'A voyage from England to India, in the year 1754, and an historical narrative of the operations of the squadron and army in India, under the command of Vice-Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive, in the years 1755, 1756, 1757 ... Also a journey from Persia to England by an unusual route. With an appendix, containing an account of the diseases prevalent in Admiral Watson's squadron, etc.' [‎184] (221/562)

[ 184 ]
and fo was one half of the thighs; the naked parts were full 3 feet m
length The feathers of the wings and back were very ftrong, and of an
iron colour. The feathers of the bread were long : Over the belly was a
areat deal of down, all of a dirty white. The bill was 16 inches round
at the bafe, of different colours, and nearly of a triangular (hape. In
the craw was a ferapin or land tortoile 10 inches long •, and a large black
wale cat was found entire in it's ftomach.
Havino- already mentioned the Beetle-nut as a favourite with the Indians^
(and which they chew with chunam, or fhell lime, and the leaf of an aro
matic fhrub that grows like a vine, and is fupported on fticks as our fcarlet
beans, called alio Beetle-leaf) I (hall here fubjoin a brief defcription of the
Arkaxxt^ which produces the nut. It is a fine flender upright tree, not
above 6 inches thick at bottom, but grows to upwards of 30 feet high,
and is jointed at about 8 or 9 inches diftance, perhaps the laft year's
growth : it contains a large quantity of pith, the woody part being thin,
but as tough as whalebone. The leaves grow in the fame manner as thofe
of the Cocoa-nut tree, very long, and with a ftrong, large middle rib; the
flower comes out between the concave part of the leaves. The nuts are
numerous, and out of the hulk (which is yellow on the outfide, brown and
fibrous within) the fruit is about the fize of a large walnut, and of the fliape
and colour of a nutmeg, though fome are round. The extraft of this,
nut feems to be the terra Japonica ; for after boiling fome of thofe nuts
with a little chunam in the water, the decoftion is the colour of that
drug, and taftes like it. This nut, wrapped with chunam in the BeetU-
leafy is not only chewed all over India, by men, women, and children,
but is ufed likewife as an emblem of peace and friendlhip, being fent by the
Rajahs and princes to thole with whom they intend to live in friendlhip,
and is given to you on all vifits you make to the natives.
There is alfo in Bengalzn elegant, large, fpreading flower tree, called Chulta:
the leaves are a pale but pleafant green, deeply furrowed above, and highly
ridged below; they grow in bunches, in a plume-like form, and round the
end of the branches. The flower is at firft a hard green ball, on footftalks
about 4 inches^ this opens, and the calix is compofed of 5 round thick
fucculent leaves; the corolla is alio 5 fine beautiful white round petals: the
ftamina are numerous and lingueform ; ftyles fixteen, and lancelated. They
ftand in a radiated manner, and after one day the corolla falls off, and the
ball clofes again, when it is fold in their markets. There is a fucceflion of
thefe for feveral months, but no other appearance.—The Mango tree is
plenty in Bengal, which grows to a large fize, and fpreads much ; the wood
is brown, and ufed only for indifferent work, the leaves are a fine green, and
grow in bunches at the extremity of the branches. The flowers grow on
a fpike at the end of the branches, and at the extremity of the flower hangs
one, two, and fometimes three Mangos. The fruit, when ripe, is yellow
and reddifh, full of a fine agreeable juice: Some Mangos are very full of
thread,