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Within three hundred yards of this structure, at the bottom of a flight of steps leading to the river, lies a small cistern, equal in heat to the king's bath at Bath, which raises the thermometer to one hundred and twenty degrees; and, according to several experiments and observations made on the spot by two medical gentlemen, they evidently proved that these waters are of the same composition, nature, and quality with the Bath waters, in every respect except one: these have no impregnation of iron, and those at Bath a very small one; but so very small, that according to Dr. Lucas's account, it is not of the least importance in respect to their virtue. The waters of the last described cistern we used for drinking, being by much the clearest and best. Two yards from this we found another cistern, choked up with mud, and disregarded on that account. We cleared it out of curiosity, but made no use of the water. There are three other wells in the midst of the river, which are entirely overflowed in the rains. Besides these there are many small springs in the river itself, which warmed the water near them very perceptibly.

The country people destroy the efficacy of these waters on themselves by constantly bathing in them. The brahmins, banians, women and children, resident in the neighbouring villages, resort to them morning and evening; they are crowded from all parts on festival days, and the brahmins who live at the pagodas are alternately bathing in them all day long.

On a comparison between the experiment made by Dr. Lucas with the Bath waters, and those made with the hot spring at Ramexauar, the latter is found to contain sixteen grains of solid contents; about six of which are earth, and ten salt: these are

united in a fluid, heated about twenty degrees above the blood of man in an ordinary healthy state; and with respect to the heat, the earth, and the salt, are exactly the contents of the Bath

waters.

"I HAD the pleasure of receiving your last letter from Goa, and embrace the only opportunity that will now occur, of writing a few lines before you finally leave India, by the vessel which conveys the General Elliot's dispatches. Most sensibly, my valuable friend, do I feel the truth of all you said in your affectionate sheet. Absence and death alone reveal to us those feelings which only transiently affect us when present with the object of our esteem or love. I now find that a long intimacy and strict acquaintance with the virtues and qualities of any person, leaves a very sensible and lasting impression on the mind. We are formed (at least the valuable part of mankind) for the enjoyment of friendship and mutual benevolence; nor are there any sentiments more truly noble, generous, and elevating, than these. Human nature, unfortunately, admits not, or very rarely, of too close a connection. The seeds of petulance, pride, folly, and caprice, are sown even in the most liberal and exalted breasts, with a lavish hand; and we are too apt, when continually together, to find some occasions of vexation and disgust; but in absence it is just the reverse: we view our friend at a distance with other eyes; his faults are no more remembered, while we amplify or enlarge his amiable and elegant qualifications. We eagerly seize the only medium of communication which now remains, and think we never can sufficiently express in letters the warm affection which

actuates our hearts. As this is a faithful picture of my feelings, so I will flatter myself that it is not a very erroneous one of yours. I know of no person in India, to whom I have been so long and uniformly attached; and I shall hope ever, though we should meet no more, to retain a warm place in your remembrance. You will ever live in mine!"

These unpremeditated effusions, at the period of separation between persons long united in the bonds of friendship and affection, will not I trust be deemed irrelevant to their present situation. Were they introduced only to gratify my own feelings, they would need an apology; but they are inserted from a nobler motive. They evince, in a variety of individual characters, a mind superior to the fascinations of ambition, wealth, and luxury, in a part of the globe where these passions are supposed to be amply gratified; and by many incompetent judges in England are presumed to engross almost the whole pursuits of their countrymen in India. From an intimate correspondence of nearly twenty years I might have adduced many other proofs of sound judgment, extensive knowledge, and liberal sentiment, which do honour to our national character, but I have limited myself to our correspondence during the last months of my residence in India, in which, although I may have gratified private feeling, I have also given undeniable proofs of the noblest virtues being deeply rooted, and residing, in the hearts of Britons settled in the oriental regions.

After leaving the Malabar coast we had a continuance of fair winds and pleasant weather, until we passed the line; where, instead of the calms so often experienced, a strong western gale

carried us across the equator, on the third of March, with a hundred and ten miles on the board. These are delightful circumstances in a monotonous India voyage, both to sailors and passengers, but afford no topic for the descriptive pen.

"La mer n'est plus qu'un cercle aux yeux des matelots,

"Ou le ciel form un dôme appuyé sur les flots."

From this period light winds and calms prevailed alternately for near a fortnight; until, in the latitude of 13° south, we met the south-east trade wind, which wafted us on our course at the rate of seven miles an hour; so that we had generally from a hundred and sixty to a hundred miles in our day's reckoning. This, in the twenty-eighth degree of southern latitude, increased to a severe gale, which blew with unremitting fury four days; then gradually subsiding, it left us with fair winds and fine weather. These favourable gales continued until the 12th of April, when they entirely forsook us, and instead of the easterly winds common at that season, we encountered strong wintry blasts from the north-west, which drove us to the latitude of 38 degrees south where during eight days we experienced three dreadful storms. One of them was a scene of horror and very great danger.

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These hurricanes were succeeded by a faint lull, a short deceitful change, which carried us into soundings on the great southern bank of Africa; but the captain having positive orders not to stop at the Cape, we began to anticipate the more circumscribed pleasures at St. Helena, after our late anxiety; when, for twentysix days together, the dead-lights were shut in, and very often no victuals could be dressed. The situation of the ladies and children was then truly lamentable, and the whole scene distressing.

We now thought our trials over, but a storm more tremendous than any I had ever witnessed, suddenly broke upon us from the north-west, and continued with unabated fury for several days. In former voyages I had never beheld any thing so dreadful: the raging billows seemed more like moving mountains of a black metallic substance, than an undulating fluid; while the sky, hard, dark, and dismal, was without a cloud. Language is too faint to describe this awful scene on the grandest theatre of nature. Camoens' Lusiad, in Mickle's translation, was my frequent companion on the voyage, especially during the tempests raging round this Cape of Storms. The sublime description of the Lusitanian bard was then completely realized, and I inserted the following lines in my journal, as presenting a faithful picture of the tremendous scenery.

"To tell the terrors of the deep untried,
What toils we suffer'd, and what storms defied;
What rattling deluges the black clouds pour'd,
What dreary weeks of solid darkness lour'd ;
What mountain surges mountain surges lash'd,
What sudden hurricanes the canvas dash'd;
What bursting lightnings with incessant flare,
Kindled in one wide flame the burning air;
What roaring thunders bellow'd o'er our head,
And seem'd to shake the reeling ocean's bed;
To tell each horror on the deep reveal'd,

Would ask an iron throat with tenfold vigour steel'd:

These dreadful wonders of the deep I saw,

Which fill the sailor's breast with sacred awe;
And which the sages, of their learning vain,
Esteem the phantoms of the dreamful brain."

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