tion of her refufing all donation, an Eastern hyperbole? Yet I affirm to you that it is a genuine ftory, and were Mancote at no further distance from Lucknow, than Shieck Seray,* you might procure, from this honeft girl, a testimony of its truth.

On the 13th I arrived at Manfir-eight coffes. The country now became more open, and the vallies better cultivated than any I have seen to the weftward of Biffouly. The journey this day was pleasant, and what in my proceeding was extraordinary, I did not deviate from the road, though alone. In paffing near an encampment of beggars, (a merry troop they were) they defired me to alight and take fome refreshment: the invitation was thankfully accepted, and I partook of a coarse, but cordial meal, which was ferved up with frequent profeffions of welcome. Manfir is composed of a few houses, standing on the margin of a beautiful sheet of water, which is abundantly fupplied with fish; but being held a facred or royal property, they live unmolested. The lands of Manfir were appropriated, by a former chief of Jumbo, to the maintenance of certain Byraghees, who in this delicious spot seem to enjoy every pleasure which men in India can taste. But here I am checked and called upon to crave your pardon, for these solitary fectaries have precluded women from their fociety; and to say that any portion of life, however replete with other gratifica

*This place is about fix miles diftant from Lucknow.

A religious tribe of Hindoos who profefs celibacy.

tions, can yield a genuine pleasure without women, is to suppose that our day could be chearful without the light of the fun. At this village the wife of a Mahometan oilman conducted my culinary business, but in a manner far different from that of my late mufical friend: fhe took most unwarrantable emoluments out of an ill-dressed supper; and her cat, which seemed to have a congenial temper, made an attack on my baggage at night, and carried off the little stock of provisions which I had prepared for the next day's breakfast.

LEST My arrival at Jumbo should excite enquiry, which from the difpofition of the chief might not be favourable, I denominated myfelf an officer in the Jumbo fervice, travelling from the army, which was then in the field, to the city. The road this day leading in a fouth-weft* direction, was the most dreary one I had ever feen, and became more fo from the want of a companion. On approaching fo large a town as Jumbo, I expected to have feen a moderately populous country; but the aspect was altogether the reverse. Many miles of the road lay through a defile of fand, the fides of which consist of lofty rocks, and nearly perpendicular. The predicament in which I then stood gave a gloomy caft to my thoughts, which naturally adverted to that long established pofition, of "man being a fociable animal;" the truth of which few

* The fouthern inclination of this day, was caufed, I apprehend, from the formation of fome branch of the mountains.

VOL. I.

I h

are

are more convinced of than myself. I did not dwell on the various ufes inherent in the principles of fociety, nor on the grander benefits fo extenfively diffused by general compact; but was contented with viewing the leffer conveniencies which it imparts, with reflecting on the cafual, but grateful enjoyments which men receive from the most fluctuating intercourfe. What harmony, what good humour, are often feen circulating in a sweetmeat shop, the coffee house of India! where all fubjects, except that of the ladies, are treated with freedom: not fo eloquently perhaps, nor with fuch refinement of language, as among the politicians of an European capital, yet with equal fervour and ftrength of voice. The favourite topic is war; there you may hear of exploits performed by a fingle arm, at the recital of which even Secunder* would have grown pale, and Ruftum + himself trembled. The pleasure of communication, by which they become the heroes of their own tale, is a keen spur to the various class of adventurers, and perhaps fewer men would encounter fervices of hazard, were not a pleasure expected from their recital.

On the fide of the road, to my great joy, I at length difcovered a family fitting on a narrow green fpot, where availing themfelves of the fingular fituation, they were grazing their cattle. I fat myself down without ceremony, and was prefented with what I

* The Afiatic name of Alexander the Great,

+ A hero celebrated in the ancient legends of Perfia.

have often recollected with pleasure, for the heat of the day had made me very thirsty), a cup of butter-milk. The father told me that the oppreffions of his landlord had forced him to quit his house, and he was then in queft of fome fecurer refidence. On your fide of India, acts are doubtless committed that tend to fully the honour and imprefs an odium on the character of our nation; but they are, believe me, faint specks when compared with the deeds of injustice and rapacity practifed in other Afiatic countries. One of the family suffered much pain from a lacerated finger, and as all perfons of my colour are in India denominated furgeons, wizards, and artillery-men, I was called upon to administer help, which I did gratis to their great fatisfaction.

TOWARDS the evening, I arrived at the lower town of Jumbo, where feeing a retired house at which I intended to have fought admiffion, I discovered a person who, about a month before, travelled for fome days in the fame party with me; but being employed on some service of dispatch, he had left it. This man being now the fervant of a Kashmirian at Jumbo, for whom I had brought a letter of introduction, and whose name I used to mention in the course of the journey, destroyed my scheme of privacy. He ran off as foon as he had diftinctly feen me, and speedily returned with his mafter, who would not reft fatisfied until he had lodged me in his house, though we were obliged to proceed thither in the midst of a heavy rain: it would be a tedious and flat story, to detail the multiplied modes of the refpect of this Kashmirian for Hh 2

my

and the wish

my perfon, which he had never before feen; or to enumerate his painful, yet inceffant attentions. Whatever partiality I might entertain for my own merits, I was neceffarily impelled to see that his affiduity proceeded from a belief of the opulence, of tranfacting the commercial business of his gueft. After he had gone through the long routine of my extraordinary qualities and accomplishments, of whofe excellency he had been advised by his correfpondent at Lucknow, he congratulated my fingular good fortune in having met him fo early on my arrival; for except himself, I fhould not have found an honeft man in Jumbo. Such, my friend, is the effervefcence of Oriental fpeech, which if exposed to the colder air of the north, would fubfide into that strain of language spoken every day in Change Ally and Cheapfide. It was best not to undeceive my Kashmirian, as the character of a merchant is more respected here than any other, and under which the least suspicion is entertained of a ftranger. On prefenting my bill to the banker at Jumbo, I found, from its having been twice drenched in water, that the folds adhered together as firmly as if they had been pasted. The banker, with much good nature, foaking the paper in water, and opening the folds with care, was enabled to read, though with difficulty, the contents. Had he been disposed to protract the payment, there was fufficient caufe, but holding out no demur, he at once faid the bill was a good one, kindly obferving also, that as

His name is Juala Naut, the nephew of Kashmiry Mull, at Benares..

my