very name, after a courfe of numbers of miles more than its
rival river. The Bore up the river Megna, and other difcharges
o f the Ganges, are often twelve feet high. In the rainy feafon,
all thè water at thefe enormous mouths is freih, and even continues,
on the furface, at left many miles into the fea.
I sh a l l now return as far as Lat. 25° north, to defcribe two
fmall diftridts little known, and which are parts of the Hin-
dooflan empire, Or, if you pieafe, part o f the Engli/h, as lords of
S i l h e t a n d Ti- Bengal. Thefe are the little provinces of Silbet and Tipera,
bounded by the Burratnpooter, or Megna, on the weft, and by
the chain o f mountains, and the forefts o f Medley on the eaft ;
their northern limits are a line drawn from Lat. 25° ; the
fouthern, the fea. The firft, Silbet, is exactly midway between
Calcutta and China, three hundred and fifty miles from each,
a tempting fhortnefs of way for our adventurous heroes, did not
the wife Chinefe fhut all the doors againft the Europeans.
WildT«!- In the vaft forefts of Tripura, or Tipera, in the eaft of Bengal,
i h a o t s . which ftretch far into Meckley, is ftill abundance of elephants,
which in November quit the woods, and vifit the new-dried
marihes to ravage the adjacent crops o f rice and fugar-canes.
Thefe prove probable objedts of chace. The account of the
captures is very curious. It is given in vol. iii. p. 229, o f the
AJiatic Refearcbes, and is worthy of the reader’s perufal. The
manner o f copulation is there afcertained to be exadtly in the
manner of a horfe ; and the manner o f the fucking o f the
young, is alfo ihown to be with the mouth, not the trunk, as is
aiferted by the Comte de Buffon.
Silbet is a very mountanous region. I know of no hiftorian
who fpeaks o f it but Aiulfazel (ii. 15); he fays it furniihes
abundance
G A N G E T I C H I N D O O S T A N .
abundance o f eunuch-ilaves for the feraglios. He mentions
the China root and lignum aloes among its produdtions. The
firft had, about the year 1533, much reputation in our fhops as
a remedy in the venereal diftafes. Garcias ab Orta, a Portu-
guefe phyfician, who made a long refidence in India, is the firft
who fpeaks o f it, at p. 172 of the firft book o f his Aromata.
The plant it originates from is the Smilax China-, numbers o f
botanical writers defcribe it- Ktempfer, in his Ammn.Exot. 781.
tab. 7. G.melin iter, iii. tab, 6. a.nd Blackmail, tab. 433. Doctor
Thunberg. defcribes- it at p. 151 of his Flora Japanica, z.n<\ alfo.
the other fpecies, ftyled the Pfeudo China. Old Gerard, at
p. 1618, gives a figure of the roots o f both kinds ; but it is very
long fince they have been flruck out o f our difpenfaries.
Among the luxuries of Silbet, the honey is reckoned the moft Hong
exquifite, as fuppofed, from the quantity o f orange trees which
gEow there, and afford thofe infedts fuch. delicious fudtion.
T he lignum aloes is an article which feems to puzzle the
botanifts. That which is .defcribed by Gerard, p. 1622, was a
moft fragrant wood, which, when put to the fire, exuded an
oil ftill more odoriferous. It is fuppofed to have been the ■
AgoUochum of Diofcorides,. the Agoligen of the Arabs,, and thp
Xylo-aloe o f the later. Greeks. It is defcribed by Ab Orta, -and.
other old botanifts,.but none can determine the tree to which it
•belongs. Garcias procured the branch of. a tree of this kind from
Malacca- Rumphius, ii. tab.hxxix. has a long defcription, and
¡print o f another, under the name o f Arbor excmcans. Mnneeus-,
calls it Excoecaria Agollocha. The former fpeaks of the fragant
frnell of the wood., .ip .which, it agrees with the Agallocba, but
iavs,
367
C h i n a R o o t .
L i g n u m A l o e s ,
S a l