FORBES'S ORIENTAL MEMOIRS.
FROM the volumes themselves, and a brief biographical notice- prefixed to them, which is more remarkable for eulogy than dis- tinctness, we learn that the author was appointed to a writership at Bombay in his sixteenth year. Though leaving England thus early, he had acquired a knowledge of general and classical litera- ture, besides possessing a taste for natural history and (looking to the state of the fine arts at that time-1765) some skill in draw- ing. With the exception of a trip to England for the recovery of his health, Mr. Forums continued in India till 1774; passing through a succession of situations, regularly discharging his official duties, and frequently connected with public business both of peace and war. With a busy temperament, and of an amiable and pious disposition), he never seems to have allowed the pleasures of society or the enervating nature of the climate to have diverted him front the improvement of his mind or the observation of thi.nos about him : and for some sears, when residing at distant settle- ments, his books, his pen, and his pencil, formed his only resoarce against ennui. All that he saw or heard of, deserving notice, he wrote an account of to his friends ut home. Some of the informa- tion thus transmitted (at that time both novel and valuable) found its way into various publications, without consent and without acknowledgment. Another reason for undertaking the compo- sition of the Memoirs, was a misfortune of the author : he was in France on the breaking out of the last war with NAPOLEON, and was detained with others of his countrymen at Verdun, tilt CARROT, at the solicitation of Sir JosEnt BANKS, procured his release; a sort of undertaking being given that he was about to publish a work on India. Thus pledged, he set about his task, and produced' the work before us; the epistles he had formerly written serving as his rough notes. The first edition was published a number of years ago, in a very expensive shape. The present is intended; we believe, for more general purchasers. The reader may guess from this introductory account, that the subject of the work is very various. Antiquities, manners, cus- toms, castes, religions, law, war, polities, personal character, the external appearances of nature, descriptive botany and geology, with commerce and agriculture,figure more or less in the pages of the book. It will also have been seen that both the information and the author are of a bygone age. When Mr. roanss first started for Bomber, he was eleven months on the voyage, and the now unheard-of scurvy made sad havoc with the crew. When he arrived in India, the power of the Company was insecure ; and their territory little more than strips of seaboard. The native princes, if not in their high and palmy state, were independent, and some of them powerful; their courts presented a picture of Hindoo manners and Hindoo etiquette ; their governments racy despotism. In those days, a Nabob realized the notions of wealth an Englishman attaches to the word. And Mr. FORBES not only describes these things, but gives us now and then a view of the policy—indispensable perhaps, yet still Machiavellian—by which the officers of the Company encouraged contentions, or at all events profited by them, assisting one party for cash in band and a slice of territory, to abandon him when it seemed advantageous so to do. There is in this state of things more of interest, though less of immediate interest, than in books descriptive of India as she is. Then as to the author— the point, force, or brilliancy of the modern school, do not belong to him ; he has little of our philosophizing spirit ; none of the exactness or the dryness of mo- dern science in his botany or zoology : but he is painstaking, elegantly laborious, equable, and true, and full of that kind of matter which it was in his nature to collect. His practice of painting seems to have trained his eye for perceiving the points of view in the things he intended to describe ; though this faculty is more conspicuous in individuals than in collections—in a single species of plant, for instance, than in a landscape. His goodness made him now and then somewhat of a twaddler, and he was credulous about things popularly believed in connexion with India. Titus much as to the author, and the nature and subject of his volumes. An extract or two shall exhibit his style. The Banian tree has been often described, but we never met a more distinct or. yleasing description than this— The banian, or burr-tree (Ficus Indica, Lin.) is equally deserving our atten- tion : from being one of the most curious and beautiful of nature's productions in that genial climate, where she sports with so much profusion and variety. Each tree is in itself a grove, and some of them are of an amazing size ; as they are continually increasing, and, contrary to most other animal and vegetable productions, seem to be exempted from decay : for every branch from the maia body throws out its own roots, at first in small tender fibres, several yards from the ground, which continually grow thicker ; until, by a gradual descent, they reach its surface, where, striking in, they increase to a large trunk, and become a parent tree, throwing out new branches from the top. These in time suspend their roots, and, receiving nourishment from the earth, swell into trunks, and shoot forth other branches: thus continuing in a state of progression so long as the first parent of them all supplies her sustenance. A banian tree, with many trunks, forms the most beautiful walks, vistas, and cool recesses, that can be imagined. The leaves are large, soft, and of a lively green; the fruit is a small fig, when ripe of a bright scarlet; affording suste- nance to monkiea, squirrels, peacocks, and birds of various kinds, whiekdwel among the branches.
On the banks of the Nerbuddah, I have spent many deightfule days- with large parties, on rural excursions, under a tree supposed by some persons to be that described by Nearchus, and certainly not at all inferior to it. High floods have at various tunes swept away a considerable part of this extraordinary tree ; but what still remains is near two thousand feet in circumference, measured round the principal stems; the over-hanging branches, not yet struck down, cover a much larger space ; and under it grow a number of custard-apple and other fruit-trees. The large trunks of this single tree amount to three hundred and fifty, and the smaller ones exceed three thousand : eaeh of these is con- stantly sending forth branches and hanging roots, to form other trunks, and become the parents of a future progeny. • r • • The banian tree I am now describing is called by the Ilindoos cubbeer-burr, in memory of a favourite saint ; and was much resorted to by the English gentle- men from Baroche, which was then a flourishing chiefship, on the banks of the Plerbuddah, about ten miles from this celebrated tree. The chief was extremely fond of field diversions, and used to encamp under it in a magnificent style; bating a saloon, dining-room, drawing.roum, bedchambers, bath kitchen, and every other accommodation, all in separate tents ; yet did this :Ilk tree cover the whule, together with his carriages, horses, camels, guards, and littemlants. While its spreading branches afforded shady spots for the tents of his friends, with their servants and cattle: and in the march of an army, it has been known to shelter seven thousand men.
• DAMIAN 'roamer..
The Banian hospital at Surat is a most remarkable institution ; it consists of a large plot of ground enclosed with high walls; divided into several courts, or wards, for the accommodation of animals: in sickness they are watched with the tenderest care, and find it peaceful asylum for the intimates of age. When an animal breaks a limb, or is otherwise disabled from serving his master, he carries him to the hospital ; and, indifferent to what nation or caste the owner may belong, the patient is never refused admittance. If he recovers, he cannot be reclaimed, but must remain in the hospital for life, Subject to the duty of drawing water for those pensioners debilitated by age or disease from procuring it for themselves. At my visit, the hospital contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkies, poultry, pigeons, and a variety of birds ; with an aged tortoise, who was known to have been there for seventy-five years. The most extraordinary ward was that appropriated to rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin: the overseers of the hospital frequently hire beggars from the streets for a stipulated sum, to pass a night among the fleas, lice, and bugs, on the express condition of suffiring them to enjoy their feast without molestation.
The Haitian hospital in Surat has several dependent endowments without the walls, for such invalids and convalescents to whom pasturage and country air may be recommended ; and especially for the maintenance of the goats pur- chased from slaughter on the anniversary of the illahomedau festival, when so many of throw animals are devoted to destruction.
To make the following clearly intelligible, it should be premised that RAGOBAH was a Mahratta prince, whose ministers had re- volted on account of the alleged murder of his nephew, and other acts of tyranny. Being totally defeated by the insurgents, he applied to the British ; who for a consideration assisted hint with a small body of forces, which turned the scale in his favour. The city does not appear to have taken any part in the contest, but it was under a chieftian (CoNlm Row) who had. The Bhauts arc that peculiar class who are wont to procure payment of a debt or the fulfilment of an obligation by a threat of killing themselves or one of the family, "imprecating the most dreadful vengeance of the gods on the head of him who had compelled them to shed their blood. This is deemed a dreadful catastrophe; as the Hindoos are taught to believe that the Bhauts life, to which a superstitious veneration is attached, over and above their common horror of bloodshed, will be demanded from the aggressor by an offended deity." As a new Governor of Bombay withdrew the British auxiliaries, perhaps this castastrophe was received in the light of a judgment.
RAISING CONTRIBUTIONS.
Bagobah, considering Conda Row's delinquency, was thought to have been very moderate in levying a contribution of only sixty thousand rupees on the • inhabitants of Neriad ; which, as usual, they refused to pay until the threats of immediate pillage effected a compliance. Each caste was assessed according to its wealth and number ; but some sects of Brahmins, and a very peculiar tribe of people called Bhauts, claimed an established privilege of beiug exempted from every kind of tax and imposition. * •
As this city had been twice assessed and plundered in the three preceding months, Ragobah's imposition reduced the inhabitants to the greatest dis- tress. The most melancholy scenes occurred in every quarter, of families de- livering up their last mite, and houses robbed of every moveable to answer their proportion of the tax : if insufficient, the wretched owners, snipped of clothes and necessaries, were left in nakedness and poverty ; or, under pretence of se- creting valuables they never possessed, tortures were inflicted with merciless rigour. So common are these executions among the Alabrattas, that our allies thought nothing of the cruelties in Neriad. Britons were not so unconcerned ; their generous &rams glowed with indignation against such wanton oppres- sion: but all remonstrances were vain.
When these cruelties and the refusal of the Bhauts to pay the tax were reported in the English camp, the commanding officer sent the brigade-major privately into the town, to convene the principal Bhauts, and assure them if they discharged their quota quietly, they might rely upon protectiou, sincerely lamenting the necessity of the measure. The heads of the tribe informed the .officer they were able to pay more than was demanded in any other mode, but if Ragobah persisted in compulsory assessment, they should prefer death to submission.
These humane remonstrances and persuasions proving ineffectual, and Ragobah continuing inexorable, the whole tribe of Merits, men, women, and .children; repaired to an open space in the city, armed with daggers, and with a loud voice proclaimed a dreadful sacrifice. They once more prayed for an ex- emption, which being refused, they rushed furiously upon each other, and a considerable number periehed before our astonished troops could disarm them. One man, more cool and deliberate than the rest, brought his family to the area before the limber : it consisted of two younger brothers and a beautiful sister, all under eighteen years of age ; he first stabbed the unresisting damsel to the heart, instantly plunged the dagger into the breast of one hurdler, and despe- rately wounded the other beture he could be prevented ; indeed the whole horrid deed was in a manner instantaneous. I afterwards heard this man boast of having sacrificed his father a few months before, in the glorious cause for which he had now become a fratricide.
A particular set of Brahmins claimed the same privilege of exemption : on being refused, they likewise vowed revenge; but acting more wisely than the Bhauts, they purchased two aged matrons of the same caste, who basing performed the duties of life, were now past the enjoyment of its pleasures, and quietly submitted to the sacrifice. These ancient ladies were sold by their daughters fur forty rupees each, to enable them to defray the expense in• curred by the funeral ceremonies, on which the Indians all lay a great stres'. The victims were then conducted to the market-place • where the Brahmins, calling aloud for vengeance, despatched themto another state of transmigration. After these sacrifices, neither Brahmins nor Bhauts thought it any disgrace to pay their share of the imposition.
Allusion is frequently made throughout the work to the plates which accompany it. These we have not seen ; but if we are to judge from the frontispiece to the second volume, the deprivation is not a misfortune of the first class.
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