BAGGAGE BOAT SWAMPED. 
247 
merciless followers, had so accelerated the natural 
activity of putrefaction in so warm a climate, that 
we were obliged to consign her to the vultures, which 
gladly reaped the fruits of our labours and disappoint- 
ment. 
On the following day we returned to our budgerow, 
and proceeded leisurely down the Ganges. Not far 
below Rajemahl we were overtaken by a severe 
squall, which had nearly driven us on shore. We 
did not escape without damage, as our budgerow 
struck against the bank, and received a severe shock, 
the water making its way so rapidly into her that 
we were obliged to keep two men constantly em- 
ployed in baling her out. Our patilla, or baggage boat, 
was swamped, and went to the bottom with every 
thing we possessed in the world, except our papers 
and drawings, which we happened luckily to have 
on board the budgerow. The patilla was consider- 
ably astern of us when she went down, nor were we 
conscious of the accident until we had moored for the 
night, when the boatmen appeared with rueful coun- 
tenances to report the disaster. 
Next morning we proceeded up the river in search 
of the sunken boat, and at length saw her mast 
just above water near the opposite shore. It was 
now clear enough that our baggage had received the 
benefit of a night’s soaking in consecrated water, a 
blessing which we should have been better satisfied 
to have dispensed with, as we found the sacred ele- 
ment just as hostile to portmanteaus and hair trunks 
with their perishable contents, as the waters of the 
commonest stream. 
