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

Sir Modava and Dr. Ferrolan also declined, for reasons given. The company had called upon some of the officials of the government and officers of the army, at the request of his lordship, and most of them made parting calls the next forenoon; and the viceroy sent his private secretary, with the best wishes of his Excellency for a prosperous voyage, to them. After tiffin they all went on board, where their baggage had been sent before, the Italian band playing all the time on Captain O'Flaherty's steamer, which put them on board.

General Noury had sent word to Captain Sharp that he should continue with the party to Colombo, and that he could proceed at once to that port. In fact, he liked the company of the party on board of the Guardian-Mother so well that he was not inclined to part with them at present.

The passengers took possession of their staterooms, and there was still one left for the general, and the band was quartered in the library. The hour for sailing had been fixed at three o'clock; and just before that time the Cherub, Captain O'Flaherty, appeared, having on board a regimental band and the friends of Lord Tremlyn, Sir Modava, and Dr. Ferrolan, who extended to them the compliment of an escort, and, incidentally, to the commander and his passengers.

About half an hour before the time for sailing a shore boat came up to the gangway, and a well-dressed gentleman with a swarthy face ascended the steps. He asked to see Captain Ringgold, and he was called down from the upper deck. It was Mazagan.

"I have called, Captain, to remind you that our account has not yet been settled," said the villanous Moor. "I have another to add to it, for the destruction of the Fatim�, his Highness the Pacha Ali-Noury's steam-yacht, which he authorizes me to collect."

"Does he, indeed?" replied the captain, laughing; for, having the "weather gauge" of the rascal, he was disposed to treat the matter very lightly.

"I have the account in the handwriting of his Highness," added Mazagan, as he presented a paper written in good English.

"Very well; but I prefer to settle the account with his Highness himself," added the commander, as he touched an electric bell, which brought Sparks to the boudoir into which they had gone. "Ask the general to come here," he said in a low tone to the steward.

"But I do not choose to wait a year or two for a settlement," protested the visitor.

"You need not wait five minutes," added Captain Ringgold.

The Moor began to go over his story again, but it was interrupted by the entrance of General Noury. Mazagan looked at him, and seemed to be unable to believe the evidence of his own eyes. The commander stated the case to him.

"Is this account in your handwriting, General?" he asked.

"Certainly not," replied the Pacha. "We have discussed this matter fully, and I have no claim whatever against you; neither has this man. I settled all my accounts with him; and I have his receipt in full, signed by him, and witnessed by Captain Sharp and his wife. He is a swindler and a villain; and if I ever catch him in Morocco he shall have the bowstring!"

The general denounced him in the severest manner, and then asked the commander to send him out of the ship. Knott was at the gangway, the pirate was turned over to him, and hustled down the steps into his boat. The general expressed his regret that the captain had been annoyed by the villain again, and was confident he would never see or hear from him again; and he never did.

Promptly at the hour set the Guardian-Mother got under way, and the Cherub's band played its liveliest airs. When it stopped to rest, the Italian band played, and thus the music was kept up for three hours, when the steamers were at Diamond Harbor. Here they came alongside each other, and all the company on board the Cherub were invited to a collation on board of the Guardian-Mother, at which Captain Ringgold presided, and many speeches were made by the residents of Calcutta, and by the passengers on board.

The ship's company on each vessel were not left out in the cold; for, while their officers were at the collation, Baldy Bickling, the second cook, regaled them from the abundant stores provided for the occasion, of which notice had been given to Mr. Melanchthon Sage, the chief steward, the day before. At this point adieus were exchanged, the Guardian-Mother went to sea, and the Cherub returned to Calcutta. The passengers were tired out and retired early.

It was an easy run, from Diamond Harbor to Madras in two days and a half, for the Guardian-Mother. The weather was favorable, and the tourists used their time in getting rested. The social occasions, the playing of the band, and the singing in the music-room, made plenty of variety. But the commander did not lose sight of what he regarded as one of the principal objects of the long voyage, the instruction of the young people, and incidentally of the elder ones.

On the forenoon of the second day out the passengers were called together in Conference Hall, and they were glad to assemble there again. The temperature was moderate, the sea was in its most cheerful mood, and, after their long stay on shore, they were glad to be out of sight of land again. Mr. Gaskette had been busy during the vacation the ship's company had obtained at Bombay and Calcutta; had made several new maps, one of which was the shores of the Bay and Sea of Bengal from Calcutta to the southern point of Ceylon; and he had enlarged a small map of Ceylon, to be used when the ship arrived at Colombo, or sooner. It was Sir Modava who mounted the platform for this occasion; and he was received with the heartiest applause, for he had become even more popular than at first.

"I am to tell you something, not much, about Madras, where we shall arrive about this time day after to-morrow," the Hindu gentleman began; and the usual smile which had fascinated all the ladies was on his face. "Madras is the third city in population of India, or next to Bombay, with 452,518 souls, by the census published last year. It is on the Coromandel coast, which is nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency. It is nearly the entire western shore of the Sea of Bengal, including the bay, as the northern part of it is called in modern times. There is scarcely a single safe harbor for large vessels.

"I suppose you have often heard the expression, 'in the Carnatic,' for it is memorable as the scene of the struggle in the last century between England and France for the supremacy of India. Though there is no state with that name, nearly the whole coast region south of the Godavery River retains this name. In fact, there is no little confusion of names in many parts of India. The country near the Arabian Sea still receives the designation of the Deccan, from the Kistna River to the Gulf of Cambay on the north. But this name does not belong to a political division," continued the speaker, pointing out every location and river he named.

"Madras extends along the shore nine miles, and is thus exposed to the fury of the sea for this distance; for it is not on a river, like Calcutta, or a sheltered bay, like Bombay. Formerly, on the approach of a cyclone, vessels lying in the roadstead, as the only harbor it had, which was no harbor, had to put to sea to avoid being driven on the shore. Decidedly it was a very inconvenient place to build a city; but the town formerly consisted of a number of villages, which have been united, after the fashion of some of your American cities.

"An attempt has been in progress the last twenty years to make a harbor in the shape of an enclosure of strong walls, about half a mile square. It was seriously damaged by a cyclone a dozen years ago; but they are still at work upon it, though it is said to be doubtful whether or not it will ever be safe for ships in a violent storm. There is always a heavy surf rolling in on this coast, even in what the commander would call a smooth sea."

"Then how shall we get ashore there?" inquired Mrs. Belgrave.

"The natives construct a boat, which is a sort of raft of planks, tied together with ropes, called a masul�h, which passes through the surf very well in ordinary weather; but no boat could live in a cyclone in a sea there, for the waves are fourteen feet high."

"I should like to try it with the second cutter, so far as the waves are concerned; but bumping on the bottom might spoil the attempt," said Mr. Gaskette, who was standing by his map.

"It would not be prudent in a cyclone, and I trust you will have no occasion to try the experiment," added Sir Modava. "But cyclones are rare here, except from the last of May and into June, and in October, November, and early in December; so that the port is not liable to more than two storms a year. The average rainfall is forty-nine inches, falling on ninety-five days; but in seventy-four years, ending two years ago, it varied from a foot and a half to seven feet and four inches. It is dry here some years, and rather damp when they get eighty-eight inches.

"Going to Madras in March, the temperature of the place is of no consequence to you, except as a matter of curiosity, being in the Torrid Zone. It will be from 76� to 88� while you are here. The average temperature for the year is 82�; in the hot months it rises to over 100�; the highest in twenty-seven years was 113�, and the lowest 57.6�. A sea-breeze often sets in about noon, lasting till sunset, greatly modifying the heat. I think I need say no more about the city till we get there."

This talk was followed by a concert by the band. The ship sped on her course, though something to instruct and amuse was going on all the time. At the time set Madras was in sight, and a little later the surf was seen rolling in on the shore. The depth is shallow near the land, which causes the water to break. The Guardian-Mother was anchored in the deep water, and Lord Tremlyn invited the party to proceed to the apartments at the Royal Hotel which he had bespoken for them. The commander made no further objections to the matter of expense, and the invitation was promptly accepted. A number of the masulah-boats, not the rafts, were engaged to land them. They were much like any other boat, though they were paddled, and not rowed. They saw the catamarans, constructed as the Hindu gentleman had described, paddled on the waves by a single man, wearing a sugar-loaf hat.

The masulah-boats went to the shore very comfortably, and carriages were in waiting for the party on the beach near where they landed. As they passed through the streets everything seemed to be very much as it was in Calcutta; and they saw similar palanquins, bullock-carts, and elephants. The Malabar Hindu was not very different from those of other sections of the country, though he had some peculiarities of costume.

When they reached the hotel, which was a very comfortable one, in English style, it was two hours to tiffin, and most of the party preferred to pass the time in the parlor. The live boys could not keep still, and they went out for a walk. The sights were not novel enough to hold them; and when a driver of a bullock-cart salaamed to them, and pointed to his vehicle, Felix suggested that they should take a ride. Of course, they could not speak a word of the language; and, however it may have been with other conductors of vehicles, this one did not know a word of English.

"Mavalipoor?" interrogated the driver, when the "Big Four" had seated themselves in the corners of the vehicle, which had a body like an omnibus for four, with a top like the dome of a small temple. They had no idea what the word or sentence used by the driver had been, but supposed it was something worth seeing in the town. Two palanquins went by them at full tilt, and they saw