HOLMAN'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
OUR blind traveller improves as he proceeds; the third volume of his adventurous pilgrimage surpasses the two former ones both in pleasantness and interest. His path is more untrodden ; the scenes have consequently more of freshness, the information of value, and the events and persons of novelty. The author deals more in anecdote, character, and even manners, than before; and though always full of facts, the facts of the present volume possess more weight than those of the others. The book opens with the traveller's departure from Madagascar for Johanna, one of the Cormoro Isles—a group lying between Ma- dagascar and Africa. He arrived here during a season of public difficulty. The Sovereign with his forces was absent at Mohilla (a sort of miniature Ireland), where a self-elected Negro governor bad begun " the infernal system of agitation." Thither Captain LYONS proceeded as spectator and mediator ; and after various negotiations between the belligerent powers,—of which we have a very entertaining narrative, — he succeeded in preserving the union of Johanna and Mohilla inviolable : his diplomatic skill being greatly assisted, however, by the fear which hie ship insphed, as well as by the dreadful state to which the beleagured town was reduced by famine. Having rendered this assistance to our ally, the vessel sailed to Zanzibar; and thence to the Archipelago of the Seychelles—a colony on what is little more than a coral reef in the midst of the ocean ; and of whose foundation, statistics, and social life, Lieutenant Hoeetaer has given a very interesting account. From these specks in the waste of waters, passage- vessels rarely sail ; and our traveller was obliged to return to Mauritius; which on this visit he pretty well exhausts as regards its social, industrial, and natural peculiarities; and then departed for Ceylon. Of this magnificent island we have a series of pleasant sketches, and a view of its existing circumstances and capabilities. The next stages of our author are Pondicherry, Madras, Banga- lore, and Calcutta; where the volume closes.
In a work which teems with matter, quotation is not difficult. In making extracts, we shall aim at variety, either of subject or of the mode in which it is presented,—for the reader of the former volumes need not be told, that one peculiarity of the work is its showing the way in which a blind man sees things.
WAR AND DIPLOMACY UPON A SMALL SCALE.
When our deputation reached the town, the besieged betrayed considerable hesitation about admitting them within the stockade; however, they finally opened the gates, and our officers were received by the King and Governor, who were surrounded by their whole Council, sitting in a hut, between their stockade and town-wall, beyond which they were careful nut to admit their visiters, upon that as well as upon every subsequent mission. Having gained the presence, Lieutenant Liardet communicated to the Council the desire of Captain Lyons to act as a friendly mediums towards buth parties. He next laid before them the terms offered by the King of Johanna, by which alone they could hope to secure either their lives or their property, both of which his Majesty bound himself to respect : but, upon mention being made that they must surrender their arms, they all burst into a contemptuous laugh, loudly declaring their wonder that be could think them capable of such weakness, and asseverating that they would die upon the spot rather than resign either their arms or their liberty ; and, finally, by enumerating their wrongs, real or ima- gined, placed in juxtaposition against their assumed rights, they became so madly excited, that all reasonings, at that juncture, were vain; and Lieutenant Liardet was compelled to leave them, not only without having been able to bring them to terms, but with a firm conviction upon his mind that all at- tempts at an amicable arrangement would be utterly fruitless.
The King of Johanna remained at one of his outposts, which was merely a tent, erected under a large tree, and from whence he viewed the town and its approaches with a good spyglass. He seemed exceedingly anxious respecting the result of the conference, and was a gout deal annoyed to perceive that many of the inhabitants availed themselves of the short amnesty to run down on the beach fur the purpose of collecting a few shellfish, while others were content to pick and eat the grass in the vicinity of the town, to appease the ravenings of hunger, so fearful was the state of famine to which they were reduced. Two poor creatures who had strayed a little too far, being unable to return within the time limited by the flag of truce, were speared to death, even before the mission had got half way back to the King's tent; and two women were made prisoners.
SIR HUDSON LOWE AT CEYLON.
I dined at Sir Hudson Lowe's with a laige party. This officer, who once made such a noise in the political world, was, at the time I speak of, living in a quiet, comfortable way, apparently enjoying his otium cum diunitate; being no • tuinally Commandant, while Colonel Muller, the senior regimental officer, per- formed the active duties, and occupied the Commandant's house in the fort. I learned the first news of Sir Hudson Lowe's appointment to Ceylon was not very well received, as the inhabitants expected to have found him an austere, disagreeable man; but they soon discovered their mistake; and when I was there every one spoke of him in the highest terms. He visited and entertained both agreeably and sociably, and seemed determined to give the inhabitants a practical illustratiun of placing too much confidence in that common deceiver Report. It must be allowed that he was at one time a severe officer ; but it must also be 'membered in his favour, that:he has also always been a very zealous one ; and it is but fair to suppose that, if he was occasionally carried beyond the hounds of actual duty, he erred from a too great anxiety to discharge well the responsibilities of his position.
KILLING AND PRESERVING.
The Vedahs (a savage tribe inhabiting part of the country between Trinem. melee and Grille) have a manner of killing elephants peculiar to themselves. They go out against the animals in great numbers, and drive a herd up a hill, when a few marksmen, provided with bows and arrows, the latter notched in the centre, steal close to the heels of their destined prey, and as the animal lifts its leg they discharge theii arrows, endeavouring to hit the centre of the foot ; when the unfortunate animal suddenly stamps on the ground from the pain, the arrow breaks off at the notch, and the head is left sticking in the flesh. Perfectly disabled by this agony, the animal is compelled to tie down, when a shower of arrows and other missiles speedily despatch him. These people are careful to select the tusters, if possible, as it is for the tusks chiefly that the Vedahs hunt ; for although they eat the flesh of the elephant, they do not esteem it so highly as that of deer and hogs, which they have in abundance; and when they kill more animals than they require for immediate consumption, they preserve their gore by cutting the fresh into slips; and after drying it in the sun, they place it in the hollow trunk of a tree, and gem it with honey ;which brawn attacked by swarms of ants in such multitude* as to form a crust, idiot in a short time glows dry and hard; this protect* the west from the externab air, and preserves. it most completely.
A ROGUE I LT PH A NT.
A rogue elephant is either a large male who has been drives from the herd after losing a contest fur the mastery of the whole ; or a female, wandering fret; it in quest of her calf. They generally hover round the villages-for the sake of the.provisions which they obtain flora the gardens and small tanks in their vi- cinity. They thus acquire an acquaintance with mankind, which only renders them more cunning and daring. They generally visit the villages at night, and infest the roads and paths early in the morning and in the evening. On meet- ings native cairying paddy, bananas, or any article of food, they give chase until he drops it, when they rue satisfied to stop and feast upon their booty ; and so great is their sagacity, that they constantly lie in wait for such chances, and growing daily bolter from increased success, they become a plague and a terror to the neighbourhood in which they prowl, especially to those who work late in the paddy-fields, to avoid the glowing heat of the day. A large rogue elephant kept his station near Nillavelly during a period of thirteen years ; and so dex- trous and cunning had he become, that he effectually foiled all attempts that were made to accomplish his destruction.
THE AUTHOR IN SOCIETY.
There was a grand ball in the evening, given by the officers of the Honour- able Company's 7th Regiment of Cavalry ; which I had no desire to attend, as Illegan to feel the want of sleep, not having bad any during the two preceding nights ; and secondly, because a ball is to no the least interesting of all enter- tainments; next to which is a large promenading evening party, where persons are constantly moving and flitting about, talking, laughing, approaching, and tetreating, in every gap of the cunversation. This eternal flutter keeps Ines() much on the qui vire, that it becomes RD annoyance instead of a pleasure ; but provided the company remains stationary, no matter how large the apartment, I can always keep up my attention round the room without any painful exertion. Even if they approach me occasionally for a short time and return again to the same seats, it does not create any conhasion in my ideas ; for after I have once distinguished their voices, and given to each person a positive position, the whole room becomes as clearly mapped out to my mental view as it is to the visual organs of other persons ; but the moment the company begin to change plaees, and move about at random, it entangles the web of my thoughts so com- pletely, that I can with difficulty unravel it ; althongh I may recollect the voices of many, the confusion is so worrying that I am sometimes unable to recal to mind the names of my most particular friends. In further illustration f this.peculiarity, I may remark, that when I attend public dinners I never feel confused in fact I imagine my mind to be more tranquil on such occasions than the generality of other persons ; which I account for by my clearly com- prehending the general arrangement, while I escape the confusion visible in the progress of details, especially that produced by the constant motion of the at- tendants.
Few men, however sharp-sighted, would feel inclined to start on an expedition in the mode of Lieutenant HOLMAN. He pro- ceeds to a place without a thought as to how he shall leave it, or even as to where he shall lay his head when he arrives. Yet he finds few difficulties as regards transport, and none with respect to board and lodging. W herever he goes, a 'house is open still." At the Seychelles, Mauritius, Ceylon, Pondicherry, Madras, Cal- cutta, and on his minor intermediate excursions, whether with an introduction or withoet, the blind traveller was a welcome if not a sought-after guest. Though feasted arid almost lionized at Calcutta, it appears that some compunctious visitings seized the city, or a journalist of the city, after his departure. We give his remarks, as containing a hint worth acting upon by the English in India.
I was not a little surprised, soon after my arrival in China, to hear that one of the Calcutta journals had remarked upon some imputed :inattention shown to me in that city. So far as my own feelings went, I was unconscious of any ground of complaint. Most of those to whom I forwarded letters of introduc- tion showed me the most marked politeness. From his Excellency and Lady William Bentinck, with whom Iliad not the slightest previous acquaintance, I received a flattering distinction ; and if I admit that those residents to whom I brought no introduction, did not call upon me, it must not be thought that I considered that au omission amounting to a personal slight, since I had been ap- prized that such was the custom of ludia—the first call being made to the resi- dents by the stranger. I must own, that their mode of politeness is any thing but agreeable, as it looks like forcing a civility ; whereas I conceive that it would be more delicate and liberal-minded for the resident to come forward voluntarily to proffer his hospitality ; and it certainly would be more grateful to the stranger to be met by unsought-for attentions. I understood that the officers of a King's regiment at Madras preferred excluding themselves entirely from the society of the place, to a compliance with so unusual a style of courtesy.
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