great care and at great expense, at some remote period, in order to collect the rain-water which falls at rare intervals in torrents.  These tanks are so constructed that the overflow of the upper one fills the lower, and in this way, when the fall is considerable, a great quantity can be gathered.  They were all filled with rubbish, and it is very possible that there may be many besides these which have been already discovered, but when they are cleared out they are in perfect preservation.  Some of them are of great capacity, and it is difficult to understand how they come to have been filled up so completely.  The Governor told me that he had, a few months before, driven in his gig over the largest, which I went with him to see.  At that time he had no idea of its existence.

[Sidenote:  Gloomy prospects.]

May 22nd.—­As each of these wearisome days passes, I cannot help being more and more determined that, in so far as it rests with me, this voyage shall not have been made for nothing.  However, the issues are in higher hands.

Sunday, 24th.—­We are now told we shall reach Ceylon in two days....  I have got dear Bruce’s[4] large speaking eyes beside me while I am writing, and mine (ought I to confess it) are very dim, while all these thoughts of home crowd upon me.  There is nothing congenial to me in my present life.  I have no elasticity of spirits to keep up with the younger people around me.  It may be better when the work begins; but I cannot be sanguine even as to that, for the more I read of the blue-books and papers with which I have been furnished, the more embarrassing the questions with which I have to deal appear.

[Sidenote:  First news of the Indian Mutiny.]

It was at Ceylon that he caught the first ominous mutterings of the terrible storm which was about to burst over India, and which was destined so powerfully to affect his own expedition.  The news of the first serious disturbance, the mutiny of a native Regiment at Meerut on the 11th of May, had just been brought by General Ashburnham, the commander of the expeditionary force, who had left Bombay a few hours after the startling tidings had been received through the telegraph.  Lord Elgin’s first feeling was that these disturbances in India furnished an additional reason for settling affairs in China with all possible speed, so as to be free to succour the Indian Government.  It was only when fuller intelligence came from Lord Canning, with urgent entreaties for immediate help, that he determined, in consultation with General Ashburnham, who cordially entered into all his views on the subject, to sacrifice for the present the Chinese expedition, in order to pour into Calcutta all the troops that had been intended for Canton.