f 



INDIA, OR IIINDOSTAN. 943 



mortality, which the Hindoos imagine has the power to wash away all sin. In the sacred basin 

 is a temple served hy 500 priests. Cashmere, capital of the province of the same name, is a 

 large manufacturing city, but badly built, and much reduced from its former splendor. It is 

 celebrated for the beauty of its situation and its delightful climate, and it was the summer resi- 

 dence of the former sovereigns of India. Its shawls are known all over the world. Popula- 

 tion, 100,000. 



14. Kingdom of Jfepaul. This State, which lies between British India and the Chinese 

 empire, has an area of 53,000 square miles, and 2,500,000 inhabitants. Catmandoo, the capi- 

 tal, has a population of about 20,000. 



15. Bootan. Bootan, or the country of the Debraja, is a lofty valley, lying between the lofti- 

 est steeps of the Himala on the north, and a lower, but still elevated mountain range on the south, 

 and extending from Nepaul on the west, to Assam on the east. Although it properly belongs, 

 therefore, to Hindostan, in a physical point of view, yet it is politically connected with China, 

 being one of the vassal or protected States of that vast empire. Even the deepest valleys are 

 here from 3,000 to 6,000 feet above the sea, and the climate partakes of both extremes of heat 

 and cold. The inhabitants are called Booteas, and are either a distinct race, or related to the 

 Mongols. They are Buddhists, and they consider their spiritual head, or Dherma Raja, as the 

 incarnation of the Deity. The number of gylongs or priests is great. The tem])oral sovereign 

 is called Debraja ; there are no towns here, but the sunniier residence of the prince is Tassi- 

 siidon, and his winter residence, Panvka. Both polygamy and polyandry are said to be com- 

 mon in Bootan. 



16. The Principality of Sinde, b''"S "pon both sides of the Indus, has 1,000,000 inhabi- 

 tants upon a surface of 52,000 square miles. The capital, Hyderabad, is noted for its manu- 

 facture of arms, and has a population of 15,000. 



17. Portuguese India. The Portuguese possess only a small territory around Goa, Daman, 

 and Din, on the eastern coast. The town of Goa, on a small island, has a good harbor, and 

 carries on an active trade ; its population is about 15,000. 



18. French India. France possesses several detached fragments of territory round Pondi- 

 cherry, Carical, Yanaon, Chandernagor, and Mahe. Pondicherry, the residence of the governor 

 of the French possessions in India, has 40,000 inhabitants. 



19. Danish India consists merely of Serampore, in Bengal, and Tranquehar, on the Ca- 

 very, in Tanjore, with 12,000 inhabitants. 



20. JlgricuUure. The implements of husbandry are exceedingly imperfect, and the agricul 

 tural part of the population are extremely poor. The only artificial means of fertility employed 

 to much extent is irrigation. Rice, which in Hindostan is the staff of life ; cotton of an inferior 

 quality, the material of clothing ; opium, which is extensively used, particularly in the East, as 

 a luxury ; silk, though inferior in staple to the European ; sugar, but of a sort inferior to that 

 of the West Indies ; indigo, now the most important commercial product of India, and pepper, 

 are the principal articles of agricultural industry.* 



21. Manufactures. India long supplied the West with manufactined goods ; but, in most 

 articles, European skill and machinery liave in recent times supplanted the productions of India ; 

 yet the muslins of Dacca, in fineness, and the calicoes and other piece-goods of Coromandel, 

 in brilliancy and durableness of color, have never been surpassed. The Indian nianufactiu'es are 

 produced by solitary individuals, working entirely by hand, with a loom of the rudest construc- 

 tion. The silk manufacture has been carried on from remote antiquity ; cotton goods have 

 long been made in great quantities, but at present British and even American cottons are mpoit- 



* The following sfatempnts are from an Englisli pani- 

 plilet, published in 1830 : 



"The fact of frequent and inconceivably dreadful fa- 

 mines throughout the British territories of Indiii, is one 

 that has been little known, and still less inquired into, by 

 the people of this country. Few, comparatively (for ex- 

 ample), are aware of tlie extent of tiie mortality amongst 

 our Indian fellow-subjects in the upper provinces of Ben- 

 gal, during the past year. In a few short montlis, more 

 than half a million perished by i'amine, and the diseases 

 produced by that calamity. At this moment, other parts 

 of India are subjected to a similar visitation. Yet, down 

 to the present time, there has been no pubhc investigation 

 into the causes of these frightful events Their occurrence 



is here scarcely known. They have hitherto awakened, 

 in tliis country, no effort, no sympnlhy ; led to no relief. 

 How far they are avoidable, how fiir they can be averted, 

 or their consequences mitigated, wlien they arrive, are 

 questions yet to be asked. And shall not these questions 

 be asked, and a true and explicit answer be demanded.'' 

 Since 1770 (when a famine in liengal swept off, it has 

 been computed, three millions), tliere has been a succes- 

 sion of famines, which have destroyed the lives of im- 

 mense multitudes of human beings; these human beings 

 have died in a country once deemed the wealthiest in the 

 world, and upon one of the richest and most productive 

 •soils upon the face of the globe. " 



