The Statement of MR. MURTHWAITE (1850) (In a letter to MR. BRUFF)
Have you any recollection, my dear sir, of a semi-savage person whom you
met out at dinner, in London, in the autumn of 'forty-eight? Permit me
to remind you that the person's name was Murthwaite, and that you and
he had a long conversation together after dinner. The talk related to
an Indian Diamond, called the Moonstone, and to a conspiracy then in
existence to get possession of the gem.
Since that time, I have been wandering in Central Asia. Thence I have
drifted back to the scene of some of my past adventures in the north
and north-west of India. About a fortnight since, I found myself in
a certain district or province (but little known to Europeans) called
Kattiawar.
Here an adventure befell me, in which (incredible as it may appear) you
are personally interested.
In the wild regions of Kattiawar (and how wild they are, you will
understand, when I tell you that even the husbandmen plough the land,
armed to the teeth), the population is fanatically devoted to the old
Hindoo religion--to the ancient worship of Bramah and Vishnu. The few
Mahometan families, thinly scattered about the villages in the interior,
are afraid to taste meat of any kind. A Mahometan even suspected of
killing that sacred animal, the cow, is, as a matter of course, put to
death without mercy in these parts by the pious Hindoo neighbours who
surround him. To strengthen the religious enthusiasm of the people, two
of the most famous shrines of Hindoo pilgrimage are contained within the
boundaries of Kattiawar. One of them is Dwarka, the birthplace of the
god Krishna. The other is the sacred city of Somnauth--sacked, and
destroyed as long since as the eleventh century, by the Mahometan
conqueror, Mahmoud of Ghizni.
Finding myself, for the second time, in these romantic regions, I
resolved not to leave Kattiawar, without looking once more on the
magnificent desolation of Somnauth. At the place where I planned to do
this, I was (as nearly as I could calculate it) some three days distant,
journeying on foot, from the sacred city.
I had not been long on the road, before I noticed that other people--by
twos and threes--appeared to be travelling in the same direction as
myself.
To such of these as spoke to me, I gave myself out as a Hindoo-Boodhist,
from a distant province, bound on a pilgrimage. It is needless to say
that my dress was of the sort to carry out this description. Add, that
I know the language as well as I know my own, and that I am lean
enough and brown enough to make it no easy matter to detect my European
origin--and you will understand that I passed muster with the people
readily: not as one of themselves, but as a stranger from a distant part
of their own country.