EASTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 141 



« the water. About the end of January, or the beginning of 

 " February,, there flock together, out of the great town, and fome 

 " others adjoining, above eight thoufand perfons, men, women, 

 " and children, that are able to work. They that are fkilful 

 " know by the fands whether there be any diamonds or no, 

 <* when they find among the fand little flones like to thofe we 

 " call Thunder Hones. They begin to make fearch in the 

 u river from the town of Sumbulpour, to the very mountains 

 <^ from whence the river falls for fifty leagues together." 



At Soorangur, about thirty miles north-weft of Sumbulpour, 

 is the burial place of Alexander Elliot, Efq; I think elder bro- 

 ther to ^w .Gilbert Elliot, a deferved favorite of Mr. Hajiings, 

 one who was allowed by general confent to have been the moft 

 amiable charadter, and pofTelTed of the molt elevated fpirit that 

 ever dignified human nature. At this time the French intrigues 

 at the court of Poonab, added to their hopes of detaching the 

 affedtion of the Berar Rajah from the Engli/Jo, endangered the 

 exiftence of the EngliJJj empire to the higheft degree. To 

 preferve the alliance of that prince, Mr. Hajlings fixed on 

 Mr. Elliot to be refident at the court of Nagpour. Another ac- 

 cident happened after he had left Bengal for that purpofe, 

 which caufed him to redouble his fpeed : M. Chevalier, late 

 governor of Cbandernagore, had efcaped from thence, and was 

 purfuing the fame route before him. M. Chevalier was a per- 

 fon of firft rate abilities, and as warm in the intereft of his na- 

 tion as Mr. Elliot was in that of his own. He alio was on his 

 way to Nagpour, and from thence intended to return to France, 

 where his great knowlege of the politics of India would have. 



enabled 



