353 
distinctly states that f no trees" were within sight. It is, in 
short, abundantly clear, that whatever object the soi-disant 
traveller may have prescribed to himself in composing this 
narrative, it is totally destitute of all claim to historic verity. 
10. “ But he has incidentally mentioned a trifling circum- 
stance, in which again we are fortunately able to test his 
veracity ; and here, too, we find it fails beyond all possibility of 
doubt. He contracted a friendship in England with a young 
student of noble birth, who, in fact, introduced him to this 
imaginary paradise of flowers. He declares that on the 1st of 
April, 1871, he was delighted to learn that his friend had 
attained great honours throughout England, by rowing in the 
successful one of two boats, that were striving on an English 
river for mastery. We will not dwell on the absurdity of a 
noble s toiling m rowing-boats, nor on the equal absurdity of a 
mighty nation like England's caring which boat won. We will 
P\°J ® closer than this. He has happily committed him- 
1Q7 1 ° ', dates 1 \ Now we P in him - I* was on the 1st of April, 
o/l, that this strife of boats occurred, and on this 1st of 
April, 1871, he declares that the news of the result delighted 
him. Where, then, was he on that day ? Hear the river of 
course, you say. Hot at all : he has actually recorded that at 
noon of that very 1st of April, 1871, he sailed from Bombay, a 
place several thousand miles from England ! Thus he asks 
us to believe that information of the issue of a race of boats 
on an English river, necessarily occupying in all its concomi- 
ants, several hours, was certainly known at several thousand 
miles distance before the noon of the same day : — we need not 
say a physical impossibility ! The day, however, selected for 
this feat, which sets both time and space at nought, is the 
1st of April, a day for ages devoted by Western superstition 
to mockery and unreality ; a circumstance which of itself 
ought to suggest the non-historic character of this document." 
11. Exactiy as my supposed Siamese critic deals with what, 
G f S ' •i re A i_ lrr ^ ragal:)le veritie£ b does the Colensian 
school deal with the Pentateuch; and the sting and virus of 
hntl ar ^ a J nulled h J the same principle. It may be replied to 
Doth,— You assume that what is ordinarily true must be ever 
y0U “ ake no allowance for intelligence, and will, and 
din^rv« C ° n Ti? ^S/he ordmjiry, and inducing the extraor- 
fnrn c | ie . ? aste ° f tke West ern noble chooses certain 
°t P lan t-beauty; Pis wealth enables him to put in 
r n * maritime resources of his nation to gather the 
cWt! °/ hl + \P leaS T j mechanical skill to make an artificial 
hem ; • hortlCultural skin to grow them ; while 
VQL ^ scien ce is perpetually discovering laws of nature. 
