217 



when they rest, if they have no tents, they must shelter themselves 

 under shady trees, or sometimes great tombs on the high-way; 

 and where rivers are deficient, they want not great tanks, or deep 

 stately wells." 



" We passed pleasant enclosures and flourishing fields of corn, 

 and plantations of tobacco, baiting when it grew hot, under 

 groves of palm or toddy-trees: when the crows came to roost there 

 we departed, and at midnight arrived at Occlaseer. We slept at 

 the broker's house, and at sun-rise proceeded over delicate mea- 

 dows to Baroche river, round about which is all champaign. We 

 met more than five hundred oxen, laden with salt for the inland 

 countries. We then crossed the river in a boat; it is broad, swift, 

 and deep; but on account of the sands, forced down by the rains, 

 good pilots are required to steer clear of them; by whose direc- 

 tions good lusty vessels are brought up to the city walls, where 

 they are laden with salt and corn ; and also excellent wheat, and 

 good cottons, the growth of the country; it is likewise the great 

 thoroughfare to Lahor, Delhi, Agra, and Ahmedabad." 



Such as the journey then was, such I found it a hundred years 

 afterwards; for in India we are not to expect much variety or 

 novelty either in the manners and customs of the inhabitants, or 

 in the general aspect of the country. It is difficult to persuade 

 a Hindoo to adopt any improvement; and it is astonishing what 

 inconveniences and deprivations he will submit to, rather than do 

 any thing out of the usual way to prevent it. " My father and 

 grandfather never did so/' is a sufficient reason for the refusal; 

 and what is not the business of any one particular caste, is never 

 done at all. I am not at present alluding to religious tenets or 



VOL. II. 2 f 



