hepatic system, had brought on a nervous and paralyzing attack. As soon as I came in, I sought relief by wandering round the verandah of the choultrie, where I was met by a humane and obliging native of China. He addressed me, observing my haggard and tortured visage, "Master not well?" he said. My reply was in the affirmative, that I was very far from being well. "Would master like some tea?" he asked. "Oh! what would I give for a cup of tea!" was my reply. In a short time he brought me a bowl of tea. I declined it, and begged that he would serve himself, and then let me have some. This he firmly resisted, saying, "Master take first, then I take." Never did I experience, nor could I have ever imagined, the potent and magic influence of that beverage, "which cheers but not inebriates." I know not the mode nor the proportions in which my Chinese Samaritan friend distilled the aromatic herb, but this I must testify, that in less than half an hour my headache was entirely subdued, my bandages and all symptoms of oppression removed, and I was able to walk out and congratulate my stranger benefactor on the cure he had effected. A few men of the Chinese nation only have found their way to the western peninsula; but those who have visited Madras are generally mechanics, boot and shoe makers, and prove most diligent, honest, and successful tradesmen. They are men of independent minds, and live much by themselves. I had no opportunity of requiting the kind-hearted fellow who ministered so seasonably to my relief. My own wanderings prevented our meeting again.

A few vestiges of antiquity, which have descended from former times, will contrast with present appearances. The natural boundary of the ancient Deckan, or South land of India, may be traced along the Kistna, or Crishna, so named from its dark-coloured waters. From the lofty mountains which skirt the western side of the peninsula, this river rises and flows from above the Concan, in a south-easterly direction, through forests and fertile plains, till it reaches the ocean in lat. 16°, in the country of Guntoor. On the eastern coast of this peninsula two provinces of ancient name, the Calinga and Dravida, extend south to the Cape Comorin, or the Cape of Comari, the virgin goddess Isa. In Calinga the Telinga language, and in Dravida the Tamil, have been spoken from time immemorial. On the west coast the provinces of Maber, or Malabar, and Tulava, stretch to the vicinity of Goa from Cape Comorin, and here the Malayalim and Canarese languages are spoken. The elevated central region constitutes the ancient Carnata, or Carnatic, and was long the seat of a flourishing empire; the ancient capital of which, Dwara Samudra, or Devaghiri, 105 miles north-west of Seringapatam, was plundered in the succeeding years, 1310 and 1311, by Mohammedan invaders. The latter was effected by a predatory incursion of Malec Naib, general of Aladdin.

"Continuing to advance for the extermination of infidels"-so writes Ferishta-"after a march of three months, they engaged and took prisoner Belala Deva, king of the Carnatic, and plundered his country, destroying the temples, and seizing on all the images which were of gold. Malec Naib erected a small mosque, in which he celebrated the name of Mohammed, and read the Khutta, in the name of Sultan Aladdin. At the time (1609) in which I write, this mosque is still in existence. It is situated in the land of infidels, near the grove of Sita and the bridge of Rameswara. Those infidels have respected a house consecrated to God, and have preserved it. Some ascribe this to a prophecy contained in their books, that the whole of India will be subjected to Mohammedan princes. After Malec Naib had possessed himself of the treasures of all the kings of that country, and was preparing to return, the night before his march a quarrel arose among some brahmins, who sought refuge in his camp, respecting money taken from the buried treasures of the nobility. A Mohammedan overheard them, and lodged information with the Cutwal. The brahmins were seized and carried before Malec Naib: on the application of the torture, they refunded what they had taken; and discovered not only that treasure, but six other places of deposit in the woods. Malec Naib drew immense sums from these deposits, and began his march towards Maber (Malabar). Having also destroyed the temples there, and collected large

sums and valuable jewels, he returned to Delhi in the year 711 of the hegira (1311). He presented to Aladdin 312 elephants, 24,000 horses, 96,000 maunds of gold, and innumerable diamonds and pearls." It is said that the native rajah Belal Rai, whose family reigned till 1387, removed his seat of empire to Yadavapuri, or Tonuru, in the neighbourhood of Seringapatam; but this prince is conjectured by other authorities to have founded Vijayanagur, or Bijapore; a city which soon attained to a high degree of splendour and magnificence. Its rulers extended their authority over the whole peninsula south of the Krishna. Their power and prosperity excited the envy and alarmed the fears of Mohammedan princes whose dominions were contiguous, and who had thrown off the supremacy of the Mogul, and their confederacy joined in plundering Bijapore; they killed the rajah in battle, and depopulated the city. Its present remains, a heap of ruins, prove its ancient greatness as the capital of an independent sovereignty. It is represented to have consisted of three towns, one within another, situated in a fertile plain: the innermost was the citadel; the next was the fort, not less than eight miles in compass; and the outermost was environed by a wall from twentyfour to thirty miles in circumference. The inmost fort, though a mile in circuit, appears but a speck within the larger one, and both are in a manner lost in the extent of the greatest wall. The second fort now contains several distinct towns, and amidst its ruins there is room for extensive corn fields. The citadel was well built of ponderous stones, and encompassed by a ditch one hundred yards wide, and was a place of great strength, consisting of a strong curtain, numerous towers, fausse-bray ditch, and covered way. The interior presents a heap of ruins, the mosque of Ali Adil Shah being alone preserved in repair, all the other buildings having fallen into decay. The king's palace was situated within the fort, so were the houses of the nobility, many extensive gardens, and large magazines. Beyond the walls were noble palaces and populous suburbs; and Bijapore is stated, on native authority, to have contained 984,456 houses, and 1600 mosques: recent travellers think this last statement no exaggeration. The wall, which is placed north and south, was built of stone of prodigious thickness, and twenty feet in height, with capacious towers every hundred yards. Mosques and mausoleums, adorned with the ornaments common to eastern architecture, abound, especially within the inner fort of Bijapore, the greatest of which is 290 feet long, and 165 broad. The mausoleum of Sultaun Mahmood Shah is 153 feet square, with a dome of 117 feet in diameter at its greatest concavity. The mosque and mausoleum of Ibrahim Adil Shah, completed about the year 1620, is reputed to have cost 700,000l. and occupied 6,533 workmen for the space of thirty-six years. The dimensions of this building are, of the basement 130 yards long and 52 broad,