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viale from established custom, in requesting this interview ; but a 
sense of her own honour, veneration to her husband’s memory, and 
maternal example to her children, would ever regulate her com 
duct; that he might not, however, think her ungrateful, she ap- 
pointed another meeting the next evening. 
Encouraged by so flattering an invitation, the enamoured youth 
repaired to the pavilion, found every thing in the same style of 
elegance and hospitality, and in the further saloon was received by 
a lady, whom he accosted as the mistress of the house; until, throw- 
ing off her veil, he discovered a beautiful Mogul, young, witty, and 
elegant, who entertained him at the pavilion, while the widow and 
her children were visiting at a distant villa. He never afterwards 
discovered his lovely incognita, nor could he, consistent with pro- 
priety, continue his visits in a Mogul family. 
We must not too hastily condemn this grateful Mahomedan, 
nor judge her conduct by the decorum of female manners in Eng- 
land, or the purity of the Christian religion: her education had 
been different, and the oriental standard of propriety is more re- 
laxed than our own ; on the present occasion gratitude predomi- 
nated over every other consideration : and, as a modern traveller 
well observes, “ in consequence of the peculiar prejudices and 
opinions of one people, the same practice may be viewed by them 
in the darkest light, which in another country may not only be to- 
lerated but recommended.” 
In the vicinity of so populous and opulent a city as Surat, the 
country is highly cultivated, and a fertile soil amply repays the 
farmer; the fields, generally enclosed, and the hedges planted with 
mango and tamarind trees, produce wheat, rice, juaree, bahjeree, 
