After having taken farewell of each other they returned back to Madras, and I hired for the day a small bungalow (or garden house) opposite the fort, where I determined to stay. Ponamalee is about fourteen miles W. S. W. of Madras. This small and beautiful town is situated upon a rising ground, which commands an extensive view of the adjacent country. The number of Europeans residing here is but few, as it is entirely out of the road for traffic. There is a fort which is situated upon a rising ground, and gives the village a romantic appearance. It forms a complete square, and on each angle is a small place erected in form of the body of a wind-mill, which was used formerly for the purpose of solitary confinement when the troops were quartered here, but is now occupied as lumber rooms; the fort is garrisoned by pensioners. The grand entrance is on the south side, and a small wicket is usually on the west. The fort is surrounded by a large moat about thirty feet in depth, the water is very clear and good, and is drank by the natives. The inner part is far from being roomy, owing to the extreme width of the ramparts. There are two or three small buildings for the use of the commanding officers, but now the residence of a school-master and two sergeants; in the centre is a small building with a dome on the top, which was used formerly for a chapel, but is now converted into a school for the instruction of the poor soldiers' children, and the two barracks are occupied by pensioners.
On the following morning, about two o'clock, we prepared for our journey, and in a few days arrived at Naggery, a distance of about two hundred miles W. N. W. of Madras. The natives here are Hindoos, and the village is remarkably clean. The pagoda, or place of worship, is a fine large building, built in an oblong form, and beautifully gilt and carved all round with monkeys and apes. The Hindoos, in their manner of diet, are very abstemious, refraining from flesh; in fact, they will not eat any animal food; they are very regular in their morning ablutions, which they do by washing and marking themselves with chunam in the centre of their foreheads, according to the mark of their different casts. If any one neglects it he is immediately turned out of the cast, and his relations disown him, nor will they permit him once to enter their house. Such is their strictness, that the father has refused to see his son and the mother her daughter; and if they happen to perceive him at any distance they fly from him as they would from a serpent, thinking that his touch would pollute them.
The roads here are very bad, being principally jungle; their principal cultivation is paddy (a kind of oats). On my arrival at Nundihall I was determined to rest for a couple of days, as two of my servants were in a very ill state of health. Nundihall is a beautiful town, the houses are built of brick, and are generally from three to four stories high; the streets were very dirty, owing to the number of paddy fields that surround the city, as the growth of it requires that the earth should be completely covered with water. The natives are generally Hindoos and Moors. The town is surrounded by a high brick wall.
After leaving the town of Nundihall the roads were very bad, owing to the quantity of stones, and hills which were very steep and difficult to ascend. On the roads I had several disputes with the natives passing through Wuntimuttall, owing to my servants and the peons stealing the toddy from the trees. Toddy is a liquor which is extracted from the top veins of the cocoa-nut trees, which runs continually into a pot placed for that purpose. The liquor is very pleasant, and is reckoned very wholesome when drank early in the morning in a small quantity; if drunk in the heat of the day it causes acidity in the bowels, and often is the cause of the death of many Europeans. The natives drink it continually, and often get quite intoxicated with it.
We arrived at Cuddapah on the 21st instant; it is a large and commodious town, and is inhabited by Mussulmen. Cuddapah is situated N. W. of Madras, one hundred and fifty-one miles distant, and the general estimate of inhabitants is at about two hundred thousand. The principal houses are built of brick and the inferior ones of mud.
The Mahometans divide their religion into two general parts, faith and practice, of which the first is divided into six distinct branches—belief in God, in his angels, in his scriptures, in his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgment, and lastly, in God's absolute decrees. The points relating to practice, are prayer with washings, &c., alms, fasting, pilgrimages, and circumcision.
The Mahometans pray five times in twenty-four hours, viz.: in the morning before sun-rise, when noon is past and the sun begins to decline from the meridian, in the afternoon before sun-set, in the evening after sun-set and before day is closed, and again in the evening and before the watch of the night. They fast with great strictness during the whole month of Ramadan, from the time the new moon first appears, during which period they must abstain from eating, drinking, and all other indulgences, from day-break till night or sun-set.
The Europeans reside about two miles to the west of the native town, and have commodious houses, with fine spacious gardens; they are built of brick and much after the form of a gentleman's seat in England, but on a larger scale. I proceeded to the house of the collector, and on my road, my horse taking fright, I was thrown, and lost my purse containing all my money. My distress was now indescribable. Being left pennyless in the midst of a people totally destitute of Christian feeling, and without the probable means of obtaining the common necessaries of life, I arrived, in this miserable state of mind, bordering on despair, at the collector's, Mr. Hanbury, and after making him acquainted with my circumstances, he generously rendered me his assistance, paid my servants' wages that were in arrear, and kindly advanced what I thought sufficient to defray my expenses, having previously sent my peons back to Madras, and supplied me with fresh ones to proceed with me to Hydrabad.
On the following day the rain came down in torrents, accompanied with thunder and lightning, which kept me within my tent and caused me to exclaim with Dr. Henry, "O, ye lightnings, that brood and lie couchant in the sulphureous vapours, that glance with forked fury from the angry gloom, swifter and fiercer than the lion rushes from his den, or open with vast expansive sheets of flame, sublimely waved over the prostrate world, and fearfully lingering in the affrighted skies!" "Ye thunders, that awfully grumble in the distant clouds, seem to meditate indignation, and from the first essays of a far more frightful peal; or suddenly bursting over your heads, rend the vault above and shake the ground below with a hideous and horrid crack!" In the evening the weather began to clear up, which induced me to walk out, when taking two peons as a guard, I proceeded south of the town, on a beautiful plain: the pleasantness of the weather, and the stillness of the evening, tempted me to prolong my walk, and inspired my mind to contemplate on the wonderful works of Providence, who had so lately showered down his blessings upon me, in preserving me from want in the midst of a heathen world. The sun had almost finished his daily course, and sunk lower and lower till he seemed to hover on the verge of the sky!
The globe is now half immured beneath the dusky earth; or, as the ancient poet speaks, "is shooting into the ocean, and sinks into the western sea." The whole face of the ground was overspread with shades, and what the painters of nature call "dun obscurity." Only a few superior eminences, tipt with streaming silver, the tops of groves and lofty towers that catch the last smiles of day, were still irradiated by the departing beams. But, O how transient is the destination—how momentary the gift! like all the blessings which mortals enjoy below, it is gone almost as soon as granted. How languishingly it trembled on the leafy spire, and glimmered with dying faintness on the mountain's sable brow! till it expired and resigned the world to the gradual approaches of night.