Therefore, let no unreasonable expectations be entertained, merely from observing the gross sum of annual receipts; let not the parent, who can spare a moderate sum towards his son’s comfort, deny it for the few first years after the latter may arrive in India. The best mode of effecting this, in a proper manner, is through some respectable agency-house, which should have the power to afford seasonable aids, under the injunction not to encourage, nor to tolerate, extravagance. Those sanguine ideas too often entertained by persons not in affluent circumstances, that their sons, brothers, &c., should remit to them, yearly, a portion of their pay, ought to be peremptorily suppressed; the illusion should be done away; otherwise, inconvenience at least, if not ruin, may be entailed!
To shew how folks, on this side the water, sometimes err, I shall relate an anecdote which may prove serviceable to many; the circumstance happened, within my own knowledge, to a brother subaltern with whom I was very intimate. He had, from the day of his admission to the service, formed the resolution of amassing a certain sum, which should be devoted to the comfort of three sisters he had left in Scotland, and who, he knew, would not, in the meanwhile, be destitute of support. At the end of about his tenth year of service, his favorite object was effected, and he remitted to them no less than twelve hundred pounds, i.e. four hundreds to each, with a letter, expressing his satisfaction at being enabled to provide them the means of improving their diet, &c.; closing his brotherly epistle with the assurance, that, in so doing, he had surrendered his all; and that, as it was his intention thenceforward to lay by every spare rupee for the purpose of retiring from the service, they were to expect no further aid until his demise. The good souls were astonished at the receipt of so handsome a present, which they never had expected; they put their heads together, and, after many a pleasing confab., in which expectation, rather than gratitude, doubtless was expressed, made up their minds to the full conviction that their brother was as rich as a Jew, and that there was no occasion for economy in future. They made their good fortune known, both by words, and by the encrease of their establishment, &c., &c.; and, for a year or more, made a very gay appearance on the strength of their brother’s money; but, as that was rather ‘of a perishable nature,’ and because, as poor Richard says, ‘going often to the meal-tub, but never putting in, will soon find the bottom,’ bills, and demands of various kinds, began to accumulate, and the ladies were reduced to considerable distress. In this awkward predicament, application was made to the agent through whom the payment had been paid in London; but he knew nothing whatever of their brother’s concerns, nor could he venture to make them any advance upon the bills of exchange they proposed to give him. Reduced to the last extremity by their own imprudence, they wrote him a most extraordinary letter, which was submitted to my perusal, wherein, among other matters, they reproached him as having occasioned their distress ‘by not having been punctual in the ANNUAL REMITTANCE he had led them to expect!’ The foregoing fact, I am thoroughly satisfied could be matched, if many family occurrences, of which the public do not hear, were exposed to view. The number of questions I have been obliged to answer, and the evident disappointments that have resulted from my candid exposition of the subjects in question, leave not a doubt in my mind, that the most preposterous expectations are often (as in the above instance) formed upon very slight grounds, or even without the smallest foundation.
According to the regulations, every man in the service ought to be paid monthly; but this is not always done, even in times of peace, on account of the collections, i.e. the revenues, being received only at particular periods: if nothing particular should occur to occasion the monies being otherwise appropriated, the deputy pay-masters at the several stations receive notice, that the amount of pay, due to the troops attached thereto, may be received; otherwise, it sometimes happens that two, three, or more months, elapse without any such notice being given. It is inconceivable to what inconvenience such delays give birth! No regimental pay-master, no regimental agent, no certain means of obtaining a supply of cash, in general, exist. Consequently, recourse must be had to the native money-lenders, of whom I have already made honorable mention. When a notice arrives at the deputy pay-master’s office, application is made by him for an escort, generally of a company of sepoys, under the command of an European officer, which proceeds to that civil station whence the supplies are to be derived. Sometimes, however, the escort is detained for many days, or even for weeks; this is usually owing to sudden calls for remittances having been received, when, of course, the escort had better wait for fresh receipts than return empty handed.
Payments are made in specie, generally in silver; the sicca rupees of Lucknow, Benares, Patna, &c., being held as sonauts, in which the pay of the whole army is calculated. When much gold is received at a station, but especially at the Presidency, that coin is instantly depreciated, to the great loss of every military man. In some instances, payments are made to troops by means of bills of exchange, payable at short dates: this answers very well for small sums, in situations not authorizing the detachment of a party to escort from a considerable distance, provided the party on whom the bill is given be a responsible man, which is very generally the case; for, though we do sometimes hear of a shroff (i.e. native banker) stopping payment, very little apprehension need be entertained as to the punctuality of those on whom respectable firms draw, as they usually do, at fifty-one days.
This is done with the view to induce the party who is to receive the money, to discount with him who is to pay it; thus deriving to the drawer of the bill a double profit. It happens sometimes, as I once experienced, that some little pretended informality is not discovered until the bill becomes due, when it is generally returned to be rectified: by this device, an additional profit is exacted. I do not apply these cases to all the shroffs, but notice them as being occasionally within the sphere of an European’s disappointments, and to caution against a too hasty acceptance of bills from any shroff not established in character, as well as in property.
With respect to the recovery of sums advanced on bills of exchange, extreme difficulty very generally prevails. The bankrupt laws of Britain do not extend to her colonies, and, if they did, it could be to the several presidencies only; beyond their immediate sites, the several courts of judicature have no immediate authority over any but British subjects. About thirty years back, the Supreme Court at Calcutta made an attempt to extend its powers into the interior, and to take cognizance of civil matters between the native inhabitants, but they were personally opposed, and such serious consequences were apprehended, that the enterprize was relinquished, and the judges compelled to confine their operations to the letter of that act by which they had been sent to India.
Until within the last ten years, the troops in the upper provinces received an addition to their pay, under the name of ‘double-full-batta,’ originally given by the Nabob Vizier of Oude to the officers serving within his dominions, and by the Company to all who served beyond their own immediate possessions: this has, however, been abrogated, and full-batta is now the highest pay given on any occasion. When the above allowance, i.e. double-full-batta, was in force, the upper provinces were considered preferable in point of emolument; but, on account of the great prices of liquors, and of all articles, excepting immediate table provision, in demand among European gentlemen, very little advantage was gained from the receipt of greater pay; except by those who proceeded upon a plan of determined economy, and retired from the great circle of society for the express purpose of living within certain bounds, whatever privations they might endure. Such persons necessarily acquired property in proportion to their receipts; an object of great importance where the legal interest is twelve per cent., and where abundance of government securities at ten per cent. have been generally for sale at par, or nearly so, in the money market. Under such favorable circumstances, the first saving was invaluable; it was sure to accumulate, and commonly was doubled in about seven years. Since the abolition of ‘double-full-batta,’ the Presidency is considered the best station, so many opportunities offering of making cheap purchases at the several daily auctions in Calcutta, only sixteen miles from the cantonments at Barrackpore. In a gig, the distance may be easily ran in two hours, the road being remarkably good; in a palanquin, the journey may occupy about four hours, if a relay of bearers be posted at the half-way bungalow. During the rains, and especially when the tide serves, a well-manned pulwar, or a paunchway, or dingy, (small boats calculated for expedition,) may proceed from Barrackpore to Calcutta in little more than an hour; the return is rarely very quick, except during spring-tides in the dry-season, before the river rises. Care must be taken to start with the first of the tide, but not before the baun, or bore, has past.
Those who have seen the bore in the Medway, and in the Severn, will at once comprehend the dangers attendant upon that impetuous rush of the waters, which, in the Hoogly, begins near Fultah, about forty miles below Calcutta, and may be felt even so high as Nia-serai, full thirty-five miles above the capital. In a work entitled ‘The Oriental Voyager,’ by J. Johnson, Esq., Surgeon in the Royal Navy, at page 80, is the following passage. Speaking of the Ganges, he says, ‘The tides in this river, particularly at full and change, are rapid beyond belief, forming what are called boars, or bores, when the stream seems tumbling down a steep descent, doing great mischief among the boats, by upsetting and running them over each other: ships themselves are frequently dragged from their anchors, and dashed furiously against each other, at these periods. They attempt to account for these torrents, by saying they depend on the other small rivers, that open into the main one by bars; which, at a certain time of the tide, allow the waters to rush out, all at once, into the great stream, and thereby so much encrease its velocity!’
Where Mr. Johnson got his information about these bars, I know not; nor would it be possible, in my humble opinion, for any man to have disguised, or confused, the fact more completely than is done in the above paragraph: a circumstance which creates surprize, when we consider, that the volume in question contains many remarks, inducing us to expect the absence of so unphilosophical a description, and so erroneous a conception. The matter lies in a nutshell, as Mr. Johnson ought to have known: viz. Those rivers whose mouths are much expanded, and that, after a course of several miles, during which their banks are nearly parallel, suddenly contract, are subject to bores; that is, to an immense wave which heads the flood tide. This bore, which is described with justice as being very powerful, arises from the contraction of the channel; which, while it directs the great volume of water into a narrowed space, necessarily compels it to assume a greater height. The successive flow drives on the leading wave, which gradually subsides as it becomes more distant from the propelling power. But the bore rarely, if ever, occupies the whole breadth of the stream; it ordinarily runs upon one side, until it comes to a bend, when it crosses over, and continues its action until another turn of the river causes it to cross again; and thus until its force is expended. The bore does not run under Calcutta, but along the opposite bank; it crosses at Chitpore, about four miles above the fort, and ranges with great violence past Barnagore, Duckensore, &c. Lesser rivers, whose mouths lie embayed; as is the case with the Medway, which branches from the Thames, and the Wye, that falls into the Severn, are subject to bores, in consequence of the tide taking such a course as throws the great body of water into them. In such small streams, the bore will generally be tremendous; because so great an expanse is suddenly thrown into so narrow a channel: hence, the bridge at Chepstow is necessarily raised to so great a height, and by floating made to yield to the tide’s force.
I much fear Mr. Johnson was not very successful in his enquiries, nor over fastidious in his acceptance of vulgar errors; for, I observe, that at page 113, he has allowed himself to be egregiously duped regarding Mannacolly Point; so called, from the village of Mannacolly, which formerly stood there. Mr. Johnson tells us a long story about a lady proceeding to India, and finding her husband a corpse at that place: whence, ‘Melancholy Point.’!!! I am well aware, that the same fable has been retailed to many others, who gaped for information; but that is no apology for its being upheld as matter of fact: had any respectable authority been consulted on the occasion, before the volume was committed to press, so palpable a traditional error would not have been offered to that public, among whom so many are equal to its refutation.