TRAVELLING IN INDIA. 387 Those restless cares? those busy bustling days? THOMSON. I was always desirous of exploring many interesting spots in the north-east parts of Guzerat. With the conveniences for travelling in England this might have been easily accomplished; but it is far otherwise in Hindostan, where a journey of only fifty miles requires much consideration and arrangement. My public duties as a member of council at Baroche, and collector of revenues at Dhuboy, situations of responsibility and anxiety, kept me fully employed; and being thus deprived of an opportunity to accomplish my wishes, I endeavoured to gain every intelligence of those districts from the yogees, senassees, and other travelling mendicants, who frequented Dhuboy. I had transcribed some hundred pages from those memoranda, and other documents, to illustrate the countries bordering on the Dhuboy and Brodera purgunnas; especially in the dominions of Mhadajee Sindia, which I intended should follow the account of the Guzerat districts entrusted to my care; but the papers of a deceased friend having since come into my possession, afford such ample scope for a more complete description of those interesting tracts, that I shall suppress mnch of my own collection, to introduce a journey from Surat to Calcutta, written in the year 1785, when Mr. Cruso, in his medical capacity, accompanied Sir Charles Malet to the camp of Mhadajee Sindia, through provinces little frequented by 388 MR. CRUSO'S JOURNAL. Europeans, and some of them never yet described: this route was purposely selected by Sir Charles, to improve and extend our knowledge of so interesting a part of India. From my own materials, the rough journal of Mr. Cruso, and the kind assistance of Sir Charles Malet in supervising, improving, and amplifying many passages from his own manuscripts, I am enabled to produce a narrative of novelty and interest far superior to the desultory observations contained in two or three of my letters, descriptive of the Malwa scenery, and its inhabitants. As the whole is now formed into one connected detail, it is unnecessary to particularise each respective source of information. Mr. Cruso's journal has furnished the outline and principal features of the picture, the more masterly touches are by the hand of Sir Charles. Sir Charles Warre Malet, Bart, was appointed by Warren Hastings, Esq. then Governor-general of India, resident at the court of Poona. Not only from his political knowledge, but from his being perfectly conversant with the languages and manners of Hindostan ; and in order that he might receive complete instructions in the general line of his negociations, and be enabled to establish a concerted plan of correspondence with our minister at the court of Mhadajee Sindia, he was ordered to go immediately to the camp of Mhadajee Sindia, at Agra, as on his way to Calcutta; and to proceed to this presidency, if necessary for his more effectual instructions, or otherwise to receive his appointment and credentials there. Sir Charles consequently lost no time in carrying MR. CRUSO'S JOURNAL. 389 go the views, and if possible more than the views, of vernment into effect; and procured captain (now general) Reynolds, to be appointed to accompany him as surveyor, and Mr. Cruso as surgeon, both recommended by talent, promising every advantage in their respective lines. He sailed on the 28th of January, and reached the city of Surat on the 2d of February; where having been detained, by waiting for the requisite passports from the different princes whose territories he had to traverse, and by the preparations necessary for so long a journey, in a conspicuous public character, he was not able to proceed until the 12th of March; when he moved from Surat, amply equipped in every point, to give an impression of respect for his nation and government, to those tribes and chieftains, hitherto unacquainted with Europeans, through whose dominions, then but little known, and entirely undescribed, he had purposely selected his route. The guard appointed to accompany him consisted of one complete company of regular native infantry, twenty-six Indian cavalry, and thirty-five irregular sepoys. Mr. Cruso's account of Surat, Baroche, and other places in Guzerat, generally corresponding with those formerly detailed in these volumes, I shall pass over, and conduct the travellers to Oojen, the capital of Mhadajee Sindia, part of Malwa. They arrived there on the 10th of April, and on approaching the city, Sir Charles was met by a deputation from the governors, for there were two who conducted him to the encampment on the banks of the river Sepra, which runs by the western walls of the city. 390 DESOLATED VILLA. I had heard from other visitors of the desolated scenery at Vezelpore. The villa I had erected on that beautiful spot only eight years before, was then in ruins; the dining parlour converted to a stable, the drawing-room to a cow-house; the garden was ploughed up, and sown with grain, the trees destroyed, the lines to the Naiad defaced, and her urn broken. JOURNEY OF SIR C. MALET. 391 CHAPTER XIII. Journey of Sir Charles Malet and Mr. Cruso from Surat to Calcutta-Arrival at Oojen Shah-Jehan-poor-Sarung-poorKoojneer-Rajeghur-Sterile and stony country-RagoghurMalwa-Sasy Seroy-Iron Mines-Gwalier-Nourabad-Dolepore. On his arrival at Oojen, Sir Charles found his tents pitched in a pleasant situation on the banks of the Sepra, not far from its western walls. The next morning, the 11th of April 1785, an officer and suitable attendants came to conduct him with inthe gates, and also to view the suburbs, which are extensive and very dusty, most of the houses being built of mud. The city is large and extremely populous; the streets broad, airy, paved, and clean; the houses generally good. The most striking public structures are a temple built by Ranojee Sindia, father of Mhadajee Sindia; a mausoleum erected in memory of a celebrated Gosannee devotee, and another containing the ashes of Ranojee Sindia. The two latter, with others of less importance, adorn the bank of the Sepra, from whence several large flights of steps lead to the river; the whole produces a good effect. Sir Charles's first visit was to Mhadu-Ghur, called also Byro Ghur, a fortress a mile and a half north of Oojen, by a road running on the banks of the Sepra. At the entrance of Mhadu |