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APRIL, 1890.)
BOOK NOTICE.
131
(4) It is unlucky, on rising froin your bed, to Mahfil) it is a good thing, in order to counteract 86e a miser or any wretched creature.
the evils arising from any of the above mishaps, to It is unlucky to name at such a time, or hear mention his name, or that of any other person, named, a miser or any wild animal (except living or dead, remarkable for his generosity. perhaps the lion). If such a misfortune occurs, Another safeguard against seeing an unforyou must beat the ground with your shoes as hard tunate face in the morning, is to look at your own its you can, as a sign of your contempt for the face the first thing in a looking-glass; and against reature named.
hearing unfortunate names, is to mutter a prayer It is also uniucky to name the monkey, owl or containing the name of God or of a great saint bear, on rising. If you do, or if you bappen to before rising. hear one of them named, you must say ba halqa-i- After breaking your fast, there is no more Haitim. Hâtim Tâi being one of the generous danger. berves of Muhammadan story (vide the 'Ardish-;. ! Gaya. SAYYID KHAIRAYAT AHMAD.
BOOK NOTICE. THX DIARY OF WILLIAM HEDGES, Esq. (afterwards i of the Famous Pitt Diamond; who was the
Sir William Hedges, during his agency in Bengal, progenitor of several families holding peor As well as on his voyage out and return overland!
ages ; and who (above all) was the grand father (2681-1987). By Col. Sir Henry Yulo. Hakluyt Society, London, 1889. Vol. III. Containing Docu
and great-grand-father of two of the greatest inentary Contributions to a BIOGRAPHY OF THOMAS
of English Statesmen ? Pitt, Governor of Fort St. Goorge, with collections
In great detail Col. Yule shows that Pitt the on the Early History of the Company's Settlement
interloper and Pitt the Member for Old Sarum in Bengal and on the Early Charts and Topography
are unquestionably one and the same person, and of the Hugli River.
that it was the Member for Old Sarum that beWe have before us here one of the last, if not
came Governor of Madras in 1697. He also actually the last, completed work of the great
shows that it is true, however improbable it may writer who has so recently passed from among us,
scem, that Pitt actually held his seat for Old worked out with his customary skill, exactitude,
Sarum, 1689-1695, while he was interloping on and detail. In general interest it is not surpassed by any of its many famous predecessors, for it is
the Hagli! In 1690 he bought the Manor of Strat
ford (and Old Sarun) from James, 3rd Earl mostly devoted to the elucidation of the curiously
of Salisbury, and represented that borough in the obscure and difficult bistory of the well-known
three Rovolution Parliainents. Finally the cruThomas Pitt, the original holder of the Pitt
cial evidence as to whether Pitt the Governor was Diamond and ancestor of more than one person
Pitt the interloper (there is no doubt that Pitt age of supreme importance in the history of
the M.P. was Pitt the Governor) is afforded in England.
a remarkable letter froin Pitt as Governor t his In the Diary of William Hedges we find
cousin John Pitt, King's Consul, Company's Agent, repeated reference to a Captain Pitt or Pitts
and President on the coast of Coromandel ut (as he is called indiscriminately), a prominent and
Masulipatam, dated November 12th, 1699, in notorious interloper, who pursued his commercial
which he says: adventures in defiance of the Company's claim
"And for the Supporting my Creditt, I dont to exclusive trade, and was only too successful in
remember I was indebted or Concern'd in any. aeducing from their fidelity and involving in his
thing what ever that could be Censured by any. own quasi-contraband business a number of
unless it was interloping, which I never repented the Company's servants in "the Bay." Beside
of to this day.' these notices Col. Yule gives us a long series of
"Habemus confitentem reum," cries Col. Yule in independent letters tracing Pitt's history as an
his satisfaction at the discovery. interloper from 1675 to 1695, when he left Bengal for England, and he then sets himself to answer the
Further confirmation from Pitt's correspondence following questions. Was this Captain Thomas
is afforded in passages from three other letters, Pitt, interloping adventurer, identical with Cap
which are worth quoting here as documentary tain Thomas Pitt, Member for Old Sarum,
evidence of a notable historical point. who in the end of 1697 was appointed by the (1) Letter from Governor Pitt to John Pitt at Court of the East India Company to the Gov- Masulipatam, dated 5th January 1699-1700:ernment of Fort St. George, an office which | "I wonder with what face you can say I carry'd he held with eminent reputation for more than the ballance of your account with me to Bengall eleven years; who was the owner and eponym in the Seymore."
