iw the years 1812 and 1813. 269 



also expired, and her dead body as well as that of the child, re- 

 mained close by them, situated as before described, without a 

 single attempt to remove them, until the government-peons had 

 performed that office. I have seen a child, not quite dead, torn 

 away by a pack of dogs from its mother, who was unable to 

 speak or move, but lay with anxious eyes directed to the object 

 of its fond affection. It was pursued by its former little play- 

 mates, which had shared in its extreme adversity ; but the rave- 

 nous animals (who had acquired an extraordinary degree of fe- 

 rocity from before having fed on human bodies) turned upon 

 the innocents, and displayed their mouths and teeth discoloured 

 with the remains of the child ; a rescue was attempted by our- 

 selves, but the remains of life had been destroyed, and in strug- 

 gling for its limbs, the dogs had actually carried off one of its 

 arms. I have witnessed those animals watching the famished 

 creatures, who were verging on the point of dissolution, to feast 

 on their bodies ; and this spectacle was repeated every succes- 

 sive day in the environs of this town. Lastly, To my know- 

 ledge, those feelings and prejudices " concentrating all their 

 precious beams of sacred influence," those which life in ease and 

 affTuence would only have resigned with itself, in the extremes 

 of distress, seemed to have lost their power. Distinctions of cast 

 were preserved until the moment when the hand of adversity 

 bore heavy, then the Brahmin sold his wife, his child, sister, and 

 connexions, for the trifle of two or three rupees, to such as would 

 receive them. With these individual cases I will leave you to 

 estimate the extent of mortality ; but it is in my power to state 

 as a fact, that the number of the Marwarees who died in a single 

 day lat Baroda, could scarcely be counted, and the return of 

 burials in twenty-four hours often exceeded 500 bodies. What 

 reflections are not excited by the enumeration of such dreadful 

 evils, and what gratitude has each of the living to cherish for the 

 mercy shewn to him ! It would be doing an act of injustice, 

 however, to the natives of opulence in Guzerat to pass over their 

 exertions to alleviate the surrounding distress. The charity of 

 the Hindoos is proverbial; it constitutes one of the primary 

 tenets of their morality, and is generally unaffectedly dispensed. 

 On the occurrence of the distress and famine, large subscrip- 

 tions were made, aided by a liberal sum from the native govern^ 



