emies to man, provided by the same Divine source
from whence all other benefits proceed.

The locusts, so familiar by name to the readers of Scripture, are here
seen to advantage in their occasional visits. I had, however, been some
years in India before I was gratified by the sight of these wonderful
insects; not because of their rarity, as I had frequently heard of their
appearance and ravages, but not immediately in the place where I was
residing, until the year 1825, which the following memorandum made at the
time will describe.

On the third of July, between four and five o'clock in the afternoon, I
observed a dusky brown cloud bordering the Eastern horizon, at the
distance of about four miles from my house, which stands on an elevated
situation; the colour was so unusual that I resolved on inquiring from my
oracle, Meer Hadjee Shaah, to whom I generally applied for elucidations of
the remarkable, what such an appearance portended. He informed me it was a
flight of locusts.

I had long felt anxious to witness those insects, that had been the food
of St. John in the Desert, and which are so familiar by name from their
frequent mention in Scripture; and now that I was about to be gratified, I
am not ashamed to confess my heart bounded with delight, yet with an
occasional feeling of sympathy for the poor people, whose property would
probably become the prey of this devouring cloud of insects before the
morning's dawn. Long before they had time to advance, I was seated in an
open space in the shade of my house to watch them more minutely. The first
sound I could distinguish was as the gentlest breeze, increasing as the
living cloud approached; and as they moved over my head, the sound was
like the rustling of the wind through the foliage of many pepul-trees.[7]

It was with a feeling of gratitude that I mentally thanked God at the time
that they were a stingless body of insects, and that I could look on them
without the slightest apprehension of injury. Had this wondrous cloud of
insects been the promised locust described in the Apocalypse, which shall
follow the fifth angel's trumpet; had they been hornets, wasps, or even
the little venomous musquito, I had not then dared to retain my position
to watch with eager eyes the progress of this insect family as they
advanced, spreading for miles on every side with something approaching the
sublime, and presenting a most imposing spectacle. So steady and orderly
was their