Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
History
Journal of a Cavalry Officer; Including the Memorable Sikh Campaign of 1845-1846
Humbley, W. W. W. (William Wellington Waterloo)
India -- Description and travel; Sikh War, 1845-1846
THE stupendous project of bringing Calcutta within seven or eight
days of London, by means of the Euphrates valley railway route, will
probably not take place in our days; but, incredible as it may seem,
we yet hope we may look forward to its being carried out in those
of our children. Some persons may possibly smile, and say, "It is
the scheme of a visionary;" but who, let me ask, in the days of Job
Charnock,--only 120 years ago, when he founded Calcutta--would have
dreamt that that wretched, swampy village would have been converted
into a city of palaces, and still less, that instead of a tedious
sea-voyage of six or seven months from the mother country, it would be
brought within the brief limits of forty-five or fifty days! Again let
me ask, who only a few years ago would have conceived the possibility
of a mode of communication whereby intelligence may be transmitted,
not only by land but by sea, with the rapidity of lightning. Nay, that
4,000 miles of electric wire have already reached Calcutta, soon to
connect every large town in India with the port of Bombay; while at the
same time the submarine telegraph is in progress from Suez to Trieste,
and before the expiration of 1855, will enable us to hear from our
friends in any part of India in eleven or twelve days.
Calcutta is so well worth a visit, that notwithstanding the numerous
and able descriptions which have been given of it by various writers,
I would strongly advise all who have it in their power, to become
personally acquainted with it. This can now be done in so brief a space
of time, and with so much ease and comfort, that many persons will be
glad to avail themselves of the opportunities now offered, and desire
to know the readiest way to accomplish this object. I shall therefore
note down a few data, as to the best mode of spending a pleasant and
profitable six months in visiting the chief cities of India.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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