Camp, Nahun, March 26, 1838.
I sent off my last Journal from Rajghaut, March 23. We got all our goods
over the river on Friday evening, and marched Saturday, 24th. The
regiment and the cavalry went the straight road, and we made an awfully
long march of seventeen miles towards the hills. It was the last day of
the dear open carriage, which has been the only comfort of my life in
this march. Nothing is so tiresome as all the miserable substitutes for
it--three miles of elephant and four of tonjaun, and then a pony. Both
men and cattle get so tired in a long march, or when they are employed
every day. The road is very pretty all through the Dhoon, and much
cooler than the plains. Chance is better, thank you. I knew you would
feel anxious about him. His constitution is dreadfully Indianised; but
perhaps the hills, and a judicious change of diet, may be of use.
However, he is done for as an English dog; he is just the sort of dog
you see at Cheltenham.
We came up to Nahun yesterday morning by means of elephants and
jonpauns. The road was very steep, but nothing like that to Mussoorie.
The Rajah of Nahun met us at the last stage, and came up the hill with
us to-day. He has his palace at the top, a sort of hill fort, and about
100 soldiers--imitations of our soldiers--and a band of mountaineers,
who played 'God save the Queen' with great success. He is one of the
best-looking people I have seen, and is a Rajpoot chief, and rides, and
hunts, and shoots, and is active. Nothing can be prettier than the
scenery, and altogether Nahun is the nicest residence I have seen in
India; and if the rajah fancied an English ranee, I know somebody who
would be very happy to listen to his proposals. At the same time, they
do say that the hot winds sometimes blow here, and that his mountains
are not quite high enough; and those points must be considered before I
settle here.
This morning we have been to see the palace, which is an odd collection
of small rooms, painted and gilded in curious patterns--of course, no
tables and chairs; and indeed the _only_ piece of furniture in the house
was an English barrel-organ, and in one of the rooms downstairs there
was a full-grown tiger, tolerably tame, and a large iron pot full of
milk for his dinner.
Naramghur, March 28.
We rejoined the other camp this morning. We came down the mountains from
Nahun on Monday afternoon with great success as far as we were
concerned, but a great many of the camels suffered from it, and we
passed several utterly unable to move. G. and I rode the last five
miles. By remaining at Nahun till the afternoon, we reduced ourselves to
one tent--all the others were obliged to go on for to-day's use, and
there is something particularly uncomfortable in a general tent.
One chair and table for G. at one end, with a supply of office boxes,
two sofas for F. and me, with a book a-piece, and two cane chairs for A.
and B., each pretending to read, but looking uncomfortable and stiff. I
missed my old parasol about three days ago, and discovered to-day that
Jimmund had applied to my jemadar for it, because he thought Chance's
ailments were brought on by the sun; and Wright says she passed him
to-day marching down the hill with Chance in one hand and the parasol
held over him with the other--a pretty idea. This morning I came on in
the palanquin, a wretched substitute for the carriage, but anything is
better than sitting bolt upright before breakfast--in fact, it is quite
impossible.
W. has had great sport at last--at least, everybody says it is great
sport. I cannot imagine anything more unpleasant. They found six tigers
at once in a ravine. Two charged W.'s elephant, and three General E.'s;
one of them disturbed a hornet's nest, and W. says he has since taken
fifty stings out of his face. The bank of the ravine gave way, and he
and his elephant came down within a yard of one tiger, which was however
too much wounded to do any harm. Altogether the party have killed eight,
and are coming back very much delighted with having been very nearly
eaten up, and then stung to death.
Raepore, Thursday, March 29.
Only five more days. I get such fits of bore with being doddled about
for three hours before breakfast in a sedan-chair, that I have a sort of
mad wish to tell the bearers to turn back and go home, quite home, all
the way to England. I wonder if I were to call 'coach' as loud as I
could, if it would do any good. It would be a relief to my feelings. An
unfortunate Brahmin came to Dr. D. at Nahun in the most horrible state
of agony, from that disease of which poor Mr. ---- died. Dr. D. had him
carried down, and yesterday he attempted the cure. Anything so horrible
as the man's screams I never heard; indeed, I thought it was some
animal, and sent out to ask what was the matter. It was the longest and
worst operation Dr. D. said he ever witnessed, but the man insisted on
it. His family have cut him off, but if he lives, it will be very easy
to give him all he wants. He is very ill, and had to be carried on
thirteen miles in a dhoolie.
Friday, March 30.
That Brahmin is better, and Dr. D. thinks he will live. We had a
melancholy letter to-day, with an account of poor Mr. S.'s death. He
died of abscess on the liver--of India, in fact. I think his health had
begun to fail before we left Calcutta, but we had not heard of his being
ill till a week ago. I am very sorry on all accounts. He was an
excellent man, and very much to be loved; and then she is left with
eleven children, of whom three only are provided for. It is melancholy
to think how almost all the people we have known at all intimately have
in two years died off, and that out of a small society. None of them
turned fifty; indeed, all but Mr. S. between thirty and forty. Mr. C.,
who is with us, was saying yesterday that he had been stationed a few
years ago at Delhi. 'I liked it; we were a very large party of young
men, but I am the only survivor.' And he is quite a young man.
* * * * *
That Brahmin is very much better, and Dr. D. has no doubt he will
recover. The Brahmins' diet leaves them so little susceptible of fever,
that if they do not sink under an operation they recover rapidly. G.
held a sort of durbar to-day, in which he gave the soubadars (or native
officers) of the regiment which has escorted us, shawls and matchlocks,
the same to the cavalry, and to the native officers of our bodyguard.
They have all conducted themselves most irreproachably during this long
march, and they are a class of men who ought to be encouraged. There
were about thirty of them in all; and at the end, after praising them
and their respective colonels, he poured attar on their hands and gave
them paun, which they look upon as the greatest distinction.
They were extremely pleased, and all our servants were quite delighted,
and said that 'our lordship was the first that had ever been so good to
natives.' I am glad it went off so well, for the idea, between
ourselves, was mine; and as there is a great jealousy and great fear
about liberality, it was disapproved of at first by the authorities, but
G. took to it after a day or two, and I mentioned it surreptitiously
to ----, who manages that part of the department. G. is quite of opinion
that there is too much neglect of meritorious natives, and that it is
only marvellous our dominion over them has resisted the system of
maltreatment, which was even much more the fashion than it is now. Even
now it is very painful to hear the way in which even some of the best
Europeans speak to those Rajpoot princes, who, though we have conquered
them, still are considered as kings by their subjects, and who look like
high-caste people.
Sabathoo, Monday, April 2.
On Saturday evening, at Pinjore, we gave a farewell dinner to all the
camp, and went after dinner to some beautiful gardens belonging to the
Puttealah rajah. He is not here himself, but he had had these gardens
lit up for us, and the fountains were playing, and all the best
nautch-girls had been sent from Puttealah, and altogether it was a very
magnificent fête.
People may abuse nautching, but it always amuses me extremely. The girls
hardly move about at all, but their dresses and attitudes are so
graceful I like to see them. Their singing is dreadful, and very noisy.
We went on to Barr the next afternoon; it is such a hot place that we
wished to have as few hours of it as possible. We found ---- nearly
exhausted by the labour of passing on our goods; every camel trunk takes
on an average eight men, and we have several hundred camel trunks of
stores alone. Colonel T., the political agent, had, however, arrived
with a reinforcement of coolies, and everything was progressing. That
Brahmin is so much better that Dr. D. sent him home from here, and we
gave him all that he required for his expenses. We were called at
half-past three this morning--is not that almost too shocking? human
nature revolts from such atrocities--and at four we were all stowed away
in our jonpauns and jogging by torchlight up some perpendicular paths,
which might be alarming, but I could not keep awake to see.
We were four hours coming to Sabathoo. Colonel T. provided us with a
house. We have had sundry alarms that our beds were gone straight to
Simla. Some of the servants knocked up, but upon the whole it has been a
less alarming expedition than Sir G. K. said we should find it. Colonel
T. has asked all Sabathoo, consisting of nine individuals, to meet us,
which we could have spared, considering we are to be up at half-past
three again to-morrow.
Simla, April 3.
Well, it really is worth all the trouble--such a beautiful place--and
our house, that everybody has been abusing, only wanting all the good
furniture and carpets we have brought, to be quite perfection. Views
only too lovely; deep valleys on the drawing-room side to the west, and
the snowy range on the dining-room side, where my room also is. Our
sitting-rooms are small, but that is all the better in this climate, and
the two principal rooms are very fine. The climate! No wonder I could
not live down below! We never were allowed a scrap of air to
breathe--now I come back to the air again I remember all about it. It is
a cool sort of stuff, refreshing, sweet, and apparently pleasant to the
lungs. We have fires in every room, and the windows open; red
rhododendron trees in bloom in every direction, and beautiful walks like
English shrubberies cut on all sides of the hills. Good! I see this is
to be the best part of India.
April 7.
This must go to-morrow. Simla is still like Major Waddell, 'all that is
brave, generous, and true.' G. and I took such a nice ride yesterday
round the highest mountain, to which is given the sublime name of Jacko;
but Jacko is a grand animal. You may be quite comfortable about our
healths here, as far as climate goes; it is quite perfection, and
altogether the Himalayas are sweet pretty little hills. I have just
unpacked your picture, which has been four months in a camel trunk, and
is more like you than ever.