a Milanese ecclesiastic at Dinápur, who was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Thibet. He was not exempt from the strange fatality which attended the first four Anglican bishops. After a short residence he died. At Benares there was quite a cosmopolitan community, including Persians, Turks, Tartars, an accomplished and versatile Greek, and a Russian, who had the Muscovite gift of making himself mysterious. Of the social scenery, Lady Amherst's diary gives so many picturesque views that anything like a set estimate would spoil the effect. But we have to say something of the Governor-General and his family, as seen by the eyes of others; and perhaps of Calcutta, as the background of so much that was bright and sad.
An extract from a work published in 1827 (Alexander's Travels from. India to England) will serve our purpose particularly well, since it gives the impressions of a sightseer.
'The first appearance of Calcutta, to a stranger, is very grand and imposing: the public buildings, mostly of the Grecian order, are extremely handsome: porticoes, colonnades, and piazzas abound everywhere. The river was crowded with shipping, chiefly European, with budgerows, bolios, and other Indian craft. . . .
' In the evening the course was crowded with gay equipages till sunset. The course is a broad road round a grass quadrangle adjoining the splendid palace of government, and bounded on two sides by the lofty and handsome buildings of Chowringhee. It commands a view of the river and of Fort William.
