ii.  158 
Beyrut  in  Syria,  i.  161  «. 
Bhaguagar,  or  Haiilarabad,  i.  369 
Bhagwa   Jhanda, — Maratha   standard, 

ii.  173 
Bhagwanlal  ludrnji,  Paudit,  ii.  206  n., 
235 


INDEX. 


385 


Uliaja  cave  temples,  ii.  201 

Bhamlmrda,  near  Poona,  i.  lofj 

Bhaudaris,  a  caste,  i.  85 

Blian;^,  —  intoxicant  prepared  from 
hLiup,  i.  50 

Bharocli,  or  Broach,  i.  37,  2,SS,  293; 
cotton,  402  ;  439 :  given  to  Sludliavji 
Sindia,  41U  ;  ii.  313,  355 

Bliatn, — sustenance  allowance,  i.  381 

Bhatiyas  of  Kaclih,  i.  31 

Bhau  D.iji,  Dr.,  nee  Daji. 

Bhuwaui  or  Bliavaui.  a  goddess,  i.  3G5, 
307;  ii.  290;  Sivaji's  sword,  i.  342 
and  n.,  340,  ii.  171 

Bhils,  alioriginal  tribes,  i.  330,  340; 
11.  90,  101 

Bliilsa,  in  Malwa,  i.  284 

Bhiuia  river,  i.  102,  277,  347,  348,  351, 
3."i:! ;  Hood  of,  350  ;  ii.  190 

Bhiniashankar, — pass,  hill,  and  shrine 
at  the  source  of  tlic  Bhima,  i.  444 
and  ),.,  ii.  193,  292;  bell  at,  228  n. 

Bhiwandi  creek,  ii.  285;  port,  280- 
291 

Bholeshwar,  ii.  21  n. 

Bhoiisles  of  Satara,  i.  452 ;  ii.  180 

Bhuj,  in  Kiclih,  i.  409;  ii.  119 

Bible  Society  of  Bombay,  ii.  110 

Bidar,  i.  2S,"274  ;  ii.  307 

Bijupur,  capital  of  the  'Adil  Shahi 
dynasty,  1489-1005,  i.  28;  architec- 
ture ot;  104 ;  269-272,  277,  309,  337, 
341,  350,  351,  355,  .3.3G,  309;  ii.  20, 
74 ;  relic,  132  ;  134  f. ;  gnat  gun  at, 
135;  country  round,  143;  156,  104, 
188,  190,  203,  305-308,  327.  307 

Bijyanngar.  or  Yijayanagar  ify.f.),  old 
capital  of  a  llimlu  kingdom,  on  the 
Tungubbailra,  i.  274 

Bikiiner  in  Hnjputann,  i.  290 

Bills  of  exchange,  i.  250 

BinutiUism,  ii.  312 

Birdwood,  Sir  Geo;  M.,  i.  253,  382  ». ; 
ii.  :!7«.,  215,  249)1.,  277,  290 

Birmingham  forgeries,  ii.  317 

Bilhnr,  hear  Kanlipur,  i.  102 

Black  hole  of  Calcutta,  ii.  322;  325,  340 

Blackic,  Prof.,  ii.  274 

Blake,  at  the  siege  of  Tunis,  ii.  283  ii. 

Bine  Beard,  i.  1 52. 


Boag,  Capt..  i.  138 

"  Bobbery  Hunt,"  i.  195 

Bocarro,  maker  of  a  Portuguese  1x11, 
ii.  228 

Boddam,  Rawson  Ilarl,  Governor  of 
Bombay,  1784-1788,  i.  470;  ii.  250, 
377 

Boden,  Col.,  founder  of  Oxford  Sanskrit 
profcssorsliip,  i.  5 

Bohras,  a  Musalman  sect,  ii.  130 

Bolaram,  ii.  23  n. 

Bombay :  first  colonisation  of,  i.  4 ;  ver- 
nacular name  Jlombai,  24;  Cape 
liombaim,  17,  37,  ii.  231 ;  Bombay 
in  1020,  i.  ,37  h.;  44,  47  n.;  Green, 
42,  06-09,  141,  225,  ii.  244,  245; 
a  seat  of  commerce,  i.  90 ;  about  H-'iO, 
131;  Castle,  139,  223,  225,  220, 
435;  ii.  213,  222  f.;  directory  for 
1792,  i.  107  f.;  about  1839,  i.  183  f.; 
walls  and  gates,  214  f. ;  map  of,  in 
1803,  i.  217;  population  in  1077,  i. 
373 ;  at  otlier  dates,  ii.  2 ;  i.  371, 372, 
370 ;  punch,  379 ;  town  in  1775,  .393  ii. ; 
Chamber  of  Commerce,  404,  405 ;  in 
Wellington's  time,  ii.  13;  Literary 
Society,  30 ;  Army,  78,  129  ;  Prison, 
225;  Catheilral,  origin  of,  242,24:!; 
Uarbour,255  f.;  inl790,250;  inl705, 
259;  Islands,  205;  history  and  pros- 
pects, 371-373.    See  Castle  Cathedral. 

Bonaparte,  Louis  Napoleon,  i.  457,  4(i3 

,    Napoleon,     i.     102 ;     at     Suez. 

407  f. ;    crossing  tlio  Ited   Sea  and 
Despatch,  401  ;  ii.  12,  105. 

Bond,  Dr.,  i.  437 

Boone,  Charles,  Governor  of  Bombay, 
1716-1720;  sent  home  drawings  of 
Elephanta,  i.  5  ;  139,  215,  384, 
ii.  187n.,  229,  242,  252,  377 

'■  Bore"  in  Gulf  of  Cambay,  i.  294 

Bor  Gliat,  i.  102;  accident  on,  159; 
437,  443,  ii.  193 

(Little),  ii.  21h.,  182 

Bor  State,  ii.  183,  181 

Bori-liandar,  railway  tenuinus,  i.  209. 

Bosporus,  i.  310;  ii.  300 

Boswell  and  Orme,  ii.  327 
Bougaiuvillac. — flowering  creeper,   ii. 
37 


386 


INDEX, 


Bourchier,  Richard,  Governor  of  Rom- 
bay,    1750-1 7«0,  i.   5,  9,   133,   lliL', 

163  «.,  165  «.,  401 ;  ii.  377 
Bowcher,  George,  ii.  187  «.,  245 
Bowen,  Rev.  George,  i.  198,  236,  312, 

313,  346,  349,  351 
Brab-tree    bastion,     Bombay     Castle, 

i.  79,  398  n.,  ii.  2:^2. 
Bracton,  an  English  jurist,  i.  98 
Brahmau  sor'"erer  pttted  by  Governor 

Hoilges,  i.  399 
Biahmapuri  on   the  Bliima,  i.  336  n., 

347,  348,  350,  353,  354,  358 
Brewster,  Sir  David,  ii.  332 
Bridgman,  J.  H.,  ii.  341  n. 
Briggs,  General,  i.  178,  270, 275, 438  n.  ; 

ii.  126,  343 

,  Thomas,  ii.  225 

Brocken  spectre,  ii.  170  n. 

Brooke,  Mr.,  ii.,  340 

Brougham,  H.,  Lord,  i.  236,  456 ;  ii.  33. 

48,  G9 ;  his  story  of  an  Indian  ghost, 

364,  365 
Broun,  Lady  Susan  Georgiana,  ii.  284 
Brown,  Hon.  Alex.,  i.  238. 
,    George,    Acting    Governor    of 

Bombay,  1811-12,  ii.  378 
Browne,   Sir  Thomas  (1605-1682),  i. 

335  H.,  342 ;  ii.  328 
Brownrigg,  Marcus  F.,  i.  196. 
Brnce's  Annah  of  the  E.  I.  Company, 

i.  42,  46,  51  ».,  82,  87,  382  n. 
Bruce,  1'.  C.,  Mayor  of  Bombay,  i.  169, 

242 
,  Fawcett,    &    Co.,  i.    168,    169 

260-266,  463,  467. 
Brace's  Travels,  ii.,  219,  331,  333 
Brydone,  Dr.,  i.  193 
Buchanan,  Mr.,  i.  174 

,  George  (1508-1581),  i.  328 

,  Dr.  Claudius,  ii.  199 

Buckingham,  Silk,  ii.  214,  343 
Buddha — his  begging  bowl,   ii.    132; 

149 
Buddhism  :  decline  of,  u.  205 ;  219,  371 
Buddhist  monks,  ii.  201,  202  ;  remains 

first  identified,  217,  218 
Buggalow,  properly  hagala,  or  haq'tld 

—a  large  boat,  i.  68;  ii.  218,  331, 

333  n. 


Buggy,— a  gig,  ii.  237 
Buggy-wallah,  hackmy  driver,  i.  215 
Buist,  Dr.  George,  i.  140,  219;  ii.  48, 

88,  91 
Bulaq,  Museum,  Cairo,  ii.  332 
Bulbul, — a  kind  of  thnish,  ii.  275 
Bulldog  of  Onor  (Hona\v;ir),  i.  57  n. 
Bullion,  i.  262 
Bullock,  Mr.,  i.  11)0  ii. 
Bummaloes,  small  fish,  i.  68  ;  ii.  150. 
Bungalow — see  Banglii. 
Buon-bahia,  i.  37 
Burgess,  Dr.  J.,  i.  270,  408,  ii.   198, 

200  208,  235,  361 
Burckhardt,  the  tnivclUr,  i.  ISO, ii.  141 
Burhan  al  JIulk,  i.  304 
Burhanpur,  i.  272,  278,  313,  361 
Burke,  Edmund,  i.  148,  229;  ii.  328, 

349 
Burnes,  Sir  Alex.,  i.  196  ;  ii.  346,  348 
Buriifoot,  birthplace  of  Sir  J.  Malcolm, 

ii.  31,  59,  60,  62,  73,  224 
Burns,  the  poet,  i.  179 ;  his  punchbowl, 

447  H. ;  sons,  ii.  68 ;  118,  119 ;  statue, 

1 19  ;  302,  350  ;  and  witches,  358 

,  Colonel  J.  Glencairu,  ii.  120 

Burton,   Sir  Richard,  i.  230;   ii.  141, 

186,  271  n.,  331,  338 

,  Lady,  i.  173  ;  ii.  351. 

Bushir,  Persian  Gulf,  i.  387-390,  456 ; 

ii.  39,  75 
Bussy,  M.,  ii.  322,  325  ;  takes  Daulata- 

bad,  320, 327 
Butcher     Island,    Bombay     Harbour, 

i.  46  ;  ii.  210  )!.,  261,  262,  266 
Byam,  Captain,  his  march,  ii.  23n. 
Byculla  Flats,  ii,  92 
Byron,  Lord,  ii.  331 ;   and   Napier  in 

Greece,  93 

C. 

Cabi!.\l,  I'cJro  Alvarez  dc,  i.  IS 

Caftarelli,  General,  at  Suez,  i.  461 

••  Catlres."  i.  246 

Caird,  Sir  James,  ii.  341 

Cairo,  or  Kahira  :  tombs,  i.  309 ;  ii.  105, 

163,  301),  305-307 
Calcott,  Lady,  Maria  Graham,  i.  172, 

175,  178,  180 
Calicut,  i.  Ill;  ii.  21.". 


INBEX. 


387 


Cambay,  i.  35,  37,  294,  295 

Cameron,  J.  A.,  War  Corruspondent  to 

the  Standard,  ii.  125,  12(j,  272,  348 
Camoens,  Luis  ile  (1527-1579),  ii.  147, 

207,  2.58,  346 
Campbell,  Sir  A.,  Governor  of  Madras, 

ii.  150 
,  t^ir  Colin,  Lord  Clyde,  i.  447;  ii. 

61,  (J9,  92,  100.  313,  340,  347 

,  Colonel  v.,  of  liarbrtrk,  i.  424-429 

,  James  JI.,  ii.  202,  200,  220,  239, 

307,  3G1 
Cananore,  ii.  336 
Candy,  Major  T.,  i.  198 
Cannibal  and  O'rre,  ii.  351  f. ;  canni- 
bals, 352 ;  in  India,  354-356 
Canning,  Geo,,  ii.,  49,  56,  75  n. 

,  Lord,  ii.  349 

Canopus, — Alexandria;  i.  309;  port,  ii. 

309 
Capri,  ii.  237 
Caravel  of  the  sea,  i.  56 
Careri,  Gemelli,  ii.  138 
Carey,   Ur.    William    (1761-1834),  ii. 

343,  344,  340,  349,  350 
Cargill,  W.  W.,  ii.  233 
Carlton,  Dr.,  i.  375 

,  Mr.  Bull,  ii.  5 

Carlylc,  Tliomas,  Lectures  uti  Bnropean 

Literature,  i.  233 ;  and  Maukintush, 

ii.    45)1.;    and  M.  Klphinstone,  ii. 

.58  n. ;  88  »i.,  91  n. ;  on  lying,  316 

,  5Irs.  T.,  i.  186  «.,  234 

,  Sirs,  (senior),  i.  231 

,  Dr.  .John,  i.  187  «. 

Curuao,  (iencral  J.,  i.  165h.,  436;   ii. 

231,  249h.  ;  at  Tlassey,  ii.  327 
(Jamatic  and  Carnac,  ii.  231 
Curr,  Bishop,  i.  178;  ii.  103 
Carter,  Ur.  Vandyke,  ii.  351 
Cartography  of  Bombay,  i.  145 
Cart-wheels,  ii.  26 
Casaubon,  Isaac  (1559-1616),  i.  319  n., 

329  (I. 
Casement,  Mr.,  ii.  343 
"Cash,"  small  eliaiigo  in  <'liinii,  ii.  311 
Castici — children  of  Hindu  fathers  by 

Portuguese  mothers,  i.  35. 
Castle  of  Bombay,  i.  58,  67,  96,  133, 

371,  398 


Castlemaine,  Viscoiuit,  ii.  52  n. 
"  Castlereagh  "  wreeked,  ii.  259 
Cathedral  of  Bombay,   i.  78,  79;    ii. 

52 11. ;     subscriptions     to     building, 

187  H.;  215;   bell,   229;  210,  212  f.; 

funds.    243 ;     plan    of,    246,    247  ; 

steeple  and  chalices,  252 

,  Roman  Catholic,  i.  224 

Rocks   or  Bawamalang  ('/.r.),  ii. 

268,  270 
Catherine  of  Braganza,  i.  49,  53 
Cave  Temples  "•  198/. 
Cay,  Cajit.,  killed  31st  Dec,  1778,  i. 

441 
Ceylon,  ii.,  132 

Chakan,  village  near  I'oona,  ii.  167 
Chalice  of  Aungier,  i.  78 ;  ii.  252 
Chalmers,  Dr.  Thomas,  ii.  44 ;  anecdote 

of,  65 
Chambers,  Sir  C,  ii.  73 
Chambery,  ii.  341 
Champak  trees,  ii.  260  n. 
Champaner  in   Ciujarat,   i.   295,    297, 

302.  303 
Chand  Bibi  8ultanah,   i.   271  h.,  276 ; 

ii.  194 
Chanda,  i.  369 

hill,  i.  18,  ii.  270 

Chanderi,  i.  281 

Cliapar  Ghat,  i.  283 

ChajjatI, — flat  unleavened  cake,  ii.  64 

Cliar  darwaza  hula — "  four  doors  open," 

ii.  io;t 
Charles   II.,   ^larriage  Treaty,  i.  44  ; 

and  Bombay,  54  ;  definition  of  trees, 

ii.  26 
Charpai,  charpoy, — cot  or  bed,  i.  284, 

367,  369,  411 
Chatti,  or  t.'hatty,  an  carthonware  pcjl, 

i.  318 
Chuuijan.,  or  polo,  a  game,  i.  271,  298 
Chauk   I'oint   and   village,  Mathcran, 

i.    249,   250;    ii.    14,  28;    locusts  at 

273;  297 
Chaul,  town,  i.  24,  31,  35,  37,  54,  .57  ; 

ii.  169,  176,  255;  gates,  258;  Kadu, 

i.  113;  Khavai,  ii.  266 
Chaupaty,  ward  in  Bombay,  ii.  232 
Cliauth, "  a  fourth," — the  revenue  imder 

the  Maralhas,  i.  117,  ii.  179 


388 


INDEX. 


Cheape,  ii.  343 

Cheinul,  village,  ii.  213,  21.") 

Cherry,  John  Hector,  i.  242 

Chester,  town,  i.  tj'j 

Clihotu  hdzri, — light  early  breakfuat,  i. 

411 
Chicago,  ii.  129 
Child,  Sir  John,  (iovernor  of  Bombay, 

16S1-1G90,  i.  4,   11,  50,   5'J,  GO,  !S;i, 
84n.,  114,  121,  139,  3S2  and  n.,383H., 

447;  and  Govert.  paper,  467  n.;  ii. 

51  and  n.,  52  ».,  187  n.,  243,  244,  37G 
Child,  Sir  Josiab,  ii.  51  and  n.,  52  «.,  53 
Child,  Lady  Emma,  ii.  52  n. 
Children  in  India,  i.  2 
Chilianwala,  battle  of,  i.  193 
China,  bank  notes  early  used  in,  ii. 

310 
Chinal     Ttkri — Hog     island,    i.    17 ; 

Cross  island,  ii.  216 
Chinchpokli,     Chinchpngli,     "  Chintz 

Poklic,"  i.  85,  174 
Chintapore,  i.  37 
Chitti's  tomb  at  Fathpur  Sikri,  i.  2S9 ; 

at  Ajraer,  i.  299 
Chittapet,  ii.  326 
Chittur  fort,  i.  289,  303,  304 
C/icira,— a  boy,  i.  26,  3G9 
Chola  dynasty  of  Southern  India,  ii. 

200 
Christianity  in  India,  ii.  149 
"  Christopher  North,'  Prof.  J.  'Wilson, 

ii.  137 
Church-plate  of  Bassein  pledged,  ii.  228 
Civilization,  pi  ogress  of,  ii.  372,  373 
Clare,    John,    Earl    of.    Governor    of 

Bombay,  1831-1835,  i.  187,  ii.  331, 

378 
Clarendon,  Earl  of,  i.  41  n.,  ii.  105 
Clarke,  AV.,  a  skipper,  ii.  154 
Cleopatris,  on  the  Ked  Sea,  i.  459 
Clergymen  in  Bombay,  i.  153  ji. 
Clerk,  Sir  Geo.  Russell,  Governor  of 

Bombay.   1847-48,  and   1860-1802, 

ii.  343,  379 
Clive,    Eobert,    1725-1774,  i.   9,   122 

l.=i9,   163  H.,   401,  ii.  126,   128,  133, 

231,  249,  283,  322,  324-328,  331,  368 
Close,  Sir  Barry,  ii.  17  «.,  368  ii. 
Clyde,  Lord, — Sir  Colin  Campbell,  q.v. 


"  Coal  Harbour '"  for  Kolaba,  ii.  201  n. 
Cobbe,  Key.  Jlr.,  ii.  187  n.,  242-247 

,  Genera!,  ii.  247  n. 

Cobra  de  Capello,  i.  405 
Cochin,  ii.  345 
Cockburu  (1771).  i.  436 
Codringtoii,  Dr.,  ii.  301 
Ca'lo-Syria,  author  in,  ii.  351 
Coinage  of  Bombay,  i.  74  n.,  75  n.,  re- 
formed, ii.  313 
Coins  of  Bombay,  i.   375,  and  n.     ii 

310. 
Coke,  Mr.,  ii.  345 
Colebrooke's  Life  of  Elpldnstone,  iu 

46 
Colebrooke,  H.  T.,  ii.  343 
CoUey,  General,  ii.  349 
Colvin,  Sir  Auckland,  ii.  311  ». 
Comberu.ere,  Lord,  ii.  343 
Compton,  Herbert,  i.  190 

,  Th.  A.,  i.  191  n. 

Connaught,  Duke  of,  ii.  125 

Connoii,  John,  i.  237-240;  ii.  117     on 

Indian  cereals,  317 
Conollys,  the  two,  ii.  345,  348 
Constantinople,  i.  317 
Conti,  Nicolo,  traveller,  ii.  308 
Convent  School  in  Bombay,  i.  142 
Cook,  Capt.,  ii.  335 
Cooke,  llumfrey.  Governor  of  Bombay, 

1605-166G,  i".  44-47,  49,  54,  55,  59, 

60  «.,  81  ;  his  treaty,  86,  87  ;  139 
"  Cooly  " — a  porter,  ii.  161 
Cooper,  Capt.,  ii.  56 
Cooperage,  Bombay,  i.  21S 
Coote,  Sir  Eyre  (1726-1783),  i.  8,  435, 

438,   439;'ii.    23 «.,  150,   .328,  344; 

buried  in  Hampshire,  345,  346 
Cope's  New  Midory  of  the  East  Ituliet, 

ii.  334 
Cordova,  ii  306 
Cornwallis,  Lord  (1738-1805),  ii.  5,  6, 

35,  42,  331,  344 ;  statue  worshipped, 

370 
Corochoile,  a  sheep  farmer,  ii.  126 
Coronation  of  Sivaji,  ii.  1 72 
Cortez,  Hernando,  (1485-1547),  ii.  300, 
Coruiia,  battle  of,  i.  195,  461,  ii.  92 
Coryat,   Tom  (1577-1G17),  i.  55,  C2, 

.305.  315,  310,  318,  320;  his  work  on 


INDEX. 


389 


tlie  Italian  Alps,  3-22  ;  324,  325,  329, 
378;  ii.  143,175,340,368 
Cosmns  Imlicopleustes,  ii.  149 
Cotton  trade,  i.  64,  241,  254,  262,  266- 
268,  402:    charges  for  packing  in 
ISOO,  462n. 

,  Bishop,  ii.  348 

Court  house,  Bombay,  1.1436;  ii.  15,  16, 

42 
Courts  of  Justice,  i.  190 
Council  drafts,  ii.  31S 
Covenanters,  i.  107 
Cowan,  Robert,  Governor  of  Bombay, 

1728-1734,  i.  139.  ii.  377 
Cowdung  flwir,  ii.  2.53 
Cowley,  lines  of,  ii.  330 
Cowrie,  htiuri, — shells  used   for  small 

payments,  ii.  130  and  n.,  178 
Crabb,  Captain  of  the  "  Durington,"  ii. 

226,  227 
Cranston  of  Cranston's  motto,  i.  339 
Crussus,  ii.  120 
Crawford,  Arthur,  ii.  30 

,  Robert  Wigram,  i.  245,  ii.  250 

,  William,  i.  19,  245  n.,  248 

,  Mr.,  a  friend  of  Sterne's,  i.  419  n. 

Crawley,  Mr.,  at  Gombrun,  i.  166 
Credit  of  the  E.  I.  Company,  i.  254 
Crime  associated  with    Indian    forts, 

ii.  188 
Crommclin,  Charles,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, 1760-1767,  i.  9,   139,  1G2,  103 
anil  n. ;  at  Goa,401 ;  409, 428,430  n. ; 
ii.  215  n.,  377 

,  Jlary,  ii.  245 

Crow, — a  bird  of  ill-omen,  ii.  370  n. 
Crtidities,    Coryat's,    i.    320-324,  328, 

330 
Crusades,  ii.  146 
Cublxm,  Mark    (1784-1861),    ii.    343, 

345 
Cuddalur,  or  Kadalur,  ii.  342 
CuUoden,  ii.  341 
Cumlcrnauld  House,  ii.  46 
CiinninL'liam,    Alhin    (1786-1842),    i. 
ISO;  ii.  297 

,  General  Sir  Alex.,  ii.  344 

Cupid  lx)m  at  Elora,  ii.  273 
Curgenwen,  3Ir.,  sufferings  of,  i.  122  n. ; 
ii.  270  n. 


Currie,  Sir  Fred,  ii.  88 
Cursetji  JIanekji,  i.  248 ; 
284 

D. 


ii.  131,  132, 


Dabhoi:  volume  on,  i.  297,354;  339, 
353;  Forbes's  house  at,  409,  410; 
gate,  413 ;  443,  444  »i. 

liuman  flesh  sold   at,  ii. 


355, 


24,  37,  113,  272,  343;    ii. 


412; 
Dabka 

357 
D,il)ul, 

227 
Dacca,  in  Bengal,  i.  54 
Da  Cunha,  Dr.,  ii.  207 
Dady  family,  Parsi,  i.  242,  249 
D.edalus  liglit  in  the  Red  Sea,  i.  8 
Da  (Jama,  Vasco,  (d.  1525),  i.  5,  18,  29, 

111;  ii.  147,258,300,345 
Daji,  Dr.  Bhau,  i.  409,  ii.  198 
Dakaits,  or  Dacoits,  robbers  belonging 

to  armed  gangs,  i.  450 
Dak-bangalows,  rest  house.-*,  ii.  138 
Dakhma — see  Tower  of  Silence. 
Dalhousie,  Lord,  ii.  88,  108,  284 ;   on 

production  of  India,  318  ;  349,  350 
Daly,  General  Sir  II.,  ii.  22  n. 
Daman,  Portuguese  town  iu  Gujarat, 

i.  16,37,04)1.,  113;  ii.  147 
Damascus,  i.  105,  317,  328  ;  ii.  163, 305 
Danda  Rajapuri,  ii.  165 
Danilu  Panth  Goklda,  i.  116 
DanicUs    picture    of   Poena    Darbar, 

i.  448,  450,  452 
Danixno,  i.  37 
Danival,    Prince,  3rd  son    of   Akbar 

(1572-1604),  i.  276,  278,  291 
Dante  :    copy    of    his    Commedia    in 

Bombay  Library,  ii.  37  n. 
D'Anville,    J.    B.    B.,    French    Geo- 
grapher (1697-1782),  ii.  327,  355 
Dapuri,  near  Poona,  ii.  116  n. ;  ghost, 

368 
Dara  Sliikoh,  elder  brother  of  Aurang- 

zcb  (1650-1670),  1.  368 
Darhiir,  court,  reception,  i.  58, 127,  284, 

365,  366;  Daniell's  pictme  of  Pooua 

Darliiir,  448  ;  ii.  338 
Darfur,  in  Africa,  ii.  315 
Darwin,  ii.  331 


390 


INDEX. 


DaiyaKlian'BtombatAlimadabad,i.309 

Bidziy — a  tailor,  i.  187 

Dasgam  village:  its  springs,!.  391);  ii.  159 

Date  palm,  i.  398 

Datura, — a  poisonous  plant,  i.  5G 

Daulatabad,  i.  292,  304,  3G1,3G2;    ii. 

167,  1S9,  191,  32G,  327  (i;.  Devagiri) 
Davies,  C'apt.  David,  i.  38 ;  ii.  252 
Dawn,  the  false,  ii.  371 
Day,  Colonel,  ii.  117 
Deafness,  anecdote  of,  ii.  317 
Deane  Lane,  Bombay,  ii.  251 
Debetele,  i.  37 

De  Boigne,  B.  L.  (d.  1830),  i.  451 ;  ii.  341 
Debli,  i.  328 ;  Sivaji  at,  359  f. ;  361-365, 

369;   emperor,  451,   452;   ii.  23»». ; 

royal  house  of,  137,  166,  175,  179, 

1S9,  327;  church,  345 

empii-e  founded  by  a  slave,  i.  273 

Dehra  Dun,  ii.  341 

Dekhan :  condition  of,  in  Aurangzeb's 

time,  i.  13  ;  105-107,  3.33 
D'Eli,  Mount  (Eli-mala),  ii.  300  and  n. 
Demetrius  martyred  at  Thana,  i.  15 
Deora  chief,  ii.  358 
Deravi,  i.  16 
Dervish,  i.  273,  317 
Deva-Divi  island,  i.  17 
Deva  or  Dewa,  i.  18  ;  ii.  281 
Devagiri,  Deogiri,  or  Daulatabad  (q.v.) 

i.  334 ;  ii.  198,  201,  326 
Devakota, — Jain  temples  onMt.  Gimar, 

ii.  359 
Dewa  Dandi,  i.  17 

Ghat,  ii.  21  ». 

Dewali,— feast  of  lights,  i.  210,  344 

Deicuna, — a  madman,  i.  270 

Dhangar  tribe,  ii.  28,  181,  275;  their 

grass  jewellery,  277 
Dhangari  fort  or  killa,  i.  48,  69,  138  «., 

145  ;  ii.  233,  282,  334 
Dhanu,  i.  16 

Dharnmiiula, — a  free  rest-house,  ii.  179 
Dharmasala,  in  Kangra,  ii.  345 
Dkarna,  enforcing  payment  by  sitting 

at   tlie   door  of  the  debtor  without 

food,  i.  382,  471,  ii.  208 
Dholera,  in  Gujarat,  i.  294 
Dhow,  see  Doir. 
Diamonds,  i.  63 


Dick,  George,  Acting-Governor  of 
Bombay,  1793-1795,  ii.  378 

,  General,  ii.  341 

Dickenson's  map  of  Bombay, :.  145 

Diler  Jang,  Sardar,  i.  222 

Dilke,  Sir  C,  ii.  127 

Dillon,  Sieur,  i.  33 

Dinner  in  Bombay  in  ISIO.  i.  176 

Directors  of  E.  I.  Co.,  Court  of,  i.  256 

Disa,  in  N.  Gujarat,  i.  292,  299 

Diu,  Portuguese  town  on  Kathiawar 
co.ist,  i.  16,31,76,304;  ii.  147 

Divadiva  island,  i.  17;  ii.  266 

Diver,  Dr.  ii.  36S  n. 

Diwan, — administrator,  i.  lOG 

Khana,  audience  hall,  ii.  306 

Doab  ceded  to  E.  I.  Co.,  i.  251 

Doeherie,  John,  i.  196 

Dockyard,  Bombay,  i.  142 

Dogs  in  the  Dekhan,  ii.  142 

Dohad,  birthplace  of  Auraugzcb,  i.  104 

Domes,  Pantheon,  St.  Sophia's,  St. 
Paul's,  &c.,  i.  28  «. 

D'Orta,  Garcia,  i.  379 ;  ii.  218 

Dost  Muhammad,  ii.  341 

Douglas,  Mr.,  a  civil  servant,  i.  158, 
160,  166 

,  Gawain,  i.  338 

,  Mr.,  ii.  130 

,  Bishop,  ii.  275 

Doves  in  the  East,  ii.  HO  141 

Dow,  Colonel,  the  historian,  i.  242, 
436,  439,  440  ;  ii.  269,  280,  283  ;  his 
monument,  283  n.,  284,  285,  29G  ;  his 
History,  328 

Vow,  sometimes  written  dhow — an  Arab 
boat  or  skiff,  i.  Ill,  114,  173  ;  ii.  333 
and  n.,  334 

Dowden,  Dr.,  i.  233  u. 

Draper,  Daniel,  i.  1G3,  418,  421,  422, 
426,  4-29,  430  ».,  436,  440,  442 

,  Eliza,  i.  136,  163,  173,  177,  393, 

403,  404, 410  f. ;  birlh  and  education, 
417 ;  death  and  epitaph,  418 ;  charac- 
ter, 423,  424  ;  appearance,  428-430  ; 
elopement,  430  n.,  432  ;  tomb,  433  ; 
ii.  41,  269,  289,  368 

Dravidian,  architecture,  ii.  306  , 

Drayton,  the  poet,  i.  327 

Dress  about  1790,  i.  404 


INDEX. 


391 


DnmimonJ  cf  Drummondoclicrt,  i. 
340 1.. 

,  Mr.,  ii.  341 

Dry  Dock  of  Bombay,  i.  144 

Dudu,  concubine  of  Sultan  Sluhammad, 
of  Bihar,  i.  28G 

Duel  at  Ahmadnagar,  ii.  24 

Duft".  Grant,  opinion  of  Jlr.  Hornby,   I 
i.  427  n. ;  Histonj,  i.  33.'),  ii.  4G 

,  Rev.   Dr.   A.,  ii.  103,  343,  344, 

349.  350 

Dufferin,  Marquis  of,  i.  231,  ii.  336 

Dugad,     "  Dahoo,"     near    Bhiwaudi,   i 
ii.  281,287;  battle  of,  291 

Duhad,  ii.  298 

■■  Duke's  Nose,"  jKipuIar  name  of  Xag- 
phana  Hill  near  Kliandala,  ii.  11,  12 

Duncan,  Jonathan,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, 1795-1811,  i.  67,  165  it.,  173, 
175,  221,  242,  247,  251,  259,  263, 
264  ;  Nelson's  letter  to,  391 ;  407, 
42.5,  428,  471,  ii.  9,  11.  17,  26,  32. 
33;  portrait,  34;  38  n. ;  deatli,  41, 
42;  52,  97,  223,  253;  birth  and 
parents,  254,  343,  344,  346,  370,  378 

Dock,  i.  144  n. 

,  Uev.  Dr.  John,  "  Kabbi,"  [ii.  124 

Dunda.s  of  Arniston,  i.  243 

Dunkirk,  i.  42 

Dunmore,  ii.  105 

Duomo  of  Florence,  i.  28  h. 

Du  Perron,  An<iuetil,  i.  5,  ii.  213,  216, 
220,  260 

Dungari  or  Dhangari  point,  i.  138  n. 

"Dunjermal,"  ii.  185 

Durand.  Sir  H.,  ii.  344,  349 

Durga-devi  famine,  ii.  357 

Durgadas,  a  llajput  leader,  i.  367,  368 

Dutcli  iu  India,  i.  30,  51 

Duval,  Lieut.,  Nelson's  messenger, 
i.  391 

E. 

Eari.e,  Ciimeral,  ii.  349 

East  India  Company's  cxclusiveness, 

i.  7 
Eastwick,  E.  B.,  ii.  308  n.,  327 
Eden,  Hon.  Emily,  i.  173,  182 ;  ii.  348 
Edginston,  'SU.,  i.  212 
Edwnrdes,  Sir  Herbert,  ii.  36  n.,  130 


Egcrton,  Mr.  (1771).  i.  436.  440 
Egypt,  society  in  1833,  ii.  336 
Ehrcnberg,  ii.  337 

Eh  dam.  or  ch  dum, — '  at  once,'  '  in- 
stantly.' i.  463  : 
Elephant  at  Elephanta,  ii.  210  )i.,  211, 

214 
Elephanta,  i.   4 ;   first  delineated  I)y 

Mr.   Boone,  5;  133,  148,  408,  45o'; 

ii.    129,   149,   198-201,   208.    210  f.; 

Hamilton's  account  of,  210  n.,  213, 

214;  stair  up  to  cave,  215;  216-221, 

262,  266,  282,  285 

golden  beetle,  i.  406  :  ii.  273 

Elgin,  Lord,  ii.  344,  34.5,  349.  350 
Eli  or  Hili  kingdom,  ii.  300  n. 
Eliot,  Geo.,  ii.  121  n. 
EUouborough,  Lord,  ii.  74.  87,  102,  343 
Elliot,  Sir  Walter,  ii.  243 

,  Mr.,  i.  441 

Ellis,  Brabazon,  i.  1 18  n..  158, 163-166 ; 

his  tomb,  ii.  261 
Elphinstone,  John,  l.onl.  Governor  of 

Bombay,  1853-1860,  i.  211-213,  147; 

ii.  28,  50,  57,  113,  342,  346,  379 
Mountstuart,  i.  a,  49,  151,  190, 

19.5,  248,  252,  367,  4.52  ;  ii.  10,  11,31, 

37.  40,  46/. ;  descent  and  education, 

47  ;  Ilistonj,  47,  50  ;  appearance.  48 ; 

49-51,  54-58,  68-71,   98,   122,   131, 

153,  220,  224,  23li.  269,331,  338  ii., 

34,3-346;  love  of  hunting,  347  ;  350; 

supposed  ghost,  3ti9 ;  378 
Elura  rock  temples,  i.  32  n.,  228,  247, 

:i:i5,  450 ;  ii.  138,  199-202,  208 
Elwood'a  (Mrs.),  account  of  Bombay, 

172  f..  177 
Embassy  to  Sivaji,  i.  168,  169 
Emblems  of  rule,  Maratha,  ii.  172 
Employment  of  labour,  i.  3 
Encijclopxdia  BrUannica  ghost  story, 

ii.  3(;6 
Englishmen  imprisoned  l)y  the  Pesh- 

wali,  ii.  165 
English  rule,  benefits  of,  i.  13 
Epliesu.s,  i.  317 
Erskinc,  William,  i.  195;  ii.  35,  36,  01, 

214,218.248 
Escaliot's  letter  to  Sir  T.  Browne,  i. 

114  H.:  ii.  328 


392 


INDEX. 


Estelow,  James,  condemned,  ii.  43 
Ettrick  Shepherd,  dinner  to,  ii.  CS 
Eukratidus's  great  gold  coin,  ii.  ;J1.5 
Evelyn,  J.,  his  Diary,  ii.  372 
Every  and  Green,  pirates,  i.  1'2D 
Exchange,  i.  9,  10,  62:  in  1750,  150; 

196,  ii.  313,  317,  332,  337 
Expenses  of  living  in  Uomb.iy,  i.  137  n. 


Faed's  portrait  of  Lord  Elphinstone, 

ii.  342 
Faqir — Muslim  devotee,  i.  323 
Eah-Hian,  t'ljincsc  pilgrim   to   India, 

A.D.  400,  ii.  198 
Fail  river,  i.  3S9 
Fake,  Corporal,  i.  74 
Falconer,  Ion  Keith,  ii.  339 
Falkland,  Lucius  Bcutinck   Viscount, 

Governor  of  Bombay,  lS4S-lSo3,  ii. 

89,  97,  379 


-,  Lady,  i.  82  ».,  173,  447 


2:i7 


238 


Family  life  of  Anglo-Indians  in   the 

18th  century,  i.  6,  7 
Famine  :  ii.  17 ;  of  1876,  142 ;  origin  of 

supposed  cannibalism,  ii.  356,  357 
Fariniji, — Frank,  i.  28 
Farish,  James,  Officiating  Governor  of 

Bombay,  ii.  378 
Farmer,  Captain  of  the  "Seahoi'se,"  i. 

387,  390,  391 
Farquhar  of  Fonthill  Abbey,  i.  189 
Farthingale,  i.  430 
Fashions  in  Bombay,  ii.  253  ». 
Fath  Malika,  i.  286 
Fathpur  Sikri,  i,  288,  298-300,  301 
Faujdar — a  head  policeman,  i.  106, 314, 

360 
Fauna  of  Bombay,  i.  405 
Fawcctt,  Henry,  i.  169,  242;  ii.  96,  312 
Ferdausi  and  the  Shah  Xameh,  ii.  58  n. 
Fergusson,  Professor  Adam,  i.  389 
,  James,  i.  450 ;  ii.  135,  198,  200- 

205,  208,  280,  34.S,  316 
,  Sir  James,  Governor  of  Bombay, 

1880-1885,  ii.  378 
Ferishta :  at  Bijapur,  i.   269  f, ;   287, 

362;  ii.  307,308 


Ferozshali,  battle  of,  i.  193 

Feudal  superiority,  i.  92 

Figucroa,  Don  A.  de  S-,  151  n. 

Finlay.  Clark  &  Co.,  ii.  250  n. 

,  Hodgson  &  Co.,  ii.  250  n. 

,  Kirkman,  anecdote,  ii.  250  n. 

,  Robert,  ii.  250 

,  Scott  &  Co.,  ii.  250  n. 

Fish-heads  of  gold  as  staudarJs,  ii.  172 

Fitch,  lialph,  i.  33 

Fitzclarcnce,  Lord  E.,  i.  82  ». 

Fitzgerald,  Sir  Robert  Seymour, 
Governor  of  Bombay,  1867-72,  i. 
219;  ii.  120,  122,  133,379 

Flagstafif  Bastion,  Bombay,  ii.  223 

Fleas,  king  of,  i.  459 

Fletcher,  Rev.  AV.  K.,  i.  201 

Floates,  John,  a  slave  boy,  i.  376 

Flying  foxes,  ii.  275,  276 

Fonseca,  Antonia,  ii.  149 

Fonthill  Abb:.y,  sale  of,  i.  1S9 

"Fool  rack,"  a  drink,  i.  M 

Foras,  rent  from  outlying  land,  i.  89  n. 

Forbes,  Sir  Charles,  i.  5,  96,  170,  188, 
242,  246 ;  letter  of,  254  f. ;  395,  447, 
463,  467,  469  ;  ii.  26,  33,  36,  41,  224, 
343;  Correspondence,  i.  241,  253  f.; 
loans,  446 

of  Pitsligo,  i.  247 

,  Dr.,  i.  158,  166 

-,  James,  i.  5,  93  n  ,  125,  ISl,  215  ; 

his  Ork-ntal  Memoirs,  222  and  ii. 
363  ;  i.  339,  347,  393,  395  f. ;  portrait, 
396, 414  ;  residence  in  Hertfordshire, 
399 ;  401 ;  library,  402 ;  us  a  chaplain, 
409  and  n. ;  and  Eliza  Draper.  424, 
425;  436,  443  n.;  ii.  41;  death  of, 
192  n.,  281. 321,  343 ;  on  cannibalism, 
.355 

,  John,  i.  170,  244,  ii.  2U,  killed 

at  Jlontpezir,  250 

,  Arch.,  War-correspondc-nt,  ii.  125 

Forgery  of  coins,  ii.  310 

Forjett,  C,  i.  209,  210;  ii.  113,  370 

Forskal,  Peter  (1736-63),  ii.  120 

Fort  of  Bombay,  i.  140 

■  George,  Bombay,  i.  216 ;  ii.  250  n. 

Forts,  Indian,  ii.  320 

Fox,  C.  Jas.,  (1749-1806),  ii.  33,  36 

Foxe's  JBooJ:  of  Martyrs,  i.  32 


INDEX. 


393 


Francis,   Sir    riiilip.  i.   243,  441 ;    ii.   I 
343  j 

Fraser,  Mr.,  in  Surat,  i.  5.  ' 

,  William,  i.  445  anil  h.  ' 

FreJerick   tlio   Great  (1740-1780),   i.   i 
435,  438  anil  h.,  ii.  120,  321 

,  Cajsar,  a  traveller,  ii.  305 

Freights,  i.  Go 

Frere,  Sir  Henry  Bartle  Edward, 
Governor  of  Bombay,  1802-67,  i.  193,  | 
228,  229;  ii.  15,  S2».,  88,  89,  133, 
149,  179,  212,  218;  and  coin  of 
Alexander,  310;  331,  .338,  308,  309, 
379 

fountain,  i.  224 

Fryer,  Dr.  .Jolin,  traveller,  i.  49,  50,  Go. 
66,  85,  88  n.,  145,  147,  150.402,  414  ; 
ii.  231,232,  298,  314 

Funnel  Hill,  ii.  270 

G. 

Gawacha  Send, — Panorama  Point  at 
Matheran.  ii.  270 

Gadi, — throne,  ii.  113 

Gagabbat  Shastri,  ii.  173 

Gahar  Kushain,  widow  of  Nasr  Khan, 
i.  28G 

Gaikwar  of  IJaroda,  i.  471 

Gallcvat,  a  war-boat  with  oars,  i.  438 

Galloway  Bey,  i.  181 

Gait,  the  writer  (1779-1839),  ii.  G8 

Galton's  Art  of  Travel,  i.  333 

Gtirn,  gaum,  fiaon, — a  village,  ii.  159,  &c. 

Gancshkliind,  near  Kliirki,  i.  453 

Gangiitti,  vill.,  ii.  194 

Gardafui,  "  Cape  of  burial,"  ii.  334 

Gardner,  Colonel,  ii.  ."41 

Garcy,  Capt.  Hrnry,  Acting  Governor 
of  Bombay,  lG(i7-6S,  ii.  376 

Gari,  garry,  gharry,  a  coach,  convey- 
ance, i.  11;  travelling  in,  ii.  1.09, 
291-293 

Gassendi's  voUimc,  ii.  37 

Gaur,  in  Bengal,  ii.  357 

Gantama  liuddlia,  ii.  207  (ace  also 
••  Buddha.") 

Gawilgarh,  fort  in  Khandcsb,  ii.,  57 
Gaya,  in  Bihar,  i.  338,  3G9 
Gaytr,  Sir  .Tolin,  Governor  of  Bombay, 
VOL.   II. 


1694-1704,  i.  GO,  64,  384;  u.  245  «., 

376 
Geekie,    John,    Acting    Governor    of 

Bombay,  1742.  ii.  377 
Gi'cz  language,  ii.  219 
Gentoo, — Hindu,   i.    68    and   n.,    90 ; 

Pagoda.  153  ;  168,  ii.  221 
Gcria  or  Ghcriah,  sec  Giria 
Gharapuri, — Elephanta  island,!.  17,  ii. 

266 
Ghasi  Ram  or  Gassoo  Eam,  death  of, 

i.  451  ;  ii.  194,  195 
Ghats.  Western,  ii.  147 
Ghazi  nd-din,  i.  358 
Ghiberti's  Gates  at  Florence,  i.  341 
Ghosts,  Anglo-Indian,  ii.  363  f. ;    dis- 
appearance of,  364 
(Uiijuls,  ii.  357 

Chulam  'Ali,  an  elephant,  ii.  308 
(ihyas  ud-din  Tugblaq,  emperor  (1320 

-1325),  i.  15 
Gibbet  island,  ii.  43, 213  ;  Chinel  Tekri, 

266 
Gibbon,  E.,  the  liistorian  (1737-1794), 

ii.  112,219 
(<ibbs,  Hon.  James,  1.  239 
Gill,  Major  Robert,  ii.  198 
Oinjec,  Jinji  or  Shenji,  i.  334  n. ;  ii.  326 
(iir,   mountain   tract  in  Katliiawar,  i. 

123,  294 
Girdhardas,  a  broker,  i.  381 

Giria  or  Geriab,  Gheriah,  Vijaj'adurg, 
Clive's  capture  of,  115,  118  and  n.  ; 

124,  128 :  ii.  133,  270,  283,  284,  326 
Girnar,  mount  in  Kalhiawar:  ii.  124  ; 

liaunt  of  Agliori.  ii.  359;  peaks  of, 

360,  361 
Gladstone,  Hon.  W..  ii.  347 
Glcncairn,  Earl  of,  i.  447 
Goa,  in  IGtb  and  17th  cent.,  i.  14,  23, 

24, 29 ;  54, 57,  90  n. ;  spirits,  136  ;  272  ; 

persecutions  at,  ii.  146, 147 ;  150, 153, 

and  slaveiy,  154  ;  155,  159,  345 
Goat  flesh,  ii.  171  n. 
Godiivari  river,  ii.  216 
Goddard,    General,    i.   243 ;    stormed 

Abmudabad,  423;  443-446;  ii.  12S. 

130,  153  ;  investiture  of  Bassein,291 
Gogo  sailors,  i.  1 1 1 
Gold  of  Ophir,  i.  19  f. 

2   D 


394 


INDEX. 


OoUl  miurs  of  InJi:i,  ii.  'Mi 
(tuldinolnir  (gulmor  q.  v.)  tree,  ii.  2.")0 
(Joldschmid,  €.  S.,  and  his  spirit,  ii. 

3ii(j  n. 
Golkonda,   diamonds,  i.   KJ;    ii.   1")1, 

175;  i.  28;  .sack  of,  10-i;  274,  277, 

343,  344,  355,  .<!57,  381 ;  ii.  170,  307, 

336 
Gombroon  or  Gombruu, — Banilnr  Ab- 
bas, on  the  Persian  Gnlf,  i.  57,  41S  ; 

book  of,  155  f. 
Gomtarn  fort,  ii.  287 
Goodshaw,  Mr.,  um-lc  of  Sir  .1.  ChiM, 

ii.  51  )!. 
Gora,  ii.  181 

Gorakba,  sbriuo  of,  ii.  359,  3(j0». 
Gordon,  Harry  George,  i.  19G,  464 

Colonel  (cir.  1800),  ii.  131 

General,  i.  443  ;  ii.  104,  .34!) 

Gough,  A'iscnunt  Hugh  (1770-1869), 

ii.  343,  349 
Gouldswortby,  Sir  .7.,  i.  383  n. 
Government  House  in  1814,  i.  221,  436 
Government  jiaper,  467  n. 
"  Governor-General,"  i.  60  ».,  382  n. 
Gowala  Tank,  Bombay,  i.  415 
Graham,  Maria,  Lady  Calcott  (q.  r.). 

i.  173,  175  ;  ii.  41,  341 

Colonel  F.  W.,  ii.  127 

Granitic  gneiss  boulders,  ii.  301 
Grant,    Sir    Alexander,   rrincipal   of 

Edinburgh  University  (1826-1884). 

i.  236  ;  ii.  .55  n. 
Grant,  Sir  Charles,  Lord  Glenelg,  ii. 

114  n.,  343,  344,  340 

Sir  Charles,  K.CS.L,  ii.  11G». 

Capt.,  imi>risoned,  i.  123 

General  Hope,  ii.  350 

Capt.,  his  duel  and  death,  ii.  24 

.lames,  letters,  i.  259,  260,  268 

Sir  John  Peter,  ii.  73,  75,  87,  345 

Sir  Robert,  Governor  of  Bombay, 

1835-38,  i.  189,  198;  ii.  52  and  n., 
114-116,  360  «.,  378 

Sir  Robert,  R.E.,  ii.  116  n. 

Ulysses  S.,  ii.  353 

Granth,  sacred  book  of  the  Sikhs,  ii.  88 
Grantham,  Admiral  Sir  Th.,  ii.  376 
Grapes,  i.  379 
Graves,  Danvers,  i.  157,  1G6 


Gray,  Thomas,  the  poet  (1716-1771), 

i.  1.53)!.,  1.54 
Rev.  Jaraes.  of    Kachh,  i.   170, 

409;  ii.  119 
,  Henry,  '■  Robin  Gray,"  i.  102  ;  ii. 

117 
Green,  a  pirate,  i.  120 
■'  Griffin," — a  new  arrival,  i.  21! 
Griffith.    .John,    Acting    Governor    of 

Bombay,  1795,  ii.  378 
Grose,  Capt.,  his  map  of  Bombay,  i.  96, 

132;  account,  131  f. ;  ii.  190,  223 
Gruter  or  Grytere,  .1.,  philologist  (15G0 

-1627),  i.  329  n. 
Gryuajus,  J.  J.  (1540-1618),  i.  329  h. 
(iuava,  i.  413 
Gujarat,  state  of,  i.  3,  288,  293 ;  con- 

(juest  of,  300 ;  303,  304,  ii.  355 

.,  Paujab.  battle  of,  i.  193 

(iulbarga  :  dynasty  (1347-1530),  i.  273; 

kingdom,  275  ;  ii.  194,  308 
Guligaum  near  Serur,  ii.  99 
Gulmor, — Peacock  ilower  tree,  ii.  37, 

156,  250 
Gumsur,  ii.  23  ».,  24  n. 
Guru, — religious  instructor,  ii.  161 
Gwalior,  i.  361 

H. 

Habsiii  (Abyssinian)  of  Janjira,  i.  22, 

ii.  143,  263 
Hadhramant, — South  Arabia,  i.  68 
Hadow,  Mr.,  ii.  250 
Hadrian,  emperor,  ii.  206 
Haidar  'Ali  of  Maisur  (1722-1782),  i. 

334,426:  ii.  321. 
Haidarabad,  capital  of  the  Xizam,  i. 

104 ;  ii.  IS ;  contingent,  23  n. ;  102, 

126,  136.  291 
,  Sind,  i.  411 ;  prize  money,  ii.  86, 

94,  104 
Hajji, — one  who    has    performed  the 

pilgrimage  to  Mecca,  ii.  175 
Hakims, — Indian  doctors,  i.  368 
Halalkhors, — scavengers,  ii.  195  n. 
Hale's  Annah,  i.  332 
Hall,  Capt.  Basil  (1788-1844),  ii.  10, 

39,  68 ;  at  Lkphanta,  214  ;  357. 
,  James,  his  wife,  i.  454 


INDEX. 


395 


Uall,  Kcv.  Kobcrl  (1704-1831),  i.  WJ, 

4G2;  ii.  35 

,  General,  ii.  101  ii. 

Hallam,  U.  (1777-1859).  i'-  33 
Halla,  Mr.,  au.l  H.  Salt,  ii.  305,  3GG 
llaraal, — a  porter,  .subordinate  house- 
servant,  ii.  30 
Hamilton,  Capt.  Alex.,  i.  81,  84,  114, 

120,  389  ;  ii.  187  «..  210  n.,  212,  214, 

217,  243  H..  248,  202,  334 
llammam — ^a  1)utli,  i.  405,  ii.  201 
Ilampe,  nioilerii  Yijayanagar,  ii.  29P, 

."iOO  II. 
llamzabau,  i.  298 

Ilnuuuian, — tlio  nionkcy-^oil,  ii.  l.">3 
"HattcJ  prople," — the  Portuguese,  i. 

297 
Harding,  Bishop,  ii.  343 
Harihar,  on  tlie  Tuufjabhadra,  ii.  21  «. 
JIarim — tlie  women's  ijuarter.?,  i.  27 
Hari-rud,  in  Afghanistan,  i.  443 
Hariecliandragail,    mountain,    ii.    177, 

193 
Harris,  Bartholomew,  Governor,  1090- 

04,  i.  ."lO,  .")9,  84  !i. :  ii.  52,  370 
,  Sir  William,  Lord,  i.  198;  ii.  2- 

8;  at  Seringapatani,  01  n.;  312 
,  George  Robert  Canning,  J^ord, 

Governor  of  Bombay,  ii.  380 
Hartley,  Colonel,  ii.  291  and  «. 
Hasan,   grandson  ot    Muhammad,    ii. 

141 ;  and  Husuiu,  200 
Hashish,  i.  50 
Haspet,    near    Vijayanagar,    ii.    300, 

309 11. 
Hastings,  Warren  (1732-1818),  i.  98, 

382  11.,  409,  441,  443;  ii.  33,  4.j,  87, 

137;  lines  on  Elliot,  272;  322,  331, 

343,  348,  350;  ghost  story  of  tlio 

time  of,  300 
.   Francis  Rawdon,    Marquis    of 

(1754-1827),   i.  243;    on  the  paei- 

lication  of  the  Dekhan,  08  it. ;  313, 

345 
Hasur,  i.  444 
Havelock,  (icncral  Sir  H.,  ii.  104,  108, 

314 
Havildar,  or  Hawaldar, — a  native  Ser- 
jeant, a  police  constable,  i.  100;    ii. 

19 


Hcljer,  Bishop  R.  (1783-1820),  i.  221 ; 

ii.  54,  149,  331,  340,  344 
Heidelberg,  i.  325,  328,  329  a. 
llelmaud  River,  ii.  128 
Hemans,  Jlrs.  (1791-1835),  i.  201 
Uenery,  or  Vondari  island,  i.  133  ;  ii. 

266 
Henry,  Prince,  son  of  James  I.,  i.  324, 

326 
Henshaw,  Robert,  i.  170,  425 ;  ii.   17, 

34,  214 
Hensbaw's  Buildings,  i.  99 
Heptanesia, — Bombay  islands,  ii.  353 
Herbert's  fresco,  i.  458 
Herodotus   and  Cannibal   Indians,  ii. 

352-57 
Heroism  of  a  Rajputni,  ii.  135  ». 
Heron,  Colonel,  ii.  325 
Herscbel,  Sir  .1.,  ii.  332 
Hindu   visiting    England   in    1781,    i. 

148 
Hirabagh  at  I'oona,  i.  451 
Hirakot,  battle  at,  i.  125 
Hisloj),  Sir  T.,  ii.  343 
'■  Hobson  Jobson,"  ii.  200 
Hodges,  Thomas,  Governor  of  Bombay, 
(1707-71)   i.    103,   251)1.,   392,  397, 
399,409,  430,  440;  ii.  52,  282,  '283, 
377 
Hodgson,  Brian  11.,  ii.  313  ». 
Hog  Island,  Chinal  'i'ekri,  i.  17,40  ;  ii. 

2(;2,  2G0 
Hogg,  Sir  James  Weir,  ii.  88,  90 

,  James  (1772-1835),  i.  ISO 

Holkar:  his  ancestors,  i.  334,  358;  471, 
ii.  18,  21,  22;  brother  Vitlioji,  57; 
338 
Holmes,  quoted,  ii.  317 
Holy  Wells,  ii.  297 
Honawar,  Honor  or  (Jnor,  i.  24,  57,  S3 

and  ». ;  ii.  i:'>:'> 
Hood,  Lady,  i.  182 
Hookah,  r.  hiihd 
Hopitoun,  ICiirl  of,  ii.  314 
Iloreb.  Mount,  ii.  332 
Ilormasji  Bahmanji,  i.  242,  249 
Hornby,  William,  (Jovernor  of  Bom- 
bay'(1771-84),  i.  42,  40(1.,  139,  103. 
243,   393,   399,    400;    contest   with 
Draper,  42G;  Grant  Duff's  opinion 

2  D  2 


39U 


INDEX. 


of,  427  n. ;    420  ;    liis  times,  434  f.  ; 

440-445;    ii.   15,  52;   reply   to  the 

Portuguefe,  155;  377 
Hornby,  Anne,  i.  441-443 

■ ,  Row,  ii.  132 

Home,  Jolm,  Governor    uf   Bombay, 

1734-39,1.  138;  ii.  377 
,  Bishop  George  of  Norwich  (1730 

-1792),  i.  409 
Horner,  Fr.  (1778-1817),  ii.  48 
Hornigoltl,  Mr.,  i.  379 
Ilonses:  fed  witli  flesh,  i.  fiS  h.  ;  'Wel- 
lington's,  ii.  28;   statue  of  ouc   at 

Elephanta,  ii.  214,  215 
Hotel,  Great  Western,  i.  43G ;  ii.  15, 

42 
Hough,   Jlrs..   ii.   10  h.,   14.  47,  132; 

(lanced  with  Wellington,  133  ;  340 

• ,  Capt.,  ii.  131 

House  property  in  Bonib.iy,  i.  99 
Hove,  Ur.,  i.  109;  ii.  2S9,  291,  295 
Howard,  Edward,  death  of,  i.  159 

,  William,  i.  191 

Howell,  James,  letters  of,  i.  327  n. 
Hulili.  in  Dharwad,  i.  343;  ii.  177.  178 
Hughes,  Admiral  Sir  Edward,  i.  389  ; 

ii.  251 
Hugli  river,  i.  86 ;  ii.  07,  344 
Iliilid  or  liuqqd, — Indian  pipe  for  smok- 
ing through  water,  i.  135,  414;  ii. 

40,  lOG 
Huham, — an  order,  i.  55 
Human  sacrifice,  ii.  188 
Humayun,    Mughal    emperor    (1531- 

1539  and  1554-50),  i.  279,  304 
Humboldt,  A.  von,  ii.  60 
linn, — a  coin,  ii.  311 
Hundi, — a  draft,  note  of  exchange,  i. 

62,  381 ;  ii.  308,  381 
HiMit,  Mr.,  i.  166 
Hunter,  Mr.,  i.  440 
,  Cornet,  imprisoned  at  Wasota,  ii. 

165 

,  John,  letter  of,  i.  243 

,  Sir  W.  W.,  ii.  239 

Hunting,  i,  195,  ii.  56,  69,  70 
Iliiri — courtesan,  a  beauty,  i.  286 
Husain  Nizam  Shah  I.,  i.  271  n. 
Hyde,  Capt.,  ii.  .336 
Hvdraulic  lift,  ii.  262 


I. 
Ibex,  i.  40.'] 
Ibrahim  'Adil  Shah  of  Bijapur  (153.5- 

1557),  i.  270;    ii.  276;  Riiuza  of,  i. 

272;  ii.  135,  139,  141,  145:  cost  of. 

188,  253 
Ibn  Batuta,  traveller  (1324-1353),  ii, 

300 
Imam  of  Masket  and  Bonaparte,  i.  460 
Imli — Baobab-tree  (7.  r.),  ii.  263 
Impey,  Sir  E.  (1732-1809),  ii.  343 
India,  area  of,  i.  462  n. 
Indian  Navy,  i.  121 
Indraji,  Pandit  Bhagwaulal,  ii.  206 11. 

235 
Indrayeni  river,  i.  102,  443 
Infanticide,  i.  56,  407  ;  ii.  208,  223, 351 
Inkerman,  battle  of,  ii.  320 
Inkstand  of  Gombrun,  i.  159 
Inquisition  at  Goa,  i.  32 
Insurance  Company,  Bombay,  i.  170 
Interlopers,  i.  7 
Inverarity,  Dr.,  11.  223 
Investiture  of  the  Peshwah,  ii.  188 
Ireland,  Sydney  Smith's  joke  about, 

ii.  352 
Irishmen  in  India,  ii.  :!19 
Iron  in  India,  ii.  146  ». 
Isagarh,  a  fort,  ii.  163,  201,  271 
Isfahan,  i.  317,  322 
Ismaili  sect,  ii.  14 
Itch,  ii.  131).. 
Itmad  Khan,  Governor  of  Ahmadabad, 

i.  293 
Izara, — trousers,  i.  454 


J.\BAL  Till,  )-.  Tir. 

Jackson,  Sir  Chas.,  i.  178 

Jacob,  Gen.  Sir  G.  Le  Grand,  i.  123 

Jacobi,  K.  C.  Archbishop,  ii.  348 

Jacquemont,  Victor   (b.   1801),  i.  183, 

203;  ii.  131,  199,  214,  345,  346,  348 
Jadavrao  of  Maliganw,  ii.  15 
Jadavbai,  Sivaji's  mother,  i.  334 
Jadliejas  of  Kachli,  ii.  354 
Jaffa,  Bonaparte  at,  i.  311 
Jdgir, — assigned  property  in  land,  ii. 

163,  165 


INDEX. 


397 


"Jahanainubnil,"ai)iilitdtoAlimadabail, 

i.  a04 
Jahangir,  Mughal  cmiieror,  1U05-1628  ; 

and  Sir  T.  Koe,  i.  115;  121,  2S9,  2'X>, 

:501-;!07.  311,  317.  :?18.  322;  ii.  31G 
.Jajhpur,  cannibalism  at,  ii.  354 
.JalalaVud.  i.  193 
.Talal  Khan.  i.  28G 
Jalna,  i.  343,  345 ;  ii.  1(J2 
.laliir,  in  I!aj])utana,  i.  209 
Jahwf, — Venetians,  lattices,  ii.  358 
Jtima, — a  long  gown,  i.  4.54 
.(aniadar, — leader  of  a  troop,  ii.  19,  325 
■■  .Jainal  Khan,"  a  Floientinc  lady,  i.454 
.lames.  Commodore  Wm.,  i.  117,  llSn., 

418-422;    monuni<ti,t  to,   423;    428, 

lirst  wife,  ii.  2{jl,  308 ;  llrs.  James,  i. 

418,  419;   Eliza  Draper's  letter  to, 

421  ?i. ;  Mrs.  A.  ««e  Goddard,  423 

of  Padua,  martyr,  1.  15 

.Tarni  Masjid  or  chief  mosque,  Bombay, 

i.  209 
Janjira,  end  the  llabslii  i.  22,  .54,  113, 

ii.  105 
Jardine,  Honble.  J.,  i.  8  n. 
.rats,  ii.  194 
Jawiiri  or  Jauari,  jawdr  (liolcue  sorrj- 

liuni), — largo  mallet,  i.  293,  348;  ii. 

139,  142 
Jauhai; — the  putting  to  death  of  women 

and  children  to  prevent  their  falling 

into  the  enemy's  hand^,  i.  281,  285, 

303 ;  ii.  208,  354 
.Inuli  Raja's  murder,  i.  342,  3G3,  3C8 
Jaunpur,  i.  289 
.lava,  i.  10 

.Taypur-jjainting,  i.  305 
.la'yasing  of  Amber  (I(i25-1CGS).  i.  3(!n. 

301,  304,  370 
.It  ll'rcy,  Lord,  ii.  48 
.leil'reys,  Archdeacon,  i.  188;  ii.  110 
.Icjeebhoy,  !Sir  Jamsetjee,  i.  197,  198 
.lejnri,  ii.  21  h.,  17(j 
.lelial.  ii.  20 

.J(nl;in.^on,  Miu,  i.  117;  ii.  310 
.Icrusalum.  i.  317 
.Icrvis,  Major,  i.  210 

,  Mr.,  i.  440 

Jewsbury,  Miss  Maria  .1.,  i.  ISO  n..  201 ; 
,  Gcraldine,  ibid. 


Jhansi.  ii.  120; 

Jliaroliha-i-dartan, — audience  window, 

ii.  175 
./A i7nu7«,— lattices,  ii.  214 
Jiddah,  port  of  Mecca,  i.  173,  ii.  2()5  ii. 
Jinji,  see  Ginjce 
.Todhpur,  i.  291 
Jogi:  Hindu  devotee,  i.  150-152;    ii. 

26,  234 
Jogeshwari  Caves,  ii.  305 
Johanna  Islands,  ii.  287,  331 
Johnson,   Dr.   !S. ;    opinion   of  life   in 

India,  i.  1 ;  and  Sir  E.  Coote,  8 ;  439, 

ii.  150,  321,  327,  328 
Jones,  Capt.  Paul  (1736-1792),  i.   02, 

117  H. 

Sir  William  (1740-1794),  ii.  :;21, 

331,  344,  350 
Jonson,  Ben  (1.573-1 037),  i.  317. 325-327 
Jordan,  .Airs.  Dorothea  (1702-1810?), 

ii.  237 
Jubal,  Straits  of,  ii.  331 
Jndson,  Kev.  A.,  i.  345,  319 
.Junagadh:  hawks,  i.  309  ;  ii.  300 
Junnar,  Porna  disti'ict,  i.  101  h.;  l''ort, 

335 ;  343,  ii.  IGt,  107,  200,  202,  327 
Juries  in  1825,  i.  190 
.Tnrisdiction,  heritable,  i.  92 
Justice,  i.  345 ». 


K. 

Kabul:  the  w.ir,  i.  193  ;  282,304;  M. 

Elphinstone's  work  on,  ii.  49;  138, 

109 
Kachchha  —  Oyster    Koek,     Bombay 

Harbour,  ii.  200 
Kachcri, — a  court  or  public  office,  i.  406 
Kachh,  a  principality,  i.  90,  179 :    ii- 

354,  355,  300 
A'ac/ifca— inferior,  imreal,  i.  CO,  378 
KaUla,  ii.  189 
Kaikaris:    a  wandering  tribe  of   W. 

India,  ii.  194 
Knilas:  monolithic  temiile  at  Eluni,  ii. 

138,  144,  202-20.5,  208,  217,  273 
Kajan — palmyra  palm  leaf  rooting,  i. 

48 
Kaladgi,  district,  ii.  119 


398 


IXDEX. 


Kdhi-pdiil, — the  occim.'tlie  dark  wutcr.' 

i.  !l,  2S.  8r):!;  ii.  i:!0 
Kal!isa1)ai  liill,  i.  :!:!:! 
Kalbailfvi.  district  anil  stntt  in  Bom- 
bay, i.  47 ;  ii.  242 
Kalliavi,  ii.  194 

Kiih', — goddess  of  death,  ii,  o.")ll,  '.)')7 
Kaliujar,  i.  2S7 
Kalka  or  Kalika,  peak  of  Mt.  fiirnar, 

ii,  301 
Kalyan,  i.  24,  :U,".,  ;!4,-)h.:  ii.  149.  189, 

197,  232 :  chiefs,  270.  „  :  29S,  313, 357 
Ka  niarband, — waist  cloth,  girdle,  i.  323 ; 

ii.  101 
Kamargah, — ^bnttue,  i.  290 
Kaniatli.  Earaa,  i.  95 :  ii.  240 
Kambala  Hill.  Itombay.  i.   413.  415, 

440  ».;  ii.  231 
Kauauj,  i.  283 ;  ii.  3.57 
Kangori  fort,  ii.  105 
Ivaugra,  ii.  345 
Kanheri  Bauddha  Caves  iu  Salsette,  i. 

408,450;  ii.  149.  1.50.  199-202.200, 

207,  21.5,  218.  219,  290.  305 
Kanhoji  Angria,i.  llOf.,  115;  atGiria, 

128  ;  descrilied  by  Grose,  148 
Kauind  valley,  ii.  181,  182 
Kantara  :  "tlie  iiassage."  in  Kgypt,  ii. 

332 
Kapra,—c\ot]i,  clothes,  i.  337  ;  ii.  285 
Karachi,  i.  20;  ii.  88-91 
Karanja  island,  i.  40,71, 133.438;  liill. 

442':  ii.  159,  178,  214.  ceded  to  tlie 

English,  209;  282,285 
Karjat,  ii.  190 
Karkaria,  R.  P.,  Iiis  edition  of  Carlylo's 

Lectures,  i.  233  h. 
Karlviin. — a  clerk,  i.  309,  435 
Kilrh  Baiiddlia  <,'aves,  i.  247,  440:  ii. 

20.  200.  201,  208,  21.8.  219 
Karnala  or  Funnel   Hill,  i.  17,   133, 

333 ;  ii.  193 
Karnalic,  Sivaji's  expedition  to,  i.  342, 

343 
Karnul,  on  Krishna  river,  ii.  307 
Karor, — ton  millions,  i.  300 
Karwar:  taken  by  Sivaji,  i,  113;  343, 

ii,  108 
Katiik,  in  Orissa,  i.  338,  309  ;  ii.  352 
Knihii — tale  recited  witli  singing,  ii.  175 


ICatliiawar,  peninsular  ]iortion  of  Guja- 
rat, i.  50,  122  ;  ii.  354.  357.  300 
Katkaris,  an  alxjriginal   tribe,  ii.   277, 

358 
Katraj  Ghat.  ii.  21  ". :  a(|uiduct,  i.  103 
ICaveri  river,  ii.  20  n. 
Kaye,  Sir  J.,  ii.  47;   Life  of  Mnlcolm, 

09;  of^Tetcalfe,  130 
Kcatinge,  Col.  Tlionias,  i.  409  ;i.,  43.5- 

440  :  dream,  440 ;  442 
Keith,  Thomas,  career  of,  i.  180,  181 
Kennedy,  .lohn,  ii,  88 

Sir  Michael,  i.  170 

. Mrs.,  of  Benares,  i.  170;  ii.  340 

Vans,  i.  173,  ii.  310 

Iverbela,  ii.  17  n. 
Kerr.  Mr.,  at  Gombrun,  i.  100 
A7(a/io;',news,  information,!. 294;  ii.  50 
"Khabardar." — Take  care,  ii.  100 
Khadalcwasla.    near   Poona,  i.   338  i>. ; 

ii.  109,  181 
Khandari  or  Khencry  Island,  q.  r. 
Khadki  or  Khirki,  q.  v. 
Khafi  Khan,  Muhammadan  historian: 

mission  to  Bombay,  i.  58,  59 ;  333, 

345,  356, 301,  302  :  ii.  138,  170  n.,  209 
Khaira  or  Kheda,  ii.  90,  101 
Khalifs :    tombs    at    Cairo,    ii.    143; 

Patemite.  .312 
Klialsa.  i.  357 
Klian  .Jahan  Lodi,  i.  313 
Khandala,  i.  102  ;  ghat.  110 ;  battle  at, 

125  ;  hills,  1.33  ;   190,  444  ;  ii.  11,  12, 

pass.  190;   191,  190.  209,  297 
Khopawli,  "Campoli."  i.  103.  442;  ii. 

297 
Khartum,  ii.  104,  349 
KIwtixit. — intrigue,  corruption,  ii.  102 
Khelat.  ii.  102 
Khencry  or  Khandari  Island,  i.  17,  55. 

71. 113  ;  taken,  124  ;  120,  133,  ii.  239, 

200 
Khera  Ghat.  ii.  C7,  73 
Khichri. — rice  and  diil  boiled  together 

with  spices,  ii.  38 
Kliihd,  dress  of  honour,  i.  284,  452,  472 
Khirki,  Khadki,  near  Poona,  i.  105, 108, 

444.451,453;  ii.  15;   battle.  55,  57 ; 

308  n. 
Khorasan,  i.  280,  292,  334  ;  ii.  203 


IKDEX. 


WJ 


Khot — a  rovemio  coutiactoi-,  i.  12S 

Kliuilawand  Kliaii.  i.  29S 

Khutbah, — the  Muslim  public  piayci-. 
i.  293 

KiiKl,  Capt.,  a  pirato,  i.  120 

Kiegwin's  rebellion,  i.  HO.  51  ». ;   ii.  37(> 

Ki.-r.  Sir  William  G.,  i.  2U3.  20S 

Kiuriiu»dcr,Eev.  Jobn  Z.  (1711-1799), 
ii.  :;i3.  344,  349 

Ivillailar, — governor  of  a  fort,  ii.  U5,  V.y.'>. 
32G 

Kinkab,  lunMirah. — brocade,  ii.  IjI 

King,  Mrd..  of  Anjengo,  i.  ISli 

Kinglako's  account  of  Bonaparte  at 
Suez,  i.  461 

Kirkpatrick,  Col.,  ii.  12S;  at  Plasscy, 
240  H. 

Kishma  Island,  I'orsiau  Gulf,  i.  IGG 

Ju((is, — mountain  cow,  i.  34o  ii. 

Knight,  Iiobert,  i.  253 

Kohinur  diamond,  ii.  2S4,  307 

Kolaba  Island,  i.  10,  17,  21,  4U,  GO; 
causeway,  67,  189  ;  69,  74,  93,  142  ; 
church,  17S  ;  prongs,  193, 455 ;  light- 
house, 3l3)i.,  394,  ii.  259,  2G0;  126, 
241;  churchyard,  260;  261,  point, 
26G,  282;  review  at,  in  1771.  i.  434, 435 

Kolapiir  rajas,  ii.  180 

Kokrun  river,  i.  108 

Koli  or  Dliangur  tribe,  i.  24 

Kolis  of  Salsette.  i.  171 

Konkan,  i.  129  f.,  333 

Kordofan.  ii.  315 

Koriguuni.  i.  445;  ii.  133 

Korli,  ii.  255,  258 

Ivorosko,  ii.  272  h. 

Kobir  on  the  Ited  Sea,  i.  173;  ii.  331  n. 

Kotligarh  fort,  i.  116  ;  ii.  193 

Kotwal,--a  police  ollicer,  i.  3G7,  ii.  194, 
195  k. 

Krapf,  Mr.,  ii.  333  n. 

Krishna  river,  i.  102,  275;  ii.  164»(., 
200,  277,  279,  307-309 

Krishnailcva  of  Vijayanagar  (1509-30), 
ii.  305,  307 

Ktosias,  ii.  355 

Kulaba,  Augria's,  i.  17,  111,  113,  124- 
120,133;  ii.  255,  257 

Kulambis,  Kunbis, — cultivators,  i.  85, 
128 


Kntli  or  Qutb  Shalii.  Golkoiida  dynasty 

(1512-1G72),  i.  36G 
Kyd.  ( 'apt.,  a  pirate,  i.  384  H. 

I.. 

L..\LED.E.MO.N.  ii.   12G 

Lad  Melika,  i.  28G 

Labor,  i.  290.  307.  317.  322.  323 

Lake.  Gerard.   A'iscouut   (1744-1808), 

ii.  17.  340.  341.  350 
Lally,  Thomas  A.  (1702-1766),  ii.  325, 

328 
Lanawli,  i.  102,  IIG.  ii.  20U 
Lang,  And.,  story  of  a  ghost,  ii.  366 
liascars. — camp  servants,  sailors,  i.  11 1 
Ladies  iu  1739,  i.  136 
Lauder,  Dr.  J.  Wilson's  birthiilacc,  ii. 

109  li.,  110,  117 
Lauderdale,  Lord,  anecdote  of,  ii.  116  li. 
Law,   Stc])hen,   Governor  of  Bombay 

(1739-42),  ii.  377 
Lawrence,  General,  ii.  17  ii. 
,  Lord  John   L.  M.  (1811-1879), 

ii.  36  H.,  315,  343,  349 
.  Sir  Henry  M.  (1806-1857),  ii.  100, 

101,  108,  347,  :!49 

,  3Iajor,  ii.  329 

,  G.,  ii.  343 

Lebanon,  ii.  100 

Lcitli,  Tyrrcl.  ii.  3.-1:; 

Le-Messurier,  Mr.,  i.  191 

'■  Leper  tree,"  ii.  289 

Leprosy,  ii.  351 

Lessops,  Ferd.  de.  i.  181,  463-16G,  468 

Leslie,  Mr.,  i.  441 

Ijcthnot  parish,  ii.  25 1 

licwis,  C'a])t.  of  P.  &  O.  Co.,  ii.  vi35 

Leyden,    .lohu    (1755-1811),    i.    182; 

lines  on  Assaye,  ii.  127,  310  u.:  346, 

348 
Lindsay,  Capt.  W.  S.,  i.  HI 
,  Admiral    Sir  Johu,  i.  435-4411  ; 

ii.  221,  269,  283,  296 
Linschoten's  i/z'stoii't  dt:  la  Naviyatiun, 

i.  23,  35,  36  ;  ii.  21S 
Lithgow's  Trarcls,  i.  32 
Liverpool,  Lord,  i.  448;  family,  ii.  340 
Livingstone,  Dr.  D.  (1817-1873),  i.  230- 

233,310;  ii.  121.271,  3111 


400 


INDEX. 


I.och,  Mr.  Johu.  ii.  314 

liOcusts.  ii.  27:!,  274 

J.odwiok.  Mr.,  ii.  250 

Logarh  fort,  i.  110;  t;ikeu  by  Angria, 
IIG,  270,  3G1;  ii.  1(J7,  193 

LoDgevity  in  India,  ii.  330  f.;  of 
married  men,  34G 

Longfellow's  lines  applied  to  Bombay 
harbour,  i.  304 

Long  residence  in  India,  ii.  :UH 

Loretto,  i.  IG 

Love  Grove,  Bombay,  i.  189,  ii.  11,  .-)2 

,  AVm.  and  others,  i.  12  >i. 

Low,  Capt.,  at  Amarakauthak,  ii.  3oG 

Lowe,  Sir  Hudson,  i.  174,  4G0 

Lucas,  Sir  Gervase,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, 1666-67,  ii.  375 

Lucknow,  ii.  102 

LushingtoD,  Mr.,  ii.  3,  41 

Litsiad  of  Camoens,  i.  2!t 

Lut,  "loot," — plunder,  ii.  177,  ISO 

Lutilfdla, — a  plunderer,  ii.  G."> 

M. 

M.4B0X,  Richard,  i.  450  m. 

Macao,  i.  54 

Macaulay,  Lord  T.  B.  (ISOO-hSGO), 
i.  1S2,'234».;  Histor>j,iU;  ii.  51, 
93;  Emuy  on  Cllie,  321 ;  331,  346 

BlacBriar,  H.,  i.  3t 

McCluer,  Capt.  J.,  ii.  153;  lii.s  will, 
154 ;  334,  335 

JIacCulloch,  David,  of  Ardwall,  i.  252, 
ii.  117-119 

MacCulloch,  on  Indian  coinage,  ii.  314 

Macdonald,  John,  i.  419  n.;  Travels, 
434  n,,  436  ;  ii.  209, 221,  280,  285-289 

Machi, — a  terrace,  i.  446 

Mackintosh,  Sir  Jas.  (1765-1832),  i.  7, 
42,  49,  101,  102,  109,  130,  153,  154, 
175,  181,  190,  206,  244,  351,  352,391  ; 
opinion  of  Sterne,  425;  ii.  10,  14,  17, 
19;  on  native  government  20;  31  f. ; 
opinion  of  Bombay,  32  ;  early  life, 
33  ;  diary  and  letters,  35  ;  favourite 
authors,  38 ;  sermon,  42  ;  and  Dr. 
Wilson,  44;  and  t'ailyle,  45  h  ;  49, 
50,  67,  69,  86,  97,  107,  122,  134,  135, 
144,  151,  179  jj.,  217-220,  248,  249, 
253,269,297,208,331,  350 


Maeleod,  Dr.  Xorman,  (1812-1872),  i. 

21,  98  n.,  235-239,  ii.  106,  116,  266 

Sir  Donald,  ii.  349 

McMurdo,  General  Sir  W.  Jlonlagu,  i. 

82,83 
Macnaghten,  Sir  Wui.   Ilav,  i.  193,  ii. 

379 
Macueill,  Hector,  i.  436 
Maejihersou,  Gener.al,  i.  180,  ii.  341 

Rev.  Dr.  D..  i.  238,  239 

Macrae,  James,  Governor  of  Madras,  L 

447,  ii.  346 
MaJeira  wine,  ii.  40.  289 
Madhava  Rao,  ii.  284 
Madhavji  Sindia  i.  446,  450-452 
Madras,  ii.  179;  temjilcs,  204 
Magar, — a  crocodile,  ii.  lOU 
Magdala,  il.  113 
,  Lord,  Sir  Robert  Napier,  i.  236 

ii.  122,  314,  350 
Magduri  Saheb,  ii.  213 
Magelhaens  or  Magellan,  i.  5,  29 
Mahabalcshwar,  i.  178,  187,  332,  341, 

ii.  59,  70,  74.  06,  90,  164,  165,  185, 

189,  277 
Mahdbhdratil,  ii.  149 
Mahad  or  Mahar,  i.  112, 

caves,  40S ;  ii.  1,59,  166 
Mahal, — jialace,  ii.  304 
Mahar,  a,  climbs  Raygarh, 
JIabar   girl   built    into    tl 
*,,     Satara,  ii.  188 
JIahi  river  in  Gujarat,  i.  295,  ii.  355 
:Mahim,  i.  10,  17,  24,  37,  48,  iX,  68,  85, 

99,  192,  302,  ii.  37,  213  «.,  282 
JIahmud  or  Muhanimail  'Adil  Shah  of 

Bijapur(1626-1GG0):  his  tomb,  i.  28, 

273,  300  ;   ii.  135,  139,  144-146 
Mahmud  Hijarali   of  Gujarat  (1459- 

1511),  i.  1.52,293,302;  ii,51,23G,  368 
Malimud  III.  of  Gujarat,  i.  304 
JIahnuid  of  Gaziii  (098-1030).  i.  274, 

2.SS,  293,  301.  ;'.H4;  ii.  .58  h. 
Slahmud  Tughlaij  :  eea  Muhammad 
Mahuli,  ii.  137  ».,  100,  191.  276  ?i.,  280, 

281,  287 
Maidan. — esplanade,  plain,  i.  70,  218, 

317 ;  ii.  204 
Maind, — a  species  of  starling,  i.  413 
Mainwaring,  Capt.,  ii.  01 


river,  365; 


337 
walls  of 


INDEX. 


401 


Mairla,  battle  of,  ii.  3il 
Slaiwand.  battle,  i.  142;  ii.  \'27 
Majuba,  ii.  34<J 

Malabar  Hill,  Bombay,  i.  tt),  8.">,  110. 

152;   avenue  of  trees  on,  151;   100, 

195;   Forbes's  view  of,  415;   view 

from,  ii.  26  ;  15S,  230  f. 

Malabar  Point,  i.  174,  223,  336 ;  ii.  236, 

237,  240  n. 
Malabar  itch,  ii.  131  «. 
Malacca,  ii.  151 

Malcolm,  ( jcueral  Sir  John  (1769-1833). 
i.  68  n.,  151;  Persian  Sketches,  Id ; 
181,  187,  195,  246,  252,452;  ii.  17, 
18,  24,  26,  28«.,  31;  his  strength, 
39,  40,  41,  48-50,  57,  59  f.;  dvra, 
59  n. ;  statue,  60,  74 ;  his  mother, 
60-62  ;  portrait,  63 ;  at  Paris,  05, 66 ; 
and  ISaji  Rao.  68;  Uovcinor  of 
Bombay  (1827-1830),  69,  378; 
poems,  70)1.;  retrenchments,  71  f.; 
75,  70,  86,  87,  99,  117,  131,  220,  224, 
237,  289  n.,  318,  350,  368,  370  »».,  378 

,  Lady  and  daughter.-',  ii.  59,  75 

,  Admiral  Sir  Charles  (1782-1851), 

i.  218;  ii.  60  m. 

,  Sir  Peregrine,  ii.  60  w. 

,  Admiral    Sir    I'ulteney   (1758- 

1838),  ii.  60  n. 
Malet.  Sir  Charles  Warre  (1752-1S15), 
i.  127,  166  m.,  190,  397,  400,  447-419, 
452 ;    married   Susan   Wales,  455 ; 
450;  ii.  195,  214,  291 

,  Sir  Alixr.,  i.  455  h.,  456 

,  W.  Arthur,  i.  455 

,  Sir  Kd.  Baldwin,  i.  456 

,  Col.  Geo.  G.,  i.  455,  456 

,  Hugh,  i.  455 

,  Sir  H.  C.  E.,  i.  456 

5Ialik-i-Maidan, — great  gun  at  Bijapur, 

ii.  134, 135 
Malta,  ii.  345 
Malwa,  ii.  354 
Malwau  harbour,  i.  112 
Mamlatdar, — the    head    ofliccr    of    a 

taluka,  ii.  139 
Mamluks,  i.  8,  458 
Manakji  Cursetji,  ii.  14,  26,  29 
Mandlil<,  IJao  Saheb  Vishwaniith  Nii- 
riiyau,  ii.  223  n. 


JIandu,  in  JIalwa,  ii.  357 

Mandvi  Bandar,  i.  216 

^[anrhl:a, — a  temporary  house,  ii.  269, 

288,  292 
Mangalor.  i.  407  ;  ii.  253 
Mango,    fruit,  i   379;    cultivation   iu 

England,  413  and  ii. 
Manranjan,  lower  fort  of  Itajmachi,  ii. 

193 
^[ansah, — a  military  title  and  rank.  i. 

364 
Mantis  religiosa,  i.  406 
Manu,  Laws  of,  ii.  311 
Manvers,  I'<arl,  ii.  2 
Maps  of  Bombay,  i.  145 
Marathas,  i.  42,  83,  86,  275 ;  fear  of, 

378,  444,  445  ;  ii.  127 
Marches,  great,  ii.  22  m. 
JIarco  Polo,  traveller,  13th  cent.  i.  IS, 
64,  329,  373 ;  ii.  149,  234,  285,  300  n. 
Marcus  Aurelius,  ii.  55 
Mardicura, — a  cannibal,  ii.  353-355 
JIaria  Theresa  dollar,  ii.  312 
Mariette,  M.,  ii.  333 
Mariner,  (master),  i.  29 
Marriage-treaty  of  Charles  XL,  i.  41. 87 
Marriott,  Col.,  i.  237 
Marsdin.  Wra.  (17.^54-1836),  ii.  .343 
Marsliman,  Mr.,  ii.  343,  349 
Marston,  (Jencral,  ii.  89  m.,  343 
Martin,  Sir  Ranald,  ii.  343 

Claude,  ii.  343,  345 

Martyn,  Henry  (1781-LS12),  ii.  64,  60, 

346,  348,  350,  370. 
Martyrs  of  Thana,  i.  15  f. 
I   MarutiorIIanuman,Monkpygod,ii.271 
Marwar  Raja,  i.  367  n. 
Masali, — leather  water  bag,  i.  283 
Maskat  or  Muscat,  i.   100,  387-390 ; 

Imam  of,  460,  ii.  338 
Masnad, — throne,  ii.  21 
Slassinissa  of  Libya,  ii.  277  ». 
JIaster,  Sir  Strcynsham,  i.  343  n. 
Bla'sudi,  Arab  traveller,  i.  450 
Masulipatam,  i.  313,  418  n. 
JIatheran  hill,  i.  18,  133,  190,  230,249, 
275  ;    liitight,  276 ;  332 ;  discovered, 
4.55  ;  ii.  28,  99,  162,  170  n.,  192,  193, 
212;  Sanatarium,  267  f. ;   "'points," 
270-273,  298,  368 


402 


IXDEX. 


Mathows.  C.  .1.  (1803-1878).  ii.  347 
Mfithura,  near  Agra,  i.  3G9,  370 
Matunga,  i.  178;  ii.  IGO,  282 
"  Mauritius," — u  ship,  i.  38 
Mawali.-s, — natives  of  tlio  W.  Ghats,  i. 

105.  339;  ii.  170,  ISO 
Mayo,  Lord  (1822-1872),  ii.  120,  344, 

345,  340 
Mayor's  Court  in  Uoiubay,  i.  100 
Mazagon.  i.  48,  (j8,  84  h.,  8i;,  01.143, 

145,  180,  102;  ii.  214,  234 
Mecca:  black  stone,  ii.  20)i.;  jugeous. 

141 
Medinali,  i.  ISO 
Medow.s,  JIajor  General  Sir  William, 

Governor    of   Bombay   (1788-1700), 

and  of  Madras,  i.GGii.,  142;  ii  1-8, 

343,  377 

Street,  Bombay,  i.  142 ;  ii.  1 

Melly,  3Ir.,  his  grave,  ii.  272  n. 
Melville,  Lord,  i.  243 ;  ii.  344 

,  Henry,  ii.  275 

Mcmnon,  ii.  303 

Jlendliam,  Tholuas,  i.  <j~ 

Mendliam's  point,  and  burying  ground, 

i.  SO,   135,  13811.,  142,  143,  43j;  ii. 

236,  251 
Merchants  and  tlieir  share  in  colonizing, 

i.  G  ;  liberality,  ii.  215 
"Messman,"  ii.  158 
Mcstici,  mestizoes, — half-breedg,i.  28/i., 

35 
Metcalfe,  Sir  Ch.  T.  (1785-1S4G);  ii. 

71  n.,  343,  34G 
Mewar,  ii.  101 
Miyani  or  Miani,  battle  in  Sind,  i.  103, 

411;  ii.  78,80,  80  k.,  342 
Microscope,  Jas.  Forbes's,  i.  40G 
Middliton,  Bishop  (17G9-1S22),  ii.  348 
Mignon.  Capt.,  i.  338  n. 
Milil)ar-i-MahaIl,  at  Bijapui-,  i.  273 
Mihmh, — qibla  or  apse  in  a  mosque,  i. 

353 
Mill,  James  (1773-183U),  i.  42 

■ ,  John  Stuart  (180G-1S73),  i.  13 

Miller,  Hugh  (1802-1S5(;),  ii.  332 
Milman,  liisho]!,  ii.  348 
Milton,  quoted,  ii.  371 
Blinchin,  Capt.,  i.  370 
Mint,  i.  74 


374, 


8.  ii. 


Miraj,  ii.  10.  21  >i. 

Jliraf,  near  Dehli,  i.  442 

Mirta,  i.  201,  200 

Mirza  Blosim's  Garden.  Sural,  i. 

380 
jNIirzas  of  Gujarat,  i.  203-300 
Missionaries,  the  first,  ii.  248  ji. 
Mitchell,  Rev.  James,  i.  180 
Mocha  or  Mokha,  i.  58  :  shoal,  i. 

335 
Jlodi  Bay,  Bombay,  i.  130 
Jfodi-Ghandi.  Tower  of  Silence,  i.  31  n. 
Modi-Kliana  Street,  Bombay,  i.  07, 141, 

142 
Jlograbcya,  ii.  338 

Moliar, — a  gold  coin  worth  32  sli.,  ii.  310 
Jlokasi, — farmer  of  a  part  of  village 

revenue,  i.  300 
Molesworth.  J.  T.,  ii.  343 
Mominabad,  ii.  24  «. 
Monaco,  i.  22 
Money,  Robt.,  ii.  K'.l 

,\\.  X.,  ii.  41 

:\[onolithic  temples,  ii.  202,  203 
ilonsoon,  burst  of  the,  ii.  160-171 
Montalembert,  Count  (1777-1831),  i.  5, 

393,  305,  414 
Montpezir,  in  Salscfte,  ii.  102  «..  214 
Moutriou,  Mr.,  i.  101 
"Moodies."  1.  376 
Bloor's  Uiitclu  ratithemi.  i.  178  :  ii.  232. 

235 
Moore's  bastion,  Bombay,  i.  21(j 
Moore,  Sir  John,  i.  400 

,  Henry,  ii.  250 

]i[ordcclnno:  cholera,  i.  137 

JMoresby,  Capt.  ii.  335 

Morland,  Capt.  Sir  H.,  i.  30 ;   ii.  204, 

205,  330 
Mornington,  1st  Earl  of,  ii.  30 

,  4th  Earl  of,  ii.  52  n. 

Sloro  liaghunath,  ii.  73 

Pandit,  ii.  172 

Monison,  Cornet,  imprisonment,  ii.  165 

Moses'  Wells,  near  Suez,  ii.  330 

Jlosquitoes,  ii.  280 

Slostyu,  Mr.,  i.  441 

Mosul  on  the  Tigris,  i.  317 

"  Jloti  Bawriyah  "  :  pet  name  of  Zeib- 

iin-Nisa  (ly.  >:),  i.  336 


ISDEX. 


403 


Mudki,  battle  of,  i.  193 

:Muhiimmaa,  ii.  141 ;  his  coffin,  ii.  233 

Miihammua  All  of  K^j-pt  (1S11-1S4S), 

i.  180,  334,  341  :  ii.  S.") 
Mnliamiuail    Shah    Bahmani    (1358- 

137.')),  anecdote  of,  ii.  308 
Muhaminail  Bi;,'arah,  set  JIahmud  B. 
Jfiihammad     bin     Tu;,'hlnq,    emperor 

(13i.")  1351),  i.  304,  ii..'Jl,:ii;i);  issued 

currency  notes,  ii.  310 
Muharram, — JIusalmau  Fast  in,  1857, 

i.  20'J  :  ii.  200 
Muhiabad, — Poena,  i.  104  )i. 
Mnhin  al-Mulk,  rrinee,  i.  104  )i. 
Jlii'in  ad-din  Cliisliti,  i.  280 
Mukblis  Khan.  i.  3(il 
Alultan,  i.  317  ;  ii.  317 
Mumbadevi   temple,  Bombay,  i.  224 ; 

ii.  23G 
Mumbai :  vemacuhir  name  of  Bombay, 

1.302 
Mumm, — a  sort  of  beer,  i.  378 
ilumtnz  JIahal,  wile  of  Shah-jalian,  i. 

310-313  ;  her  tomb,  the  Taj,  350 
JIungi  Paitan,  i.  278 
Alunro,  Sir  Thomas  (1761-1827),  i.  251. 

348,    452 ;    ii.    17 «.,    on    IMaratba 

government,  20  n. ;    71 «.,  73  «.,  343, 

344  ;  quoted  347 ;  350,  370 

,  Hector,  i.  430  ». 

Alurad  Khnn,  ii.  UO 
.Alurray,  C.  A.,  ii.  105 

,  Prof.  Ah^x.  (1775-1813).  ii.  219 

-Murahidabad,  ii.  324;  coinage,  312 
Music,  Hindu,  i.  408 ;  death  of,  ii.  17,'i, 

17G 
Musk  rat — sortv;  cacruhfccns,  i.  405 
.Muta  JIula  river  at  Poona,  i.  105,  451, 

453,  ii.  56 
Mutiny  of  18.57,  i.  209  f. ;  ii.  318 
Muzaliar  HI.,  of  Gujarat,  i.  292,  302, 
303 

N. 

"  Nabob,"  i.  5,  8,  13,  246 
Xach — Hindu  dunce,  i.  65 
yachniif — bayaderes,  i.  65 
Nadir  Shall  of  Persia  (1736-1747).  i. 
334,  35s 


Nagar,  v.  Ahmadiingar 

Nagor,  i.  200,  201 

Nagothna,  creek,  ii.  157. 158,  178,  193, 

239,  327 
Naik, — a  corporal,  a  police  constable, 

ii.  101 
Nakoda  or  Nakhuda, — captain  of   a. 

ship,  ii.  2S5.  286 
Nakhus.  Jabal:  Bell  Mountain,  near 

Tor.  ii.  332 
Nala — stream,  river-bed.  ii.  1.58,  160, 

304 
Naldurg,  ii.  IIH 

Nana  Fadnavis.  properly  Balaji   Ja- 

nnrdan,  prime    minister  at  Poona, 

d.  1800,  i.  103.  127.  435.  445.  448- 

453;  ii.  12.  194 

Nana    Sahib.    Uhundu    Pant    (1820- 

18i;i?)i.  209;  ii.  28  n. 
Nandi,  the  bull  of  Siva.  ii.  153.  179  n. 
Naoroji  I'aistainji  in  England,  i.  148 
Napier,  General  Sir  C.  J.,   i.   186  h., 
193,195,299.340,  341,346,380,411  ; 
ii.  17,  G9,77f. ;  birth,78;  character, 
711-81 ;    bust,  84 ;    beneficence,  85, 
86 ;    poetry,  87  ;  Volunteer    move- 
ment, 92  ;  letter  of.  94  n. ;  108,  133, 
249.  330.  343.  316,  349 

, Sir  AVm.,  Jlist.nJ' Piniimtlar  ICai-, 

ii.  87 

of  Mcrchiston.  ii.  92  n. 

,  Sir  Robert,  Lord  Magdala  (q.  v.) 

.  Mark,  i.  331 

Napoleon,  v.  Bonaparte. 
Narasiraha:  monolithic  statue,  ii.  303 
Narayan  Sinai,  Narrun  Sunay,  &c.,  i. 

344,  381 ;  ii.  172 
Narel,  railway  station  for  Matheran, 

i.  116;  ii.  274.276 
Nargileh  :  huqija  or  pipe.  i.  248  ;  ii.  40 
Narniada  river,  ii.  216 
Nasik.  i.  230  ;  famine,  ii.  357 
Nasir  Khan,  a  governor  in  S.AV.  Persia, 

i.  164  71. 
Nasirwanji  Fmnji  Patil,  i.  218,  246; 

ii.  15  H. 
Nasr  Khan  of  Sainbhal,  i.  286 
Native  kindness,  i.  153  n. ;  opinion  of 

■Wellington,  ii.  25 
Nava  Siva:  Hog  Island,  ii.  2ti6 


404 


INDKX. 


Navy,  Indian,  i.  121 

iV(i:r,  '-nuzzur,"— a  present,  i.  281, 300 

Nearchus,  i.  Ill 

Neill,  General  J.  G.  (ISIO-ISJT),  ii. 

344,  3.50 
Nelikota,  barbarities  at,  ii.  325 
Nelson,  Lord  II.  (17.i8-lS05),  i.  102; 

ill  Bombay,  387  f.,  403;    ii.   17,  18, 

249,  251 ;  "his  brother,  1.  391,  ii.  43 
Nopal  Sanskrit  literatnre,  ii.  343  n. 
Nepean,  Sir  Evan,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay,  1S12-1S19;  ii.  52,  .5.">,  225,  230. 

37S 
Nestorians.  i.  IG  u. 
Newbould,  Capt.  (d.  1850),  ii.  304 
Nicholson,  General  John  (1.S21-1857); 

ii.  344,  348 
Nicot,  John,    from  whom   nicotine  is 

named,  i.  37  n. 
Niebuhr,  C'arsten  (1733-1815),  i.   19, 

135,  130,144-147.  152  ».,  153«.,223: 

his  Arahie,  408 ;  430  ».,  470 ;  ii.  21 1, 

220,  201,  331 
Nightingale,,  I.ady,  i.  173;  ii.  225 
Nikitin,  Russian  traveller,  i.  101  n. ;  ii. 

199 
Nile,  battle  of  the,  i.  391,  400  ;  ii.  148 
Nima  Parak,  treaty  with,  i.  383  n. 
Nipon,  Japan,  ii.  2.58,  345 
Nira  river,  i.  105.  358,  .305 ;  ii.  170 
Nizams  of  Haidarabad,  i.  22  ;  ancestor 

of,  358  ;  ii.  130,  137 
Nizum  iil-Miillc,  ii.  341 
Nonparel,  residence  of  Sir  .John  Jlal- 

colm,  ii.  50,  05 
Norman,  General,  i.  1  ;  ii.  8  n. 
Norris,  Sir  AVilliam,  i.  00,  121,  358 
North,  Lord,  ii.  52  n. 
Note  circulation,  i.  377  and  n. 
Nur  Jahan  or  Nur  Mahal  (1011-1045), 

wife  of  Jahaugir,  i.  280,   305,  307. 
311,  310,  328. 

O. 

0.\RTs, — orchards,  i.  SO 

Ochterlony,  Gen.  Sir  D.  (1758-1824), 

ii.  343-340 
Odcombe,  birthiilace  of  Coryat,  i.  319- 

321 


"  Offgoons  "  for  Afghans,  i.  100 

Ogilby's  AtJas,  i.  273 

Ogres,  ii.  351,  357 

Oman,  in  Arabia,  ii.  338 

Omar's  Mosque  at  Jerusalem,  ii.  141, 
145 

Onor, — Honawar,  q.  v. 

Oomercarry:  Umarkadi,  in  Bombay, 
i.  440 

Ophir.  gold  of,  i.  13.  10,  19-21. 

Opie.  Amelia  (1709-1853),  ii.  10. 

Opium,  i.  35  «. 

Orderio,  Fransisean  friar,  i.  15,  10 

Oriental  Bank,  i.  142,  190 

Oriental  Mtmoirs  o(  Jas.  Forbes,  i.  390, 
408 

Oriental  Christian  Spectator,  ii,  330 

Orisea  famine,  ii.  357 

Orme,  Robert  (1728-1801),  i.  130,  308, 
414;  b.  at  Anjengo,  417;  ii.  120, 
173;  hhmslory,-2i0n.;  320  f.;  dif- 
ference with  Clive,  324 ;  geograpliicnl 
infoimation,  327 ;  wise  saws,  328, 
329 ;  343,  340 

Ormiston,  Geo.,  ii.  241 

Ormuz,  i.  10,  17,  32,  33,  57,  105,  373  ; 
ii.  305 

Oronoco,  ii.  350 

Oscar,  King  of  Sweden,  ii.  341 

Orthography  of  the  17th  century,  i.  380 

Oudli,  Nawab  of,  i.  334 

Ouseley,  Sir  Gore  (1709-1844)  ii.  04. 
223  ;  Lady  O.,  38.  40 

. ,  Sir  AVilliam  (1771-1842),  ii.  223 

Outram,  Sir  James  (1803  -  1803),  i. 
108  n.,  196 ;  his  statue,  230  n. ; 
240,  252,  290 ;  ii.  S8,  95 ;  the  Bay- 
ard of  the  East,  95;  shield,  90; 
attack  on  bribery,  98  ;  hunting,  99- 
101 ;  in  Egypt,  102 ;  at  Baioda.  104  ; 
mother,  106  ;  statue,  107  ;  133,  347 

,  Francis,  ii.  100 

Overland  mail,  i.  404  n. ;  route,  i.  184 

Ovington,  i.  81,  145 

Osinden,  Sir  George,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, i.  4,  11,  59,  73,  88  n. ;  of  Deuo, 
114,122,  139,  380,  380;  baronetcy, 
447;  ii.242,  243,  376 

,  Sir  Henrj-,  i.  12  n.,  59,  letter  of, 

114  H.,  168,  170,  176,  177,  335 


INDEX. 


405 


OxiuJen,  Sir  Cliristoplier  and  Sir  James, 

i.  12  (1. 
Oxus  river,  ii.  130 
Oyster  shell,  for  glass,  ii.  253 


Pachad,  village,  i.  363,  365,  370;  ii. 

160,  169 
Padri — a  parson,  i.  375,  370 
Pagoda — a  coin  of  about  8s.,  ii.  311 
Pagrl — a  turban,  ii.  287 
Paisu — copper  coins,  ii.  311 
Pakenhani,  Lady  C,  ii.  9,  1 1 
Palihadi — an  alley,  i.  93  n. 
Palilia — real,  permanent,  i.  fid 
Palasa, — liulea  fromlo«a,  i.  306  ;  ii.  37 
Palestine,  ii.  351 

I'aley's  Kii'leiires,  anecdote  of,  ii.  219  «. 
I'algrave,  W.  G.,  ii.  211  n.,  331 
Pali,  in  Kftjputana,  i.  299 
Palmer,  W.,  of  Hnidarabad,  ii.  130,  137 

John  (d.  1830),  ii.  343 

,  Prof.  K.  H.,  ii.  332,  338 ;  death, 

339 
Palmyra,  ii.  146 

palm,  ii.  294 

Panala,  fort,  i.  246,  358,  361 ;  ii.  102 
I'anchayat — council  of  five,  i.  32, 73  «., 

190 
I'andavas,  mythical  heroes,  ii.  199 
Panipat,  battle  of,  i.  108,  133,  134,  283 
Panjim,  Goa,  ii.  253 
Pankah— fan,  i.  178,  ii.  253  n. 
Pannonia,  ii.  207 

I'auth  (or  chief)  of  Por,  ii.  183,  184 
I'antheon  dome,  i.  28  n. ;  ii.  146 
I'anwcl,  i.  444;  ii.  12,  16,  70,  97,  270 
Parbati,  hill  ai\d  palaceat  Poona,  i.  103, 

108,4.53;  ii.  55 
Panlah — screen  of  the  Zanana,  i.  336 
I'arcl,  (iovcrnmcnt-house,   Pnmbay,  i. 

86  ;  formerly  a  Jesuit  establi.slinient, 

94;    99,  109,   153  «.,   175,  177,  211, 

222  ;  ii.  3,  4,  7,  31,  35,  36,  38,  70,  72, 

90,  237 
I'ar  (ihat,  ii.  105,  209 
Parker,  Mr.,  i.  381  n. 
,  Mary,  ii.  245 


Parsi,  i.  31 ;  first  to  visit  Europe,  148 ; 
177 ;   early  visitors  to  Kanheri,   ii. 
199 
Parsons,  Mr.,  at  Gorabrun,  i.  158.  160, 

166 
,  Abraham,   i.  389,  390,  393;   ii. 

260 
Passage-money  to  India,  i.  402 
Patagonian  cannibals,  ii.  352 
Patalcne  on  the  Indus,  i.  20 
Patcrson,  founder  of  Bank  of  England, 

ii.  350 
Pdtil, — village  headman,  ii.  139,  292 
Patna,  i.  369  ;  ii.  23  n. 
Pattamar— a  lateen-rigged  8hi|>,  i.  438 
Pattaii,  old  capital  of  Gujarat,  i.  292, 

299 
Pattau  Somnath.  in  Kathiawar,  i.  .'i04 
'•  Pattern-room  "  in  Bombay  Castle,  i. 

81,  82,  138,  223 
Patterson,  Mr.,  ii.  286,  287,  296 
Pawan  Chakki — windmill,  i.  218 
Pawangadh,  Hill  fort  at  Champaner, 

1.  295,  314,  443  ii. 
"Peace,"  a  definition  of,  ii.  130 
Peacocks,  ii.  276,  n. 
Peb  01-  Vikatgad,  ii.  270 
■'  Ptccavi,"  ii.  94 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  ii.  87 
Pekiri,  ii.  306 
Pelew  islands,  ii.  335 
Pellew,  Sir  Edward  (1757-1832),  i.  130 
Pelly,  Sir  Lewis  (1825-1892),  i.  231  n. 
Pen,  Orme's  mistake  as  to,  ii.  327 
I'emiu,  OT  pension,  same  aa/oran,  i.  89, 

98 
People,  freedom  of  the— under  British 

rule,  i.   3,  4 ;   condition   under  the 

Maratlias,  407,  ii.  18,  19,  194 
Pepper,  ii.  244 

Perani,  i.-jland  near  Gngo,  i.  120 
Percival.  Mr.,  at  (iombran,  i.  157,  166 

,  S;dly,  ii.  2S8 

I'erim  island,  in  Straits  of  Babelman- 

dcb,  ii.  334 
rerijdus  of  the  Erijtlirxan  Sea,  ii.  326 
IVrrins,  Capt.,  P.  &  O.  service,  ii.  336 
Perron,  5L,  i.  454 
Perry,   Sir  Erskine,  i.  88  n.,  191  ;  ii. 

117,  250 


406 


INDEX. 


Persian  Gulf,  i.  157 

•  ambassador  shot,  ii.  17 

I'erthsliire,  bansalow  in,  i.  -1 1 1 

Peshawar,  ii.  '2'.j  «.,  130 

Peshwali,  iiriiuo  ministers  of  the  Ma- 

ratha    )<ingdom;    condition   of    the 

])copIe  iinder  tliem,  i.  "> ;  22,  103 ; 

character   of,    108;   127,    134,   250; 

Baji  Kao   invested  by  Sindia,  451, 

452;  their  government,  ii.  19;   172, 

357 
Pcsth,  ill  Hungary,  ii.  124 
Petaji  Pandit,  ii.  176 
Peter  of  Siena,  i.  15 
Peth — grange.i  a  market,    ii.   KM,  181, 

182 
Petit,  Mr.,  fate  of,  i.  123 
Petra,  ii.  124.  304 
Pettiili, — a  suburb,  ii.  191 
Pliakray.  Mauaji,  ii.  194 
Pliayre,  Genera],  ii.  342,  343 
Pliilostratus,  ii.  355 
Pliipps,   Wni.,    Governor   of   Bombay 

(1720-1728),  i.  137;  ii.  377 
Piece  goods  transaction  ■with  Sivaji,  ii. 

177 
Pigmies,  i.  138 
Pimble,   (General,  his  order.  221,  2S2, 

283 
Pindaris, — freebooters,  i.  52,  lOG,  247 
Pineapple,  i.  306 
Pipal  tree,— jicm  reJirtiosa,  ii.  234 
Pir — Muslim  devotee,  i.  353 
Pirates,  i.  113;  suppressed,  121  ;  coast, 

ii.  217 
Pisliamatli  temple,  Jlatheran.  ii.  275 
Pithoni,  Egypt,  i.  457  n. 
Pitt,  AVilliam  (1053-1726),  Governor  of 

Madras,  i.  447,  448 
Plague,  i.  316 
Plassoy,  battle  of,  i.  34S  »i. ;  ii.  1.  23  »., 

37,  i33,  249,  320,  327 
Pliny,  ii.  313,  353 
I'ocncke's  description  of  Suez,  i.  459 
Poison  antidote,  i.  55 
Police  of  Bombay,  i.  192 
Polignac,  Prince  de,  ii.  368  n. 
Pollexfen,  Mr.,  ii.  250 
Pollock,  General,  ii.  343 
Pompeii,  ii.  309 


Pompey's  pillar,  i.  240  n 
Pompbret, — a  tish,  i.  08 
Ponciana  regia,  ii.  37  ii. 
Pondichery,  ii.  324,  :;2S 
Poona :  called  Jluhiabad.  i.  101  ii. ;  10,"), 
107,  110,  133;  ii.  21  and  »i.,22,  281; 
raid  on,  in  1063,338  ;  350,  443;  and 
the  Blalet.s  447  f..  451-454;  ii.  105- 
107,   181,   182,   185,    189,   194,    195, 
200 
Pope  Pius  IX.  and  Sir  .1.  Outraiu.  ii. 

103 
Population  of  Bombav,  i.  90  )i.,   100, 

102 
Porter,  Ii.  C.  Arelibisho]i,  ii.  349 
Port  Siiid,  ii.  330 
Port  Trust  of  Bombay,  92,  93  n. 
Portuguese  settlers  :  descendants  of,  i. 
() ;  in  India,  29,  377, 378 ;  and  slaves, 
407;    dominion,  ii.    147;    churclies, 
149 ;    claims,   1.55  ;    inscription    at 
Chaul,  258,  259 
Porus.  ii.  200 

Post-oflicc,  Bombay,  i.  219. 
Potato,  introduced  into  Persia,  i.  187 
Pottinger,  Sir  Henry  (1789-1856),  ii. 

346,  348 
Prablml   hill   near  JIatheran,  i.    133, 

332,  442  ;  ii.  193,  270 
Pratapgarh,   hill  fort  near  Jlaliabal- 
eshwar,  i.  .3,35.  341 ;  ii.  103,  16.5, 189, 
290 
Premchand  liaicliaud,   i.    412   ». ;    ii. 

110  ji. 
Prendergast,  ('apt.,  ii.  350 
Presbyterians,  ii.  24S 
Prongs  lighthouse,  Bombay,  ii.  25:i 
Prother,   General,   takes   Itaygarli,  ii. 

161,  180;   194 
Ptolemy  Philadclphus,  i.  l.-^l 

tlie  geographer,  ii.  149,  201,  294 

Puja  or  "pooja" — worsbiji,  ii.  309 
PuUa.— fish,  i.  393 
PuUietate,  Paliport,  i.  167  h. 
Punch, — Bombay  drink,  i.  55,  70,  379; 

ii,  171  «.,  247  K. 
Flinch   and   Lord  Brougham,  i.  456  ; 

and  Xapier,  ii.  90 
Pankalis,  ii.  253  ;i.,  see  Pankah 
I'urandhar,   i.  82  n.,   103,   105,  340; 


INDEX. 


407 


treaty,  343,  SCO;  .'570,  ii.  :.3,  ](!7,  176. 

17!),  185. 
Piinin  'MM.  Governor  ol'Kn.siii,  i.  2S") 
I'urchas,  i.  32!» 
I'usilippo,  ii.  237 

I'yke's  account  of  Elcphanta,  ii.  1  !>0. 21o 
Pyrar<l,  Fr.,  ii.  I."i6 


Q. 

Qandahar,  iu  Afglinuistan.  i.  ."17 

battle,  ii.  2G,  12S 
Qolzum,  ou  the  Red  Sea,  i.  l.'ii) ; 
Q'ir'Oi,  i-  3(;s  ;  ii.  308 
ijuett.i.  in  Bulucliist.in,  ii.  102,  3 
(iutb  ."Minar  at  Dulili.  i.  ;!tJl 
Qutb-uil-ilin,   of  (injavat,   H.")l- 

i.  302 
Qutb  Rao  of  Mahim,  i.  302 


,  3,-)7 ; 
ii.  337 
41 


]{. 

Ra'j;Iioba  Gailcwur's  arniv,  i.  347;  ii. 

240  H. 
Raglumalh  Rao,  Peshwali.  i.  ll)|l, 

407,441,442 
Ragbuji  Angria,  i.  12.') 
Kaichor,  ii.  14(1 
Hallway  to  Bombay,  i.  inS 
Rairi  fort,  or  Raygarh  (7.  r.)  i.  1 1:; 
Raisin,  i.  284 

R.ijabai  tower,  Bombay,  ii.  24."> 
Rajaniahal,  ii.  23  n. 
Ifajapur:  bridge,  i.  128;    343,  ii.   177, 

178 
Rajgarb,  i.  10."i ;  ii.  101,  lir)-l(J7,  181 
Kiijkot  Kafliiawar,  ii.  'M 
Rajniachi  fort,  i.  IIC,  1.33;  ii.  l.->7f.; 

takoiibySivaji,  ISO;  I'JO  ;  ascent  of, 

102,  103;  taken  by  Col.  Prother,  104 
Rajpipli  liills,  i.  401! 
Uajpntni's  idea  of  bravery,  ii.  1.3o  n. 
Itakigli,  Sir  W.  (1.-|.52-H;i8),  i.  324,  325 
liania, — a  god,  i.  306;  ii.  304 
lianiaji   I'uut,  governor  of  Tliana  in, 

1770,  ii,  285 
Rama  Karaatbi,  i.  04,  05  11.,  384  «. 
Ramaswami   (for    Hindu)    temple,   iL 

160,  182 


i.  317 


J41 


Ttamnijana,  ii.  176,  3.53 

Rambagb  at  JIatbor«n,  ii.  28 

Ram  Raja  of  Vijayanagar  (1552-1564), 

ii.  303,  308 
Ramsay,  Andrew,  acting  governor  of 

Bombay,  1788,  i.  436,  440;  ii.  284, 

206,  .377 

Sir  H.,  ii.  342,  343 

— —  Dean,  ii,  284 

Ramsden,  Mr.,  i.  170 

Rara  Sing  of  Amber  (1668),  i.  361, 

364-366 
Ramusi, — night  watchman, 

294 
Ranclifl'e,  Baron,  i.  118  u. 
Randall  Lodge,  i.  440 
Ran  jit  Singh,  1805-1830,  ii. 
Rasalgarh  near  Maliabaleshwar,  i.  123 
Rashtrakuta  djma.sty,  ii.  200 
R.atnagiri,  di.strict,  i.  ,3,  127;  ii.  68 
Ratnavali,  wife  of  I'uran  Mali,  i.  285 
Rauza  at  Bijapur.  i;  270.  ii.  i:;."),  137, 

139.  141,  14.-),  188,  2.-)3 
near  Elura,  author's  ghost  story, 

ii.  367 
Rawlinson,  Sir  H.,  ii.  314 
Raygai-b,  or  Raivi,  Sivaji's  capital,  i. 

,58.  113,  133,  140,  280,"  333-337,  341, 

344.  34.5.  350,  ?>:,7,,  361-370,381,437, 

4G7  ». ;  ii.  130, 1.57,  160;  (aken,  161  ; 

described,  162,  164;  buildings,  165; 

106-172,  177,  178,  184, 180,  192, 193, 

271,  206,  327 
Raynal,  Abbe',  i.  416,  417,  132 
llaza'i. — quilt,  ii.  285 
Raziya  Sultanah,  i.  276 
Rua,  Ale.w.,  ii.  307 
Reay,  Donald  James,  Lord,  governor  of 

Bombay,   188.5-1800,  i.  .31 6,  n.;    ii. 

ISO  n.,  380 
Red  Sea,  ii.  .330  f. ;  deptlis  of,  332 ; 

colours  of,  337 
Iteriar, — black  cotton  soil,  i.  20 
Keid,  Lestock  Robert,  acting-governor 

of  Bombay,  1846-47,  ii.  379 
Remington  &  t"o.,  i.  9, 168, 160, 221,  244 
Rennell,    Major    James  (1742-1830); 

map  of  India,  i.  4.50;  ii.  216,  343 
Reva  fort,  i.  145 
Revenue,  land,  i.  97  11. 


408 


INDEX. 


Meynole, — a  griffiu,  i.  20 

Reynolds,   Sir    J.  :    portrait   of   Miss 

Eivett,  ii.  249,  2r)0 
Kioardo,  D.  (1772-1823),  i.  92:  ii.  33, 

34 
Kice,  importation  of,  ii.  17  n. 
Eicli,  Mr.,  ii.  3.5 

Richardson,  Dr.,  i.  437  :  ii.  282  )i. 
liitchic.  8lcuart  &  Co..  ii.  2.10  n. 
Richmond,  Tliomus  R.,  i.  19G 
Rivett,  Mr.,  ii.  2.")3 

,  Miss  Eliza,  i.  106  n. ;  ii.  249 

Camac,  Sir  James,  Governor  of 

Bombay,  i.  160  n. ;  ii.  2.54,  379 

Camac,  Colonel,  ii.  250,  253 

Roberts,  General,  ii.  128 

,  Miss  Emmn,  i.  173,  186  ji. 

Robertson,  Dr.   William   (1721-1793). 

Ancknt  India,  ii.  150,  219,  220,  322 ; 

Hial.  of  America,  ii.  112 
Roe,  Sir  Thomas  (1580-1644),  i.  115, 

305.  300,  .308,  311,  319  n. 
Rohtas  fort,  i.  281,  284 
Rolto,  Tliomas,  Governor  of  Bombay, 

1677-1681,  i.  407  n. ;  ii.  376 
Roman  Catholic  parishes  of  Bombay, 

i.  153  n.;  cathedral,  ii.  242 
Romer,    John,    Acting    Governor    of 

Bombay,  1831,  ii.  378 
Roper,  Sir  Henry,  i.  193 
Rose,  Sir  H.,  Lord  Strathnairn,  ii.  350 
Rosehery,  Lord,  ii.  283 
Royal  Bastion,  Bombay,  i.  144 
Rupee,   ii.    310,    313;   zodiac    rupee?, 

316;  rupee  loans,  i.  409 
Russell,  liord  John,  ii.  103 
Russia,  ii.  318 


Silbarmati,  river,  i.    293,   299;    boar, 

309 
Sack— a  drink,  i.  55,  318 
Sackloth,    "sakluth" — broadcloth,   i. 

59  n. ;  ii.  177 
Sadr  Aditlat,— High  Court,  i.  221 
Sagargarh,  fort   in  Ratnagiri,  i.   125 ; 

cruelties  at,  ii.  189,  255,  270 
Saheb — Sir,  master,  ii.  285 


Sahsaram,  i.  279-281 

Sahu,  Shahu  Raja  or  Sivaji  II.  (1708- 

1749),  i.  330,  337  n..  350 
Sahyadri  hills   or  'Westeru  Ghats,  i. 

102,128;  ii.  279 
Saimur.  an  ancient  port,  Clicmul,  i.  32  ; 

ii.  213 
St.  Germain,  jr.,  i.  8 
St.  John,  Dr..  i.  190 
Sakanir,  Sankheda.  i.  297 
Sakkar  in  Sind,  ii.  SO,  112 
Salaam,  naldm, — "  peace,"  a  salutation, 

i.  365  ' 

Salabat  Khan's  tomb  at  .Vlimadnagar, 

i.  269,  272 
Salanuittah,  Bumbay  harbour,  ii.  206 
Sale,  (icneral  Sir  Robert  (1782-1845), 

ii.  344 
Salsette  island,  i.  40.  87.  90,  133,  389, 

400  n,  4.50  ;  ii.  35,  37,  147,  154,  213, 

220 
Salt,  Henry  (d.  1827),  i.  180,  ii.  41 ;  his 

career.  218;  at  Alexandria,  219;  his 

ghost,  305,  3G6 
Salva^am  or  Salvison,  parish,  Bombay, 

i.  86,  153  n. 
"Salvation  of  India,"  ii.  123 
Samadh  —  self-immolation   by    l)urial 

alive,  ii.  208 
Samarkand  in  Central  Asia,  i.  350 
Sambbaji,  son   of  Sivaji  :   execution. 

August,  1689.  i.   337  ».,  350.  365; 

341,  304,   369;    cruelties,    ii.    108; 

172. 
Samphire,!.  48 h. 
Sanehi  Topes  or  Stupas,  i.  284 
Sandalwood,  i.  467 
Sandy  Bay,  ii.  234 
Sangam,  or  junction  of  two  rivers  at 

Poona,  i.  453, 456 ;  English  re^^dency 

at,  ii.  .57 
Sanganian  pirates,  i.  57,  119 
Sans  Souci  club.  i.  203  f.,  247 
Saras,  Grm  antirjone  or  Indian  crane, 

i.  404,  414 
Saragossa,  ii.  350 
Suri — woman's  wrapper,  i.  305 
Sarkar — government,  ii,  292 
Sarkhel,  sarlihail  — a  leader,  admiral, 

i.  no 


INDEX. 


4()n 


Snrkhcj,  near  Ahmadftbnrl,  i.  302,  408; 

ii.  100 
Sassoon,  David,  i.  194,  198 
Saswiid,  Poona  district,  ii.  21  h. 
Siitara,  i.  IK!.  ISS,  :i50.  3Sri ;    ii.  OG; 

the  la.st  rnja  of,  Ur,;  1G6,  188 
Snii — a  wife  who  immolates  herself  on 
the  liusbimd's  fimoral  pyre,  i.  100  n., 
407  ;  ii.  208,  350 
Saukar — money  lender,  ii.  2ij 
Savitri  river,  i.  437 
Sawantwadi,  small  state,  i.  203 
Sawbridge,  Jlr.,  tortured,  i.  123 
Scares,  ii.  333  ;  scarecrows,  31S 
Scenery,  pleasure  derived  from,  i.  1.53; 

in  the  Konkon,  ii.  197 
Schwartz,  Itev.  C.  F.  (1720-1798),  ii. 

343,  344,  .-UO,  340 
Scotsmen  in  India,  ii.  248.  .349,  350 
Scott,  Dr.  Helenas  (d.  1821),  .inthor  of 
The  Aihcnltirct  of  a  Ttiipee,  i.  170 ; 
ii.  131,1. 

,  .Jonathan,  ii.  343 

,  Slichael,  ii.  274 

,  Sir  Walter  (1771-1S32),  i.  3G0, 

389,  39.". ;  his  novels,  ii.  37 ;  G7,  08, 
7.'in.,  8G,  lie,  lis  «.,  202,  and  Allan 
Cunningham,  344 
Seliandis  (sihliandi) — local  infantry,  i. 

471 
Scbaste,  Herod's  theatre  at,  ii.  303 
Seeker,  Sir.,  at  Gombrnn,  i.  I'lS,  IGO 
Secret  Treaty  uf  Charles  II.,  i.  40 
Secretariat  buildings  at  Bombay,  i.  222 
Scdgcwifke,  Sir.,  I."i8,  1G4 
golden,  .John  (15S4-1054),  i.  319  >i. 
S<]K)ys,  fi'jmhin,  ii.  120 
Sequins, — Venetian  gold  coins,  ii.  184 
Scringapatam,  ii.  C,  7,  128,  307 
Sithona,  said  to  lie  written  by  Cdl.  Dow, 

ii.  283  H. 
Seve,  Colonel,  history  of,  ii.  105 
Sewell,  Sir.,  at  Gombrun,  i.  ICG 
Sliatlwan  rocks,  Kcd  Sea,  i.  4G0 
Shah-Alam,  Ahmndabad,  i.  309,  313 
Shah  Alam,  emperor,  ii.  311,  312 
Shah  IJahmani  (1347-1358),  ii.  275 
Shahi — a  coin  of  about  4/r.,  ii.  311 
Shahjahan,  emperor  (1G28-1G58),  i,  GS, 
104,305-314.  350,  .301,  301,  307  ». ; 


ii.  245;  his  200  gold  mnhnr  piece, 
315 
.S;mi<nn— the  devil,  i.  28;  S.  liahhai— 

devil's  brother,  195,  310,  ii.  88 
.Shakespeare,  i.  319,  320,  327 
Shalloons — cloth,  i,  378 
Sharpin,  Rev.  Mr.,  ii.  254 
Shatiirgardan  pass.  i.  443 
Shaw,  Mr.,  i.  439,  440 
Shayista  Klian,  Amir  ul  Umra,  i.  304 
Shcnvi  paste,  i.  95  n. 
Shcr  Ali,  ii.  349 
Sherbet — a  drink,  i.  G5 
Sherif  of  Mecca  and  Bonaparte,  i.  40(i 
Sher    Shah,  ompej'or   (1541-1554),   i. 
279-282 ;    fir.st    coined    rupees    and 
moliavs,  ii.  310,311 
Shci  ring,  Dr.,  ii.  3G1 
Sliewni,  village,  i.  472 
Shighram — a  closing  carriage   ii.  122. 

132 
Shikar — a  hunter,  hunting  (xhildri), 

ii.  99, 178 
Shikarpnr  in  Sind,  ii.  86 
Ships,  designations  of,  i.  38  ii. ;  builil- 

ing  of,  1 11 ;  ancient,  ii.  332,  3.33 
"  Shipwrecked,''  ii.  39 
Shi|)man,   Sir   Abraham,  gov(Tnor  of 
Bombay,  1002-1004,1.  00,72)i.,  ii..'i75 
Shiraz,  i.  317,  350,  353 ;  wine,  ii.  39, 

280  and  n.    . 
Shirley,   Sir   K.  (1570-1C23),  Persian 

andjassador,  i.  322 
Sholapur,  i.  277,  347, 348 
Shooter's    Hill    monument    to    Com. 

James,  i.  118,422 
Shore,  .John,  sec  Teignnionlli  ' 
Shrivardhan — nppcr  fort  of  Iiajmachi, 

ii.  103 
Shroil",  narriif — money  changer,  i.  254, 
2."i0,  201,  40(;,  407;   K.   I.  Co.'s  in 
(iujarat,  409  f. 
Sidiof  .Jaujira,  i.  51,  ,55,  09,  80, 1].'>,  437 
Sidi  Numan,  story  of,  ii.  258 
Sikandar  Shah  of  Gujarat,  1520,  i.  .303 
Sikandarabad,  ii.  137 
Sikhs,  i.  357 
Sikka  (or  Sicca)  rupee,  i.  0.3,  ii.  311 »., 

312 
Sikrol,  near  Benares,  ii.  340 
2   E 


410 


INDEX. 


Silnhnra  dynastv  in  Wrstern  India,  ii. 

140,  28.-)" 
Silk-cotton  tree,  ii.  37 
Silver,  price  of,  i.  2G2 ;  ii.  317 
Sina  river :  flood  of  l.-)G2,  i.  272  ;  ?AS 
Sinai,  Mt.,  ii.  331,a'^2 
Sind  conquered,  ii.  21'J 
Sindliudvirg  or  JIalwau  fort,  i.  112, 12(i 
Sindia,  ruler  nf  Gwalior,  i.  124;  origin 

of  the  family,  ?,yS ;  ii.  18,  ;!0 
Sin.ccarl),  fort  near  Poona,  i.  101,  103, 
105,338,  .1.30  r.,  342,  .349,  300,  3(J1. 
44.3,  453;  ii.  21  II.,  103  f,,    107.  10!l, 
LSI,  18.5,  1,S9 
Sion  fort  near  Bombay,  i.  00,  f)4,  !)9, 
14.5,  180,  443,  cansoway.  4.S ;  ii.  97, 
109,  203-20.5,  2S2,  :M1 
Siraj  ad  Daulali,  ii.  322. 
Siri  road.  Itomliiiy,  i.  212;  ii.   14,  20, 

131,  233 
Sirnal,  battle  of,  i.  2!li; 
Sirolii.  i.  292,  29{i 
Sirur,  ii.  99  ;  ghost,  300 
Sita,  wife  of  Kama,  ii.  :'i04 
Sivaji,  founder  of  Maratlia  rule  (1027- 
llisO),    i.    3,  30,  32,  54,  5.5,  01,  73  ; 
]iillaged    Surtit,    75;    101-108;    liis 
fleet,  112;    11.5,  117,  127,  i;;3,  149, 
275,  280,  331  f. ;    protended   IJajput 
origin,  334  and  ii.  300 ;  person,  i.  335  ; 
escape    from    Dehli,    337,    33S-34G, 
340  ;    and  Zeib  un-Xisa,  350 ;    357- 
309,  375,  377;  English  mission   to, 
3S1  ;  ii.  20  «.,  07,  78,  130;  his  forts, 
157f.;    wives,    103,    104-180,    188- 
191,  233,  240ii.,  270)1.,  295,  29i;.:!20. 
328,  300,  308 
Sivner  or  Jnnnar  fort,  i.  .335 
Sivri  or  Siwri,  cemetery,  i.  48,  50,  90 
Skanderbeg.  i.  51 

Skanderun,  Levant,  i.  317, 328, 329, 380 
Skinner,  t'harles  15.,  i.  100  u. 

,  Col.  .Tames,  ii.  345 

,  .Tohn,  i.  19G 

Shaves,  i.  407  ;  ii.  154 

Sleenian,  C'cdonel   Sir  AV.   II.   (1788- 

l,s.5G).  ii.  199,  343 
Smith,  Adam    (1723-179(1),    cited,   i. 

114;  ii.  S8  ».,  127,  315,  340,  344  i 
,  Sir  I!am{;.(17SS-IS00).ii.  343   I 


Smith,  .John,  ii.  117 

,  Sir  Lionel,  ii.  99 

,  Mr.,  at  Snrat,  ii.  178 

,  Sydney,  ii.  114  ».,  1 16,  352 

Snalce,  stone,  i.  55  ;  anecdote  of  a,  405; 

ii.  274 
Sobraou,  battle   of.    10    Feb..    1840,  i. 

193 
Social  life  in  liombay,  i.  177 
Soldiers,  ii.  127 

Solomon's  temple,  ii.  104  «.,  30G 
I   Solovet.sk  doves,  ii.  140  n. 
Sommerville,  Countess,  ii.  270  ii. 
Soranath,  temple,  in  Kathiawar.  i.  120, 

304 
Somwar  palace,  I'oona,  i.  103 
Sonapur,  ward  and  cemetery,  lionihay, 
i.  G7,  92,  143  «.,  182,  108,  200.  303. 
394,  404;  ii.  131,  190,  251,  282 
Sung,  by  Th.  Ibjnd,  i.  190 
Sonmiyani  near  Karachi,  ii.  102 
Sorceress  at  Eaygarh,  i.  149 
Sorrento  in  Italy,  ii.  237 
Souter,  Sir  Frank  H.,  i.  220,  252 
Spain,  fat.'  of,  ii.  371 
Spanish   saying,  i.    8 ;    dollar,   i.  259, 

200,  2G7  " 
Speke,  Capt.  J.  H.  (1827-1804),  ii.  .338 
Spencer,  John,  i.  9,  470 ;  ii.  308 
Spenser's  Furry  Queen,  i.  75 
Spirit  of  deer,  goat,  &c.,  i.  135 
Spring,  Blajor,  ii.  222 
Srinagar,  Kashmir,  ii.  341 
Stanley,  H.  M.,  i.  232;  ii.  320 
Stanmore  Hill,  i.  412-414 
Steam  navi.!,'ation.  ii.  42,  33G 
Stci-ue,  Laurence  (1713-1708),  i.  410- 
419,  424,427,  431-433  ;  ii.  2G1,  280; 
Mrs.  S.,  i.  421  «.,  424  ;  Lydia,  422  ii., 
424,  425 
Stewart  of  Ardvoirlieh,  i.  340  n. 
Stewart,  Capt..  killed  4th  Jan.,  1779,  i. 
441,  442,  44G 

,  Sir  John,  ii.  GO 

,  Ch.  K.,  ii.  250 

Stirling,  Scotch  minister,  i.  71  h.,  332 

,  Mr.,  blind  traveller,  ii.  277 

Stoliczka.  Dr.,  ii.  348 
Strahan,  Sir  liiehaid,  i.  171 
Strapado,  ii.  l.")9 


INDEX. 


411 


SImlliiiairii,  Lord,  ii.  'Si'3,  HOO 

StnUl/iu,  (iineral,  i.  172 

Slrojiiii,  Mr.  ii.  838 

Strutt,   Stephen,  acting  Governor  of 

Bombay  (1715-1710),  ii.  377 
Stuart,  Licut.-Gencral,  i.  250,  4G2  ;  ii. 

34;i 
Snckling,  Capt.,    Nelson's    uncle,    i. 

387  n. 
Sudan,  u.  126,  219  ;  tombs,  272n.;  273, 

348 
Suez,  1.  8,  185,  180;  Honaparte  at,  457, 

458,  460;    iu  Arabian  Niijliln,  459; 

situation,  402;  canal,  i.  9,  47,  )S1, 

24.5,  382,  459,  463,  464  ;  ii.  218,332- 

338,  345,  372 
Sulterciu,  Admiral,  i.  243;  ii.  251 
Suicide,  ii.  351 
Siilaiinan  Pa.sha,  ii.  104,  105 
Suii-dial  111  liombay  castle,  i.  139 
Sunsets  iu  the  Red  Sea,  ii.  337 
Sui)a,  ii.  105 
Supara  near  Bassein,  i.  16,  20;  ii.  149  ; 

relics,  132,  200,  219;  215,  294 
Surat,  i.  00  ;  Dutch  tombs  at,  00  ;  293, 

298,  300,  315,  310,  320, 321, 320, 329, 

330  ;  sack  of,  332,  300;  343 ;  in  1077, 

373-370  ;    402,  470  ;     ii.    170-179 ; 

0.\inden's  tomb  at,  243;  245,  313, 

328  :  tombs,  367,  308 
Surrey  Cottage,  Wellington's  residence 

iu  Bombay,  ii.  29,  41 
Sutherland,  Duke  of,  ii.  .50 
Suvarndurg  fort,  on  the  Coast,  i.  113, 

117,  120;  ii.  201 
Swift,  Dean,  ii.  Ill 
Swally  Koads,  i.  818,  325  ;  ii,  308 
•'  Sycee,"  pure  .silver  bullion,  i.  202 
Sydenham,  Mr.,  ii.  18 
Syllabubs,  i.  437,  438 
Symmons,  Mr.,  i.  100 

T. 

Table  Mocntain,  ii.  331 

Tagara,  ii.  201 

'I'alisildar, — native  revenue  ollieer,  ii. 

301,  307 
Taj  Maliall,  lumb  at  Agra,  i.  101 ;  ii. 

253,  288 


Taligaum,  i.  443  ;  ii.  20 

Talikot,  battle  of,  1504,  i.  275  ;  ii.  303, 

305,  307,  308 
Talpurs  of  Sind,  ii.  83 
Talicdr — a  sword,  ii.  171 
Tamerlane,  v.  Timur. 
Tangier,  i.  41 

Tank  Bastion,  Bombay,  i.  139 
Tan.sa,  river  and  valley,  ii.  209,  2SU  f  ; 

Maratha  descent  into,  290  ;  293-295 
Tapti  or  Tapi  river,  i.  101,  437;  ii.  308 
Tara,  i.  271,  ii.  140  ;  M.  Taylor's  I'aro, 

189 
Tarala, — Mackintosh's     residence     in 

Bombay,  i.  109;  ii.  38,  249,  209 
Tarapur,  i.  10 
Tat,  or  taftti, — pony  of  the  Dekliau,  i. 

130  ;  ii.  181,  33.3,  337 
Tate,  Mr.,  a  merchant,  i.  107,  109 
Tavernier,  J.  B.  (li;05-1080),  i.  344 
Taylor,  Meadows  (1808-1870),  i.   130, 

177,  339  ;  ii.  135,  137,  194 

,  Rev.  Joseph  V.,  i.  230 

,   the   water-poet  (1580-1054),   i. 

310 ;  ii.  143 

,  James,  ii.  250  n. 

,  William,  i.  441 ». 

Taxes,  i.  97 

Teheran,  ii.  105 

Teignmouth,  John  Shore,  Lord  (1751- 

1834),  ii.  343,  344 
Telegraph,  first  message,  ii.  304 
Tel-el-Kebir,  battle,  i.  195,  457  «. 
Telichcry,  i.  57?^.,  133,  153?(. 
Temperature  in  India,  i.  3 
Temple,    Sir    Richard,    Goveruiir     cpf 

Bombay  (1877-1880),  i.  100  ii.  ;  ii. 

313,  380 
Tenant,  Dr.,  i.  437 
Terry,  E.,  i.  317,  322,  323 

,  Mr.,  ii.  122 

Thackeray,  ballad  of,  ii.  335 
Thags  or  Thugs — murderers  and  rub- 
bers, i.  7,  108,  450 :  ii.  194,  199,  354 
Thakurdas.  a  shroft",  i.  202 
Thai,  near  Bombay,  i.  18,71, 133,  428; 

ii.  159,  239 
Tliaua,  i.  10 ;  martyrs.  15,  10,  17 ;  OS, 

90  ;  taken,  ;!89,  439  ;  413,  414  n. ;  ii. 

118,    U9,    130,    117,    119,  212,   251, 


412 


INDEX. 


281,    2S3,    -285;    crcuk,    2SU ;    200, 

313 
Tliolifs,  ill  ICgypt,  i.  o5  n. ;  ii.  lUO,  271 
Tliurmoiiylic,  ii.  251 
Thfivenot,  J.  (1633-1UG7),  i.  450;  ii. 

355,  357 
Tlioinas  of  Toloiitino,  i.  15,  lU 
Tliomii.sdii.  AVilliam,  his  caroor,  i.  ISO 
Tljotli,  book  of,  ii.  206  ii. 
'riiiicydidcs,  ii.  323  ». 
Tiberias  and  its  fleas,  i.  45!) 
Tiffin  (ta/an), — lunch,  ii.  151),  ItiO,  287 
Tigers,  i.  406 ;  ii.  101,  213 
Tigro,  king  of,  iu  Abyssinia,  ii.  219 
T'ikona  fort,  ii.  193 
Timnr,  or  Timur-Iang,  Tamerlane,  i. 

22,  301,  322  ;  ii.  51 
Tin-Darwaza,  at  Ahraadabad,  i.  293, 

309,  .".lO 
Tipu  8aheb  (1753-1799),!.  44S:  and 

Bonaparte,  460 ;  ii.  321 
Tir,  Jabal,  volcanic,  ii.  333 
Tobacco,  i.  37,  326 
Tod,    Colonel    James  (17S2-1835),   i. 

291 ;  ii.  341  ;  death  of,  358 ;  359-30] 

,  James,  i.  170 

,  Mr.,  High  Constable,  i.  192 

Toddy,  ludi, — drink  from  the  palm,  ii. 

171  n. 
Toilar  Mall,  i.  297,  298 
Tokat,  in  Turkey,  ii.  38 
'I'ombs  iu  the  Cathedral,  ii.  251 
Tony,  or  doni, — a  small  lx)at,  i.  117 
Topass, — a  soldier,  ii.  129  and  n. 
Tupi, — a  Iiat,  i.  70 
Tor,  on  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  i.  4G0 ;   ii. 

332,  337 
Torna,  hill  fort,  i.  105,  342;  capture  of, 

360;  365,  453 ;  Ii.  50  ».,  130, 161-167, 

171,  181  f.,  185,  192 
Toniucs,  ii.  277 
Torwe,  near  Ijijapur,  i.  272  ;  aijueduct, 

ii.  138,  139 
Towers  of  Silence,  Dukhmas,  i.  31,  70, 

145,  147  ».,  212,  415 
Town  hall,  Bombay,  ii.  72 
Tract  Society  of  Bombay,  ii.  248  /;. 
Trade  profits,  i.  63 
Triiija, — scll'-destructinn  to  eiilcircc  ful- 


Travaiicor,  ii.  138 
Travellers,  ii.  129 
Trawadi    Sliri    Khrishua    Arjiiuji,    a 

shroff,  i.  470  f. 
Treasury  bills,  i.  255-263 
Tree  tax,  i.  97,  98 
Tri!es,    avenue    of    twisted,    i.     154 ; 

wedded,  ii.  293 
Trichinopoly,  ii.  128 
Trimurti,  triad  of  three  gods,  ii.  215, 

235 
Trombay  island,  i.  17,  46,  133;  ii.  21.3, 

215,  282 
Trowbridge,  Capt.  Sir  T.,  ii.  315,  392 
Troy,  i.  317 

Tucker,  H.  St.  George  P.,  i.  172 
Tugh, — horse-tail  standard,  i.  345  n. 
Tuiaji  Angria,  i.  1  IS 
Tulapur,  on  the  Bliima,  i.  59,  104  n., 

337  7!. 
Tulbi  i)lant,— sacred  Basil,  ii.  168,  183 
Tung  fort,  ii.  193 

Tungabhadra  river,  ii.  21  ;/.,  303-305 
Tungar  hill,  ii.  193 
Tm'ner,  Bishop  J.  M.  (d.  1831)  ii.  348 
Tweeddalc,  Jlanjuis,  ii.  34.3 
Tylney,  Karl,  ii.  52  /(. 


U. 

Udati'UK,  i.  305 

Uducy  castle,  ii.  95 ;  village,  OS 

Uijra, — a  name  of  Itudra,  ii.  357  ii. 

Ujjain,  ii.  359 
i   Ulas  river,  at  Kalyan,  i.  116;  ii.  196, 
!       277 
I   Umarkadi,  Oomerearry,  Bombay,  i.  440 

Umichand,  ii.  324 

Hutia-bagh, — lion,  i.  294 

Uran,  i.  24,  133,  247 ;  ii.  OS,  214 ;  de- 
scribed, 262 

Uroti  station,  ii.  21  «. 


V. 

Vada  orAVara,  ii.  287,  293. 
Vaitarna  river,  ii.  281 
Vajrabai  hot  spring,  i.  440;   ii.  269, 
280,  281,  291-298 


INDEX. 


n: 


lo-ii;   .luiv. 


■130 


Valmiki,  rcputcJ  author  of  the  Rama- 

yuiia,  ii.  17G 
Van  Itecd  family,  i.  31G  n. 
Vrtsconccllos,  L.  M.  ile,  i.  45 
Vaupell,  Mr.,  i.  I'JO  n. 

,  Miss,  ii.  225 

Vaux,  Mr.,  i.  i>(>,  GO  ;  ii.  52,  :!GS 
Vegetation,  effects  of  tiopieal,  ii.  lo2 
Vcllard  causeway,  in  liombay.  i.  HO, 

145;  ii.  41 
Vellinghausen,    battle, 

17G1,  i.  438  H. 
Veniee,  ii.  300,  310 
\enkaji,  a  trader,  i.  13S 
Versova,  i.  IG 
Vertomannus,  ii.  141 
Vesuvius,  ii.  237 
Via,  vita,  Veritas,  i.  319 
Victoria  (fort),  Bankot,  i 
Vii^ic,  battle  at,  ii.  7 
Vihar  lake,  ii.  15G.  232 
Vijayanagar.old  Hindu  capital,  i.  274; 

ii.  151,  ].JG,  209  f. ;  site,  301;  water 

supply,  301;  horse  trade,  305 ;  30G- 

308,  320 
Vijayadurg,  or  Giria,  Geriah,  ifcc.,  i. 

113,  lis,  126 
Vikatgadh,  or  Peb,  hill  fort,  ii.  270 
V'imUcix  Galliae,  by  Sir  J.  Maekiu- 

tosh,  ii.  33,  48 
Vingorla,  i.  GG,  127;  ii.  97 
Virginia,  ii.  350 
Vithoba  Swami  temple,  at  Vijayauagar, 

ii.  307 
Vithoji,  brother  of  Holkar,  ii.  57 
Volkonda,  or  Valikondapuram,  defeat 

at,  u.  128 
Volney,  i.  8 ;  ii.  20G 
Volunteers,  ii.  127 


\V. 

Wagusakii— steel  tiger's  claws,  i.  341 ; 
ii.  181 

Waghorn,  Lieut  Thomas  (1800-1830), 
i.  8,  IGI,  181 ;  ii.  346,  349,  4G4-469 

Wai,  ii.  70 

Waikonda,  ii.  326 

Waite,  Sir  Nicholas,  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, 1704-1708,1.  GO;  ii.  376 


Wake,  William,  fiovcrnor  oi  Buniljay, 

1742-1750,  i.  384,  43G ;  ii.  377 
Wales,  .James,  painter,  i.  448  f. ;  family, 
4.50,  451 ;  monument,  454  n.,  4.55 ;  ii. 
214 
,  Susan,  i.  451,  452,  455,  456 

,  II  R.H.,  the  Prince  of,  ii.  340 

Walkeshwar,  or  Waluktshwar,  i.  IG, 
17,  24,  47,  77,  95,  152;  ii.  97,  150; 
temple,  &c.,  230-239  :  282 

Wallace,  Sir  llichard,  ii.  250 

,  Sir  William,  i.  34G 

,  Col.,  his  ghost,  ii.  3G9 

Waller,  lines  from,  i.  21 

Walls  of  Bombay,  i.  214,  221 

Wanawri,  near  I'oona,  i.  451,  ii.  370 

Wanderu  monkey,  ii.  27G 

Wandiwash,  battle  of,  .Jan.  22,  17G0,  i. 
438  and  7i.;  ii.  320,328 

Wangenheim,  Capt.,  ii.  342 

Waqi'ahnaiHf — news-writer,  ii.  17Gh. 

Wara,  village,  ii.  165.  2G9 

Ward.  Mr.,  brother-in-law  t«  Sir  .J. 
Cliild,  i.  56 

Warden,  Francis,  i.  88 ».,  89 «.,  170, 
203.  204,  20G,  221 ;  u.  41,  250,  340 

Wargaum.:  treaty,  i.  252;  443-i4G;  ii. 
127,  128,  291 

Waring,  JIajor  Scott,  ii.  114  «. 

Wasai, — Bassein,  ii.  203 

Wasota,  i.  340 ;  ii.  1G5 

Waterloo,  ii.  132,  318 

Waters,  R.,  ii.  187  ». 

Watson,  Admiral  Charles  (1714-1757), 
i.  118,  122;  ii.  247  «.,  283,284 

,  Commodore  John  (d.  1771),  i.  430, 

441  n.;  ii.  251,  2G0.  283 

Watt,  Mr.,  Poona,  i.  201 

Wedderljuru,  Sir  John,  i.  203 

,  General,  David,  i.  435,  438, 439 ; 

ii.  370 

,  Sir  Wm.  i.  220  ;  it.  117 

Weighing  book  of  Bombay  arsenal,  ii. 
223 

Wellesley,  A..  Duke  of  Wellington,  i. 
5,  49,  SO,  IIG,  159,  1G5 n.  181;  at 
Cliauk,  249,250;  275,  370;  camp  bed, 
411 ;  452,  4G3,  4(iG  ;  ii.  2 ;  in  Bombay, 
8-15,  18-21 ;  on  duelling,  24  ;  bank- 
ing, 25 ;  at  Oxford,  27  and  n.,  29-31 


414 


INDEX. 


iio,  39,  41),  5d-o7 ;  at  Scringapatain 
iJln.,  CA-11,  7U-S1,  87,  90,  laU-loJ, 
IH2,  2VJ,  2-U;  despatches,  249 /i.; 
2:,2,  297,  322,  ■.HO,  Sr.i,  317,  349,  370 

WiUcsley,  Marquis  of,  i.  SO,  108;  ii. 
^fl,  219,  343,  349 

'Wollin^'ton  fotiiitain,  i.  224 

Millsteil,  Lieut.,  ii,  332 

Wcl.^li,  Col.,  ii.  370 

Wcuts,  Mr.,  i.  157 

West,  t>ii'  Edward,  i.  177,  ii.  73 

M'esloru  India  ia  1583,  i.  22  f. 

AVestropp,  Sir  Michael,  i.  47,  SS,  «.,  98 

AVheeler,  General  Sir  Hugh  M.  (1789- 
1857),  ii.  349 

Whiskey,  in  1745,  i.  G4 

White  ants,  i.  400 

Wliitlock,  Mr.,  ii.  343 

Whitworth'sstory  of  cannibalism, ii.  359 

AVigram,  Mr.,  ii.  250 

Wigton  martyrs,  i.  331,  332 

}yilayati-wala, — a  foreigner,  i.  316 

Williams,  Col.  M.,  ii.  358 

Willis,  Mr.,  ii.  250 

Willoughby,  Sir  J.  P.,  ii.  97,  250 

Wills,  Wm.,  ship's  surgeon,  i.  437  «. ; 
ii.  226 

Wilson,  Bishop  Daniel  (1778-1858),  ii. 
343,  344,  348 

Andrew,  ii.  121,  341,  361 

Dr.  John,  i.  84,  179, 188,  198, 230, 

252, 406 ;  his  ideal,  ii.  45 ;  54,  109  f. ; 
social  position,  112;  learning,  114, 
117,  120;  ^york  for  India,  123  ;  col- 
lege, 124  ;  131,  176,  179  «.,  212,  339, 
343,  344,  349,  350,  356,  358,  361 

Jlrs.  Margaret,  i.  173  ;  ii.  113 

Mr.,  at  Gombiun,  i.  106 

James,  ii.  349 

Winchelsea,  Earl  of,  ii.  25  n. 

Wine,  i.  135,  37S 

Witchcraft,  i.  400  ;  ii.  363 
Wodehouse,  Sir  Philip  E.,  governor  of 
Bombay,  1872-77,  ii.  380 

Women,  in  Ferishto,  i.  276 ;  sentenced 
to  be  burnt,  385  ;  enslaved,  ii.  20 


Wood,  BIr.,  i.  1.57,  159,  160 

Cajit.  John,  i.  198 

Worii,  Ibrt  ami  hill,  liombay,  i.  48,  85, 

189 
Wotton,  Sir  H.,  i.  325 
Wren,  Sir  Christopher,  ii.  146 
Wynaad  gold,  i.  21 ;  ii.  315 


X. 

Xavieb,  Francis  (1506-1552),  i.  21,  49, 
406;  ii.  149,  151 ;  tomb,  152,  ii.  258; 
263 ;  body,  345 ;  346,  349,  351 

Xeraphin,  a  coin  of  about  1$.  6c2.,  ii. 
311 


Yashodi,  widow  of  the  last  of  the  An- 

grias,  i.  127 
Yena  river,  ii.  277 
Yeshwant,  Maharaja  of  Mcwar,  i.  361- 

367 
Yogi  or  jogi,  a  Hindu  devotee,  ii.  207 
Yoni  stone  at  Malabar  point,  ii.  232, 

233,  240  «. 
Yorkc  eittie  chalice,  ii.  252 
Young,  Mr.,  Livingstone's  frioud,  i.  232 


Z. 

Z.\MlxiiAr., — landholder,  i.  106 
Zanguizara — Jaujira,  i.  37 
Zanzibar,  ii.  312 
Zeib    uu-Nisa    Begam,    daughter    of 

Aurangzeb,  i.  336,  337,   349,  350; 

lines  on,  351 ;  tomb,  351,  352 
Zem-Zemiyah,  sacred  Well  at  Mecca, 

i.  353 
Zodiac  rupees  of  Jahangir,  i.  306 ;  ii. 

316 
Zohra  Begam  Sultanah,  i.  276 
Zoroastrian  MSS.,  i.  215  n. 
Zugar  islands  in  the  Ked  Sea,  ii.  333 


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