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INDIA

Bombay residents in the months of October and
November, when the dying efforts of the south-west
monsoon leave the washed-out plateau fit for habitation.
It is not till the end of the rains that it is possible to
live there. Passing Belgaum (which is of some historic
account, and a military station) at 244 miles from Poona
the line runs to a junction with the West of India
Portuguese railway at the roadside station of Castle Rock,
292 miles from Poona. Here we have an interesting
item in the statistical list of Indian railways, and a curious
little line on its own account. The West of India Portuguese
 railway, which runs to a terminus at the coast at
Marmagoa (the seaport of Goa), is 51 miles long,
and runs through ten tunnels cut out of solid rock in
the course of the first 12 miles. Some of these
tunnels are of considerable length. Like the great
G.L.P. it has to negotiate the Western Ghats, and like it
also passes through magnificent scenery. But here the
parallel ends, for the G.LP. only ascends the Ghats to
gather in connecting links with nearly all the great lines
of India, whilst the Portuguese line begins on the top of
the Ghats and ends at the sea. It is a matter of small
surprise then that its working expenses are out of all
proportion to its earnings, and that it should figure on
the statistical list as the only line in India whose net
earnings are a minus (and a considerable minus) quantity.
There are two Goas, the old Goa, and the new.
Old Goa derives its special interest from the fact that it
is a fallen monument of European greatness, the disintegrating
 relic of a great Christian community. Founded
in 1510 by Albuquerque, it became the wealthiest city
in all India by the middle of the sixteenth century.
Here St. Francis Xavier achieved a success in Christian
missionary enterprise such as has never been equalled
since ; though it is but just to remember that Portuguese
missionary methods are not our methods; and here today
 in the midst of ruins so complete that «the stranger
approaches it unawares, and drives into its midst unconscious
 that he is traversing streets,” there are still a