s. One benefit I have got from my residence in India, a
conviction deepened by every successive glimpse into Hindu teaching and
practice: that in the Bible we have a supernatural revelation of God's
will, and that in building on it we are building on a rock which cannot
be shaken.

(4) _The migration of nations._ Few things in the history of the world
are more surprising to us than whole nations making their way to new and
remote countries. I have thought I have got a little help towards
understanding these movements when I have observed large bands of
people--men, women, and children--pursuing their journey, carrying with
them all they deemed necessary, and lying out at night on the bare
ground, with a blanket, which they had carried over their shoulder, as
their only covering. They took food with them when they knew that at
their halting-place it could not be procured. Very differently do our
native regiments travel. They are attended by a host of camp-followers,
and have a formidable amount of baggage. I once saw a party of woodmen
in the hills sleeping under a tree when there was frost on the ground;
and on the remark being made it was a wonder they could live, a hillman
remarked, "Has not each got his blanket? What hardship is there?" When
nations migrated they no doubt sent out scouring parties, who seized all
the food on which they could lay their hands. When travelling alone in
the hills I had commonly with me a tent so small that a man carried it
on his head, but I must acknowledge I could not approach the simplicity
of the native traveller's arrangements.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXX.

EUROPEANS IN INDIA.

The climate of India precludes the possibility of its being a sphere for
European colonization. With the exception of the hill districts, the
intense heat during the greater part of the year makes out-door
occupation trying even to the native, and well-nigh unendurable for
Europeans--a heat uncompensated by the coolness of the night, for in the
North-West, at least, the stifling closeness of the night is more trying
than the heat of the day. If this heat lasted for only a few days, as in
Southern Australia, it might be borne, though a hindrance to work; but
in India it lasts for months, and it is succeeded by months of drenching
rain, during a great part of which the moisture and mugginess are as
unpleasant as the previous dry heat had been.

Apart from climate, there is no room for us as colo