CHAPTER XVI.

CALCUTTA.

CALCUTTA, INDIA, Jan. 1, 1890.

We arrived here yesterday, after a delightful trip from Madras, and at once went to our rooms at a first-class hotel, engaged some time ago. Mine happens to be a wooden barn-like structure built on the roof of a six-story building, which gives me a chance to look down upon the famous city of palaces and immense parks--a great show, particularly at night, when the streets are illuminated by gas and electricity.

We were told that Calcutta was a dreadfully hot place, but last night I had my overcoat on, and was very comfortable, the thermometer being seventy-two degrees.

I have just returned from a tramp about the city, and find it one of the finest I have seen--population one million; splendid government and other buildings, great parks, fine wide streets and sidewalks, and every appearance of advanced civilization.

The natives are a handsome race, dressed in their picturesque costumes. White and native soldiers in brilliant uniforms are to be met everywhere, and the whole scene is one of great beauty.

A royal prince is here to-day, the stores are shut, and a great review of soldiers is going on. The rush for rooms at the hotels is so great that I hear of a Major-General of the British army who is to sleep in a bathroom near us to-night. On the morning of the 2d instant we took a carriage drive around the city, starting at 10 A.M. and returning at 1.30.

The Botanical Gardens established in 1792 are very fine and well kept, but nothing like the one in Kandy, Ceylon. We saw the famous banyan tree, one hundred years old, the main trunk of which is 42 feet in circumference, the crown 850 feet in circumference; there being 234 roots which strike down from the branches into the earth. These roots and branches become little trees themselves. In the garden were two beautiful avenues of palm trees, each a quarter of a mile long. I was much interested in a bridge of boats that we passed over. It was twelve hundred feet long and seventy feet wide, rising and falling with the tide sixteen feet. I have seen several bridges made of boats in different parts of the world, but none so large and substantial as this.

We went in the afternoon to the great fort, and inspected the immense fortifications, with their great guns and piles of balls. A marriage had just taken place in the garrison church, and the party were out on the lawn waiting for the arrival of carriages. The brilliant uniforms of the officers and the handsomely dressed ladies made a fine show. The church is an exceedingly beautiful one, with many costly monuments erected to keep in memory the glorious deeds of England's heroes, statesmen, and scholars.

In the great Cathedral there were many splendid monuments, one to the good Bishop Heber, a name dear to the hearts of all Christians for the beautiful hymn he wrote, "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," and though I have heard it sung in many churches all over the world, it always seems fresh, inspiring, and beautiful.

There was a beautiful monument to Lord Elgin, who was Governor-General of India, and before that, of Canada, in whose history I had a personal interest, having seen him and obtained from his hands a marriage license at Montreal in 1847.

We went to a public building, in the yard of which was marked out the size of a prison known as the Black Hole. It was underground, 18 × 25 feet, where the 20th of January, 1756, one hundred and forty-six persons were confined, and the next morning only twenty-three were alive. In one of the churches near was a monument erected to the memory of Job Charnock, a sailor, who, before Calcutta came into the possession of England, came ashore with a boat-load of companions to see the sights. They saw a widow placed on a funeral pyre all ready to ignite and burn her alive, which was the custom in those days. The natives set fire to the wood, which was too much for the gallant sailor; so he rushed in and saved the woman, and, it is related, subsequently married her, and settled down as a merchant in Calcutta, where he became rich.

Returning along the road beside a park a mile or two long we met many fine turn-outs, containing Indian and English nabobs, and among them was a coach and four with the widow and children of the late King of Oude, who were taking an airing. The ladies and children were in very gay costumes, and looked exceedingly pretty. The show was a very brilliant one, far surpassing any thing of the kind to be seen in any other country.