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travel without their escort. This gives them many advantages over 

 their neighbours, and makes them respected by the surrounding 

 governments, by whom small bodies of Coolies are frequently enter- 

 tained as occasional escorts and safeguards. They were then on 

 friendly terms with the English, but we thought it necessary to 

 travel with an escort of five-and-twenty native cavalry, and a de- 

 tachment of Arab and Scindian infantry, armed with matchlocks, 

 to prevent either plunder or insults from the Coolies and Cotlies, 

 another tribe of freebooters inhabiting the country of Cottj'awar, 

 further to the north-west. They are always well mounted and roam 

 in troops, to lay travellers under contribution, rob villages, and 

 drive oft" the cattle. 



Robbery and plunder being the general pursuit of these people, 

 I was surprised to see the Coolie districts under excellent cultiva- 

 tion ; their villages were large and populous, the fields enclosed 

 by hedges, planted with mango and tamarind trees. We travelled 

 without molestation through this delightful country, but on enter- 

 ing the Cambay purgunna every thing wore a different aspect; the 

 soil was equally rich, though by no means so well cultivated ; nor 

 were the villages half inhabited. The Nabob's government, pressed 

 by the wants of Mogul ostentation, was too oppressive for the in- 

 crease of population, or encouragement of agriculture. 



" In vain kind seasons swell the teeming grain, 

 " Soft showers distil, and suns grow warm in vain ; 

 " The swain with tears his frustrate labour yields, 

 " And famish'd, dies, amidst his ripen'd fields. Pope, 



Under a mild government, the Cambay purgunna, with the ad- 

 vantage of its bunder or port, is capable of being rendered equal to 



