244 
or religious ceremonies were finished; the vessel, was oiled, and 
covered up on shore until the following season. 
During the fair months, the sea between Surat and Bombay is 
covered with ships of different nations: large fleets of merchant 
boats, richly laden, sail every fortnight under convoy of the English 
cruizers, to protect them against the Coolies, a horde of pirates 
near the gulph of Cambay, whose swift-sailing vessels constantly 
infest that navigation. 
On anchoring at Surat bar I left the ship which brought me 
from Bombay, and sailed up the Tappee in her pinnace: this river 
takes its rise at Maltay, a small town to the northward of Nagpore, 
the capital of Moodajee Bounselah, in the latitude of 21° 8' north, 
and 79 ° 44' east longitude: and after an increase by many tributary 
streams, flows into the sea at Surat bar, a distance of nearly five 
hundred miles. 
We followed the serpentine course of the Tappee, or Tapty, 
through a flat uninteresting country, until we suddenly opened on 
the city of Surat, pleasantly situated on the southern bank of the 
river: the old Indian castle, with the English and Mogul flags on 
the principal towers, had a venerable aspect: the English, Dutch, 
French, and Porlugueze colours, waved on their respective facto- 
ries, and garden-houses near the river; and from that distance, 
Surat had a better appearance than on a nearer approach; when we 
found the walls and towers out of repair, the public buildings in a 
ruinous state, and the streets dirty, narrow, and irregular. 
The bar, or sand-bank, where the ships anchor, and discharge 
their cargoes, is generally crowded with merchant-vessels from the 
commercial nations in Europe and Asia; the city exhibits a busy 
