Town and Fort of Columho. 125 
Several offices are attached to it, where the business of govern- 
ment is transacted. Behind it is an excellent garden, originally 
intended for a tank or reservoir, in the event of a siege, for, 
though every house has a well plentifully supplied with water 
through the whole year, yet it is of a brackish quality, and un- 
fit to drink. On this account the Europeans belonging both to 
the civil and military establishment, are supplied with water 
from springs about a mile from the fort. It is brought by 
means of bullocks in leathern bags, called here puckally hagSy 
a certain number of which is attached to every regiment and 
garrison in India. Black fellows, called puckally hoys, are em- 
ployed to fill the bags, and drive the bullocks to the quarters of 
the different Europeans. When the troops are on a march, a 
different mode is practised. A certain number of negroes, ap- 
pointed for the purpose, carry on their shoulders smaller lea- 
thern bags with pipes attached to them, called beasties. With 
these they run along the line, giving water to every soldier who 
stands in need of it ; and as soon as the bags are empty, re- 
plenish them at the first spring or river they meet with. 
Columbo is built more in the European style, if such an 
analogy can at all be drawn, than any other garrison in India. 
The interior of the fort has also more the appearance of a re- 
gular town,; as none of those huts, peculiar to the natives, are 
allowed to be erected in it. The Dutch houses are all regularly 
built, though few of them are above one story high. An En- 
glishman is also surprised to find all the windows here having 
glass-panes after the European manner; as in our other Indian 
settlements, Venetian blinds and shutters are chiefly used. This 
proceeds probably from the particular customs of the Dutch, 
rwho. love here, as well as in Europe, to keep their houses close 
