the Company, gathered in the Company's garden by the Cooum, and formed themselves into one of those motley processions which are now only to be seen in native States. The Governor, with his council and other members of his staff dressed in their robes of office, rode on horseback; native merchants, resplendent in jewels, followed in palanquins; and a large number of soldiers, armed peons, English trumpeters, and native tomtom beaters marched on foot. The Company's flag was carried on an elephant, and the procession was accompanied by a crowd of Blacktown inhabitants. The entire length of the town was traversed and the cortege halted before the Choultry gate. The proclamation was read, the Company's servants listening bareheaded and with drawn swords. After volleys of firearms and salutes, they all returned to the garden-house, where festivities were kept up with feasting and fireworks into the night, and many bowls of punch were consumed.
There were other processions of a different nature which too often passed through the streets of Gentoo town. Though Englishmen lived in the White town, their bodies were laid to rest in the Guava Garden in Blacktown. The coffin was taken into the church for the first part of the service, and from there it was carried through one of the gates in the north wall and along the crowded streets of the native city. The noise of buying and selling, disputing and drinking was hushed as the sympathy of Oriental nature was roused at the sight of the grief of the exiles.
For a hundred years did this Gentoo town of the Armenian and native merchants flourish. Then came the French, and the whole of the town enclosed by Yale in his city wall was levelled to the ground.
