46 AGRICULTURAL AND COMMERCIAL 





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 are to be found the 

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

 who, possessing from 100 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 master of the many. Look at the ant ; it 

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

 their united powers raise up mounds fifty feet high, which 

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

 vulsions of nature ; yet, dig into it, and it would be found 

 to be the home of these little mites the structure of 

 their persevering efforts. If the people of Arracan or 

 Bengal be considered, they may be compared to the 

 family 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 eye could penetrate ; 

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

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

 quired than casting the seed on the ground. The em 

 bankments inclosing the little fields of so many, is ren 

 dered comparatively inexpensive, 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- 



