44 



2erat. The sequel of the campaign will evince how well they 

 deserved the encomium, and answered the proclamation of their 

 hyperbolical heralds. I shall only observe at present, that they 

 could not, like Scipio Africanus, Germanicus, and other Roman 

 generals, claim an honorary title from the countries they conquered, 

 or the martial exploits they performed. 



The magnificence of the Indian tents, pavilions, and summini- 

 anas, or canopy, far exceeds any thing of the kind in Europe, 

 especially among the Moguls: these accommodations are the more 

 necessary where their women and children accompany them to 

 the field. The Mahrattas seem to prefer their tents to houses, and 

 enjoy more pleasure in a camp than a city. The martial tribes of 

 Hindoos, and Mahommedans of distinction, in other professions, 

 generally wish to shine in a military capacity. During the com- 

 monwealth of Rome, consuls, senators, and priests, headed her 

 legions: the brahmin sovereigns of Poonah have engrafted the mi- 

 litary spirit on the sacerdotal character; brahmins not only serve 

 in the Hindoo armies, but there are many of that tribe among the 

 sepoys, or native troops, belonging to the English. In general, 

 whether a man is occupied in the political cabinet, or engages in 

 the civil departments of Hindostan, he is not in such estimation 

 as when he annexes to it the character of a soldier. 



A military profession seldom interferes with other occupa- 

 tions: in the durbar tent, where Ragobah presided as peshwa 

 of the Mahralta empire, business was conducted with the same 

 facility as in the court at Poonah: every evening the principal 

 officers and cabinet ministers attended his levee, and there, as 

 secretary, I often accompanied the English commander: politics, 



