CHAP. IX. Climate of Bengal. Numberless canals and islands. for a rupee, go away. The air of Bengal, however, was not healthy for strangers, especially in those parts which were near the sea. When the English and Dutch first settled there, the mortality was very great. Since then they had prohibited their people from drinking too much punch, and from frequenting the houses of arrack dealers and loose native women. Moreover, they had discovered that a little wine of Bordeaux, Canary, or Shiraz, was a marvellous antidote against the badness of the air. Accordingly there had been much less sickness and mortality amongst the European settlers. The whole length of Bengal from Rajmahal to the sea, a distance of some three hundred miles, was full of little channels extending from either side of the river Ganges for a considerable distance into the country. These channels had been cut out of the river with vast labour at some remote period, for the convenience of transporting commodities; and the water was reckoned by the people of India to be the best in the world. The channels were lined on both sides with well-peopled villages of Hindus; whilst the neighbouring fields bore abundance of rice, sugar, corn, pulse, mustard, sezamum for oil, and small mulberry trees for feeding silkworms. The large number of islands, great and small, that thus lay, as it were, in the midst of the Ganges, imparted an incomparable beauty to the country. They were very fertile, filled with fruit-bearing trees, and interlaced with a thousand little water-channels. Unfortunately many of the islands near the sea had been deserted by the inhabitants on account of the plundering and kidnapping carried on by the Portuguese pirates of Arakan; and since then the islands had been abandoned to tigers, gazelles, hogs, and poultry grown wild. CHAP. IX. Bengalis. Robert Orme, who lived for some years in Bengal Character of the about the middle of the eighteenth century, bears unfavourable testimony to the native population. He says that the people of Bengal had become so debased by the langour of the climate through a long course of generations, that they not only shared the effeminacy of character common to all the people of India, but were of weaker frame and more enervated disposition than those of any other province. Bodily strength, courage, and fortitude were unknown; even the labour of the common people was totally devoid of energy. Those, however, of the better castes, who were bred to the details of money and traffic, were most patient and persevering; and it was common to see the accounts of a huckster in his stall, who did not exchange the value of two rupees in the day, as voluminous as the books of a considerable merchant in Europe. In spite of the despotism of the government, the Cotton and silk. province of Bengal was extremely populous; and as comparatively little labour was required for agricultural pursuits, a large number of the inhabitants were at leisure to work at the loom. The consequence was that more cotton and silk were manufactured in CHAP. IX. Bengal than in three times the same extent of territory in other parts of the Moghul empire. Niebuhr's description of The best account of Bombay and Surat in the Bombay, 1763. eighteenth century is furnished by Karsten Niebuhr, the father of the historian of Rome.66 Niebuhr landed at Bombay in 1763, two years after the massacre of the Mahrattas by the Afghans at Paniput. The English settlement was still confined to the island, and all the neighbouring territory on the mainland was held by the Mahrattas. Bombay produced nothing but cocoa-nuts and rice, and a considerable quantity of salt, which was collected on the shore. The inhabitants were thus obliged to bring their provisions from the continent, or from the large and fertile island of Salsette, near Bombay, which also belonged to the Mahrattas. Climate of The sea-breezes and the frequent rains cooled the atmosphere and tempered the climate of the island. The air had been formerly unhealthy and dangerous, but it had become pure since the English drained the marshes in the city and environs. Many Europeans, however, still died suddenly at Bombay. They were mostly newcomers, who shortened their days by a mode of life unsuitable to the climate, eating great quantities of beef and pork, which were prohibited by 66 Karsten Niebuhr was born in Hanover in 1733. In 1760, at the age of twenty-seven, he entered the Danish service as lieutenant of Engineers. In 1761, Frederick V., king of Denmark, sent an expedition of savants to explore Egypt, and Niebuhr was attached in the capacity of geographer. Within a year all the members of the expedition died, excepting Niebuhr, who did the work by himself, and finally paid a visit to Bombay and Surat. He returned to Europe in 1767. The results of his travels were published at Copenhagen between the years 1772 and 1778; and as his work was thoroughly original, based upon the notes written on the scene of his journeyings, it is still held in high esteem. He died in 1815, at the advanced age of eighty-two. For this information I am indebted to my publisher, Mr. N. Trübner. Indian laws, and drinking the hot wines of Portugal CHAP. IX. in the hottest season. Moreover, they persisted in wearing the European dress, which impeded the free circulation of the blood by its ligatures, and rendered the heat more intolerable by confining the limbs. "The Orientals," says Niebuhr, "live to a great age, and are little subject to disease, because they keep the body at ease in wide flowing robes, abstain from animal food and strong liquors, and eat their principal meal in the evening after sundown." The island of Bombay was twenty miles in circum- Island and city. ference. The city was only two miles round, and was defended by strong fortifications on the land side, and by an indifferent castle facing the sea. The houses were not flat-roofed, as in other Eastern towns, but were covered with tiles in the European fashion. The English inhabitants had glass windows to their houses, but the natives were content with windows made of small transparent shells. people. The toleration granted to all religions by the Eng- Government and lish government had rendered the island very populous. The inhabitants were reckoned at 140,000 souls, and had more than doubled during the previous twenty years. The Europeans were but a small fraction of the population; for they did not marry, and consequently did not multiply. The bulk of the inhabitants were Portuguese or Indian Catholics, Hindus, Persians, Muhammadans of different sects, and some Oriental Christians. Surat, 1764. In 1764 Niebuhr made a voyage to Surat. The Description of city belonged to the Moghuls, and contained no handsome mosques with towers, such as would have been built by Turks or Arabs. The squares were large and the streets were spacious; but they were CHAP. IX. unpaved, and the dust was insufferable. Each street had gates of its own, which were shut up in times of turbulence; and disturbances were as common at Surat as at Cairo. The population was estimated by Niebuhr to number 300,000 souls. Hospital for sick and maimed animals. An Oriental garden, There was no hospital for human beings at Surat, but a very large asylum for sick or maimed animals. Whenever a European turned out an old horse or any other domestic animal, the Hindus took charge of it and placed it in this building, which was full of infirm decrepit cows, sheep, rabbits, hens, pigeons, and other similar creatures. Niebuhr saw a great tortoise, blind and helpless, which he was told was a hundred and thirty-five years of age. The charitable Hindus kept a physician to attend on these animals. There were numerous gardens in the environs of Surat. Niebuhr describes one which had been formed by one of the later Nawabs of Surat at a cost of fifty thousand pounds sterling. It was very extensive, but there was no regularity in the design, and nothing in the fashion of a European garden except a few ponds and fountains; the rest was a confused medley of buildings and small orchards. There was one large mansion, having baths and saloons, which was adorned with all the magnificence of India. The other buildings were harems for the Nawab's wives; each lady having her own little court entirely separated from those of the others. Every harem had one good apartment for the lady, and a number of very narrow chambers for her slaves. Niebuhr was particularly struck by the passages running between the different suites of rooms; they were so narrow, so winding, and so blocked up by doors, as to reveal the distrust with which all great people |
