Recollections of Thirty-nine Years in the Army

k by soldier-?Assault and confession-?The "Iron Duke"-?Items of news-?Snake-bite-?Prowling animals-?Routine life of a soldier-?Attempt at improvement-?Book club-?Th

or what were to be cantonments was at the time under indigo cultivation; on it tents were pitched and "lines" drawn out in accordance with regulations bearing on the subject. With the approach of hot weather the tents were walled and covered in by mud, straw, and such other mat

entrance to the city, what in former days must have been an imposing avenue of trees is represented by dilapidated willow trunks; at intervals smaller towns and villages occur, all surrounded by richly cultivated fields. Across the river, said

had extended to their country from Bengal, where for some years previous it had been relentlessly hunted down by Colonels Sleeman and Graham. At the new station of Sealkote an English church was in course of being erected. In reference thereto the strange report c

he prevailing heat was greater during the night than in daytime; the stillness of the air, laden with impalpable dust, affected not alone people, but quadrupeds and birds, while over everything a yellow haze lay thick and heavy. Then would come a thunder burst; forked lightning threatened, and in some instances struck our houses; a downpour of rain would follow, and for a few days thereafter all would be comparatively

the field in case of emergency. It was felt, however, that hospital régime was likely rather to increase their disability than benefit their condition; hence they were permitted

s, to which he succumbed. For some time before life passed away, incapable of expression by voice, his look

wife, through tittle-tattle of servants, that a guest,125 who occupied a tent in our compound, was dead by heat apoplexy. Several of our men

her then nor subsequently ascertained. The prostrate mother from her bed saw the native woman put "something" in the mouth of the

ere fortunes could very quickly be made. The result was the outbreak, as if epidemic, of crimes of assault on officers and non-commissioned officers, the idea being to get tried before a General Court-Martial and sentenced to transportation; after which, once in Australia, it

ial had been intentionally ordered to assemble for the express purpose of defeating the object the man was known to have in view, and this being the case it was natural to assume that in assaulting me he had in view trial and sentence by the more important tribunal. Aware as I was that a sentence of death might be the possible award, and desiring to avert such a penalty, in making the official report of the assault I suggeste

haunted by visions of a murder committed by himself and his "pal" on Wandsworth Common in 1845; he made every endeavour to get killed while charging the Sikhs in battle; he had committed offences so that he might be taken to the guard room, and thence made pretended attempts to escape in the hope of being cut down by the sentry; but failing in all these he had struck the

ng looked at from different and at times directly opposite points of view,-?the impression which seemed most generally to prevail being that although no one denied him the credit of great services performed in the first fi

item in those papers reads strangely while these notes are being transcribed, and conditions alluded to have developed in significance; namely, "The influence of the lower orders is fast on the increase, and altogether we seem to be on the eve of a crisis, the ultimate issue of which it is impossible to predict." Shortly thereafter came news of the Emperor's marriage to a Spanish lady

hose reptiles. He soon became unconscious; blood oozed from two small punctures on the instep where he had been bitten, from his mouth,

numbers of both were so injured by the pariah dog; some of those bitten were treated, some not, but no specific results followed the injuries. In the bazaars within cantonments prowl

their two resources the bazaar and the canteen; their tastes and pursuits animal; mind a blank; the body a ready prey to disease. Absolutely no good result was to be gained from official reports on these points, and sugges

in view to attracting men; lectures and demonstrations given on such subjects as Forts and Battles mentioned in the Bible,130 Strata of the Earth's Surface, Uses of the Human Body; classes for reading and writing also se

eavours made by a small number of us in 1853 to advance the intellectual condition of the British soldier in India, the few of us who still live attach suggestive significance to the extract now given from the most interesting work by Lord Roberts, entitled Forty-one Years in India.133 Under the date 1887 he wrote: "My name appeared in the Jubilee Gazette as having been given the Grand Cr

, is discovered by his comrades to be seized with heat apoplexy, or to be suffering from the scarcely less alarming symptoms of ardent fever. He is by them placed in a dooly and so dispatched to hospital. The bearers who carry him are indifferent to life and suffering among themselves, but if possible more so in respect to the white man, and so their pace is by no means rapid. They reach the "surgery"; but there, if they find no one present, they put their dooly down, while they themselves sit in the verandah to smoke, per

val became practicable, she proceeded by dooly dak towards Murree, then newly established as a hill station and sanatorium. Our cavalcade-?for I was of the party-?crossed the Chenab, partly by boat, partly by being carried through shallow water and marshy tracts. Arrived at Goojerat, the field of battle, at a little distance from the city, was found to be so overrun by vegetation as to be recognisa

unobtainable; there was no alternative but to carry my sick wife from her dooly and place her alongside the sick officer. How the child and infant fared all day is not recorded. Resuming our weary way as the cool breezes of evening set in, early morning found us at Rawul Pindee, then as still a favoured military station. Thence, in evening, towards the foot of the hilly rang

oolness of the breeze that wafted over us-?all these, delightful in themselves, exerted upon my wife an effect to be described as magical. Then it was that from her dooly the pale, emaciated f

course of being made, but as yet that by which we continued was little else than a rugged mountain path, leading upwards through forest composed of sycamore, pine, chestnut, and other trees familiar in our English woods

date indicated-?Major Mackeson, Chief Political Officer at Peshawur, had been assassinated by an Affghan from Jallahabad; the murderer having delivered his thrust raised his hand to repeat the blow, when-?so it was stated-?a native rushed between

be Sadhut Khan, chief of the Lalpoora State. Immediately on the occurrence of the murder British troops were moved onwards from Rawul Pindee, orders issued for others to march from other stations to take their place. These proceedings occupied several days, as all such movements had to be performed on foot. In the meantime the troops arriving at Peshawur were received with signs of disaffection by the Mahomedans of that city; while Rawul Pindee, left for the time

at the time; lightning flashes at intervals lit up the miry pathways along which the ladies and children had perforce to walk, in some instances a distance of a couple of miles. My own dear wife, as yet unrecovered, and unequal to such an exertion, was carried, together with her two children, and so reached the general rendezvous, where earlier arrivals had barricaded themselves as

(presents), and general disregard of her requests to keep the palanquins together, continued throughout the long dreary hours of darkness, and well on in the following day. It was afternoon before she was deposited at the dak bungalow of Rawul Pindee; but the party conveying her infant was nowhere in sight, nor could tidings of it be obtained. Thus did several hours pass. Then it was that the arrival of an officer140 enabled my wife to comm

in many instances not at all; indeed, claims were in some made for pecuniary reward, on the plea that individuals had submitted themselves to be operated upon. In a few instances, however, active gratitude was expressed, even in a somewhat demonstrative manner. The use of chloroform was then in its very early stages. In the instance of a child, that an?sthetic was admin