RECOLLECTIONS OF THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN THE ARMY
[Illustration: SIR CHARLES A. GORDON, K.C.B., SURGEON-GENERAL
(_From a Photograph by_ MR. A. BASSANO, _Old Bond Street_)]
Recollections of Thirty-nine
Years in the Army
GWALIOR AND THE BATTLE OF MAHARAJPORE, 1843
THE GOLD COAST OF AFRICA, 1847-48
THE INDIAN MUTINY, 1857-58
THE EXPEDITION TO CHINA, 1860-61
THE SIEGE OF PARIS, 1870-71
ETC
BY
SIR CHARLES ALEXANDER GORDON, K.C.B.
“The story of my life,
From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes
That I have passed.”
--_Othello_, Act I, Sc. 3
[Illustration]
London
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMD
PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1898
BUTLER & TANNER,
THE SELWOOD PRINTING WORKS,
FROME, AND LONDON.
THIS PERSONAL NARRATIVE
IS INSCRIBED TO
MY WIFE AND OUR CHILDREN
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
1841-1842. GAZETTED TO THE BUFFS--ARRIVE IN INDIA 1
CHAPTER II
1842-1843. IN PROGRESS TO JOIN 12
CHAPTER III
1843. AT ALLAHABAD 18
CHAPTER IV
1843-1844. CAMPAIGN IN GWALIOR 24
CHAPTER V
1844-1845. ALLAHABAD TO ENGLAND 36
CHAPTER VI
1845-1846. HOME SERVICE 46
CHAPTER VII
1847-1848. COAST OF GUINEA--BARBADOS--ENGLAND 55
CHAPTER VIII
1848-1851. IRELAND 74
CHAPTER IX
1851-1852. DUBLIN TO WUZZEERABAD 80
CHAPTER X
1852-1853. WUZZEERABAD 86
CHAPTER XI
1854-1856. MEEAN-MEER--ABERDEEN 96
CHAPTER XII
1857. ABERDEEN--DINAPORE--OUTBREAK OF SEPOY MUTINY 106
CHAPTER XIII
1857. EARLY MONTHS OF THE MUTINY 111
CHAPTER XIV
1857-1858. THE JOUNPORE FIELD FORCE 124
CHAPTER XV
1858. CAPTURE OF LUCKNOW 130
CHAPTER XVI
1858. THE AZIMGHUR FIELD FORCE 135
CHAPTER XVII
1858-1859. DINAPORE--PLYMOUTH 147
CHAPTER XVIII
1859-1860. PLYMOUTH--DEVONPORT 154
CHAPTER XIX
1860. DEVONPORT--HONG-KONG 160
CHAPTER XX
1860. HONG-KONG--TIENTSIN 166
CHAPTER XXI
1860-1861. TIENTSIN 177
CHAPTER XXII
1861. TIENTSIN--CHEFOO--NAGASAKI--DEVONPORT 188
CHAPTER XXIII
1862-1864. DEVONPORT--CALCUTTA 201
CHAPTER XXIV
1865-1868. CALCUTTA--PORTSMOUTH 213
CHAPTER XXV
1868-1870. PORTSMOUTH 227
CHAPTER XXVI
1870. JULY-SEPTEMBER. FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR--SIEGE OF PARIS 231
CHAPTER XXVII
1870. SEPTEMBER. SIEGE OF PARIS 242
CHAPTER XXVIII
1870. OCTOBER. SIEGE OF PARIS 248
CHAPTER XXIX
1870. NOVEMBER. SIEGE OF PARIS 259
CHAPTER XXX
1870. DECEMBER. SIEGE CONTINUED 265
CHAPTER XXXI
1871. JANUARY. SIEGE--BOMBARDMENT--CAPITULATION OF PARIS 272
CHAPTER XXXII
1871. FEBRUARY. PARIS AFTER CAPITULATION 282
CHAPTER XXXIII
1871. MARCH. ENEMIES WITHIN PARIS 289
CHAPTER XXXIV
1871-1874. DOVER--ALDERSHOT 293
CHAPTER XXXV
1874-1875. BURMAH 297
CHAPTER XXXVI
1875-1880. MADRAS PRESIDENCY--FINALE 306
INDEX 315
THIRTY-NINE YEARS IN THE ARMY
CHAPTER I
_1841-1842. GAZETTED TO THE BUFFS. ARRIVE IN INDIA_
First Affghan War--Chatham--Fort Pitt--Supernumeraries--How
appointed--Gazetted--Breaking in--Orders of readiness--Ship
inspected--Embark--First days on board--Typical characters--
Warmth--Our “tub”--Reduced allowances--Conditions on board--
Amusements for men--For officers--“Speaking” ships--A dismasted
vessel--First sense of responsibility--Indiscipline--Neptune--On
board--Table Bay--Shore boats--Cape Town--Vicinity--Official
duties--The ship _Lloyds_--An “old friend”--The 25th Regiment--
The contractor--Botanic Garden--Eastward--Mutinous crew--Land
ahoy--Terrible news--The Hooghly.
In 1841 British and Indian troops occupied Cabul; but throughout
Affghanistan the aspect of things political was alarming. In Scinde the
Ameers were defiant and hostile. The Punjab in a state of disturbance
and convulsion; law and order had ceased; isolated murders and
massacres instigated by opposing claimants to the throne left vacant
in 1839, and since that time occupied by a prince against whom the
insurrectionary movement was now directed by chiefs, some of whom were
inimical to British interests.
Military reinforcements on a large scale were dispatched from England.
Great, accordingly, the activity at Chatham, then the only depot whence
recruits and young officers were sent to regiments serving in India.
The depot then at Warley was for soldiers of the Honourable Company’s
service.
Into the General Hospital at Fort Pitt were received military invalids
from India as from all other foreign stations. There they were treated
for their several ailments; thence discharged to join their respective
depots, or from the service on such pensions as they were deemed
entitled to by length of service and regimental character. Then the
period of engagement was for life, otherwise twenty-one years in the
infantry, twenty-four in the mounted branches.
There young medical men nominated for appointment to the army underwent
a course of training, more or less long, according to individual
circumstances, for the special duties before them; meanwhile they
received no pay, wore no uniform; they dined at mess, paid mess
subscriptions, and were subject to martial law.
Professional education included requirements for diplomas, and in
addition, special subjects relating to military medicine, surgery, and
management of troops. Nominations for appointments were given by old
officers or other men whose social position was a guarantee in regard
to character and fitness of their nominees for the position sought by
them; certificates by professors and teachers under whom they studied
were submitted to the responsible authority[1] at the War Office,
with whom rested their selection. Thus in effect a combined system of
patronage and competition was in force.
With anxious interest a small group of expectants awaited the arrival
of the coach by which in those days afternoon letters and evening
papers from the metropolis were conveyed. Eagerly was _The Gazette_
scanned when, close upon the hour of midnight, the papers were
delivered. Great was the pride and rejoicing with which some of our
number read the announcement relating to them; great the disappointment
of those who were not so included. The regiment to which I had the
honour of being appointed was the 3rd, or “Buffs,” the depot of
which formed part of the Provisional Battalion then occupying Forton
Barracks.[2]
The duties assigned to young medical officers were
unimportant--initiatory rather than definite in kind. Careful watch and
superintendence on the part of official seniors gave us an opportunity
of learning various points relative to practice, as well as to routine
and discipline, to be turned to account--or otherwise--in the career
upon which we were entering. But the process of “breaking in” was not
without its disagreeables. Courtesy towards young officers on the part
of their seniors, military or medical, was a quality rare at Chatham,
but where met with in isolated instances was the more appreciated,
and remembered in subsequent years. The “system” of training in force
tended rather to break than bend the sapling.
Thus did three months pass away. Then came an order of readiness to
embark with the detachment of recruits next to sail. Although about
to proceed with those pertaining to what was now “my own regiment,”
official regulations required that my appointment to charge of them
should have the authority of “The Honourable Court of Directors,”
and that to obtain it, personal application must be made at their
old historical house in Leadenhall Street--a formality which was
gone through with ease and success. This is what the appointment in
question implied:--Not only did I receive the free passage to which I
was entitled, my daily rate of pay[3] running on the while, minus £5
deducted “for messing,” but was privileged to occupy the second best
cabin on board, and at the end of the voyage to receive in rupees a
sum equivalent to fifteen shillings per head for officers and soldiers
landed, and half a guinea for each woman and child. In those “golden
days” the sterling value of the rupee was at par.
The ordeal of “inspection” was duly performed, the requirements on
board declared “satisfactory,” the formal report to that effect
transmitted to the authorities. My personal knowledge of those
requirements was absolutely _nil_. How much more definite that of other
members of the Inspecting Committee, was soon to be judged of. For
example: side or stern ports there were none, deck ventilators being
considered sufficient. Food stores comprised casks of salted beef and
pork; tins of soup and bouillé, potatoes and other vegetables, some
dried, some tinned; pickles and lime juice, bread, otherwise hard
biscuit, destined ere many weeks had elapsed to become mouldy and
honeycombed by weevils. There were bags of flour, peas, and raisins; an
ample supply of tobacco; also of rum and porter, to be issued to the
troops as a daily ration. The water tanks and a series of casks on deck
had been filled--so it was said--from the Thames below London Bridge,
when the tide was at its lowest.
The day of departure arrived. The detachment of which I was an unit
marched away from Chatham Barracks, through Rochester, Strood, and so
by road to Gravesend. There it was conveyed on board the _Indian_;
twenty-four hours allowed us to settle down on board; the ship then
taken in tow by steamer; we are on our voyage.
A fortnight elapsed; we were no farther on our way than off the
coast of Spain. The novelties of first experience afforded subject
of observation and thought: those which most impressed us, the clear
moonlight, the starry galaxy of the heavens, the Milky Way, the
cloudless sky, the phosphorescence of the undulating sea through which
our ship slowly glided; the masses of living things, chiefly medusæ,
that floated fathoms deep in ocean. During daylight many land birds
flew over us or rested on the rigging.
Small though our party was, it comprised its proportion of men typical
in their several ways. The commander of the vessel, soured with life,
disappointed in career, tired of sea life, but unable to quit his
profession. One of the ship’s officers, a young man of deeply religious
convictions. An ancient subaltern, inured to the chagrin of having been
several times purchased over by men of less service but more fortunate
than himself in worldly means. The lady’s man, pretentious and vapid,
given to solos on a guitar; the instrument adorned with many coloured
ribbons, to each of which he attached a legend; his cabin decorated
with little bits of “work,” cards, and trinkets, for as yet photographs
had not been invented. The irascible person, ready to take offence at
trifles, and in other ways uncertain.
A month on board; the Canary Islands faintly seen in the distance.
Already heat and stuffiness ’tween decks so unpleasant that carpenters
were set to work to cut out stern ports for ventilation. Our progress
so slow that with all sails set a ship’s boat was launched, in which
some of our numbers amused themselves by rowing round the vessel.
Two months, and we still north of the Equator. Various reasons given
for tedious progress, among others light airs, contrary winds, adverse
currents. But none of these explained the fact of our being passed by
vessels, some of which, on the horizon astern of us in the morning,
were hull down on that ahead ere daylight vanished. That our ship was
alluded to as “a worthless old tub” need now be no matter of surprise.
Not more than one-third of our distance to be run as yet got over;
prospects as regarded the remainder by no means happy. The unwelcome
announcement made that all hands, including crew and troops, must
submit to reduced allowance of food and water. Of the latter, the full
allowance per head per day for cooking and all other purposes was seven
pints, now to be reduced to six. No wonder that the announcement was
not received with tokens of approval.
Looking back to conditions as described in notes taken at the time, the
contrast so presented between those which were then deemed sufficient
for troops on board ship, and those which now exist may not be without
some historical interest. Space ’tween decks so limited,[4] that with
men’s hammocks slung, those who on duty had to make their way along
at night were forced to stoop almost to the attitude of the ordinary
quadruped. The “sick bay” on the port side, close to the main hatch,
directly exposed to rain from starboard; except a canvas screen, no
separation between the quarters of unmarried and those of married; no
separate accommodation for sick women or children; no prison set apart
for the refractory. All over the ship myriads of cockroaches; these
insects, especially lively at night, supplied to men and officers
excitement and exercise, as, slipper in hand, they hunted them whenever
the pale light given by the ship’s lamps enabled them to do so.
Cleanliness of decks and fittings was to some extent effected by means
of dry scrubbing. The use of Burnett’s Solution[5] substituted the
odour of the compound so named for that of humanity. By means of iron
fumigators in which was burning tar, the atmosphere of ’tween decks was
purified, due precautions taken to minimise the risks of fire attending
the process. Tubs and hose on deck supplied ample means for the morning
“souse.”
A carefully chosen library provided for the use of our men was placed
on board by the Indian authorities; it was highly appreciated and
generally made use of. Among the troops, games of all sorts were
encouraged, their selection left to men’s own choice. In working the
ship ready hands were at all times available. Gymnastics and feats
of strength were in high favour, and so, with the routine of guards,
parades, inspections, and so forth, daytime was filled up. In the
evenings, songs, recitations, theatrical performances, and instrumental
music were indulged till the bugle sounded “lights out.”
Officers had their ways of passing the time. They included games,
gymnastics, bets, practical jokes (of all degrees of silliness), cock
fighting, wild and dangerous adventures in the rigging, and on Saturday
evenings, toasts, then usual on such occasions, enthusiastically
“honoured.” A weekly newspaper was set on foot; the works of Scott,
Shakespeare, and Pope, among other authors, carefully studied, and
discussions, more or less profitable, held on their contents.
Sighting, signalling, and hailing ships was a favourite amusement as
opportunity occurred. By some of those homeward bound we dispatched
letters, with passengers on board others we exchanged visits, strange
as such ceremonies may seem to those now acquainted only with modern
twenty-knot floating steam palaces. While paying such a visit to a ship
five months out from China, we learned the “news” that Canton had been
captured (on May 25-27, 1841) by the forces under command of Sir Hugh
Gough.
In near proximity to the Equator we came upon a ship, the _Cambridge_,
disabled, her topmasts carried away in a sudden squall two nights
previous. The resolve to stand by and give assistance was quickly
taken. Boats were lowered, parties of sailors and recruits, accompanied
by some officers, were soon on board. Within a few hours defects were
made good as far as that was practicable; meantime night had closed in,
a somewhat fresh breeze sprung up, clouds obscured the sky, and so the
return to our ship was by no means accomplished without danger.
The distance to be got over was still great before the ship could reach
Table Bay and renewed supplies obtained. The health of all on board had
so far remained good, notwithstanding all the drawbacks experienced.
The likelihood, however, that this happy state of things might suddenly
come to an end became to me a source of what was the first sense of
official anxiety with which I had been acquainted.
Excepting two somewhat elderly non-commissioned officers, specially put
on board the better to ensure discipline among our recruits, all others
were as yet but partly tutored in military duties and order. Unwilling
obedience had from the first been shown by several of their number;
then came irregularities, quarrels, and fights among themselves. Nor
were the few married women on board ideal patterns of gentleness,
either in speech or behaviour.
Among the crew were men whose antecedents, so far as they could be
ascertained, were of the most questionable kind, and whose conduct on
board had, from the first, been suspicious. Between them and kindred
spirits among the recruits, it appeared that an understanding had
been come to to have what they called “a disturbance” on board. Those
intentions having come to the ears of the officers, with the further
information that fully ninety men were implicated, preparations were
made for emergencies: arm-racks fitted up in the saloon; fire-arms
burnished; ammunition seen to; non-commissioned officers instructed
as to their duties. But an occurrence which now happened distracted
attention from the so-called plot, whether real or imaginary did not
transpire.
Our entrance into tropical latitudes, some three weeks previous, had
been duly announced by “Neptune,” who, selecting the period of first
night watch for the ceremony, welcomed us from amidst a flare of blue
lights on the forecastle, on our coming to his dominions. Having done
so, he returned to his element; his car a burning tar-barrel, which
we continued to watch as it seemed to float astern, until all was
darkness again. On board, “offerings” had to be made to the sea-god,
half-sovereigns and bottles of rum, sent to the fo’c’s’le, being those
most appreciated.
While yet in the first degree of south latitude, the sea-god,
accompanied by his court officials, announced their arrival on board,
the whole personified by members of the ship’s crew, appropriately
attired in accordance with their respective official positions. The
ceremony of “initiating” the “children” was quickly in progress, the
chief ceremonies connected therewith including shaving, “bathing,”
besides some others by no means pleasant to their subjects. One of
our young recruits strongly resisted the ordeal through which several
of his comrades had passed. He succeeded in making his escape from his
captors, and quickly mounting the ship’s railing, thence plunged into
the sea, to the consternation and horror of us all. The vessel was
instantly “put about,” a boat lowered, but search for him was in vain.
The occurrence was, indeed, a melancholy outcome of what was intended
to be a scene of amusement. But the spirits of young men were light,
and ere many hours had elapsed, the song and dance were in progress, as
if the event had not occurred. A Court of Inquiry followed in due time,
and then the incident was forgotten.
We were now approaching Table Bay. Great was the interest and
admiration with which we looked upon Table Mountain, as its grandeur
became more and more distinctly revealed. Hardly less was our estimate
of the Blue Berg range, by which the distant view was bounded. Soon we
were among the shipping, and at anchor.
Our ship was soon surrounded by boats, that seemed to come in shoals
from shore; some conveying fruit and curiosities for sale, others
suspected of carrying commodities less innocuous in kind. But sentries,
already placed at gangways and other points on deck, prevented traffic
between our men and the small craft. The aspect of boats and their
crews was alike new and strange to most of us: the former, striped with
gaudy colours, red, black, and white; the latter, representing several
nationalities, including English, Dutch, Malay, East Indian, and
typical African, their several styles of costume no less various than
themselves.
Some of our number, proceeding ashore, stood for the first time on
foreign ground. Cape Town presented a series of wide, regularly
arranged streets, intersecting each other, their sides sheltered by
foliage trees. Flat-roofed houses, coated with white plaster, were
nearly invariable in their uniformity. Great wagons, drawn by teams of
oxen, from six to twelve in number--and even more--were being driven
along by Malays, armed with whips of alarming proportions; though,
fortunately for the beasts of burthen, they were little used. Crowds of
pedestrians were on the thoroughfares, interspersed with guardians of
the peace, the latter dressed after the manner of their kind in London.
It was the month of December; but the temperature was that of summer;
the heat oppressive, as we continued our excursion.
Part of that excursion was to Constantia. On the right, the great
mountain, rising to a height of three thousand feet; the space
between its base and the road along which we drove thickly covered
by forest and undergrowth, the whole comprising oaks, silver and
other pines, geraniums, pomegranates, and heaths, interspersed with
herbaceous plants bearing gorgeously coloured flowers. At intervals
there were richly cultivated fields and valleys; on or near them
attractive-looking houses, many having attached to the latter no
less handsome gardens. The road was thickly occupied by vehicles
and pedestrians; among the whites, a considerable proportion of
well-looking individuals of the fair sex. There was, in fact, a general
aspect of activity and of prosperity.
The ordeal of “reporting ourselves” to the authorities was gone
through: our reception by one, whose surname indicated Dutch origin,
ungracious and supercilious; by the departmental chief so kindly, as
by contrast to make an impression upon us, but partially inured to
official ways as we then were. Meanwhile, the necessary steps were in
progress for placing on board our ship the much-needed supplies of food
materials and of water.
Among vessels that anchored in the bay during our detention, there
was the ship _Lloyds_, having on board emigrants from England to New
Zealand. When first they began their voyage, they numbered eighty
women and 117 children; but so appalling had been the mortality among
them that, of the children, fifty-seven had died. In all parts of the
space occupied by passengers, sickness and distress in various shapes
prevailed. Children, apparently near to death, lay in cots by the side
of their prostrate mothers, whose feebleness rendered them unable to
give the necessary aid to their infants. A state of indescribable filth
existed everywhere; ventilation there was none in the proper sense.
Women and children affected with measles in very severe form, that
disease having been brought on board in the persons of some of those
embarking; others suffered from low fever, and some from scurvy, which
had recently appeared among them. The family of the medical man on
board had suffered like the others, one of his children having died.
On the deck of the ship lay two coffins, containing bodies of the
dead, preparatory to being taken on shore for burial. The entire scene
presented by the ship, the saddest with which, so far, I had become
acquainted.
In Table Bay we again met the _Cambridge_ already mentioned, that
vessel arriving shortly after our own had anchored. In a sense we, the
passengers of both, greeted each other as old friends; visits were
interchanged, then leave was taken of each other with expressions of
good wishes. By-and-by there came to anchor the ship _Nanking_, having
on board recruits belonging to the service of the Honourable Company.
Greetings and cheers were interchanged; for were we not all alike
proceeding on a career, hopeful indeed, but as yet uncertain?
In the Castle, a short distance from Cape Town, the 25th Regiment, or
Borderers, was stationed, and in accordance with the hospitable custom
of the time, an invitation to dinner with the officers was received
on board. The party on that festive occasion numbered seventy, the
majority guests like ourselves, and now the circumstance is mentioned
as showing the scale upon which such entertainments were given.
Invited to the house of an Afrikander Dutchman[6], we found ourselves
in large airy rooms, destitute of carpets, with polished floors; wall
space reduced to a series of intervals between doors and windows; the
arrangements new to us, but suited to climatic conditions of the place.
Little attentions shown by, added to personal attractions of, lady
members of the family naturally enough left their impression on young
susceptibilities.
Very interesting also, though in a different way, was our visit to the
house of Baron von Ludovigberg. Elegantly furnished, rooms so arranged
as to be readily transformed into one large hall, everything in and
around marking a life of ease and comfort. His garden, situated in Kolf
Street, extensive, elegantly laid out, with large collection of plants
indigenous and foreign; at intervals fountains and ornamental lakes. In
the latter were thousands of gold fish, so tame as to approach and feed
from the hand of an attendant; to the sound of a handbell rung by him
they crowded, though on seeing us they kept at a distance. To the sound
of the same bell when rung by us they would approach, but not come near
the strangers.
Our voyage resumed, away eastward we sailed. Sixteen days without
noteworthy incident; then sighted the island of Amsterdam, from which
point, as the captain expressed it, he began to make his northing.
Another interval of monotonous sea life. At daybreak we found that
in close proximity to us was a barque, the _Vanguard_, on board of
which there was disturbance amounting to mutiny among the crew. The
captain[7] signalled for assistance. A party of our young soldiers,
under command of an officer, proceeded on board, removed the
recalcitrant men to our ship, some of our sailors taking their place,
and so both vessels continued their way to Calcutta.
Again was the unwelcome announcement made that short allowance of
food and water was imminent, to be averted by progress of our vessel
becoming more rapid than it had hitherto been. The tedium of the
voyage had told upon us; idleness had produced its usual effect.
Chafing against authority and slow decay of active good fellowship
became too apparent; all were tired of each other.
Another interval. From the mast-head comes the welcome sound, “Land on
the starboard bow.” Soon we come in view of low-lying shore, over which
hangs a haze in which outlines of objects are indistinct. What is seen,
however, indicates that our ship is out of reckoning; that, as for some
time past suspected, something has gone wrong with the chronometers.
Wisely, the captain determines to proceed no farther for the present,
until able to determine our precise position. A day and night pass,
then is descried a ship in the distance westward. We proceed in that
direction, and ere many hours are over exchange signals with a pilot
brig.
Twenty-four weeks had elapsed since the pilot left us in the Downs;
now the corresponding functionary boards our ship off the Sandheads.
We are eager for news. He has much to tell, but of a nature sad as
unexpected. The envoy at Cabul, Sir William Macnaughten, murdered
by the hand of Akbar Khan; the 44th Regiment annihilated, part of a
force comprising 4,500 fighting men and 12,000 camp-followers who had
started on their disastrous retreat from Cabul towards the Khyber Pass;
one only survivor, Dr. Bryden, who carried tidings of the disaster
to Jellalabad. Another item was that several officers, ladies, and
children were in the hands of the Affghan chief.
Progress against the current of Hooghly River was slow, steam employed
only while crossing the dreaded “James and Mary” shoal; for then tugs
were scarce, their use expensive. Three days so passed; the first
experience of tropical scenery pleasant to the eye, furnishing at the
same time ample subject for remark and talk. On either side jungle,
cultivated plots of ground, palms, bamboos, buffaloes and cattle of
other kinds. In slimy ooze gigantic gavials; in the river dead bodies
of animals and human beings, vultures and crows perched upon and
tearing their decomposing flesh. Native boats come alongside; their
swarthy, semi-naked crews scream and gesticulate wildly as they offer
for sale fruit and other commodities. Our rigging is crowded with
brahminee kites and other birds; gulls and terns swarm around. The
prevailing damp heat is oppressive. Now the beautiful suburb of Garden
Reach is on our right; on our left the Botanic Garden; the City of
Palaces is ahead of us; we are at anchor off Princep’s Ghat.
The “details,” as in official language our troops collectively are
called, were transferred to country boats of uncouth look, and so
conveyed to Chinsurah, then a depot for newly arrived recruits. Our
actual numbers so transferred equalled those originally embarked, two
lives lost during our voyage being made up for by two births on board.
Sanitation, in modern significance of the term, had as substitute
the arrangements--or want of them--already mentioned; yet no special
illness occurred; my first charge ended satisfactorily.