GAM 
Gamboge. the 14th of Septober 1499, after performing the long- 
—Y~™" est and most made 
iffcult voyage that had ever been 
since the first discovery of navigation. Honoured with 
the title of nobility, appointed admiral of the Eastern 
seas, rewarded with a suitable salary, loaded with 
the compliments of the court, and followed by the 
shouts of the populace, he remained inconsolable for 
the loss of his brother, the companion of his toils; and, 
shutting himself up in a lonely house on the sea-side 
at Belem, could not be persuaded till after a long inter- 
val, to mingle again in public life. He was appointed, 
in 1503, to the command of a powerful fleet of 20 ships, 
destined for India, where he had frequent engagements 
with the fleets of the Zamorim ; and, having secured a 
friendly commerce with the ports of Cochin and Ca- 
nanore, he returned home with 12 ships, loaded with 
the riches of the East. The mal-administration of fu- 
ture commanders in India requiring the presence of 
some distinguished character, he set sail a third time, 
in the year 1524, in the office of Viceroy, and with the 
title of Count de Vidigueyra. Having remedied the 
errors of his predecessors by his exalted and liberal po- 
licy, he was interrupted in the prosecution of his en- 
lightened plans, and died at Cochin three months after 
his arrival. See Robertson’s History of America ; Ab- 
bé Raynal’s History of the East and West Indies ; 
Mickle’s Lusiad, Introduction ; and Modern Universal 
History,.vol. ix. (q) 
GAMBOGE is 
and resinous juice of the Stala 
tall tree, with spreading branches, which grows in 
Cambodia or Cambogia, Ceylon, Siam, and Cochinchi- 
na, The gamboge from Siam is sent home in small 
tears, which exude from the leaf-stalks, and young 
shoots that are broken off the tree. The gamboge of 
Ceylon is obtained from. deep incisions in the bark, 
the juice being afterwards inspissated by the heat of 
the sun, and formed into cakes or rolls. The external 
colour is brownish-yellow, leaving a deep reddish~ 
orange tint within. Its surface is smooth, and its tex- 
ture equal and uniform. It has no smell, and very 
little taste; but when it has remained some time in 
the mouth, it leaves an acrid impression. It melts. and 
blazes when applied to the flame of a candle, emitting 
sparks and a dense black smoke. Its flame is white 
when the ganiboge is good, and its ashes grey. The 
larger and dark-coloured cakes are not good. 
When dissolved in water, gamboge forms a fine yel- 
low pigment, which is well known. It is also employ- 
ed in making the. gold-coloured lacquer for staining 
white wood, so as to resemble boxwood ; and in giving 
a beautiful and durable citron-yellow stain to marble. 
The following Table shews the quantity imported 
and sold by the East India Company from 1804 to 
1808, inclusive. The permanent duty is £5, 12s. per 
a and the war duty £1:17:6, amounting in all to 
3 934, 
name of the concrete, gummy, 
Nedceas Sale. | Sept. Sale. Total. Aver. Price 
Years, ado 
Cwt.| Price. |Cwet.| Price. |Cwt.| Price |£ 8. d. 
1804)... |... | 64/£1270] 64/£1270/19 16 10 
1805 ++] «++ ] 51] 1095] 51] 1095/21 9 5 
1806}... 65| 1592] 65} 1592124 9 10 
1807|..{|..% | 30!°1048] 30] 1048194 18 8 
1808 | 34 |£929]112] 2175/146] 3104/21 5 2 
104 
itis gambogioides, a. 
. that the B: 
. itissues from Himalaya, It is said to, be here fifteen. 
GAN. 
» Twenty cwt. IE or are allowed to the ton, . 
See Lewis’ Materia Medica ; Neumann's Chemistry, by ~~ 
Lewis, p. 300, note m; Aikin’s Dictionary of Chemis« G 
try ; amet Milburn’s Oriental Commerce. » ; 
GAME Laws. See Law. a 
GAMES. See Greece and Rome. 
GANGES, a celebrated river of Asia, whose waters — 
are regarded by the Hindoo as an object of peculiar 
sanctity and veneration. \ lke 
In Eastern mythology, Ganga, the Ganges, is de- tts n 
scribed as the eldest ter of the great mountain 
Himavata, and called ga on account of flowing 
through gang, the earth. The Hindoo, willing to adopt F. 
what the Brahmin tells him as most congenial to his otigia. 
prejudices of the origin of the sacred river, believes that 
it issues from the root of the Boohjputre tree, through 
the semblance of a cow’s mouth in stone, and flows di- 
rectly from heaven; nor does he seek to be undeceived 
of so agreeable an illusion. ; . 
Until lately, much obscurity existed with to True 
the true source of the Ganges; nor indeed to this da 
has it been traced up to the fountain head. But on this 
point the field of conjecture and doubt is much. nar~ 
rowed, AH the maps, till 1807, assigned a course to 
the Ganges many hundred miles within the range of 
Himalaya mountains, the northern boundary of Hin- 
dostan. But the late Lieutenant-Colonel Colebrooke, 
Surveyor-General of Bengal, refused it so remote an 
origin, on the grounds, that if it pursued such alength 
of course, it must have swelled to a river of great mag- 
nitude long before it reached utri, from the sup- 
ply of mountain-snows and rills. This gentleman was 
directed by the Bengal government to explore the 
sources of the Ganges; unfortunately, a premature 
death deprived the world of his services and profes- 
sional abilities. Lieutenant Webbe, surveyor, was in- 
structed to follow up Colonel Colebrooke’s views, but 
he failed of success, bel poems by the extreme diffi- 
culties of the way, when, accounts, he was within 
= ire s reach of the ap a er fe his ae 
aphers now agree in deduci e source of 
Gange ooo no considerable cataen beyond Gang- 
outri, situated in N. Lat. 31° 4’, and E. Long. 78° 9’, * 
among the Himalaya mountains, in the province of Se« a 
rinagur. 
is opinion rests on the following grounds: thatall x, 
the caeanaan streams during Lindeman! Webbe’s jour- si 
ney were found to be increased during a course of eight its 
or ten miles, from the smallest rivulet, to a consi 
able and unfordable river, by the supply of springs and 
tributary rills. The course of the Ganges and Alaca~ ‘ 
nanda rivers having been followed, till the former be~ . 
* 
i 
4 
came a shallow and stagnant pool, and the latter a small 
stream ; and both being affected by. the dissolution of 
snows, in addition to springs and rills, it was conclud- 
ed from analogy, that the sources of these rivers could 
be at no great distance from the spot where the obser« 
vations were made. As we have no:reason to suppose 
hagirathi branch of the Ganges is governed 
by laws different from other mountain streains, we are 
warranted in fixing its source on the southern side 
of the Himalaya range of mountains, and likewise in 
concluding that all the tributary. streams of the anes, 
with the Eatew or Goggrah, and the Jumna, whose 
chief fountain is not remote from the Ganges, rise alse 
on the same side of that chain of mountains, Ey 
account agrees that the source of the Ganges exte 
beyond Gangoutri, which is. merely the poimt whence 
