o dispose of, but upon my visits I have seen nothing
wearable in the shape of bonnets and caps. An English milliner resides
in his neighbourhood, who possesses both skill and taste, and makes
up her silks and gauzes after the best French models; but necessarily,
perhaps, the purchases made at her rooms are rather expensive.

There is quite enough of bustle and animation in this quarter of the
Fort to engage the attention, but it seems silent and deserted when
compared with the crowd of the more exclusively native portions.
Here the streets literally swarm with life--men, women, children, and
bullocks, filling them almost to suffocation. Ranges of open shops
appear on each side, raised a foot or two from the ground, the
occupant being seated upon a ledge in front, in the midst of
his wares. Here, too, immense quantities of English glass and
crockery-ware are exhibited, which may be purchased at a much cheaper
rate than in shops styled, _par distinction_, European.

One or two opportunities offering for a visit to what is called the
China Bazaar, I gladly availed myself of them, and was much amused,
as the carriage made its slow way through the multitudes that thronged
the streets, to observe the employments of the people, buying,
selling, manufacturing their goods, or, for want of something else to
do, dragging little children in carts, which, by some contrivance, ran
back across the floor of the narrow apartment, and were then impelled
forward again by means of a string. This I found to be a favourite
occupation, and I never in any place saw more fondness manifested
towards children by their parents than in Bombay, or a greater desire
to associate them in all their amusements. At length, the carriage
stopped at a gateway, and upon alighting, I found myself in the midst
of a crowd of little children--an infant school, in fact, composed
indiscriminately of boys and girls. They were, generally speaking,
very pretty, and all well-dressed, many being adorned with very
handsome jewels.

The pedagogue--a Parsee, and rather a young man--with the barbarity
common to his class, was in the act of inflicting corporal punishment
upon a poor little creature, whom he beat upon the feet (ornamented,
by the way, with rich anclets) with a rod of split bamboo. I commanded
him to forbear, but speaking half in English and half in Hindustanee,
made myself better understood by look and gesture than by words. The
unhappy infant seemed to kn