The Sun.
London, England, 1824-10-02 00:00:00

TRAVELLING IN INDIA.

As so many of our country-men visit our posses•
sions in the East, anti the intercourse is perpe-
tually increasing, we have selected the following
passages from Captain SEELY'S " WONDERS OF
ELORA," a work which we have several times
drawn to the notice of our readers, and which
is calculated to afford them much amusr:ment
and information.

" It would surprise a stranger," says the Author, " to see the
kindness and attention a traveller meets with in all parts of India;
if he is but respectable, he is sure in every part to meet with a
friendly reception ; and, if only known by a single line of in-
troduction, his arrival is looked for with pleasure, and the time
of his departure with regret. I mean no offence by the ob-
servation, but there is a great talk in England of hospitality
and good fellowship; but it is in India where it is understood
and practised. There is a shyness, a coldness, and reserve in
the English that is very irksome to an old Indian on his first
arrival in England. Under this frigid exterior, however, we
often find hit the best qualities of the heart, and the most ge-
nerous and virtuous principles."
If there is less hospitality in England than in India, the de-
ficiency seems to be counterbalanced by other advantages: for
we are told that—
" In the rainy season, with the execrable state of the roads,
rivulets, or nullahs, running impetuously, and large rivers with-
out bridges, the miserOs of traveling, regulated by a heavily
laden ox's pace, are most intolerable. An Englishman, ac-
customed to the celerity of mail-coaches, the comforts of an inn,
a dry skin, fine roads, and a beautiful country, would be almost
driven mad. The natives of India never possess much energy
or action, and on a heavy monsoon-day,* when well drenched
with rain, they are nearly inanimate : if to this be added journey-
ing in an enemy's country, every blade of grass burnt up, the
wells poisoned, the villages destroyed and deserted, and you,
for security's sake, obliged to keep close to your baggage-cattle,
and are walking at a rate not above two miles in the hour,
or hardly that, and the rain falling in torrents for days to-
gether; 1 think an English traveller would lament a little his
hard fate.
" While sojourning after his fatigues on muddy ground, his
baggage wet through, and his servants exhausted, the most
lonely hedge ale-house in Cornwall would appear to him a
palace. If traveling by himself in the fair season, or N.E.
monsoon, with all appliances to boot,' it is but a melancholy
thing ; there being but little on the road to interest or gratify
the traveller, excepting in some large city, where the pride and
vanity of a great man may have erected a splendid mosque or
pagoda, or dug a fine tank, or for defence built a large fort :
the intermediate country is the scene of poverty, wretchedness,
and oppression. I speak of the countries of the native powers ;
our provinces present a very different aspect. As Ido not
mean again to recur to this subject, the following lines will
assist me in the observations on travelling; although from my
own experience I could fill a hundred pages, on Indian travel-
ling, and incidents connected therewith :
" Dust thou, then, listening to the traveller's tale,
Of mountains, wilds, and towns of ancient fame,
And spacious bays and steams, renown'd of name,
That roll their plenty through the freshen'd vale-
-1)ost thou, then, long to voyage far away,
And visit other lands, that thou mity'st view
These varied scenes so beautiful and new ?
Thou dost not know how sad it is to stray
Amid a foreign land, thyself unknown,
And when o'crwaried with the toilsome day,
To rest at eve, anti feel thyself alone.' "
On quitting Capooly, on his way to the Temples of Elora,
Capt. eel thus describes the magnificent scenery :
" A little before daybreak we commenced our formidable
undertaking of what appeared to be nothing less than scaling
the mural sides of towering mountains. The road, after ping
some little distance, becomes very steep, lined with high banks,
and interrupted by large stones and fragments of rock. The
distance may be altogether six miles, but equal to treble that
number in any thing like a good road. Proceeding onwards
on foot, the path at an abrupt angle overhangs a frightful pre-
cipice
and valley, covered with an eternal jungle, and where
probably the foot of man never penetrated ! Ilere, in the very
bottom, peeping out of the deep foliage, gleam the waters of a
few meandering streams, which have iem sources in unknown
parts of the mountains. Beyond this immense hollow are seen
the forms of vast mountains, towering away, as far as the eye
can reach, in rude anti magnificent outline, till they are lost in
the clouds, or their continuity only known by their rent clefts
and peaks peering through the light blue veil of mist.
" In some parts of the road the passage is guttered by little
streams of water, that run gurgling down the precipitous fronts
of the rock, atforiling a pleasing, soothing sound, as we trace
our course through these sequestered spots. Not quite half way
up, is a small patch of table land t, where the traveller is sure
to halt and take some refreshment not more for the purpose
of recruiting his strength than regaining his wind ; for, what
with clambering, slipping, and proceeding up a very steep as-
cent, great personal exertion is required.
" At this spot, the convoys of bullocks, carrying merchan-
dise to and fro, halt for an extra day and night, if greatly fa-
tigued. In their night encampments they take every precau-
tion against thieves anti wild beasts : they select the mural side
of an open spot to place their cattle : thus the steep side of the
mountain flanks one side, while the bags containing the pro-
duce they carry are piled up to some height, and, when placed,
form something like the segment of a circle : within are the fa-
milies, and sometimes cattle. One or two watchmen are sta-
tioned on the top, while fires are burning in front. Their dogs
(tire Brinjarree) are a valuable breed, fierce, strong, anti watch-
ful—evidently a cross of the wolf and domestic dog. Thus will
these carriers travel for 10110 miles with n convoy of as many
laden bullocks; and they are very punctual and honest in their
%Without their aid, according to the mode of warfare
dealings.
well armed, and in critical times have escorts. They have paths in India, whole armies would be starved. They always gv
and routs known only to theniselves, which they traverse from
one extremity of India to the other.
" At this spot I halted for nearly half an hour, enjoying the
happiness of early morn amid some of the most magnificent and
beautiful scenery that can be imagined, and w
eranhich is only f
to be
the vast variety of shades in oriental foliage, a
vegetable world,
found in mountainous regions. The exuberant beauty o the
fine cool morning, the solitude of the pass, anti the constant
change in the character of the mountains, hills, rocks, and val-
leys, as I proceeded upwards, gave an elastici to a youthful
mind that may be felt, but cannot be expressed by a tame wri-
ter like myself. Poetry may assist in this dilemma :
Delightful sure it is at early morning.
To see the sunbeam shine on scenes so fair,
And when the eve the mountain heights adorning
Sinks slow, unpurpling the luxuriant air ;
Pleasant it is at times like these to roam :
But wouldest thou not at night, confined within
Thy foul, anti comfortless, and lonely inn, II
Remember with a sigh the joys of home ?'
• A corruption from the Persian " monsum," a season, the
N.E and S.W. monsoons, improperly applied to the rains only.
t Colonel Fitzelarence' in his late journey down the pass,
observes, "'rise number of beautiful views which continually
presented themselves were delightful. I never in any part
of Spain or Portugal saw finer scenery." Again he says,
" But magnificent and stupendous as the scenery is around, it
does not, I am told, in any degree equal the ghauts to the south-
ward." The Colonel further remarks : " I had gone through
so much fatigue and personal exertion, that I was quite unwell
when I reached the bottom." At this ghat, during the late
war, pioneers had been at work : when I went up, it was in all
its original wildness, as the heavy rains had left it. 111ahratta
Government wisely declined improving it ; but, scarcely credi-
ble, with such a strong defence, they allowed, in the late war, a
hater= to go up unmolested—the astrologers having predicted
that it was not a lucky day for fighting !
A traveller is usually accompanied by a servant, carrying
a basket of refreshments.
It For inn, read hut or hovel, often in part occupied by cows
or venomous reptiles, and generally proof to neither wind nor
water, buffaloes, covered with cobwebs the growth of years, the
retreat of a long niarch, or cattle fatigued, will for a day or two
.save a traveller without either tent or baggage ; ur sonic dales
t arrives too late in the day to be useful.

ANECDOTE OF Loan ERSKINE:7-1N a cause in
which Lord (then INTO ERSPNE was Counsel
for the plaintiff, a watchmaker, to recover the
price of a watch furnished the defendant, the
talents of this eminent Advocate gained a
verdict for his client. The fact was, that a
Gentleman had ordered a watch to be express-
ly made to his directions, and with that indeci-
sion which sometimes appertains to, noble and
distinguished personages, he also• Ordered another,
watch of a similar description from a tradesman
in a different part of the tov!tt. Both were made
—the latter.preferred'.; and an.action,was brought
by the former for the recovery of the, specified
stiumm.fac'efililoenmvecrdoilt,rwi thearsenfo4rrkeo to his opponent,
plaintiff—when
that though the defendan't had got 'the watch, his
client had secured 'the case.