Certificate of length of service.
Certificate of being allowed a furlough.
Certificate of date to which pay has been issued.
If from Bengal, a certificate from the pilot in duplicate of the date of the ships leaving the Sandheads; and, if it be intended to claim income-allowance from the military fund, a certificate from the secretary to the fund of being entitled to such an allowance.
MUSSOOLAH BOAT.
The voyage from India to Suez, as far as the attractions of the intermediate ports are concerned, presents very few charms for the traveller; and, even if they were numerous, the stay at each place is so brief, that there is scarcely any opportunity of enjoying them; but every change is acceptable to the landsman confined for several days on shipboard, more particularly if the scenes he beholds have a dash of novelty in them. Arrived at Madras, therefore (we speak now to the Bengal officer), he will pull ashore in one of the Mussoolah boats, whose peculiar construction and safe navi gation through the surf that perpetually rolls upon the shore at that port has always been a subject of surprise to the novice. If he have a friend at the Presidency, he will probably get the use of a carriage for the day, if not, he will be able to hire a "shigram" (palanquin carriage), or a "a bandy" (gig), and drive to all the most striking parts in the town. The Mount-road, with its numerous European shops, and monument to Sir Thomas Munro, the fort and the arsenal, the college, the public stables, the government house, the Athenæum library, the Black town, &c., will furnish subjects of inspection enough to occupy a few hours very pleasantly.
Ceylon.—The next point on the route has its attractions for the Madras, as well as the Bengal, officer. An idea of these may be gathered from the following lively and intelligent description of a visit to Point de Galle, the coaling port, derived from "The Monthly Times," and written by a gentleman who had touched there in the "Hindostan," on his way to England:—
"On the seventh day, including our twenty-four hours' detention at Madras, after leaving the Sandheads, we found ourselves, in the morning, approaching the beautiful Island of Ceylon, and anchored about noon in Point de Galle harbour. The entrance to the harbour was pretty enough—low rocks, over which the waves were beating and bounding, extended to the left, and a point of land seemed to jut out prominently to them, on which is built the Dutch fort of olden days, and which still retains its characteristic look of Dutch solidity and unavailing massiveness. There is no appearance of town from the ship; and very few habitations visible, or indications of much cultivation. The old Dutch church forms the principal object in the fort. You know I had letters from a family long resident at Galle. I proposed to see them on the following morning, but they would not hear of my remaining on board; so I landed in the afternoon, and soon found all was kindness and hospitality on the part of my new Cingalese acquaintances. The residence was formerly the old Government House, in the days of the Dutch. It was a large, roomy, substantial building; the doors were lofty, and the walls panelled in stucco, and painted with white and ochre; the fittings-up and furniture were plain, but substantially made, of carved ebony and satin-wood.
"On the following day, after a most gloriously comfortable night's rest in a very clean bed and cool, capacious room, we started, after breakfast, in a small palkee-garree and pony, always easily obtainable on hire, to visit a country-house on a hill about three miles from the fort. The drive was through a beautiful and open, well-shaded road, with frequent interspersings of small cleared patches of rice and other cultivation. The road itself was narrow, with ditches on either side, but well metalled with broken granite. The comfortable houses of the burghers rose occasionally by the road side, on little shady eminences, here and there, and seemed neat and peculiarly cozy. They were chiefly oblong, tiled buildings, with a verandah to the front. These burghers are descendants either from the former Dutch or Portuguese possessors of this coast; and many that I saw were not a little darkened in their descent. On reaching the hill, which we had to walk up, I found the sun sadly oppressive; but we were amply repaid for the ascent, for the view from it was superb. The sea was visible, and almost everywhere open to us along the horizon, through the different hills; and every here and there, in our vicinity and below us, were beautiful valleys and richly cleared spots, with well-defined roads running through them, and occasionally cottages and huts dotted in every direction; the grand distant mountains forming afar a tall and varied background.
"I returned to the ship, after dinner, in the evening, much gratified with my visit. The mode of living at Ceylon is more English, in all respects, than at Calcutta; the table more simple—the servants fewer—and the whole character of domestic economy less Oriental than we are accustomed to on the Indian Continent; but the scenery of the island itself is far from partaking of this un-Oriental appearance; it realises, in everything, all we fancy and read of in descriptions of tropical islands. The closeness and abundance of the vegetation, the variety of Eastern jungle trees, the palm-like characteristic towering of the cocoa and beetle-nut tree, everywhere prominent in the luxuriant woods around you, all tend to give to Ceylon a picturesque and Eastern style of beauty, very different from the low plains and unvaried flatness of the country in Bengal.