482 
for Calcutta, and the adjacent districts 
are fur nished.’ On the south side and ex- 
actly opposite Barrackpore, is.the neat 
clean looking town of Serampore, be- 
longing to the Danes, and the only set- 
tlement they possess in Bengal; between 
two and three hundred thousand pounds 
worth of piece goods are sent annually 
from hence to Denmark, of which a mole- 
ty at least belongs to certain British mer- 
chants of Calcutta, who in this manner 
evade the restrictions imposed _upon 
them by the East India Company’s mo- 
nopoly. A tew miles farcher up, on the 
same side of the river, 1s the French set- 
tlement of Chandernagore, a place of but 
little importance either in a political or 
commercial point of view, and at this 
time in the possession of the English, as 
‘has uniformly been the case on the hreak- 
ing out ofa war between the two nations. I 
retired to my cot between two aud three 
o'clock, leaving directions to be awakened 
‘on our arrival at Chinsurah, which I ex- 
pected would be about eight i in the morn- 
ang. I soon fell into a ‘profound sleep 
from which 1 was roused by the shrill 
pipes of several females apparently in 
violent altercation with my servants, who 
on their part were not at all backward in 
Yeturning thecompliment. Limmediate- 
ly went upon deck, and found that we 
were arrived at Chinsurah, and the boat 
brought to, in the midst of a numberof 
Hindu females who were performing their 
moruing ablutions in the sacred stream 
of the Ganges, I reprimanded the man- 
gee in severe terms for intruding on the 
privacy of the ladies, and ordered him to 
take the budgerow to another ghout®. On 
my retiring below, I dverhieard him ex- 
pressing bs s surprize to one of the dan- 
dees at my delicacy to Hindu-women. 
“Wad they,” added be ‘* been of the faith- 
ful, it would be a ditterent thing, but ie 
mind what such poujee katirst said, 
surprising ! such is the arrogant and in- 
tolerant spirit of the disciples of the Ko. 
ran. This fellow -woald have been shock- 
ed atthe idea of a Mahummedan woman 
being exposed tu my view, but thought 
it a meritorious action to. distress and 
abash a poor Hindu female, merely be- 
cause she was, what he termed, an infi- 
del. I went ashore at Chingurah and 
walked about while my people were 
cooking their rice. The town is neat 
and clean, as most of the Dutch towns 
are, but possesses nothing to gratify a 
travelier’s curiosity. The most prominent 
* Quay or landing place. 
+ Miserable infidels. 
Account of a Tour through Hindustan. — 
* 
(July, 
feature is Van Speigle’s Tavern, a place 
weil known to the bon vivans of Calcut- 
ta. Parties are frequently made ‘to par- 
take of the luxuries of his larder, in. 
which he. indubitably excels all his cotem- 
poraries in Bengal. This and the two 
neighbouring settlements serve as places 
of refuge to the debtors of Calcutta; and 
the dembers that are met with, afford 
melancholy iustances of the frequency 
of misfortune, or the success of villainy. 
Tc is well known to those conversant 
with the natives of India, that of all cre- 
ditors a Tfiindu is the most inexorable, 
unfee ling, and vindictive; and miserable 
is the fate of the unfortunate wretch who 
falls'into his power, no consideration 
short of the full amount of his demand 
will satisfy him; a-debtor therefore in a 
country to which the bankrupt laws do 
not extend, has no other alternative to 
avoid a life of imprisonment, than a vo- 
luntary banishment to a foreign settle- 
ment; many of them have been i im this 
situation from twelve to twenty years ; 
the debt is increased to seven or eight 
times the original amount, by the perni- 
cious and destructive practice of com- 
pound interest at the legal rate of twelve 
per cent. per annum, ‘consequently their 
prospects of being restosed to their coun- 
try and friends become annually more 
hopeless. A gnestion will naturally 
arise, why a Elindu creditor, whose ruling 
passion is notoriously avarice, is so re- 
gardiess of his own gratification and in- 
terest as not to accept a present sum in 
part with the possible though remote 
prospect of receiving the balance. To this 
I can only answer, that the enjoyment of 
power 1s stronger than the ies fangs 
of avarice, and the exercise of It, toa 
weak, vitiated, and vindictive mind, the 
most grateful sensation. A Hindu will 
forgive the most serious injury to his per- 
son, if it does not affect his cost; he will 
even pardon the murderer of his favorite 
eluld for a pecuniary recompence, but 
the loss of his money will arouse every 
malignant passion of his soul: he en- 
quires not whether it is owmg to misfor- 
tune or design, but pursues the object of 
his tury with the most unrelenting ven- 
geance. ‘There are men who retire to 
these places, as T hinted before, to enjoy 
the fruits of their villainy ; wretches wha, 
by a plausible exterior, impose on the 
credulity and hberality of the British in- 
habitants of Calcutta, collect alarge pro- 
perty, and abscond with it to one of these 
foreign. settlements, where they live in 
splendor aad luxury, until they have an 
ets a | : 
