Buchanan’s journey through
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very diort of the {lately forefls of Chittagong . In thefe woods the bamboo iscommon. It is now in flower, and produces a great quantity of grain, which isgathered for food by the poor inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
The cultivation is faid to extend but a fhort didance from the road, there being oneither hand extenfive woods. I therefore reckon the arable land, on this day’sroute, at one tenth of the country. It confids entirely of dry fields.
At a fmall temple, dedicated to Hanumanta, I obferved, for the firfl time, therock of red granite. It is a handfome variety, confiding of bright red felfpar, a fmallquantity of glaflfy quartz, and a very minute proportion of black mica. I had beforefeen many detached mafifes of it in buildings; fo that it is probably common in thecountry. It is a moll elegant done.
Chinapatam, or Chinapatana, is an open town, containing about a thoufand houfes.At fome didance from it dands a handfome done fort: this was formerly the refi-dence of a Polygar family of didinction, which derived its name from JacadevaRaja.
The cutwal, or fuperintendent of the market at Chinapatam, is a Muflulman, andIs extremely attentive to drangers. This, however, does not proceed from any prin-ciple of hofpitality, a virtue which feems little known in India . He experts a prefentin return, and charges three times the ufual price for every thing that he furnifhes.Between this and Madras I have met with two other native officers that were civil.One of thefe was a eunuch, the cutwal at Satghur in the dominions of the Nabob ofArcot; but he feemed to be actuated by the fame motives with the cutwal of China-patam. The other was a Brahman, the amildar at Waluru, who was very polite,and did not feem to have any finider defign. Among all the other officers of govern-ment, I found that any attention to a traveller was confidered as degrading totheir rank, and could only be extorted by authority.
In fight of Chinapatam, but at a confiderable didance, is Capala durga, one of theplaces to which Tippoo fent thofe unfortunate wretches who incurred his difplea-fure. It is a fort fituated on a high deep rock. Death foon terminated the fufferingsof thofe confined in it; for the air and water were extremely bad; and the wellswere fr quemly rendered more loathfome and pernicious, by having purpofelythrown into them the branches of euphorbium, and dead fnakes, or other reptiles,in order to increafe the putrefaction. It is faid, that no native prifoner ever returnedto detail the horrors of this dungeon.
The opprtffions of Tippoo , and the miferies of war, are faid to have driven awayfour-tenths of the cultivators. That tyrant received the country in a very flourifhingdate from his father, of whom every native that I haye converfed with on thefubjuct {peaks in terms of the highed refpedt.
As we approach the capital, I think the dyle of building becomes fomewhat better.The houfes, although in other refpefts equally mean, have in general fmall verandas,or open galleries, in front, to fhelter from the fun their {hops and their cudomers.The villages are not fortified, the vicinity of the capital having been a l'ufficientfecurity againd marauders.
Near Muduru are the ruins of a done fort, containing a temple of Vifhnu, and thehoufes of k-veral Brahmans. This fort was built by the grandfather of the prelentRaja of Myfore, and dedroyed by the late Sultan with great propriety ; for it couldmake no refidance againd a European army, but mig it terve as a protection to theirconvoys; at the fame time, it was burthenfome, by being much dronger than wasneedlary for protecting the town againd plundering parties of native cavalry.