Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/62

58 Gibraltar, while Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Cape remained practically defenceless. He laid down the principle that works for 1200 men in peace and 1500 in war were sufficient protection against any enemy that was not master of the sea. I may here mention that such was the confidence reposed in him on these questions that, soon after his return from India, Lord John Russell asked him, although not then in office, to draw up a scheme for fortifying our coasts and detailing the number of ships he deemed necessary for home defence.

In another fortnight our party reached Point de Galle. Twenty-four hours sufficed for coaling; so that after dining with the Governor of Ceylon, an old Peninsular officer, we were again at sea. At Madras we lay to for a few hours, surrounded by those catamarans which defy the heaviest surf. Then, with a fair wind, we reached the Sand Heads at the mouth of the Húglí on the 23rd of July. On approaching Calcutta, Lord Ellenborough's private secretary, Captain H. M. Durand, came on board. Captain Durand was on Lord Ellenborough's departure appointed Governor of the Tenasserim Provinces, and subsequently made his mark as Sir Henry Durand in the annals of Indian history.

The reception of a new Governor-General on the steps of Government House, although an accustomed ceremonial in the eyes of the Calcutta world, is a novel and imposing sight for European travellers. Lord Ellenborough and his Council met the new