G A N G E T I G H I N D O O S T A N. 365 



trymen who had early invaded, and were minutely acquainted 

 with the manners and pra<5tices of India. 



The Sanjhrit, or fcripture book of the Hindoos^ mentions an 

 engine called Sbetagbnee^ or the weapon, that would kill a Shetachnee. 

 hundred men at once. I do not believe it to have been a cannon, 

 but one of thofe divilible arrows conftrufled on a vaft fcale. 

 I fliall conclude with remarking, that both the author of the 

 Hindoo Sanjkrit, and our great Milton, agree in afcribing the in- 

 vention of gunpowder, and its application to warlike pvn-pofes> 

 to fpirits. The former fays, that the war v.hich was waged^ 

 during a hundred years, between Dezvla and 0{foor, the good 

 and the bad, was carried on by means of the infernal engines ;, 

 but the war between our celeftial beings was at once decided; fo 

 unequal was the artillery of Satan againft the thunderbolts of 

 the Almighty. 



At Goalparah, in Lat. 16' 10', the Burrampooter enters the GoAiPARAHi 

 province of Bengal. There the Europeans have fadors, who, 

 by means of that great river, carry on a confiderable trade 

 with places very remote. Irregular chains of mountains run 

 from hence due fouth, and fniifli near the fea in different parts- 

 of the diftri<5t of Cbittigong, and are backed by the immenle 

 foreft of Meckley to the eaft ; all to the weft is the level Bengal. 

 Before this river reaches the fea, it makes three great curva- Unioi*ofthe 



BURRAMPOOTEK,- 



tures, paffes near Dacca, and is after united with the Ganges and Ganges. 

 by different branches. It now very near approximates that 

 river, in a magnificent bed of four or five miles in breadth. 

 It now takes the name of the Megna, and a little before it 

 reaches the bay of Bengal, falls into the Ganges, and lofes its 



very 



