But no possible precautions can prevent the failure of the crops in unfavourable seasons • and as, in con sequence of the feeble and scanty husbandry practised in India, there is very rarely, even in plentiful years, any surplus produce to guard against the effects of a .kcarcity, the inhabitants of that country, which is, perhaps, the most fertile in the'world, arc more fre quently, than any. other people, the victims of abso lute want. Even the province of Bengal, the most fruitful in India, was often visited in former times with the same Calamity ; of which a very dreadful instance occurred in the year 1770, in consequence of an unusual drought. When the granaries of the Na bobs and of the Company began to fail, and rice could no longer be supplied to the poorer classes, thousands of them expired of hunger in the fields, and in the streets of Calcutta. Their dead bodies, mangled by dogs and vultures, tainted the air, and threatened a pestilence, in addition to the miseries of famine. About 100 persons were daily employed by the Com • pany in throwing the dead bodies into the river ; which corrupted the water, and rendered the fish un wholesome nourishment. The hogs, ducks, and geese, also, fed so much upon human carcases, that the only animal food which could be used was mut ton ; while that, on account of the dry season, was so extremely small, that a quarter of a sheep scarcely weighed a pound and a half. By the foresight, how ever, of Europeans, the'benevolent exertions of the East India government, and the peace and protection enjoyed by the husbandmen of this province, the re currence of such an evil has been in a great measure prevented, its duration shortened, and its pressure al leviated.
The most important of the other vegetable pro 1 ductions of Bengal besides pulse and grain, arc to bacco, indigo, cotton, mulberry, poppy, guavas,. plantains, pomelos, limes, oranges, pomegranates, me Ions, pine apples, the banyan tree, the pisang or ba nana, the cocoa nut palm, which supplies a manufac ture of cordage, called coir ; the sugar cane, which thrives in every district, and might be still more suc cessfully cultivated in all ; the betle vine, a 'species of pepper, raised in almost every village ; the mango tree, the fruit of which is in the highest estimation, and is almost universally used during the hot months ; the date tree, which grows every where, and which yields a sweet liquid of an intoxicating quality, from winch sugar is sometimes extracted ; the surf tree, which also affords, by incision of the stem, a clear, sweet, inebriating juice, which when sour is sometimes used instead of vinegar ; the areca, in large planta tions, the wood of which is tough as whalebone, and its nut a useful article of food ; and the bassia, abounding in the hilly countries and poorer soils, the corols of which are esculent and nutricious, while its oil is a frequent substitute for butter. In the gar dens are cultivated most of the vegetables of other climates fit for culinary purposes. The potatoe, par ticularly, has been introduced with considerable suc cess; and as it thrives best in the dry seasons which are destructive to the rice crops, it might be the means, if cultivated to a sufficient extent, of placing the lower classes in Bengal almost beyond the reach of famine.
The various sorts of flowering trees and shrubs, which either grow wild, or thrive with little care, are too numerous to be mentioned in this place ; but we may notice as the most remarkable and beautiful, the chulta, the flower of which is at first a hard green ball, on foot stalks about four inches in length. The calyx, after the ball has opened, is composed of five round, thick, succulent leaves, and the corolla of the same number of fine white petals. After continuing only one day, the corolla drops, and the ball closes ; while a succession of these opening and shutting flowers continues during the space of several months. A tall tree, called the tatoon, used in bordering the walks, the leaves of which are of a deep shining green colour, and the fruit resembling an olive, with a kernel like the date. A large spreading tree, called russa, which has a peculiar rich and beautiful appear ance when in full bloom, as it is then covered with flowers of a bright crimson, or of a bright yellow, or of some intervening shade between these two colours. Of this remarkable tree, however, it is said, that there are only two plants known in Bengal ; one of which is in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, and the other near the Dutch settlements. It haoi been mentioned, as one cause of its scarcity, that the ants and other insects are so fond of its seed, that not one pod can be found entire and uninjured.
Wild boars, hears, wolves, foxes, jackalls, hyxnas, leopards, panthers, lynxes, hares, deer, zebres, wild buffaloes, antelopes, apes and munkies, elephants, tygers, are natives of Bengal. The foxes are feeble and slender, the hare and deer very inferior to those of Europe, and the,venison in general lean and in sipid. The dogs arc generally of the cur species, with sharp erect eakand pointed tails. There is found in the eastern disfflets an undescribed animal called the gyal, which may be placed between the domestic bull and the buffaloc. The rhinoceros with one horn, abounds in the isles of the Ganges. But the royal tyger of Bengal, is most of all worthy of particular not"e ; it seems to have been known to the Romans, and is distinguished by Seneca the poet by the appellation of Gangetica tigris. This animal is sometimes five or six feet in height, of such enor mous strength as to carry off a large bullock, and able to clear a hundred feet at one spring. The horses, 'chiefly used in Bengal by the Grandees and Euro peans, are of the Persian or Arabian breed, and are procured at an immense value. The native horses are thin, ugly, and ill shaped animals, tolerably ac tive ; but, in their best state, not equal to the Welsh and Highland ponies. Bengal is more defective in its breed of cattle, than most other parts of India. The pastures are overstocked ; and the black cattle and hogs are barely kept alive : herds of the former may often be seen in such a starved state, that not one of them would weigh against a good English sheep. The goats and sheep thrive better ; but the latter are very small, of a lank figure, black or dark grey colour, with coarse, thin, and hairy wool.