YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PEEPS AT THE FAR EAST SI jFamtltat .account of a 'Ffett to InUta By NORMAN MACLEOD, d.d. ONE OF HER MAJESTY'S CHAPLAIN.S FOR SCOTLAND JL.r/i. STRAHAN & CO., PUBLISHERS 56 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON 1871 My dear Watson, To you, my fellow-deputy to India, "my companion in labour," and my old and valued friend, I dedicate this volume with gratitude and affection. These " Peeps at the Far East " will recall to you days spent by us in the discharge of difficult duties ; days when we largely experienced " favour with Grod and man ; " and days, too, in which, so far as our personal intercourse was concerned, there did not once "arise a little cloud as big as a man's hand." That you may be long spared to take part at home (in addition to your many other labours) in that work in which you engaged with such wisdom and energy abroad, is the sincere prayer of Yours ever, N. MACLEOD. March 1, 1871. PREFACE. These reminiscences first appeared in the pages of " Good "Words," and are now republished with several additions and alterations. In determining to write them at all, my desire was to increase the interest of people at home in that great country placed by Providence under the British Crown, and in the noble and trying labours there of so many of our countrymen ; and also to quicken a sense of our individual duty to aid to the utmost of our power — if by intelligent sympathy only — in advancing the true civilisation of two hundred millions of the human race. The object of my journey with Dr. Watson was to report to the Church of Scotland regarding her missions in India. That comparatively little is said here upon this subject, is due to the fact that it has been fully dealt with by both of us in other forms for the information of those who sent us. In these pages I confine myself to such topics as could not well find a place in an official Missionary Report. I must here express my obligations to Messrs. Shepherd and Bourne, of Calcutta, for the right kindly accorded to me to copy from their large and splendid series of photographs — the best that exists of Bengal ;* and also to Mr. Grant for the privilege of making use of the fine pictures in his two interesting volumes, " Anglo-Indian Domestic Life," and " Rural Life in Bengal." f * Marion and Co., London. t Thacker and Co., London, CONTENTS. Page I. EASTWARD HO! ...'.. 1 II. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BOMBAY . . 19 III. A DAY IN BOMBAY ... .... 29 IV. SCENES IX BOMBAY ... 42 V. POONA .... ....'... Gl VI. COLGAUM 70 VII. CAVES OF KARLI, AND RETURN TO BOMBAY ... 89 VIII. FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS 101 IX. MADRAS . . .117 X. CONJEVERAM, VELLORE, AND BANGALORE . 134 XL CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN SOUTH INDIA .... 156 XII. BRITISH INDIA.— CASTE.— THE BRAHMIN . 174 XIII. CALCUTTA 192 XIV. SCENES IN CALCUTTA '207 XV. BENGAL.— BENGALEES.— BRAHMO SOMAJ.— MISSIONARY MEETING 216 XVI. INCIDENTS IN CALCUTTA ... 228 XVII. CALCUTTA TO BENARES . . . .251 XVIII. THE MUTINY.— BENARES AND ALLAHABAD . . 204 XIX. THE MUTINY.— CAWNPORE ... . .274 XX. THE MUTINY.— LUCKNOW . . 282 XXI. AGRA ¦ 296 XXII. DELHI . .... . . 309 XXIII. FROM CALCUTTA TO ALEXANDRIA ... .337 APPENDIX .... 363 ILLUSTRATIONS. THE TAJ, NEAR AGRA ENTRANCE TO BOMBAY HARBOUR COOLIES .... MY HOST'S BUNGALOW BOMBAY TOWN-HALL A STREET IN BOMBAY JUGGLERS ENTRANCE TO THE ELEPHANTA CAVES THE GHAUTS NEAR KHANDALLA PAKBUTTY . ... PLAYING THE NATIONAL TUNES GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE OF THE COUNTRY ENTRANCE TO THE KARLI CAVE CENTRE AISLE OF THE KARLI CAVE . SIR JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY'S HOSPITAL THE WATER-GATE OF JINGEERA THE LANDING-PLACE AT GOA THE PALM ..... GROUP OF NATIVES OF THE NEILGHERRIES TYPICAL SPECIMENS OF HINDOOS STREET IN CONJEVERAM . TEMPLE AND TANK AT CONJEVERAM . SCULPTURED PILLARS AT CONJEVERAM TEMPLE AT CONJEVERAM . EUROPEAN BURYING- GROUND AT VELLORE ROCK SCENERY .... OLD FORT AT BANGALORE IDOL CAR AT BANGALORE OLD COURT-HOUSE STREET, CALCUTTA THE MAIDAN AND RIVER, GALCOTTA . THE COLES, CALCUTTA FROM BOMBAY TO THE DECCAN Frontispiece To face page 19 20 222425 43 45 63 65 6981 929398 103 106107114122134 135 136 138 142 143 145149195 196200 ILLUSTRATIONS. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA PORTRAITS OF DISTINGUISHED INDIAN OFFICIALS CHARACTERISTIC BENGALEE PORTRAITS BOATS ON THE GANGES AT BENARES THE GHAUTS, BENARES , PALACE INSIDE THE FORT, ALLAHABAD PLAN OF CAWNPORE THE GHAUT OF THE MASSACRE, CAWNPORE MEMORIAL WELL, CAWNPORE . . PLAN OF LUCKNOW ... KAISER BAGH, OR KING'S PALACE, LUCKNOW BANQUETING-HALL OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW THE BAILEY GUARD, LUCKNOW TAJ AND GARDENS, AGRA . CENOTAPH OF AKBAR, NEAR AGRA . THE FORT AT AGRA — DELHI GATE QUADRANGLE OF THE PEARL MOSQUE, AGRA THE ZENANA MOSQUE, AGRA BALCONY OF ZENANA, AGRA INTERIOR OF MOSQUE, PALACE OF AGRA . PLAN OF DELHI , THE CHANDNEE CHOUK, DELHI THE JUMNA MUSJID, FROM THE NORTH DELHI THE KOOTAB-MINAR, FROM THE WEST DELHI THE GREAT ARCH, DELHI RUINS OF OLD DELHI THE OLD OBSERVATORY, DELHI THE CASHMERE GATE, DELHI .... ADENTHE NEGRO BOY'S DANCING LESSON. To face page 203 . 204 . 205 . 260 261 . 272 . 274 . 276 . 279 282 283 . 284 288 . 298 . 302 303 . 304 305 306 . 307 309 310 . 311 . 315 . 317 31S . 319 . 326 351 356 INTERIOR OF TOWER OF SILENCE GREAT GORGE SOUTH OF KHANDALLA THE MONKEY GOD . . KHANDALLA THE JAC-TREE THE BANYAN . GRAIN-DEALERS IN THE VILLAGE BAZAARS a shepherd .... drawing water an indian bath-room a catamaran st. Andrew's church, madras PAGE 3964 76 100108 109 111115 116IIS 119120 ILLUSTRATIONS. THE PUNKAH . MADRAS PIER IN THE FORT, MADRAS MEMORIAL HALL, MADRAS SIR THOMAS MUNRO'S STATUE '. FAKIRS ...... TOMB OF TIPPOO FAMILY, VELLORE . A SANYASSIE ..... THE ABBE DUBOIS . GATE OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE, CALCUTTA PORTRAIT OF KESHUB CHUNDER SEN THE SHRINE OF THE MONKEY GOD . FORT AT ALLAHABAD MEMORIAL WELL, CAWNPORE i THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW GRAVE OF SIR HENRY LAWRENCE MARBLE SCREEN IN THE TAJ, AGRA . PART OF THE KOOTAB-MINAR . PAGE 121 122123 124125139 141 151164 204245263271278284290300316 I. EASTWARD HO! rHEN I sailed "Eastward" for the first time, I went for mere pleasure, if by such a holiday phrase one can allude to a tour in Palestine. I said, when I published an account of my journey, that I did not go in gown and bands, with official responsi bility, or with any weighty matters on hand to compel me to " mark, learn, and inwardly digest." But nothing, I feel, could have induced me to go to India on a tour of mere pleasure. As, however, the grounds for this feeling are wholly personal, arising out of many peculiar circumstances which do not concern the reader, they need not be stated. He must not suppose, how ever, that I consider India as being unworthy of a visit by the traveller for its own sake. Enough to state here that my Church did me the honour to request me to visit India, to inquire into the true state and prospects of Christian missions there, with special reference to those of the Church of Scotland, and that I felt it to be my duty, at all hazards, to accept the commis sion. Dr. Watson, an old and dear friend, was ray fellow- deputy, B EASTWARD HO! and we sailed together from Marseilles on the 6th of November, 1867. Just one word more of a semi-personal nature. I give these sketches, not in the formal character of the deputy from a Church, but in the less dignified, although much more easy and untrammelled, character of the mere traveller. The weightier results of the tour, with details bearing on missions, have^ been given in other forms* Nevertheless, the subject which most engaged my attention will naturally be touched upon now and again in these papers. We chose the overland passage, and at Marseilles joined the Tanjore for Malta. Our captain, like all his brother commanders under whom I have had the pleasure of sailing, was worthy of his ship and of the famous Peninsular and Oriental line to which she belonged. He was good and kind as a man, and able as an officer. As far as I know, justice has not been done to the beauties of this route. It is looked upon very much as a mere drudgery, to be got over as speedily and as sulkily as possible. No doubt the journey to Marseilles is a long and tiresome one, but the scenery is extremely beautiful between Avignon and Mar seilles, where, ever and anon, there are delightful glimpses of the Rhone, and views of the enclosing hills. Again, on leaving Mar seilles the coast scenery towards Toulon is very fine, with the wild bare islands scattered, broken, and worn into strangest shapes by the ceaseless attacks of winds and waves. And farther on, the Straits of Bonifacio are themselves worth a visit. ' Corsica reminds me of Arran in its general character. Both it and Sardinia, in their rugged boldness, their jagged peaks, and the broken, fantastic forms of their sky-line, are not surpassed by anything in our Western Highlands. I enjoyed the scene immensely, and not the * "Address on Indian Missions" (Blackwood and Sons, Is.); Unpublished Report made to the Foreign Mission Committee of the Church of Scotland. EASTWARD HO! less so from getting an excellent view of Caprera, and of Garibaldi's home. It is a lonely spot, but I gazed on it with affectionate interest, and with as much respect as on any palace upon earth. The General was absent, seeking to gain Rome for Italy. When the Eternal City shall be free, and this chapter of the long history of Italy comes to be read by future generations, I venture to think that no man now in Rome, be he priest or abbot, Monsignor, Cardinal, or Pope, will excite as much interest or inspire as much respect as the poor exile of Caprera. We passed Sicily with all sails set, and followed by a delicious breeze. Here again was a coast view of great beauty, with fine mountains, whose green sides, as well as the plains at their feet, were dotted with white hamlets and villages. Several islands broke the ocean line seawards. Sailing in mild weather amid such scenes of beauty, with a large number of cheerful passengers to share the enjoyment, the over land journey is not the dull, monotonous affair which people going abroad for the first time assume ' it to be. It must be confessed, however, that our steamer was a wonderful adept in rolling, and this was not by any means agreeable to the miserable minority subject to sea-sickness. Nor was it less trying to myself or to my friend when we preached on deck upon Sunday. To be obliged suddenly to pause and embrace the capstan, or if not this, to roll in one's canonicals under the lee bulwarks, looks undignified to a landsman. But at sea it excites only a good-natured smile of sympathy, and does not lessen the seriousness which I think almost every one feels during a Sunday service on ship board. As is my habit when at sea, I preached in the forecastle to the Jacks, whom I had all to myself, and whom I always like for an audience. One requires to know Jack thoroughly to appre ciate him. There is a singular tenderness under his apparently rough nature. Our boatswain, an old man-of-war's man, was EASTWARD HO! a fair specimen of his class. Between forty and fifty years of age, he was short, round, and strong, like the stump of a main mast. He had grizzly locks, and a voice which I believe would be heard above the loudest storm just as well as his shrill twitter ing whistle. From the way in which he issued the simplest orders to the crew, one would have supposed him to be in a constant passion. To slack or haul in a brace, or to set a fore- topsail, seemed to inspire him with a wrath which nothing could appease. Indeed, a novice might have conjectured that the crew were ticket-of- leave men. But one day when he was fn the midst of what seemed ungovernable fury, I noticed that he paused as he passed the goat, and, catching its white beard, stroked its face, with a gentle " Chucky, chucky, old Nan ! " On another occasion I saw him rolling along the deck, each arm moving like a turtle's fin, when a little child, carried in a nurse's arms, not only arrested him, but seemed to avert all his choler, while he smiled and cooed to the " little darling," gazing at the infant as an old black seal might look at a bit of white coral. This is Jack all over. He blows like a whale, and is as soft as blubber. We had a little excitement in passing the bar at Alexandria, always a disagreeable bit of navigation with a south-west wind. One vessel, we heard afterwards, had been sunk, and another water-logged, upon it the previous night. Real danger there was none, except of our being kept out at sea idly poking about until ' it should calm. Our captain, glass in hand, with the Arab pilot beside him, and with four men at the wheel, besides half-a-dozen at each of its relieving tackles, steered cautiously down, "just to take a look at the bar, and smell it." Perceiving nothing vicious, we threaded our way along the narrow passage, swinging, as a screw boat alone can swing, and receiving on board a few tops of the seas, to the great amusement of all— save the sufferers ; and we were soon at anchor in smooth waters. We were received by the usual shoals of boats, with their motley screaming crews, who cer- EASTWARD HO! tainly did not seem to have improved in sweetness of voice or in gentleness of manner since I had paid them my first visit. The love of dramatic attitudinising in those excited Easterns is singu larly ludicrous when contemplated quietly from the taffrails. The helmsman of a boat pulling against wind and sea will remove his hands from the tiller to brandish them about, or lift them over his head, to intensify the meaning of his words. He will then clench his fist, or point his finger to the bellowing crew, — with whom he is arguing in hard guttural agony, — as if to conduct towards them the electricity which he has generated, and which he knows would explode himself unless it were somehow dis charged by hands and tongue. We remained in the harbour for twenty-four hours ! Why, no one could tell, except that so willed the railway officials. The mails and passengers could have been landed with perfect ease, as many small boats with two oars took on shore the passengers for Alexandria. The steamer from India had, moreover, arrived at Suez ; nevertheless the mails, not to speak of the passengers, were detained all this time, to the great annoyance of the captain. And what a picture of stupid incapacity was seen next day in the boarding and landing by the harbour steamer and its Egyptian crew ! It is yet an unexplained mystery how it happens that, in spite of all their experience, the Egyptians handle their craft in a way of which freshwater schoolboys would be ashamed. But the whole transit, from the custom-house in Alexandria to Suez — rails, carriages, stations, guards, and all — in spite of the influence of such a man as Betts Bey, with all his talent and courtesy, is unworthy of the high road between East and West. In going from Cairo to Suez, for example, we fancied, from sundry dis agreeable noises and gratings under the floor of our carriage, that there was " a screw loose," or a wheel threatening mischief. But there was no one in charge who could speak English, and the attempt to get any explanations from Turks rushing about with EASTWARD HO! lanterns at night was impossible. So we had to go on in faith and patience — two virtues exceedingly difficult for one to practise among Easterns. If the link which unites India to the European world consists of two threads of iron rails — and if along these threads thousands of our people travel every year — governors of provinces, magistrates and judges, officers, brides and bridegrooms, to say nothing of the mails and competition Wallahs, — these rails, carriages, and all who attend them, ought to be of the best, and not of such a shaky and uncomfortable character as any side- shunting in England would be ashamed of. A little wholesome pressure in this direction might work wonders. If England, or the Peninsular and Oriental Company, had sufficient influence to get even one sober, steady, and intelligent English guard attached to each train, it would add greatly to the comfort of Mr. and Mrs. Bull.* We parted from several passengers here who had greatly con tributed to the happiness of the voyage. Among these were Colonel Staunton, our able and respected consul in Egypt, and the Duke and Duchess of St. Albans on their way to the Nile, with both of whom I had the pleasure of renewing my acquaintance ; the latter being the much-admired daughter of mv honoured and dear friend General Grey. We had also on board a few most agreeable Americans. Among other old acquaintances whom I had the pleasure of meeting at Alexandria was my Palestine dragoman, Hadji All Abu Halawa. The pleasure, I was glad to see, was mutual. . He is now the cavass of Colonel Staunton. On asking Hadji about our old servants, I was pleased to learn that some advices which I had given in my notes on Palestine, as to the importance of travellers examining the backs of horses and mules before engaging them, * The Suez Canal, successfully opened since this was written, will revolutionise all this in time. EASTWARD HO! had not been wholly without effect ; nay, had been so con scientiously acted upon, that our old rascally mule-driver Meeki had been forced to give up his impositions and take to another trade. Whatever was the real cause of this change, travellers must be benefited by it. It was a pleasing whiff of the olden time to talk with Hadji over those happy days of travel — every feature, from his nose to his boots, recalling the journey. Passing at once to Suez — for of Alexandria, Cairo, the Pyra mids, the Nile, the Desert, I need not again write- — we found the steamer full to the brim. Our sail of twelve hundred miles down the Red Sea was, on the whole, very agreeable, as far as heat was concerned. From all I could learn about this passage, the dangers of it seem to me to be exaggerated. The weather here, as everywhere else, varies much even at the same season. On my return in March, for example, when it was intensely hot in Ceylon, and when I expected to be broiled in the Red Sea, the temperature was so low as to compel me for the first time to put on warm clothing. Some people never care what month they sail up or down it. As for the officers and crews of the steamers, they, as a matter of course, do so at all seasons without any special danger. The fact is, any man in robust health, and with care, can endure any kind of travel. It is only invalids from India or Europe, or those with weak or exhausted constitutions, who cannot stand the Red Sea, any more than anything else which makes demands on their physical powers or nervous energies. In the months between October and March this passage is often very agreeable, the average heat in my cabin having been only about 80°. No doubt days, and even weeks, do occasionally occur when it is well-nigh intolerable and certainly disagreeable, and when the strongest can do little more than submit and evaporate. I must confess, indeed, that I did not feel it cool when preaching on Sunday to the large assemblage on deck, where the thermometer was then about 90°, and when I EASTWARD HO! had to speak with force enough to be heard above the noise of waves, steam, and screw, to an audience of, I suppose, a hundred and fifty. I appreciated a few jugs of iced water which were poured over my head afterwards by considerate old Indians. Nor did my plucky fellow-deputy find it much more bearable when preaching in the evening. The society one meets with in these Indian steamers during " the season " is as agreeable as is to be found anywhere. Almost every passenger occupies some position, either civil or military, implying superior education ; while not a few . have acquired eminence in their professions, and from their peculiar experience are full of accurate information, with due store of interesting anec dote and incident. Here are men who served during the Mutiny, sharing in the weary marches, the excited adventures, and hair breadth escapes of that memorable time ; others who played a part in the relief of Lucknow, stood to arms at the siege of Delhi, or poured over its breach with Nicholson. Here is one, an engineer, who has seen much of life in connection with the laying of the telegraph through Persia. Here are civilians who have governed provinces with a population as large as that of Scotland, or led for years a strange half-tent, half-horseback life among out-of-the-way tribes, as strange to us as the inhabitants of another sphere. Here are pious missionaries and missionaries' wives, who have laboured long and nobly among the heathen, whom they seem to love as their own souls. Here are keen observers, politicians, critics, whose sword is the pen, whose bullets are printers' types, and who keep alive the tardy public, otherwise disposed to slumber or to forget that " our " eye is upon them. Here also are young aspirants, both male and female, full of bright hopes as they pursue their course to the unknown land, wondering what they will do or be ere they sail over the Red Sea again. Here are some with medals, some with bairns, some with pensions, and all, it is to be hoped, with sound livers, and none EASTWARD HO! with those sad faces and dresses which tell a tale often, alas ! to be repeated in India. And here, too, are young officers on their way to Magdala. They are full of spirit and energy, without pretence or display, and, I doubt not, have all the dash of our noble army. We have also representatives of high church, low church, broad church, every church, and no church — of Zoroaster and of Nothing. But one man there is who can be classed with none else. Who is he, with his leathern jacket ? Some say he is a great Nimrod, whose adventures are marvellous ; others that he is essential to the success of the Abyssinian expedition. He him self evidently feels his importance. He tells us that he expects a Government steamer to be in waiting near the island of Peirim, " to take me to Massowa ; " and then he adds with becoming humility — " and also the mails ! " The scene each evening was particularly pleasing. As every one knows, there is no twilight in the East, none of that witching hour in Scotland called " gloaming," and in Germany by as sweet and poetic a word, "dammerung." "At one Stride comes the dark." So it is a long night from six till six, especially as after ten all the lights are extinguished. One requires a good con science and a weary brain to get through these idle hours satisfactorily, and in oblivion of the existence of the screw and the heat. The awning which covers the quarter-deck conceals the glorious stars. But as a substitute for these, lamps are hung from the awning roof, which serve to reveal indistinct groups in the most favourable condition for talking. And beyond this nothing can be done, except — and the exception forms the de lightful rule of these evenings — listening to music and singing. Thus the ladies, like the brilliant and beautiful stars, come out at night, or like the nightingale, "sing darkling." With a good pianoforte on deck, and many admirable voices, both male and female, our evening concerts were excellent, and received " well- merited applause " from the unseen audience. Anyhow, no one c io EASTWARD HO! who wants amusement or instruction need spend a listless hour on board such a steamer, were the voyage to continue for months instead of weeks. He can choose his companion as he can a book, and read him and learn from him ; for every one is courteous and communicative when properly approached. I am glad to record my grateful and happy remembrance of our pleasant company. I never spent happier days amongst strangers than on this voyage. And here I cannot resist the desire — let the reader call it vanity if he will — to record what to us was most pleasing and encouraging. My friend and I, before landing, were very unexpectedly honoured by being presented with an address, signed by all the passengers, to encourage us in our mission, and to acknowledge our small services on the Sundays. I here take the liberty of noticing the strange way in which, as I afterwards found, the Indian society in the steamer represented Indian society in general, in the vast variety of opinion held by its members on the same topic. There was hardly a subject of importance on which we desired information, about which in some of its details we did not receive the most contradictory statements, each man moreover holding with remarkable tenacity to his own opinions, so that even at this stage I began to despair of ever being able to come to a conclusion on any great Indian topic. It struck me then, as it did subsequently, that this is much more characteristic of India than of England. Not only is there a wider divergence of opinion amongst intelligent, thoroughly well- informed and honest gentlemen on the same subject, but there is a more unhesitating, and, may I say, dogmatic determination on the part of each to hold his own. This may be accounted for, possibly, by the vastness of the circle required to embrace Indian questions, and the impossibility of any one man being able from his isolated position to observe any more than a portion of the circle ; — the want, too, of a well- founded public opinion expressing through the press results EASTWARD HO! ii gathered up, not from a few sources, as in India, but from sources innumerable, as in England. To these causes must be added the official reserve of the local governments, and the absence of parliamentary discussion to ascertain and sift out the truth ; and also, the comparative ignorance of Europeans in general as to the views and opinions of the immense multitude of the governed body on any one subject whatever. But I cannot enter on such general questions here. I only further remark that even the phases of religious opinion among Europeans in India were also truly represented in the steamer, which, in this respect as well as in others, serves as a link to connect the two countries — exporting to Hindostan not only all Christian truth, but also every raving of theological mania found in England, and in return importing into England every similar specimen of the latter Indian product. But I am forgetting that I am only outward bound ! The sail from Suez to Ras Mohammed, at the Gulf of Akaba, is full of interest. We had a magnificent view, in the clear atmosphere, of the land on both sides. The most imposing sight on the Egyptian shore is Mount Akrab, which is about 10,000 feet high, and is somewhat of the form given in this rough sketch. The range of the Sinai jj| Peninsula is also very grand. Sinai itself cannot be seen from any part of the Red Sea traversed by the steamers ; and only at one spot along the shore is a portion of the summit visible. The general outline of the range opposite the town of Tur, seen at sunrise, is something like the illustration on the next page. The rocks wore that red- brown look, when seen at sunset, which is given with such mar- EASTWARD HO! vellous fidelity in Herbert's splendid fresco of the Desert, in the House of Lords. We saw in many places the plain of sand, stretching for about fifteen miles be tween the sea and the mountains. Its very look made one hot and thirsty, at the mere thought of oscillating like a pendulum, perched high on a camel's back — the said camel pacing with noise less step along the burning sands, beneath the furnace glare, and accom panied by the mummified Bedouins, with their filthy caffias, and long guns and spears. For young aspirants, such a life has its joys ; but for the vener able and sedate, the Peninsular and Oriental steamer is to be preferred. And yet even a luxurious steamer has its trials, against some of which I beg to warn all voyagers. Beginning with the least : there is the impossibility of recovering any articles left on deck at night. I have, for example, to deplore the loss of a large ivorv paper-cutter, and a dear old travel ling friend, a Turkish fez. They dis appeared, and in spite of advertise ments on the companion stair, and the honest agency, I assume, of the stewards, they never were recovered, nor was there any prospect of their ever being so. The Lascars, or some of the Oriental crew, got the blame, as usual. A very pretty collection must thus be made by somebody for sale at the termination of each voyage. EASTWARD HO! 13 Now, might not something be done by the company to warn the passengers that everything left on deck at night is likely to be stolen ? Possibly also a few better police arrangements might be made to detect the pilferers. For grievance No. 2 : a remarkable arrangement, or rather want of arrangement, in the Peninsular and Oriental steamers, which it has defied my ingenuity to account for, is the necessity laid upon every passenger, who wishes to have a comfortable seat on deck, to purchase his own chair at Marseilles, and convey it with him to India. Why this? I can understand all chairs being pro hibited because of lumbering the decks ; but, every passenger being permitted to bring his chair, I cannot understand why a great company should not provide thoroughly comfortable ones, and in sufficient number. They might as well insist upon each person bringing his own bedding, or his own crockery. And now for grievance No. 3 : I warn all voyagers to prepare as best they can for much indigestible food between Suez and Calcutta. The menu of the steamers is excellent. One actually stares at the variety and prodigality of the programme. But a few days' experience, alas ! teaches the great fact that the food is, with the exception possibly of one or two dishes, tough and indigestible, — so at least we found it. There are some people, I am aware, who seem to be provided by Nature with a gizzard, or a muscular apparatus, approaching the power of nut-crackers. All food consigned to this kind of mill is equally acceptable, because equally easily ground. But others are com pelled to depend upon ordinary organs, and these often weak, and made still weaker by a hot climate. Woe be to all such, male or female, old or young, in a steamer on the Indian Ocean ! Hunger will prove only a snare to lead them more eagerly into the trap. No doubt this may be so far accounted for by the fact of the climate making it impossible to keep meat till it is tender, and rendering it necessary that the bleating sheep and gobbling 14 EASTWARD HO! ducks of to-day should appear as roast or boil to-morrow ; and it may be that in spite even of preserved meats there is no adequate remedy for this death amidst life; but all persons should be warned of the fact, so that they may make such arrangements as in their wisdom they deem most expedient. Children, at least, should have crisp biscuits, and such other dainties as can be easily carried, provided for them. And let me here give a friendly hint to the stewards, if this should ever meet their eye : it is to assure them that they would not be less agreeable or obliging if, when arranging the saloon in the morning, they talked and laughed a little less ; to beg them to remember that every word they speak — all the bantering, joking, and chaffing between Bill and Joe and half-a-dozen more — is heard by dozens of passengers, who are tossing in berths, using every means to get a little sleep, and who, moreover, have not the taste to relish these early morning exercises. Being very anxious to see that great sign of the tropics, the Southern Cross, and having been told that it was visible about three in the morning from the forecastle, I managed to awake about that time. Dressed in a white Damascus camel-hair dressing-gown, — the original of the surplice, and therefore appro priate, — I clambered on deck. It is strange to contemplate a native crew lying asleep. They are all covered up, including their heads, in the sacks used for loading the ship, and they lie side by side in rows, as if dead. Their dreams, if they have any, must have some ethnographical, and, in the case of the Africans especially, geographical interest. I carefully picked my steps between the rows, and with difficulty ascended the fore-deck. Reaching the heel of the bowsprit as the ship was pitching against a head sea, I discovered the Cross, but was rather dis appointed with it when compared with many other constellations glittering with brilliancy in the depth of that unfathomable sky ; and I hope those who are most sensitive to symptoms of pro- EASTWARD HO! 15 vincialism will excuse me for preferring the Great Bear of the North to any constellation in the Southern sky. Having satisfied my curiosity, I staggered back to the ladder. Just as I reached its top, I heard the well-known thud and rchush of a sea breaking over the bow, which quickened my steps. But before I could get to the main deck, it poured down like a picturesque waterfall over my head and shoulders, drenching and blinding me. Rushing along the deck, it roused up the whole congregation of black sleepers, who woke with a cry, while I, doubtless looking to them like a dripping ghost, made for my cabin. But the sea had been before me. Pouring down the hatchways, it flooded the deck, on which were stretched some mattresses occupied by ladies and children, with sundry respectable gentlemen. Ruthlessly it swept into the neighbouring cabins, floating boots and shoes, and whatever could swim. As there was not the slightest danger, the scene became intensely ludicrous, owing to the sudden contrast presented between the deep silence (interrupted only by snores) of a few minutes before, and the wide-awake energy displayed now. On another occasion I most imprudently opened my cabin port for light and ventilation while reading beside it. A sparkling green wave, as if in. fun, suddenly rushed through, and taking my breath away as it poured down upon me, sent a whole fleet of things floating around my bed. I found my waterproof bath, with its inflated sides, an excellent means of saving property from destruction on such an occasion. It is well known to every voyager that once a week passengers are permitted to get up from the hold such luggage as they may require for their use, the smallness of their cribs, pompously termed state-rooms, rendering it impossible to lay in stores suf ficient for cleanliness and comfort. This day of relief is a very important one, and of no small excitement. The hatches in the main deck are opened ; the treasures of the hold are disclosed ; a barrier is erected around its square mouth ; and the luggage is 16 EASTWARD HO! sent up in regular order, according, I believe, to that in which the names of the passengers are entered in the purser's books. One of the expectants on a certain day was a major in the Indian army. If he happens to read this in any part of the world, I expect from his thorough good-nature, notwithstanding his ex citable temper, a hearty laugh over the incident, and a full pardon for bringing it back to his recollection. The major was a round man, of small stature, with a countenance bronzed or copper- coloured by the sun of every clime. His wife and -young children were with him. A more anxious, nervous, and fidgety husband of a meek, quiet wife could not be. He had been in great dis comfort. He and his family had, for the sake of coolness^ been sleeping on mattresses upon the main deck near the wind-sail, from which they drew in fresh air. The sea, which I have described as breaking on board and pouring down below, had sent them all afloat. His eagerness to get a huge trunk, whose contents would make them all comfortable, was accordingly intense. He was all aglow as he stood with many other expectants round the barrier gazing into the hold, waiting till his name, far down in the list, was called. But most unfortunately for his peace, the big trunk lay beneath him. And if so, why could he not get it at once ? A minute would suffice to have it up ! Why should he in such circumstances have to wait his turn ? Very true, dozens of trunks and portmanteaus had to be exhumed, but his trunk was there — visible to every eye — and why therefore should he, why should his wife and children, wait for hours before getting it ? So bending over the barricade, he said in the softest and most persuasive voice to one of the sailors below — " I say, my lad, look out there ! Like a good fellow hand me up that trunk — that large, black trunk — be handy now!" "Your number, sir?" inquired the sailor. " Oh, hang the number ! " replied the major. " The trunk is there — see, that black one just beside you." But the sailor paying no attention to a request out of order, vanished in his search for others. The major looked round to the other passen gers, very red in the face, exclaiming, " Well ! Upon my word ! Did you ever see such humbug ? Eh ? such sheer insolence ! " The same sailor again appeared, handing up a bag and port manteau "to Colonel So-and-So, No. 29." "What under heaven " do you mean ?" exclaimed the major, addressing, him. "I say, sir, you fellow there ! Attend — attend, sir ! My trunk." But the sailor again vanished. The major looked round for sympathy. " I take you all* to witness ! " he said. " My wife and children are thoroughly uncomfortable, and here in a British ship — ¦ — " But another sailor appeared. " Jack ! " he said. " Hiss ! fiss ! look here ! I say you — that's a good fellow — just send me up that black trunk which " " The name and number, sir ?" " Sixty- eight." " Not your turn yet, sir." " Good heavens ! It is at your feet — that trunk — behind you — give me a hold of it ! Now then — that trunk." The sailor, equally obedient to orders, dis appeared searching for some other. " Gentlemen !" said the major, his face red with indignation, wiping his forehead, and opening his waistcoat, " since this world began, did you ever see , such tyranny ! such martinet, red tape, beastly and rude incapacity ! , and shall " But a third sailor appeared, and the major resumed a more imperious key. " I say, you fellow there ! I demand that — black — -trunk — there! there!! Do you see it? There — that trunk. I demand it. Tou have only " " Your num ber, sir?" "I don't care a fig about my number, name, or any thing. One minute will do it. Give — me — now- " The sailor replied, " I must obey orders, sir ;" and he, too, vanished into the darkness of the hold to do so. "And this," continued the major, " is the Peninsular and Oriental Company ! This the great com pany ! This an English company ! This for the accommodation of the English ! All I asked, gentlemen, was that trunk!" and he pointed down with indignation to it. " I say, further," he said, as a sailor again appeared, " I will go down myself and get it. I'll i) be hanged if " " Can't come down, sir ; must wait your turn ; must obey orders," replied Jack, never looking up. The other passengers, eager for their own luggage, were silent, and gave little heed to the major, who was bursting with excitement. His wife appeared, and touching him on the shoulder, suggested quietly that they could wait. "You may, my dear," he said, in tremendous indignation ; " but / cannot ! I cannot, indeed ! Please keep those children from crying, will you, my love ? Please do. I hate crying children. Do let me attend to the luggage. It's an insolent and unreasonable swindle ! " As he was about to appeal to me, I made an excuse to go on deck, to get relief in a fit of laughter. About an hour after, I was glad to hear that the major had got his trunk, and was buried head and ears in its contents ; but he never seemed to have recovered his good- will to the Peninsular and Oriental Company. These are some of the gentle adventures one meets with when outward bound, and it gives some idea of the safety and mono tony of the voyage, when trifles like these afford so much amusement. Early one morning, on looking out of my port, I descried near us a weird, barren island, whose sum mit was fashioned like this rude drawing. It was one of the volcanic groups close by Aden. Soon we dropped anchor in that famous half-way house. But as I spent more time at Aden on my way home, I shall defer notice of it until then. We had a delightful run of seven hundred miles to Bombay, each day, as far as I remember, being a dead calm. II. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BOMBAY. A GUN fired one morning at sunrise announced our arrival at Bombay. This signal has been so often renewed in the experience of the officers of the steamer, that it has as little romance to them as the steam whistle at the near end of the day's journey has to the guard of a train. On some " old stagers " on board it hardly made a deeper impression. But to a new-comer, like myself, it was very different ; for not without very peculiar emotions did I ascend the deck to look for the first time on that great country, associated with so much to stir the imagination of every British subject, and most of «all of every Christian minister. The scene which meets the eye when entering the harbour is one of the most striking and lovely in the world. Every other thought is for the moment lost in a sense of its beauty. The forests of palm-trees which, in the hot and motionless air, repose on the lower hills, along the margin of the shore, at once attract attention, as being thoroughly characteristic of Eastern climes. The islands as they unfold themselves, with their masses of verdure, and the bays, and vanishings of the sea into distant river-like reaches, lost in a soft bright haze, above which singular hills — rounded, obelisked, terraced — lift themselves, all combine to form a complete picture, framed by the gleaming blue sea below, and by the cloudless sky above, full of intense heat and light of burnished brightness. Looking nearer, one notices the FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BOMBAY. ships from every clime, and of every size and kind, fixed in a sunny mist on a molten sea — ships at anchor — ships crowding their masts near the wharves, and boats without number, with their large matting sails and covered poop, dipping their oars in silver light, all going on their several errands, and a goodly number making" for our steamer. Beyond the ships and masts, ifvhite houses among trees, and here and there a steeple, indicating the long land line of the Colaba Point, tell us where the famous city of Bombay lies, with its worshippers of fire and of fine gold. We would have lingered long in the contemplation of such a scene, were it not for the necessity of looking after luggage, settling with stewards, bidding farewell to fellow-passengers, and nervously watching for the dropping of the anchor and the ap pearance of the friends who were to receive us. That moment soon came, and with it the usual scene of noise and confusion from roaring steam and roaring crews within and without, the rushing to and fro, the frantic and impetuous pressing and thrusting hither and thither — a state of things to be surpassed only by the tumult at the breach of a beleaguered fortress. In due time we were landed Joy my good friend Walter Crum, in a nice picturesque boat, itself a touch of a new country. On landing, we saw many things which we expected to see, and which did not, therefore, surprise us — a busy multitude of Coolies — so called, I presume, from their coolness — at least I may be excused for thinking so in the circumstances — whose dress, as made by art, was as economical as could be conceived, and, as made by nature, was a beautifully exact fit of tanned skin over singularly lanky limbs. As we hurry along during the next half-hour, I receive my first impressions of India, — impressions, first, of the Irish or gipsy-like squalor of the native town ; then, in driving to Malabar Hill, of the palm-tree woods; then of temples where human beings in the nineteenth century, and under Christian Britain, Trill m i C' > ¦L, J,' '..A PLAYING THE NATIONAL TUNES. POONA. 69 Schools, or the Orphanage of the Church of Scotland, at Poona — the only two institutions of the kind we had time to visit. Suffice it to say that I was much pleased with all I saw, and regret much that here as elsewhere it was impossible to see more. The Free Church School building had been the house of some great man — a general or minister of the Peishwa. It gave one an excellent idea of those " good old times." The entrance gateway ; the inner court ; the three stories of verandahs, with rooms branching from them ; the pillared hall of audience : the rooms with their grotesque frescoes ; and — what struck me more than once in India — the narrow stair which communicated with the different stories — so narrow and steep, indeed, that a certain stout Western ques tioned the possibility of his being able to ascend it ; — all these revealed a world of history. They spoke of sudden attacks, insecurity, and treachery. Among other means of giving us pleasure, Sir Alexander had engaged three or four of the best native musicians to play national tunes. One of the instruments is not represented in the engraving. It was shaped somewhat like an .ZEolian harp, resting horizontally on the ground whilst played with both hands. The music was interesting in its structure, and pleasing too. The pieces played were not melodies, but long and intricate compositions. The performers had more agreeable and intelligent countenances than appear in our illustration ; and the native gentlemen seemed to appreciate and enjoy the performance as Europeans could scarcely be expected to do. VI. COLGAUM. A CCOMPANIED by our friend, the Rev. Mr. Ross,— a military "^*- chaplain of the Church of Scotland, stationed at Poona, — we travelled, I should think, for about thirty miles further on along the same line which had brought us from Bombay. The sun had set when we reached the station ; but we soon found our way to " The Travellers' Bungalow," about a mile or so farther on. I may here inform the reader that along all these splendid roads, made during many years of labour by Government,— and which are to the old tracks intersecting Hindostan what railways now are to the roads, — comfortable wooden houses have been erected at certain distances. These bungalows contain several rooms, sufficiently large and well furnished with tables, chairs, and bedding to afford shelter and rest to travellers in a country not only too thinly peopled for " hotels," but even for those relying upon the hospitable home of a European. They are built always near some village ; and the policeman, or peon of the village, has official charge of them ; except in places more frequented, when a sort of native manager or mess-master resides on the premises; and who can lay down the beds, furnish lights, and provide coffee and a dish of curry, or, in any case, what is necessary to keep soul and body together. But English travellers are, of course, generally too prudent not to carry with them some stores of their own, in order to add a few luxuries to COLGAUM. 71 the necessaries of life. Many of these bungalows are now falling into ruins, chiefly in places where the railway stations either provide sufficient food and accommodation, or carry the passengers past them. In the present case the bungalow was required, as being the central point on the line of road which connected the station with important places in the interior. We found two good-sized rooms unoccupied — their floors, as is usual in native houses, being covered with cow-dung, which becomes hard, yet sends forth a peculiar aroma, perfectly bearable, but singularly suggestive of what is perceived everywhere in India. This kind of carpet, it may be mentioned, has nothing to do with any religious respect for the cow, but is used solely to relieve the discomfort which would be caused by a damp clay floor, if, indeed, clay could always be had. I believe it has also something to do in the way of checking insect life. • Another part of the bungalow was occupied by Major G and his sweet English wife. They kindly sent us their cards ; and in their society we spent a portion of the evening most agreeably. This was our first experience of the kind of life lived by our civilians in India — a class for whom I entertain the highest respect and admiration. Think of these gentlemen, often for months together dwelling in tents, and in places which are e"ven unknown to the inhabitants of the country a few miles off ; moving about from this place ending in " pore " or " lore," to that other, ending in " doore " or " foore," — administering justice, collecting revenue, reconciling families and villages in bitter hostility about this field or that claim, exercising such influence over thousands as casts into the shade that of a lord-lieutenant or a high-sheriff at home — their white faces being more powerful than any battery, and their word of honour more trusted than the seal of any Peishwa or Nizam ever was ! To me this is a picture which powerfully affects the imagination, and gives a slight idea of the influence of a class of which our own country should be proud. 72 COLGAUM. I shall no doubt return to this subject again in illustrating English life in India. In the meantime I will only say that Tom or Dick, who brings a wife to India to share this life with him, should be kind to a degree which in England and by selfish bachelors might be termed " spoony." He should give her as much of his time as possible, try to interest her in his work, and endeavour to get her to do what she can in the way of opening up the hearts of Hindoo families to British sympathy and Christian civilisation. He should soothe her if she is despairing ; make her pillows comfortable on the couch if she is wearied ; and chaff her gently and lovingly, with a kiss on the forehead, if she is " nervous." Let him never blame her, nor she him, for being " irritable " when every nerve is tingling ; but, believing that climate changes people, and invests most Europeans in India with a more sensitive brain and a thinner skin than are known in Europe, they should live in faith of that healthier region north of Suez, where both will one day, in their English or Scotch home, wonder at their peevish past, and, mutually confessing their shortcomings, cordially maintain that there never was a more loving or a happier couple on earth — never, dearest ! And then the wife must never say to Tom that he ought not to have married her, but some other, or have remained a bachelor, because she was never fit to be his wife. None of that flirtation, please, madam, so long as there are any tears in the eyes ! Rather let her confess that she is "very foolish," and "nervous," and " out of sorts," and " silly ;" but that she is sure Tom loves her and is the best of husbands, and will bear with her and treat her like a spoiled child. But oh, beware of calling in a third party, whether the chaplain or the major's wife, or all peace is over ! No, no ! Believe in each other, and, what is best of all, believe in One who knows and loves you, and can unite your hearts and give you such love as our friends in the bungalow were blessed with. So endeth my lesson ! COLGAUM. 73 This bungalow was memorable to me as being the only place in India in which I had a dangerous encounter with a snake. I had wished to see one, a real cobra more especially, if such a meeting could be arranged with perfect safety — to myself at least. Now my friend Dr. Watson, with a smile, reported to me that he was persuaded there was a large cobra basking in the moonshine near the bungalow. Hearing this, I seized my large Lochaber crook, which has shared all my wanderings, and which I knew could be depended on as a powerful and faithful ally. What a night it was of moonlight glory ! Slowly and cautiously I approached, with uplifted staff and beating heart, the spot where the dragon lay — and saw him, a long, grey monster ! As the chivalrous St. George flashed upon my mind, I administered a fearful stroke to the brute ; but from a sense of duty to my wife and family, rushed back to the bungalow, in case of any forth- putting of venom on his part, which might cause a vacancy in the Barony, and resolved to delay approaching the " worm " till next morning. Now, whatever the cause was, no one, strange to say, could discover the dead body when morning dawned ! A few decayed branches of a tree were alone discovered near his foul den, and these had unquestionably been broken by some mighty stroke ; but the cobra was never seen afterwards, dead or alive ! This was my first and only serious encounter with a snake ; and I trust the reader will duly appreciate my courage, and wonder at my escape. Why my friend laughed so heartily at my adventure I never could comprehend, and have always avoided asking him the question. At daybreak we started for a station between twenty and thirty miles off, called Colgaum, in order to be present at a characteristic meeting in connection with the American mission. We travelled by tongas — a most agreeable kind of native conveyance. The tonga resembles a low-hung dog-cart, with a canvas hood like that of a hansom cab, covering the seats before and behind, each L of which can accommodate two persons. It has two strong wheels, and numerous "lashings" and supports, as if meant for rough work ; and is drawn by two small, active ponies, harnessed to a powerful pole, with a cross-bar at the end, like a yoke, which goes across the back of their necks. The road over the flat plain was tolerably good. We reached the river Bern or Bema in an hour or so. It is a fine clear stream, and is easily crossed at this point by a broad, shallow ford ; but no sooner had our ponies entered it, dragging their burden through the yielding sand, than, influenced as it seemed at once by the irksomeness of their toil and the delicious coolness of the water, they both lay down, their heads alone remaining above the surface, supported by the yoke. In vain were blows administered, and every sort of phrase, whether of remonstrance or rebuke, addressed to them. The perverse creatures preferred the water to the land, in spite of public opinion condemnatory of their conduct. We were obliged to lessen their pains and share their pleasures; and so I crossed this Jordan with my staff, and pardoned the ponies for their appreciation of its clear and cool water. The horses having enjoyed their bath, and we our wading, the journey was resumed. We proceeded across the plain for about twenty miles, and along a good road, to the village of Colgaum. The scenery had little interest, notwithstanding the cheering sight of far-spread fields bearing the green and luxurious crops of spring. The palm forests of the sea-shore were gone ; and, except the jungle which covered portions of the plain where it joined a low range of hills, few trees were seen, and these were chiefly around the villages. The climate of the Deccan — a name applied generally to the great plateau of Western India which is separated by the Ghauts, as by a wall, from the lower strip along the sea — is very dry ; often, indeed, much too dry. This may seem strange when such floods of rain are poured down on the Ghauts during the south-west COLGAUM. 75 monsoon. Yet so it is, that while two or three hundred inches of rain deluges these hills during the rainy season, fifteen or twenty miles inland there is no more rain than is sufficient for the ground. The air currents, saturated with moisture, burst upon the mountain- ridges, and then pass on across the plains in gentle showers and cool breezes. At this season, when the " Bombay ducks " are swimming in a steaming bath, the Mahrattas of the upland plain are enjoying a delicious climate. The villages were to us a novel feature in the landscape. They are surrounded by mud walls of considerable strength, with stone gateways. The public roads pass near them, but never through them. Although unnecessary as a means of defence now, as in " the good old time," against wild beasts and robber-gangs, the walls remain a visible tradition of the past. What a scene of ceaseless war, plunder, extortion, and remorseless cruelty that Deccan was during the hundred and fifty years from the days of the great Mahratta Sevajee and the invasion of Aurungzebe, down through the fights of Nizams and Peishwas, Guicowars, Scindias, Holkars, and the terrible Pindaries, until Wellington first, and Lord Hastings afterwards, established English power ! Now all is peace and prosperity. These villages have no pretence to order or neatness. The houses are huddled together along narrow lanes, each builder freely following his own caprices. They thus present to the eye a confused medley of mud walls and dusty paths, with crowds of copper-coloured children running about, and growing up as nature dictates, and groups of women, lightly but decently clad, pleasant- looking, frank, and always busy. Men with their lanky limbs, their knees up at their ears, sit idly chatting and smoking, or wait patiently in their humble bazaars for customers. Others drive their oxen to and from the field. There is a temple of course, probably two or three, for the worship of Mahadeo Hanu- man, the monkey god, or others ; and these temples are all more 76 COLGAUM. or less conspicuous. There are, besides, many holy places in and around the village, consecrated by the priests as the abodes of deity, and have such marks as a few flowers growing on an altar, or a stone or tree daubed with red or white paint. There are thus abundant wayside chapels where the people may do their pujah, and go through their religious ceremonies. Whilst we were changing our horses, I observed, for the first time, the great care which is taken, both by men and women, of :^ii! The Monkey God. their teeth. They rinse their mouths, and brush the teeth well with areca, or the nut of the Betel Palm (Areca catechu), applied to them by small twigs, a few inches in length, of some sweet- scented shrub, which they first chew until it becomes loose and fibrous in its texture. This habit, I think, is common over all India, and certainly is attended with such success as might persuade us at home to make use, as can easily be done, of the same astringent. The natives often make charcoal of the same nut, and in this form also use it as tooth-powder. COLGAUM. 77 I was also pleased with the quiet politeness of the men. When I asked for a light for my cigar, it was cheerfully brought, and the shoes were put off as it was handed with a salaam and a smile. Through an interpreter, we had some conversation with a group of natives who sat smoking under a pepul tree, chiefly about their crops and general affairs. They told us that they were comfort able and contented; that land which annually returned about 150 rupees was burdened by taxation to the extent of 5£ per cent., whilst under the Peishwa they would have paid 20 per cent., without any security for their property. Without going into minute details, I may here state that the whole land in India belongs to the Government, as it always did to the native rulers, the title to it being grounded on the right of con quest. The Government is thus the only landlord, and the chief revenue of the State is consequently derived from land. Except in Bengal, where there are zemindars, or landed proprietors, who come between the tenants and the Government, the land is leased to the cultivators, who have a tenant right to it so long as they pay their rent in the shape of the land tax. This tax or rent is fixed for different periods in different provinces. In Bengal it is perpetual ; in Bombay it is at present settled for thirty years ; in Madras it is annual. The collection of it forms a great depart ment of the civil service work. The Bombay Presidency alone, for example, which is larger than Great Britain and Ireland, is divided into nineteen districts or counties, each with an average population of three-quarters of a million. Over each district there is a collector, who is also the chief magistrate ; and he col lects the land revenue and other taxes, and sits also as judge in the courts. He is assisted by a sub-collector and joint magistrate, who acts as his deputy ; also by an assistant magistrate and col lector, who, after passing various examinations in the vernacular, is in due time promoted to the higher offices. The district, again, has for convenience several sub- divisions, called in Bombay 78 COLGAUM. talooks, over each of which there is a native who acts for the col lector, and is usually a magistrate also. He is called the talookdar. The village is represented by its patil, or " head man," who manages the business of its peasant inhabitants with the talook dar s ; and so on, until the central Government of the Presidency as the last link is reached. It is by these agencies that an accu rate account is kept of every field and of its possessor, that all revenue is collected, and all cases of dispute heard and decided. The collector lives, with a staff of English and native officials, in the chief or suddar town of the district. All the official records of the district are kept there, together with the treasury, &c. There the law courts are held, and all business transacted in the vernacular. For six months of the year the collector lives a tent life, visiting every part of his district — holding courts, giving audiences, hearing and pronouncing judgment on disputed questions. How little do we at home realise the influence or the responsibility of such men, or the valuable education they thus receive in the art of government ! Indeed, it is hardly credible that the vast empire of India is governed by some three thousand English civilians ! * * As specimens of the kind of questions submitted to the magistrate for his decision, I select the two following from many now before me connected with the collectorate of Poona : — " To the Collector of Poona. — The petition of Bapti Wallad Mohidinbhai Musal- man, inhabitant of Khudukwaslay, Talooka Havelli, Zilla Poona. I represent that the made road to the Sinhgur Port passes by our village, and a. good many persons pass on it ; but as no shop has ever been opened anywhere (on the road) for the sale of opium and ganja (hemp), inconvenience is felt by travellers. Therefore you will be pleased to allow me to open a shop at the aforesaid village for the sale of the above-named articles. I agree to act according to the rules which may have been laid down by government, but it rests with you to give me the permission. " The sign of a line by the hand of BAru Wd. Mohidin." " To the English Government.— The petition of Bala Bin Bhikaji Sirsat, inhabitant of Shelgaum, Talooka Indapore. I represent that my field is situated at the dis tance of two miles from the village, and it becomes necessary forme to build a house and stay there. As wolves commit great ravages in the wood and injure and Mil animals, government will be pleased to allow me to keep a gun. I am fond of COLGAUM. 79 The village system, throughout India generally, is extremely interesting, as being almost the only instance of self-government by the people. Each village is in itself a small republic. Nothing can exceed the way in which these villages, especially in the Deccan, have been managed from generation to generation. They generally contain a population of five or six hundred. There are twelve important characters in every village, each having his own specific duties assigned to him, with which no one else dare interfere. After the patil I have mentioned, with his deputy and one or two assistants, there come the " carpenter," " blacksmith," " cob bler," "porter" or "messenger," "scavenger," "washerman," "baker," "potter," "goldsmith," "schoolmaster," and last, not least, the village "astrologer." Besides these, there is another but lower set of officials, made up of the village " watch man," " gate-keeper," " betel-man," " head-gardener," with the " bard " and " musician." Each and all of these, besides certain privileges, have their public duties to perform to the village, the. temples and gods, to strangers and travellers, at marriages and feasts, &c. The lowest castes are not permitted to live in the village, but outside its gates only, and a very low caste is as proud and distant towards a lower caste still, though both are outcasts from the village, as a Brahmin is towards all. Now, so long as the " township," with the surrounding fields belonging to its citizens, is respected ; so long as taxes are moderate, water abundant, and a fair supply of food and clothing obtained, so as to keep 'the people comfortable and the wives and children contented, the village never asks under whose raj or reign it is. What does it know or care about the rest of India ? No more, indeed, than a worker in the Potteries cares about the people or the politics of Turkey, unless these come to interfere shooting and hunting, and the wolves also cause great damage ; and therefore you are requested to be good enough to authorise the keeping of a gun. Dated 18th December, 1866. " The sign of a line of Balaji Bin Bhikaji Siesat." 80 COLGAUM, with his beer or bacon. What care these ryots whether they are under John Bright or a Grand Mogul — if, indeed, they ever have heard of either ? It is enough if the white face of the magistrate smiles upon them, deals justly to.wards them, and helps them to live. Nationality ! love of independence ! these are terms as meaning less to the humble villagers of India as they would be to an Esquimaux, to whom a seal's liver is the truest sign of an earthly paradise. Therefore, I believe that, in so far as we make these peasants comfortable — respect their village rights and old customs, meddle not with their own ways and plans of doing things — we shall make them faithful and obedient. But, after all, they do not in this respect differ very greatly from millions at home. What education may do ultimately is another question. I do not say, however, that it is thus with all the natives of India. The Mohammedans had always a chivalrous attachment to the Emperor or his representative ; and native dynasties were preferred by their subjects to any other. As we say in Scotland, " It's an ill win' that blaws naebody good." The ill wind of the American war blew much good to the ryots or peasants of the Bombay Presidency, more especially where cotton could be cultivated. I was informed from a reliable source, that forty millions of pounds sterling had thus passed into the hands of the ryots, to be turned into ornaments for wives and children ! The silver ankle- rings, bracelets, nose-rings, ear-rings, together with the pearl necklaces and the like, represent a con siderable amount of wealth. A young bride carries a large dowry on her little person. But when the people have had a longer experience of peace and good government, they will no doubt put out their money to purposes of greater use and profit, or trust it to Government savings-banks. Just now the peasantry enjoy a great degree of comfort. I could not help contrasting their pri vileges with those of many of the poor Highlanders ; and could not help wishing that we had some of India's civil servants to Konkan. or lowland, studded with isolated hills where the basalt cap resisted disintegration. Hard basalt caps on trap hills. GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE FROM THE SEA NEAR BOMBAY TO THE DECCAN PLAINS NEAR POONA. COLGAUM. 81 " settle " Ireland and the Highlands. But I must pass on to the consideration of more pleasing topics. As we pursued our journey, we noticed a low range of hills, which stretch along the east for a short distance, rising like mounds from the plain ; and were struck by their appearance. They seem to mark, in some degree, the extent to which the original plain has suffered from denudation. The geological struc ture of this part of the country has been described by Colonel Sykes in his "Geological Memoir;" and I have much pleasure in furnishing, through a kind friend, an outline of the district over which I travelled, giving heights, &c. It presents about ninety miles, stretching from the sea near Bombay to the Deccan plains near Poona. We reached the travellers' bungalow early in the afternoon, and found two American missionaries, Messrs. Bissell and Hazen, waiting for us. They gave us a hearty welcome, as did also Mr. Watson, the English chaplain from Ahmednugger. Near the bungalow Major T had pitched his tent, and was there with his Bheel policemen.* These Bheels, now employed as police, are a living illustration of what can be done by Indian civil officers to convert wild robber-gangs into protectors of life and property. They stand towards the old system much in the same relation as the Highland regiments do to the erewhile wild caterans. With the courtesy of an English officer the major immediately sent his card, offering us any aid or hospitality in his power. Here was another of those wanderers, far away from England, among strange races, of whom his dear friends in the old house among the trees, with the cawing rooks, and singing birds, and flowers, and hum- * The police in each district are now a body of constabulary, like the police force in Ireland. They are under the control of a military officer, with inspectors, most of whom have been soldiers, and some are Europeans. Each province has an Inspector-general of Police ; and there is an average of one constable to every 1,300 of the population. In England it is one to every 870. An immense improve ment has taken place in this departmemt since the mutiny. M COLGAUM. ming bees, know almost nothing ; nine out of every ten English ladies or squires, as well as millions of the " intelligent classes," being wholly ignorant of the names of races comprehending millions of human beings who in Providence are placed under their " dear John " or young So-and-So, who is " in India," what ever that mysterious geographical term may mean ! And yet what John or Mr. So-and-So may do, say, or decide, must tell on the weal or woe of a greater mass than one would like to number. This apathy at home about India is a mystery ! The major seemed to know nothing about the American mission, although he had been residing in the country for many years. Had I met him only, I might have left India with the impression that no such mission existed. This is by no means a solitary instance of the ignorance of intelligent Europeans who have been long resident in India regarding missions. Nevertheless, when such men come home, they are recognised as authorities upon all points pertaining to India, and they are not slow to remark after dinner, when some one, perhaps the English "parson" or the Scotch "minister," eagerly asks, with due respect, the opinion of such an unbiassed and unquestionable authority concerning mission work, "All humbug, I assure you!" The company smile, and are satisfied. But why should we be surprised at such ignorance abroad, when we meet with it every day at home ? For how many men, well disposed on the whole to increase the well- being of the working classes, are yet, owing to a variety of cir cumstances, utterly ignorant of what is going on in the interest of these classes at their own doors ! In truth, mission work, or the instruction of the ignorant in what God wills, and in what He has revealed to men through Jesus Christ, is too much asso ciated with the clergy only, and is regarded as something which they are paid for doing officially, and with which " laymen " have little or nothing to do, just as if there were a different religion and code of morals for each. And if this is so at home, it is more COLGAUM. 83 likely to be the case abroad, where each man has his own work to do, and where Government officials like to stand well with the natives, and where, moreover, the aristocratic feeling of their own official " caste " and position induces many to keep aloof from missionaries, on the ground of their being somewhat exclusive, unsocial, and (shall I use the word ?) snobbish. Add to all this the many cases in which the European has no real faith and feels no interest in true religion or its progress, and the additional drawback which arises from the fact that public (native) opinion is not in favour of Christianity, but positively against it. I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not speak of Euro peans generally in India, far less of the most influential of them. I honestly believe that some of our most distinguished men in Hindostan are, and have been, the warmest friends of missions ; whilst the contributions to the cause from European residents are far more numerous, and far more liberal in proportion to their number, than those of church members in this country. But if our European officials in India would only feel a little more keenly their tremendous responsibilities, and take the trouble to inquire patiently and carefully into the conduct of the missions within their respective districts, I feel assured, from the character of the missionaries, they could with a good conscience become their best friends and most zealous supporters. All this I think they could do, Avithout compromising themselves as representatives of Government ; nay, in such a way as even the heathen would respect. The missionaries who met us had been sent out by the American Board of Commissioners on Foreign Missions — a title which, when expressed by mere initials, is sufficiently formidable — A. B. C. F. M. It is one of the most important and influential societies in America, being composed of members of various Evan gelical Churches. It may be interesting to some to be informed that America entered the foreign mission field as late as 1810, 84 COLGAUM. and that she now contributes nearly £200,000 a-year to the cause. Very soon after our arrival, we proceeded to the tent of our friends, which, as they were itinerating, was pitched near the village of Colgaum. On each of several successive days, a religious service was held for some specific purpose. This after noon an examination of a native candidate for the ministry was to take place ; native pastors to preach to Christians and heathen in the evening. The afternoon meeting was held in a large open verandah, at the end of a walled court entered- by a gate. This building had formerly been used as a local court of justice under our Government. Three native pastors were present, and two of them, at least, could speak English. They were accompanied by several deputies, or "elders," from the native churches, who acted as members of the ecclesi astical court ; and there was a small Christian audience of pro bably twenty people. All were in their native dresses. The three preachers, highly intelligent-looking men, sat at a table, one of them acting as clerk. The candidate for license was a tall young man, robed in cotton, and innocent of stockings, which among the natives is not an evidence of poverty, but of a desire to be comfortable. He was married, and his wife and children were present, as well as his old father, who had long been a convert to Christianity. During the forenoon this man had been subjected to a four-hours' examination in theology, church history, &c. He was being examined now on church discipline chiefly. The American missionaries took no part in the examina tion, but left it entirely to the native pastors. What impressed me most was the calm, thoughtful, business-like way in which it was conducted. The examiners had about them a look and manner which would not have lowered the dignity of the bench of bishops, or any presbytery of the "Kirk." The young man seemed to feel this ; for it was evidently an eventful day in his life, COLGAUM. 85 and there were indications of the same feeling in the countenance of his old father. So slow and calm were the proceedings that, by aid of the interpretations of the missionaries, I could easily follow every question and answer. When we entered, the point on which the examiner was questioning the student happened to be the nature of the sacraments, and the leading opinions regard ing them. This was followed by most practical and sensible questions as to the duties of church members and office-bearers towards brethren who were walking inconsistently with their pro fession — how to deal with them, and restore them. Sometimes when one subject was ended, and before another had been begun, the pastors asked the elders and members present if they were satisfied. If they suggested a question, it was put to the candi date ; if satisfied, they held up their hands. After the examination was over, the meeting adjourned until eight in the evening. We returned in the meantime to our bungalow, which was about a mile off. The sun was about to set. The missionaries, the native pastors, and their people accompanied us on our way through the village, amidst the eager but respectful gaze of its inhabitants. En route, we visited the heathen temple, which had the usual collection of idols in their several shrines. The Brah mins, poor unintelligent-looking men, showed us their gods, and ran from shrine to shrine, directing our attention to each, as if disposed to say to us, " Is he not grand ? see what teeth, what paint!" or, "Is he not funny and amusing?" The native Christians, who had once worshipped them, expressed no feeling of horror, disgust, or aversion, but quietly mentioned their names and attributes, and smiled at them as " vanities." We parted for the time near the temple. The scene has vividly impressed itself on my memory. The sun had just set, and the moon was rising above the horizon, a huge orb of lustrous gold. The higher part of the village and of the temple stood out in 86 COLGAUM. sharp relief against the yellow-green light of the sky. Shepherds were driving in their bleating sheep and goats, suggesting pleas ing associations of rural and patriarchal life. The white-robed congregation — pastors and people — seemed almost unearthly. As I gazed on the group, and my eye wandered to the temple, and my ear caught the bleating of the sheep following their shepherd, I felt an overpowering sense of sympathy with these my brethren in Christ and my fellow-labourers, whether native or American ; and a joyful hope filled me that, as sure as Jesus was the Good Shepherd, He would seek his sheep until He found them, and one day bring them home rejoicing ; and that as sure as He was the Sun of Righteousness, He would yet arise in the latter day, and shine with glory over the plains of India. I invited the major to attend the evening meeting, which he did. The result proved how often men are ignorant, not so much from any bad will or indisposition to learn, as from that destruc tive, although negative force, " not thinking." The meeting was held in the same place as the former one. There were about thirty Christians and seventy heathens present. The services were conducted by native preachers only, and were begun with prayers and praise. The singing was led by a native pastor, who was also a poet, and had composed several hymns. He was accompanied by instrumental music ; — one instrument, I remember, was like a large violoncello, played as a guitar. The music, as well as the instruments, was all native. As the saying is, this was " in the right direction," and not one of those wretched attempts to intro duce everything English, down even to the very names given in baptism. If, by the way, we would see the absurdity of such European names, let us only fancy a Scotch child, of the Gaelic clan Macdonald, being baptized by a Hindoo pastor as Krishna Shastri Chiplunkar, and then let loose among his companions in Lochaber ! It is our duty in trifles, as well as in great things, to respect and preserve, as far as possible, everything native. COLGAUM. 87 Then came two addresses in Mahratti ; one on the transmigra tion of souls, as being contrary to God's character ; and the other on Christianity, as being agreeable both to the nature of God and of man, and as the only religion which can meet man's varied spiritual wants, or give peace to his heart and conscience. I was much pleased with the style and bearing of the native preacher — Ramchunder, I think, was his name. His preaching gave evi dence of much quiet strength, " unction," and energy, the whole look of the man expressing power and love. I asked one of the missionaries to interpret the passage which especially seemed to move both speaker and audience. It was an appeal to the heathen, in which he perilled the truth of Christianity upon the marked difference between the lives of the converts in the several villages and those of their heathen neighbours — the heathen themselves being judges. It was very hopeful to listen to such an argument. Before the meeting ended, Dr. Watson and I were both requested to address it, which we did, our American friends translating our speeches, and I have no doubt improving them. It was a new and great happiness to us to be thus permitted to speak to such a congregation. This mission, I may mention, numbers about six hundred communicants, besides many hundreds of hearers, eighty teachers, and six native pastors, with excellent schools for the children of Christian parents only. An American deputation brought about some changes in the mission school system for the heathen, at all their stations in India, which have caused considerable difference of opinion, but on which I give none. Two remarks only I make, that the people chiefly influenced by the mission are Maratha Mahrs, or a low caste ; and secondly, that the former schools have exercised a vast influence on the mission. Many of their once heathen teachers have become native pastors, and the most efficient labourers in the mission. The eloquent preacher to 88 COLGAUM. whom I have already alluded was once a heathen teacher in one of their schools, and, by teaching others the words of Christian truth, was himself led to see and believe it. I have no doubt that the higher castes would have been far more extensively brought under Christian influences had the old school system, with the English language, been continued. I may just add, that we had the gratification of receiving next morning a most kind address, written in English by the pastors, thanking us for our visit. Thus ended our first and last visit to American missionaries. It is noble of Christian America thus to labour for the good of our heathen fellow-subjects, and their example should quicken the energies of the English people. I have dwelt at some length on this visit, as it was the only " preaching " which we were enabled to visit in the field of its operations, and because in its leading features it is not an excep tion, but a fair type of others connected with different missionary societies labouring among the non-Bralrmin castes in every part of India. We left at five in the morning, and bade farewell to the Bheel police camp and its courteous commander, to our brother Mr. Watson, and in heart also to all the church, its preachers and people, in the " Nuggur district." Our ponies were determined to refresh themselves in the river when returning as when going. A vain attempt was made to collect people to help us through ; so after the most energetic appliances of voice, whip, and stick, the team looked up and winked, and then lay down in peace. We took to the water again, and I confess that in all India I found no walk so cool and agreeable. VII. CAVES OF KAELI, AND EETUKN TO BOMBAY. V\! E called at Poona, en route to Karli, and passed an hour or two there. Our friends Mr. and Mrs. Ross had' made every arrangement for our comfort as to servants, provisions, &c, and agreed to accompany us on our journey. We bade farewell for ever to Parbutty and its gods, but not necessarily to our friends at Poona, who had received us so hospitably, and to many of whom we had the pleasure of preaching. India is like no other country on earth in this respect, that one may possibly see again here every European whom he meets there. They all intend to return home some time or other. Dwellers in tents, like Abraham, they too confess that they are " strangers and pilgrims " in the land of their sojourning ; but, unlike Abraham, they are very mindful of the country from whence they have come out. So one does not experience the sadness which is felt in parting from acquaint ances in other countries, save, indeed, in the case of natives, because we shall " see their face no more." I am truly glad that our distinguished host, Sir Alexander Grant, has since become the Principal of the University of Edinburgh. The ocean plain of this part of the Deccan is lost in a bay, which gets more and more narrowed between the enclosing hills, the only outlet from it being by the gorge at Khandalla, which, as I have already described, cuts deep down into the Bhore Ghaut, until it meets the lower plain that goes on to Bombay. We N go CAVES OF KARLI, stopped at the Lanowli station, the next to Khandalla, and the nearest the caves. A bullock garry was waiting for us, and a waggon for our luggage, servants, and provisions. The transition from the railway to the garry was intensely appreciated. What the former is we all know, but few know the garry, for it belongs to the days when earth was young— the days of the Vedas or Mahabharata. It is a square wooden box or caravan, drawn by two bullocks, and holding six ordinary human beings. We were told that the bullocks often proved as good trotters as horses ; and we did see in other parts of India splendid creatures, which seemed to combine greatness and go. But our bullocks were either lost in abstrac tion, dead to all arguments or impressions from without, or were the temporary dwelling of some wretch who was undergoing; transmigration on account of laziness, and, proceeding from bad to worse, was ready to be transferred into a tortoise. The dark mummy who drove us twisted their tails, plied them with his stick, and shouted to them in the vernacular. The chaplain got hoarse with his exhortations. But no power could force them beyond a slow, easy walk along the smooth old Government road, and even here two miles an hour was so severe a trial for them that they once lay down to rest and to chew their cud. About simset, and. after duly admiring the beautiful wood of Lanowli, which reminded us of a fine old English park, we reached our bungalow. It was beautifully situated ; but, like an old inn ruined by the railway, it was shut up, and seemed to be falling into decay. We found an entrance, and sent for its official master, the police-officer of the neighbouring villag-e. After awhile he appeared in official garb, and did everything he could for us ; but what could he, or even the Governor-General, have done in such circumstances? The very memory of travellers seeking its shelter had almost faded out of mind. The rooms were large and airy, but of beds there were no vestiges, except AND RETURN TO BOMBAY. 91 broken bedsteads, with huge gaps in their cane bottoms. Soon, however, we contrived — with planks, and broken chairs, and rickety tables — to get something higher than the floor on which to sup. We spent a most cheerful evening, thanks to our kind hosts, and finally managed to rest in our clothes till the morning. We found a large number of attendants ready to accompany us to the caves. They had swung two comfortable arm-chairs on poles, one for the lady, and possibly the other for one of the travellers, a rather elderly gentleman, and "a portly man i' faith," to whom " a yard of uneven ground is a mile," especially in heat. The distance was two or three miles only, but the ascent to the caves is rather rough and steep. It was a heavenly morn ing. The plain was enlivened with flocks and herds going out to pasture ; the air delicious and scented with the perfume of odori ferous plants ; the path easy and agreeable ; the low range of hills before us covered with groves of cactus. In about an hour from the time of starting we reached the platform leading to the famous caves. "But what caves ?" my reader very naturally asks. In reply, I beg to inform him that long ago, before the Christian era, that form of religion called Buddhism was supreme in India. It is now extinct in Hindostan, but in Ceylon, Burmah, China, and 'Thibet it has even yet a greater number of followers than any other system of religious belief in the world can claim. Some centuries before Christ the Buddhists waged great ecclesiastical wars with the Brahmins and their caste system. They had then in India, as they have now wherever they exist, their churches, with internal arrangements not unlike our own, and their monasteries, with hordes of monks, who practised celibacy, shaved their crowns, and lived by alms.* * Speaking of the purposes of these chaitijas (churches) and monasteries, Mr. Eergusson says : — "Any one who has seen Buddhist priests celebrate either matins or vespers, or their more pompous ceremonies, in one of their temples, will have no difficulty in .understanding the use of every part of these edifices. To those who 1 CAVES OF KARLI, The caves of Karli are the finest of several fine specimens which survive of Buddhist early architecture, dating back as far, perhaps, as the first century. They tell their own story regarding this venerable and stT£.ng-e " body." Tne illustrations * will convey a better idea than any description I could g*ive of what meets the eye and so powerfully affects the mind of the traveller. To come suddenly on such massive and imposing architecture in a wild recess of rocks and brushwood is in itself impressive, and more especially when associated with thoughts of the vast antiquity of the system of belief which they represent, and of its still powerful influence on so hvrg'e a portion of the human race. The details of this caverned hill are also most striking. In a recess on each side of the doorway there is a very original, and to me most appropriate, architectural ornament ; — elephants in bold reKef fronting the spectator with their heads and trunks, and as if bearing up on their huge and powerful backs the mass of sculp tured, rock above. Tne interior of the " church," too, is solemn and cathedral-like. The centre aisle has fifteen pillars, twentv-five feet high, on each side, separating' it from the two side aisles. At the end there is a dome-shaped building, called a Do.oopa, like a high altar, within an apse surrounded bv seven pillars. The roof is arched with ribs of timber, probably as old as the excavation. There is no light except from the great open window above, through which it falls directlv upon the " altar," leaving; the rest in shadow. The length is one hundred and haTe to: witr^se-i ties-? ceramics, it will riffle* :•:¦ say that in all the principal forms they resemble the Ecman Catholics. Thi* has attracted the attention of every Bonun Catholic priest or miss: :nary who his visited Buddhist cointries. from the earliest rcissicns to China -to Tie most recent journey into Thibet of Messrs. Hue and G abet. All the ktter can stLrgest, by way c £ explanation, is, ' Que le diable y est pour beaucoup.' " * For these drawings of the Karli caves I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Fer-jusson. They appear in Lis masterly work, the "History of Architecture,'' published by Mr. Murray. ENTRANCE TO THE KARLI CAVE. AND RETURN TO BOMBAY. 93 eighty-six feet, the breadth forty-five, and the height forty- five.* Around the church are the various halls and cells of a monas tery, which are also cut out of the living rock. There are three stories, and the ascent from the lower to some of the higher being interrupted, the strong arms of guides are required to push or drag one up, as through a wide chimney, and across rather awkward gaps. The upper story is a noble vihara, or hall, with an open balcony or verandah supported by stone pillars. From this there is a commanding view. There is a raised dais at the end of the hall, as if meant to be occupied by the superiors of the monas tery ; and around are the small cells of the monks, each having had a door, probably of stone. Within is the narrow stone bed on which the ascetics lay. On the walls are sculptured figures of saints with the halo round their heads. I was very thankful to see this dead monument which so vividly recalled a living past. We reached the station in time to catch the train for Bombay. After parting from our friends, we once more dived into the Ghauts — once more managed to get on the brake — once more roared for sixteen miles down an incline of 1,831 feet ; dived through I know not how many tunnels ; crept across tottering bridges ; gazed into savage ravines ; and admired more than ever the splendid scenery, f At the Narel station we looked up to Matheran with longing eyes, and much regretted that we could not see this famous and beautiful sanitarium. We stopped again at Tannah, and enjoyed the views of mountain, sea, and rich foliage ; we passed * For a full description of this and other Buddhist caves the reader will do well to consult Mr. Fergusson's " Handbook of Architecture." t For a true idea of these I am happy to refer to the very accurate and artistic illustrations furnished me by the Rev. Francis Gell, whose Indian sketch-books, together with those of Miss Frere, were generously placed at my disposal, and have done much to revive my impressions of Eastern scenes. through the palm groves — along the first bit of railway laid down in India ; and then Bombay was reached, with its moist heat — from which I sought refuge as speedily as possible under the old hospitable roof of " Graham's Bungalow." Best of all, there were letters from home. Strange how, what is otherwise a mere trifle, may minister to one's strength and comfort at the moment when both are needed. In the first letter I opened Was one in large B-oman capitals, from my youngest boy, who could not write, but who, wishing to contribute to the family budget, had copied it from print, himself selecting a verse from the metrical version of the Scotch Psalms, which he begged no one might read until it met my eyes. It was this : — " The Lord thee keeps, the Lord thy shade On thy right hand doth stay : The moon by night thee shall not smite, Nor yet the sun by day. The Lord Bhall keep thy soul ; He shall Preserve thee from all ill. Henceforth thy going out and in God keep for ever will." These were the first words from home I read in India — and as I did so I " thanked God and took courage." As Coleridge says, "Well, it is a father's tale," and as such it may be forgiven by the reader. On my return to my former bedroom, I renewed the acquaint ance of two beautiful visitors who were my daily amusement. These were two beautiful birds of the finch tribe, who occupied most of their spare hours in my dressing-room, engaged in a desperate endeavour to hold friendly communication with two mysterious relatives, who always appeared to them when they gazed into the mirror at the open window. How these creatures survived the agonizing flutter of their wings, and the incessant tapping of their beaks to kiss their unknown brethren, I know not ! Yet they never seemed to weary. Hope of ultimate success CENTRE AISLE OF THE KARLI CAVE. AND RETURN TO BOMBAY. 95 could alone have sustained their affectionate and eager endeavours. For aught I know, they may be still experimenting. And now that I have once more returned to Bombay, and must soon leave it again, what more can I say about it ? Were I speaking at the fireside, especially to a lady friend who had " nothing particularly to occupy her," and therefore could listen to my easy-going gossip, I can quite understand how she might insist on my answering a number of questions, and allege that I had really given no information whatever — at all events, had by no means exhausted my subject/ As many of my readers may agree with my imaginary questioner, it may be prudent to compromise matters by myself suggesting questions to which I am to reply. The convenience of such an arrangement of question and answer will be cordially admitted by all members of Parliament who have to address their constituents. Well then, courteous reader, before I start in the steamer, what more would you like to hear about ? "Did you not preach? and did you not address meetings ? " We did all that. But who would tolerate an account by us of our own sermons and speeches, or even of our audiences ? Charity must assume that they were all excellent. "And what of the clergy and missionaries whom you met?" What more need I say than that we found them in everything to be indeed our brethren ? As my friend Dr. Watson once remarked, "The clergy, like sherry, get mellowed by a voyage round the Cape." Whatever be their characteristics on this side of the Cape, we certainly found them all mellow on the other, and their friendliness as a wine which cheered the heart. We assisted Dr. Wilson, for example, in dispensing the com munion to his native church, and such fellowship would, in present circumstances, be impossible in this our " liberal " and "evangelical" Scotland. It is not improbable that our common missions to the heathen may be the means of uniting our churches for mission work both at home and abroad, and thus manifest that 96 CAVES OF KARLI, oneness of life and spirit which is the grand argument for the truth of Christianity, because evidencing the power of our living Lord as " all and in all." Nor need I here narrate all our happy intercourse with our own brethren, especially the Scotch chaplains, the Bev. Messrs. McPherson and Paton, and the missionaries, the Rev. Mr. Cameron and Mr. Melvin, in our own institution. My silence regarding these and other friends does not arise from want of gratitude, but from a wish to avoid as much as possible such personal allusions as -would soon become like "endless genealogies," were I to attempt to give the names of all those in India of whom we have an affectionate remembrance. But my questioner not being Scotch, perhaps, does not desire further information on these points ; and being a lady, as I assumed, would like to ask instead whether we were at any parties? To this I answer, Yes, every day — for never were men more hospitably and generously entertained. "And did you not dine at Government House ?" We did, and were cor dially received by the Governor, Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, who otherwise and elsewhere supported us, because of the object of our mission, apart from any special letters of recommendation. " He lived in a grand Oriental palace, no doubt?" Well, I have seen grander both east and west. The Governor, however, was not at the time occupying Government House proper, but was in his summer bungalow on Malabar Point. It is a delicious resi dence, and when the broad carpeted verandah is lighted up at night, and a large gaily-dressed party is moving about or in groups chatting, the effect is much more beautiful and comfort able-looking than any drawing-room of a more formal kind in a northern clime. The air is balmy, the trees seem to meet and mingle with the sky ; and then the stars come out to look at themselves in the great sea. " And what of the society ? What of the ladies ? What of the gentlemen ?" Pardon me ; I dislike eaves-dropping, and AND RETURN TO BOMBAY. 97 like not the thought of a stranger being kindly entertained, and then giving rise to the suspicion that — " A chiefs amang ye takin' notes, An' faith he'll print them ! ' ' What else would you expect such society to be, save like that of well-bred and cultivated ladies and gentlemen at home ? "Did you meet Lord Napier?" Yes; we met him more than once, and had the honour of dining with him and Lady Napier, and I may, without gossip, gratify my own feelings by saying that I have seldom met any one with whom I was so irresistibly captivated. But a truce to this play of question and answer. Let me rather take up at random a few stray gleanings, and bind them in my Bombay sheaf. We had a splendid St. Andrew's dinner, at which we proved most satisfactorily to ourselves, not only that the cold, wet, and small northern province called Scotland had contributed a fair share to the world's work, in every department of it, and in every region of the earth, but also that the Scotch are the chief pillars on which rest all that is worth upholding. This will of course seem a more than doubtful assertion to those who assume that the Scotch are always in a more or less tottering condition from other than purely natural causes ; that indeed the majority of them cannot stand at all, especially on Sundays, when they are all supposed by Londoners to be either drowsy in church, or drunk in the public-house. I thought also that the company had a general conviction, from which fewer will dissent, and which I heartily share, that the songs of Burns have done more to bind us together by the sentiment of an old nationality than any other power — except, perhaps, the Church of the people, which so wonderfully unites in its parochial and general government the laymen of every rank along with the clergy. Thus, strange to say, Knox and Burns have 98 * CAVES OF KARLI, become allied in ways they could not have thought of. And it seems to me to be a matter of fact that the teachings, the tradi tions, the education, the republicanism of Scotch Presbyterianism, have had a great influence in giving to the Scotch a wonderful unity of beliefs, associations, and attachments, which everywhere awakens in them a feeling of nationality and brotherhood ; while Burns, on the other hand, by his genius, by his native Doric, so picturesque, so full of humour and pathos, by his wedding of the old music, that goes home to the heart, to those songs of his, in which the scenery of Scotland lives with every " hicht and how," every burn and flower, has made Scotchmen all over the world feel as with one heart, and compelled them to weep or laugh as the magician wills. The heartiness of St. Andrew's dinners arises more from this than from any " provincialism " of those who attend them. " Auld lang syne," wherever sung, " the warl' ower," will make each Scotchman firmly " grip " his brother's hand as that of " a trusty frien'." As to the educational institutions of Bombay. The principal of these is the Grant Medical College, with sixty-five pupils and eight professors ; the chairs being those of anatomy, chemistry, materia medica, surgery, medicine, midwifery, ophthalmic surgery, and medical jurisprudence. Connected with this college is the noble hospital, the princely gift of the well-known Parsee, Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. The year before last his family erected a hospital for incurables near it ; and about the same time an ophthalmic hospital was also opened by another munificent Parsee, Mr. Cowasjee Jehhangheer, at an expense of more than £11,000. The Parsees, it will thus be seen, do more than make money and lounge in their clubs, drive about in splendid equipages, or inhabit princely houses. They have displayed such liberality as none of the natives in Western India have either manifested or imitated : for this they deserve all honour. I have no wish to speak unkindly even of their modes of sepulture, in so far as these may ¦¦HHH SIR JAMSETJEE JEJEEBHOY'S HOSPITAL. AND RETURN TO BOMBAY. 99 be connected with religious convictions. But I must still indulge the hope that their tastes in this respect may change, and be made to harmonize more with those of humanity. In a note at the end of this volume I allude to the Elphinstone College, and the several school systems of India, together with what is special to Bombay, and to this I must refer those who desire condensed information on these topics.* There is a nationality in which the Christian Church always takes a great interest — the Jews, who are largely represented in Bombay and its immediate neighbourhood. Dr. Wilson says of them : — " In the island of Bombay, and on the adjoining coast on the continent, from the Puna road to the Bankot river, there is a population of ' Bene-Israel ' amounting to about 8,000 or 10,000 souls. In worldly affairs they occupy but a comparatively humble position. In Bombay, with the exception of a few shopkeepers and writers, they are principally artisans, particularly masons and carpenters. On the continent, they are generally engaged in agriculture, or in the manufacture and sale of oil. Some of them, often bearing an excellent character as soldiers, are to be found in most of the regiments of native infantry in this Presidency. They can easily be recognised. They are a little fairer than the other natives of India of the same rank of life with themselves ; and their physiognomy seems to indicate a union in their case of both the Abrahamic and Arabic blood. Their dress is a modification of that of the Hindus and Musalmans among whom they dwell. They do not eat with persons belonging to other communities, though they drink from their vessels with out any scruples of caste. They have generally two names, one of which is derived from the more ancient Israelitish personages mentioned in the Bible, and the other from Hindu usage. Their social and religious discipline is administered by their elders, the chief of whom in the principal villages in which they reside are denomi nated Kddhis, or judges. They are all circumcised according to the law of Moses ; and though till lately they had no manuscript copy of the Pentateuch, or of other books of the Bible, they receive the whole of the Old Testament as of Divine autho rity. When they began, about fifty years ago, particularly to attract the attention of our countrymen, they were found combining the worship of Jehovah with divi nation and idolatry, serving other gods whom neither they nor their fathers had known, even wood and stone. From the Arabian Jews visiting Bombay they had received portions of the Hebrew Liturgy of the Sephardim, for use in their humble synagogues, or places of assembly. They denominate themselves Bene-Israel, or Sons of Israel ; and till lately they viewed the designation of Iehudi, or Jew, as one of reproach. They have been settled in India for many centuries." * See Note A. CAVES OF KARLI. I am quite aware of the prejudice which exists among many professing Christians against the Jews. How unworthy of us ! more especially when it is remembered that the Saviour and all his Apostles were Jews according to the flesh ; that the Christian Church itself is but a growth from Judaism ; and that we Gentiles have been grafted into that old olive-tree. There are six schools, attended by upwards of one hundred and seventy children of the Bene-Israel, in connection with the Free Church Mission of Bombay. But now we must bid farewell to Bombay, and proceed by sea along the Malabar coast to Madras. Khandalla. VIII. FBOM BOMBAY TO MADBAS. F LEFT Bombay with much regret. Never did men receive more kindness than we did there from all quarters. Many names, which need not be recorded, must ever be remembered' by us with gratitude. By the kindness of the agents of the India Steam Navigation Company, or " Mackinnon and Mackenzie's " line, so famous in the East for its enterprise, we had a free passage to B.eypore. Many friends came to bid us farewell and God speed. The bay, as we sailed across it, seemed more beautiful than ever. A gentle swell gave an almost imperceptible motion to the surface of the sea, on which delicate yet brilliant coruscations rolled out in undulations of gold and silver, ruby and amethyst, more splendid than the royal robes of Delhi. The distant hills, with their fantastic outlines ; the islands, with their lustrous foliage ; the stretches of sunlit reaches — "all, all were beautiful." I then hoped to have seen it again ere leaving for home, but God willed otherwise ; and so Bombay, with its many representatives ctf busy life, its scenes, its friends of all nations, remains in memory as when I bade it farewell. As it faded out of sight we could not but contrast the wonder ful change which had taken place in its history, and in our own, since the time when it was ceded to England by the Portuguese as part of the dower of Catharine, the wife of Charles II. Then FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. England was busy with intestine wars between Episcopalians and Nonconformists and Presbyterians (alas ! not yet ended) ; Louis XIV. was the Caesar- god of his day; and the Zenana yet reigned in their respective courts. The empire of the Great Mogul was still supreme in India in the person of Aurungzebe, the fourth in succession from the great Akbar. The Mahrattas were but rising above the horizon, while the English, as yet but little feared, were looked on merely as a nation of shopkeepers, and so were graciously permitted to kneel on the shore of India, humble suppliants before its mighty sovereign. And now ! But how shall it be when three other centuries have passed ? That, under God, will be determined chiefly by the Christian righteous ness of this same nation of shopkeepers. We left in the afternoon of Monday, the 17th of December, and sailed along the Malabar coast, reaching Beypore, the ter minus of the railway which crosses to Madras, early on Friday the 21st. The sea was smooth as the waters of an inland lake, and was never once ruffled by the slightest breeze. Our ship was indeed "sailing in sunshine far away," and each day was a "gentle day." The habit, acquired in a moist and ungenial clime, of addressing our neighbour, in the bonds of common wonder and thanksgiving, by the salutation of "beautiful weather!" or "a fine day ! " died upon our lips. We sailed as close to the shore as was prudent, and had an excellent view of the scenery. This gave such interest to the voyage, that we anticipated its ending with regret. We passed Jingeera and Viziadroog, or Gheria, once the strongholds of pirates. The possessors of Jingeera (or " the Island ") are Mussulman Arabs from the coast of Abyssinia, whose ancestors were admirals of the Great Mogul. When that dynasty broke up, after Aurungzebe' s reign, they became their own lords, and ranged the seas, to the terror of all who sailed them. Their descendant, the Hubshe, or Seedee (Abyssinian), THE WATER-GATE OF JINGEERA. FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. 103 • is still independent chief of the small state of Hubshan, Dhunda Bajepoor, and resides at Jingeera. It was never reduced, and the principality has survived the Peishwas. In 1689 the Seedee captured the island of Bombay, leaving only the fort in our pos session. He -materially assisted Admiral Watson and Clive, in 1756, in subduing Angria, the Mahratta chief of Kolabah, a few miles south of Bombay. This little state of Kolabah was the first in which (in 1840) the Hindoo law of inheritance through an adopted son was set aside, the state being permitted to " lapse " to the British Government, from want of a natural successor. This was practically a tremendous revolution, which rendered the inherit ance of every chief in India insecure, and — what to him was perhaps worse — broke that continuity of family, the existence of which enters into the religious hopes of every Hindoo, as regards his eternal well-being. It was the setting aside of this old and universally established law in the case of the Nana Sahib, the adopted son, as I have already noticed, of the Peishwa, who had been Angria's chief, which had so much to do with the mutiny. But apart from any mere application of our newly-adopted prin ciple, it gave universal dissatisfaction in all India. Not the least of the many benefits conferred by the transference of India from "the Company" to the Crown has been the re-establishment of the old law of adoption, and the solemn guarantee that it will be disturbed no more. So much for Kolabah as a link in the political history of India. The Hubshe still holds to his rock, a specimen of the fortifications of which is afforded by Mr. Gell's sketch of the water-gate. We touched at Curwar, Cananore, and Mangalore, but saw little except a small creek, glorious forests, an old fort, some native boats, a few European agents, which made one wonder how any of our countrymen could live in such out-of-the-way places. The view of the Coorg Mountains, beyond Cananore, was fine. The jungles along the sides of these western ranges are very io4 FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. thick, abounding in monkeys and panthers, with innumerable reptiles. We also saw the small town of Mahe, which is still possessed by the French — who have also Pondicherry and Karical, on the east coast of the Deccan, Chandernagore, near Calcutta, and a small factory, Yanaon, on the coast of Orissa. At one of those places, where we called at night, I was awoke from a deep sleep by a hearty and healthy-looking young man, who announced himself as " one of the sons of the clergy." I was recalled to such a measure of consciousness as enabled me to comprehend that he was. the son of an old acquaintance, and was glad of the meeting. We had, as is ever to be found on those steamers, a motley company. There was a European circus troupe, and professional singers, — highly respectable, — together with one or two dis tinguished civilians, and intelligent military officers. In the wife of one officer I discovered the daughter of an old friend. With another couple I renewed, with pleasure, an acquaintance made in the steamer from England ; and as I saw the recently- married, sweet young wife, from the English parsonage, landing and driving off into the interior with her excellent husband, Major , I realised how much true love is needed for a woman thus to commit herself to another. But "tak thocht, lads and lasses," as we Scotch say, how you make such an experiment as that of voyaging across the ocean, to depend upon each other's love for years in a far-distant India " station ! " One of our passengers was old General , who was described, with a smile, as " a specimen of an old Indian officer." I know not why, for one associates with this class refinement, intelligence, and courtesy, in spite of some crotchets. Poor old fellow ! He had been in India — as a bachelor, too, I understood — for forty years, without having once visited his native land. He was not a small, wizened, yellow-faced man, but ruddy and well-favoured; FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. 105 and that he was large and rotund was obvious to common sight as he daily lay stretched asleep on a skylight. He was unapproach able ; and seemed to be a fort placed under martial law. Every one demanding admittance was suspected of being an enemy. " Yes ! " " No ! " were sent forth with the loud report of a rifle, accompanied as by the blast of compressed air from a bellows. The interest he excited arose from the unvarying consistency of his manner, and his negation of whatever could inspire a stranger with confidence. One felt that to recognise him as agreeable would be the best way to insult his self-respect. Yet perhaps he has his old sisters or nieces at home wbo are supported by him, and who love him dearly. Perhaps, too, he has had disappoint ments which soured him; and perhaps But why conjecture ? He has landed, and the last I heard of him was a tremendous growl. I was delighted to find in our captain a native of the same town as myself, and full of those reminiscences of old characters and occurrences which so vividly recall our past, and are more espe cially refreshing in a distant country, and among scenes and cir cumstances which seem to belong to a different and distant world. Captain G told me this story, among others, of the cyclone of '64 : — " It was very awful ! The darkness seemed like black marble. I could not stand, but dragged myself as I best could along the deck on hands and knees. All the crew skulked below, save one man named Nelson. He was a brave fellow, and stood by me till the last. It was necessary, at one time, to cut away a hawser astern. At the risk of his life he did it — and disappeared. He was swept overboard ; but as he was being carried past the ship he caught hold of a rope, and to my joy crept up beside me again. Soon after that some one came near me, and shouted in my ear words I heard with difficulty : — ¦' A steamer is beside us, and my wife and child are on its deck. For God's sake, save them ! save them ! ' Nelson and I managed to get over the side, I know not how, and we dimly saw something white. With immense p 106 FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. difficulty we got hold of a woman and child, and dragged them' on board just as the steamer sank. Next day we received many thanks, and assurances that never, never would this be forgotten! But, as in too many similar cases, we never heard more of husband, wife, or child ! " " And what became of Nelson ? " I asked. " He committed suicide in a fit of delirium tremens in China," was the sad reply. We had a distant glimpse of Goa ; and again we had to regret passing on without visiting a quaint and interesting memorial of departed greatness. The Portuguese territory in India is now confined to Goa, Damaun, and Diu, with an area of upwards of a thousand square miles, and a population of 313,262 souls. How are the mighty fallen ! We reached Calicut early on Friday. A new feature appeared, in the long, narrow boats which came out to meet us. They seem as if cut out of the trunk of a tree — so narrow that the beam across accommodates but one person, with an outrigger to wind ward to balance them, on which, when necessary, one man or more will sit. And another new feature was presented in the huge round flat hats of the men, made of palm leaves, and serving also as umbrellas. Nothing can be more grotesque than their effect when thrust out of the third-class railway carriages, or when worn by the solitary steersman in the tiny boat which spins along like a May-fly before the breeze, nothing being seen but hat and sail, as in the preceding sketch. s£i5 -T;' '¦-"¦ -7"--- "S8H THE LANDING-PLACE AT GOA. FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. 107 We landed early in the day ; drove through the scattered town ; visited an old Portuguese burial-ground, in which, so our Euro pean guide assured us, Vasco de Gama lies buried ! We finally paid a visit to the excellent magistrate, Mr. B , and the German Mission Home. Calicut is interesting as having been the first port in India visited by the great Vasco (1498), and the scene of " The Lusiad." Here, as Camoens writes, the band of adventurers " First descried the orient land, The end at which their arduous labours aimed — Whither they came Christ's holy law to spread, New customs to establish, and erect Another throne. As they approached the coast, Innumerable little fishing-boats they saw, And from their crews learned«that their landward course To Calicut would lead." But all such associations were lost, or rather were blended with the scenery of the spot, which will for ever live in my memory as affording me the first and, in spite of Ceylon, the most vivid impressions of the rich, surpassing glory of tropical vegetation. It is always an era in our life when, for the first time, we realise our ideal in nature or in art. It was thus to me at Calicut. I had never, of course, seen anything like this magnificent province of the vegetable kingdom, nor even conceived such glory of form and foliage. Here were palm-trees of every kind — cocoa-nut, palmyra, date, with the graceful betel-nut. The bread-fruit spread its large and beautiful leaves ; the jac-tree hung out its fruit from its trunk, where no fruit had ever been seen by me before ; the banyan dropped tendrils which sought to reach and root them selves in the earth, soon to become as cables of wood uniting the branches to the soil. There were tamarind-trees ; bamboos, radi ating their long and feathery branches to the sky ; tree ferns ; and teak- trees, such as could build the navies of the world ; while hedges of cactus and aloes lined the roads and divided the fields. io8 FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. One felt as if in a huge botanic garden, and wondered where the glass roof was which should have protected such Oriental splendour from destruction ! The red colouring of the roads, from their being made of laterite, formed a beautiful warm contrast with the rich green foliage of the woods through which they led. The cottages of the natives, too, seemed comfortable, and nestled in the shade of the overhanging trees. The whole scene, as it suddenly The Jac-tree. presented itself to me, was like a glorious dream, the most fasci nating and imaginative I had ever beheld — so beautiful was it in itself, so Oriental in its every feature, with such visible enjoyment of human beings from the generous bounty of that Creator who is merciful to the unthankful. It recalled scenes described by poets which had excited and pleased me in youth, — where every home in the landscape was the abode of domestic happiness, and every shady grove afforded an asylum to innocent and happy lovers. Paul and Virginia, somehow, constantly suggested themselves to ft a S sSp. 15 c .it aj a a ° a "5 1 p 3 rt w a « ° a S.2 So3 O ™ j l_ a n) rt'tS u bo-S m ,°, M ^ * FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. log my thoughts. But alas for reality ! Nature is ever pure, orderly, and bountiful. Yet it is a sad disturbance to these associations, or to any others which might be suggested by imagination guided by charity, to become acquainted at first hand with the actual condi tion and character of the inhabitants of such favoured spots. Those who know India, especially Malabar, will understand why I Tlie Banyan. do not record the maEriage laws and customs of the Namburis, or the Nairs, or the real history of the Ackhums and their sisters. A little south of Calicut, at Trichoor, begins the remarkable lagoon or " backwater," by which the traveller may sail or be rowed by the natives for a hundred and sixty miles as far as Trivanderam. This is practically the same as if voyaging along a river, and as the water is always smooth and the shore loaded with the same glorious vegetation, backed by the line of the same varied and picturesque hills, it may easily be conceived that such travelling is a luxury. It was not in our line of route, however, and therefore I can only speak from the evidence of others. From time immemorial there has been a regular trade carried on between the Malabar coast, the Persian Gulf, and the Bed Sea. This has been fostered, no doubt, by the constancy of the mon- FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. soons both north and south. All the Arab trading vessels are built of teak procured from Malabar. The emigration of Arabs has been from of old. We have seen how Abyssinia supplied them for the Eastern navies ; and even now there are many thou sands in the army of the Nizam, forming, as they have ever done, a body of Mussulman fanatics. The chief tribe on the Malabar coast are the Mopillas, who are the descendants of Arabs by native women. They are the navigators, and were the pirates, whose towers are still seen along the coast. They manifest a fierce determination to maintain their real or supposed rights. They murdered Mr. Conolly the collector, and are guilty of such vio lence as quite equals that of their Arab fathers. It seems to me that Malabar, and not Ceylon, was the district to which the ships of Solomon made their long voyages, returning " every three years," "bringing gold and silver, ivory, and spices, and peacocks." The Nairs, or Nyrs, of Malabar are a Hindoo race, and one of the most warlike in India.* The Tiars are the cultivators, while the Pariar tribe eat carrion, and the Naidas are wretched out-castes, whom no slave would touch. They wandef about in companies, and howl like dogs, keeping at a distance from all passers-by, who, if they wish to give them food, leave it for them on the ground. There is a German Mission in Calicut. After calling: on the excellent collector we spent a short time with the missionaries. There are three here. We found them intelligent, good men, who seemed earnest in their work, with very encouraging results. These being connected with education as well as preaching are the more likely to be permanent. We left the mission-house after sunset, to travel six miles by a bullock garry to the terminus of the Madras railway at Beypore, having sent on our servants some time before with our luggage, * It is a strange fact that, owing to the native marriage laws, no Nair can ever know who is his father. FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. so that we had no interpreter, nor ever anticipated the need of one. But our machine broke down, and so did we ! We were helpless. • After making many vain attempts to obtain information or give advice by signs, we determined to let the driver do as he pleased with his team; while we walked back for two miles or so to the mission-house. Though we grumbled considerably at the time, yet I recall with peculiar pleasure that night walk through the woods, with the glorious stars and their diamond sparkle over head in the blue. The roads were crowded with groups of people, all loudly chattering, and as if returning home after the labours or purchases of the day. Like all hot climates, India is most alive very early or very late. The village bazaars also are open till a late hour, their small lamps casting light upon various kinds of grain, vegetables, and fruits, sold by men who sit doubled up, with their heads and turbans, like tulips, between their knees. Every one we met carried blazing torches of cotton, which, by the way, having been first grown in India, and manufactured in Manchester, was then worn in India, and there finally blazed in torches and was extin guished for ever. We met, too, the Indian mail. A coach and four, FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. was it, or a palki ? A swift dromedary or an elephant ? No. The bags conveying all the varied threats, commands, and resolutions of love-making and money-making, were carried on the back of a native runner, who with his lantern and small bells hurried past us ! It is in this primeval fashion that the-postal communications of Southern and Central India are kept up. The "post" goes at a conscientious trot, and soon transfers his bags and responsibilities to another. So on it goes, until all letters are duly delivered at their final destination. We learned afterwards that these torches, with the rattles or bells, are necessary precautions to scare away cobras and other venomous serpents, which come out in numbers at night. Igno rant of any danger, and without light, except what came from our hearts, and without any rattle, except from our tongues, as we sung " Ye banks and braes o' bonny Doon," — which we wished the sleeping woods to hear, — we trudged along in peace and safety. The serpent brood had no fellowship with us, nor we with them, and so we never met. Perhaps the song mesmerised them ; or perhaps the news of my great battle and victory at Colgaum had been carried south, and filled them with terror. We re-entered the mission-house, to the great surprise of our friends. We received a hearty .welcome, and were assured that not without risk had we travelled in the dark, our host himself the night before having killed a large cobra in the path leading from the gate to the door of his house. While another carriage was being got ready for us we partook of a generous tea with Mr. and Mrs. Schauffler and the other missionaries. I was delighted in this out-of-the-way place to have had revived the memory of those good old German customs which were so pleasing to me in my early days when I spent some time in the Vaterland. In no other country was there then, in my opinion, such a combination of mental refinement and culture, such domestic virtues, implicity, and unaffected kindness. The round, FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. 113 smiling-faced, flaxen-haired Frau of my early memories could cook, arrange the table, nurse her child, and do many things belonging strictly to servants' work in England ; while her knowledge and nice appreciation of literature and art made her a fit companion for her husband, who, with black velvet skull-cap, large spectacles, and long pipe, sat in the arm-chair discussing his sauerkraut, or specu lating on theology, philosophy, poetry, or politics. This Calicut mission-house, with its most pleasing host and hostess, was quite of this type, and no mission could be conducted with more economy, good sense, and genuine piety. After spending a pleasant evening with our German friends, we got a safer machine to travel in, and soon reached the river which separated us from the railway hotel. It was delightful to hear in the clear air of the moonlit night the songs of the ferrymen as they pulled us across. The cadence was melancholy, but pleasing. Our steersman acted as clerk, and never failed to give his response and refrain at the right moment. We found the hotel far from comfortable ; and though, through the hospitality of friends, our experience was limited to only one other hotel in Northern India, yet all we heard led us to the conclusion that this great, half-civilised, half-savage caravanserai of wide corridors, large half-furnished rooms, without rest for the weary or bread for the hungry, was but a type of too many Indian hostelries. But when men are done up, the difficulty is not to sleep, but to keep awake with any degree of intelligence. Our measure of sleep was stinted, for early in the morning we started for Madras. In vain we asked for something to eat before leaving ; we could not get anything, not even a cup of coffee ; so we set out with the disagreeable sen sations of hungry men — sensations which were not allayed until two in the afternoon, when we got some tough meat and the never- failing curry. The journey from Beypore, beneath the shadows of the Neil- gherrieS, is very beautiful. This group of hills occupies a space Q n4 FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. upwards of forty miles in length and twelve in breadth. There are nearly twenty mountains within this space, averaging from 5,000 to upwards of 8,000 feet high. The famous English Sani- torium of Ootacamund, to which all who can manage it escape from the summer heat in the Madras Presidency, is upwards of 7,000 feet above the level of the sea. The scenery of this granite range, from the lofty peaks down through the forests which clothe their sides to the dense jungle which chokes the valleys, is described as singularly varied and beautiful. The sportsman, artist, and invalid are sure to speak with equal enthusiasm of the Neilgherries. We passed with regret the station at which travellers leave for the Sanitorium, and dared not attempt to snatch at the great pleasure of visiting it, but were compelled to hurry again over the plain. Yet the view we got of these southern spurs was well worth seeing. Their bare scarped sides and precipices, their masses so picturesquely broken by peak, ridge, knoll, and gorge, the rich clothing below contrasting with the wild summits above, made up a most unique picture. Never before or after in India had I the pleasure of seeing such rapid interchange of light and shade. The shadows of the clouds slowly moving across the mountain-side brought the Highland hills vividly before me. We remarked at the time, too, how like Dunkeld was the broken and wooded scenery of the lower grounds. The aboriginal tribes of these hills have excited great interest among ethnologists, who tell us much about the Erulars, Kurum- bars, Kohatars, Badakars, &c, and, above all, the Tudas, with their fine faces, flowing ringlets, monotheistic religion, and strange morals, including polyandry. With a thermometer of nearly 90° in our carriage, a whiff of mountain air would have been " gratefully received," cool season though it was; but the guard whistled, and we had to bid farewell for ever to the Neilgherries. GROUP OF NATIVES OF THE NEILGHERRIES. FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. "5 After a long ascent we passed the Palghaut station, and soon emerged into the monotonous plain of Myhra, until in the morn ing we saw the fine hills near Vellore,.of which more anon. We noticed in our journey very remarkable-looking hills or knolls Shepherd. rising out of, and scattered over, the great plain-like icebergs or islands in the ocean. They are the remains of ' decomposed granite. They seemed to me to average from one to two hundred feet in height, and to be shaped in this sort of way : — Two objects, alone, in the wayside scenery attracted our notice. n6 FROM BOMBAY TO MADRAS. One was a shepherd watching his flock ; the other the mode of drawing water for irrigation. The process is familiar by which a bucket is let down from the longer end of a lever, and raised or lowered from the smaller end ; but what I had never seen before Drawing Water. was this sinking and elevating process being accomplished by men walking alternately backward and forward along the top of the lever. It was very odd to witness two lanky natives steadying themselves by a light hand-rail as they paced to and fro, up and down this lever, that looked like a fishing-rod, with a long pole for its line, and the bucket for its bait. IX. MADEAS. fXN the afternoon of Saturday we arrived at Madras. Here ^ again my friend and I separated, each going to a different host. Mr. William Scott was mine, and my comfort was secured in his hospitable and beautiful bungalow. But the word "bun galow " does not seem appropriate to these Madras residences. Mansions or houses are terms better adapted to describe these more stately structures. Between them and" those of Bombay the contrast is striking. The large wooden Bombay cottage, so to speak, in spite of its elegance and comfort, here gave place to square, flat-roofed buildings of two stories, having pillared porti coes, verandahs opening into stately rooms, with handsome stair cases, broad passages, and entrance halls, all surrounded by well- kept grounds and trim flower-gardens. There is, in short, a finish, a sense of permanence, which we had not hitherto seen. What a luxury it is after a railway or steamer journey, or after an hotel like that at Beypore, to find oneself in such a home ! I feel that I have not yet done justice to that great institution — that life- giver and bracer of soul and body — the Indian bath. It is not a marble coffin in a small hole, as at home, but in a suf ficiently large apartment off bed-room or dressing-room. It is generally paved with clean brick, and has a huge tub full of cold water, and, on a raised dais, a number of jars filled with the same. These jars are so small that they can with ease be poured over the MADRAS. head, and so numerous that they can satisfy one's intense desire to feel thoroughly cool. The water finds egress for itself to the hot world without through a hole in the corner, so that there is no restraint from the fear of flooding or splashing the apartment, as a bird does its cage when fluttering in its little saucer of water. This 'apartment is attended to exclusively by that water-kelpie the bhestie, who must be descended " originally " from a water- god, whose throne must be on the Western Ghauts. If there was a chief of the bhesties, he should be made, perhaps not a C.B., — for I detest puns, — yet the bearer of some honourable distinction.* Befreshed by the bath, I was prepared in the afternoon to accompany my kind hostess in her carriage drive, and thus to get my first peep at Madras. The general features of this Presidency town are not difficult to seize. It is a dead flat. The bustle of commerce is confined to the native quarter, which is somewhat broken up into separate portions, one called Triplicane, another Blacktown, under Vepery, Chintadripeta, &c, all apart from the European districts. As at Poona, so at Madras, I was reminded of a rich English * Since this was in type u, friend has informed me that Behishti is itself an honourable distinction— meaning Paradiscr ; and with this I am content. MADRAS. 119 watering-place ; yet it is not a small town, as its inhabitants number 700,000, of whom 2,000 are Europeans. The surf, which every one has associated with the name of Madras, was the first object I desired to visit in this my first drive ; and not the less so as our Scotch Missionary Institution is on the beach, and therefore beside this " sounding sea." I much enjoyed the sight. Oceanward, ships and steamers lay at anchor, and rocked with becoming decorum. The surf, like its Highland cousin on the shores of the Hebrides, came in, as it has been in the habit of doing — during what period ? — with crested head, and heavy thud and roar, expending its gathered energies. We watched with interest the catamarans and Massowla boats riding- over and defying the angry sea. There is really no danger what ever in these boats. As for the catamarans, the shark never MADRAS. touches them, from his high-bred sense, I presume, of low caste and high caste ; while a white Englishman, on the other hand, will be instantly devoured. We drove thence to the public park, where a regimental band was at the time performing. There one felt at home amidst the crowds who had assembled from many a scattered mansion, barrack, or official residence. The centre of attraction was the military band, which was surrounded by carriages linked to St. Andrew's Church, Madras. carriages, most of them stationary, others driving slowly round, with a large attendance of riders. This was the Madras Botten- row — with its flirtations, its groups of admirers and admired, its elegant dresses, manners, and talk, with all the results, more or less artistic, of the fashionable world. But having travelled a few hundred miles, day and night, I felt disposed for rest and an early sleep, and therefore very soon retired. Next day we preached in the beautiful Scotch Church of St. MADRAS. Andrew's, and to a large audience.* It was the first time I had ever preached with punkahs cooling the church. The effect was most distracting, for the swinging of this huge fan alternately revealed and concealed my hearers. I no sooner caught the look of any individual, or number of individuals, which so much guides a speaker, than I instantly lost them again. But though this is a trial of patience as regards the preacher, yet were the punkah dispensed with there would be a worse infliction on every one of the hearers. The punkah is drawn by cords and pulleys, which pass to the outside of the place in which they are used. At private houses, old men may be seen seated under the verandah near the wall, their whole occupation being to pull this cord night and day during the hot season (and when is it a cool one?), both for public rooms and bed-rooms. These men are generally in * The Church of Scotland has not only missionaries in India, but military chaplains for the Scotch troops. These are paid by Government, and have retiring pensions, &c. There are eleven of them. According to the Treaty of Union, the Established Churches of England and Scotland have equal standing in the eye of the law beyond Great Britain. Neither of them is the Established Church. MADRAS. couples, to keep one another from sleeping. It is not a very exciting occupation, verily! Yet it is one necessary for the health— at all events, for the comfort— of the unhappy foreigner panting for air. There is a. punkah over the sleeper in bed ; over the preacher (even the most decided Sabbatarian !) in the pulpit ; over the party at dinner, whether on land or sea ; over every man, woman, or child who wishes to breathe with any degree of ease. Woe be to the old creatures who hold the cords of our fate in a hot night, if they pause for one moment and let the oven get overheated ! A loud shout is soon heard from the gasping suf ferer, which quickly awakens the punkawalla, and restores the breeze. The " Griffin," or newly-arrived European, hardly perceives any difference between one native and another as they move along the crowded thoroughfares of an Indian city. Yet those acquainted with the various races and castes easily observe marked distinctions of feature and expression among the thinly-clad and barefooted Hindoos. Some typical specimens of these we set before the reader without any special description beyond what is suggested by their trades. My remarks in Good Words, at this point in my narrative, on the Eurasians in Madras were kindly i. I >r.ilimin . 2. (irass-rnttfT. ;. I nrlt.in-tiors. 4. Wa.Uf-A,.imcr. 5. JlMtter-malcifii; 0. K. ice -jiouin lin 14 Harbor. Hur-Ai'keopL' MADRAS. 123 noticed in the Madras Standard, and more than one mistake which I had made corrected. I cheerfully accept the statement there given regarding this portion of the population, which is to the effect that of the 14,000 Indo-Europeans in Madras, the majority are of British descent, are engaged in honourable and independent callings, speak English in their households, and that at least two-thirds of them are Protestants, and these the more In the Fort, Madias. intelligent and leading members of the community. Many of these East Indians are merchants and traders on their own account, while large numbers are employed in the mercantile establish ments of the Presidency. Not a few are members of the legal profession, and of Her Majesty's Commissioned Medical Service. The " Madrasse " servants and cooks, who form a considerable class, are generally descendants of the Portuguese and the native woman of Goa. These excellent servants are supplied from i24 MADRAS. Western India, chiefly from Bombay and Goa. We had two, whom we found very intelligent and faithfuL A servant in India is essential, as no other is expected to do your work, not even to attend you at table. Madras is not a city with many "sights," beyond those which are more or less common to other cities in India. The Fort has nothing attractive in it, although it is not without its associations. The contrast between past and present is forcibly suggested by the fact that at the time we were beating Prince Charles Edward Memorial Hall. Madras. out of the Highlands this fort surrendered to Bourdpnnais, who demanded its keys in the name of the French kino- ; and also, that exactly a century ago, Hyder Ali, with his Mahratta horse, dictated terms to its governor. In its old quaint buildings, too, a clerk once filled up his ledgers, and, with a mind somewhat liable to disorder, twice snapped a pistol at his head, hoping to blow his brains out — a clerk who afterwards became Lord Clive. The other public buildings in Madras, such as the Memorial Hall, the Cathedral, and St. Andrew's Scotch Church, are most creditable MADRAS. 125 to the city. The statues of Cornwallis, Munro, and Neill, who commanded the Madras Fusileers, also " deserve attention," as guide-books, express it, although, were I to give them the attention they deserve, my readers might not be disposed to follow iny example. There is, by the way, a connection worth noticing between Glasgow and Madras in the history of two of its governors. These are James Macrae,* " unknown to fame," and Sir Thomas Munro. Sir Thomaa Alunro's Statue. Macrae was born in Ayr, the son of a poor man. He mysteriously disappeared when he was a boy ; but he returned many years afterwards a man of great wealth and ex- Governor of Madras (1725 — 30)! He behaved in the most generous manner to the friends of his youth, and to poor relations, two of whom,' after having been highly educated and endowed by him with large pro perties, were married to men of rank. One was Lady Glencairn, an admirable woman, the mother of the Lord Glencairn who won the admiration and gratitude of Robert Burns. The Governor in * For a short account of Macrae, see Good Woeds for 1866, p. 611. 126 MADRAS. 1730 generously presented a statue of King William III. to the city of Glasgow, and it stands at " the Cross " until this day, with an inscription by the donor as " Ex-praefectus Madrasii." Sir Thomas Munro was born in Glasgow, of respectable parents, and received a good education. He began life as a clerk in one of the oldest commercial houses in the city, that of Messrs. Somerville and Stirling, afterwards Stirling Gordon.* Why has Glasgow never added a statue of Munro to those of her other illustrious citizens ? We were most hospitably entertained by the present Governor, Lord Napier, at Guindy, his beautiful country residence, some miles out of town. Few men have seen so much of the world as Lord Napier, having, apart from his rank, been a diplomatist attached to several courts, 'from Washington to St. Petersburg. It is impossible to be in his society without being impressed by his manners, his abilities and piquant conversation. The enly rival he had to fear was Lady Napier. I need not say that there is always some pomp and ceremony at every " Government House ; " but instead of this being diminished, it ought, in my opinion, to be increased. Two aides-de-camp, a small guard, and a military band do not worthily represent the only representative of majesty known to the natives of a kingdom like the Presidency of Madras, larger in extent than Great Britain. The fact is, we should invest with far greater pomp all our great Indian prefects, as well as the Governor-General. Such appearances cost com paratively little, and have great value in the eyes of the natives. Our handsome entertainment was followed in the evening by a large party and an excellent concert, in which the well-known professional, Mrs. Bishop, who was on a tour in the East, was the leading performer, while several of the ladies present, one especially, played and sang with the highest art. Young Lord * It is a remarkable fact that Sir John Malcolm was also a clerk in the same office. MADRAS. 127 Huntly and some noble friends, who were on a sporting excursion to India, were present. Such meetings in India impress a stranger in many ways. One hardly knows where such a number of gen tlemen and ladies have come from to fill these handsome rooms, considering that the European element hardly meets the eye when driving through the town. Perhaps the reason is that there are no idlers in India, every one being busy and confined to his desk or office. With such a host and hostess we spent a delightful evening, and not the less so as we met many related to friends at home. And yet — yes, I must confess it — I was almost as much struck by the absence of others as by the presence of those who made up this large party of high-bred gentlemen and ladies. Where were the natives ? I asked myself. Of course I knew the replies which could be given to this question — replies in no way implying any blame to this or that Governor. And we can at least echo back the saying of the natives, " It is our custom ! " But after we have satisfactorily, as we say, accounted for the fact, and shown how caste principles on the one hand, and European prejudices on the other, to some extent operate against anything like complete social fusion, the tremendous fact itself still stares us in the face, and impresses us more at first than perhaps any other in India. There is a gulf which separates the rulers from the ruled — the European from the native. It is hardly possible to take this in fully, so strange and unnatural does it seem ; and all the more as it cannot be much helped, or but very partially remedied. Although it has been noticed and descanted upon a thousand times, yet my feeling of wonder at it was not diminished in India ; nor, I must add, were my anxious questionings the less earnest as to what it could mean, what purpose it was in God's providence intended to serve, and what the end thereof must be. The causes of separation between the two peoples are manv and powerful. There is first of all the element of race. We have 128 MADRAS. there blacks and whites, Englishmen and Hindoos; and what such antagonism may develop into we have all learned from history, and latterly in a special manner from that of America. I dare not affirm that such antagonism is to the same extent characteristic of British India ; yet I am sorry to say that it does exist. I have myself heard an excellent and high-bred English lady, the wife of a high official, deprecate as strongly as any Southern could, the idea of a native woman being in any sense her sister, or of " one blood," accompanied too with something more than hints as to the desirableness of the continuance of the separa tion between them. " A nigger is not a man," is an axiom not yet wholly extirpated from Indo-European thought — the weakest kind of it at least ; while the prejudice of race is as strong in India as, alas ! it is generally throughout the world. And then, not to speak of the separation between the European and the native, which the knowledge as yet possessed by the educated native has but very slightly bridged over, the manners and customs of the two are wholly different. To eat together is impossible, because of the laws of caste ; and even were it not so, what fellowship could there be when every native, however high in rank, eats as his forefathers did, squatted on his carpet, with his fingers plunged into his dish of curry ? As to female society in India, how different it is from European ! By whatever standard her countrymen may measure a Hindoo lady, her position in her own family is to us almost inexplicable. No Hindoo wife, I have been informed, would ever dare to eat in the presence of her husband, or speak to him before any of his relations, or address his mother, his elder brother, or uncle ! In rare cases alone, and only when under European influence, would, she be taught to read or write. These privileges have been, strange to say, hitherto confined to the wretched women connected with the temples ; and this has necessarily made such knowledge to be regarded as a mark of degradation by others of MADRAS. 129 their sex, or possibly as being too sacred to be possessed by those who are not allied with the priesthood. The wife, again, has no domestic freedom, but is at all times under the strictest surveillance of the old lady, or Takhoor Ma, who rules the whole patriarchal establishment with a rod of iron.* How wide, then, has hitherto been the separation between Europeans and natives in social life ! And to make matters worse, there is this additional fact, that the governing classes are being constantly changed. The European tree transplanted to India is, indeed, always green, but its leaves are always changing. The ship is always full, yet she is ever full of strangers. No European settles, or can settle with his family, in India. The young white-faces who are born there must leave it to save their lives. Accordingly, no native, except perhaps a nurse, ever beheld European domestic life in all its manifold beauty of mutual confidence ; and if they see it they cannot understand its freedom and purity. The Hindoos never saw a family met, as we in our colder climate say, " around the fireside." That intercourse between the old and the young, between parents and children, and the general mixing of friends and relations, so familiar to us and so beautiful withal, the natives may have heard of, but. have never seen, far less mingled in. On the other hand, we are just as ignorant of their domestic life and its varied relationships, except from information received from themselves. And strange it is to think that, so long as * The following law regarding the behaviour demanded from a, Hindoo wife I extract from Halhed's translation (published 1781) of the " Code of Gentoo Laws : " — " If a man goes on a journey his wife shall not divert herself by play, nor shall see any public show, nor shall laugh, nor shall dress herself in jewels and fine clothes, nor shall see dancing, nor hear music ; nor shall sit in the window ; nor shall ride out ; nor shall behold anything choice or vain ; but shall fasten well the house-door, and remain private ; and shall not eat any dainty victuals, and shall not blacken her eyes with eye-powder, and shall not view her face in a mirror ; she shall never exercise herself in any such agreeable employment during the absence of her husband. It is proper for a woman after her husband's death to burn herself with his corpse," &c, &c. (p. 253). So much for the ancient "rights of women!" S MADRAS. human constitutions remain as they are, Eastern and Western races can never amalgamate without a loss to both. The Indo- European is inferior in power to either of the races from which he has sprung. The governing power is not in him ! Providence has so willed it, and we must seek, as taught by experience, to ascertain its purpose. In the meantime we may see that, with our fresh European blood constantly renewed, and our gifts of mental and physical power, with all the results, direct and indirect, of European civilisation inherited by us, we can as yet govern India better than the natives. But it should never be forgotten that our government must not only be for the natives, but, as far as possible, by them ; and that we should share with them all our precious gifts, our Christianity most precious of all, that so they may be enabled ultimately to share with us the government of their own people, for the glory of our common empire and for the glory of our common Father. And never, verily, to any nation under heaven since time began was such a difficult task assigned, or power given, and for a nobler end ! In the olden time it must be allowed that the Europeans were much better acquainted with the natives and with female society than now ; for the zenana was not. confined to Orientals ! Europe was then practically four times further from India than it is in our time. Intercourse with it was difficult. Long residence by our Europeans in the East was the rule. The society of European ladies was rare. Little wonder that habits and customs then existed which could not be suffered now in European society. And if it be said that these enabled our countrymen to acquire a knowledge of the natives, — of their language, their habits, their opinions and feelings, — greater perhaps than is possible in these days, yet it cannot be doubted that this was done by demoralising the European, and, indeed, Hindooising him. An illustration of this was given to me by an eminent medical man who had attended one of those " old Indians dying " MADRAS. 131 in pain. No man knew the natives better than this old man did ; for he was himself almost, if not altogether, a heathen, and so, when dying, invoked alternately Jesus and the Hindoo gods, and finally requested that his "body might be burnt at Holy Benares ! " Our present separation from the natives, how ever much it is to be regretted, cannot verily be bridged over and remedied by any such compromises as these. I had a long and interesting conversation in Madras with two educated native gentlemen occupying high official positions. They were not Christians, but, like many of their educated countrymen, wished to put the new wine of Christian morality and Theism into the old bottles of an idealised Hindooism. Among other subjects of conversation, we 'happened to touch upon one which becomes hackneyed to the "inquiring traveller" — the feelings of the natives towards us and our rule. " The English are honest, just, powerful, and marvellously united," remarked my intelligent informer, "but they are proud and contemptuous, and have little capacity for sympathising with us, who have lived all our lives in a different world from them, and^with different ideas and ways." I expressed the hope that " none of his countrymen, far less a Hindoo gentleman like himself, ever heard offensive epi thets applied to them, such as, to our great disgust, we were informed at home had at one time been not unfrequent among Europeans." " These are not yet abolished," he answered with a bitter smile ; " for only the other day I was travelling from Bangalore in a first-class carriage, when an officer looked in at the window and informed his brother officers that ' a black fellow had boned the seat,' and on this another repeated the information in a loud voice, that a 'nigger was in a first-class.' This language," he said, " was becoming far less common, and was almost entirely confined to the military, and chiefly, if not altogether, to young 132 MADRAS. officers, and to those only among them even who were probably without brains, and certainly without manners." I am sorry to add that this information as to the insolent treatment of the natives, and the ill-usage of native servants by thoughtless young men, tallied with what I heard in other parts of India. Of all ordinary offences this should be visited with the swiftest and most marked punishment. The insolence of a few may tell on the loyalty of a whole Presidency. I need not add that public opinion is thoroughly sound in regard to such bad manners. My informant acknowledged that since the mutiny an immense change for the better had come over the government of India ; he believed that lessons had then been" taught which would not be forgotten on either side. This he attributed on our part not to fear, but to our sense of justice being strengthened, and to wiser conclusions - having been arrived at as to the proper way to treat the natives and native states. He was, of course, loud in his praise of education ; but he added — " I lament much that the aristocratic classes in the country are not taking greater advantage of it, or that special efforts are not made to induce them to do so. The old outlets, good or bad, for their energies in connection with their native states have been almost all closed, and they will either sink down to the dead level above which you strangers raise your heads, or the lower castes alone will become educated, and take the lead and fill up all important places. That they should do so is fair and good in itself, but it is not the most desirable state of things in governing this country, in which caste, rank, and old hereditary claims will hold their own for many a day. Orientalism is a phase of hu manity that cannot be changed, although it may be moulded by education and contact with Westernism." I paid a visit to the School of Industrial Arts in Madras. This institution was begun in 1850, and has been carried on ever since, by the enthusiasm and energy of a good Scotchman who has fortunately made it his specialty — Dr. Hunter, Surgeon of the Madras Army. There is certainly not much art visible in the building itself, which consists chiefly of a number of sheds suited to meet the practical demands of each department of art. The " artistic," for example, includes engraving on wood and copper, drawing of every kind, photography, modelling, &c. The in dustrial department embraces a wide range, such as the making of bricks, water-pipes, cooking apparatus, and every kind of orna mental lamp, vase, balustrade, &c. In this, as in the case of everything else, the natives labour and study almost solely for their own pecuniary benefit. " Will it pay ? " in India as at home is the great question. And because the native youth find that the school — which was begun by a European not for the sake of pay to himself — pays them, and pays them well in many a city and native court, it is accordingly attended by large numbers. I feel persuaded that the genuine benevolence of its superintendent will itself exercise an admirable and permanent influence on the pupils. I have been told that Dr. Hunter, who is a member of a well-known old Scotch family, began life as an artist, and was with difficulty induced by his father, a retired Bengal civilian yet alive, to enter the Indian Medical Service. The doctor has thus returned to his first love, with much advantage to India. When in Borne I was shown, in the studio of Mr. Story, one or two casts of beautiful hands and feet taken from Hindoo women in this Madras school, and which the sculptor admired exceedingly. X. CONJEVERAM, YELLOEE, AND BANGALORE. T ET us leave Madras now for a day or two, and visit first ¦*-* Conjeveram, which is about sixty miles off. This is one of the "holy" cities of India, yet one of the vilest in point of morals. We were accompanied on this day's journey by our friend, the Bev. Mr. Stevenson, of the Free Church Mission, Madras, who acted as interpreter. The scenery is uninteresting, the country being a dead flat. When we reached Conjeveram, we found pre parations had been made for our reception. Two small wooden conveyances awaited us, but they were not built to such measure ment as I could have wished to secure room. But what was of some interest was a highly respectable-looking elephant, which had been sent by the temple authorities to bid us welcome. On our approach he obediently took a gentle hint given him by his rider to kneel to us, and to honour us by a valiant snort from his trumpet proboscis. Then turning round, he led the way to the temple with a pompous swing, as if sinking in sand. Poor old fellow ! It was some relief to be conducted thither by one so innocent of all evil. This civility relieved one also from the thought of any opposition from the fanaticism of the Brahmins. We entered the temple by the door shown in the illustration. There are houses on each side, occupied chiefly by the priests. STREET LEADING TO TEMPLE IN CONJEVERAM. < p,> & ouH M 2; <; Q «!w CONJEVERAM. i3 = Hitherto we had not visited any of the great heathen pagodas. No country in the world has ever had so many temples as India, one being in every village and hamlet. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, small or great, are spread over the land. And as for holy places of prayer — in the form of a stone daubed with red paint, or a holy tree, consecrated as the abode of Deity — they are innumerable. Still great temples are comparatively rare, and, to a remarkable extent, are confined to South India. All buildings in India are constructed according to principles laid down in the religious books of the Hindoos, which profess to assign to each man " his work." The most illustrious and the most servile are equally revealed, because " religion " includes everything. The mason as well as the priest works by the "rule " prescribed by God. It is easier for a writer to describe temples or anything else as he himself has seen or remembers them, than for a reader to understand such descriptions. Fortunately I am not dependent on word-pictures, thanks to the photographic illustrations which accompany my narrative. There are certain great features which, without going into detail, irresistibly attract both the attention and admiration of the visitor. There are the great gateways, or goparams, piled up story above story, with quaint imagery of grotesque-looking gods and goddesses breaking up every inch of the surface with carving, in a way unknown in the old temples of heathenism beyond India, unless, perhaps, in Mexico. The holy apes which creep and leap and jabber among these carved mountains only add to their wild grotesqueness. As we enter by the great gate way, we find ourselves in paved courts within courts, with quaint- looking buildings around a tank like a small lake, with steps descending to it. There is a noble hall on the margin of the lake, a grand hall crowded with a forest of carved pillars, with full access to the air from every side. Stone bulls squat all alone, 136 CONJEVERAM. waiting for devotees to honour them, and here and there are pillars or obelisks, sacred as spots for worship. Acres on acres are covered with such buildings, hoary with" time. The first impressions made upon one on entering these courts are those of religious retirement, learned leisure, holy abstraction. The ima gination would willingly believe that all this has to do with a religion pure, real, and possibly reaching deeper down than its symbolism ; and ideas are suggested the very opposite of those which knowledge brings and experience confirms. For it is sad to learn how so much architectural grandeur and beauty are con nected with what is ignorant, vile, and thoroughly filthy and disgusting. In no place do stern realities so thoroughly destroy the delicate pictures of imagination as in a Hindoo temple. The last and furthest building in the court within the court is the shrine of the god. There he sits, in darkness ; for no windows exist, and the light is admitted by the narrow door only. There he sits — Vishnu or Siva — besmeared, black, filthy, with the out pourings on him of ghee or oil ; every new anointing being an additional garment of piety. There he sits — a hideous-looking monster ! As we stood before the inner temple shrine, we heard wild, monotonous, and discordant music — the hard beat of the tom-toms, and the shrill squeaking of the wind instruments. The performers were unseen. But by-and-by, from one side of the stage, as it were, and in the gloom of the temple, we could see a white-robed procession slowly advancing with lighted torches, the music coming nearer. In a little, the image of the god was seen ad vancing, carried along on the shoulders of the priests. One was at once reminded of the description given by the prophet of the idols in his time, and which are still a snare to the earth : " For the customs of the people are vain : for onecutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold ; they fasten it with nails and ., TJIUUi .SCUI.l'J'URliO I'U.LAKS AT CONJKVliK AM. CONJEVERAM. 137 with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm- tree, but speak not : they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them ; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, 0 Lord ; thou art great, and thy name is great in might." The whole scene formed an ideal picture of heathen worship. The wild music heard from within ; the light from the torches streaming out of the darkness, and illuminating the white-robed figures as they slowly came into view ; the contrast between the intense glare of the sun without and the gloom within the house of the god — the god himself, the unattractive centre of all these piles of building, and the object of devotion to his attendants ; the vacant, vulgar, degraded look of the priests, together with the known character of the women, who, like priestesses, took part in the ceremony — all combined to heighten the impression.* Seeing the god on his throne, with the fans of peacock feathers and the large umbrella over him, as he is being carried on the shoulders of the priests, while hymns are sung to him, prostrations made before him, the procession all the time moving round the temple (by which its consecration is daily renewed), one cannot but have suggested to him by this, as by other heathen ceremonies, what is seen in many a hoary cathedral in Boman Catholic countries. The priests showed us the jewels of the temple, the value of which has been estimated at £50,000. They never omit to point * These women are supposed to be married as pure virgins to the gods — the gods being represented by the priests ! But they are the vile slaves of all castes. From their birth they are often consecrated by their bigoted parents to the service of the temple and its votaries. They alone of all women in India, as I have already noticed. are permitted to read, dance, and sing. To all virtuous women these accomplish ments are thus made a disgrace. But these "priestesses " take part twice each day in the religious duties of the temple, and are supported by its funds in addition to what they derive from other impure sources. i38 CONJEVERAM. out with pride a rich present made to their god by Lord Give, and another by a Mr. Glass, whoever that brittle Christian was. These were the days of what was considered wise and Christian toleration. Not that they have passed away either, as I am persuaded that but for public opinion there are Europeans in India who would patronise or look with indifference on this religion, while despising that of their own country. These jewels are all used as ornaments for dressing up the gods on great festal occa sions. Some of my readers will remember similar treasures exhibited in one of the rooms in St. Peter's, and with which, on certain feast days of the Church, the statue of St. Peter and others are adorned. On our way to visit another great temple of the same kind a mile or so distant, we passed a procession in the street. A crowd were carrying a great image of one of their gods, accompanied by music. As we passed, they halted, and, like children proud of a big toy, placed it so that we might get a good look at it. There was no appearance of reverence or of excitement in the mob. They seemed to be performing an amusing yet meritorious duty. In the absence of every sign of European influence, we seemed at Conjeveram to breathe for the first time the whole atmosphere of heathenism without foreign or alien mixture of any kind. We also noticed here specimens of those Fakirs, or San- yassies, whose devoteeism consists in carrying the water of the Ganges to wash or sprinkle the images in celebrated temples. They travel hundreds of miles on foot, and live by begging. They appear to be a set of idle, unprincipled fellows, more knaves than fools. The architecture of this second temple we visited was even more impressive than that of the one we had left. Some of the carvings were magnificent ; and when it was in its glory, and crowded with worshippers, the effect of the whole upon the senses' and imagination of the masses must have been such as no humble TEMPLE AT CONJEVERAM. CONJEVERAM. 139 Protestant place of worship could hope to produce. In this respect, indeed, heathenism has surpassed Christian worship so called. The temples of Thebes and Luxor in the day of their full splendour, and on their high and holy festivals, must have sur passed anything the world has yet seen as mere spectacle ; and Fakirs. what of the Parthenon on a day of victory, with all its surround ings of art and nature ? We cannot compete with " this moun tain or that " in sensuous worship, but we alone possess, by the grace of God, the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth, and such worship alone He seeks. But this great temple in Conjeveram is deserted. Its walls are going to decay. Thousands of bats occupy the recesses of its grand pagoda. It is fast passing into the land of dreams. The Free Church has an excellent school here, taught by a 140 VELLORE. converted native, and superintended by the mission at Madras. This school was ' a sight to cheer the heart — a bright ray of a brighter future for poor degraded Conjeveram. Little can ever be printed to give even the smallest impression of what that degradation is. But as the Abbe* Dubois remarks — and he has said all that can be said in defence of the Hindoos — " a religion more shameful or indecent has never existed among a civilised people." We returned at night to Madras. Another day's journey near Madras, and en route to Bangalore, was to Vellore, eighty miles distant by railway. We passed it when coming from the west, so that in visiting it we had to return along a part of the line of our previous journey. The railway, although laid across a dead-flat plain, is flanked the whole way by a picturesque range of hills some miles distant. The town is very beautifully situated in a bay within the hills to the south. The outlines of these hills are extremely varied, fantastic, and striking. Here is a bit of the sky-line as seen from the railway at sunset : — The station is two or three miles from the town, which we approached by a very long bridge. The necessity for these long bridges results from the rise of the rivers in the rainy season. In the dry season the water dwindles into a narrow but respectable stream, which makes its way through a vast breadth of bleached shingle and sand. This enables us to form some idea of its size in the rainy season, when it expands and rushes on in majestic volume. Such contrasts as are seen in India between the rivers during the dry and the wet seasons are nowhere else visible. Hence the long roll and roar one hears at night as the train for VELLORE. 141 a mile or so dashes across some bridge which connects the distant banks of what is at one season merely a strip of Arabia Petraea, and at another a full-flooded stream. What most strikes one at Vellore is, as I have already said, the beautiful scenery of its enclosing hills, and the remains of old Mahratta forts, built nearly four centuries ago by the father of Sivaji, the famous founder of the Mahratta power. Low walls encircle the summits of the hills like large sheepfolds. These must have been powerful defences against bows and arrows, or even matchlocks, but useless when attacked under cover of shot and shell. When Mysore was finally conquered, Vellore was the place of /j' Tomb of Tippoo Family, Vellore. residence assigned to the numerous family — twelve sons and six daughters — of Tippoo Saib, after his death at Seringapatam. They had many retainers ; and this court, like other Mussulman courts, became a centre of intrigue, so cunning as to make it difficult of detection, and yet so stupid and senseless as to be quite unavailing 142 VELLORE. in the end. It is thus that the name of Vellore is associated with the mutiny of 1806. Some martinet innovations had been forced upon the troops — such as making them obliterate their caste marks, trim their whiskers and beards, and wear turbans of a particular fashion. The result was a sudden outbreak, which was prepared for cautiously, as in 1857, by the Sepoys (who veiled their thirst for revenge under pretended kindness and innocence), and allowed to come to a head by the commander, who pooh- poohed the possibility of any rising, although warned a month before of the existence of a conspiracy. Missions, or missionaries, were, without any evidence whatever, blamed for it by some of those who are always ready to disparage missionary work. The mutiny ended, of course, in bloody reprisals. We could not afford to tolerate any pirates in a ship so great as India, and with so few Englishmen on board. Thirteen European officers and eighty-two privates were killed. Three native officers and fourteen non-commissioned officers were afterwards executed. It is an old story now ! The Duke of Wellington was known then only as General Wellesley, and had not entered on the Peninsular War. Yet on the day on which we visited Vellore, and ordained a native pastor, a soldier communicated at the English Church who had fought in this mutiny ! The ditch of the old fort, they say, used to be kept full of alligators, to prevent ingress or egress to the garrison through swimming. There is a story told of a Highland sergeant who dared to swim across and encounter these behemoths. It is said that he actually accomplished the bold feat, but not without having been dragged under water — the monster, I presume, getting hold of the kilt, but missing its wearer. There is a very beautiful pagoda within the fort, covered in some parts with the richest and boldest carvings I had yet seen. But it is now a barrack, without priests and without ceremonies. The idols' chambers have become the home of bats. o 1-1 t> < D C 'A K < ftO a!& K.'!#llliii1!IIJl:ii|'!»l"*':i IV.' -- :;!--:i->llnL.li.i!-ls|l- mm i m ^fM—ML - . - tgM&j&m mm aiEdWuto u o BANGALORE. 143 We received much kindness at Vellore, as at all other places in India. The English chaplain gave us the use of his church for our ordination service, affording another instance of the catholic spirit manifested by the different Christian Churches in India. From Vellore we again returned to Madras. Our third and last expedition from the capital was to Bangalore, two hundred miles by railway. We were accompanied by our much-esteemed friend the Bev. Stewart Wright, Presbyterian military chaplain then stationed at Bangalore, and by Mrs. Wright. One striking feature of the scenery on the way to Bangalore is the remarkable disintegration in the hills, which rise from the plain towards the higher plateau, where Bangalore itself is situated, about three thousand feet above the level of the sea. It requires some such illustration as I have given to convey any idea of the Strang a appearance of these huge granite blocks piled up in the strangest manner. Yet few of them have moved, except when their props have given way. The whole is the result of " weathering," together with the crumbling of the softer parts of the granite, as though portions of the mass had been united by seams of ice, which, melting, left but isolated blocks. Had we passed such tumuli of rocks at home we should at first sight have put them down to glacier moraines, or judged they were the discharged cargoes of icebergs which had foundered and disappeared ages ago in ancient seas. These hills commence just after leaving the Jolapert junction, where we begin to ascend the ghaut which connects the lower plain with the upper plateau. They give great interest and character to the scenery along this portion of the line? The same kind of island-like hills which I noticed dotting the plain as we journeyed from Beypore are also marked features in the landscape. Agriculture in every part of India depends upon irrigation. In Southern India this depends again on tanks ; while in Northern 144 BANGALORE. India there is a constant supply of water from the great rivers, which is distributed by canals, and an immense network of channels communicating with them. South India, on the "other hand, depends solely upon the plentiful rainfall, while it again would be practically useless during the months of dry, hot weather, unless it was preserved and carefully utilised. These tanks, or reservoirs, are often many miles square, and centuries ago were so numerous that in the Madras Eastern Provinces alone there were upwards of fifty thousand. Partly from the effects of old native wars and revolutions, and the destruction caused by the Mahrattas, thousands of these have fallen into ruin, and consequently thou sands of acres which they rendered fertile have again become a wilderness. Qf those that remain too little, perhaps, has been done by the government to keep them in repair. Yet upon this depends the very existence of cultivated land, the prevention of famine, the prosperity of the people, and the revenues of the State. There is not a fifth of the Madras Presidency under cultivation. The Madras Bevenue Beport for 1867 tells a sad tale of the condition of the ryots — that out of 2,865,485 there are only 384 who pay, say, £100 a-year of land tax ; that of the whole number, more than one-half pay less than £1 per annum ; that the average land tax — which is practically their only rent — paid by each large holder is about 20s. per annum. Though the ryots increase in number, they do not increase in wealth in proportion to those in the other Presidencies, although they have greatly advanced during the last year. Such of the villages as were visible from the railway looked very pleasing, with their thatch of palm leaves covered over by masses of creepers in full bloom. Every village has its little temple for worship. In the woods which clothe the hillsides there are abundance of bears and other wild beasts ; and everywhere are visible small BANGALORE. 145 booths protected from the sun, and set on four supports, which are seven or eight feet high. In these the shepherds watch at night to frighten off the wild beasts from injuring the crops. The climate was sensibly cooler when we reached Bangalore, the fresh elastic air of which was quite invigorating. Bangalore is one of the pleasantest military stations in India. It consists of two distinct portions. The old fort, with the native town or Pettah under its once protecting shadow, forms quite a town in itself; while the military cantonments and European residences at a little distance might be in a different world, so far as community of manners, habits, and ideas is concerned. The fort is now used for public offices ; and the old palace of Tippoo, in its Tartar-looking Orientalism, if I may so deseribe it, looks more peculiar than imposing. The rooms and audience chamber which were once crowded with the wild and dashing followers of that able despot are now business-like apartments. Bed-tape bundles of papers and maps, and all the signs of European organ ization, are seen here, and are presided over by old officers and competition Wallahs, attended by white-robed and most obedient humble servants in cool and elegant costumes. The fort was a powerful one, and its storming, with that of the gate of the Pettah, was a desperate conflict, which cost many brave lives. A monument on the spot where most of the men fell commemorates the event. The well where Sir David Baird was compelled to draw water for the daily amusement of the ladies of the harem is still to be seen in a small court full of weeds and rubbish, a solitary tree marking what was once the ladies' flower- garden. The harem itself, has gone to decay, although the windows, which were once filled with fair faces, remain to hint of the former history of the place. The sleeping-rooms are mere closets, muggy and close, with little air and little light. The cell where Sir David was confined, near the gate, may yet be seen, although, from some obstruction or other, we did not get access to u 146 BANGALORE. it. We could not but remember the commiseration expressed by his old Scotch mother — not, however, for her son, but for the unfortunate man who was "chained to oor Davie!" But the draw-well, chain, and all, had probably subdued his impetuous temper. Tippoo was cruel to his prisoners. I was told that many memorials of such treatment have been inscribed by English soldiers, and may still be read on the rocky walls of his old prison- house high up on the neighbouring hills. The native city has nothing peculiar about it. We saw what we had so often seen before — the same narrow and crowded streets or lanes ; the same tumble-down houses ; the same aroma from the dry cow-dung, consumed as fuel ; the same kinds of bazaars, with the same products from East and West, presided over by the same lanky, white-robed, turbaned skeletons. Most of the houses in the less public streets have little courts attached to them, con nected with the busy thoroughfare by a gate. Sheep, or goats, or cattle are, I believe, confined in these courts during the night. We entered one of them, and saw the weaving of silk in the old Indian loom sunk in the earth. The weavers were waited on by women, who arranged the golden skeins and balls. The European quarter is as different from the Pettah as Belgravia is from the East-end of London. Here the houses are in their own " compounds," with shrubs and flower-gardens quite fresh and blooming. Open, park-like spaces meet the eye everywhere, with broad roads as smooth and beautiful as the most finished in England. Equipages whirl along; and ladies and gentlemen ride by on horseback. One catches a glimpse of a church tower or steeple; and these things, together with the genial air, make one feel once more at home — at all events, in a bit of territory which seems cut out of home and settled in India. There are delightful drives, among others one to the Lal-Bagh, laid out in the last century by Hyder Ali. Our home feeling was greatly intensified by attending a flower BANGALORE. 147 show, although it was the last week of December. There was the usual military band ; and crowds of carriages conveyed fashion able parties to the entrance-gate. Military officers and civil servants of every grade were there, up to Mr. Bowring, the Chief Commissioner of Mysore, distinguishable by the extreme simplicity of his attire, and the absence of all that could attract the eye. He is, I believe, an able administrator. The most remarkable and interesting spectacles to me were the splendid vegetables of every kind, including potatoes which would have delighted an Irishman ; leeks and onions worthy of being remembered like those of Egypt ; cabbages, turnips, cauliflowers, peas, beans, such as England could hardly equal ; splendid fruit — apples, peaches, oranges, figs, and pomegranates, the display culminating in a magnificent array of flowers, none of which pleased me more than the beautiful roses, so redolent of home ! Such were the sights of a winter's day in Bangalore. Among other beauties, the show was not wanting in fair ladies, although I do not remember them so well as I do the native boys, grandsons of Parneah, the able and famous Brahmin minister of the deposed Bajah of Mysore. These lads appeared perfect ideals of high breeding and Oriental beauty. The delicate and refined outline of their features, and the glory of their quiet eyes, with their pure white robes and turbans, made me accept for the first time the idea of angels with bronzed skin, passing into mellow gold. Another incident at Bangalore which lives vividly in my memory was a visit paid by my friend and myself to its most famous Pagoda. A great guru was holding his visitation of the district, and we wished to see him. Hindooism, as I shall after wards show, is divided into an infinitely greater number of sects than Christianity or any other religion. These are separated from each other, too, by social barriers such as never divided even the Quaker from the Papist. Now, "each sect has gurus, which means 148 BANGALORE. " masters." The guru is not a priest who ministers in the temple, nor is he necessarily a Brahmin, but rather, like a Bomanist " guide," an ecclesiastic who is invested with the power of settling such questions as affect caste, its duties and ceremonies, as well as expulsion from it or admission into it. The number and various ranks of the gurus are determined by the importance and extent of the caste which they govern. A large and influential caste has several principal gurus, together with hundreds of inferior ones, occupying chief cities, and visiting their respective districts, perhaps annually and with great pomp and dignity, if the districts are rich in dues and presents. A great guru or "pontiff" wields despotic power. His curse is dreaded more than death, and his blessing most eagerly purchased. He imposes his ecclesiastical dues and fines, and demands their payment with inflexible rigour, often amassing great wealth, which is assumed to be spent in charity among his poorer followers. The guru is esteemed an ascetic, or Sanyassie, of peculiar sanctity. His followers believe that his time is wholly given up to the reading of holy books, to prayer, meditation, and fastings. He is worshipped as the incar nation of all the gods, and as being able to prevail with them in prayer. The water in which he washes his hands or feet is drunk with thankfulness by the people, as sanctifying both soul and body. The guru may marry, and if he has children his office descends to one of them ; but if he has none, he may elect a successor during his life. Should he fail in doing this, the other gurus meet and appoint one. When not engaged in visiting his diocese, the guru remains in a monastery, or in one of the cities, as a recluse, where he receives visits from those who wish to get his blessing or his advice, or to obtain his decision on ecclesiastical questions. These gurus are often great fanatics, and just as often men of intense greed — at once tyrannical and sensual. But such improprieties are overlooked in a "holy man;" on the same principle, I suppose, as that on which it is alleged a Pharisee in OS j!lW' CAWNPORE. 277 resolution. When they were well into the ravine, high banks rising up on either side, cavalry were drawn up across the rear, Tantia Topee and his select friends watching the whole scene from the temple. When all were entrapped and the boats crowded, the signal was given, and the thatched roofs of the boats set on fire. With the exception of three, the boats were immovably aground ; and the boatmen, after setting them ablaze, leaped on shore. Then a tremendous musketry fire opened from hundreds who had till now been carefully concealed in the ground above. Guns roared from the opposite shore, from the temple, from the banks. Everywhere massacre ! Struggles, blood, wounds, flame, smoke, drowning, screaming, wild and indescribable horror of horrors ! In vain two or three boats make off ; in vain men swim or fight for their lives. Except two or three who escaped as by miracle, all the men were slain. Old Sir Hugh Wheeler was cut down among the first as he was getting out of his palankin. Wet, wounded, and bleeding, upwards of one hundred women and children were brought back to Cawnpore and locked up till wanted ! They were shortly after joined by the separate bands of fugitives from Futtyghur, about sixty miles farther up the river. A mag nificent defence had been made there, also against overwhelming numbers, by about thirty men, who protected seventy or eighty women and children in a ruined fort, which they were forced to abandon. They tried by boats to reach Allahabad, but were made prisoners by the Nana's troops. All the men were butchered by him; while the women and children were added to the number already in the house at Cawnpore ! There, in two rooms, twenty feet by ten, two hundred and six European ladies and children were for a fortnight pent up during the burning heat of an Eastern summer. Havelock had started from Allahabad on the 6th July. Battle after battle had been fought until he entered Cawnpore on the 17th. But there was not a person from his. suffering countrymen 278 THE MUTINY. alive to receive him ! He and his noble troops were received apparently with joy by the inhabitants of Cawnpore, who had grievously suffered at the hands of the rebellious soldiers. They gazed with wonder on the ruined entrenchments ; but no English voice greeted them. Two days before, all had been massacred, Memorial Well, Cawnpore. and, whether alive or dead, hurled into the well, which has ever since been almost a holy place in our memories. A beautiful garden grows its roses and other flowers where that awful slaughter-house once stood. The well has been covered by the adornments of architecture, a white marble angel of peace, by 3 CAWNPORE. 279 Marochetti, standing over it, and around it a protecting wall of Gothic design. The agents in that fearful tragedy have, I believe, gone to their account. Tantia Topee and his followers, after a long chase for weeks in the splendid campaign under Sir Hugh Bose, was run down, betrayed, hung; the Nana, with the remnant who stuek to him, was last heard of in the forests which clothe the Himalayas ; and all must have perished long ago from famine, malaria, or wild beasts. The butchers who were personally engaged in it were all discovered and executed. I saw the spot near the ravine where the last had been hanged. We dare not too severely condemn our troops as blood-thirsty or cruel for the terrible vengeance which they took when any opportunity offered itself of doing so, more especially when all the falsehoods were believed regarding the treatment of our women and children. The sight of that bloody house and awful well fired them with a maddening passion. All natives were alike in their eyes. In each they recognised the Nana, one who had been guilty of atrocities which intensified the wickedness of the most wicked. But in order, as far as our public influence extends, to mitigate the effects of that awful time in widening the breach, already so greatly to be lamented, between us and our fellow- citizens in India, let us join in publicly confessing, with sorrow, that we did not come out of the mutiny with clean hands, but in too many cases deeply stained with blood, wantonly and cruelly shed. Many a true story is doubtless told even now in the bazaars that would make us blush if we heard it, and make us feel that it might be fitting for us to ask forgiveness as well as to extend it. If we and the natives have endured common sufferings, we have been guilty of common sins. It should also be known to our countrymen, what was ascertained shortly after the mutiny, and has been confirmed since by the most careful investigations on the part of the Indian Government, and often before now pub- lished, — that there never have been substantiated any cases of muti lation until after death, or of torture, or of the dishonour of women; that the horrors of Cawnpore were the work of the Nana only and his vile adherents ; that even his soldiers refused to massacre the women and children, which was accomplished by the vilest of the vile in the city. We can never forget the fearful treachery and cruelties of the Sepoys and of the scum of India let loose against those innocent of crime ; but let us not attribute all this wicked ness, by an indiscriminate or hasty generalisation, to "the natives ;" nor darken the picture by more sombre colours than those war ranted by fact. And above all, let our people in India, more especially young officers, by aU that is truly brave and generous, endeavour to heal this grievous wound, and so impress the natives of every race, creed, and rank by the force of our character, as well as by the power of our arms, that they may one day thank God for our supremacy. I visited the graveyards in Cawnpore containing " our English dead :" a new one in the Park, and an old one, large and full of tombs, in another quarter. Those burial-places in India were always to me peculiarly sad. One felt as if some wrong had been done towards every one who lay there, or that some peculiar suf fering had been endured by them. Why were they not beside their own people at home ? There is no grave here where a family reposes. Children are here, but their parents and brothers and sisters are far away. Young soldiers and old veterans are here, men who had just come to India full of hope and ambition, and those who, after a life of toil, were just about to leave it to spend the evening of their days elsewhere. Alone they had lived in a strange land, and alone had died. No one had been there to speak to them of the old familiar faces, nor to understand their " babbling of green fields," in their dreams of the far-off home. Alone they were buried, with no kith or kin to follow their bier, or "fathers" to whom they could be "gathered." CAWNPORE. Alone they were left by all who knew them, to be utterly forgotten in the land of their sojourning. Every grave seemed a record of long-cherished hopes never realised, and of an unexpected and premature sorrow endured by those who for years were antici pating the joy of bidding them welcome home, to return no more to India. But there were some graves I visited which will not readily pass into oblivion either in India or England. Chief among these was that of the gallant Peel. With deep interest I stood beside his tomb and read the inscription — " To the memory of William Peel. His name will be dear to the British inhabitants of India, to whose succour he came in the hour of need. He was one of England's most devoted sons. With all the talents of a brave and skilful sailor, he combined the virtues of a humble, sincere Christian. This stone is erected over his remains by his military friends in India, and several of the inhabitants of Calcutta. Captain Sir William Peel, B.N., K.C.B., was born in Stanhope Street, Mayfair, on the 2nd Nov., 1824, and died at Cawnpore, 27th April, 1858." I saw another grave, which recorded the death of one whom I knew and loved, Howard Campbell of the 78th. The call to arms found him in infirm health, at home with his wife and family. But full of spirit and prepared to die, he promptly responded to the summons. He fought his way with Havelock to Cawnpore, and I have heard that on the day when he would have got his company and the Yictoria Cross he died. The officers of his regiment have erected a monument over his grave expressive of their affection for his memory. There is also a small monumental cross with this inscription — " In memory of the women and children of H.M. 32nd Begiment • who were slaughtered near this spot. This memorial was raised by twenty men of the same regiment who were passing through Cawnpore, Nov. 21, 1857." o o XX. THE MUTINY.— LTJCENO W. T)UT we must on to Lucknow ! It is about forty miles from -*-' Cawnpore. A railway connects the two cities. Lucknow is not, like Benares, Allahabad, and Cawnpore, on the banks of the Ganges ; but is inland to the east, at right angles to it, and situated on the Goompty river. The Ganges at Cawnpore is crossed by a long bridge of boats, and beyond is a dead flat. Among the first places seen which call up past memories is the Alumbagh, with the small obelisk marking Havelock's grave. We drove through the principal portions of the city ; saw the spots famous in the two "advances;" paused at the arch beside which Neill was shot ; ascended the roof of one of the palaces, and enjoyed a splendid bird's-eye view of the city. We noticed with deepest interest the " Martiniere," " Secunderbagh," " Mess House," and other monuments of the fierce fighting and splendid victories of the forlorn hope when delivering the long-besieged garrison. But to give the reader some idea of Lucknow, and of, to us, the most famous and interesting time in its history, let me as briefly as possible explain the illustrations which accompany this chapter. Look first at the Kaiser Bagh, or palace of the deposed king. The view is a distant one, but it gives some idea of the imposing' appearance of Lucknow. There is no other city in India so striking. It is not an Oriental city like Benares ; but is rather PLAN OF LUCKNOW. KAISER BAGH, OR KING'S PALACE, LUCKNOW. LUCKNOW. 283 of a European, or a sort of Parisian- Mohammedan type. From a distance it looks magnificent, notwithstanding that a great portion of it has been destroyed since the mutiny. The Besi- dency, itself a striking object once, is now in ruins. But before the revolt the city must have stood alone in India, and even in the whole East, alike for brilliancy and beauty, — its domes, minarets, and palaces being relieved by trees and partially-broken, picturesque ground, such as is rarely found in the dusty plains of Hindostan. But while its palaces look magnificent, a nar rower inspection reveals something flimsy about their architec ture. There is a " get up," a theatrical unreality about them, in spite of their wide courts, colonnades, and domes, their gilding and orange groves, such as one sees in the Kaiser Bagh. I felt that they did dream " of a perishable home who thus could build." The history of the possessors and inhabitants of many of these splendid palaces would cause a blush to rise on the hard cheek of many a criminal at our bar. As one walked through the courts within courts of the Kaiser Bagh, there were other things of more importance than architecture to fill one's mind, and to shed a light on the history of the place. There existed not on earth a house of greater moral degradation than this ! The palaces of Lucknow and Delhi were the Sodom and Gomorrah of India, and both have been utterly overthrown, never more to rise. "The king," wrote Sir William Sleeman long before the mutiny, " is surrounded exclusively by eunuchs, fiddlers, and poetasters worse than either, and the minister and his creatures worse than all. They appropriate to themselves at least one half of the revenues of the country, and employ nothing but knaves of the very lowest kind in all the branches of the administration. The king is a crazy imbecile." ' Let us now have a look at the " Besidency," the home of each succeeding representative of Great Britain. It included a large portion of ground, with various buildings, such as a large 284 THE MUTINY. banqueting-hall, guard-houses, and several official residences, grouped around the main buildings ; with open spaces between, lawns, flower-gardens, &c. The Besidency itself was situated on The Besidency, Lucknow — East Front. a rising ground, if a few yards above the plain can be so described. The Europeans in Lucknow had the advantage of having in command one of the most sagacious, far-sighted, and noble of men — Sir Henry Lawrence. He was fully prepared for the revolt long before it broke out, with marvellous sagacity taking in the probable future. He kept hundreds day and night employed in throwing up such defences as could be extemporized within a few weeks, in order that guns might be placed in the best possible position. He had also laid in such stores of every kind of pro vision for man and beast, as well as of every kind of shot and shell for such men and beasts as might be opposed to him, as presented a remarkable contrast to poor Cawnpore. So large was the quantity of ammunition in store that they never ran short, even after having retired from the Muchee Bhowun and blown it up with two hundred and fifty barrels of gunpowder ! BANQUETING-HALL OF THE RESIDENCY, LUCKNOW. LUCKNOW. 285 A few dates and facts will suffice to enable the reader to follow our illustrations with more interest. On May 30th the native troops revolted. There were at the can tonments the usual surprise, firings, charging, cutting down, on both sides, with splendid gallantry on the part of our officers, and all the exciting incidents of such horrible melees. After the disastrous battle of Chinhut, on 30th June, with a loss of two hundred men, our people were shut up and besieged in the Besidency. There they remained till November 26th, bombarded every night by tens of thousands of native troops, who held the city and occupied the surrounding buildings, — firing eighteen- pounders within one hundred and fifty yards of the defences ; and all this during the hottest months of an Indian climate. The ladies were crowded into small rooms ; huddled together in cellars to escape shot and shell ; deserted by native servants, and obliged to wash and cook ; to watch sick children and sick friends ; to prepare meat and drink for those working in the batteries; to come into daily and almost hourly contact with disease and death and suffering in every form ; to hear the incessant roar of guns and musketry ; and to be prepared for the bursting of a shell or the crash of a cannon-baU at any moment in their place of retreat. What the nervous system of those thus exposed during these six months suffered, none but they who have endured the like can conceive. I have now before me a diary kept in the Besidency, by a lady, during the whole six months of the siege. Her husband and two children were shut up with her. His name, could I take the liberty of mentioning it, would recall to many of my readers those days of suffering during the disastrous retreat of our troops through the Kyber Pass, in which he bore a distinguished part, and was known as "the last man" of the army. The most striking feature of this diary is its terrible sameness ! Day by day, night after night, there is the same awful record of ceaseless 286 THE MUTINY. roaring of artillery and bursting of shells — of sudden attacks bravely resisted — of desperate sallies successfully made — of mines met by countermines — of deaths and midnight funerals — of sore wounds and the sudden destruction of some beloved one by shot or shell. In reading such narratives — and how many were fur nished by the year 1857 from Northern India ! — we feel as if we had not known human nature before, nor comprehended how it is capable of enduring for weeks and months slow agonies which might seem sufficient in a single night to extinguish in most people reason, if not life itself. Here are the rapid pencil jottings of two Sundays in the same month : — Sunday No. 1. — "An attack near the European hospital during the night, hut comparatively quiet here ; the enemy unsuccessful. Three round shot came through the dome of drawing-room this morning. This is fearfully near, and makes us feel more and more that we know not when the day and hour of our call may come. May a Father in heaven have mercy on us ! for his dear Son's sake make us ready ! Mr. A., 7th Cavalry, shot dead, looking out from the Cawnpore hattery, and Mr. H. had his leg broken from a round shot hitting a table, the leg of which broke his. Round shot of seven and nine pounds through the dome. During the night a screen made to protect from musketry at an exposed corner. Mr. Gubbins read the service about three p.m. Mr. Polehampton, our chaplain, feared to be dying of cholera, at the European hospital, where he and Mrs. P. have been living for some time, doing much good." Sunday No. 2. — " Poor Mrs. G.'s boy ill all night ; no hope of him. Her other two children brought up-stairs to be taken care of. I watched from twelve to two, and then for two hours ; poor baby seemed in such pain nothing would pacify him — Mrs. B. so kind in helping me to do so ; poor William much disturbed of course ; thank God he was easy when he woke after a short sleep about daybreak ; M. A. very restless and fretful. Dr. P. says it is from want of fresh air. Captain H. so good in nursing ; Mrs. G. sent both my women to help him as I could not go. Messenger arrived with a letter for Mr. Gubbins, which, however, was taken by order at once to Brigadier Inglis, saying the relieving force was at Ounama, first march from Cawnpore, which was left in charge of a regiment entrenched, after complete victory. They had force for any opposition they might meet in coming here, and hoped to arrive in four or five days. May God prosper them ! The man who brought the letter has seen the general, and said he was little, with white hair, supposed to be General Havelock. Sir. Gubbins read service after breakfast; an unusually quiet day ! Mrs. G. rallying- ; hopes of her recovery. Mr. L. killed in the Cawnpore battery this afternoon, leaving a young widow and child. They are LUCKNOW. 287 at Mrs. . M. Arf very feverish and heavy; baby a shade better; quite tired out, obliged to go to bed early : aroused at ten p.m. by sharp firing — an attack, but mercifully unsuccessful, and over in half an hour; but Mr. killed, and it is feared by our own men in cross fire.'' Such were their Sundays of Best ! Here, again, are the diaries of two successive week-days : — " Tuesday, 21st. — About twelve, two round shot struck the house, and, from fear of others, the ladies and children moved to the dining-room — Mr. L. firing Bhrapnel to try and silence one of the enemy's guns which they have brought to bear on the front of the house. A European shot dead ; another wounded. Good, kind Major Banks shot dead through his temples ! I had just been helping their good nurse to prepare his body for her to see it, and had been through the sad scene with her, when soon after Mrs. A. told me that my own W. [her husband] was wounded. When I got to him he was lying- on a couch very faint, with Dr. Eayrer examining and dressing his wound. A rifle ball had passed through his body. God bless the doctor for his kindness ! He assured me it was not dangerous. We are in God's hands. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief! I am thankful I can attend to him myself. He is in great pain. Erom my heart I grieve for poor Mrs. Banks ! She has . lost the one that was everything to her — and their darling little girl ! More barricades just outside. Some of the mutineers seem moving in bodies to-day. " Wednesday, 22nd. — A wakeful watching night ! Dear W. in much pain — better, thank God, towards morning. The ladies from the other side of the house obliged to remove and go down-stairs. We were busy removing the gentlemen's things, Mrs. Dorin assisting. When at the door leading from her room to the dining-room a matchlock ball struck her on the face, and she immediately expired while I was looking at her and calling for a doctor ! It was very awful. I had peculiar cause to think her kind and obliging, for she did much for me and mine. — The enemy have moved to-day, but we know not where." Many other extracts might be given ; but I must refrain, only adding, for the satisfaction of my readers, that the writer and her husband and children escaped. After losing upwards of five hundred men on his march from Cawnpore, and fighting for four days through the streets of Lucknow, Havelock with his first relief reached the Besidency on the 30th September. Food did not increase with the numbers requiring it. But the garrison, though more straitened, was so strengthened as to be able to extend its entrenchments so as to include about two miles. The original garrison included, as Mr. Gubbins informs us, 1,692 fighting men. Of these 987 were THE MUTINY. Europeans and 765 natives. There remained^ of the original garrison when relieved a total; including sick and wounded, of 350 Europeans and 133 natives — 23 had deserted — 41 military, 2 civil officers, and 1 chaplain had been killed. Early in Sep tember, before Havelock reached the Besidency, there were in it 220 women, 230 children, and 120 sick and wounded. Such facts give interest to our illustrations of the Besidency. But let us look at them in detail. The first we select is " The Bailey Guard," so called, I believe, from an officer of that name who once commanded it. The reader will notice, first, the arch, or gateway of the place. Through it many a famous man has passed; among others, in those fighting days, Sir Henry Lawrence, Sir Henry Havelock, Sir James Outram, Lord Clyde, and General Neill. And through it, too, passed the stream of men, women, and children- in solemn silence, when at midnight they left that terrible Egypt in which they had so long suffered. Every side of that arch is yet dotted by shot, marking the pitiless hail which for months had battered it from the houses now cleared away, and which once crowded the now bare and unpeopled plain. At this arch also Outram dismounted on that joyous day in September, when the first relief and hopes of final deliverance came, and the first communications were received for a space of a hundred and thirteen days from the outer world of India and of Europe— when, as described by the " Staff-Officer," " the garri son's long pent-up feelings of anxiety and of suspense burst forth in a succession of deafening cheers. From every pit, trench, and battery — from behind the sand-bags piled on shattered houses— from every part still held by a few gallant spirits rose cheer on cheer— cheers even rising from the hospital! Many of the wounded crawled forth to join in that glad shout of welcome to those who had so bravely come to our assistance. It was a moment never to be forgotten ! " THE BAILEY GUARD, LUCKNOW LUCKNOW. 289 Look again at this illustration. To the left of the arch, and beyond it, from the point of view we occupy, are seen the ruins of Dr. Fayrer's house. To this the Highlanders had pressed on, heated, worn, and dusty — for here General Outram had taken up his quarters. Mr. Gubbins, who witnessed the scene, says, "Nothing could exceed their enthusiasm. They stopped every one they met, with repeated questions and exclamations of ' Are you one of them ? — God bless you ! ' — ' We thought to have found only your bones ! ' At Dr. Fayrer's house a scene of thrilling interest presented itself. The ladies of the garrison, with their children, had assembled, in the most intense anxiety and excite ment, under the porch outside when the Highlanders approached. Bushing forward, the rough, bearded warriors shook the ladies by the hand, amidst loud and repeated gratulations. They took the children up in their arms, they fondly caressed them, and passed them on from one to another to be caressed in turrl ; and then, when the first burst of excitement and enthusiasm was over, they mournfully turned to speak to each other of the heavy loss which they had suffered, and to inquire the names of the numerous comrades who had fallen by the way. It is quite impossible to describe the scene within the entrenchment that evening." What a contrast to the awful silence of Cawnpore ! A very different scene had been witnessed under the verandah of that same house in July — for there Sir Henry Lawrence had expired.* Often had he been found alone in prayer during these weeks of anxiety. God's strength only could have sustained him amid weakness of body and over-exertion of mind. He died (July 4th) a few days after being struck with a shell which burst into his room. The last scene has been thus described : — * His life, with that of Neill and others, was given by Mr. Kaye in Good Words for 1866, and is reprinted in his delightful volumes of "Lives of Indian Officers," which should be in every library. P P 290 THE MUTINY. " First of all, he asked Mr. Harris, the chaplain, to administer the Holy Com munion to him. In the open verandah, exposed to a heavy fire of musketry, the solemn service was performed, many officers of the garrison tearfully communicating with their beloved chief. This done, he addressed himself to those about him. ' He bade an affectionate farewell to all,' wrote one who was present at this sad and solemn meeting, ' and of several he asked forgiveness for having at times spoken harshly, and begged them to kiss him. One or two were quite young boys, with whom he had occasion to find fault, in the course of duty, a few days previously. He expressed the deepest humility and repentance for his sins, and his firm trust in our blessed Saviour's atonement, and spoke most touchingly of his dear wife, whom he hoped to rejoin. At the utterance of her name his feelings quite overcame him, and he hurst " into an uncontrollable fit of weeping, which lasted some minutes. He again com pletely broke down in speaking of his daughter, to whom he sent his love and blessing. . . . Then he blessed his nephew George, who was kneeling by his bed side, and told him he had always loved him as his own son. . . . He spoke to several present about the state of their souls, urging them to pray and read their Bibles, and endeavour to prepare for death, which might come suddenly, as in his own case. To nearly each person present he addressed a few parting words of affectionate Grave of Lawrence. advice — words which must have sunk deeply into all hearts. There was not a dry eye there, and many seemingly hard rough men were sobbing like children.' He told his chaplain that he wished to be buried very privately, ' without any fuss,' in the same grave with any men of the garrison who might die about the same time. Then he said, speaking rather to himself than to those about him, of his epitaph, — ' Sere lies Henry Lawrence, who tried to do his duty. May God have mercy upon him.' And such is the simple epitaph which is inscribed upon his tomb." * * I had the privilege, when in Calcutta, of making Dr. Fayrer's acquaintance, and of receiving from him much kindness. No man is more respected, nor occupies a more distinguished position as a medical man. I asked his friends what honours LUCKNOW. 291 But I must ask my readers to look once more at the illustration of the " Bailey Guard " — at that portion of it to the right of the archway. "Here," writes Mr. Trevelyan, "from summer into winter, until of his 200 musketeers he had buried 85, and sent to hospital 76 ; earning his Cross in ragged flannel trousers and a jersey of dubious hue, burly Bob Aitken bore the unequal fray." I had the happiness of meeting my brave countryman, Major Aitken, at Lucknow. He told me these interesting facts : — " The Native Brigade, then in Lucknow, consisted of the 13th, 14th, .and 71st Begiments. In this brigade there was only one native officer who joined the mutineers. In the 13th Begiment, 230 men volunteered to defend the Besidency, while the remaining 750 continued faithful to us so far that they did not turn against us. ^the native officers of the 13th Native Infantry were killed or wounded in the defence of the Besidency ; out of 220 men of the same regiment, 36 were Sikhs, of whom 18 deserted; out of 184 Hindostanees, one only deserted. Of all who defended us, 155 were either killed or wounded." During the whole time of the siege, this guard-house, on to the arch, was defended by Major Aitken himself and his native soldiers adone, who stood firm in spite of the taunts and temptations of their countrymen, when we were in extremities. The low wall connecting the guard- house with the archway shows how slight was its defence ; whilst the innumerable marks of shot on every spot that could be hit in the several rooms of the guard-house reveal the fierce determination both of the attack and the defence. But over that parapet wall the enemy never ventured. The well- served guns from its embrasures, and the steady rifles behind them, kept the foe at a safe distance under cover. Such facts as these ought to be recorded to the credit of the native soldiers. Many others of a like kind might be mentioned. Let us now take another glance at the Besidency, by aid of the or rewards he had received from Government for his services in the Residency ? In this, as in too many similar cases, I received no satisfactory reply. 292 THE MUTINY. illustration, in which the ruined banqueting-hall is the most pro minent feature. During the siege that banqueting-hall, where the loud talk and mirth of the conquering race had once resounded, was the hospital of the garrison — the house of much pain, of many thoughts, and many sorrows. Here, too, Death banqueted on many a brave soldier and tender child. Both it and the once handsome Besidency, as will be seen, are now in ruins ; for when the natives got possession of the place, and before it was reoccupied and restored to order by the British force, it had been all destroyed. And now within these famous lines of defence all is swept bare with the exception of what is seen in our illustration. Great care has been taken to indicate the several famous spots. " The Cawn pore Battery," " The Bedan Battery," " The site of Mr. Gubbins's House," " Dr. Fayrer's House," " Here Sir Henry Lawrence died," are all legibly inscribed on tablets, so that the stranger hardly requires a guide. The last spot visited by the traveller will probably be the churchyard. There he will gaze in silence and with veneration on the tombs of Lawrence, Neill, and many others who " waxed valiant in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens," and who there lie " in the field of their fame." It is a most touching spot. The silence, with the hum of the distant city, like the murmur of a mountain bee, contrasts strikingly with the roar of battle amidst which all these heroes died and had been buried. Few nations have been so privileged to record with truth the " Christian " virtues of their heroes slain in battle as we have been, on the tombs of such men as Neill, Lawrence, Peel, and Havelock. And these represent not a few of the same high character, of whom we can say — "Their very dust to us is dear!" Like the remains of Joseph, they seem to me to have already taken possession of a promised land over which the living God will yet reign. LUCKNOW. 293 I was struck by the memorials to some distinguished regiments, and by the absence of any memorial to others who deserved to be remembered. There are monuments erected to their comrades by the Madras FusiKers, the 84th, the 5th Fusiliers, the 90th, and also by the Bengal Native Artillery, the 13th Bengal Native Infantry ; but, strange to say, I saw none to the 78th either here or at Cawnpore ! One other scene is connected with the illustration now before us. On the summit of the rising bank which connects the plain with the slightly-elevated plateau on which the Besidency is built, Sir John Lawrence, as Yiceroy, erected his chair of state and held a great durbar, at which the Talookdars, or feudal chiefs of Oude, gave in their public adherence to the British Government. It was one of those displays which arrest the senses of the spectator. Here were represented the quiet strength, the beau tiful order and discipline of the various branches of our army — cavalry, infantry, and artillery — each soldier of the force sug gesting thoughts of indomitable daring with which India had become acquainted, and at no place more so than at Lucknow. Here, too, the great lords and captains of Oude passed slowly before the Yiceroy, with six hundred magnificent elephants splendidly caparisoned, accompanied by their picturesque retainers, all glittering with gems, and arrayed in robes of many colours, made of gorgeous fabrics from the looms of Benares. It was a grand spectacle ! Yet there was little in it to gratify the heart. In that wonderful procession there were some men indeed who, at considerable difficulty and risk, stood by us during our time of need, and sheltered our countrymen when, maimed and wounded, they cast themselves upon their protection. There were also not a few who had wavered and hung back, until they could discover on which side the hangman was. There were some, too, who never had been friendly, but had yielded themselves to our power from 294 THE MUTINY. necessity. All, I believe, were thankful for their restored lands, and the hope of British protection to enable them to enjoy them selves while obedient. But there was not one there who loved us for our own sake. They gave in their submission to our Govern ment as a necessity with a smile, a shrug, or- a scowl. Nothing corresponding to a British cheer could have burst from that native gathering ! Nor was there any love lost on our part. The highest feeling prevalent was, I doubt not, a sincere desire to do unswerving justice to all — to protect all — curb all, and, as far as Government could accomplish this, to regenerate and civilise the whole country. But that procession was seen by us — how could it be else ? — through the mist of all the treachery and horrors of the mutiny. Time, however, will gradually harmonize those feelings into a mutual confidence. "Forget and forgive" will acquire ascendency on both sides. Desires for mutual consider- ateness, stimulated by a sense of common wrong-doing and of common suffering, must grow in the hearts of both, and from these, again, must spring a hearty co-operation in advancing the common good of the country. Education and Christianity, under a civilised Government, wiU yet regenerate Oude. Our injustice to it has visited many good and true with suffering and death. Its own wickedness has annihilated its independence. But able and trustworthy natives— for there are such— will henceforth unite with able and trustworthy Europeans in administering affairs wisely and well for the good of the millions who occupy its magnificent plains. But when the Yiceroy sat in that chair of state on the green slope beneath the Besidency, and beheld this recognition of British power by those who a few years before could have gained thousands of pounds by affording protection even in a stable to English gentlemen and ladies wandering in terror with their babes ; — what must his thoughts have been, as he remembered that close beside him that noble brother slept " who tried to do LUCKNOW. 295 his duty," — how well, and how grandly, he succeeded, the spectacle before him testified ! Not undesigned was the Viceroy's choice of this spot, beneath the shadow of the Besidency and of its graveyard, for the scene we have described. There was a silent sympathy which connected the brother on his throne with the brother near him in his grave. The living said to the dead, " Thou hast not died in vain ! I am here, because thou art there, and we are one in spirit, in life and in death, for I, too, like thee, will try to do my duty." England confesses with gratitude that both have done so. From Lucknow we returned to Allahabad, before proceeding to Agra and Delhi. We had the happiness of preaching there for our respected chaplain, Mr. Williamson, and were hospitably entertained by our countryman, Dr. Irving. XXI. AGKA A GBA, our next stage, opened up a new world to me. The -c*- Western Coast of India — the whole line of travel down the ghauts from Poona to Bombay, and then from the almost unmatched harbour of Bombay to the gorgeous groves of Malabar, and the picturesque Neilgherries — had left indelible impressions of the glory of vegetation and of scenery. In the west, too, at Karli, I had seen specimens of the cave-temples of the old Buddhist worship. Madras and Southern India had given me my only ideas of genuine Hindoo temples. There, and there only, had I seen the vast architectural piles, the pyramidal pagodas, the inner courts, the fine arcades, the ambitious and elaborate sculpture of gods and things divine ; the silence and gloomy solitudes ; the ruin and decay, all marking a religion of power and influence whose sun was setting. 'Bengal was the field in which British power, culture, and faith were seen in conflict with an old and effete civilisation, docile, subtle, polite, receptive, but without the strength of truth, self-sacrifice, or self-reliance. Benares supplied the medley of splendid Eastern manufactures, of learned Pundits, of filthy ascetics, of the lowest and most degraded fetish worshippers, of holy monkeys, and of all that the Hindooism of any age, from the present day up to that of Solomon, had ever produced, tending to the highest heavens or AGRA. 297 the deepest — mud. Cawnpore and Lucknow filled my mind with nothing but associations of the mutinj'. But once in Agra, I felt, as I have said, that a different phase of India had suddenly opened up before me. Books have given every one a certain amount of general information regarding the •Mohammedan conquest of India under Baber in the fifteenth cen tury ; and we all have visions of the Great Mogul — a designation, by the way, which historians very properly reject as unwarranted by fact, but which will nevertheless remain like many a fruit of fairy tale, or of prosaic fibbing — visions of pearls, gold, and diamonds, of power and of cruelty, and of all that a young reader of the " Arabian Nights " could desire, had he only the powerful magic charm to minister to his pleasures. But I had never before seen anything — except perhaps in Cairo and Constantinople, and there but very partially, and I have not yet visited the Alhambra — that gave me any true idea of Moham medan architecture. In Agra we were as in a new world, which is Oriental, but verily not Hindoo — a splendid exotic flowering in beauty and brilliancy beside the dark and ugly form of Shiva.' The buildings in which this architecture is seen are chiefly tombs, palaces, and mosques. Were we to recognise these buildings as symbolical, we might conclude that a Mohammedan was purity itself, both in his worship and in his life ; for these buildings are pure as alabaster, simple in their forms, and destitute of every ornament except precious stones mingling with the snowy marble, just as the flowers of spring might show themselves in the recesses of the quarries of Carrara. The famous Taj, the gem of India and of the world, the Koh-i- noor of architecture, is situated about three miles from Agra, on the west bank of the Jumna. On approaching it we see white marble minarets rising among trees. We halt at the grand portal of a great garden, and the entrance-hall or gate so arrests us that we feel inclined to ask, with a little feeling of disappointment, Is Q Q 298 AGRA. this the Taj ?—this being a splendid building of hard red stone— whether, sandstone or granite I cannot remember — inlaid with white and black marble and various coloured stones. Its arched halls are spacious. We were conducted to the upper story, and from a great open arch beheld the Taj ! All sensible travellers here pause when attempting to describe this building, and protest that the attempt is folly, and betrays only an Unwarranted con fidence in the power of words to give any idea of such a vision in stone. I do not cherish the hope of being able to convey any true impression of its magnificence and beauty, but nevertheless I cannot be silent about it. From the arch in the gateway the eye follows a long, broad, marble canal, often full of crystal water, at the extreme end of which rises the platform on which the Taj is built. Each side of the white marble canal is bordered by tall, dark cypress-trees, and on feast days about eighty fountains — twenty-two being in the centre — fling their cooling spray along its whole length, while trees of every shade, and plants of sweetest odour, fill the rest of the garden. The buildings which make up the Taj are all erected on a platform about twenty feet high, and occupying a space of about three hundred and fifty feet square. These build ings consist of the tomb itself, which is an octagon, surmounted by an egg-shaped dome of about seventy feet in circumference ; and of four minarets, occupying each a corner of the platform, about a hundred and fifty feet high, which shoot up like columns of light into the blue sky. One feature peculiar to itself is its perfect purity ; for all portions of the Taj — the great platform, the sky-piercing minarets, the building proper — are of pure white marble ! The only exception — but what an exception ! — is the beautiful ornamented work of an exquisite flower pattern, which wreathes the doors and wanders towards the dome, one huge mosaic of inlaid stones of different colours. Imagine if you can such a building as this, — ¦