72 
AHGADEEP. 
sandy cool, and even chill. At Ahgadeep, where we had to change 
our bearers, I found a tent and refreshment, which had been sent 
forward by the Nawaub of Bengal from Moorshedabad : as, how- 
ever, I was impatient to arrive at Mr. Parlby's at Burhampore by 
dinner time, I would not wait, but taking some fruit into my palan- 
quin, breakfasted as we proceeded. The country I now passed 
through convinced me that I had lost little by the darkness of the 
night : it was perfectly flat ; some part covered with European grain 
nearly ripe, and the rest a barren waste where paddy* had been 
cultivated. Mango topes f were in great abundance ; yet though the 
perfume from their blossoms scented the air around, the formality 
of tlie square in which they were uniformly planted, prevented 
them from adding to the beauty of the scene. It is however a mag- 
nificent tree, in habit much resembling the Spanish chesnut, and 
fully equal in size to any specimen I ever saw of that tree : occa- 
sionally a Bombax ceiba, now covered with its large scarlet blossoms, 
struck us by its singularity: no forest tree of Europe produces such 
a mass of vegetable splendor. My next changing-place was at the 
magnificent tope of Plassey, a place celebrated in history for the 
victory obtained by Lord Clive, with three thousand men, of whom 
nine hundred only were Europeans, over Surajah Dowlah's army 
nearly 70,000 strong. From that period we may be considered as 
masters of Bengal, and to that victory we in fact owe the vast 
empire we now possess. By what right we concluded a treaty with a 
traitor to depose his sovereign, and actually effected our purpose, is 
not now to be determined : and those who might have felt repug- 
nance at executing such a business, will still rejoice at the prosperity 
* Rice in the husk is so ealled. f Regularly planted groves. 
