THE PRINCE OF WALES AT MADRAS.

Evening Star, Issue 4095, 11 April 1876, Page 4

THE PRINCE OF WALES AT MADRAS.

The correspondent of the ‘Times’ gives the following account of the surf in honor of the Prince’s visit:— “ The preparations for the illuminations are very extensive. The people are not so demonstrative at Bombay, nor do they clap hands as in the south, but they are not less enthusiastic. The Prince will never see in India or anywhere else any spectacle so strange and awful,as what was called the ‘illumination of the surf.’ Neither pen nor pencil can give any 1 idea of it. It was weirdly beautiful, exciting, grand. As if to render homage to the occasion, the wind had risen and the surf was high. The sight was fine on the pier, through the base of which ran curling breakers. Seats were placed for the Prince, the Governor, his family and suite, out of the reach of the spray. The buildings along the beach, transparencies, and triumphal arches, all brilliantly illuminated, formed a background, above which rose steeples, columns, and lamps. Southwards, where the rollers swept up to the roadway, there were rows of natives with blazing torches and blue lights. There was occasionally a wash of larger billows behind the multitude, and facing seawards an ocean of white turbans. The Serapis, Osborne, and Raleigh were illuminated outside. Between the outside darkness and the beach, the moonlight now and then revealed dark objects rising and falling on the billows. “The Prince having arrived from dinner with' the C6mrnander-in-Chief, after a grand discharge from the ship Raleigh, there was one flight of 190 colored rockets. The Osborne and Serapis vied with each othej* in the display. It seemed as if volcanoes were emitting volumes of colored flames. Presently appeared fire here and there seawards, amid waves drifting seawards, amid waves drifting landwards, like fire-ships from afar. These multiplied, dipping, rising now and then through the waves, while occasionally came a light from the other side. It had an immense effect, Suddenly from the beach dashed the black forms of the Mascuwah boats and catamarans, which, amid the wildest yells, charged into the serried ranks of the foam-created breakers, and dark objects seawards were revealed, as the boats tossed violently on outer ridge of the breakers. There never was such an awful And a sea now as black as mk, now like fire-glistening jet, in a creaming surf, the catamaran men were swept off and regained their craft, or disappeared beneath the billows. There was an awful suspension till they were landed safely on the beach. Their skill is beyond praise. These hardy fellows, watching an opportunity, keep tke top of the wave by tremendous efforts, and are borne past with wonderful Velocity, yet emerge safely from each succeeding breaker., This extraordinary , spectacle w:as renewed repeatedly. One ' might, fancy it a combat of water gods. The people, amid the blue lights, the rockets, and, boiling surf, remained almost quiet. “It .was midnight before the Prince ' drove ‘tp the native festival. The crowd [broke in, followed, and surrounded the Prince’s open carriage. “The railway station was converted into a reception hall. The sides, pillars, and roofs were decorated with wonderful richness. It was filled with many thousands of Europeans, Asiatics, Hindoos, and Mussulmans, ( who had waited two hours. The Prince was seated in a silver chair en a . raised, dais.”