1756
mense plain as are not watered by the Ganges and its branches, are fertilized by many other streams from the mountains, and for the space of three months, from May to August, when the sun is mostly in the zenith, heavy rains fall every day.
Hence the luxuriance of the soil supplies the subsistance of the inhabitants with less labour than any other country in the world. Rice, which makes the greatest part of their food, is produced in such plenty in the lower parts of the province, that it is often sold on the spot at the rate of two pounds for a farthing: number of other arable grains, and a still greater variety of fruits and culinary vegetables, as well as the spices of their diet, are raised, as wanted, with equal ease: sugar, although requiring a more attentive cultivation, thrives every where: although their kine are of a mean race, and give little milk, yet the defect of exuberance is supplied by the multitude of the animals: the casts who eat fish, find them swarming in all the streams and ponds of the country, and salt is produced in abundance in the islands near the sea. Hence in spite of despotism the province is extremely populous: and the vacation from agriculture leaves a much greater number of the inhabitants, than can be spared in others, at leisure to apply themselves to the loom; so that more cotton and silk are manufactured in Bengal than in thrice the same extent of country throughout the empire, and consequently at much cheaper rates. The greatest part of these manufactures, and of the raw silk, is exported; and Europe receives the largest share; the rest goes by land and sea to different parts of the empire, and other countries; to which they likewise send rice, sugar, beetle-nut, ginger, long-pepper, turmerick, and a variety of other drugs and productions of the soil. Their real wants from abroad are only the metals; but since Europe has opened a trade to India, they have consumed large quantities of woollen manufactures, and require arms, and a variety of mechanical implements better than they can make themselves, some from fancy, but the greatest part for use. The abundance of advantages peculiar to this country have induced the eastern world to call it the paradise of India; and the western, without hyperbole, the rich kingdom of Bengal. But these ad-vantages,
