CHAPTER XXXIII. 



The present chapter formed the contents of a letter to a member 

 of council at Bombay, who had never been in Guzerat, and wished 

 to obtain some information respecting the English purgunnas in 

 that province. A few repetitions of circumstances mentioned in 

 former chapters, extracted from a correspondence with friends in 

 England, may have escaped notice; I have endeavoured to avoid 

 tautology and to suppress redundancy, except where it would have 

 disturbed the sense or broken the connexion. 



In the month of January, 1783, I accompanied the chief of 

 Baroche, then lately arrived from Bombay, on a tour through all 

 the purgunnas under his jurisdiction, as collector-general. We 

 formed a social party of five English gentlemen, with proper offi- 

 cers and attendants; it being necessary for those who fill high sta- 

 tions in India to preserve a respectable appearance in the eyes of 

 the natives. We spent three weeks in this delightful tour, although 

 the distance did not exceed two hundred miles. December, Ja- 

 nuary, and February, are the best months for travelling in Guzerat; 

 the mornings and evenings are cold, and the whole day temperate 



