Let us spend a moment considering why it is that trade over the ocean is of such vast importance to India, and why, therefore, the sea-ports are the greatest of her cities. In this map you see at a glance that all the lands of the world are in truth islands, for even the largest continent is surrounded by the ocean. Therefore a ship can go from any coast you will to any other coast. But by road or by railway it is possible to travel only from one part to another of the same island or continent. Hence it is that ocean-borne commerce is the most general, for land-borne commerce is limited by the coast and can go no further. It would be impossible for us to trade over the land with England. At some point or other we must cross the sea, and traffic over the sea is much cheaper than on the land. Therefore, in some cases it even pays to carry goods from point to point along the coast of India, instead of carrying them by land. This map also tells you why the one British fleet can defend all the coasts of the British Empire. It is because the ocean is one, and the fleet can sail from any part of it to any other part. [Sidenote: 9. Ships of the time of Vasco da Gama.] [Sidenote: 10. Sailing Ship.] The voyage to Britain used to be a long one, and not without danger. True that the same ship could go all the way from Calcutta to London, carrying passengers, mails, and cargo; but in former times the passage took many months, for ships, as you know, could then only be moved by the wind, and at some seasons the wind blew in a direction contrary to the course of the ship. Moreover, even the East India ships were small, and we must remember the rough seas which they had to traverse when rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Here, for example, are the kind of ships in which Europeans first came round the Cape to the Indies in the time of Vasco da Gama. And here is a sailing ship of later times, much improved both in hull and sails, but still liable to be delayed by contrary winds and by calms. [Sidenote: 11. P. & O. s.s. “Caledonia.”] In the present day, however, the British Empire is knit together by means of large vessels, moved by steam, in which men come and go with certainty over thousands of miles of trackless ocean. This is one of the steamers of the great Peninsular and Oriental Company, which, together with other companies, trades through the Suez Canal between Britain and India. You will see, then, that by using steam instead of the wind, by substituting large ships for small, and by cutting the Suez Canal, so that the voyage may be through shorter and generally calmer seas, men have brought London, the capital of the Empire, within less than a month of India, whereas it used to be five months away. [Sidenote: 12. Dalhousie Square, Calcutta.] [Sidenote: 13. The Hugli.] [Sidenote: 14. Madras from the Sea.] [Sidenote: 15. Arrival of the Viceroy at Madras.] [Sidenote: 16. Bombay Rampart.]