University of Virginia Library

THE following account of British conduct and its consequences, in Bengal and the adjacent provinces, some years ago, will afford a sufficient idea of the subject of the following Eclogue. After describing the monopoly of salt, betel-nut, and tobacco, the Historian thus proceeds: “Money, in this current, came but by drops; it could not quench the thirst of those who waited in India to receive it. An expedient, such as it was, remained to quicken its pace.—The natives could live with little salt, but not without food. Some of the agents saw themselves well situated for collecting the rice into stores; they did so. They knew the Gentoos would rather die, than violate the precepts of their religion by eating flesh. The alternative would therefore be, between giving what they had, and dying. The inhabitants sunk; they that cultivated the land, and saw the harvest at the disposal of others, planted in doubt; scarcity ensued; then the monopoly was easier managed. The people took to roots, and food they had been unaccustomed to eat. Sickness ensued. In some districts, the languid Living left the bodies of their numerous Dead unburied.”

—Short History of English Transactions in the East-Indies, p. 145.

The above quotation sufficiently proves, that the general plan of the following Poem is founded on fact. And, even with regard to its particlar incidents, there can be little doubt, but that, among the varied miseries of millions, every picture of distress, which the Author has drawn, had its original.

The Hindoos worship a God or Genius of the Ganges.

Muxadabat, or Morshedabat, a large city of India, about two hundred miles above Calcutta. The name is commonly pronounced with the accent on the last syllable: Muxadabàt. I have taken the liberty to accommodate this, and some few other words, to my verse, by altering the accentuation; a matter, I apprehend, of little consequence to the English reader.

The famous Mahometan tyrant, Auranzebe, during a famine which prevailed in different parts of India, exerted himself to alleviate the distress of his subjects. “He remitted the taxes that were due; he employed those already collected in the purchase of corn, which was distributed among the poorer sort. He even expended immense sums out of the treasury, in conveying grain, by land and water, into the interior provinces, from Bengal, and the countries which lie on the five branches of the Indus.” Dow's Indostan, vol. iii. p. 340.

“Those who now made the things the English most wanted, were pressed on all sides—by their own necessities, their neighbours, and the agents employed to procure the Company's investments, as the goods sent to Europe are called. These importunities were united, and urged so much, so often, and in such ways, as to produce, among the people in the silk business, instances of their cutting off their thumbs, that the want of them might excuse them from following their trade, and the inconveniences to which they were exposed beyond the common lot of their neighbours.” History of English Transactions in the East-Indies.

Drugah; a Hindoo Goddess. “Drugah Poojah is the grand general feast of the Gentoos, usually visited by all Europeans (by invitation), who are treated by the proprietors of the feast with the fruits and flowers in season, and are entertained every evening with bands of fingers and dancers.” Vide Holwell's Indostan, vol. ii.

Bishen, Bistnoo, or Jaggernaut, is one of the principal Hindoo deities. “This fast, dedicated to him, is called the Sinan Jattra, or general washing in the Ganges; and it is almost incredible to think the immense multitude, of every age and sex, that appears on both sides the river, throughout its whole course, at one and the same time.” Vide Mr. Holwell, vol. ii. p. 124. 128.

The Hindoos frequently cast the bodies of their deceased into the Ganges; with the idea, I suppose, of committing them to the disposal of the God or Genius of the River.

Birmah is a principal Deity of the Hindoos, in whose person they worship the divine attribute of Wisdom. From the best accounts we have of India, the intelligent part of the natives do not worship “stocks and stones,” merely as such; but rather the Supreme Existence, in a variety of attributes or manifestations.

Moisasoor: the Hindoo Author of Evil, similar to our Satan.

Crice, an Indian dagger.

The Reader must readily perceive the propriety of this turn of thought, in a Poem designed to have a moral tendency. There is much difference between a person wishing evil to his enemy, and prefaging that evil will be the consequence of that enemy's crimes. The first is an immoral act of the will; the second, a neutral act of the judgment.

The Hindoo religion strongly prohibits suicide. Mr. Holwell gives us the following passage from the Shastah: “Whosoever, of the delinquent Debtah, shall dare to free himself from the mortal form wherewith I shall inclose him; thou, Sieb, shalt plunge him into the Onderah for ever: he shall not again have the benefit of the fifteen Boboons of purgation, probation, and purification.”