Bangalore is the chief military station of southern India. It is connected by rail with Madras, but is situated on the plateau within Mysore. From Bangalore the line runs on to Seringapatam on the Cauvery, and to Mysore city beyond. These were the seats of the Muhammadan Sultans, Hyder Ali and Tippu, father and son, who, a generation later than the time when Clive fought at Arcot, held Madras in terror from their highland fastness. The threat to the British position in India was a real one. Hyder Ali leagued himself with the French, with whom we were then at war, but he was defeated under the great Governor-General, Warren Hastings. Tippu, Hyder’s son, was also an ally of the French. He lived into the time of Napoleon, and made his chief attack on British power when the French were in Egypt, but he was defeated and killed. Colonel Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington, first rose to notice in this campaign. He was appointed to command “the troops above the Ghats.” After the death of Tippu, the civil administration of Mysore was also assigned to Wellesley, and splendid work he did as civil administrator. [Sidenote: 56. Southern India, showing rainfall of S.W. Monsoon.] [Sidenote: 57. Pykara Falls, Nilgiri Hills.] [Sidenote: 58. Gairsoppa Falls.] A third map shows you the rainfall which is brought by the west winds of the summer time to the Malabar Coast. These winds strike the Western Ghats and the Nilgiri hills and drench them with superabundant moisture, so that they are thickly forested. At this season magnificent waterfalls leap down the westward ravines and feed torrents which rush in short valleys to the ocean. One of the grandest falls in the world is at Gairsoppa, in the northwestern corner of the state of Mysore. [Sidenote: 59. Southern India, showing rainfall of N.E. Monsoon.] [Sidenote: 60. Southern India, showing density of Population.] A fourth map indicates the rainfall on the east coast brought by the Northeast Monsoon of the winter season. Finally, a fifth map shows that the population is densest down on the lowlands precisely in those regions, on the east coast and on the west, which are best supplied with moisture. Throughout India the supply of water for agricultural purposes is the key to the prosperity of the country, for everywhere there is heat enough for luxuriant vegetation. It is only drought which is in places the cause of sterility. With all its vast population there are none the less great spaces in India very sparsely peopled. Once more let us remember that India is rather a continent than merely a country. -------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LECTURE II. --- =BURMA.= --- THE BUDDHIST RELIGION.