DACCA 333 



mometer. ranging between 95 and 106, and scenery destitute 

 of all interest, was ' miserably slow and very uncomfortable 

 to boot.' 



We have been alternately winding through narrow 

 channels, tossing in vast river beds, bumping on sandbanks, 

 or lying, moored to cliffs of sand and mud, waiting for fair 

 weather or calms. Scarcely a tree has been visible for days, 

 and then came wretched cottages, accompanied by clumps 

 of Mango and ghostly Palms. . . . The desertion of our 

 crew compelled us to put into Pubnah for a few hours. You 

 will scarcely believe it, but these people are so lazy and 

 capricious, that our Headman and the crew actually ran 

 away from their own boat, (a large covered luggage craft, 

 80 feet long) leaving it to be the property of nobody, (i.e. 

 our property if we chose) ; so we had to hire other men at 

 Pubnah, and brought it on to Dacca. 



A fresh picture appears with the city of Dacca. 



The dwellings of the English residents are truly mag- 

 nificent, as much so as at Calcutta, with richer gardens 

 and more beautiful prospects. The streets are open and 

 clean, and this is literally the first Indian town I have seen 

 where you can drive along the public ways without grievous 

 offence to the nose. [The narrow-fronted native cottages of 

 mud or plaited matting, running back fifty feet from the 

 street, with their eaves dipping nearly to the ground at the 

 corners, looked all roof.] In these hovels the famous Dacca 

 muslins used , to be worked : they were wonderful fabrics, 

 of which they say that you could not see them when out- 

 stretched on the dewy grass, nor distinguish them from 

 gossamer, when floating in the air. Aurungzebe reprimanded 

 his daughter for appearing en deshabille, when she was really 

 wreathed from chin to toes in one hundred yards of muslin. 

 The manufacture has long been given up, or nearly so, but 

 now there is a fitful revival, owing to the order given for 

 the Grand Exhibition of 1851. For this, Dr. Wise 1 is collect- 

 ing the article, materials and implements : the latter are 



1 Thomas Alexander Wise (d. 1889), appointed Assistant Surgeon in Bengal 

 1827, founded Hugli College and was its first Principal, doubling the work with 

 the Civil Surgeoncy of Hugli 1836-9. Appointed Secretary to the Council of 

 Education, afterwards Principal of Dakka College, retiring in 1851. 



