526 



the fortune-telling brahmins, and pretended astrologers, who, like 

 the gypsy tribe in Europe, are well known in India. Those 1 now 

 speak of seem to be gifted with a talent possessed only by a very 

 few of the quiet, retired, literary brahmins. To one of these I shall 

 now contine myself; he was a man well known to many of my 

 contemporaries in India, and I have occasionally met with him at 

 Bombay, Surat, and Cambay, where I believe he chiefly resided. 



I shall relate three anecdotes in confirmation of the penetrat- 

 ing spirit, preternatural gift, or whatever term may be allowed 

 for the talent which this man possessed. I shall detail them as 

 they were commonly told, without any remark or comment of my 

 own, for which I confess my incapacity : as a christian I must 

 hesitate in believing things so apparently contradictory to re- 

 vealed religion ; as a member of the society in which they hap- 

 pened, and where they were generally believed, I know that the 

 predictions were made long before the events happened, and 

 were literally accomplished. As a traveller I have told them in 

 England, and found it so difficult to impress any thing like 

 conviction, that I no longer mentioned them, and suppressed 

 them in the latest copies from my manuscripts ; for the reasons just 

 assigned, I rather reluctantly introduce them into these volumes. 



On my arrival at Bombay in 1?66', Mr. Crommelin, the gover- 

 nor of that settlement, was under orders to relinquish his situation at 

 the beginning of the following year, and then to return to England. 

 Mr. Spencer, the second in council, was appointed his successor 

 in the Bombay government. The affairs of a distant settlement, 

 especially after a lapse of many years, must be uninteresting; but 

 in the present instance it is necessary briefly to mention them. 



