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Thomas Williamson , ( 1810 ), East India Vade-Mecum, VOL II. , London , Black, Parry, and Kingsbury , p. 150


150

advances, the danger is imminent. But it frequently happens, that, whether owing to lassitude, or the absence of any object parti-culaily irritating to buffaloes, of which a red coat may be considered the extreme, the herd content themselves with rising from their reclined postures, and, after those who rouzed them may have passed on, again sink into the friendly pool.

The British settlers in India are extremely indebted to the, Dutch for many essential in-provements. The small town of Chinsurah, situate about twenty-eight miles north of Calcutta, on the banks of the Hoogly river, has, in this instance, proved serviceable to India at large. The Dutch, to whom that place appertained before, the war, were the first to introduce the culture of that invaluable esculent, the potatoe; which was received from their settlement at the Cape of Good Hope: they likewise were the first to exhibit any disposition towards horticulture. From them the British received, annually, the seeds of every kind of vegetable useful at the table, as well as several plants of which there appeared much need, especially various kinds of pot-herbs. They likewise supplied us with vines, from which innumerable cuttings have been dispensed to every part of Bengal and its upper dependencies. The whole of the lower provinces, at least,