We first drove to the tomb under which Hyder Ali and Tippoo are buried. It is in the middle of a garden called the Lal-bagh, with a pretty avenue of cocoanut and betel-palms leading up to it. The tomb is a square building, surmounted by a dome, with minarets at the angles, richly decorated with arabesque-work in chunam. It is surrounded by an open corridor, supported by pillars of black hornblende, and in the centre of each side there is a doorway. That facing the avenue is filled in with an open-work screen of the same stone, and the others have double doors richly inlaid with ivory, the gift of Lord Dalhousie. The tombs are placed under the dome, three in number, namely, of Hyder, Tippoo, and Tippoo's mother, each covered over with a pall of crimson silk. The building is surrounded by cloisters, a part being used as a choultry for Moslem travellers, another as a mosque, and another as a school for small boys who learn to read the Koran. Government grants an allowance for keeping the place in repair, and paying Moulvies to serve in the mosque. The effect of the snow-white tomb, richly adorned with arabesque-work, the lance-like minarets, the cloudless sky, and the feathery palm-trees rearing their graceful heads round the building, was exceedingly like a scene in the Arabian Nights. The tomb of Colonel Baillie, who was taken prisoner by Hyder Ali in 1780, is close by, but in a very neglected state.
We then went to the Derya Dowlet-bagh close to the town, which was the favourite summer-palace of Tippoo. It is a very richly ornamented arabesque building, every part being covered with gilding and bright colours, and pictures on the walls representing the repulse of Lally, and the defeat of Colonel Baillie. From this place we went to the town of Seringapatam itself, which is built on an island in the Cauvery, and surrounded by a strong wall and two very deep ditches. Close to the gate is the jumma musjid, or principal mosque, with two tall minarets; and, in one corner, the spot was pointed out where Tippoo was accustomed to pray, entering the mosque by a small side-door. The double ditch is a very formidable defence to the town, but it does not extend along the side facing the river, and it was here that the assault was delivered by the English general. A feint was made in the direction of the Lal-bagh, where the English suffered severely, while the real storming party was formed on the opposite side of the Cauvery, at a spot which is now marked by two upright posts. A bastion facing the river had previously been breached, the four guns on it dismounted, and scarcely any other guns could be brought to bear on the soldiers of the assaulting column at this particular point, who dashed across the Cauvery and up the breach. Tippoo was jammed by the flying crowd in a small doorway, which we saw, where he was killed, and from that day the pestiferous Seringapatam ceased to be the capital of Mysore. The palace, now in ruins, is very like that of the Nawab of the Carnatic at Trichinopoly, a plain rambling building with rows of large windows, and there are extensive gardens round it, full of tamarind-trees, cocoanuts, plantains, and vines.
The old town of Seringapatam is exceedingly interesting, but it now wears an appearance of silent decay and desolation. It is notoriously unhealthy, and the inevitable penalty of a night passed in the town is a severe attack of fever.
From Mysore we took our way, by Hoonsoor, to the hill district of Coorg. The road to Hoonsoor passes over twenty-eight miles of a country very little cultivated, with extensive tracts of waste land, and a few fields of dry grain near the villages. Hoonsoor has for many years been a Government grazing-farm and manufactory. In 1860 the bullocks were all sold off, but there are still thirty-eight fine elephants, and upwards of a hundred camels. We saw the elephants having their breakfasts in a solemn motionless row, large heaps of rice wrapped in bundles of reed being put into their mouths by the mahouts. Besides an establishment of blacksmiths, carpenters, brass-workers, and of women employed in making blankets, there is an extensive Government tannery at Hoonsoor. There are many trees in India well adapted for tanning purposes, but the American sumach (Cæsalpinia coriaria) introduced by Dr. Wallich in 1842, and called by the natives divi-divi, appears to be considered the best at Hoonsoor. The kino-tree (Pterocarpus marsupium) is another, and there are two kinds of catechu used for tanning, one from the betel-nut-palm, and the other from an acacia. To obtain the catechu from the betel-palm the nuts are boiled, and the remaining water is inspissated, and yields the best kind, which is used for the golden coffee-brown colour in dyeing calico, as well as for tanning. From the acacia the catechu is obtained by boiling the unripe pods and old wood. It is not considered so good as kino or divi-divi for tanning purposes, on account of its extreme astringency. The tannery at Hoonsoor is a very extensive establishment, where shoes, sandals, crossbelts, and scabbards are made for the army.
This place suffers frequently and most severely from cholera; and, during these terrible visitations a Swami or God, in the shape of a small stone image of Ganesa seated under a black-wood tree, is specially invoked.
Hoonsoor is 25 miles from Fraserpett, at the foot of the Coorg mountains, and we passed through extensive groves of palm-trees with chatties fastened round the spadices to catch the toddy. Fraserpett is within the Coorg district, and it is in the pleasant little bungalows which have been built here, that the English take refuge during the heavy down-pour of the south-west monsoon. Through the kindness of Captain Martin, a former Superintendent of Coorg, and now engaged in the cultivation of coffee, we found horses waiting for us at Fraserpett, and continued our journey to Mercara, the capital of the district.
After the first two miles the road enters a dense bamboo jungle, extending along the base of the mountains. It was the month of January and the forest was completely dried up and burnt by the sun and want of rain, looking brown and sombre. A splendid white Ipomæa, with a rich lilac centre, was creeping in festoons to the very top of the feathery bamboos which bent gracefully over the road. At a place called Soonticoopah, ten miles from Fraserpett, the ascent of the mountains begins. The road leads up and down a succession of wooded heights, which gradually increase in elevation, with intermediate valleys cultivated with rice and generally fringed with plantain-groves, through which the huts of the Coorgs are visible. At the heads of these valleys the streams are divided into two channels, and led down each side, the space between being sown with rice in terraced fields, gradually descending with the slope of the valley. These bright patches of cultivation are very pretty, with their light vivid green contrasting with the sombre hues of the forest. Near Mercara the jungle is a good deal cleared, and the slopes are covered with coffee-plants. The road is excellent.
Towards evening we came in sight of Mercara, by far the prettiest place I have seen in India. On the opposite side of a deep narrow valley was the fort and palace, built on an eminence overlooking a vast extent of mountainous, forest-covered country. The palace is surrounded by a fortified wall of dark-coloured stone, with semicircular bastions at intervals. On the wall facing us were two square buildings, with a row of long windows, and an overhanging roof, the residence of Captain Eliott, the Superintendent of Coorg; and behind rose up the long edifice forming the old palace, and the white steeple of a modern church. A range of wooded hills, with heavy clouds hanging over them, formed the background. To the right, at a lower elevation were the native town, and two mosque-like buildings, snowy white, with domes, and minarets at the angles, rising up amongst a grove of trees. These are the tombs of the former Rajahs. The narrow gorge below the fort is planted with coffee and plantains, which almost hide the huts that nestle amongst them. In the bottom of the ravine is the principal pagoda of Mercara, built like a mosque, with the tops of the minarets richly gilded. The entrance to the fort is by a steep ascent, leading under a deep gateway in the outer line of fortification, into a courtyard. A second archway leads into a second small court, where there is an elaborately carved pagoda to Ganesa. A third archway opens upon the principal courtyard of the fort, one side of which is occupied by the Rajah's palace, a long barrack-looking building, with an upper story and projecting tiled roof. The officers of a native regiment are quartered in the palace. To the left is the English church, and to the right there is a dark dungeon under the rampart, where the late Rajah kept his prisoners. He used to allow one at a time to run out, and try to escape by the archway, while he picked them off with a rifle from a window of the palace as they ran. There are two full-sized models of favourite elephants, built of brick and chunam, in the courtyard. The huts of the native regiment are clustered in a little valley close under the south wall of the fort.
The palace is entered by an archway, over which there is a balconied window supported by two white horses. The inner court is surrounded by a corridor of stone pillars, with a roof entirely of copper; and in the centre of the court there is a tank paved with stone flags, now dry, with five steps down to it, on two sides, and a carved stone tortoise in the centre.
On the other side of the small valley filled with soldiers' huts, there is a parade-ground, and a small amphitheatre dug out of the solid rock, where elephants and tigers fought for the diversion of the Rajah. Beyond the parade-ground the ridge on which Mercara is built abruptly terminates, and the land sinks down into a wooded valley. Here the late Rajah had built a little brick and chunam summer-house, whence the land descends precipitously to the road leading down the Mangalore ghaut. From this point there is one of the most glorious views to be found in India, and we could sit on the grassy edge of the cliffs for hours, without ceasing to enjoy it. Right and left there is a wide expanse of forest-covered ranges of mountains extending into the blue distance, and in front rises up the mountain of Tadiandamol, the loftiest peak in Coorg. We watched the crimson sunset over the hills, and after dark a spontaneous ignition of the dry grass wound like a serpent along the loftier ridges of the opposite mountains, producing an indescribably beautiful effect in the clear starry night.