This second expedition is to be to the highest point visible from Balasore. No human being has ever yet ascended it, and the natives pretend that it is impracticable; however, we mean to try. I should like to set my foot where no man has ever trodden. We shall go well armed with guns, pistols, and swords; we are also each to carry a hatchet and a billhook, to cut our way through the jungle.
We intend to take a barometer and thermometer in order to measure the height, and go well attended by natives. It is said that this hill is tenanted by all sorts of wild beasts, but we shall be too well armed to fear them. The inhabitants are a very savage race, and offer up human sacrifices; but they will hardly dare to attack white men. I am very fond of these excursions; the exercise I consider good for me—whilst at Guzzeepuddee I was ten or eleven hours on my feet each day; and another great advantage is, that they cost nothing beyond the price of powder and shot. I must now start for Cuttack. I found in the jungle the skeleton of a small boa constrictor: it is perfect except the lower jaw. I told one of my servants to take care of it. When I returned to Balasore he had lost it; I said, if he did not find it again I should deduct a rupee from his month's wages. His answer was, "O representative of God, you are the father and the mother of your slave, and you must do with him as you think fit." However, he managed to find the skeleton.
[Midnapore, February 1, 1844.]
BHABANESWAR AND CUNDEGANEE.
When I returned to Cuttack the last time I found that my wife had been rather poorly for some days; I therefore determined that I would take her out for a little excursion. We accordingly sent out a tent and all necessary apparatus, and then started with some friends of ours—a Captain of Engineers and his wife, and a couple of children—to explore two of the most extraordinary places in India, Bhabaneswar and Cundeganee. At the former there are nine hundred and ninety-nine temples, besides numerous tombs, &c.: at the latter place some very high hills, perforated in every direction with artificial caves; a palace, statues, and animals, cut out of the solid rock; long inscriptions in some language now forgotten; images of gods, of which the Hindus know nothing.
The trip did my wife a great deal of good; but almost immediately after our return to Cuttack I was attacked by one of the fearful diseases of the country. Fortunately I knew what it was by the very first symptoms, and therefore went to the doctor at once. The disease is what we call liver; in England it is called, I think, inflammation of the liver. It is accompanied by a soreness in the side and acute pain in the shoulder. The doctor immediately took most energetic pains to reduce me both in size and in strength, and he succeeded so well that all danger was soon over. Directly I was better I was ordered change of air, starvation, and exercise.