89 



I am sorry to dissent from this celebrated historian, and the well- 

 informed persons from whom he obtained the information; but so far 

 from being able to confirm such pleasing characteristics; I must, 

 on the contrary, affirm that I never met with such a pattern of 

 royal virtue, nor with such grateful and amiable subjects, in my 

 intercourse with the inhabitants of India. That the Hindoo 

 rajahs in the time of Dushmanta, Vicramaditya, and other coeval 

 princes, recorded in the early brahmin chronicles, might possess 

 those benevolent attributes, I do not deny. We have every reason 

 to believe those patriarchal rajahs were the fathers of their people; 

 but from my own knowledge of modern Hindoo chieftains by 

 whom I was surrounded at Dhuboy, of the Mahratta peshwa 

 and his nobles with whom I was long encamped, of the king 

 of Travencore, and of other princes with whom I was acquainted, 

 I cannot draw so favourable a conclusion. I am willing to believe 

 there are exceptions: wherever I have found them, I felt a plea- 

 sure in noticing their comparative excellence, whether Hindoos 

 or Mahomedans. 



I have frequently mentioned the wild-beasts in Guzerat: dur- 

 ing our nocturnal encampments on this journey, our attendants, 

 who, probably actuated by their fears, preferred sleeping in the 

 towns, were constantly telling us of the number and ferocity of 

 the tigers in that part of Guzerat, but we were never molested; 

 although, not long before, in travelling by torch light, with two 

 English ladies, and a large party, from Dhuboy towards the Ner- 

 budda, a royal tiger sprung among my cavalry, overthrew one of 

 the riders, and killed his horse by the blow. The last of the 

 species which I destroyed in the Dhuboy purgunna was a leopard, 



VOL. III. N 



