After raving at you for a long time, your letter has arrived this very moment, but too late for me to say all your civilities to the Ranee as we are thirteen miles from Mysore. I was very glad that I said a good many things last night like what you say. In the morning Signora A went to do the pictures, which are very like. The Ranee asked about me and said she was in hopes to have seen you too and asked about my boys and many other questions. I offered to go without form in the evening if she wished it, which she accepted. She said that she had brought up the Rajah, but that he was now your son and she hoped you would take care of him. That she had suffered much from Tipu, but that now she hoped all her sufferings were over and that as the country was in the hands of the English she did not fear anything. I had asked for her picture for myself. She seemed much pleased with those of the boys and the girls and asked if I had one of you, which I am sorry I had not. We stayed there sometime. The little Rajah was put in his throne. The men all called in again and after a little dancing and singing we were dispatched and I believe she was pleased with this second visit.
Bucherow goes with us to the pass as well as Mrs Gordon and Allen Grant who are both most certainly civil, good humoured and obliging. Mrs Gordon is well and nursing a little girl.
I send you a letter from Mrs Rothman. She is quite well and Lord Wellesley has offered to be godfather therefore they have desired me to be godmother which I shall perform.
We leave for the Annamallee woods and Coimbatoor with great pleasure I assure you. It is altogether a long journey. Therefore we go on as quickly as we can and will do all you desire about the trees and get you the redwood if possible. You will have a great many sandalwood trees given me by Purneah’s order. I answer writing by the side of a most beautiful river, more like Europe than any I have ever seen. You have nothing like it in the Carnatic. There are the ruins of a magnificent old pagoda. It is beautiful and much the most so of any place I have seen. It is very odd nobody ever mentioned it as a beautiful place.
Major Macleod meets us at the pass and goes with us to Coimbatoor. All is perfectly safe. When your picture of the Rajah is done, I must send a copy of it to the Ranee. I desired Signora Anna to do it sitting on his throne as we saw him. Adieu. It is late. I shall probably write from the top of the pass again. Many loves to you. I have performed what you desired and given them the kiss on their cheeks, which are still very blooming. Adieu. I am really glad to have had a letter from you, which I have been long expecting.
Ever my dear lord, yours very affec
H. A. C.
August 15th, Henrietta’s journal
I had a letter from Lord Clive today with many messages and things for me to say to the Ranee, which I am very sorry, came too late for me to do it in person. But as Bucherow came with me I took an opportunity in the evening of desiring Captain Marriot to tell the passages to him with which he seemed much pleased. I showed him the portrait of the Rajah, which he thought very like. We showed him the Ranee’s, but he turned his head away and said it was not to be seen, but however that it was very like her. I went to see a large pagoda in the evening surrounded by a very extensive choultry on each side and ornamented over each arch. It is repaired and is one of the great places of religious worship of the Brahmins but had nothing remarkable in it.
Charly’s journal of August 16th noted that on their road to Boosepoor the party passed through ‘a very tygerish looking jungle all the way. At a dry river which separated the Rajah’s dominions from ours, a Lascar belonging to Captain Grant, was carried off by a tyger, at twelve o’clock at night; the man was lagging a little behind, and was going with our tents, for the next day’s halt. Accidents continually happened in this nullah. Captain Brown heard a tyger growl. The village people told us, that a few days ago a man was carried off by a tyger, from amongst thirty people, and they found his body almost entirely eaten up. We passed many piles of stones where a man had been killed, and each person who passes in safety, adds one to the heap.’
August 16th, Henrietta’s journal
Left Nunjengood very early. Before we had gone a mile we overtook the baggage bandy of the bodyguard in a very deep slough, which alarmed me for my little horse and myself. I got into one of the doolies and was carried over the bad places. Afterwards the road was extremely good as far as I drove. The country is fine and we passed a very large tank in a fine open place. I had been informed this stage was seventeen miles but it is certainly much above twenty. I was five hours in performing it and the baggage was not all arrived till near 3 o’clock. I saw today several of the gloriosa superba (Creeper Flame Lily) growing by the roadside and the red blooming aloe.
We came through a thick jungle to Boosepoor which separates Mysore from the Coimbatoor country. There is a tope and near it supposed to be a tygress and two young ones. As Captain Brown rode on rather before the palanquins he heard a noise like that of an elephant twice, but he did not see anything. Yet he is satisfied it was the tygress. When the doolies passed the maids, the bearers saw a very large royal tyger pass. The consternation was as you may suppose beyond all things.
I was certainly hot today. The country is pretty and the distant ghauts put me in mind of Wales and Scotland.
August 17th Came to Tumallah, about 12 miles. The road was too rough for the bandy and it was like what we passed yesterday: jungle with large trees very flourishing after the first five miles. Till that distance they are poor and withered for want of rain. After breakfast I took a pleasant walk in this wild place. I hear it will be much more wild tomorrow. Captain Macleod, the collector of the Coimbatoor country came to meet us here. He gives a good account of the road from Dannikencotah to Coimbatoor, but we shall be longer than expected on the journey.
August 18th, Guzelhutty Pass, Henrietta to Lord Clive
My dear Lord Clive – I wrote in a great hurry two days ago and had not time to say all I intended. We parted with Bucherow* yesterday at Boosepoor. We will take notice of all the teak and other trees and all that you desire about their removal by water which, Captain Brown, from what he recollects, there is a river in the neighbourhood which we will enquire and let you know all that is to be known. I am glad you like the redwood tree. I will endeavour to get more or anything I can meet with in that way.
Yesterday we came through in thick jungle and had reason to be alarmed from tygers. The truth is that there is a tygress and two young ones near the road that attack people. Bucherow has promised to have these killed and to have their skins sent to me – and my children. This day we have passed a great deal of jungle and we hear the road is still much more wild which we are to go tomorrow. We have a journey of fourteen miles. We have heard of one of the wives of the elephant drivers being carried away at the same place on their march.
Captain Macleod is just arrived. He speaks Scotch tolerably broad but gives a good account of the road beyond Danikencotah to Coimbatoor.
Today the bandys were of little use. This place gives more the idea of approaching a pass than I had at Padinaig Durgan. There is a great chain of mountains on each side and very wild too. We are all well, though it is hot in the middle of the day. The evenings are very pleasant. You will receive bya bye a great many sandalwood trees a present to me from Purneah and a bed made for Tipu Sultan of the same. [The letter ends abruptly.]
Since the road had become steep and rough, on August 17th Henrietta, Anna, Harry and Charly had to be conveyed in palanquins during their steep ascent of the Guzelhutty Pass. En route Charly observed a memorial of ‘some bells hanging upon a frame of wood, which had been put up by persons who had escaped the tigers’. On August 18th on their descent to the bottom of the pass, some seven miles in length, they walked the greatest part of the way. Charly described it as ‘very wild and difficult’. They then proceeded to Boodicoop and found their tents pitched near the River Mya. The thermometer was 94 degrees.
August 18th, Henrietta’s journal
Set out at daybreak and was an hour and a half descending the pass. In so
me places it very rugged and steep and the country certainly wild. A small river … runs at the bottom of the pass through a valley to the right between a chain of mountains to the right towards Calicut. These are inhabited and cultivated with barley and different sorts of dry grain. The road is bad from the foot of the pass to Guzelhutty the true name of this little village and the heat was intense. The first view into the Coimbatoor country is very fine. I am afraid we shall be a little disappointed in the beauty and cultivation of the country. It is I hear thinly inhabited, of course, but cultivated. Major Macleod told me he had had some dust brought to him said to be gold and that he believes there were mines at some distance to the right. He had written to government upon the subject. He said, too, that there is some marble near where he usually resides of which he has promised to send me specimens, as well as of the common stone. I met with a great deal of iron and limestone and some few pieces of touchstone. The lime has become hardened and in many places it has affixed itself to pebbles and become complete and hard, but very coarse.
In the evening I walked by the riverside. It is very rapid and deep in some places. In others it is forded with ease. A little distance from the camp was a place that pleased me much as it was much resembling a spot at Oakly Park. Above the river is very rapid and passes over a little fall and over stones and each side is covered to the waters edge with trees, one that I had never before seen and of a large size. The heat was very great and the thermometer at 94. In the evening there was a storm at a distance with thunder etc., and a great deal of wind. I saw several fires upon the sides of the hills occasioned as they say by the friction of the trees in the dry season. The soil is composed of iron lime and a great deal of saltpeter of which there is a considerable work at Saltemungalum.
August 19th Set out from Boodicoop at daybreak and passed the Mya River in a basket boat which I had never done before. It is quite sound and composed of bamboos like a wicker basket. The outside is covered with leather. They are perfectly safe, but not very pleasant. Yet I prefer them to the little canoe. The road was very rough and disagreeable for the little carriage.
We came to Nellakota and crossed a broader river but not so rapid as what we passed in the morning and in the same sort of conveyance. By a mistake of the Soubadar instead of encamping here he had gone on to Shremoogur ten miles farther. The road was rough. I quitted the carriage after crossing the river and came on in the palanquin. It was eighteen miles, a long stage for the followers after the rough journey yesterday. We were encamped on the bank of the Bhavanee. The temp at 1 o’clock at 93. Suddenly a violent storm came on at 2 o’clock and as we were upon a hard road, and they had not made trenches round the tents, in ten minutes we were under water. The mat floated. There was much thunder and lightning. In an hour it was quite dry again. In the evening we walked but there was not anything worth observation.
August 19th, Shremoogur, Henrietta to Lord Clive
Here we are once more expiring with heat below the ghauts. We descended yesterday. It is really a pass and as wild as anything in Scotland or Wales. In some places we were obliged to walk and in the whole were about an hour and a half coming down. The country is dreary and wild and we were encamped yesterday by the River Mya, very rapid in some places. We are as hot as possible. I am quite persuaded it is better to be Queen of Mysore, though her palace is not yet very magnificent, than anything in the Carnartic. There were twelve degrees difference between yesterday morning and this at daybreak. We are to be cooler at Coimbatoor. Major Macleod is I think a sensible man speaking broad Scotch with a good deal of William Byres’s accent and not very unlike him. We are four out of seven white females he has seen in twelve years. At Coimbatoor, Mr Hurdis meets us. He has sent a variety of routes, which I shall leave undecided, till I see him. He proposes Madura but I think it is much too far and I even doubt about Dindigal. I understand it is very barren and not good roads from thence to Trichinopoly. The country is, I believe, every where less inhabited than in former times. At present the country is so wild that one cannot expect much cultivation.
This country is covered with ironstone, lime and saltpeter. We are all well as we can be, panting for cool air and the high trees in the Annamallee woods. Having escaped tygers, we are not afraid of wild elephants. My next epistle will be from Coimbatoor where we are to be on Thursday. Major Macleod had collected a variety of animals and plants for me. Amongst the rest, three beautiful owls and some fine barley, which made me think of England. It came from a high hill on one side of the pass.
Adieu. Many loves from the girls.
Ever, my dear Lord, you very affectionate
H. A. C.
After all possible enquiries, there is no marble at Seringapatam. All the best was brought from Poonah and Hyderabad where it is likely to be met with again. Colonel Pater has some very good marble they say, if it is to be had. I shall send the dimension of the elephants when I get them. You may have four.
August 20th, Henrietta’s journal
Left Shremoogur very early. The road was better than it was yesterday except some passes or ravines rough and troublesome. The air was much cooler and the thermometer did not rise above 90. Some miles from Coorloor some troopers of Colonel Macalister’s Regiment met us and attended me to the encampment. In the evening I walked out and found some stone, which Major Macleod informs me, sufficiently hard to cut glass as a diamond. He is to send me some large specimens of it. I found a good deal of crystal and much quartz and tali in a harder sort of stone. I showed him the coins I had received from Mrs Gordon. He says several are extremely curious, particularly one in a concave shape which is worshipped by the Brahmins and of great antiquity. The rest are of a modern work and some misnamed which he undertook to have rectified at Coimbatoor. The country is not yet cultivated for want of rain in September and October is the time when it is in its greatest beauty.
August 21st Left Coorloor early as usual and arrived at Coimbatoor, ten miles. The road was perfectly good except in passing some deep and rugged ravines. It is the best soil for cotton with which it is planted at the proper season. Near the town Colonel Macalister met me and I went to the palace. It was built by a Hindu and is much in the same manner as the Rajah’s palace at Mysore. It is two stories high. There is a sort of hall of audience surrounded on three sides by pillars on the fourth side it is raised three steps and with a double row of columns. There were other rooms appropriated for me, and a large hall with a small veranda in front. The other side consists of what was the zenana and the private apartments now converted. Major Macalister’s district produces paper, clear to government of which he is allowed to make one and a half percent. He is a very sensitive well-informed man and was extremely attentive to me.
William Hurdis, the collector, came after breakfast. I consulted him what was the best road for me to take. He had never been at Tellicherry† and believed there was little worth seeing and that the road from thence to Annamalleecottah was impassable for carriages of any sort, being entirely paddy fields and that there were three roads, none of which he could recommend. The first was likewise unsafe from the depredations of the Sayres‡ who come down in considerable number and that the road is never travelled by merchants. The second is only passable by having guards and armed persons placed at certain distances and as in any case I must encamp from the length of the journey it was unsafe from the damps and fogs to risk sleeping in the jungle. From Pollachee he said the road was good and safe and that that being a high situation is perfectly healthy and good. I therefore gave up all thought of Tellicherry and shall content myself with being established a day or two at Pollachee and going to pass some hours in the woods where it is safe.
William Hurdis did not advise my going to Dinigal from Pylney, a place well worth seeing. It is necessary to go around by Darapooram, an increase of twenty-four miles to the distance. But as the polygar of the former place is now in complete enmity to government he did not think it right that I should in any case go through his country. He
had been in correspondence with Dhoondiah and had engaged to bring all the other polygars to assist him. About two months ago one hundred men set out to meet him, but intelligence being sent to Major Macleod and Colonel Macalister they were followed and overtaken at a choultry in a small pass above the ghauts while sleeping. They had gone up an unfrequented road. Twenty-five were taken and as many killed. Twenty-three escaped and the rest were seized by the farmers and brought as prisoners. I do not think it worth visiting any dungeon. William Hurdis says there is little to see at Dinigal and I believe there is more to be met with worth attention by Darapooram and Caroor. William Hurdis’s district, he told me, contains 1,200 square miles.
In the evening I went a little way near the fort. It is destroyed as all these are belonging once to Tipu and afterwards taken by the English and restored to him.
August 21st, Coimbatoor, Henrietta to Lord Clive
My dear Lord Clive – I have only a little minute to write because the post is going out. We are just arrived well and comfortably. The great heat decreased and of course we are revived by it. Col Macalister met me on the road and set troopers in all form. We are very well lodged in the palace with airy rooms to live in. Here I mean to halt one or two days as I see good for my company, particularly Charlotte who regains with a little sure rest now and then. Harry is very stout and strong. They are in high spirits. Major Macleod leaves us tomorrow. I like him much. Mr Hurdis is just arrived and we are to settle our farther route bya bye.
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