Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/64

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only humbled, not hurt; and on Monday morning was taking part with his brethren in trotting and galloping over the parade-ground with a gun-carriage. In returning from Ellichpore yesterday morning our hospitable military friend with whom we stayed there, Colonel Prescott, thinking that four horses were not enough for the exigencies of the road, supplied us with the full artillery team of six. Our three postilions brought their horses safely over the ground this time without accident, though occasionally shaking our bones much over the inequalities of the road and kicking up a tremendous dust.'

On the west coast the bishop had his experience of munchils hammocks slung on poles and carried by bearers and made the acquaintance of the house-boat on the back waters of Cochin and Travancore, the pleasantest mode of all travelling in the south of India.

A luxuriant tropical vegetation forms a beautiful setting to these natural canals. At sunset, when the flaming crimsons and yellows, the translucent greens and blues of the sky are reflected upon the smooth surface of the water, a glorious scene is presented which the traveller, reclining in ease and comfort, can fully appreciate. The boat glides evenly along and without any apparent effort, and though the mosquito is present, there is no dust to choke the pores of the skin, blind the dazzled eyes, and parch the throat. Most striking of all its features in contradistinction from journeying along the roads is its noiselessness, and the absence of toiling beasts and grinding wheels, shouting drivers and falling blows, necessary to keep the stupid animals moving, and to prevent them from lying down in the road.

Of his influence in the diocese I will leave others to speak in detail. His evangelical leanings gave him little sympathy in the earlier part of his episcopate with men who held extreme views in the opposite direction. But