Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/114

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I have seen Billimorá and the adjoining parts, and am assured by respectable informants that the account I give above of the Desáis' exactions is substantially correct. My trip to Billimorá was not quite uneventful.

I left for bunder Billimorá by mail train. The train went at high speed, I am told, which, on ascertaining it, I find to be about twenty miles an hour. Compared with bullock hackeries, Mr. Duxbury's dragweight is much faster, to be sure. But it is nothing, speaking absolutely; because I am told that the strain of any greater speed would be too much for the yielding soil. It is, however, to be noted that what is wanted in speed is made up for by the noise. The carriages hobble along with ominous squeaks that indicate chronic rheumatism. The engine seems to be suffering from constipation, and the faint and sickly sobs it now and then gives are heartrending indeed. Then the dust, the clouds