CHAPTER X. 
Soon after my return from the hot-wells at Dazagon, I visited 
Surat, one of the principal cities in India; where the manners and 
customs of the natives are more oriental, than in those places 
immediately under the English government. 
Surat is about a hundred and twenty miles to the northward 
of Bombay; the voyage thither affords an opportunity of viewing 
Bassein, Damaun, and some other sea-ports: the hilly coast ter- 
minates half way at the lofty promontory of St. John's; from 
thence to the entrance of Surat river, the shore is flat and unin- 
teresting: the southern mountains are woody, and abound with 
teak trees, often called the oak of Hindostan, from their great value 
in ship-building. Teak timber is more durable than oak, from its 
oleaginous quality, preserving the wood, and the iron necessarily 
used in naval architecture, for a considerable time longer than the 
British oak, which contains a corrosive quality, tending to consume 
the iron-work. I saw a ship at Surat which had been built near 
eighty years; and which, from veneration to its age and long ser- 
vices, was only employed in an annual voyage to the Red Sea, to 
convey the Mahomedan pilgrims to Juddah, on their way to 
Mecca; and then returning with them to Surat, after the hodge, 
