6 
SCENES IN INDIA 
merchants, lies about half a mile north of Fort St. 
George, and is separated from it by the esplanade. 
In this quarter there is an Armenian church ; there is 
also a handsome mosque, built by Mahommed Ali, 
Nabob of the Carnatic. 35- 
On the 15th of October the flag-staff was struck 
as a signal for all vessels to leave the roads, lest they 
should be overtaken by the monsoon. On that Very 
morning some premonitory symptoms of the approach- 
ing " war of elements” had appeared ; small fleecy 
clouds were perceived at intervals to rise from the 
horizon, and to dissipate in a thin and almost im- 
perceptible vapour over the deep blue of the still 
bright sky. There was a slight haze upon the 
distant waters, which seemed gradually to thicken, 
although not to a density sufficient to refract the rays 
of the sun, which still flooded the broad sea with one 
unvarying mass of glowing light. There was a sen- 
sation of suffocating heat in the atmosphere, which 
at the same moment seemed to oppress the lungs and 
depress the spirits. Towards the afternoon, the aspect 
of the sky began to change; the horizon gathered 
blackness, and the sun, which had risen so brightly, 
had evidently culminated in glory, to go down in 
darkness, and to have his splendour veiled from hu- 
man sight by a long, gloomy period of storm and 
turbulence. Masses of heavy clouds appeared to rise 
from the sea, black and portentous, accompanied by 
* So correct a representation has been given of Madras in the 
panorama painted by Mr. Daniell and Mr. Paris, that no verbal 
description can approach the vivid and extraordinary truth with 
which it realizes the whole scene to the beholder’s eye. 
