AFTER spending a few days very pleasantly at Calicut, I mounted my palanquin at daylight, and took the road to Coinbetoor, în preference to another of only half the distance, but considered rather dangerous. A part of my way, indeed, lay through an extensive elephant-jungle, for which, however, I was well provided; my cavalcade, including bearers, amounting to at least fifty people: the great part of these were armed with hunting spears, swords, and blunderbusses, so as to cut a very formidable figure, and I was almost sorry not to meet with an adventure, being so well prepared. My servants, with my light baggage, stumbled on an old elephant with her cub, but they fled on the firing of a gun. On the morning of the fifth day I arrived at the foot of the hills, and began the ascent in the middle of the next night. At daybreak I found myself amidst all the charms of mountain-scenery-rocks and mountains, and woods and streams; and, after an ascent of some hours, reached a little station called Dinhutty, where a few Europeans have built cottages, to breakfast, at ten o'clock. The thermometer, which below stood at 98°, was here exactly 30° lower; and I was glad at night to get under two good blankets. I cannot describe to you the delight I felt at the change; I forgot that I had been ill, and, notwithstanding my fatigues, was out all day, almost believing myself in England. The scenery at Dinhutty is exceedingly beautiful; the hills are very precipitous, and strongly resemble the paintings of Swiss scenery. The climate delicious; and there is so much in every respect resembling England, that one ceases to think one's-self in India : I am sure I did, when I walked out with the ladies two miles to a three o'clock dinner in the month of May! After a few delightful days, I continued my ascent on horseback, about fifteen miles, to this place, called Ootacamund, about 2,000 feet above Dinhutty, and of course somewhat colder; the scenery, all the way up, grand and beautiful in the extreme. Here the country is different from that about Dinhutty, and I think I like it less: this may be described as a hilly country, at the top of lofty mountains, and we are very near the summit. Dodabet, the crown of the Nilgherries, rises just over our head here, between 8,000 and 9,000 feet above the sea. A great part of this consists of open downs, and gently swelling hills, rising one above another to a great height, covered with fine verdure, and occasionally broken by a rugged mass of rock. Here is no pestilential jungle or noxious marsh; beautiful little woods, as in England, are scattered over the country, and give to the whole aspect the appearance of a grand park, excellently well laid out, in some hilly country at home. These little woods fringe every ravine between the hills, through each of which, without exception, little crystal torrents rush down on every side. With the exception of the want of cultivation, every thing here is English; the woods are carpeted with strawberries, anemone, and violets; the white dog-rose, honeysuckle, and jessamine twine themselves over all the trees; and blackbirds and larks innumerable make the hills ring with their song: but the violets are shaded by groves of gigantic cinnamon and rhododendron, with its great masses of scarlet blossoms; and the song of the blackbirds is interrupted by the croaking of the monkeys, and the screams of the pea-fowls and junglecock. The whole, however, is delightful. It seems almost incredible that such a country and climate should exist so • Extracts from a letter, dated June 15, 1824, printed in the Bombay Courier. near near the equator, and surrounded by such burning climes. In truth, all the people below are quite sceptical, and will not make the trial, except the civilians of Coinbetoor. This region was not known till 1819, when the first visiters were pinched with the frost. The greatest advantage of the climate is its equality, the temperature varying little after the monsoon has once changed. At this moment my hands and feet are so cold that I can hardly write; I am obliged to blow on my fingers, in a little close shut-up room, with curtains and all the apparatus of English apartments, except fire, of which I should be very glad. The thermometer before me now stands at 56°, at 11 in the morning; but the S.W. monsoon is just set in, and the hills are covered with mist and a drizzling rain. The mercury here never rises beyond 70°; during May, the hottest month, it never exceeded that in the shade: so that the climate offers no obstruction whatever to European labour or enjoyment. The English here, including some farming and gardening men and their families, are all as stout, and strong, and healthy, and work just as hard, as at home; and the children, with their fat rosy faces, are unparalleled in India. I am out all day wandering over hills and woods, quite enchanted. In the warmest days there is so fine an air, that no sort of inconvenience is felt; in short, it is wholly European. The soil is deep and rich beyond measure; all European fruits, and vegetables, and flowers, vegetate luxuriantly; and nothing which England produces would fail here. You will readily understand how I rejoice in having made this experiment, in preference to going to the eastward or to the Cape. It answers all the purposes of a voyage to England; and I have written to some friends to suggest a subscription for an invalid bungalow, which might be managed extremely well. There is not, perhaps, a country to be found which nature has so fully prepared for the hand of man: one-half the wasted labours of the poor Algoa people would have converted it into a paradise. Mr. Johnson, a man who has set up a large garden and farm here, under Mr. Sullivan's auspices, was a Cape settler: he is delighted with this country, and already furnishes large supplies of vegetables and seeds to the country below: the potatoes are equal to English. EDUCATION IN ASIATIC RUSSIA. Ir appears from a letter addressed to the Baron de Sacy, by M. Fræhn, dated at St. Petersburg, 13th September last, published in the last number of the Journal Asiatique, that the Russian Government has adopted measures for propagating instruction amongst its subjects in the Asiatic provinces of the empire. An oriental Institute was attached a year ago to the department of foreign affairs at St. Petersburg, and placed under the direction of the Counsellor of State, Adelung. M. Djaafar Toutschibascheff has recently been appointed to an office upon that establishment, for the purpose of instructing the pupils in the Persian language. At the commencement of the year 1824, the emperor confirmed the statutes of a military school at Orenburg, called the school of Nepliucheff. The articles state the following particulars of the nature and principles of this establishment. It is formed for the reception, 1st, of children whose fathers are now serving, or who have served, in the irregular troops employed by the Orenburg govern E 2 ment; ment; 2dly, of children of Asiatics, who are hildren of Asiatics who are in a a state of precarious dependence upon Russia; 3dly, of children of persons of every condition. There are in the school forty pupils, maintained (as we term it) upon the foundation, and a like number at the expense of their relatives. Christian and Mahomedan pupils receive, independent of each other, instruction in the articles of their respective creeds: if the Christians and Mahomedans are equal, or nearly equal, in number, their instruction in the sciences is after the same manner: Mahomedan pupils are brought up apart from those who profess Christianity. By one of the articles, the military commandant is charged to solicit and excite Asiatics, and the inhabitants of the province confided to his careg to send their children to the school of Nepliucheff. To encourage them, the following inducement is held out: 1st, every Kirghese who places his son in this school, engaging not to take him away until he shall have completed his course of study, receives from the committee of administration of the frontier province of Orenburg, by order of the military commandant, a letter in testimony of satisfaction; 2d, every Cossack, Baschkir, Meschterek, Tartar, or other Asiatic, who places his son in the school, upon the same condition, receives a similar letter from the military commandant. The objects of instruction are, 1st, the Christian religion, according to the principles of the Greek church in Russia; 2d, the history of the Bible; 3d, the Russian, Arabic, Tartar, and Persian languages; 4th, moral philosophy; 5th, universal history, and the history of Russia; 6th, geography in general, mathematics, and the particular geography of Russia; 7th, the elements of natural history, and the general principles of physics, with special application to the topography of the government of Orenburg; 8th, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, plane and spherical; 9th, military architecture; 10th, the elements of the science of artillery; 11th, military exercises. All these objects of instruction, the first excepted, are common to Mahomedan pupils, who, in addition, are taught the Alcoran, and the fundamental tenets of their religion. The period of instruction is six years. The pupils are distributed into three classes; the upper, middle, and lower. At the examinations of the pupils in the tenets of the Mahomedan religion, and in the Arabic, Tartar, and Persian languages, all persons, ecclesiastical as well as secular, capable of judging of their progress, are to be invited to attend. Cossack, Baschkir, and Meschterek children, fit for the military service of the irregular troops, after their course of study is terminated, return to their country with the rank of sub-officers, and enter the service according to seniority. Those who have made a distinguished progress in the study of the oriental tongues, remain as they were, or are placed under the government of the province of Orenburg in the capacity of translators, dragomans, and in offices of trust. Such projects as these are highly creditable to the character of the Emperor of Russia: they will shed more glory upon his history, and confer greater benefits upon his subjects, than could be ensured by military exploits which should rival those of his most renowned predecessors. Let him extend instruction throughout his vast empire, and he will find the moral strength of his government increase with the intelligence and improvement of his subjects. NAUTICAL NAUTICAL INTELLIGENCE. To the Editor of the Asiatic Journal, SIR TO Since I gave to you the account* of a rock lately discovered near Victory Island, in the southern part of the China sea, I have, within these last three days, received the following information of two dangerous shoals recently discovered, the notice of which, in the Asiatic Journal, will no doubt be of public advantage to those who frequent the seas eastward of the Cape of Good Hopes aid of kolliging i SIFRENCH SHOAL, on which a French ship is said to have been lost, has been lately explored, in 1824, by Capt. McLean, of the Swan, southern whaler, belonging to Messrs. Enderby, who twice passed over the shoal, and found it to be a coral bank, about five or six miles in extent, of a circular form, with soundings of 9, 5, and 3 fathoms water over the coral rocks. The centre of the shoal appeared to be in lat. 3° 58′ S., lon. 54° 42′ E., distant about ten leagues west of the meridian of Bird Island, and nearly the same distance to the westward of the meridian of the N.W. point of the island Silhouette, and it is situated a little way within the verge of soundings on the Great Bank that circumscribes the Seychelle islands. WELSTEAD'S Rock, discovered by Capt. Welstead, in the General "Harris, on the 10th of January 1825, at half past eight A.M., when that ship struck, and grazed over it, with three or four slight shocks, at which time sounded in 34 fathoms, and immediately deepened to 6, 12, and 20 fathoms water, with the ship's head to the northward. Bearings were taken immediately after the ship grazed over the rock, when the small islet off the west side of Direction Island was just visible above water, seen from the quarter-deck; the peak on Direction Island bore S. 28° E., peak on the highest of the Tumbelan islands N. 38° W., and the southern extreme of the Tumbelans N. 48° W., distance from Pulo Jarrang, the south-easternmost isle of the Tumbelans, about seven or eight leagues, and from Direction Island about six or seven leagues. As the coral rocks were seen under the ship's bottom, and soundings of scarcely twenty-two feet obtained by the lead, this shoal is certainly very dangerous for large ships; and by the observation of the following noon, as nearly as could be estimated, it is situated in lat. 0° 32′ N., long. 107°. 55' E., by mean of three chronometers, corresponding with Capt. Ross's longitude of Tumbelan Peak and the Natunas. As Mr. Whiteman, the chief officer, searched an hour afterward in the boat, without being able to sound on the rock, it must be considered a single rock, or narrow ridge, of small extent, which ought to be avoided by all large ships. Chart Office, East-India House, 16th May 1825. JAMES HORSBURGH. Vol. xix., p. 793. SIMILE FROM FIRDOUSI. BRIGHT thoughts, and sparkling language, unexpressed, SIR: The Company's opium trade is a subject of so much importance, in several points of view, that I apprehend you will not object to affording the following remarks upon it a place in your publication, I observe in a Calcutta paper, an extract of a letter from Canton, dated October 10th, 1824, from whence it would seem that the East-India Company intended to make some material change in this article of their trade, by 'abandoning the purchase of Malwa opium, which fetched a comparatively low price at their last sales in Calcutta. The extract is as follows: By the Sultan and Glorioso, which vessels are both under despatch, I shall now proceed to give you some details of the very unexpected change, and extraordinary fluctuations, which have taken place in our markets since the arrival of the Jamesina, by which opportunity accounts have been received that the Company intended abandoning their purchases of Malwa for the ensuing season, and the quantity which will consequently come on will be comparatively short of the two former seasons. How far this information may be relied on remains yet to be proved, as only one or two individuals have yet received accounts from your quarter to this effect; and I have only to regret that I was not in possession of my advices per Jamesina ten or twelve days sooner, otherwise I should not have been disposed to sell off, at the time I did; but none could have foreseen that such a change would take place; so we must hope for better luck hereafter. Shortly after the news alluded to was made public, the Chinese, as well as European speculators in the market, became numerous; and from the 10th to the 14th, Malwa rose from 560 dol., at which extensive sales were made, up to 750 dol. ; it continued nominally at that price until the 24th, and I have been told that some sales were even effected at 800 dol. on time: from that quotation it fell again, before the 30th, to 620 dol., and since that period it has again reached 720 dol, which may be given as the price of the day. What is to be the result of all these changes, our first arrival from your quarter will confirm, and for which we are all eagerly looking out. For some days past I may say the run upon new Patna has been equally great as that which I have described to have taken place in Malwa; and from 950 dul. it has risen to 1,140 dol., at which it can be valued to-day; but as there still remains a large quantity to come on, I fear we cannot expect to maintain its price, unless some very unlooked for accounts should reach us: all, therefore, is mystery here at present; being in total darkness of what the Company's intentions may be for the ensuing year. The determination of the Company, if accurately reported, corroborates, in some degree, the judicious reflections of Mr. St. George Tucker: who, in his recent work,* has investigated the subject of the opium monopoly, and condemned the policy of establishing and encouraging the cultivation of the poppy in Malwa He has shewn that the cost of production is great; and as the consumption price, and consequently the auction price, of the drug are now diminishing, Mr. Tucker's conclusion seems to be confirmed; namely, that the means pursued for the extension of the opium monopoly (by its establishment in Malwa), are calculated to produce effects the very reverse of those contemplated; and that, far from looking to any improvement, the experiment, if persevered in for two or three years, will end in the destruction of the present revenue. Of all monopolies, this appears to be the most defensible; in fact, upon the principles of public policy, morality, and commercial advantage, it is equally beneficial. * Review of the Financial State of the East-India Company in 1824, ch. 2. |