89 



resisting the most pressing solicitations for a longer stay, slept in 

 our budgerows. On the 4th we passed the long straggling towns 

 of Chuprah and Cherun, where pastures abounding with herds and 

 flocks, varied by rich groves, afforded a beautiful scene. Here the 

 sight of a few palmyra trees, after a long absence from those ob- 

 jects, unexpectedly rising above the mango topes and banian 

 trees, produced a delightful sensation; which, tracing to its source, 

 proceeded from a recollection of the pleasant diversified island of 

 Bombay ; a little spot abundantly occupied by the cocoa-nut and 

 palmeto, and drawing a thousand associated ideas from the tablet 

 of memory sacred to friendship and affection. At Chuprah is a 

 factory of saltpetre and opium ; all the latter produced in Berah 

 is collected at this place. A variety of nullahs, or brooks, which 

 intersect the neighbouring plains, pour their streams into the 

 Ganges near Chuprah. Here also are a number of wide-spread- 

 ing banian trees, many of them walled round and consecrated ; 

 those overhanging the river with their drooping branches, dispose 

 the mind to solemn musing. 



So great is the rise and overflow of the Ganges this season, that 

 the eye cannot discover the extent; and the villages are so entirely 

 surrounded that they appear to be floating. Indeed the lower part 

 of most of the houses are under w T ater, and the inhabitants betake 

 themselves to stages erected for the purpose. From thence we 

 reached Dinapore on the 4th, and dined with some friends we had 

 formerly known with General Goddard's detachment at Surat, in 

 the elegant and extensive cantonments which are said to have cost 

 the Company twenty-five lacks of rupees. They form a lame and 

 small square, and each suite of apartments consists of a hall or , 



VOL. IV. N 



