mosaic character
of its population, the peculiarities of its animal kingdom, the
luxuriance of its vegetation, the dazzling beauty of its birds and
flowers, all crowd upon the memory in charming kaleidoscopic
combinations. There can be no doubt of the early grandeur and high
civilization of India. To the intellectual eminence of her people we owe
the germs of science, philosophy, law, and astronomy. Her most perfect
of all tongues, the Sanskrit, has been the parent of nearly all others;
and now that her lustre has faded away, and her children fallen into a
condition of sloth and superstition, still let us do her historic
justice; nor should we neglect to heed the lesson she so clearly
presents, namely, that nations, like human beings, are subject to the
unvarying laws of mutability.

We embarked from Bombay, February 9th, on board the P. and O. steamship
Kashgar for Suez, a voyage of three thousand miles across the Sea of
Arabia and the Indian Ocean, through the Straits of Babelmandeb and the
entire length of the Red Sea. The most southerly point of the voyage
took us within fourteen degrees of the equator, and consequently into an
extremely warm temperature. As the ship's cabin proved to be almost
insupportable on account of the heat, we passed a large portion of the
nights, as well as the days, upon deck, making acquaintance with the
stars, looking down from their serene and silent spaces, the new moon,
and the Southern Cross, all of which were wonderfully bright in the
clear, dry atmosphere. As we approach the equatorial region one cannot
but admire the increasing and wondrous beauty of the southern skies,
where new and striking constellations greet the observer. The Southern
Cross, above all other groupings, interests the beholder, and he ceases
to wonder at the reverence with which the inhabitants of the low
latitudes regard it. As an accurate measurer of time, it is also valued
by the mariner in the southern hemisphere, who is nightly called to
watch on deck, and who thus becomes familiar with the glowing orbs
revealed by the surrounding darkness. As a Christian emblem all southern
nations bow before this constellation which is denied to northern eyes.

Bishop F----, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Massachusetts, was a
passenger on board the Kashgar, bound to Egypt, and on Sunday, February
11th, after the captain had read the usual services, he was invited to
address the passengers; this he did in an eloquen