Το quantities as to take fire like gunpowder. add to our miseries, the ship is infested with rats; and it frequently happens, that, in the morning, we find in the butt, among our daily supply of water, six or eight dead rats-the reptiles, in attempting to steal the water during the night, fall in and are drowned. 8th November. Light variable winds and pleasant weather. At day light saw the land of India distant about 10 leagues. At 7 A. M. a strange sail appeared in sight, bearing down towards us, which proved to be an Indiaman, who joined us at noon. Particular attention has been paid to practising the men in the exercise of the great guns and small arms, as it is very likely we may have to try our strength with the enemy. The last occasion when the Company's ships were engaged in action was on the 15th Feb. 1805. teen sail of the Company's ships, homeward bound from China, under the command of Commodore Dance, fell in with a French squadron under Admiral Linois, near the Straits of Malacca. The Company's vessels formed in order of battle, and engaged, the van being led by Captain Timins of the Royal George, who engaged the Admiral's ship, a vessel of 80 guns, and received no less than 60 shot in his hull and rigging. Six The French, finding themselves so warmly received, set all sail and fairly ran away, and left the Company's ships in quiet possession of the field. Commodore Dance was knighted on his return home, and the Captains of the other vessels had handsome swords presented to them by the East India Company for their gallant conduct. 10th November. We have on board an old Quarter-master; he has sailed in the ship since she was first afloat, and is looked upon by all on board as a privileged person. He has no failing, except sometimes taking an extra glass. He has been five times to India and China in the ship. He was taken ill of dysentery a few days ago, and is now in a dangerous state. He has read much of his Bible for two days past; he says he knows he is dying, and is quite resigned to die on board : it is the only home he has known for ten years, but he says he would have liked better if it had been the will of God that he had been spared till the ship reached Bengal, that he might have been buried on shore, and not thrown overboard to the sharks. It is deeply affecting to gaze on his storm-beaten countenance, furrowed with many a hard gale, and to see him dying among strangers, far from home and kindred. The poor man died at 7 P. M., "And there he lay in his coarse cold shroud, And strangers were round the coffinless; 11th November. Squally weather; at 3 A. M. two of the best seamen in the ship fell overboard. They were sent out by the third mate to stow the jib, and the sail flapping with the wind knocked them both overboard. The ship went right over one of them, and he was never seen again; but William Chalmers was observed close to the ship, and he gave a most unearthly yell as the vessel passed him; the life buoy was cut a drift, and fell within a few yards of him; the ship was hove to, and a boat lowered down, which pulled in the supposed direction, but could not see either the life buoy or him. Three blue lights were burned to direct the boat back to the ship which returned without success. There can be little doubt but one of the men reached the buoy. The ship sailed away and left him alone on the wide sea. It is dreadful to think how many dismal nights and scorching days he may have passed on the life buoy before death put an end to his sufferings. The spot where he was left abounded with sharks, and in all probability he whom "wind and waters spared," fell a prey to the remorseless jaws of these rapacious monsters. 19th November. Reached the Sand heads, when the Pilot came on board and took charge of the ship; and on the 23d we anchored at Saugor Roads, about three miles off shore. Saugor island is said at one time to have been extremely populous, ruins of brick buildings have been found in many parts of the Island, buried under the jungle, but the history of its former inhabitants is lost in oblivion. A great fair takes place here annually, at which the poor Hindoos offer up human sacrifices to the tigers and alligators. To what a dreadful state must superstition have goaded on the human mind before a mother will consent to throw her living child into the jaws of an alligator! CHAPTER II. 'Tis the clime of the east, 'tis the land of the sun, Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done? Oh! wild as the accents of lover's farewell, Are the hearts which they bear, and the tales which they tell. I HAD not been many days at Saugor before I was seized with a slow intermitting fever; but so soon as I was out of danger I went up to Calcutta. Calcutta is situated on the banks of the river Hoogly, and contains four or five hundred thousand inhabitants. The villages in the neighbourhood are so populous, that within twenty miles round Calcutta there are about two million of inhabitants. The domestic habits of the wealthy natives are costly and extravagant; their houses |