The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-22 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 22, 1857.

826

man of great talent and ability, endowed
" with an excellent gay humour and mirthful
temper," and then under Lieut. Hart, whose
treatment was " brotherly," but who falling ill
of fever became "very peevish," and so Lut-
fullab, feeling " disgusted with the world,"
parted from his patron " not in a friendly way,"
and once more started with nothing but a few
rupees and his wits to seek his fortune. He
soon found another patron, and finally settled
at the camp at Khaira. One day he visits the
sea for the first time, and with the simple
superstition of his race thus relates his ad-
ventures :

On beholding the immense body of water and ita regular
ebb and flow I was struck with astonishment at the un•
limited power of the one Supreme Being, before whom the
whole of the universe is no more than an atom. Deeply
engaged in such meditations, as I stood one evening at the
seaside looking at the waves on which the large ships
moved up and down, I began to think of the Jain tenets,
according to which matter is eternal and self-existent; but
before arriving at the conclusion of the blasphemous
syllogism, I was startled by a severe bite from a dog in the
calf of my leg, who came slily behind me, and,after punish.
lug me for my crime. ran away like a shot.. I followed him
with my stick for a little distance to revenge the Injury, but
in vain ; the animal vanished from my sight, and I returned
home with very great. pain in my leg.

Six years passed in taking pupils and in
learningl English placed him in comparative
affluence, and of course h-3 married. His re-
flections at this period of his life would lead
us to believe that Lutfullah had been hasty in
his choice and lived to repent at leisure :

Man is naturally deluded by temptations, and in many
cases he is not undeceived until he finds himielf completely
entangled in the net of trouble. In overrating small evils
we generally bring upon ourselves heavier ones. The
dream of my happiness in the married state was but a short
one, and I soon found myself more involved in domestic
anxieties than before. When a bachelor, I thought for
myself only, but now I had to think fur another person too,
whose fate had joined mine. The repletion of my purse
likewise began to be changed for depletion; and to crown all
these difficulties, to my great sorrow, I discovered my new
companion to be of very pettish and hypochondriacal tem-
per, to which I had to submit in future.
But Lutfullah was a fatalist, and submitting
decently to the decree of his destiny, learned,
when his wife died some years afterwards, to
mourn her loss sincerely, and—to marry again
as soon as possible.
During his stay at Sattara he witnessed a
suttee, and describes it with great p aver. His
English companions reasoned with the widow,
a young girl of fifteen, and one of them
(Lieut. Earle) observed to her:

" My good lady, pray consider over the act once more
act not against your reason; you must be sure that we are
your friends and not your enemies, that we would save you
from the horrid death b} all means at a slight signal of
your consent, and would make an hononrable provision for
you during your life." And he added, "You should try the
experiment of burning your little finger before committing
your whole precious body to the flames." But, alas ! her
fanactism had advanced too far beyond the reach of this
and such wholesome advice; and with a scornful smile she
told Mr. Earle that she was highly obliged to him for his
kindness, of which she did not stand in need; that her
word was one and unalterable. She then, boldly tearing
up a slip of her handkerchief, dipped it into the oil of the
burning lamp (usually placed before satis whether day or
night), and Ming it round her little finger, she lighted it trp
.Wth eagerness, and it burnt on like a candle for a little
while, and then diffused the smell of burning flesh, during
w:iich the young beauty talked on to the audience, without
a sigh or sob to indicate the pain ; yet the marks of the
blood's rush to the face, attended with a profuse perspire.
tion on her brow, betrayed her feeling to our unbiassed
and sorrowful mind. The fit of this enthusiastic frenzy is
added and maintained, I believe, by the effect of some min
optics, particularly of camphor, a large quantity of which
i 4 administered by the hardhearted Brahman* to the poor
victims, which is swallowed up by them immediately after
they have uttered their intention of selfdestruction, in the
sudden impulse of grief at their bereavement. The effect
soon spreads over the nervous system. stupefacation ensues,
and the whole body is benumbed before it goes to the fire
to be consumed. The pile now being ready, the corpse
was washed and laid inside, and about half a pound of
camphor in a bundle tied round the neck of the damsel ;
she got up with her usual alacrity, invoking her gods, and
rushed to the fatal spot in the same way as a moth to the
flame. She then walked round the pile seven times, and
having entered it, she placed the head of her dead husband
in her lap, and herself holding a burning wick between the
big and second toes of her left foot, she set fire to the com-
bustibles interwoven with the logs of firewood.

Mixing now so much among the English,
Lutfullah rapidly acquired our language. It
is amusing to read his personal experiences of
the different Englishmen with whom he was
thrown in contact. Lieut. Webb, of the
Artillery, was " a very nice entleman and an
" over-zealous Christian "; Ensign Eastwick
was “a promising youth, with an extraordi-
" nary memory." What he once acquired was
always found " indelible on the tablet of his

" pure mind." " His invaluable society," adds
Lutfullah with charming simplicity, " became
" so precious to me that I remained in his
" service almost all the time of his stay in
" India, excepting some intervals, during
" which higher emoluments tempted me to
"leave him for some time." With the Hon.
Mountstuart Elphinstone he was much struck,
and " greatly admired his amiable, cogent, and
" comprehensive conversation." Sir Henry Pot-
tinger he declares was " a real man, wise as Solo-
" mon, and enterprising as Alexander ;" but of
Sir H. Fanc he had not a favourable opinion ; he
admits that he was tall, well-made, awl intelli-
gent, but ho seemed to have had " no lessons
" of politeness," and that in an Oriental's eyes
is a fatal objection.
Lutfullah attended Captain Eastwick, who
accompanied Sir Henry, then Colonel, Pottin.
ger into Scinde at the time of the Cabul
campaign, under Lord Keane. It was the
object of the British Government to obtain a
passage through Scinde for a division of the
army, and Lutfullah gives us some instructive
details as to the feeling of the Sindhis when
we first appeared in their country. The
" omnivorous English" were feared. Here is
a conversation carried on outside his tent by
some Sindhis, and which he overhears :
The general theme of their discourse was Government
affairs. One party remarked that the country was lost—
the English would take it very soon. "The Titli.iirs them
selves, especially Mir Sidbiliir," said they, " are to blame
for being too friendly with the omnivorous English: they
have taken all India; in the same way they will soon take
this country." Another responded, " You are mistaken, my
friends. Let the Tidpiirs of Hydrabad make themselves
Christians; but fear not, as long as we have Shir Mohamed
of Nfirptir on our side. His late Highness Mir Karam
Ali's widow has furnished, and will always furnish him
with funds sufficient to carry on a perpetual war with all
the Farangis in the world; and if God pleases, we can be
masters of all the gold and implements of war that they
are labouring to bring into our country. Know you not
the verse of our Holy Hook, ' One true believer is suffi-
cient to defeat ten infidels ?' " A third white•bearded

Sindhi, with a profound sigh, observed, "Ah my friends,
your dream is somewhat too extravagant; you have never
seen the tricoloured, viz., the white, brown, and dark
devils, fighting jointly on a field of battle. Whilst in the
service of H. H. the Peshwa, I was an eye-witness of
their hard fights in the I)akhan. Here is an unquestion-
able proof : " saying this, he tucked np his sleeve and
showed a scar, which demonstrated a clear transit of a
bullet through his left arm. He concluded by saying, " A
man may overmatch another, or perhaps two or three, if
the contest is to be decided by the sword, but these
cowardly Satans have no sword, and if they have any it is
as blunt as your walking stick. They will kill you with
their rascally shots whilst you are a mile or so offfrom them,
and then what is the remedy ? " Such discussions by the
side of my tent walls often amused me much ; and some-
times, rising front my seat, I intruded upon them, and
preached to them in my broken Sindhi, that the English
would not take their miserable country, producing only
fish and rice, even if it were forced upon them ; that they
had sufficient golden territories to govern and manage,
and that they were stanch friends of the Amirs ; that
their forces were now passing through the country fur the
purpose of protecting their possessions in India, as well
as the Amirs' territory, from foreign aggression. To
this they would reply with a chorus of laughter," What
you say, sir, may be true, but we are rude people; we
cannot comprehend high policies of government. Ha!
ha! ha!"

We can see from this how much super•
stition and fear have contributed hitherto to
maintain our supremacy in India. It is fear
that has bound the native to us, and a species
of general acquiescence in the notion that fur
the time our power was irresistible. The
Biltichis did not care to understand /a haute
politique, but the) comprehended artillery.
Having occasion to impose upon the Amirs
a new treaty, which by demanding a large
tribute literally at the point of the bayonet, for
a powerful army was collected within a few miles
of Hydrabad, secured their neutrality during
the Cabal war, Capt. Eastwick was deputed to
be the bearer of this disagreeable intelligence.
It was a service of some danger. Lutfullah
accompanied him, and he sketches for us the
Sindhi Darbar with great felicity. The passage
is too long for extract, and will not bear abbre-
viation.

The Darbir broke up badly, and the situa-
tion of Captain Eastwick was precarious, but
the Amirs at last agreed to the terms—and the
end of it all is that the "omnivorous" English
now enjoy possession of Sindh.
We must hurry through the narrative from
this period to that wherein Lutfullah accepts
a permanent appointment under the Nawab
of Surat. noticing en passant the curious objec-
tion made, he tells us, by Kamal Khan, a wily
old %litchi chieftain, to an alliance with the

English. He objected because the ultimate
object of the English, he said, was generally
believed to be the conversion of the people to
Christianity ; and ho expressly stipulated that,
if he served the English, it should be only on
condition of non-interference with his religion !
This is a singular fact, as clearly showing the
religious element in the present contest to be
no sudden impulse, but rather a deep-rooted
fear, which the arbitrary acts of the British
Government during recent years have revived
and invigorated.
The case of the Nawab of Surat is fresh in
our readers' minds, and we need only say that
Lutfullah, having accepted an appointment as
secretary to his Highness Mir Jafir Ali, ac-
companied that prince to England so soon as
the Government of India " had sent out its
" dreadful order " abolishing the title of the
Nuwitb. A " lucky hour " having been fixed
by the astrologers, they left Bombay on the
12th March, 1844, en route to England, and
this is an extremely interesting portion of
Lutfullah's career. His adventures are told
with genuine truthfulness, and with a
minuteness of detail showing no ordi-
nary power of observation. At first start-
ing they get into a gale of wind, which dis-
tresses every one on board, and Lutfullah
being very seasick, exhibits a tendency to
scandal, for he declares that the captain
" walked up and down with a cigar
" iu his mouth and the effect of the for-
" bidden liquor in his head." They reach
Ceylon, and, landing at Galle for a few
days, take up their quarters at the English
hot; 1, where in the morning, " to their great
" astonishment and disgust," they behold "
" heard of unclean animals running. grunting,
" snorting, and roaring about our rooms."
The " abominable sight " drove them from the
Christian roof to the house of a true Muslim
in the town, with whom they have " pleasant
" and instructive talk." On the sth day the
P. and 0. steamer Bentinck, "like a roaring
" Satan forcing its way through the sea, with
" its four tremendous wheels at work, making
" a dreadful noise,. and. sending up its smoke
" to the sky," heaves in sight, and on the next
morning the Prince and his suite embark and
arrive at Suez in due time without mishap.
At Alexandria Lutfullah is charmed with the
kindness and hospitality of Mr. and Mrs.
Larking, the latter " a lady consummate in
" beauty and noble in mind," who talked
Arabic freely, and with good accent. Lut-
fullah chronicles this as the first time that he
" saw and heard a fair mouth scattering pearls
" of eloquent phrases in that scientific lan-
" guage; and he confesses that in conversing
with her he considers himself as " having the
" felicity of confabulating with one of the
" gazelle-eyed nymphs of Paradise !" They
spend six days in Alexandria, see all the
lions, and, enchanted with the hospitality
shown them, and with such courtesy and kind.
ness as " can never be met with from the
Christians in India," leave for England. " The
" fact is," says Lutfullah, " that the more you
" proceed towards England the more you find
" the English people endowed with politeness
" and civility." This is a curious remark,
and significant of the tendency of our rulers
in India

From Alexandria to England Lutfullah chroni-
cles every event of importance. He is " ac-
" tually struck with amazement, awe, and
" admiration " to see " the incomparable for-
" tress of Gibraltar ;" and as it n'y a qu'un
" pas du sublime au ridicule, when he
arrives off Southampton he is enraptured
with the bumboat women who come alongside,
" fresh and fair damsels," he calls them,
"of dazzling beauty." Upon landing of
course they are mobbed, and the medical
gentleman in the suite, as the mob shout
" Hurrah!" becomes very angry, and calls
them " over-curious white devils," who have
"no respect to caste or age "; but all these
little difficulties are overcome, and the " city
" of enchantments," London, is at last reached
by means of the " fairy vans." The Nawab
was wise enough to prefer private lodgings
to Mivart's, and here soliloquises Lutfullah

We settled after our long voyage from the middle of the
globe to the end of the world, where the sun appears, far
to the south, as weak as the moon, and the polar star
nearly vertical; where the country all over is fertile, and

the people ingenious, civil, and active; where the langnag?
customs, and tanners are entirely different from our own ;
where, in fine, the destiny of our sweet native land lies in
the band of site twenty-five great men. It cannot be, I
am sore. without the will of that one Supreme Being that
this small island, which seems on the globe like a mole on
the body of a man, should command the greater part of
the world, and keep the rest in awe.
- •

And now, having brought him safely to
London, we must leave him in the hands of
our readers. They will learn from him his
admiration for our wonderful bridges, his as-
tonishment and entertainment at the opera,
where " two very handsome ladies very inde-
" cently dressed" appeared upon the stage,
and "danced expertly," whirling round so that
"their short gowns flew up the forbidden
" height," and violated decorum. They will
see how he passed his evenings delight-
fully in the " enjoyment of good society ;"
how he went to a party at Lord Ashley's,
and was introduced to Lady Jocelyn, " the
loveliest of English beauties," and how
he had the honour of playing at chess with
•' this nymph of Paradise ;" and how he went
to the House of Lords and heard "the question
•' of the duty on sugar most ably discussed,"
and, visiting the East India Directors,
to' nd Colonel Sykes to be " a man of sublime
" mind, endowed with high attainments, con-
" siderable ability, and acute understanding ;"
and then how the Nawab and his suite called
upon Lord Ripon, at the Board of Control, who
received them with the courtesy " natural to
" the nobility of England," but, "feeling his
pulse" with regard to their business, found
his lordship " a very stiff and dlfferent man
altogether;'' or how they went to Ascot to see
" what horse would win and what horse would
" lose," or to Westminster Abbey, where " the
" abbot, a very polite young man, of great
" ability and talent," showed them the lions ;
or how they dined at Greenwich and Rich-
inond, and visited Windsor and Woolwich ; or,
in point of fact, how they " did " London, and
did it as thoroughly as her Majesty of the
Netherlands, for they saw everything, from
the Ojibbeways to Tom Thumb and Astley's,
and finally tore themselves away, much against
their inclination; loetheir native land—all this
the reader will find detailed with gusto in the
pages of Lutfullah's diary, which are sprinkled
with quaint reflections upon whatever is
striking or singular in our customs or our
pleasures ; and it is thus that he sums up the
character of the English people :
T may now sum up the character of the English, by
saying they are entirely submissive to the law and obedient
to the commands of their superiors. Their sense of
patriotism is greater than that of any nation in the world.
Their obedience, trust, and submission to the female sex
are far beyond the limit of moderation. In fact, the free.
dom granted to womankind in this country is great, and
the mischief arising from this unreasonable toleration is
most deplorable.

This is ungallant of Lutfullah, after all the
pleasure he professes to have experienced
from the society of our " nymphs of Paradise ;"
but he promises us another volume of memoirs,
and so we will reserve our indignation for the
present, and only compliment him upon the
entertaining and very readable volume he has
presented to the British public.