Friday, May 11, 1838.
We went yesterday to the Sikh camp to see their troops. W., F., and I
went on first, for when G. comes with his tail on there is such a
kicking and fighting amongst the horses, that it is not pleasant with a
thousand feet of precipices on one side of the road. G.'s horse was more
than usually vicious, and came to a regular fight with Sir G.'s. I wish
everybody would stick to their ponies in this country. The Sikhs had
pitched a very pretty shawl tent for us, with a silver chair and
footstool for G.; and the hills all round, with the Sikhs' showy horses
and bright dresses in the foreground, made as pretty a picture as it is
possible to see. Their soldiers were something like our recruits, I
thought, and their firing on horseback was very inferior to that of the
local corps we saw on our march. Ajeet Singh joined in the firing at a
mark, and seemed to shoot better than any of his followers, but there
were always two or three of them who fired at the same time as he did,
to make things quite certain. We had to ride home as hard as we could to
be in time for a great dinner, and only had ten minutes for dressing.
This morning G. had another durbar for a farewell to the deputation, and
for giving presents in exchange of theirs. After the Sikhs had retired
there were some hill rajahs introduced, rather interesting. One was the
brother of an ex-rajah, whose eyes had been put out by the neighbour who
took his territories. Another had been dethroned by Goulâb Singh, who is
one of the most powerful chiefs, except Runjeet, and a horrid character.
Half his subjects are deprived of their noses and ears. This poor
dethroned man, after a little formal talk, suddenly snatched off his
turban and flung it at George's feet, and then threw himself on the
ground, begging for assistance to get back his dominions. He cried like
a child, and they say his story is a most melancholy one, but the
Company are bound not to interfere. They can only give shelter in their
territories.
Monday, May 14.
We had such a dreadful sermon at church yesterday from a strange
clergyman. Mr. Y. always preaches here in the morning, and F. and I go
in the afternoon to the church, when he has generally preached again;
but yesterday this sick gentleman took it into his head he was well
enough to preach. He is rather cracked, I should think, though Y.
declares not; but I never will go again when he is to preach. He quoted
quantities of poetry, and when he thought any of it particularly
pretty, he said it twice over with the most ludicrous actions possible.
Then he imitated the voice with which he supposed Lazarus was called to
come forth, and which he said must have been very loud, or Lazarus would
not have heard it, and so he hallooed till half Simla must have heard.
Then he described an angel appearing--'a fine trumpeter;' and he held
out his black gown at its full extent, to show how the angel's wings
fluttered. All round the church people's shoulders were shaking and
their faces hid, and there was one moment when I was nearly going out,
for fear of giving a scream. It was a most indecent exit at last. Even
Sir G. R. came out, wiping his eyes, and I came home in one of those
fits of laughing and crying which we used to have about 'Pleasant but
not correct,' or such like childish jokes, which always ended by giving
you a palpitation. W. and Captain M. went yesterday with the Sikhs on
their way to Runjeet.
Thursday, May 17.
I have had a great deal to write and to copy for G. this week, and am
amazingly backward in my letters, and I opine it must be the knowledge
of that fact which has induced the Bombay Government not to advertise
any steamers. Monday we had a great dinner. There is a very pretty
Mrs. ---- up here--a sort of Malibran in look, but more regularly pretty,
who also dined with us. Her husband cannot get leave from his office,
and she is come up with two children, who look thoroughly Indianised. I
always think those wives who are driven by health to be so many months
away from their husbands, are rather in a dangerous situation in this
country, where women are seldom left to take care of themselves; but she
seems to be a very nice person, and there is something in extreme beauty
that is very attractive. On Tuesday we dined with the Commander-in-Chief,
in order to attend Capt. Q.'s wedding; it was got up with great care by
the R.s. It went off remarkably well--Miss S. looked very pretty. Miss
R., one bridesmaid, is rather handsome, and Miss T., the other, is a
very handsome girl, but would have looked better if she had not ridden
up from Barr (forty-two miles of the steepest hills) without stopping,
whereby the sun had literally burnt all the skin off her shoulders
through her habit. I lent her a blonde shawl, but it could not conceal
the state of things. Most men talk of riding twenty miles in these
mountains as a great feat, and I never can understand the extraordinary
exertions that women sometimes make--and without dying of it, too.
There was no crying at the wedding, and the young couple went off in two
jonpauns, carried one after the other. There was no spare house in
Simla, and they had meant to go into tents, but Captains N. and M.
handsomely offered their house, which is the most retired and one of the
best here.
Saturday, May 19.
F. has heard from W., who had been assisting at the evening firing at a
mark, which is a constant practice with the Sikhs. Ajeet Singh put in
one of his spears at forty yards' distance, and another at sixty, and
put a mangoe on the head of one. He fired twenty times without hitting
either. W. hit the mangoe at the second shot, and then hit the other
spear three times running, and then thought it better to say he was
tired, and could not shoot any more; so the Sikhs all said 'Wah! wah!'
and were pleased. Dr. D. says the thermometer is at 96° in their tents
with tatties, and outside there is a perfect simoom. Poor things! it is
so pleasant here. All Dr. D.'s medicines and instruments have been
stolen from his assistant's tent. The stomach-pump was cut to pieces by
the thieves--such a blessing for Runjeet's courtiers! He tries all
medical experiments on the people about him. How they would have been
pumped!
Simla, Wednesday.
It appears the Journal I sent off to you last Saturday will probably
pass a month at Bombay, where this may still find it. G., in the
plentitude of his power, ordered off a steamer to the Persian Gulf, for
the Persians are behaving very ill to us, and the second steamer, which
was to have supplied its place and to have taken the overland mail, is
disabled. The weather, for Simla, is wonderfully hot--I should say
painfully so, if I did not recollect the plains. Dr. D. writes word that
in their houses at Adeenanuggur (Runjeet's abode), with tatties and
every possible precaution, the thermometer ranges from 102° to 105°.
Calcutta never gets up to that, and then it is comparatively cool there
at night; whereas, these hot winds are just the same all through the
twenty-four hours. W. does not mind them--at least, he says anything is
better than Simla.
Thursday.
Our band played again yesterday at their new place, and it is a most
successful attempt for the good of society, very much aided yesterday by
the goodness of the strawberry ice. The weather is so dry and hot that
Giles allowed us to have as many strawberries as could be picked, as
they are all dying away. The strawberries here are quite as fine as in
England, but they last a very short time. I never saw anything so pretty
as the shrubs are just now. Both pink and white roses in large masses,
and several other quite new shrubs. When we were riding yesterday we saw
some coolies in the road with boxes on their heads, and I said, 'Let us
go to them and persuade them that one of those boxes is ours;' and when
we rode up there was one directed to G. We made sure it contained those
bonnets of Mr. D.'s, which we have been looking for so long, but it
turned out to be books, and a very neat selection--Ernest Maltravers,
the Vicar of Wrexhill, Uncle Horace, Kindness in Women, &c., and some
very amusing magazines.
We had read the Vicar of Wrexhill last week; I think it such a clever
book, though wicked. Those bonnets must come at last. I never see those
coolies come trotting along, having traversed half India, unwatched and
unguarded, without having the greatest respect for their honesty and
perseverance. They get about three rupees per month (six shillings), or
sometimes four, for walking six hundred miles with a heavy box on their
heads.
Saturday, June 9.
We went to the play last night. There is a little sort of theatre at
Simla, small and hot and something dirty, but it does very well. Captain
N. got up a prospectus of six plays for the benefit of the starving
people at Agra, and there was a long list of subscribers, but then the
actors fell out. One man took a fit of low spirits, and another who
acted women's parts well would not cut off his mustachios, and another
went off to shoot bears near the Snowy Range. That man has been punished
for his shilly-shallying; the snow blinded him, and he was brought back
rolled up in a blanket, and carried by six men also nearly blind--he was
entirely so for three days, but has recovered now. Altogether the scheme
fell to the ground, which was a pity, as the subscriptions alone would
have ensured 30_l._ every night of acting to those poor people. So when
the gentlemen gave it up, the 'uncovenanted service' said they wished to
try. The 'uncovenanted service' is just one of our choicest Indianisms,
accompanied with our very worst Indian feelings. We say the words just
as you talk of the 'poor chimney-sweepers,' or 'those wretched
scavengers'--the uncovenanted being, in fact, clerks in the public
offices. Very well-educated, quiet men, and many of them very highly
paid; but as many of them are half-castes, we, with our pure Norman or
Saxon blood, cannot really think contemptuously enough of them. In
former days they were probably a bad class, but now a great many
Europeans have been driven, by the failures of the banks here, to take
that line, and amongst them are several thorough gentlemen. There were
at least fifty of them in one camp attached to Government, and I never
saw better behaved people. Some had horses, some gigs, and some their
nice little wives in their nice little palkees; two wives and two
families packed up together, for economy, with the two husbands riding
by the side of the carriage. And then in the evening we used to hear A.
and B., &c., disputing and lamenting that they could not allow Mr. V.
and Mr. Z., and so on, to sit down in their presence. Well! I dare say
it is all right, or at least we are all equally wrong, for they are not
allowed to enter Government House; and I see how it would be impossible
to ask a _white_ Mr. and Mrs. Smith, though they are better looking than
half the people we know, without hurting the feelings of a half-black
Mr. Brown. Even at the theatres they have distinct places. Now they have
wisely taken to the stage, a great many of the _gentry_ were even above
going to see them act. However, we went, and lent them the band, and the
house was quite full--and they really acted remarkably well, one
Irishman in particular. There is a son of Mr. F.'s amongst them. We
always in camp used to call him Sophia; he looked like an actress
dressed up in men's clothes--little ringlets, and a little tunic, and a
hat on one side. They have got Sophia to act their heroines, and she
looks quite at her ease restored to her female style of dress, and is, I
dare say, equally a good clerk in General C.'s office. The play was over
soon after ten.
Wednesday, June 13.
The weather is very hot here now, much hotter than an English summer; at
least nobody can go out after seven or before six, and the nights are
very close; but of course everybody says it is a most extraordinary
season, as they always do in India. It must end in rain soon; if it does
not, the famine of this unfortunate country will be worse than ever.
Captain M. and Mr. B. have both been ill with the dreadful heat at
Adeenanuggur, and Dr. D. seems very anxious to get them away from there.
I am quite sorry for the doctor. He left his little terrier here at his
own house; it was a particularly clever little dog, and he doted on it,
and there is very little doubt that it was eaten up, but whether by
leopard or hyena remains a mystery. He will be wretched about it, and it
places the happiness of the owners of little dogs generally on a
wretchedly insecure footing.
We have had a slight disturbance in our household, the first serious one
since we sent away those servants at Benares for taking presents. This
time it was rather our fault. The Puttealah Rajah always sends, with his
fruit and vegetables, various bottles, some containing rose water, and
the others some sort of spirits. We ought to have broken the last, but
we told the native servants to divide everything amongst them, and one
of the kitmutgars, who got for his share a bottle of these spirits,
asked some of the others to dine with him, took great care to drink
nothing but water himself, and persuaded two others to get very drunk
with what he called sherbet, and then they began to quarrel. It is such
an extreme disgrace for a Mussulman to be drunk, and so degrading in the
eyes of all the others, that J. turned them off forthwith. I was against
it, as it had been a trick upon them, and partly our fault, but I only
insisted on the giver of the feast being turned off too. As these men
have only four shillings a week for themselves and families, of course
they can save nothing, and if they are turned away at a distance from
home they really may die of starvation. They went crying about for three
or four days, and tried Giles and Wright, who could not interfere; and
at last they watched me into my room yesterday, and came with two or
three of the head servants to speak for them. I never can resist them;
they cry, and knock their heads against the ground, and always make use
of such touching expressions--that they are so very wicked, and so very
unhappy, and that God forgives everybody their faults, and that they
must and will die if they are not forgiven. However, I was very firm,
and said I knew it was no use asking Major J., and that I never could
look upon them again as respectable servants, and that none of the old
servants ever gave them such an example, and would not like to associate
with them. But then the old ones turned against me; and then I said, I
would give them money to take them home, and then they cried still more
about the disgrace; so at last I said I would ask Major J., though I was
sure it was of no use, &c. Sometimes he does take it amiss; but this
time he said, in his own diplomatic way, that in fact he had sent them
to me, for he knew I should not resist their grief, and as _he_ had sent
them away he did not know how otherwise to help them. Giles, to whose
department they belong, had been miserable about them.