Page:Narrative of a journey through the upper provinces of India etc. (Volume III.).djvu/394

352 Their goldsmiths and weavers produce as beautiful fabrics as our own, and it is so far from true that they are obstinately wedded to their old patterns, that they shew an anxiety to imitate our models, and do imitate them very successfully. The ships built by native artists at Bombay are notoriously as good as any which sail from London or Liverpool. The carriages and gigs which they supply at Calcutta are as handsome, though not as durable, as those of Long Acre. In the little town of Monghyr, 300 miles from Calcutta, I had pistols, double-barrelled guns, and different pieces of cabinet-work brought down to my boat for sale, which in outward form (for I know no further) nobody but perhaps Mr. ——————— could detect to be of Hindoo origin; and at Delhi, in the shop of a wealthy native jeweller, I found broaches, ear-rings, snuff-boxes, &c. of the latest models (so far as I am a judge), and ornamented with French devices and mottos.

The fact is, that there is a degree of intercourse maintained between this country and Europe, and a degree of information existing among the people as to what passes there, which, considering how many of them neither speak nor read English, implies other channels of communication besides those which we supply, and respecting which I have been able as yet to obtain very little information. Among the presents sent last year to the Supreme Government by the little state of Ladak in Chinese Tartary, some large sheets of gilt leather, stamped with the Russian eagle, were the most conspicuous. A traveller, who calls himself