Pogson, Wredenhall Robert: Captain Pogson's Narrative during a tour to Chateegaon (Serampore, 1831)

NARRAT IVE, &c

I EMBARKED at the Flag-staff Ghaut at Bar-
rackpore at 8 A. M. on the 15th of December,
1830, pursuant to instructions from Government
to proceed to Chateegaon for the purpose, in con-
junction with a Committee, of which I was Pre-
sident, of investigating the claims of the native
pensioners in that district, preparatory to my
disbursing their arrears.
From Barrackpore on one side of the Bhagee-
rutee and Serampore on the other, native habi-
tations and dense population continue to Cal-
cutta, a distance of fifteen miles. The banks of
the river are decorated with villas, ghauts and
temples. A forest of distant masts, breaking
on the view, announces the approach to the Ca-
pital of British India. The objects which strike
the eye are distant steeples, columns of murky
smoke vomited by the numerous steam engines
at the new mint, the mills, and dock yards. The
river crowded with canoes,boats, pinnaces,sloops
and commercial vessels of every denomination ;
each ship in itself a little world, its busy interior