_November 3._--We marched past Hydrabad, the capital of the
prince of Nizam's dominions, and pitched our camp at Secundrabad,
which is six miles distant, where there are barracks for European
troops, which at this time were occupied by his Majesty's 33d
regiment. The country being now tolerably quiet, a general order came
for our regiment to take the duty of Secundrabad, and the other
regiments were appointed also to different stations: so the 33d
marched out to our camp ground, and we took possession of their
barracks, after a march of three months, halting days included. But
though our march was now over, its sad effects were not over; for a
great proportion of our men were seized with what is called the jungle
fever. This fever some say is occasioned by an unwholesome moisture
exhaled by the sun out of the jungles or bushes through which we had
marched; others, that it is totally owing to the excessive fatigues,
and want of proper nourishment, to which the soldiers were exposed in
this country; but as I am no student of physic, I cannot say what the
real causes were, but this I know from experience, that its effects
were very deplorable; for I also was seized with it at this time, and
was despaired of by the doctor. It is attended with great pain in the
head and excessive vomiting, insomuch that a person looking upon one
labouring under this disorder would be apt to think he could not live
many minutes. My wife had a great deal of fatigue with me while ill of
this fever, which lasted about a fortnight; but, by the blessing of
God on the use of means, and particularly by the singular care and
attention of this most valuable partner in all my troubles, I
recovered. Had I been sent to the hospital, and received no better
attendance than it was possible for the men to obtain there, I would
in all probability have shared their fate.
While we lay here, some of our men were bitten by a mad dog, two of
whom died shortly after; but the doctors took rather a strange method
with the third. A corporal was ordered to attend him from morning to
night, and to carry him out to the fields and villages to amuse his
mind, and to give him as much liquor as would keep him always in a
kind of intoxicated state. Now, whether it was the effect of the
liquor in preventing his mind from dwelling upon his dangerous
situation, or whether the operation of the liquor destroyed the effect
of the bite, or (what is as likely perhaps) that the poison had not
been sufficiently strong in his body to produce fatal consequences, I
will not attempt to determine; but I know he got perfectly well, and
returned to his duty, and I never heard of him afterwards having any
symptoms of hydrophobia.
The provisions here were much better than in any place where we had
yet been stationed; but there was sad work with liquor,--there being a
village not far distant where was to be had abundance of paria
arrack[5], which the soldiers mixed with the juice of the toddy tree.
This composition had most terrible effects on our men; it made them
almost, if not altogether, mad. The village being at some distance
from the barracks, the liquor had time to operate, and they came home
like men out of the tombs. The consequence was, that we were flogging
daily. Our drum-major dying here, the duty of counting the lashes
devolved on me--and a disagreeable duty truly it was. This may appear
a severe method of discipline, but it is absolutely necessary for
keeping good order in the army.
[5] Paria takes its name from a despised class of persons
in India, who, it is said, have sold or lost caste, and
signifies any thing base or contemptible.
While we lay at Secundrabad, one of my fifers died, of the name of
Wilkins. This young lad came out with Colonel Conran in Wallajahbad,
and was given me by the Colonel, to teach him the fife, with the worst
of characters. The Colonel, moreover, told me that at any time when he
misbehaved, I was not to vex myself with him, but just to order one of
the drummers to flog him well with a cat. However, the young lad's
behaviour was not at all what I might have expected from this very
unfavourable character; for after my wife had put to rights his
shirts, trowsers, and other clothes that had been served out to him on
board ship, and which were much too large for him, and gave him a
slovenly and dirty appearance upon parade--I say, after this was done
for him, and he got some instructions how to keep himself trig and
clean--I had not a finer boy in my corps; and this piece of voluntary
attention on the part of my wife the poor fellow never could forget.
Whatever he could give her, or do for her, he seemed to think all too
little for her kindness; and to me he was every thing that was
tractable and attentive. But the reason of my mentioning this boy more
than any other of my acquaintance who died at this time, is, upon the
account of the singular regard he shewed for his Bible, and the
extraordinary circumstances by which it seems to have been excited;
which I hope my reader will not find fault with me for particularly
noticing.
One day, about the commencement of his fatal disorder, which was a
flux, he was at the _common_ place for the men, and our
drum-major, and another young man of the name of Gardiner, happened to
be there at the same time. These two fell into a strange and fearful
discourse respecting their trouble, and the likely termination of it.
Says the drum-major to Gardiner, "You are bad of the flux too, I see."
To which Gardiner replied, "D----d bad, drum-major." "Well, so am I,
and we will both die, and go to h--ll, but you will die first; and,
remember, you are to come and meet me half way."
The poor lad came into our room, much alarmed, and told us the woful
story; but he was much more so when they both died, and in the order
predicted by the drum-major; but whether they went to hell, or whether
the one met the other half-way, is not my business to determine; but
this I say, from the infallible word of the Lord, "that the wicked
shall be turned into hell, and all they that forget God." The trouble
both of mind and body of this boy still increasing, his love for his
Bible increased with it; for he was fully persuaded, that his Bible
alone could tell him how to avoid that dreadful place of which his
fears had been awakened, and likewise point out to him how he could be
happy after death. A day or two before he died, I went to the
hospital, to inquire how he was. I found him drawing near the close of
life; but his complaints were not so much of his pain as of his being
deprived of all means of reading the Bible, on account of the dimness
of his sight, in consequence of his trouble. His comrade being
permitted to be with him for some days before his death, I proposed
that he should read to him sometimes; but at these words, Wilkins
burst into tears, and being asked the reason, said, that it was
because his comrade had never learned to read that blessed book. He
still continued to get worse, until he died; but he would never part
with his Bible, (although he returned to me Mr. Boston's Fourfold
State, which I had lent him,) but kept it under his pillow, or hugged
it in his bosom until he expired.
A few months after we came to Secundrabad, an order came for four
companies of our regiment to proceed to Masulipatam, to do the duty of
that place, and, amongst these was my good hospital friend, Alexander
Chevis, for the which I was very sorry; but in a few months afterwards
we received a route for the same place, to embark for _foreign_
service, as every departure from India, for any island or country
under the British government is called.
There is just one circumstance, which I will mention before I take my
leave of this place, which appears fully as important to myself as any
thing I have seen or experienced since I came to it; and it is
this:--I had frequently been in heaviness, through manifold
temptations, in consequence of my remaining ignorance, and
corresponding want of faith, since my blessed affliction in the Prince
of Wales's Island, and particularly after my kind instructor A. C.
left the regiment with his company for Masulipatam, for I then lost
him who had formerly "comforted me in all my tribulations, with that
comfort wherewith he himself had been comforted of God;" but here I
again found, as I had often formerly done, the loving kindness of the
Lord, in a gracious providence, for he provided relief for me from a
quarter whence I could have very little expected it, as I shall now
relate:--
There was a person in the regiment, of the name of Serjeant Gray, with
whom I had hitherto a very slender acquaintance. He was a married man,
and I had never seen any thing but what led me to believe that he and
his wife were what are generally called very decent, well-behaved
people; though, whether they were at all concerned about religion or
not, was a matter I was entirely ignorant of; but one day, when I was
in a very melancholy mood, I thought I would go over to their
barrack-room, and get a little social converse with them, to cheer
me, which I accordingly did, and found only Mrs. Gray at home,
industriously engaged in sewing. After having made inquiry for each
other's welfare, I said it was a pity that there was no such thing as
getting any good books, when a person had a little spare time, to
improve his mind. She said it was, but immediately added, that she
had at present the loan of what she thought a very excellent book,
belonging to one of the men. I, somewhat eagerly, expressed a desire
to see it, which she instantly complied with; but how was my
astonishment excited, when I found it to be a book that my grandfather
highly respected, and expressed his esteem for it by saying, that if
he was condemned to spend the remainder of his earthly pilgrimage in
an uninhabited island, like the Apostle John, and had it in his power
to choose a few books to take along with him, the next he would select
after his Bible, would be Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in
the Soul. In the circumstances in which I was at that moment placed, I
need scarcely give the Christian reader any unnecessary information,
in saying, that "I rejoiced like one who had found great spoil." I
then made so free with Mrs. Gray as to ask her to which of the men it
belonged, and if she would let me have it for a day or two, that I
might peruse it? She said I was very welcome to do that, and also told
me who was the proprietor; but if I went to see her with a heavy
heart, I returned home with a light one, for I was so overjoyed that I
hardly knew that my weak limbs had a body to support. I had heard, as
I have already said, that there was such a book existing, but I had
never inquired after it when I could have made it my own, nor ever had
seen it until this happy hour; and little could I have expected to
find it in this wilderness, where, alas! there were no refreshing
waters to satisfy the longing desires of a thirsty soul; and this
book, I think, of all other human compositions I have yet known, was
best adapted to my condition; neither is it necessary to add, that I
read it over again and again, until I had almost the whole substance
of those parts of it by heart which more immediately corresponded with
the present state of my mind, and with my former experience. I must
be plain enough to say, that I did not desire to keep this book
altogether to myself, but wished also that others might derive benefit
from its contents; but this I will also state, that I thought I would
be a man possessed of great wealth if I could call it my own. I
therefore inquired at the person to whom it belonged if he was
disposed to part with it, and if so, that I would give him whatever
price he would ask. He said that I was welcome to have it for sixteen
finams, (about three shillings.) I therefore closed with him
immediately for that small sum. I was now blessed with ample means of
instruction, and I would indulge a hope that I was not only made wiser
by it, but I trust also better, by the blessing of God upon my search
after truth, and that it has not been to me the savour of death unto
death, but the savour of life unto life. I shall add no more at
present respecting this excellent work, as I shall have occasion to
speak of it again.