CALCUTTA days after leaving Madras, about dusk, we came to a low bank running into the sea—such a place as that to which the wounded Arthur was borne in his rent armour.
" A dark strait of barren land : On one side lay the ocean, and on one Lay a great water, and the moon was full." We anchored for the night off the Sunderbunds—those dreary swamps where malaria and tigers reign supreme. Lord Valentia, who visited India at the beginning of last century, wrote : " To these Sunderbunds the Hindoos resort at this season in immense numbers to perform their ablutions in the Ganges, and many to sacrifice themselves to the alligators, which they effect by walking into the river and waiting till the ferocious animals approach and draw them under ; others perish by the tigers every season, yet the powerful influence of superstition still draws them to the spot." The next morning we resume our voyage. The low shore stretches before us, steaming and glistening in the rising sun ; and the vast inland sea, covered with native boats whose broad brown' sails are filling with light and breeze as they swiftly skim over the waters. The river narrows as we go steaming up it, guided and directed along our tortuous and difficult course by the experienced hand and eye of one of the famous Hooghly pilots. It was in the year 1675 that the Worshipful East India Company wrote to Fort St. George, at Madras, as follows : " We enorder you to write effectually to your Chief and Councell at the Bay to provide careful young men of about twenty years of age, out of any of the ships in the Companies' Service, with the concent of the comandants, to be trained up as pylotts, but not to be imployed as writers, or on any other marcantile affairs, that thereby the Companies' shipping may with safety be carryed up the River Ganges, and send news yearly what you doe therein, and an account of their proficiency and their journalls." In considerable respect was the Hooghly pilot held, for it was ordered that he " should rank next to our covenanted servants." Much interest is excited on board as we approach the famous shoal, " James and Mary," so dreaded by mariners in days of old. A good deal of literary and philological in
genuity has been spent in accounting for the name, and many subtle derivations have lost their value by Sir George Birdwood discovering a few years ago, among the ancient records of the India Office, the following entry : " The Royal James and Mary (James II. and Mary of Modena) arrived in Balasore Roads, from the West Coast, in August, with a cargo of red wood, candy, and pepper, which she had taken up in Madras. Coming up the river Hooghly on September 24, 1692, she fell on a bank on this side Tumbolie Point, and was unfortunately lost, being immediately overset and broke her back, with the loss of four or five men's lives." " This ship wreck "—writes Sir George Birdwood—" of The Royal James and Mary is the origin of the name which, I believe, is still a puzzle to some in Calcutta, of the James and Mary Sands." After leaving the " James and Mary " we steer close to the shore, and pass the fortification of Fulta. A little more than a century ago, when the French fleet was hourly ex pected at Calcutta, orders were given that at Fulta the chain should every evening be laid across the river—a delightfully primitive state of existence. In the present day large sums of money have to be spent on batteries, heavy guns, and torpedoes, and when the fortifications have been com pleted, military experts of a new school arise and prove that the whole plan of defence is worthless. It was on December 15, 1756, that Clive arrived at Fulta from Madras, and found Drake and his fellow-fugitives in the ships on board which they had taken refuge when Suraja Dowla besieged and took Fort William.
After leaving Fulta the river again broadens, till we come to a broad expanse of water, with some large vessels anchored by the river's bank. This is Budge-Budge, or Buz-Buzia, as it was called in the old days. Those who have. studied Orme's great History—the favourite work of that good and brave soldier, Colonel Newcombe—will remember how the English force was surprised at night at Buz-Buzia, and how it was saved from destruction by the gallantly and presence of mind of Clive.