HOW I KILLED THE TIGEE. 2Q 



of 75> is one thousand nine hundred miles. 

 The extreme breadth is one thousand eight 

 hundred miles, on the parallel of 28. The 

 whole peninsula contains an area of about 

 one million five hundred and fifty-seven thousand 

 square miles, and a population of two hundred 

 and forty millions, or one hundred and fifty-four 

 to the mile. All this immense population is, 

 with the exception of small territories held by 

 Portugal and France, governed by Great Britain. 



British India is administered, chiefly directly, 

 by British officials, under a Viceroy and Governor- 

 General, but to some extent indirectly through 

 feudatory Native Chiefs, guided by British officers. 

 British India, as it stood in the middle of the 

 nineteenth century, was won by the East India 

 Company, which had been established in 1599. 

 The beginnings of this colossal trading corpora- 

 tion were small. In the year 1636 Mr. Boughton, 

 a ship's surgeon, obtained the privilege of planting 

 factories in Bengal. The Presidency of Madras 

 was constituted in 1639 ; the Presidency of 

 Bombay in 1662 ; and the Presidency of Bengal 

 in 1682. In 1773 the Governor of Bengal was 

 made Governor-General of India, with certain 

 powers, chiefly political and financial, over the 

 other two. In 1784 a Board of Control was 

 created in Britain, composed of the King of 



