the hope of personal distinction,-will continue to attract our most privileged youths to India; the want of employment at home, a wandering and restless spirit, a similar love of adventure, the dazzling splendours of the East, and the very glamour of long distance, together with the possible hope (with some) of "the baton in the knapsack," will also continue to draw thither many of our young men of the humbler and even of the middle classes; just as the possibilities of commerce will attract the merchant, and the hope of converts the missionary; or as the vastness of India, the variety of her climate, the mingled races of her people, the exuberance of her animal and vegetable life, her fairy palaces, jewelled tombs, and ancient monumental stone records, will ever be attractive to the traveller. All who sojourn or live in the land must share the perils of the climate (which, however, we will hope may yet be much diminished); but if they aid in maintaining our dearly won, but on the whole just and beneficent dominion;* if they give us a larger acquaintance with the capabilities of India, help to develop those capabilities, to rid the land of its plagues, and to extend the blessings of knowledge and of commerce; if, above all, they succeed in releasing India from the debasing slavery of superstition, and making her a Christian country,—even if they lose their lives, these will not be lost or thrown away; and it will be better-far better for themselves - than to live in inglorious case at home; while if they survive to return to the land of their forefathers, it may be hoped that they will enjoy many years of pleasant retrospection and quiet observation of continued progress in India, and aid by their experience in promoting it. Only let the Government, and let Societies and others who send out our youth in any capacity, do all that is possible to guard their lives and advance their welfare; and let their motto be "FOR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY!" We may again refer to the testimony of those eminent native gentlemen whose memorial we have given on pages 26-30. WE CHAPTER XIX. FAREWELL TO INDIA! E prepare to embark for England. Since we arrived. in India the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Ship Company has been formed, and a line of their magnificent vessels is now running between Calcutta and Suez, in correspondence with other vessels of the same Company running between Alexandria and Southampton. I take passage by this route for England, receiving generous gifts ere I leave from the Governor-General and Dwarkanauth Tagore. And so I bid adieu-for awhile, as I think, but, as it proved, for ever -to Calcutta, embarking on board the Hindostan on May 14th for Suez.t We steam on. We reach Madras (keeping outside its The arrival of the first steamer in India caused an immense sensation -so also in Burmah. We read in the "Life of Bishop Wilson": "No one had ever seen the like. Thousands of natives came flocking down each hour to the riverside 'making poojah' to the engines: and the native pilots, when called to take charge of the vessel, and guide her through the intricacies of the channel, prostrated themselves in turn, before they took the helm." † Our Anglo-Indian poet, Richardson, whom we have so repeatedly quoted, penned the following sonnet "ON LEAVING INDIA. "Now for luxuriant hopes, and fancy's flowers, Grave of the wanderer, where disease and toil Have swept their countless slaves! Though danger lowers Above my homeward path, no shade o'erpowers The soul's rapt exultations. Love's sweet smile, boiling surfs) on the 20th, watch its frail catamarans dancing on the waves, stay till the 21st, and proceed. We approach the coral reefs, and see the luxurious vegetation, of Point de Galle on the 24th; land for an hour on the 25th and 26th, and then steam away: we reach the cindery rocks of Aden* on June 8th, stay to take in coal, land for a while, and on the 10th go forward; we pass through the Straits of Bab-elMandeb, and enter the Red Sea; † on Sunday the 16th we "Volcanic ashes have been found on the summit of the hill near Steamer Point. These would seem to indicate that Aden has been a centre of volcanic activity, at least in our own geological era, as they bear no resemblance to the drift sand to be seen in abundance below."-Dr. John Wilson. The meteorology of the Red Sea on the western coast of Arabia is so admirably described by Burton in his "Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah," that we cannot pass over it : "Morning. The air is mild and balmy as that of an Italian spring; thick mists roll down the valleys along the sea, and a haze like mother-o'pearl crowns the headlands. The distant rocks show Titanic walls, lofty donjons, huge projecting bastions, and moats full of deep shade. At their base runs a sea of amethyst, and, as earth receives the first touches of light, their summits, almost transparent, mingle with the jasper tints of the sky. Nothing can be more delicious than this hour. But as 'Les plus belles choses Ont le pire destin,' so morning soon fades. The sun bursts up from behind the main-a fierce enemy, a foe that will compel every one to crouch before him. He dyes the sky orange and the sea 'incarnadine,' where its violet surface is stained by his rays, and mercilessly puts to flight the mists and haze and the little agate-coloured masses of cloud that were before floating in the firmament; the atmosphere is so clear that now and then a planet is visible. For the two hours following sunrise the mists are endurable; after that they become a fiery ordeal. The morning beams oppress you with a feeling of sickness; their steady glow, reflected by the glowing waters, blinds your eyes, blisters your skin, and parches your mouth; you now become a monomaniac; you do nothing but count the slow hours that must minute by' before you can be relieved. "Noon. The wind, reverberated by the glowing hills, is like the blast of a limekiln. All colour melts away with the canescence from above. The sky is a dead milk-white, and the mirror-like sea so reflects the tint that you can scarcely distinguish the line of the horizon. After noon the wind sleeps upon the reeking shore; there is a deep stillness; the only sound heard is the melancholy flapping of the sail. Men are not so much sleeping as half senseless; they feel as if a few more degrees of heat would be death. "Sunset. The enemy sinks behind the deep cerulean sea, under a canopy of gigantic rainbow which covers half the face of heaven. Nearest to the horizon is an arch of tawny orange; above it another of the brightest gold; and based upon these a semicircle of tender sea-green blends with a score of delicate gradations into the sapphire sky. Across the rainbow the sun throws its rays in the form of spokes tinged with a beautiful pink. The have within view the towering summits of Sinai; and on the 17th arrive at Suez, the locality of the Israelitish exodus. We are borne away on the shoulders of a lusty one-eyed Arab,* and step ashore in Egypt-the land of mummies, pyramids, sphinxes, obelisks, hieroglyphics, and cities waiting to be disentombed; starting the same afternoon, we cross some eighty-three miles of desert on the back of a camel (in the absence of sufficient carriage accommodation), through sands strewn with skeletons; and on the morning of the 19th reach Cairo, "beautiful Cairo," famous for its Mosques, Minarets, and Caravanserais. (Cairo is particularly interesting as the centre of all church life and administration, both for Egypt and for the Churches in Abyssinia and India which owe allegiance to the Coptic Patriarch; the Copts themselves, the lineal descendants of the ancient Egyptians, whom they much resemble, having maintained the Christian religion in Egypt for the last eighteen hundred years under much persecution, and still keeping themselves a perfectly distinct people, side by side with the Mussulman races, whom it is hoped they will eastern sky is mantled with a purple flush that picks out the forms of the hazy desert and the sharp-cut hills. Language is a thing too cold, too poor, to express the harmony and the majesty of this hour, which is evanescent, however, as it is lovely. Night falls rapidly; when suddenly the appearance of the zodiacal light restores the scene to what it was. 66 Again, the grey hills and the grim rocks become red or golden, the palms green, the sands saffron, and the sea wears a lilac surface of dimpling waves. But after a quarter of an hour all fades once more; the cliffs are naked and ghastly under the moon, whose light falling upon this wilderness of white crags and pinnacles is most strange-most mysterious. "Night.-The horizon is all of darkness, and the sea reflects the white visage of the moon as in a mirror of steel. In the air we see giant columns of pallid light, distinct, based upon the indigo-coloured waves, and standing with their heads lost in endless space. The stars glitter with exceeding brilliance. At this hour --' River, and hill, and wood, With all the numberless goings on of life, the planets look down upon you with the faces of smiling friends. You feel the sweet influence of the Pleiades.' You are bound by the bond of Orion; Hesperus bears with him a thousand things. In communion with them your hours pass swiftly by till the heavy dews warn you to cover up your face and sleep. And with one look at a certain little star in the north, under which lies all that makes life worth living through-surely it is a venial superstition to sleep with your face towards that Kiblah!—you fall into oblivion." * We found many of the Arabs wearing a bandage over one eye; and learned, in explanation, that it had been the custom to blind an eye, to prevent being taken for forced service in the army. eventually, by God's help, convert.) We are unable, alas! to visit the Pyramids, or the Petrified Forest, but, bidding adieu to Cairo in the evening, descending the mysterious Nile, so full of sacred and historic associations, and proceeding through the Mahmoudie Canal,-in making which 150,000 people were forcibly employed, 35,000 of whom perished during the seven months of its construction,-reach Alexandria on the 21st. We visit and look with profound interest on Pompey's Pillar, reputed to have once belonged to the famous and magnificent LIBRARY burnt by Omar, which scholars will never cease to mourn. The pillar itself seems to resemble a flame of fire, and so vindicates its history.* We seat ourselves on the prostrate Cleopatra's Needle,† and think, as we look around, on the mighty PAST. Alexandria, with all her wondrous memories, has not the power to detain us: our steamer -the Great Liverpool-is about to start, and we must hasten away. And yet we must pause a moment to pay a tribute to our distinguished countryman THOMAS WAGHORN, THE PIONEER OF THE OVERLAND ROUTE BETWEEN INDIA AND ENGLAND.‡ "Pillar of Pompey! gazing o'er the sea, † Since erected on the Thames Embankment. MICHELL. The story of Waghorn is so remarkable that we must be pardoned if we make a note of it. Born at Chatham, in the year 1800, he became a midshipman in the Royal Navy at twelve years of age, and, before he had reached seventeen, passed in "navigation" for lieutenant, being the youngest "middy" that had ever done so-a foreshadowing of his subsequent energetic career. At the close of 1817 he was paid off. and went as third mate of a free-trader to Calcutta; he returned to England, and in 1819 was appointed to the Pilot Service in Bengal, in which he remained till 1824, when, at the request of the Bengal Government, he volunteered for the Arracan war, and was appointed to the command of the Matchless and a division of gunboats. He served two years and a half in that war, saw much rough work by sea and land, exhibited great daring and skill, received the thanks of the authorities, and returned to Calcutta in 1827. He then made known a plan he had conceived for opening steam communication between our Eastern possessions and the mother country round the Cape, and, with official encouragement, proceeded to England to promulgate and advocate his views. But little attention was given him, and his proposals and plans were rejected. In 1829, however, he was commissioned by Lord Ellenborough, then President of the Board of Control, to proceed to India, |