Note 111 — IX.
Reading edition
After the customary official toasts had been proposed by the chairman, and thanks returned by the Commander-in-chief of the Expedition, the health was also proposed of the scientific staff, on which occasion one of the naturalists present expressed his thanks for this honour, in his name and that of his colleagues, in the following speech, which may be permitted to find a place here, as best showing with what impression the members of the Expedition left Madras.
"Gentlemen,—It is not without some feeling of anxiety that I am rising, for I have so many things to say, and yet it is but the thousandth part of what I, of what my fellow travellers all feel! Surely, it is always flattering to a man to be distinguished by his fellow-men; but such a distinction becomes the more honouring if those who concur to distinguish him are—as this is the case with you—a most estimable part of the British nation! Of a nation, which has done more than any other on the globe for the propagation of Christianity, the diffusion of knowledge, the advancement of science, for the progress of civilization, industry, and commerce. I do not intend, gentlemen, to return with the shiny currency of flattery the many proofs of attention and kindness which all the members of the Expedition have witnessed during our short, but most pleasant, ever-remembered stay in this city, the birth-place of hospitality! What I say is but truth! Every page in modern history certifies my words! Which nation has done more for the propagation of Christianity among savage tribes all over the world? Some years ago, when I was rambling in British America, and along the north shores of Lake Superior, I often found villages of 300 or 400 Indians, and but one single white man amongst them. And who was that white man, who voluntarily shared their misery, their wants, and their privations? He was an English missionary!
"And again! Which nation has made greater and more serious efforts to suppress the slave trade, and to abolish slavery in all countries where it still exists, a shame to the nineteenth century?—Slavery! that hideous leprosy on the limb of the gigantic body, called the United States! Who is even now anxiously engaged to open, with the heartblood of its noblest sons, a vast empire—the Chinese kingdom—to civilization, to Christianity, to the traffic of all seafaring nations of the globe!
"And is not this very city, Madras, where we have been so heartily welcomed, the best proof of the energy and perseverance of the political and commercial greatness of the British nation? Nothing but English steadiness and English perseverance could succeed to build on this barren, inhospitable, and even most perilous coast, a vast, flourishing city, rivalling in size and the number of inhabitants the largest capitals in Europe! And what is still more pleasing and satisfactory, is the intellectual and physical condition in which one finds the Indians, especially if compared with the condition of the natives in North and Central America, &c. There he meets a population, rapidly dying away, in proportion as the axe of civilization is resounding from the backwoods. One may almost determinate the day when the last of the red men will have disappeared from the North American Continent, the land of his ancestors! Here in India, on the contrary, the traveller meets with a thriving, industrious population. Who can see Hindoos, Malabar, Sentus, &c., occupy most important employments at the observatory, at the telegraph offices, at the railroad, in any branch almost of the public service, and still believe the Hindoo race like the Indians of North America to be a doomed people—to be a people that has no future? No, it has a future, and, under the wise and humane government of the British Crown, I am sure the coloured race of India will even have a most glorious future!
"These are the impressions and feelings, gentlemen, with which we part from Madras, with which I and my scientific colleagues bid you all a most sincere and heartfelt farewell."