island; but in 1840 his remains were removed to Paris. Indian steamers do not often call at St. Helena on the outward voyage, but it is a usual station in the homeward track.

After St. Helena, the steamer next stops at Cape Town; so called from the Cape of Good Hope, in the neighbourhood of which it stands. Cape Colony, of which Cape Town is the capital, became a British possession so lately as 1814. Prior to that time it belonged to Holland; and the town bears evident traces of its Dutch origin. It has canals in the principal streets; the houses are flat-roofed and painted or white-washed, with 'terraces and gardens in front. It is situated on the southwestern shore of Table Bay, under the shadow of Table Mount.*

From Cape Town the steamer proceeds to Mauritius, a considerable island (36 miles long by 20 broad) in the Indian Ocean. The Dutch called the island Mauritius, after Prince Maurice their Stadtholder, when they settled there in 1598. Abandoned by the Dutch in 1715, the French took possession of it, and called it the Isle of France. In 1810 it was taken by the British, and its possession was confirmed to them in 1814; but the companion island of Bourbon, which had been taken at the same time, was restored to the French. Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, is a place of growing prosperity. It has nearly 80,000 inhabitants, and it is now in direct communication, not only with India, but with Aden and Australia.

The next station on the direct route is Point de Galle, a seaport at the southern 'extremity of the island of Ceylon. Here the Cape and Overland routes meet, as the steamers from Aden and Bombay also touch at Point de Galle. This port forms a

kind of mail depôt for the whole of the East, as branch mails proceed thence to Madras, Calcutta, Penang, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong-Kong.

Ships returning to England from Australia generally prefer the Pacific and Cape Horn route to that by the Cape of Good Hope and the Atlantic. By this means vessels are able, both in going and returning, to take advantage of the westerly winds and currents which prevail in the neighbourhood of both of these stormy Capes.

After doubling Cape Horn, the homeward-bound ship makes for the Falkland Islands, which form a convenient British outpost in the southern seas. This group, consisting of two large and a host of small islands, is situated about 300 miles from the

See lesson on The Discovery of the Sea Route to India, p. 248.

coast of Patagonia. The western of the two large islands is 90 miles, the eastern is 100 miles in length. Their population is sparse; but vegetation is luxuriant, and cattle abundant. Vessels frequenting these seas call at the Falkland Islands to procure provisions and fresh water. The direct route from the Falkland Islands to Southampton is by the Cape Verd Islands, where the homeward and outward routes meet. A vessel that has sailed from St. Vincent to Melbourne by the Cape of Good Hope, and has returned to St. Vincent by Cape Horn, has 'obviously sailed round the world.

The West Indian mail is carried direct from Southampton to St. Thomas, a small island belonging to Denmark, in the group called the Virgin Islands. The capital of St. Thomas is a free port, and one of the best trading places in the West Indies. It is built in the form of an amphitheatre around a spacious bay; hence its selection as a great mail station, and as the chief *magazine and market for West Indian produce.

From St. Thomas the mail steamer proceeds to Kingston in Jamaica, which has also a fine harbour, available for the largest ships. Another route to Kingston is by the Bermudas, a group of nearly four hundred islands, about 600 miles from the coast of the United States. These islands-the "still vexed Bermoothes "1 of Shakespeare-are of great value to Britain as a naval station, one of them containing a land-locked harbour, which has few equals in the world. The port referred to is also used as an arsenal and as a convict settlement; and it is the centre of important transit trade between the West Indies and the mainland of North America. There is regular steam communication from Bermuda to Halifax, New York, and St. Thomas.

From Kingston the mail route is continued to Navy Bay, on the eastern side of the Isthmus of Darien. Thence it proceeds by rail across the isthmus of Panama2—a distance of 49 miles. Panama has thus been raised to a position of great importance among Pacific sea-ports. It is now the station for the mails between Great Britain and Peru and Chili. Steamers also ply between Panama and San Francisco in California.

The South American and Pacific route, starting from Liverpool, proceeds by way of Bordeaux, and calls at Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, which stands in the relation of parent state to the modern Brazilian Empire.3 From Lisbon the route proceeds in a south-westerly direction for upwards of 600 miles to the mountainous island of Madeira, which gives its name to a famous wine made from the grapes grown on the island.

Madeira is also a favourite resort of consumptive patients during the winter and spring months.

Madeira is a Portuguese island. The Canaries, those next visited, belong to Spain, and form a station at which all ships sailing between Spain and the East or West Indies regularly Conspicuous among them by its loftv snow-capped peak

is Teneriffe, an extinct, or, at least, 'quiescent volcano, which rises 12,182 feet above the ocean. *

The Cape Verd Islands, already referred to in connection with the East Indian route, mark the next stage in the voyage. The steamer then crosses the Atlantic in a south-westerly direction, and makes no further pause till it reaches either Pernambuco or Bahia (for they are visited alternately by successive mails) on the north-eastern coast of Brazil. Thence it proceeds to Rio de Janeiro, the capital of the country, and the most im

* See lesson Above the Clouds, in ROYAL READER No. V.

portant commercial city in South America. Rio, to which alternate steamers sail direct from Lisbon, is situated on the western shore of a vast bay or inlet, 17 miles in length, and 11 in extreme width, which is studded with islands, and forms one of the noblest harbours in the world. This harbour communicates with the Atlantic by a deep and narrow passage between two granite mountains. The entrance is so safe as to Yet so

render the services of local pilots entirely unnecessary. commanding is the position of the fortresses at the mouth of the harbour, on its islands, and on the surrounding heights, that the ingress of a hostile fleet would be a work of the utmost difficulty.

From either side of that contracted entrance stretch away, as far as the eye can reach, lofty mountains, whose pointed summits and fantastic shapes recall the glories of Alpland. On the left, the Sugar-Loaf Mountain stands like a giant sentinel over the metropolis of Brazil. On the right another lofty range commences near the principal fortress, which commands the entrance of the bay, and, forming curtain-like ramparts, reaches away in picturesque headlands to the bold 'promontory well known to all South Atlantic navigators as Cape Frio. Far through the opening of the bay, and in some places towering even above the lofty coast-barrier, can be discovered the blue outline of the distant Organ Mountains, whose lofty pinnacles will at once suggest the origin of their name.

As far up the bay as the eye can reach, lovely little islands, verdant and palm-clad, may be seen rising out of its dark bosom; while the hills and lofty mountains which surround it on all sides, when gilded by the rays of the setting sun, form a fitting frame for such a picture. At night the lights of the city have a fine effect; and when the land-breeze begins to blow, the rich odour of the orange and other 'perfumed flowers is borne seaward along with it.

The aspect which Rio de Janeiro presents to the beholder bears no resemblance to the compact brick walls, the dingy roofs, the tall 'chimneys, and the generally level sites of Northern cities. Its surface is diversified by hills of irregular but picturesque shape, which shoot up in different directions, leaving between them flat intervals of greater or less extent. Along the bases of these hills, and up their sides, stand rows of buildings, whose whitened walls and red-tiled roofs are in happy contrast with the deep green foliage that always surrounds and often embowers them.