defcriptive work like this. The arrival- of Sir Eyre Coote
from Bengal, with money and other fupplies, in September,
and the adtive meafures purfued by that gallant officer,- re-
firored confidence to the troops j- and the mod fanguine hopes
of the inhabitants from his exertions were not difappointed.
T he opportunities that offer to a painter are few, in a
country which is over-run by an adfcive enemy. I made however
among others a drawing of Marmalong bridge, which is
a very modem work, built, as I am informed, at the private
expence of an Armenian merchant. It is over a fmall river
that runs near the mount, and falls into the lea at a little dill,
tance before the village of St. Thoma, four miles to the
fouthward of Madras. The Portugueze had formerly a con-
fiderable fettlement at this village. The church and the dwdl-
ing-houfes of a few Portugueze families yet remain here.
The legendary tale of the Roman Catholic church is ,. that
St. Thomas the apoffle, in the courfe of his million to India,
fuffered martyrdom on the fpot where the church is built.
T he fetflement- o f Madras was formed by the EngTifh at
or about the middle of the.ljdt century, and was a place of
no real conlequence; but for its. trade, until the war fo ably
carried on by General Stringer Lawrence, from the years 1748
to 1^523 and which originated from the claims of Chunda
Saib, in oppolition to our ally Mahomed Ally Cawn, the
prefent Nabob of Arcot from which-period the Ehglifh may
be confidered, as .Sovereigns. In the fchool of. this able' officer
the late Lord Clive received- his military educatioh. .
F ort St:, George'; or Madras, rifes, as fhas bteen already
intimated, from the margin of the fea, 'and is,allowed by the
ablefl: engineers to be a place of confiderable ftrength. It was
planned by, the ingenious Mr.; Robins, the author of Lord
Anfon’s Voyages, who was eminent for1 his general and phi-
lofopKical^as well as for his mathematical knowledge^ Since
his time many works have been added.
In Fort St. George are many handfome and fpacious ftreets.
The houfes may be confidered as elegant, and particularly^ fo
from the beautiful material with which they are finiflied, the
chunam. The inner apartments are not highly decorated,
prefenting to the eye only white walls j which, however,
from the marble-like appearance of the ftucco,, give a frefh-
nefs grateful in.fo, hot a country. .Ceilings are very uncommon
in the rooms. Indeed it isimpoifible to find .any which
will refill the ravages of that deftruótiye.infeCt, the white ant.
Thefe animals are chiefly formidable from the immenfity of
their numbers, which are fuch as to - defljoy, in one night’s
time, a.ceiling of any- dimenfidna. I fa\v an inftance in the
ceiling to the portico of-the, Admiralty, or Governor’s, haufe,
which fell - in. flakes of twenty feet fquare. It is the .wood
work which ferves for the bafis of the ceiliiigs, fuch as the