cularly pleased to find amongst the number, Mr. Robert Smith, the brother of his friend the Reverend Sidney Smith, who, with his lady, were going to Bengal. When he arrived at Madras, on the 19th of August, after a voyage of between four and five months, he was in very indifferent health. He had the good fortune to find a kind friend in Dr. James Anderson, the Physician General, who is greatly distinguished as a Naturalist. Under his hospitable roof, Leyden stayed four weeks. The circumstances of his landing, and, the impressions he felt at the sight of so many new objects, are somewhat ludicrously described in a letter written by him a considerable while afterwards.* His first employment after his arrival, was in the General hospital at Madras, of which he had nearly the whole charge for more than four months. His being permitted to reside there so long was considered as a favour, as it afforded him an opportunity for the study of the languages, of which he availed himself with his usual ardour and perseverance. On the 15th of January, 1808, he was promoted, by the particu * See Note [E.] D) lar recommendation of Lord William Bentinck to the office of Surgeon and Naturalist to the Commissioners, who were appointed, under the superintendance of Major Mackenzie, to survey the provinces in the Mysore, recently conquered from Tippoo Sultaun. They did not, however, set out on the survey till the 9th of June. Their route lay through Bangalore and Seringapatam, from whence they were to visit Soonda, near Goa, and then proceed southward, by the range of hills called the Ghauts, as far as the point of the Peninsula, opposite to the island of Ceylon. While the state of his health permitted his exertions in this fatiguing service, he drew up some useful papers, which he communicated to the Government, relative to the mountainous strata, which he had an opportunity of observing, and their mineral indications to the diseases, medicines, and remedies of the natives of Mysore, and the peculiarities of their habits and constitution, by which they might be exposed to disease to the different crops cultivated in Mysore and their rotation - and, to the languages of Mysore, and their respective relations. It was in this service that he met with the strange adventure, of which the following account is extracted from one of his letters. "I was one day sent to a great distance to take charge of a sick officer who had been seized by the jungle fever in the depth of one of the vast forests and wildernesses of Mysore. After travelling for two days, as fast as horse and men could carry me, I arrived about one o'clock in the morning at the bank of a large river, in the midst of a forest. The river was a flood, and roared terribly, and seemed very rapid. I sent in a palankeen-boy that could swim, and he presently got out of his depth. At a little distance stood a village within these three years notorious for being a nest of robbers. I, with great difficulty, knocked up some of the villagers, who were nearly as much afraid as Christie's Will* at the visit of a Sirdar. After a great deal of discussion in Canara and Hindostani, in order to induce them to shew me a ford, or make a raft to cross the water on, as no time was to be lost, three of them at last undertook to convey me over alone. I got into a large brass kettle, with three ears, and sat down in the bottom of it, balancing myself with great accuracy; each of the three swimmers laid hold of one of the ears, and then we swam round and round in a series of circles, till we reached the opposite bank. Had See the Border Minstrelsy, vol. iii. page 112. - it been light I should have been quite giddy. Now did you ever hear a more apocryphal story in your life?—and yet it is merely fact. I have only to add that after crossing the river, I found myself in a wilder jungle than ever, and was dogged by a monstrous tiger for nearly three miles." But partly from the fatigue which he endured upon this occasion, his health became so much impaired, that about the end of November, when the surveyors were on the confines of the Wynaad and Coimbatore, it was necessary for him to leave them and repair to Seringapatam, where he remained some months suffering under a lingering fever, and liver complaint. He had before formed a friendship with Colonel Wilks, and had been treated by him with great kindness and attention. He now met with his distinguished countryman, Sir John Malcolm, who had come from Bengal, to resume his station of Resident at the Court of Mysore. This gentleman struck with Leyden's character and situation, and finding him to be a native of the same part of Scotland with himself, took an anxious concern in his welfare, and carried him to the house which he inhabited at Mysore, where the enjoyment of congenial society, and the kind ness and cordiality with which he was entertained contributed greatly to the re-establishment of his health. When Leyden was at Mysore, an occurrence took place which shewed that ill-health had neither subdued his spirit, nor weakened his poetical powers. His host, Sir John Malcolm, one morning before breakfast, gave him back his poem of the "Scenes of Infancy," which he had borrowed a few days before; -on looking at the title-page, Leyden observed that Sir John had written with a pencil the stanzas which follow: Thy muse, O Leyden seeks no foreign clime, For deeds of fame, to twine her brow with bays; But finds at home whereon to build her rhyme, And patriot virtues sings in patriot lays. 'Tis songs like thine that lighten labour's toil, That rouse each generous feeling of the heart, That bind us closer to our native soil, And make it death from those we love to part. "Tis songs like thine that make each rugged wild, |