It is to be lamented that Government have never adopted a plan I long ago offered, of employing the convicts in clearing away a sufficient tract around Diamond Harbour, which is now peculiarly unhealthy, and is the grave of full one-fourth of the crews of the India Company’s, and other ships, that generally are moored there for months.
I am aware that objections have been stated in regard to clearing away the forests in the Soonderbunds, on account of their being considered a natural defence in that quarter; but, without entering upon the policy, or otherwise, of such a retention of that ‘wilderness of all wildernesses,’ there does not appear to me any sound reason for suffering the principal naval station to be backed and flanked by woods and swamps, from which disease is poured forth amidst our unfortunate countrymen.
I have been assured, that, taking one year with another, full three hundred European sailors die of diseases incident to the laying up of ships for a while in the river, of whom, the larger portion are taken ill at, or below, Diamond Harbour.
Those who have occasion to pass through the Sunderbunds, which can be done by water only, ought to be extremely careful not to venture ashore, unless at some of the little towns, whose vicinity may afford some security against the attacks of tigers, by the jungle having been partially cleared away. The romantic scenery, every where inviting the eye, should not be permitted to allure the traveller from his state of safety; nor should the abundance of game, especially of deer, lead him among those coverts in which danger equally abounds.
Nor are the waters less devoid of mischief: sharks, of an uncommon size, are every where numerous and greedy; while their competitors, the alligators, not only infest the streams, but often lie among the grass and low jungle, waiting for a prey, with which, so soon as seized, they plunge into the water.
Instances have been know, both of tigers swimming off to board boats, and of alligators striking the _dandies_ (boatmen) out of the boats, with their tails, and snapping their victims up with a nimbleness fully proving the falsehood of that doctrine, which teaches to escape from the crocodile by running out of the right line, ‘_because the animal cannot turn to follow_!’