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.
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