Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/513

 such a crowd collect after me;—he goes along quietly, but with me it is different:—the moment I stop to sketch, a crowd collects, and the attendants are obliged to drive them off to enable me to see the object. I have a great sympathy for Dr. Syntax, and perfectly comprehend the delight he took even in a picturesque horsepond. India would have driven him wild;—it is the country of the picturesque. How I love this life in the wilderness! I shall never be content to vegetate in England in some quiet country place.

"Oh! it settles the spirits, when nothing is seen But a pig on a common, a goose on a green."

13th.—After an uninteresting passage with monotonous scenery, we moored off Poorooā, a village on the left bank. Wild ducks, geese, and Brahmanī ducks are numerous on the river-side: it is very cold, so much so that I shall be glad to retire to rest to keep myself warm.

14th.—No wind—a warmer day, and no difficulty on the river. Anchored at a basti elsewh.] (village) about three miles below Sirsya. The Directory says, "Twenty-eight miles above Mirzapūr, on the left bank of the river, is Suttamaree. Passengers generally land in the cold season, and have a walk across the neck of land in a direction, two miles wide to Taila, and rejoin the steamer off that place, she having to go a détour of twenty-one miles round the point. Two miles above Suttamaree is Deega-kunkur Spit, with a deep bight.

"Letchyagurree and its ravine on the left bank of the river is twenty-two miles above Deega, noted for its robbers, when it was attached to the Oude territories."

We have now arrived within a very short distance of Allahabad; I shall be quite sorry to end my voyage, and feel the greatest reluctance to returning into society.

15th.—"Sirsya is a large cotton mart on the right bank; it is sixty miles above Mirzapūr and twenty-three miles below Allahabad, to which place there is a good road. There are several pakka (brick) houses here, and two very fine tanks at the back of it, and an old mud fort; thence to Prāg, the river is very