Hindus or Mussulmans, throughout the lower provinces, where it is to be
found in far greater abundance than corn of any description. The
inhabitants of the upper provinces, where wheat and barley are
cultivated to such an extent as to be sold in the retail for about a
rupee and a quarter, and a rupee, respectively, subsist chiefly on the
meals of those grains; which, being well kneaded with water, are made
into _chow-patties_, or _bannocks_, are baked at the common _choolahs_,
and are both palatable and nourishing. The natives hold an opinion that
rice is very injurious to the sight; but, I believe, whatever injury may
arise from its use proceeds entirely from eating it too hot, and in such
quantities at one meal, generally about sun-set, as can scarcely fail to
injure the stomach. Barley-meal is considered, and with great justice,
to be very nourishing, but heating; therefore most of those who prefer
_ottah_ (meal) to rice, use that made from wheat. Large quantities of
rice are carried upwards, towards the Nabob Vizier’s dominions, where it
sells to great advantage; while, on the other hand, immense consignments
of corn, chiefly wheat, barley, and _r’hur_, are made from those parts
towards the lower districts; where they are consumed by all classes of
persons. While the _Baugrutty_, (_i.e._ the Cossimbazar river,) and the
_Jellinghy_, both of which branch from the Ganges, and, uniting at
Nuddeah, form the Hoogly, which passes Calcutta, are open, boats of all
kinds proceed that way; but chiefly through the former channel, on which
Moorshadabad, Berhampore, Cossimbazar, and Jungypore, are situate. This
is the shortest line of communication by water between the Presidency
and the upper provinces; but, unfortunately, it is open only for about
six months in the year; it rarely having water before the middle of
June, and being commonly reduced to a very low ebb by the middle of
December; though, in some years, it remains navigable for small boats
for a month or six weeks longer. It may, indeed, be passed in such all
the year through, provided they be dragged over the shallows, which,
often for a mile or more, oppose the progress of whatever may draw more
than a few inches of water: in such case, the bottom of a boat should be
good, otherwise she may be strained by the immense exertions of perhaps
fifty men, who, ranging along either side, and dragging by means of
ropes, as well as by pushing and lifting behind, force her along the
shallows, and thus pass her over all the more prominent obstacles. I
have, more than once, had a very small _pulwar-budjrow_ navigated, if I
may so call it, down the _Baugrutty_, from Mohanahpore, at the mouth of
that river, as far as Berhampore; which, by land, is full forty miles,
and, by water, cannot be less than seventy. But there are so many bars,
or shoals, between Berhampore and Augah-Deep, about thirty-five miles by
land, lower down, as to render that part absolutely impassable, except
when the river has an average depth of two feet, or two feet and a half.
During the dry months, the whole of the commodities transmitted from the
upper provinces to the Presidency, with the exception of some few
articles of small compass, which may be landed at Bagwangolah, and
proceed to Augah-Deep overland, are sent down the Ganges for the purpose
of proceeding through the _Soonderbunds_. This highly interesting, but
difficult navigation, reaches from the Megna to Calcutta, near to which
a canal offers to adventurers a safe and easy communication between the
Hoogly and the Salt-Water Lake, which lies at the back of Calcutta. The
generality of trading and passage vessels proceed by this cut, paying a
moderate toll, either on the tonnage of the former, or the number of
oars of the latter. But the salt vessels despatched from Joynaghur, &c.,
with the produce of the different pans in that quarter, commonly take
the lower passages near _Chingree-Cauly_, and _Culpee_, which are by far
the most dangerous, though rather more direct.
The _Soonderbunds_, or _Sunderbunds_, consist of an immense wilderness,
full fifty miles in depth, and in length about a hundred and eighty
miles. This wilderness, which borders the coast to the water’s edge,
forming a strong natural barrier in that quarter, occupies the whole of
what is called the Delta of the Ganges; every where intersected by great
rivers, and innumerable creeks, in which the tides are so intermixed,
that a pilot is absolutely necessary, both to thread the intricacies of
the passage, and to point out at what particular parts the currents
will, at certain times, be favorable in proceeding either to the
eastward or to the westward. In many places there is scarcely breadth
for the passing of a single boat, and even then the boughs of the
immense trees, and of the subordinate jungle, frequently are found so to
hang over, as nearly to debar the progress of ordinary trading vessels.
Fortunately, these narrow creeks are short, or, at least, have in
various parts such little bays as enable boats to pass: one or two are,
however, so limitted throughout in point of width, as to render it
expedient that musquets should be discharged before a boat proceeds, in
order that others may not enter at the opposite end of the narrow: but
for such a precaution, one of them would be compelled to put back. The
water being brackish, or rather absolutely salt, throughout the
_Sunderbunds_, it is necessary for all who navigate this passage, to
take a good stock; calculating for at least a fortnight’s service. Even
the villages, which here and there are to be found on the banks of the
great rivers, are sometimes supplied from a great distance; especially
during the dry season, when the tides are very powerful.
The regular trading vessels, which pass through the Sunderbunds, perhaps
every month, or two, are usually provided with very large _nauds_, or
_gounlahs_, made in the form of a rather flat turnep, of a black earth
which bakes very hard. Casks are never used in India for water; all the
ships in the country trade have one or more tanks made of _teak_ wood,
rendered perfectly water tight, and containing from twenty to fifty
butts. The water is thus carried in a small compass, and remains sweet
much longer than when in casks. Even if no other reason could be
assigned, it must be obvious, that, in a tank, the surface of wood
necessary to contain fifty butts of water, will not exceed six hundred
and fifty square feet; whereas, each of the fifty butts would present a
surface of more than forty feet, whence the whole must amount to two
thousand square feet.
Where a ship is navigated by lascars, many rules and ceremonies are
adopted for the preservation of the water from impure contact. When
native troops are on board, only particular persons are allowed to lay
it in, or to serve it out, and even under such precaution, many of the
more fastidious shew great aversion to using the tank water; often
undergoing great sufferings, both from hunger and from thirst, rather
than drink of it, or even taste of viands prepared therewith. But this
prejudice has, of late years, subsided considerably, in consequence of
the frequent occasions the British government have had to send native
troops on distant expeditions by sea.
Casks would certainly prove obnoxious to servants, and others,
proceeding through the Soonderbunds, owing to a general opinion among
them, that we convey spirits, meat, &c., in such vessels; which, having
been once used for such a purpose, could never be viewed by them as
receptacles for beverage, without disgust and execration.
The town of Calcutta is supplied with firewood by persons who resort to
the woods, about twenty-five miles from Calcutta, where they cut the
smaller kinds of _serress_, _jarrool_, _soondry_, _g’hob_, &c., into
junks about four feet in length, which are rived into two or four
pieces, according to their diameter, and carried to market, where such
billets are usually retailed at from twelve to fourteen rupees per
hundred maunds, delivered at the door. This is the only kind of fuel
used in the kitchens of Europeans, and forms the supply of nine-tenths
of the native population also: the remainder use the _gutties_ made of
dung.
It is to be lamented that Government have never adopted a plan I long
ago offered, of employing the convicts in clearing away a sufficient
tract around Diamond Harbour, which is now peculiarly unhealthy, and is
the grave of full one-fourth of the crews of the India Company’s, and
other ships, that generally are moored there for months.
I am aware that objections have been stated in regard to clearing away
the forests in the Soonderbunds, on account of their being considered a
natural defence in that quarter; but, without entering upon the policy,
or otherwise, of such a retention of that ‘wilderness of all
wildernesses,’ there does not appear to me any sound reason for
suffering the principal naval station to be backed and flanked by woods
and swamps, from which disease is poured forth amidst our unfortunate
countrymen.
I have been assured, that, taking one year with another, full three
hundred European sailors die of diseases incident to the laying up of
ships for a while in the river, of whom, the larger portion are taken
ill at, or below, Diamond Harbour.
Those who have occasion to pass through the Sunderbunds, which can be
done by water only, ought to be extremely careful not to venture ashore,
unless at some of the little towns, whose vicinity may afford some
security against the attacks of tigers, by the jungle having been
partially cleared away. The romantic scenery, every where inviting the
eye, should not be permitted to allure the traveller from his state of
safety; nor should the abundance of game, especially of deer, lead him
among those coverts in which danger equally abounds.
Nor are the waters less devoid of mischief: sharks, of an uncommon size,
are every where numerous and greedy; while their competitors, the
alligators, not only infest the streams, but often lie among the grass
and low jungle, waiting for a prey, with which, so soon as seized, they
plunge into the water.
Instances have been know, both of tigers swimming off to board boats,
and of alligators striking the _dandies_ (boatmen) out of the boats,
with their tails, and snapping their victims up with a nimbleness fully
proving the falsehood of that doctrine, which teaches to escape from the
crocodile by running out of the right line, ‘_because the animal cannot
turn to follow_!’
If those who either gave, or believed in, such advice, were to see with
what facility an alligator can turn about, or with what agility he can
pursue, _and catch_, the large fishes that abound in the great rivers of
India, the folly would be so self evident, as to cause an immediate
dereliction of so preposterous an opinion.
Besides, the _koomeer_, or bull-headed alligator, which, generally
speaking, is the only kind to be seen in brackish waters, is peculiarly
fierce and active; far more so than could be supposed, at first sight,
of an amphibious animal of the _lacerta_ tribe, (for it is nothing more
than an immense lizard, or guana,) whose length has been thirty feet,
and whose girth has equalled twelve feet.
Such is the ravenous disposition of the _koomeer_, that it will not
hesitate to seize cattle that proceed to drink of the river water where
it is fresh; but this does not often happen; the places where cattle
proceed to slake their thirst, being, for the most part, rather shallow,
so that an alligator, sufficiently formidable for such an attack, could
not lie concealed. It has fallen within my way to see some oxen that had
been seized by the head, or by the fore leg, but which had either been
rescued by their drovers, or had succeeded in escaping from their
merciless enemy: they were all so lacerated as to be completely
disfigured!
The size of a boat may make much difference regarding the time required
to make the Soonderbund-passage: generally from ten to twelve days will
elapse in making the shortest cut in a _budjrow_ of from twelve to
sixteen oars; while a light _pulwar_, that can pass through the lesser
creeks, and make way against the tides, which are extremely intricate,
on account of the numerous channels that wind in every direction, may
perhaps get through in seven or eight days. Much will depend on the
route: if Dacca, or any part of the Megna, be the destination, full ten
days will be requisite, but if the Comercolly track, which opens into
the Ganges nearly opposite to Nattore, be followed, the great body of
the wilderness will be avoided, and the fertile districts of Jessore,
Mahomedpore, and Comercolly, will be passed through with facility and
gratification.
It does not appear that any accurate survey has been taken of the
Soonderbunds, further than to ascertain the several channels, and to lay
down the bearings of particular shoals, which run for many miles off the
coast, presenting, on the whole, a most intricate and dangerous approach
to vessels even of small burthen; though, with proper care, ships of
great size may be carried into the Rogmungul, the Hooringattah, and the
Mutwallah rivers, where they may ride in perfect safety.
Mr. Benjamin Lacarn, many years back, explored the passage at the back
of Saugur Island, and presented to the Government in India very accurate
draughts of the soundings and bearings; from which he enabled the Board
to judge of the practicability of resorting to that passage, with more
safety and convenience than now exists, in respect to those channels
that lie to the westward of Saugur.
The spot selected for the reception of vessels was called New Harbour,
and the stream leading to it from Culpee was designated Channel Creek.
It is to be presumed, that, notwithstanding the plan has not been
carried into effect, although occasionally resorted to, the merits of
the suggestion must have been considerable, as the Company have thought
it but just to remunerate that gentleman’s abilities and research, by an
annuity of £600., which has been lately raised to £1000.
Several objections have been urged against the adoption of New Harbour,
of which some may be cogent; but, from all I have ever heard on the
subject, it appears to me, that the reasons given for rejection exist at
least as formidably in the western channels, where some of the
advantages offered by New Harbour are totally wanting.
The time will probably arrive, when Saugur Island, instead of being a
desolate waste, inhabited by various wild animals, may present a rich
expanse of agriculture, destined for the support of an industrious
population, inhabiting those shores so favorably situated for extensive
commerce, and so highly protected by nature against foreign incursion.
The channels leading past it, on either side, are narrow, and certainly
might be defended by a very small force against a powerful fleet.
Many opinions, and some bold assertions, have been offered regarding the
Soonderbunds. Some consider the immense wilderness that borders the
coast, to be of no great antiquity, and pretend, that probably one
hundred years would be too much to allow for the duration of that soil,
whereon such stupendous forests of noble trees are now to be seen.
That the whole of the country south of the Ganges, from Bogwangolah to
Saugur, and in the other direction to Luckypore, &c., was formerly
covered by the ocean, may be readily believed, both from the nature of
the soil in general, and from the various marine productions to be found
occasionally, when wells are dug to any considerable depth.
The ancient city of GOUR, of which only an immense assemblage of ruins,
covering full thirty square miles, are to be seen, stood not very far
from Mauldah.
That able geographer, Major Rennell, states it to have been the capital
of Bengal 730 years before Christ, and that it was deserted in
consequence of a pestilence; that it formerly stood on the banks of the
Ganges, from which it is now distant nearly five miles; the river
having, as is very common in that quarter, changed its course: the
Mahanuddy, which passes within two miles of it, is navigable throughout
the year. Many parts of GOUR are now full twelve miles from the Ganges.
The following extract from Major Rennell’s Memoirs, pages 55-6, may
serve to illustrate the position I have to assume regarding the
Soonderbunds: he says, ‘Taking the extent of the ruins of GOUR at the
most reasonable calculation, it is not less than fifteen miles in
length, (extending along the old bank of the Ganges,) and from two to
three in breadth. Several villages stand on part of its site: the
remainder is either covered with thick forests, the habitations of
tigers, and other beasts of prey, or is become arable land, whose soil
is chiefly composed of brick-dust.
‘The principal ruins are a mosque, lined with black marble, elaborately
wrought, and two gates of the citadel, which are strikingly grand and
lofty. These fabrics, and some few others, appear to owe their duration
to the nature of their materials, which are less marketable, and more
difficult to separate, than those of the ordinary brick buildings; and
are transported to Moorshadabad, Mauldah, and other places, for the
purpose of building. These bricks are of the most solid texture of any I
ever saw; and have preserved the sharpness of their edges, and the
smoothness of their surfaces, through a series of ages.
‘The situation of Gour was highly convenient for the capital of Bengal
and Bahar, as united under one government; being nearly centrical with
respect to the populous parts of those provinces, and near the junction
of the principal rivers that compose that extraordinary inland
navigation for which those provinces are formed; and, moreover, secured
by the Ganges, and other rivers, on the only quarter from which Bengal
has any cause for apprehension.’
Here I feel at a loss; for the author has evidently been deficient in
that perspicuity which characterizes his work; it does not appear to me
what quarter is meant in this instance; the greater part of Bengal being
divided from GOUR by that same river, the Ganges, which is here
described as a protection to GOUR against incursions from Bahar. If this
be not the Major’s meaning, I can find no other; at all events, the
passage is incongruous.
Setting, however, that matter at rest, as being irrelevant on this
occasion, I shall proceed to observe, that throughout the Delta of the
Ganges, which forms an area of full twenty thousand square miles, (it
being nearly a right-angled triangle, whose sides average about two
hundred miles,) we have not one vestige of remote date!
It has, no doubt, been asserted by some travellers, and I have heard
several of the natives declare, that, in some parts of the Soonderbunds,
ruins of great extent are to be seen. These are said to be the remains
of cities which formerly flourished on the borders of the ocean, but
were abandoned in consequence of the depredations of the _Burmans_, or
_Muggs_, who inhabited the country lying south of Chittagong, and who
have, within the last fifteen years, called to our memory that such a
nation was still in existence.
Admitting the existence of such reputed ruins, we have no right to place
them to the account of the earlier ages; we have no records of their
existence; the whole of the details that have hitherto been offered to
the world, either by native traditionists, or European surveyors, give
no account of any such fragments; while, on the other hand, every
presumption is in favor of the whole Delta being comparatively modern.
Major Rennell, at page 347 of his Memoirs, observes in a note, that ‘a
glass of water taken out of the Ganges, when at its height, yields about
one part in four of mud. No wonder then that the subsiding waters should
quickly form a stratum of earth; or that the Delta should encroach upon
the sea.’ If we estimate the course of the Ganges, (setting apart the
Barampooter,) at fifteen hundred miles, and take its mean width at half
a mile; which is, indeed, reducing that magnificent flow of water to a
mere stream, we have then a surface of seven hundred and fifty square
miles, of which, one fourth is said to be mud, or matter light enough to
be kept suspended by the violence of the current. This should give
nearly two hundred square miles of soil.
The foregoing computation proves the Delta to contain twenty thousand
square miles; therefore, if Major Rennell’s hypothesis be correct, the
whole of the Delta might have been formed in one hundred years; taking
the depth of the river, when at its highest, to be equal to the depth of
the soil. But, if we recollect that probably many fathoms of sea were
filled up by the encroachment that thus took place, we may be correct in
allowing ten times that period, _i.e._ a thousand years, for the
completion, or, rather, for the gradual accumulation, of so extensive an
addition to the _terra firma_ of Asia.
At page 348, Major Rennell argues very strongly, though unintentionally,
perhaps, in support of my hypothesis, that GOUR formerly stood on the
borders of the ocean, and was, probably the Tyre of Hindostan. He says,
‘As a strong presumptive proof of _the wandering of the Ganges_, from
the one side of the Delta to the other, I must observe, that there is no
appearance of _virgin_ earth, between the Tipperah Hills on the east,
and the province of Burdwan on the west; nor on the north _till we
arrive at Dacca and Bauleah_.’
Uniting all these points, and agreeing with Major Rennell that the
Ganges discharges, on a medium, 180,000 cubic feet of water in a second,
we may easily imagine that the present Delta has been formed by the
sedimentary portion propelled forward in constant succession, until it
gained the highest level to which the annual inundation could raise it;
after which, the black mould on the surface must have been produced by
the constant accumulation of vegetable matter that rotted thereon.
It is a curious, but well known, fact, that from Sooty to that part of
the Cossimbazar Island which lies nearest to the tide’s way, the whole
is obliged to be preserved from inundation by an embankment, called the
_poolbundy_, maintained at a very great and regular expence; an obvious
demonstration that the present course of the Hooghly has not been
settled many centuries; for almost all rivers, long subject to such
overflows as those we witness in Bengal, ultimately raise their banks,
by an annual deposit of matter, to such a height as afterwards prevents
their streams from passing over into the adjacent country.
There can be little doubt, that the city of Gour stood on a spot which,
in very ancient times, was washed by the sea; and we may, without being
accused of credulity in the extreme, admit the great probability of the
Ganges having then debouched into the _sinus_, or bay, at that same
spot.
Nor should we doubt, that those sands, which are, at this day, so
dangerous to navigation, from Balasore to Chittagong, will, at some
remote period, be encreased and raised, so as to become, in the first
instance, islands; and, ultimately, parts of the continent; the present
channels serving for the courses of future rivers, which, in so loose a
soil, may, like the Ganges in our times, be subject to changes of
locality, whenever the floods may prove so impetuous as to open new
beds, and cause the streams to be diverted into them.
The Sunderbunds, whatever may be their date or origin, present, at this
day, a most inhospitable aspect, and give, exteriorly, a feature to the
country which by no means corresponds with the interior: they are, in
truth, a hideous belt of the most unpromising description, such as could
not fail to cause any stranger who might be wrecked on that coast, and
who should not proceed beyond the reach of the tide, to pronounce it ‘_a
country fit for the residence of neither man nor beast_.’
When Major Rennell remarked, ‘that they furnish an inexhaustible supply
of wood for boat building;’ he might have added, ‘of timber for ship
building.’ Many very large vessels have been launched from this quarter,
but, no pains having been taken to season the timber, it was not to be
expected they should prove so durable as they might have been rendered
by due precautions in that particular. Nor is the wood itself of the
best quality for naval architecture; for, though it is very strong, and
to be bent with facility to any necessary form, it, being extremely
subject to be worm-eaten, proves a great draw-back on its being brought
into more general use, unless for such vessels as are intended to be
coppered: for such, the _jarrool_ may answer, as may also the _soondry_;
both which abound in every part of the Sunderbunds.
The whole coast, from Balasore to Chittagong, has at times been occupied
by a class of natives called _Molungies_, who manufacture salt from the
sea-water. The produce of the several _chokies_, or manufactories, is
immensely valuable, as has already been shewn, and suffices for the
consumption of the whole population of all the Company’s dominions,
besides what is exported into those of the Nabob Vizier, &c. About
thirty-five years ago, salt used to be sold at a rupee, or a rupee and a
half, per factory maund of 72lb.; which might average about one
half-penny per lb.; but, since the Company monopolized the manufacture,
and imposed a heavy duty, the price of salt has gradually risen to about
four rupees per maund.
The importation of salt, by sea, is prohibited, except under partial or
temporary licences; but it is brought from the mines to the northward of
Delhi in large quantities, though not of so good a quality, it being
generally very bitter, especially the _Salumbah_, or more opaque
rock-salt, which is far less serviceable for curing meat than the
_Samber_; both these kinds are brought in small prismatic masses, and,
though in common use among the natives of the upper provinces, are
never, except from necessity, allowed to appear at the tables of
Europeans, though employed in their culinary preparations.
Salt is also obtained, but not of a prime quality, by piling up large
quantities of the sand forming the beds of rivers, after the waters have
subsided into very narrow channels. On these heaps water is poured in
abundance, and, being afterwards drained into reservoirs, the salt
either chrystalizes by solar heat, or by being boiled in large iron
pans, similar to those used for chrystalizing sugar from the expressed
juice of the cane.