Page 117 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
P. 117
Around the World in 80 Days
Brahma, the supreme ruler of priests and legislators. What
would these divinities think of India, anglicised as it is to-
day, with steamers whistling and scudding along the
Ganges, frightening the gulls which float upon its surface,
the turtles swarming along its banks, and the faithful
dwelling upon its borders?
The panorama passed before their eyes like a flash, save
when the steam concealed it fitfully from the view; the
travellers could scarcely discern the fort of Chupenie,
twenty miles south-westward from Benares, the ancient
stronghold of the rajahs of Behar; or Ghazipur and its
famous rose-water factories; or the tomb of Lord
Cornwallis, rising on the left bank of the Ganges; the
fortified town of Buxar, or Patna, a large manufacturing
and trading-place, where is held the principal opium
market of India; or Monghir, a more than European town,
for it is as English as Manchester or Birmingham, with its
iron foundries, edgetool factories, and high chimneys
puffing clouds of black smoke heavenward.
Night came on; the train passed on at full speed, in the
midst of the roaring of the tigers, bears, and wolves which
fled before the locomotive; and the marvels of Bengal,
Golconda ruined Gour, Murshedabad, the ancient capital,
Burdwan, Hugly, and the French town of Chandernagor,
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