others were merchants, who exported to various parts the articles
o f commerce; fome were a wild and a favage race. This
agrees with the modern account of the nations to the weft, for
fome are in a high ftate of civilization, others fo wretched as
not to have any covering but a wifp o f ftraw to cover their
nakednefs. The firft diftindtion may comprehend our northern
Circars, or provinces, a tradt extending from the Godavery to
the lake of Chtlka, a fpace of about three hundred and forty
miles, and not exceeding in breadth more than from twenty
to feventy-five miles. A little beyond that is a line of mountains
running equidiftant from the fea (about fixty or feventy
miles inland) the whole length o f the Circars. Thefe are
cloathed with thick forefts o f bamboos and other trees, fo as to
be impervious to any army in more than four or five places,
and even in thofe pafles may be defended by a hundred men
againft the moft numerous force ; could M. Bujfy have fecured
his conquefts by fea, they would have been inaccefiible from
the land. The whole country far to the weft is little known,
is bounded by many civilized nations; others in the wild ftate
above defcribed, others, perhaps fimilar, form the vaft blank
even in the beft maps.
T h e part which comprehends the prefent kingdom o f Orixa,
is a vaft plain, in twenty parts morafly, in others traverfed by
chains of hills from north to foutb, and watered with rivers,
running from weft to eaft, irregularly branching. This kingdom
was once independent, but when it was added to the
Mogul empire, it was placed in the Soubahjhip of Bengal, and is
mentioned as fuch in the Ayeen Akberry, ii. 16, which alfo fays,
„ that
4
that the periodical rains laft eight months; that the men are
effeminate, and anoint themfelves with oil of Sandal wood, and
the women drefs themfelves with leaves o f trees, cloathing
only their lower parts. All the people o f this internal country,
being aborigines, retain the primaeval fuperftition of the old
religion.
T h e Black Pepper has o f late been difcovered in part o f
this country. The Ayeen fays it has the Betel leaf, which is
chewed by the natives: the fame book alio celebrates the
beauty o f its flowers.
D o c t o r Darwin, in his elegant poem The Loves of the Plants,
giving a loofe to fancy, places in this province, among the great-
eft and moft magnificent o f the foreft, Kleinhovia Ho/pita,
Cati Marus, Rumph. Amboin. iii. tab. cxiii. a tree of fmall
growth : This is a native of Amboina, defcribed and figured by
Rumphius only, who fpeaks of it as a very defpicable tree. In
fa£t, the introduction muft be vindicated, for the pleafure we
may receive from the following beautiful lines :
Gigantic nymph, the fair Kleinhovia reigns,
The grace and terror o f Orixa’s plains:
O’er her warm cheek the bluih of beauty fwims,
And nerves Herculean bend her iinewy limbs.
With frolic eye ihe views th’ affrighted throng,
And ihakes the meadows as ihe towers along ;
With playful violence difplays her charms,
And bears her trembling lover in her arms.
B l a c k P a m a .
Gum