We left Secundrabad on the 11th February, 1811, and proceeded, by
forced marches, to Masulipatam, where I had not long been when I was
again thrown into a very disordered state, in consequence of the hot
winds, being so ill with my breathing that my wife was under the
necessity of fanning me during two whole days. After I recovered,
there being some of my fifers in the hospital, I went in one day to
see how they were getting on; and, to my great astonishment, as I
entered the hospital, whom did I see there but my dear friend
Alexander Chevis, lying like a skeleton in one of the cots. I looked
at him for some time before I could believe my own eyes; and scarcely
being yet sure, I said to him, "Sandy, is this you?" He answered in
the affirmative. After having inquired into all particulars, and
conversed a little with him, I immediately went home and described to
my wife the situation of this good man; and we set about concerting
measures that might in some degree mitigate his distresses,--for he
was at this time far gone in the complaint under which I laboured,
when he was "God's hand" in comforting and instructing me; and truly I
saw here a divine call, as well as the call of a grateful heart,
considering what he had done for me in Prince of Wales's Island.
Whenever my duty would permit, I was consequently in the hospital,
reading and conversing with him; and on the two Sabbaths that he
lived after this, I remained with him nearly the whole day; but my
attendance on him was richly rewarded, for I learned more from this
dying saint of what is really worth learning, than I had done all my
life before.
A few nights before he died, he expressed a desire that I should bring
my wife, and Serjeant Gray with his wife, who had formerly been
friendly to him, that he might have the satisfaction of seeing us
altogether before he departed, the which I did; and he had saved some
of his daily allowance of wine, that we might all drink before him,
and appear comfortable. When we were all seated, and had ate and drank
together, he expressed himself in nearly the following words:--"My
dear friends, although I may never again see you in this world, I wish
that the keeper of Israel may keep you from falling before the many
temptations to which you are exposed, and bless you, and preserve to
his heavenly kingdom; and, although in all probability we shall never
behold each other in the face, while here, I pray that the Lord may
seal you among his treasures, and make you his, in the day when he
maketh up his jewels."
When I went next morning to inquire how he had rested, he told me he
had been very much pained, and appeared to be going very fast. I spent
as much of the day with him as my duty would permit, and when I went
at night with his drop of punch, which we used to make for him, and
which he preferred to the hospital wine, I found him somewhat easier;
but he said to me, he felt he had but a very short time to live; so I
took an affectionate farewell of him, but in the morning he was still
living. He told me he had been much worse during the night, and had
suffered great pain, and added, "that he had a desire to depart from a
sinful heart, a wicked world, and a loathsome disease, and to be with
Christ, where holiness dwells, where sin shall never enter, and where
the inhabitants shall no more say, I am sick." So the Lord granted his
petition, for he died that evening. "Lord enable me to live the life,
that I may die the death, of the righteous, and that my last end may
be like his!"
We remained in Masulipatam about four months, and I was very glad to
hear when the route came for us to leave it; for it was not only
intolerably hot, but when it blew, we were like to be suffocated with
clouds of sand; and it was the worst place for provisions we had yet
seen. The butcher meat was so very bad that we had it only once within
our door all that time. But I would have been happy indeed had this
march been to embark for Europe; for the regiment was getting daily
more and more profligate and abominable! Here the papists laid a
plot for destroying the protestants, but it was detected, and the
ringleaders punished; and here, too, the men were shooting themselves,
or one another, whenever the freak took them.
We had a young fellow of the name of Courtney, who shot two men with
one ball in the open barrack room! one of them was a man belonging to
the regiment, and the other a black man, who was in the barrack
selling cloth for a livelihood. The white man had been impeaching
Courtney with stealing something from him, which the other flatly
denied, though falsely, (at least he was a noted thief,) and
threatened to make him repent it; and in the course of a little time
afterward, he took down his firelock, and pretended to be spunging her
out, no one ever in the least suspecting him to be putting in a
ball-cartridge out of his pouch; so he levelled her for the person
whom he had just been threatening, and sent the contents through his
body, and they lodged also in that of the black man. Both of them died
in a very short time. He was immediately taken into confinement, and
in a short time was sent to Madras, where he was tried, convicted, and
executed. But, to show the hardened character of this faithful servant
of Satan, I may mention, that one of the soldiers asked him, before he
left the regiment, "if he was not sorry for what he had done?" to
which he replied, "that what he was most sorry for was, that _he
could not get an hour's fowling in the barracks before he went
away_!" What think you of this in a youth of nineteen years of age!
I doubt not but it will strike the mind of the reader at once, what a
contrast there was between him and my dear deceased friend just now
mentioned; but the "tares and the wheat must grow together until the
harvest," when an eternal separation shall take place; for those of
similar dispositions shall then come together, never, never more to be
separated! Oh! comforting to think that there shall not be one sinner
in the vast congregation of the righteous. For the righteous who have
here the image of God partially restored, shall then "shine as the
sun" in the kingdom of their father.
As I have been speaking of shooting, I must mention one other
circumstance before I leave this bloody subject, which is of the
wonderful kind; for in the former case, we see or hear of one man
killing two of his fellow-creatures with one ball; now I am going to
tell you of another that had two balls through him and yet lived!--
Our men were in general very profligate with the native women, and one
of them having a quarrel with his black concubine, was resolved to
give her the effectual cure for a bad wife; and, to accomplish his
purpose, he put two ball-cartridges into his firelock, and laid her
quietly out of the way, until an opportunity would present itself to
shoot her; and when she made her appearance, while he was in the act
of raising the gun, one of his comrades, who knew of his diabolical
design, made an attempt to wrest the firelock from him, but, in the
scuffle, some of their feet touching the trigger, the firelock
exploded, and both of the balls went through his body. This is the
most wonderful accident of this kind I have ever known, for this man
was at his duty in about six weeks afterwards! And the wonder lies
chiefly in considering that the balls entered his belly and came out
at his back.
There was a black nabob also made away with himself here. He was sent
down the country to the charge of our regiment for not paying his
tribute; but, laying this treatment very much to heart, he fell into a
state of melancholy, and put an end to his existence by means of a
knife, having given the guard that was over him a wedge of gold the
day before.
In giving this sad picture of the wickedness of the regiment, some of
my readers may think I have been guilty of exaggeration. They may say,
we have heard of soldiers being given to drinking and swearing, and
all manner of debauchery; but surely when you tell us that they were
given to such things as shooting themselves, or one another, it must
certainly be one of those extraordinary stories that travellers are so
often accused of telling, in order to excite one's astonishment. But I
can assure you I have related nothing but facts, and many more I could
give you as horrible as those above mentioned. Though I have little
inclination for the task, I will enter a little more into the subject,
pointing out some of the circumstances which brought about this
deplorable state of things, and illustrate the progress of sin by one
or two individual examples which came under my own notice. Should any
of my readers be touched to the quick by any thing I shall write; that
is, should they trace in the characters I may bring forward any
resemblance to their own, let them not turn away from comparing
likenesses. If you are still under the power of sin, you are the enemy
of God, and carry about with you the same principle of depravity which
operated in these men, and produced such woful effects. Therefore, "be
not high-minded, but fear." "For as in water face answers to face, so
does the heart of man to man." On the other hand, if you have a
scriptural ground of hope that you are turned from darkness to light,
and from the dominion of sin and Satan unto God; you may be led by a
consideration of these things to give him all the glory, for unto him
it belongs. "For who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast
thou which thou didst not receive? therefore, glory not as thou hadst
not received it." But rather let you and I join with the Psalmist, in
a tribute of praise unto him who has delivered us from becoming the
prey of the terrible, saying, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto thy name give the glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's
sake."
I have already said, that upon the march we endured great fatigues,
and also many inconveniences; but, when in barracks, a soldier's life
in India is commonly very easy. They have not unfrequently eight or
nine successive nights in bed; and, as the climate is generally very
dry, they are not liable to get their arms or accoutrements often wet;
and many of them likewise keep black boys to clean their things, take
their victuals upon guard, and relieve them of other labours. They had
consequently much spare time which they did not know how to get rid
of; "and an idle man (says Mr. Bucke) is his own tormentor, always
full of wants and complaints; while his inactivity often proves fatal
both to his body and his mind. The worst importunities, the most
embarrassing perplexities of business, are softness and luxury,
compared with the incessant cravings of vacancy, and the
unsatisfactory expedients of idleness." It is a saying among the
Turks, that a "busy man is troubled with one devil, but the idle man
with twenty."
The want of exercise for both body and mind therefore, and the natural
consequences of a sultry climate upon the constitution, rendered a
soldier's life in these circumstances truly a burden, for he was
unable to walk abroad through the day because of the intense heat,
and, moreover, the regiment was not unfrequently confined to barracks,
on account of their misconduct. Now, if you consider such numbers of
men as I formerly mentioned living together in one barrack-room, some
sleeping away their time[6], and others lounging about the piazzas,
not knowing what to do with themselves, you will not find much
difficulty in perceiving that these poor creatures were eminently
exposed to become the prey of him that "walketh about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour." Those, on the other hand, who were
disposed to improve their time, by reading their Bibles[7], or
conversing upon religious or useful subjects, were disturbed by the
devil's agents, even those who "were led captive by him at his will;"
for when these debauched beings, in their rambles, observed any of
their comrades thus employed, they would make up a plot to annoy them,
by singing obscene songs, cursing and swearing in their very ears, or
by tumbling one another in a riotous manner upon these _Sammy
Hawks_[8], as they were called. This species of persecution being
frequently repeated, we may wonder the less that those who had not the
root of the matter in them, were discouraged, and, in this time of
temptation, fell away; and that, in process of time, instead of
reading their Bibles, or conversing upon religious subjects, they
preferred taking a cheerful glass together, which would at once
relieve them from such assaults, enliven that gloom which brooded over
their minds, transport them in imagination to Glasgow[9], to see how
the shuttle was flying, and afterwards to close the scene with their
favourite song,
"Glasgow on the banks of the river Clyde."
[6] I would here remark, that sleeping in the day is very
dangerous in that country, for I have often known men lying
down upon their cots to take a nap in perfect health, that
would rise in the rage of a fever, and were obliged to be
taken to the hospital.
[7] Those who had not Bibles of their own, had access to the
Company's Bibles, which were served out to us before
embarking at Portsmouth.
[8] The _Sammy Hawk_ is a kind of brown bird that
frequently flies about the barracks, to pick up any thing
that it can find for its subsistence; and it has a kind of
religious homage paid to it by some of the poor, ignorant
natives. The meaning this nickname was intended to convey
was, that those to whom it was applied were men of sober
habits, who had not the heart to spend their money in the
same jovial manner as their thoughtless comrades, who were
determined, therefore, if they saved their money, that it
should not be with both ease and honour.
[9] A great proportion of the regiment had been enlisted in
that city, and its neighbourhood.
In this way many of those who might be called the sober and decent
part of the regiment, gradually fell from their steadfastness, and
became as dissipated as those whom they had condemned. From the
miserable languor produced by idleness and the climate, they now did
not bethink themselves of any other refuge than liquor; _mustering a
fuddle_ as often as possible; which is by two or three of them
clubbing together for a rupee's worth of arrack[10]; and it was no
uncommon thing to hear it said, on these occasions, that it was of no
use for them to lay up money for others to spend; and as their
comrades were dying so fast, and they did not know how soon it would
be their turn, it was the best way to be merry when they had it in
their power; saying in effect, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die." In their drunken rambles they would often have altercations
amongst themselves, or with the noncommissioned officers, when trying
to keep good order amongst them, which brought them under one or more
breaches of the articles of war; and this not unfrequently terminated
in their pain and dishonour, by their being exposed to corporal
punishment in the front of the regiment. To those who had any regard
to their good name, this was a severe trial, and the effect generally
was, that it either cast them into a despondency of mind, or more
commonly rendered them utterly regardless of their character ever
afterwards.
[10] Two drams of arrack were served out daily to each of
the men, and as there were at that time no canteens in the
regiment, the jovial fellows could not obtain more than
their allowance but by getting it from the women, the
_Sammy Hawks_, or from such of their boon companions
who had _put in the pin or kegged_, which expressions
signify to take an oath against liquor till some given time,
such as the new year's day, the king's birth day, some
particular fair in their native place. From the regimental
store nothing beyond the ordinary allowance could be
obtained but by _drawing out a chit_ or line, and
having it subscribed by the commanding officer, addressed
to the keeper of the store, who delivered the quantity
specified upon receiving payment for it; but it required
a very sufficient reason indeed; such as a marriage, the
baptism of a child, or something of that nature, before our
Colonel would subscribe such an order. I understand that
canteens are now common in every barrack in India, from the
belief that the men will not be so mad upon liquor when they
have the power to spend their money as they think proper.
I may also notice a circumstance which had not a little influence in
spreading this evil contagion amongst us.
After we crossed the equinoctial line, going to India, it was the
notion of a number, even of the men who seemed to have had something
like religious instruction, that they were then under no obligations
to keep the sabbath, saying, that there was no sabbath beyond the
line. This sentiment became a matter of frequent discussion amongst
many of them, and seemed to receive a very welcome reception. I could
not suppose that they were in earnest in this opinion, until they
manifested by their conduct either that they really believed it, or
that they had succeeded in silencing their conscience on the subject;
for, after passing the line, they made no scruple whatever of
whistling and singing, and passing the sabbath day in vain and
unprofitable discourse, if not in profane talking and jesting. On
their arrival in India, their notions were still farther confirmed by
the irreligious and profane example set before them by our countrymen
of all ranks. As they were in a land of heathens they thought they had
liberty to live as heathens. The contagion spread rapidly in the
regiment, and cast down many wounded; and not a few of those whom I
thought to be strong men were slain by it.
The Apostolic injunction against the dangerous consequences of evil
principle and evil example is, "Be not deceived, evil communications
corrupt good manners." I will now, as I promised, illustrate these
remarks by one or two examples, and Oh! how it pains me to think that
ever I should have it in my power to draw these illustrations from the
conduct of those whom I once loved; but I hope my reader will not
blame me, as what I shall mention now cannot disturb the mouldering
ashes of my once dear companions, and as their names shall be
concealed, lest it might give a wound to the hearts of their
relatives, if this little work should come in their way, which nothing
could heal.
The reasons I select the following persons in preference to many
others are, first, that I was intimately acquainted with them, and am,
therefore, under no hazard of being led into any mistake about what I
am going to write; and the other is, that when I see this, I may
remember my former dangerous situation, and have something before me
well calculated to excite my thankfulness to that Power, who has
preserved me from being wrecked upon those rocks, which dashed them to
pieces.
The reader may recollect that I was formerly a fifer in the grenadier
company of the 26th Regiment, and also that there were a great number
of the men took the bounty from that corps and went to the Royals.
While I was in that company and regiment I had a young man for my
comrade, whom I shall call J. F. who was a man of very sober habits,
being given to none of those vices for which soldiers are remarkable;
nay, he was even so much averse to swearing, that he used to reprove
me frequently for making use of what are generally termed minced
oaths, to which I was then much addicted, but by means of his repeated
friendly and seasonable admonitions, I was at last enabled to leave
them off. After we came to India, however, he attached himself to some
of those men who had imbibed the libertine principles mentioned above,
and with these "evil men and seducers, he waxed worse and worse,
deceiving and being deceived." Solomon's question is a pertinent one:
"Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burnt? Can a
man walk upon hot coals and his feet not be burnt?" Alas, my poor
friend soon forgot his own admonitions to me, about my swearing when
in Dublin; and when I reminded him of them, he only laughed me to
scorn; for the oaths I made use of at that time, when he acted so
friendly a part in pointing out to me the evil of the practice, were
to him now quite insignificant. Nothing, in regard to swearing,
appeared to satisfy him now but the great and dreadful names of
Jehovah, and those glorious attributes by which he makes himself
known; nor was this all, for he became a mocker at every thing sacred,
making himself acquainted with the word of God, for no other reason
than as a store-house whence he might amply supply himself with
expressions which he could pervert to the purposes of buffoonery, and
that he might be able to pour down vollies of raillery upon all those
who had even but a small form of godliness[11]. To show you how far his
wickedness carried him, I may mention, that at one time he and another
of his lewd companions went at night to the hospital where a woman's
husband was lying a corpse, and she sitting up with the remains of him
who was once loved but now departed, each having a white sheet about
him, to make the poor affrighted and rather superstitious female
believe, that it was the husband returned from the other world,
attended by some of his kindred spirits to pay her a visit, which
almost put the poor woman out of her mind. This piece of barbarous
conduct was made up, else it would have probably cost them both their
serjeants' coats.
[11] This puts me in mind of the saying of good Mr. Boston,
with regard to people of this description.--"Those who act
such a part," says he, "behave as foolishly, but more
criminally, than that person who would dig into a mine for
metal to melt and pour down his own and his neighbour's
throat."
The reader may easily suppose that I had, long ere now, ceased to keep
company with him; for all my attempts to show him the inconsistency
and criminality of his conduct had long before this time proved
useless. I therefore saw it to be my duty to keep at a distance from
him, for the admonition is, "from such withdraw thyself."
To be short, he was seized by the flux in Trichinopoly, of which
disorder he died. I have said that he had been long to me "as a
heathen man and a publican;" but when I heard that he was dangerously
ill, I was certainly very sorry for the poor lad, and went up as soon
as I could find it convenient to see him, which was the night before
we marched for Bangalore. I asked about his complaint, and if he
thought he was getting any better. He said he was very ill, and not
likely to get better.
Fain would I have spoken to him about his spiritual malady, which was
my greatest concern, but I was afraid to be rash, lest he should take
it rather as a reproach than as a friendly inquiry or salutary
admonition, and therefore waited a little to see if he would break in
upon the subject first. He was not long in partly relieving my
anxiety, by saying, he had been a very wicked man. This he
acknowledged in the general, and did not condescend to particulars;
but in a very few words said he was afraid he would soon die; and,
like most men who have led a wicked life, he added, that if he got
better he would never be what he had been, and that he had been long
J. F. but he would be so no longer. To which I answered, I hope you
may not; but without strength to aid your resolutions, I am afraid
there will be little change for the better; and having pointed him to
the only refuge for sinners, even to him "who is able to save to the
very uttermost," I left him: but how did it strike like a dart through
my liver, when we arrived at the first camp ground from Trichinopoly,
to hear that poor J. F. was no longer in the land of the living, and
in the place of hope. This was truly a melancholy case, but I will not
say that it was without hope, for he who saved one at the last hour,
was able also to save him. But this is no encouragement for us "to
continue in sin, that grace may abound." There is indeed _one_
case mentioned in Scripture of a person being saved at the last hour,
that none may despair, and _but one_, that none may presume. Ah!
my dear reader, let not you and I hazard our eternal all on such an
uncertainty, for these are dreadful words: "Because I have called, and
ye refused; I have stretched out my Hand, and no man regarded; but ye
have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I
also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh:
when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a
whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they
call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but
they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the Lord: they would have none of my counsel; they
despised all my reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of
their own way, and be filled with their own devices." Now, "consider
this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces when there is
none to deliver."
The other person whom I shall mention was formerly a ploughman, and
had enlisted into the army upon account of some love affair. While in
the above capacity, he had formed an intimacy with his master's
daughter; and, from what I could learn, they were remarkably attached
to each other. But the father of the young woman directly opposing his
parental authority to their union, the young man took it so much to
heart, that he went and joined himself to a party of the Royal Scots
as a private soldier; and by this step, he, like too many, punished
himself for the fault of another.
My first acquaintance with W. H. was after we came to Wallajahbad; and
we used to spend many a happy hour together when in barracks, and even
upon the march, talking over old stories, and singing the songs of our
native land,--"which softened our hardships,--cheered our lonely
hearts,--brought to our recollection the images of those friends from
whom we had departed, while fond hope whispered that we would yet
revisit these scenes,--converse with these friends,--and renew these
joys. In this sadly pleasing retrospect, and joyful anticipation, we
lost the sense of our sorrows, and journeyed onward with increased
vigour." Neither did the day of the Lord pass by us altogether
unimproved; for then we used to meet together for religious
conversation, and particularly upon the Sabbath evenings, when I was
waiting for tattoo-beating, in the front of the barracks[12]. But,
alas! poor man, he gradually lost the relish for divine things, by
forming a connexion with some debauched characters; and keeping
company with these jovial fellows, as they are called, he soon became
a very different man.
[12] The reader may quite naturally think that there was a
great inconsistency displayed here; first talking of the
religion of Jesus, and then rushing immediately into a
breach of that sacred command, "Remember the Sabbath day to
keep it holy;" now, was not playing on a musical instrument
directly opposed to this precept? I answer that it certainly
was; but you may believe me that it was necessity, and not
choice on my part, that forced me to do it; and the first
time I played the fife upon the Lord's day going to church,
after I joined the 26th, I was in such a state of
perturbation that I could not play a note, although I kept
the fife to my mouth, and moved my fingers as if I was as
busy as any of them. Thus we may see that although any sin
may, upon its first commission, cause great pain to the
conscience, yet the more frequently it is repeated, the more
natural it becomes, for this uneasiness had left me long
before the time I allude to. We had therefore much need to
guard against sin in whatever form it appears, for it hath
been justly said, that "he who despiseth small things shall
fall by little and little;" but I am of opinion that the
malignity of my crime consisted principally in not weighing
these things, before I came into this state of subjection;
for I was not ignorant that this was a part of a fifer's
duty in the army; but although I will not attempt to justify
my conduct; yet this I will say, that I could earnestly wish
that my mind had been always as well employed when I have
professedly been worshipping God, as it has been when
engaged in this musical employment, after my blessed
affliction in the Prince of Wales's Island; for I have often
been so full of the topics we had been conversing about, as
to be unable to know whether I was playing or not, until the
rest of the corps, (as is common in these cases, after the
tune is played over two or three times,) waited to hear if I
was going to change it, and the sound thus dying away, it
would immediately strike me that I was so engaged; and you
may think it strange, when I tell you, that I never
recollect in one instance of even making a mistake, for when
I would come to myself, I was playing with the greatest
fluency, although I acknowledge that I have been taken
sometimes so short, that I was obliged to repeat the tune
once more than I perhaps would have done, not being provided
in my own mind with another in time.
However, I never had reason to think, neither did I ever hear, that he
was guilty of those enormities with which the other person has been
too justly charged; and when I expostulated with him about his
conduct, he took it always apparently in good part, and promised to do
better; but after repeatedly repenting in a kind of a way, and as
often "returning like the dog to his vomit," he avoided my company
altogether; and at any time when I went to see him, if he observed me
coming in at one barrack-room door, he would immediately go out at
another, being unable to answer to me for his conduct; and my presence
grieved him, as it called to his mind the many happy hours of
profitable and innocent enjoyment we had spent in one another's
company. So true it is that guilt is a coward, and that "the wicked
flee when no man pursueth."
At last he was seized by the flux, in Trichinopoly, where, as I
mentioned, J. F. also died. He had been in the hospital a considerable
time before I knew of his illness; and when I went up to see him, I
observed that he was drawing very near his end. The agony he endured
at that time was pressing the sweat through every pore of his body.
Yet he was perfectly sensible; for when I spoke to him, he answered me
in a very rational manner. But if the Lord be pleased to continue to
me my reason and memory, until I also depart from this vale of tears,
I think I will remember his last words until that hour.--After
conversing a little with him, and when about to take my leave, I said
to him, if it was the will of God that we should never again see one
another in this world, I hoped we would meet in another and a better
world. He answered me in the few following, but awfully important
words, "_I know how I am, but I know not how I may be_;" taking
(as good Mr. Boston expresses it) a leap in the dark, not knowing
whether he should land in heaven or in hell. After making inquiry the
next morning, I learned that his spirit returned to God who gave it
about two hours after I left him. Having gone from our world, we
cannot, we ought not, to follow him any farther; only this I will say,
that he has received his sentence from him who can do him no wrong;
for, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Now, from what we have seen of the life and death of these poor men,
we may justly conclude that "the way of transgressors is hard." It was
the saying of an old divine, that it required a person much harder
labour to be damned than to be saved. We must acknowledge the idea to
be just, although it may appear to be strangely expressed. But certain
and true it is, that although these ways may seem right unto a man
while he is walking in them, yet the end thereof is death. Now,
although these persons whom I have just mentioned did not shoot
themselves nor any of their comrades, yet the reader will easily
perceive, by their conduct, the bad effects of evil principles and
evil practices, which evidently led to the commission of such crimes
as I have too justly charged upon some of the regiment.