India in 1875-76: the visit of the prince of Wales

INDIA IN 1875-76.

THE VISIT OF THE

PRINCE OF WALES.

CHRONICLE OF HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS'S JOURNEYINGS
IN INDIA, CEYLON, SPAIN, AND PORTUGAL.

By GEORGE WHEELER

(OF THE INNER TEMPLE),

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE "CENTRAL NEWS."

WITH MAP AND DIARIES.

"It is not necessary that he who looks with pleasure on the
colours of a flower should study the principles of vegetation, or
that the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems should be compared
before the light of the sun can gladden or its warmth invigo-
rate."-DR. SAM. JOHNSON.

LONDON:

CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY.

CALCUTTA: THACKER, SPINK, & CO.

BOMBAY: THACKER, VINING, & CO.

ΤΟ

WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL, Esq., LL.D.

I VENTURE to dedicate this narrative of my journey through India to you for many reasons, but chiefly because you, by your impartiality, manliness, and literary brilliancy, have caused Special Correspondents to be valued and respected by every civilised nation. England cannot forget that by your fearless exposition of the true condition of her army at a disastrous moment of the Crimean War, she was first aroused to a sense of the magnitude of the struggle she had engaged in, and was induced to make those gigantic efforts which resulted in victory. From that correspondence Statesmen understood how the National interest required that Princes in the field of war, or in the peaceful civilisation of distant regions, should have their chronicler beside them-one who could give to the world not an ephemeral narrative, but a history as useful and as eternal as that bequeathed to all men by Thucydides himself. Hence

it was that the Crown Prince of Prussia placed the special correspondent on his staff throughout the conflict between Germany and France; and hence, also, once it was determined that the Prince of Wales should carry out his long cherished desire to visit the wondrous land of India, he selected as the historian of his progress, and immediately attached to his person, the writer who had already proved himself so worthy. It has been said that the Press is ever jealous of a Press, but I can say that throughout this Indian journey, generous feelings pervaded your every act, and that to so humble a novice as myself, endeavouring to follow the far-off light before me as best I can, you were a true and cordial friend, as well as a brilliant example of all that is chaste in Literature and foreseeing and discreet in Journalism.

2, TANFIELD CHAMBERS, TEMPLE.

June, 1876.

CONTENTS.

FIRST THOUGHTS OF THE VOYAGE.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Visit—Lord Mayo-The Plan of the Tour