hundred and forty-six Europeans were imprisoned in the Black Hole, a small chamber eighteen feet square in the Fort, and one hundred and twenty-three were smothered to death. The Black Hole was destroyed in 1818. In January of 1757 Clive won back the settlement; and the place has gradually grown in size and importance until now it is the centre of Government, the seat of the Viceroy, and if we include Howrah, on the opposite bank of the river, now connected with the city by a bridge, it numbers nine hundred thousand inhabitants.

Government House is a huge and imposing building, and in it is that famous Council Room, with the portraits of Hastings and others on its walls, where the welfare or fate of millions of souls has often hung in the balance. In the immediate neighbourhood, are the modern and majestic Law Courts, with towers and fretted roof. Behind, rises the dome of the Post Office, a noble building; and along the road called Chowringee, looking out upon the Maidan, or common, six miles in circumference, are the large houses, each within its gardens or "compound," that have won for the place the name "City of Palaces;" while the ravages of climate upon the health of European residents have

suggested the parody, "City of Pale Faces." There are many statues and monuments about the Maidan, the creatures of official inspiration. To the west is the river, with its forest of masts; and Fort William, which covers some acres between the Maidan and the river to the south, is an imposing barrack with a very noble church. To the north runs the Chidpore Road, through the Black Town, full of natives and native shops, and parallel with it Cornwallis Street, noted for its charitable and educational institutions. These institutions all over Calcutta stand as the memorials of illustrious names. Here it was that Bishop Wilson toiled, and here stands his church, St. John's. Here, too, in a conspicuous position stands the Scotch Church, where the zealous and self-denying Dr. Duff laboured. In Cornwallis Square, is the College which he first founded, now in the hands of the Scotch Established Church; near it is the Free Church College, afterwards built by Dr. Duff, in which he taught for many years, and where a thousand young men and boys are daily assembled for religious and secular education. It is a giant building, and in the centre hall, where the school is wont to assemble to hear the Scriptures every morning, now stands a bust of that noble presence, placed there in loving remembrance of the founder. Not far off, on the banks of the river, is the Burning Ghaut, in the native quarter, where the process of cremation may be witnessed every day.

Early one morning, after the usual Chota-Hasri, or "little breakfast," served in the bedroom before rising, I I was taken by a friend in a boat down the Hoogly to the Botanic Gardens, beyond the deserted-looking Bishop's College. The air on the river was cold and damp, reminding one a little of London fog, a strange contrast to the noonday heat of the city. A few boatmen were plying their craft lazily along. Opposite was the palace of the deposed monarch of Oude, who keeps tigers in his grounds. Landing at a wharf on the west bank, we at once entered the gardens, which cover three hundred acres, and happily combine the natural with the artificial; they contain beautiful specimens of the Mauritius, the talipot, the sago and other palms, a large variety of crotons, and, above all, a great banyan tree, with a girth of eighteen yards, whose branches and descending roots extend to a circumference of three hundred yards.

The same day we visited Kalighat, which gave its name to Calcutta, and is situated on the bank of an old bed of the Ganges, four miles south of the city. The legend is that when the corpse of the goddess Kali, wife of Siva, was cut in pieces by order of the gods, one of her fingers fell here, and a temple was raised in her honour. The present temple was built three hundred years ago, and renewed in 1809; its priests are called "Haldar,” and amass great wealth from the daily offerings of pilgrims. There are many festivals, to which immense crowds resort, especially on the second day of the Durja Puja, the great Bengali religious festival in honour of the goddess, held at the autumnal equinox. The street off which

CALCUTTA.

the temple lies is full of shops for the sale of idol pictures, images and charms. When we arrived, sacrifices were being offered in the midst of an excited crowd. In an area before the temple stood the priest, and beside him the executioner, sword in hand. We saw three kids and two buffaloes sacrificed. The head of the victim is fastened in a wooden vice, its body is held up by the hind legs, and the sacrificer strikes with his sword. If the head is severed with one stroke, the victim is considered acceptable to the goddess, and its blood is collected by the priest, carried into the shrine, and sprinkled upon her huge projecting tongue. We could see in the distance the hideous idol within, its tongue streaming with blood. If the head of the animal is not severed with the first stroke, it is considered unacceptable, and is cast aside. The officiating Brahman, almost naked, with

the sacred cord round his neck, was a fierce-looking, but very shrewd man. He could speak English. We found that he had been when a boy five years at the Bhowanipore Mission School, and that a near kinsman of his was a convert to Christianity and a missionary. Upon my saying, "How can you carry on these revolting rites? You know that they are vain, and a pretence," he replied, "Yes, I know it; but the people will have it, and I must get my living." The man evidently disbelieved in his heathenism, and might be a professor of Christianity if he saw it would pay. It was strange and saddening to see these bloody, exciting, and degrading rites amid a huge gathering of devotees within a few miles of English civilisation and fashion. Only a mile away is the large college and compound of the London Mission. Two miles nearer town stands the cathedral of St. Paul, in "the