"ladies and gentlemen, it affords me very great pleasure to present to you sir modava rao, who has kindly consented to give you a lesson on the geography of india," said captain ringgold when the company were seated in conference hall.

this announcement was greeted with unusually stormy applause, in which the ladies joined, and then flourished their handkerchiefs as an additional welcome to the handsome hindu.

"i have also the pleasure to inform you that lord tremlyn and dr. ferrolan have indulgently permitted me to call upon them for the instruction in regard to india which they are so abundantly competent to give us," continued the commander with a very pleasant smile upon his dignified countenance. "their subjects have been arranged, and i congratulate you and myself upon the satisfaction with which we shall all listen to these able exponents of the present condition of this interesting country. sir modava rao, ladies and gentlemen."

the hindu gentleman was again received with vigorous and long-continued applause. his handsome face, the expression of which was intensified by the fascinating smile that played upon his black eyes and around his finely moulded mouth, was not wasted upon the ladies, or even upon the gentlemen; and it was a considerable time before the plaudits of the company permitted him to speak; and he stood upon the rostrum bowing so sweetly that he was irresistible to the assembly.

"mr. commander, ladies and gentlemen," he began, "i have no claim upon you for the exceeding warmth of the reception you have given me, and i thank you with all my heart for all your kindness to me, a shipwrecked stranger on board of your ship. i shall give you as briefly and clearly as i can what i know about the geography of india. i understand that this was the subject to be treated by captain ringgold; and i am confident that he could have done it quite as well as i can, though i am 'to the manner born.' but i will proceed with the subject, without wasting any more of your valuable time.

"india is a vast territory, forming the southern peninsula of asia, with a population, including the native states, of very nearly two hundred and fifty-four million people," continued the speaker, taking a paper from his pocket. "i have received a hint from your worthy commander that i ought to give a comparison of my figures with those of the united states, and our population is about four times as great as that of your country.

"the area in square miles is more than a million and a half, enough larger than your country to cover the state of georgia;" and the speaker indulged in a cheerful smile. "i did not know what i am saying now till this morning; for i have been studying the 'statesman's year-book,' in order to comply with the commander's request.

"the name of india came originally from the persians, and was first applied to the territory about the sindhu river, its sanscrit name, the early literary language of india. a slight change, and the river was called the hind, which is still the language of the natives, while the country around it is hind, from which comes hindu, and hindustan; but these designations really belong to a province, though they are now given very generally to the whole peninsula," continued sir modava, turning to the enormous map which had been painted by mr. gaskette and his assistants.

"hind, or hindustan, is the territory near the jumna and ganges rivers, of which more will be said later," as he pointed out these great watercourses, and then drew his pointer around sind, now called sinde, on the border of beloochistan.

"how do you spell hindustan, sir modava?" inquired mrs. belgrave." "we used to write it hindoostan when i went to school."

"i think the orthography of the word is a matter of fashion, for the letter u in most european and asiatic languages is pronounced like the english oo; but it is now almost universally spelled with a u. it is now almost generally absorbed in the name of india, and the application of the term to the whole of the peninsula is entirely erroneous; and english authorities usually pronounce it so.

"the name india is now given to the peninsula lying to the eastward of the bay of bengal. siam and tongking are in native possession, or under the protection of france, while burma is a part of the british indian empire. it was only last year that the french had a brush with siam, and materially strengthened their position there; and it will not be a calamity when all these half-civilized nations are subjected to the progressive influences which prevail in india proper, in spite of all that is said about the greed for power on the part of the great nations of the world.

"but i am wandering from my subject. india is about 1,900 miles in extent from north to south, and 1,600 in breadth in latitude 25° north. the boundaries of this vast country, established by nature for the most part, are the bay of bengal (now called a sea in the southern portion) on the south-east, and the arabian sea on the south-west. on the north the himalaya mountains separate it from china, thibet, and turkestan; but some of these countries are called by various names, as chinese tartary, mongolia, eastern turkestan, and so on. on the west are beloochistan and afghanistan, and on the east siam and china, though the boundaries were somewhat disturbed last summer in the former."

"we used to pronounce the name of your great northern range of mountains hi-ma-lay'-a; you do not call it so, sir modava," said the commander.

"i have always called it hi-mal'-a-ya, the a after the accented syllable being very slightly sounded; this is the pronunciation of all the indian officials," replied the speaker, with his pleasant smile. "these mountains consist of a number of ranges; they extend 1,500 miles east and west, and are the sources of the indus, ganges, and brahmaputra. the highest is mount everest, the loftiest mountain in the world, 29,002 feet; and i could mention several other peaks which overtop any of the andes. himalaya means 'the abode of snow,' and the foot-hills are the resorts of the wealthy to obtain a cool climate in the summer.

"india is remarkable for its fertility, and its luxuriant growth of plants of all sorts, from the productions of the torrid zone to those of the temperate in the hilly regions of the north. it is abundantly watered by the ganges, the brahmaputra, the jumna, the indus, the godavari, and other great streams. the ganges, though it does not vie with the great rivers of america, is 1,557 miles in length. to the natives it is a sacred river, and the land through which it flows is holy ground. to bathe in its waters washes away sin; to die and be buried on its shores procures a free admission to the eternal paradise of heaven.

"the ganges canal, constructed in 1854, is 445 miles long, and is used for both navigation and irrigation. doubtless you will sail upon it, and learn more about it. near the indus are two deserts, one 500 miles long, and the other 400, though the grains may be cultivated in the valleys and other low places; and perhaps these regions will be reclaimed by artificial irrigation. in ancient times gold-mines were worked in the south-west, and the currency consisted of this metal instead of silver, as at the present time; but the veins were exhausted, and the mysore mines are all that is left of them.

"i suppose you americans have been accustomed to regard india as an exceedingly hot country; and this is quite true of a considerable portion of it. in a region extending from the almost tropical island of ceylon, nearly 2,000 miles to the snow-capped summits of the highest mountains in the world, there must necessarily be a great variety of climate. india has three well-defined seasons,--the cool, the hot, and the rainy. the cool months are november, december, january, and a part of february.

"the rainy season comes in the middle of the summer, earlier or later, and ends in september. winter is the pleasantest season of the year; but autumn, unlike england, is hot, moist, and unhealthy. monsoon comes from an arabian or persian word, meaning a season; and you have learned something about it by this time. it is applied to the south-west winds of the indian ocean, changing to the north or north-east in the winter. this wind produces rain, and when they infrequently fail, portions of the country are subjected to famines.

"at an elevation of 7,200 feet the temperature is an average of 58° fahrenheit, as i shall give all readings of the thermometer. at madras, on the south-east coast, it is 83°; at bombay, 84°; calcutta, 79°; and in delhi, in latitude 29° (about the same as the northern part of florida), it is 72°. these annual average temperatures will not seem high to you; but i beg you not to form a wrong impression, for the heat of summer is generally oppressive, and the average temperature is considerably reduced by the coolness of the winter months. in delhi, quoted at 72°, the glass often indicates over 100°.

"the rain varies greatly in different regions. in the north-east it exceeds 75 inches, and in one remarkable year 600 inches fell at an observatory in north-east bengal. in some of the western parts it is only 30 inches, while it is hardly 15 on the southern shores of the indus. i think i must have sufficiently wearied you, ladies and gentlemen."

"no! no! no!" almost shouted the company with one voice; and perhaps there was something so fascinating in the manner of the distinguished hindu which exorcised all weariness from their minds and bodies.

"thank you with all my heart; but really you must permit me to retire, for i am somewhat fatigued, if you are not, and i shall be happy to contribute to your entertainment at another time," replied the speaker; and he retired from the platform.

"i shall next call upon mr. woolridge, who will speak to you of the fauna of india," said the commander.

the magnate of the fifth avenue, not much accustomed to speaking in public, was somewhat diffident about addressing the company in the presence of those who were so well versed in indian lore; but he conquered his modesty, and took his place on the stand. in expressing his appreciation of the last speaker, he mentioned that he occupied a difficult position in the presence of those who knew india as they knew their alphabet, and begged them to consider his talk as addressed only to the americans of the party. the guests declared that they should be very glad to hear him; and he bowed, smiled, and proceeded with his remarks:--

"fortunately i have not much to say, for it will consist mainly of the mention of the names of the principal animals in the fauna of india," he began.

"are all the animals fawns?" asked mrs. blossom, who evidently mistook the meaning of the term used.

"no, madam; some of them are snakes. but i shall refer the serpents to sir modava; for i am very anxious to hear the views of a native on that subject. the cattle are cows, buffaloes, and oxen, the two latter used as draft animals, and as agricultural workers. bulls and cows are sacred beasts, and the hindus never kill them for food."

"except christianized natives, like myself," interpolated sir modava.

"thank you. the native breeds of horses have been greatly improved under the direction of the horse-fancying briton; but they are never used on the farm. ponies, donkeys, and mules are in use for various purposes. there are plenty of sheep and goats--so there are of hogs; but the higher of the middle class, like the jews, regard them as unclean beasts, and would as soon take poison as eat the flesh of a pig. i don't sympathize with them, for i like roast pork when it is well brought up and kept clean.

"monkeys are as tame as they are mischievous; and doubtless they are tame because they are held to be sacred, and have a better time than they do in africa and elsewhere. but all the fun of the fauna is concentrated in the wild animals, such as the tiger (about the gamiest 'critter' that exists), the panther, cheetah, boar, bear, elephant, and rhinoceros. two kinds of crocodiles (not alligators) live in the mud and water of the rivers; and i suppose they snap up a man or woman when they get a chance, as they do in the philippine islands and other countries. i advise you all to give them a wide berth; for their bite is worse than their bark, like that of some men we know of.

"there are plenty of deer to furnish a dainty and healthy diet for the meat-eating wild animals, including the lion, which is not much of a king of beasts here, the hyena, the lynx, and the wolf. all of these last take a back seat compared with the tiger. game and other birds would make a hunter's paradise if it were not for the snakes and tigers, which are unpleasant to an american when his piece is loaded with only birdshot.

"in the towns on the sea the fish are excellent, and an important industry is curing and smoking them for the markets. in the mountain streams the fishing is very good; but in the warm waters of the streams on the plains, as in egypt, the fish are soft, and neither palatable nor healthy. leaving the snakes to the tender mercies of the gentleman from travancore, i will make my bow," which he did, and stepped down.

he was politely applauded, and the strangers seemed to enjoy his discourse more than the rest of the party.