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pot. Bruife the mufambra ; and, having put it into the oil, boil them for four hoursmore. Another pot having been made red hot, the chunderafu is to be put into it,and will immediately melt. Take a third pot, and, having tied a cloth over its mouth,ftrain into it the oil and mufambra: thefe muft be kept in a gentle heat, and the chun-derafu added to them gradually. The oil muft be {trained again; and it is then fit forufe.
The chunderafu is prepared from the milky juioe of any of the following trees:CFicus glomerata Roxb.j, goni (a tree which I call Ficus gonia) bayla, bayvina,gobali, &c. It is therefore an elaftic gum.
The oil ufed for painting confifts of two parts of linfeed, and one part of chun-derafu.
In white-waftiing their walls, over the chunam or iime plafter, the workmen ofSeringapatam firft give a thin coat of fuday, or fine clay which is mixed with fize,and put on with a hair brulh. They next give a coat of whitening made of powderedbalapum, or pot-ftone, and then finiih with a coat compofed of eight parts-of abracum,or mica, one part of powdered balapum, and one of fize. The abracum is preparedfrom white mica, by repeated grindings, the finer particles being removed for ufe bywafhing them from the groffer parts. The wall, when finifhed in this manner, Alineslike the fcales of a fifh ; and when the room is lighted, has a fplendid appearance:hut in the day-time the wall white waftied with the' powdered pot-ftone alone, in myopinion, looks better than when waftied with either quicklime or mica.
In the fpace between the city and the two gardens, the greater part of the ifland ofSeringapatam is covered with the ruinous mud walls of the fuburb, called ShaharGanjam; and nothing can have a look more difmal and defolate. Tippoo , before thefiege, had entirely removed the roofs; for he expected that the Britilh army wouldhave taken pofieffion of the ifland, as they had done under Lord Cornwallis . It muftnot be fuppofed, however, that the huts, of which we now fee the ruins, have beenat any one time all inhabited. They were, in fa£t, cantonments for the troops, whowere removed from one fide of the ifland to another as caprice dictated. In ShaharGanjam a new town is fall rifing up, in which the ftreets are laid down broad andregular. In the old cantonments, the huts had been miferably huddled together.
According to the regifter of houfes which I received from the cutwal, the fort,, orcity, contains 4,163 houfes, and 5,499 families; and the Shahar Ganjam contains2,216 houfes, and 3,335 families. At five inhabitants to each houfe, we may efti-mate the population of the city to be 20,815, and of the fuburbs 11,080; in all,31,895 perfons. This,, however, is independent of a ftrong garrifon and its numerousfollowers. The principal merchant in the place fays, that in the reign of Tippoo theifland contained 500,000 inhabitants; and he pretends to found his eftimate on thequantity of grain confumed. In this calculation, I think he exaggerates grofsly; as I feeno place where fuch a number of perfons could have lived. I know alfo, that the man,in other refpe&s, is not to be trufted. Perhaps we may fafely admit the former popula-tion of the ifland to have amounted to 150,000 perfons; who were entirely fupportedby the court and army, fcarcely any manufactures having been. eftablilhed. By theremoval of the court, and the dimmiftied number of the troops, the inhabitants havebeen reduced to the neceflity of leaving the ifland ; which is ftill a very inconvenientplace for Europeans; all their fervants, and the moft common artificers, being peoplefrom Madras, who charge the moft extravagant wages. Excellent meat and goodvegetables are to be had in abundance; but bread being dear, the private foldiers arein general under the neceflity of eating rice.
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