When we remember that the natives of India have no name to describe the whole continent, it helps us to understand that India is in no way a single country. The British Government have given the continent the name _India_, taking it from the great river Indus, which itself takes its name from an old word, _sindhu_, meaning "river." In the days of the early explorers, after the islands discovered by Columbus were called the _West Indies_, some people began to call the Indian continent the _East Indies_, to distinguish it; and some of the papers about India drawn up for the information of Parliament about Indian affairs still use this name, but it is not a familiar use to most people. The mistake which Columbus and the early explorers made in thinking America was India has caused a good deal of confusion. The natives of North America were called Indians, and it was only long afterwards, in fact quite lately, that people began to write and speak of the natives of India as _Indians_. When it was printed in the newspapers that Indians were fighting for the British Empire with the armies in France, the use of the word _Indian_ seemed wrong to a great many people; but it is now becoming so common that it will probably soon seem quite right. When it is used with the old meaning we shall have to say the "Indians of North America." Some people use the word _Hindu_ to describe the natives of India; but this is not correct, as only _some_ of the natives of India are Hindus, just as the name _Hindustan_ (a Persian name meaning "land of the Hindus," as _Afghanistan_ means "land of the Afghans"), which some old writers on geography used for India, is really the name of one part of the land round the river Ganges, where the language known as _Hindi_ is spoken. The place-names of India given by natives of the many different races which have lived in the land could fill a book with their stories alone. We can only mention a few. The name of the great range of mountains which runs across the north of the continent, the _Himalayas_, means in Sanskrit, the oldest language used in India, the "home of snow." _Bombay_ takes its name from _Mumba_, the name of a goddess of an early tribe who occupied the district round Bombay. _Calcutta_, which stretches over ground where there were formerly several villages, takes its name from one of these. Its old form was _Kalikuti_, which means the "ghauts," or passes, leading to the temple of the goddess Kali. In Australia, where a beginning of colonization was made through the discoveries of Captain Cook towards the end of the eighteenth century, the place-names were sometimes given from places at home, sometimes after persons, but they have hardly the same romance as the early American names. _Botany Bay_ was the name chosen by Captain Cook in a moment of enthusiasm for an inlet of New South Wales. He gave it this name because of the great number of plants and flowers which grow there.