96 
and legendary (ales of this ring during the time of its oriental 
proprietors, which gave it an imaginary value, far exceeding its 
real worth: but the English gentleman who possessed it fifty jmars 
ago, fully appreciated those virtues. He had from his early youth 
been much with the Hindoos; and although a Christian in prin- 
ciple, and possessing the amiable and benevolent characteristics 
of that divine dispensation, yet he believed also in lucky and un- 
lucky days, omens, and spells, so universally accredited by the 
Hindoos. 
This gentleman had often been at Poonah, the capital of the 
Mahratta empire, and had resided much among the Brahmins: 
when a member of the council at Bombay, about forty years ago, 
he was appointed ambassador to the Mahratta government, on an 
affair of great importance to the East India Company, and the 
English nation: the business was so urgent, that he left Bombay 
in the middle of the rainy season to ascend the Gaut mountains, 
and reach the Mahratta capital on a day which the Hindoo astro- 
logers had marked as peculiarly auspicious. Being in a public 
character, he travelled with a considerable retinue; there being no 
choultries, or caravansaries, on that road, they generally pitched 
their tents where they found the convenience of shade and water; 
for in the rainy season, on the western side of the Indian peninsula, 
a series of fair weather often holds for several weeks together, 
when those accommodations are as desirable to travellers as during 
the fine months. 
On the second evening of the journey, the encampment was 
formed under a friendly banian tree, on the margin of a lake: on 
retiring to his sleeping-tent, the ambassador missed his ring; but 
