Promptly at the hour set the Guardian-Mother got under way, and the Cherub’s band played its liveliest airs.  When it stopped to rest, the Italian band played, and thus the music was kept up for three hours, when the steamers were at Diamond Harbor.  Here they came alongside each other, and all the company on board the Cherub were invited to a collation on board of the Guardian-Mother, at which Captain Ringgold presided, and many speeches were made by the residents of Calcutta, and by the passengers on board.

The ship’s company on each vessel were not left out in the cold; for, while their officers were at the collation, Baldy Bickling, the second cook, regaled them from the abundant stores provided for the occasion, of which notice had been given to Mr. Melanchthon Sage, the chief steward, the day before.  At this point adieus were exchanged, the Guardian-Mother went to sea, and the Cherub returned to Calcutta.  The passengers were tired out and retired early.

It was an easy run, from Diamond Harbor to Madras in two days and a half, for the Guardian-Mother.  The weather was favorable, and the tourists used their time in getting rested.  The social occasions, the playing of the band, and the singing in the music-room, made plenty of variety.  But the commander did not lose sight of what he regarded as one of the principal objects of the long voyage, the instruction of the young people, and incidentally of the elder ones.

On the forenoon of the second day out the passengers were called together in Conference Hall, and they were glad to assemble there again.  The temperature was moderate, the sea was in its most cheerful mood, and, after their long stay on shore, they were glad to be out of sight of land again.  Mr. Gaskette had been busy during the vacation the ship’s company had obtained at Bombay and Calcutta; had made several new maps, one of which was the shores of the Bay and Sea of Bengal from Calcutta to the southern point of Ceylon; and he had enlarged a small map of Ceylon, to be used when the ship arrived at Colombo, or sooner.  It was Sir Modava who mounted the platform for this occasion; and he was received with the heartiest applause, for he had become even more popular than at first.

“I am to tell you something, not much, about Madras, where we shall arrive about this time day after to-morrow,” the Hindu gentleman began; and the usual smile which had fascinated all the ladies was on his face.  “Madras is the third city in population of India, or next to Bombay, with 452,518 souls, by the census published last year.  It is on the Coromandel coast, which is nearly the whole of the Madras Presidency.  It is nearly the entire western shore of the Sea of Bengal, including the bay, as the northern part of it is called in modern times.  There is scarcely a single safe harbor for large vessels.