172 TllK Ol'll'M TKAOK. 



Tlie first and greatest evil is?, that it exterminates the 

 human race. Opium is put down, used moderately, as 

 aphrodisiacal, and hence it is reasoned the cause of the 

 wretched women who assemble round the opium smoking 

 t-hop. Of this I have no knowledge ; Imt there is no dis- 

 ease in the North-east of India so dreadful i>s that for 

 which it is said to be a cure, or is so very common 

 amongst the people. The opium eater is a, lost man, 

 from his first initiation into the habit of smoking or drink- 



O 



ing opium. If lie commences early in life, he never 

 marries if he commences at the time of his marriage, 

 he never has more than one or two children if he com- 

 mences it one or tv>o years before marriage, it is rarely 

 there is ever a child, and if there be a child, it is owing 

 to a very moderate u.-e having been made of the opium, 

 arising from the want of means to purchase it, or other 

 causes that niav place it out ef reach ; there-fore, opitilu 

 is detrimental, in the iir>t place, to the propagation oi 

 the human specie.-. in the next place, those who indulge 

 iYeely in its use live !>ut a >hort time. 



It is melancholv to travel through a countrv whejv 

 opium is used ; in everv part there is the foot-prints of 

 man; there are the few orange trees, and guava trees, (^.c. 

 where onrc was the cultivated garden, and no trace other 

 wise of man than the rich weeds and grass that spring 

 up from the land manured ]>v :t decaved fallen house. In 



had been ; others partly fallen in, and v;reen fungi grow- 

 in LT all aiiout. 1 he poultry, now \\ild, snii haunt round 

 the place. Again, another village mav be met with a 

 ie\v solitary houses remaining, with some twenty to thirtv 

 . two tn five '.'hildrcii. varying from one year of age 



