PONDICHERRY was a fresh morning in September when we left Madras for Pondicherry. The recent rain had refreshed the atmosphere and made the trees green and fresh. For the first fifty miles we passed through stretches of land covered with scrub, dotted here and there with patches of cultiva tion. From the carriage window we saw scenes which Homer had seen and painted many centuries ago. The ploughman had turned his team of sleek oxen at the end of the furrow, and with his wife and children was enjoying his morning meal of cakes and corn. The bright scarlet dresses of the women and children contrasted well with the rich green of the shrubs. Then we went by patches of broad green rice fields, covered with water, in which men and women were reaping. In the distance were the blue Arcot hills, reminding us of the Deccan ; but the frequent groves of palm trees bore testimony to our being not far from the sea. The further we proceeded the richer grew the soil, and the country spread out into broad fields of red and yellow corn ripe for the sickle. As we neared a village we fled past many a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and the daughter of Zion was standing at the door. At noon we arrived at Villupuram junction, where we had to change carriages for Pondicherry ; and after a run of a couple of hours the train drew up at a platform, where a band of dark savages addressed us in French. They took possession of us and our luggage, and soon we found ourselves rolling rapidly down the main street of Pondicherry in a pousse-pousse. A pousse-pousse is an enlarged perb.mbulator, and a man of mature years finds it a little incongruous to be wheeled down the street as in the days of childhood. But the place of the dainty nursemaid is taken by a stalwart, well-built, coal-black savage, whose dress has not troubled the sewing machine. Another savage pushes the vehicle from behind. The pousse-pousse is, however, a decidedly comfortable con veyance, it makes no noise, and though the progress is rapid, is safe. The pousse-pousse man neither shies, nor kicks, nor jibs. Carriages and horses are almost unknown in Pondicherry, and the absence of noise is one of the charms of the French capital. After a drive of twenty minutes, we found ourselves at the entrance of the Hotel de Londres et Paris, and a landlady from Paris received us. A room clean and neat, facing the sea, is secured at the modest cost of Rs. 4 a day. For this sum we are fed far better than at the majority of Indian hotels. Pondicherry is a paradise for a poor man. A large house built on the model of a mansion in a French country town costs Rs. 6o a month, and smaller villas can be had for Rs. 20 to Rs. 4o. The balconies that project from the windows give a continental and picturesque aspect to the streets. There is not the slightest trace of the genius of ugliness, which our Public Works Department possess, and which is imparted by them with such considerable success to the buildings they erect. The cost of maintaining these houses is as moderate as the rent. It has to be small, because the incomes of those who occupy them are small. The pay of a High Court Judge is about Rs. 25o a month. He is a man who has been carefully taught the science of jurisprudence at a French university, and has had some practical experience of the law courts in France before appointment. The salaries of the other French officials are on the same modest scale as those paid to the Judicial Department. The French, when they founded their settlements, introduced into them the habits of thrift, which are characteristic of the nation. The Englishman unfortunately imitated the luxurious splendour of the nobles of the Moghul Empire, and a luxurious style of living came to be regarded as a necessity. In the days of the pagoda tree the factor and merchant considered it enhanced their importance if they took no heed of what they paid for their ordinary articles of daily consumption, and the natives have continued to charge their unfortunate successors fifty per cent. more than the
market price for all they have. The day is, however, not far distant when English officials and English merchants will have to study economy, and there is no reason why the sons of merchants, squires, and vicars should, in India, live as luxuriously as English noblemen. But a truce to digression. After a short rest, we leave the hotel, and a walk of a few yards brings us to the Place de la Republique, at the head of the pier, where, arranged in a semi-circle, are the lofty carved monoliths, which tradition says Dupleix had brought from Gingee, the great mountain fortress sixty miles from Pondicherry. Of the many heroic deeds by which the French attempted to found an empire in the East few equal and none surpass the storming of Gingee. " This place," writes Orme, " was formerly the residence of a race of Morratoe Kings, whose dominion extended from hence to the borders of the kingdom of Tangore : these princes were the ancestors of the famous Sevajee, who became king over all the Morratoe nations, and Sevajee himself, it is said, was born at Gingee." When Orme wrote his great work little was known regarding the history of the Mah rattas : Shivaji was born many hundred miles away from Gingee, but the fortress was captured by him when it was in the possession of the Bijapur kingdom, and it remained in the possession of the Mahrattas for twenty-two years, when it fell into the hands of the Moghuls. Orme, who gives a good plan of the town and surrounding moun tain, writes : " A strong wall, flanked with towers, and extending near three miles, incloses three mountains, which form nearly an equilateral triangle ; they are steep and craggy, and on the top of each are built large and strong forts : besides therd are many other fortifications upon the declivities : On the plain between the three mountains is a large town. The Indians, who esteem no fortifications very strong unless placed upon high and difficult eminences, have always regarded Gingee as the strongest fortress in the Carnatic." Dupleix thought the capture of Gingee would make him master of southern India, and he sent Bussy with a small detachment to take it by surprise. By petarding one of the gates the young French General gained possession of the town at sunset, and proceeded to erect a barricade of baggage waggons in the streets. But his position was one of great peril, for from the heights above the enemy poured down a deadly shower of shot and grape. The French returned their fire with the mortars and guns till the moon set, which was the signal to storm the fortifications. " None but the Europeans were destined to this hardy enterprize, who attacked all the three mountains at the same time, and found on each redoubts above redoubts, which they carried successively sword in hand, until they came to the summits, where the fortifications were stronger than those they had surmounted. They nevertheless pushed on and petarded the gates, and by daybreak were in possession of them all." On a pedestal constructed from old fragments of temples brought from Gingee stands the statue of Dupleix. He is represented in Court dress, with long riding boots, and there is considerable originality and life in the attitude of the figure. The sculptor has also succeeded in giving the magnificent head, lofty and wide forehead, and the intel lectual face full of energy and penetration of the great French administrator. After a century of neglect, France determined to erect this monument of one of the most famous of her sons. With much pomp and ceremony the statue was unveiled on July i6, 1870. The Pondicherry paper, which gave a glowing account of the fete that took place, that day also announced that the Prussians had crossed the French frontier and occupied the first French village.