On the day on which we set out he told me
he was a Catholic; and added, crossing himself and turning up the whites
of his eyes, that he had recommended himself to the protection of his
patron saint, and that he was quite confident that we should perform
our journey in safety. I thought of Ambrose Llamela, Gil Blas's devout
valet, who arranges a scheme for robbing his master of his portmanteau,
and, when he comes back from meeting his accomplices, pretends that he
has been to the cathedral to implore a blessing on their voyage. I did
him, however, a great injustice; for I have found him a very honest man,
who knows the native languages, and who can dispute a charge, bully a
negligent bearer, arrange a bed, and make a curry. But he is so fond of
giving advice that I fear he will some day or other, as the Scotch say,
raise my corruption, and provoke me to send him about his business. His
name, which I never hear without laughing, is Peter Prim.

"Half my journey was by daylight, and all that I saw during that time
disappointed me grievously. It is amazing how small a part of the
country is under cultivation. Two-thirds at least, as it seemed to me,
was in the state of Wandsworth Common, or, to use an illustration which
you will understand better, of Chatmoss. The people whom we met were as
few as in the Highlands of Scotland. But I have been told that in India
the villages generally lie at a distance from the roads, and that much
of the land, which when I passed through it looked like parched moor
that had never been cultivated, would after the rains be covered with
rice."

After traversing this landscape for fifteen hours he reached the town of
Arcot, which, under his handling, was to be celebrated far and wide as
the cradle of our greatness in the East.

"I was most hospitably received by Captain Smith, who commanded the
garrison. After dinner the palanquins went forward with my servant, and
the Captain and I took a ride to see the lions of the neighbourhood.
He mounted me on a very quiet Arab, and I had a pleasant excursion. We
passed through a garden which was attached to the residence of the Nabob
of the Carnatic, who anciently held his court at Arcot. The garden has
been suffered to run to waste, and is only the more beautiful for having
been neglected. Garden, indeed, is hardly a proper word. In England
it would rank as one of our noblest parks, from which it differs
principally in this, that most of the fine tree