At both extremities of this street stand
majestic gateways. The houses of the town (from one to four stories
high) are almost entirely of red sandstone; most of them are small,
but many are surrounded by columns, pillars, and galleries. Several
are distinguished by their handsome porches. The streets are
narrow, crooked, and ugly; the bazaars unimportant. In India, as
well as in the East, the more costly wares must be sought in the
interior of the houses. The population of this town is said to have
amounted formerly to 800,000; it is now scarcely 60,000.
The whole environs are full of ruins. Those who build can procure
the materials at the mere cost of gathering them from the ground.
Many Europeans inhabit half-ruinous buildings, which, at a small
expense, they convert into pretty palaces.
Agra is the principal seat of two missionary societies - a Catholic
and a Protestant. Here, as in Benares, they educate the offspring
of the children they picked up in 1831. A little girl was pointed
out to me that had recently been bought of a poor woman for two
rupees (4s.)
At the head of the Catholic mission is a bishop. The present one,
Mr. Porgi, is the founder of a tastefully-built church. In no
similar establishment did I ever see so much order, or find the
natives so well-behaved as here. On Sundays, after prayers, they
amuse themselves with decorous and lively games; while in the
Protestant establishments, after having worked all the week, they
are compelled to pray all day long, and their greatest amusement
consists in being allowed to sit for a few hours gravely before the
house-doors. A person who passed a Sunday in this country among
strict Protestants would imagine that God had forbidden the most
innocent amusements.
These two religious societies, unfortunately, are not on very
amicable terms, and censure and persecute every slight irregularity
on the part of each other; by this means not setting the natives
living round them a very good example.
My last visit was to the magnificent treasure of Agra, and, indeed,
of all India - the famous Taj-Mehal.
I had read somewhere that this monument ought to be visited last, as
the others would not be admired at all after seeing this. Captain
Elliot says: "It is difficult to give a description of this
monument; the architecture is full of strength and elegance."
The Taj-Mehal was erected by the Sultan Jehoe (Dschehoe), in memory
of his favourite muntaza, Zemani. Its building is said to have cost
750,000 pounds. Properly speaking, the sultan's memory is more
perpetuated by this building than that of his favourite, for every
one who saw it would involuntarily ask who erected it.
