Across India; Or, Live Boys in the Far East, Oliver Optic [read along books TXT] 📗

and quite as good on board ship as in institutions of learning. Do you wish to accept the invitation, Mr. Scott?" asked the commander.

"I should be exceedingly happy to do so."

"Then ask Mr. Boulong's permission."

"Granted!" shouted the first officer, who stood within hearing.

"Mr. Bland, give my compliments to Captain Sharp, and inform him that his invitation is unanimously accepted by both passengers and guests, and we will be on board at five o'clock," said Captain Ringgold, addressing the officer from the Blanche; and he went over the side into his boat.

"You don't give us much time to get ready, Mr. Commander," said Mrs. Belgrave, as all the ladies hurried away to the cabin to prepare for the grand occasion that had so suddenly dawned upon them.

"Elaborate toilets are hardly expected at sea, out of sight of land. Claw-hammer coats are not imperative, gentlemen," said the captain.

Though the two steamers were not in a hurry, both of them resumed their course as soon as the Blanche's boat was hoisted up to the davits; for it is part of the shipmaster's gospel to "keep moving" under all possible circumstances, and to lose no time in arriving at his destined port. All the passengers went below to prepare for the dinner. The Blanche had come within fifty yards of her consort, as the sea was quite smooth.

"Where is that music, Mr. Boulong?" asked the captain, opening the door from his cabin to the pilothouse.

"From the Blanche, Captain."

"But it seems to be a band. Is it an orchestrion?"

"Not at all; there are eight pieces of music on the promenade deck. It seems that His Highness has a small band on board, though I have not heard it before," added the first officer.

The commander thought the music was very fine, and he concluded that Captain Sharp was running near the Guardian-Mother for the purpose of giving the band an introduction to the consort. Besides the ship's company, there was no one on board of the Blanche but the general and Mrs. Sharp; and the Pacha, accustomed as he was to merriment and revelry, must have been rather lonesome. But it was already proved that he was a reformed man, and had entirely changed his manner of life.

The barge, which was a large eight-oar boat, had been made ready to lower into the water, and the gangway had been rigged out. Though it was winter, the ship was in 18� north latitude, and the weather was as mild and pleasant as in midsummer. There was no spray, and the ladies could go to the Blanche as comfortably as in a carriage on shore.

At quarter before five the gong was sounded in the cabin and on deck to call the party together in the boudoir, where they were to assemble. The ship stopped at the mandate of the captain, and the barge was lowered, and brought to the gangway. The boat was as handsome as anything that ever floated, and the stern-sheets were luxurious enough for a fairy craft. The crew of nine were all dressed in their white uniforms, and sat with their oars tossed, except the cockswain, who stood bolt upright abaft the back-board.

There were sixteen in the party, and the "Big Four" made their way to the fore-sheets; the ladies were handed into the stern by the three guests, and the barge shoved off. The Blanche had taken a position on the beam of the Guardian-Mother, her band playing for all they were worth. Captain Sharp was on the platform of the gangway, and took every lady by the hand as he assisted her to disembark. At the head of the gangway on deck stood General Noury, who received the ladies, all of whom he had met before; and the distinguished guests were presented to him, after which he shook hands with every other member of the party. He was especially respectful, and even reverential, to the commander of the Guardian-Mother, who had forgiven so much in his past conduct.

Mrs. Sharp came in for a large share of the consideration of the visitors. An hour was spent in the drawing-room, as they called the deck cabin, which was as large as the boudoir and music-room of the Guardian-Mother. The band had laid aside their brass instruments, and organized as an orchestra, stationed in a sort of recess in the forward part of the cabin. The general conversed with every person in the party; and when Scott addressed him as "Your Highness," he protested that he did not wish to hear the expression again.

He talked French with Louis, Italian with Sir Modava, and Spanish with Lord Tremlyn; for it was understood that he spoke at least half a dozen languages besides his own, and the guests found he was equally fluent in all they knew. To Miss Blanche he was very polite; but he did not give a moment more to her than to the other ladies, much to the satisfaction of her parents.

The dinner was fully equal to Mr. Sage's best efforts, and the occasion was as hilarious and as pleasant as it could be. Possibly the English guests missed their wine on such an occasion. Lord Tremlyn declared that he seldom drank it at all, and Dr. Ferrolan said the same; and Sir Modava was the strictest sort of a teetotaler, having been engaged in preaching this doctrine among the Sepoys as opportunity offered. The captain of the Blanche informed the commander of the Guardian-Mother that the general had never touched wine since he came on board.

After dinner several of the gentlemen sang songs, and the general gave one in Moroccan, which amused the party, though they could not understand a word of it. Later in the evening Captain Ringgold made a speech complimentary to General Noury, and wished him many happy returns of the occasion they celebrated. He was followed by Dr. Hawkes, Uncle Moses, Professor Giroud, and then by the three distinguished guests from the Travancore.

The general replied to all of them at the close of the entertainment. He was a pleasant speaker, and his handsome face added a great deal to his words. The affair was declared to be a great success for a dinner-party at sea, and the commander of the Guardian-Mother invited all their hosts to assist him in a similar one on board his ship, the signal for which was to be the American Union Jack when the weather was suitable.

The party returned to their ocean home; and the commander spent the rest of the evening in telling his guests the story of General Noury, and especially of his wonderful reformation.

"Then Captain Sharp really saved his life?" added Lord Tremlyn.

"No doubt of it. The two ruffians in a street of Messina had disabled the general, and would certainly have finished him if the captain had not wounded one with his revolver, and tackled the other. He owes his life to Sharp without a doubt. Mrs. Sharp took care of him for quite a time while he was recovering from his wound, and she made a deep impression upon him. He is a Mohammedan, and he sticks to his religion; but even that is capable of making a better man of him than he was before."

"I was much pleased with Mrs. Sharp, not because she is an English woman, but because she is a very worthy person," added his lordship.

"You are quite right, my lord, and she has had a romantic history;" and before they retired he had told the whole of it.

At the usual time the next day the company were assembled in Conference Hall; and when the commander announced that Lord Tremlyn would address them on the general subject, "The People of India," they manifested their interest by a liberal salvo of applause.

CHAPTER XII THE POPULATION AND PEOPLE OF INDIA

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to appear before you, and to look you all in the face," his lordship began as the applause subsided. "The task befaw me is to put a gallon of fluid into a pint pot. It cawn't be done. I shall not attempt to do what is quite impossible. I can only put in what the vessel will hold. I cawn't say all there is to be said about the people of India in an hour, or even two or three hours."

The noble gentleman was an easy, pleasant, and fluent speaker, evidently quite accustomed to addressing public assemblies; but he had certain peculiarities of speech, a very few of them, which sounded just a little odd to the Americans, as doubtless some of their pronunciation did to the Britons. But there is hardly a perceptible difference in the pronunciation of highly trained speakers of one nation and the other. It is not necessary to indicate any farther the slightly peculiar speech of the accomplished gentleman.

"I can only select from the mass of material before me what I think will be most interesting and useful to you; for I have been warned that I must not talk all day," continued the viscount.

"We leave that to your lordship's own judgment," added Captain Ringgold.

"I will be merciful, Mr. Commander: as merciful as possible. Next to China, India is the most populous country on the globe; and without Nepaul, it numbered, in 1891, 287,223,917, or more than one-seventh of the people on the face of the earth; and the increase in the last decade was almost 28,000,000,--enough to populate about a dozen of your larger States.

"In spite of its vast population, India cannot be said to be a very densely peopled region; 184 to the square mile for the whole country. The mountain territory is quite thinly settled. All the native states have but 108 to the square mile, though the plains of the Ganges show about 400. About Benares and Patna the average is about double these figures. I was looking at the 'Year-Book' in your library, and I saw that the average in the States, including Alaska, is about 18 to the square mile; but the nine States in the north-east have 107.

"The little bit of a State of Rhode Island leads in the density of its population, with 318, while Massachusetts comes next with 278. New Jersey has 193, Connecticut, 154; the big States of New York and Pennsylvania have respectively 126 and 117. In the United Kingdom the average in England is 541; in Scotland, 135; in Wales, 206; and in Ireland, 144. The density of India, therefore, is quite respectable by comparison.

"By the census of 1891, India has seventy-five towns with over 50,000 inhabitants, and twenty-eight with over 100,000; but unlike three cities of the States, it has not one with over a million, though Calcutta and Bombay are likely to reach that distinction in another decade. You have not a monopoly of the fast-growing cities in the States."

"We have found out that Berlin has increased faster than Chicago," said Uncle Moses with a chuckle; "and Glasgow has got ahead of Liverpool."

"Quite true, Mr. Scarburn; but the States have not all the fast-growing cities of the world, wonderful as the increase has been in some of them. Europe, Asia, and Australia are alive. The nearest approaches to a million in India are Calcutta, 861,764, and Bombay, 821,764; but I dare say you are all quite tired of statistics by this time."

"Not at all, Lord Tremlyn; as you present them they are quite interesting." said Mrs. Belgrave.

"Thank you, madam," replied the speaker, bowing low, with his hand on his heart. "Now I am going to speak of the people as other than mere numbers; and if I wished to entangle you inextricably, I should go back about 4,000 years, and tell you about the people down to the present time. I spare you the infliction in full. Four groups of languages are spoken among the natives, and from these the original races that spoke them are traced out.

"I mention one as a specimen, the Kolarian language, spoken by those who first settled in the hilly regions of the central part. The others are the Aryan, Dravidian, and Tibeto-Burman, all of which you will find in 'Chambers's' in your library.

"The word Hindu is generally used in a very broad sense to cover all the native population of Hindustan or India; but it is really applicable to a religion, and belongs only to those of the Hindu, or the faith of the Brahmins; but, like most others, it consists of a great number of sects. Of this belief there are about 200,000,000 people. They are divided into four grand classes, called