No. 11.

Extract of a Letter from the HONOURABLE COURT of DIRECTORS to the GOVERNMENT of BOMBAY, dated 29th August 1810.

Letter from

dated 14th

October 1808.

Para. 88. 89. Relative to the success which has attended the endeavours to effect the abolition of female Infanticide

Para. 26. In the 6th paragraph of our dispatch in this Department (the . Political) dated 30th August 1809, we noticed with the highest satisfaction the measures which were in progress in the Peninsula of Guzerat. for putting an end to the horrid practice among the chieftains in the Kattawar districts, of destroying their female infants. We have the additional satisfaction to observe from Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER's Report of the 15th March 1808, containing the origin and history of this barbarous practice; and by his letter of the 16th December, referred to in the 46th paragraph of your subsequent dispatch of the 20th January' 1809, that he has been so far happily successful towards the accomplishment of this humane object, as to afford a prospect of completely extirpating from the Peninsula of Guzerat, a custom that has been so long prevalent, to the disgrace of humanity. Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER'S perseverance herein is entitled to our highest commendations.

e No. 7. of this Chapter.

f No. 6. of this Chapter.

No. 12.

Extract of a Public Letter from the HONOURABLE COURT of DIRECTORS to the BOMBAY GOVERNMENT, dated 26th October 1810.

Para. 4. We perfectly accord with you that LieutenantColonel WALKER, during his residence at the court of ANUND Row, has rendered eminent services to the state by the restoration of order and regularity into the affairs of the Gaikawar government, and the establishment of the Company's influence in that country.

5. Your instructions to Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER to endeavour to prevail upon the several chieftains of Kattywar to renounce the horrid practice of female Infanticide, have already had our entire approbation, as expressed in the 6th paragraph of our Political Letter to you of the 30th August 1809; and it is with the deepest interest that we have perused Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER'S Report of the 25th December" 1809, referred to in the 40th paragraph of your Political Letter of the 31st January 1810, wherein we find that the arrangements adopted by Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER for the prevention of this barbarous custom have been attended with success, and that the reform in the habits of the people among whom the practice obtained had completely taken root and that natural affection and parental feelings had so far began to take place of prejudice and superstition, as to leave no doubt of the abolition of this inhuman practice being

No. 7. of this Chapter.

h No. 8. of Ditto.

i Not extracted.

finally effected :—and we cheerfully acknowledge LieutenantColonel WALKER's merits in having so successfully exerted himself in the general interests of humanity.

6. We are also ready to admit that the successful result of Lieutenant-Colonel WALKER's political negociations at the Gaikawar Durbar and with the chiefs of the states bordering upon the Gaikawar dominions, and of the expeditions under his command, is to be attributed to the wisdom and prudence that suggested them, and to the ability and zeal with which they have been executed.

* In reference to the gratifying visit made to Colonel WALKER, in the neighbourhood of Dherole, where, as mentioned in page 299, many of the children preserved through his interference were brought to his tent, I omitted, in its properest place, to add, that, as the visit was premeditated, several officers and gentlemen assembled to witness so extraordinary a scene. The Jarejah fathers, who a short time back would not have listened to the preservation of their daughters, now exhibited them with pride and fondness. Their mothers and nurses also attended on this interesting occasion. True to the feelings that in other countries were found by Mr. DUNCAN and Sir JOSEPH BANKS (pages 56, 259) to prevail so forcibly, the emotions of nature here exhibited, were extremely moving. The mothers placed their infants in the hands of Colonel WALKER, calling on him and their gods to protect, what he alone had taught them to preserve. These infants they empha tically called "his children." And it is likely that this distinction will continue to exist for some years in Guzerat. Scenes like this, however impressive, are not easily described. E. M.

FINIS.