I am sometimes charged with being very fast in my tourist movements; but I cannot get through India half as fast as the Hon. James Brooks, Senator of the United States and editor and proprietor of the New York Observer, who has published A Seven Months' Run Up and Down and Around the World, in which he says:—"The world is too big, and life is too short, to go and stay everywhere. Skim, fly, read, study, hear, question, keep eyes and ears all wide open, and with the geography of a country well in your head you can understand its commerce, and trade, and life pretty well afterwards."

Mr. Brooks only had a week in India, and yet he shows himself competent to write on its history, institutions, laws, politics, trades, currencies, and the everywhere prominent British flag, which extorts from his pen at the commencement of several chapters, "England for ever, and ever, and ever;" and for the non appearance of the Stars and Stripes he deals heavy blows against American Protectionist policy, which has driven the American flag from these seas of the East.

My month in India was productive of innumerable suggestions, and I find it difficult so to compress my observations of facts and scenes as not to incur the risk of exclusion from the columns of The Times at the time of the Parliamentary Session.

But I intend in this, the third letter of my present contribution, to close my notes of the great tour. We are approaching Suez, and from Suez to London the way is about as well understood as from the Houses of Parliament to Printing house square; and little can be added to what is already known of the Nile and Palestine, two supplements to our tour around the world.

Found: Thomas Cook's 1872 blog

Cook wrote articles for The Times from his first round-the-world tour in 1872-3, but one was never published. Now it can be - with links to the original dispatches as they appeared

• The missing Thomas Cook dispatch from his first 222-day round the world tour

• Take a tour of the Thomas Cook museum

My last letter closed with remarks on Agra, and an important subject suggested by my visit to that city and its cantonments.

Leaving Agra in the morning, we reached Delhi the same evening, where, through the kind arrangements of the Rev. James Smith, Baptist missionary, we were introduced to the Government Dak Bungalow, an institution of India for places where there is a deficiency of hotel accom¬modation. This range of buildings consists, for each department, of two rooms opening into each other, with a bathroom for each division.

A bedstead and a mattress, with pillow and one sheet, are allotted to each visitor, and there are chairs and a table for each double room, but no looking glass—a deficiency easily remedied. A verandah on each side runs the length of the building, and the interiors of the rooms were fresh whitewashed and sweet. For the first three days a rupee a day is charged to each individual occupant, and for the fourth and every subsequent day the charge is doubled. A restaurateur is appointed to supply food and take charge of the rooms; and we got as good food and as well served as at most of the hotels in India, the entire charges and bachsheesh to servants being about equal to the ordinary charges of hotels.

I forgot, in my former letter, to say that at Benares we were located at the Victoria Hotel, and at Agra at the East Indian Railway Hotel, known as Beaumont's. At all these places—Benares, Agra, and Delhi—our bedding provision was required to supplement the scanty arrangements of the houses. There is at Delhi one hotel—Hamilton's—a diminished edition of a larger hotel which formerly existed under the same name. The Dak Bungalow is resorted to by most of the chief visitors. The Commander in Chief made it his home when there.

Delhi is one of the most interesting places in India, and its interest to English visitors was greatly augmented by the events of 1857. The great fort, encircling the late King's Palace; the rich marble structures of the Palace, baths, and harem; the pedestal on which stood the famed peacock Throne; the Great Mosque, the Cashmere gate, the spot within the walls where the brave Nicholson fell; the monument on the ridge where cannon was planted; the spot close by our Bungalow where the powder magazine was blown up by a handful of British soldiers, rather than yield to the rebels—all these chief mementoes of the Mutiny were visited with interest.

Our good friend, Mr. Smith, is a power in Delhi, both in spiritual, sanitary, and social affairs. He knows everything, and has to do with most of the municipal business. The Queen's Gardens are committed to his care, with their menagerie, and all that pertains to them. He was chosen to present the address of the citizens to the Duke of Edin¬burgh on the occasion of his visit; and it was no light advantage to have the friendly aid of such a man.

He spent a day with us in a visit to Kutuh, 11 miles distant, where there is one of the most wonderful obelisks in the world, surrounded by ruins of the greatest antiquity and interest. I cannot even catalogue all the monuments, tombs, and other ancient remains seen and described by Mr. Smith in the tour of that single day. The whole region, for many miles round, is full of tombs and erections commemorative of departed dynasties, and Mr. Smith seems to have command of all their records. We attended his native Bible class on Sunday morning, and heard him preach two sermons in English, in addition to which he preached one in the Hindoo language.

His labours are alike energetic in the cantonment, his chapel, and in and around the city. His excellent wife and two or three other ladies conduct the Zenana Mission, and have free access to 70 Mahomedan ladies, who are instructed in letters and needlework. From Delhi it would have been quite easy, in about 20 hours, to reach the base of the Himalayas; but our programme was not arranged for that extension of the tour, and we returned to visit places omitted in the outward journey.

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