The shades of evening approached as we reached the ground, and just as
the encampment was completed the atmosphere grew suddenly dark, the heat
became oppressive, and an unusual stillness presaged the immediate
setting in of the monsoon. The whole appearance of nature resembled
those solemn preludes to earthquakes and hurricanes in the West Indies,
from which the east in general is providentially free. We were allowed
very little time for conjecture; in a few minutes the heavy clouds burst
over us.... I witnessed seventeen monsoons in India, but this exceeded
them all in its awful appearance and dreadful effects.
Encamped in a low situation, on the borders of a lake formed to collect
the surrounding water, we found ourselves in a few hours in a liquid
plain. The tent-pins giving way, in a loose soil, the tents fell down,
and left the whole army exposed to the contending elements.
It requires a lively imagination to conceive the situation of a hundred
thousand human beings of every description, with more than two hundred
thousand elephants, camels, horses, and oxen, suddenly overwhelmed by
this dreadful storm, in a strange country, without any knowledge of high
or low ground; the whole being covered by an immense lake, and
surrounded by thick darkness, which prevented our distinguishing a
single object, except such as the vivid glare of lightning displayed in
horrible forms. No language can describe the wreck of a large encampment
thus instantaneously destroyed and covered with water, amid the cries of
old men and helpless women, terrified by the piercing shrieks of their
expiring children, unable to afford them relief. During this dreadful
night more than two hundred persons and three thousand cattle perished,
and the morning dawn exhibited a shocking spectacle.--_Forbes's Oriental
Memoirs._