Hamilton’s account or the east indies.

m

made eafy by fome fand banks, that reach three leagues off fhore, and make the highturbulent billows that come rolling from the fea, fpend their force on thofe banksbefore they can reach the fhore. The foil is good, and the river commodious, andconvenient in allfeafons. Now whether one of thofe places had not been more eli-gible, I leave to the ingenious and thofe concerned to comment on.

However, the war carried on at Bengal and Bombay, by the Englifh againfl theMogul’s fubjects, from 1685 to 1689, made Fort St. George put on a better drefs thanhe wore before ; for the peaceable Indian merchants, who hate contention and war, cameflocking thither, becaufe it lay far from thofe incumberers of trade, and near the diamondmines of Golcondah, where there are, many times, good bargains to be made, andmoney got by our governors. The black merchants reforting to our colony, to fecuretheir fortunes, and bring their goods to a fafe market, made it populous and rich,notwithftanding its natural inconveniences. The town is divided into two parts. Onewhere the Europeans dwell is called the White Town. It is walled quite round, andhas feveral ba[’cions and bulwarks to defend its walls, which can only be attacked atits ends, the fea and river fortifying its fides. It is about 400 paces long, and 150paces broad, divided into ftreets pretty regular, and Fort St. George flood near itscenter. There are two churches in it, one for the Englifh, and another for the Romifhfervice. The governor fuperintends both, and, in filling up vacancies in the Romifhchurch, he is the Pope’s legate a latere in fpiritualities. There is a very good hof-pital in the town, and the Company’s horfe-ftables are neat y but the old college, wherea great many gentlemen factors are obliged to lodge, is ill kept in repair.

They have a town-hall, and* underneath it are prifons for debtors. They are, orwere a corporation, and had a mayor and aldermen to be chofen by the free burgersof the town; but that fcurvy way is grown obfolete, and the governor and his councilor party fix the choice. The city had laws and ordinances for its own prefervation,and .a court kept in form, the mayor and aldermen in their gowns, with maces on thetable, a clerk to keep a regifter of tranfaclions and cafes, and attornies and folicitors toplead in form, before the mayor and aldermen; but, after all, it is but a farce, for,by experience, I found, that a few pagodas rightly placed, could turn the fcales ofjuftice to which fide the governor pleafed, without refpect to equity or reputation.

In fmaller matters, where the cafe, on both fides, is but weakly fupported bymoney, then the court acts judicioufly, according to their confciences and knowledge;but often againfl law and reafon, for the court is but a court of confcience, and itsdccifions are very irregular; and the governor’s difpenfing power of nulling all thatthe court tranfadls, puzzles the moll celebrated lawyers there to find rules in-the fla-tute laws. v

They have no martial law, fo they cannot inflidl the pains of death any otherways than by whipping or flarving, only for piracy they can hang ; and fome of themhave been fo fond of that privilege, that Mr. Yale hanged his groom (Crofs) forriding two or three days journey oft' to take the air; but, in England, he paid prettywell for his arbitrary fentence. And one of a later date, viz, the orthodox Mr.Collet hanged a youth who was an apprentice to an officer on board of a fhip, and hismaker going a pirating, carried his fervant along with him ; but the youth ran fromthem the firfl opportunity he met with, on the ifland of Jonkceyloan, and informed themafter of a floop, which lay in a river there, that the pirates had a defign on hisfloop and cargo, and went armed, in company with the mafter, to hinder the ap-proach of the pirates, and was the firfl that fired oil them, yet that merciful man wasinexorable, and the youth was hanged.