[104] On Colonel Mackenzie's Collection, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. London, 1835, p. 4, vol. ii.
In the immense old palace, surrounded by adjacent edifices and gardens, once occupied by the King of the Coromandel coast, the renowned nabob of the Carnatic, the offices of the English Government employés are at present located. The last of these sovereigns died a few years since, and his former minister receives from the British Government a pension of Rs. 1300 (£130) a month. Great men who have fallen do not ordinarily like to be sought out or gazed at. There is, however, on the contrary, no difficulty in obtaining access to the last minister of the last monarch of the Coromandel coast, who seems to feel flattered by a visit from strangers. On our entering, the venerable old gentleman rose from a rich thick carpet, on which he was sitting cross-legged, held out his hand in the most affable manner, and did us the honour of accompanying us through the palace. He had a long white beard, and wore a white turban on his head, while his person was enveloped in white linen. A splendid staircase conducted to a council-room, adorned with a portrait of the late nabob, life-size, executed in London. A second room has a likeness of George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales, dedicated to his friend, Omadal-Omrah, nabob of the Carnatic, 1st January, 1797, and of Lord Cornwallis, arm in arm with a nabob, the former represented as walking among pines, the latter among palms. In the harness-room and coach-house adjoining, our obliging attendant revealed to us an endless array of golden howdah trappings, gilt with cunning hand, which seemed to have formerly borne the mighty nabob, when riding on his elephant. As we emerged from this lumber room, filled with dust and mud, we perceived in the square before us an immense dust-cloud, which approached nearer and nearer in its gyrations, and gradually assumed the shape of an elephant. It was a gigantic and magnificent specimen, and proved to be the favourite elephant of the last nabob, which, like the minister himself, was reduced to eat the bread of charity. His enormous tusks were sawn half off, for which his attendant assigned the singular reason that the tusks of an elephant must be cut, just as we pair our nails! This pensioner-elephant, however, seemed to find himself in very good quarters, and was a carefully-tended gentle creature, who carried about his chain with his proboscis, and knelt down at the word of command.
Among the other spacious apartments of this deserted palace was the banquetting hall, as it is called, which was represented by various writers as one of the largest rooms in the world, which, however, is a transparent fallacy. It is hard to believe that above a thousand persons could find room in it. At the period of our visit this apartment was used as a barrack for the English troops, in consequence of which the splendid full-length pictures already mentioned were carefully covered. One of the soldiers, anxious to show them to us, tore away the covering of one before we could interfere, when we found it to be a splendid likeness, painted in London, of Sir Thomas Monroe, a former governor of Madras.
In the first few days of our stay in Madras, we made an excursion to the fort of Vellore, distant about 80 miles (English) from Madras, formerly a renowned native fort, which is now reached in a few hours by rail. This line passes through a flat uninteresting country, which is barely relieved here and there by a couple of solitary palms or a Hindoo temple, and altogether presents a strongly African character in its scenery. Only at those points, at which there are tanks, or artificial basins, either excavated or formed by damming the water, does there occur a luxuriant green vegetation covering the parched, brown, dusty soil. These tanks are filled in the rainy season, and during the dry season, which continues for months, supply the rice-fields with water for irrigation, the culture of that plant requiring an unusually large supply of water.
If English railroads are proverbially comfortable in the mother-country, they certainly fall off lamentably in that particular in the cars used in India. This deficiency is the more provoking and remarkable, considering the various other appliances for comfort which are to be found in this country. The conductor, as well as the other servants of the Company, was a Hindoo. On the entire line we saw but five or six white men employed. The fares are pretty moderate, that for the entire distance, 80 miles, being Rupees 7½ (15s.), for first-class, and Rupees 3 (6s.), second (about 2¼d. and 1d. per mile, respectively). The line is to be extended from Bejapoor, so as to unite the eastern and western coasts of the peninsula. There are also lines projected from Madras to Bombay by Poonah and Bellary, and from Madras to Calcutta. The Governor, who (the evening previous to our departure, as we were being entertained at his summer residence, Guindy Park,) had been apprized of our intention to visit Vellore, was so attentive as to order the commandant to be informed by telegraph of our projected excursion at a late hour of the evening, and when we reached Vellore at 11 a. m., Captain Stevens was awaiting us at the station, to greet the voyagers by the Novara in the name of the commandant of the fort, and convey them to the fort, three miles off, in a waggon drawn by oxen, as is the custom of the country. The waggon was about as large as an ordinary sized sitting-room, and contained several arm-chairs and cane stools, the position of which could be altered at pleasure.
Vellore was once one of the strongest fortresses in India, the wells of which were formerly rendered inaccessible by numerous colonies of alligators. These Hindoo fortifications have, however, lost their military importance for Europeans, as they are on all sides "overcrowed," as Rittmeister Dugald Dalgetty would say, by eminences, from which they could easily be cannonaded. Within the fort itself are several extraordinary buildings, once pagodas and houses of entertainment for priests and pilgrims (choultries). The former sanctuary, now used as an arsenal, is a chef-d'œuvre of architectural skill, with splendid relievos and figures sculptured in granite blocks. Most of the divinities have four arms, symbolical of the universality of their power. The various edifices seem to have been once an abode of Brahmins, a sort of Hindoo monastery in which, in addition to the pagoda, there were ranged all round, a temple, colonnades, and halls for the residence of the priests. In some of the smaller apartments there still are openings for windows, with a finely carved grating hewn out of the solid granite, the workmanship of which even the stone-cutters of our own days might feel proud of. Captain Mitchell, an English officer stationed at Madras, had hit upon the idea of photographing the most interesting of these monuments.
The fortress of Vellore has been fortified for about 1000 years! Captured by the English at the close of the last century, the then Nabob, a Mussulman, was taken prisoner, and his descendants have ever since inhabited the fort as State prisoners, without ever being permitted to leave it. We inquired of the officer who accompanied us, whether the Nabob was permitted at least to make use of the space within the fortress for exercise in the open air. "The Mussulmen," replied the cautious Englishman, "do not care to show themselves in public; they prefer taking their exercise in the court in front of their residence, or in the garden." Accordingly, the aged prince is rarely known even to take an airing in a palanquin. The town of Vellore itself is, in a great measure, another place altogether, whose inhabitants are Mahometans, about 80,000 in number, chiefly engaged in rice culture.
We originally intended to return the same day to Madras, the length of the journey, as well as the distance of the fort from the railway station, having been represented to us as much shorter than was actually the case. Accordingly, we telegraphed to the Austrian Consul, M. Campbell, Esq., an exceedingly courteous gentleman, that we should not return till the following morning. How great was our astonishment to find that the telegraph employés at Vellore, both in the transcribing department, and in the management of the apparatus, which was on Morse's system, were Hindoos, with their curious marks upon their foreheads, and their old-fashioned costume! They went, however, through the duties connected with this modern invention with great adroitness. The telegraph is already in operation to Bombay, and in this direction has two separate lines. There are, moreover, other lines in course of construction,—along the coast to Calcutta,—along the coast to Pondicherry by Adam's Bridge,[105] from Madras to Point de Galle, and from Madras to Hyderabad, Bangalore, and Bellary.
[105] Adam's Bridge—called by the Hindoos Rama's Bridge,—is a bank extending between Ceylon and the mainland of Hindostan, by the islands of Manaar and Ramisseram. It is about 30 miles in length, running in a N.W. by W. direction, about a quarter of a mile in breadth, and principally composed of shelving sand, through which are three main openings or channels, that admit the passage of boats of very light draught.
In proceeding from the fort to the town of Vellore, which is charmingly situated and regularly laid out, and is inhabited by numerous pensioners of the East India Company, we must cross the river Palaar (or Peliar), which, during the rainy season, is a headlong dangerous torrent, while in the dry season its bed, 1000 feet wide, is but a bare expanse of sand. It is only by dint of strenuous exertions that the traveller is able to pass this sand waste in a waggon, as it sinks at some points above the hubs of the wheels. We had four buffalo oxen yoked, and even then had to be propelled at certain points by the assistance of some 30 coolies or Indian porters besides. This serious inconvenience was shortly after our visit to be remedied by the erection of a splendid bridge of solid masonry, which was to span the river by 42 arches, and will reduce the time of transit from the station from 1¼ hour to 20 minutes. Hereabouts oxen are usually employed for draught, which are of the same humped species as those we had previously seen in Ceylon. These animals trot with uncommon swiftness, so that the rapidity of transport may stand comparison with that where horses are employed.