46 AGKICL'LTL'KAL AND CUMMEKC1AL 



cents a month, which is about the value of one rupee of 

 their money. However, this specimen of simplicity and 

 nakedness, it may be supposed, could not enter into com- 

 petition with his brother rice planters, the Hon. this one 

 and that of S. Carolina and Georgia, who would not 

 relish wine less than thirty to forty years old, and who 

 live up to that in all things else, and arc to be found the 

 great lions of the seasons at London, Paris and Rome ; 

 who, possessing from lUO to 1000 slaves, each to act at 

 his beck, with the precision of a well-disciplined company 

 of infantry. Yet so it is ; the simple poor Indian, from 

 the circumstance of his position, is too much for the civi- 

 lized lord and muster of the many. Look at the ant ; it 

 can d< nothing of itself; but look at the ants, they can by 

 thrir united powers raise up mounds fiftv feet high, which 

 to look at would be supposed to be caused by some con- 

 vulsions of nature- ; vet, dig into it, ami it would be found 

 to be the home of these little mites the structure of 

 their persevering eflbrts. If the people of Arracan or 

 Bengal be considered, they may be compared to the 

 familv of ants. Their great numbers enable them to 

 bring under rice cultivation, not a farm, not a town's land, 

 but a whole district, as far as the eve could penetrate ; 

 yea, some several score miles in extent. And the climate 

 and nature of the country i< such, that little more is re- 

 quired than casting the M-cd *m the ground. The em- 

 bankments inclosing the little fields of so many, is ren- 

 dered comparatively inexpensive 1 , not being of near the 

 same extent as if each plantation had its own embank- 

 ment. Throughout Bengal government takes care of the 

 bunds (embankments). 



But is there no other cause to fear than foreign com- 



