THE INDEPENDENT STATES.

THE independent states of Hindoostan are Maharajah Scindia in Central India; the Punjaub or Kingdom of Lahore, the Kingdom of Nepaul and Bhotan.

1.-The MAHARAJAH SCINDIA, one of the principal feudatories of the late Mahratta empire, possesses a large territory, which extends through the middle of Hindoostan, from near Baroda, to the neighborhood of Agra, a distance of 450 miles. The present limits of the territory were fixed in 1817. The revenue is estimated at 140 lacs of rupees, ($6,700,000.) The army consists of 14,000 infantry, 10,000 cavalry, and 250 pieces of cannon. The rajah is bound to aid the British when required with a contingent of 5,000 men.

Gwalior, the capital, is a large town of 50,000 inhabitants, 80 miles south of Agra, and has a celebrated fortress. Oujein, which holds a high rank among the holy cities of India, is situated in Malwah. It is of the most remote antiquity, and is taken by Hindoo geographers and astronomers as their first meridian. Mehidpore, Burhanpore, Hindia, Champanere, &c., are also celebrated places.

2. The Kingdom of LAHORE, established during the present century by an enterprising Seikh chieftain, Rungeet Singh, who died in 1839, is situated in the north-west part of India, including all the country between the Indus and Sutlej, and from the crests of the Himalayas to the borders of Sinde. The dominant people are the Seikhs, who form, however, no more than about one-seventh part of the total population. Their original country is the peninsula between the Ravee and the Sutlej. The rest of the population of the kingdom consists of Brahminical Hindoos, Affghans, Jauts, and various other Moslem tribes. The army amounts to some 100,000 men of all arms, disciplined after the European manner, and not unfrequently officered by Frenchmen and other foreigners. It has proved very troublesome to the British, and that government seems to have determined upon its destruction.

Lahore, the capital, stands on the left bank of the Ravee, and is about 3 miles in circuit, being surrounded by a brick wall and ditch with 12 gates and as many semi-circular outworks. Population, 80,000. It contains several splendid mosques and the tombs of several of the Mogul emperors. Umritser is a large town, eight miles in circumference, and surrounded by a mud wall faced with brick. During the Seikh confederacy it was the federal capital, as it still is the principal seat of their religion. Moultan is one of the most ancient cities of India, and is now highly celebrated for its silk manufactures. It was reduced by the British early in 1849. Cashmere, a large city of 40,000 inhabitants, is now decayed, has narrow dirty streets, and is situated nearly in the valley of the same name, about 5,800 feet above the level of the sea. The Cashmereans have suffered much from their Seikh rulers; and the population of the valley, which was once 800,000, is now scarcely one-eighth that number.

3.-The Kingdom of NEPAUL is situated almost entirely within the hill country between the Sub-Himalayas and the crest of the main chain, extending from the river Kali to the borders of Sikim, a distance of 470 miles, with a breadth of about 100. It consists of a number of parallel belts of hills and valleys clothed in magnificent forests and a luxuriant agricultural

swathe. The country was formerly possessed by numerous independent rajahs, but these have all been reduced by one more enterprising than his brothers. The king has a regular army. The people are chiefly of the Tartar or Mongolian family, divided into numerous tribes, but they are in some cases considerably mixed with Hindoo blood, and profess the Brahminical faith, though some still are Buddhists.

Catmandoo, the capital, is a small town in an elevated valley, which also contains several others of considerable importance and population. Patan has 24,000 inhabitants.

Lalita

4.-BHOTAN, situated to the east of Nepaul and Sikim, is about 200 miles in length and 90 in breadth. It is a mountainous country, cold and rugged. The productions of the country are those of northern India generally. The sovereignty is vested in the Dhurm-rajah, a spiritual prince, who never dies; but the government of the country is exercised by the Debrajah, who holds office for three years, and is checked or assisted by a council. The people seem to belong to the Mongol stock. They are very quiet, inoffensive and industrious, but the population is small and the villages few and scattered. The palaces and castles are the only places well inhabited, being occupied by idle priests and their followers, who live at the expense of the poor cultivators. The people are licentious and filthy. The Bhoteas are classed into laborers, priests, and grandees. Perhaps the most numerous, and certainly the most pernicious class, is that of the gylongs or priests. Their chief duty is to be idle, to live at the expense of the country, to tell their beads and mutter prayers. Their religion consists in external forms; they are very superstitious, believing in hosts of spirits, whose supposed abodes they dare not pass without numerous incantations. The Bhoteas have no genius for war. Many of their laws and customs have been copied from the Chinese, and they are equally scrupulous with their celestial neighbors in guarding against the entrance of foreigners into their country. The people are chiefly employed in agriculture; many of them. cultivate one farm in the mountains in summer, and another in the lowlands in winter. Their commerce is trifling, and their political relations very limited. They are tributary indirectly to Lassa, and now directly to China. The summer capital is Tassisudon, which in winter, on account of the cold, is deserted for Dosen or Punukha.

OTHER POSSESSIONS OF FOREIGN NATIONS.

1.-The French Possessions.

THE possessions of the French in India consist of several detached portions, but form the single government of PONDICHERY. They are arranged into five districts, viz:

PONDICHERY and KARIKAL, in the Carnatic; YANAON, in the Northern Circars; CHANDERNAGORE, in Bengal, and MAHE, in Malabar.

Pondichery, the capital, 85 miles south by west of Madras, is a fine city laid out in the European style, with wide and regular streets, and has about 40,000 inhabitants. It has a college and several schools, a mont de pieté and a botanic garden. In the vicinity indigo, sugar-cane and the mulberry are cultivated. It has no harbor, but a tolerable road-stead.

Mahé is a well-built town in the small district of the same name, and very salubrious.

2.-The Danish Possessions.

The Danish Territory consists of the two small establishments of TRANQUEBAR, on the Coromandel coast, and SERAMPORE, in Bengal.

Tranquebar, on the coast of the delta of the Cauvery, is a large town o 12,000 inhabitants, and carries on a considerable trade. The Danes pay for Tranquebar and its territory an annual rent of 2,000 sicca rupees ($1,000,) to the rajah of Tanjore.

Serampore is a pretty town, of 13,000 inhabitants, on the right bank of the Hoogly, opposite Barrackpore. It is the residence of the governorgeneral of Danish India, and also of the Baptist missionaries, who have established a printing-press, and issued from it translations of the Bible into most of the languages of India. It is, however, chiefly remarkable as the sanctuary of Calcutta, the place to which all the malefactors and bankrupts retire to avoid the consequences of the law.

3.-The Portuguese Possessions.

Portuguese India is now reduced to the territory of Goa, on the west coast, between Concan and Canara; DAMAUN, in Gujrat, and the ISLAND of Diu, on the west coast of Kattiwar.

GOA consists of two provinces, Salsette and Bardes, with several islands, measuring altogether along the coast about 60 miles, with a breadth varying from 15 to 30. Goa, once the splendid capital of the wide dominions of Portugal in Asia, is now deserted, fallen to ruins, and overgrown with jungle. The cathedral, however, and several other churches, are still in good preservation; but the whole population, including monks, nuns, priests and other church servants, amounts only to a few hundreds, instead of 200,000, which the city once contained. The seat of government is now at Pangi, called also Villa Nova de Goa, six miles nearer the sea. The archbishop of Goa takes the title of Primate of India, and resides at San Pedro, three miles from Pangi. The river of Goa forms a harbor scarcely inferior to that of Bombay. Mergaon, in Salsette, and Murpuca, in Bardes, are considerable towns, with each about 10,000 inhabitants.

Damaun is a seaport in Gujrat, on a small river 82 miles north of Bombay. Damaun contains several churches and convents and a Parsee temple, in which the sacred fire, brought from Persia 1,200 years ago, has been preserved. The town is noted for its docks and ship-building.

Diu is a small town and fort now fallen to decay, at the east end of the island of the same name. The ports of these possessions were declared free in 1841, since which time goods have been deposited on the payment of a duty of one per cent. and no export duties are levied on such if re-shipped.

THE ISLAND OF CEYLON.

(Singhala, Lanka, Serendib or Taprobane.)

CEYLON, the most magnificent island on the face of the globe, is situated at the western entrance of the Bay of Bengal, being separated from the continent by the Gulf of Manaar, and on the south and east its beautiful shores are laved by the Indian Ocean. Its area is 24,664 square miles.

The interior of the island is formed of ranges of high mountains, in general not approaching nearer to the sea than 40 miles, with a belt of rich VOL. II.

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alluvial earth nearly surrounding the island, and well watered by numerous rivers and streams. A picturesque table-land occupies the southern centre, and thence towards the coast is a continuous range of low hills and elevated flat land, extending nearly to the sea-shore. To the west the country is flat, and on the northern shore broken into verdant rocky islets, and a peninsula named Jafnapatam. The lofty central division of the island varies in elevation above the level of the sea from 1,000 to 4,000 feet, but the range of the table-land may be estimated at from 2,000 to 3,000 feet, extending in length 67 miles by 50 miles wide. From this elevated region arise some conical mountains from 2,000 to 3,000 feet higher. The mountains run in general in continuous chains, with the most lovely valleys the sun ever shone on between them. The hills are clothed to the very summits with gigantic forests, from which issue magnificent cascades and foaming cataracts, that form in the valleys placid waters and babbling brooks, fringed with turfy banks and all the beautiful verdure of the tropics.

The geological formations of Ceylon are generally of the primitive rocks, and the only minerals hitherto found are iron and manganese; but the island has long been famed for its precious stones, and the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Manaar produces great abundance of that valued gem. The vege‐ table productions are not less valuable. The cinnamon tree grows wild as well as in a cultivated state, and the cocoa-nut, bread-fruit and jack-fruit trees supply the natives with an inexhaustible food. Cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco and coffee grow luxuriantly and without care. The pepper vine grows wild over all the island, and enchanting groves of a thousand spices surround the villages in every part. Every species of European vegetable flourishes here as if in its native soil. Nor is the animal kingdom less rich; earth, air and water are instinct with life. Elephants, tigers, buffaloes, deer and elks roam at large. There is, in short, the greatest abundance of fishes, animals and fowls; and taken altogether, Ceylon is one of the most luxuriantly productive and most highly favored regions on the face of the globe.

The population is made up of Singalese, who occupy Kandi and the south and south-west coasts; Malabars or Hindoos, who occupy the north and east coasts; Moors or Arabs, who are dispersed all over the island; and Veddas, the aborigines of the island, who are said to be found in a savage state in the great forests. There are also Malays, Moormen, Caffres, and Javanese, a few Chinese and Parsee traders, and many descendants of the Portuguese, Dutch and English mixed with native blood. The Singalese are the most numerous. In religion they are Buddhists. The census of 1835 gave a total of 1,250,000.

Ceylon is now entirely in possession of the British. The government is under the charge of a governor, appointed by the crown, and assisted by two councils, the one legislative and the other executive, and for the administration of justice courts co-ordinate with those of the mother country have been established. The island is divided into five provinces, named the Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern, and Central, and each of these are divided into districts. In each province there is an agent," besides assistants, who are stationed in the various districts. These functionaries administer the affairs of the government, and also act as magistrates.

Few places in the world have received so large a share of missionary aid as this island, and the results have not disappointed the hopes of the Christian. The American missions have been eminently successful; and the moral character of the people has already been raised very perceptibly by the extension of education, combined with religious training.

The mythological history of Ceylon extends backward to the conquest of Lanka, which was effected by the Hindoo demi-god Rama, about 23 centuries before Christ; but the authentic history commences only with the year 543 B. C., when Vijeya, a Hindoo of the Solar race, conquered the island, and established a dynasty which continued to exist uninterruptedly till A. D. 1815, when the last of 165 Singalese kings was dethroned by the British government. The family, however, of Vijeya's descendants had become extinct in 1739; the subsequent kings were only connected by marriage with the Solar race; and from an early period of the 16th century their dominion was restricted to the interior of the island by the Portuguese and Dutch, who were finally succeeded by the British in 1796. It has been usually asserted by European travellers and residents in Ceylon, that there were no authentic historical records; but since the British government acquired complete possession and ascendency in the island, a multitude of records have come to light, from which it is possible to compile a perfectly authentic history of the kings of the Solar dynasty, or from the year 543 B. C. to the present day. The early history is only traditional or mythic, and during the long period that elapsed between Rama's conquest and the arrival of Vijeya is very obscure, or almost a blank.-(Turnour's Epitome of Singalese History.)

Colombo, the capital of the island, is situated on the south-west coast, and is defended by a strong fort mounting 300 heavy cannon. The town is handsome, and divided into four parts by two broad streets. The chief traffic consists in cinnamon, pepper, &c. Kandi, in the interior, formerly the residence of the native kings, is an inferior town, but is occasionally the residence of the governor, and is considered as the interior capital. Trincomalee, Dondra, &c., are considerable villages. There are also a large number of villages which are frequently mentioned in missionary reports, but these from a want of space we are obliged to omit.

THE MALDIVE AND LACADIVE ISLAND S. THESE islands lie on the west and south-west of the Peninsula of Hin doostan. The MALDIVES are a chain of numberless coral isles and reefs, extending nearly 540 miles from north to south, about 200 miles to the south-west of Cape Comorin, between 70 N. and 40' S. latitude, and between 72° 48′ and 73° 48' east longitude. They are divided into 17 groups, each of which is surrounded by a wall of coral, and have navigable channels between them. The islands are but those portions of the coral banks, which have become covered with soil and vegetation. All the larger islands are thickly clothed with wood, but the greater number are mere rocks, rocky shoals, and sand-banks, flooded at high water. The islands are fertile, and afford many of the necessaries and luxuries of life. Throughout the islands there are no connected towns, the houses being built separately, each with its own garden and grounds. A great trade is carried on among them, each island having something peculiar to itself. The Maldives also trade with India. The people are Mahomedans, and are described as a mild, inoffensive race, and very hospitable. They are all under the dominion of one chief, who, by the aid of viceroys, rules over all the groups of the islands. Twice a year an embassy arrives at Point de Galle, in Ceylon, to render