Page 210 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

every tide, might be one of the most enjoyable places in the
world.’
Loch landed at Garden Reach and went to the house of his
cousin, John Adam, the son of William Adam of Blair Adam,
whose sister, Mary, had married Loch’s father. Loch was dc-
lighted to see John Adam, for whom lie had a great regard. John
Adam had a distinguished career in India, where his reputation
for integrity, at variance with that of some of his contemporaries,
who devoted their energies to enriching themselves, gained him
the nickname of‘Honest John Adam’. He acted as Governor-
General when Lord Hastings was on leave but, as Loch says,
‘since the period I am writing, lie fell a sacrifice to the baneful
climate, yet not before he had raised himself to the highest pin­
nacle of honour, namely the succession to the Governor-general­
ship of India’. The rate of mortality among Europeans in Cal­
cutta was higher than in most other parts of India. A writer says
that it was not uncommon to have breakfast with a friend,
apparently in good health, and to attend his funeral the same
evening.
During the month that lie spent at his cousin’s house in Calcutta,
Loch saw a good deal of the city and the neighbourhood. He
was impressed by ‘the comfort, neatness and appearance of wealth,
and the enormous crowds of people flocking and bustling into
Calcutta soon after daylight, and after simset the same people
returning, as if released from so many factories, all apparently
happy, free and independent’. Having described the ‘splendid
and handsome buildings on the Grand Esplanade’, he says, ‘none
of the streets in the part of the town where the natives live are to
be compared with those which the European population inhabit,
yet they are by no means mean, and though totally different in
form and appearance, arc very superior to the streets round Seven
Dials, Wapping and St. Giles’s, and various other parts of London.
To be sure, there are no such streets and squares in Calcutta as
there are in the West End, but again, there is nothing in London
to equal the public buildings and those of the Europeans in the
grounds of Charingo. The European population build them­
selves castles and palaces, keep enormous establishments, and live
like princes. The Government House, and the Park and grounds
of Barrackpore being the tie plus ultra of the whole of the human
construction.’ But another writer describes Barrackpore Park,
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