a few years ago, he is very
highly respected by thinking men and women of all classes who are
devoted to the progress and improvement of mankind, and in his own
country he is almost idolized. His faith, as far as formulated in
definite language, coincides with that of the Unitarians of America,
although he called it unitrinitarian, _i.e._, he believed in one God,
the Creator of the world and the father of all men; and also in Christ
and the Holy Spirit as revelations of the divine, which is one but not
as three different persons in the deity. He believed that the
propagation of true religion in the world has been greatly impeded by
what he called the idolatry which in Christian countries has grown up
around the human person of Jesus Christ, manifested as in the flesh, and
he begged the missionaries who came to India not to confuse the minds of
the Hindoos by any such idea as a deity consisting of three different
persons; polytheism had been the curse of India from time immemorial.

Such are the main features of the teaching of this reformer which seem
to promise a better time for the oppressed people of India. Later I
became more intimately acquainted with him, and he had intended to visit
America in my company, but was taken sick shortly before I left India,
and died a couple of months thereafter.

CHAPTER XXIII

Steamboating On the Ganges--Life on the River--The Greatest Business
Firm in the World--Sceneries--Temples--Serampoor--Boat Races--An
Excursion to the Himalayas--Darjieling and Himalaya Railroad--Tea
Plantations--Darjieling--Llamas--View from the Mountains.

Having received all its tributaries on its course from the Himalaya
Mountains through Central Hindustan, the Ganges has now swelled to such
vast proportions that it cannot keep its volume of water within one
regular channel through the level, soft soil of the Hindoo Peninsula,
but flows into the ocean by several independent channels. One of these
which is called the Hoogley, and has been mentioned already, is at
Calcutta, about eighty miles from the sea, as broad as the united
Missouri and Mississippi at St. Louis, and still the eastern half of it,
close to the city, is so crowded with ships, barges and boats for a
distance of six miles that it requires great care and skill at the helm
to navigate safely.

On Jan. 2, 1882, the Calcutta rowing club had arranged a race between
Barrackpoor and Serampoor, to which four hundred guests, includ