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works of the Hindûs are their tanks or reservoirs of water; some of which have been constructed with consummate ingenuity and incredible labour, by damming up the outlets of narrow valleys, and thus making use of the surrounding rocks as walls. Others, in the flat countries, have been dug and lined with masonry, covering frequently not less than a hundred acres; and wells of every description, for the purposes of agriculture or the relief of travellers, are met with all over the country, more or less in repair, as the towns or villages near them have flourished or been destroyed by war, oppression, or famine.

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Among the great public works of Hindostan, there are none more worthy of remark than the canals of Sultaun Firoze, which were dug to supply the city of Hissar Firozeh with water. The first of these passed from the Jumna to Sufedoon, a hunting palace, and thence to Hissar, and was one hundred and fourteen geographical miles in length. This canal was repaired about A. D. 1626, by Shah Jehan, who prolonged it to Delhi, making in the whole one hundred and seventy-four geographical miles.

The other canal brought the waters of the Sutlege to Hissar: it is said to have been one hundred miles in length; and both these canals are said to have been intended by Firoze to have

answered the purposes of navigation, as well as giving water to the town and adjacent country.

I copy verbatim the following note of Major Rennel from Captain Kirkpatrick's manuscripts. Besides the main canals that have been mentioned, it seems that several others were cut, which united them in different parts and in different directions. The banks, both of the main canals and their branches, were covered with towns-such as Juneed, Dhatara, Hansi, and Toglucpoor. Firoze, by sanction of a decree of the Cauzees assembled for the purpose, levied a tenth of the produce of the lands fertilized by these canals, which he ap plied, together with the revenue of the lands newly brought into cultivation, to charitable uses. The lands of Firozeh, which before had produced but one scanty harvest, now produced two abundant ones. This Sircar, ever since the conquest of Hindostan by the Moguls, has constituted the personal estate of the heir apparent of the empire."

Such works as these are really worthy of a great monarch; and the labours of Firoze, and the laws of Akbar, are among the most honourable monuments of conquest that the warriors or monarchs of any age, or any faith, have left.

The early military architecture of India must

have been of that inartificial kind which was sufficient to guard against the incursions of wild beasts or the surprise of a human enemy, whose bow and arrow were his chief weapons; these were constructed either of kneaded clay, brick, or stone, according to the nature of the country which was to be defended, and were more or less strong according to the treasure to be guarded or the importance of the situation. Many of the ancient forts were on the summits of steep rocks, and required little assistance from art to be impregnable, except by starving their garrisons; but as civilization advanced, the arts of war kept pace with those of peace, and that of fortifying towns, of course improved in proportion to the improvement in the modes of attack. The Mahomedans would naturally introduce such methods of defence as were used in their native country when they found those of the conquered people defective; but the science of fortification has always continued in the East in an extremely rude state, although many of the Mussulman monarchs, particularly Aureng Zebe in the 17th century, and Tippoo Sultaun in our own times, employed European engineers in constructing works for the defence of their principal cities.

On the coast of India you will everywhere find the forts of the Portuguese, Dutch and

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other Europeans, who have usually been obliged to construct such defences for their factories. Many if not most of these are in a ruinous condition, and it is only at the three presidencies that you will see them on a very extensive scale and carefully kept up. The inland forts I am less able to speak of, but I believe some of them to possess considerable strength, against any native force, though few, excepting those whose natural situations are strong*, could resist a regular attack from European troops. Among these the mud forts are probably the best calculated for resistance, as the substance of which they are built being kneaded clay, possesses a tenuity which deadens the effect of shot and renders it difficult to effect a breach.

But you will think I am straying out of my proper province and trenching upon yours, and, to say the truth, the useful and exact lines of a fortress have in general few charms for a lady's eyes, however she may delight in the more showy structure of palaces and temples. There

* Such as the fortress of Dowlat-abad, which stands on the summit of a high insulated rock. It is surrounded by a ditch I am told fifty feet wide, and the rock is scarped to an astonishing height. Across this ditch a narrow bridge leads to an aperture in the rock, by which you enter a winding passage cut in the hill, the egress of which is defended by a grating of metal, which is let down at pleasure, and thus renders the place completely inaccessible.

fore I will take leave in time, and beg you to believe me as ever, &c.

LETTER V.

IN mentioning the fine arts as they once flourished in Hindostan, I ought not to have omitted Calligraphy, which, in a country where printing is unknown, becomes really an art, of no trifling importance. Accordingly we find in the East, where the means of multiplying books by printing have not yet superseded the pen of the scribe, the most beautiful and correct manuscripts often enriched with costly illuminations and gilding. Though paper be now pretty generally used to write on in India, and that of a very smooth and even kind, yet the more ancient methods still prevail in some districts. One of these which is most frequently practised is writing upon the leaf of the palmyra with an iron style; so that you see people going about with their little bundle of leaves in appearance like a large fan, tied up between two bits of wood cut to fit them, either as ledgers and billbooks, or the legendary tales of their country, or the holy texts of their shastras, which may possibly have been originally written with the same materials. Another kind of writing of

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