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We did not inquire to what place in particular; but we let the vessels go, having none but Indians on board. In the bottom of the bay we met with a great junk belonging to the Mogul's court, with a great many people, passengers as we supposed them to be: it seems they were bound for the river Hooghly or Ganges, and came from Sumatra.
Still, from the swampy nature of the soil, and its proximity to the great marshes of the Sunderbunds, Calcutta could never be a really healthy place. An arrival by water up the Hooghly unquestionably gives the most favourable impression of the Indian ex-capital, though the river banks are flat and uninteresting.
They were talking of India, and Sir Philip had his hand on George's arm. "Yes, I saw Dalliousie go," he said eagerly. "I was only a lad of twenty, but I can't think of it now without a lump in my throat. When he limped on to the Hooghly landing-stage on his crutches we couldn't cheer him I shall never forget that sudden silence!
He saw that it was a large ship. He pointed her out to the pilot. "Yes, sir, there's no doubt of it. She is a large ship," was the answer. "Maybe she's an Indiaman bound lip the Hooghly. Maybe she's the `Rajah, which sailed two days ago, and has been becalmed; or a China ship looking in for orders; or one of the men-of-war on the station."
I may have made the remark before, for it is impossible to avoid the recurrence of observations continually elicited by some new proofs of the contrast between the women upon this side of India, and their more elegant sisters on the banks of the Hooghly.
The whole situation seems that of ease and indulgence. The very circular verandahs of the rich men's dwellings expand like the ample vests of trustees and directors after dinner. The city extends some four and a half miles along the left bank of the Hooghly, and its breadth between the "Circular Road" and the river is about a mile and a half.
When Birkmyre Bros first established themselves here under the management of Sir Archy Birkmyre's uncle, with Mr. Patterson as assistant, who later on took charge of the Hooghly Mills, and finally of Jardine Skinner & Co.'s two mills, they occupied rooms on the first floor of 23 or 24, Strand Road, North.
But the malodorous city of the Hooghly will probably ever be the seat of Britain's rule.
The ousting of the splendid full-rigged ships by stumpy, unlovely tramp-steamers in the Hooghly River, to which I have already referred, is only one example of the universal disappearance of the picturesque.
But while the parley voo was still going on, up jumps a man the only man I knew there name beginning with a K don't quite remember it. At any rate, up he jumps, and says that that room was no place for me nor yet for him. Dare say you know the man, if I could remember his name. Sort of thin, dark man, with a way of carrying his head quarter-deck fashion as if he was a king or a Hooghly pilot.
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