Kis wife was taken suddenly ill of cholera; he asked me for calomel and laudanum out of my private medicine chest, which I gave him. Next day, at ten A. M., I called to inquire for her, and found her stretched out a corpse on the table, and I attended her funeral the same afternoon. I have now been three months and a half in Calcutta. The state of my health is far from satisfactory. Fever, liver complaint, and cholera, have left me a mere shadow-a walking ghost. I am daily becoming weaker. My medical attendant says, that nothing but a change of air, to Europe, has any chance of restoring me to health, and he has urged me to go home without delay, which advice I have resolved to follow. It now becomes an interesting and instructive consideration how many adventurers from Europe have come out here, full of the hope of realising fortunes, and who, after two or three years' residence in this country, have either fallen victims to the climate, or their constitutions have received such a shock from disease, as to hold out no hopes of recovery here, and who have thus been forced to return home. I have heard it stated, that of those Europeans who come to reside in India, (including Company's 50196 recruits,) only three out of a hundred ever return to their native land. This is very disheartening to those adventurers who come to push their fortunes here, and is a fact that should not be lost sight of by parents who are looking to the East Indies as a provision for their sons. Surely when they think that there are thirty-three chances to one against their son's returning with a fortune, or indeed of his ever returning at all, they will pause before they send him here. My short career in India is not a solitary case. It has been the fate of thousands before me; but how many are there here, who, though sick unto death, and yearning to behold their native land, are not at liberty to depart, in consequence of their being almost buried in debt! These unfortunate men are truly to be pitied; they pine in perpetual exile till death puts an end to their sufferings. It has been my desire to give a faithful picture of what awaits the Indian adventurer. I do not here speak of the civil servants of the Company, who enjoy exclusive privileges, but of free mariners, and all those unfriended adventurers who come out to India to fill subordinate situations at the Presidences, or on board ships, or up the country; and I now tell them that their chance of making a fortune is small indeed; their chance of health still smaller; and that there are the most fearful odds against them ever returning with a fortune, or even with their "bare life" to the land of their birth. CHAPTER VIII. "On full-spread wings our vessel sprang away, 12th January. After taking farewell of all my acquaintances, I hired a boat to convey me to Saugor Road-stead, where I embarked on board ship. I sailed from Saugor on the 21st January for England, to touch on the way at Madras, the Cape of Good Hope, and St Helena. I arrived at Madras on the 29th January, and the next day went ashore in a Mupolah boat. As I neared the shore, the surf had a very alarming appearance; the extreme lightness of the boat, however, prevented it from being engulphed amid the waters. A tremendous wave came up astern, which threatened to overwhelm us, but we rose on its bosom to an immense height, and were swept with great velocity towards the shore; wave after wave followed till the boat was cast high and dry on the land. When the surf takes the boat, the boatmen pull hard to prevent the wave as it recedes carrying the boat back, but notwithstanding all their exertions, boats are often capsised, and frequently some of the passengers are drowned or devoured by the sharks. A Catamaran generally attends the boat when danger is to be apprehended. A Catamaran is five or six logs of wood lashed firmly together, across which two or three natives sit, their legs doubled up under them. These Catamarans can land at Madras when no boats dare to venture, and they are often of great use in case of accidents in crossing the surf. I remained three days on shore. The town of Madras is built on a flat line of coast. The European part of it consists of a number of country houses, in the middle of gardens, which are spread over several miles. Their handsome verandahs in front have a fine appearance; they are covered over with chunam plaster, the white glare from which has a rather unpleasant effect on the eyes. Business is principally transacted at Black Town, where the Portuguese and the natives reside, and |