It being indispensable that every person should be conversant with the several coins, or currency, in which payments are made, or accounts kept, I recommend to my readers to make themselves acquainted with the tables of coins, weights, and measures, in use at Madras: observing, that, throughout the dependant provinces, an endless variety in the two last are to be found; and that, consequently, all dealings must be regulated in proportion to the encreased, or diminished, variations, wherever situated. The ‘EAST INDIA DIRECTORY’ will be found to contain whatever may relate to this subject, including the three presidencies. Conceiving, that, with few exceptions, the customs of many classes among the natives of Bengal, assimilate greatly with those of the population on the coast, I shall now pass on to the ordinary occurrences attendant upon the arrival of a ship off the Sand-Heads, in the Bay of Balasore. It has been already stated, that the voyage from Madras to Bengal will depend, in regard to duration, entirely upon the season. If the southerly monsoon prevails, Point Palmiras, which is at the southern boundary of Balasore Roads, may be made in from three to seven days: during the northerly monsoon, it is usual, experience having confirmed what accident probably first suggested, to stretch over to the opposite side of the bay upon a wind, and then to run obliquely across on the other tack, so as to arrive in soundings of the mouth of the Hooghly, where the tides will speedily convey a vessel up to any place on the river, notwithstanding the wind’s direction. During the passage, under the former prevalence, the land is not, in general, seen until the water becomes obviously discolored with sand. In the first instance, the course is made directly from Madras Roads, to gain a good offing, whereby the dangerous shoals of Pulicat, about five miles north of Madras, may be avoided: the land all along the coast being invariably low, and the shallows projecting, in some places, full ten miles seaward, it is prudent to keep rather towards the middle of the bay, and, from a N.N.E. course, to change latterly to a N.N.W; rounding in, when the latitude directs, until Point Palmiras may be from four to six leagues distant.