228

Bernier's voyage to the east inwes.

And to the beauty of the country, you are to know, that all Bengal, taking it nearan hundred leagues in length on both Tides of Ganges , from Raje-mehale unto the fea,is full of great channels, formerly cut out of the river Ganges with vaft labour, reach-ing far into the country for the conveniency of tranfporting commodities, and thewater itfelf, which by the Indians is counted the belt in the world. Thefe channels areon both Tides lined with well peopled villages and boroughs of Gentiles, and thelarge fields, lying near them, bear abundance of rice, fugar, corn, legumes, muftard,fezamum for oil, fmall mulberries of two or three foot high, to feed filk worms. Butthen the vaft number of great and fmall files that are in the midft of Ganges , and fillall that great fpace of fix or feven days journey, (as there is in fome places of thisriver from one fide to the other ;) this giveth an incomparable beauty to the country:for, they are very fertile, filled with fruit-bearing trees, Ananas’, and all forts of ver-dure, and interlaced with a thoufand little channels, which you cannot fee the end of,as if they were fo many water mails all covered with trees. The worft of it is, thatmany of thefe ifles that are next the fea, are now abandoned, by reafon of thofe Cor-fairs, the Franguis of Rakan, elfewhere fpoken of; and that they have at prefent noother inhabitants but tigers (which fometimes fwim over from one ifland to the other),and gazelles, and hogs, and poultry grown wild. And ’tis upon the account of thefetigers, that for people travelling between thefe little ifles in fmall boats, as ufually theydo, ’tis dangerous in many places to land ; befides, great care is to be had, that theboat, which in the night is faftened to trees, be not too near the bank; for there arenow and then fome men furprized ; and I have heard it faid, that tigers have been fobold as to come into the boats, and to carry away men that were aileep, chufing thebiggeft and fatteft of them, if one may believe the water-men of the country.

I remember, I made once a voyage of ten days, from Pipli to Ogouli, between thofeifles and channels; which I cannot forbear to relate to you, becaufe there paffed not aday without fome extraordinary accident. My chaloupe of feven oars was no foonergot out of the river Pipli, and advanced 3 or 4 leagues into the fea along the coafl, togain the files and channels, but we faw the fea covered with fifties like huge carps,purfued by a fhoal of dolphins. I made my men row that way, and faw that moft ofthofe fifties lay along the coaft as if they were dead; that fome advanced a little,others played and tumbled as if they were drunk. We all laboured to take fome ofthem, and we caught 24 with our hands without any difficulty. Viewing them, I ob-ftrved, that out of all their mouths there came out a bladder (like thofe that are incarps,) which was full of air, and reddilh at the end. I imagined eafily, that this muftbe the bladder which kept them from finking ; but I could not conceive, why it fhouldthus come out of their mouth, unlefs it were that they had been long and clofe purfuedby thofe dolphins, and had made fo great an effort to fly away as to make this bladderthus fwell, and colour, and to hang out of their mouth. I afterwards told this thingto an hundred feamen, but they could not believe it, and I never found but one Dutchpilot, who told me, that failing once upon the coaft of China , he had met with the like,and that preflntly they ptit out their boat to fea, and took, as I did, with their handsabundance of fifties.

The day after, about even, we came among thofe ifles, and after we had looked fora place where ’twas likely no tigers would come, we landed, made a fire, dreffed acouple of pullets, and our fifti, which was excellent. Prefently after flipper I mademy m en row until night, and for fear of lofing our way between thofe channels in thedark, we retired out of the great channel, and found a good ftielter in fome fmallcreek, where we faftened our boat to a thick branch of a tree, far enough from the

9 land,