Prince. "What nation first made steamships?"
"America, your Highness. The steam-engine was invented in England, and an American adapted it to ships."
Woondouk. "Those are the people who went out from you, and you could not govern them, and they set up for themselves."
Envoy. "Precisely. Just as the people of Aracan, of your own race and religion, settled in that country, and had a king of their own, and you lost dominion over them." (Much good-humored laughter at this reply.)
Speaking of the friendly relations between England and France, the Envoy explained that communication is kept up constantly between the two countries by means of the electric telegraph. (To the Woondouk.) "You have seen the telegraph in Bengal, and will be able to inform his Highness about it."
Woondouk. "They put a wire on posts above the ground, or bury it underneath, carrying it over mountains and through rivers; and at certain stations apart there are magnetic needles, which shake to denote the letters of the words of a message that is sent. Thus they converse together, though they are hundreds of miles apart."
This Woondouk, Moung Mhon, was a very astute and ingenious man. When he accompanied the old Dalla-Woon on a mission to the Governor-General, he was taken on one occasion, by Major Phayre and Colonel Baker, to make a short excursion on the East India Railway. When his attention was called to the great speed at which they were travelling, he made no remark, except to ask the interval between two telegraph posts on the line; and then, counting the beats of his own pulse, and making a mental estimate of the rapidity with which he passed those intervals, he quietly said, "Yes, we are going very fast."
Woondouk. "Now where was the electric telegraph first discovered?"
Envoy. "I believe the discovery was nearly contemporaneous in England and America."
Woondouk. "But it must have been in one place or the other."