the earth as iron/’ the consequences would be fatal. Famine and 
pestilence, with all their dire attendants, stalk through the land, 
and spread destruction and despair on every side: as those can 
testify who beheld the dreadful scenes at Bengal in the year 1770; 
and others, who have witnessed the sad effects of a failure of the 
crops in different parts of Hindostan; where thousands are carried 
off by famine; and, from being deprived of sepulture or cremation, 
the atmosphere is rendered pestilential. In such a climate, Chris- 
tians and Mahomedans, Jews and Gentiles, all unite in the hymn 
of the royal shepherd, when the rains descended on the arid vales 
of Palestine: “ Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it: thou makest 
it very plenteous: thou waterest her furrows, thou sendest rain into 
the little valleys thereof: thou ma.kest it. soft with the drops of rain, 
and blessest the increase of it. Thou crownest the year with thy 
goodness, and thy clouds drop fatness F 
What renders the privation of rain at the expected season more 
dreadful on the continent, is the effect of the hot winds which then 
generally prevail, especially at a distance from the sea: they are 
very little known at Bombay : in the northern provinces of Hin- 
dustan, and in the Carnatic, they are felt more or less in the best 
constructed houses; but are most distressing to travellers from 
milder climates, when passing through a country where no cara- 
vansera, tent, or friendly banian-tree, afford a shelter; the greatest 
alleviation is a house with thick walls, to resist the heat, and every 
door and window shut to exclude the air; or if open, to have 
screens of matted grass hanging before them, kept constantly wa- 
tered. When these winds prevail, furniture of wood, glass, por- 
celaine, and metal, exposed to their blasts, although perfectly 
