dras lived in
gilded captivity till death set him free.

CHAPTER XII

MADRAS AND THE SEA

Madras is now a seaport of considerable repute; but it is interesting
to recall the fact that less than forty years ago the city was without
a harbour, and that ships which came there had to anchor out at sea.
In the days of the Company, passengers and cargo had to be landed on
the beach in boats; and, as the waves that chase one another to the
shores of Madras are nearly always giant billows crested with foaming
surf, the passage between ship and shore was not without its
discomforts and also its risks.

Warren Hastings, when he was senior member of the Madras Council and
was in charge of Public Works, wrote it down that he thought it
'possible to carry out a causeway or pier into the sea beyond the
Surf, to which boats might come and land their goods or passengers,
without being exposed to the Surf.' At various times different
engineers devised plans for such a pier as Warren Hastings proposed,
but nothing was actually done, and it was not until the sixties of
last century that a pier was actually made. It was not a stone
causeway such as Hastings seems to have had in his mind, but was a
lighter and likelier structure of wood and iron; and it did excellent
work, making it easy for passengers and cargo to be landed in fair
weather. Madras was still, however, without a harbour; but before many
years a harbour was taken in hand, and in the summer of 1881 its two
arms, enclosing the small pier, were practically finished. There was
much rejoicing; but the congratulations were short-lived, for on a
certain night during the winter of the same year there was a cyclone
off Madras, and the next morning the citizens saw that their harbour
had been wrecked by the devastating waves. It was fifteen years before
the harbour had been restored, upon an improved plan; and even then it
was a poor apology for a haven; for when a storm was expected, ships
were warned to put out to sea, as the cyclone had shown that a stormy
sea was less dangerous than the storm-beaten harbour. Within recent
years, however, the harbour has been so much altered and strengthened
and developed that it is regarded as a splendid piece of engineering,
and shipping business in Madras has benefited greatly. Large vessels
can now lie up against wharves, to discharge or to load their cargo,
and passengers can embark and disembark in comfort, and the increase
in tr