the town, to betake himself to the upper rooms of the Custom House, which overlook the sea, and which would be sufficiently commodious for himself and servants, during his stay.*

People make an egregious mistake in reaching the Neilgherries just before the Southwest Monsoon sets in, because they lose all the salutary effects of the fine frosty weather; and by the time the rains are over, they are tolerably disgusted with the climate. In order, therefore, to enjoy the four delightful months in the year, they should decidedly start early in November; and no invalid should ever think of quitting Bombay, after the beginning of April, at latest.

Even then, he must console himself with the prospect of scorching days, and sultry nightswith much rain throughout the country immediately below the Ghauts, and upon the coast; which will only tend to retard his progress, without relieving his exhausted frame.

* Travellers arriving at Tellicherry are generally charged one rupee and a half per diem house rent; but these rooms are to be had gratis, on application to the authorities.

The bungalows which have been erected at the expense of Government, are sufficiently comfortable, and most conveniently situated at the following places, viz. Kota-puramba,

Kanote - Pe

riah - Manontoddy- Saltaun's-Battery-Nelliallum-Goodalore-Neddy-wuttum.-At the first of

these stages, there are two public bungalows partially furnished, and the other halting stations, successively afford good accommodation for travellers, -especially, Manontoddy, where there is an excellent upper-roomed house. In this respect, the route will be found better provided, than strangers are usually led to anticipate: indeed, in some instances, the bungalows surpass those of more frequented districts.

The following table exhibits the several halting stations between Tellicherry and Ootakamund, and their relative distances.

To the Pykerry river, and ruined bungalow
To Ootakamund

I had nearly forgotten to mention, that those of my brother officers who come this way, should provide themselves with passports signed by the Adjutant General of the Army, or his Deputy. People have often been detained in most unpleasant positions, until such documents have been produced. The sooner such an order is abrogated, the better.

We quitted Tellicherry in the afternoon of the 26th of April, for the principal settlement on the Neilgherry mountains; and took the road to Kota-puramba. As carriages are seldom, if ever, used on this road, all the travelling is either on horseback, or in palankeens. The only wheeled vehicle in common use, is a lumbering cart drawn by two or four oxen, at a very slow rate; but the transport of supplies from the coast to the Hills, is performed almost entirely by bullocks. Some

natives, occasionally travel as far as Manontoddy in covered carts; but on account of the ruggedness of many parts of the road, this mode of conveyance is generally reserved exclusively for their women, who are subjected to the same domestic despotism in this, as in every other part of the East; and whose situation, is in no degree removed from the classification originally made, by which a man's wife and his slave, his maid-servant, his ox, and his ass, are equally defended from the covetousness of his neighbour.*

Instead of travelling during any part of the day when the heat was intense, we took one half of our journey early in the morning, and the other in the evening indeed, the weather was so parchingly

* The Hebrew words gnebed and amah in the seventeenth verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus, above alluded to, which are rendered in our version "man-servant and maid-servant," mean literally bondsman or slave, and bondswoman; in which sense they are applied in the forty-fourth verse of the twenty-fifth chapter of Leviticus, in contradistinction to the word sakir, which signifies a hired servant, and not a slave by possession. But innumerable instances occur throughout the Old and New Testaments, of passages which depict the subordinate situation of women, and inculcate the superiority of male children above females. Ex. gr. Gen. iii. 16; Jer. i. 37; Levit. xii. 4, 5; John xvi. 21; 1 Cor. xi. 8, 9; xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 2; and a thousand others.

warm, as to be only tolerable after sunset, or during the prevalence of the sea-breeze, of which, however, we were soon deprived by the intervention of a chain of low hills, between us and the coast. Droves of cattle were feeding on the pasture which lay between us and the sea, and here and there were patches of paddy land, from whence hot vapours rose like the breath of an oven. Similar to most of the scenery in this low latitude, the view embraced a profusion of foliage, which, on the whole, offered to the eye a degree of richness unknown in regions nearer the pole. By the side of this vegetation, that of Europe would appear poor and tame. Here, however, the species of trees are few, and all have a port and foliage in which much sameness prevails.-On our route we passed several huts built of reeds, with semicircular roofs, thatched with the large leafy branches of the cocoanut. We also fell in with large parties of bullock drivers, who with their cattle, were resting by the roadside under groves of trees, which afforded them shelter from the heat of the sun. These people

employ themselves either in transporting rice to the