"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 ............