Title
A Voyage to the East Indies: Page 89
Description
being situated below Calcutta, & has nothing round it which could afford shelter for an Enemy within Gunshot. Connoisseurs in Fortification pronounce it very strong, & the more incurious Eye of a Novice in those Matters would suppose it still stronger. A little below the Fort are Docks for the Construction of Ships, which Art is arriv’d at great Perfection here, tho’ not as at Bombay, for the Masters there are black People, but at Calcutta Europeans. . An immense Track of Land, from the Mouths of the Ganges to a great Distance in the Country lies low, & flat, and at the Time of the Rains & some Months after wears the Appearance of an extensive Marsh or Bog. The Land likewise is universally cover’d with a low kind of Underwood, which affords shelter to an incredible Number of wild Beasts. These Circumstances render it a disagreeable Part of the World. For the excessive Heat of the Sun, occasioning a great Evaporation from the surface of this Land, or rather muddy Swamp, the Air thereby becomes loaded, with putrid & unwholesome Particles, unfit for Respiration. This is felt peculiarly on the Banks of the River which being rais’d, and swell’d during the rainy Season, leaves on its Return to its former Limits, vast Quantities of shiny Mud along the Beach, in which are entangled Fish of various kinds, and in vast Shoals; those rot in a short space, and emit a stench, which has prov’d fatal to [end page 89]
