a, I found opportunity to go overland from Calcutta to Bombay; but
in the interior had to make a long stage by carriage between
Jubbulpore and Nagpore. Since that time many have visited and many
have written. I shall therefore spare myself and my possible readers
the poor portrayal of that which has been already and better
described. Johnson's advice to Boswell, "Tell what you have observed
yourself," I take to mean something different from those externals the
sight of which is common to all; unless, as in the Corsica of Boswell,
few go to see them. What you see is that which you personally have the
faculty of perceiving; depends upon you as much as upon the object
itself. It may not be worth reporting, but it is all you have. I do
not think I remember of Bombay anything thus peculiarly my own. I do
recall the big snakes we saw lying apparently asleep on the sea, fifty
or sixty miles from land. Perhaps readers who have not visited the
East may not know that such modified sea-serpents are to be seen
there, as is a smaller variety in the Strait of Malacca.

From Bombay we made a long leg to Singapore. We had sailed in early
February; it was now late September, and our captain, as I have said
before, began to feel anxious to reach the station. Owing to this
haste, we omitted Ceylon and Calcutta, which did not correspond to
the expectation or the wishes of the admiral; and we missed--as I
think--orders sent us to take in Siam before coming to Hong Kong. It
is very doubtful whether, had we received them, we should have seen
more of interest than awaited us shortly after our arrival in Japan.
At all events, as in duty bound, I shall imitate my captain, and skip
rapidly over this intervening period. There is in it nothing that
would justify my formed intention not to enlarge upon that which
others have seen and told.

We made the run to Singapore at the change of the monsoon, towards the
end of September; and at that time a quiet passage is likely, unless
you are so unlucky as to encounter one of the cyclones which
frequently attend the break-up of the season at this transition
period. There is a tendency nowadays to discredit the equinox as a
storm-breeder. As regards the particular day, doubtless recognition of
a general fact may have lapsed into superstition as to a date; but in
considering the phenomena of the monsoons, the great fixed currents of
air blowing alternately to or from the heated or cooled continent of
Asia,