CHIEF CITIES.

There are three great cities which may be called English cities, though
in India: because Englishmen built them, and live in them, and rule over
them. Their names are Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.

The capital city is Calcutta. There the chief governor resides. Part of
Calcutta is called the Black Town, and it is only a heap of mud huts
crowded with Hindoos. The other part of Calcutta is called the English
town; and it consists of beautiful houses by the river-side, each house
surrounded by a charming garden and a thick grove.

Madras is built on a plain by the sea, and is adorned by fine avenues of
trees, amongst which the English live in elegant villas and gardens. Here
also there is a Black town. It is very hard to land at Madras, because
there is no harbor.

Bombay has one of the best harbors in the world. It is built on a small
island covered with cocoa-nut groves.

Now let us compare these places with each other.

_Calcutta_ boasts of her fine river, but then the ground is flat and
marshy; and therefore the air is damp and unhealthy, and there are no
grand prospects.

Madras is very dry, and sandy, and dusty; but then there is the sea to
enliven and refresh it.