English Settlement of Fort Victoria-Brahmin Village of Harrasar -Hot Wells at Dazagon-Voyage thither from Fort VictoriaHot winds-Wild beasts-Danger from Tigers-Chamelion of the Concan-Serpents-Excavations in the Mountains-Hindoo Devotees, Swingers, Jugglers, Combatants, and VaultersMarre-Mahratta Government-Commencement of a journey to Bombay-Candhar-Vanjarrahs-Gaut Mountains-Monsoons -Cultivation, Gardens, and produce of the Concan-Guru, Hindoo High-priest-Other religious Castes-Value of water in India-Ascent of the Lower Gauts-Mahomedan Patriarch at Ram-Rajah-Hindoo Victims-Reception at Allah Braug-Colabie-Visit from a Mahratta prince-Family of Ragojee Angria-Nymphea Lotos-Lotophagi-Method of supplying travellers with provisions in Hindostan-Conclusion of the Journey-Comparison between India and England in their most striking features.

AFTER residing five years at Bombay, a slight indisposition occasioned me to go for a few weeks to the hotwells at Dazagon, a village belonging to the Mahrattas in the Concan, or Cokun, not far from the English settlement of Fort Victoria; a small fortress sixty miles

from Bombay, garrisoned by a company of sepoys, for the protection of a few villages, and a small district in its vicinity: it was then the residence of two gentlemen in the Company's civil service, who collected a trifling revenue, and procured cattle and other articles for Bombay. This settlement was ceded by the Mahrat

tas in 1756, for Ghereah, a place of far more impor tance, then lately conquered by Admiral Watson and Lord Clive during the subsequent wars between the English and Mahrattas, it has never been molested.

Fort Victoria is situated on a lofty hill, near the entrance of Bancoote river, where there is also a lower battery: this river was formerly navigable for large ships; but the sand bank at the mouth constantly increasing during the south-west monsoon, it now only admits a passage for small vessels. Its source is among the eastern mountains; at a considerable distance from whence, winding through woody hills and fertile valleys, it receives some tributary streams, affords many delightful prospects, and abounds with a variety of fish and wild fowl.

The western hills near Fort Victoria, from being exposed to the sea wind, are bleak and barren: in the interior the lofty mountains are covered with trees and underwood, which soften their craggy precipices, and exhibit numerous springs, not common in the torrid zone: these not only add considerable beauty to the landscape, but cause an agreeable freshness in the atmosphere, and add to the luxuriance of the cultivated vales, abounding with rice, natchnee, and other Indian grain.

The villages in the Company's districts, generally inhabited by Hindoos, are surrounded by cocoa-nut, tamarind, and mango trees: the houses are small, seldom more than a thatched cottage; but some of the dewals, or temples, situated in deep glens, overshadowed by the burr-tree, have a solemn appearance. These secluded spots are occupied by Brahmins, whose religious ceremonies are strangely contrasted by the

104

VILLAGE OF HARRASAR.

antic tricks of the monkeys, which, with green pigeons, bulbuls, and other birds, enliven the surrounding groves.

We sometimes extended our rides for several miles into the Mahratta country, and frequently visited the village of Harrasar, celebrated for the sanctity of its temple, the beauty of the women, and for having been the residence of the ancestors of the Brahmin family who at present govern the Mahratta empire. It is inhabited by a high caste of Brahmins; the women are certainly extremely beautiful, characterized by an elegant form, antelope eyes, and a fairer complexion than the lower classes of Hindoos: their jetty locks are richly adorned with jewels; their garment consists of a long piece of silk, or muslin, put on in graceful folds, falling like the drapery of the Grecian statues.

The simplicity of the patiarchal age was realized in the rural occupations of the women at Harrasar: the pastoral lives of the Mesopotamian damsels, and many customs described by Homer, still exist in the Brahmin villages of the Concan: there women of the first distinction, like Rebeka and Rachael, draw water at the public wells, tend the cattle to pasture, wash their clothes in the tanks, and gather the flowers of the nymphea, for their innocent sacrifice at the dewal, and its foliage for plates and dishes.

The wells are situated thirty miles from Fort Victoria, and two from Dazagon: there are several hot springs, and three baths of different dimensions, varying in heat from 104 to 108 degrees; the cases in which the external and internal use of these waters has been most successful, are visceral obstructions being chalybeate and purgative, their ge

neral effect in drinking and bathing, is to carry off superfluous bile, create an appetite, and promote perspiration by relaxing the fibres, without exhausting the strength, they seem peculiarly adapted to invigorate the system, and counteract the languor incident to Europeans in the torrid zone. The Dazagon wells are in essential respects similar to those at Visraboy, in another part of the Concan, nearer to Bombay; and much resorted to from thence.

The voyage from Fort Victoria to Dazagon affords an inland navigation of great variety: the river, seldom wider than four or five hundred yards, winds through

chain of hills, stored with timber, or covered with jungle; and the banks are fringed with salt wood, an evergreen resembling the laurel: an opening valley sometimes presents a view of arable land, villages, and cattle; succeeded by woody mountains, waterfalls, and precipices in the narrow parts the branches unite over the stream, which is enlivened by monkies, squirrels, and various kinds of birds; all familiar, from being seldom molested: among the halcyon tribes, displaying all the vivid tints of azure, green, and orange, common in other countries, is a black and white kingfisher, with an elegant tuft of the same plumage, not seen at Bombay.

Few prospects exceed that from Dazagon hill, where the English resident of Fort Victoria had a small villa, in which we spent a few days: it commands a view of the river meandering through an extensive valley, and forming a number of islands, clothed with wood, and abounding in villages, cattle, fisheries, and agriculture: this beautiful landscape is bounded by verdant hills and lofty mountains. It was at sunrise I first beheld this lovely scene. I seated myself under a mango-tree with

my sketch-book, wondering how any one could remain in a house, where nature was so lavish of her charms: but short are all rural pleasures between the tropics. Situated under the immediate influence of the sun, in less than an hour the sky appeared as in a glow of fire. At that time I had never felt the effects of what are emphatically called the hot-winds, nor had I experienced anything to equal the heat at Dazagon: on the seacoast the atmosphere is tempered by its breezes; but their refreshing influence does not extend to the interior districts of the Concan, or Guzerat, where the hot-winds generally prevail from the middle of March until the commencement of the rainy season; while Bombay, from its insular situation, is happily excluded from their effects. These scorching blasts begin about ten o'clock in the morning, and continue till sun-set: by noon, the black wood furniture becomes like heated metal, the water more than tepid, and the atmosphere so parching, that few Europeans could long support it, if the delicious coolness of the nights did not in a great degree alleviate the heat of the day. In the house at Dazagon, Farhenheit's thermometer, at sunrise, seldom exceeded eighty degrees; at noon on the same day, it often rose to one hundred and twelve. The European convalescents sent from the hospitals at Bombay for the benefit of the hot-wells, complain much of lassitude, diminished appetite, and impaired digestion during the prevalence of the hot-winds; which seem to counteract the efficacy of the waters: those symptoms in a greater or lesser degree, affected all our party, after leaving the coast, refreshed by the salubrious breezes from the ocean. My stay at Dazagon and the hot-wells, afforded me an opportunity of seeing more of Indian farming and agriculture, than in the contracted limits of Bom