become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation!

Tripassore is surrounded by a country, fertile and well-cultivated. The villages are numerous: about a dozen are within accessible distances, and peopled with industrious husbandmen. The rural population enjoy the advantages of a secure and peaceful government, and the stimulus of a proximate and ready market for their produce. The occupation and patronage afforded to the Hindoo and Mussulman families attach them to their present rulers. I conversed with some observant and shrewd natives of the district, both Mohammedans and idolaters, and, in their condition and tone of their mind, I thought I could discover a degree of independence and domestic comfort superior to what I have witnessed in other quarters. Yet I fear their comparative superiority depended much upon the proceedings and disposition of the government collector. They are situated within the Arcot district. It is also a sphere peculiarly interesting and attractive for the zealous and persevering missionary. I did not encounter much Brahminical influence, or the atmospheric action of the celebrated pagodas of Trivalloor, in the neighbourhood. The people were simple, and more injured by the licentiousness of the old pensioners than by the wiles of their own priesthood.

Walajahbad is fitted by its barracks, bungalows, &c. as a cantonment for European troops. It is a level, but rather elevated plain; and though inland

nearly thirty miles, it is visited during the afternoons by the sea-breeze. The accommodation for officers and men is suited to the heat of the climate; yet in the earlier part of the day, the close atmosphere and the rays of the vertical sun render the climate oppressive, and tempt to oriental indolence. It is situated between the famed city of Conjeveram and the fortress of Chinglepet, but is a little off the high road to Arcot. It was not, except for a few months, the residence of a Company's chaplain; yet I have known 800 or 1,000 European soldiers stationed here for months and years. I had many pleasant interviews with my countrymen here, and was always kindly welcomed by the officers, and gladly received by the soldiers. The former never failed to prepare for me a room with every convenience, and a place at their mess-table, or all necessary comfort in the hospitable abode of my friend; and the latter always arranged for my reception scenes of pleasure and spheres of usefulness. It has been to me many times a source of vivid entertainment and instruction, to listen to the hair-breadth escapes, whether in the field or in the mutinous garrison, in the Pindarree wars, or in the mutiny at Vellore, of the gentlemen, who had a pleasure in fighting their battles over again; while I have enjoyed from the humbler ranks, pleasures of a higher order, when in sacred and prayerful fellowship we have drawn near to the throne of a common Lord, and fixed our thoughts on the affecting scenes which surrounded the Cross of Calvary, where the great and common salvation was finished by Him who bore the curse for wretched man. Before I detail some of the scenes occurring here, let me request my reader to pass a forenoon at Streepermatore Choultrie; an early night at the Choultrie of Bal-chitty; and a day and a night at Conjeveram, all on the route from Madras to the cantonment at Walajahbad.

The division of the Hindoos into castes; the jealous retirement which is forced upon oriental females; the distance which is maintained between the Asiatics and their conquerors; and the small number of Europeans who have hitherto traversed the extensive lands of India; have prevented the establishment of hotels in the interior of the country. Yet India is not an unsheltered wilderness. The residence of every European is characterised by liberal hospitality in India, and the traveller is friendless and obscure indeed who does not share the most courteous welcome as he traverses the country. It is, moreover, a religious duty enjoined by Hindoo systems, and practised in numerous instances most prodigally, to erect and maintain choultries, or places of rest and shelter for the wayfaring man. Streepermatore is one of the first of such erections which I visited, and the benefit of which I enjoyed in my migrations over the peninsula. Venketa Runga, a native merchant of great opulence at Madras, built this range of choultries, or caravanserais for the convenience of every description of travellers; and evinced a profuse munificence which might be termed princely. On one side of the way is a range of low houses, built of brick and plastered, or chunamed; not unlike a set of English almshouses. Into these the considerate European sojourner will not enter. They are consecrated as ceremonially clean and retired, temporary, dwellings of the poor Hindoos of caste; square courts within, and an open space in the centre, with provision for ablutions and other observances connected with their religion, secure to the punctilious idolater opportunities equal to those enjoyed in the usual native houses. On the other side of the road, a spacious double-storied house, built in a style of finished and sumptuous elegance, according to Hindoo ideas of architecture, is set apart and guarded from the pollution or intrusion of the curious, for the more opulent classes of the Hindoos. The tank, or pond, with stone steps and a supply of water, has been constructed near to this building; and beyond it is placed the choultrie usually occupied by European travellers. It consists of a central hall, two rooms on each wing, and a cool and agreeable chamber above, to which we ascend by a flight of outside steps. This house is built on a raised foundation, and in a style which was deemed suitable to the tastes and manners of the English. When first opened, it was furnished with many luxuries, couches, tables, and rattan mats. I have heard that even wine and refreshments were provided by the liberality of the founder;

but the thoughtless or reckless conduct of some travellers is said to have destroyed the furniture, and provoked a cessation of the hospitality. The table was broken, the walls were disfigured by doggerel rhymes, or coarse expressions, and the corners of the rooms have been occupied for culinary purposes; so that the house is almost unfitted for the reception of English females, by the thoughtless ribaldry of their countrymen.

Contiguous to this, but surrounded by a small tope, or jungle, is a pundal, or rustic pagoda: rising from an elevated floor, twelve pillars of granite support a flat roof of the same material. The sides of the pillars are ornamented with sculptures of their mythology. Krishna in his childhood, on one; crushing the serpent, on another; and on a third, playing on the flute: Hanuman Rahoo, on a fourth pillar, swallowing the moon, with other representations. Some of these exhibitions are most indelicately offensive. Here the land is not generally cultivated; but there are villages where it has been cleared, and where the cultivation is varied with an abundance of the banian, the cocoa-nut, and the tamarind trees. Other parts are covered with jungle of a stinted and profitless description. The following domestic picture will give an idea of native travel in India.

Under the cool shade of that wide spreading banian tree, which shoots forth its tendrils and multiplies its pillared branches, an avenue around the parent stem, you will perceive a Hindoo family. The party consists of a man, his wife, and youthful