DEPARTURE FROM MADRAS. 
21 
CHAPTER III. 
THE SEVEN PAGODAS. JUGGLERS. SCULPTURED ROCKS. 
We were now fully prepared for our departure,, and 
on the 5th of January., about twelve weeks after our 
arrival., we commenced our journey, like Doctor Syn- 
tax, in search of the picturesque, to find which, in- 
deed, was any thing but difficult. As we did not 
set off before day-break, we completed but a short 
stage, halting under a thick tope of trees at Vickium, a 
considerable village about twelve miles from the pre- 
sidency. During the prevalence of the monsoon I 
had employed myself in studying the oral language of 
the country, and by the time we commenced our 
journey could understand it sufficiently for all the 
necessary purposes of travelling. We found the land 
well cultivated, and every thing so full of healthy 
and luxuriant life, from the influence of the late rains, 
that the whole country appeared like an extensive 
garden. There was nothing indeed eminently re- 
markable beyond this general luxuriance of nature in 
the inland view, but the prospect from the sea was 
agreeably and continually diversified by an infinite 
number of boats under sail, of various form and size, 
which dotted the clear expanse beyond the surf — for 
this extends all the way down the coast — their white 
