Modern India (Volume 1); With Illustrations of the Resources and Capabilities of Hind Stan

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1837 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. Palankeen conveyance--Post-office arrangements, and Batta question--Shock of an Earthquake--Incidents on the Journey--Ganges at Rajmahal--Ruins--Personal conflict--Singular instance of prejudice in a Hindu--Passage through the Jungles--Singular habitation--Hospitality of Indigo Planters--Paliilpur--Birds of the Rajmahal Jungles--Wild Animals--Bees. Long after the British conquests had extended into Upper India, the great road to the interior lay along the banks of the Ganges. Subsequently, two new lines have been cut, by some called the great military road, by others, the new road, --both leaving the river far to the right. The old road has now become comparatively deserted. Upon my departure from Dum Dum, my duties called me first to Berhampore, and afterwards to Cawnpore and Keitah, in Bundlekund. The former of these places is a large military cantonment, contiguous to the city of Moorshedabad, and is the first station of the kind we meet with, after quitting the vicinity of Calcutta. Previous to commencing the narrative of this journey I wish it to be understood, that it is not my intention to confine myself to an enumeration merely of the villages and towns I pass through, with their relative distances from each other; but to introduce, as I go along, such collateral information connected with the country as I think calculated to prove novel, interesting, and instructive. To proceed from Berhampore into Upper India requires the traveller to voyage up the Ganges, or to take the old road. At the season of the year in which I was obliged to travel, people generally prefer the river to the palankeen conveyance; for it was the month of July, and at that period of the rains the road is in many places completely inundated, and all but impassable. Th..