14.
Madras from the Sea.
15.
Arrival of the Viceroy at Madras.
16.
Bombay Rampart.
We have seen that the modern capitals of India are the sea-ports. In no age before this dared men place their great cities on the open coast, for they were exposed to attack there by pirates as well as foreign enemies. The present capitals of India are therefore new towns. Calcutta is on a strip of low ground beside the bank of the River Hugli. Only 200 years ago it was a small village. Yet here to-day is a stately city, and in the river are ships from all parts of the world. Madras was a stretch of open surf-beaten coast 270 years ago, but to-day it has half-a-million people, and a harbour of stone piers built far out into the sea to break the force of the waves, so that great ships may land their passengers and cargoes in calm water. Bombay, also, some 240 years ago was an unimportant islet with only some 10,000 inhabitants, and to-day, as you know, it is a city which rivals Calcutta in its wealth and grandeur. Karachi has grown similarly from a much later beginning on an utterly sterile desert coast.
17.
Queen’s Memorial, Bombay.
18.
Bombay Harbour.
In these Lectures we are going to make a visit to the British Isles, the land in all the world which, after our own land of India, should be of the greatest interest to us, for it is the centre of the Empire to which we owe so much. We may start on our voyage from any one of the five great ports of India: Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Karachi, or Rangoon, and we shall naturally leave by that port which is most conveniently placed with reference to the particular part of India in which we live. If we sail from Bombay we will visit before we start the monument of the great Queen Victoria, who for more than 60 years ruled both India and England.
19.
Out at Sea, Deck scene.
20.
Saloon of P. and O. Steamer.
21.
Engines of P. and O. Steamer.