16th.—The native boys whom I see swimming and sporting in the river of an evening, are much better off than the poor people in England. I wish we had some of them here, on whom to bestow a fine cold saddle of mutton. A round of beef would be of importance to them. You may imagine how much must be thrown away, when you cannot with the greatest care, at this season, keep meat good for more than twenty-four hours; and roasted meat will only keep until the next day.
In Calcutta, the tank water being unwholesome to drink, it is necessary to catch rain water, and preserve it in great jars; sixty jars full will last a year in our family. It is purified with alum, and a heated iron is put into it. Here we drink the Ganges water, reckoned the most wholesome in India; it is purified in jars in the same manner. The water of the Jumna is considered unwholesome, and in some parts, my old ābdār declares, it is absolutely poisonous.
We were glad to quit Allahabad, the small-pox having commenced its ravages at that station. On our arrival at Cawnpore, we found it raging still worse; the magistrate took it, and died in three days. Hundreds of children are ill of this disease in the bazār; and the government, in their humanity, have done away with the vaccine department here. Surely it is a cruel act, where there are so many regiments and so many European children, who cannot now be vaccinated. It is very severe, and numbers of adults have been attacked.
In India wax candles are always burned. A bearer will not touch a mould because they say it is made of pig’s fat. We burn spermaceti generally. The first time the bearers saw them, they would not touch the spermaceti, and I had great difficulty in persuading them the candles were made from the fat of a great fish. Some bearers in Calcutta will not snuff a candle if it be on the dinner-table, but a khidmatgār having put it on the ground, the bearer will snuff it, when the other man replaces it. In the upper provinces they are not so particular.
One of the grass-cutters has been sent to the hospital, dying, I fear, of fever. Every horse has a sā’īs (groom) and a grass-cutter allowed him: the latter goes out every morning, perhaps some four or five miles, cuts a bundle of grass, and brings it home on his head. The men are exposed to the sun so much, and live so badly, it is no wonder they fall ill of fever; besides which, they are extremely fond of arrak (bazār spirits). Wine they delight in: when the empty bottles are carried from the house to the godown, the grass-cutters often petition to have the dregs of the wine. They pour off into their lotas (brass drinking cups) the remains of all the bottles, mixing beer, sherry, claret, vinegar, hock, champagne, in fact, any thing of which they can find a drop; and then, sitting down, each man drinks a portion and passes the cup to his neighbour, often saying “Bahut achchhā, bahut achchhā,” very good, very good, and eagerly looking out for his turn again, and fair play.
I have several times made them put this vile mixture away for another day, or they would have drunk it until the whole was finished.
21st.—Finding the night very oppressive, I quitted my chārpāī, and putting on a cambric dressing-gown and slippers, went out on the platform by the river and stayed there an hour, there being a little breeze to refresh me. You may imagine how dry the air must be; I had no fear of cold, no want of a shawl, and my light dress was sufficiently warm. It was as fine a starlight night as I have seen in India. The horses are sick, burnt up in their stables, which are made on a bad principle; they feel the want of the large, cool, loose boxes they had at Allahabad.
August 4th.—It is said, the Earl of C⸺ lost 65,000 rupees a short time ago, by forgeries committed in Calcutta: the person at the head of the forgeries was Rajah Buddinath Roy, a native prince in high favour with Lord Amherst; and I rather imagine his lordship has suffered also by the Rajah’s forged bills. On dit, he used to talk about Christianity as if in time he might be converted; he subscribed to schools and missionary societies, and distributed Bibles—the bait took—in return he was allowed such and such honorary attendance, as by the Company’s regulations a native may not have without permission. This flattered his pride, and his seemingly religious disposition secured him from suspicion falling upon him as a forger, especially of passing forged bills on the Governor-general. The case is now being tried in Court.